His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Second half of the 1981 transcripts

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81.09.25.B

Bhāratī Mahārāja: ...Comet.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Comet. Coming within the vision of the scientist, their telescope, and again passing away_____________________? So only looker acquaintance we may have with anything and everything.

bahūni me vyatītāni, janmāni tava cārjuna / tāny ahaṁ veda sarvāṇi, na tvaṁ vettha parantapa

[“O Arjuna, chastiser of the enemy, both you and I have passed through many births previously. Due to My position as the supreme controller, I am able to remember all those births, whereas you, a living being of finite consciousness, cannot.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.5]

“I know everything, but you do not know Arjuna. I know everything. I’m everywhere. I know everything. But it is not possible for you to come to My level and to know anything and everything. Bahūni me vyatītāni, janmāni tava cārjuna, tāny ahaṁ veda sarvāṇi. I know everything always. Na tvaṁ vettha parantapa. You may think that you can control so many enemies, but still you are not above limitation. You don’t know everything.”

Nitāi. Nitāi.

“Infinite is in My own part. I transcend infinite. That is My position, I can transcend infinite.”

[athavā bahunaitena, kiṁ jñātena tavārjjuna]

viṣṭabhyāham idaṁ kṛtsnam ekāṁśena sthito jagat

[“But Arjuna, what is the need of your understanding this elaborate knowledge of My almighty grandeur? By My fractional expansion as the Supreme Soul of material nature, Mahā-Viṣṇu (Kāraṇārṇavaśāyī Viṣṇu), I remain supporting this entire universe of moving and stationary beings.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 10.42]

“No limit can be imagined in My concern, or consideration, so don’t, so namanta eva, jīvanti.”

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva, [jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir, ye prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi tais tri-lokyām]

[Lord Brahmā said to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa: “Oh Lord, Oh Unconquerable One, those devotees who, completely giving up all attempts on the path of jñāna of attaining the non-differentiated platform known as Brahma by hearing the transcendental narratives of Your pastimes (kathā), which emanates from the lotus mouths of the mahā-bhāgavat sādhus and pass their lives by engaging their body, mind and words in pure devotion, easily conquer You (they easily get Your transcendental association), although You are the most difficult to attain in the three worlds.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.14.3]

“The enquiry must be stopped and only submission, submissiveness that will help you most. You have been given your quota, your sphere. You utilise your energy there only. That will be the best production you will have. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva. You surmise towards infinite good as I transmit to you about the outside knowledge. Submit; accept that and go on with your duty in your own sphere. You will have maximum benefit there, only if you confine within your limit. And placing confidence in Me or in My saying, My statement. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya, hatefully give up to measure anything and everything, to swallow everything to put in your own belly. It is impossible. Why you will fight with your own shadow? Loss of energy! Give up that impossible attempt. Submit, put faith and go on with your duty. And then you will come in contact, you’ll be calm and you’ll feel My presence. And that will satisfy you enough. Namanta eva, jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām. Through the agent of Mine, try to be in My connection and that will be the maximum attainment to yourself.”

Don’t forget that you are limited, and there may not be many unlimited. Unlimited is one. All limited, but their progress according to their submission, is faith, śraddhā. Not by their audacious attempt to know anything and everything. In a particular sphere that may work in the material sphere. But in the sphere of soul, Oversoul, Supersoul they are left, they cannot enter, they cannot enter even, cannot conceive even of such fine planes where so many wonderful things are existing. Impossible for them to guess, to imagine even, in the subjective, in the higher plane, plane superseding reason, there are so many wonderful things.

“You want to go, ‘No, no, don’t confine Me to this mundane, the material.’”

Through the eye experience, ear experience, nose experience, and tongue experience, touch experience, in this jurisdiction you will plod, in the clay, in the mud. You may make any progress you like there. But if you keep in your heart the existence of the higher types of world, region, subjective, super-subjective, super-super-subjective; this method won’t be of any action there, can’t even imagine. Only through submission you may get touch. That is the way, when, yam evaiṣa vṛnute:

[nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo, na medhayā na bahunā śrutena

yam evaiṣa vṛnute tena labhyas, tasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛnute tanūṁ svām]

[“One cannot understand the substance of the Paramātmā, the Super-soul residing within everyone's heart, by means of expertise in logic, intelligence or learning. When the living entity begs the Lord for His mercy, being desirous of His transcendental loving service, then the Supreme Lord reveals His self-manifest form directly before him.”] [Kathopaniṣad, 1.2.23] & [Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad, 2.3.2]

When the higher existence will call for you, you will enter, dancing. Dancing you will enter the call, when come for you, from that sphere. Yam evaiṣa vṛnute tena labhyas. You won’t be able to know how can you go there, how can you climb up there. Or the whole sphere, the whole court come to you, to your house. Or, you are crossing so many barriers of foolish protection, all these things and you are passing there. You won’t be able to conceive even, if call comes from higher region. Your connection with them will be so easy, that no difficulty. And that can be done only through faith. So many qualities have been given in ordinary soul and the faith is the most qualified for the higher form of capacity, or vṛtti.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Medium?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The faith is the highest endowment in you through which we can come there in the connection of the finer and finer type of ________ [?] By mental speculation, or by engaging your reason, your reason only drawn from these material experience, what more, if pressed, what more you can produce. But only faith, you are very much afraid that faith may be blind. But in the infinite it is impossible to have any blind faith. You may not even conjecture even a point of that. So many things may exist there. So don’t think that your faith will misguide you. And faith does not mean that ordinary credulity. Faith has got also its qualification, its definition. To accept, to understand, to feel, that there is one by whose connection everything can be connected. It comes to have a conception of a central truth of the highest controller, that sort of faith. There is not only plural, but there is one and many. Not only many, but there is one also, that sort of faith, a general thing. Innumerable absolutes cannot exist. Absolute must be one. And He must harmonise all this polarity and diversity. So to be conscious about the one, of oneness, and that must be central, that must be the highest, it is automatically everything. Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Sraddha mayam loka. Yam evaiṣa vṛnute tena labhyas.

yasmin vijñāte sarvam evam vijñātam bhavati, yasmin prāpte sarvam idam prāptam bhavati

[“By knowing Him, everything is known - by getting Him, everything is gained.”] [Upaniṣads]

Then: asato mā sad gamayo tāmaso mā, jyoti gamayo mṛtyor mā amṛta gamayo.

[“I am mortal, make me eternal. I am ignorant, filled with nescience, take me to science, knowledge. And I am threatened with misery, guide me towards bliss.”]

[Bṛhad Āraṇyaka Upaniṣad, 1st Adhyaya, 3rd Brāhmaṇa, 23rd mantra]

This should be the central point of our search, not disorganised anomaly, or aimless search, to go towards centre, centre. I am a part, I have got my connection with the whole. And what is that connection? I want to know for my own interest. Otherwise I am self forgetful, self negligent. I shall be of suicidal type existence, I shall have to admit. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: The absolute within the relative truth.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The absolute must have some connection with the relative. Absolute and relative, relative not outside absolute, is it not?

Devotee: It’s part of the absolute.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: When you say that it is absolute then anything and everything must have got connection with the absolute. So a connection is there. Absolute covers everything, nothing outside absolute. So some connection is there. Partial representation it may be called so, for the Absolute, āṁśa, svāṁśa, vibhinnāṁśa, in this way svāṁśa, vibhinnāṁśa the shadow of the Absolute. Svāṁśa the Avatāra of the Absolute, vibhinnāṁśa jīva and the reflection is the world of the Absolute. In this way it has been continued. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: How can we relate to the Absolute?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Our relation through His agent, through the agent of the Absolute we can only have connection with Him.

Once I went for preaching in Karachi. One Ārya Samāj leader came to me and told: “If finite can know infinite, then He’s no infinite.”

I also answered, “If Infinite cannot make Himself known to finite, He’s no infinite.”

He got a handshake.

So that is our direction. Yam evaiṣa vṛnute tena labhyas. We cannot approach, but He can come down. We cannot go up but He can come down and take me up. That is the principle underlying the path of devotion. The main idea is that. He loves me, He may take me in that domain but I can’t go independent of Him. That is the idea. Maintain always that goal. Everything within His hand, but He says that He’s my guardian, He’s my friend.

ahaṁ hi sarva-yajñānāṁ, bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca

[na tu mām abhijānanti, tattvenātaś cyavanti te]

[“Because I alone am the enjoyer and rewarder of all sacrifices. But since they cannot know Me in this way, they again undergo birth, disease, infirmity, and death.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.24]

And then:

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ, sarva-loka-maheśvaram

suhṛdaṁ sarvva-bhūtānāṁ, [jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati]

[“I am the enjoyer of the results of sacrifice performed by the fruit-hunter, as well as the results of austerity performed by the liberation-seeker - I am their only worshippable object; I am Nārāyaṇa, the indwelling monitor of all planes of life, and the Supreme Worshippable Personality who awards liberation. And I am the well-wisher of all - I am Kṛṣṇa, the devotee's most adorable friend. The soul who thus knows My true identity attains the ecstasy of knowing his own original divine identity.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 5.29]

“I am friendly to everyone, to anyone and everyone I am friendly relation so don’t apprehend your harm from My side. You can have faith in Me.” That is His general direction. “I am not your enemy, nor your antagonistic, nor your evil wisher, but your well wisher. You take it, then you will find peace.”

Wherever you’ll be, my guardian is represented in the highest quarter of the administration. He’ll look after my interest so I have got no trouble in my life. He’s there. Everything in Him and He’s my friend. So I shall not have fear for anything wrong about me, I can go on cheerfully discharging my duties.

yataḥ pravṛttir bhūtānāṁ, yena sarvam idaṁ tatam

svakarmaṇā tam abhyarcya, siddhiṁ vindati mānavaḥ

[“A man achieves perfection by the performance of the appropriate duties prescribed for him according to his qualification. By the execution of his duties, he worships the Supreme Lord from whom the generation and impetus of all beings arises, and who permeates and pervades this entire universe (exercising His Supreme qualification of Lordship over one and all).”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.46]

And by gradual process I will make progress towards the right, towards the truth. Then one day I feel within me sarva-dharmān parityajya [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]. I am very eager to meet Him. He’s so near, He’s so great, He’s so loving. I can’t wait but to be united.

“Give up all your duties and surrender towards Me and I am everywhere. I shall trace that sort of mentality in you. I’ll come down for your help or send some agent to take you up towards Me.”

That is His attitude and declaration. Gaura Haribol. ____________________ [?] I feel tired.

...

Pratyakṣa, parokṣa, aparokṣa, adhokṣaja and aprakṛta. Knowledge of experience, sense experience of one’s own and the knowledge not by experience, not by own but by other’s senses, parokṣa. Knowledge recorded from the experience of others than the person who is concerned, parokṣa-jñāna. There was war, the atomic energy, all these things, by, through newspaper we come to understand many things, which is not our direct sense experience, but the sense experience of others than ourselves, second class. Third class, aparokṣa anu buddhi, just as in sound sleep. Almost no experience but still a sort of experience is there. When one comes down from that stage he says that, “I slept very happily.” Sukha moha satsam, in Upaniṣad. “I slept happily,” so a sort of experience gathered from that region, aparokṣa anu buddhi.

The yogī and the jñānī when they enter into samādhi they also have similar experience, vague, non differentiated, un ascertainable, a sort of experience very, very vague, but still that is a sort of experience. It has been recorded in the Upaniṣads. Aparokṣa anu buddhi. Neither the product of one’s own sense experience, nor the product of any other sense experience; independent of sense experience.

Śaṅkara School says that, “Here is the limit of knowledge. Not beyond that.”

But Rāmānujācārya says that, “No, there is the fourth, the turiya, the knowledge of the fourth plane is possible, adhokṣaja realm, by the realm super subjective. We cannot be a subject in that plane. But when the subject has got some experience on me I can feel that the higher type of knowledge has descended in me, in my conscious area, and I can feel some strength, strange feeling, which cannot be experienced in this world. A new type of knowledge we come in connection with. When that withdraws, the final subjective experience, that is withdrawn, we are nowhere, can’t help. That is adhokṣaja, Vaikuṇṭha jñāna. That can descend in our area of knowledge, and that can withdraw out of its own accord. So we cannot but admit possibility of such knowledge, that is transcendental knowledge. Transcendental means not non differentiated always. It is knowledge of differentiated character. But it supersedes all our efforts. According to its sweet will it comes down to the knowledge of our area and withdraws. Very subtle, very fine, very independent in its nature: but still it is there. It is a part of the truth, we can’t deny that. So that is adhokṣaja.”

And Śrī Caitanyadeva from Bhāgavatam says there is a fifth class, fifth plane that is aprakṛta. This adhokṣaja, this character is grand and wonderful, not similar to knowledge of this world of our experience. It has got a peculiar, dignified position, master of the movement, and showing many astonishing symptoms, and independent symptoms of its own. But aprakṛta is very similar to this mundane, but still above that, the fourth dimension, Vaikuṇṭha, Paravyoma, the power, show, grandeur, awe, reverence, such dignified movement is not there. But very similar to this mundane knowledge, but that is the supreme most quarter.

avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā, mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam

paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto, mama bhūta-maheśvaram

[“Unable to comprehend My super-excellent divine form of human features, ignorant men blaspheme Me - the Supreme Lord of all beings - by considering Me a mere human being.”]

[Bhagavad-gītā, 9.11]

Aprakṛta: that is found in Vṛndāvana, humanly. The līlā of the Lord.

kṛṣṇera yateka khelā, sarvottama nara-līlā, nara-vapu tāhāra svarūpa

[gope-veśa, veṇu-kara nava kiśora, nata-vara, nara līlāra haya anurūpa]

[“Lord Kṛṣṇa has many pastimes, of which His pastimes as a human being are the best. His form as a human being is the Supreme Transcendental Form. In this form, He is a cowherd boy. He carries a flute in His hand, and His youth is new. He is also an expert dancer. All this is just suitable for His pastimes as a human being.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 21.101]

And the human section has been created only after that ideal. That is the highest quarter, very simple and very plain, and no dignity, awe, reverence, power showing, all these things, command. That is the highest position of the world. From that position the whole movement is commanded. That is love and beauty, no grandeur, no awe, reverence, no forcing rules, regulations, all these things. Very similar to this human life, aprakṛta, and the process to attain that, that is also very simple. Only attachment, only greed for that, only want within us for that, hankering, earnestness, that is necessary only to have that position.

Lohita janme pai uttisya jahi pai [?]

Only genuine search and genuine earnestness, that you want that, only qualification. That is śraddhā. So it is very difficult on one side to put our faith that that is the highest position, jñāna-sunya-bhakti. No grandeur of the constructive world, nor subtle vanity for the renunciationists. But very plain, homely: only living ordinary life of ordinary style. Only the viewpoint is just the opposite, is changed, rather the opposite. Sense centred and that is centre centred, God centred. Interest is different. Central interest and extremity interest, that is the difference, the opposite, everything always very plain, simple thing, so: kṛṣṇera yateka khelā, sarvottama nara-līlā, nara-vapu tāhāra svarūpa.

To understand this, to have real attraction for this, it is very rarely we can have faith in such things. Awe, reverence, grandeur, power, it is easy to put our faith there. But ordinary simple things, to put faith there it is difficult, aprakṛta, kevala. Kevala means non differentiated, differentiation and non differentiation, kevala. That knowledge is so spacious that everything is harmonised there. That can, that understanding will work at every corner, everywhere. Just as gold may have its value in every country, every province: something like that. In all detail, even stealing, and fighting, snatching, all these things are also harmonised with the highest purity everything can be... Not only selflessness is there. It is a play, it is a show. The selfish object is not present there on one side, on the positive, the God, the absolute interest is to be traced everywhere. Only that is the difference.

So dirt is not in the form, but all filth, filthiness is in the spirit, in the object. The form is not to be blamed. The form of our movement is not to be blamed. Only the object is to be blamed. The object is pure, is all pervading nature, then the form also must, cannot but be pure. Stealing is bad because one party is becoming loser and another party gainer, apparently, so it is bad. But if stealing is for the interest of the whole, then the poison is removed. So, every action, good or bad in our consideration, in the standard of our present calculation, that is eliminated. Whatever is done if that is for the benefit of the whole, and if possibly more than that, then all the activities are stainless, no poison there. No suffering, no reaction. But still the whole detailed characteristic of every movement is maintained, aprakṛta.

So Kṛṣṇa He’s stealing, He’s doing so many things which would be apparently objectionable to the social law, to the interest of that. But that is only not bad but that is the greatest thing for all, to understand that. That is Vraja līlā, Kṛṣṇa līlā, to enter into Vraja līlā, to be accommodated with this sort of knowledge and spirit and habits and aspiration. If we can adjust with that, then we are fit to have entrance into Vraja līlā. Otherwise laboured imitation, that will bring its reaction, a reaction, aparādha.

laukiki vaidiki vapi yakriya kriyate mune / hari-sevanukulaiva sa karya bhaktim-icchata

[O great sage! One who aspires for devotional service should perform all activities, whether Vedic or mundane, in a way that is favourable for the service of Lord Hari.]

[Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, Purva-vibhaga, 2.200, from Nārada-pañcarātra]

[Gauḍīya Kaṇṭhahāra, 13.82] & [In Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 13.113, purport]

It does not matter what type of work I am doing. Every work may be for the service of the Lord. Everything may be utilised, only the standpoint of such heart. Our centre going feeling is what is necessary, through śraddhā, faith. ___________ [?] To throw one’s own self into that sort of wave of knowledge, Vraja līlā. Sarva-dharmān parityajya [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]. We are very busy with rules and regulations and generally that is calculated on the limited consciousness, limited experience of good and bad, of some extended area. The laws and the rules they’re product of our local experience, a little less or a little extended, mainly, but not Absolute.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Laukiki vaidiki vapi. By form calculation, it may be a śāstric activity as arcanaṁ, vandanaṁ, all these things. Or laukiki, to deal with another person to purchase a thing and so many troubles on the way may come, some quarrel with rickshaw wallah, and quarrel with the seller. Everything may be recorded in the jurisdiction of devotion, everything. It has been said, the mahā-bhāgavata he’s passing urine, passing stools, that is also bhajan within. That is also not waste of time. It is possible. It is possible, the wholly harmonized person whatever he does that has got relation to his bhajan. Taking food, why? To make him fit for service. And going regularly to the latrine, that will also be helping, have contribution to the health. That will be utilised in the service cent per cent. In this way, everything, no loss of time, no loss of energy, cent per cent on His account. It may be possible. Not to reject a portion and dedicate another portion to the God and some kept for him or others, not that. Wholesale conversion: cent per cent time utilised in service, laukiki vaidiki vapi yakriya kriyate mune.

īhā yasya harer dāsye, karmaṇā manasā girā

nikhilāsv apy avasthāsu, jīvan-muktaḥ sa ucyate

[“Anyone who, by his actions, mind and words, lives only for the transcendental loving service of the Lord, is certainly a liberated soul, even though he may appear to be in a condition of material existence.”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, 1.2.187]

Then he’s no longer in bondage. “All the efforts of him meant only to satisfy Him.”

Gaurasundar. Gaurasundar. Gaurasundar.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, you said on the spiritual plane that jñāna plays a more as in the background, jñāna. There is no calculation.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Jñāna means automatic, sambandha jñāna. A child when he’s dealing with his father or mother, he always does not bring the knowledge that she’s my mother because she’s feeding me, I came from her womb, all these calculations are not present. It is in the background. And as the result of that background he’s treating with his mother in a particular way. And the brother another way, father another way, the sambandha jñāna. Not to calculate that movement, it is already adjusted in such a way, the result of adjustment, the knowledge is in the background. And actuated by knowledge he’s dealings are being conducted. Sambandha jñāna, jñāna, not every movement that he’s calculating. That is left in the background, and his position is rather in the intuitive position. Just as the digesting, we are not conscious of the stomach affairs, how it appears, the heart affairs, they’re going on with their work that is in the background. And in the forefront so many other things are to be thought and done. So sambandha jñāna, what is what, and accordingly the function between them will work automatically. Automatic knowledge will back the activity, the movement, spontaneous.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Yaśodā, she is seeing her child, small, so many ṛṣis and gods, demigods, she’s seeing, looking with great veneration, greater veneration, and asking many things from them so that her child may not be endangered in any form, in this way. But the centre of her affection, the whole affection is concentrated to the child, and that is the valuable thing. Not that the respect is going, given to Śiva, to so many ascetics, “Give some grace so that my child may go on, may live long, may have good health.” So there are so many gods, so many sādhus, she collects benediction from them for the good of her child. But that misconception that they’re bigger than my child, they’re holding bigger position than my child...

End of 81.09.25.B

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His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...is intense, most intense here. Everything, all her movements are controlled by that feeling, the centre of interest, centre of interest. Centre of interest that is the highest thing to her. So what is our centre of interest, that should be changed; centre of real interest. Or to give position to this, that, one, two, ABCD, that is very trifling thing. Interest, heart’s quench, heart’s thirst to be quenched, the thirst of the heart, where located. That is all important. We may give respect to so many outsiders. That has not got much value.

Sonhood of Godhead, Sonhood of Godhead, so also consorthood of Godhead, that is rather our centre, the consorthood of Godhead. We’re closest, we’re nearest, and we get most in the consorthood of Godhead. Less than that, Sonhood of Godhead. Consorthood not husbandhood. Husbandhood in Dvārakā, and consorthood may be rather used for Vṛndāvana, consort, parakīya also included in consorthood. And husbandhood in Dvārakā. And Sonhood in Mathurā, but that is also having parakīya touch.

“Some say the Gopāla is not my child. I don’t like it. I know fully well that He’s my child. There are so many, there’s a rumour, ‘No, no. Devakī’s child is He.’ And they’re my enemy. I can’t tolerate them. The Garga Ṛṣi came, as sent by Vasudeva, to make, to give name to my child, and the words he said something I don’t know. A rumour has been spread that Vasudeva sent his child here. What are all these things? I don’t like. Why do these people, they’re very envious of my position, they can’t tolerate that I’ve got such a beautiful child, so all these rumours and speculations are roaming about the environment.”

This sort of parakīya, not with apprehension that, “He may not be mine.” That draws the affection more intensely, parakīya.

And in sākhya also in Vṛndāvana, “Some say that Balarāma and Kṛṣṇa, They have connection with Mathurā. They may not stay with us. How shall we pass our days if Kṛṣṇa Balarāma They may not remain with us? I shudder for the scene. No, no, that we don’t admit. They’re our friends.” Climbing on the shoulders and sometimes giving a slap and getting slap. So closely connected how can they?

Kṣatriya Mathurā, what to speak of God, etc. Though they see that Govardhana was carried over and supported by His finger, sometimes they tend to say, “The Hill You did not keep up alone, carry alone. We also supported so it was possible for You to keep that Hill up. You alone could not bear the, bear so much burden, so much weight. We also helped.” In this way.

And what is false, what is real? We must say that this is the highest form of reality. How? How? That this is the centre, this is the highest plain of truth, this parakīya, and not that svakīya. Only through mantram, or only a particular form, that cannot make anything of one’s own. The highest degree of affection, that should be the real criterion to judge who is who’s. Who is who’s nearest friend, that is to be judged by the degree of the intensity of the attraction between ________________ [?] and not by any form. The law of gravitation, the law of attraction, that should be the highest consideration if we go to explain the nature of cosmos. The cohesion, integrity, solidarity, the attraction, that should be given the most importance in our calculation, all others subsidiary. Gaura Haribol.

Whom I love, he’s my own. Whether formally I get him or not does not matter. That is the nature of Vaikuṇṭha dealings, infinite relationship. In the infinite that should be the measurement of our closeness or nearness or farness, distance, whom I love best, whom I have got affection for most intensely. That should be the criterion of our judgement. Who is who, near or distant?

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. And the transaction between them will also be only through their affection. By a form I may be near to England, to America, but a village one mile off that may be far to me, distant. I get the form through relationship with something else I immediately can connect with the distant place, that is near to me. And the village, a man, I shall have to arrange a rickshaw, and two hours time it will take, that will be far. So the affection, that is, that makes us near. In that plane we are nearer. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, that’s a very high platform, advanced. Very advanced platform you’re describing. You’re describing a very advanced platform.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Advanced, philosophy.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So what is, when we’re praying to Kṛṣṇa in that way, where is the spiritual master? What is his position? We’re praying through him?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Through – actually it is in a general way, but when we shall come to particular things then of course here Kṛṣṇa means Kṛṣṇa’s group, whole system. Then when it will come in details to our personal question for a man of our stage, or workers for the unit of our stage: then the mediator. Direct approach and connection is not possible, so only through mediator we can get Him nearer. Otherwise we cannot feel Kṛṣṇa, what is Kṛṣṇa.

Kṛṣṇa in His group, the mādhurya-rasa He has got His paraphernalia, otherwise Kṛṣṇa is nowhere. Kṛṣṇa is seen always in a relative position, either in the friendly circle, or in the consorthood, or in the filial affection. Kṛṣṇa means, presupposes His own group, for us. We cannot have any direct connection with Him. In sākhya-rasa also the Śrīdam, Sudam, so many must be there. Then the rasa is playing there and we can taste there. In vātsalya-rasa Nanda, Yaśodā, the first group, and the transaction is there and we can feel. We have got secondary position. In mādhurya-rasa also, in all the rasas, the group, the first group always there eternally, otherwise not a full play of His pastimes is to be found. It presupposes in particular rasa He’s, it presupposes that so many others to make that rasa, that līlā possible, is already there within Him. That is also calculated within Him in different rasas.

And we are onlookers and we are order carriers of them, in this way we can. Our approach must be always through some. And Kṛṣṇa in every rasa that is in His own group, not alone, never alone. So if we want to have alone then we shall have to see Him as a master, far away, not easily approachable. It is not approachable by us independently, always through Guru on different times.

And sometimes also it will be better to get a hierarchy of Guru, according to our position it will be best for us. So it has been said rūpānuga-sampradāya, the Rūpa, Lalitā, Rādhārāṇī, and then Kṛṣṇa. In vātsalya, in all the rasas, something like that. Our interest will be best dealt when we, according to our position we shall approach in a proper channel to a particular post, not exerting. Sometimes of course we may have to connect with the first agent, but there is a hierarchy of agency and generally second or third position we shall connect, then our interest will be best represented, so rūpānuga. And in other rasas also something like that.

The eternal agent is there and to see we shall select some other by whose recommendation we can go to the first agent of a particular rasa. So our Guru, our immediate agent will be our Gurudeva who has been sent to recruit us. There we must go and gradually we’ll be able to see that what I saw in him first he’s not confined there, but according to my development I shall see that Guru is also developing, developing to me, or rather, I am getting more improved position so that to find his higher self.

My eyesight that was under cataract and the eyesight is improving and I’m seeing the doctor more as he is. And when my eyesight was not very clear, vaguely I used to see him. So also with Guru, first I thought rather just as a student he sees his teacher in the beginning very small acquaintance, and as much as he gets more education he can understand how much education his teacher has got, he can appreciate, in this way. According to our internal development we’ll be able to see the higher and higher position and aspect of Gurudeva. In different births also it may continue. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

So rūpānuga-bhajan, ours is rūpānuga. Narottama Ṭhākura he says: “When my Gurudeva Lokanātha Goswāmī he’ll be propitiated with me and take me by my hand, take me to Rūpa Goswāmī, ‘that please give some engagement to this girl,’ Rūpa Prabhu, to Rūpa Mañjarī. When my Guru will hand me over to Rūpa Prabhu, ‘please give engagement to this servitor,’ when he’ll take me there?”

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. So śraddhā, faith: automatic attraction. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, you said once that one should not limit the Guru.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nothing is limited. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Nothing is limited. The part of infinite is all infinite. Limitation is māyā. Sand has got no limit, a particle of sand, analyse, analyse, analyse, atom, electron, proton, neutron, again go on analysing, no end. So to see limited that is in illusion. So see everything as infinite, so everything is greater than you. Ha, ha. Or everything representing infinite. The part of infinite is infinite. So don’t go to analyse in the way of knowledge, then no end of enquiry, be asādhan vṛtti.

The function of taste will have no chance in any time. You’ll go on enquiring and enquiry will go to infinite, so the taste function that won’t get any chance. So give up enquiring habit and begin your tasting sense. Through faith, engage yourself in your tasting, department of taste, ānandam, not much of cit, sat-cit, not much of consciousness, but consciousness, what consciousness wants to show. Consciousness wants happiness. Wherever there is feeling that is hankering for happiness, pleasure, ecstasy. So try to have connection with ecstasy as soon as possible. Don’t lose your time, much time with consciousness. Sat-cit-ānandam, hlādinī. Try to approach as much as possible direct to hlādinī. Then sat-cit in the existence and the consciousness of the existence they will waste your time ________________ [?]

You go to study the nature of fossil, the fossil will keep you engaged life after life. You won’t be able to come out of the fossil fashion, fossil idea; mania, so give up fossil. Come to consciousness, spirit, and if you go to make research in the spirit only that will take you lives together, no end of searching. So you will have no time to utilise, to come in association direct with happiness, that is the hlādinī, ānandam, or beauty, or hlādinī. So as much as possible ________________ [?] Try to have closer connection with the third, satyam, śivam, sundaram, the very central existence, the central substance of the whole existence, the very gist that is sukham, ānandam. And then surrounding it there is conscious, cit, and surrounding it there is solid existence, something. Enter into that as soon as possible, directly, keep direct towards that through śraddhā, through faith. Approach as quickly as possible towards the centre, satyam, śivam, sundaram. Sat-cit-ānandam. Willing, thinking, and feeling, through feeling we get ānandam. Ānandam is the raso ‘py asya, raso vai saḥ.

na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ, durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ

[andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās, te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ]

[Prahlāda Mahārāja says: “Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or Guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Viṣṇu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labour, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold miseries.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.5.31]

Those unfortunate sections they do not diagnose their own heart, that it is hankering for happiness, maximum happiness, and where it is located. They make much of the cover of things than the substance within the cover. They’re very unfortunate people, Prahlāda Mahārāja says. Ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ, makes much of the over cover. But what is within most valuable, go and search, connect with that. That is very difficult here, the apparent side attracts us and we don’t find any leisure to go leaving and find the higher substance, real substance. That is the difficulty in this world, making much of the coating, the dress, the garment, and not within ______ [?] reality ________________ [?] Gaurasundar. Gaurasundar.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, the quotation you often use, satyam, śivam, sundaram, who has given that?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In Upaniṣad, I forget in what Upaniṣad it is, but it is a famous expression in Upaniṣad, satyam, śivam, sundaram: and sat-cit-ānandam. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Ānandam, sundaram, and prema, the love, beauty and ecstasy all similar thing, same almost: third plane in the general calculation. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Charm, real charm is there.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

yadi gaura nā hoita, tabe ki hoita, kemone dharitām de [Vasudeva Ghose]

If Śrī Caitanyadeva did not appear, then what would be about our fate? We could not know the real purpose, the real gist of it. There is Rādhārāṇī, there is Vṛndāvana, Vraja, Kṛṣṇa. Then how could we live if once connected then how could we live if we did not have connection with these happiest things? And that Śrī Caitanyadeva has brought out.

Oh, you’re feeling disturbed. Should we go inside the room?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: No problem.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No problem. Nitāi. Nitāi. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: It’s very difficult to start to taste. The propensity is there to always enquire; enquiry, that is always there.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: But then afterwards, to make the taste come about it’s always difficult. Sometimes the taste is not there.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Taste?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ruci.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes. It’s not coming. Lower taste comes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I asked Prabhupāda, our Guru Mahārāja, once when I came newly, one evening about seven, eight, I went to his room and found alone. With my praṇāmas I asked him, ‘How, eliminating the undesirable things within me I can approach as much, as quickly as possible towards the goal. Anartha-nivṛtti, the elimination of the undesirability, anartha, no artha, no prayojana, which is not necessary, to eliminate the unnecessary elements within us, how it is possible, to go on, to advance quickly?’

Then he told, replied: “Anartha-nivṛtti, the successful elimination of the undesirable elements in us; that is the result of a particular action. What is that?”

ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo’ tha bhajana-kriyā

tato’ nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt [tato niṣṭhā rucis tataḥ

athāsaktis tato bhāvas tataḥ premābhyudañcati

sādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥ prādurbhāve bhavet kramaḥ]

[“In the beginning there must be faith. Then one becomes interested in associating with pure devotees. Thereafter one is initiated by the spiritual master and executes the regulative principles under his orders. Thus one is freed from all unwanted habits and becomes firmly fixed in devotional service. Thereafter, one develops taste and then attachment. This is the way of sādhana-bhakti, the execution of devotional service according to the regulative principles. Gradually spiritual emotions manifest and intensify, then finally there is an awakening of divine love. This is the gradual development of love of Godhead for the devotee interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, 1.4.15-16]

So sādhu-saṅgo, bhajana, tato’ nartha-nivṛttiḥ. So we are to give our more attention towards bhajan, sādhu-saṅga, Guru karan, then bhajan. Bhajana means śravaṇa-kīrttanādī, under the direction. Everything may be karma, everything may be bhakti, everything may be jñāna.

When Bhāgavat explanation is going on I am attending, but my listening to Bhāgavat may be many things. Variegated result it may bring for me. Suppose if I’ve got any aspiration for any worldly things, “Oh, I’m attending Bhāgavat class. Bhagavān will be propitiated and it will be easy for me to get that.” With this spirit if I attend Bhāgavat class it will be karma-kāṇḍa.

But if we want to have knowledge, the tattva, jñāna, the ontological side there, I’m satisfied and I shall be able to distribute amongst the scholars and I shall get some position thereby, with this idea if I listen, attend the Bhāgavat class I shall acquire jñāna, the knowledge is my objective.

But devotion, it will be under the category of devotion, the Bhāgavat-śravaṇa, only when whatever benefit I will derive from this action it will go to Kṛṣṇa, not to myself in any way. He’s the receiver. He’s the master. Just as an animal, a cow, or a horse, whatever he has got, he can earn, by his health, or by any way improvement, it brings something for the master, not for him.

Vikṛta vishar vasho [?] I am slave. Whatever I shall earn my master will get that thing. I have not got independent separate interest or existence. I’m totally his property. So with this idea one should attend Bhāgavat class. And whatever he’ll do this should be the underlying attitude or spirit, that whatever I do the benefit will go to my master, my Guru. Kṛṣṇa means, Kṛṣṇa is distant. My Guru will be the owner what I acquire. So nothing, no result I should digest, karma-phala, the phala is only – belongs to Him.

karmaṇy evādhikāras te, mā phaleṣu kadācana

[mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr, mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi]

[“I shall now describe niṣkāma karma-yoga, the path of selfless action. You have a right to perform your natural prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to any fruits of that action. You should neither act with desire to enjoy the fruits of your work, nor, as a result, should you be attached to neglecting your duties.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.47]

It is a general thing. Clear, general advice is given in Bhagavad-gītā, but it is very, very difficult actually to observe. Karmaṇy evādhikāras te, mā phaleṣu kadācana. “So I won’t work,” that is renunciationist, jñānī, māyāvādī. And the devotee they feel encouragement, “Oh, the result for Kṛṣṇa and work for me.” They will feel encouragement with this idea, with this principle. Mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi. Not as a reaction he’ll become idle, not that.

“Karmaṇy evādhikāras, You are My slave. You must work. Because you are not the owner so you will, karma ________ [?] that is strike, that will be reactionary. So karmaṇy evādhikāras te, I am bhokta, you are My potency. I am enjoyer, and you are energy. Your position, your constitutional position is to satisfy Me. And My constitutional position is to be satisfied by your labour. This is the constitutional position.”

It is very difficult to be adjusted in such an intrinsic position, so bhakti is there, it is to be found, sudurlabhaḥ. Who will run to sign this bond? The whole – I am to labour and He’s to enjoy the fruit of the labour. Such sort of abnegation, such sort of sacrifice, sacrifice I’m giving something and He will give gratitude to me, and I shall feel proud, “I’m giving things so much.” But to sacrifice his own position eternally, “That I am none, I am only to labour, and He’s to enjoy.” To sign such a deed, such sort of emptiness, such type of sacrifice, abnegation, that is very, very, rarely to be found. That is the very rare plane.

muktānām api siddhānāṁ nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇa

sudurlabhaḥ praśāntātmā koṭiṣv api mahā-mune

[“O great sage, among many millions who are liberated and perfect in knowledge of liberation, one may be a devotee of Lord Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa. Such devotees, who are fully peaceful, are extremely rare.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 6.14.5] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 19.150]

The degree of such type, sacrifice of such degree of such type, is very rarely to be found in the world. The wholesale, and that is the truth, that is constitutional position of everything, so that is natural. All diseased condition, all has got reaction. But this has got no reaction, being health promoting, this position. But who will come to admit such position in the constitution, in the whole? Sacrifice of such nature, and broad heartedness, such sacrificing spirit, where should it be found?

Karmaṇy evādhikāras te, mā phaleṣu kadācana, mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr. So never entangle with the consequence of any action. Mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi. There is the ditch, the danger, that when such fact will come to your notice about the environment you will stop working. “Why should I labour?” Don’t - such curse may not come down on your head, I’m afraid. Mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi. Never approach that dangerous pit, akarma, that, “Because I’m not to enjoy why should I work?” That dangerous alternative, never allow you to go that side. Then the māyāvādī, “I’m not master.”

“There’s no taxation without representation.” That was the Washington, slogan of Washington during the American Independence War. “No taxation without representation.”

“If I’m there in the highest position I shall pay tax. And another he will manage and I shall give money for his management, his power mongering, one is power mongering and I shall give food to that power mongering of a particular person, never.” So māyāvādīs are of such nature. “If I am so ham, if I am at the highest position then I can admit that sort of philosophy of the world. But if I’m not represented in the highest position, I’m only a slave, I won’t accept that. I’ll never accept that philosophy.” That is the trouble. I won’t call a spade a spade. I shall call a spade a hoe.

So we must approach towards that sort of knowledge, that whatever I shall do, my master will be owner of that. With this creed we shall do anything and everything, and that will be devotion. And there will be degree also, intensity. The prema comes out of that. And this sacrifice, die to live, Hegel says, “Die to live.” Don’t be afraid of dying. You’ll be able to live there, real life, die to live. I like Hegel very much. “Reality is by Itself and for Itself.” A very liberal world: Reality, that must be by Itself and for Itself. He’s not for you. You are for Him. This attribute you must have to give to the Reality. He exists to fulfil His own purpose, then what sort of Reality He is. He’s self existent and exists for Himself, not subservient to any other. This must be in the prime cause, otherwise it is not a doll of your play, reality. And die to live, self determination means die to live. Learn to die, then you’ll find that you are to have a proper life, real life. Don’t be afraid to sacrifice. Die. Gaura Haribol.

Jīvera 'svarūpa' haya-kṛṣṇera 'nitya-dāsa', [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.108]

Mahāprabhu announced to Sanātana Goswāmī. There are so many controversies about the real position who is jīva, jīva soul. He declared, kṛṣṇera 'nitya-dāsa' means plain, eternal servant, that is plain...

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Start of 81.09.26.B_81.09.27.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...small thing that to become a slave to Him, that will go to hell. “It is better to go to hell,” Milton says, “It is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.” The Satan told, “Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.” As opposite, Kṛṣṇa dāsa, the real dignified position, that is real position of yourself, the most dignified, that is to be one with Kṛṣṇa, of one interest. He’ll look after you. As much as you are given to Him, His concern is to look after you, to that degree. This is really theism. The nature of theism is such. There is faith, but faith in what? That is all imagination. When it comes in reality, in transaction of real giving, the self will shudder. “Oh!” Then what degree of faith you have got for Him? It’s a fashion, a faith of a fashion of faith. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

karmaṇy evādhikāras te, mā phaleṣu kadācana

mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr, [mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi]

[“I shall now describe niṣkāma karma-yoga, the path of selfless action. You have a right to perform your natural prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to any fruits of that action. You should neither act with desire to enjoy the fruits of your work, nor, as a result, should you be attached to neglecting your duties.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.47]

Don’t entangle with the result, because it is in the hand of the Infinite. Your contribution is infinitesimally small, and you want to control the whole infinite by your small contribution. That is so foolish. Remove this folly from you forever, that your smallest contribution that will control the whole infinite. Such a fool you are. So never think of the result. The result is the resultant of so many forces in the world. So karmaṇy evādhikāras te, mā phaleṣu kadācana, never in the consequence of your contribution of the point of labour. Mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr. Never connect yourself with the result. Do your duty. Never connect with the result. Mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi. That does not mean that you’ll disconnect with karma, with contribution, with your duty, because the result is not within your fist. Never go that side; great danger. This is devotion. The very basic principle of devotion is here.

ahaṁ hi sarva-yajñānāṁ, bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca

[na tu mām abhijānanti, tattvenātaś cyavanti te]

[“-Because I alone am the enjoyer and rewarder of all sacrifices. But since they cannot know Me in this way, they again undergo birth, disease, infirmity, and death.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.24]

“It is Me who is the enjoyer of everything in this world. I am that principle who can absorb the whole production of the whole infinite. I am so and so. But I’m your friend. Don’t be afraid that an injustice may come to you.”

[bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ, sarva-loka-maheśvaram]

suhṛdaṁ sarvva-bhūtānāṁ, jñātvā māṁ [śāntim ṛcchati]

[“I am the enjoyer of the results of sacrifice performed by the fruit-hunter, as well as the results of austerity performed by the liberation-seeker - I am their only worshippable object; I am Nārāyaṇa, the indwelling monitor of all planes of life, and the Supreme Worshippable Personality who awards liberation. And I am the well-wisher of all - I am Kṛṣṇa, the devotee’s most adorable friend. The soul who thus knows My true identity attains the ecstasy of knowing his own original divine identity.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 5.29]

Only when in this attitude you can live in peace, can find peace, appropriate to your position you’ll get the maximum. That is the clue; that is the key to life. Do you follow? Any unreasonability?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: No. Sometimes the Maṭha Commander will use this; he will say that, “You are slave and you have to do what we say, no questions asked.” So what is the case there?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then that is a relative and absolute consideration always. If he’s in a right superior position then it is all right, but if he’s a bogus then we are to avoid. We must appeal to my clear conscience, with my sincere understanding within, my master within, caitya Guru. Something, if he’s a hypocrite, he’s not sincere, true to his thought and word, then I shall avoid. And if we find that he’s true then of course I shall approach more intensely towards his direction that this is the nectar. Where shall I go to get such guidance to take me up to the higher sphere? That is a boon if I go to get guidance, real guidance, proper guidance. That is to be very fortunate in our life to get a proper guide. No other higher fortune can be conceived than to have a good guide, real guide. That is our best wealth in life, sādhu-saṅga. Sat-saṅgaḥ śevadhir nṛṇām. Saṁsāre ‘smin kṣaṇārdho ‘pi sat-saṅgaḥ śevadhir nṛṇām.

[ata ātyantikaṁ kṣemaṁ pṛcchāmo bhavato ‘naghāḥ

saṁsāre ‘smin kṣaṇārdho ‘pi sat-saṅgaḥ śevadhir nṛṇām]

[King Nimi asked the nine Yogendras: “O sinless ones! We therefore enquire from you about that which is supremely auspicious for all living beings, for in this world of birth and death, association with saints - even for half a moment - is the most valuable treasure in human society.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.30]

For a moment if we can come in contact with a real sādhu it is like jewels in this world. It is a jewel if even it is for a moment ________ [?] very rarely to be had. Śevadhir means jewel. Sat-saṅgaḥ śevadhir nṛṇām, kṣaṇārdho ‘pi, proper guidance, the trace of my home. I’m wandering like a madman hither thither. Proper direction towards my home: one who can give, he’s my real friend. That is the real jewel in the world, that intimation for my home. To take my own real position, desirable position, that guide. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, what is the proper conception of kartabya buddhi?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That will, the responsibility is in him according to his stage. He will gather from scripture, from sādhu, all these things, and adjustment. Otherwise what can be there? He’s responsible ultimately for him, his free will, his previous experience, his sincere hankering, that is acquired by previous activity, that sukṛti, knowledge, bhakti. Bhaktyā sañjātayā bhaktyā [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.3.31] Bhakti produces bhakti. Nothing else can produce bhakti. Bhakti can produce bhakti. So whatever little experience you have got in every point of life we are facing such problems as you are. In whatever line you’ll want to approach to make progress, what you say that will be the common difficulty, and you cross.

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate]

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe, nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill-fated.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

If I’m sincere to myself none can do any harm to me, for long time. And a small time also because something was anomaly with me so I’m detained for some time, my progress is detained for some time, you take that way. I want, if I’m sincere, none can oppose in this world. He’s there, His vigilant eye is everywhere. So bad agents, good agents are also there, under Him.

Dāsa Goswāmī says: “When we’re in grave danger cry aloud for the help of the Vaiṣṇava, the sentinel appointed by the Lord.” Ata padi beti kori [?] The going, travelling through your way and there are so many __________________ [?] Who falls on the travellers and robs them?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Thieves, rogues.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The other day you told. Not only rogue, rogue indifferent, they’re plunderers on the way. When plunderers come to rob you they will cry for help from outside. So kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, mātsarya, and so many other things to disturb the traveller one is going towards the domain of Kṛṣṇa. Then he’ll cry at the sentinels, the Vaiṣṇavas are there and they will come to help, the Vaiṣṇava, the Guru, Vaiṣṇava. By their: if we cry aloud for their mercy they will at once, their ideal will come within our heart and help to do away, to drive away all those undesirable elements that hinder our progress.

Na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati. [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40] That light should always be kept in our heart. If I don’t like to deceive me none can deceive me. There is the Lord for every party. That free will is given to me and the misuse of that is in the bottom of all sorts of danger. Otherwise He’s there, He won’t allow others to rob me unlawfully. With my participation, cooperation, whatever little it may be, that is at the bottom of all defects, free will.

So, the sādhus, in advanced stage, they only blame their own self. They don’t waste their energy to blame others, no time, only blaming his own self. “You are so magnanimous, so great, but I am so low.” That is the tenor of their thought, general tenor. “I am lowest of the low, and you are greatest, noblest of the noble.” That is the royal road to approach for the Vaiṣṇava, sādhu.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

...

... for the satisfaction of departed generation. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes, they’re usually considered mādhurya- līlā. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu audārya-līlā, so what is the specific difference or characteristic?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mādhurya-līlā means pastimes within a limited circle, and when that is planned for distribution on the outside then the colour of audārya comes. The mādhurya within and the attitude of distribution, that is outside, added to that, audārya. Audārya not independent of mādhurya, the mādhurya is there, distributing what? The highest thing, when the attitude of distributing the highest thing that is audārya. And that is also eternal, every pastimes eternal. With the eternity everything is eternal, not bound in particular time. It’s coming from eternity and will go on for eternity. Only limited circle we are very inquisitive to know the birth and death because we are accustomed with that thought. But in the land of eternity it is astonishing that how a thing is born and again dies. There is no question, that everything is eternal, no question of death. Death is a strange thing there – end, beginning and end unknown to that land, that plane. We are very eager to cast in it our historical experience within the history.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Our Guru Mahārāja told once that, a boatman in ancient time, generally they are trading, walks with the big boats that are used for trading purpose. So those that are in charge of that sometimes they had to, with the rope, with the help of the rope tied with the mast, they used to draw, two or three drawing when the boat is passing against the current, they were engaged to draw the boat. Then one of them has got some thorn within his foot. He thinks, ‘If I become rich then I shall pave the way, make the way pukha so that no thorn can penetrate in my sole. I shall arrange to for the pavement of the road where we are to draw.’ But he can’t conceive that if he becomes rich then the drawing won’t be necessary at all. The drawing of the boat, this sort of labour would not be necessary if he becomes rich. No question will be of drawing but in his present position he thinks, ‘If I become rich once then I shall construct the ways by which to draw the boats, so that no thorn can enter into the sole.’ But he can’t conceive that if I become rich then no necessity will be. So there are so many problems here, when we attain that position these questions won’t arise at all. This is only meant for this mundane.

Another he told that one who is born in the darkness of a prison house, then when grown up he’s there in darkness, everything to be seen with the help of light. Then a man coming from outside, “Oh you come, I shall show you the Sun.”

“Yes, let me take the lantern.”

“No, no, to see the Sun no lantern is necessary.”

“You are befooling me. Nothing can be seen without the help of the lantern. What do you say, fool? I don’t like to be fooled by you.”

Then will snatch him from there and forcibly take him. “See the Sun.”

“Oh! Is it so?”

Something like that.

ātmā parijñāna-mayo vivādo, hy astīti nāstīti bhidārtha-niṣṭhaḥ

vyartho 'pi naivoparameta puṁsāṁ, mattaḥ parāvṛtta-dhiyāṁ sva-lokāt

[One party says: “God exists!” The other says: “God does not exist!” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says that the ātmā is self effulgent, but still we find that one class of men say, “He exists, we see Him, He can be seen,” and another says: “He has never existed.” This quarrel has no end because one of the parties hasn’t got the eye to see what is self evident. This quarrel is a useless waste of time, but still it will never stop; it will continue forever.] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.22.34]

Ātmā parijñāna-mayo, full of light, self effulgent ātmā, it does not require the help of anything else to study, to understand that, him. Parijñāna-mayo _________________ [?] A mass of light, mass of consciousness, parijñāna. Vivādo, hy astīti nāstīti bhidārtha-niṣṭhaḥ. So the ātmā exists, soul exists, and some say not exist. Why this question is here? Hy astīti nāstīti. Surely it is absent, it does not exist. Another says it exists surely. Hy astīti nāstīti bhidārtha-niṣṭhaḥ vyartho 'pi. This is useless. Why? Because it is confined in a particular section, vyartho 'pi naivoparameta, this is useless, still, this sort of contention, quarrel, won’t cease. Why? Vyartho 'pi naivoparameta. It has got no end, it will continue. Some say, ‘No, it is.’ And some say, ‘No, it is not.’ It will go on. Mattaḥ parāvṛtta-dhiyāṁ sva-lokāt. Only for those, that section, who has deviated from My consciousness as well as his own consciousness, self consciousness: God consciousness as well as self consciousness. To them the question of whether it is or it is not. But those that are in self consciousness they will be conscious that ātmā is there, and those who are in God consciousness, they will also see that there is God and there is soul. Just as those that have no eyes, so many insects without eyes... _________________________ [?] Lengthy, has got no sense, only touch, no eyes...

Devotee: Earthworm.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Earthworm. For them no Sun, there is no Sun for them, no eyes no Sun, no eyes no Sun. Mattaḥ parāvṛtta-dhiyāṁ sva-lokāt. Deviated from God consciousness and necessarily self consciousness: for them the question, the doubt. But those who are already in God consciousness and self consciousness there’s no question, no quarrel amongst them, within that society. So a particular group, they’re quarrelling, those that have no idea at all, no experience.

So a man who is born and brought up always in darkness and habituated to see everything with the help of the light, to him the Sun he’ll say, “Oh, we must take the light to see the Sun.” It will be in his case. But those who are already there it will be ludicrous to those who are in that self consciousness or God consciousness. They feel Him, experience, direct experience.

ātmā parijñāna-mayo vivādo, hy astīti nāstīti bhidārtha-niṣṭhaḥ

vyartho 'pi naivoparameta puṁsāṁ, mattaḥ parāvṛtta-dhiyāṁ sva-lokāt

Jīva Goswāmī has quoted all these things in Sandarbha. This is the medicine for the atheists. If the atheist has come to argue and make argument then this is the weapon.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

...

Mattaḥ parāvṛtta-dhiyāṁ sva-lokāt. “Deviation from Me first, and the effect of that, consequence of that, deviation from self consciousness, sambandha-jñāna, eliminating Me to see one’s own self that is not the complete estimation or vision of him, partial, not proper.”

So by the light of the Sun we can see ourselves also, and the outside. Knowing is possible. If He withdraws Himself then nothing can be seen, nothing can be felt. No experience is possible if He withdraws. If Sun withdraws everything is dark, of course if there is no Moon or stars or any other light. And also, other lights, the source is the same, that of the Sun. One, I have produced the candle light, I have produced such light, but light as a whole can only show us. So light can show.

Devotee: ___________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Generally jīva comes from Brahmaloka, taṭasthā-śakti. You have read in Bhagavad-gītā? “Jīva soul is My paraśakti and the world is aparaśakti.” The combination of both has given us this world. Within the jīva-śakti and outside the aparaśakti, combination of two potencies has made this world to us.

apareyam itas tv anyāṁ, prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām

jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho, yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat

[“O mighty hero, Arjuna, this worldly nature known as external, is inferior. But distinct from this nature, you should know My marginal potency, comprised of the individual souls, to be superior. This world is accepted by this superior conscious potency as an object of exploitation for sense enjoyment, by the agency of each individual’s fruit-hunting actions and reactions. The divine world emanates from My internal potency and the mundane world from My external potency. The potency of the living beings is known as marginal, on account of their medial adaptability - they may choose to reside either in the mundane plane or the divine.”] [Bhagavad- gītā, 7.5]

This material world is meant, the paraśakti, the principal potency has entered into the lower potency and making it moving, has made it a moving one.

Devotee: __________ Brahmaloka?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ah! Its original position is Brahmaloka, taṭasthā-śakti means.

Devotee: _____________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kṛṣṇaloka is far above. Brahmaloka and Śivaloka, Vaikuṇṭhaloka, in this way, Ayodhyā, Dvārakā, Mathurā, Vṛndāvana, gradation, gradually up, up, going up. According to the degree of rasam, ānandam, it is measured. What is high, what is low, it is measured by the standard of ānandam, both in quantity and quality. Raso vai saḥ, rasa, sukha, ecstasy, ānandam, the utility of anything, or the superiority of anything should be measured by that standard only. It is universally admitted that we all hanker after ānandam, rasam, sukham. None will say that, ‘I don’t want happiness,’ no one. Everyone is trying hard to get maximum joy. This is admitted by the extensive section. So in whatever way one is moving he thinks that, ‘Joy I shall _____ Better joy I shall get from here.’ But they’re erroneous, may be error, and so the reaction. Proper guidance is necessary how we can get the joy of highest quality and quantity. And the measurement, measure has been considered accordingly. This material happiness is trifle so it is rejected, and spiritual only pertaining to jīva soul of the lower type of spirit, that is also limited. And higher type of spiritual existence can emanate highest quantity of joy and of higher quality also. So the question of Brahman, the Paramātmā, Nārāyaṇa, Vasudeva, Rāmacandra, Dvārakeśa, Mathureśa, Yogeśa, Nandanandan, Rādhikāramaṇa, in this way it goes. Those that are exclusively given for scientific search of rasa, they come to flock together by the expert of that department. “I want rasa. Raso vai saḥ. I want rasa, pure, purest rasa. Highest type of rasa I want.” So the elimination and acceptance; sādhana means elimination and acceptance of the new and rejection of the old, the progress of sādhana means that.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, the jīva-śakti is from taṭasthāloka?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So what determines what rasa the jīvātmā develops?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Jīvātmā by his free adopt-ability he can develop while entering into māyā, this plane of exploitation, a lower type of rasa, that is vikṛta, that is a rasa: vikṛta means? What is vikṛta?

Devotees: Perverted.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Perverted, yes, perverted, and with the cooperation of his own free will if he moves with that of renunciation then some weak self experience of his own soul, and when merged into that then nothing remains. And similar, just as he has got adopt-ability he – plane of exploitation, he can adopt the serving attitude also, get the influence of the plane of dedication, and thereby if he goes he will thrive. A different type of rasa he will feel and make progress, in this way. Adopt-ability, the consent, first participation is only consent, and then he’s helped by the upper or the lower agents. In this way the connection and development, and once entered lives together goes on in that wild goose chasing here and proper search there.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So the jīvātmā is normally śanta-rasa in Brahmaloka?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is not considered śanta. Śanta means positive association with the higher; that is śanta. But no such association he has got in Brahmaloka. In Brahmaloka almost like sāyujya. Self consciousness not awakened there, very feeble, not workable: only through push, very few self consciousness freedom, very meagre. Anyhow there is the two opposite things, exploitation and dedication, and the meeting place is there, very fine, the marginal potency. And we are told that from there general jīva comes.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, we also hear that the spiritual body is eternal.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So when does that - that means that it is already developed also in Brahmaloka.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course. Brahmaloka as a whole is eternal. Here also māyā is eternal, the particular potency undeveloped, that is also eternal. The possibility, finite is eternal, infinite and finite both combined makes absolute; that is eternal. Māyā is eternal, the śakti, but the development is not eternal, in one sense, that is changing, but this changing is also eternal. So in that sense everything is eternal: limitation within unlimited.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: The spiritual body which the living entity develops, does that begin from Brahmaloka?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Real spiritual body does not depend on the development of the jñāna. It depends on the real development in the eyes of dedication, real jñāna is almost impossible. For a speck, for a drop, to get the knowledge of the whole, that is impossible. Only it can give its own quota to the contribution in the activity of the whole, participation, so jñāna-sunya-bhakti. That is a futile attempt. That is also a disease. That is also a tendency of a particular disease. Jñāna is also a class of disease to the soul, because he runs after phantasmagoria. What is impossible he’s running after that. Being a particle he wants to hold the whole within his mouth. It is impossible - wild goose chasing. So jñāne prayāsam udapāsya, hatefully we must cast away our spirit of searching about knowing about the whole. That is useless attempt. It is impossible. So don’t waste your time in quest of the whole knowledge. Whatever little is necessary you get that and go on with your service. By service you thrive, not jñāna, seeks to be master of the environment, but it is not possible. You cannot be master of your environment: never.

End of 81.09.26.B_81.09.27.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.09.27.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...that much, and beyond that if we try that you’ll be subject and everything will be your object, that is impossible, and that will be considered to be a disease that cannot be treated, that has got no treatment, jñāna.

So the devotees are much afraid and cautious about jñāna than karma. Karma is already self contained, ordinary labour; that is self hated. Easily that can be eliminated, that position is exposed very sure. But jñāna holds the dignified position over karma, so jñāna is the powerful enemy to bhakti, so we must be very careful about the enemy named jñāna.

Jñāna means tyāga, jñāna-tyāga, it becomes, wants to be master of the environment, everything, wants the key in his hand, everything, does not care for anything else but only for the key. Something like that. He does not want anything but the key, the master, he’s indifferent.

“I have finished you, to know you, the objective side, the lower aspect of the world. I have finished, I have nothing, no charm for you.” Infinite is untouched, and finishing only hateful part, where he boasts, “I have finished everything, nothing to do.” So that is suicide. Knowledge is suicidal, most pessimistic, pessimism, nothing good. “As a subject I have examined everything in the environment. I found nothing with whom I can associate.” That will be the conclusion, and then finally retires, again entering that Brahmaloka. But if any opposite connection will be higher then he’s hurled down to go to the lowest position. Jñāna, so jñāna is not our friend.

Devotee: ___________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is a finer enemy, gross enemy and fine enemy, subtle enemy, knowledge. I am, I shall, the karmī also, “I am monarch of all I survey.” And the jñānī will also say, “I know everything. Nothing is there. I know everything, no charm is there.” That is, the super charming world is there and we can only participate there through bhakti, through serving attitude, by dedication. That is eliminated, the reality is eliminated, that is, the higher existence is eliminated, and by examining lower existence they finish their campaign and there is nothing, there is nothing. But really, the higher aspect is eliminated and the knowledge cannot but do that, because as a subject we cannot have any entrance there, so it is as nothing. I maintain my subjective characteristic. The jñānī wants to maintain his subjective characteristic everywhere. “I must know, then I shall admit, whether it is or not.” That sort of attitude is a bar for the entrance into the higher super subjective sphere, so he’s deceived thereby. The tendency to know anything and everything that is a bar for higher standing.

tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā

[upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ, jñāninas tattva darśinaḥ]

[“You will be able to attain all this knowledge by satisfying the enlightened spiritual master with prostrate obeisances, relevant enquiry, and sincere service. Great souls who are most expert in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will teach you that divine knowledge.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.34]

Praṇipāt, that is the worldly knowledge finished. “I have come to you for something else, new, what is not in the world of experience. I have finished the world of experience, there is nothing charming, so praṇipāt.” If then with all attention I have come, with eliminating all sorts of hesitation I have come with full attention whether to enquire whether there is anything, and paripraśnena, honest enquiry. And the real thing is sevā, through sevā we can only enter into the domain of higher knowledge, sevā. Adjust to die, to die as we are, not die by fasting by the belly as the jñānīs do, commit suicide. But die, why, what for? To live, die to live, sevā.

“That’s so charming I want to become, I can’t but be in the connection of that. For that I want to be a slave, to banish my liberty forever. At last history finished. I want to die. I want to die, why? I want to live. And the jñānīs death that is a physical death, artificial death of the worldly life.”

The ahaṅkāra, the ego, the gross ego must be dismissed forever. The ego, to live, that ego, the ego of a slave of the highest authority: that is what is necessary. So much faith, so strong faith that service is better than enjoyment, it is possible. It is possible practically that service is more paying than to become king of this material world.

No narka vristam no narkarestam no sarvabhauma no sadi patram [?]

No proposal of any supremacy of any type, no service is so sweet. You’re so sweet and Your service also is so sweet that nothing can come in comparison with that. I have no charm with that any offering of this world of experience but only ________ my mind is mad to taste the nectar of the service of Your holy feet, the Divinity. And there we can live. After dying the living will come in their gradation, śanta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya, mādhurya, classification and then progress. That is the real world and this sort of world of misery cannot be all in all and any perfect conception it may have. It is suicidal. Any attainment of here that has got end, it’s suicidal.

There was one good scholar, Rajen Sing [?], a good philosopher. In the last days he was mad. Intellectualism led him to be mad; the intellectual achievement for the jñāna. I told that one philosopher in Germany, Nietzsche, he was something like half mad.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Praṅipāta, paripraśna, sevā. This is the Vedic knowledge, or the knowledge of Upaniṣad, Veda, which is revealed, which comes from up down here for the help of the jīva. Always:

tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet, samit paniḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma niṣṭham

[“One who wants scientific knowledge about the Supreme Truth must approach a bona fide Guru and offer him everything required for sacrifice. The Guru must be fixed in the truth, having heard it from a genuine source.”] [Muṇḍaka-Upaniṣad, 1.2.12]

Then in Bhāgavatam,

tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta, jijñāsuḥ śreyaḥ uttamam

śabde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ, brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam

[“Therefore any person who seriously desires real happiness must seek a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of the bona fide Guru is that he has realised the conclusions of the scriptures by deliberation and is able to convince others of those conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, should be understood to be bona fide spiritual masters.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.3.21]

In Gītā:

tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā

upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ, jñāninas tattva darśinaḥ

[“You will be able to attain all this knowledge by satisfying the enlightened spiritual master with prostrate obeisances, relevant enquiry, and sincere service. Great souls who are most expert in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will teach you that divine knowledge.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.34]

Here in India the Vedic Institute they imparted education with serving spirit. The students used to come to Gurukula, they used to make service to Guru, including his family.

Even Kṛṣṇa went to fetch wood from the forest by the order of the wife of His Gurudeva Sandīpanī. “Get some fuel for us.” And she used to cook for the students.

So service, imparting Vedic education, the Guru he takes that as a service. He begs from rich men but doesn’t take anything as remuneration for imparting the knowledge. Out of his own accord he’s giving the knowledge what he has acquired from his own Guru. In the similar way he’s also delivering that knowledge to the disciples – not anything in return. The śiṣya, the student, they will also go, they will take food from the Guru’s family and the Guru’s wife as mother she will feed them. And whatever is her requirement she asks as her son, “We need fuel. You will have to get some fuel my son from the forest.”

Kṛṣṇa and Sudama went and in that day rain profusely and a river between the Gurukula and the forest, there was a river so overflowed They could not come back to their [Gurukula]. For the night they had to pass in the tree anyhow. And then when the morning came, next morning, then Guru went in search of them and he’s calling, “Kṛṣṇa, Sudama,” and then they came out with so many bundles of fuel on their head, coming.

Kṛṣṇa asked Sudama, “Do you remember My friend?”

When in Dvārakā He’s a King, Sudama went to see Him and Sudama thought, “He’s making so much, showing so much affection, He must not have recognised me.”

Then to remind him, “Yes I have recognised you My friend. Do you remember that night when we went in search for fuel and passed in the tree the whole night. And in the next morning our Gurudeva Sandīpanī went in search. Do you remember?”

Then he thought, “Oh! He has recognised me. Still He’s making so much for me, showing so much affection, so much care for me.”

So even the Lord when He was in Gurukula there He showed that the study should be made along with the serving spirit, otherwise Vedic truth won’t come down to you. If you want really to have, to study the Vedic knowledge, want to get, then service must be with the search, then that will come down within you. Satisfied by your serving tendency, that higher knowledge will come down within you and you’ll be able to get that, otherwise not. Intellectual feats, that won’t allow you to enter into that holy domain. Intellectualism has got no entrance into that domain. Only the gentlemen can have entrance, passport there, gentlemen. Who? Who won’t go to exploit that land, rather to serve the interest of that land, they will be given passport there, not otherwise. The guṇḍās are not allowed to enter that domain. Automatically they can’t.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Nitāi.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, there was in the second chapter of the Chaitanya-Bhāgavat, there was a mention that Lord Nityānanda Prabhu that He would serve as the servant of audārya-līlā. He would act as the servant to propagate Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s audārya-līlā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So that was to benefit everyone in a general way, one of its functions?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, according to their capacity or fortune. He will – the professor is delivering lectures, but the students will receive according to their capacity. He in general wants to distribute through his writing, but according to their respective capacity they will, some will read it to write a thesis and to get some name in the university. And some only to criticise against his writing. And some fortunate souls will find light and dedicate himself for the whole of his future. So many class sections of students, of hearers, prakṛti-vaicitryāt and pāramparyeṇa, prakṛti-vaicitryāt – the section of the same will be taken differently.

Brahmā, he explained that, “You are Brahman, you are that soul, that ātmā.” There was one āsura he understands this body, he says, “You are, this body is that ātmā.” Some say, “Oh! He’s meaning my inner self. I am that ātmā.” In this way amongst the students the understanding of different type: it is a general fact.

So Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura he’s distributing that nectar of Caitanya’s life, but,

Amara durdaiva nami nahi anuragah [?]

tuyā dayā aichena parama udārā, atiśaya manda nātha bhāga hāmārā

[“Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu says: “Whatever may be lacking is on My part. There is no defect on Your side.”]

_____________________ [?] According to our purity of purpose we shall be able to understand.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa. Hare Hare. Hare Rāma Hare Rāma.

When Bhagavān comes down here Himself so many seeing Him in different ways, the Śiśupāla, the Kaṁsa, and the Nārada, the gopīs, their vision of different ways. We can’t deny that, the realisation cannot be same, and should not also be same. By nature, the gradation, the hierarchy should be there, so no injustice, no partiality. Die to live, ātma-nivedana, ātma-nivedana fully, give yourself fully, give and take.

One gentleman told me when I joined the Maṭha, he’s my elder brother, God-brother, I’m making praṇāma daṇḍavats to him, he’s also returning daṇḍavats.

I asked him, “Why you are showing hypocrisy?”

“Why?”

“I think you to be superior so I’m bowing down to you. And you certainly do not consider me to be holding higher position than you, so your daṇḍavats towards me that will be hypocritical, artificial.”

“No, no. It’s not so very easy to bow down,” he told. “It’s not a very easy thing to bow down.”

I was silenced. I saw the object, the meaning within I detected. Yes. Namaskāra is not a very easy thing, to give one’s own self by daṇḍavat surrender it is not an easy thing. Really it is the greatest thing to offer one’s self to the higher. Only who can make that offering, the degree of offering.

A man, he gives his word, he can’t take it back, rather he can give his life, but can’t take his word back. There are so many even, “Oh! I did not, at that time I did not calculate that this will be the result so I withdraw.” For this excuse me – that will be in ordinary case. But there are cases when word once given that won’t be broken, rather he will give his own life but won’t go back, such type is there. So giving is very difficult thing, self giving. We can give what belongs to us, but that is false giving. Nothing belongs to us. Īśāvāsyam. Only self giving is giving proper, self offering is proper offering. Otherwise all that I falsely think that this thing belongs to me, nothing belongs to me, what should I – this is all false. The false ego, that is also difficult to give away, what to speak of the real self within. “I’m Yours!”

kṛṣṇa, tomāra haṅa’ yadi bale eka-bāra, māyā-bandha haite kṛṣṇa tāre kare pāra

[“One is immediately freed from the clutches of māyā if he seriously and sincerely says: ‘My dear Lord Kṛṣṇa, although I have forgotten You for so many long years in the material world, today I am surrendering unto You. I am Your sincere and serious servant. Please engage me in Your service.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.33]

The simple thing, to die to live, simple thing, “I am Yours, Kṛṣṇa I am Yours.” Then the māyā, the illusion will run away from you, run away. “I am Yours!” The depth of this expression it depends upon. “I am Yours! I belong to no one, but I am Yours wholesale my Lord. Please accept me.” Kṛṣṇa, tomāra haṅa’ yadi bale eka-bāra. Only once: “I’m Yours, I surrender unto You.”

“Yes, I accept.”

Only that is what is necessary within us, nothing else, sakati, prapatti, prapanna, surrender; that is necessary.

Devotee: Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. That was a big thing in me at that time, that this is the key to heaven, key to heaven, so I shall have to deal this. I searched where anything is written about prapatti, Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, Ṣaṭ-Sandarbha, and other books, and collected those in one place, as much as I could, that this will help most the prapatti. That was my idea, the entrance to the Divinity, the gate is surrender. With this idea I collected. Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is the necessity, the only necessity of every one of us, conscientiously, the śaraṇāgati, nothing else is necessary, everything:

yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ, manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ

yasmin sthito na duḥkhena, guruṇāpi vicālyate

[“By attaining to this state, he never considers any mundane acquisition as superior, and in the face of unbearable tribulation his heart never wavers.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.22]

There is such substance that when we get that we don’t want anything, no necessity of any aspiration for any other thing. There is such thing. Yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ, manyate nādhikaṁ. No gain can be considered superior to that. This is the highest, the positive insinuation, feeling is there. And if we are placed there in that, in connection of that, then no misery of, however greater degree it may be, it can disturb me. No misery can disturb me. And no happiness can take me away, can move me away from that, and no misery can trouble. There is such kind of gain possible.

yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ, manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ

yasmin sthito na duḥkhena, guruṇāpi vicālyate

There is such a thing.

bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ

kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi, mayi dṛṣṭe 'khilātmani

[“The knot in the heart is pierced, all misgivings are cut to pieces and the chain of fruitive actions is terminated when I am seen as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.20.30]

All doubts, suspicions, solved, removed, no doubt, all solved. The wholesale solution, all the entanglements are untied. I want nothing. So many ties already existing, “I want this, I want this, I want this,” all untied. I want nothing. Bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś. Our heart is full of so many ties with so many aspirations, but all untied. I, by mistake, I made connection, I wanted, made a tie between me and that thing, that if I get that, if I can tie him to me then I’ll be satisfied. No, no. These are not necessary, all redundant, all the ties untied. Bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, chidyante sarva, all doubts finished, removed. No. This is the truth. This is the what I wanted, what I am searching, all through this is the thing. Chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ, kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi, and the previous activities, reactions, that is all also exempted. Mayi dṛṣṭe 'khilātmani.

“No necessity, I am everywhere.”

Everywhere, the fulfilment, the perfect, is seen everywhere, so no duty, no feeling, no perception of any duty to anyone. He’s there. The guardian is everywhere to take care of everything. Only what is necessary, I must connect me with the guardian. The guardian is everywhere. He’s taking care of everybody. So I have nothing to do, only that I may not be detached from this knowledge of this position. The relationship with this knowledge or this association I may not be detached again, so I must go deeper and deeper into that. No other business, no other engagement is necessary. That will be the only - to enter into. And then when under the full complete direction of Yogamāyā I will play in her hand. I will have to play in her hand. There is also vipralambha, there is sambhoga, all these things, but that is all Yogamāyā. Everything is supplying that highest, higher type of rasam there.

It is possible. And the Gauḍīya Maṭha stand is here. Bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ. No mundane wealth is necessary, and no alternative proposal of religious conception may be, may exist, than that of Bhāgavatam or Mahāprabhu, Caitanya. This is the unique. Nothing is necessary. All else eliminated. This is the standard.

Sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66] the Absolute call, the Absolute call to all, not to the particular section: Absolute call to all. “Come! Mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja – Not more absolute than Myself.”

And no repentance, no reaction. I thought, is it possible? The Gauḍīya Maṭha people they are their own canvasser. They do not care for anybody. What they say that is the Absolute Truth. Is it possible to think that this is Absolute and no other alternative? It is impossible almost. Then the Bhāgavata śloka already I had connection came to my mind. Bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś. Bhāgavata says that it is possible. Chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ. The most dangerous thing, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ, all the doubts are cleared. How revolutionary! Is it possible? The whole doubts, so many infinite doubts may exist in one’s mind, and all will be cleared, is it possible?

The Gauḍīya Maṭha people say like that. I can eliminate them, I can deny them, but I cannot deny Bhāgavatam. There in an authentic tone Vyāsadeva is giving proclamation, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ, it is possible, no doubt will remain. There is such a stage. Oh! They’re one with that standard of Bhāgavatam, that Badarikāśrama, that Śukadeva Goswāmī told at Naimiṣāraṇya, the very gist of all the Veda and Gītā etc. The same standard they’re representing. So entered with more confidence and gradually imbibed that sort of slate and now I am speaking on their behalf, as agent, converted fully.

The personality of Mahāprabhu and that Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the last product of Vyāsadeva. Śrīmad-Bhāgavata is the last gift of Vyāsadeva after Gītā, Mahābhārata, Vedānta, Purāṇa, everything. Still there was some want, and Nārada came and gave the final touch, and Vyāsadeva came with Bhāgavatam. And Mahāprabhu took that and inaugurated practically in the world. And Gauḍīya Maṭha is trying to, with knowledge or nectar of the highest type, to distribute to the world. And Swāmī Mahārāja went throughout the length and breadth of this world and attracted people like you all to such faith. It is a great pride to us.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

yasmin vijñāte sarvam evam vijñātam bhavati / yasmin prāpte sarvam idam prāptam bhavati

The Upaniṣads are also there. “There is something, if we get that everything is got. If we know that everything is known. If we get that everything is got.” In Upaniṣad we also find the same echo: tabe brahma jijñāsa. So enquire after that most universal and most general thing, not any part, this part, that part, that part, that part, innumerable parts. That is waste of energy, chasing after so many partial things. Try to catch the centre. What is that?

yasmin vijñāte sarvam evam vijñātam bhavati / yasmin prāpte sarvam idam prāptam bhavati

The key, the one who represents the whole, the central, the commanding figure, try to get that person. And when such faith grows within us it’s called śraddhā, śraddhāmayo 'yaṁ loka [Bhagavad-gītā, 17.3]. The senses of your experience, the erroneous things are supplying your eyes, nose, ears, that are supplying to you, all false information. False information and that is stored in your mind, a depot of false information. Dissolve that thing, the bureau, the depot of false information must be dissolved. It is possible, the whole in one, and one in whole, through śraddhā.

ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo, mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate

iti matvā bhajante māṁ, budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ

[“I am Kṛṣṇa, the Sweet Absolute, I am the root cause of the all-comprehensive aspect of the Absolute, the all-permeating aspect of the Absolute, and also the personal aspect of the Absolute - the Master of all potencies, who commands the respect of everyone - Lord Nārāyaṇa of Vaikuṇṭha. The universe of mundane and divine flow, every attempt and movement, the Vedas and allied scriptures which guide everyone’s worship - all are initiated by Me alone. Realising this hidden treasure, the virtuous souls who are blessed with fine theistic intellect surpass the standards of duty and non duty, and embrace the paramount path of love divine, rāga-mārga, and adore Me forever.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 10.8]

“Through love they come forth, when they come to understand that I am the very root of everything. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo, mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate. I am the root, I am the Master of everything. Then they come with spontaneity, sincerity, curiosity, love, earnestness, all these, iti matvā bhajante māṁ, budhā bhāva-samanvitāḥ.”

mac-cittā mad-gata prāṇā, bodhayantaḥ parasparam

kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ, tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca

[“My devotees mix together, talk about Me, and exchange thoughts that give consolation to their hearts. And they live as if this talk about Me is their food. It gives them a high kind of pleasure, and they find that when they talk about Me among themselves, they feel as if they are enjoying My presence.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 10.9]

“They find everything...

End of 81.09.27.B

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Start of 81.09.27.C_81.09.28.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...any name, fame, nothing of the type. They feel that everything they want that is in Me.”

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ, bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam

dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ, yena mām upayānti te

[“To those devotees who are constantly dedicated to Me, and who engage in My service out of their love for Me, I bestow the internal divine inspiration by which they can approach Me and render various intimate services unto Me.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 10.10]

“To this particular section I give a particular type of highest attainment of Me, and that is in Vraja, crossing the morality and other so called truths of this world, anything else. And Absolute connection with Me, even crossing the śāstra, the scripture, and the samāj, the society, and the tradition, the usage, give up everything. I am overall. Vaikantic. Exclusive devotion to Me, that is the highest. Not dependent on the scripture, or the society, or the so called Guru, guide, etc. Absolute connection with Me, not actuated by innate connection, not actuated, drawn by any quarter, it cannot be useful. The source is Mine only. Myself is the source, and get that independent connection. Not any dependent, that by scripture, by the advice of a particular gentleman, by sādhu, not this type which is dependent on any other source that is very favourite to Me. Direct connection with Me. Come to this section that is parakīya is what is called in Vṛndāvana. If you cross here, if anything, if any conception of so called religion stands in your way give up that religious idea. Come to Me. My connection with you is such, no law can enter between My connection of you and Myself, no law.”

In a particular family, law enters when the unity is slackened, and when unity in a family is there, no law. Who is eating more, and who is earning more, no question. But when the love, the tie, the affection is slackened, then, Oh! You give only this amount, but your wife and so many children are taking food. I’m giving so much amount, but only myself and my wife, so you will have to go, the law will request, the question of law will come. But when there is unity no law.

“So no law between the relation between you and Myself,” the Lord says.

sarva-dharmān parityajya, [mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo, mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ]

[“Totally abandoning all kinds of religion, surrender exclusively unto Me. I will liberate you from all kinds of sins, so do not despair.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]

ājñajaiva guṇān doṣān, mayādiṣṭān api svakān

dharmmān saṁtyajya yaḥ sarvvān, myāṁ bhajet sa ca sattamaḥ

[“In the scriptures of religion, I, the Supreme Lord, have instructed men of all statuses of life in their duties. Duly comprehending the purificatory virtue of executing those prescribed duties as well as the vice of neglecting them, one who abandons all allegiance to such dutifulness in order to engage in My devotional service is the best of honest men (sādhu).”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.11.32]

“He’s the saint of the saint, the king of saints. Who? I have My order in the scripture, and sadācāra, it is by My will it is done. But still if one crossing that law comes to Me he’s My greater devotee. That is meant, that law is meant for ordinary persons, gradually to take them in. But one who has understood Me and his innermost connection, then the law is useless for him. That is to promote ordinary public to take Me. It is meant for that lower necessity.”

parokṣa-vādo vedo 'yaṁ, bālānām anuśāsanam

[karma-mokṣāya karmāṇi, vidhatte hy agadaṁ yathā]

[“Childish and foolish people are attached to materialistic, fruitive activities, although the actual goal of life is to become free from such activities. Therefore, the Vedic injunctions indirectly lead one to the path of ultimate liberation by first prescribing fruitive religious activities, just as a father promises his child candy so that the child will take his medicine.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.3.44]

It is for the child of the spiritual warning the laws have been, different types of law there are, that is for the child. But for the highest grown up no law, rather, they’re rather, their practice, that should create new law to the world. ______________________________________________ [?]

I’m doing real service to that domain, otherwise I’m wandering at my sweet will. That is a particular outcome within my mind, from within my mind. May not be too much selfishness there. But what is the guarantee of service? The domain of service is something positive thing and this is also the negative or positive something, māyā, error, the world of error, māyā, and the world of truth. And between the two the withdrawal from the world of error that is qualification, but neglecting the world of service to go on visiting then that is punishable, according to the law of Vaikuṇṭha, but we’ll be loser there. So what is necessary, not only to cut off connection with our mundane tendency which we find in our mind, but also to be reinstated in the positive service of the Lord. That is the all important thing, to be engaged in the real service of the Lord. And not we should take a French Leave from both the sides.

muktānām api siddhānāṁ nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇa

sudurlabhaḥ praśāntātmā koṭiṣv api mahā-mune

[“O great sage, among many millions who are liberated and perfect in knowledge of liberation, one may be a devotee of Lord Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa. Such devotees, who are fully peaceful, are extremely rare.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 6.14.5] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 19.150]

And that is very rarely to be had, only through the connection of a real sādhu, a real agent, otherwise I can’t help to, I can’t have any connection. Where is the guarantee that what I shall do that will be for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord? What is the guarantee? I may, in my mental concoction I may think, ‘Yes, I have got, I am doing, it is for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord.’ It is not such an easy thing. That is a positive thing. That does not depend upon my imagination. So to have the company of a real sādhu, the real agent, who is cent per cent established, installed in that plane, and whose wholesale activity is for the Supreme Lord, nothing else, to secure his order, his will, how we can serve him, that is the very most precious thing in the life, only to become a slave to that real agent of the Supreme Lord. Because it is a positive thing, it is not a thing of our imagination at large. A positive and fixed thing with fixed law, fixed nature that can be known and considered, and felt, it has got its peculiar nature, peculiar existence. It’s not mere concoction, not mere opposite of the world life. So a positive connection of the real life I must ... Mahārāja says... ...the gist of all the advices given in Gītā and in different times and places of śāstra can be summarised in one: Svatmam pranam .......nigamatsaram...... [?]

All the, the whole substance of all the advices given in different places in different times, it is this, he has to sacrifice one’s own self, that is to die. Die to live, self abnegation, self offering; but self offering where? It must be guaranteed that it is for Kṛṣṇa, not any other thing. That is very rarely to be found, rarely to be found, sat-saṅgaḥ śevadhir nṛṇām.

[ata ātyantikaṁ kṣemaṁ pṛcchāmo bhavato ‘naghāḥ

saṁsāre ‘smin kṣaṇārdho ‘pi sat-saṅgaḥ śevadhir nṛṇām]

[King Nimi asked the nine Yogendras: “O sinless ones! We therefore enquire from you about that which is supremely auspicious for all living beings, for in this world of birth and death, association with saints - even for half a moment - is the most valuable treasure in human society.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.30]

And without that door, that is the only door of Vaikuṇṭha, to go through sādhu. Prahlāda Mahārāja in Bhāgavatam says, in two places:

Mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-'bhiṣekaṁ, niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.5.32]

Rahūgaṇaitat tapasā na yāti [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 5.12.12]

There was one king by the name of Rahūgaṇa. He went to see Kapiladeva in a palanquin, and the palanquin bearers, one was sick, and Jaḍa Bharata, Bharata Mahārāja – the King Bharata, when he had affection for a small deer at the time of his death he thought that, “If I die, the cub, ________ this deer will be devoured by some jackal or so,” and just at that time he died. And with that thought he died he got the body of a deer. Then he, as his previous penances he could maintain the memory of his previous life.

“I am so and so, in my previous life. But just at the time of death because I died with the memory of the deer cub so I got the birth of a deer.”

This memory he had. So he did not mix with other deer, and he kept him close to the āśrama of the rsis, and he used to hear the Vedic explanations and all these things, and used to take the (utistham? Remnants?), of the yajña. Then he became a brāhmaṇa, Bharata by name, and he could remember his past lives. And here also, for fear of mixing with others at the time of death if their memory again comes and determines his future birth he did not make any association with any of their environment. ___________________ [?] So he kept himself silent. He did not talk to anybody. Ordinary people used to think that he’s an idiot.

_____________________________________________ [?]

Once he was used to keep vigilant eye to their lands, so many crops, “You go and stand and try to drive away the crows and the birds and other beasts that come to damage the crops.”

He was standing there, and when one of the carriers of the palanquin of the king was sick, that man was taken from the roadside. And palanquin going on, and he’s particular not to disturb any animals on the way, so here and there ants and other insects are there and he does not put his foot on them so that they’ll be killed. And he was very strong also. So he’s not putting his steps regularly, and the palanquin is also moving up and down, this side, that side.

And the King told, “What’s the matter? Why don’t you carry smoothly my palanquin? So much jerking.”

“Oh! This new man, he’s responsible for this.”

Then to this Bharata Mahārāja, “Do you feel any pain on your shoulder, gentleman, new man. Do you feel pain for carrying me?”

Then he answered in another way. “Who carries whom? You are carrying me or I am carrying you?”

Then the King was puzzled. “What sort of answer comes from him? Physically he’s carrying, in other ways, by engaging, by taking his energy I’m getting debt to carry out. So this is not normal. He came down from the palanquin. “Are you that Kapiladeva whom I’m going to meet?

“No I’m not.”

“Who are you_____________________________________ [?]

And then Jaḍa Bharata came out with this:

rahūgaṇaitat tapasā na yāti, [na cejyayā nirvapaṇād gṛhād vā

na cchandasā naiva jalāgni-sūryair, vinā mahat-pāda-rajo-‘bhiṣekam]

[“O King Rahūgaṇa, the perfectional stage of devotional service, or the paramahaṁsa stage of life, cannot be attained unless one is blessed by the feet dust of the great devotees. It is never attained by austerity, Vedic worship, acceptance of the renounced order of life, the discharge of the duties of household life, the chanting of the Vedic hymns, or the performance of penances in the hot sun, within cold water or before the blazing fire.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 5.12.12]

“Which you are searching after, that cannot be had by all these methods. What are they? Tat tapasā, not by penance. Na yāti, nirvapaṇād, not by shaving one’s head, that is taking the sannyāsa āśrama. Gṛhād vā, or managing the household affairs strictly according to the direction of the Vedas. Na cchandasā, neither by continuing the study of the Vedas and scriptures. Naiva jalāgni-sūryair, or there are persons who make penances with the relation of Sun, the fire, or water, just as Vidyadeva did sometimes in winter, or to make, dived under water. Then sometimes when the yogīs on the fire at noon under the heat of the Sun, and also lighting fire around their body in some acute stage they try to maintain their attention towards the desired end, jalāgni-sūryair. Vinā mahat-pāda-rajo-‘bhiṣekam, only one gate, and that is the service of the mahat, the proper agent of the high. That is the only way.” This was said by Bharata.

And you know that in Kurukṣetra, in tanistha, Mahadeva’s tanistha, and Badra Kali is Devī there, tanistha there in, very near, close to Kurukṣetra, Badra Kali. And once the dacoits they wanted to sacrifice a human being and then go to dacoit, to plunder, so that the deity will be in favour of them and they’ll get, exploit much money, much wealth.

So Bharata was taken to that Badra Kali and to be sacrificed there. Bharata did not resist. He’s established in the absolute movement of the highest plane. “The will of Kṛṣṇa, He’s the Absolute. He’s seeing everything. And if He’s ordained then I shall have to face such death, so why should I resist.” In this way.

Then when they just, the dacoits just put the sword on his neck, then Badra Kali, she came out from her figure and snatched the sword and killed the dacoits and he was let lose.

___________________________________________________[?] rahūgaṇaitat tapasā.

And there is another in Prahlāda Mahārāja.

naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ, sprśaty anarthāpagamo yad-arthaḥ

mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-'bhiṣekaṁ, [niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat]

[Prahlāda Mahārāja states: “Unless they smear upon their bodies the dust of the lotus feet of a Vaiṣṇava completely freed from material contamination, persons very much inclined toward materialistic life cannot be attached to the lotus feet of the Lord, Who is glorified for His uncommon activities. Only by becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious and taking shelter at the lotus feet of the Lord in this way can one be freed from material contamination.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.5.32]

matir na kṛṣṇe parataḥ svato vā, mitho 'bhipadyeta gṛha-vratānām

[adānta-gobir viśatāṁ tamisraṁ, punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām]

[Prahlāda Mahārāja said: “Because of their uncontrolled senses, persons too addicted to materialistic life make progress toward hellish conditions and repeatedly chew that which has already been chewed. Their inclinations toward Kṛṣṇa are never aroused, either by the instructions of others, by their own efforts, or by a combination of both.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.5.30]

Our attention towards Kṛṣṇa it is very, very rare. Matir na kṛṣṇe parataḥ svato vā, how it can be effected - to take our mind, our attention, in the feet of Kṛṣṇa. It is a very, very difficult thing. It cannot be done by others, nor by one’s own self, even not by the combination of one’s own self and other outsiders. Matir na kṛṣṇe parataḥ, by the help of the public - other than one’s own self, parataḥ. Svato vā, or by dint of his own capacity, svato vā. Mitho 'bhi, or by the combination of the two – self and outsiders. Mitho 'bhipadyeta gṛha-vratānām, if they’re all classified under; they’re labouring under the jurisdiction of gṛha.

No grham grha nityam grhame ichate [?]

The house is not proper house, rather the wife is the house.

Grhini grhancha may [?]

Only for the thirst for a wife house is necessary, otherwise one can take rest in any place, in any veranda of any gentleman.

No grham grha nityam grhame ichate [?]

So if we think deeply then we see that grhime is grha proper. She makes us to live in a particular place or particular room for particular paraphernalia. Only our necessity for her that is responsible for our living in a house.

Those that have got such correlation with such centre of life they cannot evolve in any way to the Supreme Lord, gṛha-vratānām. Why? Adānta-gobir viśatāṁ tamisraṁ, punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām. Their fated movements cannot but be this, adānta-gobir, their guide is their senses, go means indriya, adānta-go, uncontrolled senses. Adānta-gobir viśatāṁ tamisraṁ, they are their guide, the senses, and they will enter more and more into the density of the darkness of ignorance, the exploitation and reaction. Viśatāṁ tamisraṁ, punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām. Just as the animals, the cows, they devour some food and again take it from the stomach to the mouth and again swallowed and again taken into the mouth again chewing, that is their way. There’s no end, always sometimes a little tyāga, sometimes a little more intense enjoyment. In this way, this side, that side, entangled with the food of the senses. This is their jurisdiction. Adānta-gobir viśatāṁ tamisraṁ, punaḥ punaś carvita-carvaṇānām.

na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ, durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ

[andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās, te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ]

[Prahlāda Mahārāja says: “Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or Guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Viṣṇu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labour, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold miseries.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 7.5.31]

These unfortunate people they can’t realise that the real svārtha, the real object of their satisfaction is in Viṣṇu ____________ [?] The all pervading spirit, that is their real important necessity, not any other thing. Then they may come, they make much of the cover and not the inner substance. Na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ, durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ. Those unfortunate souls they make much of the coating, the cover, and not the substance within the coating, they can’t hit.

na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ, durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ

andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās, te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ

Just as one blind man cannot guide another blind, andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās, te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ, so their fate is like that.

naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ, sprśaty anarthāpagamo yad-arthaḥ

[mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-'bhiṣekaṁ, niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat]

[Prahlāda Mahārāja states: “Unless they smear upon their bodies the dust of the lotus feet of a Vaiṣṇava completely freed from material contamination, persons very much inclined toward materialistic life cannot be attached to the lotus feet of the Lord, Who is glorified for His uncommon activities. Only by becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious and taking shelter at the lotus feet of the Lord in this way can one be freed from material contamination.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.5.32]

So long one’s mind can’t come in touch of the holy feet of Urukrama, of that wonderful stride, one of wonderful stride, cannot come to touch that holy feet, so long, naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ, sprśaty anarthāpagamo yad-arthaḥ, for which the removal of the undesirable element in him is necessary. Anartha, which is not necessary that is within him and as long as that part is not being removed he cannot come to the – near the feet of the Holy Lord. Naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ, sprśaty anarthāpagamo yad-arthaḥ, for which this is necessary, artha means necessary, to remove the undesirability in him, undesirable elements in him, anarthāpagamo yad-arthaḥ. Mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-'bhiṣekaṁ, niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat. And what is the positive thing required? Mahīyasāṁ pāda-rajo-'bhiṣekaṁ. As long as he does not come to the holy feet to take bath in the water or the dust of a person of the holy feet of a divine person, pāda-rajo-'bhiṣekaṁ, niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat, he cannot meet his guide, surrender himself to the feet of a real agent of the Lord. That is the only way to enter into Vaikuṇṭha.

So to get guidance, to secure guidance of a person who is living cent per cent life of devotee, and from him the – whatever order will come, only that, and to gather Vaikuṇṭha energy into him and to do away with his previous acquired energy from the mundane world, to destroy that, this is the only process to go into the higher realm. So leaving that chance, that disconnecting the order of his – disregarding the order of Guru which the direction through him is so valuable, neglecting that he’s going, this stereotype fashion of tīrtha when travelling into here and there, that may be satya guṇa, not very intensely filthy, but that has got no connection with the Vaikuṇṭha vastu. That is for the lower, for the, one who comes to learn a language, ABCD, something like that tīrtha varṇam. But neglecting the guidance of the professors and teachers to go on in such excursion, that is punishable. I had some sort of awakening of search from that event and gradually I found that it is such. It is really valuable thing to engage one’s own self under the direction of a man who has got no other motive but wholesale converted into the Kṛṣṇa consciousness, cause of Kṛṣṇa, service of Kṛṣṇa. That is very rarely to be found, and to disconnect that, or to slacken that, that is misfortune for the person.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. So practically we find that under the direction of a Vaiṣṇava to go on with our activities disassociating ourselves with our own propensity, internal or external, so long acquired by us of unlimited type. Birth and death, birth and death, we have gathered prejudice and colour from this mundane, subtle or gross, it is very difficult to get out of that. Only by indenting fresh and divine energy within us that we can drive them____________________ [?] No other way. By coming in connection with the positive we can get out of the negative. And by entangling or by dealing with the negative side in many various ways we cannot get out of the negative. We may deal with the negative side in various ways, but that won’t give us any escape. Only the connection of the positive can get us out of the entanglement of negativity. This is told by the whole of the Vaiṣṇava śāstra. So,

tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta, jijñāsuḥ śreyaḥ uttamam

śabde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ, brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam

[“Therefore any person who seriously desires real happiness must seek a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of the bona fide Guru is that he has realised the conclusions of the scriptures by deliberation and is able to convince others of those conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, should be understood to be bona fide spiritual masters.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.3.21]

Tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet, and not to go for the purpose of trade, to give and take, ābhigacchet. Finally you’ll go there for final, and not to come back. With this idea you must go to Guru to be effective in his campaign. So, gurum evābhigacchet, samit paniḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma niṣṭham.

[tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet, samit paniḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma niṣṭham]

[“One who wants scientific knowledge about the Supreme Truth must approach a bona fide Guru and offer him everything required for sacrifice. The Guru must be fixed in the truth, having heard it from a genuine source.”] [Mundaka-Upaniṣad, 1.2.12]

And not a Guru in the fashion of the day. But he has got his quality as given in the śāstra, śrotriya, must have knowledge of the śāstra as well as he must be established in both practice and knowledge, both, śrotriyaṁ brahma niṣṭham. He must have his own conduct, his own practice, what he says, what he preaches, śrotriyaṁ brahma niṣṭham. And in Gītā also:

tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā

upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ, jñāninas tattva darśinaḥ

[“You will be able to attain all this knowledge by satisfying the enlightened spiritual master with prostrate obeisances, relevant enquiry, and sincere service. Great souls who are most expert in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will teach you that divine knowledge.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.34]

That jñānī and tattva darśi, he has felt and he knows and he has got feeling – direct touch of the same thing. To such person we must go and surrender, not to come back again, with this idea. Then gradually we shall be taken in the transcendental realm. There we can live. Yad gatvā na nivartante, tad dhāma paramaṁ mama.

[na tad bhāsayate sūryo, na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ

yad gatvā na nivartante, tad dhāma paramaṁ mama]

[“My supreme holy abode is that place which the surrendered souls reach, never to return again to this deathly plane. Upon going there, one never returns to this material world. Neither sun, nor moon, nor fire - nothing can illuminate that all illuminating supreme abode.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 15.6]

“And very beautiful and worth living is My dhāma, My domain, My abode is very healthy and beautiful and sweet, to live there. And none can come back from such place. None have got any desire to back out if once they can enter into My abode. It is so beautiful, so sweet and so pleasing, from all directions.”

That is theory of the theory, imagination of the imagination. Who will go for this wild goose chasing in these days of scientific realistic view? Ha, ha, ha, ha. Only the mad!

āmi - eka bātula, tumi - dvitīya bātula, ataeva tomāya āmāya ha-i sama-tula

[Mahāprabhu said to Rāmānanda Rāya: “I am insane, mad, bāula - pāgala - eccentric. I am one eccentric, and you are another. Therefore, we two are of the same class.”] [Caitanya- caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.291]

“I am mad and you are also mad, so we are getting on with this transaction.”

Otherwise so many conscientious, so many judicious people, they’re living in the world of reality, and going to the Moon, and taking news from the Sun, and so many planets, Saturn etc, and so boastful there. Who will care, “Where is God?”

The Yuri Gagarin, the first man from Russia who went into the sky, space, beyond the attraction of the earth, and when he came down one old woman asked him, “My son, you went so, so high. Have you seen God there?” According to her saṁskāra, her mental tendency, she asked like that. “You went so high, so high, you must have seen God there.”

Then Gagarin answered, replied, “God is the horse that draws our carriages here.” That was his answer, the Gagarin’s answer. “The Bhagavān – the God, the force of your imagination, we find here that that His force is only drawing our carriages.”

That was his answer. I got it from the paper. So atheistic is the present age of this ugra scrutiny, they’re boasting, but, aliti patanai jo mati pichai [?]

But death is standing there firm and devouring everything. And also which they can’t refuse that, “Not only I shall devour you, but your Sun, Moon, your Earth, everything I shall devour.” And they can’t, they’re silent there. They’re silenced by their threat, by the threat of the time, “That I will devour everything.” But yes, you will devour everything, we can’t deny. But the fools they won’t try to find out a plane within him which is free from the jaw of death. It is within. Just as eye, the mental eye, the eye of the reason, they’re different, so also the soul is there which is untangle able, which is free from the sting of this material mortal world. That element within and that is ourselves subject, but this won’t enter the brain of these fools.

And if slightly touched in any scientist, they’re also helpless, repents, “Why have I helped, I have given the atom bomb in the hands of so many demons?” Einstein repented. “I have, by my research I have given the atom bomb into the hands of these demons. God forbid.”

But what of that? Soul is immortal, Socrates he paid for that, simply he told that soul is immortal, that was his, that was against the religious conception of the time, so he had to give up his life. And Christ also...

End of 81.09.27.C_81.09.28.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.09.28.B_81.09.29.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sat saṅga. sādhu-saṅga Kṛṣṇa-Nāma. If we take the Name the serving attitude must be there. Serving means die to live, to throw ones own wholesale for the existence of that.

Mr. Gandhi, he risked his whole life in every point of his action, but he did not die. But his attitude was such, “Whatever I told, I am to maintain that.” The whole of his life was ___ something like that.

So we shall take the Name. What for? I am taking the Name of the Lord, what for? To get some name and fame of a sādhu, no! Kanak, kāminī, pratiṣṭhā, not for money, not to attract any women, never to attract the popularity. But I am ready to give, to sacrifice myself wholesale for whom I am searching, for whom I am taking the Name. With that much attitude we shall take the Name. It is not lip deep. But the whole life within the fist I shall give, for the satisfaction of whom I am searching. The whole of my energy, the whole I shall take the risk of my whole thing for the satisfaction of the Name. Now we must approach with this attitude. Whole thing is guaranteed. The pursuit, the attempt is backed by my whole energy, whole life, whole prospect, everything. With this attitude I shall have to search for a drop of Vaikuṇṭha nectar. Otherwise it is useless.

Die to live. Sacrifice, sevā. Sevā means death. Sevā means to give ones own self to a particular purpose. The sevā of Kṛṣṇa means this. This mal self, this mundane, this concocted self, it is very valuable? It is not valuable thing. You'll be saved. Try to be saved of your, this sham self you are in. This is not a very laudable thing. It is a mortal thing, and the depot of many reactions. So get rid of this centre, as soon as possible get out of it, and enter into the land of confidence and goodness and fairness and sweetness. Try to enter that. You must be sincere and wholesale. Your campaign must be wholesale not partial, taking one step ahead and three steps back, not such hesitation. Clear. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise you are a finite and you want to get the advantage of the infinite. No shame. You are very small and only a part of that small you will sacrifice and your aspiration, I shall get the whole. It’s a fun, a very good trend. It is not so easy.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi. Nitāi. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. So:

ataḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāmādi na bhaved grāhyam indriyaiḥ

[sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ]

[Therefore, the name, form, qualities, associates, and pastimes of Kṛṣṇa are beyond the realm of sense experience. When, however, a devotee engages the senses, beginning with the tongue, in the service of the Lord, Kṛṣṇa reveals Himself to the purified senses of that devotee.] [Bhakti- rasāmṛta-sindu, Purva-vibhaga, 2.234]

If only our superficial senses is engaged in Kṛṣṇa’s cultivation, this is nothing. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau svayam eva sphuraty adaḥ. That is not Name, that is only nāmākṣara bahiraya batu, [From Jagadānanda Paṇḍita’s Prema-vivarta] only mundane sound. Your tongue can produce mundane sound. That is not Kṛṣṇa. The Name to be Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa has to come down there. Don't be self deceptive, ‘that taking Name I am a great sādhu.’ It is not like that. Kṛṣṇa has to come down in the form of the sound on you. He is spiritual, He is transcendental. So sevonmukhe - your surrender, complete surrender towards Him will attract Him, and He'll graciously come down, come down to grace you, in the Name, in your arcana, when performing your duties. And in every step He will come. When you are wholly giving yourself in Him, then He will accept you. He will embrace you. He'll be within and without you.

Sarvatya krsne ute kali yanmar seva kita bai ja rakhita mor [?]

He’s everywhere, but those that can see Him only whose eyes are clear, not captured by any prejudice from selfish end or ordinary things. Not captivated by the prejudice. All prejudice cleared. Eye will directly see the highest power or highest principle underlying all, whatever things.

Sarvatya krsne ute kali yanmar sevā kita janma rakhita mor [?]

The tendencies for exploitation and renunciation so many units of that plane like so many dust has blinded our eyes and we can't see Him, can't see Him.

Karma karvasya karmini mayo jagat [?]

Those that are most lustful they find where is beautiful lady. They only reckon that. The world of their knowledge is revealed through ladies.

Bu pasyanti dana mayo jagat [?]

And greedy people they are always busy in their minds, “Oh, there is there is Bilva, there is Tata, who are the moneyed men, the Ford, and this in the world. They are only thinking about the moneyed men because they love wealth most. They are always engaged with the money people.

Dhira pasyanti narayana mayo jagat [?]

And those that are out of their outer influence, they’re liberated from other influences they'll find, “Oh, this is the kingdom of Nārāyaṇa, who is the support and who is the guardian of the whole of the world. We see His hand everywhere. Without His direction nothing can move. They may boast that I have got such power, I have got beauty, I have got wealth. All false. The real backing spirit is Nārāyaṇa, all pervading, all knowing principle, all good. This is temporary, the vision, the feeling aspect. Our prejudices of so many types captured us.

Gaura Haribol. So whatever process you do the most important tenor of our movement should be that if we want a guarantee that it should be for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa then the agent through him I am doing. It is his genuine character. It depends on that. If the agent, he is a false man then my whole energy is lost. But real agent then I must be gainer through him. Connecting through him if I connect with Vaikuṇṭha then my actions will be valued. Otherwise we may be the loser, aparādha. Nāma aparādha, sevā aparādha, arcana aparādha, so many aparādhas. It is also written in the scriptures. Service not properly done, then we are sure to commit some offences against the Deity, either satisfaction or giving some trouble.

Aradhana aparadhana apa krista [?] A hateful type of handling that holy process, aparādha. Nāma aparādha, sevā aparādha, it depends upon the satisfaction for whom we are doing. So we must be careful, must not be over confident in our previous acquisition. So much I have acquired. My progress is so much and I must not be satisfied ___________________ my self-certificate, I should not be satisfied with self certificate, success, satisfaction, certificate of my own.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Mahāprabhu Himself said, “I am taking the Name, I am showing so much feats, shedding so much tears, in the Name of Kṛṣṇa. But why? It is all false.”

na prema-gandho 'sti darāpi me harau, krandāmi saubhāgya-bharaṁ prakāśitum

[vaṁśī-vilāsy-ānana-lokanaṁ vinā, vibharmmi yat prāṇa-pataṅgakān vṛthā]

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said: “My dear friends, I have not the slightest tinge of love of Godhead within My heart. When you see Me crying in separation, I am just falsely exhibiting a demonstration of My great fortune. Indeed, not seeing the beautiful face of Kṛṣṇa playing His flute, I continue to live My life like an insect, without purpose.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya- līlā, 2.45]

“My shedding tears, that is only to show, to canvass others that, you see, I am such a great devotee.”

So much so, you are to disbelieve your own self that you are a devotee: and very careful, very, very careful. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Koṭiṣv api mahā-mune.

[muktānām api siddhānāṁ nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇa

sudurlabhaḥ praśāntātmā] koṭiṣv api mahā-mune

[“O great sage, among many millions who are liberated and perfect in knowledge of liberation, one may be a devotee of Lord Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa. Such devotees, who are fully peaceful, are extremely rare.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 6.14.5] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 19.150]

In any way, Kavirāja Goswāmī, Narottama Ṭhākura they also – “We see the whole world is absolved from the sin, but I am neglected, I am left, I am the exception. I am so low, I am so ill fated. I am rejected from such most benevolent infinite līlā, I am rejected. I could not utilise this great fortunate wave.”

This should be the real tendency of a real Vaiṣṇava who has come in real relativity with the infinite. Whenever finite as much as he comes in connection with the infinite his temperament cannot but be so. It is not imitation, imitation won’t do, the real feeling, cannot but be.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

“I am empty. I don’t get anything.” That will be the temperament. “I feel emptiness within me. I can’t get, my life is frustrated. My life is going to be frustrated. Neither I get a drop of the grace of the Lord and the world of course I have left, both sides gone. I have no alternative. Lord, if You don’t accept me, I am undone. Please make me the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant. Give a remotest connection to me. Graciously give some remotest connection of You. And don’t leave me my Lord. I can’t tolerate.”

The craving, the heart felt, heart rending prayer must come to the Vaiṣṇava for the Lord. Onlookers, they will find that he has got the peep of the fortune. The charm for the world outside fully eliminated from that person, from the heart, fully empty. And very near future that will be filled with the nectar of the grace of Kṛṣṇa.

bhukti-mukti-spṛhā yāvat, piśācī hṛdi varttate

[tāvad bhakti-sukhasyātra, katham abhyudayo bhavet]

[“How can the joy of holy devotion appear in the heart as long as it is haunted by the ghosts of desire for exploitation and renunciation?”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, Pūrvva, 2.22]

The desire for enjoyment and also for renunciation, mukti, no engagement, free liberation; they are compared with two ghosts, piśācī, two types of ghosts. So long how you can dare to expect that bhakti, real heart of Kṛṣṇa will descend in your heart? Those demons are there, and the noble lady of devotion, she will come to here, to sit on, lie on the same bench with these demons. How can you expect that? Have you freed yourself from all these nasty things that you dare to invite the lady of Kṛṣṇa bhakti to come here? Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Today, here I stop.

...

Devotee: Mahārāja, how important is vānaprastha?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kṛṣṇa bhajan is independent of any form of life. Mahāprabhu says:

nāhaṁ vipro na ca nara-patir nāpi vaiśyo na śūdro

nāhaṁ varṇī (brahmacārī) na ca gṛha-patir (gṛhastha)

no vana-stho (vānaprastha) yatir vā (neither sannyāsī, fourth āśrama)

kintu prodyan-nikhila-paramānanda-pūrṇāmṛtābdher

gopī-bharttuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ

[“I am not a priest, a king, a merchant, or a labourer (brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra); nor am I a student, a householder, a retired householder, or a mendicant (brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsī). I identify myself only as the servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Lord of the gopīs, who is the personification of the fully expanded (eternally self-revealing) nectarean ocean that brims with the totality of Divine Ecstasy.”] [Caitanya- caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 13.80]

eta saba chāḍi’ āra varṇāśrama-dharma / akiñcana hañā laya kṛṣṇaika-śaraṇa

[“Without hesitation, one should take exclusive shelter of Lord Kṛṣṇa with full confidence, giving up bad association and even neglecting the regulative principles of the four varṇas and four āśramas. That is to say, one should abandon all material attachment.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.93]

Very beginning, varṇāśrama dharma is just the beginning. Then gradually improvement and we are to go up to the absolute service of Kṛṣṇa, without consideration of any law or any form; only service, Kṛṣṇa saṅtoṣa.

yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi, [yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat / yat tapasyasi kaunteya, tat kuruṣva mad arpaṇam]

[“O son of Kuntī, whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you offer in charity, and whatever austere vows you may keep - do everything as an offering unto Me.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.27]

Whatever we’ll do, we think, we speak, everything should be for the service of Kṛṣṇa. That is the standard of devotion. And mere form, that may be favourable a little, not always. So the spirit, even crossing every formality what is required of us, our absolute attraction for the service, for the beauty. No law has got any status there. In the beginning they have got some sort of utility. But when a little advanced, we do not care for it, for anything. But only sādhu-saṅga, this adherence to the saint of similar type, a little better than me, guide, that rāga-bhajana, who are in that path, that divine love and attraction, that is the only way. That is the only thing which can guide us. Laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ, the only price is our laul, means our earnest desire, nothing else.

kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvitā matiḥ, kriyatāṁ yadi kuto 'pi labhyate

[tatra laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ, janma-koṭi-sukṛtair na labhyate]

[“Pure devotional service to Kṛṣṇa cannot be obtained by performing pious activities even for millions of births. It can be purchased only by paying one price: intense eagerness. Wherever it is available, one must purchase it immediately.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.70]

Rāmānanda Rāya says to Mahāprabhu, “Kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvitā matiḥ, kriyatāṁ yadi kuto 'pi labhyate, anywhere you find it but try to purchase with any price. What is that? The pure inclination towards the service of Kṛṣṇa, the innermost tendency to want Kṛṣṇa, to get Him, to have Him: the earnest desire to have Him, that desire; a point, a drop of that desire of the divine attraction anywhere you find it, try to purchase with any price. Kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvitā matiḥ, kriyatāṁ, you acquire it. Kuto 'pi labhyate, anywhere, it may be from a bad, or a brāhmaṇa, or anyone, does not matter about the form.”

kibā vipra, kibā nyāsī, śūdra kene naya, yei kṛṣṇa-tattva vettā sei guru haya.

[“Whether a person is a brāhmaṇa, a sannyāsī, or a śūdra, if he knows the science of Kṛṣṇa, he is to be accepted as Guru.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.127]

Wherever there is a drop of that love divine. Only try to get it. And what is the price? Earnest desire for it, no other price, only earnest desire, laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ. Only price is earnest desire. Mūlyam ekalaṁ, janma-koṭi-sukṛtair na labhyate. It is not to be purchased by any money, anything which is acquired by so many formal practices by crores of births. Substance is necessary and not the form. Form is; we can adore, only that much as it may connect me with that thing. That is not necessary, so:

sarva-dharmān parityajya, [mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo, mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ]

[“Totally abandoning all kinds of religion, surrender exclusively unto Me. I will liberate you from all kinds of sins, so do not despair.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]

“All phases of duty you perceive, perfect, give up. At once try to jump in Me, rsabdi, in the ocean of nectar. I’m the ocean of nectar. Try to jump.”

That is the direct teaching. So our addiction to this or that, the vānaprastha, the sannyāsa, and the gṛhastha, that very little value they have got for that. Earnest desire. Earnest desire: that is to be acquired anyhow. That is bhakti proper. Bhakti proper is this.

Otherwise the jñāna to know about Kṛṣṇa, just as Ramakrishna said that in the almanac there is written that this year so much rain is expected. So much rain will come this year. It is written in the almanac. But he says if we squeeze the almanac, does a drop of water ooze out of it?

So the śāstra is like that. Something like that. The śāstra says this, this, do this, do this, do this. That does not mean that the śāstra will give us. First the direction will be so much better, but we practice, we are to do, do actually. So helpless when one is by searching this method, that method. In practically come in connection with the service of a Vaiṣṇava, service, but where? Whom to serve? I can’t come in connection with Him direct. Whom I can serve? The Vigraha is there, then the śāstra, all these superficial. More real we find in Vaiṣṇava, in his heart. The Kṛṣṇa conception, the Kṛṣṇa as He is, knowledge or love whatever that may be, we find in living condition in the heart of a Vaiṣṇava which is regulating all his activity towards Him, towards His service. So there is animated more than the Vigraha, than the tīrtha, than the śāstra. Direct connection of Kṛṣṇa we find in the consciousness of a Vaiṣṇava. Where from he’s regulating all his activity, withdrawing him from the worldly attraction and guiding him towards some direction what is unknown and unknowable. Towards that direction he’s moving. He’s making him move in a particular direction what is not to be traced by any loss or gain of this world. What is that thing? What is that thing?

nāhaṁ tisthāmi vaikuṇṭhe yogināṁ hṛdayeṣu vā

mad bhaktāḥ yatra gāyante tatra tiṣṭhāmī nārada

[Kṛṣṇa says to Nārada Muni:] “I am there. I am even not in Vaikuṇṭha, even not in the heart of the yogīs. Tisthāmi vaikuṇṭhe yogināṁ hṛdayeṣu vā. But where My devotees are singing with pleasure about Me, I am owner, I am there.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 4.2.41 & 4.30.35, purports]

mac-cittā mad-gata prāṇā, bodhayantaḥ parasparam

kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ, tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca

[“My devotees mix together, talk about Me, and exchange thoughts that give consolation to their hearts. And they live as if this talk about Me is their food. It gives them a high kind of pleasure, and they find that when they talk about Me among themselves, they feel as if they are enjoying My presence.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 10.9]

In Rāmānuja sampradāya there is an incident, in one night three Āḷvārs, three devotees, parṣada devotees, descended their contemporary, in a temple for some occasion perhaps they have gone. But they do not know each other, know one another. In the darkness one talking, another also hearing, it is very sweet to him. Then the third also joined there. And they are talking but they do not know one another. Might have heard the name, that devotee, this devotee, this devotee but in dark night they have met, three met together, natha yogī, buddhi yogī, and someone. Then after talking between them, one questioned.

“We are three here, but do you feel the presence of a fourth person?”

“Yes, I feel the presence of a fourth one.”

Then it is meant, about whom they are talking, that the Lord is here.

“In our talking, in our conversation, He has come here and He’s hearing our talk. The fourth person has come here.”

So only attraction, pure spiritual attraction, nothing can be pleasing to one but Kṛṣṇa, Rādhārāṇī, the gopīs, all this. The very innermost part of the heart is taken possession by the thought of Kṛṣṇa and His group, and His līlā, His name, His paraphernalia. That is what is necessary.

man-manā bhava mad-bhakto, mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru

mam evaiṣyasi satyaṁ te, pratijāne priyo 'si me

[“Think of Me, serve Me, worship Me, offer your very self unto Me, and surely you will reach Me. Sincerely, this is My promise to you because you are My dear friend.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.65]

“You Arjuna, you are the most favourite devotee. I promise at least I won’t deceive you. You are My friend. I won’t deceive you at least. So I say clearly that I am everything, I am everything. I won’t deceive you My friend. Man-manā bhava, so always mind Me, mad-bhakto, be My devotee, serve Me, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto, mad-yājī, if you sacrifice anything, do it for Me. Mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru, or at least you may show respect to Me. Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto, mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru, mam evaiṣyasi, so you are sure to enter into Me, to come to Me, you may think it well, mam evaiṣyasi, Myself alone you will come to. Satyaṁ te - this is the truth, pratijāne - I promise you; priyo 'si me - you are My favourite. The truth is this - do everything for Me, attend Me, always think of Me and you are sure to come to Me.”

This is the plain truth. The thinking, the engagement, the life of engagement is attraction for You, attraction for Him, how to, where to get, how to secure it from the devotee. Superficially from the scripture, but substantially from the devotee. The influence, the catching, from the devotee, recording. Within their heart, within their endeavour, but all though, all pervading through all their activities, there is a particular attraction that is divine thing and I want that, the subtle of the subtle, the structure, the nerve structure within. That can move the bodily activities. That can help to do, the body to do its function, that inner energy in the devotee, what makes him to do it what we do not find in the world, no attraction for the sense pleasure, no attraction for fame, name, money etc., but something else. Kṛṣṇa. We must follow their path. So He says: Mad bhaktanam ca ye bhaktas, te me bhaktatama matah.

[ye me bhakta-janah partha, ne me bhaktas ca te janah]

mad bhaktanam ca ye bhaktas, te me bhaktatama matah

[“Those who worship Me directly are not real devotees; real devotees are those who are devoted to My devotees.”] [Ādi-Purāṇa] & [Laghu-Bhāgavatāmṛta, 2.6]

“Who comes to serve Me direct, they are not real devotee to Me. But who is really devotee of My devotee they are My real devotee.” What’s the meaning? “If you love me, love my dog. His love for Me is so intense that wherever you find any external connection of Me he engages himself fully there, fully there.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Bhakta sevā, Vaiṣṇava sevā, Bhāgavat sevā, Guru sevā, then Vigraha sevā, Nāma sevā, the Name. In Kali-yuga especially the service of the Name has been recommended in a general way. But it is mentioned:

sādhu saṅga kṛṣṇa nāma ei matta jai / [vaikuṇṭha nāma grahaṇam aśeṣāgham haraṁ vidun]

[“The Holy Name must be taken with the attitude of service to the saints. Serving means die to live; to throw oneself wholesale for the higher existence.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 6.2.14]

Sādhu saṅga, to climb up the real plane where we can take the Name proper - Vaikuṇṭha, vaikuṇṭha nāma grahaṇam aśeṣāgham haraṁ vidun. It is true that infinite magnitude of sin maybe removed by one Name, but that must be vaikuṇṭha nāma aśeṣāgham haraṁ. Unlimited sin may be dispersed, dismissed, but vaikuṇṭha nāma grahaṇam, that Name must have its characteristic of Vaikuṇṭha, that unlimited, eternal, plane of eternity.

...

Not only the physical sound. So sādhu-saṅga, Name must be taken from Gurudeva, and with the sādhu it should be chanted. Nāma saṅkīrtana, that is to preach the Name. To preach the Name, and what is the Name? The ten offences against the Name, and the four ābhāsa means something shadowy expression of the Name that should be eliminated and the real Name which is one and same with the Lord, that Name should be taken. Nāma bhajana that is a sādhana, means kīrtana, going on, the greatness, the magnanimity of the Name. Name Himself is so charming. Name is the Lord Himself. In this way you go on. Nāma kīrtana. And thereby we can be saved from the external contamination of the forces of the world of karma and jñāna, exploitation and renunciation, the bhukti mukti spṛhā - two kinds of great enemy to devotion, the tendency to exploit and the tendency to renounce, the opposite. A third thing is necessary and that is constructive. And that is full in itself, perfect. Neither these two, the negative and the renunciation of the negative, that cannot be a real positive. Positive is not mere withdrawal from the negative side. That is not positive. Positive has got its own characteristics. So we must come in connection with the positive. Positive, sat-cit-ānanda, satyam, śivam, sundaram. We must connect ourselves in all phases, whatever is possible for us. That is vānaprastha.

gṛhe vā vanete thāke, 'hā gaurāṅga' bo'le ḍāke narottamo māge tāra saṅga

[Songs Of The Vaisnavas Acaryas, p 75-80]

It does not matter much whether one is a householder, or one is a sannyāsī. It does not matter much. But how much he has intensely engaged himself in the service of the Lord: that is to be seen. Even a gṛhastha he may be above sannyāsī. During the time of Mahāprabhu so many gṛhastha devotees were also there but gaura may, tan may, that is a form. But the real spirit is all Gaurāṅga, something.

We found in our young days when joined the non cooperation movement of Gandhi, there are so many volunteers who have left everything, but when police raid is coming they are flying for fear of their life. But we found gṛhastha like C.R. Dasa, and others, with all the whole of their families they are giving resistance to the police attack. He’s a gṛhastha. He sends his only one son to the prison. His daughter, his sister and his wife, all gone to police custody. And Gandhi - ‘I envy your situation.’ But he was a gṛhastha. He was living with all. But when in working out the program he’s not less than one who has left everything and dedicated wholly to the cause. He’s afraid, but a family man is not afraid, not getting back. So service is necessary. In whatever position he may be, does not matter much. So the gṛhastha he’s in that posing, but when necessity will come he will sacrifice the whole for Kṛṣṇa.

There is Haris Chandra. In his plane he was a king but for the truth as he could conceive he left everything, everything, for the cause he loved. So wholesale dedication, preparedness for the dedication of the whole, it does not matter in what posing he is living there. The internal hankering, the fire within, the dedication within, that is necessary. May not be found in a sannyāsī, but may be found in a gṛhastha, or vānaprastha, brahmacārī, anyone. The substance we want and not the form much. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya.

The fire within, agor, the fire burning for the separation of Kṛṣṇa...

End of 81.09.28.B_81.09.29.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.09.29.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...can’t sleep, can’t take food, in this way, so intense, the separation is so intense. Dead of night He’s trying to get out of the house, all closed. How He jumped unconsciously the walls of the house and He came and fell in the front of the temple, Jagannātha temple, and fainted. What degree of separation? It is not possible for us to conceive what degree of separation, feeling was there. Sometimes rubbing His face against the wall, can’t get out of the door.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Rādhārāṇī, Her separation with Kṛṣṇa. Her separation:

Acinam nayanam bhavanda sukrtam tapasya ksayatu _______________________________ [?]

Some sakhī is representing the separation pain of Rādhārāṇī to Kṛṣṇa in Mathurā. In this way, acinam nayanam bhava [?]

“Previously continued flow of tears we found in Her, in Rādhārāṇī for Your separation, Kṛṣṇa, continuous flow, no gap. But now it is not found in Her. Anyhow She had managed to distribute to Her friends. They are weeping like anything. But it is not to be found, not to be traced in Her any longer.”

nayanam bhavanda tapasya ksayatu [?]

“And She got some temperature in Her body but now that is gone. That is transferred to Her inmates, sakhīs, friends She has__________________ [?]”

Danyam nasta nasesa tattva purijane [?]

“And His attendants they are now saying many things. What is our ill fate? We are to see all these afflictions, all these things. Undesirable talks of mourning is found amongst Her attendants. It was in Her previously but then She has managed to leave them in Her now.”

Cinta guru bopita [?]

“She had also deep thought, what will be about His fate and Kṛṣṇa will never come, He’s doing there, so many thoughts within Her we found, but no trace. That is Her superiors are burdened with that cinta. Oh! That the girl won’t live. She will pass away very soon. What will be the fate of this Braja? If she passes away Kṛṣṇa won’t come here again. This sort of thought has been distributed to Her superiors.”

Badya sa kidoney vrati braja te sa sarsay baram kidyate [?]

“Only little what is remaining in Her we see that is a hard breath in Her, bleeding heart. And only day or two and that will also disappear. Now, you remain happy here for your misdeed. Your misdeed is the cause of all these things, but She has managed to relieve You. No complaint will come against You any more. Silently She’s passing away, keeping You safe. You remain and enjoy with Your own, and She is silently passing away.” Her pangs, pains of separation, Rādhārāṇī.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya. Dayal Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Rāma. Hare Rāma. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ, smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam

arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ, sakhyam ātma-nivedanam.

iti puṁsārpitā viṣṇau, bhaktiś cen nava-lakṣaṇā

kriyeta bhagavaty addhā tan manye ’dhītam uttamam

[“Hearing about Kṛṣṇa, chanting Kṛṣṇa’s glories, remembering Kṛṣṇa, serving Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet, worshipping Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental form, offering prayers to Kṛṣṇa, becoming Kṛṣṇa’s servant, considering Kṛṣṇa as one’s best friend, and surrendering everything to Kṛṣṇa - these nine processes are accepted as pure devotional service.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.5.23-24]

Prahlāda was requested by his father, “Please tell me what progress you are making in your Gurukula study. What have you learned to be the best?”

Prahlāda answered. “I think the best study is this, to know, the best knowledge is this; that to hear, to chant, to serve, all these to Viṣṇu, that is the highest utility of the time of everyone in this world.”

tat sādhu manye ’sura-varya dehināṁ, [sadā samudvigna-dhiyām asad-grahāt

hitvātma-pātaṁ gṛham andha-kūpaṁ, vanaṁ gato yad dharim āśrayeta]

[Prahlāda Mahārāja replied: “O best of the āsuras, King of the demons, as far as I have learned from my spiritual master, any person who has accepted a temporary body and temporary household life is certainly embarrassed by anxiety because of having fallen in a dark well where there is no water but only suffering. One should give up this position and go to the forest (vana). More clearly, one should go to Vṛndāvana, where only Kṛṣṇa consciousness is prevalent, and should thus take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.5.5]

“That I considered. This I have learned.”

And the trouble began from there.

“Yes, Viṣṇu is my enemy eternally. And who has taught you that to cultivate love of Him in different ways that is the best understanding of human life?”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. The torture began. So we should also be prepared for that torture. Torture, that will increase our enthusiasm in indirect way. Anything may come. Anything may come. Go on. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. But where is that to be found, that impetus? That intense tendency to serve Kṛṣṇa is very rarely to be found. Nowhere! Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Nitāi. Unknown and unknowable, in this way transcendental.

Aurobindo says supramental. ________ [?] Began to construct the figure of Śiva, Mahādeva. But the product we see that he has constructed a figure of a monkey instead of Mahādeva.

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has said that, “India is the best place in the world. Within India Bengal is the best. Then in Bengal, Navadwīpa is the highest.”

And Aurobindo also has imitated him. Aurobindo says, “India is the best in the world. And Bengal of course is the best amongst the place in India, and the Hoogly district is the best in Bengal.”

Then I thought, why he selected this Hoogly? Eliminating Navadwīpa why he selects Hoogly? Then I remembered, recollected the birthplace of Raja Rāma Mohan Rāya the founder of Dāmodara Maṭha. I thought, oh, only for that he has selected Hoogly to be the best, Hoogly district, best in the world, because the birthplace of Raja Rāma Mohan Rāya.

C.R das [?] made a good cabin to Rāma Mohan Rāya as well as Rabindranatha, C.R das [?] His father was a Brahmo but he returned to Hinduism and he told his friends, “If you write something about me then please describe me as a servant of a Vaiṣṇava.” That was his temperament. Good man, sincere man. But not a Vaiṣṇava of the gosha, pure type, but ordinary type, some respect for Vaiṣṇava.

And Bipin Pal was revolutionary, extremist, and the first in the violence. He could not accommodate with Gandhi movement but he was closely connected with C.R. dāsa. And C.R. dāsa he published a paper admiring name Nārāyaṇa. And Bipin Pal was engaged as the editor of that Nārāyaṇa Patrikā. When as college student we read that Nārāyaṇa Patrikā, we found Bipin Pal’s explanation of Bhagavad-gītā etc. And Bipin Pal gave a lecture in the viraha meeting in University Hall Calcutta. There he mentioned that, “Śrī Kṛṣṇa Saṁhitā made by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has taken my faith back in Vaiṣṇavism, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Saṁhitā, when I read Śrī Kṛṣṇa Saṁhitā.” He was pure Brahmo type, “but that Śrī Kṛṣṇa Saṁhitā has created faith in Vaiṣṇavism. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s book Śrī Kṛṣṇa Saṁhitā. I came back to Vaiṣṇavism.”

That was the lecture of Bipin Pal. We appreciate that, that he had appreciation for Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s writing, to certain extent, anyhow.

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s spiritual conception, a very scientific as well as deep, and simple and fervent, accurate, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, modernised, so many things we find in the writings of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, Kṛṣṇa Saṁhitā, that was written after Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura retired, after his retirement?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That I can’t say. Śrī Kṛṣṇa Saṁhitā. May not be, I don’t know exact, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Saṁhitā. What conception, the high type of realised conception Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has given to us, we should not conceive him that this knowledge is acquired by him in his present life. Though it may seem from the ordinary events of life, but that we shall take that this is the natural growth of the jñāna sunya bhakti. A fashion, that is a fashion that in Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in the childhood he had some other tendency, this, that, he married twice, all these things, that should not stand in the way of his being the eternal servitor of the Lord. That is, as a fashion that has been. Otherwise such intensity and such depth of the feeling cannot come abruptly. So Prabhupāda has seen him as the facsimile of Gadādhara Paṇḍita. Gaura Kiśora, Svarūpa Dāmodara, and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura as Gadādhara. So graphic, spacious, all comprehensive and deep knowledge and experience has been given by him, is impossible. At least śaktyāveśa; that means inspired, the inspiration of that type, that quarter.

Nitāi Gaura-Gadādhara. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

...

amūny adhanyāni dināntarāṇi, hare tvad ālokanam antareṇa

anātha-bandho karuṇaika-sindho, hā hanta hā hanta kathaṁ nayāmi

[Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura says: "O Hari, O guardian of the shelter-less, O one and only ocean of mercy, how will I pass my unblessed days and nights without a glimpse of You?"]

[Kṛṣṇa-Karṇāmṛtam, 41] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 2.58]

Bilvamaṅgala says, “How can I pass these barren days my Lord?

______________________________________________________ [?]

Adhanyāni dināntarāṇi, hare tvad ālokanam. “Without Hari, without having a peep of Your vision I can’t stand, adhanyāni dināntarāṇi, these unfortunate days it is very difficult for me to pass. Adhanyāni dināntarāṇi, hare tvad ālokanam antareṇa, anātha-bandho karuṇaika-sindho. But You are friend to the helpless and You are ocean of kindness, grace. Karuṇaika-sindho, hā hanta hā hanta kathaṁ nayāmi. Consider how I can pass my days my Lord without You.” Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

The normal temperament of a normal person will be here, such. This should be the stage of a normal person here. Separation of course, that is encouraging. That will be encouraging if we find such person always feeling separation of the Lord. Anything else, that should be considered abnormal and dangerous, abnormal and dangerous.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, sometimes when you talk about the absolute and relative consideration you say that the relative consideration must be there, but one must not become influenced by the environment.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The environment of the mundane world. That does not mean that we won’t seek any environment of the spiritual realm. In the spiritual plane the environment contributes much.

Even Rādhārāṇī She says that only Kṛṣṇa cannot satisfy Her without the environment, “So I don’t want such Kṛṣṇa.”

The devotees of Rādhārāṇī they say, “Only Kṛṣṇa, that is nothing to us if we do not find Rādhārāṇī on His side.”

So environment has a great contribution. And there everything, every unit of environment will help me to promote my attention towards Kṛṣṇa. That is all desirable, that is very desirable. But here just the opposite, the perverted reflection, the environment takes to take me away from Kṛṣṇa here in this plane. This is the opposite. This is perverted reflection. Environment always tries to take us out of Kṛṣṇa. And there, all pushing me towards Kṛṣṇa, so environment is healthy there. But here just the opposite; in the plane of exploitation and renunciation.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Here saṅga means asat-saṅga and there sādhu-saṅga means promoting towards my cause. And here taking me away from the cause, saṅga, asat-saṅga - just the opposite here. Perverted reflection, reflection of the above but perverted.

Gaurasundar. Gaurasundar. Gaurasundar. Gaurasundar.

So must not be maladjusted. The expression should be properly adjusted.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya Dayal.

asat saṅga tyāga - ei vaiṣṇava ācāra / [śtrī saṅgī - eka asādhu, ‘kṛṣṇābhakta’ āra]

[“A Vaiṣṇava should always avoid the association of ordinary people. Common people are very much materially attached, especially to women (and women to men). Vaiṣṇavas should also avoid the company of those who are not devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.87]

The practice of a student of Vaiṣṇava School is only one. What is that? Asat saṅga tyāga, to renounce environment. That does not mean that the sādhu is also eliminated if he’s found. Śtrī saṅgī - eka asādhu, ‘kṛṣṇābhakta’ āra. Two types of ācāra; one is śtrī saṅgī, that is saṅgī that are attached for sensual pleasure, and another, kṛṣṇābhakta, who has not attraction for Kṛṣṇa but engaged in any other errand. Bhukti kāmī, siddhi kāmī, devata kāmī, all these who are not devotee of Kṛṣṇa, that is to be eliminated. This is the only practice. We shall be careful about our practice, the caution against these two, that is the sense pleasure and also those that have no inclination towards Kṛṣṇa. He may be a scholar, may be a yogī, may be a tyāgi, all these things, but not a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, they should be eliminated.

Anyābhilāṣa, karma, jñāna, fleeting desire, organised desire and jñāna means who are busy to know Kṛṣṇa, to finish Kṛṣṇa, busy to measure Kṛṣṇa. Jñāna always wants to measure Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa or environment, they may not say the word Kṛṣṇa, but measure the environment jñāna, to know, to be master of the acquaintance of everything. That is jñāna, the false errand, that I shall be the subject and everything should be the object of my knowledge. The wild goose chasing, impossible, to run after phantasmagoria, in the expression of our Guru Mahārāja, to run after phantasmagoria. Will o the wisp, phantasmagoria, will o the wisp, and there is another expression for that. It is impossible to be master of everything, to know everything. Only one knows everything, there is only one.

[bahūni me vyatītāni, janmāni tava cārjuna]

tāny ahaṁ veda sarvāṇi, na tvaṁ vettha parantapa

[The Supreme Lord said: “O Arjuna, chastiser of the enemy, both you and I have passed through many births previously. Due to My position as the supreme controller, I am able to remember all those births, whereas you, a living being of finite consciousness, cannot.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.5]

It is not your business to know everything by constitutional position. It will be your folly if you to attempt to know everything, bring everything within your consciousness. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya.

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva, [jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir, ye prāyaśo ’jita jito ’py asi tais tri-lokyām]

[Lord Brahmā said to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa: "Oh Lord, Oh Unconquerable One, those devotees who, completely giving up all attempts on the path of jñāna of attaining the non-differentiated platform known as Brahma by hearing the transcendental narratives of Your pastimes (kathā), which emanates from the lotus mouths of the mahā-bhāgavat sādhus and pass their lives by engaging their body, mind and words in pure devotion, easily conquer You (they easily get Your transcendental association), although You are the most difficult to attain in the three worlds."] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.14.3]

____________________________________________________ [? ...which expresses hatefulness, and ________ far away, two adjectives given for dismissal of the knowledge. Namanta eva, through faith only to submit, through submission, with the nature of submission.

tṛṇād api sunīcena, taror api sahiṣṇunā, amāninā mānadena, [kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ]

[“One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more forbearing than a tree, who gives due honour to others without desiring it for himself is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa.”] [Śikṣāṣṭakam, 3]

It is very difficult to conquer ones fame here, above faith, prestige, it is very difficult, pratiṣṭhā, position, love of position. Easily this attraction for the females, attraction for the money, that can be easily dismissed. But hankering for ones own position, to give up that, that is the very difficult thing, the prestige, the position: that is innermost enemy. And you cannot offer him so long the service of the Vaiṣṇava.

“Yes I may accept somewhat, hesitate in the service of God at least, but the service of the Vaiṣṇava, that is to ________ to come to such a lower settlement. To become a servant of a Vaiṣṇava that would be the be all and end all of my life? I can’t accept that idea, can’t accept that idea. I may accept service under the Supreme Lord anyhow I may manage. But to become a servant of the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant, what is this? A fun? Should a man stoop so low as to become the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant, what is this?”

Gaura Haribol. Pratiṣṭhā, position, prestige, the consciousness of prestige and position, the greatest enemy. Rādhā-dāsyam, slave, to embrace the idea of a slave, ludicrous thing, that can be an ideal of the hope to become a slave, to classify oneself in the position of a slave, to Kṛṣṇa. And this does not end there. Become a slave of the slave of the slave of the slave. This is most ludicrous thing. Gaura Haribol.

“Let them accept this mean settlement. I won’t. So ’ham. I am biggest of the big. I am biggest of the big. I am he, so’ham. Śivo’ham, I’m the master of māyā. Śivo’ ham, the master of māyā.”

Once Jawaharlal [Nehru], I saw in paper, went to Haridwar and found a sādhu coming, approaching. And the sādhu told, namaste śiva namaste, no śivaya. And Jawaharlal also pronounced namah śivaya. Both of them are Śiva, master of Pārvatī, Durgā, Māyā, both of them are master of māyā, śiva. Namaste, namah śivaya.

Devotee: _________________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________________________________________ [?]

Transcending mortality, that is maṅgalam. _______________________________________ [?]

Devotee: _________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: A good fellow, good in comparison with the world of mortality, the first reach, or the first place beyond the limit of mortality, that is ________ Mahādeva, Śiva, all these things. But then Sadāśiva, from Śiva we have to pass to sundaram, the land of sundaram. This is only Śiva, śreyaḥ-kairava-candrikā [Śikṣāṣṭakam, 1], because out of mortality. This present enemy is devouring, śiva, the middle position, maṅgalam. But what is maṅgalam? That is not differentiated in its full characteristic there, only out of danger. Then, to be out of danger does not mean that it is in the highest safe position. Not only safe but engaged in the most desirable thing, relative, śiva.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Caitanya Dayal. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Devotee: ________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Once one of my God-brother was, one Kumar Sudendra Nārāyaṇa Rāya, M.A., Pragu [?] Pragu title was given to him by Punjab University. He was a rich man, annual income was, net income was three lākhs, zamīndār of Darmpur [?]. He took Hari Nāma from Guru Mahārāja. Once Guru Mahārāja went to Ceylon, upper side, and that gentleman already he also went there but _________ When Guru Mahārāja was passing with his inmates in a car, of course the rainy season there, the mud, and the Sudendra Nārāyaṇa Rāya he was out for a walk and he met on the wayside Guru Mahārāja and he at once fell flat in the road in the mud.

Then the inmates of the motor car of Prabhupāda they told, “What do you do in the mud, the hole?” He has got rich dress, this shawl and other rich dress, “and you fall flat smeared with mud, what do you do?”

He told, “Only we have only one thing, to make prostration, praṇāma to the Vaiṣṇava, we can’t do anything else. But there I shall be miser? Only praṇāma is our wealth, everything. And there if I shall be miserly and quarrel what will be my fate, so praṇāma, namanta eva, that is our only resort.”

...

When Mahāprabhu had a talk with one Mathurā brāhmaṇa, Raghupati Upādhyāya, on His way back from Mathurā, Raghupati Upādhyāya, perhaps in Allahabad or so, in their talk, one śloka we find there, śyāma eva param rūpaṁ.

“What is the highest conception of the figure?”

Then the answer was, “Śyāma, śyāma eva param rūpaṁ.”

“And what is the highest place of His worship?”

Purī madhu-purī varā, “Mathurā maṇḍala is the highest place where to worship Him.”

Vayaḥ kaiśorakaṁ dhyeyam, “What is His age we should, will be befitting for our service?”

“Kaiśora: that new youth.”

Ādya eva paro rasaḥ, “In what sort of rasa we shall try to serve Him?”

“That is ādya, in mādhurya rasa.”

śyāma eva param rūpaṁ, purī madhu-purī varā

vayaḥ kaiśorakaṁ dhyeyam, ādya eva paro rasaḥ

[“The form of Śyāmasundara is the supreme form, the city of Mathurā is the supreme abode, Lord Kṛṣṇa’s fresh youth should always be meditated upon, and the mellow of conjugal love is the supreme mellow.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 19.106] [From Padyavali, 82]

Mahāprabhu said that, “You have taught me a good lesson, kaiśora, the new youth of Kṛṣṇa.”

Nitya kaiśori nitya kasyiti [?] We are not going to worship old Kṛṣṇa, of Mathurā or Dvārakā. We are fond of worshipping Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana, a new youthful life, kaiśorakaṁ dhyeyam. And kaiśori, all His companions are also of new, new youth. That is the highest point of beauty. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is new youth, kaiśori, only the idea of eternity is akin to that conception, nava-yauvana, everywhere, in māyā also. What is eternal, the idea is like that, nava-yauvana sankar, new youth, progressing, not full-blown, blossoming.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Mahāprabhu Gaurāṅga Hari. Gaurāṅga Sundara.

We should not be afraid of our youth, but we should adore our youth, but that will not be engaged in pleasure seeking, but supplying pleasure to the Lord. Utilisation not renunciation our end, utilisation of the highest good, so energy in its fullest command we want to have. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. All youthful in Vṛndāvana, youthful, but well planned, well managed, and well aimed. Well idealed. Where to do it? Fading, a dying thing, never, worshipper of full energy, to the extreme, but it is absolute good.

Our Guru Mahārāja told there is one proverb: Aparay guru sedi me dukhi se dolay [?]

When a cow or a bullock he is out of hut, when it is in fire, the cow shed is in fire and the cow has come out, out of fear of the fire, seeing that red colour there. And when the cow sees that a red cloud is in the sky, she’s afraid. “Oh! Perhaps that is fire. It will come to attack me, to burn me.”

So he told the māyāvādīs are suffering from that disease. That red cloud: that is fire. So energy, opulence, they are afraid of, the renunciation. Wherever there is opulence, there is youth, there is beauty, they are much afraid, because they are the worshipper of the negative side. They are afraid. If they go to enjoy, then the reaction will come and kill him. But Vaiṣṇava they know the utilisation of everything for the service of the Lord. So they are not afraid of anything good. All good, all beauty, all attractive, have everything and they will be...

End of 81.09.29.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.09.29.B_81.10.02.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...the memory of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Himself is master here. So everything must not attract us, but attract us for the service of Kṛṣṇa. In this way we must be adjusted with the environment. That is necessary. Not to eliminate beautiful, not to eliminate anything which is good in our consideration, but from the bottom of the heart the foreign element of exploitation and renunciation will vanish, and the innate tendency will be awakened to utilise anything and everything for the service of Kṛṣṇa.

vana dekhi’ bhrama haya – ei ‘vṛndāvana’ / śaila dekhi’ mane haya – ei ‘govardhana’

[When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu passed through the Jhārikhaṇḍa forest, He took it for granted that it was Vṛndāvana. When He passed over the hills, He took it for granted that they were Govardhana.] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 17.55]

Wherever a mountain, “Oh, Govardhana.” Wherever a jungle, “Oh, this is Vṛndāvana.” Excites Him. That is what is necessary. Everything will remind me, excite me in the service of my Lord. Viśvam purna sukhāyate. The whole world will be of the highest pleasure to us when we shall get such adjustment in our soul’s position, such adjustment; no reaction.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi.

No elimination. Religion is proper adjustment. Our Prabhupāda always used to say this word. We are maladjusted. We want to be properly adjusted. That is what is necessary. Not to renounce anything and everything. That is not the solution. Adjustment is solution. It is created for nothing? It is not, it is created for fulfilment. Only maladjusted we are, so we suffer. But we are properly svarūpena vyavaṣthiḥ, Śrīmad-Bhāgavata’s [2.10.6] definition of the answer of mukti, muktir hitvānyathā rūpaṁ, to give up what is otherwise with us, like a disease, foreign thing has come, muktir hitvānyathā rūpaṁ svarūpena vyavaṣthiḥ. Hegel’s theory, self determination, mukti means self determination. What is my proper location in this world, to get that, that is mukti, svarūpena vyavaṣthiḥ, firmly settled in my proper...

...undesirable forces of nature and to move freely without caring for anything else, that is artificial. There are so many like me. There must be some relation, mutual relation, and that is something which will represent the whole, what will be my relation with that whole, absolute whole. I am a part. That is all their silenced, the salvationist school are silent there. After mukti so many, what will be the relation between those mukta souls, and what will be their relation with the absolute environment? There they are silent. So it is not final solution, mukti. Final solution we must have to be our position in the relation of the absolute whole. Then it will be final. We cannot divorce us from the absolute whole around us. We must have some position in relation to the Absolute. That must be founded and subtle understanding and it must have some position in relation. Self determination, we cannot eliminate the environment. The Absolute, that means Lord, God.

In reality the slavery to the Absolute, that it should be our real position. Otherwise we are not so meagre, we cannot come to such a helpless position. We are connected with the Absolute. We can’t deny that. At the same time our position is not very desirable, then we cannot come under such unfavourable environment forces. So if I get a post of a slave there, that will be the maximum for us. And there I can enjoy. My maximum fated enjoyment I can get there only. Not very big, then why should I be here? If I was a big position then why should I be here? And so many insects, so many worms, so many in the creation, they’re all absolute, so many absolute, so many infinite? Ludicrous! All right, today I want to leave it here.

...

Proper meaning of the sound, of the word, that is necessary, the substance, the spirit. Only the physical aspect is represented there in nāmāparādha, but not the real Name. That is all spiritual. So this was misunderstood as nāmākatari ?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh! Nāmākṣara bahiraya comes out, bahiraya comes out, nāmākṣara, the letters in the Name, the sound of the letters in the Name, but nāma kabu naya, it is never the Name real. It is in Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s writing Prema-vivarta, made by Jagadānanda and edited by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. That is full of Gauḍīya siddhānta, that booklet, Jagadānanda Paṇḍit. The notes collected by Jagadānanda Paṇḍit that is been given the shape of a book. The name is Prema-vivarta. Prema-vivarta is the name of the book. There this passage you will find, nāmākṣara bahiraya batu nāma kabu naya. It should not be thought to be the Name, should not be thought to be the Name proper in any time, ever, kabu. Rāma Rāma.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So Mahārāja, even in nāmābhāsa, it’s depending on Kṛṣṇa?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, that is also ākṣara to somewhat, to some extent, the sound aspect, the outer aspect, but the inner representation of the Name is not there. Nāmābhāsa, this side the mukti, it can give us mukti, liberation, the emancipation for the negative side. But there also we cannot trace participation in the positive, so Name is not present there. Name is a positive thing. And to get the touch of it we must enter, have admission in the positive world. And when we are already in the negative side how can we get the touch of the Name? So mukti, may give liberation but not participation in the devotional realm. So proper Name is not to be found there also.

Mukta-kulair upāsyamānaṁ. “A particular group of the liberated souls they want to worship the Name, not all. Mukta-kulair upāsyamānaṁ, paritas. So many liberated souls are found to worship Him, to respect Him around all the sides of the Name.” Rūpa Goswāmī says. Rūpa Goswāmī’s śloka:

nikhila-śruti-mauli ratna mālā, dyuti nīrājita-pāda-paṅkajānta

ayi mukta-kulair upāsyamānaṁ, paritas tvām hari-nām saṁśrayāmi

[“The acme of all the Vedas, the Upaniṣads, are like a string of transcendental jewels. The tips of the toes of Your lotus feet, O Holy Name, are eternally worshipped by the radiance emanating from those jewels. You are constantly worshipped by the great liberated souls (headed by Nārada and Śuka, whose hearts are reposed in complete absence of worldly aspirations). Therefore, O Name Divine, I surrender unto You in every time, place, and circumstance.”] [Nāmāṣṭakam, 1]

Sanātana Goswāmī’s śloka: viramita nija dharma dhyāna pujyadhi yatna [Bṛhad- Bhāgavatāmṛta, 1.1.9], that is by Sanātana Goswāmī.

Nikhila-śruti-mauli ratna mālā, dyuti nīrājita-pāda-paṅkajānta. Rūpa Goswāmī says nikhila-śruti-mauli ratna, not in all the śrutis the Nāma-hatta, the greatness of the Name may be found. Not in ordinary śruti. Nikhila-śruti, the whole of the śruti if you study then you will find the very spirit of it. Nikhila-śruti-mauli, mauli means the head, mauli ratna. Ordinary people may not find when they will study the śruti. But there are sāragrāhī, those that can collect the real substance, the real purpose from the vast writings, they will be able to detect.

The whole purpose of all the main śruti, the principle sūtra in the śruti, they are giving hints. Śruti means śabda, śruti, that can be grasped by the ear, śruti, śabda. So the śabda, all the sounds, the revealed truth sound, sound that has come from up, there they naturally say to us that through sound only you can approach the reality. Otherwise they are suicidal.

If śruti does not say by sound only you will get the thing, then what is the necessity of Veda? That is only sound embodied. So if we can trace the very real characteristic of the śruti, we shall say the principle śruti are saying that by sound, by the cultivation of sound you can get the Lord. So we have come only through sound, śabda-paramāṇam. The sound can give deliverance of the reality. Śruti cannot but say so, otherwise śruti will be ineffective. They’re only a jungle of sounds. Śruti means Veda which we can receive through the ear; that is sound only. The sound is Absolute. “So we have come to declare to you that through sound only you will attain the highest end.”

So the main sūtras of the śruti informs us nikhila-śruti-mauli, mauli means from the principle śrutis, ratna-mālā - and there like so many gems or jewels and that is forming a necklace and by the lustre of the principle śrutis it is shown the feet of the Holy Name. Ratna mālā, dyuti nīrājita, nīrājan means ārātrika, just as by the light we make nīrājan, the ārātrika to show the ordinary people more clearly the figure of the Lord. So the principle śrutis they are helping us to have this conjecture of this perception that by sound only we can have the Supreme Lord. Do you follow?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Rūpa Goswāmī says that, “It is the business of the śruti if we give more attention then we’ll find the principle śrutis are only trying to show, just as like ārātrika, the paṅca-dwīpa is trying to show you the figure. Generally you can see the Śrī Mūrti but with the help of the dwīpa you can have a particular conception of different parts of the body of the Lord. So the principle śrutis we will find that they are trying to show, nīrājan, to show by their shika, by their flame, their light, flame of light the nīrājita-pāda-paṅkajānta, the lower portion of You, the Name. That is leading us to help, to have a conception of the remotest part, the vague conception that Name is everything.” Dyuti nīrājita-pāda-paṅkajānta, ayi mukta-kulair upāsyamānaṁ. “And those that are really liberated, they are all around and adoring You, and pleasing You, we shall see.” Paritas tvām hari-nām saṁśrayāmi. “And I take refuge to the conception of the figure of Hari Nāma in this spirit, this spirit. Kṛṣṇa Nāma is not found in Veda. Why should we take Kṛṣṇa Nāma? Is it in Veda? Some will come and say. Rather sometimes it is mentioned as the name of āsura is Kṛṣṇa in Veda. So Kṛṣṇa Nāma is not in the Veda. Why should I take the Name?”

śyāmāc chavalaṁ prapadye, śavalāc chyāmaṁ prapadye

[“By the help of black (śyāmā), we shall be introduced to the service of the white (śavalā); by the help of white (śavalā), we shall be introduced to the service of black (śyāmā).”] [Chāndogya Upaniṣad, 8.13.1]

Śyāma is there. Śyāma and śavalā, śavalā and śyāma. Śyāma is considered to be Kṛṣṇa and śavalā Śrī Rādhikā. In Veda we find śyāmāc chavalaṁ prapadye, śavalāc chyāmaṁ prapadye. By the help of Śyāma we shall be introduced to do the service of Śavalā and by the help of Śavalā we shall try to be introduced in the service of Śyāma. We shall take help of both the parties, śakti-śaktimān, Śyāma and Śavalā. Śavalāc chyāmaṁ prapadye. Śavalā means white generally, śyāma means black and white, black and white Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma and also Kṛṣṇa-Rādhārāṇī. That has been interpreted by the Ācāryas. So śyāmāc chavalaṁ prapadye, śavalāc chyāmaṁ prapadye, we find there.

And Rūpa Goswāmī says that, “Only superficial study of the Veda it will frustrate you. But if you with a positive mind by the grace of the sādhu, Ācārya, mahājana, you go to look out then find the principle śruti is there, they are only persuading us, or leading us towards the conception that the whole object of all the sounds are towards that central sound. They are all so many parts come to distribute the tidings of the absolute realm but their centre, there must be a centre, the higher centre. And the principle sounds they are all emitting light like torch to show that we have got a central centre, central sound and that represents the whole and it is Kṛṣṇa. And so many liberated section they are sitting all around to show their respects to that central sound from which all the mantram of the Vedas has emanated to give some idea of that absolute centre, sound aspect of the centre. There cannot but be.” This is Rūpa Goswāmī’s argument.

“All these branches of śruti, sound, they are all sound, so many sounds they must come from a central position. And they cannot but direct to a proper eye that we have got a centre, fountain. And go, start, run towards that direction. You will find everything is there. In our source you will find everything. We are all representing things partly, we are so many branches, we represent so many parts. But we have got a centre, we have got fountain. And the reading of them you go in this direction. And you will find that sound is sufficient. Sound can sufficiently satisfy you, the sound aspect. And through that you may be introduced to other aspects of that sound. So Name first, first important, and Name is not less, it can represent the whole, the Name, Kṛṣṇa Nāma.”

nikhila-śruti-mauli ratna mālā, dyuti nīrājita-pāda-paṅkajānta

ayi mukta-kulair upāsyamānaṁ, paritas tvām hari-nām saṁśrayāmi

[“The acme of all the Vedas, the Upaniṣads, are like a string of transcendental jewels. The tips of the toes of Your lotus feet, O Holy Name, are eternally worshipped by the radiance emanating from those jewels. You are constantly worshipped by the great liberated souls (headed by Nārada and Śuka, whose hearts are reposed in complete absence of worldly aspirations). Therefore, O Name Divine, I surrender unto You in every time, place, and circumstance.”] [Nāmāṣṭakam, 1]

“I take refuge under You, that grand central sound who has given cohesion to all the sounds in the revealed scripture.” That is the meaning.

And Sanātana Goswāmī says: viramita nija dharma dhyāna pujyadhi yatna.

jayati jayati nāmānanda rūpam murarer, [viramita nija dharma dhyāna pujyadhi yatna

katham api sakṛdāttam muktidaṁ prānināṁ yat, paramāmṛtam ekaṁ jīvanaṁ bhuṣanaṁ me]

[Sanātana Goswāmī says: “Let ecstasy in the service of the Divine Name be victorious. If somehow we can come in contact with that sound, nāma rupaṁ murāreḥ, then all our other activities will be paralysed; we will have no necessity of performing any other activity. Our many variegated duties will have no importance to us at all if we can achieve the service of the Divine Name of Kṛṣṇa.”] [Bṛhad-Bhāgavatāmṛta, 1.1.9]

Let the ecstasy in the service of the Divine Name be victorious. Jayati jayati nāmānanda rūpam murarer, viramita nija dharma dhyāna pujyadhi yatna. Anyhow if we come in contact with that sound nāma rūpa murarer then all other activities are paralysed, have no necessity, viramita nija dharma. First, all the duties, sense of duty paralysed, they’re abandoned, no necessity. So many variegated duties they have no necessity at all if I can get the service of the Name, viramita nija dharma. Dhyāna, and meditation, dharma means this business engagement of the karmī in the world, and dhyāna means retired from this physical world and making meditation within. Trying to exploit anything in the internal world: that is also stopped, paralysed. Cessation puts a stop, dhyāna, viramita nija dharma dhyāna pujyadhi rūpam.

And the Rāmānuja section they are making arcana in the Vaikuṇṭha, Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa. That will also be stopped, no necessity. If you get the real grace of the Divine Name then you will have to retire from all the phases of these different types of worshipping, the dharma, dhyāna, pūjā. Dharma means this duty, varṇāśrama dharma. Dhyāna means the jñānī, yogī, covering them, and the pūjā covering also Rāmānuja sampradāya, after mukti in Vaikuṇṭha.

The Name will take to the perception of the Goloka, and you will have to retire completely from all these phases of your life divine. To do any work, even it may be for Kṛṣṇa, then the dhyānam, the internal meditation and calculation and other things and pūjā, we respect the service of them. Only the Name can stop all these. You will have no other mind. You can’t give any attention to any other thing. So much sweetness you will find in taking the Name. When you really come in contact with the sound aspect of the Absolute then all other endeavours, enthusiastic and endeavouring attempts in you will be paralysed, they can’t do.

kari' eta upadrava, citte varṣe sudhā-drava, more ḍāre premera sāgare;

kichu nā bujhite dila, more ta' bātula kaila, mora citta-vitta saba hare

[While causing such an ecstatic disturbance, the Holy Name showers liquid nectar on my heart and drowns me in the ocean of divine love of Godhead. He does not allow me to understand anything, for He has made me truly mad and has stolen away my heart and all my wealth.]

[Śrī Nāma-Māhātmya, 4, from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s Śaraṇāgati]

Priya atya bada vitya more bai ei [?]

Pralayera āgamana, bhāve sarvva-deha jara [Śrī Nāma-Māhātmya, 3, from Śaraṇāgati]

All other functions paralysed. You can’t attend them, you are only taking the Name. Then when again that Name will allow you to do other services you’ll do that. Name has such power, potency, such high degree of potency that it will stop all other branches of services and charm you.

[jayati jayati] nāmānanda rūpam murarer, viramita nija dharma dhyāna pujyadhi yatna

katham api sakṛdāttam muktidaṁ prānināṁ yat, paramāmṛtam ekaṁ jīvanaṁ bhuṣanaṁ me

[Sanātana Goswāmī says: “Let ecstasy in the service of the Divine Name be victorious. If somehow we can come in contact with that sound, nāma rupaṁ murāreḥ, then all our other activities will be paralysed; we will have no necessity of performing any other activity. Our many variegated duties will have no importance to us at all if we can achieve the service of the Divine Name of Kṛṣṇa.”] [Bṛhad-Bhāgavatāmṛta, 1.1.9]

In Rūpa Goswāmī we find tuṇḍe tāṇḍavinī, “When it comes down and captures the tongue, the lips, so strongly it controls and engage them in the movement by taking Name, like a mad, tongue is mad, lips are mad, so much has power descended in them. Tāṇḍavinī ratiṁ vitanute tuṇḍāvalī. And there comes also a feeling that only one tongue and one mouth is not sufficient. Thousands of mouths are necessary. One mouth is not sufficient to take the Name. Tuṇḍāvalī- labdhaye, karṇa-kroḍa-kaḍambinī. When it captures, enters the ear and captures it, in such a great force the current comes in the ear, one thinks that karṇa-kroḍa, only two ears are not sufficient. Crores of ears I want to attend the current that is coming, the sweet current that is entering into my ear. Two ears that is nothing, crores of ears are necessary. It is like a flood it is coming, pushing within me through the ear, so sweet, so sweet. Karṇa-kroḍa-kaḍambinī ghaṭayate karṇārbudebhyaḥ spṛhām, cetaḥ-prāṅgaṇa-saṅginī vijayate sarvendriyāṅāṁ. As it goes to capture the heart, the centre of all the senses; then whole thing paralysed, paralysed.

Pralayera āgamana, bhāve sarvva-deha jara [Śrī Nāma-Māhātmya, 3, from Śaraṇāgati]

Karṇa-kroḍa-kaḍambinī ghaṭayate karṇārbudebhyaḥ spṛhām, cetaḥ-prāṅgaṇa-saṅginī vijayate sarvendriyāṅāṁ kṛtiṁ. Wherever it touches, that sweet aggressor, wherever it touches, the whole thing captures in such intensity that all others are ignored. Prāṅgaṇa-saṅginī vijayate sarvendriyāṅāṁ kṛtiṁ, no jāne janitā kiyadbhir amṛtaiḥ kṛṣṇeti varṇa-dvayī. I can’t know, I can’t say, I fail to express by how much and what sort of quality of nectar is in the Name of Kṛṣṇa. Only these two letters. If these two letters can contain how much and of what high quality sweetness there that it plays like this, wherever it goes its nature is like that. So aggressive, sweetness is so aggressive in its nature. Wherever goes captures it, whole thing, nothing remains.”

That is in Vidagdha-Mādhava perhaps. Rūpa Goswāmī writes.

[tuṇḍe tāṇḍavinī ratiṁ vitanute tuṇḍāvalī-labdhaye

karṇa-kroḍa-kaḍambinī ghaṭayate karṇārbudebhyaḥ spṛhām

cetaḥ-prāṅgaṇa-saṅginī vijayate sarvendriyāṅāṁ kṛtiṁ

no jāne janitā kiyadbhir amṛtaiḥ kṛṣṇeti varṇa-dvayī]

[“When the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa appears on the lips of a devotee, it begins madly dancing. Then the Name takes over and handles him as if the person to whom the lips belong loses all control over his lips, and the devotee says: ‘With one mouth, how much can I gather the ecstasy of the Holy Name? I need millions of mouths to taste its unlimited sweetness. I’ll never feel any satisfaction by chanting with only one mouth.”] [Vidagdha Mādhava, 1.15]

Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. _________________________ [?] Nāmākṣara bahiraya batu nāma kabu naya (sete nana katoli mata naya geta ?) nāmākṣara bahiraya batu nāma kabu naya: Prema-vivarta śloka. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in maybe Śaraṇāgati there is one śloka, a song, where he describes how the Nāma comes from inside and then comes...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:

hṛdaya haite bale, jihvāra agrete cale, śabda-rūpe nāce anukṣaṇa;

[kaṇṭhe more bhaṅge svara, aṅga kāpe thara thara, sthira haite nā pāre caraṇa]

[“The Holy Name speaks from within my heart, moves on the tip of my tongue, and constantly dances on it in the form of transcendental sound. My throat becomes choked up, my body violently trembles, and my feet move uncontrollably.”] [Śrī Nāma-Māhātmya, 2, from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s Śaraṇāgati]

The whole thing is described there very beautifully. Viṣaya-vāsanānale, mora citta sadā jvale, ravi-tapta marubhūmi sama.

[kṛṣṇa-nāma dhare kata bala viṣaya-vāsanānale,

mora citta sadā jvale, ravi-tapta marubhūmi sama;

karṇa-randhra patha diyā, hṛdi mājhe praveśiyā, variṣaya sudhā anupama]

[“How much power does the Name of Kṛṣṇa possess? My heart constantly burns in the fire of worldly desires, like a desert scorched by the sun. The Holy Name, entering within my heart through the holes of my ears, showers unparalleled nectar upon my soul.”] [Śrī Nāma-Māhātmya, 1, from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s Śaraṇāgati]

“Just like a desert, hot with the sun ray. This is my, my internal mind, condition is like that, a desert and the sun ray connection. So my heart is like that, my whole mind.

Viṣaya-vāsanānale, mora citta sadā jvale, ravi-tapta marubhūmi sama. Because by the desires of mortal things by nature they cannot satisfy, because by their nature they are mortal, they are death producing, separation producing, death producing. It is their nature. And not one or two, thousands of such death producing things have taken shelter in my mind. And so it is always burning in the subconscious region.

Viṣaya-vāsanānale, mora citta sadā jvale, ravi-tapta marubhūmi sama; karṇa-randhra patha diyā, hṛdi mājhe praveśiyā, variṣaya sudhā anupama. When this is my condition, anyhow through my ear from sādhu, Guru, the Name of Kṛṣṇa entered into my heart, Kṛṣṇa, with its infinite prospect. Karṇa-randhra. Anyhow entered through the hole of the ear and entered into, and reached the plane of my heart, my consideration. And there with the hope of some peculiar nature with infinite auspicious possibility, with such news it touched my heart. Karṇa-randhra patha diyā, hṛdi mājhe praveśiyā, variṣaya sudhā anupama. A nectar of new type, new hope is aroused by that sound.

Hṛdaya haite bale, jihvāra agrete cale. Then by force it comes from the heart towards the tongue, forcibly comes. I am not to make any attempt for that, that in the tongue by my endeavour I am producing the sound. No. From the heart, what came from the heart of the sādhu through the ear entered my heart and that forcibly came to my tongue and began to dance. That is Name proper. It descends from higher regions. It cannot be produced in the material form of this tongue. Its source is above. And through the agent it comes and the way through the ear to the heart. And from heart it gets some sympathy, and then forcibly it comes out on the tongue and begins to dance. Hṛdaya haite bale mena balapool bak. With great force, hṛdaya haite bale, jihvāra agrete cale, it comes to the end of the tongue.

And śabda-rūpe nāce anukṣaṇa, and that sweet sound began its dancing. Kaṇṭhe more bhaṅge svara, aṅga kāpe thara thara. The real feats of the Divine Name have been described, how it should do. If a living Name, a real Name, then its ways should be such. Kaṇṭhe more bhaṅge svara, the voice choked sometimes. Then shivering in the body, sthira haite nā pāre caraṇa, the legs cannot stand idly. Cakṣe dhārā, sometimes tears flow in a current. Dehe gharmma, sweats on the body. Pulakita saba carmma, the hairs stand on their end.”

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Goose bumps, stands on their ends.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: “Vivarṇa haila kalevara, sometimes changes of colour is found in the body of white, red, etc. Mūrcchita haila mana, pralayera āgamana, sometimes no trace we can get of the mind, or consciousness, a fall in swoon. Mūrcchita haila mana, pralayera āgamana, bhāve sarvva-deha jara jara, and the whole body and mind is as if it is being attacked and troubled in the shivered influence in variegated nature.

Kari' eta upadrava, citte varṣe sudhā-drava, those apparently it may seem that so many troubles are created in the body and the mind, but in the real heart it is pouring a particular kind of strange juice, sweet juice in the very centre of our conception, consideration. Citte varṣe sudhā-drava, more ḍāre premera sāgare, and sometimes he thinks that I am in the ocean of nectar. My whole feeling, the feeling of my existence just within an ocean with nectar in it, liquid. More ḍāre premera sāgare, kichu nā bujhite dila, more ta' bātula kaila, mora citta-vitta, I am besides myself, can’t understand where am I, what is this, what is about me. Kichu nā bujhite dila, more ta' bātula kaila. Almost made me mad. Am I a madman? Where is my past experience, my sober seriousness, sobriety, gravity, where are they, what am I? Wholesale converted by a foreign thing, a doll in the hand of so much a great force and also very affectionate. I can’t ascertain how it is possible by the great in this unknown environment, inexperienced before. Kichu nā bujhite dila, more ta' bātula kaila, mora citta-vitta saba hare. And at last I found that I am captivated, of inner out, whole thing has been captured by a particular sweet force. I can’t help but be a prey to such a sweet force or power.

Lainu āśraya yā'ra, hena vyavahāra tā'ra, balite nā pāri e sakala, I can’t give any description properly. Whom I came to take shelter under as my guardian and at His hand I’m dealt in such a mercilessly and some despotic way, but still I feel that everything is very pleasing beyond my experience. What is this? Balite nā pāri e sakala; kṛṣṇa-nāma icchāmaya, yāhe yāhe sukhī haya, sei mora sukhera sambala. I can’t stand any more. I am fully captured and let my fate go anyway. I can’t come out. I am fully captivated in the hand of a sweet friend I think but my whole independence gone. I’ve no way but to surrender. I’m under such condition. Balite nā pāri e sakala. I cannot give, unable to give any description of what is my position really. Kṛṣṇa-nāma icchāmaya, yāhe yāhe sukhī haya, sei mora sukhera sambala. Now I found that He’s autocrat, whatever He likes to do He will do. No help. Icchāmaya, yāhe yāhe sukhī haya, and now in ways when it is not possible for me to give any resistance then to surrender, in whatever way He’s pleased let me also cooperate with that, otherwise what can I do, I am helpless. Sukhī haya, sei mora sukhera sambala.

Premera kalikā nāma, adbhuta rasera dhāma, hena bala karaye prakāśa, sometimes I find that is very love concised like a blossoming flower. The love is in a very suppressed and condensed form I find, kalikā. Adbhuta rasera dhāma, and very wonderful streams of sweet approach coming from its current. It contains so many sweet variegated nature of current within it. Adbhuta rasera dhāma, hena bala karaye prakāśa, and wonderfully expressing Himself in different ways...

End of 81.09.29.B_81.10.02.A

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Start of 81.10.01.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...introduced their word extensively, and spaciously, and necessarily, and that is the key. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

nitāiyer koruṇā habe, braje rādhā-kṛṣṇa pābe, dharo nitāi-caraṇa du 'khāni

[From Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura’s Manaḥ-śikṣā]

And those that neglect Nityānanda they can’t come to Mahāprabhu with real heart. And it is my thinking that Narottama Ṭhākura he wrote this poem against the followers of Advaita School. They’re puffed up with their śāstric knowledge and did not give importance of, to Nityānanda. And this is written, sei paśu baḍa durācār, vidyā-kule ki karibe tāra.

The trace of high dynasty, high lineage, and also scholarship of the scriptures, they’re all futile if they do not have real attraction for Nityānanda. The scholars who recognise Mahāprabhu Caitanyadeva, but do not recognise Nityānanda, there was a section at that time who could not appreciate Nityānanda Prabhu but he had respect for the bhakti cult, scripture, and also came from high family, so many. And Nityānanda Prabhu was more concerned with the different fallen so called lower classes of varṇāśrama. He was more connected. So Nityānanda Prabhu had much respect then from the society. Narottama Ṭhākura especially wrote these pastimes. Without Nityānanda Prabhu’s grace, your scholarship, your lineage, high family connection, won’t be of any use. I warn you. And Nityānanda’s grace, that is the real foundation to have Caitanya līlā. And then of course Gadādhara Paṇḍita and the others, that Rūpa, Sanātana, Svarūpa Dāmodara, and the central figures in Mahāprahu’s līlā. The master of all the Ācāryas of the great Gauḍīya family is Svarūpa Dāmodara. He has given the steel frame. Fourteen points he has given, and that is the steel frame on which the whole Gaura līlā tattva has been described.

Kavirāja Goswāmī has quoted in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, who is Nityānanda, who is Gadādhara, who is Śrīvāsa, who is Mahāprabhu? All coming from Svarūpa Dāmodara, and Sanātana, Rūpa, Jīva, everyone has taken, has accepted that, very substance, all important śloka he has given, he has acquainted us, who is ________ and who is Nityānanda, Gadādhara, Śrīvāsa, Advaita, who are they. That is universally accepted by mahājanas of Gauḍīya sampradāya.

Svarūpa Dāmodara, posterity in descendants of Advaita vaṁśa, they’re half and half, six sons, half came to Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava, half to smārta. The first half went to smārta. And the last half, the Acyutānanda, the last son, youngest, and Kṛṣṇa Miśra Gopāla, they came under the flag of Mahāprabhu. And the others they left, they accepted ____________________ [?] the greatest scholar of smārta section at that time. They were also qualified men but followed the cause of smārta karma-kāṇḍa. And many of the Advaita School, whether you have come to know or not, they think that Advaita Prabhu is Kṛṣṇa, and Mahāprabhu is Rādhārāṇī. Their conception is something like that, a particular section. There are so many scholars they, of course in taking the name of Mahāprabhu they get so many disciples, but still, when they begin to explain Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam they do not give any respect to Mahāprabhu, but Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa direct. This Ānanda Gopāla Goswāmī and other renowned explainers of Bhāgavatam, they used to go on in that way.

And Narottama Ṭhākura warned them, gave warning. “If you don’t have any recognition for Nityānanda Prabhu, rest assured that you’ll be lost.” Sei paśu baḍa durācār. He’s an animal and he must be pronounced as a culprit in the garb of a follower of Mahāprabhu Caitanya Deva. So Nityānanda Prabhu’s sandhinī-śakti, Baladeva, representing Baladeva. And crossing Him it is not possible to have entrance, admission in that layer, in the sphere of Mahāprabhu as well as Rādhā-Govinda, Vṛndāvana. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

nitāi-pada-kamala koṭi candra-suśītala, ye chāyāya jagat juḍāya

hena nitāi vine bhāi rādhā-kṛṣṇa pāite nāi, dṛdha kari' dhara nitāir pāy

se sambandha nāhi yāra bṛtha janma gela tāra, sei paśu baḍa durācāra

nitāi nā bālila mukhe majila saṁsāra-sukhe, vidyā-kule ki karibe tāra

ahaṅkāre matta hoiyā nitāi-pada pāsariyā, asatyere satya kari māni

[nitāiyera karuṇa habe braje rādhā-kṛṣṇa pābe, dhara nitāi-caraṇa du'khāni]

[nitāiyer-caraṇa satya tāñhara sevaka nitya, nitāi-pada sadā kara āśa

narottama baḍa dukhī nitāi more kara sukhī, rākha rāṅgā-caraṇera pāśa]

[Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura’s Manaḥ-śikṣā]

[“The lotus feet of Prabhu Nityānanda are most pleasing, like the combined calming radiance of millions of moons. By receiving the cooling shade of His transcendental shelter the whole universe, scorched by heat of material existence, can be fully relieved and soothed. O dear brothers, without the grace of such a magnanimous personality as Prabhu Nityānanda, it is very difficult to attain divine loving service to Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in the groves of Vṛndāvana. Therefore firmly take shelter of His lotus feet with all sincere respect and love so you may reach that nectarean goal.

A person who has not strived to receive any blessed connection with Nityānanda Prabhu or His invaluable wealth, which is ecstatic love of Godhead, becomes materially entangled and his intelligence is misused for animal propensities. Compared to the higher life of divine taste such a life is considered wasted. Those who do not know the great fortune of taking the Name of Nityānanda as well as those who deliberately ignore Him become more and more intoxicated and addicted to mundane happiness.

Without a connection to the eternal blissful nature of Nityānanda Prabhu what real protection can the satisfaction of mundane education or boast of heritage give in this insecure mortal world? Being maddened and bewildered by false pride, such persons forget their eternal relationship with Nityānanda and do not attain the great solace of His lotus feet and thus accept illusion as reality. My friends, if Nityānanda Prabhu gives you mercy, only then can you attain the service of Rādhā Kṛṣṇa, the Divine Couple of Vraja, therefore firmly embrace His lotus feet and beg Him for it. Please know that the shelter of the lotus feet of Prabhu Nityānanda are eternally true and the giver of transcendental fulfilment. One who engages in the loving service of Nityānanda with perfection is understood to have attained that plane of eternal truth and fulfilment. Therefore always pray and hope for the shelter of Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu's lotus feet.

Narottama says: “O merciful Prabhu Nitāi, I find myself very unsatisfied because I have an endless hankering for more of the taste of Your nectarine grace. So please satisfy this need of mine and make me very happy by keeping me close to Your lotus feet, ever smeared with the hue of divine ecstasy.”] [Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura’s Manaḥ-śikṣā]

In this way the song is progressing of Nityānanda’s kṛpa, His grace. It is indispensable, at least in its first stage, and after sākhya within Him, and in vātsalya, and in mādhurya rasa He’s withdrawing friends from that sort of rasa, for the necessity of the rasa, confidential, heart’s confidential.

Gaura Haribol. Any question? Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, you said two days ago that the Guru can only be defeated by his son, or I think it was his father. What was it? Disciple.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. There is a saying:

Sarvatya vijayam ichet sisyat utyat para jayam [?]

It is desirable that one will attain victory at every place, but only defeat to his own son, and to his own disciple. That is, the disciple will be greater, greater merit and resources and prospect, all these things. The glory, that will enhance his position. It’s also said that one’s merit is of past lives is just by his son. But what type of son he has got, that will show the merit of his previous birth.

So the Guru sincerely wills that his disciple may surpass him even in his serving to his Lord. He will expect more than himself, more service, that he may be, may have greater position in the circle of the eternal servitors than he. That is the, such affection the Guru has towards śiṣya, such well wisher Guru is of a śiṣya, of a disciple. He gives him.

Mahāprabhu gives everything what He knew to Rūpa Goswāmī. And again He’s asking, while in Purī, “Yes, he’s a proper person to propagate devotion, so I have given My everything to him. And I request you also to, whatever you have got, to transmit, to give it to him.”

So Guru loves his disciple, empties, self emptied, he makes him empty and feels pleasure by giving everything to the disciple. Such is the nature of the affection what Guru feels to his real disciple. This is the principle, and it is true. The disciple, then how the disciple will take it in his turn? He should give more respect to him than the Lord, Kṛṣṇa. He’s abiding by the order of Guru. So Rādhā-dāsya comes from that. He’ll be servant to his immediate master. He does not know the real purpose of his Absolute Lord, Kṛṣṇa. He’s more faithful to his master, the well wisher, the greatest well wisher. Whatever he will require him to do, he’ll do that. Because through him he can expect that, not by crossing Guru one will go to Kṛṣṇa. Never. By the principle of Guru, personally change according to his own progress. And by outside figure may think that the Guru’s position of his construct, the vision, conception of Guru, will always be of that type. Make him vacant to give his all to the disciple, and disciple also in his turn will give wholesale on his divine feet. That should be the highest conception of the pure divine relationship with the Guru and śiṣya. And in the physical world also, son and father. Hare Kṛṣṇa. And in the case of Kṛṣṇa also He says:

ahaṁ bhakta-parārdhīno, hy asvatantra iva dvija

[sādhubhir grasta-hṛdayo, bhaktair bhakta-jana-priyaḥ]

[The Lord tells Durvāsā: “I am the slave of My devotees; I have no freedom apart from their will. Because they are completely pure and devoted to Me, My heart is controlled by them, and I reside always in their hearts. I am dependent not only on My devotees, but even on the servants of My devotees. Even the servants of My devotees are dear to Me.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 9.4.63]

“I can do anything and everything for My devotees.”

It is also mentioned in many places of the scripture.

Sisya lagi bhakta lagi akarya karam [?]

Even what is blameable the Lord does it for His devotees, it is mentioned.

Bhakta lagi akarya karam [?]

In the case of breaking His own promise to keep up the promise of Bhīṣma. And Bhīṣma leaving the fighting, with folded palms he seeks to praise Kṛṣṇa. “How, what sort of devotion and affection You have got for Your devotee? I am a lowest type of devotee, or even not so. But to keep my prestige, my promise, You have left Your promise that You won’t take any weapon in this war of Kurukṣetra. But You have taken it because I promised that I shall force You to take weapon today in my fight. And You have kept my promise and left that of You. So merciful, so affectionate, to a mean, so called servant of You.” That was Bhīṣma’s statement.

Bhakta lagi akarya karam [?]

This is the nature of love. Love is such. ________ [?] The great and small, their relation of love, great and small, no distinction. High and low, no distinction. That is the peculiar nobility in the substance of love. That is real love, no distinction. The biggest comes to be servant of the lowest. Gaura Hari. This is bhakti, this is love.

[17:10 - 19:00, Bengali (?) conversation]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So today I stop here. I have come to the acme of the talks today.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: The answers come, without asking question you give answers, even if we do not ask a question. If we think, we still get the answer.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. These questions have taken me to such a position, such a plane, that Kṛṣṇa is all in all, and He’s represented also in everywhere to the extreme. So we need not be afraid of risking everything for His service. Whatever small we risk, but what we get that is infinite, and infinite to such a degree. To such a degree, being finite we can have, as if, the possession of the infinite in such a degree. This is given by Mahāprabhu and His servitors to us. This news, such hope has been given, has come to our door. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

By the grace of Mahāprabhu, Mahāprabhu says, He Himself, that entity, He says that, “I am in such position. Ahaṁ bhakta-parārdhīno. I am dependant on My devotee.”

___________ [?] He has this sweet relationship between the servant and the master, man and master, such sweetest and sincere most relationship what Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Mahāprabhu gives us. This sort of, the most highest prospect of jīva is where slavery, outwardly, but mastership of the absolute in reality.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Ahaṁ bhakta-parārdhīno, hy asvatantra. In Prapanna- jīvanāmṛta [1.21] I have mentioned perhaps the last achievement for the jīva of the prapanna, ātma-pradāna-paryanta-, pratijñāntaḥ-pratiśrutam. He has given understanding. He has promised that, “I dedicate wholly to the interest of My devotees.” This assurance is there, so much, those that surrender to Him, for them, His assurance is, “That as I am, I give it wholesale to you.” Ātma-pradāna-paryanta-, pratijñāntaḥ-pratiśrutam. Those that have surrendered themselves they get the promise of such prospect, so much. So much promise they get in return of their surrender. Surrender is so powerful. Apparently, for the time being, feels that I’m self effacement, but really it gets in return the Absolute in its contribution. So much powerful thing this surrender, śaraṇāgati. And this is the only medicine that can be applied on the absolute, which can bring us to us, to cure our disease. What more? Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. I may not commit offence on the feet of the Lord, forgive me.

Dayādhara Gaurāṅga: We are always coming with empty vessels and you are always fulfilling.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Our Prabhupāda, when there was Parvat Mahārāja, when after rasa līlā, when Rādhārāṇī left that and Kṛṣṇa when found that Rādhārāṇī is absent in the rasa, suddenly He found and then He left the rasa and went in search of Rādhārāṇī. And when He met Her then following Her for some time and then Rādhārāṇī told: “I am too much tired. If further I’m to go You must carry Me. I can’t walk.” Then Kṛṣṇa disappeared, for the time being.

And Parvat Mahārāja, one of his old disciples, of Prabhupāda, asked: “What is this, why Kṛṣṇa left Rādhārāṇī when She asked that take Me wherever You like I can’t walk any more? Then He disappeared. This is showing negligence.”

Then Prabhupāda was enraged. “What point of devotion you find here that you have come to ask question.” He was enraged.

I was nonplussed, that Prabhupāda without trying to give some answer to this question he flew into a temper, what’s the matter? Then he stopped. Then I thought, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura when explaining the meaning of this passage he must have given some point of understanding. Prabhupāda avoided totally, he could not tolerate that any disregard from Kṛṣṇa towards Rādhārāṇī he could not tolerate at all. He just dismissed the point of discussion, so much excited.

Then I found Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has written, “Only to enjoy the situation that if Kṛṣṇa disappears at that point how Rādhārāṇī will move. And what sort of nature comes in Her, to enjoy that, Kṛṣṇa was just in the background, to enjoy. He did not leave Rādhārāṇī, it is not possible, but only He hid Himself to satisfy His curiosity that what She does when suddenly abandoned. That was His meaning, and not to neglect Her, and this is the meaning. But Prabhupāda could not tolerate the idea. Also I found when, there is a song of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura.

āmi to svānanda-sukhada vāsī.

[Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura sings, “I am a resident of Svānanda-sukhada-kuñja.”]

[From page 32 of The Songs of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura]

That that song that is a point that, “I can’t tolerate the participation, I can’t look with pleasure the servitors of the camp of Candrāvalī, Śaibyā, etc. Because their sight excites in me the idea that they want to take Kṛṣṇa from the camp of Rādhārāṇī making it dark perhaps.”

rādhikā-kuñja āṅdhāra kori’ loite cāhe se rādhāra hari.

[“Candrāvalī wants to take away Rādhā’s Lord Hari, thus covering the grove of Rādhikā with the darkness of gloom.”] [From page 33 of The Songs of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura]

Whenever that was, twice it was sung, rādhikā-kuñja āṅdhāra kori’, they want to snatch away Kṛṣṇa making the kuñja of Rādhārāṇī dark, Prabhupāda receives a shock, electric shock, just like he’s receiving a shock. It is intolerable that Rādhārāṇī’s kuñja, camp, is dark, and Kṛṣṇa is absent and He has gone to please another than Rādhārāṇī. It is intolerable, inconceivable to him. But Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has written in his taṭasthā statement, impartial statement what was the fact. But he cannot, in his relative position he can’t tolerate thus he receives a shock. Rādhikā-kuñja āṅdhāra kori’. Such is the sentiment of the devotees.

Here I stop. Jaya Oṁ Viṣṇu-Pāda...

End of 81.10.01.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.01.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja told: “No. When there is a fight with the outsiders we are one hundred and five brothers. We five and Duryodhana hundred. When any fight, any...

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Disagreement.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...any quarrel with the outsiders we are one. And when there will be quarrel within, amongst us, we are five, they are hundred.”

So when the fight with the atheist we shall encourage the demigod worshipper. There is fight with the karmī and jnānī we shall encourage the jnānīs. And then where is fight with Śaṅkara and Rāmānuja we shall encourage the Rāmānuja, we are one with them. And when a fight with Gauḍīya and Rāmānuja we shall eliminate Rāmānuja, fight with them and we shall go to keep the prestige of the Gauḍīya. In this way.

Even the fight is between Rādhārāṇī’s camp and the camp of Chandrāvalī, there is also a fight. But that is a loving fight, and that is to please Kṛṣṇa, not useless, nor selfish. The object is to please Kṛṣṇa, otherwise none can stay in that plane. That is the selfish, that the jealousy is already eliminated, jealousy as we understand, that is already eliminated before we enter Vaikuṇṭha. And that is another type, like, similar to jealousy, but not jealousy of this type that is found in this plane. That is devised, designed, by Yogamāyā for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, to create more intensity in the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa, that has been designed and devised.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: I have a question. Our Śrīla Prabhupāda, Swāmī Mahārāja, he used to speak very much about varṇāśrama dharma and even he would speak of his vision of establishing it in the West, in the Western countries. And sometimes it’s difficult to see it in relationship to the bhakti mārga. Can you comment in this.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Just as seen, the safe basis in the discussion of Rāya Rāmānanda when Mahāprabhu put a question, “How Kṛṣṇa, what is, what should be our end of life? And what should be the means to attain that end?” The beginning of that, first question of Mahāprabhu Śrī Caitanyadeva was of this type, that, “What should be our highest end, and how to attain that?”

Rāmānanda came with his answer, inspired by Śrī Caitanyadeva.

varṇāśramācāravatā puruṣeṇa paraḥ pumān

viṣṇur ārādhyate panthā nānyat tat-toṣa-kāraṇam

[“The only way to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Viṣṇu, is to worship Him by properly executing one’s prescribed duties in the social system of varṇa and āśrama.”]

[From Viṣṇu-Purāṇa, 3.8.9]

yataḥ pravṛttir bhūtānāṁ, yena sarvvam idaṁ tatam

svakarmmaṇā tam abhyarccya, siddhiṁ vindati mānavaḥ

[“A man achieves perfection by the performance of the appropriate duties prescribed for him according to his qualification. By the execution of his duties, he worships the Supreme Lord from whom the generation and impetus of all beings arises, and who permeates and pervades this entire universe (exercising His Supreme qualification of Lordship over one and all.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.46]

“The first approach beginning of a theistic life is here, that we should adopt the physical fashion of our life in the model of varṇāśrama. On that basis we shall try to discharge our duty, what is recommended in the varṇāśrama, connecting it with the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa. That should be the first beginning.”

Then Mahāprabhu told, “Eho bāhya, āge kaha āra.” This is superficial, go deeper.”

[prabhu kahe, — “eho bāhya, āge kaha āra”
rāya kahe, “kṛṣṇe karmārpaṇa — sarva-sādhya-sāra”]

[The Lord replied, “This is external. You had better tell Me of some other means.”]

[Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.59]

Then Rāmānanda came with next step, next higher step. “One who is fully conscious of doing everything for Kṛṣṇa, not a captive of, or not being a prey for the local duties. The interest of local duties will be given less importance, and more importance should be given to the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇe karmārpaṇa.”

yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi, yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat

yat tapasyasi kaunteya, tat kuruṣva mad arpaṇam

[“O son of Kuntī, whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you offer in charity, and whatever austere vows you may keep - do everything as an offering unto Me.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.27]

“To devote the result of everything to Kṛṣṇa, that must have the principle characteristic in one’s character.”

Then Mahāprabhu told, “Eho bāhya. This is also superficial. Go deeper.”

Then he came with karma-tyāga.

sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ [śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo, mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ]

[“Totally abandoning all kinds of religion, surrender exclusively unto Me. I will liberate you from all kinds of sins, so do not despair.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]

“Take risk, give up all sorts of duties surrounding you, and exclusively devote for the service of Kṛṣṇa. Eho bāhya, āge kaha āra. Sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja. He has taken refuge in the feet of Kṛṣṇa and left, disregarded all sorts of duties entangling him. Eho bāhya. Because still he’s in the relativity of this mundane world so his attempt is not pure so much.” Then he says, this karma-tyāga, then:

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā, na śocati na kāṅkṣati

samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu, mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām

[“The spotlessly pure-hearted and self-satisfied soul who has attained to his conscious divine nature neither grieves nor craves for anything. Seeing all beings equally (in the conception of My supreme energy), he gradually achieves supreme devotion (prema-bhakti) unto Me.”] [Bhagavad- gītā, 18.54]

“Then jñāna miśrā bhakti, the bhakti must come above from the relativity of this mundane world and it will take the shape of meditation. That is the main materials will be of consciousness and not these material things. It takes the shape of conscious type, jñāna, dharana, yoga, etc, Brahma-bhūtaḥ, he has come to know that I have no interest with this world of matter. I myself am a part of consciousness, so whatever I’m to do I’m to interfere, handle with this consciousness. And the material interest is fully eliminated, brahma-bhūtaḥ. Prasannātmā, and now he’s little calm in his temperament because his charm for the material loss and gain is forever left. But he will have to enter into the domain of devotion. He’s still, his position is in Brahmaloka, only a conscious unit independent of matter. He’s nothing to do with matter but he’s himself a conscious unit, and, mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām. From there he will have to go to the realm of, domain of devotion.”

Mahāprabhu says, “Eho bāhya, āge kaha āra. This is also superficial, go ahead.”

Then Rāmānanda Rāya came:

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva

jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

[sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir

ye prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi tais tri-lokyām]

[Lord Brahmā said to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa: “Oh Lord, Oh Unconquerable One, those devotees who, completely giving up all attempts on the path of jñāna of attaining the non-differentiated platform known as Brahma by hearing the transcendental narratives of Your pastimes (kathā), which emanates from the lotus mouths of the mahā-bhāgavat sādhus and pass their lives by engaging their body, mind and words in pure devotion, easily conquer You (they easily get Your transcendental association), although You are the most difficult to attain in the three worlds.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.14.3]

“In whatever position materially, outwardly, he may be, but if he has got some taste, real taste in the words of the real sādhus who are in communion with the personal God, a devotee, any connection and any attraction for him, and he likes to keep their company and hear from him: whatever his external position in this material world does not matter.”

Mahāprabhu says, “Yes, here you are. Here it begins. The positive connection is present here through the sādhu of the Lord. Not the withdrawal from the negative side by method of induction or deductive way, ascending way. But if he’s got some connection, some attraction, passed transaction through the real agent of the Lord. Yes it is. I see the speck of devotion here, whatever, neglecting his external conscience. Then, yes, it is, and go further.”

Then he came to dāsya bhakti, and that is Nārāyaṇa, this Gaura bhakti.

And then He told, “Yes, it is, go further.”

In this way he came to sākhya bhakti, to vātsalya bhakti.

And, “Yes, it is good.” First, “This is superficial.” Then He says, “It is.” Then says, “It is good. Go further.”

Then he came to mādhurya rasa, and then to the special type of service as is found in the camp of Rādhārāṇī.

Then He said, “Yes, it is the highest. Can you think anything more than it?”

Then Rāmānanda was astonished. “I have got something in mind but I don’t find there will be anybody to ask that stage. But it peeps sometimes in my mind there maybe another higher stage.” And saying this Rāmānanda came with his own poem.

pahilehi rāga nayana-bhaṅge bhela, [anudina bāḍhala, avadhi nā gela

nā so ramaṇa, nā hāma ramaṇī, duṅhu-mana manobhava peṣala jāni’

e sakhi, se-saba prema-kāhinī, kānu-ṭhāme kahabi vichurala jāni’

nā khoṅjaluṅ dūtī, nā khoṅjaluṅ ān, duṅhukeri milane madhya ta pāṅca-bāṇa

ab sohi virāga, tuṅhu bheli dūtī, su-purukha-premaki aichana rīti]

[“ ‘Alas, before We met there was an initial attachment between Us brought about by an exchange of glances. In this way attachment evolved. That attachment has gradually grown, and there is no limit to it. Now that attachment has become a natural sequence between Ourselves. It is not that it is due to Kṛṣṇa, the enjoyer, nor is it due to Me, for I am the enjoyed. It is not like that. This attachment was made possible by mutual meeting. This mutual exchange of attraction is known as manobhava, or Cupid. Kṛṣṇa’s mind and My mind have merged together. Now, during this time of separation, it is very difficult to explain these loving affairs. My dear friend, though Kṛṣṇa might have forgotten all these things, you can understand and bring this message to Him. But during Our first meeting there was no messenger between Us, nor did I request anyone to see Him. Indeed, Cupid’s five arrows were Our via media. Now, during this separation, that attraction has increased to another ecstatic state. My dear friend, please act as a messenger on My behalf, because if one is in love with a beautiful person, this is the consequence.’] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.194]

That the hint of the incarnation of Śrī Caitanyadeva Himself.

And He put His hand on his mouth, “No further, stop here.”

Union in separation, that is more powerful. This sort of devotional service requires compulsory condition that milan is the end and who even cannot care for that, who is trained in his separation he can be combined. And that is only found in Mahāprabhu. Then He put His hand, “Stop there, it is there.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura told, after finishing his pilgrimage, I heard from the lips of Prabhupāda, when he put me in Kurukṣetra Maṭha and then planned to show an exhibition of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī during solar eclipse there. He told, most astonishing, and very earnest I attended. “Ordinarily, those that are, that love Vṛndāvana, they’re all buha, empty minded.” That was, I with very earnest care I found that in. So long I hear that Vṛndāvana is the highest place, and even the milan, those that are emancipated, that are liberated. Without liberation none can aspire after to live in Vṛndāvana. And now he says, “Only,” the buha means empty, “only the spiritless, gist-less persons they have hankering for living in Vṛndāvana. A real devotee wants to live in Kurukṣetra.” With all attention I tried to hear. Then he told, “Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura after travelling all through the places of pilgrimage, he came to conclusion that, ‘I’m planning that I shall construct a cottage near the bank of Brahmā-kuṇḍa and I pass the last days of my life there.” Why? “That is the most important place to render our service. So we shall try to develop our heart for the service fitting to that place.” Why? “Where Rādhārāṇī met Kṛṣṇa during solar eclipse.

“I am that Rādhā and He’s that Kṛṣṇa, but the environment is unfavourable.”

So She was at Her highest degree of separation. The separation reached to its extreme stage.

“He’s there, I’m here, but We can’t come together.”

So Her disappointment and hankering reached the highest stage at that time. And when the Āśraya Vigraha is at the highest, in the prema of highest degree, service is more important, value of service increases to the highest degree. The servitors of Rādhārāṇī, they, Rādhārāṇī wants nursing at that time, maximum, so when Rādhārāṇī is in such condition the valuation of Her service reaches to the highest degree. So I must cultivate that in me, taking my position in Kurukṣetra, vipralambha, in its highest degree. We must prepare ourselves to console our master, Rādhikā. She’s in most need of nursing there in that service. In this way things are going on.

Perhaps I’m not clear very much? Gaura Haribol.

Water’s valuation increases according to the necessity of the thirst. So service also, more valuable when the necessity is in its highest degree. Our master is Rādhārāṇī, and She’s in highest need, in highest degree of pain. So service at that time will fetch more value for us.

Do you follow, no?

The Sidney, there was one Sidney, in the battle of France, he was a gentleman coming from rich family. An English man perhaps came to fight in the French line. He was wounded, and he wanted a glass of water, before dying. Anyhow one glass of water was managed to take for him, to be taken for him. When he’s going to take that glass of water, another soldier, “I want water.”

“Thy necessity is greater than that of mine.” He handed over the glass to the ordinary soldier. And he was perhaps General and honourable soldier, and he died.

I studied in English when something like... “Thy necessity is greater than mine.” So value of water is calculated according to the necessity. Otherwise what is the value of a glass of water in the ordinary time? The necessity increases the value.

So the Āśraya Vigraha in Her highest need, if anyone can render a small service that is much valuable, most valuable thing. So we are to prepare ourselves for that, to help in that condition. Highest type of fighter in the time of the greatest need they will come to relief, trained in such a way.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. What’s the time?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Nine fifteen.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nine fifteen. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya.

Any more enquiry? Thirst quenched?

Devotees: (Group laughter)

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

nitāiyer koruṇā habe, braje rādhā-kṛṣṇa pābe

[From Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura’s Manaḥ-śikṣā]

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says that Kṛṣṇa appreciates, Kṛṣṇa has appreciation more for our affection. But we should try to follow His orders. Our attraction should be towards the rules and regulations. A fine point to detect. Kṛṣṇa’s appreciation for rāga, anurāga, of love and affection. But we should think that I’m not in such a position that I have got love for Kṛṣṇa. I shall rather take to observe the rulings that are given in the scriptures for our conduct. Our attraction, our tendency will always be that we don’t hold that high position. We’re of lower order, and we must try, go and weigh, the directions of the scriptures so that that high thing of love and attraction may go for Him. That is very rare. We can’t hope to possess that thing within us. So viddhi, the devotee will always try to adore the viddhi that is given in the śāstra, to do the service of the lower rank. But they will come, and the higher agents they will come and demand, “No, no, no. You must not attach yourself with the lower thing. You must come up, and you must take up your charge and duty in this higher rank.”

[Raghunātha] dāsa Goswāmī says:

sakhyāya te mama namo 'stu namo 'stu nityam / dāsyāya te mama raso 'stu raso 'stu satyam

[Vilāpa-kusamāñjali, 16]

“I sincerely pray to Lord that my attraction be for the servants, service of a servant, and not a friendly confidential service. I rather show my respect to that sort of service, confidential service.”

The service of a sakhā, of a friend, no much labour. But sometimes to take Him on the shoulder, and sometimes to climb on His shoulder. Sometimes equal, the Lord and the sakhā, they’re all equal, of equal platform, they’re moving in such a way. But at heart they’re mad for His company, but in the outside activity they’re almost of equal plane, abusing each other. Sometimes they go and fetch the cows, in this way, equal.

But Dāsa Goswāmī says: “No, I don’t venture to climb up on that plane to serve Kṛṣṇa. I rather want to serve from the lowest rank. My rasa, my attraction should go to that sort, and I want to respect the higher position of a sakhā for Krsna.”

So viddhi, as instructed in the scripture, ‘do this, this,’ we shall try to apply that sort of conduct within us. And then, by that pressure our affection will rise up and up. And the recognition will come from upper house and so much so that we will not avoid that and we will be taken up. But our tendency will always be that I’m unfit. I’m unfit. To increase my fitness. My real internal tendency will be that I am so low I am unfit for the service. That must be at the bottom of our activity, services. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

These are like __________________ [?] A small type of medicine which in particular cases gives us a grand result. Something like that. In the practical life this will be of great use, these sorts of small directions from the experts. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

So I began, nitāiyer koruṇā habe, braje rādhā-kṛṣṇa, I began there. So to make our foundation invulnerable we take refuge to the feet of Nityānanda always. And the foundation will be strengthened the more the construction will be able to rise up. The foundation of devotion comes from Nityānanda Prabhu. Nitāiyer koruṇā habe, braje rādhā-kṛṣṇa pābe. Though apparently it may seem that Nityānanda and Rādhārāṇī They’re opposite. Nityānanda is, as Balarāma is with Kṛṣṇa, Rādhārāṇī can’t come there. And Rādhārāṇī with Kṛṣṇa, Balarāma cannot go there. The clash in the nature of rasa, vātsalya, this sort, as a guardian, and They must be free. But still, at the background, Balarāma is there. So in Nityānanda, in the magnanimous, Mahāprabhu is distributing the highest rasa to all, graciously without any bounds, if we want to have His mercy we concentrate all our energy towards the feet of Nityānanda. And the foundation will be strengthened and it will be possible for us to have a high structure over that...

End of 81.10.01.B

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Start of 81.10.02.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...“Sometimes emanates some sort of colour or figure and disappears. Adbhuta rasera dhāma, hena bala karaye prakāśa; īṣat vikaśi punaḥ, dekhāya nija-rūpa-guṇa. A peculiar type of colour and figure in so many charming aspects are shown as if to my eyes within. Citta hari' laya kṛṣṇa-pāśa. And forcibly takes me to surrender at the feet of that altar.

[From The Songs of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, p 60. Śrī Nāma-Māhātmya 6, Śaraṇāgati]

Pūrṇa vikaśita hañyā, vraje more yāya lañyā dekhāya more. And sometimes it shows itself in the full-fledged form, this Vṛndāvana, the Braja līlā, Rādhārāṇī, all these, and takes me there. I find that I am in the midst of paraphernalia, peculiar, very sweet, and very loving paraphernalia I find myself there, sometimes. Dekhāya more svarūpa-vilāsa. And shows that, ‘See I have got so many things, this is your home. So many things they are also here. I am not any mere imagination. But concrete reality you will find, an environment very favourable and sweet and you also are to live here.’ Vraje more yāya lañyā, dekhāya more svarūpa-vilāsa. And also I see there that He is also dealing in different ways with them, in different rasa, pastimes, so many I see. Svarūpa-vilāsa; more siddha deha diyā, kṛṣṇa-pāśe rākhe giyā. And also find that I have, as if another body has emerged from my previous one, and that is to be located, that have got a permanent place here also, as service, a new life there I find. _____________________ e dehera kare sarvva-nāśa. And then I find ultimately that my previous things are all gone, consideration of my past life and experience, the whole vanished. And this is true. This is my real life here. This is proper. And that was a sham thing and that vanished. [Śrī Nāma-Māhātmya, 7]

Kṛṣṇa-nāma cintāmaṇi, akhila-rasera khani. And then also I find that to take the Name that gives new encouragement and new prospect and new hope, cintāmaṇi. And whatever we want, we have got our internal demand; that comes from that Name. If we take the Name all our internal hankerings are fulfilled. Cintāmaṇi, akhila-rasera khani, nitya-mukta śuddha-rasamaya. It is eternal. It is the purest of the pure, śuddha, and it is full of ecstasy. Nāmera balāi yata, saba lay'e hai hata, tabe mora sukhera udaya. Now I find I have been converted whole, wholesale converted. Now my innermost hankering is this. That whatever is against this sweet Name, that may vanish at all eternally from the world. Nāmera balāi yata. If anything is in any position in opposition to this sweetness, the sweet life, and if anything in opposition that may vanish, and if it is necessary I may give my life to make it disappear from the world. Then the others will be able to enjoy it and that free will. All the opposition for such attainment it may go forever and if necessary at the cost of my life, others may enjoy in such absolute joyous life in the world. No hindrance may come to their fulfilment of life. This udaya, it has got no other second, not second, so everyone may come here. And if necessary the opposition I can sacrifice myself to finish the opposition if any there. All can smoothly, peacefully, and without any opposition, any danger may enjoy such absolute sweet and blissful life.” [Śrī Nāma-Māhātmya 8]

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in Śaraṇāgati, the end Śaraṇāgati song says like that.

Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Hare Hare. Prabhu, feeble attempt, what can I do? It is rather aparādha, bak aparādha. The explanation is so vague, meagre, and misrepresenting that is almost offence to real explanation of the greatness of the Holy Name. What to do? Helpless! Ha, ha, ha. Kṛṣṇa.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Namanta eva jīvanti.

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva, jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir, ye prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi tais tri-lokyām

[Lord Brahmā said to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa: “Oh Lord, Oh Unconquerable One, those devotees who, completely giving up all attempts on the path of jñāna of attaining the non-differentiated platform known as Brahma by hearing the transcendental narratives of Your pastimes (kathā), which emanates from the lotus mouths of the mahā-bhāgavat sādhus and pass their lives by engaging their body, mind and words in pure devotion, easily conquer You (they easily get Your transcendental association), although You are the most difficult to attain in the three worlds.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.14.3]

We see by our experience, wherever they are that does not matter. If they submissively give their ear to the flow from the mouth of His agent that is coming towards this world, they are successful.

naiṣkarmyam apy acyuta-bhāva-varjitaṁ, na śobhate jñānam alaṁ nirañjanam

kutaḥ punaḥ śaśvad abhadram īśvare, na cārpitaṁ karma yad apy akāraṇam

[“Knowledge of self-realisation, even though free from all material affinity, does not look well if devoid of a conception of the Infallible (God). What, then, is the use of fruitive activities, which are naturally painful from the very beginning and transient by nature, if they are not utilised for the devotional service of the Lord?”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.5.12]

What to speak about the gross karma, that has got connection with this mundane, this gross matter. Even this pure soul culture is also not fruitful, naiṣkarmyam apy acyuta-bhāva-varjitaṁ, if it is divorced, no connection with Acyuta. The soul culture, it is not matter, but soul, matter and soul, jīva soul. You are not giving indulgence in the cultivation of the material things outside, gross. But even you culture ātmārāma within your soul, you culture only with the spirit, that is also not good, will not be good, if it is disconnected with Acyuta, the Paramātmā, group. The jīvātmā group that is ātmārāma, ata, the Brahma conception the yogī and Paramātmā conception and that is not sufficient. The God conception, that is the Godhead conception, Kṛṣṇa conception, if devoid of that this mere soul conception is useless.

śreyaḥ sṛtiṁ bhaktim udasya te vibho, kliśyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye

[teṣām asau kleśala eva śiṣyate, nānyad yathā sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinām]

[“My dear Lord, devotional service unto You is the only auspicious path. If one gives it up simply for speculative knowledge or the understanding that these living beings are spirit souls and the material world is false, he undergoes a great deal of trouble. He only gains troublesome and inauspicious activities. His endeavours are like beating a husk that is already devoid of rice. One’s labour becomes fruitless.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.14.4] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.22]

Avoiding the path of devotion which really brings good for us, if one engages himself completely to understand and analyse and understand what spirit is, soul, the subjective substance, what is that, object and subject, the sat is subject, the cit. Kevala-bodha-labdhaye. Only the abstraction, what is soul proper, what is caitan, what is consciousness, śreyaḥ sṛtiṁ, leaving away the devotion, the submission to the highest entity. Kevala-bodha-labdhaye, teṣām asau kleśala eva śiṣyate, nānyad yathā sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinām. His attempt will be like one who is husking only the husk but not the paddy. It will be of such effect, only cit, but not ānanda. Ānanda is not there.

na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ, [durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ

andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās, te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ]

[Prahlāda Mahārāja says: “Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or Guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Viṣṇu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labour, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold miseries.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 7.5.31]

Prahlāda says: The inner aspiration, inner thirst is for the substance, the contents, not the container. Cit means only with a feeling, but feeling of what? Feeling of ānanda! Ānanda is not there. Only feeling can be analysed and analysed there. And what will be there? That will be just like husk. The spirit is not there. The spirit, the ānanda, sat-cit-ānandam. Ānanda is the proper thing, that is to be tackled, and not the cit, the consciousness who can feel the ānandam. There is an element within us that can feel ānandam. We are not the business to acquire the feeler without ānanda, ānanda must be there. Otherwise we shall collect only feeler. What to feel? The feeling of the ānandam, that is the main thing we are to deal.

So naiṣkarmyam apy acyuta-bhāva-varjitaṁ, na śobhate jñānam alaṁ nirañjanam [Bhāgavatam, 1.5.12] That jñāna, the mere consciousness has been in comparison to matter, it has been praised like anything. But if it is devoid of Acyuta connection it is fruitless. And also kevala-bodha, only if you want to go to analyse the consciousness and to understand what consciousness is, that will also be a fruitless labour, because consciousness is useful only to get ānandam. To feel ānanda feeling is necessary, and if no ānanda, what is necessity of feeling? Then it is better to become a fossil. That feeling and the good thing to feel is absent. What is there? Śreyaḥ sṛtiṁ bhaktim udasya [Bhāgavatam, 10.14.4], jñāne prayāsam udapāsya [Bhāgavatam, 10.14.3], there are so many things, acyuta-bhāva, ānandam, sat-cit-ānandam. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So Mahārāja, kaniṣṭha, madhyama, uttama adhikārī they all have a different conception of the Name. What is, kaniṣṭha adhikārī’s conception is very vague?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, very vague, only the Name bhajana, Nāma bhajana. Mahāprabhu says, that is in the bhajana section, not in the sādhana, but in siddha-daśā. There is the gradation and Mahāprabhu has given the comparative study there.

yāṅhāra darśane mukhe āise kṛṣṇa-nāma / tāṅhāre jāniha tumi ‘vaiṣṇava-pradhāna’

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “A first-class Vaiṣṇava is he whose very presence makes others chant the holy name of Kṛṣṇa.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 16.74]

A real Name, if you hear once, you may think to be a Vaiṣṇava, you can take him. Nirantara, when you find a person who is always chanting the Name, then you will take him to be the madhyama Vaiṣṇava, the middle. And yāṅhāra darśane mukhe āise kṛṣṇa-nāma / tāṅhāre jāniha tumi ‘vaiṣṇava-pradhāna.’ And if you can find anyone by whose sight Kṛṣṇa Nāma comes within you, Kṛṣṇa Nāma enters within you and forces you to take the Name, he’s the highest devotee in the world of the Name worshipper. And there is another classification.

kṛṣṇeti yasya giri taṁ manasādriyeta, [dīkṣāsti cet praṇatibhiś ca bhajantam īśam

śuśrūṣayā bhajana-vijñam ananyam anya-, nindādi-śūnya-hṛdam īpsita-saṅga-labdhyā]

[“One should mentally honour the devotee who chants the Holy Name of Lord Kṛṣṇa, one should offer humble obeisances to the devotee who has undergone spiritual initiation and is engaged in worshipping the Deity, and one should associate with and faithfully serve that pure devotee who is advanced in undeviated devotional service and whose heart is completely devoid of the propensity to criticise others.”] [Śrī Upadeśāmṛta, 5]

It is also this idea, general idea given by Mahāprabhu to Rūpa Goswāmī, and Rūpa Goswāmī has given us in Sanskrit śloka in this form: kṛṣṇeti yasya giri taṁ manasādriyeta. If you find the Name of Kṛṣṇa in the mouth of anyone, in the tongue of anyone, then you will adore him mentally, not physically. ‘Yes, good, his faith will be good,’ appreciate. You will give appreciation, ‘Yes he’s doing well.’ Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he gives a commentary here, very, very important.

saṅga-doṣa-śūnya, dīkṣitādīkṣita, jadi tava nāma gāya

mānase ādara, koribo tāhāre, jāni’ nija-jana tāya

[“Oh Lord, I will mentally honour and consider as my brother one who avoids bad company and sings Your Holy Name, be he formally initiated or not.”] [From The Songs of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, p 44. Śaraṇāgati, 5.1]

If you find the Name of Kṛṣṇa on the lip of anybody but if he has not any bad connection, company, bad association, then only you can appreciate, give appreciation. Mentally you can show some sympathy. But if he has got any direct dusaṅga, bad company in taking Name, it is of opposite nature. Just as Nitāi-Gaura Rādhe-Śyāma. They’re already wedded to some bad ideal, so that sort of name cannot produce until and unless that association gone, they cannot be adored. Do you follow?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Saṅga-doṣa-śūnya, dīkṣitādīkṣita. May not have proper course, admission in the line, through a proper agent, may not. But soon he may come there, come to that stage. But without having dīkṣā proper, in a proper place, if you find the Name of Kṛṣṇa in anybody you can appreciate. But, Saṅga-doṣa-śūnya, this is the particular note of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura.

Kṛṣṇeti yasya giri, giri means in the word, in the mouth, gir means vāṇī, if one is pronouncing so many words and you find he’s chanting Kṛṣṇa, then, you may adore him. Dīkṣāsti cet praṇatibhiś ca, and you will only bow down to him when he is diksita, that he is accepted by the agent of the Lord. That he has got Name in his ear and heart, he’s acceptable. The Divine Name has been distributed in him, diksita. Already by dīkṣā Kṛṣṇa has accepted him as His devotee through His real agent. Then you will bow down, because the seed has come within his heart. Kṛṣṇa has come to capture his heart. In the temple of his heart Kṛṣṇa has descended. So you must show respect by bowing down your head. Kṛṣṇeti yasya giri taṁ manasādriyeta, dīkṣāsti cet praṇatibhiś ca, if dīkṣā in a proper place then you can show your praṇāma, prostration to him. Śuśrūṣayā bhajana-vijñam ananyam anya, and if you find exclusive devotion, he has directed the current of his whole life towards this you feel, then you will try to have his company always. Always, incessantly, whose bhajana, whose connection with the divinity is incessant, without gap, you will try to mix with him to fulfil your own purpose. ______________________________ [?]

Then you will try to serve him who has got incessant connection. Śuśrūṣayā bhajana-vijñam ananyam anya-nindādi-śūnya-hṛdam īpsita-saṅga-labdhyā, and you will try to do anything and everything for him if you find that he has completely devoted and merged in the taste of the sweetness of the Name of the Lord and His līlā etc., he’s there. And not any exertion to dismiss this world of material: no connection with this. Madhyama adhikārī, one who is always serving, he may have some consciousness of this mundane nature. But this gentleman, the paramahaṁsa, in his view, there is nothing but Kṛṣṇa bhajana, he’s engaged. And even if you fortunately find such a person who has got no relativity of non Kṛṣṇa, then you will attempt your best to be of any service to that class of devotee, no consideration. If fortunately you come across such a great man who’s independent to the relativity of this mundane world and wholesale cent percent merged in the service of Kṛṣṇa, if by your fortune you meet such a rare sādhu, then you will try to do anything and everything for him. Īpsita-saṅga-labdhyā, this is the thing which is in my search, what I am searching I have got that. So with this much intensity of your earnestness you will fall, you will merge, you will throw yourself into service of him, the very rarely to be found. I have found anyhow in my life once, in this way.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Dayal Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: This is how we feel in your association Mahārāja. In your association we feel this way, nindādi-śūnya. ______________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, no. I’m blaming so many. I’m in the relativity of the mundane world only blaming so many. What I got no trace but for blaming purpose I am very, ‘This is not, this is not,’ there, very expert. Ha, ha, h, ha.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Ha, ha, h, ha. But you are always nirapekṣa, Mahārāja, we see.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. By the grace of the Guru and Vaiṣṇava that may be, that nirapekṣa, may not have any prejudice for any mundane thing. But only the guidance of my Guru that may be like the pole star in my heart, that star that I have got from him I can move, live and give whatever only according to that. This is my aspiration. I want that. Hare Kṛṣṇa. May not be led astray by any bribe, kanak, kāminī, pratiṣṭhā, the bribe; the nirapekṣa. The attempt, by the grace of all the Vaiṣṇavas may my attempt be nirapekṣa, may not be prejudiced for any other things but the interest of Him.

sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ, tat paratvena nirmalam / hṛṣīkena hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate

[“Pure devotion is service to the Supreme Lord which is free from all relative conceptions of self interest.”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Pūrva-vibhāga, 1.10]

Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ, anyābhilāṣa, karma, jñāna, and also viddhi bhakti, viddhi bhakti also. Seva prati hoila paravyoma deli feli [?]

[Raghunātha] Dāsa Goswāmī says, “If you have much attraction for the viddhi bhakti, laws and rules, śāstra, then you will be thrown down into the Paravyoma in Vaikuṇṭha and you won’t be able to keep up your position in Vṛndāvana where it is spontaneous, no necessity of any scripture or direction is found.”

My transaction with Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa bhakta, what law should come and decide between them? A law will say, ‘Oh you do this much, you don’t go this way, this way.’ What is this? With whole heart as much as I command I must give it to my Lord, and to those that are running to serve Him in that nature. No law, no scripture, no good will of the environment of the social party.”

Svajanam ārya-pathaṁ ca [From Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.47.61, the verse beginning āsā maho]. So called relatives, and also, ārya-pathaṁ ca, the ways that have been recommended by the Vedas, śāstra, ‘You should do this, you should not do that,’ that may be in the case of worldly matters. But in our dealings to Kṛṣṇa ‘you do this and don’t do that,’ we shall do with the whole of our energy, as much as we can command. That is spontaneous, that is automatic. But we must not think our self very high that we have got that spontaneous flow. So in our position we must try to give some respect.

pūjāla rāgapaṭha gaurava bāṅge, [mattala hari-jana viṣaya range]

[“The path of divine love is worshippable to us and should be held overhead as our highest aspiration.”] [Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākura]

Always we should keep that on our head. We shall traverse, roam about in the śāstric area, but our Gurus, our superiors, our aspiration always keep in the head. And that is all automatic, all spontaneous, no law there.

But I am not raised to such a big position, so I shall have to show some respect for the scripture etc., but not all, having consistence with the raga, the command of our Guru. Certain extent somewhere looking at their aspiration we shall break the law, and sometimes told ‘no.’ Hereby I myself taking the undue independence from the society and from the scriptures. So I must not venture where I am concerned.

But in their case the whole of our appreciation will be for that. And they are not under these ordinary rulings. Thereby we will be able to understand what is what. Otherwise we shall think that everything is, the sahajiyā, the imitationist, ‘We are already there, and whatever we do that is all right. In the name of Kṛṣṇa we shall do anything and everything and say, ‘Oh, take it in Kṛṣṇa’s account.’ Then I shall have to go to hell. Ha, ha.

So we must be pūjāla rāgapaṭha gaurava bāṅge. I must retain my connection with the śāstra society as far as possible. And always appreciation, and reverence, and love will be that over law and social area. We shall try to appreciate that. If we may not put ourselves in that practice but our appreciation always be beyond law. Kṛṣṇa is above law. Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa bhakta, really, they are above law. But I am not yet in that category. That should be our general temper, pūjāla rāgapaṭha gaurava bāṅge.

So one copy you may send to Astana today, in an envelope. You can put one letter also...

...

How do you fare there, live there in that house?

Devotees: Fine. Very nice.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No trouble.

Devotees: No, no. Very fine.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Devotee: Mahā-mantra also represent Kṛṣṇa or...?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, according to the realization. When one will have absolute attraction for Kṛṣṇa līlā, that is the supreme most, above law, then that Rāma, the inner meaning of the word Rāma will go to Rādhāramaṇa Rāma.

There is only one centre where the source of all the forces accommodate in one. Some say that is Brahma, some say that is Paramātmā, some say that is Nārāyaṇa, and in Bhāgavatam, Caitanya Deva School, and Nimbarka, others say, that that centre is Kṛṣṇa.

So that is the source, ultimate source, the spring of everything, all power, all beauty, all existence. The beauty is the centre, the beauty. The love is the centre, not power, not inert indifferent base of consciousness; neither the all-pervading aspect. The Paramātmā which pervades everywhere, that aspect, that aspect of the cause which we find that it is everywhere within, that is Paramātmā. And which is all-accommodating. Everything is within Him. That aspect is Brahma, Brahma which embraces all sorts of consciousness; that is Brahma. And now not only permeating aspect, or containing aspect that is the real position of the absolute cause. But absolute cause must be the object of all movements. In Hegelian philosophy, ‘By Itself and for Itself.’ For Itself, He exists for Him, not for others. So we exist for Him.

So Bhagavān means bhajanīya. Not only He holds us, not only He permeates through all of us, but He is to attract us, to give us fulfilment by His service. Then the ultimate cause comes in a position of Nārāyaṇa, Puruṣottama. And when the decision comes again that is there any understanding between us that this much we shall give to Him and that much we shall get ourselves? Or He is the absolute master and everything of us belongs to Him and we are in His possession. He can make or mar, or He can do anything with us. Such connection He has got that the cost of our existence He may be gratified.

When we accept that absolute position of Him and then we can find that He is love and He is beautiful and then we come to understand the prime cause of the whole. Everything ends in the conception of Kṛṣṇa. So the remotest connection of the meaning of every word takes to Him, and if we go to make any meaning in the midway that will be partial.

So all the meaning of all the words – Mahāprabhu when He came from Gaya He expressed Himself. Then He began to give explanation, even to the grammar, vyākaraṇa-sūtra, that. “Everything is Kṛṣṇa. If any scholars there be in Navadwīpa they should come and discard My explanation.”

Everything, dhātu sūtra, what is dhātu? Dhātu means potency. Whose potency? The ultimate cause! So to go, to sleep, to move, whatever, that is Kṛṣṇa śakti, the origin of that coming from Kṛṣṇa, the śabda coming from Kṛṣṇa. All words, its meaning cannot but show that its ultimate source is from the ultimate centre. So every word meanings...

__________________________________________ [?]

... horse...rein-less, if the meaning of every word is allowed to go on this rein-less then it will go to Kṛṣṇa. Ramaṇa, Rāma, Ramaṇa, the Ramaṇa in its highest sense you will find only in Kṛṣṇa, in Vraja līlā, not so much in Rāmacandra. Rāmacandra is Ramaniya, very beautiful. When one looks at the figure of Rāmacandra they are charmed, but Kṛṣṇa is more charming. So Rāmacandra and Kṛṣṇa one and the same but only posing: Kṛṣṇa posing as Rāma, He’s charming, His ways, figure, dealings, all charming, but Kṛṣṇa is more charming, the centre of the centre. In this way we are, when that Rāma, ordinarily we may take the Rāma this Ayodhyā Rāma, Dāsarāthi Rāma, but if we have got, if we are acquainted with the highest plane of life, the subtle-most plane of life and then we’ll find that the centre of all charm is in Kṛṣṇa. Rāmacandra is also represented there.

Even there is differentiation in Kṛṣṇa rūpa. The Vraja Kṛṣṇa is greater than Dvārakā Kṛṣṇa. Once it is represented in śāstra that Dvārakā Kṛṣṇa when He has come to see His own portrait of Vraja Kṛṣṇa He is charmed there. “Oh, how beautiful I was. Now I am not so beautiful.”

Differences in Kṛṣṇa also, so what to speak of other incarnations of Him, in this way the gradation is there. We may think Rāma, Dāsarāthi Rāma, Hari, sometimes Nṛsiṁhadeva, but in the ultimate sense it will come that Hari, it is not Hari it is Hara. In the vocative it becomes Hari, lata becomes late, mala male in vocative case. So Hara, who can capture, who can snatch the highest position of a snatcher, that is in Rādhikā we find. Why? She can snatch the mind of Kṛṣṇa also, what to speak of others. So Hara means Rādhā. In the highest sense of Haran and stealing, snatching, attracting, Hara is Rādhā. Hare Kṛṣṇa Rādhā Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa attracts everybody, and this Rāma who can please everybody. And Kṛṣṇa, the Rādhāramaṇa Rāma who can please even Rādhikā, He’s the holder of the supreme position of attracting and pleasing everyone. In that sense we’ll go to enter into Kṛṣṇa līlā then we find Rāma Kṛṣṇa, Rādhā is Hara and Kṛṣṇa will also attract us, in this way. They cannot deviate from that plane to any other plane. Plane of Rāmacandra that is mixed with morality, _____________ this prkriti ranjanam _______________ all these, but absolute transaction with lava and especially parakīya inconceivable that is found in Kṛṣṇa Avatāra. And when once can enter into that plane he is charmed there, he can’t come down to see other things from other planes. This is the central and highest position. Gradually we are to come to know that.

Today we stop here. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Gaura Haribol. Your book is finished, translation?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Finished, yes now the typing is going.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: After typing that may be sent to Caru Swāmī ______ [?]

...

He wanted me to go to the west but I hesitated, ‘I won’t be able to show any success there. If you command, I must go. But as my own conception, consideration, I say that I won’t be able to show any success there. I can’t understand their words, their intonation, this is a difficulty. And another thing, I am not very open to mix with them, with their habits. So without mixing with them familiarly how can I hope any success in the activity of those persons? So consider this and order.’

Then he sent someone else, Goswāmī Mahārāja, the founder of Gauḍīya Saṅga was sent by him there.

And there was one Professor Sanyal, he told to me, “Why Prabhupāda wanted to send you there, do you know?”

“No, I don’t know.”

“Because who are going there; instead of converting them, they are being converted, and you won’t be converted.”

End of 81.10.02.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.02.C

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Where are these gentlemen, this Venkatta Raman, [Bhāratī Mahārāja?] ________where? Where are they?

Aranya Mahārāja: Akṣayānanda Swāmī, he’s got some ear infection.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So he’s keeping there.

Aranya Mahārāja: I think so, and Venkatta he should be coming.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And Venkatta’s brother he has gone to Māyāpur? Don’t know?

Devotee: Yesterday he went to Māyāpur. He’s back today.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Came back?

Devotee: He’s back.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And today this morning you have not seen him?

Devotee: Yes, we have seen him.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Who is he?

Devotees: Vṛndāvana dāsa.

Devotee: Mahārāja, tell us something about Kuntī Devī’s teachings. I don’t know much about.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kuntī Devī, her famous saying is this, when the Pāṇḍavas were to be reinstated in their lost property, then Kṛṣṇa was going away to Dvārakā, and the posture, the gesture of Kṛṣṇa was such that Kuntī Devī was dis ascertained [?]

“You come in the court other times always but with some tendency that You will have to come back again. But this time we are out of so many dangers in life and now we are installed in our throne, and now You are going and we’ll have no other necessity of You again. With this posture You are going away, and my heart’s troubled.” Kuntī Devī told. Then she told:

vipadaḥ santu tāḥ śaśvat, tatra tatra jagad-guro

bhavato darśanam yat syād, apunar bhava-darśanam

[Queen Kuntī Devī prayed to Kṛṣṇa: “I wish that all those calamities (poisoning, arson, cannibalism, the vicious assembly, exile in the forest, the battle), would occur again and again so that we could have Your darśana again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.8.25]

Her famous saying: “Let my dangers come always, we may be in danger always, in which we had some assurance that You will come and rescue us from such difficulties. We don’t want the comfort of being the master of abused property, we don’t like, can’t appreciate. Rather, for eternity we want to be in danger, where, whenever necessary You came to our rescue. So that is my prayer, eternal prayer, that danger may visit, difficulty may visit us always so that we can have Your darśana, Your attention, Your sympathy, Your grace. That is far more better than these ordinary worldly difficulties of life. Vipadaḥ santu tāḥ śaśvat, tatra tatra jagad-guro. In whatever position of life, and whatever difficulties may come to visit us, we won’t care, we want You, not any relief from the worldly troubles, the least of that.”

So the pure devotee should not put any condition with his service, that, “I want to be close to You, I want to have sufficient resources to serve You. Sāmīpya, sālokya, I may be, may have settlement in the plane where You are, where I will be able to render my service to You.” No condition. “At Your sweet will, whatever You are pleased to do with me I submit to that. The consideration to You wholesale. Nothing exists for me, no condition, just a service I want. I can’t give that away. I want Your service. That is my prayer. But Your touch, Your connection, but without any interference to Your independence, Your independent decision, in whatever way. But You must accept me as Your, as one of You in Your family.”

paśu-pakhī ho ‘ye thāki svarge bā niroye, taba bhakti rahu bhaktivinoda-hṛdoye

[“Be my life in heaven or in hell, be it as a bird or a beast, may devotion to You always remain in the heart of Bhaktivinoda.”] [From The Songs of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, p 136. Śikṣāṣṭakam, 4.7]

“If You are pleased to send me to the hell I’m taking, I’m ready, I’m Yours. This consideration I only want that I belong to none but You. And You may like to do whatever You like, no condition. But Your connection I can’t give up. That is my only prayer: Your connection.”

mārobi rākhobi yo icchā tohārā, [nitya-dāsa prati tuwā adhikārā]

[“Slay me or protect me as You wish, for You are the master of Your eternal servant.”]

[Śaraṇāgati 3.3, From The Songs Of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, p 13]

“You may keep me, You have got, just as a slave You have got right to kill me also. But I want my mental adjustment in that way that You have the right to kill me, if You please. I accept that. But to give up Your connection I won’t like, I won’t tolerate.”

That will be the prayer of highest form of devotion, no condition.

kīṭa-janma hau jathā tuwā dās, [bahir-mukha brahma-janme nāhi āś]

[“Let me take birth as a worm, as Your servant. I would forsake a birth as Brahmā the creator, if that birth was devoid of Your service, O Kṛṣṇa.”] [Śaraṇāgati 3.5, From The Songs Of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, p 13]

“Even I can have a birth of a worm, but only that my connection may be with the devotees, at least in the house of the devotee. There I may be placed under their foot and may die, does not matter. But Your connection, slight connection, removed connection, I may not be deprived of that. That is my only prayer.”

And that praise was very close and in greatest confidence. “As much as I can give to Him, so much nearer are we to Him, by surrendering, by surrender.” The criteria of surrender is such that no condition. There are certain factions that want sālokya, sāmīpya, sārūpya, sārṣṭi, [sāyujya], there are five kinds of liberation. Sālokya: in the same plane with Him, Vaikuṇṭha, sālokya. Sāmīpya, near about Him. Sārūpya, the same figure, catur-bhuja, four-handed, and that colour just like Nārāyaṇa, sārūpya. Sārṣṭi, and of equal resources also, you can handle that in your service sufficient resources, sārṣṭi. And last, sāyujya. According Māyāvādī the sāyujya is the highest for them, but for the devotees that is the worst, sāyujya. So these five kinds of liberation in Vaikuṇṭha. And there are two kinds of sāyujya, one Brahmā sāyujya, another Īśvara sāyujya. Generally the jñānī, their consideration is to get Brahmā sāyujya, “In the hazy ocean of consciousness, I may be drowned, no trace. No trace about me, anyone may have.” And Īśvara sāyujya for the yogīs, the Paramātmā.

īśvaraḥ sarvva-bhūtānāṁ, hṛd-deśe ‘rjjuna tiṣṭhati

[bhrāmayan sarvva-bhūtāni, yantrārūḍhāni māyayā]

[“O Arjuna, I am situated in the hearts of all souls as the Supersoul, the Lord and Master of all souls. For every endeavour of the living beings in this world, the Lord (My plenary expansion, the Supersoul) awards an appropriate result. As an object mounted on a wheel is caused to revolve, the living beings are caused to revolve in the universe by the almighty power of the Lord. Incited by Him, your destiny will naturally be effected according to your endeavours.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.61]

Vasudeva. They want to merge themselves into the ray, in the lustre of the body of Vasudeva. Then according to the devotee class that is more lamentable. Why? He has come to have the conception of Īśvara, Vasudeva, without beginning to serve Him he wants to be one with Him. Getting such a higher chance, then this lamentable position, that is more deplorable.

The Vaikantik devotees: Ekanta bu vishyate [?] The kevala, kevala bhakti, those that have appreciated, they are very intelligent, they think, ‘Whatever condition I shall attach I shall be looser.’ He’s my well-wisher cent per cent. Then should I know better than Him? Never! Leave everything to that well-meaning guardian and He will do for me whatever He thinks best and thereby I’ll be most benefited. They’re very intelligent. Gaura Haribol.

Once during solar eclipse ceremony Kuntī met Kṛṣṇa in Kurukṣetra, and Vasudeva also, they met Vasudeva, and asked him: “My brother, you don’t keep any information of us? We are so distressed by the ill behaviour of Kaṁsa. No, by Duryodhana, he’s manipulating in such a way. We are placed in ________ and we are going to be banished, self-banishment, and eating by begging, in disguise, so many troubled conditions we are passing our days, and you don’t keep any news, like to keep any connection with us.”

______________________________________________________________________ [?]

Then Vasudeva says: “My dear sister, don’t think, don’t have misconception, think otherwise of us, what is our position. The belaying Kaṁsa, his ill-treatment is played to the extreme and we have not got our own choice of life. We’re afraid of him; we’re moving hither and thither, no normal position that I shall keep any information of you. You don’t worry for that.”

Parisash sarve bayam yate dishan diyan [?]

“Not only myself but so many like us, their life is hopeless, they’re very much afraid of that thing ________ and only for their own safety they’re running hither thither.”

There is one: Deva klivaya kama nayan [?]

“We have got no independence in our movement. We are rather dolls, play dolls in the hands of ________ Deva klivaya kama nayan [?]

“Dolls to play at the hand of the devata _________ dancing forces. So we have not got a normal peaceful position that we shall take information, keep regular information of you my sister. Don’t think otherwise Kuntī Devī.”

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Sometimes I was in charge of Delhi and Kurukṣetra Maṭha, about [nineteen] twenty seven to twenty nine. That time I had to go to Simla [?] I passed through of course Ambala [?] and Chandigar [?] I remember. But where is Jalandar [?] I went to Pathila [?] also once and Narbar [?] another time. These places I already visited when I was in that side. But on which side Jalandar?

Devotee: Jalandar is towards Pakistan, towards Amritsa, about sixty miles from Ambala further on.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No train connection?

Devotee: Yes, on the main line.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Main line, going to Calcutta?

Devotee: No, going to Amritsa, Lahore.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________________ [?]

Devotee: ______________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________________ [?]

Devotee: ______________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I visited Ambala city and ___________ many a time. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Mahārāja, we use, the Gauḍīya Maṭha, uses astrology for some purposes. Is this to be used by devotees, or should one avoid such things?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is mentioned in the astronomical and astrological books also that when one is out to seek his spiritual fortune, not walking in the chalked-out line of the general mental sphere, the _________ calculation, is nothing to do with them. It is mentioned, those that have accepted the path of renunciation, or devotion, that is so powerful that the ordinary – this is the result of karma, and that can be calculated by the astrology or astronomy, the consequence of karma. But who has taken drastic measures to get out of karma, either exclusively taking the way of yoga, or jñāna, or devotion, this may not be applicable in their case. It has been told. Still, the finer brain they may have some remote connection, remote shadow, they can get from that. And that is very rare, who, on the shadow can know what is in the substance. But generally the warning is given in the books ________________ [?]

sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

[ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo, mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ]

[“Totally abandoning all kinds of religion, surrender exclusively unto Me. I will liberate you from all kinds of sins, so do not despair.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]

One who has taken that path, karma has nothing to do with him. It is the centre control, he’s connected there, so He will be all in all. Not only for the devotees, there is a saying:

Kṛṣṇa bhakta vidhi hai bhagavan vidhi kalan kadi kanka [?] If a devotee of Kṛṣṇa becomes of a little progressive condition he can cut asunder the writings of Brahmā the creator even.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. __________________________________________________ [?] Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Aranya Mahārāja: I’ve heard it said that Hitler he was a better man than Churchill, by our Śrīla Prabhupāda. And I’d like to – maybe you could explain that a little bit.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You want to make enquiry into politics?

Devotees: (Laughter)

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: A side issue. But I could appreciate Hitler. The German nation that is my intuitive tendency. I appreciate the German nation as well as Hitler also, because he was against democracy. I’m also against democracy. The mass is ignorant and they will guide. The intelligentsia, the experts, must guide the nation. That is...

End of 81.10.02.C

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Start of 81.10.02.C_81.10.03.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...come forever under the Holy Feet of Mahāprabhu, to take shelter. And I expect to my most ability, most determination, that none will be able to convert me to any other place than that of Mahāprabhu. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

...still I stick – for my future life any longer, almost finished this life, keeping strictly in the feet of Mahāprabhu. Eighty six years finished almost, only few days left. And Mahāprabhu was four hundred and ten years older. Jada sata sad sak [?]

And mine is ______________________________ [?] ten years, four hundred ten years.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Did our Śrīla Prabhupāda come to you first for sannyāsa?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Huh?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Did he approach you first?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Our Swāmī Mahārāja, our Prabhupāda. Did he approach you for sannyāsa or was that first to Keśava Mahārāja?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I can’t recollect it definitely, but some say he did not perhaps propose practically, but he might have come with that purpose but apprehended something, because before that Sakhī Bābu came to take bābājī-veśa from me.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Oh, Sakhī Caran.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sakhī Caran, but I refused. I told, he lived here for some time, and at that time I lived in a hut, and no latrine, no bathroom, all these things. And there was a pit and two pieces of wood given there and with some surrounding thing, and we used that as latrine, and took water from this well.

And he slipped there, and got injury. An old man and fatty body, and got some fever and he asked me, “Don’t inform my family.”

I told I can’t. Your life is valuable, so money, the family is also very submissive to you. And here no nursing, no treatment, how you can do?

He said, “No I have come. I have left my family and I have come to remain permanently in the Maṭha. I won’t go back.”

But I did not allow that. Your life is valuable. You have done so many services in Vraja-maṇḍala and Gaura-maṇḍala, Prabhupāda, etc. And more you will do if you live more. I won’t allow you to take bābājī-veśa and remain here and undergo so many penances, a life full of penances. He was little mortified. I informed his family men. They came and took him.

And many came to take sannyāsa from me but I didn’t give consent but give sannyāsa to them, so many of my God-brothers. So perhaps he came here with that motive and hesitated to put it before me, the family concern, the business, all these, maybe, you may think something. I don’t think that he put it to me practically. But I am told that he came with that view and perhaps he had some conversation with me and asked whether he will take sannyāsa or not, and what I don’t remember what he said.

Then I heard once that he took sannyāsa in Mathurā from Keśava Mahārāja. And Keśava Mahārāja himself he took sannyāsa from me.

First Goswāmī Mahārāja, the founder of Gauḍīya Saṅga, he took sannyāsa from me. And the third sannyāsa from me took that Keśava Mahārāja. And then many, many big men came to take sannyāsa from me but I, my conscience would not allow, to give sannyāsa to them. I don’t know. At least consciously I refused him, I can’t remember. I think I didn’t. But he might have supposed, conjectured that I may not be in favour of his sannyāsa life, under such circumstances. He might have supposed like that.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare. Hare Rāma Hare Rāma.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Sakhī Caran stayed here for how long? Sakhī Caran Prabhu he stayed here for how many days, how many months? He was here how long, Sakhī Caran?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Two, three months perhaps, not more.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: I saw his samādhi in Vṛndāvana.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, in Rādhāramaṇa _______ [?] But that is a very, that was of impertinence, both for the Goswāmīs, the proprietor, the present owner, and also for his sons. By money, by bribe, they put him just near Rūpa Goswāmī. And Jīva Goswāmī could not allow that. His own samādhi is there because he has respect for Rūpa Goswāmī his Gurudeva, his samādhi is alone; also many, Kavirāja Goswāmī, Jīva Goswāmī, all outside, this side. And this man managed to pay some money and put the samādhi of Sakhī Caran in along with Rūpa Goswāmī.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: And Bhugarva Goswāmī.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is anti spirit of Jīva Goswāmī, they have done against the will of Jīva Goswāmī. I don’t – I’m a peculiar man, I don’t think that they have done right, they have done wrong. Sakhī Caran was not a devotee of that type, of Rūpa Goswāmī type. Kavirāja Goswāmī and Jīva Goswāmī they are outside. They ventured, the man was bribed and his son was inconsiderate so the position was selected near Rūpa Goswāmī. That has been done wrong, according to me – and impertinence and that is offence. I have got that peculiar mentality here also. Keśava Mahārāja put a Vaiṣṇava on the outside on the gate. That is very impertinent, the Vaiṣṇava put on the gate like a doorkeeper. What is this? They should be worshipped, their figure. This is what we have learned from our Prabhupāda.

Tasmai deham tato bhajam sata pūjā yaja yaham [?]

Who we consider to be Vaiṣṇava they should be worshipped, like Him, sometimes more important than Him, He says. And we put them as gate keeper. What is this?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Therefore your name becomes Bhakti Rakṣaka.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

...

Unavoidable, there are infinite classes of species there and according to karma jīva has to, soul has to wander in the different stages of life. So many trees, creatures, stones, then insects, worms, birds, so many things, infinite, and according to karma we are to wander through them. This is the basis of general knowledge. And to acquire a human birth, that is a great thing, very rare opportunity. And within that, again the company of a real sādhu, sādhu means who is after eternity, who lives in eternity, Vaikuṇṭha, sādhu. There are so many sādhus, though they have taken the dress of a sādhu, but deals with mundane affairs. “Oh, you want the disease should be removed, take this medicine, take. The human body, the disease will be removed. Oh, you are suffering from the attack of a bad planet. Oh, I’m giving this kavach, it will be changed.” In this way, taking the robe of a sādhu but their dealing engaged in mundane achievements, they’re not sādhu proper. Sādhu-sat. Sat means which is eternal.

ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, punar āvartino ‘rjuna

[mām upetya tu kaunteya, punar janma na vidyate]

[“O Arjuna, from the planet of Lord Brahmā downwards, the residents of all planets are naturally subjected to repeated birth and death. But, O Kaunteya, upon reaching Me, there is no rebirth.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 8.16]

Up to Brahmaloka, that is only being dissolved and creation and dissolution, passing through creation and dissolution. And the world which is above creation and dissolution, eternally, a bona fide sādhu has got engagement with that plane.

[na tad bhāsayate sūryo, na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ]

yad gatvā na nivartante, tad dhāma paramaṁ mama

[“My supreme holy abode is that place which the surrendered souls reach, never to return again to this deathly plane. Upon going there, one never returns to this material world. Neither sun, nor moon, nor fire - nothing can illuminate that all-illuminating supreme abode.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 15.6]

“That is My sweet abode. If one can enter there, they have not to get away from that position. That is very beautiful and very sweet place. Those that have got liking for Me and they come to live in that plane. And others they are moving, going up down, up down, ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ. Brahma means taṭasthā, that marginal, which is created by apara-śakti. And those jīva that unfortunately enter there under the clutches of that influence of exploitation, they exploit and then again they are exploited. In this way they are moving, going up and down.”

So only in human form it is possible to get out of this vicious circle. And so when one attains this human species he should not have any other business but only to try to get out of this entanglement. That will be the most intelligent and considerate step to take in his life. And to promote that, only that favourable company is necessary, favourable. It is a general reason, that to nurture a newly acquired thing, when a seed is planted then some watering and other:

[mālī hañā kare sei bīja āropaṇa,] śravaṇa-kīrttana-jale karaye secana

[“When a person receives the seed of devotional service, he should take care of it by becoming a gardener and sowing the seed in his heart. If he waters the seed gradually by the process of śravaṇa and kīrtana, the seed will begin to sprout.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta,Madhya-līlā, 19.152]

...to know more about the nurturing of the creeper, śravaṇa-kīrttana-jale, to listen and to reproduce, kīrtan means to reproduce. When we are engaged in reproduction, there we cannot but be all attentive because we cannot speak anomaly, irrelevant. So consciously or unconsciously we must have to be all... ...of eternal character, not lip deep something, that originating from the pressure of the flesh or any other thing in the material world. Sound must be traced as its basis, foundation, as spiritual. The inspiration must come, the waves must start from a spiritual plane, so that the sound must have, and we are to get that from Gurudeva, and then to go on cultivating that sound. Not with the help of the mind or the body but the real culture within the soul through faith, śraddhā. Śraddhā grajam. Only our faith can touch that world. Avāṅ-manaso gocaraḥ, beyond the jurisdiction of our mental thinking, or our eyes, or any senses, ears, senses, but śraddhā graja, only our faith.

You see everybody mostly they have got their ear, their eyes, but they have no faith in the Śrī Mūrti or in the Divine Name. So it is beyond the area, the jurisdiction of our physical senses we can easily imagine. So one who has got faith, he runs after the sound of kīrtana, Kṛṣṇa Nāma, or the Śrī Vigraha of Kṛṣṇa. It is the faith within that asserts through the sound, through the senses, but it is not within the jurisdiction of our eye, our ear, or something like that. The interest in the depth beyond the realm of the jurisdiction of the eye, nose, ear, etc., even the mind, everyone has got a mind but they are not running to see Śrī Mūrti. Everyone has got eye.

But Mahāprabhu when He is visualising Jagannātha, tears running like a river current from His eyes. Who is seeing Jagannātha, only the eye? No! An eye we have got but not so much tears. Why? So the seer is the faith, the ātmā whose function is faith. Faith is resting with soul, a soul’s function, and not mind or reason. Reason, there are so many materials in the mind under reason, they play the part of a judge within his jurisdiction that is supplied by the mind, the world of experience. There he can pass, judge what is good or bad. That thinks that is mundane reason acting in the mundane relativity.

So buddhi jñāna buddhi is beyond that, only faith, śraddhā. When that is within us, we run to a sādhu, we are pleased to see a sādhu. We are pleased to see the Deity. We are pleased to hear the chanting of the Name. That is a deep feeling within us and not our external senses. So the main culture must be within and with the help of the sādhus who has got his faith sufficiently awakened in him. Only his company will help me. So wherever that will be available – where money is necessary, and we run to America, to England, to Iran to acquire money, to earn money. So also here spiritual progress is necessary, wherever it will be found I must run there to get that, to acquire that. A simple thing, because it is there anyhow I want that thing so I must have to go to that place where it will be found in opulence. It is dire necessity for me. So how externally I am opposed, my position is... ...wherever it will be the company of sādhu will be available, adan pradan. Guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati, sat-saṅga, generally in these six ways we can make saṅga.

[dadāti pratigṛhṇāti guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati

bhuṅkte bhojayate caiva ṣaḍ-vidhaṁ prīti lakṣaṇam]

[“Offering gifts in charity; accepting gifts in charity; revealing one’s mind in confidence; enquiring confidentially; accepting prasāda; and offering prasāda are the six symptoms of love shared by one devotee and another.”] [Upadeśāmṛta, 4]

Dadāti pratigṛhṇāti, to give something for the service of a sādhu and to take his prasādam, whatever he gives, to take, accept that, to give and to take, dadāti pratigṛhṇāti. Guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati, and the feelings of one’s innermost heart, the feeling, that should be conveyed to the sādhu. ‘Yes, my feeling is now such and such.’ And pṛcchati, guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati, and also he will ask and put questions what will be necessary for me, for my good in this stage, ‘Please advise,’ guhyam ākhyāti pṛcchati. And bhuṅkte bhojayate caiva, and to help, to serve sādhu in his feeding, in his life going, what is necessary to keep up his life, to supply that, and bhojayate caiva, and to get the remnants from him and thereby to continue one’s life. In these six ways generally we accompany the association with a sādhu, generally observe, or occur. Sādhu-saṅga, give and take, give and take internally, internally, externally, wherever be my position, to give and take, give and take. By taking we get higher thing from him. And raw materials we supply and we get ready made things from him. In this way I can improve my position.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

[ata ātyantikaṁ kṣemaṁ pṛcchāmo bhavato ‘naghāḥ]

saṁsāre ‘smin kṣaṇārdho ‘pi sat-saṅgaḥ śevadhir nṛṇām

[King Nimi asked the nine Yogendras: “O sinless ones! We therefore enquire from you about that which is supremely auspicious for all living beings, for in this world of birth and death, association with saints - even for half a moment - is the most valuable treasure in human society.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.30]

Even for a moment we get the real association of a sādhu that may turn the direction of one’s life, śevadhir maha-malavan, a very valuable gem, sādhu-saṅga. That is very valuable help we can get. What he gives that is far more valuable than anything in this world. This is all mortal. They have got the gem, diamond, or money, or any kingdom, it is not valuable to all. May be valuable to a particular class of human thought, thinking, particular class. There are so many things in the creation, this is nothing to them, so has got no general value. But that ānandam, śukha, such sweetness that has got a general value. It maybe it is necessary, even the tree, even the creeper, even the stone, in whatever position the seeker may be if he gets that he will highly satisfied - that general ānanda, śukha, happiness.

yasmin prāpte sarvam idam prāptam bhavati

[“By knowing Him, everything is known - by getting Him, everything is gained.”]

yaṁ labdhvā cāparaṁ lābhaṁ, manyate nādhikaṁ tataḥ

[“By attaining to this state, he never considers any mundane acquisition as superior, and in the face of unbearable tribulation his heart never wavers.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.22]

If we get a little of that we think that no other thing but this can satisfy me! “This is the thing for which I am striving so much, lives together. Now I have found the object of my search.” Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Higher things we can get only with the connection of service, by offering ourselves... ...have to come to the association of things of lower nature. But if we want the association of things of higher type then we must offer ourselves for the service of that same. This broad thought we must keep always in mind. That cannot be utilised like a servant to me. But I shall offer to be a servant of Him if I really want His association. Only through service I can be connected with Him, for His interest I shall work. His interest will be valuable than that of mine. He was living a higher life.

jīvera 'svarūpa' haya-kṛṣṇera 'nitya-dāsa' / [kṛṣṇera 'taṭasthā-śakti' bhedābheda-prakāśa']

[“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.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.108]

It is our fortune that we in our constitutional position we have got a position of slave to Kṛṣṇa, slavery. The freedom, the free will be astounded to hear the word slavery. Slavery – a hateful thing, slavery. But Kṛṣṇa is such that slavery is the highest attainment for us in His relation. That is not easily to be got.

Devotee: ___________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Necessity of variety of service, but His connection should never be cut off. Whatever should be done in His connection whether it may be in the form of love or rupture, love and rupture must be on His account. One monkey is devastating Laṅkā and putting it on fire. Apparently it is a very cruel deed but it has got connection with the absolute necessity, so it is laudable. It is laudable, we are to understand how. This is not the party. Those that are being disturbed by such action of cruelty they cannot stand as a party against the Absolute. So they will also be benefited if they are cruelly treated. Those that are cruelly treated for the service of the Absolute they are also getting some benefit, thereby. Absolute is so perfect and so full in its characteristic, absolute good. So both love and rupture. Whatever may be the outward appearance of the work but if it has got real connection with the absolute it is the good. Anyway we must be connected with Him, connected with Him, with the absolute centre, absolute centre. We must carry out the orders of the absolute plane, the wave.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Live in the eternity; always live in eternity, not any connection with the limited idea, or fulfilment of life. There you will be able to find that the conception of the centre is that of Kṛṣṇa, the absolute love, purity, knowledge, love, everything is there, beauty there, satisfaction. And His paraphernalia also is very wholesome and favourable, eager to take us, to help us. All desirable things to be had there in Goloka, and still it is like mundane, outward similarities, rather this world has been created after the ideal of that highest thing. So it is said somewhere:

kṛṣṇera yateka khelā, sarvottama nara-līlā, nara-vapu tāhāra svarūpa

[gope-veśa, veṇu-kara nava kiśora, nata-vara, nara līlāra haya anurūpa]

[“Lord Kṛṣṇa has many pastimes, of which His pastimes as a human being are the best. His form as a human being is the Supreme Transcendental Form. In this form, He is a cowherd boy. He carries a flute in His hand, and His youth is new. He is also an expert dancer. All this is just suitable for His pastimes as a human being.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 21.101]

Of all the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, this human class of pastimes is the highest. The human beings have been created after the ideal of Kṛṣṇa. That is eternal. And this is subordinate and subservient, and that is original. Not that that has been created after the ideal of this. But nothing has been created after that ideal. So it holds an advantageous position.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa. Hare Rāma. Hare Rāma.

Devotee: Does Yogamāyā also sometimes control Kṛṣṇa, just like Rādhārāṇī controls Kṛṣṇa?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Yogamāyā’s position to manage the environment so that it will produce some favourable paraphernalia for the pastimes of the Divinity. It is managed by Baladeva. Baladeva’s potency is Yogamāyā. And it, He handles directly to manage the environment for the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, to produce a favourable atmosphere. So for the interest of Kṛṣṇa but apparently it may seem that it is independent. But really all her attempts are actuated by the motive of pleasing, creating a favourable atmosphere for the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa. In that way: Yogamāyā. Yogamāyā, sometimes to please, to intensify Their bliss, as if, sometimes she has to create separation of Both the parties, to create more earnestness. So apparently it may seem it is going against the will of Kṛṣṇa, but really it is, whatever she is planning that is for the gratification of Kṛṣṇa and nothing else. That is Yogamāyā, and generally under the direction of Baladeva, handled from behind.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Is there a personality of Yogamāyā?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, personality, Baladeva’s potency. Baladeva also meant through the Svayaṁ-Bhagavān, Svayaṁ-Rūpa, Svayaṁ-Prakaśa, Vaibhava-Prakaśa, Baladeva, the facsimile of Kṛṣṇa meant to help the pastimes of the highest will.

Just as a manager is created by the proprietor to help his activity, his power, the whole power is with the proprietor, but proprietor delegates his power to the manager, to the dewan, to the Prime Minister or someone, to help him in different form.

So Kṛṣṇa, Baladeva is nothing but Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa’s delegated power of less authority than that of Kṛṣṇa, but meant to help the līlā of Kṛṣṇa pastimes, management. And Yogamāyā is the direct potency of Baladeva. Because to handle with the other potencies so feminine form was necessary, mainly to handle with the mādhurya-rasa they are all of lady temperament so Yogamāyā as the potency of Baladeva of lady temperament to help to manage them befittingly, Yogamāyā. Yogamāyā is joining everything towards Kṛṣṇa, supplying everything towards Kṛṣṇa, and Mahāmāyā is taking everything, carried in-carrying current and out-carrying current. Yogamāyā is in-carrying current, taking everything, pushing everything to the centre, the central satisfaction, the central joy or ecstasy, whatever we may call it, is always trying to contribute towards the centre, and Mahāmāyā taking away from the centre.

Ke?_______________________ [?] We should be engaged for His purpose. Nothing should be left back. The wholesale action will be totalitarian war.

Devotee: I’m sure with your blessing I think it’s possible.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: To capture all the centres________________________________ [?]

kāmasya nendriya-prītir, lābho jīveta yāvatā

jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā nārtho yaś ceha karmabhiḥ

[“Life’s desires should never be directed toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation, since a human being is meant for enquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal of one’s works.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.10]

The standpoint of life under different circumstances has been dealt with here in Bhāgavatam. Dharma means duty. Hy āpavargya, it is meant to help the proper liberation. Dharma, duty, has been fixed to be discharged in such a way that automatically it leads to our liberation proper, dharmasya hy āpavargyasya. Nārtho ‘rthāyopakalpate, but it is being misused for some other purpose. What is that? It is misused to earn maximum money. Duty, duty has been arranged in such a way that we can earn maximum money, artha. What is artha? To acquire some energy, to store some energy, whenever necessary I can convert into sense pleasure. That is artha. So duty should be arranged in such a way that it can work out liberation, get out of this entanglement. So śāstra has ordained in such a way our duty. But we don’t do that, we misuse it for the purpose of collecting material energy. Nārtho ‘rthāyopakalpate, nārthasya dharmaikāntasya. Dharma, artha, kāma, moksa, the four fold ends of life. We find it in our society, dharma, artha, kāma, moksa.

dharmasya hy āpavargyasya, nārtho ‘rthāyopakalpate

nārthasya dharmaikāntasya, kāmo lābhāya hi smṛtaḥ

[“All dharmas (religions, duties, occupational positions, social functions) are certainly meant for ultimate liberation. They should never be performed for material gain. Furthermore, according to sages, one who is engaged in the ultimate occupational duty should never use material gain to cultivate sense gratification.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.9]

And nārthasya dharmaikāntasya, the money, the stored energy, that has been advised to be used to help to discharge our duty, not to purchase maximum sense pleasure. Artha it is there, true, but artha it is meant, artha should be utilised only to help our duty and not for sense pleasure, dharma, artha, kāma. Nārthasya dharmaikāntasya, the only end, only object of our money will be, energy will be to help to discharge our duty. This is the dictation of the scripture. But we don’t do that. Then what is another thing? Nārthasya dharmaikāntasya, kāmo lābhāya.

kāmasya nendriya-prītir, lābho jīveta yāvatā

[jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā nārtho yaś ceha karmabhiḥ]

[“Life’s desires should never be directed toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation, since a human being is meant for enquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal of one’s works.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.10]

Dharma, artha, kāma. What is the purpose of kāma? It has been given to us by the śāstras, dharma, artha, kāma. This is also a particular end. But its object should be to receive the help of the material energy through our senses as much as it will keep my health fit, kāmasya nendriya-prītir. The object must not be sense pleasure. Kāma means ________ our connection with the material object through our senses, but only to keep up this body fit. This will be the object of kāma means our acceptance of the material energy, through the senses. That is the object, but not indriya-prītir, not sense pleasure. But we approach things through the senses only to enjoy sense pleasure. But that is not the purpose of the śāstra, scripture, scriptural dictation. Kāma means sense pleasure not sense pleasure but our connection to accept the help from the material world through our senses to keep our body fit. And with our good health we shall earn money. The money should be utilised to discharge our duty. And the duty should be fixed in such a way that it can get relief for us from the present atmosphere.

dharmasya hy āpavargyasya, nārtho ‘rthāyopakalpate

nārthasya dharmaikāntasya, kāmo lābhāya hi smṛtaḥ

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.9]

kāmasya nendriya-prītir, lābho jīveta yāvatā

jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā nārtho yaś ceha karmabhiḥ

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.10]

And we must draw help from the external world through the senses to keep our...

End of 81.10.02.C_81.10.03.A

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Start of 81.10.02.D

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...misfortune for the nation. Experts must be given their preference. And also...

Devotee: ________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________________ [?] I like these three things very much. Hitler wanted to – wanted the ladies to go home and produce, give good children. He wanted that they should give up their service and go to family life. And that is according to Arya samskrti, Vedic samskrti. So, and the good children will fill up the nation. And also he wanted that sterilisation of the diseased person, they won’t marry and they won’t produce diseased children and fill up the country with disease. Only for sense pleasure one will marry and produce children: that should not be the ideal. Priya veda naivida [?] Marry only to get good child. Priya veda naivida [?] And also: ________________ [?] In Bhāgavatam – not for sense pleasure one is to marry, but the real ideal is to get good children, the good posterity. So anyone and everyone to satisfy his sense pleasure he’ll be allowed to marry and they will guide and the experts will be fool to play at their hands, this cannot be the real ideal of a particular nation, or any family, or anything, country. Guidance must come from high, not democracy.

Brahmā, it is mentioned when Rāmacandra has killed Vali, and He killed it from, unseen by Vali, apparently like a coward. Vali could not see Him, but from private position He threw the weapon to Vali and Vali was dead. And Vali’s wife came with curse. “You have done such and such things, in this way so many things.”

And Rāmacandra gave His explanation, and that is to be noted to be a very subtle thing. Rāmacandra told, it is found in Valmiki Rāmāyaṇa, that, “The responsibility of the government of this globe as given to the Solar Dynasty by Brahmā himself. So we may consider the Solar Dynasty they are the ruler of the whole globe, because that was delegated by Brahmā himself, the creator. And now Bharata he’s on the throne. And there’s also a provision thereby that anyone born in the royal family he will take up the position of a policeman in his hand. Anyone born in a royal family he’s a born police. And so as because I’m born in the Sūrya vaṁśa, Solar family, Solar Dynasty, so I have got intrinsic power to do My duty according to the police, as a policeman. And you have committed an offence which is, which should be given capital punishment. According to your social law if you take the wife of your brother you should be punished with death. That is the law. But because you have accepted the wife of Sugriva so you are punishable by capital punishment. And once you have got that judgement you can be killed in any way the government may like, so I have killed you without notice, without any notice to you, because you are already a victim of capital punishment. This is My justification.”

So the responsibility from up, and not from down; of course cooperation is allowed from the subjects. The King may consult the subjects, their opinion, and do accordingly. But the government, as Mr Abraham Lincoln told: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people.” In America who declared this first?

Devotees: Abraham Lincoln.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Abraham Lincoln. That gentleman, he’s very famous for this basis of democracy. The ideal democracy is based on this principal: “The government of the people, government by the people, and government for the people.”

We admit, when I was in Madras, the Gandhi Movement, all these things, generally I advertised in the newspaper the subject, this subject, “The government of the people, for the people, but not by the people.” What does he know what is the real interest of the people. Government of the people, for the people, and government of the people, but not by the people; but by the higher authority who knows more than the ordinary mass can expect to do. That is our idea. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Churchill was a strong man, that is of course unscrupulously strong, firm, in his resolution. Chamberlain had to go when Churchill came. And without Churchill when Bamsi [?] was to meet with Roosevelt in unknown quarter of the Atlantic then General Smarts was invited to take his position. None was found in the whole of England, his substitute was considered General Smarts who was in Africa, South Africa. He went there, he took his position, then Churchill went to have an interview with Roosevelt, important interview, and in an unknown quarter ________ [?] Very strong man, Churchill, very strong, resolute.

At that time Gandhi declared that, “Quit India: British quit India.” That movement was started in India at that time.

Devotee: _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ______________________ [?] “British quit India.” That was his slogan.

Churchill told that, “At this time we have got the number of our military men are in the highest degree in the history so we do not care for the Gandhi slogan.” But that was proved futile.

When Achindalek [?] or Mantegomayi [?], who was in charge of the military department of the East, when he went away he told, “We have to go only for one man, Mr Gandhi, who’s so brave, and who has infused the bravery in the whole of the India, and for that we are to go away.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: ____________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ______________________________ [?]

Devotee: ____________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ______________________________ [?]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: ______________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________________ [?]

Vidagdha Mādhava Prabhu wants to say something: where is he? You want to say something?

Vidagdha Mādhava: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What is that?

Vidagdha Mādhava: When it appears to be inauspicious, say there’s some inauspicious situation, if one is remembering Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa above and within the heart, is he protected? Can he overcome that inauspiciousness?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _______________ [?]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: ________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The quality and quantity of your remembrance – it depends. And smaraṇa, there may be different types of remembrance, and also of quality, and also quantity: considering that we can expect to have the desired result. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi.

ye yathā māṁ prapadyante, tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham

mama vartmānuvartante, manuṣyāḥ pārtha sarvaśaḥ

[Śrī Kṛṣṇa says: “As a person takes refuge in Me and surrenders unto Me, I respond and reward accordingly. Being the ultimate goal of all philosophies and doctrines, I am the objective to be attained by all. Certainly, O Pārtha, everyone follows My various paths in all respects.”]

[Bhagavad-gītā, 4.11]

Vidagdha Mādhava: So as long as one doesn’t have so much potency...

Devotee: __________________________________ [?]

...

Vidagdha Mādhava: Mahārāja, could you tell us something about the war, and how, what a devotee’s attitude is, and how he could prepare for such devastation?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: __________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha. That is out of control. One may try his best to save him, and at the same time going on taking the Name of the Lord. And at the same time more than that, how to save the devotees at least higher than, holding higher position than him.

Vaisnava rakha [?] artha rakha [?] and Hari-Nāma: and also śāstra rakha [?]

We must not, while dying we must not forget to serve sādhu and śāstra, Deities, all these things, and if necessary we must give our life, that is to die in harness. You know, ‘die in harness?’

Vidagdha Mādhava: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not flying away from the battle. When the danger approaches we must die fighting. And our fighting that is for the service of anything which is in connection of the Lord, Mahāprabhu.

Vidagdha Mādhava: Mahārāja, many people are going out to the country and establishing farms away from the cities so they can survive the war. The devotees, they should not make such preparation?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: ________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: When fighting begins you must leave the country?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He says devotees are going to the country, leaving the city.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh! To the villages, rural quarters!

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes, preparation.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, if that is possible, one may do that. To avoid the dangerous spot you may go to the more safe position, with all these properties: that means the Deities, the scriptures, and devotees.

laukikī vaidikī vāpi, [yā kriyā kriyate mune / hari-sevānukūlaiva, sa kāryā bhaktim icchatā]

[“O great sage! One who aspires for devotional service should perform all activities, whether Vedic or mundane, in a way that is favourable for the service of Lord Hari.”]

[Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Purva-vibhaga, 2.200, from Nārada-pañcarātra]

[Gauḍīya Kaṇṭhahāra, 13.82] & [In Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 13.113, purport]

In a human way, what we do for our favourites, our nears and dears, and only retain and in place of these fleshy kinsmen we shall try to do our duty towards the Divine Connection. That will be the difference. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. We won’t be very eager to give up our life. We must be in our duty. But if life goes away, it may go, how can I stop it? But we shall try to live and in the service of our respectable objects, our master. We must not desert our master, at the cost, for the fear of losing this flesh and bone.

Vidagdha Mādhava: Mahārāja, some say the war is close, and others say it’s not so close.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It maybe, death individual or total death, in mere quantity every day it is coming and so many are being removed. And only to prepare against that we are trying our best. Death: Grhiti mukeshu _____________________________ [?] That the lord of death has caught me by the tuft of my hair and only by a jerk he will take me up from this life. Thinking this, one should attend seriously in his spiritual duties. This moment I may die. Then what steps should be taken for that? I’m doing that. I shall engage myself most intensely in the service of the Lord. And let the nature discharge his duty. I shall be attentive in my duty. I shall give all attention to my duty, discharge my duty. And the death: let him be allowed to do his duty according to the law of nature. That cannot be avoided. This is sure.

But if I can save my position in this life it will help me for increasing more intensely my spiritual wealth. So I want to live, I want live, and because the human life is valuable and here we can acquire more eternal spiritual wealth, so I shall try to live. But if it is inevitable we can’t help, we shall be taken away discharging my duty. I won’t allow myself to forget in any time, even by the dread of death, but I try my best not to forget Kṛṣṇa, kāṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa and His own. I won’t, I’ll try my best to keep up that memory during the time of my death. This body will vanish but the mental system with those wealth full with the memory of Mahāprabhu and Kṛṣṇa, that will remain. That the atom bomb cannot destroy.

Death is inevitable we know, everyone knows that it will come, but before that as much as I can amass my desired end of life I shall try. What other alternative they may have, anything? No other alternative. I have come for the highest valuable wealth and I go on with that engagement. And let the apathetic force do their duty in their way. And if Lord wishing, desiring, I may not die: and also I may die, I do not care for that...

End of 81.10.02.D

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Start of 81.10.03.B_81.10.04.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...jijñāsā. Who am I? Where am I? What am I? What will be my best benefit? All these discussions!

dharmasya hy āpavargyasya, nārtho ‘rthāyopakalpate

nārthasya dharmaikāntasya, kāmo lābhāya hi smṛtaḥ

[“All dharmas (religions, duties, occupational positions, social functions) are certainly meant for ultimate liberation. They should never be performed for material gain. Furthermore, according to sages, one who is engaged in the ultimate occupational duty should never use material gain to cultivate sense gratification.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.9]

kāmasya nendriya-prītir, lābho jīveta yāvatā

jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā nārtho yaś ceha karmabhiḥ

[“Life’s desires should never be directed toward sense gratification. One should desire only a healthy life, or self-preservation, since a human being is meant for enquiry about the Absolute Truth. Nothing else should be the goal of one’s works.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.10]

We must enquire, where am I, and how I can get rid of the present limitation? How can I liberate me and what is my highest prospect? It is, this chain has been devised for such purpose in our life, but generally we find the opposite. My duty is such, not for to liberate from this unfavourable environment but it is to earn money and money is utilised for sense pleasure. And dharma, that is also generally used to distribute that sense pleasure amongst this environment: that is dharma. What is dharma? To distribute money or food, that is sense pleasure. That is the food of the physical body. And not to enquire, brahma-jijñāsā, from whom:

yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante, yena jātāni jīvanti

yat prayanty abhiṣamviśanti, tad brahma tad vijijñāsa

[“The Supreme Brahman is the origin and shelter of all living beings. When there is creation, He brings them forth from their original state, and at the time of annihilation, He devours them. After creation, everything rests in His omnipotence, and after annihilation, everything again returns to rest in Him.”] [Taittirīya-Upaniṣad, 3.1]

Not that brahma-jijñāsā, who is around me, who is controlling me, my fate, where am I, and what is my highest prospect? What is the means to that highest goal? All these enquiries they are stopped going on. Earning money and acquiring sense pleasure, and maximum distributing that to our family or to the society, sense pleasure, distribution of sense pleasure. We are satisfied there, these three candidates, physically our duty is done. But no diagnosis, treatment is going on, helping others what he needs.

The patient says, “Give some bad diet, I like that.”

I’m supplying that. I don’t care that this will enhance his disease. I don’t discriminate. I’ll supply then the patient dies. That is our inconsiderate help, done by Ramakrishna Mission etc. The guṇḍās are given organised help, without changing their direction he’s going to the hell. “Oh! You’re too tired? I’m giving some help, oh go, be little haste to go to the hell.” They don’t care to change their direction, “That don’t go that side. Come this side, then I’ll help you, come this side. Come this side, you are soul, come towards God. I am helping you.” That is discriminate help.

Indiscriminate, whatever he’s doing does not matter, “I’m making social work independent of anything else.” What is that? And help to whom? Who is the party, this body, or mind, or the soul within? Who is the party? Whom to help? Who is the party to receive the help? And what is the disease? To save this mortal coil, only to save the mortal coil to help the man within.

Sometimes it may come in such an acute position that by killing a man may be helped, otherwise he’s going to do such a great mischief that if he commits that he’ll be very badly, in very bad position, stop him before he does such nuisance.

...

...for the help, because soul is immortal; help the soul.

...

This body, of course human body is well and good if it is utilised.

...

Vaiṣṇava aparādha or Bhāgavat aparādha, if cannot be opposed, kill him, so he may not go to be prey of that most heinous disaster in his future life. Stop him. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. By killing also we can serve a man, we can serve him really, sometimes. So this extreme view we can take to detect and to analyse who is the party, what is good, how one should be helped, what consideration should get preference. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: That may be anti social.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Socially, society of the ignorant and of the dacoits, guṇḍā society, what’s a society, when society there is a standard, absolute standard, and what’s near to the standard of life then that society should have recognition.

There is vox populi and vox dei: some say vox populi is vox dei. We don’t care for that. That is wrong. ‘The voice of the people is the voice of God.’ Never! Mass is ignorant. Human beings: there are other sections they may hold majority here; the trees may be majority. They will say that the human section they’re losing, they’re consuming oxygen. No, that is opposite. The human society that are cutting us off – all these things, making bad treatment, they should be banished from here. They’re majority, the majority here is ignorant.

One German philosopher – “Mass is ignorant.”

So, even Jinnah [Muhammad Ali] told, before Lucknow Congress: “Brute majority, the brute majority; that will decide the fate of the nation.”

“The voice of populi is the voice of God.”

Never! They’re ignorant, they do not know. Then what is the necessity of the leaders in the religious field? Why did Jesus come? Mohamed come? Śaṅkara come, leading. The genius, they come and lead the masses generally and so many are their followers. What is this? Mass is ignorant. Experts should be adored in every field, and also in the field of religion, the experts, they should be adored, they should be followed. We should take their ideal. But vox dei should be vox populi, so no question of Bible, Koran, or Veda, if the voice of the people is voice of God. They differ at times and the voice of the God will also differ. No truth eternal. There cannot be any eternal truth, and no necessity of relation through the Veda, through the ṛṣi, the experts, through the mahājana, the great men, the revealed truth. This is atheism.

Society if they follow the direction of Veda, the religious experts, revelation, the revealed truth, then the society will be saved. What society? They’re all fallible creatures. Every day they can find that they’re committing so many mistakes. They’re infallible directors of the society, and ludicrous. Dekhi diti tini avastaya [?] Three stages are found in every day in a person and he says, ‘I am the leader.’ Repenting his own activity, and he’s a leader. What a society! Society should be guided by great men.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: ____________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________________________________________________ [?]

Caitanya-Bhāgavat. Whom we find in one day three stages, in three stages, and he says that, ‘I am the leader of the society.’ This is a fun. _______________________________________ [?]

Caitanya-Bhāgavat perhaps! No stability in him, found, in three parts of day, he gives opinion of three varieties, and he says, “I am the leader. Accept me.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Here I stop. Nitāi Gaura Hari...

...

That will all be dissolved and vanish, will go away.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So in the Bengali you have:

Tomar naney amar bhagavat das nama rupa candan lek lupta hoi jale [?]

So in the name of liberation...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Only positive attainment. That will vanish. I shall be forced to come in the marginal position, neither this side nor that side, just in the marginal position. That is what is favourable to banish that, neither ___________ [?] mukti, the liberation. Liberation, that is imaginary line, imaginary position, not anything positive. So whatever little positive connection I have got with me I have to dissolve that, abandon that, because I’m mukta, mukta-vimukta, liberated from anything and everything. I can’t participate, then I’m in bondage with that. But I have got my attraction for the prasādam, for the ornaments, for the avasesh,

tvayopabhukta-srag-gandha-, vāso 'laṅkāra-carccitāḥ

ucchiṣṭa-bhojino dāsās, tava māyāṁ jayema hi

[Uddhava says: “Adorned with the articles that have been offered to You, such as garlands, fragrant clothing, and ornaments, we, Your personal servitors who partake of Your holy remnants alone, will certainly be able to conquer Your illusory energy (māyā).”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.6.46]

With the remnants that are offered to the Lord, with the help of that I shall get my bhakti devotion towards the Lord. And if I’m a follower of mukti proper then I shall have to leave all these things also. So go away, go away; don’t try to pollute me. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So when you say bhakti here you’re saying:

amar bhagavat das nama rupa candan lek lupta hoi jale [?] So this Bhāgavat here means my Lord?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Amar bhagavat das nama, that I am the servant of Kṛṣṇa. This name will go away, vanish. I have got connection; I am a servant of Kṛṣṇa. I can’t remain that because I’m mukta from every aspect. And the candan also, the stamp is there, I’m Bhāgavat dāsa. The stamp I shall have to give up, that I’m Bhāgavat dāsa. This stamp is there, the Tulasī mālā, this candan, ________ [?] all these things.

One of our God-brothers, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s disciple, Prabhupāda’s sannyāsī, Tīrtha Mahārāja, used to tell that, “If in the municipal area any dog moves hither thither without a...

Devotees: Tag. Collar.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...leather collar, then that is shot. Then the servants of the municipality will shoot that dog. So with this _________ [?] we have got this Tulasī mālā, that we are servants of Kṛṣṇa. Then no one will venture to harm us. And without this Tulasī mālā we may be shot down like the dog: who belongs to none. So I won’t leave this valuable leather collar, this Tulasī mālā. ________________________________________________ [?] From Padma-Purāṇa.

_______________________________________________ [?] “Whomever you’ll find with such signs, leave them.” Yāmarāja says to the dūtas. “Others you take to me.”

________________________________________________________________________ [?]

“Fetch them towards me who have not got such signs on their body.” He’s ordering his dūta.

____________________________________ [?]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, there’s another śloka here.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________________ [?]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yāmunācārya, one śloka...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________ [?] Those that are after mortality, asat __________________ [?] which is not existing, which is imaginary, asat, and from that you come which is not good, which is, the asat people means that are not honest, those that are running after transient pleasure, selfish pleasure, asat.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: ___________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ________________ [?] means ordinary, other than, other than Your devotees, that is _______ [?] Your devotees and other than that _________ [?]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Of these two, devotees and non devotees.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Of those two, I see.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: “Anyhow I want Your association in any form or other, even the servant of the servant of the servant of You. And others who are not connected with You I don’t ________ [?] that ordinary people, I don’t want to be a good position even equal to that of a Brahmā, the creator. Even I’m offered to have a position like that of a Brahmā with connection of the ordinary people I don’t want that. But I want to be even the birth of an insect or worm in the room of Your devotee.”

kīṭa-janma hau jathā tuwā dās, tuwā bahir-mukha brahma-janma nāhi āś

[“Let me take birth as a worm, as Your servant. I would forsake a birth as Brahmā the creator, if that birth was devoid of Your service, O Kṛṣṇa.”] [Śaraṇāgati 3.5, From The Songs Of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, p 13]

...

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s another poem, mānasa, deho, geho, yo kichu mor, [From Śaraṇāgati 3.1] there.

“I want to be, if by the course of the law of karma I in future to have any birth anywhere in Your creation, then this is my prayer that any birth I may have, even that of a worm or insect, I’ve no objection. But only my prayer to avoid the company of those that are apathetic to You. Even an honourable position like that of Brahmā is offered to me I don’t like it.” Kīṭa-janma hau jathā tuwā dās. “I prefer the birth of a worm in the room of Your, in the house of Your devotee. And: bahir-mukha brahma-janma nāhi āś, and even the position of a Brahmā I like to reject. I have no taste for that. What to speak of other higher birth. Even the man who is the creator of this mundane world, bahir-mukha brahma, I do not want his position even.”

That is śuddha-bhakti. Real devotion is there. And another striking point, Yāmunācārya he was almost Guru of Rāmānujācārya. Rāmānujācārya’s life perhaps you don’t know? Yāmunācārya he was Guru of Rāmānuja we may say, though perhaps Rāmānuja did not meet him. Yāmunācārya was good scholar and he was continuing the study in a tol, in a school, of Gurukula.

Then at that time one King came and he gave an announcement. In the King’s name some announcement was given out that, “My court paṇḍita he wants to know if there is any scholar to discuss with him about the teachings of the scriptures, Veda, etc. Then he may accept this.” A golden thing was sent from door to door, a golden ______________ [?] gourd or something, a golden...

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Ornament?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not ornament, a fruit _______________________ [?]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Pumpkin.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Pumpkin like, that thing was sent with declaration that, “Hold this. If anyone is there who ventures to discuss about the meanings and purpose of the Vedic School.”

Then Rāmānujācārya’s Guru avoided that, “No, I won’t go.”

That Yāmunācārya was there. His name was _________ [?] something was his name, he told, asked his Gurudeva to take the challenge. “You keep up this.”

“No, no, no, I get some money from the state. That he’s all in all in the state, he’s the appointed paṇḍita of the King. If he wants he may stop my, stop the money what I get every month to keep up the school, so I won’t like to disturb that gentleman.”

Then Yāmunācārya told... ___________________________________ [?]

Then Yāmunācārya told, “No, I want to take the challenge. You are my Gurudeva, and when I am here you will sign that you are not fit to discuss with him, I can’t tolerate that. I must go to discuss with that raja, the scholar of the raja.”

Then he could not calm him so it was taken and Yāmunācārya went to the court. And there was already a rumour spread that a boy is coming to discuss with the court paṇḍita, so many scholars gathered also. “What’s the matter? The boy will come to such a big scholar to discuss things with him?”

Then Yāmunācārya is going, and in the harem the Queen is there and the King also there. There is a talk between them. The Queen says, “Alam bhayu [?]” “Now he has come.” And they set a bet on the future proposition that if he, if this boy be victorious, the Queen took the side of the boy Yāmunācārya that, “This boy he must be victorious in this fight.”

Then King told, “No, it is not possible. My court scholar he’s a great paṇḍita, he’s a great scholar. What this boy will do?”

Then, “Suppose if this boy he’ll be victorious, what you will give?”

Then the King told, “My daughter I shall marry with him, and half of the kingdom I shall give to him.”

“Yes, surely he will do, be victorious.”

Then the sitting for discussion. He was very much enraged that this boy has come and taken the challenge, he cannot do because he has already given announcement that whoever will come he will talk with him, so can’t avoid. But still he feels much insult that, “I have so many scholars. All are afraid of me, and this boy has come to insult me.” Then when they sat together the court paṇḍita he asked a question. “Will you be able to answer my questions?”

“Yes. I shall try.”

“I put three questions to you.”

No, the court paṇḍita told, “Have you come to discuss and to defeat me?”

“Yes I have come.”

“Put any question. I shall cut it asunder.”

“I put three questions to you. One,” then Yāmunācārya put this question. “One question, I say that your mother is not barren, who cannot produce child, your mother is not barren. You are to prove that your mother is barren; this is one.

The second, the King I say the King is pure in character, our King is of pure character. You are to prove that he’s impure.

The third, the Queen is a chaste lady, I say. You are to prove that she’s adulterer.”

So how he’ll be able, he can’t say anything, sweat came in him. Three questions put. Then after some time, and men and other scholars they’re waiting with _________ baited breath, breathless they’re waiting. Then the court paṇḍita, the raja paṇḍita he came with a thunderous voice, “Can you answer these questions?”

“Yes.”

Then the excitement grew to the extremity. “How he will be able to put these questions?”

Then he quoted from – their pramāṇa, that is proof, must be given from some scripture or so otherwise it won’t be accepted. He quoted one that: “If the son of a lady is worthless then she may be condemned, called barren. One who has produced a son like you who is so boastful and who has got no real sense, she may be considered to be a barren lady. ______________ [?] valueless child, producing a valueless child, the mother is accused that she’s barren. It is mentioned in such Purāṇa.”

What to do?

“Next, the King is not pure, he’s sinful.”

“Can you prove?”

“Yes. King is impure.”

“Why?”

Again quotation from scripture: “King is receiving taxes from the subjects and thereby with these taxes their sin is going always to the King. And he performs yajña and other activities, thereby he’s becoming, he’s purifying himself. But because the tax comes always and with that sin comes to the King and so he may be considered to be impure, for the sin of the subjects.” And quotation given; can’t refuse.

Then the third and most terrible: “The Queen is not a chaste lady.”

All are waiting with breathless attitude.

Then he told that, “There are so many gods always living with the Queen, er, with the King, eight gods or so they’re always living.”

Mahati devatara raja nava rupena tisthati [?]

“There are some eight gods they’re always with the King. So when the King meets his wife the gods are also there, so in that sense, in the sense of chastity what we conceive, that is disturbed.”

And that was accepted. “Yes. We can’t deny that.” So he was subdued.

Priti vadi vancar [?] Then, another title he got, priti vadi vancar [?] Yāmunācārya.

Then there is another point. ________________________________________________ [?]

When he was asked perhaps by the King before they began the discussion, “Then you boy, will you be able to come into dispute and discussion with this big paṇḍita?”

When the King put this question to Yāmunācārya then he answered:

_______________________________ [?]

“Oh, you lord of men, I may be a young man, a very young child, but:

___________________________________ [?]

But my knowledge is not, my sarasvati, my voice, she’s not a girl:

___________________________________ [?]

The poison, the venom of a small serpent, is it not sufficient to kill a person?

_____________ [?] A very small serpent _______ [?] the son of a serpent, the venom of the son of a little serpent, is it not sufficient to kill a man? So I may be a boy, but my knowledge is not like that of a boy. So I think I shall be able to fight with him.”

And when the fight finished the Queen came and asked the King, “Keep your promise, I want to give my daughter to this boy, and half of the kingdom you must give to him.”

Then it was done. And for some time he was engaged in – he was in the line of Vaiṣṇava thought, some time passed he’s engaged in that, in the pleasure, in the marriage, and the king royal life.

Then one old devotee, he was very fond of a particular vegetable, sak, and one follower of Rāmānuja section used to supply that vegetable every day to him, to his cook. He’s now a King.

Then one day he asked the cook, “Where do you get this kind of vegetable every day? It is not found during the whole time of the year. It is rarely found.”

“One sādhu, he takes this vegetable for you. How he has known that this is very favourite vegetable to you?”

“Then please ask him, ‘What does he want?’”

Then he asked the sādhu, the cook...

Devotee: _________________________________________ [?]

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then that Yāmunācārya asked his cook, “Who gives this kind of supply: my favourite vegetable?”

He told that, “One sādhu.”

“You ask him, what does he want from me?”

Then he asked. And he told, “I want to meet him once.”

And that was granted, and when that sādhu met him he began to weep, cry.

“What is this that you are such a great hope of our, future hope of our sampradāya. Now you are such a big, extraordinary scholar and you are now enjoying the kingdom, and our sampradāya sustains a great loss. The other party, that is Śaṅkara School and others, they’re encroaching on our prestige, and you are sleeping, engaged in...”

Then he gave some assurance, “I shall, yes I shall...

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Sarvabhavan ________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh, in a car? All right! But Caru Swāmī perhaps he’s gone to Bombay.

Then from that time Yāmunācārya he again returned to work for the Vaiṣṇava School and for śaraṇāgati we find very high thoughts from him about Kulaśekhara Āḷvār as well as Yāmunācārya.

In one poem he has written: “O Lord, now I think I’m abnormal consciousness. I pray to You that only engage me in Your service, or service in Your department, service of the servant of the servant of the servant. This is my, I’m surrendering to You. I’m writing this bond now. And if in future, I’m in full normal conscious now, but my future may not be guaranteed. If in future I want no, no, I want something, You please won’t care that. Whatever I’m praying for me this please sanction. This is eternal. This is for forever. I don’t know in future. I may pray something else, but don’t give that, don’t give that. This is my final prayer. I’m fully in normal conscience now. And that should be considered as abnormal if in future I want anything else.”

In this way many things we find, the real sign of śaraṇāgati in his writing.

And in last time in Śrī Rangam when he was going to depart he asked for, called for Rāmānuja. Rāmānuja was then a rising scholar at that time, he called for Rāmānujācārya.

“I want to meet him.”

But when Rāmānujācārya reached that place he’d already passed away. He could not speak...

End of 81.10.03.B_81.10.04.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.04.B_81.10.05.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________ [?] Then he found that three fingers are closed in this way. There is a custom in that land is to count anything; we do in this way, but the fashion there, one, two, three, in this way. Then Rāmānuja found that three fingers are closed in this way, that three questions he had; “Questions means he had to tell three things to me. What he could have told me?” He conjectured, conceived, Rāmānuja. “I find that three things are necessary for our sampradāya, for our clan, indispensably for the propaganda of Vaiṣṇava religion. One, the real commentary of Vedānta: Śaṅkara has given but our sampradāya has got no commentary of our own. I shall prepare, write a commentary.” One finger: that bent finger was erected, disclosed.

Ke? Abhimaṇyu! Gaura Hari.

Then another, Rāmānuja, another thing: “Śruti, the arcana padyati, that is very necessary to keep up the sampradāya. I shall prepare one from the Veda and Purāṇa collection, compilation.” Another finger was disclosed. And the third – first the commentary of the Upaniṣads, and then that of Vedānta, and then one arcana grantha, three things, and all were astonished to see how the fingers, closed fingers were disclosed again. And then with great joy, victory, and Rāmānuja was accepted as the sole leader of the whole Vaiṣṇava sampradāya at that time, from that time.

Yāmunācārya, his poems were very authentic, and the subject of śaraṇāgati, surrender – how to surrender to the Lord, how one, what is required to surrender, what things are necessary, if one wants to surrender to the Lord? The test is there. If you can accept all these conditions in your relationship with the Lord, then of course you may be considered that you are surrendering, śaraṇāgata. The authority in śaraṇāgati’s conception: Yāmunācārya.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So Rāmānujācārya took sannyāsa from Yāmunācārya at that time?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not Yāmunācārya: that is another thing.

After Rāmānuja there were two Schools amongst Rāmānuja sampradāya, one Teṅkalai, another Vaḍakalai, afterwards. Up to Rāmānuja there was only one. Those that give more importance to the advices of the first Ālwār, who came from rather an untouchable section, his name was Śaṭhakopar, his sayings are considered to be of the highest importance in that School, in Tamil language. Those that have got greater reverence for them that is Teṅkalai.

And then Deśikācāryya, one of the scholars in the Rāmānuja School, he laid more stress in the Vedic School, Veda, Upaniṣads, Purāṇa, etc. And secondary in that Śaṭhakopar, so that section is known as ācārya sampradāya. During the time of Rāmānuja they both were one, then the subdivision between the two.

Devotee: Jaya Oṁ Viṣṇu-Pāda Paramahaṁsa Parivrājakācārya Aṣṭottara-śata Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Rakṣak Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja kī jaya! Jagat Guru Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣak Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja kī jaya! Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Jaya! Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Goswāmī Prabhupāda kī jaya!

Devotees: Jaya!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Śrīmad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swāmī Mahārāja kī jaya!

Devotees: Jaya!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sevā Vrnda kī jaya!

Devotees: Jaya!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura premānanda Haribol!

Now, what’s the news? Caru Swāmī started for Bombay?

...

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Mukundamālā Prabhu, also from Los Angeles. And Kaśirāma Prabhu, he’s also from Los Angeles. And especially all of them have heard your tapes very much.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: From Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: From Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja, so they’re very keen to have your darśana at your lotus feet.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha. All right! You’re coming direct from Calcutta?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. You are to take anything?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Yes, that we will take.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Prasādam. And they’re well? Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja and, they are coming, when they reached India?

Devotees: _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And today?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Today’s the fourth of November.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: They’re travelling through tīrtha or where?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Actually they specifically came to have your darśana Mahārāja, and then they will go to some other place. They’ll go to Vṛndāvana for Prabhupāda’s disappearance and...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: They will go?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Yes. On the first of November, so they want to be here for your appearance day, for your Vyāsa-pūjā day.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But they reached India, and so long where they were staying?

Devotee: He’s staying with Bhakti Caru Swāmī.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: In Calcutta they stayed a few days and then they went to Purī Dhāma.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh, Purī. All right! Like flowers, mālā means the garlands, the garland, so many valuable flowers. That is all śaraṇāgati. They are all disciples of Swāmī Mahārāja?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Śaraṇāgati. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja is also expected to come here?

...

Mṛdaṅga, this is small mṛdaṅga with kīrtana, and the vibration in a limited circle. But bṛhat mṛdaṅga praise can send the sound, visualised sound to the farthest corner of the world and can produce permanent effect. That is also saṅkīrtana in a different form. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

...

tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā

[upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ, jñāninas tattva darśinaḥ]

[“You will be able to attain all this knowledge by satisfying the enlightened spiritual master with prostrate obeisances, relevant enquiry, and sincere service. Great souls who are most expert in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will teach you that divine knowledge.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.34]

What does he say?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: He’s quoting from your talk Mahārāja. You were explaining this praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā and you were saying that the absolute knowledge is to be served. He was quoting that.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha. And we can’t utilise that for ours, to serve us.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, that is the idea. Higher knowledge can’t come to serve the lower knowledge. No benefit thereby. That is offence against the higher knowledge. Only we can connect with them with the spirit of service. The Hegelian philosophy, ‘Reality is for Itself,’ never subservient to any other thing. Then that will hold the supreme most position. The higher knowledge, higher thing, if we really want only in the spirit of service we may be connected with them and never otherwise, never otherwise.

Surrender, and the position, the relation with that also will be to the degree of surrender. Otherwise we won’t be able to enter into that domain. Surrender. No prejudice should be carried from behind. All prejudices, that praṅipāta, with the attempt of praṅipāta all old prejudices should be left out. Then paripraśna the inquiry is, only will be genuine when we can give up all our past prejudices. Then the real inquiry, bona fide inquiry only will begin. Praṅipāta, the prejudices, the past experiences of life, they will be dismissed, and then pariprasna, the inquiry will be honest, paripraśna.

And then the bond; “If I get You, I am to surrender. I am to serve, and never to utilize for my base purpose of life.” That will come, take us in real connection of the higher knowledge, or love, or beauty, or anything of our inner aspiration. It is within us. Birds of the same feather flock together. Samase lavagenti________ [?] That sort of thing, a drop within us, so it is possible for us to venture to go that side, svarūpa, svarūpe sabāra haya, in the innermost function of our soul we may find that that is our home. That is our home, and we are wandering in the foreign land, this consciousness of the foreign ways and ultimately our illusory concoction, māyā. Only Kṛṣṇa is reality. Kṛṣṇa with His paraphernalia: that is only reality. And this is all deviated consciousness from the truth, deviated conception from the truth. And so it does not stay, it is mortal. And that is a boon indirectly, that it vanishes. Bad things which are not real, which are not good, that vanishes. That is a boon for our life. If we get chance to get reality, once attained, we are not to lose.

[na tad bhāsayate sūryo, na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ]

yad gatvā na nivartante, tad dhāma paramaṁ mama

[“My supreme holy abode is that place which the surrendered souls reach, never to return again to this deathly plane. Upon going there, one never returns to this material world. Neither sun, nor moon, nor fire - nothing can illuminate that all-illuminating supreme abode.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 15.6]

The Kṛṣṇa Himself, when He says this word I think that it is so sweet that Kṛṣṇa Himself also impressed with the sweetness of His own dhāma, own paraphernalia, paramaṁ mama.

“My dhāma is param, it is honourable, and it’s desirable, and very sweet, My dhāma, tad dhāma paramaṁ mama.”

What to be in the consideration of us, Kṛṣṇa Himself feels that His dhāma is a param dhāma. His domain is very desirable and very beautiful and very sweet. Yad gatvā na nivartante - if one can enter once, no possibility of being discharged from that position, the eternal, the nature of eternity requires such. Gaura Haribol.

Then Mukundamālā Prabhu, and another?

Devotee: Kaśirāma, and Gurutama______________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________________________________________________ [?]

...

Servitors in the bṛhat-mṛdaṅga, bṛhat pracāra, service, any lip deep chanting, that is not chanting proper if it is not surcharged with the spirit of service. Surrender is the beginning of service. We are to enter into the realm of service through the gate of surrender, then we will be advised what to do. And they will utilise us. So need of the Vaiṣṇavas, the guides there. It is a great need to have a Vaiṣṇava. Why? They will guide us. They have got experience of that field. They can guide us.

The Lord says, “Who are My servants, they are not real servants. But who are servant of My servant, they are real servants.”

That means that. In reality, we find the guidance of the Vaiṣṇava can introduce us in that new land. And that will be more fruitful for our purpose. So Vaiṣṇava, Vaiṣṇava.

In the beginning we may think, in the crude state, “That why so much mention about the Vaiṣṇava? I want the Lord Himself. And they, the sādhus, Gurus, they always take Vaiṣṇava in the middle. Between myself and between God, the Guru, Vaiṣṇava, Guru also may be tolerated to such an extent, but Vaiṣṇava, Vaiṣṇava, always so much importance given to the Vaiṣṇava.”

To come between us, it seems to be undesirable in the beginning. But as much as we grow we will find the stress is given for the real benefit of the newcomers. Without their guidance, we are unknown. Of course by God’s will they are appointed to guide us. But their guidance is essentially necessary for our, ________ for every purpose of service. They are not enemy, they are not trespassers between us.

But as I gave some instances, that the glass, the glass spectacle, apparently it is a barrier between the sight and the seer, the eye and the sight. But it enhances our sight, though apparently it is a barrier between the two. And also in the telescopic system, so many apparent trespassers between the thing to be seen far away and here, but they enhance our sight, so many telescopic systems, so: tvad bhṛtya-bhṛtya-paricāraka-bhṛtya-bhṛtya. A very important thing to guide us, as many guardians I shall have over my head, the finer vision will pass through one, two, three telescopic system; that is far things which are very distant that will come near by the help of so many glasses between the two. Which is considered by the ordinary people as so many barriers, but they are to enhance the sight, so: tvad bhṛtya-bhṛtya-paricāraka-bhṛtya-bhṛtya

[maj-janmanaḥ phalam idaṁ madhu-kaiṭabhāre

mat prārthanīya mad anugraha eṣa eva

tvad bhṛtya-bhṛtya-paricāraka-bhṛtya-bhṛtya-

bhṛtyasya bhṛtyam iti māṁ smara lokanātha]

[“O Supreme Lord of all beings, O slayer of the demons Madhu and Kaiṭabha, this is the purpose of my life, this is my prayer, and this is Your grace - that You will remember me as Your servant, a servant of a servant of a Vaiṣṇava, a servant of a servant of such a servant of a servant of a Vaiṣṇava, and a servant of a servant of the servant of a servant of a Vaiṣṇava’s servant’s servant.”] [Śrī Kulaśekhara’s Mukunda-Mālā-stotra, 25]

In the land of exploitation, if there are so many servants that may not disturb me, so many servants I have got to command, but just the opposite there, so many guardians, there are so many well wishers. In this way we shall try to have view of them, so many guardians and well wishers. As many guardians I shall have there, I will be free of any fear. So many guardians, so many well wishers I have got so I don’t care anybody. So in that light we are to see the Vaiṣṇavas, the sādhus. Of course in real plane, I am not talking of the sham, the imitationist, but in the real sphere, case is such there. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā

[upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ, jñāninas tattva darśinaḥ]

[“You will be able to attain all this knowledge by satisfying the enlightened spiritual master with prostrate obeisances, relevant enquiry, and sincere service. Great souls who are most expert in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will teach you that divine knowledge.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.34]

It will attract our service for that plane. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. The subjective plane, just as here, within the matter, now the most graphic and most original force have been invented or discovered: perhaps electric current, is it not? It is the most basic and fundamental forces. Of all forces we can find here, the most all pervading force, even it can work in the moon, in the sun, only electric current, is it not? What is that, it comes from the ethereal plane. That is the most precious and most powerful force ever discovered. So also in the subjective realm, this is in the objective. In the objective plane, the most fundamental and powerful plane of forces is discovered as electricity, atomic, something like that.

So in the subjective realm the most fundamental and deepest plane, that of beauty and sweetness and love, not of power, not of knowledge. Not of knowledge and not of power but of beauty, but of love, most extensive, most powerful, forceful, and most original plane, in the subjective realm.

And we are only a member of the subjective world, the soul. The soul is a member of the subjective world, not of the objective. And the subjective, super subjective, super super subjective, the highest plane is Goloka. Full sphere, Goloka means solid circle. Not plane circle. Hemisphere is Vaikuṇṭha and full sphere is Goloka, a solid circle, from the centre, equally distributed.

Here of course our conception of a circle is a limited thing to us, but it is infinite and the rasa is distributed in such a way – the full fledged theism, in other words. Theism means the realistic existence. Atheism, nothing, that is a pessimistic view, nothing. Our desire, the inner desire may not be fulfilled. Atheism, there is nothing to satisfy my inner thirst.

But theism, yes, theism means Oṁ, Oṁkāra. The meaning of the Oṁkāra, the praṇava is yes, positive. Veda in the very seed form is Oṁ. Oṁ, what it the meaning of Oṁ? Oṁ means yes; in one word, what is your inner inquiry, that is, in one word the Veda, the revealed truth, the seed of the revealed truth says, “Yes” in one word. What is yes? What is your innermost hankering for, that is. Then what is that? Then the revealed truth from the Upaniṣad, Veda coming, this is by stages, this is so, this is so.

tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet / samit paniḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma niṣṭham

[“One who wants scientific knowledge about the Supreme Truth must approach a bona fide Guru and offer him everything required for sacrifice. The Guru must be fixed in the truth, having heard it from a genuine source.”] [Mundaka-Upaniṣad, 1.2.12]

yasmin vijñāte sarvam evam vijñātam bhavati / yasmin prāpte sarvam idam prāptam bhavati

[“By knowing Him, everything is known - by getting Him, everything is gained.”]

The gradual process to reach that goal: the innermost inquiry within your heart. It is, how it is? It is such and such, it is such and such. And in this process you are to come, you are to reach there, all these things. Theism means Oṁ, yes, existence, existence, in one word, it is, it is. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Rūpa Goswāmī has described Oṁ, as in three syllables, as representing Kṛṣṇa, Rādhārāṇī, and the living entity.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ah u ma, Kṛṣṇa, Rādhārāṇī and?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Living entities.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Paraphernalia.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Paraphernalia.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: I forget the śloka. Do you remember the śloka?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ah u ma when analysed.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Actually how do we relate to that Mahārāja, because Oṁ to us was always a Māyāvādī impersonal representation...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So Kṛṣṇa, the knowledge is there, full knowledge is there. And the aspiration of the knowledge, that is ānandam, sundaram, that is there. The potency is there.

śyāmāc chavalaṁ prapadye, śavalāc chyāmaṁ prapadye

[“By the help of black (śyāmā), we shall be introduced to the service of the white (śavalā); by the help of white (śavalā), we shall be introduced to the service of black (śyāmā).”] [Candogya- Upaniṣad, 8.13.1]

Jñāna bala kriya ca. Thinking, feeling, and willing, feeling, thinking is there, Kṛṣṇa is there, feeling is there, and willing, Baladeva, the paraphernalia. Baladeva, Yogamāyā, sandhinī śakti, paraphernalia, the environment, Kṛṣṇa, Rādhārāṇī and the environment, three things necessary. And that is perverted reflection here. But in the reality, these three substances analysed, advaya-jñāna analysed, we find these three things eternally. The potency, the hlādinī, the sandhinī, is the paraphernalia, sandhinī; and hlādinī, Rādhārāṇī, She is the very perfect seed, from the taraṅga, the waves are coming. She is the root, hlādinī. And samvit, the enjoyer is there, Kṛṣṇa, in these three, ah u ma.

And here in the perverted reflection ah means Brahmā, u Viṣṇu, and then ma, Mahādeva, paraphernalia of destruction. Stristi stiti pralaya, ah u ma in this perverted relation, relatively, and there in the eternal, in that way. Jñāna bala kriya ca, thinking, feeling, willing: the enjoyed, the enjoyer, and where and what for the enjoyment, Hare Kṛṣṇa, paraphernalia. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Jīva Goswāmī also gave another definition of Oṁ in Bhakti-sandarbha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What is that?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: That Vṛndāvana Dāsa Ṭhākura he was talking about the different devotees which appeared in Navadwīpa which are Avatāras. And he referred to Jīva Goswāmī saying that Jīva Goswāmī explained Oṁkāra as being the embodiment of all the different Avatāras. The different Avatāras, their origin is from Oṁkāra.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That analysis from the different layers. All the Avatāras in Oṁ, guṇa Avatāras, then this śaktyāveśa, they may be classified under these three heads, ah u ma. Some are creative faculties, some sustenance, and some withdrawing, in this world, in reference to this world. They are under this jurisdiction. In all different functions, the main is this, sandhinī, hlādinī, samvit, that is the central analysed of the spiritual prime cause, advaya-jñāna. And then according to the necessity in the gradation this may be applied in different position, in different way. All branches somehow or other from these main three branches of advaya-jñāna, in different perspective, different plane of view.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya.

_____________________________________ [?] When did we begin? Eight?

Devotee: ____________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then where they will stay? In that house?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: ___________________ [?] They have put their luggage downstairs, where Mahārāja and Venkatta Prabhu was staying, below you here, just in this room.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, they’re in that house.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: No. They have shifted over so we have our luggage in that room right now.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Where? Here?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: In the previous room, yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There’s a patient there perhaps?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: No. That is in the big room Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course, if you manage, if you like you can do that.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: No, in the big room...

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, where is the example of the monkey and the cat, śaraṇāgati?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Markaṭa-nyāya and mārjjāra-nyāya.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Where is that coming from, Rāmānuja?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Rāmānuja. The Rāmānuja, when they divided into two, the Teṅkalai and the Vaḍakalai. Vaḍakalai means those that give more importance in the Vedic scriptures and the Teṅkalai those that give important stress in the Tamil scriptures.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Āḷvārs.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Āḷvārs, coming from, beginning, that Śaṭhakopar, Nammālwāra. So they, the Tamilians, the Tamil School, that is the Teṅkalai, they give more stress to mārjjāra-nyāya. That mārjjāra means this cat, cat’s dealing with her cub, kitten. The kitten does not do anything. But where to move, what to do, the mother cat she takes, catches by the neck and moves here, there wherever she likes removes. The kitten she does not, he does not do anything, no attempt to be seen on his part. Whatever the mother does, for removal, for eating, feeding, all these things. That is mārjjāra-nyāya.

And the markaṭa-nyāya, the cub of the monkey he catches on the body of the mother. And the mother takes, removes here, there, wandering. But the duty of the cub is to catch the mother’s body.

So the Vedic School of Deśikācāryya they say, “You have got free will oh jīva, you have got something to do, śaraṇāgati. You have your own part to play, it is maybe very small, but still you have some part. You are endowed with free will and you must have to utilize your free will.”

And the Teṅkalai system they say, “No, we have nothing to do. Only we think that we are His, and whatever is necessary He will do on our behalf.”

So this is the difference of the two schools.

The Deśikācāryya, the Vedic School they say that, “Some action for free will is there. Your acceptance, your consent is necessary. The rest will be done by the Lord. But your consent, your free will acceptance, something, whatever, however meagre it may be, but it must be there, your consent.”

And the Teṅkalai, “No, we have nothing to do.”

But our consideration is nearing this, Vaḍakalai School, the Vedic School, Deśikācāryya. That jīva has got something to do, the cooperation, the consent, otherwise how the jīva can have this samshar. Then everything is His līlā. If you have nothing to do then everything is God’s līlā, His līlā and they are all dolls to play in the hand of the Lord. This is in the highest stage in the highest realized position. That stage is to attain, but to begin to acquire that stage, he gives jīva independence. Because jīva is a part of the subjective world, so naturally he is endowed with freedom. There can be no consciousness where there is no freedom. But a very particle, the freedom is also very small. But spirit and no free will that can’t be. So in the service, the freedom is maintained, otherwise vilāsa, that cannot be maintained, in the Goloka also. Everyone, they’re mostly actuated by the feeling, by Yogamāyā, by the love, by hlādinī. But still they have got their meagre personal consideration and that is influenced by all the good environment, favourable environment they’re within. Otherwise their name, their līlā, their service, everything is their particular, how it is possible? So individuality in the atomic energy is also to be maintained all through, and we do not deny the influence of the environment also. But still the environment cannot devour the personal character or existence of anything and everything.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. So now we may stop: nearly ten?

Devotee: Yes, nearly ten Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. You are to look after them on our behalf.

...

Devotee: In the west now they are using so many means to collect money for pushing on Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I wanted to know, a lot of these means seemed to be, when Śrīla Prabhupāda was on the planet, they weren’t exactly being used, now there is...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:...preaching purpose there, the means is justified by the end. But if there is any impurity in the end, in the object, then the whole thing is wrong. Otherwise there is purity in the purpose._____________________________________ [?]

If anyone commits sin that crosses the moral law, but if it is for the satisfaction of the Absolute Will, it is all right, because the law has been created only to promote our attention towards the Supreme. In any way if our energy is utilised for the satisfaction of the Absolute we are benefited, knowingly or unknowingly. If it is used for the satisfaction of the Supreme Entity, then whose energy is being utilised knowingly or unknowingly he will be benefited. But if in the name of the Absolute it is not such then of course there will be some difference.

Laws are meant only to promote our faithfulness to the Supreme. Laws are not meant to discourage our affinity towards the Supreme. Lawless law, those are lawless laws which promotes, which helps us to forget the Supreme Authority and fix our attention to any other object; whether the liberation of the country, or the satisfaction of a particular society, all these things, as hospitals and other altruistic activity. Altruistic activity independent of faithfulness to the Supreme Entity may not be encouraged, that is not to their highest benefit. Only bodily service, physical service cannot be taken as service of the soul. Soul’s interest may be different than the interest of the body. So body service cannot be accepted as the service of the proper party that is soul. Soul service depends on the service of the Absolute, Paramātmā. That is soul’s real interest. So if that is done independent of all other necessities of life then it is justified, whether consciously or unconsciously ___________________ [?] diplomatically or ________ [?] anyhow, if it is meant for the Absolute, according to the purity of the purpose, the purity of the activity.

sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ [śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo, mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ]

[“Totally abandoning all kinds of religion, surrender exclusively unto Me. I will liberate you from all kinds of sins, so do not despair.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]

All sorts of conceptions of duty, all conceptions of law, or worldliness, everything may be cancelled for His satisfaction. He’s such, He’s above law. Law made by Him. He’s not under law. Law has been planned only for the people that are going astray, where there is possibility of going astray, the necessity of law is only there. But those who are naturally lawful, and the highest law is we should be faithful to the Supreme Authority. That is the highest law. And all other laws must be subservient to that. Other laws should be rejected. They will promote only hateful faithlessness and at the same time a sorrow, pain, misery for the people, ultimately. Am I clear? Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes. When Śrīla Prabhupāda was present, he always stressed so much that all our maintenance and temple construction should be based on the sales of his books. He gave the formula fifty per cent for publishing books, and fifty per cent for maintenance and temple construction. But now...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That’s good, publishing the book and selling it and to make money thereby. That is good. But it should be used for the service of the Supreme, not for any personal name, fame, or position, or any other mal purposes. That should be the lookout and that is difficult to differentiate and understand.

End of 81.10.04.B_81.10.05.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.04.B_81.10.05.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Devotee: We can see that if one has faith in the order of the Guru then Kṛṣṇa will reveal to him the way and means to carry out...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You can apply to the rules of the scriptures there on and judge accordingly. We shall have to, the departmental knowledge of the scriptures, and to put to test whether the attempt of a particular man is really pure devotion or not, by his other activities we are to judge. In the Name of God he’s making money, collecting money, and he’s using in such and such purposes, and whether these purposes are at all connected with the services of God or not, that is to judged in particular cases. In particular cases it may be judged. The money is being spent in this matter, whether it is meant for the service of the Lord, or to satisfy the pleasure of some ordinary persons not connected with devotion. ________________ [?] particular cases to be dealt particularly. But generally this is the law; if it is meant for the service of the Lord then it is justified. If not, no risk. Whatever is done for the satisfaction:

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate]

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe, nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill-fated.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

Whatever is sincerely done for the service of the Supreme Lord that may not have any bad effect! Sincerity of purpose is to be judged everywhere.

Devotee: If Kṛṣṇa’s being satisfied then automatically the devotees also should be satisfied?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hmm?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: ______________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ________________________________ [?] But the devotee must attain such stage that he can appreciate the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa saṅtoṣa, Kṛṣṇa is satisfied. And whether He’s satisfied or not satisfied, the devotee must understand, must follow, he must attain such a stage as to perceive whether Kṛṣṇa is satisfied or dissatisfied.

Devotee: So sometimes they give this example of Rāmānujācārya employing the different thieves to collect money for the purpose of building and constructing a temple, and they utilise this example for their own purposes. Which as you stated before can be justified or not justified according to their purity.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________________________ [?]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: [Laughs]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, so medium was there, and when that function, that service was finished then the medium through whom their, the money of the dacoiting was engaged in the service, he did not like it, or Ranganatham did not like it. So they were killed rather. They were utilised, yes. An instance is there. Ha, ha, ha, and you feel that such things are happening now?

Devotee: Like we’re thinking like that.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: When Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja was the connecting link between Kṛṣṇa and all these various activities that was justified. Now that anything new can come and these fellows should be drowned into the river...

...

They may come here to leave a posterity which as soon as he will leave this world will be wholly forgotten. May not be work up to the standard as he did. But at the same time we should not think that his separation has left the whole thing, they’re useless and of opposing energy. May be of deviated character, of lower character, not so much purity of purpose may be there, but the wholesale is wrong and should be caste into the ocean, or fire, we need not think like that.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, you were once giving some very nice insight about Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s tolerance, his explanation of tolerance.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Explanation of?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Sahiṣṇunā, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, you were giving some examples about his sahiṣṇunāta in relationship to being lower than a grass in the street. Tṛṇād api sunīcena _____ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Tṛṇād api sunīcena. If I think of myself rightly then I shall think that tṛṇā may be of very meagre and mean position, but still it is, it has got a true position, true conception. But what about me, I am negative representation, vikṛta. A man may be of small intelligence, but a madman is lower than the man of scanty intelligence. So: jara satya in the consideration of material position the tṛṇā has got a lowest conception, but what am I? I am vikṛta satya, abnormal. That has got a normal position, normal position in the lowest circle. And what about myself, I’m not normal I’m abnormal, so what I’m to do? Do you follow?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mm!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Vikṛta-svarūpa, abnormal. So abnormality is lower than a normal lower position. That is a negative side. It has got some positive position, lower position but positive, tṛṇā. And this is on the negative side, misguided. I’ve got freedom but misguided freedom, that is a cursed attainment. That sort of interpretation he has given.

Ha, ha, the necessity has no law. Almost the whole day I’m engaged, still you have come; your necessity has no law. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Ke? _____________________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Mahārāja, we see that in America especially Śrīla Prabhupāda always would judge how well our movement was going on by the amount of books being distributed. But now in America book distribution is not doubled as Prabhupāda wanted it but it has become half. So how are we to understand...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... you say that it is...

Devotee: Half.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Retardation and...

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Slackened.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Slackened _______________________________ [?] But we may try, we may contribute our quota, we may try our best, but our power is limited. Still, such aspiration is laudable. Such dissatisfaction that the progress is not made considerably as it should have been so we are unhappy: that is good meaning, good temperament. But what we can do?

utsāhān niścayād [dhairyāt, tat-tat-karma pravartanāt

saṅga-tyāgāt sato vṛtteḥ, ṣaḍbhir bhaktiḥ prasidhyati]

[“To endeavour for spiritual life with enthusiasm, to be certain that the Lord will give His Grace, and therefore to patiently continue to render devotional service. By following the practices prescribed by the saints, to give up the company of those who are averse to devotion, and to tread the path which has been chalked out by the true Vaiṣṇavas; these six practices will go a long way to help us be successful in our spiritual life.”] [Śrī Upadeśāmṛta, 3]

Our business, our endeavour should be that the progress may not be, the speed may not be lulled, may not be retarded, eventually may not come there. We shall try.

karmaṇy evādhikāras te, mā phaleṣu kadācana

[mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr, mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi]

[“I shall now describe niṣkāma karma-yoga, the path of selfless action. You have a right to perform your natural prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to any fruits of that action. You should neither act with desire to enjoy the fruits of your work, nor, as a result, should you be attached to neglecting your duties.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.47]

We can make contribution in the activity, the endeavour, but the consequence is in His hand, the hand of the Lord. Adhikāra.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Entitlement. Entitle.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We have got no power in our authority over that. We are powerless there as regards to consequence. We are concerned with our quota of contribution for the cause.

...

...vetti [?] but vetti is third person singular. But in another way first person singular it may be produced by the grammarian persons. Generally it seems like it is erroneous, aham vetti, but the grammarians they have anyhow produced that word in the first person and that has got its explanation there. I forgot. Aham vedmi śuko vetti. But the śloka runs:

aham vedmi śuko vetti, vyāso vetti na vetti vā

[bhaktyā bhāgavataṁ grāhyaṁ na buddhyā na ca ṭīkayā]

[Lord Śiva says: “I know the true purpose of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam; Śukadeva, the son and disciple of Vyāsadeva, knows it thoroughly, and the author of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Vyāsadeva may or may not know the meaning. The real purpose of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is very difficult to conceive and can only be known through bhakti.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 24.313]

__________________________________ [?] Gaura Haribol. ________________________ [?]

Devotee: _________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:

laukikī vaidikī vāpi, yā kriyā kriyate mune / hari-sevānukūlaiva, sa kāryā bhaktim icchatā

[“O great sage! One who aspires for devotional service should perform all activities, whether Vedic or mundane, in a way that is favourable for the service of Lord Hari.”]

[Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Purva-vibhaga 1.2.200, from Nārada-pañcarātra]

[In Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 13.113, purport] & [Gauḍīya Kaṇṭhahāra, 13.82]

Both the scriptural as well as the social activities and conducts, all may be included in devotional activities. Only the purpose is to be considered. The ordinary talk that may be devotion; and if misinterpretation followed then scriptural discussions may not be devotion. So where real devotion is we are to trace very minutely. The only criterion, whether it is meant for the satisfaction of the centre or not: the criteria, Kṛṣṇa priti, Kṛṣṇa saṅtoṣa, that is the only criterion. And form may be sacrificed.

nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo, na medhayā na bahunā śrutena

[yam evaiṣa vṛnute tena labhyas, tasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛnute tanūṁ svām]

[“One cannot understand the substance of the Paramātmā, the Super-soul residing within everyone’s heart, by means of expertise in logic, intelligence or learning. When the living entity begs the Lord for His mercy, being desirous of His transcendental loving service, then the Supreme Lord reveals His self-manifest form directly before him.”] [Kathopaniṣad, 1.2.23] & [Muṇḍaka-Upaniṣad, 2.3.2]

Pravacanena, expert in explanations of the different meanings of the scriptures, na medhayā, sharp memory can catch the meaning of the words very closely, correctly. Bahunā śrutena, vast study even of the revealed scriptures. Yam evaiṣa vṛnute, all right reserved. Whomever He’ll select I shall go to him. His sweet will. His sweet will, that is the criteria, to satisfy Him, to satisfy Him by anything and everything, and then by His consent you may come. He has not got objective existence. We shall be very careful always. It’s subjective, subjective, but we as subject we shall lead Him and bring him within our clutch: never. Never!

Our position will be always as the bird cātaka, who does not take a drop of water from the ground. Only they drink water with their face up, the drop coming from the cloud, and they won’t take any water whatsoever ___________ [?] always with their mouth towards the sky and praying for a drop of water. But drop of water, rush of rain may come to satisfy him, or a thunder may come to perish him, to finish him. Viracaya mayi daṇḍaṁ, Rūpa Goswāmī says.

viracaya mayi daṇḍaṁ dīnabandho dayāṁ vā, gatir iha na bhavattaḥ kācid anyā mamāsti

[nipatatu śata-koṭir nirbharaṁ vā navāmbhas, tad api kila payodaḥ stūyate cātakena]

[“O friend of the needy, whether You chastise me or reward me, in the whole wide world I have no other shelter but You. Whether the thunderbolt strikes or torrents of fresh waters shower down, the Cātaka bird (who drinks only the falling rainwater) perpetually goes on singing the glories of the rain cloud.”] [Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam, p 118]

This is the sign of the ananya-bhakti, exclusive devotion, the standard. Viracaya mayi daṇḍaṁ. “It is Your pleasure, sweet will. You may punish me, or, dayāṁ vā, You may grace me. But whatever You do I have no other alternative but to come at Your feet and pray for my good, for Your grace. No other alternative I have got. Whatever You’ll like you’ll do with me. But all the same to me, only to come to You and pray for Your grace, dayāṁ vā. Gatir iha na bhavattaḥ kācid anyā mamāsti, nipatatu śata-koṭir, the thunder may come instead of a drop of water, nirbharaṁ vā navāmbhas, or opulence of rain may come to satisfy me.”

Devotee: ______________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Vidagdha Prabhu, after a long time. Where did you go? Nepal or Bangladesh or any other place, Malaysia _____

...

nipatatu śata-koṭir nirbharaṁ vā navāmbhas, tad api kila payodaḥ stūyate cātakena

But the Cātaka, that particular kind of bird has no other alternative but to go on praying, praying, praying. This is just a parallel śloka or poem, that of Mahāprabhu, the last śloka of the eight śloka of Mahāprabhu, Śikṣāṣṭakam. Viracaya mayi daṇḍaṁ, this is that:

āśliṣya vā pāda-ratāṁ pinaṣṭu mām, [adarśanān marma-hatāṁ karotu vā

yathā tathā vā vidadhātu lampaṭo, mat-prāna-nāthas tu sa eva nāparaḥ]

[“Kṛṣṇa may embrace me in love or trample me under His feet. He may break my heart by hiding Himself from me. Let that debauchee do whatever He likes, but He will always be the only Lord of my life.”] [Śikṣāṣṭakam, 8]

“You may embrace me, or if I try to catch Your feet You may reject me, You may throw me down. But whatever You like You may do, pinaṣṭu mām. More than that You may do even. Marma-hatāṁ karotu vā, adarśanān. You may be indifferent to me. To punish, to throw me by the kick, that is rather better. But Your indifference is more dangerous. That also You can do. Adarśanān marma-hatāṁ karotu vā. Even more You can do. Yathā tathā vā vidadhātu. On my eyes You may adore another, showing me, showing me You may adore another person. That will be more intolerable. You can do it, whatever You like You can do.” Yathā tathā vā vidadhātu lampaṭo, mat-prāna-nāthas tu sa eva nāparaḥ, Mahāprabhu says, Rādhārāṇī says, “Still, You are My only master. You are all in all in Me, whatever You do or You think of Me, make arrangement, but I have no other alternative.”

Yes! The standard is here. All ananya bhakti, vaikantic bhakti: what is vaikantic bhakti ananya bhakti; I’m a drop of such type of bhakti, bhakti of such quality, it moves Kṛṣṇa, the heart, His heart, like anything, the earthquake in His heart, can create earthquake. This type of bhakti this is from Rādhārāṇī: Mahāprabhu’s last śloka. And the parallel śloka by Rūpa Goswāmī: the cātaka, a particular bird – either lightning, thunder, or a drop of water: “I won’t go to take water. There may be flood, still, the water it is poison to me.”

Ananya bhakti; that is what is necessary for the infinitesimal for the Infinite. Infinite and infinitesimal, the relation should be such where near about the Absolute Himself. Just as the intensity of heat just near the Sun how much, and the intensity of heat here, it is inconceivable for us! So near about Kṛṣṇa the intensity of love, the nature, the quality, is of such sort, such sort. And our aspiration, our ideal, will be guided by such feeling that our goal, our destination is that side. That side our destination lies. We shall prepare us for the same. Die to live! Hegel. Die to live. Don’t be afraid of giving yourself, distributing yourself. You can live only if you die as you are at present in your gross constitution. That is mukti proper. That is mukti the positive, salvation, liberation, that is real liberation. Svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ. There is also Hegel: “Self determination.” What is necessary the end of our life: self determination.

In the words of our Guru Mahārāja: “Proper adjustment: religion is proper adjustment.” We are to be adjusted with such idea and ideal about the Absolute Good, about the Absolute Sweetness, the Absolute Knowledge, Absolute Beauty. Our attitude we shall cultivate ourselves to such way as to achieve that end. We are not subservient to this or that ABCD, the valuation of that X or whatever that thing it means like this. Then we can expect to come to Kṛṣṇa, to Mahāprabhu, to Bhāgavatam. With such capital we must approach.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

The misers have got no place, ha, ha, ha. The capital must be brought out, ha, ha, ha, wholesale, ha, ha, ha, not partial, ha, ha, ha. The wholesale demand, ha, ha, ha, wholesale demand, Kṛṣṇa. Nārāyaṇa may be satisfied with a part, but Kṛṣṇa is very clever, not part but wholesale thing. “Wholesale I want.” The beauty, the charm of the beauty is of the type of wholesale. It charms every natha, the whole system it attracts, draws. Power cannot do so, ganga cannot do so, reverence cannot do so, but beauty, the innermost thing, He can attract. The whole thing can capture, the charm of beauty, nothing remains. So Reality the Beautiful, Reality the Beautiful.

Gaura Hari. Mahāprabhu came: “I want to take you all to that domain of the land of beauty. Nothing will remain to get. I have devised the means, I have discovered. Or you may think I am He. I have come to take you in My own abode. I’m not alone. We Two have come.” Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa-milita-tanu. We Both of Us have come to take you in Our harem.”

Something like that. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

yadi gaura nā hoita, tabe ki hoita, kemone dharitām de

[rādhāra mahimā, prema-rasa-sīmā jagate jānāta ke

madhura vṛndā vipina mādhurī praveśa cāturī sāra

baraja yuvatī bhāvera bhakati śakati hoita kāra]

Vāsudeva Datta Ṭhākura says: “Oh! After I have got a taste of that wonderful thing, now I feel if I could not have that thing then how I could live, how could I sustain my life? It would have been simply impossible to live. Such things are there wonderful and I am deceived out of that. It’s a horrible life. My fulfilment is there and I’m roaming about hither and thither. A horrible deception of māyā, that is.”

Union in separation, prema-vaicittya, in another kind of separation. He’s there, and also, oh, something, something else comes between the imagination then I’m nowhere. My anti party has captured Him, prema-vaicittya. None is there, only concoction, and that horrible separation feeling aroused, in different types. And that is only meant, only defined, devised, or designed, to make ever new, always new, to keep up the novelty that is necessary by Yogamāyā, the intervention of Yogamāyā. It is managed in such way, the separation.

aher iva gatiḥ premṇaḥ, svabhāva-kuṭilā bhavet [ato hetor ahetoś ca, yūnor māna udañcati]

[“Just as a serpent naturally moves in a crooked way, in a zigzag way, the nature of love is naturally crooked. It is not straight. So the concerned parties quarrel, sometimes with cause and sometimes without cause, and separation comes. Separation is necessary for the transcendental pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.”] [Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi]

Just as the serpent’s course is zigzag, not straight, a natural movement of the serpent is in a crooked way, not straight way. So the ways of love is such. So we may not have to think that there is some misdeed in the part of the one or both. It is the very nature. It is Yogamāyā, it is effected to think ever new. Without separation union may not be very sweet, so it is intervened in that way.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya.

When have you reached Māyāpur?

...

Mahāprabhu. Die to live: a sweet death. Ha, ha.

Vidagdha Mādhava: I have some question Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Question?

Vidagdha Mādhava: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, you may put it.

Vidagdha Mādhava: I was reading some of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda’s Jaiva Dharma...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hmm?

Vidagdha Mādhava: Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has written Jaiva Dharma, and in Jaiva Dharma he’s recommending in the Kali-yuga all the devotees become householder devotees. So I’ve heard it is useful, and I’ve also heard it is a waste of time, simply a waste of time. But now in Jaiva Dharma Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says it is useful, it is something like a school. Is that possible?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, if we study deeply we find that he laid stress on gṛhastha dharma, because to keep up the purity of character in the life of renunciation it is very difficult, in a general sense. So he told that gṛhastha, you adjust yourself in such a way that you may not have to go to undesirable life in the sense of morality. That will be, create a discredit to the followers of the sampradāya of Mahāprabhu. And especially the bābājī class after taking the robe of a tyāgī, a renunciationist, he keeps women with them. So he has cautioned against those. Instead of keeping the purity of the life of renunciation he will enter Vaiṣṇavism and keep some woman in a plea of religion and spoil the whole thing, and even it will be detrimental for the posterities for the good men to enter into the sampradāya. So rather, be married and keep a healthy life there and try your best to make progress towards the ways of Rūpa, Sanātana, and Mahāprabhu, and others, tyāgīs. Don’t create any havoc of disturbance in the name of Mahāprabhu.

And our Guru Mahārāja – that is the constitutional method – but our Guru Mahārāja he came with a call of a revolutionary movement. He managed to open different centres and by the association of the sādhus everything may be possible. Centres of so many associates under the guidance of a bona fide person, he will get the chance of wholesale dedication, because this chance of sādhu-saṅga and engage oneself wholesale for this purpose is very rarely to be found. First, the human life is very rare. Then our real taste to the Vraja līlā, Mahāprabhu līlā, that is also very rare. And when those that have come to nurture that and to guide that without losing any time and any energy you must try to devote yourself, you take the risk, take the risk. Just as in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we find Devaṛṣi Nārada he’s telling to Vyāsadeva:

tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido, na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ

tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukhaṁ, kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā

[“Persons who are actually intelligent and philosophically inclined should endeavour only for that purposeful end which is not obtainable even by wandering from the topmost planet [Brahmaloka] down to the lowest planet [Pātāla]. As far as happiness derived from sense enjoyment is concerned, it can be obtained automatically in course of time, just as in course of time we obtain miseries even though we do not desire them.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.5.18]

And before that:

tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujam harer, bhajann apakvo ‘tha patet tato yadi

yatra kva vābhadram abhūd amuṣya kiṁ, ko vārtha āpto ‘bhajatāṁ sva-dharmataḥ

[“One who has forsaken his material occupations to engage in the devotional service of the Lord may sometimes fall down while in an immature stage, yet there is no danger of his being unsuccessful. On the other hand, a non devotee, though fully engaged in occupational duties, does not gain anything.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.5.17]

This śloka, Devaṛṣi Nārada says to Vyāsadeva, ten ślokas, Devaṛṣi Nārada gave ten ślokas, the outlines. “Think it and elucidate into Bhāgavatam.” The outlines, ten ślokas he gave to Vyāsadeva. Then there is one śloka and very minutely you are to notice this. There you will find the explanation, and the meaning of what Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, and our Prabhupāda, the difference.

Tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujam harer, bhajann apakvo ‘tha patet tato yadi. Man is moving in this cycle, cyclic order, going up, down. Tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ. By previous activity as the result of the works of his previous life he has occupied a particular place in this, going up and down, this circle, circular movement. Exploitation means getting loan, and then we have to come to be exploited, to clear the debt, in this way.

ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, punar āvartino ‘rjuna

[mām upetya tu kaunteya, punar janma na vidyate]

[“O Arjuna, from the planet of Lord Brahmā downwards, the residents of all planets are naturally subjected to repeated birth and death. But, O Kaunteya, upon reaching Me, there is no rebirth.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 8.16]

Going up and down, up and down: now Devaṛṣi Nārada says, tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujam harer, bhajann apakvo ‘tha patet tato. Sva-dharma means present duty. He took the risk, little bold, and left his present position, the discharging of the present duty he left for higher life, but he could not maintain his higher position, he fell down.

Devaṛṣi says; Nārada says, “What is the loss of him? No loss! Tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ, the present safe position he left and took risk for better position, but could not maintain that better position he fell down.” Devaṛṣi says: “What is the harm there?”

Why? Tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ_________ leaving one’s own present duty, caraṇāmbujam harer bhajann, he risked himself for exclusive service of the Lord, bhajann apakvo, but without attaining, before attaining a safe position he fell down. ‘Tha patet tato yadi, yatra, in that case, kva, where is the yatra kva vābhadra, what is the, ābhadra means undesirable, unholy things there? What are the things we can expect there in that, from that position from his fall? After he took a position risked him and he could not maintain and he fell down. Then what is the bad there? No loss. Why?

End of 81.10.04.B_81.10.05.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.05.C

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... position. No risk, no gain, no risk. This varṇāśrama dharma... after married life one may be saved in the naitic vichar [?] from the standpoint of the moral judgement maybe there. But from that position you must live to get the, try to get the service of Kṛṣṇa. You must risk. Svadharma, by attending his own duty from his own position: that is a stereotype thing. He’ll get a better position and again he’ll go up to Brahmaloka and then he’s to come down in that cakra, that vicious circle. He must try his best to come out of that vicious circle.

ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, punar āvartino ‘rjuna

[mām upetya tu kaunteya, punar janma na vidyate]

[“O Arjuna, from the planet of Lord Brahmā downwards, the residents of all planets are naturally subjected to repeated birth and death. But, O Kaunteya, upon reaching Me, there is no rebirth.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 8.16]

So, no risk, no gain, for sādhu-saṅga, for exclusively he has engaged himself, but he could not maintain, he falls down, for the time being. Some sort of bad name came to him, society rejected him and he had to undergo some painful situation and position. But whatever he has done, that:

nehābhikrama-nāśo 'sti, pratyavāyo na vidyate

[svalpam apy asya dharmasya, trāyate mahato bhayāt]

[“Even a small beginning in this devotional service cannot go in vain, nor can any loss be suffered. The most insignificant practice of such devotional service saves one from the all-devouring fear of repeated birth and death in this world.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.40]

That thing is accumulated there, and he will get the chance again there. By observing the moral rules we can hope to get happiness, a happy position in the course of going up and down, it may be a favourable position, or a little happy position. But: then the next śloka: kva vābhadram abhūd amuṣya kiṁ, ko vārtha āpto ‘bhajatāṁ. That nothing we can get by maintaining that position, we must take risk. And then, just as a child, when he begins to walk, he must take the risk. But sometimes he will fall down, but if he does not take the risk of walking for fear of falling down, then no time he will be able to learn walking. He will be only flat. So take some risk. And if you fall down and get some pain in the limb, it cannot but be avoided. So:

tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujam harer, bhajann apakvo ‘tha patet tato yadi

yatra kva vābhadram abhūd amuṣya kiṁ, ko vārtha āpto ‘bhajatāṁ sva-dharmataḥ

[“One who has forsaken his material occupations to engage in the devotional service of the Lord may sometimes fall down while in an immature stage, yet there is no danger of his being unsuccessful. On the other hand, a non devotee, though fully engaged in occupational duties, does not gain anything.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.5.17]

Then: tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido, the next śloka, na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ, upary and adhaḥ.

[tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido, na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ

tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukhaṁ, kālena sarvatra gabhīra-raṁhasā]

[Persons who are actually intelligent and philosophically inclined should endeavour only for that purposeful end which is not obtainable even by wandering from the topmost planet [Brahmaloka] down to the lowest planet [Patala]. As far as happiness derived from sense enjoyment is concerned, it can be obtained automatically in course of time, just as in course of time we obtain miseries even though we do not desire them.] [Srimad-Bhagavatam, 1.5.18]

Tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido, na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ. Crores of times, from infinite, time immemorial, I am only moving, going up and down. So that is a futile thing. What is - to maintain position in that sort of vicious circle, what is the benefit there? So we must take a leap, we try to come out of that circle, circular movement. Hetoḥ prayateta kovido, na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ, tal labhyate duḥkhavad anyataḥ sukhaṁ. For only temporary happiness that comes automatically, we do not want any pain or misery but still it comes. So happiness also, pleasure also will come automatically as the pain and misery comes. In course of time it is so set that we do not want pain, still pain comes. So we may not want happiness, still happiness will come in course. It is arranged in such a way. The law of life is wandering in such a way. Up and down, and pleasure and pain, they’re moving like that. So for pleasure or happiness for the mundane, we must not care for that. We must take risk. We must take leap. And if something in the consideration of the worldly good or bad, I am abused, does not matter. So what is necessary, to take the leap for the nirguṇa from saguṇa movement, we must come out to the nirguṇa world, association, to take the advantage of the sādhu-saṅga.

So our Guru Mahārāja managed, established a centre where sādhu-saṅga, śāstra-saṅga, what is necessary for a life of a devotee to take him towards the highest goal, he has made arrangement and called everyone, “Join here; try.”

But if like a child you have to fall for few times maybe, does not matter. Don’t be afraid. Like a child learning to walk, one or two falls may occur, you don’t be afraid of that. Whatever you will acquire for the time being that is a very high, valuable thing. That cannot be had here and there. So for name and fame, good name, and for a peaceful life, don’t lose the chance. That was revolutionary. When people cannot earn freedom of the country in a constitutional method, they take the revolutionary path. They are prepared to incur a loss, a risk. Still they want to go towards the goal, the freedom.

Our Guru Mahārāja created such, so many centres to give chance for rare things, the sādhu-saṅga. Without sādhu-saṅga, sādhu-sevā, one cannot go there. So he created so many places where sādhu-saṅga, Vaiṣṇava anugata sevā, what is indispensable to march towards that and gave a call to the general public. “Come, whatever little you can acquire there that is incomparable with any acquisition of this mundane world. So for sādhu-saṅga and for this sort of advantage of so much facility, we must take risk. And how many days, what period of time we can utilize, that is of infinite value, it will fetch something, some coin of the infinite character. And this mundane flickering, this to be king, this is nothing.” For this purpose the justification of the renunciation:

sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

[ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo, mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ]

[“Totally abandoning all kinds of religion, surrender exclusively unto Me. I will liberate you from all kinds of sins, so do not despair.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]

“In whatever position, svanisthita, in whatever position you are, come towards Me. I shall protect you, in some way or other.”

api cet sudurācāro, bhajate mām ananya-bhāk

sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ, samyag vyavasito hi saḥ

[“If even a person of extremely abominable practices, abandoning all non devotional pursuits of exploitation and renunciation engages in My exclusive and uninterrupted devotional service, he is venerable as a true saint because he has embraced the revolutionary plane of life.”] [Bhagavad- gītā, 9.30]

“When one comes exclusively to My feet, I look after him. For the time being, on the eyes of the ordinary person he may hold a lower position. But that does not matter. I am there. I take care of them, and I assure them that they must come to Me, after some disturbance on the way.”

So no risk, no gain. I am getting sādhu-saṅga. I am getting whole time cultivation about the Lord, knowledge of scripture, then I must run. Otherwise what is mere renunciation, what is the value? After renouncing:

[ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa] vimukta-māninas, tvayi asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ

āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ, patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ

[“O lotus-eyed Lord, although non devotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure. Although they may rise to the level of impersonal Brahman realisation, they fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they neglect to worship Your lotus feet.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 10.2.32]

So moral purity has got no eternal stability, so we must take risk for this.

...

śreyān sva-dharmo viguṇaḥ, para-dharmāt svanuṣṭhitāt

sva dharme nidhanaṁ śreyaḥ, para-dharmo bhayāvahaḥ

[“It is better to carry out one’s own duties a little imperfectly rather than faultlessly perform another’s duties. Know that even death is auspicious in the discharge of one’s duties appropriate to his natural position in the ordained socio religious system, because to pursue another’s path is perilous.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 3.35]

Cowed down by this sort of advice, but sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66], just the opposite advice, and that also comes from the Lord and that is in the conclusion of Gītā. “Come on, I shall see.” This sound will enter whose ear and touch the heart. They’ll come out, with risk, will be able to take the risk.

nehābhikrama-nāśo 'sti, pratyavāyo na vidyate

svalpam apy asya dharmasya, trāyate mahato bhayāt

[“Even a small beginning in this devotional service cannot go in vain, nor can any loss be suffered. The most insignificant practice of such devotional service saves one from the all-devouring fear of repeated birth and death in this world.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.40]

Karnani sadhya sangati sādhu sanga sādhu sanga [?]

So give benefit of the association of the holy persons which is very, very rare to be found here. By the strength of that our Prabhupāda invited all to come and join, to get the most rarely found gem, sevādhi, sat-saṅga, sevā, the direct association and service of the sādhu.

“Without that, no possibility of going that side, so I’m making arrangement of that sādhu-saṅga which is the very key to the door. So give up everything and take this chance. It does not matter if for some time you are still and then again you will, and in this way also only progress is possible towards that. So whose heart will be brave enough to take this opportunity, they will come without caring, without anything. The gṛhastha life, that is a waste of time, they will think, that will be waste of time. The energy will be wasted for maintaining the children and the wife and so many practices with the relatives, all these things. I have come wholesale, to give wholesale to Kṛṣṇa only under the guidance of devotee. If Kṛṣṇa is necessary then why should we lose such a great chance, great opportunity? So direct approach towards Kṛṣṇa. Die to live. Learn to die if you want to live a real life.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. I won’t care. In future whether I cannot maintain my position in the future, for thus I shall lose the present, so valuable present. I shall lose in apprehension of my uncertain future. Then I shall engage it in wasting for maintaining this and that; for the society, for the wife, for the children, for so many things. Why should I go to lose my energy? I shall try my best. The Lord is there, the sādhus are there. They will look after. I must have confidence in them.

Guru Mahārāja he made so many centres. And what is very rarely to be found, that is necessary, what is indispensably necessary, sādhu-saṅga, he made arrangement for that. Whatever you’ll do, the whole thing will be utilized in the service of Kṛṣṇa, under the guidance of a bona fide sādhu. Whatever you’ll do, the whole thing will be converted, and you’ll get the value of everything because under His guidance. You’ll be a gatekeeper, only a gatekeeper, then also you’ll fetch some money of Goloka, you will earn. Whatever you’ll do, you’ll serve the cows, you will do some vegetable, that sort of energy that will go to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. Evolve such a policy and such place giving chance. Every part of your energy may be utilized for the purpose of Kṛṣṇa. Such a great advantage of going there you will lose. So, this is revolutionary way.

sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo, [mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ]

[Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]

“Pāp may come, the sin may come, by chance; but, I am there, If you have some practical faith in Me. I am not a dead thing.” Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. “Those that are risking for Me and I will be cold for them, towards them. Don’t think My nature to be of that type. The little gratitude that you find in the human society, or even in the animal society, the feeling of gratitude, thankfulness, that is also wanting in Me?” Hare Kṛṣṇa.

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate]

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe, nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill fated.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Swāmī Mahārāja, Śrīla Prabhupāda, he mentions that in the sixth canto in the story of Ajāmila when he is delivered by the Viṣṇu-dūtas, Prabhupāda mentions that Kṛṣṇa He is seeing, or hearing, that this man called upon My name so how can I neglect him?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is not a very serious case and not very apt, that nāmābhāsa. In his previous life he had some remote connection with Nārāyaṇa. Then after that, of course, he had a fall, in that ordinary stage of life of varṇāśrama. And also in his last time he got some help from that. But this is more intensive and more useful, more direct relationship with Kṛṣṇa. That is a very remote connection that Ajāmila had, ordinary thing. He got nāmābhāsa and attained liberation. Then after that he went to Haridvar and began sādhana in a positive direction and then he attained Vaikuṇṭha, by sādhana. Nāmābhāsa affected only liberation in him.

But that is not desirable in our camp. We want to avoid both nāmāparādha and nāmābhāsa also, in coming in connection with the positive devotion with the help of the devotees of that world. This is handling, interfering the negative aspect so that we can get out of it. But here our Prabhupāda, Swāmī Mahārāja, they are trying to give something of the positive and calling for that, to accept that, by sādhu-saṅga. Sādhu-saṅga is the most valuable thing, that association with the sādhu.

'sādhu saṅga,' 'sādhu saṅga,' - sarva śāstre kaya / lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya

[“The verdict of all revealed scriptures is that by even a moment’s association with a pure devotee, one can attain all success.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.54]

[ata ātyantikaṁ kṣemaṁ, pṛcchāmo bhavato ‘naghāḥ]

saṁsāre ‘smin kṣaṇārdho ‘pi, sat-saṅgaḥ śevadhir nṛṇām

[“O sinless ones! We therefore inquire from you about that which is supremely auspicious for all living beings, for in this world association with saints – even for a half a moment – is the most valuable treasure in human society.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.30]

In so many places the importance, the stress is given in sādhu-saṅga, the association. We are wandering, uncared for from eternal time. And to get the slightest connection with the positive that is of the greatest value in our life engaged in negative movement. If any positive connection is most valuable thing, even it may be a speck, it will aggrandize itself, accumulate, it will develop itself gradually and will take me forcibly, that source, the association with the sādhu. And through sādhu I shall come in association with the scriptures and then I will surely go towards the positive land. The most important thing in one’s life is to get association of the Vaiṣṇava, the agent, to come in contact with a real agent. To find out a real agent and then through him we are to negotiate about our higher life, spiritual life.

Devotee: So we have come here to find a real agent – so we are coming here.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, anywhere. You have come to Swāmī Mahārāja. He has given you the first start, first connection, touch. And then it is possible for you to come here. First acquaintance, first news, and in a very big magnitude, great magnitude, he has spread throughout the length and breadth of the world. Whatever small but of the highest type of the ideal: that came from Vyāsadeva in his last day, in his last advice. And for which Mahāprabhu came here. That thing he has spread length and width of the whole globe. And also in a powerful way, not in garb of a dazzling and desirable thing of the worldly sense, but in pure type, in a naked way. Not dressed by any worldly garment he has delivered it. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. A wonderful thing that Kṛṣṇa has done through him. He’s the owner, He’s the proprietor, He’s the absolute giver.

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grama, sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the pioneer of Śrī Kṛṣṇa saṅkīrtana. He said: “I have come to inaugurate the chanting of the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa, and that Name will reach every nook and corner of the universe.”] [Caitanya-Bhāgavat]

“My so favourite Name: that will be given to all, every nook and corner of this world one day.” And it is His will; king’s will, king’s desire, sweet will, he wants to give Him. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Love and beauty!

Vidagdha Mādhava: Mahārāja, our Swāmī Mahārāja gave us token austerity for cāturmāsya, yoghurt fast, spinach fast, milk fast, for four months, token fast. So I am noticing this month...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is of less important thing.

Vidagdha Mādhava: That’s my question that it’s not the real thing.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The real importance should be given that is self giving. These are so many methods to promote that self giving. Ātmā-ruci, ātma-nivedanam. That is the real thing, the real capital, and all these, they are devised only to help ātma-nivedanam. Svātmārpaṇaṁ nigamasya saran [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.6.26] Prahlāda Mahārāja says in his advice. So many advices are given in so many places by so many scriptures. But the very gist of them is svātmārpaṇaṁ, give yourself. Only to effect that all these advices have been devised in different ways suiting to different environment, but the very substance for everything svātmārpaṇaṁ. Just as the ghee is poured into the fire, so put yourself into the fire, Kṛṣṇa kāṛṣṇa. Un- grudgingly give yourself into the hands of the sādhu, and Mahāprabhu, Gaurāṅga.

“Only doing some penances, this and that, this is all less important thing. The meaning is you must bring out your capital, the whole capital, yourself. Not satisfied by any part contribution of you, this or that. The wholesale I want, transaction of such things, give and take. Prema, love; that is not satisfied with penances, or this thing or that thing. I want your heart, wholesale; the transaction of the heart, wholesale transaction. Not any like a miser to spare one paisa, or two paisa, or ten paisa; not question of that, the wholesale business. If you give the heart, you’ll get the heart in exchange, the transaction in such way.”

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Mahāprabhu says in Sanātana Goswāmī’s case: “If body is necessary in a second I am ready to give My body crores of times. Even a body is also nothing.”

sanātana, deha-tyāge kṛṣṇa yadi pāiye, koṭi-deha kṣaṇeke tabe chāḍite pāriye,

[deha-tyāge kṛṣṇa nā paī, pāiye bhajane, kṛṣṇa-prāptyera upāya kona nāhi 'bhakti' vine]

[“My dear Sanātana,” He said: “If I could attain Kṛṣṇa by committing suicide, I would certainly give up millions of bodies without a moment’s hesitation.”] [“You should know that one cannot attain Kṛṣṇa simply by giving up the body. Kṛṣṇa is attainable by devotional service. There is no other means to attain Him.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 4.55-56]

“I am ready to sacrifice My body crores of times in a second. But that is futile. This body is nothing, a lump of flesh. Only bhajan, svātmārpaṇaṁ, that is what is necessary to get Kṛṣṇa, the grace of Kṛṣṇa; not this body even, what to speak of other things.”

Penances, a little bodily pain or some mental pain, that is nothing. The wholesale, as you are. It is His, already it is His, and it has been snatched from Him for your infinite trouble, for folly, you have snatched it from Him. So with repentance you are to give back His own thing to Him with much penance, and much repentance. ‘What have I done? I am Yours. I could not find that. And I have gone to acquire some benefit in a foreign land. Wholly I belong to You, Your slave. That is my position. And I revolted. And I am punished for my revolt, in sufficient way. Now I come back. Forgive me for my treachery, for my folly, and accept me Prabhu.’ In this way! Advaya-jñāna, unlimited ecstasy, and we are all beggars of ecstasy of that quality. And I must come to ecstasy personified – with that, ‘That I went to wander in the foreign land for higher ecstasy. But I have been punished very properly, proper punishment.’

Vidagdha Mādhava: Artha, kāma, dharma, mokṣa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Artha, kāma, dharma?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa. Yes!

Vidagdha Mādhava: So I read somewhere these are legitimate desires and that our Swāmī Mahārāja’s father saw fit to see him become gṛhastha. So he made some arrangement for Prabhupāda, our Swāmī Mahārāja. But on the strength, according to this writer he said according to Hindu psychology one becomes sick of body and mind if one does not attempt to fulfil these legitimate desires in some way. Is that correct? Is that false?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ke bolchen?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _____________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is the general way that has been recommended in the scriptures.

loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā, nityā hi jantor na hi tatra codanā

vyavasthitis teṣu vivāha-yajña,-surā-grahair āsu nivṛttir iṣṭā

[“Everyone is naturally inclined to have sex, eat meat, and drink wine. There is no need for the scripture to encourage these things. The scriptures do, however, give concessions to people who are determined to do these things. The scriptures therefore grant a license to enjoy sex by allowing sexual intercourse with one’s lawfully wedded wife at the proper time of the month. They grant a license to eat meat to those who perform a certain kind of sacrifice, and a license to drink wine to those who perform the Sautramani sacrifice. The purpose of granting these licenses for sense gratification is only to restrict these activities and encourage people to give them up altogether. The real intention of the Vedic injunctions regarding sex, meat-eating, and wine-drinking is to make one abstain from these activities.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.5.11]

Adhikāra praśna.

parokṣa-vādo vedo 'yaṁ, bālānām anuśāsanam

[karma-mokṣāya karmāṇi, vidhatte hy agadaṁ yathā]

[“Childish and foolish people are attached to materialistic, fruitive activities, although the actual goal of life is to become free from such activities. Therefore, the Vedic injunctions indirectly lead one to the path of ultimate liberation by first prescribing fruitive religious activities, just as a father promises his child candy so that the child will take his medicine.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 11.3.44]

Veda and mahājana has generally accepted the path that according to ones capacity he’ll be given the way of truth - according to his capacity he’ll be asked to contribute his duty. That policy has been adopted in the Vedas and by the ṛṣis. That considering his present position he will ask him to do a portion of duty. Otherwise he will not be able to do anything. His progress will be marred. So, loke vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā, generally the Veda has come to ordain, to make rules for different stages.

It will say to the lowest part, “You cannot but take fish, meat, etc, so don’t take all kinds of fish, all kinds of meat, but confine yourself only to certain.” Gradually, taking him into restriction: in a gradual process.

Then, “And also you cannot but keep yourself alone without the help of a woman, otherwise you will create some disturbance in the society. So keep one in a particular process and you will satisfy your carnal desires and within particular rulings and restrictions. And gradually you will come up. If not allowed then a disturbance in the society it will create havoc.” So it is providing that you may take a woman.

And then, vyavāyāmiṣa-madya-sevā, and more, wine, wine also, you cannot but take wine, intoxication. You cannot think of your life without intoxication; so only in some yajña, some particular process, you’ll take wine.

And also meat in such a way, you give it, you sacrifice it to a particular god or goddess and distribute it amongst so many in society with particular mantram and then it will not be much harmful to you. Accept this process.

In the case of taking a wife, and in the case of taking the meat, do in particular way then it will be less injurious to you. How? Just as in the case of meat eating they say that you have sacrificed to a particular god and with particular mantram. The ṛṣi is there, you and distribute to the society. And in this process, accepting this process of mantram, ṛṣi, etc., if you do then your merit will be distributed, will be, the merits of all that are taking the meat their merit will be given to that animal. His body you are taking and your merit will be given, transferred to him. And he will get a lift. So the killing question will not be very big. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So in this process if you cannot but live without meat, come through this process. Then you will be less damaged, your cause. So also keep a woman and supply her food, lodging etc., and also only for the purpose of creating a child and certain with restrictions you go on. And then it will be less injurious to your cause. So also in wine also. Offer it to the deity. The deity will also have to be concerned in connection, and the merit will be; whatever bad effect, that will be distributed amongst many. So you’ll be less injured. So this process has been utilised in the ordinary course. But there is a special case, in the case of nirguṇa bhakti even.

nīca-jāti nahe kṛṣṇa-bhajane ayogya, sat-kula-vipra nahe bhajanera yogya

yei bhaje sei baḍa abhakta – hīna, chāra, [kṛṣṇa-bhajane nāhi jāti-kulādi-vicāra]

[“Birth in a low family is no disqualification for the execution of devotional service. And birth in a family of brāhmaṇas is no good qualification. Anyone who takes to devotional service is exalted, whereas a non devotee is always condemned and abominable. Therefore in the discharge of devotional service to the Lord, there is no consideration of the status of one’s family.”] [Caitanya- caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 4.66-67]

But this is another, that only through sādhu-saṅga the nirguṇa may be distributed. It is a special line, that is varṇāśrama you can come after mukti. Dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa, vimukta-māninas. And again you may have to go back. In this happy course in sattva-guṇa if you cannot catch the company of a real sādhu, nirguṇa, Kṛṣṇa bhakta, then you are to go back. You may come in sattva guṇa, in ordinary sense, in a good life, but goodness of the mundane world is not to be compared with nirguṇa. A goodness in the negative side, sattva, raja, tama, it is a good position in the lowest matter, relative good. But absolute good is separate thing and that is recruited only through the sādhu. Not by this sort of dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa, only with the company of sādhu. From a lowest position one may go. The dharma vāda, coming in contact with Nārada he achieved the end, whereas so many brāhmaṇas of the highest type they could not do anything. So this is good and bad in the relative and negative side, good and bad. This sort of...

Next moment it will come in the bad position, no guarantee of any good, and that good also in guṇa māyā within the miscalculation area, misconception, māyā.

'dvaite bhadrābhadra-jñāna, saba-'manodharma' ['ei bhāla, ei manda',-ei saba 'bhrama']

[“In the material world, conceptions of good and bad are all mental concoctions. Therefore, saying, ‘This is good, this is bad,’ is a mistake.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 4.176]

Only they feel like that, this is not real good, but nirguṇa is real good and to get its connection and to be improved, get development, that way is another. A worst man of this guṇa may have connection with that nirguṇa. A bad... can be... any qualification for the wholesale truthful area. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then, what was your question? Dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa: without that? That is all saguṇa. And mukta, that liberation, from the relativity of this misconception, that is also in the relativity there, until and unless it has any positive connection with the positive world. Mere liberation does not mean to attainment...

...says, definition of mukti... is not mere liberation from the negative side but fullest participation in the positive service...

...in the ordinary scripture, that is to get out of the negative side only, vimukta-māninas, tvayi asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.2.32] After mukti then we are to enter into the positive life. So muktānām, all the muktas they may not have any connection with Nārāyaṇaloka.

muktānām api siddhānāṁ nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇa

sudurlabhaḥ praśāntātmā koṭiṣv api mahā-mune

[“O great sage, among many millions who are liberated and perfect in knowledge of liberation, one may be a devotee of Lord Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa. Such devotees, who are fully peaceful, are extremely rare.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 6.14.5]

Crores, millions of mukta one may have entrance of the service world of Nārāyaṇa. So don’t plod within the ordinary karma-kāṇḍiya scriptures and advices of the dharma śāstra. In Bhāgavat, Prahlāda Mahārāja says:

prāyeṇa veda tad idaṁ na mahājano ‘yaṁ, devyā vimohita-matir bata māyayālam

trayāṁ jaḍī-kṛta-matir madhu-puṣpitāyāṁ, vaitānike mahati karmaṇi yujyamānaḥ

[“Because they are bewildered by the illusory energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Yājnavalkya and Jaimini and other compilers of the religious scriptures cannot understand the transcendental value of performing devotional service or chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Because their minds are attracted to the ritualistic ceremonies mentioned in the Vedas – especially the Yajur Veda, Sāma Veda, and Ṛg Veda – their intelligence has become dull. Thus they are busy collecting the ingredients for ritualistic ceremonies that yield only temporary benefits, such as elevation to Svargaloka for material happiness. They are not attracted to the saṅkīrtana movement; instead, they are interested in dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 6.3.25]

Prāyeṇa veda tad idaṁ, the Bhāgavat dharma, Prahlāda Mahārāja says, “What I say, this Bhāgavat dharma it is unknown to the great personages of the religion giving world, who are mahājano ‘yaṁ, who are mahājanas, the great personages, great leaders of the karma-kāṇḍa world, they are not aware of this fact, this Bhāgavat dharma, na mahājano ‘yaṁ, devyā vimohita. Who is mahājana? Śrīdhara Swāmī says:

Manyadhi manu atri visnu hari yajnavalkya _______________ [?]

The founders of all these siddhi śāstras, karma-kāṇḍa, they are not aware of this Bhāgavat dharma, nirguṇa dharma. So what to speak of ordinary persons. Karma-kāṇḍa, the wholesale within māyā, all misconceptions...

End of 81.10.05.C

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.05.D_81.10.06.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:

prāyeṇa veda tad idaṁ na mahājano ‘yaṁ, [devyā vimohita-matir bata māyayālam

trayāṁ jaḍī-kṛta-matir madhu-puṣpitāyāṁ, vaitānike mahati karmaṇi yujyamānaḥ]

[“Because they are bewildered by the illusory energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Yājnavalkya and Jaimini and other compilers of the religious scriptures cannot understand the transcendental value of performing devotional service or chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Because their minds are attracted to the ritualistic ceremonies mentioned in the Vedas – especially the Yajur Veda, Sāma Veda, and Ṛg Veda – their intelligence has become dull. Thus they are busy collecting the ingredients for ritualistic ceremonies that yield only temporary benefits, such as elevation to Svargaloka for material happiness. They are not attracted to the saṅkīrtana movement; instead, they are interested in dharma, artha, kāma and mokṣa.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 6.3.25]

Mahājana means manyadi. Manu, Atri, Manyati, Viṣṇu, Hari, Yājnavalkya, they’re the founders of so many Śrūti Schools. They do not know anything about this Bhāgavat, that is nirguṇa dharma, pure bhakti dharma, śuddha bhakti dharma, what to speak of ordinary persons. Devyā vimohita-matir, the Māyā Devī has benumbed them, their understanding, bata māyayālam. Trayāṁ jaḍī-kṛta-matir, the three guṇas, sattya, raja, tama, tri guṇa; tied tight by these three ropes of sattya, raja, tama. Madhu-puṣpitāyāṁ, and they utter so many sweet words to the unfortunate people, good or bad, pāpa, puṇya, all these, everything is futile. In the long run, no value they have got; no eternal value. What is the time now?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Five minutes to ten.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So I may stop today here. Do you follow? Not clear?

Devotee: Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, and taken again. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

...

________________________________________________________________ [?]

One Govinda dāsa, Vaiṣṇava kavi, when Mahāprabhu is walking through the banks of Ganges, and wonderful golden kalpa-taru means the tree which can give us whatever we desire, that is kalpa-taru. Whatever is wanted from it, it gives away immediately. The golden kalpa-taru He’s wandering as if on the banks of the Ganges and the whole environment has been enlightened. There is a flow of lustre around. Kavi nama hema kalpa taru [?] When looking at Him it seems, it appears in the heart of the devotees, “Who is moving here?” Infinite magnanimity, kalpa-taru, whatever is wanted He gives at once, infinite magnanimity. And throwing His lustre all around He’s moving here on the banks of the Ganges. Kavi nama hema kalpa taru sancaru sula duni teja yo [?] Ke? Who is he?

Devotee: Kaśirāma dāsa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kaśirāma. Kaśirāma dāsa kahe suni punya vada [?] The author of Bengali Mahābhārata is Kaśirāma dāsa. He is the famous Kaśirāma. Only on the way to Katwa there is a village named Singi; there was his birth place, Kaśirāma.

Rabi, Rabindranath eulogises him. he kasi kovi su kuli tomi punya van [?]

“You have got a good prestige in the line of the poets of Bengal.” Kaśirāma dāsa.

Kaśi is a noted place for Śiva, Śiva worshippers. And Śiva himself, he’s a devotee of Rāmacandra. And it is mentioned in the Purāṇa that whenever anyone dies there Śiva comes himself to him and puts the Name of Rāmacandra in his ear, helps him to go towards the feet of Rāmacandra. Śiva himself gives the Name of Rāma.

At Rāmeśvara in the south, two sorts of interpretation!

Rāmacandra says, “You are My Lord, Rāmeśvara Śiva you are My Lord.”

And Mahādeva says, Śiva, says, “No, no. You are my Lord.”

Rāmeśvara Īśvara so Rāmeśvara.

That is the interpretation of the Sanskrit word. Rāmeśvara means Rāma is the Lord of whom, He’s Rāmeśvara.

“No, no. Rāmeśvara Īśvara, Rāma’s Lord.”

Rāmacandra says, “Rāma’s Lord you are.”

“No, no, no. Rāma is the Lord to him, he is Rāmeśvara. You are my master, my Lord, Rāmeśvara.”

Rāmacandra came here to play the part of unknown self, externally, without self consciousness.

In Nṛsiṁha Avatāra, at the time of Prahlāda, some, when He came out from the pillar with a violent sound, at that time, perhaps one brāhmaṇa lady she was with full grown child in her womb, the child slipped away suddenly from that sound He did. That roaring sound, she could not tolerate and some convulsion in her body and the child came out. So the brāhmaṇa gave a curse, “Whoever is the cause of this untimely birth of my child must lose self consciousness.” That was, and Nṛsiṁha.

Then next came Rāmacandra as without self consciousness. The inner heart He knew, whatever, but He played the part of a self unknown man, so Rāmacandra, nara-līlā, as if He does not know that He is the Supreme Entity. That consciousness set aside to give respect to the words of the brāhmaṇa. So here He worshipped Devī and worshipped Śiva, all these things, we see from in His character, conduct.

So Rāmeśvara, Śiva is very fond of Rāma Nāma, Mahādeva. And in his jurisdiction whenever anyone dies he comes there himself and puts the Name of Rāma to his ear. And of course he attains Vaikuṇṭha, Ayodhyā, Rāmacandra.

Kaśi Rāma, Kasiśvara Rāma. ______________________________ [?] Kaśirāma.

Guruttama, another, to whom Guru is the uttama of Krista, excellent, uttama krstanam, tama, superlatively. Guru is the highest to whom, he’s Guruttama. Not that he himself is the highest type of Guru, not that meaning, that ordinary comes that. Guru nama uttama. There are so many Gurus and he is the best amongst them. Gurutama dāsa it is all right, the most superior Guru who gives Kṛṣṇa bhakti or Mahāprabhu bhakti. Of all the different types of Gurus that Guru holds the supreme most position. And he’s dāsa, he’s servant. Guruttama dāsa. Guru is uttama. To him he is Guruttama. Guru is all in all, holds the best position. The supreme position in his heart is Guru, he’s Guruttama dāsa.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Then, who has got any question?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: There’s question from Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam. In the fourth chapter there is a śloka by Raghunātha Dāsa Goswāmī. After the śloka you have also given a Bengali verse. Maybe that is by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura?

kṛṣṇa-vārttā vina āna, ‘asad-vārttā’ bali’ jāna, sei veśyā ati bhayaṅkari

[śrī-kṛṣṇa-viṣaya mati, jīvera durllabha ati, sei veśyā mati laya hari]

[Anything but Kṛṣṇa’s message, know as falsehood such a passage,

such a harlot is so very dangerous:

devotion to the Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, rarely gotten by the jīva -

that harlot steals away this consciousness.]

[Bengali poem by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura]

[Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam, 4.27, p 73-74]

Is this Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s writing, poem?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. What is other than kṛṣṇa-vārttā, not in connection with Kṛṣṇa, you know it for certain that that is asat and that is unnecessary to you. You know it for certain that what has no connection with Kṛṣṇa, that is bad, asat, non existent. Know it for certain. That is the criterion of asat, to you, to a devotee of Kṛṣṇa, whatever has no connection with Kṛṣṇa that is bad. And she has been given the name as veśyā, the prostitute. What is the function of the prostitute? She entices away the mind towards her direction. By her charm she wants to entice one’s mind towards her, so that is like veśyā, she wants to keep away from Kṛṣṇa. So don’t, hate him, learn to hate him, whatever is not in connection with Kṛṣṇa. We are concerned exclusively with Kṛṣṇa, cent percent. So any deviation you consider like the hateful prostitute. ‘Asad-vārttā’ bali’ jāna, sei veśyā ati bhayaṅkari. And she has her dreadful aspect. You must be aware. I warn you, ati bhayaṅkari. Then, mukti-nāme śārddulinī.

[śuna mana, bali he tomāya,

mukti-nāme śārddulinī, tāra kathā yadi śuni,

sarvvātma-sampatti gili’ khāya]

[O dear mind, please hear my prayer:

And if you hear the presentation of the tigress liberation,

all the soul’s good prospect she’ll devour.]

[Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam, 4.27, p 73-74]

And there is another tiger, that is called mukti. She will devour you like a tiger; your self consciousness, your individual consciousness will be dissolved in coming in his connection. He will devour you.

Mahāprabhu already told in Caitanya-caritāmṛta we find, jagara like a big serpent. What is the name? Python, he will come with his mouth open, mukti, and will devour you wholesale, that mukti, sāyujya-mukti. Don’t go that side. And here is mukti background. The tiger will come and eat you up, so bhukti-mukti and asad-vārttā, both sides being full of danger and you must be careful very much about them.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Then he says,

tad ubhaya tyāga kara, mukti-kathā parihara, [lakṣmī-pati-rati rākha dūre

se rati prabala ha’le, paravyome deya phele, nāhi deya vāsa vraja-pure]

[Both temptations please abandon, and not to speak of liberation,

curb attraction for the Lord Nārāyaṇa;

by attraction to that plane, to Vaikuṇṭha you’ll be hurled down -

denied the chance to live in Śrī Vṛndāvana.]

[Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam, 4.27, p 73-74]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mukti? So both sides, both aspects, both alternatives and give it up altogether. Then?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Lakṣmī-pati-rati rākha dūre.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh! And another warning! First this charm of the transient world, asad-vārttā, and the second - first the charm of exploitation - and the second the charm of renunciation, and the third charm yet remains for Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa; for inclination towards viddhi-bhakti, towards scriptural devotion, law, power, reverence, awe, all these things, gauram, maryādā, respect. Give up all these also, you will have to if you want to come to Kṛṣṇa bhakti, only spontaneous, automatic; no consideration of any law, or any society, or any power thing, or anything else of that type. Spontaneous, automatic, innate, actuated by love: no law. The source, the propensity comes, the fountain of energy is only love and nothing else. If you like that Kṛṣṇa bhakti is of that type. Even Nārāyaṇa bhakti you are to set aside. Because there is that viddhi, the scriptural dictation, and there is awe, reverence, power, grandeur, all these things. Don’t seek any grandeur. It is very plain. It is the jungle, the flower, the tails of the peacock, and some other homely and which is available in the forest, simple things. Be trained to adore them and not allow yourself to be attracted by any grandeur, the diamond, the gold, that respectful situation, all these things. The homely, simple, almost a jungle life, so plain; plain, plain living, try to adore, and that of Vṛndāvana, very simple and plain. No show of grandeur or anything like that, splendour, or anything like that, aiśvarya. Lakṣmī-pati-rati rākha dūre, se rati prabala ha’le, paravyome deya phele. You have got least attraction for the grandeur and pleasure, then you will be cast down into the plane of Paravyoma in the sphere of Nārāyaṇa. You won’t be able to maintain your high position in the plain thinking and of the land of simplicity and homely atmosphere, paravyome deya phele. Then?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Then:

vraje rādhā-kṛṣṇa-rati, amūlya dhanada ati, tāi tumi bhaja cīra-dina

rūpa-raghunātha-pāya, sei rati prārthanāya, e bhaktivinoda dīna-hīna

[Love for Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa in Vraja, bestows the most precious treasure;

adore Them in your heart eternally;

Rūpa-Raghunātha’s feet, for such devotion, does entreat

this Bhaktivinoda, bereft, in all humility.]

[Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam, 4.27, p 73-74]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: “My earnest request if you want to keep your mind really in the service of the Holy Feet of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa then these are your necessities, the cautions. The cautions are given in this way. Don’t misunderstand it.” And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says: “This we can get only by the grace of Rūpa-Raghunātha. So I pray fervently for the grace of Rūpa-Raghunātha. Keep me steady, fixed in this idea of simplicity and grandeur-less service to that of Rādhā-Govinda, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. And the awe, reverence, or the mukti, or the exploiting tendency may not divert my attention any day. This is my prayer to Rūpa-Raghunātha, my Gurudeva.”

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. This is the highest attainment of our object of our life.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

se rati prabala ha’le, paravyome deya phele, nāhi deya vāsa vraja-pure

Nitāi. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Ke?

Devotees: Kaśirāma.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kaśirāma, and there?

Devotees: Guruttama.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Guruttama, and he?

Devotee: Mukundamālā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mukundamālā dāsa. Mukundamālā. What is the meaning of Mukunda? Mu ku da. Mu means mukti, the seed of mukti – the words not coming in my mind. Mu represents mukti, ku – kutzit [?], which makes the mukti look awkward. Ku means bad, a particular thing which can show the liberation as awkward thing, mu ku. And that thing, who can give that thing He’s Mukunda. Mu ku dadadi ya, Mukunda dadi. What is mu ku, that thing which can blame, which can show the awkwardness of mukti. That thing is prema. And who gives that He’s Mukunda. And Mukundamālā, Mukunda-mālā stotra, that Kulaśekhara’s stotra, that is known as Mukunda-mālā stotra. Mukunda mālā: Mukunda keeps as His garland that stotra mālā. So many gems in the garland, and Mukunda adored that. He set it around His neck, Mukunda-mālā stotra. And the devotees are very happy to see the Lord with this Mukunda-mālā stotra.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi.

Who is he?

Devotees: Same. Ha, ha, ha, ha. He moved a little closer. Guruttama: coming a little closer.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Come from there to here. Changed your position? Ha, ha, ha.

See how helpless am I, ha, ha, ha, disturbing you in causeless manner.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Gaurasundar.

Devotee: I always understood that renunciation means to utilize everything in the service of Kṛṣṇa. So especially in the western countries there is very much opulence, so many times this opulence is utilized in Kṛṣṇa’s service to attract the living entities or people to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So in the midst of all this opulence it seems almost like a paradox to live a very simple life because this opulence in the west especially brings a lot of complexities, a lot of entanglement with this material world.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: ____________ [?]

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This is individual case. What is vairāgya? Vairāgya, though there is a general law, but still it must be applied in individual cases in different ways. What is vairāgya to another, what is vairāgya to Rāmānanda Rāya that may not be vairāgya to Raghunātha Dāsa. Rāmānanda Rāya, he can handle the most tempting things for the service of Kṛṣṇa. He has showed his ideal in that way. But that is not to be accepted as general direction. And Raghunātha Dāsa he has showed the extreme vairāgya abnegation, very strict. That is not possible for an ordinary soul. So the general rule to renounce everything that is not vairāgya. Real vairāgya is to handle everything for Kṛṣṇa. But in a particular case where that is not possible, that will tempt his own self towards that, he’ll try to be aloof and indifferent from that sort of family, as much as he can manage, he’ll do.

Suppose rich food is necessary for great labour for the service, some sort of rich food, some ghee, and milk may be necessary, if we are to labour much for the service of the mission of Kṛṣṇa. But if one is a patient he cannot digest milk, what should he do? Then he’ll do accordingly and he must be satisfied with that sort of service.

So general law as well as special law for the individual, we are to adjust according to our capacity. The general, the highest law is that don’t leave everything, anything, but try to utilize everything for His service. That is the highest law. You are a servant. You are to serve. And so many objects through which you are to serve. And it does not behove, look well that you will be tempted; what is to be offered to Kṛṣṇa, seeing that you’ll be tempted to use it for your own pleasure. If it is so, you are not a standard servant, servitor.

The highest type of servant, he will handle everything for Kṛṣṇa. But he won’t feel any tendency to exploit that, to enjoy that. That is the highest standard. Then, but if one is not in that highest plane, then he will adjust accordingly so that he may not have to be entangled in the land of exploitation. At the same time we should be careful that we may not enter into the group of renunciationists, that this is bad, that is bad, everything is bad. But because I cannot utilize them in the service of Kṛṣṇa, I am disturbed. So I think that is bad, that is bad. That hateful temperament, that is also dangerous. So renunciation is bad, exploitation is bad. To use everything for the service of Kṛṣṇa, that is the highest model, but we must adjust ourselves so that I may not be entangled into that, accordingly. Am I clear? No?

Devotees: Yes, very clear.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Individual case should be different, according to his own capacity. But the highest ideal, to utilise everything, nothing is bad. Everything may be utilized in the service of Kṛṣṇa. If we can do that, we are the real servant, real servitor. But if we are unfit, and either the enjoying spirit comes in the way, that will be bad. I shall try to avoid that. And at the same time I shall think that there is nothing bad in that thing, the bad thing is in me. So that is not hateful, the environment is not to be hated. The hated thing is within me. And that must be eliminated. Then I’ll be viśvam purna sukhāyate.

I shall see everything is meant for Kṛṣṇa and I am also meant for Kṛṣṇa’s service. Until and unless I realize that sort of position I must be careful in discharging my duty towards my Lord, that I may not tamper on the way, may not be a thief. So carefully I should handle, thinking that it is meant for the service of Kṛṣṇa. And when that day will come when I’ll feel enjoyment that seeing that everything is for Kṛṣṇa and my inner enjoyment lies only in that stage, in that feeling, that everything is mine.

Just as a mother she may not eat a thing but she feels pleasure feeding her child. Feeding her child she feels pleasure. So one who loves another he’d rather give a thing to him or her and find pleasure, rather than taking it himself. So it is possible.

Kṛṣṇa sukhe śuka, by seeing the pleasure in Kṛṣṇa we will be happy. That should be our model, that we do not want any independent pleasure for us, but our quest will be always to draw pleasure from the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa. Serve Kṛṣṇa and I shall find that He is happy, then I will be happy. My happiness will be dependent on the happiness of Kṛṣṇa or kāṛṣṇa, Vaiṣṇava, Kṛṣṇa or Kṛṣṇa’s servitors. That should be our ideal. Our happiness will always try to have its source in the happiness of the Vaiṣṇava and Kṛṣṇa and not independent. That should be the position, safe position, happy position, and that is normal. And this is abnormal, to exploit a thing, to try to enjoy a particular thing and otherwise to cast it off, hatefully, that it will cause injury to me. Both these are artificial. Only natural, that the happiness of my master will sustain me, my happiness. That should be the normal position.

Kṛṣṇa sukhe śuka, Guru sukhe, Vaiṣṇava sukhe śuka. We should be happy looking, tracing the happiness of Guru, Vaiṣṇava, Kṛṣṇa. That happiness will be purest happiness, pleasure, that pleasure. Kṛṣṇa sukhe śuka - the happiness that depends on the happiness of Kṛṣṇa and His own; we are safe there, and we have attained our best position, otherwise independent search for gratification that is condemned for a Vaiṣṇava. Always in an organic whole and the centre will be our life of attention. Everything, the centre and the near connected with the centre. That will be the quest of our all goodness.

Devotee: I have another question.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Your points satisfied, no?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We may hear, but we hear and hear, and then we shall realise, come to realise.

Devotee: The standard set by Caitanya Mahāprabhu as a sannyāsī we see that in the Caitanya- caritāmṛta Lord Caitanya would not even associate with Mahārāja Pratāparudra because he was a king, someone who is involved with women and wealth. So we see, this is along the same lines, that these things are great obstacles on the path of advancement, associating with people who are very much entangled with women and wealth. So also again in the West, there are many people who are very much wealthy who we are making an endeavour to preach to. To what extent should we preach to these people?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________ [?]

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:

[niṣkiñcanasya bhagavad-bhajanonmukhasya, pāraṁ] pāraṁ jigamiṣor bhava-sāgarasya

sandarśanaṁ viṣayiṇām atha yoṣitāñ ca, hā hanta hanta viṣa-bhakṣaṇato ‘py asādhu

[“Alas, for a renunciate who desires to completely cross over the ocean of mundanity and engage in the divine loving service of the Supreme Lord, to ogle a materialist and a woman is more wicked than drinking poison.”] [Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam, 4.11]

That is the problem. And we are asked to wander door to door, and even to see the prostitutes also and try to help her, the risky position. What is the justification? Is it?

Devotee: That’s the question.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This you want? That’s the question? That is also that individual case. If one is continuing his own bhajana individually in a secluded life, he’ll be very careful of that. But this is, as I told just beforehand - give up the danger, avoid the danger to keep it distant, but no solution. The final solution will be to handle everything for the service of Kṛṣṇa. The highest type of vairāgya is there. But that also will depend upon the individual capacity. You will meet, you have to be sincere first, then you’ll go to give something to others, Kṛṣṇa kīrtana. Kṛṣṇa will be with you, and your earnest desire will be always to give Kṛṣṇa to him and not to take his worldly things in return. That will be the main bhajan. You won’t accept it. But still the money and other things, what you will take on behalf of Kṛṣṇa you will connect with your Gurudeva, sādhu, and Kṛṣṇa, and you will be the mediator, generally.

For the final solution, these things are necessary, that the soldiers will not always be kept within the fort. To be posted within the fort, that is very safe. But soldiers must come out and work, wander, toward the length and breadth of the country. And then the safety of the land will be proved.

So for solitary sādhana, that is when one is a sādhaka, when he’s leading his individual life, he’ll be very careful of that. But when under the guidance of a great propounder of the Lord who is empowered, and has delegation, delegated power to give something to the world, and as his agent we can approach one and all.

And there also individual question, if one says, “I feel much disturbed to approach the women, approach the sick,” then he should inform it to his master and ask, “What should I do? Should I approach them? I feel so much weakness.”

There are so many diseased patients. And the nurse and the doctor should approach them for their healing, for the help of those patients. But if any particular soul, he has got some weakness that, “Should I venture to nurse a TB patient? I am so weak in health.”

Then perhaps the agent, the master will say, “No. You are so weak, you should not go to attend that particular type of patient. Another man will go. I will send there.”

Such arrangement may be made in particular cases, individual cases. But generally the solution is only there; to approach everyone and also to be able to pass all sorts of variegated temptation. That I must have to see that it is not for me. It is for Kṛṣṇa. This practice should be effected in any and every corner of temptation. Without that the solution is not complete. The complete solution requires that we shall try every point of temptation and try to find out that this is not a ghost but this is my friend. The apprehension that is a ghost, he’ll come to attack me; that must be cleared. He’s my friend, he’s not the ghost. So I feel some individual temptation, by weak points there, so that must be solved. Until and unless that is solved I am incomplete. But that must be solved. That the highest point of temptation; that should not tempt me. It is for Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise I am imperfect. I am not a reliable servant. I am a traitor. I have come to serve Kṛṣṇa but in the meantime I take it in the path midway. So in order to become a bona fide servant of Kṛṣṇa, it requires that I shall handle everything and I shall feel pleasure.

“O it will, it is so good it will produce pleasure in Kṛṣṇa, in Gurudeva, in Vaiṣṇava.”

Such faithfulness we must have to acquire. And only for fear of...

End of 81.10.05.D_81.10.06.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.06.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...I shall remain; being a soldier I shall always try to remain within the fort. Then I am not a soldier. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But still we shall be careful as I told. That I am a weak man before going to attend the TB patient, or a serious patient, if I feel some weakness I shall intimate to my master that, ‘For the time being you may change my field of working, of service!’ But I shall have to keep it in mind. I must have to be sufficiently strong that I shall be able to attend that serious patient also. He may be a prostitute, he may be a dacoit, he may be a wealthy man. I shall approach him for the service of Kṛṣṇa. Must be bold enough, healthy enough, and I must not be a trespasser in the middle, on the way, taking things to Kṛṣṇa on the way I shall take it, and I shall become a traitor, unfaithful servant.

[anyathā swatantra kāma-anrthādi jāra dhāma, bhakti-patha sadā deya bhaṅga]

kibā bā karite parekāma-krodha sadhākere, jadi haya sādhu-janara saṅga

[“If lust is not controlled, then it becomes the breeding ground for a host of vices and checks one’s advancement on the path of devotional service. However, if one stays in the association of the saintly devotees, then that association will carry him beyond the influence of lust, anger, and their friends.”] [Śrī Prema-bhakti-candrikā]

Narottama [Dāsa] Ṭhākura says, the negative side, the temptation side, and the positive side the guardians. Narottama Ṭhākura says if we have got the favour of a great personage then what can these trifle temptations can do to me? Can’t do anything! If my guardian is very careful, very strong, very judicious, and I am working under him then no temptations can do any harm to us. That is the key of life, success. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Generally, according to our capacity we shall try to move. That is the general thing. But at the same time we shall keep in our mind that to attain our highest position it is necessary that I shall, I should be able to deal with all these serious things also, the most serious. Otherwise some defect within. The wholesale conversion must come within me, that I am a servitor and not master. That is not only in this case, in the case of fame also, name and fame. That is the subtle most dangerous enemy; name and fame, pratiṣṭhā. That highest enemy, the highest and subtle at the same time, the pratiṣṭhā, to take the name, the credit, to one’s own self and without giving it to Gurudeva. The greatest enemy is there. And it is very difficult to detect it.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Kanak, kāminī, pratiṣṭhā, three classifications: kanak, kāminī, and pratiṣṭhā, fame, female, and money. No f in money.

Devotee: Profit?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Profit. Beginning with f, wealth beginning with f.

Devotee: Fortune?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Fortune is a comprehensive that includes everything, not money only.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, pratiṣṭhā, how do we detect that within ourselves?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is internal perception. Our continuous thankfulness to Gurudeva, that is coming from upward, I have got nothing. I have got no position. My present position depends always on the mercy of my Gurudeva, to be able to remain on that plane of thinking. It may be withdrawn any moment from me, may be withdrawn. It is not a fixed thing in me. Not as a matter of right, but only extended grace in me. The moment it is withdrawn, I am nowhere. It is all His svarūpa-śakti. I am taṭasthā-śakti, no capital. I am working on the capital of my master. I have got no capital of my own, to realize that. Without his help, without his grace, I am in darkness. My fate is dark. As long as he extends his grace in me I can see. Light is withdrawn, the eye is helpless. It is the position to realize such a position that by my birth, it is my birthright that I am taṭasthā-śakti, a marginal potency. And whatever I found that the gracious extension of svarūpa-śakti in me. It is their wealth. The wealth, the property belongs to them, to my Guru, Vaiṣṇava, their property. But at the same time, those that are faithful that never occurs, such cruel activity can never be seen anywhere. They are rather busy to extend their circle. And they never withdraw. That is our solace, our consolation. But not as a matter of right I can demand, no demand, no challenge. Challenging spirit towards the Vaiṣṇava must be eliminated forever. We are living on their grace. Prasād ubaje [?] Ucchiṣṭa-bhojino dāsās, we are entitled only to taste the remnants left by the Vaiṣṇava.

tvayopabhukta-srag-gandha-, vāso 'laṅkāra-carcitāḥ

ucchiṣṭa-bhojino dāsās, [tava māyāṁ jayema hi]

[Uddhava says: “Adorned with the articles that have been offered to You, such as garlands, fragrant clothing, and ornaments, we, Your personal servitors who partake of Your holy remnants alone, will certainly be able to conquer Your illusory energy.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.6.46]

And in Gītā:

yajña-śiṣṭāśinaḥ santo, mucyante sarvva-kilbiṣaiḥ

[bhuñjate te tv aghaṁ pāpā, ye pacanty ātma-kāraṇāt]

[“Saintly persons who partake of the remnants of sacrifice become liberated from all the sins arising from the five kinds of violence to living beings. But those who cook for their own consumption, those sinners eat only sin.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 3.13]

Only remnants we are to take and live on that. Para bargo jivevi [?]

Just as the custom and the law of the Hindu law, bhaja, sanskriti [?] the position of the females, no right is given to them. The whole right with the man, nothing with the women. But by their affection and serving spirit, they hold the key to the whole respect, the respect of the son, the affection of the husband, they enjoy like anything. But externally no right is given to them in the law or in the society. But the ladies they hold a peculiar and very venerable position in the eyes of the society. The mother, the wife, the daughter, but no right has been given to them by law.

pitā rakṣati kaumāre, bharttā rakṣati yauvane

baddha ke suto ruke nastri satan meyatmyat

Manu says, in early age the father will protect them, in youth the husband will protect them, and in old age the son will protect them. More than gods they draw respect from the society; more than goddess, but externally, no right.

This whole potency holds such a position to Kṛṣṇa. It is His but by the power of affection, not any external right. They do not care for that. But only through affection and loving service they command the whole family, the potency side, aspect of Kṛṣṇa. They don’t want any right; no force, no power. But the subtle most power, the power of affection, power of love, the power of service, that is considered to be the highest power ever known to the world. Give up your legal power, or any physical power, won’t care for that. So śakti is such.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Very laudable is it, very tasteful? I feel proud when I say all these things.

Asutos Mukerji was wanted by the government to go to England several times but his mother did not allow. So he told, repeated, “My mother does not allow me to go to foreign lands, I can’t go there.” So many instances here, the mother controls the son. Taking the feet dust of the mother, they can do anything and everything; they feel like that, the affection, the love, where power fails.

So Mahāprabhu says, “To give this and that to God that is self deception. Give love, love of Kṛṣṇa prema. That is anything and everything; that is all in all. Instead of spending money, giving your physical force, all these things, love is the real essence of any existence and offer that to the Lord, and through that come to the plane of love. The plane of love that God has around Him, Kṛṣṇa has around Him, God is there, Kṛṣṇa. God takes the form of Kṛṣṇa in the plane of love and that is the most fundamental and most subtle plane, behind all this apparent creation of different nature. So come to that plane. Try to penetrate into that plane, where God is Kṛṣṇa and the paraphernalia is Vṛndāvana. Anyhow try to have admission there in that plane. The most happiest form of life you will find there.”

Mercy is more beautiful than justice. We cannot blame justice. Justice is justice. How we can move? We cannot think of blaming the spirit of justice. How can we blame? But there is mercy over justice, we can’t deny that. But who can extend mercy over justice, He must have such power that He can compensate, has power of compensation, then He can give mercy. So such aspect of the Lord, that is through love, affection. There we want to live anyhow. Mahāprabhu came to show that is the plane for which you try to live.

And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura told that, “In no time the intelligentsia of the world will come to understand that this is the highest conception of our attainment, of all humans, even for other creation also. The intelligentsia cannot be misguided for long by so many other propositions of the highest attainment of man, of partial attainment. This Christianity, this Islam, this Buddhism, and so many things are going on in the name of religion, in the name of the highest solution of our life. But what Mahāprabhu has given, very soon it will be detected by the intelligentsia of the world. And all will flock under the banner of Śrī Caitanyadeva and they will sing the glory of Mahāprabhu and Kṛṣṇa.” What do you think?

Devotees: Jaya.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. And Prabhupāda began that. And Swāmī Mahārāja has actually, that well begun. And you are all to complete that mission. We are almost finished, our generation.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Devotee: Mahārāja, can you tell us how you happened to meet Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākura.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ke bolchen?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: For my case I may say when I was a student of fourth year class suddenly I met a boy, I was in the fourth year and he was in the first year. My inclination was of twofold nature, when I came in association of the college students in the hostel. Before that I heard about some appreciation of the East Bengal students, their sacrifice for the country, etc. That was told to me by one of my cousins. So the hostel where generally the East Bengal students lived, we also took our seat there. And I found two sections of students. One section, when there is any patient and other physical needs, they run to meet that. Another section who are engaged in meditation and taking names, sandhya, etc., but they hate to attend the patient, etc. But one boy I found he is engaged in two departments. He engages himself in meditation, in sandhya, etc., taking the Name, singing the praise of the Lord; as well as if any patient is there he forgets his class and study and attends the patient. That attracted me towards him. And I tried to mix with him. When one morning we were going to the jungle for cleansing mouth, you take brush from the branches or so, in course of talk he told suddenly about his father, “That that gentleman was of this type.”

I protested. “That gentleman,” you use for your respectable father, you say, “that gentleman.” ______________ [?]

Then he told, “Yes, I should not have mentioned in that way, in your presence. But ultimately it is really so. Only in this life I have come to him. Where I was in previous lives? Only he is a gentleman to me, I came in his house and in this life only.”

That anyhow touched the fine chord in me and I began to think, yes it is right thought. Everyone almost stranger, the father, mother, brother, in this house, everything has temporary connection and I am wandering in the eternity. That sort of impression came in a very intense form, and the whole world was just like empty, fully empty.

At that time, that boy anyhow connected me with the life of Mahāprabhu. The Amiya Nimai Charit and Lord Gaurāṅga, the writer of Lord Gaurāṅga and Amiya Nimai Charit in Bengali and Lord Gaurāṅga in English, Śiśir Kumār Ghose, the founder of the Amṛta Bāzzār Patrikā, he gave me them and with my empty mind I drank fully the life of Mahāprabhu with much pleasure and my attraction came towards Mahāprabhu therein.

Before that of course, I think that on previous life, also some attraction. My mother’s connection, we found there was connection with Mahāprabhu. But father’s family, they were anti Gaurāṅga. Smārta, śakta, nyāyic, this logician, and they were goddess worshippers, śakti worshippers and strictly smārta; that is the good sat-karmī smārta means. But anyhow I had the connection with Gaurāṅga. Then I wanted a good connection with the devotees of Gaurāṅga later on. I searched also for such a sādhu to accept as my Gurudeva but I was not satisfied. Anyhow then I went to study law at Calcutta, then joined the non cooperation on movement of Gandhi, leaving the college. Then after about six years, the movement lulled, temporarily stopped. I of course joined only temporarily, because my fate I thought that it is already tied with Mahāprabhu, so I cannot give anyone my whole life energy. So temporarily I did that. And I was in search of a Gurudeva.

The Founder of Bharat Sevā Āśrama, Pranananda, of same age, that boy was in his connection so I met him also, but he was a karmī. He tried his best to take me within his fold. I asked him, no, my head is already sold to Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu.

He told that, “Yes, I also recognize Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu to be the highest. First the vairāgya, the indifference, renunciation of Buddha, and then the discussion of the Vedānta of Śaṅkara, the jñāna acana, and the highest is prema of Śrī Caitanyadeva. Otherwise that prema will be misunderstood by the ordinary section.” That he told.

I of course was very much pleased to hear that, but I put him this question. You say that first Buddha, and then Śaṅkara, and then Caitanyadeva. But Caitanyadeva did not say that if you want to come to Me, come through Buddha and Śaṅkara and then to Me. He has not said. He said wherever you are take the Name, with the company of the sādhu, and you will come to Me. He does not say you first become Buddhist and then become Śaṅkarite, and then you’ll come to Me. He did not say so.

So he was silenced.

I asked him if you have some siddhi, you please say where my Gurudeva is.

Then he gave some idea, “Go to that gentleman.”

By his request I went there but I did not find him present, that Haranath.

Then one day I found there is a placard and there will be a one month festival in Gauḍīya Maṭha, at number one Ulṭā Ḍāṅgā Junction Road, near Parisnath temple. I went to visit that place. Gauḍīya, they must have some connection with Śrī Caitanyadeva. And found yes, they are very educated men and gentlemen’s association, well studied in scripture, and also very good practices. In our family of course no intoxication, and so many pure practices were there. I found it there also. And also what attracted me most, deep knowledge of scripture. I had some study, but still I felt that I’m in lower position about the knowledge, as the knowledge is concerned about the Gītā, Bhāgavat, and Mahāprabhu etc. That attracted me. I began to go there gradually and to hear. And gradually I’m inspired. There were some objections in the beginning. And after I found that they are true, my conception is wrong. In this way by hearing, hearing, hearing. I had in the meantime some opportunity came to my life, family, and I entered exclusively in the Maṭha.

The śāstra, whenever anything is told to them if it is in the scriptures, very carefully they come to listen to it. But if it is coming from Arovinda, Vivekānanda, Ramakrishna, Gandhi, Brahmo, summarily rejected. “No, no, no time to lose. No time to waste to hear all these things.” But any reference to any scripture, “Yes, what do you say? You tell it.” That attracted me most; found that they’re devout appreciation in them for the scripture, for the ṛṣi what was in me perhaps in sleeping position and that has come thereby. Gradually I found real meaning of Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, for which already I had great appreciation and reverence. I found that they are not outside this. And Caitanyadeva is the highest authority, and Caitanya-caritāmṛta, all these things. Then I entered into. And what misunderstanding I had gradually cleared and I was converted.

So much so that even the senior men used to tell me, “What Prabhupāda has said, please repeat it.” And I repeated, reproduced what I heard from Prabhupāda to them. And they were satisfied. In this way I came to such a position that generally the educated section began to say that, “Śrīdhar Mahārāja can represent the things very well.”

And when [Herr] Schulze [Sadānanda dāsa] came, he also repeated the same thing. “In very concise form, the very substance he can represent without any excitement. There are some when they say something they show signs of excitement. But in a sober temperament he can deliver the very substance with less words.”

That was, my appreciation generally came from others. But I was not very pushing, not forward, rather, hanging behind. That was my nature. Not to go ahead. But like a play from the back, not in the front. That was my nature, I’m keeping back. And I am more busy for my own realization, what are the meanings of the different ślokas of Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta. I may remain here but generally I meditate on the meanings of the śāstra ślokas and get some new illumination also sometimes and understand the meaning of the higher things. In this way I am passing my days.

Swāmī Mahārāja, I first came across him in Allahabad when he was the agent of Kartick Bosh and Bengal Chemicals, and then in Bombay Maṭha also I had his company for long time. But real company of him I had in Calcutta after departure of our Guru Mahārāja. I opened a centre there. And he was living in a building and on the ground there was a laboratory. And on the first floor, four rooms, I took, sublease from him and stayed there for some time. And he used to come almost every day and we had discussions about the meanings, teachings of Bhagavad-gītā generally. And surrounding other things also, but mainly on the basis of Bhagavad-gītā he had discussions with me.

And this Govinda Mahārāja was there all along. And Hari Charan for some time also, a newcomer at that time. Govinda Mahārāja was very much liked by Swāmī Mahārāja. As he mentioned that, “I saw him as my child.” Ha, ha.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is my connection, entrance and the living in Gauḍīya Maṭha.

After forty three years once I went back to my native place, stayed there for four nights, then came back. Now of course they are constructing a building there in commemoration.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya.

The Śrīmad-Bhāgavat is the last gift of Vedavyāsa who is generally the master of the givers of all the scriptures, including the compilation of the Vedas, systematically to classify them. The whole thing generally comes from him. But his last gift is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And Mahāprabhu took the teaching of that Bhāgavatam and distributed to the length and breadth of this humanity, human kind. And fortunately we have come within the fold of Him. And in our own meagre ways we are trying to live a life thereby, waiting our death. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So many illustrious persons that we found as our friends in this circle, one by one they have departed and very few remnants we are still continuing. In the last moment you are so many newcomers of so many variegated nature are present here. It is a miracle to me.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, yesterday you were going to tell us what ‘thank you’ means.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh, thanking! Then, have you explained that, my viewpoint to them?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Not really.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Thanking, when you express such feeling to any other that, ‘thank you,’ what is at the bottom, what is at the root of such expression as, ‘thank you?’ Expression of gratitude, ‘thank you,’ it presupposes a background of the person who gives thanks, his separate interest. My interest is helped in a particular way, so I feel gratitude, I thank you. I have got my separate interest, separate position.

But that should not be the nature of a devotee. I have got no separate interest. I hear if I can receive anything as grace, or a ray of knowledge, anything, that rather I shall try to absorb me in that one whole interest. So I have no words. I only feel that I am being one with the person whom presently I am going to thank.

I have got my separate interests, separate individuality, separate position, and I gain something from the other party, I thank them. So thank God. There is in Christianity, perhaps in the Bible thank God, such a word is to be found there, thank God. It is current with the Brahmo School here, Rabindranath and others. He has given so many benefits to us, this air, the earth, to live on the food, so we are bound to thank Him. Thanking means maintenance and development of some individual case of life.

But we don’t want to have any individual position. We want to merge, in another sense, in the interest of the Lord. So thanking - when I hear, get some knowledge from a Vaiṣṇava Guru if I say thanks for that - No, rather I want that you will attract me more to be one in your family. Engage me. I shall be fortunate if you absorb me as one of your servants, in the section of your servitors. I want that. Our mentality should be that. I am receiving some benefit and showing my gratitude to him, I am a separate entity - No, I rather want I may be one, feet dust - please make me the dust of Your lotus feet. We must go down to that position; instead of expressing our feeling of gratitude with our head erect.

That’s what I told the other day to some of you. Thanking, it does not hear well, at least in our ear, thanking. What gratitude I may show in exchange of what I receive from the agent. No magnitude of gratitude can be ever found in the world, so no question of thanking. Rather it will increase our inner earnestness to become, as I told, the feet dust, the dust of the holy feet. That should be our hankering. Hearing the news of my home, I shall be eager to go to the home like a madman. Not separate interest, one interest, common interest. It hears such in my ear, but I do not know really what is the derivative meaning of the word ‘thank.’ As I generally come to know the spirit, on that basis I am talking with you, thank.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

In our childhood we read in perhaps thirteenth year or so:

ekam api akaram yas tu guru sisyenivedaye _______________________________________ [?]

From Hitopadesa or some quotation: though we find that only one word the Guru gives to his disciple, ekam api akaram, one word, one lettered word, a word of one letter, ekam api akaram yas tu guru sisyenivedaye, confers that to the disciple. ________________________________ [?]

In this broad, and this wide world, there is nothing by giving which he may clear that debt.

________________________________ [?]

He can clear the debt of that, only one word, one lettered word. That I read in fifth class.

ekam api akaram yas tu guru sisyenivedaye _______________________________________ [?]

It can liberate from that loan, so such valuable one word may be there. All the resources of the world can’t be compared with that. There is such possibility of life, such prospect we may have in this world. And that comes from the revealed truth. The whole system is saying that you are...

End of 81.10.06.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.06.C_81.10.07.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... all enemy, but take this mantram and everything will be converted into your friend. Ha, ha. Such a change will come. One lettered,

ekam api akaram yasta guru sisyena _____________________________________________ [?]

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. What’s the time?

Devotee: Nine twenty five.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nine twenty five. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi.

Devotee: Mahārāja, can you tell us something about Dvārakā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Dvārakā is a position of Kṛṣṇa, is above Ayodhyā, and between Ayodhyā and Mathurā. Vaikuṇṭhāj janito varā madhu-purī [Upadeśāmṛta, 9]

Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa is in Vaikuṇṭha, in the plane of worshipping with splendour and grandeur, Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa. Ayodhyā is better than that Vaikuṇṭha Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa. Why? In Vaikuṇṭha no father, no mother, neither of Nārāyaṇa nor of Lakṣmī Devī, They are at the extremity, not in the centre. The vātsalya rasa service, sākhya rasa, mādhurya rasa in the real sense may not be found there. So half type of rasa is to be experienced there. Raso vai saḥ, rasāmṛta-murtiḥ, rasa svarūpa bhagavān, sat-cit-ānandam, ānanda murtiḥ man. But this variegated nature of ānanda is not to be found in Vaikuṇṭha.

So if we go to Rāmacandra in Ayodhyā we find vātsalya rasa there, but mādhurya rasa is not distributed there extensively. Eka patni, Sītā only, Rāmacandra’s affectionate wife. And niti the pressure of law is there, Rāmacandra under the pressure of law, narrowed down.

So from there we’ll have to go to Dvārakā, there also we find that Kṛṣṇa in different rasa is being worshipped. The devotees have got a broader chance of serving Him in different ways. And He is more free, not a play in the hand of the laws of the world. Raja prakrti ranjana. That He is to sacrifice even His heart and truth, to the false opinion of His subjects. So He’s more free there in Dvārakā. And we can serve that free master. And the prospects are also of variegated nature and extensive.

From there we are to come to Mathurā maṇḍala Vṛndāvana. The Kṛṣṇa there we find more comprehensive, more free, autocrat, and free from the contamination of the grandeur of politics, all these things. Vidagdha-Mādhava and Lalitā-Mādhava, more given to conjugal life than the state politician we find Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana, and more accessible. And intense transaction of love and affection predominating in that place and the full five rasas can be sought and got, of course of a serving attitude there. And there is a very extensive distribution of that. And He is in full youth, and rising youth. That is the highest position of energy of any type and that of free love.

And something is added there as parakīya, parakīya, “That not in my possession, not belonging to me.” Couched with this sentiment. “My son, but there is some doubt.” Some say, “No. He’s not your son,” to Yaśodā.

And as the consorthood also not their own lawful husband but, patim patinam paramam parastat, the husband of the husband, the master of the master, master of all. To have connection with that and still a shadow is maintained that He’s not your lawful master. So the meeting will be very rare and pressed by so many unfavourable circumstances. Only heart’s connection whenever meeting the most intensified because their meeting is very rare, very rare and also blameable by the society and also by the scripture. Still can’t help, so, most intense and the purest of the pure affection, only affection, only love, even crossing all the existing opinions of the higher, lower, everyone.

So Bhāgavata says, Mahāprabhu says, Goswāmī grantha, they with scientific arguments they are proving that this sort: the love is most intensified only under this condition and if that is connected with the Lord we may be the gainer in the highest sense, highest degree, that is in this way. In Vṛndāvana also there is gradation. In mādhurya rasa there are many, in rasa līlā etc; that is also a general position.

Then selected group in Govardhana: that is greater, their wider expression of the heart to heart in Govardhana. And in Rādhā-kuṇḍa, that is the highest position, when only Rādhārāṇī with Her own confidential group She approaches to serve Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa in His full fledged love comes to cooperate with Her service.

In this way the development in the theistic area has been shown to us, and we are fortunate enough that we can appreciate in our gradual process these things, given by Mahāprabhu in Bhāgavatam, and in Goswāmī śāstra. If one has got śraddhā, faith, sincere, then they can appreciate and understand and feel and hope for realization of such acme of one’s prospect. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

vaikuṇṭhāj janito varā madhu-purī tatrāpi rāsotsavād

vṛndāraṇyam udāra-pāṇi-ramaṇāt tatrāpi govardhanaḥ

rādhā-kuṇḍam ihāpi gokula-pateḥ premāmṛtāplāvanāt

kuryād asya virājato giri-taṭe sevāṁ vivekī na kaḥ

[“The holy place known as Mathurā is spiritually superior to Vaikuṇṭha, the transcendental world, because the Lord appeared there. Superior to Mathurā-purī is the transcendental forest of Vṛndāvana because of Kṛṣṇa's rāsa-līlā pastimes. And superior to the forest of Vṛndāvana is Govardhana Hill, for it was raised by the divine hand of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and was the site of His various loving pastimes. And, above all, the super excellent Śrī Rādhā-kuṇḍa stands supreme, for it is over flooded with the ambrosial nectarean prema of the Lord of Gokula, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Where, then, is that intelligent person who is unwilling to serve this divine Rādhā-kuṇḍa, which is situated at the foot of Govardhana Hill?”] [Upadeśāmṛta, 9]

This śloka is there, the gradation, hierarchy, how things are developing. Sat-cit-ānanda, then ānanda, ānanda also develops in this way. Self-giving, according to the degree of self surrendering one can hope to attain the highest quality of taste of the love in Kṛṣṇa; in the absolute rasa, according to the degree of surrendering. The surrendering reaches the highest quality when it crosses all the opposition that comes out of the environment and even from the ordinary objection of the so called good association. Just like śāstra, and samaj, the guardians, the family well wisher; they also cannot appreciate their support, rather they are of inimical nature crossing all those to surrender to whom? Not to any ordinary member but to the centre of the centre. Adherence, crossing all sorts of considerations of laws and rules, free surrender to the highest centre. To show faithfulness to the king even crossing the laws of the country. There is law, but if anyone crossing the law, existing law, does some service to the king then he is considered to be in the highest confidential circle.

ājñajaiva guṇān doṣān, mayādiṣṭān api svakān

dharmmān saṁtyajya yaḥ sarvvān, myāṁ bhajet sa ca sattamaḥ

[“In the scriptures of religion, I, the Supreme Lord, have instructed men of all statuses of life in their duties. Duly comprehending the purificatory virtue of executing those prescribed duties as well as the vice of neglecting them, one who abandons all allegiance to such dutifulness in order to engage in My devotional service is the best of honest men (sādhu).”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.11.32]

“He is the best of the devotee who - the laws in the śāstra I have given for general persons but who can cross so called laws that are meant only for the general public and comes to Me at the risk of being a violator of the law, comes to My service, he is considered to be the highest type of servitor.”

The king is above law. The Supreme Lord is above law. The law is meant only for the ordinary type of people, law is necessary. When there is normal thinking there is no necessity of law. In a family there is generally no law, but when the unity of the family decays, then necessity of law. So also, law means in a vitiated plane, law is necessary; in the plane of affection no necessity of any law. So after crossing, without caring for any law - law only binds us so that we may not be lead astray. But when I want to go to the good side, then the law should help me. And law has also got its limit of jurisdiction, and even crossing that I shall go to my Lord, to my master. Why should come, any law? Law will come to excite me in my service, to impress me in the service of my Lord. That is hateful to them, automatic attraction; the innermost attraction for the highest purity. That is the highest qualification, automatic qualification, does not want any recognition from the outside people; that is its own reward. The internal highest attraction, the most intense attraction for the truth, for the absolute good, that is its own certificate. It does not want any certificate from the outsiders, so independent. But it must be for the absolute good. That is to be warned all along from the lower, whether progress is good, but progress in the wrong direction is not good. Progress in the right direction, that is appreciable, that is good, that is wholesome, and our progress towards the absolute, that should be of absolute nature. Not dependent on anything else. That is quite fitting.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa. Hare Rāma Hare Rāma.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Any question?

Devotee: I had one question about Jaya and Vijaya. Because they are outside...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: They are taṭasthā, that vaikuṇṭha dhara [gate keepers] That is a vulnerable position in itself already, one thing. And more than that even in Goloka we find they are casting curse to one another and coming down here. It is mentioned in Purāṇa as a play; that should be taken as a play.

aher iva gatiḥ premṇaḥ, [svabhāva-kuṭilā bhavet / ato hetor ahetoś ca, yūnor māna udañcati]

[“Just as a serpent naturally moves in a crooked way, in a zigzag way, the nature of love is naturally crooked. It is not straight. So the concerned parties quarrel, sometimes with cause and sometimes without cause, and separation comes. Separation is necessary for the transcendental pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.”] [Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi]

But there is no venom. Just as in a drama, in a play, one is abusing another, another is killing, but it is all show, only līlā. It is like that, in the highest plane, these things but no venom, all enjoyment. Like a drama. Drama is meant to produce enjoyment, and the feeling of misery that also may be enjoyable. You see our sweetest songs are those that tell of the saddest things. So we can enjoy the painfulness also. Some was innocently but falling, suffering from some pain. We enjoy, because it is backed by morality or goodness, then we enjoy. So much painfulness, so much misery, but the background is a religious one, suffering for the truth. Suffering for the country’s cause, as we generally think we appreciate. So much suffering for the good of the many, for the good of the country we enjoy. And sometimes we are enticed to take that position, that that sort of suffering I want. Suffering for such a good cause I want that suffering, I want to partake in that, to share that. So there is some underlying happiness otherwise why one feels the tendency to share the joy of a suffering person, because it is backed by truth.

So whatever is to be found in the plane of Vaikuṇṭha, the joy is there because it is the perfect plane where everything is a show. Just as a drama is shown for the gratification of all, so also that automatic, dynamic movement in the līlā only producing happiness of different types, varieties. Not always eliminate-able; just a little pungent, we want to taste, sometimes it seems a little more, but still we can’t leave it. Similar things! But ultimately it produces happiness, happiness, so painful sceneries can produce happiness, here. There, no question; all happiness.

In the question of Jaya and Vijaya they’re just on the verge of the gate of Vaikuṇṭha. But they came, and their re-installation was guaranteed. That is also a part of līlā. No harm. We may have no apprehension that our safety is in danger that if from the gate of Vaikuṇṭha one may be enticed, there is some room for retaliation so how that can be a prospect for us all. No such apprehension is to be made there. The guardian’s vigilant eye is there. So to endanger oneself under the vigilant eye, guide of the guardian, eye of the guardian is not painful. That comes within the jurisdiction of līlā, and not karma, not action. Not enjoying or suffering, above that. There is a stage of feeling which is above enjoyment and suffering, nirguṇa. Just as in a drama. That is līlā. Not for necessity but automatic.

All right, we may stop here today.

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:...with much repentance and to accept another. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then other considerations there may be, that pressed by, influenced by friends I had to do for tactful propaganda, made me to submit to such a place. I could not get sufficient time to judge for my own benefit; abruptly, anyhow it happened. There may be so many things to consider. But on the whole it is not a very happy thing. And I should be blamed for that. My fate, my previous karma, sukṛti, or anything, that took me to a place to give the highest respect and now I find that he should not be given any respect. He will not be held responsible but the disciple will be mainly responsible, his fate, his fortune, he is exploited in such a wrong way. He should have to repent for that. And not to believe his own self, so abruptly, why I was lead to such a position? That is very unfortunate, most unfortunate that I was mislead. It is to be considered like that. The very subtle and very delicate point is concerned, the most delicate point rather there in the progress of one’s spiritual life. Such a great disaster may not come anywhere and everywhere.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

...

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. In Hari-Nāma-cintāmaṇi, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura mentioned about to give up one’s present Guru and to take up, to select another. Do you know that, have you come across that?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Have you got Hari-Nāma-cintāmaṇi with you?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: I have it, but it is not here with me. It’s at the place where we are staying. I can bring that sometime.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You have to show it to him. He was asking a question in connection with that. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Rāma.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Jayadvaita Mahārāja also he feels very warm, he has a very warm compassionate attitude towards all the devotees and he speaks very highly of you.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: How has he come to know about me?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Well, I played some tapes in Vṛndāvana to him and also Bhakti Caru Mahārāja brought him here, this past festival.

Mahārāja, was this Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam published by our Śrīla Prabhupāda previous to his going to America?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course, Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam long before it was published. I can’t remember exactly, but it was [nineteen] forty three or forty four perhaps. And Madhāv’s mother she paid out the money for that, Pisima paid for that, the whole payment was made by her.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi Caitanya. Gaura Haribol.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, our Śrīla Prabhupāda he helped print it in Calcutta? What part did he play in having it printed? How did he help in printing the book?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: In which way did Swāmī Mahārāja participate to print your book?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This book?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, he had no connection at that time with the book.

I was living in a hut there, where at present the cooking room, the kitchen, there was a hut, cottage. I was living there. And one boy came from Kulna District, he helped me a great deal for the compilation of this book. And mostly I had to labour to publish this book. There were two or three more gentlemen lived at that time with me, one Nṛsiṁānanda Brahmacārī, and another, Āśrama Mahārāja. It was published in [nineteen] forty three or four, and they left me by [nineteen] forty nine. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Collection, compilation by myself and that boy helped me in copying the ślokas. And for the printing matters that Nṛsiṁānanda Brahmacārī he took some pain to print, the press work and proof reading. Śrauti Mahārāja also helped him proof read. He was a good proof reader this Śrauti Mahārāja. He is still living in _______ [?] He’s a good scholar in Sanskrit also. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Books, all Sanskrit, pure, Śrī Kṛṣṇa-saṁhita, Tattva-sutram, Amnaya-sutram, but not with tika, commentary! Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: I have one question. We read that a devotee who is not perfectly pure he can attain the pole star or Dhruva-loka planet. It is stated in Bhāgavatam that Dhruva Mahārāja became the perfect devotee and that the Dhruva-loka is supposed to be a spiritual planet within the material universe. So I want to know, what is the nature of the devotional service, what level of purity or what level of devotional service is there in the Dhruva-loka planet?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What is his question?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: __________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That cannot be the service of a very higher type. What stage of devotion we find in Dhruva we may expect that that sort of service is being rendered there in Dhruva-loka. But when we have to calculate, according to degree of intensity, or from this standpoint of quality, the bhakti of Dhruva that was considered to be lower in comparison with that of Prahlāda. Dhruva, he had some object when ordinary aspiration for worldly things, or when he enters into bhajana. But that filth was eliminated at last. But that is the stage of a beginner in śuddha bhakti, not of the very highest stage.

Sthana vilasi tapasi sthito ham tam prapta van deva mohindra gucham [?]

Carcha vichinyam adhivinya ratnam svamin cadatcho smin varam no vatchi [?]

When he began his penances to satisfy Nārāyaṇa according to the advice of Devaṛṣi Nārada his motive was to get back the kingdom of his father.

But Dhruva says: “When I found You just before me I feel such a charm of Your personality that no longer I have got any aspiration for any kingdom etc. Because I came to search for some glass and now I have fortunately got some gem, some diamond, so I no longer want that glass for which I began my penances.”

So he was reckoned as a devotee of Nārāyaṇa, but may be classed to that of śanta-rasa, no trace of service of any clear type is seen in his life.

Prahlāda also says that, “I am also engaged in śanta-rasa.”

The next higher is manifested from Hanumān Ji, dāsya-rasa, and then sākhya-rasa and others upwards. So Dhruva Mahārāja he is a novel devotee of śanta-rasa, the beginner class. So there, under his influence the bhakti, unalloyed devotion’s first stage is to be found there. We can expect such thing. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, you once said that if we accept Kṛṣṇa then automatically we must accept Balarāma, we must accept Rādhārāṇī, and so many other personalities. So if we accept our Guru Śrīla Prabhupāda, then it seems very natural that we would accept his close associates also. I was hoping maybe that you could elaborate on that.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. But the associates may be of different classes, eternal associates, and also beginners from this life. So degree of affinity towards him, accordingly, they will be classified. The associates should be considered to be associates so long as he is within the bound of his attraction and affection, and when his associates they are seen to deviate from that position they should be helped. And in spite of that if they go away, they should be rejected. It is a living thing, not a dead one, stereotype. But generally we should try to maintain this, that he has got his associates and he is full, one with them. That should be our nature of thinking. But if we find unfortunately that associates are being disassociated in quality, then to maintain the real high position of Guru as well as the purity of our faith we have to deal accordingly, the principle.

He is great; he has come with a mission, and that mission that is the centre to measure him. That test should be put here and there. And those that pass that test they’ll be thought, otherwise the whole thing may be rotten. The eternal associates, no deviation can be expected there. But temporary associates, the newcomers, there may be some defects and we shall do justice to that, looking at the real ideal for which Guru Mahārāja came here to save us. That should be our position. Am I clear?

Devotee: Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Guru Mahārāja means something; he came what for, what to give? And if we can realize his gift for which we have all come around him, then according to the degree of that gift, the greatness of the gift, we shall regulate our behaviour amongst us. Whom to be kind and whom to show devotion, veneration, affection, in these ways we will be adjusted amongst his paraphernalia. Someone we are to revere, some we have to be kind, with some we are of the same rank, in this way we shall mix. The standard will be his advice, his words, his instructions and his idea. That will be the standard of our behaviour. It is a living thing, not a dead one. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. He came to open our eyes, to see things for our own.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, it seems that you had described once before that as the quality increases then the quantity will decrease.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This is a general law. Denotation increases and connotation decreases. Connotation increases, denotation decreases.

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu, kaścid yatati siddhaye

[yatatām api siddhānāṁ, kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ]

[“Out of countless souls, some may have reached the human form of life, and among many thousands of human beings, some endeavour to attain direct perception of the individual soul and the Supersoul; and among many thousands of such aspirants who have attained to seeing the soul and the Supersoul, only a few receive actual perception of Me, Śyāmasundara.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 7.3]

muktānām api siddhānāṁ nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇa

sudurlabhaḥ praśāntātmā koṭiṣv api mahā-mune

[“O great sage, among many millions who are liberated and perfect in knowledge of liberation, one may be a devotee of Lord Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa. Such devotees, who are fully peaceful, are extremely rare.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 6.14.5]

End of 81.10.06.C_81.10.07.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.07.B_81.10.08.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... he’s going on connecting, having connection with Him. Wherever he goes, whatever he does, He’s present, Paramātmā.

Ya sudaya supana sadaya sakhayam samana vrkhi purususya yati [?]

Eko archi vipralam arti sādhu anya aranya vipalena guhyam [?]

īśvaraḥ sarvva-bhūtānāṁ, hṛd-deśe ‘rjjuna tiṣṭhati

bhrāmayan sarvva-bhūtāni, yantrārūḍhāni māyayā

[“O Arjuna, I am situated in the hearts of all souls as the Supersoul, the Lord and Master of all souls. For every endeavour of the living beings in this world, the Lord (My plenary expansion, the Supersoul) awards an appropriate result. As an object mounted on a wheel is caused to revolve, the living beings are caused to revolve in the universe by the almighty power of the Lord. Incited by Him, your destiny will naturally be effected according to your endeavours.”]

[Bhagavad-gītā, 18.61]

His representation in a passive form is present everywhere. But that is indifferent, watching, sākṣi, a witness of his deeds, watching. Not left exclusively, but does not interfere with his free will. And another arrangement He’s coming Himself and sending sādhus and so many things as in the śāstra has been posted here and there anyhow to attract his attention back to God back to home.

“Come home My boys, come home. So many placards are there like śāstra and so many agents are also moving. Come home.”

But the free will is there and that is the rub. Some say in disappointment, “What? Why He has given such dangerous free will to us, by misusing which we are under eternal suffering? Why He has given? He’s omniscient, all knowing, then knowingly that we can misuse, why He has given such a thing in us. Then the misuse of which why the guardian has given the dagger in the hand of an infant that he may stab himself?”

But the question is that without, devoid of free will then it is a material thing, matter. Free will has got, free will is a very valuable thing and with the help of that he can taste the rasa. The tongue has given to taste sweet also, not only to bitter things. If tongue is devoid of tastefulness then the sweetness also he’ll not be able in any time to enjoy. And because we are only touching bitter things into the tongue we are abusing the creator. “Why he has given the tongue and we are tasting these bitter things?” But at the same time we must be - to taste the sweet things the tongue is necessary.

So in the service free will is necessary for the serving purpose of the Lord. And temporarily only coming in connection with bitter things we shall abuse the creator. “Why he has given?” Some bad things are disturbing my ears, so we should not think that the ear should be abolished. The eye should be abolished because I have to see some undesirable sight. Because eyes are given the prospect is that we shall have to see such a charming beauty – for that purpose eyes are given to us. If eyesight is withdrawn then we are left like a stone. So free will is the very gist of everything, the eye, the ear, so many things, that our free will, soul, free will, and that is snatched away then we are reduced to stone. That is not desirable to anyone. Everything has got its bright side and for that it has been created, it has been given to us, and by misuse we suffer and by good use we thrive. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

And it is there and now we are to solve on this basis, and trying to find out the bright side of things, then we shall find that everything is good. Everything is good, cent per cent good. We are only to be taken in that plane where from we can find the real harmony, the real adjustment, the advaya-jñāna. The whole thing is a happy one. Finite is to prove the infinite. Bad is necessary to prove the good. In this way, finite, infinite, both existing, the māyā, the false, and the truth. Truth and falsehood: falsehood exists only to prove the value ability of the truth, to prove that, falsehood is necessary. Something like that! Conditioned, unconditioned! Darkness is there to prove light. So ignorance is there to prove knowledge.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi Gaura.

_______________________________________________________________ [?]

Devotees: That is the way to healthy, wealthy and wise; early to bed early to rise, healthy and wealthy.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Early to rise and early to bed, that is the way?

Devotee: To healthy and wealthy.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: To health and wealth. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

tava kathāmṛtaṁ tapta-jīvanaṁ, kavibhir īḍitaṁ kalmaṣāpaham

śravaṇa-maṅgalaṁ śrīmad-ātataṁ, bhuvi gṛṇanti ye bhūridā janāḥ

[“O Kṛṣṇa, the nectar of Your words and the narrations of Your pastimes give life to us, who are always suffering in this material world. This nectar is broadcast all over the world by great souls, and it removes all sinful reactions. It is all-auspicious and filled with spiritual power. Those who spread this message of Godhead are certainly doing the greatest relief work for human society and are the most magnanimous welfare workers.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.31.9]

The sweetest thing, and to talk about Him, to cultivate about Him, that means to taste of the sweetness.

syāt kṛṣṇa-nāma-caritādi-sitāpy avidyā-, pittopatapta-rasanasya na rocikā nu

kintv ādarād anudinaṁ khalu saiva juṣṭā, svādvī kramād bhavati tad-gada-mūla-hantrī

[“The Holy Name, character, pastimes and activities of Kṛṣṇa are all transcendentally sweet like sugar candy. Although the tongue of one afflicted by the jaundice of avidyā (ignorance) cannot taste anything sweet, it is wonderful that simply by carefully chanting these sweet Names every day, a natural relish awakens within his tongue, and his disease is gradually destroyed at the root.”] [Śrī Upadeśāmṛta, 7]

Syāt kṛṣṇa-nāma-caritādi-sitāpy avidyā, the Name, His conduct, His every connection is really very sweet like sugar candy, sitāpy avidyā-, pittopatapta. But they may not be felt sweet in our present tongue, or present ear, or present eye, because it is polluted by the effect of bile, pittopatapta. If influenced by bile then if you put sugar into the tongue it will taste bitter. But the sugar candy _________________ but the application of sugar candy only is the greatest relief of their disease of bile, attack from bile. No other medicine.

Devotee: Jaundice.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Jaundice. ___________________________________________ [?]

But that sugar candy tastes bitter, but that sugar candy is also the only medicine. If you take that sugar candy, in the beginning it will taste bitter, and gradually by its gradual application the bile will be removed and it will taste sweet. So Kṛṣṇa’s connection seems to be bitter in our present stage attacked with māyā, but that is the only medicine, that Kṛṣṇa’s connection anyhow to apply. Then gradually when the disease will be removed we shall feel the sweetness of the thing. Syāt kṛṣṇa-nāma-caritādi-sitāpy avidyā-, pittopatapta-rasanasya na rocikā nu, kintv ādarād, with regard, with śraddhā, with faith we shall go on applying that though apparently though for the time being it is bitter, still to suck that and then gradually find now it becomes sweeter and sweeter gradually. Kintv ādarād anudinaṁ khalu saiva juṣṭā, svādvī kramād bhavati tad-gada-mūla-hantrī, it will remove the very root of the disease, it is such. By the help of the doctors, or by well-wishers, nurses, it is applied, through affection, and then we get out of the disease.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. For the time being we may stop here.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

...

A mentality of hankering divine connection, for your cause I may receive inspiration from above. Inspiration!

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, we read that Hari-Nāma-cintāmaṇi last night and those points were found.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What point?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: That you were making __________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is found? _________________________________ [?]

...have come, you were introduced to them ______________ [?]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: No Mahārāja, actually not. They came late last night.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So any new news with them? _____________________________ [?]

...

Bhāratī Mahārāja: There’s subtitles it says:

Kono sthane guru tyāga koro te habe [?]

Tabi jadi ei rup gatana kabu hoi asat sange guro yogyata hoi koi [?]

Pratame chillin tini sat guru pradhan harinam aparādhe hoiya hata jñāna [?]

Vaisnave vidvesh kori charinama rasa krami krami han artha karmaner vas [?]

Shay guru chare śiṣya sri krsna krpay sad guru ladviya puna śuddha nama gaya [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You’ve explained it to them?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes. Last night we talked about this.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: About that. Then any question?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes. This verse here was the most interesting one.

Vaisnave vidvesh kori charinama rasa krami krami han artha karmaner vas [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gradual development in the lower direction.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So this is...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The beginning, first beginning is with the...

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Tabi jadi ei rup gatana kabu hoi asat sange guro yogyata hoi koi [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh! The madhyama Guru, madhyama-adhikārī, the Guru of middle stage, when he comes in connection with bad association, the association with the atheists, or some Māyāvādī scholars, or strī saṅga asat sādhu, anyone, by bad association he may come down. And so many things are to be traced in him and gradually he will come down to such a stage. In that case of course the śiṣya who has got sufficient sukṛti he can save him. Very rarely such things happen and it is most unfortunate. But still we may consider it to be fortunate when he gets out of that and comes to the real source again. Then forgetting all his past history he’s to begin with new life. To save one’s own self, necessity is the mother of invention. Necessity has no law. We may be misguided in the worldly sense also, in many places we may be misguided, and to awake from that association and to help us in a proper way. Of course this possibility is at every step. We are living beings, we are independent, we are endowed with free will, so free action, free decision is necessary at every step. And that is also uncertain what step I should take that it may be guaranteed that it will take me towards the right goal, right destination.

So it is necessary to select a guide. And sometimes if the – in the selection of the guide there is also some error, that is also misfortune. But again our internal, innate fortune helps us, comes out to help us again to be aware of the guide when you are walking to some tīrtha or some holy place. So if the guide on my way he may be influenced by bad motive then I’m to save in that case also. Of course which is very risky, still, self protection, self saving is indispensable so we are to do that. Before, previously I put my whole faith to one and I’m to withdraw from that and to take another independent guide. But still if necessity arises we cannot but do that: in this way. I shall consult it to be doubly sure. We must consult it whether – because I may be fallible – I am fallible rather, the śiṣya, the disciple considers himself to be fallible, and so he will consult with another expert guide.

“What to do? I am perplexed. I think that I should not keep any faith in my present guide. Perhaps he has become otherwise, his mentality has changed. Anyway I can’t, I’m seeing so many signs around that I’m not able to put faith in that guide any longer. Please advise me what to do.”

In this way the intimate friends should be consulted. We may not put much faith within us. After consultation with so many intimate friends whom I can put confidence in, then by their assurance and with also my internal voice, inner voice, my conscience, with all sincerity praying to the Lord that, “Please save me and give me another guide.” With the help of our friends we shall again try to cast ourselves. Confidence is necessary, śraddhā is necessary, guide is necessary. It is inevitable. Once I’m deprived of confidence, I’m betrayed, that does not mean that my whole life is to suffer from that betrayal. There must be good sense all around and the main power around, the higher power around is always eager to help us. So with all sincerity we must accept to our best understanding any other guide and to go on. Progress cannot be checked, and that is not desirable also, so we must go onward, even if necessary changing our guide on the way. From the practical life also we can gather such experience.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Any other question within this?

Devotee: Yes. Some devotees in America they would say on this point that they cannot understand how if the Guru is sākṣād-dhari, then he no longer be sākṣād-dhari. How can he stray? Then he was never Guru to begin with. They are saying like that.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: When we adjust in this way that Guru is within also, caitya Guru, and outside the mahanta Guru. But in our worldly life we also meet such things. In Bhāgavat also warning is given already:

gurur na sa syāt sva jano na sa syāt, pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt

daivaṁ na tat syān na patiś ca sa syān, na mocayed yaḥ samupeta mṛtyum

[Ṛṣabhadeva says: “Even a spiritual master, relative, parent, husband, or demigod who cannot save us from repeated birth and death should be abandoned at once.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 5.5.18]

One who cannot save me from the greatest danger of the association of this mortal life, they apparently, ostentatiously, they may be in a position of our best regard in their own departments. But still my eternal life and the interest of eternal life there may be many dangers...

__________________________________________________________________________ [?]

Gurur na sa syāt sva jano na sa syāt, so from here we can detect the underground possibility of changing Guru, and that may not be attributed to that side. We may try to apply it to my own weak side. It is due to my defect I have been connected with a mala fide idea. Anyhow by my sukṛti it is a test, we may take it as a test of sincerity in my progress towards the Divinity. So we may rather try to accuse our own fate, our own self, and that side there is a test of the Lord. So the gurur na sa syāt, when, this is admitted in Bhāgavatam and in many places, then there may be such instances in the practical affairs. So our faith in Guru also in this position it is clear that our faith in Guru should not be blind. Faith, the śraddhā, faith is not intrinsically a blind faith. Faith may be awake. It may be wakeful to its interest always, making progress.

bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir, anyatra caiṣa trika eka-kālaḥ

prapadyamānasya yathāśnataḥ syus, tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣudapāyo 'nughāsam

[“As with every mouthful an eater feels the threefold effects of his satisfaction, his stomach being filled, and his hunger being dispelled, in the same way when a surrendered soul serves the Lord he realises devotion of three natures simultaneously: devotion in love, the personal appearance of the Lord who is the abode of love, and detachment from all other things.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.42]

In Bhāgavatam it is mentioned in another place. Just how should we measure my progress towards the divine world? They say: bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo anyatra viraktir, these three things must remain with me always while I’m making progress towards the divine soil. What are they? Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo anyatra viraktir, and an example is given of the mundane world. When we are hungry we take food, and when we take food three things occur simultaneously. What are they? Prapadyamānasya yathāśnataḥ syus, tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣudapāyo... Nimāi ________________ [?]

Tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣudapāyo, when we are hungry we feel uneasiness, so by every morsel we take the uneasiness is removed, tuṣṭiḥ. Puṣṭiḥ, then when hungry we feel weakness. By every morsel gradually that weakness is removed. And kṣudapāyo, when hungry we feel a pain like something for eating more, and that earnestness for eating that also disappears, by step by step by every morsel.

So also when ordinarily we are in the progress of our spiritual life on the way we shall have three things experienced by every step, and carefully we are to measure. We are to feel for ourselves that whether we are making progress or not. This is the criterion. What are they? Bhakti, our attraction will, should increase with acceleration, bhakti. Pareśānubhavo, and we must get a sort of conception towards which I am approaching. First hazy then more clear, more clear, more clear, a sort of conception towards which I have more and more finer and accurate conception. I must receive as much as I shall progress, pareśānubhavo.

Anyatra viraktir, and withdrawal from the environment what was very tasteful to me, that won’t have any taste for me, anyatra viraktir. My attraction for non God, for the world, that will decrease. That won’t come to – if that sort of topics comes in I shall feel disturbed. No! So: bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir, three things there must be when we are making journey. So these are tests and we must be wakeful, so sākṣād-dharitvena though, but still there is such possibility. We must not make too much faith in my experience, my knowledge which is gathered by the worldly experience. We must be alert always. So when some shock comes to me from the unexpected quarter, if we are wakeful to our real internal interest we must be awakened.

And then we shall consult with others. So many passengers are there, walking, so many companions, we may consult with them, that, “I have got that little, no confidence in the leader. What do you think? Am I wrong or am I right? You please also look at this.”

In this way we are to examine us and to do the necessary. The Guru within, the caitya Guru, he also cannot be neglected. And if one is sincere the caitya Guru must come in time to make him careful, give him warning. It is possible because the transaction of so many that are all free. And because the Gītā says:

“I am everywhere. I am nowhere. Everything is in Me. Nothing is in Me. Please mark the inconceivable mystic position of Mine with this world. I can be there, I can withdraw also.”

Such is the saying of His position anywhere and everywhere. So the free choice, the possibility of free choice not gone forever, but though we submit to Gurudeva that must be a conscious and healthy submission. Otherwise there may be so many misguided sorts, in different departments there are leaders, and in that particular jurisdiction they are seen to put much faith in the leader, political, social, and in other bad activity also. So everywhere there is leader. So this broad idea we must have and that is to our own interest and there is also so many sayings in the śāstra to give us caution that our progress may not be blind. Our own self is dearer than every connection with the environment for my interest. And ultimately the all-seer, all-omniscient Lord is there.

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate]

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe, nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill-fated.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

“O my Lord, You may do anything. You have come to test this little servant.” Thus I am very much afraid, so consultation with the friends and other Vaiṣṇavas that we are to fix our future path of our journey. Ke? _____________________ [?] Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. _______________________________ [?] Any more question on the point?

Devotee: I remember one thing I noted that by listening to your tapes that you will – on this one tape you were saying that Śukadeva Goswāmī he had this conception of this, he saw the universe in the way that he described in the Bhāgavatam. Yet the materialist he sees subjectively the way the material scientists do. So in the same way if one tries to see the spiritual plane as it’s described in the Bhāgavatam then it’s to be understood that he comes to that platform even if he sees the faults...

Bhāratī Mahārāja: If there’s one question at a time. It’s too complicated.

Devotee: Is that a complicated question?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes. You have to ask one very clear question.

Devotee: In other words, there’s so much, it seems that it’s so subjective to only see the fault in a Vaiṣṇava, to reject the Guru, it’s so subjective. So many people who have the same conception they will come together...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say? Finished? What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Generally, the sign of deviation may be of three classes. First thing, if I can detect that my Gurudeva he’s losing gradually his attraction for his own Guru, one.

And śāstra upadeśa, what he previously what he expressed, his advices, quoting the scriptures, and quoting the advices, words of his own Guru, that is becoming gradually absent in him, his attraction, his feeling on the higher aspect, then that is pratiṣṭhā. Kanak, kāminī, pratiṣṭhā, these are the three tests to be put everywhere, whether one is a sādhu or not, or what degree of sādhu he is, the measurement will be pratiṣṭhā, kāminī, kanak, three, grossly. The first, the deviation of his higher Gurus, that should be detected, then, that is pratiṣṭhā. Then, more tendency to amass money, and not to spend the money. Money may be collected but that must be distributed for the service of the sampradāya, for the Lord, for propaganda, but not much attention to – for distribution, to utilise it in the service of the Guru and sampradāya, Vaiṣṇava but amassing money, second.

Third, attraction towards the ladies. Of course he may come in connection with money and women and also with pratiṣṭhā. Pratiṣṭhā means his own, the honour to him from the disciples; that is also necessary. But only to, for the purpose of divine object, divine Name, not for himself. But if we can detect that for his personal cause, interest, and not for the cause of the sampradāya he’s utilising these things, then we can be, we should be careful. In the beginning we may neglect some occasions, some instances we may ignore. But if we find that more – then we are to inspect that carefully. And we are to put to persons similar to my position and after consultation and we can put it to the higher sources, other Ācārya also, who are reliable. Then if we find that, ‘Yes, what appeared to me first in a very small way, yes that is really, that is real and that is injurious and of big magnitude and he’s going down.’ Then to save myself I must try to take steps which may save me from that epidemic contamination. I shall try to save me. And also I can try to save others who fell prey to such exploitation like me. That will be with all sincerity.

But there is possibility and it is mentioned in the śāstra and also practical examples are also there. So we must not make progress in a slumber. But we must go forward with our eyes opened always opened, because we must be confident that eyes more and more will be able to appreciate higher things, not only to finding faults with him. We shall keep our eyes towards the Vaiṣṇava, towards the Guru, not only for fault finding tendency there be, but new things must come to astonish us about the ways, their astonishing ways. There will be many things will be in that:

āścaryavat paśyati kaścid enam, āścaryavad vadati tathaiva cānyaḥ

āścaryavac cainam anyaḥ śṛṇoti, [śrutvāpy enaṁ veda na caiva kaścit]

[“Some see the soul as astonishing, some describe him as astonishing, and some hear of him as astonishing, while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all.”]

[Bhagavad-gītā, 2.29]

End of 81.10.07.B_81.10.08.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.08.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...new wonder, ever new. Even it is written in Gītā only for the human soul. “You are, diving deep in the material experience of material things, but you come in contact with the slight conception of your own soul you’ll be astounded. “Oh! Such sweet and such wonderful things may exist, and I am such, my soul, myself, is of such higher standard creation. Then what to speak about Paramātmā, Bhagavān, Kṛṣṇa and His paraphernalia? Hare Kṛṣṇa. So we are not thieves, we must with our eyes open we must make progress. We won’t allow ourselves to be closed eye, making progress, not like that. Because where I am going, I’m approaching, that is above all test, all doubts.

Just as the other days I told I heard from Guru Mahārāja, that one boy is born in a dungeon within the prison house, and another man from outside coming to him and asking him, “Oh, come out to see the sun.”

He will take the light from there; that place.

“Oh, you want to see the sun?”

“Yes, and let us take the light.”

“No, no! Light is not necessary to see the sun.”

“Eh? Am I a fool? That you will say and I will put confidence in that word. Nothing can be seen without the help of the light.”

Then he will take him forcibly out: “See the sun!”

He’ll be astonished. “Oh!”

So we are making progress towards that direction, why we should not make progress with not closed eye. So much wonder to come in contact of that we cannot conjecture, we cannot suppose even, surpassing all our feelings of wonder, stranger, more stranger, more strange, it will come. Not only the adbhuta rasa, not only strange, this is its character, but sweeter, powerful, more powerful, more sweeter, more beautiful. In this way we are to appreciate, so with open eye, with open mind, we shall go. Not like a thief. Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Anything? Clear, am I clear?

Devotee: Very clear.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: I have a question, in regard to – what is the most important qualification for one who’s attempting to write transcendental literature.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In every case it is prayojana, to be sincerely linked, to have the link with the upper story. To set aside one’s own experience. Experience also may be used as example, but our faithful adherence to the higher source, that should be the attitude. We should pray, just as when we go to read any scripture I show respect, we worship the books, then we open the book and begin to read.

Praṅipāta, paripraśna, sevā, if we want to come in connection of the higher zone then our attitude should be that of praṅipāta, paripraśna, sevā. Praṅipāta, that is surrender, and paripraśna the keen understanding, our utmost earnestness to catch the thing, paripraśna. And sevā, I am doing it not to glorify myself but as a duty to my Gurudeva and the sampradāya and the Lord. That sort of temperament will keep connection; will connect with the higher sphere. Self abnegation and earnestness to know, praśna, that living earnestness for new things, and also to be utilised for Him, and not to fulfil any purpose of this mundane zone.

So with that mentality one should try to write, that we may be an agent only. Through Him the power we’ll get, that knowledge will descend. He will try to make a hateful agent a mediator of the two, not black marketing. From this real source to take and to distribute, not black marketing. Hare Kṛṣṇa. That should be the attitude of a writer, of a speaker, in every transaction of the higher sphere, our attitude of a mediator, transparent mediator.

“The Guru is opaque and transparent,” it has been said by our Guru Mahārāja, “Opaque Guru and transparent Guru.” Opaque Guru the trader: the Yati Goswāmī and vaṁśa paramparā, opaque Gurus continuing a trade in the name of becoming a transmitter. _______________________ [?]

...

... Kṛṣṇa is nowhere, it is in Gītā:

mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ, [jagad avyakta-mūrtinā

mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni, na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ]

[“In an unmanifest manner, I pervade this entire universe, and everything conceivable is situated within Me - and yet, I am not situated within that total entity.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.4]

“I am everywhere.” Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ, jagad avyakta-mūrtinā, mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni. “Everything in Me.” Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ, jagad avyakta-mūrtinā, mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni, na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ. Paśya me yogam aiśvaram [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.5]. “Your ordinary intelligence cannot understand; acintya.”

So Mahāprabhu kept the word acintya-bhedābheda because the connection depends on His sweet will. He’s free of the free. Absolute freedom is only with Him.

Vidagdha Mādhava: But Mahārāja, if someone is trying to develop śāstric vision he wants to see Kṛṣṇa everywhere. Kṛṣṇa has entered into every atom and He’s also pervading in the Brahman aspect. So how do we see that He is not in everything?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ke bolchen?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________________________________ [?] He’s adhokṣaja and you are being a finite of the finite you cannot comprehend, you cannot have the audacity to comprehend everything within your fist. The first condition is this, that you are going; the finite is going to measure the infinite. There should be a limit, up to nth term, mathematics going many steps finished, then up to nth term, recurring, something like that. As much as He will, His existence is of such nature that when He selects you to make any part to be known by you, then you can know, otherwise you are helpless. That is your position, or that is our position. Such things exist and if you have such faith in you then you have got śraddhā and only through that faith you can connect with Him, otherwise we are atheist. Atheist means self deceived. Do you follow?

Vidagdha Mādhava: Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You can’t finish, that you can know the whole thing. The first condition, He’s adhokṣaja and you are finite, I am, we are finite, and how can we be bold that we shall know every detail of Him, bold enough. It is audacity. That is foolishness. That is suicidal, to think like that. So Bhāgavat has given warning in many places.

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya [namanta eva, jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir, ye prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi tais tri-lokyām]

[Lord Brahmā said to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa: “Oh Lord, Oh Unconquerable One, those devotees who, completely giving up all attempts on the path of jñāna of attaining the non-differentiated platform known as Brahma by hearing the transcendental narratives of Your pastimes (kathā), which emanates from the lotus mouths of the mahā-bhāgavat sādhus and pass their lives by engaging their body, mind and words in pure devotion, easily conquer You (they easily get Your transcendental association), although You are the most difficult to attain in the three worlds.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.14.3]

The curiosity you have to banish that you will know so many things and you will make Him the object of your trade, that whenever you want He will come and he will help your trading. Trade in God is not possible. Only when He makes Him to distribute Him through you, through me, then that is possible, otherwise not. The whole thing is within His fist, the whole independent. And that is desirable. And any innocent person should admit that. Should admit that, “Yes, we are finite, and the infinite, so I must have some limit and my hankering for Him, my faith, and His independent step towards me, everything depends on that.”

nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo, na medhayā na bahunā śrutena

yam evaiṣa vṛnute tena labhyas, [tasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛnute tanūṁ svām]

[“One cannot understand the substance of the Paramātmā, the Super-soul residing within everyone’s heart, by means of expertise in logic, intelligence or learning. When the living entity begs the Lord for His mercy, being desirous of His transcendental loving service, then the Supreme Lord reveals His self-manifest form directly before him.”] [Kaṭha Upaniṣad, 1.2.23] & [Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad, 2.3.2]

Such things exist in our infinitely higher position with higher merits infinitely. And we can connect only through faith, śraddhāmayo 'yaṁ loka, and not reason, not knowledge drawn from experience of worldly things. Adhokṣaja. If we can have some faith for that higher unknown and unknowable transcendental, then we shall come to have enquiry how we can be utilised for His purpose and get out of this non faithful environment contamination.

My master is Absolute. That should encourage my campaign about my quest, my search, my service, give me impetus to my serving attitude that He’s Absolute, He’s infinite. And I must try to avoid any connection with all the finite matters. I should rather hate the finite things.

Enough, enough done of finite things from so many births in the past, enough done with this, with our association with things that are mortal, that can come in our control. We have become king, we have become Indra, the king of the whole world, Brahmā, so many positions we have already experienced we are told. So masters of this mundane world, that position we also experienced and again we are here, and again we may have to go to the life of a worm or an insect. In such uncertain possibility of our degraded position we are in the midst of.

So our all attention should be to remain in the connection with the highest, which is invulnerable, immeasurable, whose sweetness, knowledge, everything is immeasurable. To keep connection in the association of such centre we shall try to maintain our position, unknown and unknowable. But with some comprehension that is good and beneficial.

Paripraśna, honest enquiry, which is really necessary for my present spiritual purpose. And also when I’m in the sampradāya I shall have to educate others with that, about that, so with honest sincerity we may enquire into the meaning of the scripture.

But u-jñāna [?] and ati-jñāna [?] in Upaniṣad _____________________ [?] That our attempt to make Him the _________________________ [?] criminal, prisoner, we won’t try to make Him prisoner of our own particular cell of knowledge in the brain. We should not attempt like that. All we shall know and all we shall – the more we know, the more we’ll know about His infinite character, so our attitude should be that of:

tṛṇād api sunīcena, taror api sahiṣṇunā / [amāninā mānadena, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ]

[“One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more forbearing than a tree, who gives due honour to others without desiring it for himself is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa.”] [Śikṣāṣṭakam, 3]

“I’m smaller than smaller.” The conception of the bigger relativity will necessarily help us to think ourselves to be the smallest of the small. And only through faith we can connect with Him, nothing else, no knowledge. Karma, jñāna, futile, yoga, any ascending attempt is sure to meet with failure, ascending method. So:

bhaktyāham ekayā grāhyaḥ [śraddhayātmā priyaḥ satām

bhaktiḥ punāti man-niṣṭhā śvapākān api sambhavāt]

[“I, who am dear to the sādhus, can be reached only by devotion born of unalloyed faith. Even a dog flesh eating out caste who dedicates himself to exclusive devotion for Me is delivered from the influence of the wretched circumstances of his birth.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.14.21]

Only through devotion, only through dedication, and dedication; that ‘die to live.’ Śrīdhara Swāmī has given the important explanation.

śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ, smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam

arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ, sakhyam ātma-nivedanam.

iti puṁsārpitā viṣṇau, bhaktiś cen nava-lakṣaṇā

[kriyeta bhagavaty addhā tan manye 'dhītam uttamam]

[“Hearing about Kṛṣṇa, chanting Kṛṣṇa’s glories, remembering Kṛṣṇa, serving Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet, worshipping Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental form, offering prayers to Kṛṣṇa, becoming Kṛṣṇa’s servant, considering Kṛṣṇa as one’s best friend, and surrendering everything to Kṛṣṇa - these nine processes are accepted as pure devotional service.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.5.23-24]

I’m listening to Hari kathā, about Him, but my attitude will be that what benefit I shall draw from such listening, who will be the owner of that? Who will be the beneficiary? Not myself but my Lord. I am a slave. I’m in no position of beneficiary in me. Then it will be bhakti, devotion, a part of devotion. It will have recognition to be devotion that whatever I receive I’m not beneficiary. He will be beneficiary. The good or bad it will go to Him, the śravaṇa, kīrtana, every action for His satisfaction. I may die, I may live, it does not matter. And the highest risk we find that when gopīs were asked to give their feet dust for the head of Kṛṣṇa when He played with some tactics.

“That take some feet dust of a devotee and that will cure My headache.”

So such self abnegation and such degree of self surrendering, we have nothing, a slave to such a degree. If we accept such creed then we may be allowed to enter into that higher domain. Otherwise we shall enter and we shall loot, begin looting there. So such degree of slavery is to be, that bond should be signed within the heart. We must mind it, we must be reminded at every step. So dedication and dedication of such degree is necessary, and not by calculation that is in the beginning and spontaneous in Braja. We have come in connection with such noble life, conception of such nobility, self abnegation of such degree, such news, so noble a life, selfless life. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. And there we gain most, ha, ha, ha. There, in that position we are the highest gainer, we are told by the experts of the world, of that world. Ha, ha, ha. Gaura Hari.

So not only direct dāsya to Kṛṣṇa – those that can dedicate to such a degree, to make them beneficiary, that is another, that kiṅkarā, Rādhā-kiṅkarā, higher than that, Kṛṣṇa-kiṅkarā. Rādhā-kiṅkarā is higher than Kṛṣṇa-kiṅkarā, because who has dedicated most to the Kṛṣṇa to dedicate they’re not in direct contact with Kṛṣṇa, that fetches us the highest valuation, we are told by our masters. Rādhikā Madhavasan. Our aspiration is there, tied there in their feet, of their Guru. Servitor of the servitor of the servitor of the servitor; in this way the progress comes.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

yadi gaura nā hoita, tabe ki hoita, kemone dharitām de

rādhāra mahimā, prema-rasa-sīmā jagate jānāta ke

[madhura vṛndā vipina mādhurī praveśa cāturī sāra

baraja yuvatī bhāvera bhakati śakati hoita kāra]

[Vāsudeva Datta/Ghosh]

The dignity, such dignity in life to such a degree of self abnegation, self surrendering, self dedication, of different degree, classification, quality, all these things, Mahāprabhu has taken down from that highest quarter of the globe to here. And those who have got inner appreciation for this they say: “Oh! If Mahāprabhu did not come with the news of all these things, how could we live?” He’s a child of that soil, so says: “Without this how could I live?” Just as a fish will say: “Without water how can I live?” So a child of that soil he says: “How could we live if Śrī Caitanyadeva graciously did not bring the news about the real sustaining point, sustaining drop of our inner life? Wonderful!”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: We have heard it said by our Guru Mahārāja that yourself and himself were the only two people qualified to translate the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and give commentary on the Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, he had such confidence in me. He was my intimate association and we had many discussions, when I lived at Calcutta just as his next door neighbour, so much discussion, he had such faith in me, by the grace of the Absolute finishing such a great work: now he’s above. I’m left here.

Devotee: That’s our fortune. That he had such faith it’s only right that we should have such faith also.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, he had some faith in me. Hare Kṛṣṇa. I can’t deny that.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. And in his last days also he expressed that, “Two quarters side by side will be built there, and you will live in one and in the next I shall live.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Birds of the same feather flock together.

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: A common interest has drawn us near. Our common attraction has brought us nearer, closer. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: So there’s still a lot of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to translate and purport on.

[Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: My Guru Mahārāja told, his remark to me: “Ease lover.” You are extorting things from me.

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is deposited perhaps with me. You have come. Perhaps it was meant for you all, don’t know. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. What’s the time?

Devotee: Five past nine.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Five past nine.

Devotee: Could you tell us something about service, doing sixteen rounds in a day, and selling some books, is that enough to achieve Lord?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Anyhow to try to increase our inner affinity towards the cause. So when external services are absent we can go even more counting. And when very busy in the service may be less, that does not matter much. But serving, service is necessary and which may increase our serving tendency. The Name is advised in a general way, “Take the Name.” Name, to count Name:

[aghaccit-smaranam visnor-bahvayasena sadhyate]

austhaspandana-matrena kirtanatu tato varam

[“The remembrance of Viṣṇu certainly cuts sin to pieces, but it is very difficult to attain perfection through remembering Viṣṇu. Only after great effort is such remembrance possible. However, simply by moving the lips, there is the kīrtana of the Holy Name of Viṣṇu, and therefore kīrtana is the topmost process of devotional service.”] [Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, 11.453] &

[Gauḍīya Kaṇṭhahāra, 17.19]

To take the Name within, that is less important. And if our, the vibration is in the lips then it will be more, of higher type, that is utilisation, the vibration created around, more useful. And then, chanting in high sound, that will be more helpful to help the environment, so many, the vibration. And in the form of the book, that is Nāma-mahāta. Counting Name that is a difficult thing, that is cultivation about the Name, about the sound. Through the sound means which is one with substance, the meaning of the sound, to cultivate about that, anuśilana. That may be in the beads, that may be in preaching, and even by medium of the distribution of the books. That is also, that is preaching the noble position, the unique, purifying position of the Name. When I’m delivering lecture, or when I’m writing an article, enhancing the nobility of the Name, the higher purifying tendency of the Name, that is also kīrtana, Nāma-kīrtana. It is going to propagate the greatness of the Holy Name. So that is also chanting, chanting, though the purpose, the real object is to be marked, and where I am engaged. If I’m very busy in other services of the Name, the counting may be reduced to, in a lower position, that it won’t be of any bad effect there. Anyhow to engage Nāma-kīrtana, taking Name, to keep me engaged with the Divine Sound. Through Divine Sound we can easily enter into the domain of the transcendental realm, passing knowledge, then worship, love, etc.

Namna namnasya anta kala sudha tama vekam suri teja nama rupa sash bhuva tas bhavati

Tato rupa sash bhuvane [?]

Then:

Gunanam suranam suriteja gunay parikar vaisistham jayate tato līlā atat paro lilayam pravesha [?]

So for a beginner that sort of rules that you must take. You are engaged in the worldly affairs you must take at least so many rounds. You must make time at least for this. But when one’s fully engaged in the purpose of the truth, to spread the greatness, the purpose of the Name, the scripture, only this formal counting may not have any great importance in his life. He’s the wholesale here within the Name, they’re doing service of the Name. And the counting also must be of a serving tendency there must be, otherwise there will be aparādha, there will be ābhāsa, so many possibilities there. Anyhow to go on deep into the service of the Divine Sound, to spread the Divine Sound, and to stop this mundane sound which is the medium of so many busy activities of this mundane world. The mundane sound flow waves should be, transformed, should be, not transformed, should be replaced with the waves of Divine Sound. They’re full of mundane sound, but Divine Sound must take place throwing them off, the mundane sound, and the benefit will get everywhere where there is animation and with little faith.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Vidagdha Mādhava: Mahārāja, isn’t the purpose of the process to chant the Name purely? Doesn’t that mean that we should chant a prescribed number of rounds or endeavour to chant as much as possible the Holy Name?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No! Not to increase the number of counting in the beads. That is a stereotype dead thing. But the living counting and so many other signs will be shown. It is not limited within the physical sound that my lips produce. It has an extensive and infinite innate acquaintance of that Name. Only that counting, and that bead, and that particular sound that my tongue produces, it is not limited there. It holds within it the whole transcendental world we may see. It will give us connection with that. The medium sound we shall try to go in, to enter, into the domain, rūpa, guṇa, līlā, so many...

...

... sufficiently.

Devotee: Only problem is, this you see, I’m not that much qualified to read the scripture or Sanskrit words, you know, so I thought maybe this chanting is more important for a illiterate man like me.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Chanting, and gradually it must have life; a living counting will take us closer to the substance, not only the external sound in the cover. The substance within, the Name, nāma, rūpa, guṇa, līlā, within the sound, and we must be acquainted with, introduced with all the full Name. Eh?

Devotee: We are not to increase the quantity, but to increase quality.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ah! Quality!

Devotee: And if at the same time quantity and quality we can feel, that is all well and good, isn’t it?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No! That depends upon the sweet will of the Lord, on the direction from the up. Haridāsa Ṭhākura he concentrated to the counting more, but Rūpa, Sanātana, Raghunātha, not so much concentrated to the counting. As directed by the above it will be of such importance. Not equal in all cases. To show example to different types of men, different ideas have been set here. But we appreciate more the services of Rūpa Sanātana than that of Haridāsa Ṭhākura. But Haridāsa Ṭhākura’s example is also necessary for a particular group.

Devotee: For the conditioned souls.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And we do not think that the gopī’s in Vṛndāvana they’re always counting the Name of Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: One Name is sufficient to make them mad.

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: More than that!

Devotee: That’s the difference between goṣṭhyānandī and bhajanānandī.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Goṣṭhyānandī and bhajanānandī, that is in the sādhana stage. Then after entering there as type and nature of service is distributed then to go on with that. To discharge one’s own quota of duty, that is full in itself in different departments there. Different departments of service, and particular departments also, there are so many sub divisions. Now to be posted in a particular serving office, there he gets the most, he or she, meant for him. Different groups, śanta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya, mādhurya, and there are divisions of divisions, so many. And may want much water, but my thirst for one glass, that is, I do not need more, then there’ll be disease, reaction. Akarsananta yajaya śakti [?] The infinite boundless sky and the birds are flying according to their capacity. According to their heart’s necessity they can fly, and then take rest. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Eka-bindu jagat ḍubāya [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 15.19]. Mahāprabhu says to Rūpa Goswāmī, “The boundless ocean of nectar divine, and one drop I am giving to you.” Then He says, “This one drop is sufficient to inundate, overflow the whole of the universe.”

So the point of infinite is infinite. It is of such nature. An atom of infinite is also infinite. The quality is such, transcendental quality is such, the autonomy is such.

Angani bhava mad gatya pasan samatya nilaya [?]

Israel is a small country but his connection with [America...

End of 81.10.08.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.08.C

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ______________ [?]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: No Mahārāja, actually they came late last night.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So any new news with them?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Any news to report about________ [?]

Devotee: They’re coming from San Francisco.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: San Francisco. And that is the zone of?

Devotees: Atreya Ṛṣi.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Atreya Ṛṣi. Is he an Ācārya or GBC?

Devotee: GBC.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: GBC. In whose jurisdiction: who is the Ācārya of the zone?

Devotee: There is no particular Ācārya in his zone.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No Ācārya only GBC.

Devotee: Only GBC.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Atreya Ṛṣi, that is that Persian gentleman?

Devotee: Persian, yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And is it he who translated Bhagavad-gītā?

Devotee: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In Arabic language or in Farsi?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Arabic it was translated, who translated?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Any fresh news of the place? How long you are from there?

Devotee: Just about one week.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Only a week. When you came here, first in Bombay or Calcutta?

Devotee: From Calcutta. We came down last night on the train.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Last night. They’re all well there?

Devotee: They’re all well, yes. Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja he’s...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh! You have connection with Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja?

Devotee: Yes. I’m very much good friends with him. I’ve listened to eighteen of your first tapes, then nineteen, then I listened to eight of the second group of tapes. And then I had to come so I couldn’t finish listening to them.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: __________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Swāmī Mahārāja’s śiṣya?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Ah! Swāmī Mahārāja’s śiṣya. Isn’t it? You’ve taken from Prabhupāda?

Devotee: Yes, both initiations.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _______________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________ [?] [Group laughter]

Devotee: Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja has found a very nice – they’re buying a temple, they’re getting a new temple where they can preach. Many devotees are going to come.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _____________________ [?] What is his name?

Devotee: This is Raghavendra.

Devotee: Raghavindu.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Raghavindu. That is another gentleman.

_________________________________________ [?] All disciples of Swāmī Mahārāja?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So he has started one independent centre for preaching, the Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja, is it?

Devotee: He’s going to start. He’s in the process of getting a building. He has a very big building in mind, very big building.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Dayādhara Gaurāṅga is here.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He has come?

Devotee: Yes, just arrived.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then, let him take seat also.

Now you may begin about that Hari-Nāma-cintāmaṇi you were telling.

[The following is also in the transcript dated 81.10.07.B_81.10.08.A]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: There’s subtitles it says:

Kono sthane guru tyāga koro te habe [?]

Tabi jadi ei rup gatana kabu hoi asat sange guro yogyata hoi koi [?]

Pratame chillin tini sat guru pradhan harinam aparādhe hoiya hata jñāna [?]

Vaisnave vidvesh kori charinama rasa krami krami han artha karmaner vas [?]

Shay guru chare śiṣya sri krsna krpay sad guru ladviya puna śuddha nama gaya [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You’ve explained it to them?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes. Last night we talked about this.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: About that. Then any question?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes. This verse here was the most interesting one.

Vaisnave vidvesh kori charinama rasa krami krami han artha karmaner vas [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gradual development in the lower direction.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So this is...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The beginning, first beginning is with the, tabi?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Tabi jadi ei rup gatana kabu hoi asat sange guro yogyata hoi koi [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh! The madhyama Guru, madhyama-adhikārī, the Guru of middle stage, when he comes in connection with bad association, the association with the atheists, or some Māyāvādī scholars, or strī saṅga asat sādhu, anyone, by bad association he may come down. And so many things are to be traced in him and gradually he will come down to such a stage. In that case of course the śiṣya who has got sufficient sukṛti he can save him. Very rarely such things happen and it is most unfortunate. But still we may consider it to be fortunate when he gets out of that and comes to the real source again. Then forgetting all his past history he’s to begin with new life, to save one’s own self. Necessity is the mother of invention. Necessity has no law. We may be misguided in the worldly sense also, in many places we may be misguided, and to awake from that association and to help us in a proper way. Of course this possibility is at every step. We are living beings, we are independent, we are endowed with free will, so free action, free decision is necessary at every step. And that is also uncertain what step I should take that it may be guaranteed that it will take me towards the right goal, right destination.

So it is necessary to select a guide. And sometimes if the – in the selection of the guide there is also some error, that is also misfortune. But again our internal, innate fortune helps us, comes out to help us again to be aware of the guide when you are walking to some tīrtha or some holy place. So if the guide on my way he may be influenced by bad motive then I’m to save in that case also. Of course which is very risky, still, self protection, self saving is indispensable so we are to do that. Before, previously I put my whole faith to one and I’m to withdraw from that and to take another independent guide. But still if necessity arises we cannot but do that: in this way. I shall consult it to be doubly sure. We must consult it whether – because I may be fallible – I am fallible rather, the śiṣya, the disciple considers himself to be fallible, and so he will consult with another expert guide.

“What to do? I am perplexed. I think that I should not keep any faith in my present guide. Perhaps he has become otherwise, his mentality has changed. Anyway I can’t, I’m seeing so many signs around that I’m not able to put faith in that guide any longer. Please advise me what to do.”

In this way the intimate friends should be consulted. We may not put much faith within us. After consultation with so many intimate friends whom I can put confidence in, then by their assurance, and with also my internal voice, inner voice, my conscience, with all sincerity praying to the Lord that, “Please save me and give me another guide.” By the help of our friends we shall again try to cast ourselves. Confidence is necessary, śraddhā is necessary, guide is necessary. It is inevitable. Once I’m deprived of confidence, I’m betrayed, that does not mean that my whole life is to suffer from that betrayal. There must be good sense all around and the main power around, the higher power around is always eager to help us. So with all sincerity we must accept to our best understanding any other guide and to go on. Progress cannot be checked, and that is not desirable also, so we must go onward, even if necessary changing our guide on the way. From the practical life also we can gather such experience. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Any other question within this?

Devotee: Yes. Some devotees in America they would say on this point that they cannot understand how if the Guru is sākṣād-dhari, then he no longer be sākṣād-dhari. How can he stray? Then he was never Guru to begin with. They are saying like that.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: When we adjust in this way, that Guru is within also, caitya Guru, and outside the mahanta Guru. But in our worldly life we also meet such things. In Bhāgavat also warning is given already:

gurur na sa syāt sva jano na sa syāt, pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt

daivaṁ na tat syān na patiś ca sa syān, na mocayed yaḥ samupeta mṛtyum

[Ṛṣabhadeva says: “Even a spiritual master, relative, parent, husband, or demigod who cannot save us from repeated birth and death should be abandoned at once.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 5.5.18]

One who cannot save me from the greatest danger of the association of this mortal life, they apparently, ostentatiously, they may be in a position of our best regard in their own departments. But still my eternal life and the interest of eternal life there may be many dangers...

__________________________________________________________________________ [?]

Gurur na sa syāt sva jano na sa syāt, so from here we can detect the underground possibility of changing Guru, and that may not be attributed to that side. We may try to apply it to my own weak side. It is due to my defect I have been connected with a mala fide idea. Anyhow by my sukṛti it is a test, we may take it as a test of sincerity in my progress towards the Divinity. So we may rather try to accuse our own fate, our own self, and that side there is a test of the Lord. So the gurur na sa syāt, when, this is admitted in Bhāgavatam and in many places, then there may be such instances in the practical affairs. So our faith in Guru also in this position it is clear that our faith in Guru should not be blind. Faith, the śraddhā, faith is not intrinsically a blind faith. Faith may be awake. It may be wakeful to its interest always, making progress.

bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir, anyatra caiṣa trika eka-kālaḥ

prapadyamānasya yathāśnataḥ syus, tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣudapāyo 'nughāsam

[“As with every mouthful an eater feels the threefold effects of his satisfaction, his stomach being filled, and his hunger being dispelled, in the same way when a surrendered soul serves the Lord he realises devotion of three natures simultaneously: devotion in love, the personal appearance of the Lord who is the abode of love, and detachment from all other things.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.42]

In Bhāgavatam it is mentioned in another place. Just how should we measure my progress towards the divine world? They say: bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo anyatra viraktir, these three things must remain with me always while I’m making progress towards the divine soil. What are they? Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo anyatra viraktir, and an example is given of the mundane world. When we are hungry we take food, and when we take food three things occur simultaneously. What are they? Prapadyamānasya yathāśnataḥ syus, tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣudapāyo... Nimāi ________________ [?]

Tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣudapāyo, when we are hungry we feel uneasiness, so by every morsel we take the uneasiness is removed, tuṣṭiḥ. Puṣṭiḥ, then when hungry we feel weakness. By every morsel gradually that weakness is removed. And kṣudapāyo, when hungry we feel a pain like something for eating more, and that earnestness for eating that also disappears, by step by step by every morsel.

So also when ordinarily we are in the progress of our spiritual life on the way we shall have three things experienced by every step, and carefully we are to measure. We are to feel for ourselves that whether we are making progress or not. This is the criterion. What are they? Bhakti, our attraction will, should increase with acceleration, bhakti. Pareśānubhavo, and we must get a sort of conception towards which I am approaching. First hazy then more clear, more clear, more clear, a sort of conception towards which I have more and more finer and accurate conception. I must receive as much as I shall progress, pareśānubhavo.

Anyatra viraktir, and withdrawal from the environment what was very tasteful to me, that won’t have any taste for me, anyatra viraktir. My attraction for non God, for the world, that will decrease. That won’t come to – if that sort of topics comes in I shall feel disturbed. No! So: bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir, three things there must be when we are making journey. So these are tests and we must be wakeful, so sākṣād-dharitvena though, but still there is such possibility. We must not make too much faith in my experience, my knowledge which is gathered by the worldly experience. We must be alert always. So when some shock comes to me from the unexpected quarter, if we are wakeful to our real internal interest we must be awakened.

And then we shall consult with others. So many passengers are there, walking, so many companions, we may consult with them, that, “I have got that little, no confidence in the leader. What do you think? Am I wrong or am I right? You please also look at this.”

In this way we are to examine us and to do the necessary. The Guru within, the caitya Guru, he also cannot be neglected. And if one is sincere the caitya Guru must come in time to make him careful, give him warning. It is possible because the transaction of so many that are all free. And because the Gītā says:

“I am everywhere. I am nowhere. Everything is in Me. Nothing is in Me. Please mark the inconceivable mystic position of Mine with this world. I can be there, I can withdraw also.”

Such is the saying of His position anywhere and everywhere. So the free choice, the possibility of free choice not gone forever, but though we submit to Gurudeva that must be a conscious and healthy submission. Otherwise there may be so many misguided sorts, in different departments there are leaders, and in that particular jurisdiction they are seen to put much faith in the leader, political, social, and in other bad activity also. So everywhere there is leader. So this broad idea we must have and that is to our own interest and there is also so many sayings in the śāstra to give us caution that our progress may not be blind. Our own self is dearer than every connection with the environment for my interest. And ultimately the all-seer, all-omniscient Lord is there.

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate]

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe, nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill-fated.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

“O my Lord, You may do anything. You have come to test this little servant.” But I am very much afraid, so consultation with the friends and other Vaiṣṇavas that we are to fix our future path of our journey. Ke? _______________________________________________________ [?]

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

________________________________ [?] Any more question on the point?

Devotee: I remember one thing I noted that by listening to your tapes that you will – on this one tape you were saying that Śukadeva Goswāmī he had this conception of this, he saw the universe in the way that he described in the Bhāgavatam. Yet the materialist he sees subjectively the way the material scientists do. So in the same way if one tries to see the spiritual plane as it’s described in the Bhāgavatam then it’s to be understood that he comes to that platform even if he sees the faults...

Bhāratī Mahārāja: If there’s one question at a time. It’s too complicated.

Devotee: Is that a complicated question?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes. You have to ask one very clear question.

Devotee: In other words, there’s so much, it seems that it’s so subjective to see the fault in a Vaiṣṇava, to reject the Guru, it’s so much subjective. So many people who have the same conception they will come together and agree.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say? Finished? What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _______________ [?]

Devotees: Just simplify it.

Devotee: How do we know when we’re being so much subjective, how can, is there any real objectivity in making decisions like this?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: __________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Generally, the sign of deviation may be of three classes. First thing, if I can detect that my Gurudeva he’s losing gradually his attraction for his own Guru, one.

And śāstra upadeśa, what he previously, what he expressed, his advices, quoting the scriptures, and quoting the advices, words of his own Guru, that is becoming gradually absent in him, his attraction, his feeling on the higher aspect, then that is pratiṣṭhā. Kanak, kāminī, pratiṣṭhā, these are the three tests to be put everywhere, whether one is a sādhu or not, or what degree of sādhu he is, the measurement will be pratiṣṭhā, kāminī, kanak, three, grossly. The first, the deviation of his higher Gurus, that should be detected, then, that is pratiṣṭhā. Then, more tendency to amass money, and not to spend the money. Money may be collected but that must be distributed for the service of the sampradāya, for the Lord, for propaganda, but not much attention to – for distribution, to utilise it in the service of the Guru and sampradāya, Vaiṣṇava but amassing money, second.

Third, attraction towards the ladies. Of course he may come in connection with money and women and also with pratiṣṭhā. Pratiṣṭhā means his own, the honour to him from the disciples; that is also necessary. But only to, for the purpose of divine object, divine Name, not for himself. But if we can detect that for his personal cause, interest, and not for the cause of the sampradāya he’s utilising these things, then we can be, we should be careful. In the beginning we may neglect some occasions, some instances we may ignore. But if we find that more – then we are to inspect that carefully. And we are to put to persons similar to my position and after consultation and we can put it to the higher sources, other Ācārya also, who are reliable. Then when if we find that, ‘Yes, what appeared to me first in a very small way, yes that is really, that is real and that is injurious and of big magnitude and he’s going down.’ Then to save myself I must try to take steps which may save me from that epidemic contamination. I shall try to save me. And also I can try to save others who fell prey to such exploitation like me. That will be with all sincerity.

But there is possibility and it is mentioned in the śāstra, and also practical examples are also there. So we must not make progress in a slumber. But we must go forward with our eyes opened always opened. Because we must be confident that eyes more and more will be able to appreciate higher things, not only to finding faults with him. We shall keep our eyes towards the Vaiṣṇava, towards the Guru, not only for fault finding tendency there be, but new things must come to astonish us about the ways, their astonishing ways. There will be many things will be in that:

āścaryavat paśyati kaścid enam, āścaryavad vadati tathaiva cānyaḥ

āścaryavac cainam anyaḥ śṛṇoti, śrutvāpy enaṁ veda na caiva kaścit

[“Some see the soul as astonishing, some describe him as astonishing, and some hear of him as astonishing, while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all.”]

[Bhagavad-gītā, 2.29]

[End of transcript dated 81.10.07.B_81.10.08.A]

[Continuing with transcript dated 81.10.08.C]

[Also found at the beginning of 81.10.08.B]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: At every step it will show wonder, new wonder, ever new. Even it is written in Gītā only for the human soul. “You are, diving deep in the material experience of material things but you come in contact with the slight conception of your own soul you’ll be astounded. “Oh! Such sweet and such wonderful things may exist, and I am such, my soul, myself, is of such higher standard creation. Then what to speak about Paramātmā, Bhagavān, Kṛṣṇa and His paraphernalia?” Hare Kṛṣṇa. So we are not thieves, we must with our eyes open we must make progress. We won’t allow ourselves to be closed eye, making progress, not like that. Because where I am going, I’m approaching, that is above all test, all doubts.

Just as the other days I told I heard from Guru Mahārāja, that one boy is born in a dungeon within the prison house, and another man from outside coming to him and asking him, “Oh, come out to see the sun.”

He will take the light from there; that place.

“Oh, you want to see the sun?”

“Yes, and let us take the light.”

“No, no! Light is not necessary to see the sun.”

“Eh? Am I a fool? That you will say and I will put confidence in that word. Nothing can be seen without the help of the light.”

Then he will take him forcibly out: “See the sun!”

He’ll be astonished. “Oh!”

So we are making progress towards that direction, why we should not make progress with not closed eye. So much wonder to come in contact of that we cannot conjecture, we cannot suppose even, surpassing all our feelings of wonder, stranger, more stranger, more strange, it will come. Not only the adbhuta rasa, not only strange, naturally it’s character, but sweeter, more powerful, more powerful, more sweeter, more beautiful. In this way we are to appreciate. So with open eye, with open mind, we shall go. Not like a thief. Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Anything? Clear, am I clear?

Devotee: Very clear.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: I have a question, in regard to – what is the most important qualification for one who’s attempting to write transcendental literature.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: __________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In every case it is prayojana, to be sincerely linked, to have the link with the upper story. To set aside one’s own experience, experience may also be used as example, but our faithful adherence to the higher source, that should be the attitude. We should pray, just as when we go to read any scripture I show respect, we worship the books, then we open the book and begin to read.

Praṅipāta, paripraśna, sevā, if we want to come in connection of the higher zone then our attitude should be that of praṅipāta, paripraśna, sevā. Praṅipāta, that is surrender, and paripraśna, the keen understanding, our utmost earnestness to catch the thing, paripraśna. And sevā, I am doing it not to glorify myself but as a duty to my Gurudeva and the sampradāya and the Lord. That sort of temperament will keep connection; will connect with the higher sphere, self abnegation and earnestness to know, praśna, that living earnestness for new things, and also to be utilised for Him, and not to fulfil any purpose of this mundane zone.

End of 81.10.08.C

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.08.D

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

[This also starts on page two of the transcript dated 81.10.08.B

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...make a hateful agent mediator of the truth. Not black marketing. From this real source to take and to distribute, not black marketing. Hare Kṛṣṇa. That should be the attitude of a writer, of a speaker, in every transaction of the higher sphere, our attitude of a mediator, transparent mediator. “The Guru is opaque and transparent,” it has been said by our Guru Mahārāja, “Opaque Guru and transparent Guru.” Opaque Guru the trader: the Yati Goswāmī and the vaṁśa paramparā, opaque Gurus continuing a trade in the name of becoming a transmitter. ___________________________ [?]

Vidagdha Mādhava: Vidagdha dāsa!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh! Vidagdha. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Anything?

Vidagdha Mādhava: In yesterday’s Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the verse stated – Kṛṣṇa: “Everything is within Kṛṣṇa, but Kṛṣṇa is not in everything.”

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ah! “Nothing in Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa is nowhere!” It is in Gītā:

mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ, [jagad avyakta-mūrtinā

mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni, na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ]

[“In an unmanifest manner, I pervade this entire universe, and everything conceivable is situated within Me - and yet, I am not situated within that total entity.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9. 4]

“I am everywhere.” Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ, jagad avyakta-mūrtinā, mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni. “Everything in Me.” Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ, jagad avyakta-mūrtinā, mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni, na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ. Paśya me yogam aiśvaram [Bhagavad-gītā, 9. 5]. “Your ordinary intelligence cannot understand; acintya.”

So Mahāprabhu kept the word acintya-bhedābheda because the connection depends on His sweet will. He’s free of the free. Absolute freedom is only with Him.

Vidagdha Mādhava: But Mahārāja, if someone is trying to develop śāstric vision he wants to see Kṛṣṇa everywhere. Kṛṣṇa has entered into every atom and He’s also pervading in the Brahman aspect. So how do we see that He is not in everything?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ke bolchen?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: ________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________________________________ [?] He’s adhokṣaja and you are being a finite of the finite you cannot comprehend, you cannot have the audacity to comprehend everything within your fist. The first condition is this that you are going; the finite is going to measure the infinite. There should be a limit, up to nth term, mathematics going many steps finished, then up to nth term, recurring, something like that. As much as He will, His existence is of such nature that when He selects you to make any part to be known by you then you can know, otherwise you are helpless. That is your position, or that is our position. Such things exist and if you have such faith in you then you have got śraddhā and only through that faith you can connect with Him, otherwise we are atheist. Atheist means self deceived. Do you follow?

Vidagdha Mādhava: Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You can’t finish, that you can know the whole thing. The first condition, He’s adhokṣaja and you are finite, I am, we are finite, and how can we be bold that we shall know every detail of Him, bold enough. It is audacity. That is foolishness. That is suicidal, to think like that. So Bhāgavat has given warning in many places.

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya [namanta eva, jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir, ye prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi tais tri-lokyām]

[Lord Brahmā said to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa: “Oh Lord, Oh Unconquerable One, those devotees who, completely giving up all attempts on the path of jñāna of attaining the non-differentiated platform known as Brahma by hearing the transcendental narratives of Your pastimes (kathā), which emanates from the lotus mouths of the mahā-bhāgavat sādhus and pass their lives by engaging their body, mind and words in pure devotion, easily conquer You (they easily get Your transcendental association), although You are the most difficult to attain in the three worlds.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.14.3]

The curiosity you have to banish that you will know so many things and you will make Him the object of your trade, that whenever you want and He will come and He will help your trading. Trade in God is not possible. Only when He makes Him to distribute Him through you, through me, then that is possible, otherwise not. The whole thing is within His fist, the whole independent. And that is desirable. And any innocent person should admit that. Should admit that, “Yes, we are finite, and the infinite, so I must have some limit and my hankering for Him, my faith, and His independent step towards me, everything depends on that.”

nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo, na medhayā na bahunā śrutena

yam evaiṣa vṛnute tena labhyas, [tasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛnute tanūṁ svām]

[“One cannot understand the substance of the Paramātmā, the Super-soul residing within everyone’s heart, by means of expertise in logic, intelligence or learning. When the living entity begs the Lord for His mercy, being desirous of His transcendental loving service, then the Supreme Lord reveals His self-manifest form directly before him.”] [Kaṭha Upaniṣad, 1.2.23] & [Muṇḍaka-Upaniṣad, 2.3.2]

Such things exist in our infinitely higher position with higher merits infinitely. And we can connect only through faith, śraddhāmayo 'yaṁ loka, and not reason, not knowledge drawn from experience of worldly things. Adhokṣaja. If we can have some faith for that higher unknown and unknowable transcendental, then we shall come to have enquiry how we can be utilised for His purpose and get out of this non faithful environment contamination.

My master is Absolute. That should encourage my campaign about my quest, my search, my service, give impetus to my serving attitude that He’s Absolute, He’s infinite. And I must try to avoid any connection with all the finite matters. I should rather hate the finite things. Enough, enough done of finite things from so many births in the past, enough done with this – with our association with things that are mortal, that can come in our control. We have become king, we have become Indra, the king of the whole world, Brahmā, so many positions we have already experienced we are told. So masters of this mundane world, that position also we experienced and again we are here, and again we may have to go to the life of a worm or an insect. In such uncertain possibility of our degraded position we are in the midst of, so our all attention should be to remain in connection with the highest, which is invulnerable, immeasurable, whose sweetness, knowledge, everything is immeasurable. To keep connection in the association of such centre we shall try to maintain our position, unknown and unknowable. But with some comprehension that is good and beneficial.

Paripraśna, honest enquiry, which is really necessary for my present spiritual purpose. And also when I’m in the sampradāya I shall have to educate others with that, about that, so with honest sincerity we may enquire into the meaning of the scripture. But u-jñāna and ati-jñāna in Upaniṣad [?] That our attempt to make Him the criminal, prisoner, we won’t try to make Him prisoner of our own particular cell of knowledge in the brain. We should not attempt like that. All we shall know and all we shall – the more we know, the more we’ll know about His infinite character, so our attitude should be that of:

tṛṇād api sunīcena, taror api sahiṣṇunā [amāninā mānadena, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ]

[“One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more forbearing than a tree, who gives due honour to others without desiring it for himself is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa.”] [Śikṣāṣṭakam, 3]

I’m smaller and smaller. The conception of the bigger relativity will necessarily help us to think ourselves to be the smallest of the small. And only through faith we can connect with Him, nothing else, no knowledge. Karma, jñāna, futile, yoga, any ascending attempt is sure to meet with failure, ascending method. So:

bhaktyāham ekayā grāhyaḥ [śraddhayātmā priyaḥ satām

bhaktiḥ punāti man-niṣṭhā śvapākān api sambhavāt]

[“I, who am dear to the sādhus, can be reached only by devotion born of unalloyed faith. Even a dog flesh-eating out caste who dedicates himself to exclusive devotion for Me is delivered from the influence of the wretched circumstances of his birth.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.14.21]

Only through devotion, only through dedication, and dedication; that ‘die to live.’

Śrīdhara Swāmī has given the important explanation.

śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ, smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam

arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ, sakhyam ātma-nivedanam.

iti puṁsārpitā viṣṇau, bhaktiś cen nava-lakṣaṇā

[kriyeta bhagavaty addhā tan manye 'dhītam uttamam]

[“Hearing about Kṛṣṇa, chanting Kṛṣṇa’s glories, remembering Kṛṣṇa, serving Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet, worshipping Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental form, offering prayers to Kṛṣṇa, becoming Kṛṣṇa’s servant, considering Kṛṣṇa as one’s best friend, and surrendering everything to Kṛṣṇa - these nine processes are accepted as pure devotional service.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.5.23-24]

I’m listening to Hari kathā, about Him, but my attitude will be that what benefit I shall draw from such listening, who will be the owner of that? Who will be the beneficiary? Not myself but my Lord. I am a slave. I’m in no position of beneficiary in me. Then it will be bhakti, devotion, a part of devotion. It will have recognition to be devotion that whatever I receive I’m not beneficiary. He will be beneficiary. The good or bad it will go to Him, the śravaṇa, kīrtana, every action for His satisfaction. I may die, I may live, it does not matter. And the highest risk we find that when gopīs were asked to give their feet dust for the head of Kṛṣṇa when He played with some tactics.

“That take some feet dust of a devotee and that will cure My headache.”

So such self abnegation and such degree of self surrendering, we have nothing, a slave to such a degree. If we accept such creed then we may be allowed to enter into that higher domain. Otherwise we shall enter and we shall loot, begin looting there. So such degree of slavery is to be, that bond should be signed within the heart. We must mind it, we must be reminded at every step. So dedication and dedication of such degree is necessary, and not by calculation that is in the beginning and spontaneous in Braja. We have come in connection with such noble life, conception of such nobility, self abnegation of such degree, such news, so noble a life, selfless life. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

And there we gain most, ha, ha, ha. There, in that position we are the highest gainer, we are told by the experts of the world, of that world. Ha, ha, ha. Gaura Hari. So not only direct dāsya to Kṛṣṇa – those that can dedicate to such a degree, to make them beneficiary, that is another, kiṅkarā, Rādhā-kiṅkarā, higher than that, Kṛṣṇa kiṅkarā. Rādhā kiṅkarā is higher than Kṛṣṇa kiṅkarā, because who has dedicated most to the Kṛṣṇa to dedicate they’re not in direct contact with Kṛṣṇa. That fetches us the highest valuation, we are told by our masters. Rādhikā Madhavasan. Our aspiration is there, tied there in their feet, of their Guru. Servitor of the servitor of the servitor of the servitor; in this way the progress comes.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

yadi gaura nā hoita, tabe ki hoita, kemone dharitām de

rādhāra mahimā, prema-rasa-sīmā jagate jānāta ke

[madhura vṛndā vipina mādhurī praveśa cāturī sāra

baraja yuvatī bhāvera bhakati śakati hoita kāra]

[Vāsudeva Datta/Ghosh]

The dignity, such dignity in life to such a degree of self abnegation, self surrendering, self dedication, of different degree, classification, quality, all these things, Mahāprabhu has taken down from that highest quarter of the globe to here. And those who have got inner appreciation for this they say: “Oh! If Mahāprabhu did not come with the news of all these things, how could we live?” He’s a child of that soil, so says: “Without this how could I live?” Just as a fish will say, “Without water how can I live?” So a child of that soil he says: “How could we live if Śrī Caitanyadeva graciously did not bring the news about the real sustaining point, sustaining drop of our inner life? Wonderful!”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: We have heard it said by our Guru Mahārāja that yourself and himself were the only two people qualified to translate the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and give commentary on the Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, he had such confidence in me. He was my intimate association and we had many discussions, when I lived at Calcutta just as his next door neighbour, so much discussion, he had such faith in me. By the grace of the Absolute finishing such a great work: now he’s above. I’m left here.

Devotee: So we are feeling, if he had such faith then it’s only right that we have such faith also.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, he had some faith in me. Hare Kṛṣṇa. I can’t deny that. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. And in his last days also he expressed that, “Two quarters side by side will be built there, and you will live in one and in the next I shall live.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Birds of the same feather flock together.

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: A common interest has drawn us near. Our common attraction has brought us nearer, closer. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: So there’s still a lot of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to translate and purport on.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: __________________________ [?] [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: My Guru Mahārāja told, his remark to me: “Ease lover.”

You are extorting things from me.

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Deposited perhaps with me. You have come. Perhaps it was meant for you all, don’t know. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. What’s the time?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Five past nine.

Devotee: Mahārāja, could you tell us something about service, doing sixteen rounds in a day, and selling some books, is that enough to achieve Lord?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Anyhow to try to increase our inner affinity towards the cause. So when external services are absent we can go even more counting, and when very busy in the service, may be less, that does not matter much. But serving, service is necessary and which may increase our serving tendency. The Name is advised in a general way, “Take the Name.” Name, to count Name:

[aghaccit-smaranam visnor-bahvayasena sadhyate]

austhaspandana-matrena kirtanatu tato varam

[“The remembrance of Viṣṇu certainly cuts sin to pieces, but it is very difficult to attain perfection through remembering Viṣṇu. Only after great effort is such remembrance possible. However, simply by moving the lips, there is the kīrtana of the Holy Name of Viṣṇu, and therefore kīrtana is the topmost process of devotional service.”] [Hari-bhakti-vilasa, 11.453] & [Gauḍīya Kaṇṭhahāra, 17.19]

To take the Name within, that is less important. And if our, the vibration is in the lips then it will be more, of higher type, that is utilisation, the vibration created around, more useful. And then, chanting in high sound, that will be more helpful to help the environment, so many, the vibration. And in the form of the book, that is Nāma-mahāta. Counting Name that is a difficult thing, that is cultivation about the Name, about the sound. Through the sound means which is one with substance, the meaning of the sound, to cultivate about that, anuśilana. That may be in the beads, that may be in preaching, and even by medium of the distribution of the books. That is also, that is preaching the noble position, the unique, purifying position of the Name. When I’m delivering lecture, or when I’m writing an article, enhancing the nobility of the Name, the higher purifying tendency of the Name, that is also kīrtana, Nāma-kīrtana. It is going to propagate the greatness of the Holy Name, so that is also chanting, chanting. Though the purpose, the real object is to be marked, and where I am engaged. If I’m very busy in other services of the Name, the counting may be reduced to in a lower position that it won’t be of any bad effect there. Anyhow to engage Nāma-kīrtana, taking Name, to keep me engaged with the Divine Sound. Through Divine Sound we can easily enter into the domain of the transcendental realm, passing knowledge, then worship, love, etc.

Namna namnasya anta kala sudha tama vekam suri teja nama rupa sash bhuva tas bhavati

Tato rupa sash bhuvane [?]

Then:

Gunanam suranam suriteja gunay parikar vaisistham jayate

tato līlā atat param lilayam pravesha [?]

So for a beginner that sort of rule that you must take. You are engaged in the worldly affairs you must take at least so many rounds. You must make time at least for this. But when one’s fully engaged in the purpose of the truth, to spread the greatness, the purpose of the Name, the scripture, only this formal counting may not have any great importance in his life. He’s the wholesale here within the Name, they’re doing service of the Name, and the counting also must be of a serving tendency there must be. Otherwise there will be aparādha, there will be ābhāsa, so many possibilities there. Anyhow to go on deep into the service of the Divine Sound, to spread the Divine Sound, and to stop this mundane sound which is the medium of so many busy activities of this mundane world. The mundane sound flow waves should be, transformed, should be, not transformed, should be replaced with the waves of Divine Sound. They’re full of mundane sound but Divine Sound must take place throwing them off the mundane sound, and the benefit will get everywhere where there is animation and with little faith. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Vidagdha Mādhava: Mahārāja, isn’t the purpose of the process to chant the Name purely? Doesn’t that mean that we should chant a prescribed number of rounds or endeavour to chant as much as possible the Holy Name?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: ________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No! Not to increase the number of counting in the beads. That is a stereotype dead thing. But the living counting and so many other signs will be shown. It is not limited within the physical sound that my lips produce. It has an extensive and infinite innate acquaintance of that Name. Only that counting and that bead and that particular sound that my tongue produces, it is not limited there. It holds within it the whole transcendental world we may see. It will give us connection with that. The medium sound we shall try to go in, to enter, into the domain, rūpa, guṇa, līlā, so many...

...

I’m not clear, sufficiently?

Devotee: Only problem is, this you see, I’m not that much qualified to read the scripture or Sanskrit words, you know, so I thought maybe this chanting is more important for a illiterate man like me.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And gradually it must have life. A living counting will take us closer to the substance, not only the external sound in the cover. The substance within, the Name, nāma, rūpa, guṇa, līlā, within the sound, and we must be acquainted with, introduced with all the full Name. Eh?

Devotee: We are not to increase the quantity, but to increase quality.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ah! Quality!

Devotee: And if at the same time quantity and quality we can please that is all well and good, isn’t it?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No! That depends upon the sweet will of the Lord on the direction from the up. Haridāsa Ṭhākura he concentrated to the counting more, but Rūpa, Sanātana, Raghunātha, not so much concentrated to the counting. As directed by the above it will be of such importance. Not equal in all cases. To show example to different types of men, different ideas have been set here. But we appreciate more the services of Rūpa Sanātana than that of Haridāsa Ṭhākura. But Haridāsa Ṭhākura’s example is also necessary for a particular group.

Devotee: For the conditioned souls.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And we do not think that the gopī’s in Vṛndāvana they’re always counting the Name of Kṛṣṇa. [Group laughter] One Name is sufficient to make them mad. [Group laughter] More than that!

Devotee: That’s the difference between goṣṭhyānandī and bhajanānandī.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Goṣṭhyānandī and bhajanānandī, that is in the sādhana stage. Then after entering there as type and nature of service is distributed then to go on with that. To discharge one’s own quota of duty, that is full in itself. In different departments there, different departments of service, and in particular departments also there are so many sub divisions. Now to be posted in a particular serving office, there he gets the most, he or she, meant for him. Different groups, śanta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya, mādhurya, and there are divisions of divisions, so many. And may want much water, but my thirst for one glass, that is, I do not need more, then there’ll be disease, reaction. Akarsa nanta yajaya śakti [?] The infinite boundless sky and the birds are flying according to their capacity, according to their heart’s necessity they can fly, then take rest.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Eka-bindu jagat ḍubāya [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 15.19] Mahāprabhu says to Rūpa Goswāmī, “The boundless ocean of nectar divine, and one drop I am giving to you.” Then He says, “This one drop is sufficient to inundate, over flood the whole of the universe.”

So the point of infinite is infinite. It is of such nature. An atom of infinite is also infinite. The quality is such, transcendental quality is such, the autonomy is such.

Angani bhava mad gatya pasan samatya nilaya [?]

Israel is a small country but his connection with [America...

[End of the duplicate transcript dated 81.10.08.B]

[Continuing with the transcript dated 81.10.08.D] [Almost inaudible]

... America gives him a high position. One eliminating America if he wants to see Israel then it’s very easy, but ___________ [?] So a point supported by the infinite, an atom supported by the whole of infinite, so infinite is infinite, atom is infinite, of the atom. Angani bhava mad gatya [?] Cohesion, integration, sympathy, unity, is of such characteristic, especially the noble, great land. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Bhūmiś cintāmaṇi, in Brahma-saṁhitā, the very earth where we stand there we may think that is cintāmaṇi, whatever you will wish immediately supplied, bhūmiś cintāmaṇi. He’s kalpa-vṛkṣa, that is also told. How much you can want, you can plan, you can desire, the environment is supplying automatically more than that. That will be the nature of that plane. Bhūmiś cintāmaṇi, vṛkṣa, kalpa-taru, kāmadhenu_____________ [?] Sufficient, more than enough. We can’t hanker so much that is ready to be allotted for me, can’t finish. It is Vaikuṇṭha. It is infinite. No limitation, no narrowness, we are told. Back to God, back to home. Home is such prosperous, such resourceful, but still, while we are here that is the top thing. That is the problem.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare,

Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.

________________________________________ [?] There’s one poet here, Svapna Diyagara [?]

“My native land, sweet, sweet home, that is a land of my dream and I want to get my birth there and then I may die also there. It is so sweet for me.”

So if it is imagination, concoction, still we aspire after that, such ideal, and we may be born there, and we may die there, we may live there. ____________________________________ [?]

Idea! Love for country, and even enthusiasm for so many, sacrificing for their everything, and what is that. The love of the whole, love for whole, is that a lower, to be inferior to the love of a particular country? That will be a dream of dreams, to sacrifice everything for the country, for the nation. We understand that at least to such an extent. Then, for the infinite, what sort of sacrifice we should – and that will be our waste of energy? Identify our interest with that of the whole, not of any extended part, extended selfishness, nationality, country, all extended selfishness. Identify the whole, not less than, anything and everything, not for any part however greater. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. What is the conception of that infinite? Mahāprabhu told, “That is beauty, that is charming, beauty, love ___________________________________________ [?]

End of 81.10.08.D

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.10.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nitāi Gaura Haribol. So Venkatta Prabhu were... and?

Devotee: Kaśirāma dāsa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kaśirāma.

Devotee: Vṛndāvana dāsa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Vṛndāvana.

Devotee: Mukundamālā dāsa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mukundamālā.

Devotee: Raghavindu.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Raghavindu.

Devotee: Garuttama dāsa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So come nearer. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Who will begin?

Devotee: I have a question. I’d like to know, it’s said that everything...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ke?

Devotee: __________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _____________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: __________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _____________________________________________ [?]

Gaura Haribol. So, what’s your question?

Devotee: We try to accept everything that our Śrīla Prabhupāda has told us...

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Very slow!

Devotee: And we understand that Guru, śāstra, and sādhu, but some things when the Guru speaks, sometimes he’s not speaking of spiritual topics. Sometimes he’s making a comment about politics or history, something like that. Then is it required to accept everything that the Guru says verbatim, literally?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You’ll have to represent.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _______________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Both, sādhu, śāstra, Guru, all, they deal purely in spiritual matters, and to make us understand that spirituality they sometimes give examples concerning political and social and other instances, to help us to understand. So that sort of value we must take from his social and political talks. Only to make us intelligible they come to say about politics. But politics actually is also included, sociology also included, within the religion. Independent of spiritual conception nothing may remain, in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness at least, it includes everything. And whatever is favourable to Kṛṣṇa consciousness it is true to that degree. And in higher stage it will be seen that the whole thing is true. In the middle stage it may seem that it is different. We are to differentiate the spiritual side from the material side. But in the higher stage we shall see that whatever is contributing anything to the spiritual truth that is true all in response. You can’t follow?

Devotee: I understand what you’re saying.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: During Ratha-yatra Mahāprabhu dancing before Jagannātha and He was singing an ordinary poem from a particular epic. The meaning of that poem is that there is one lady who before her marriage she met one boy and enjoyed him on the banks of some river and there was some jungle. But that lady is again married to that same man. And the lady says, “That in my, before marriage I met the person and he’s my husband now. And the night is also beautiful with full moon, and so many flowers scents also around. But my mind is always being attracted to that child play with my husband before our marriage, attracting me to the bank in the jungle of that river.” This is the meaning of the poem. And Mahāprabhu singing that when chanting that poem when dancing madly before Jagannātha. Only Svarūpa Dāmodara understood the real purpose of His chanting. Rūpa Goswāmī came there that year and he took the gist of the poem and then he composed another poem with the meaning of that poem, the abstract of that poem, the parallel, the real thought he took from the reflection and he composed a śloka. And that runs in this way:

priyaḥ so 'yaṁ kṛṣṇaḥ sahacari kuru-kṣetra-militas

[tathāhaṁ sā rādhā tad idam ubhayoḥ saṅgama-sukham

tathāpy antaḥ-khelan-madhura-muralī-pañcama-juṣe

mano me kālindī-pulina-vipināya spṛhayati]

[Upon arriving in Kurukṣetra, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī said: “O My dear friend, now I am at last reunited with My most beloved Kṛṣṇa in Kurukṣetra. I am the same Rādhārāṇī, and He is the same Kṛṣṇa. We are enjoying Our meeting, but still I wish to return to the banks of the Kālindī, where I could hear the sweet melody of His flute sounding the fifth note beneath the trees of the Vṛndāvana forest.”] [Padyāvalī, 383]

That Mahāprabhu though outwardly He’s chanting that ordinary śloka, in an epic, but His meaning is towards this, that when Rādhārāṇī has come in contact in Kurukṣetra for the time being with Kṛṣṇa, She thought, it is Her thought, priyaḥ so 'yaṁ kṛṣṇaḥ sahacari kuru-kṣetra- militas. “O My friends, in this Kurukṣetra I have met My beloved. Tathāhaṁ sā rādhā tad idam. I am that same Rādhā and He is the same Kṛṣṇa. But My mind is always snatching Me to the environment of Vṛndāvana. I can’t enjoy My beloved here. Antaḥ-khelan-madhura-muralī- pañcama-juṣe, mano me kālindī-pulina-vipināya spṛhayati. At the banks in the jungle on the banks of Yamunā My mind is always running towards that. Though Kṛṣṇa is there, I am also here, and We can see one another, but still I don’t feel – I feel very much uneasiness. My mind is always taking, running towards that.”

This was the real purpose Mahāprabhu felt and He danced madly. But outwardly He was using only as a show a poem which is found in the ordinary epic book. Do you follow? So:

vana dekhi’ bhrama haya – ei ‘vṛndāvana’, [śaila dekhi’ mane haya – ei ‘govardhana’]

[“When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu passed through the Jhārikhaṇḍa forest, He took it for granted that it was Vṛndāvana. When He passed over the hills, He took it for granted that they were Govardhana.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 17.55]

When one is completely established in his spiritual svarūpa then whatever he sees here in the external environment that only takes him forcibly to the spiritual consciousness, this only gives some sort of excitement. Any forest, Vṛndāvana comes in his memory. Any hillock, Govardhana comes, and at once that loving pasture pastimes of the Rādhā-Govinda. Only a hint is suffice to take him, the whole līlā to him.

So, we may take the help of these worldly things, but our mind should be directed with the slight help that we’ll get there from example. It should be pushed towards the spiritual realm. To make it clear they give some examples of this material world. So it is necessary, and really, this has got such value, the pure spiritualist no other value he sees in anything but in connection with Kṛṣṇa. All things are nothing to him. It is giving some excitement, some hint, and that is the real value. No other value it has got for him. It is only meant, it is only created to give some hint to the truth, and all else, misconception. The conception of the exploitationist and of the renunciationist, their estimation about the environment all false! Can’t you follow?

They’re misunderstanding. Only Kṛṣṇa consciousness, one who is established in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, his perception, his surveying about the environment is true cent per cent. And others, standing in the land of exploitation, or in the principle of renunciation, their estimation about the environment, their looking, their knowledge, everything is false, because that is misunderstanding of a particular thing which is not real. Īśāvāsyam, everything is meant to serve Kṛṣṇa. That is the full truth. Any deviation from that, misunderstanding! Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And you all? Do you understand?

Devotees: Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The fullest estimation of the whole must be, or cannot but be in the interest of Kṛṣṇa and His līlā. All others, thrust on them, they’re not meant for that. Bhāgavata [1.1.1] says: artheṣu abhijñaḥ svarāṭ. The meaning of every incident, every existence, He knows only fully well. What we estimate that is false, partial, not full estimation, full knowledge of anything, even of a dust, of a grass, a blade of grass, all misconception because calculated for our interest as individuals or group. Everything calculated in the interest of Kṛṣṇa; that is it’s true.

īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ, yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat

tena tyaktena [bhuñjīthā, mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam]

[“Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.”] [Śrī Īśopaniṣad, 1]

And we are to conceive anything and everything in accordance with that. How Kṛṣṇa, what is the, how Kṛṣṇa has tasted the thing I must follow that, pursue that. Not I am tasting as a master of anything, whether sweet or bitter, anything else. Everything, come in consonance with the real conception. That Hegel said, “For Itself, the Reality is for Itself.” Kṛṣṇa is for Himself. Everything is for Him, to fulfil His purpose, and that of none else. But to have such conception, and also, prasādam means in accordance with that conception the local conception they are true. Subtle points, but it is not unreasonable, quite reasonable. The partial conception must be in consonance with the universal conception. I can’t go against that. I can’t clash, have any clash. So the conception of the devotee: suppose Kṛṣṇa has taken some prasādam and we must not have any independent taste of that prasādam. We shall think how Kṛṣṇa has tasted it, accordingly, with that memory, that remembrance, we shall take the taste of a curry or anything else. Do you follow?

Devotees: Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So every, all our attempts should be regulated, should be contained in this way, tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā, whatever I shall do, just having consent, and consonance, and submission. In this way our position should always be in every respect our attitude will be such, not independently, not to neglect. Independent exploitation or whimsical renunciation, both artificial and bad, injurious for our selfish end: good, individual goodness.

Tyajya sishtasana santo musyanti ________________ [?] Only by having a look, a mind of estimation, estimating in such a way about the environment, that Autocrat Absolute, His position, and we are His slave. With the eye of a slave we must look at anything and everything. That should be the proper estimation of the environment. “I am independent. I can enjoy. I can dismiss.” These are all artificial forms of life, disconnected with the absolute will and administration. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Yes, any more?

Devotee: If somebody accepts that everything is for Kṛṣṇa but they have this, many people have different conceptions of Kṛṣṇa, even if they accept Bhagavān realisation as the topmost, still they have different realisations of Kṛṣṇa. And, how does one get the proper realisation of Kṛṣṇa? Just like when people read our Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books they come up with so many different things. It’s hard to know which devotees are on track and which are not.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who is he? I forgot his name.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Raghavindu.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Raghavindu. What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Leaving aside the question of the devotee, then outside that, how you’ll explain them, about the different considerations and realisations of different persons? How are you to explain, setting aside the question of the devotee?

Devotee: Setting aside the question of the devotee?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Independent variety, variegatedness.

Devotee: _________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Right! They say to do different things ________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ke bolchen?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Amongst atheists also there is classification. Classification and high and low that is everywhere we are to see. And that is eternal. Eternal difference there will be, one thing. And the – how the Kṛṣṇa consciousness originates? What do you think about that? God consciousness, theism, how it comes to a jīva soul, how does it come?

Devotee: Descending process.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The general feeling, general consideration of theism, how does it come to a man? What do you think about that?

Devotee: It comes from up to down.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I’ve explained here many a time that sukṛti, ajñāta-sukṛti, jñāta-sukṛti, then śraddhā, then sādhu-saṅga, then bhajana-kriya. In this way it develops. The first stage of development coming in contact with devotion proper, by this nirguṇa we are wandering in saguṇa, in the land of misconception we are wandering. And proper conception may come to me through a proper agent, by chance coincidence, when any agent of the nirguṇa world. But Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the cent per cent proper consciousness, true consciousness. And we are labouring under misconception. And when any agent from that plane comes to contact with me and I’m utilised by him, thereby I gather a sort of, a drop of that land of that nirguṇa, that is transcendental. And that is accumulated and then produces śraddhā in me. Then with consciousness comes over the surface and finds, captures him, ‘that I have got some particular regard for the Supreme, Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa, thereby.’

When a patient has no knowledge he cannot cooperate with the doctor. But doctor should try him independent of his cooperation. Then when his knowledge comes back, then the patient can cooperate with the doctor. But when he has lost his consciousness, everything depends on the doctor.

So when we are completely devoid of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, at that time the Vaiṣṇavas there, the agents of the transcendental realm they’re moving hither thither_____________ [?] And by their connection we get some injection, unknowingly. And that supplies the subconscious help. And when that is sufficiently accumulated it takes us to the surface and we search after sādhu. And generally, according to the nature of the injected medicine I will have to love the servitors of particular school. And this is general.

And also it is seen that, suppose when I was, I had no knowledge and a doctor came and gave some wrong injection, not proper injection, then I may develop a sort of knowledge but that is flickering, not durable. Then again a good doctor may come and give some other injection. There I may come in the normal health and cooperate. It is also possible.

So from the beginning one may, a soul may have sukṛti towards Kṛṣṇa and otherwise when moving hither thither in the wrong way then also by the company of the sādhu he may change his direction for other direction towards Kṛṣṇa, on the way.

Bilvamaṅgala we find he first went to a Māyāvādī sādhu ______________ [?] took initiation there, but by the special grace of Kṛṣṇa he was converted into Kṛṣṇa consciousness fully. Śukadeva also had some tendency towards nirviśeṣa Brahman, but by the grace of Vedavyāsa he was taken in towards Kṛṣṇa līlā.

And there may be many such type, and there may be so many karmīs, they also may be turned by the help of some sādhu on the way. And from the beginning some may have their particular kind of sukṛti that came from the Kṛṣṇa bhakta. They will straightly go to Kṛṣṇa eliminating other ideas which are non Kṛṣṇa. In many ways it may happen, it may be effected. But sukṛti, ādau śraddhā, śraddhā just on the surface, that we search after a thing by getting which I can get everything, by knowing which I may know everything. If I’ve got such a faith in me then I’ve got śraddhā, I get śraddhā. And then I shall search for such company, favourable company where if I get a particular one thing the whole thing is known, if I know one whole thing known, get one whole got. Such faith occurs within us we find, then it is śraddhā, and with the help of that śraddhā we go to particular camp and there gradually we get help to go on, advance, ādau śraddhā. And before that:

[bhaktis tu bhagavad-bhaktasaṅgena parijāyate]

sat-saṅgaḥ prāpyate puṁbhiḥ sukṛtaiḥ pūrvva-sañcitaiḥ

[“Actually we can recognise a sādhu by sukṛti. Apparently we can know him from the śāstras, the scriptures, because the śāstra helps us to know who is a sādhu, and the sādhu gives us the interpretation of the śāstra. So sādhu and śāstra are interdependent, but the sādhu holds the more important position and the śāstra has the secondary position. The living śāstra is the sādhu, but to know who is Guru, who is sādhu, we are to consult the descriptions given about them in the scriptures. The symptoms of the sādhu, both of the Guru as well as the disciple, have been written in the Bhāgavatam, in the Gītā and in the Upaniṣads.”] [Bṛhan-Nāradīya Purāṇa]

Previous sukṛti, that unconscious help from the agents of Kṛṣṇa that are moving all around to help jīva soul, this is the arrangement of Kṛṣṇa. “Move, go there and try to help those that are wandering in the wilderness, in darkness.” So independent of us we get some help by the grace of the Vaiṣṇava and then we gather some subconscious capacity and we come in a stage to judge what is wrong and right. Then consciously we keep company with the sādhu and then we develop our bhajan and gradually we attain the ______________ [?] that is the real course.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi.

Devotee: I have one question. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is said that the Vedas describe three things, abhidheya, sambandha and prayojana. And it says also that there are three Deities presiding over these different aspects of knowledge, Govindaji, Madana-mohana and Gopīnāthaji. I was hoping that you could explain this.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Where do you come from?

Devotee: Where do I come from?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Devotee: Los Angeles.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Los Angeles. Why I can understand your voice clearly? But generally I can’t, I fail to understand the intonation of so many. Have you received dīkṣā?

Devotee: Yes. I took first initiation from Swāmī Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then?

Devotee: Then I took second initiation from Rāmeśvara Swāmī.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Rāmeśvara Swāmī. Oh! You are Mukundamālā dāsa?

Devotee: Yes. I’m Mukundamālā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mahāprabhu took initiation from Īśvara Purī and in his, that mantram that dīkṣā mantram, only the last portion was there, that Gopīnātha, gopī-jana-vallabha, last portion.

But Mahāprabhu advised Sanātana Goswāmī, when He advised to prepare a book, Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, for all these affairs, He told that aṣṭa-dvādaśakam mantra, this is twelve lettered. And Mahāprabhu Himself asked Sanātana Goswāmī to describe the greatness more magnanimous and clear type of mantra, aṣṭa-dvādaśakam, composed of eighteen letters. And Sanātana Goswāmī has given, recommended that to us.

And our Guru Mahārāja he’s following that, though in the lineage of some of the Yati Goswāmī, still it is found that they’re following that Mahāprabhu mantra, that twelve lettered.

Here Sanātana Goswāmī has given us the detailed necessity, analysed and given us the detailed necessity. Sambandha, that is Kṛṣṇa and Madana-mohana synonymous, only attraction, mainly attraction. And then in the next stage to fulfil the purpose of all his sensibility, to capture, hold it, cooperate, that is the second. First to attract and then to cooperate with all sorts of faculties within the jīva by Kṛṣṇa, and the third stage, not only that temporarily but to keep him under His care for eternity. It has been differentiated in three parts.

The sambandha, first to come in the recognition, recognised as a relationship with Kṛṣṇa, that is the first stage, sambandha-jñāna, that Madana-mohana or Kṛṣṇa. In that stage we are to look at Him like that. And the second, Govinda, go means indriya, and vinda, all the senses, all the knowing faculties of us, they search after their fulfilment. And that fulfilment of all the knowing faculties is supplied by whom? Wholesale, nothing left. And the Govinda, go, indriya, indriya means senses require something for their satisfaction in the spiritual aspect of our life, and that is done by Govinda. Ke?

Devotee: Śaṅkara.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Śaṅkara ________________________ [?]

Devotee: _____________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That aspect of the Lord is Govinda _____________ [?] Who takes possession of our enjoying and satisfying, that aspect of the Lord. And also go means Veda. We find from the Veda the positive answer of our internal search. We want to be satisfied. We are dissatisfied, want to be satisfied wholesale, and Veda says, “Yes. That sort of arrangement there is.” From Veda and from indriya, go vinda.

And the third is gopī-jana-vallabha, we are converted into the ego of gopī and attracted by Kṛṣṇa. In its highest stage we may feel that we are similar temperament with the gopī and then we are permanently taken, accepted in that relationship forever, gopī-jana-vallabha, as eternal friend of the gopīs. In that way we can feel Him, eternal shelter under His holy feet.

So three aspects expresses three types of developed stage of bhajan! Do you understand?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sambandha, abhidheya, prayojana. Sambandha means general who is who, come in conclusion of the settlement of that affair. Then abhidheya, the transaction between the two parties, fulfiller and fulfilled, of the internal search. And third, to have a permanent abode under His care. It is divided into three parts, sambandha, abhidheya, prayojana. What is prayojana? The highest necessity to secure a quarter under His guardianship forever: that is our prayojana. And bhakti, sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana; that love, to get secure that sort of love of Kṛṣṇa that we may have a permanent shelter under His care there forever.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, could you relate one story about Viśvanātha Cakravartī. He was not able to understand the Gāyatrī mantra, one half aksha [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kāma Gāyatrī, yes. What is that?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: I think he had performed some tapasya at Govinda-kuṇḍa...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Rādhā-kuṇḍa. What is the point you want to mention?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: If you could relate the story clearly, the incident.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Do you remember that?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: No, I do not remember that. No one’s ever...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But remember the story?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: I’ve read it but never heard it spoken.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I also can’t recollect it at present. It will take time to recollect. I have also read, gone through that Kāma Gāyatrī ___________ [?] Kāma Gāyatrī.

So, that may be an external grammarian problem. It is mentioned that the number of the words will be such, fixed, but if you say I find that it crosses the limit of the number. How it can be? Kavirāja Goswāmī has given, mentioned about the number of letters in the mantram. But when ordinarily we are reading that mantra we find that one is, one letter super... it’s more in that. Then he, that it cannot be that Kavirāja Goswāmī has given false representation, but we find actually the letters number is more than that, what he has written. Then he was, in a dream, he got inspiration that according to the particular grammar, Sanskrit grammar, the law after such a letter that is silent. Something like that.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: One half more.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That should be silent, considered not to be pronounced, something like that, a question of grammar. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gadādhara.

Devotee: You mentioned before about the twelve letter mantra, that Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Caitanya mantra, and then you said that there was an eighteen letter mantra that Sanātana Goswāmī gave. I’m not exactly clear on which mantra that was, they were.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Eighteen lettered, aṣṭa-dvādaśaka mantra recommended by Sanātana Goswāmī, inspired by Mahāprabhu. But Mahāprabhu Himself got only twelve lettered mantram from Īśvara Purīpāda, only latter portion, eliminating the first two, the conclusion. But it presupposes the first two parts; that is presupposed. But Mahāprabhu advised Sanātana Goswāmī to clearly mention about the first two parts also of general devotees, and Sanātana Goswāmī did so. And we follow that path. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: So that mantra...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is mentioned in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa.

End of 81.10.10.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.10.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Devotee: ...God brothers or God sisters by hearing spiritual instructions from someone other than their spiritual master, dīkṣā spiritual master, and what should be the attitude of the dīkṣā giving spiritual master when he sees his disciples are advancing by hearing instructions from a śikṣā Guru?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What is his name?

Devotee: Guruttama dāsa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Guruttama. That will be of two kinds, taṭa-stha, absolute, or apekhi, or relative. Absolute will have the better hand everywhere, that absolute consideration. But there is a relative position also and formally and generally we come in contact with that. The general consideration is the brother and son, brother nephew, as we find in the external world, so such respect should be given, such differences should be maintained. That the brother of my Gurudeva, so he should be given some respect, the brother of Gurudeva, Guru’s God brother of one’s own Guru, he should be given such respect. And he also in his turn should show some affection to help him in a general way so that he may un prejudicially whether he may have exclusive devotion towards his Guru: won’t try to take him away, to attract more attention towards him than his Guru. These things should not be done by the God brother of the Guru. Fair dealings generally should be maintained, the difference, respect. But the special consideration, the absolute consideration: wherever there the intense pure devotee is to be traced, he’s Guru. That is the absolute consideration. That is of course dangerous. Even a śiṣya may hold a greater position than Guru; it may also be seen like that. He has come to accept for formal purpose.

īśvara-purīke dhanya, korilen śrī-caitanya, jagad-guru gaura mahāprabhu

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the spiritual preceptor of all the worlds, made Īśvara Purī greatly fortunate by accepting him as His spiritual master] [From Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākura’s Śrī Guru-paramparā, 5] [Songs of the Vaiṣṇava Ācāryas, p 90]

Mahāprabhu took initiation from Īśvara Purī. But who is Mahāprabhu and who is Īśvara Purī? The Lord Himself, Kṛṣṇa accepted Guru as Sandīpanī. Mahāprabhu accepted sannyāsa Guru as Keśava Bhāratī. Formal things we are shown. Then we should give some respect to Īśvara Purī but not more than Mahāprabhu. We may show some respect to Keśava Bhāratī but not more than Mahāprabhu: to Sandīpanī but not more than Kṛṣṇa.

The absolute consideration and the formal, both there, and so absolute consideration even... We find that after the departure of Mahāprabhu the Purī Rādhā-Kānta Matha where Mahāprabhu resided for long time, twenty four years, that was given to Vakreśvara Paṇḍita, and his disciple was Dhyānacandra, disciple of Vakreśvara Paṇḍita. After Vakreśvara, Dhyānacandra, he was the Ācārya of that place. He had one disciple whose name was Gopāla. But Dhyānacandra used to take Hare Kṛṣṇa always, incessantly, only when he entered the latrine he stopped.

Then one day Gopāla, his disciple, asked his Gurudeva, “What is this? You take, repeat mantram always, but when you enter the latrine you stop it. Then do you think that it will be impure while you are in the bathroom, in the latrine? What is that?”

Then excited, and the meaning in Dhyānacandra, “Oh! What you have told it is all right, that my saṁskāra, that my understanding was not proper.” _______________________________ [?]

“No regulation to take any Name. Always we can take. Suchi asuchi no vicara, purity, impurity. So you are my Guru from today. I receive instructions from you.”

So Gopālaguru, the name Gopāla was transformed into that of Gopālaguru.

So the Guru takes some hint from the disciples, so many instances may be there.

So that is the, but we must have such eye, then we can, a formal respect must be given until and unless he’s expressly against Vaiṣṇava, commits Vaiṣṇava aparādha, otherwise formal respect. But real heart’s regard should be given according, though it is very difficult but if one can find according to the intensity of the pure devotion in the heart of that person, whoever he may be, whoever he may be. But generally we shall follow some protocol, spiritual protocol.

Mahāprabhu, when He had that famous talk with Rāmānanda, then he said: “Who are You and what am I? I am a man, a governor, viṣayī, dealing with politics, and śūdra in the caste, and You are brāhmaṇa-sannyāsī. And You are enquiring and I am answering. This is a fun. So many great things are being dealt and You have given me the post of answering there as an Ācārya, and You are playing the part of a disciple. What a fun it is.”

In that connection Mahāprabhu told:

kibā vipra, kibā nyāsī, śūdra kene naya, yei kṛṣṇa-tattva vettā sei guru haya.

[“Whether a person is a brāhmaṇa, a sannyāsī, or a śūdra, if he knows the science of Kṛṣṇa, he is to be accepted as Guru.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.127]

What is the wrong here? Who has got proper knowledge, who possesses that knowledge, the love of Kṛṣṇa, he’s Guru. Ostentatiously he may hold any position. He may be a gṛhastha, may be a śūdra, or may be a brāhmaṇa or sannyāsī, whatever position he may hold, but he has got that fire, that wealth in him, in his heart, he’s Guru. He can deliver the real goods. He’s Guru. Guru should be located there where Kṛṣṇa consciousness is in intense form to be seen. There we shall try to see the throne of Guru. Kibā vipra, kibā nyāsī, śūdra kene naya, yei kṛṣṇa-tattva vettā sei guru haya. The quality and quantity of Kṛṣṇa consciousness wherever found, there is my Guru, the absolute consideration, taṭasthā-vicāra.

In the case of different rasa also, permanent, śanta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya, mādhurya, there also everyone in a particular class thinks that his is the highest. But still there is a possibility of decision that mādhurya rasa is the highest, next vātsalya, next friends, sakhā, sākhya rasa, then dāsya rasa, then śanta rasa. The gradation is there, but everyone in his position he’s fully satisfied: “I have got the highest attainment, fully satisfied.”

[kintu yāṅra] yei rasa, sei sarvottama, taṭa-stha hañā vicārile, āche tara-tama

[“It is true that whatever relationship a particular devotee has with the Lord is the best for him; still, when we study all the different methods from a neutral position, we can understand that there are higher and lower degrees of love.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya līlā, 8.83]

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Our Guru paramparā is that of śikṣā Guru paramparā, realistic position, eliminating the formal one. Wherever, according to the degree of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the intensity of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the line coming in zig zag way. Narottama Ṭhākura is there. His Guru Lokanātha Goswāmī is not there. He’s connected with Kṛṣṇa dāsa, the kīrtana Guru paramparā, śikṣā Guru paramparā. Our Guru Mahārāja accepted that. The hearing necessary not with a beautiful ear, or beautiful eye, but sight is necessary, all important is the sight not the eye. Something like that. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: One thing that many of the western devotees seem confused about is that they think that if one receives the Hari-Nāma mantra from a lesser Guru that that mantra has less effect or potency. They sometimes say, “How can you receive love of God from someone who does not possess love of God?”

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, but what is love of God we must have the eye to see that. We must not, may not commit error there. Some may think where there is weeping, shivering, there is devotion. Some may say where there is scholarship and can explain every question, answer rightly, properly satisfying us, there is proper Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Some may say, O, in eating, moving, and our spiritual etiquette, very strictly observing, there is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So it should be detected rightly. Everywhere it may be. Some may be negligent of the outer forms, more attention may be given to the scriptures, more attention to the practices – may also differ in this way. But the internal fire to be detected very carefully and _________ [?] We must be sure.

yataḥ pravṛttir bhūtānāṁ, yena sarvvam idaṁ tatam

svakarmmaṇā tam abhyarccya, siddhiṁ vindati mānavaḥ

[“A man achieves perfection by the performance of the appropriate duties prescribed for him according to his qualification. By the execution of his duties, he worships the Supreme Lord from whom the generation and impetus of all beings arises, and who permeates and pervades this entire universe (exercising His Supreme qualification of Lordship over one and all.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.46]

“Don’t leave you position. Retain your position, present position and go on fighting with the environment.” Then says, “Leave your position, jump, come to Me. There may be some danger, I am there, protector, I am there, so take risk.”

So both kinds _________ [?] sacrifice, constitutional method and revolutionary method. The absolute consideration, that teaches us to depend on revolutionary method. Time is short, human birth is uncertain. Association with the sādhu I have got, come near. I must take the risk. That may be consideration to some. And some may say no, to take risk, I’m doing well with the present peacefully, slowly but surely I’m moving towards higher direction. I should not venture to risk much more. Who knows that I may be misguided if I leave my present safe position, consolidated position? That also may be, it will come to a particular clan to be applied in particular cases according to internal resources acquired in his previous life. That will guide us. At the same time:

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate]

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt [kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati]

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe, nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill-fated.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

If we are sincere then of course we’ll be victorious. No risk no gain, that is also there. And don’t be hurried and over ambitious. Ke?

Devotee: ___________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ______________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: What does it mean to be over ambitious?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: When one is captured by pratiṣṭhā, over ambition. Fame, name, that sort of, generally that is over ambitious. Something else: not the call of the real development in the divine Lord, not sometimes. Position: that may seduce us to be over ambitious. We must be cautious about that, very, very cautious. That is the greatest enemy, it is told, it can snatch, take away the position of _______ [?] most heinous thing.

When one will discharge duty of an Ācārya he will do it the spirit of serving his Gurudeva. “I’m fulfilling his orders. I’m serving.” He will be in the service, he’ll not be, he’ll tolerate the worship of the śiṣya but he won’t keep it, the money, he’ll at once transmit to his Guru. “It is his due. It is not due to me.” Such transparent Guru, and that is the nature of the Vaikuṇṭha substance, that is all transparent. __________ [?] humility there, receiving much but not tampered.

Just as the collector of the money of the king, the king’s collector, he collects money from the subjects but he does not keep with him, for sometime he may keep but it is meant for that transmission.

The honour is due to Gurudeva, Baladeva, Nityānanda Prabhu, main Guru, Rādhārāṇī, it is His due, Her due, not mine, I am servant working on His behalf. Not only conscious of the lower side but he will be more conscious of the higher side, fully awake to the interest of the service of his Gurudeva. That will be the healthy thing. Then no pratiṣṭhā can enter there.

tomāra kinkara apana jani guru nahi mani tahi [?]

tomara ucchistha bhada jada renu sada uskar bati badi [?]

The Gurudeva’s attitude, his ideal, his attitude towards his own Guru will be the example to teach the conduct to the śiṣya, “That I’m dealing in this way to my Gurudeva and you will also learn to do that.” And he will omit the higher portion and only receive the worship of the lower. That will be bad, pratiṣṭhā. That is pratiṣṭhā.

Once, the Vyāsa pūjā of our Guru Mahārāja took place in Kattack Maṭha. There Mr Sanyal, one senior professor, he had many educated friends. And many educated persons of high rank got invited in that assembly and they all came, including perhaps the father of Subash Bosh, Janaka Bhosh, he was a leading pleader of the place, that Kattack.

Then the worship of the holy feet of Guru Mahārāja began, and after it’s finished our Guru Mahārāja gave a speech and he mentioned: “There are so many gentlemen here, and just on their face, I’m taking the venerable worship of a particular section, they’re worshipping my feet. Even an animal of the forest feels ashamed to do such things. So many gentlemen and in their midst, that particular section is worshipping my feet. I’m not ashamed. A paśu, even a beast also may feel ashamed in such behaviour, conduct. But am I holding a lower position than a beast of the jungle? No. Why should I then be receiving all this honour and digesting it, silently. I am to state, I believe firmly that the holy feet of my Gurudeva should be worshipped in this way. That is my justification, that the whole honour must be given to the holy feet of my Gurudeva. He deserves, he’s in such position in the relativity of this world that he deserves. And if people come to worship his feet they will be benefited to the extreme. I’m only receiving them to show that my Gurudeva holds really such position to worship in the whole world public. I have got that faith that he’s so great, so big, so noble, by worshipping his feet all this honour should go to his feet. I’m only an agent working on his behalf. It may be taken in this way.” So he told that, “A beast of the jungle that also may feel shame by what is being done in this assembly. I’m taking their worship and they’re worshipping, what is this? Have I no sense? I’m crossing the bounds of general courtesy, social courtesy, I’m taking, as so many are seeing that, and they’re men of position in the society?”

The internal adjustment and the Gurudeva with the higher sphere, that is worth accepting. Externally the honour must have higher attention, higher attention drawing by the honour. By contributing their pratiṣṭhā, their individual prestige, honouring, worshipping, and contributing their individual prestige or pratiṣṭhā to the pratiṣṭhā of Gurudeva. And he’s all good, sending it to his Gurudeva through the line, that Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And that may thrive by feeding more all this small pratiṣṭhā. Pratiṣṭhā of Guru who distributes Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he should be gloriously propagated in the whole of the world for his benefit. That he told. Nitāi. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, how should the Guru treat his disciples in the presence of his own God brothers? How should his disciples be instructed to act towards his own...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He’ll ask the disciple to give general respect to his God brothers. But if one is, if Guru is in a right path and if any of the God brothers preach against him then he will try to avoid him. Be indifferent first and then to actively for the good of the disciples he will dissociate with him. Not only for his own prestige or fame, but for the interest of the disciples, for the interest of the real cause, if any disturbing element, jealous of the position of Guru’s position he cannot tolerate. He thinks of his physical prestige. Always we must – it depends on the intrinsic inner reality. All sorts of external behaviours depend on the inner reality, inner purpose, purity of purpose, and understanding the real thing. Ke?

Devotee: _________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Mahārāja, it is very difficult to distinguish between when the Guru is defending his, the spiritual position of his disciples and when he’s...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So it will be judicious to wait and see, not to take any hurried step. Difficult of course. We must be sure as to the best of our understanding, then we are to take such step. Must be sure: to the best of our sincere understanding. Very subtle and very fine plane of understanding to decide. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So in the beginning whenever any gentlemen came to me saying against the present administration of ISKCON I advised them wait and see. Wait and see. Now when it is more conspicuous then I have advised them to start with a relief work, but not to come in clash with the present administration, to avoid it as much as possible. But at the same time to start a relief work for those that are going away from under the banner of Mahāprabhu and Swāmī Mahārāja. They should be helped. But in the line of relief work, not coming, as far as possible, avoiding any clash with the present administration thereby. That is my general advice. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Must be constructive, if any programme independent we have that must be constructive always. It’s not desirable to be destructive in any way. We must try to avoid the destructive line, and only in the constructive line if we can do some good to those that are being disappointed, we may go on with that sort of practice.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Devotee: In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam Pūru Mahārāja had four sons, Pūru Mahārāja he had four sons, and it is compared to the four types of disciples that the spiritual master has. Could you explain these four different types of disciples?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It may be, but I have not come in direct contact with that passage. What sort of example is written there I don’t know.

Devotee: The first disciple, it’s said of the four types of disciple, the first...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Druhyu, Anu, Pūru, Śarmiṣṭhā, Turvasu. Five sons, two by his first wife Devayānī – who, Pūru Mahārāja?

Devotee: Pūru.

Devotee: No, it was Yayāti Prabhu, Mahārāja Yayāti and Devayānī.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yayāti, Yayāti had...

Devotee: Mahārāja Yayāti, he was cursed and became old, so he wanted his sons to take his old age, so he went to...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So all rejected, Pūru came forward...

Devotee: Jai.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...to take his infirmity...

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...his old age. And he, after some time he installed Pūru in the throne and went away for penances in the forest, that is. Then you say that Pūru had four sons?

Devotee: No. There is one śloka that describes the different kinds of sons because of the four sons only Pūru would take...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The last son was, youngest was Pūru ...

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...and he came forward to obey his father’s order.

Devotee: But the others disobeyed.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But amongst them Yadu is also there, in whose line Kṛṣṇa Himself came, the Yadu. Yadu was his eldest son.

yaduṁ ca turvasuṁ caiva, devayānī vyajāyata
druhyuṁ cānuṁ ca pūruṁ ca, śarmiṣṭhā vārṣaparvaṇī

[“Devayānī gave birth to Yadu and Turvasu, and Śarmiṣṭhā gave birth to Druhyu, Anu and Pūru.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 9.18.33]

By second wife three sons, and by first wife two sons, the eldest was Yadu in whose line Kṛṣṇa has come. And the Pūru, last son, youngest, in whose line Dusanta come, Bharata has come, son Bharata, Dusanta son, Kaurava, Yadava and Kaurava. But what is mentioned...

Devotee: But Pūru he was lamenting that he had not acted sooner, because he said, “A good son he will do the will of the father even before the father asks.” So like that his question is he wanted some understanding.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. That is in the general, moral, and social way, of this life, not spiritual. Spiritual Prahlāda left his father, did not obey.

gurur na sa syāt sva jano [na sa syāt, pitā na sa syāj jananī na sā syāt

daivaṁ na tat syān na patiś ca sa syān, na mocayed yaḥ samupeta mṛtyum]

[Ṛṣabhadeva says: “Even a spiritual master, relative, parent, husband, or demigod who cannot save us from repeated birth and death should be abandoned at once.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 5.5.18]

The extreme advice is there for a student of spirituality. But that is a general, social fashion, social custom, that son must obey his father. Rāmacandra did without caring what, whether it was just or unjust. He thought, “I am, when My father wanted to give Me his throne I was prepared to accept. But now instead of that he’s incurred some loan, some obligation to My mother, and My father must satisfy that, he must keep his own promise, and I’m concerned there, I must carry out the order of My father.” And He went to the forest. Instead of taking forcible possession of the throne He went to the forest. “And I must obey the will of My father. When it will give Me the throne I shall welcome that order, and when it requires that some loan should be cleared I won’t take that; that cannot be.” His obligation also was not satisfied, as his son, successor. Successor’s duty when it will inherit the curse and move the loan, both curse and the loan He must inherit. So Rāmacandra thought rightly, “That I must go to satisfy the obligation of My father to My stepmother,” and went straight to the forest.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: I had one question.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: “Much may be said on both sides.” There is one saying of Sir Rodger in Adison, an Englishman. So when we consider the rare quality of our gain then we must be very urgent in our decisions in life. At the same time when, I’m not, I’m fallible, I may commit mistake, thereby I shall have to wait and see. At the same time we must be conscious, what chances there are really in my life, so we must not sleep over our interest. So both sides should be considered, and according to the sincere internal decision one will do the choice of his heart. Gaura Haribol.

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate]

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ [tāta gacchati]

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe, nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill-fated.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

He may not have some ulterior purpose, whatever step we take, may not have consciously any ulterior purpose. But for our inner most sincere satisfaction we shall accept that, may be fallible for the present, but ultimately I shall be satisfied if I’m sincere. Na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati.

Devotee: Where is that śloka from that you just quoted?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bhagavad-gītā. “If you are good the environment cannot deceive you. I am there.” Lord says.

Devotee: I had one question. In the Brahma-saṁhitā there is one śloka:

goloka-nāmni nija-dhāmni tale ca tasya, devī maheśa-hari-dhāmasu teṣu teṣu

[First there is Devī-dhāma, then Maheśa-dhāma, and above Maheśa-dhāma is Hari-dhāma; and above all is His own home, Goloka.] [Brahma-saṁhitā, 43]

So I was wondering if maybe you could explain the position of Maheśa-dhāma.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Devī-dhāma, the dense portion of ignorance, of misconception, that is Devī-dhāma. And the vague misconception, that is Maheśa-dhāma, not fully liberated from misconception, but not so much dense ignorance is there, that Brahman-dhāma. A little portion of this mundane, the misconception, and then nirviśeṣa, no misconception, then vague conception of the Vaikuṇṭha, that is on the whole marginal position, that is Śiva-dhāma. And the highest portion of Śiva-dhāma is Sadāśiva. He’s a devotee of Nārāyaṇa, Rāma. Maheśa-dhāma, and then Nārāyaṇa, Vaikuṇṭha-dhāma. Just below Vaikuṇṭha-dhāma Maheśa-dhāma. Maheśa-dhāma twofold. On the Vaikuṇṭha side there is devotee, devotee Maheśavara; and in the lower, this misunderstanding, the māyāic side the Rudra, he’s the, he challenges the authority of Nārāyaṇa sometimes.

Devotee: So that is taṭasthā position? So Maheśa-dhāma the lower part, that is taṭasthā?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Taṭasthā. Yes. The sum total of the misguided souls is represented by Maheśavara. Dvitīyābhiniveśa [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.37], the starting from Maheśavara of dvitīyābhiniveśa, separate interest, conception of separate interest begins from Maheśavara. The sum total of those that possess separate interest, Śiva is the emblem of that, Maheśavara. And that in its higher realisation he tries his best to serve, show serving attitude to Nārāyaṇa, Maheśavara. Between the two, the marginal position, Mahādeva, nearer the Vaikuṇṭha touch of devotion, or influence of devotion, and far from Vaikuṇṭha this side the master of this world of misunderstanding. Dvitīyābhiniveśa, sometimes goes to fight with Nārāyaṇa in favour of his disciples who are demons. Opposing Nārāyaṇa, fighting in favour of his own disciples sometimes, and then he comes and repents: “Why have You created me like that, that I can’t retain my own position as Your servant, and some challenging spirit comes within me and I go against You? You have given me some peculiar position my Lord. It is very untenable...

End of 81.10.10.B

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Start of 81.10.12.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... “attending the cows.”

Devotee: Looking after that.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: “Looking after that.”

Devotee: Kata bane chuṭāchuṭi bane khāi luṭāpuṭi, sei din kabe habe mor.

[“Running and frolicking in the many forests of Vraja, I will roll on the ground in spiritual ecstasy. Oh, when will that day be mine?”] [From Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Prabhupāda’s Prayer to the Lotus Feet of Kṛṣṇa, 8, written on board the ship Jaladuta] [From Songs of the Vaiṣṇava Ācāryas, p 27-28]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kata bane, that he’s remembering and just giving description of that līlā in sākhya rasa running hither thither in the jungle and chuṭāchuṭi bane khāi luṭāpuṭi...

Devotee: Bane khāi luṭāpuṭi.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And sometimes kissing the ground and rolling hither thither, in this way all these things meant.

Devotee: Sei din kabe habe mor.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: “And I aspire after that day when I shall again be along with You all.” Then?

Devotee: Āji se subidhāne tomāra smaraṇa bhelo, boro āśā ḍākilām tāi.

[“Today that remembrance of You came to me in a very nice way. Because I have a great longing I called You.”] [From Songs of the Vaiṣṇava Ācāryas, p 27-28]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Āji se subidhāne, “Now today in this favourable line the course of līlā has come in such a position that I’ve got this opportunity to call for You so fervently. This arrangement, by the arrangement of the provident I have come to such a position. And I again fervently appeal to You for the success of my – this mission. But I have got the direction from my Guru Mahārāja – hopefully, I hope that he must fulfil my desire.”

Devotee: Āmi tomāra nitya-dāsa tāi kori eta āśā, tumi binā anya gati nāi.

[“I am Your eternal servant and therefore I desire Your association so much. O Lord Kṛṣṇa, except for You there is no other means of success.”] [From Songs of the Vaiṣṇava Ācāryas, p 27-28]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: “I have demand on You because I am eternally a slave to You, so I have got the demand and with that demand _____I put this petition to You my Lord.”

Devotee: ___________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: “And I have no other alternative than to secure Your help to discharge the order of my Gurudeva which is at present imminent, urgent on me to satisfy.”

[From Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Prabhupāda’s Prayer to the Lotus Feet of Kṛṣṇa, written on board the ship Jaladuta, in 1965] [From Songs of the Vaiṣṇava Ācāryas, p 26-28]

So here I detected that after finishing his duties he aspires after the eternal life, and he expresses his highest choice to mix Kṛṣṇa with sākhya rasa. Highly he’s appreciating that sort of rasa in Vṛndāvana with Kṛṣṇa and playing with Him in such a free and enjoying sort of way.

Devotee: _____________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________________ [?] So it may be this. I cannot think that but his inner-most aspiration what he has expressed in such a beautiful way that that sort of pastimes in the sākhya rasa and he’s partaking in sākhya rasa in Vṛndāvana in such a peculiar way, sweet way, again I shall get that. It gives some hint that he likes this most. That I wrote, have given, I told that his aspiration is for sākhya rasa, maybe. And again that he has mentioned his Gurudeva as Rādhārāṇī and by his will he has come, it may be that he has suppressed for some purpose his mādhurya rasa participation. For some purpose, that it is very, very rare and very valuable. It should not be disclosed to the ordinary public newcomers. So he took the pose of giving this sākhya līlā general to the disciples. It also may be. But anyhow, for the temporary we may think that he may be there and we can go ahead with that idea, keeping the mādhurya rasa passing on the highest above our head, we can go. And also, I do not want to discourage those that have got internal affinity towards mādhurya rasa that their Gurudeva was – cannot satisfy their mādhurya rasa thirst. It cannot be said like that. Whenever there is hunger for that mādhurya rasa particularly been awake they will, Kṛṣṇa is there and He will manage, give solution for that. And so it has been said that:

sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair, [uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ

kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya, vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam]

[“In the revealed scriptures it is declared that the spiritual master should be worshipped like the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and this injunction is obeyed by pure devotees of the Lord. The spiritual master is the most confidential servant of the Lord. Thus let us offer our respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of our spiritual master.”] [Śrī Śrī Gurv-aṣṭaka, 7]

“It is Me who is your Guru, who is your Guru is this common thread, don’t miss, don’t forget that I am there, in whatever form, in delegated form, in different rasa, but don’t forget that sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair, in different rasa. First, My internal direction as the finest thread within, My direction, My grace is being distributed to different types of agents. My hand is there. And it is safe to think Guru of any stages as My presence is there.”

You must be alert and awake to this fact that the highest divine hand is to be traced here formally. His ordination – and direction – is to be traced there. He is there, and with any modification. The dāsya rasa Guru is there also, the Guru is He. And sākhya rasa, mādhurya rasa, all rasa, He’s there, but with different modified position with, association with different potency, but He is within. So this has been, in different lives also the direction:

ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān, nāvamanyeta [karhicit

na martya-buddhyāsūyeta, sarva-deva-mayo guruḥ]

[“One should know the Ācārya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.17.27]

Don’t deviate from this thought, nāvamanyeta karhicit, na martya-buddhyāsūyeta, even you may find many mortal practices in him, worldly practices in him, still you must not disregard him. Na martya-buddhyāsūyeta, sarva-deva-mayo guruḥ. You’ll try to find that all the good qualities of all the gods ever known to you are present there in any form or other. So we must have some look about, try to have such an estimation, look towards the view. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Who was the...

Devotee: Raghavindu.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So this is my position I explain to you. Now, any sub issue?

Devotee: That’s a very wonderful answer Mahārāja, great answer, relishable.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. I have dealt from all respects, all sides.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Any other from any quarter? Gaurasundar. Nitāi. Nitāi Caitanya.

Devotee: Mahārāja, in the United States there’s a paper circulating by some devotees and they’re saying that the Guru, the Ācārya, must be established, or at least aware of his rasa with Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: __________________________________________________________________ [?]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: In whose zone?

Devotee: Is this paper being circulated? Well, we saw it in Los Angeles but that’s not the origin.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who is the Ācārya of that zone?

Devotee: Rāmeśvara Swāmī.

Devotee: But that paper is being circulated throughout America, in many zones.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And your name is Mukundamālā?

Devotee: No, mine is Raghavindu.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You come from that zone?

Devotee: Recently, yes.

Devotees: _______________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________________________________________ [?]

Of course, theoretically, of this question, it is right. But from the practical standpoint the question will come in this way. That the awkward realisation of one’s own inner self, that is of infinite character, and the realisation, as I already told, three classes of Guru. One class comes down from that realm to this plane to take for recruitment. Another class, second class, one leg here another leg there, and he takes persons from this plane to that plane. And the third class, both legs here and only the eyes are fixed on that place and taking them to that plane. So the third class Gurudeva his eyes are fixed to his proper place but not yet realised.

In other words, in the stage of realisation of a devotee we are to discriminate, and he will also do. All Gurus, or one who speaks about the greatness of God around, he’s Guru in one form or other. You see, the most spacious form, Guru is he who talks about Kṛṣṇa, and especially with a desire to help the environment he’s doing knowingly, unknowingly. So Guru he begins from, the position of Guru begins from there. Only who has realised that Kṛṣṇa is all in all in us, we should love Him, and he’s talking that to his environment outside, he’s doing unknowingly, unconsciously, he’s doing the work of... So we may be if we consider, that if we trace ontologically then Kṛṣṇa is there and he has begun the work in the lowest level by such people. And then gradually they recruit them for his own Guru, for a real sādhu, vartma-pradarśaka Guru. And then that Guru he may be, according to the fortune of the newcomers, he may be one of those three types.

And the last type he’s fixed, eyes fixed on the real plane and he wants to take them home to that plane. There, if he’s sincere, not making any trade in Guru-ism, then he’s also a real Guru, and sincerely helps, and he’s bona fide in his attempt. He’s not a hypocrite. He’s studying himself and at the same time making, giving training to other students also.

So, if we like to, three things in fairness, then we shall have to understand in this way with sincere heart we are to – who is who? Who is transmitting the news of Kṛṣṇa to me, he’s Guru, he began from there. Only, not only I want, but others may be benefited. This tendency when comes with our attraction towards Kṛṣṇa the Guru-ism is there, begins there. And that gradually develops and comes to the highest form.

Sincerity is necessary and no tradery Guru. And the Guru sincerely of the lower stage, if we can say so, eliminating the, overlooking the thread within, that of Kṛṣṇa’s will, he will take them to the higher person, to go there. It is also mentioned in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa that when a higher Guru is available, if anyone makes disciples without taking him to that higher Guru, then he commits offence. It is mentioned there.

When brāhmaṇa is available, of course in the real sense, then non brāhmaṇa if he goes on with disciple making, then he’ll be, he’ll commit offence against the devotion interest.

So, the bīja means seed, higher seed. If seed of higher type is available and the lower type of seed is sown in the ground, that is bad economy. Higher type of seed, higher potency of seed for medicine is available, and for some selfish purpose I’m selling this bad type of medicine, that is offending thing.

This may be applied in such case. He always, selflessly, without any selfish view, this narrow and filthy view of predominating and getting one’s own glory, fame, or any other purpose, if one goes on insincerely with this business, makes it a business, that is bad. And sincerely helping to take anyone to the holy feet of Kṛṣṇa...

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate]

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe, nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill-fated.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

...he’s doing the right thing. And whenever he’s open, always open, he himself is also a disciple. A real Vaiṣṇava he’s always a disciple. He wants to learn more and more. No limit, infinite, no limit. He poses himself to be a disciple of his Guru. So he, whatever good things he gets, he should give it for the service of his Guru, or higher type of Guru. In this way that will be ____ and not.

But one question in the practical position will come, that if one has got sincere and firm faith in his own Guru he may think that, “I’m not fit. As there are so many signs of Guru in the śāstra, I’m not fit. But still my Gurudeva has ordered me to do this service for his satisfaction.” And if he in the name of his Guru if he recruits, and he gives mantram, but he’s firm and sincere to discharge the order, obey the order of his Guru he will be justified.

But if there is hypocrisy then he’ll be lost. For his selfish purpose if he does such a, wants to go to begin business, the business of such a great, holy, valuable property, valuable wealth, he wants to make play with fire, he’ll be doomed.

But if he’s sincere that, “I do not know much, but I do it only by the order of my Guru,” his relation with his Guru is proper and sincere. But such cases are very rarely to be found.

One brāhmaṇa used to read out Bhagavad-gītā in Śrī Rangam and he did not know to, knowledge of Sanskrit, or pronunciation rightly, nothing, and people ridiculed all around. But he did not leave. By the order of his Guru he went on reading, though so many persons ridiculing him.

Mahāprabhu asked him: “These so many men are showing ridiculous attitude towards you but you go on chanting the poems of Bhagavad-gītā. What’s the matter?”

“I do it thereby I carry out the order of my Gurudeva, simply. He has ordered me and I discharge my duty. And as long as I do I can see that Kṛṣṇa is a charioteer in the chariot of Arjuna, He’s there, chariot driver. It’s wonderful to see.”

“Yes, you are doing rightly.”

So sincerity there must be. Knowledge is infinite. Everything is infinite. But still some workable sincerity we must have when we are discharging the duty of the agents of the Divinity, of the purity. Our attempt must be pure, sincere, and of divine character.

Na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati, [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

_____________________________________________________________ [?] Gaura Haribol.

Are any of you acquainted with this gentleman?

Devotees: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He was well acquainted with your master, Swāmī Mahārāja. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gopāla Bābū is his name. He’s a resident of this Navadwīpa Dhāma, and he was a relation in my former life. His mother has accepted Mahāprabhu’s creed. And he also helps a great deal for the administration of this Maṭha. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

_______________________________________________ [?] Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: ______________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _______________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Mahārāja, I just wanted to clarify something you were saying. I was wondering, you said that it would be dishonest for someone to not take someone to a higher sādhu, and that would be spreading a lower seed which you said is not good economy. Then you...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This is in general case, but when that is practically not possible then he comes to help him. But generally this is the law.

Devotee: But what if he’s...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And it is quite reasonable, like I have given an example that good seed is available to get good crops, but I know that so many seeds are there, but bad seed for my own special interest I distribute to them. If I do that, I do wrong to the society. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes. But what if I feel that I’ve been ordered?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This is general.

Devotee: The order is there to be Guru.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But when good seed is there I know but it is not possible to get that seed here or to take him to that position. So for temporary purpose he may engage him so because he may not go astray. For the time being to keep up in the line he may do. The sincerity and purity of purpose should always be considered in this direction. We must go on, not with selfish view, but with the – with some pure and healthy and practical divine direction. In good faith we shall do anything and everything, to help him, and not to make any trade. To come to preach means to take people towards Kṛṣṇa. That will be the only interest. The point of interest will be there, and not to, on the way to make some business. That should not be, to get some self interest other than the interest of Kṛṣṇa and Vaiṣṇava. That should not be practised, or even imagined, even planned, we must not plan also such things. Always keep us clear that I’m not going to make any trade, base trading, mundane trading, but the purity of purpose is necessary that, ‘I want to help him, taking him to Kṛṣṇa bhakti as pure as possible.’

Devotee: Mahārāja, I have a question. Prabhupāda has spoken. Śrīla Prabhupāda has spoken in his books: “By transcendental knowledge one can remain...

End of 81.10.12.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.12.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Question by whom?

Devotees: Kaśirāma.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: ________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Requires proper guidance for the proper object.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: ________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You see, generally people go to study scriptures, but according to their own prejudice they collect meaning thereby.

Devānanda Paṇḍita was here, one scholar, good scholar, and he used to teach Bhāgavatam to many students, but he did not know for himself the real standard of knowledge given to...

So Mahāprabhu once told: “I shall tear up his books.”

And He also advised Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa Goswāmī, son of Tapan Miśra, who was, Tapan Miśra met Him in Paridpur District in his early life. Then he went to Benares with his family to live there permanently, and his only son, Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa, came to see Him in Purī, to see Mahāprabhu. And Mahāprabhu asked him: Ya'o paḍa bhāgavata vaiṣṇavera sthane, [Caitanya- caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 5.131] “Go and study the Bhāgavatam from a Vaiṣṇava who knows the real standpoint of the advice that is given in Bhāgavatam.”

So, it is very difficult to have the standpoint. According to the Māyāvādīs they also explain Bhāgavatam. The Bhagavad-gītā has got many kinds of appreciators, even from the revolutionist, and up to the Vaiṣṇava, all revere Bhagavad-gītā, but with different types of interpretation. So our real guidance is our sukṛti, the quality of our śraddhā. Our śraddhā within, that guides me, independent of my consciousness. And then when my consciousness rises, is raised to a certain plane, then we can use our free decision and can differentiate from right and wrong, and in the right also different degrees of rightness. All these things possible, not only what is right and wrong, and what is right also there is gradation. And the higher form of right, type of right, we are to understand according to our internal capacity and fortune, and it is created by the quality of sukṛti from which my spiritual life has begun.

brahmāṇḍa brhamite kona bhāgyavān jīva / guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya [bhakti-latā-bīja]

[“Wandering throughout the material universe, the very fortunate living entity who receives the grace of Guru and Kṛṣṇa receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service.”] [Caitanya- caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 19.151]

Many sections have got reverence and they also worship Kṛṣṇa, but in different ways. But Mahāprabhu gave, He also gave so many types of Kṛṣṇa service, śanta, dāsya, etc. And there are so many who openly profess to admit and follow the Kṛṣṇa consciousness principle. But there are very few who can appreciate rightly and follow in the strict sense demanded by the śāstra and sādhu. The gradation there different there must be always distinction. It is in the whole system. Distinction is a natural thing, and when the distinction is not of equal order, of equal position, there must, differentiation there is and there is qualitative difference, we must have to admit. And that is by our sincerity of purpose.

On the other hand the sanction of the Supreme we are to go up and higher. We cannot eliminate gradation, in every place, and every creed, everywhere, the distinction, the superiority, inferiority, they’re always in any form of life, in any circumstance. We are to admit that. And our eagerness should be always to appreciate the superior, and to be kind to the inferior. In the infinite, it’s a journey of infinite, it’s a journey towards infinite. And our attitude will be to regard the higher advance and to help the lower, be kind there. That should be our temperament always. And gradation, distinction, we’ll have to admit always, and without any jealousy. And that is the nature, and that is for our good. Think it in this way. There are so many guardians, so many superiors, so I am safe. They’re all selfless, always ready to help others. So we must not be jealous of any superior position held by so many. So many guardians, so many masters, they’re all eager to take care about spiritual life. So in this way we must regard, out heart broader and broader as much as we advance in our higher stage. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Am I clear?

Devotees: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: More clearance is necessary? Repeat the question again.

Devotee: The question was, by mere academic knowledge one is sometimes confused by...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So the standpoint must come. Academic, the ascending method is fallible. The descending method we are to accept. The whole thing in a nutshell is represented like this, avaroha-panthā, the revealed line, the truth coming through the process of revelation. So one man who is posted in that position, that current, one must go to him. In the ascending method various interpretations there may be, but they thrust their own standpoint on the books. So we shall have to accept that Guru paramparā so the paramparā is there to help us to certain extent. The association is there to help us and we are to accept that process of the revealed truth, line of the revealed truth, succession, proper channel that is coming through and I am to go there for my fulfilment of life. So: Ya'o paḍa bhāgavata vaiṣṇavera sthane, sādhu-saṅga, sādhu-śāstra, we must have to read the scriptures only from a sādhu who is established in the truth which is given in the śāstra. Śābde pare ca niṣṇātam.

[tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta, jijñāsuḥ śreyaḥ uttamam

śabde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ, brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam]

[“Therefore any person who seriously desires real happiness must seek a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of the bona fide Guru is that he has realised the conclusions of the scriptures by deliberation and is able to convince others of those conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, should be understood to be bona fide spiritual masters.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.3.21]

He will have knowledge of the scriptures as well as he has got some conception, perception, of what is in the śāstra, some realisation of the meaning of the śāstra. It may be partial but still some right in his realisation of the meaning of the śāstra proper. Only he can be Guru. And intellectual knowledge cannot guide us, not a practical life, practical life and in the proper line. Hare Kṛṣṇa. The Guru paramparā, the signs of the Guru wherever, in Upaniṣad.

tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet, samit paniḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma niṣṭham

[“One who wants scientific knowledge about the Supreme Truth must approach a bona fide Guru and offer him everything required for sacrifice. The Guru must be fixed in the truth, having heard it from a genuine source.”] [Muṇḍaka-Upaniṣad, 1.2.12]

In Bhāgavatam: śabde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ.

[tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta, jijñāsuḥ śreyaḥ uttamam

śabde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ, brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam]

[“Therefore any person who seriously desires real happiness must seek a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of the bona fide Guru is that he has realised the conclusions of the scriptures by deliberation and is able to convince others of those conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, should be understood to be bona fide spiritual masters.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.3.21]

In Bhagavad-gītā:

tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā

upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ, jñāninas tattva darśinaḥ

[“You will be able to attain all this knowledge by satisfying the enlightened spiritual master with prostrate obeisances, relevant enquiry, and sincere service. Great souls who are most expert in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will teach you that divine knowledge.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.34]

You must got to him and to find out what is the proper meaning we shall try to know from him, a bona fide person who is able to explain śāstra. Not anyone and everyone. He’s already in the way, has got some knowledge of the reality which is explained in the śāstra. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Anything in this connection: more?

Devotee: Some devotees they say that Swāmī Mahārāja, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books, that they are more than śāstra, they are Guru, śāstra, and sādhu combined. Is that so? Swāmī Mahārāja’s books, the books of Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There may be degree and gradation, but the whole character of the Guru should be like that. The śabde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ.

yasmin vijñāte sarvam evam vijñātam bhavati, yasmin prāpte sarvam idam prāptam bhavati

[“By knowing Him, everything is known - by getting Him, everything is gained.”]

By knowing which we can know anything, by getting which we can get anything. What is that, you please try to know that. That is the main, that is the backbone of our spiritual quest. So when he’s in the proper line he has come to know something by knowing which he can know everything. The example also has been given, just as water is poured in the root, the whole tree fed. Food put into the stomach, the whole body is fed. So the general cause of the whole universe is Brahman, is Kṛṣṇa, and if you know Him you can know everything. If you get Him you’ll get everything. This is the general characteristic of the spiritual knowledge. And when one’s really on that path he has got knowledge of that quality, that type, but there may be gradation. So any Ācārya he’s expected to know anything and everything because his transaction with the central thing, central principle of the whole existence of the world. So he’s expected to know anything, even the scripture, the purpose of the scripture. But there may be according to their vigour there may be gradation. But they’re supposed to know anything and everything. They’re out to culture, to cultivate only about that thing, by knowing one, many things known. That is the backbone of the spiritual knowledge. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yasmin vijñāte sarvam, to have faith in such principle that is śraddhā, faith means that. The very definition of faith, śraddhā, requires this sort of faith. There is one Centre by knowing Him I can know everything. By getting Him I can get everything. If one has got such faith, others will say that this is madness, this is ignorance, this is insanity; the other so called sane men of the world will say like that. By knowing one thing everything is known; is it possible to think? This comes only from the section of insanity. But really who has got such faith, that knowing the centre we can know everything, by getting Him we can: yasmin tuṣṭe jagat tuṣṭam priṇite priṇito jagat. And the example is given, if I put food into the stomach the whole body is fed. So the Lord holds such position to this infinite world. And to know about Him is to know about all. But no finish, and His experience also has no finish, only rising up, up, up. Gradation! Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Gaura Haribol.

Any other question?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Sometimes it seems that Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākura would consider Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura more as his Guru than Gaura Kiśora Dāsa Bābājī. Why is that?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was all in all in him. Under his direction he came to accept Gaura Kiśora Bābājī Mahārāja as his dīkṣā Guru. But he considered Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura as śikṣā Guru; the formal and informal. But Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was all in all with his whole life. He had more attraction for Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, and by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s order he came to take dīkṣā from Gaura Kiśora Bābājī. And he used to see Gaura Kiśora Bābājī non different from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. By his order he came to accept him, and also at the same time, he looked with that respect that came from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and that must be of that order, of that highest degree. So with that respect he used to see him so not in deviated position.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Why Śrīla Bhaktivinoda did not initiate him?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There’s a general custom that one should not take initiation from the father. That sort of custom is here in the spiritual line.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu says:

yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa

[“Instruct whoever you meet in the science of Kṛṣṇa. Teach them the instructions of Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā, and the teachings about Kṛṣṇa in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way, on My order, become a Guru and liberate everyone in the land.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 7.128]

So we have to understand that order as though everyone should become Guru.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Guru of that degree who cannot take the whole responsibility, and giving some clue, some news, good news to you, distributing good news to you. Then when he has found in practical way then you may go there, and there you will be, have real thing. I’m only an agent, to carry the news to you. If I have got good taste in him, with this medicine I’m feeling that I’m in the process of curing. You are also suffering from that particular disease, and the medicine I used and I feel well, and I want to give this medicine there. In this way: medicine is there. and if you want, can prepare the medicine, I say yes come to me I shall give you the medicine.

So according to their capacity. Everyone will carry the news of Kṛṣṇa towards anybody and everybody, but when he appreciates that this is good, this is a duty, if he’s sincere he’ll say. But he may not be bold enough to take the charge of curing the patient and say go to that doctor. I’m using his medicine and I’m feeling well. So I say to you, recommend, go there. That will be his attitude in the lowest position. But when he’s in the position to make the medicine himself, and original advice, then he may take the responsibility of curing him.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Nitāi. Dayal.

...

Devotee: There’s one śloka:

ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ, prātikūlya-vivarjjanam

[rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāso, goptṛtve varaṇaṁ tathā.

ātma-nikṣepa kārpaṇye, ṣaḍ-vidhā śaraṇāgatiḥ

evaṁ paryyāyataś cāsminn, ekaikādhyāya-saṅgrahaḥ]

[“The six limbs of surrender are as follows: 1 - To accept everything favourable for devotion to Kṛṣṇa. 2 - To reject everything unfavourable for devotion to Kṛṣṇa. 3 - To be confident that Kṛṣṇa will grant His protection. 4 - To embrace Kṛṣṇa’s guardianship. 5 - To offer oneself unto Him. 6 - To consider oneself lowly and bereft.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.100]

So prātikūlya-vivarjjanam, that we reject what is unfavourable, but you’ve also said that on the Absolute platform everything is good.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Prātikūlya-vivarjjanam, this is in the stage of a sādhaka. The prātikūlya-vivarjjanam, when that is in the highest stage of realisation, when the prātikūl is also harmonised we say we can see some contribution, a sort of contribution from that. In some way or other it is helping the cause.

Just as the opposition party helps the party in power to reach into the proper conception, but by opposition, to make us more attentive and to analyse the thing from different standpoints and find out if any defect is there or not.

But, just as a weak health may find anything and everything to be disturbing his health, but more and more one is healthy he finds from the environment less resistant powers. Many things, there may be many kinds of germs: in a healthy body they cannot produce any bad result, but in a weak body easily they can produce some bad result.

If it develops to the extreme he can find that one who is in perfect position nothing can dissuade him from his strongest purpose or principle of going. No effect they can have. The opposition cannot have any effect, but comes to examine, to test, and to give the glory passing the examination. The examination is undesirable to those who have possibility of failing. But who won’t fail any examination he will welcome to acquire more glory. So the final adjustment that within the harmony of His devotees, he has got connection with Kṛṣṇa, farthest it may be, but still it is connected with Him. It will help.

To a patient some – to a patient perhaps the ghee may do some harm, but when healthy that ghee will contribute to his health. Something may harm when in our weak position. The stronger position, that will contribute to our growth. It is possible.

So Infinite accommodates everything in Him. Kṛṣṇa is stealing, but stealing is bad, but when Kṛṣṇa is stealing food from the room of His mother Yaśodā the devotees think it very sweet. Why? Everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. He’s stealing His own thing. It is not stealing at all but only in a posing of stealing. So it is not stealing, it is also harmonised by satisfying so many, satisfying, but it is not real stealing in His case. In His case it is not stealing, not breaking the law of morality, no encroachment on others property, because everything belongs to Him. This is only a play, only a show, so it is harmless. And also it gives pleasure to the heart of the devotees, “that which belongs to Him, He’s only showing a fashion of stealing as if of others property.” That is līlā, pastimes.

A madhyama-adhikāra when we’re in the middle stage, the elimination and acceptance, he’ll go; but when we reach the final goal no elimination or acceptance. I’m in such a particular place and there no elimination is necessary. Acceptance of everything is helping me. But on the way so many things to eliminate and so many things to accept; something like that.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Not clear?

Devotee: Clear.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Somewhat. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So today we may stop here.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Jaya Oṁ Viṣṇu-Pāda...

End of 81.10.12.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.19.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...the Divine Dispensation. In this way we are to take it.

When finally Kṛṣṇa in His last Dvārakā līlā when everything is divorced, the withdrawal of Yadu vaṁśa, then so many disasters together. Baladeva one side, He’s in meditation. One serpent came out of the mountainside into the ocean. Yadus winding one another, they began to kill each other. And all wailing, the ladies are wailing like anything. The husbands at one stroke wholesale by mutual fighting they disappeared. Vasudeva, Ugrasena, the old section, they are also benumbed seeing the matter.

But Kṛṣṇa is running hither and thither and giving consolation, keeping His temperament all right. Running hither, “O, don’t do this. Try to take it as His Divine Dispensation. Don’t break down.” In the highest degree of separation - in cool brain He’s running to help this side, that side, that side. So in whatever...

Śrīla Govinda Mahārāja: ___________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I’m, it may come, even it may come they may engage themselves fighting with one another. In the way they’re moving I think that that time may also come. But you do not try to express, that also untimely, and also, don’t leave them. Don’t leave them. The policy should be to make the best of a bad bargain, to make the best of a bad bargain. It may be that evil may come out, but still we shall try to keep our temperament, and also to help the going also. Our attitude should be like that. To the last moment when a body, when a man is dying we must not leave them knowing fully well that he will die. No leaving, try my best to give my help.

So those that are seen to divert from the standard point, still we shall try our best to help them. Spiritual death: I’m not talking of the physical also, if spiritually they seem to deviate from Swāmī Mahārāja’s ideal, our attitude will be that to go on helping them, then purity will again come. But we shall try to hold the ideal with firm hands, the banner with firm hands, for which we have come out. We have not come out for any organisation, or opulence of money, etc. The ideal has attracted me and I shall follow the ideal, at any, under any circumstances. We are out for the beauty of the thought, for the beauty of the ideal, for the beauty of the fulfilment of life. And we must not give it up at the cost of death, poverty, anything else. That should be our guiding star. Then we shall try to help the others for the same, for the same, but the inevitable will come. I can’t help.

karmaṇy evādhikāras te, mā phaleṣu kadācana

mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr, mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi

[“I shall now describe niṣkāma karma-yoga, the path of selfless action. You have a right to perform your natural prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to any fruits of that action. You should neither act with desire to enjoy the fruits of your work, nor, as a result, should you be attached to neglecting your duties.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.47]

You can’t sit idle. You try your best for the best fulfilment. But the inevitable will come, to happen. I shall try my best to the last moment to help them, cooperate, constructive. I must not be, must not allow myself to be a party to some destructive element. I’m constructive, helping. So that should be the normal ideal of a standard spiritualist, I think.

Mādhava Mahārāja: So then your advice is that we should try to form a group so we can execute our devotional service...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: __________ of same temperament, sajātī-yāśye snigdhe:

[śrīmad-bhāgavatārthānām āsvādo rasikaiḥ saha

sajātī-yāśye snigdhe sādhau saṅgaḥ svato vare]

[“One should taste the meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the association of pure devotees, and one should associate with the devotees who are more advanced than oneself and endowed with a similar type of affection for the Lord. Those that are in our line, who have the same high spiritual aspirations as we do, and who hold a superior position, to associate with such saintly persons will help us the most to progress towards the ultimate goal.”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, 1.2.91] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.131]

...whom we can talk with confidentially, and by mutual help, by mutual cooperation we can live and thrive.

Śrīla Govinda Mahārāja: _________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. As long as it’s possible you try to keep up the connection. Don’t take the responsibility of separating yourself. You try to cooperate as much as you can, as long you can.

Śrīla Govinda Mahārāja: ________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And when it will be impossible it will be better that they will reject it, but I don’t ask you to leave the ideal. The purity of purpose, that has attracted me, what has attracted me to Swāmī Mahārāja, the ideal. If I leave that I shall die. I shall commit suicide. The light, the finer light that has attracted me, that star I cannot leave. And I can also try my best to keep connection with my fellow brothers who came also for the quest of that light. But if he deviates I won’t. At the same time I won’t be very eager to cut off their connection. I try my best, but my first thing is my ideal of life, and the second, those that came for the same ideal, not otherwise. We have got connection, so many connections we had in our previous life, but this company means for the ideal, and if one deviates from the ideal I must do my duty towards him, according to that, that I may not deviate.

Mādhava Mahārāja: We have been trying for the past four years...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And we should keep in mind,

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate]

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe, nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill-fated.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

He’s there, omniscient, He’s to help me so we must be sincere.

Devotee: ___________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What did you say?

Mādhava Mahārāja: I said we have been trying for the past four years, since Prabhupāda disappeared from our presence, we’ve been trying to make some compromise. But now we see their minds are not changing. They’re becoming more determined.

Śrīla Govinda Mahārāja: _________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Anyhow, I can’t advise you to give up the ideal for which you and they also came, but of different mentality.

Kṛṣṇa says in reasonable way, that in the beginning, when Uddhava asked Him: “So many differences in the conception of religion, from where it has come? Are they equally true alternately, or they are great and small?”

So Kṛṣṇa told: “In the beginning it was one, and I told it to Brahmā the creator, and the subject matter was Myself. But when Brahmā told his disciples, according to their capacity they received, and when they gave delivery of that advice, instruction, in turn, there some modification, not same thing. Same thing went to the ear of ten persons, and when they reproduced it their difference was found. So prakṛti-vaicitryāt, according to the capacity of the hearer, listener, some modification, and then from generation to generation more modification, then so many differences in the religious world.”

So differentiation must come to effects, to effect, happen, it is inevitable. Differentiation, difference, is inevitable, we can’t avoid it. But still, in that stage we shall try, that some of equal temperament, nearer temperament, nearer mentality, we shall make a group, then we’ll be, our life will be easy, and our work will also be smoothly done. So company is necessary, but company must be suiting the purpose, the ideal. Ideal is all in all, Kṛṣṇa, Gurudeva, what he said, by which he attracted me that is my first thing. And the group that are following that ideal strictly they’re my own friends; close intimate friends. And those that are deviating we want good for them but we can’t take them, or everything as it is. We shall try to help them, not to desert them: that should be our policy. Ke?

Devotees: _________________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________________________________________ [?]

Guru and the ideal, what I heard, what attracted me to him, that is my first concern. And next, who are nearer __________ [?] in that level _______________ [?] and as one deviates from him, as much he’s so much far away from me. Still I should try to be sympathetic towards that. This should be the underlying principle of all our conduct, individual or general. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīla Govinda Mahārāja: _______________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ________________________ [?]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So Mahārāja, there’s another question that comes. Bhāvānanda Mahārāja, he has the same idea, we should all cooperate. We may have some differences but everyone should cooperate. And he also has a lot of respect for yourself. He respects you in his heart I’m sure. But he’s under some political pressures, so for that reason he’s not so open to come here and see you for Hari kathā. We know that.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Whoever will come to me I’ll say the same thing. I have got a great and bitter experience also after the departure of our Guru Mahārāja. Forty four years I’m passing through that experience, long experience amongst the dealings of the God brothers and also disciples of the God brothers. I’ve got some experience. And also I’ve got some idea about the principle for which Guru Mahārāja came here to preach: so the experience, from his words, and after his departure.

So, two things necessary, the ideal as well as the organisation, but the ideal has the first and importance, and the organisation the next. That is relative and Absolute, the same thing which is, when there will be a clash between the Absolute and relative we must serve the Absolute, we must take side of the Absolute. I can’t be a traitor to myself, which attracted me I can’t be traitor to that idea. If I feel that I’m committing wrong that is another thing. But as long as I think that yes, this is the ideal, I shall try to keep up, the nearest distance from the ideal. And organisation is for that, and not at the sacrifice of the ideal we shall lick at the feet of the organisation. But organisation for higher purpose then it is well and good, otherwise it will do some disservice to the world. We shall try our best to keep the organisation under the principle – under the principle, under the truth of our conception, try our best always. And through that organisation we shall be able to do good to the public and with facility. But if organisation deviated from the ideal that organisation will be __________________ [?] The ideal is the first thing and the organisation the second. Organisation must be faithful to the ideal.

Kṛṣṇa jñāna, Kṛṣṇa and His knowledgeable thing is one and same. Kṛṣṇa Nāma and Kṛṣṇa is same. Kṛṣṇa jñāna and Kṛṣṇa is one and same. Kṛṣṇa līlā and Kṛṣṇa one and same.

Devotees, even crossing brāhmaṇas, so many kṣatriya, vaiśyas, any devotee of Kṛṣṇa he should honoured, he should be respected, irrespective of any other position, independent of any other function. According to the intensity of the connection with anyone with Kṛṣṇa he should be respected. That should be the Absolute consideration of things. Not that one is a big scholar, or a big organiser, or big diplomat, or a big financer, they will be ostentatiously some honour, but not at the cost of the ideal, of the high ideal. They should be all, must be subservient to the ideal, ideal of Kṛṣṇa. They should be servant not master.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So Mahārāja, Bhakti Caru, he has spoken with Bhāvānanda Mahārāja at length the last few days.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bhāvānanda Mahārāja is very simple man.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He has tendency of speaking the truth, an open man.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So Bhāvānanda Mahārāja had asked Bhakti Caru Mahārāja...

...to have the visiting devotees from America stay in Māyāpur, because he felt that it would be better for the Society – relative consideration – it would be better for the Society if the devotees stay in Māyāpur, when visiting.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________ [?]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Bhakti Caru Mahārāja... [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________ Ke [?]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _______________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________________________________ [?]

That you stay here, but because about Swāmī Mahārāja, our Guru Mahārāja had some reverence for Śrīdhara Mahārāja so you can go and hear from him, but you stay here. And your problem will be; if not yours, but some others also, that if we stay with them in their association, then our hearing will not be very, of perfect nature. The contamination of that place that will arrest our progress.” So you may take, some may think to take extreme step, those very lovers of the ideal, and if they think, “I think Dhīra Kṛṣṇa’s position is such. He has got so much confidence here that he’s a desperate man now. He could not...

He told that: “If I’m allowed to remain with your association I must be allowed to speak the truth. But if you come to interfere there I leave your association. I like my ideal the best, open, it is open. At the cost of anything I shall try to follow the highest ideal. That is the be all and end all of my life.”

So in that case we don’t want, from his position we say that I don’t want to abandon your company, but I want to keep the standard. You come to the standard, I with you one and same, but if you deviate from the standard what I realise I can’t indulge in that. It is a question of adjustment, personal adjustment; individual adjustment.

Once in our Maṭha, Gauḍīya Maṭha, it so happened, I was one side and the Governing Body anyhow by the majority they passed a resolution. And the Secretary told me, whom I had some reverence, told me, “You are compelled to obey the decision of the Governing Body.”

I told, a little harshly, and offensively, to that remark, “That I, ha, ha, ha, I pass urine to your Governing Body.”

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I want to have the service of the Lord ...... whose direction I shall be able to go further to that higher destination. That is the only aim in my life. And what I shall do with your Governing Body and so many properties under the management of Governing Body? I don’t want them at all. Why do you show to me the Governing Body, the majority of the resolution of the majority of the Governing Body? I don’t care a fig for that. That was my remark. And still I am there, still I am there. Even, so many friends wanted me to become Ācārya. I thought, there were many senior brothers...

...service of Mahāprabhu and Kṛṣṇa. Governing Body has control over so many centres, under it. I have got not least temptation for that. I don’t want so many centres or wealth, permanence and the properties that are under Governing Body. My only earnestness is to go towards Mahāprabhu under the guidance of a Vaiṣṇava. What Governing Body will help me for that? Only true Vaiṣṇava I want. That is my only necessity. Under whose direction I shall be able to go further to that higher soil. That is the only aim of my life. And what I shall do with your Governing Body and so many properties under the management of Governing Body? I don’t want them at all. Why do you show to me the resolution of the majority of the Governing Body? I don’t care a fig for that. That was my remark. And still I am there, still I am there. Even, so many friends wanted me to become Ācārya. I thought, there were many senior brothers amongst them who selects me to be the Ācārya, but it will be difficult for me to manage with them, and I won’t be able to do work under their majority rule, so I refused.

One Mādhava Mahārāja’s group, Yājāvara Mahārāja, another Keśava Mahārāja’s group; I gave up their proposal. No. I won’t go to be Ācārya of your group. So many senior God brothers were there in both the groups. But I’m an idealist all through my life, and I’m out for that and I shall try my best up to my last breath to maintain that inner most sincere seeking purity for the same. That is my, this is my nature, acquaintance. So I’m an extremist in this matter, not to give up the ideal at any cost, at any cost, at any price. I must not go to sell them, to make trade on my ideal fulfilment. I’m that extreme type.

So you consider yourself what to do personally. Because I’m not going to experience the personal difficulties what you will have to do in future, near. So at your own risk you are to, you must look to your own heart, the depth of your heart, what you are to do, or not do. To be or not to be? Hamlet! That is the question. To be or not to be? The challenge is there.

And it is clear to me, we are out for which, not for a, as I told several times, when we joined Gauḍīya Maṭha it was not so very organised richness. But we were not attracted by any glamour of the Maṭha but only the ideal, the highest ideal that attracted. And to be sincere to our own self, to be true to our own self, we must stick to that, to that sort of mentality and boldness and desperate consideration.

sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo, mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ

[“Totally abandoning all kinds of religion, surrender exclusively unto Me. I will liberate you from all kinds of sins, so do not despair.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]

Any trouble, the relief will come from above, otherwise we are to suffer. We are ready, we are out for suffering and putting our hope on the above. Our help from other parts we don’t want to take, any pity, any kindness, we are not out to beg, but the grace from above. If I have a drop of grace from that quarter I shall consider myself to be fulfilled like anything. And if so many offerings come from other places I won’t accept, I shall be indifferent to them. Not loss or gain of this world I’m to adore. But I shall hope that my guidance which came from above, that may not abandon me in any, under any circumstances. We should try to take our stand there. That is my ideal, my dream, my everything. _______ [?] I can say so only to all, that not at the sacrifice of the high ideal. Few and far between, not, it is not very easy, it is not available to have in every birth, everywhere. Very rarely such connection we may have and it may not be disconnected at any cost. That is our understanding. And for individual case you are to apply for your own self what you are to do. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Organisation, organisation for what? Of course, when many persons assemble all may not be of equal standard, so some sort of deviating tendency may be found there. But the leaders, the stalwarts, they will, their nature should be always to give more value for the ideal. And it will take them up, to draw them upward, the ordinary masses. They may fall down. All may not come for the high spiritual purpose. Some glamour, some...

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Grandeur?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not grandeur. As the principle of the hippie, by which they’re attracted, by, without principle, by external temporary or accidental glamour you may say. Without consideration, without sober deliberation, whatever he finds he jumps to swallow, that sort of temperament. Many may come with that idea also, that idea.

So, there is a story – Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. There is a story, one sādhu he anyhow secured a disciple. “Come to me, within one year I shall show you God.” Then he took along the man with him and he gave laddhu, puri, etc, many things.

Then one year past, the disciple asking his so called guru, “Gurudeva, you told that after a year you will show God to me. But more than a year past and you are not showing God to me. What’s the matter? I hesitated to put this question to you, but now I can’t tolerate.”

“You fool, you are eating laddhus and puris and so many palatable things, so much and for so long a period. Do you think that God is more tasteful than this? This laddhu, puri, is He more than that, you fool?” That was the answer.

So, we are to deal with substance, substance. The glamour also, external temptation, that may be also utilised for the truth. It may be utilised, but if the real thing is absent the whole thing will begin to rot, will be rotten. Material, this Sai Bābā and so many things are going on, Maheśa Bābā, all these things.

Gauḍīya Maṭha has something that’s standing alone to refute all different traits of religious principles. And we are to understand that, its real position, where it transcends from other proposals of spiritual nature. That adjustment, our Gurudeva used to tell many a time, “Religion is proper adjustment.” We shall meet different conceptions of spirituality, and where, how far they come for the common ground, and where to pass over them. With different proposals there are of so many religious conceptions.

Mahāprabhu Lord Caitanya, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the last book, holy book of Vyāsadeva, Bhāgavatam, surpassing all different conceptions of religion. And where and how, that we are to imbibe and accommodate within us and do accordingly. I may not lose, I shall try to keep others up, but not to take me down.

bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra / janma sārthaka kari’ kara para-upakāra

[“One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India [Bhārata-varṣa] should make his life successful and work for the benefit of all other people.”] [Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi- lila, 9.41]

Mahāprabhu says: “Fortunately you have got a birth in this land of Bhārata-varṣa, the land of highest culture, ancient, eternal. First fulfil your life, your hankering, and then go to help others.”

Hayam asidya katham anyam sadayet [?] One who has not seen the truth, how can he venture to show others to see the truth? So fulfil your own life and at the same time with the help of the higher, keeping your connection with the higher, go to help others. Otherwise the both of you – one is drowning in the water, and if not well equipped to go to rescue him, both of you will die, going down, drowned. Hayam asidya katham anyam sadayet [?] You have it first and then you give it to others. That must be in the connection of Gurudeva. _________________________ [?]

Birhandiy [?] was a great doctor, Birhandiy was a genius. He was such a genius we are told, he was ___________ [?] or something, in England when he went to study, and at the time of his examination he was presented a patient covered, body covered. And the professor asked, “What sort of patient is this? You say.”

He told that, “It is a case of pox.”

So he was in the diagnosis cases he was considered as failed. Then when Birhandiy heard that he came to the professor. “Why sir I don’t get the pass mark?”

“Oh, you committed mistake. That was a case of influenza. It was taken from the hospital for your test and covered.”

“No, no sir. I don’t commit any mistake in diagnosis. That must be a case of pox.”

Then the professor phoned the hospital, that influenza ward. “Oh, how that patient suffering from influenza is doing now?”

The nurse answered, “No, no, sir, the pox has come out. He’s removed in that department.”

Then the professor, “How did you detect?”

“I get a scent. Through scent I can understand the patient, the disease.”

He was astonished.

And that Birhan Raya [?] once also went to – this is side issue – to see Gandhi when he was taking a fast of twenty one days, after fifteen or so days fast he went to visit him, and after examining he passed a remark, that Birhan Raya. “The physicians of the future time will have to admit that the cause of vitality is not within the body always, but can be without the body. Outside the body the cause may remain to make a body live.” That was one of his remarks.

And another time when so many refugees from Bangladesh came in a very extraordinary flow and the government was not able to manage them, they’re all...

End of 81.10.19.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.19.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...the government was not able to manage them. They’re all sitting here, there, lying, suffering from heat disease, infectious disease.” In this way Birhan Raya told. “This is the land of Śrī Caitanyadeva. Is there none who can get relief to these suffering and dying persons, so many? The government has failed to console them in such days of their extreme misery.”

That Birhan. And when he was dying, he was heart specialist, and perhaps up to eighty years he lived. When he was dying Radhakrishnan came to see him. Jawaharlal [Nehru] was aching at that time, he could not come. They loved him much. Birhan Raya told, he consulted doctors with full consciousness, they told, “For certain, this injection perhaps will be fittest at this stage.”

“Yes,” Birhan Raya told, “Yes, that is the medicine and you may inject, but who will receive the injection he’s not present. The medicine, there must be some vitality within who will receive the medicine and apply it in its work: he’s absent. So who will utilise your medicine, he’s absent, he’s no longer.” Injection was given but succumbed.

So this example from where – what I was talking, that this example was necessary? The receiver is not here.

Mādhava Mahārāja: You were talking about the refugees from Bangladesh.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No. That is side issue. Before that. I came to Birhan Raya only for that, then as a side issue two incidents were mentioned by me.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Para-upakāra, helping others, bhārata-bhūmite.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:

bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra [janma sārthaka kari’ kara para-upakāra]

[“One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India [Bhārata-varṣa] should make his life successful and work for the benefit of all other people.”] [Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, 9.41]

...

Proper recipient must be, the well doer must be there, then he can do good to others: something like that perhaps. To utilise the organisation, the organisation is there but to utilise the organisation some spiritual hand must be there to utilise it, the inner man to utilise, or all is useless. Useless: utilisation for what purpose?

Once, while in Vṛndāvana parikramā, in Kamavana, so many volunteers also drawn to help the parikramā organisation and there was some quarrel between the volunteers. Prabhupāda was in a solitary camp, and we are three, four, sitting around him. And Bon Mahārāja he was delivering lectures to minimise the quarrel amongst the volunteers.

And there he was saying: “Many good organisations are there in the world. We don’t claim that as an organiser we are of best quality. But that organisation they’re serving very lower causes. And you have got the chance to serve the cause of the very higher order. That is the speciality here, you have got chance. But mere organisation – organic perfection may be seen anywhere, but the speciality of the organisation that the highest truth is being imparted through this organisation. This is its fortune. This is the thing to be proud of, the quality.”

Quality is very rare. Quantity we are in the midst of, that is ample all around, quantity of many things. But our progress means quality not quantity. Quantity to be eliminated and quality to be searched and to earn to have, quality. We are all out for quality. And wherever we are quantity is everywhere.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

It will be good, and to keep up the prestige of Swāmī Mahārāja also if you work harmoniously: prestige. But at the same time, what for he came to you, that should not be ignored. That is my... cooperation, work together that is well and good, but not at the cost of the principle. That is my last word to you all, and you are to do according to your own individual judgement, you are to take step.

Hitch, clash, quarrel, that is not desirable, not desirable, but if it is unavoidable at all for the upkeep of one’s own proper life we can’t avoid.

Ātmā sei prati vintare [?] There is a saying of Cāṇakya [Paṇḍita], the renowned politician of ancient India. He was living during the time of Alexander [the Great], and Candragupta [Mahārāja].

Tad adekam kula sharte [?] A general education for the society: “We shall reject one to save our family.”

Grama sharte kulan tad ete [?] “For the interest of the whole village I may even give up my own family.”

Desha sharte tadit gramam [?] “And if necessary for the good of the country I shall leave my village.”

Ātmā sei prati vintaret [?] “But to save one’s own self one should even sacrifice even, leave the whole of the world to save one’s own self.” Ātmā tei prati vintaret [?] “The whole world may be left if it comes into clash with one’s own selfish realisation of selfish purpose.”

So I’m greater to me than the environment. I want greater environment only for my improvement, and to eliminate previous environment.

sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

[ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo, mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ]

[“Totally abandoning all kinds of religion, surrender exclusively unto Me. I will liberate you from all kinds of sins, so do not despair.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]

That is the motto. “The present environment may not have any fascination for you. Go ahead, go onward, onward, towards My direction.” No risk no gain.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

“Yes, my judgement is on the whole, yes, I’m, we’re very eager and we like it also to work together with our God brothers, but my friend not at the sacrifice of the high ideal for which we have come out.” That idea should be kept. Some elimination if necessary we may tolerate. But if for the organised unity so many high cultured souls they become indifferent to the organising people, then what good should we derive out of our special love for the organisation? Let us come and see.

I asked that consult the so many stalwarts that are dissatisfied with the present administration and then you meet together and you form some resolution, put that to the administrating party, ‘that so many important persons are being indifferent and going away from the organisation, and they’re all good. So modify your administration in such and such way and accommodate all the higher personalities of sincere hankering for the truth.’

And if they do not do, then you can form a separate organisation and go on with the teachings of the truth as you have heard from Swāmī Mahārāja: a separate organisation. You should not neglect though the stalwarts that came.

“And more recruitment at the cost of the so many stalwarts sincere that came to serve Swāmī Mahārāja, and to have some man power or money power, that is not the desired thing for our mission. It came by the word, by the beauty of the instruction, the men and money came, and we shall try to keep up that standard. It will automatically come, not at the sacrifice of the highest principle. We can’t tolerate that. That is our vitality. That is our vitality. We can’t live without that. So with folded palms we pray to you, consider this and keep us along with you. We’ll be so much happy. But our heart is burning seeing so many things that are going against the ultimate desire of our Guru Mahārāja. How can we see with our own eyes such deviation, and still indulge in encouraging that going away from, flying away from the principle. We can’t tolerate that.”

With all sincerity you talk with Bhāvānanda Mahārāja, “You come to save us. We’re not eager to erect some anti movement or anti organisation to fight with you. That’s not at all within us. We can’t tolerate to look that the body is going down from the ideal. That is our inner pain. So you are also a man, though chairman of the organisation, but as a sincere devotee we appeal to your heart. And if we are misguided, help me, instruct me. If we are misguided we are to mend us, eager to mend us. We have got no other ulterior motive to stand against you or to cut off your connection, no. If for the principle which is necessary we can’t help so we’re indifferent because we can’t help.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. You can approach in a body also. Bhāvānanda Mahārāja is the present chairman.

“You come to our relief. We’re a particular group and our ideals are such and such. You consider. We have not come here to play the part of enemy of Swāmī Mahārāja’s organisation. Not come to stand against the organisation created by our Guru Mahārāja, not come for that purpose. But the present circumstances forcing us, and if we commit mistake please correct us. We are not very eager for our personal prestige, or power seeker we are, never. We want sincerely to make, continue our search after Kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇānusandhāna, we want to search where is Kṛṣṇa. Kāhāṅ kṛṣṇa prāna nātha vrajendra.

[kāhāṅ mora prāna nātha muralī-vadana / kāhāṅ karoṅ kāhāṅ pāṅ vrajendra-nandana]

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said: “Where is my beloved Kṛṣṇa? I can’t tolerate His separation. Where is the Lord of My life, who is playing His flute? What shall I do now? Where should I go to find the son of Mahārāja Nanda?”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 2.15]

The life of our life, the existence of our existence, the aspiration, the object of the highest aspiration where is He? We are eager to go towards that path, that way, if possible to find Him, or very nearer friend of Him.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

The nose and the breath, the breath is more important than the nose. With the nose if we take the breath it is well and good, but breath is indispensable. If we are to spare one, the nose may be rejected, but breath we can’t leave. Such, the organisation is good, but the breath, taking of breath, that chance must be there. _____________________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: __________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You have not taken your breakfast? Is it not?

Mādhava Mahārāja: I’m taking so much breakfast.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Many things are ānukūl to stay in the society because of facility. There is facility for extensive preaching. And then other things are prātikūl.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So you calculate and ________ this is the capital and this is the balance, plus, minus.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Debit, credit.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So much credit and so much debit, and considering the two, what will be. You must want some gain. You do like that, that so much benefit I get if I stay with the organisation, and so much loss I have to incur if I stay with the organisation. And what will be the balance? According to the balance you are to do, take your action. That is common sense.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Mahārāja, where should one place the emphasis? Should the emphasis be more on preaching, or more on personal development?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Preaching is necessary, indispensable for personal development. Preaching is not another thing. Mahāprabhu told, Bhāgavat told, that preaching is the highest help to one’s self realisation. Kīrtanam means the reproduction, to receive and to reproduce, kīrtana. A sincere man when he’s reproducing he will get something new, push from inside, inspiration, also. So kīrtana has been considered to be the highest method because you cannot but be all attentive when you are reproducing something to others. Within when you are trying meditation, even when attending some lecture, śravaṇa, you may be absent minded. But when you’re talking to someone you cannot be absent minded. All attentive otherwise you cannot talk irrelevant. So the internal culture reaches the extreme when you are reproducing. And you already heard, received, you are to reproduce that if you are properly making, taking to kīrtana, you can’t talk at random. You must be all attentive. And every fibres of your body and mind will be engaged unconsciously. So the cultivation is the most advanced stage in kīrtana. And also the environment which would have come to attack you, that is also being disinfected by kīrtana, and many others also being fed, not only feeding yourself, but at the same time they’re also being fed.

Offensive for offensive: the last stage in Russia perhaps, Hitler and Russia war, the defensive could not give the desired result, the defensive. So offensive for offensive, that method was taken up in the last period of the war, offensive. So Kali, the environment is offensive and if you are passive they will try to enter you and you may not be, utilise your full energy for meditation, may be absent minded. And offensive for offensive, the environment is unfavourable and you try to make your surroundings also, create things that will fight with one another. The offensive for offensive, and you will be all attentive, that is the best opportunity automatically we get in kīrtana.

So kīrtana, is not for the, the greatest enemy is pratiṣṭhā, that is one’s own prestige, one’s good name, fame. We shall be careful about that. Kīrtana, all our activity if we want that it will be bhakti proper, devotion proper, then the recipient will be, the result of my activity will go to my Lord and not to me. That should be the tenor, the very life of all our activity. Whatever I’m doing, the gain what I, the benefit what I derive from my activity, my Lord will get that and not myself under any circumstances. That is the thread that must be there. That is bhakti proper, not individual recipient character should be maintained, to make it devotional activity. We shall always be awake to that fact.

karmaṇy evādhikāras te, mā phaleṣu kadācana

[mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr,] mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi

[“I shall now describe niṣkāma karma-yoga, the path of selfless action. You have a right to perform your natural prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to any fruits of that action. You should neither act with desire to enjoy the fruits of your work, nor, as a result, should you be attached to neglecting your duties.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.47]

The result, ha, ha, that is that Hegel, “Reality is For Itself.” Not only He’s omniscient but He’s all enjoyer. We are to accommodate that with that ideal, He’s all enjoyer, only all enjoyer is He. And we are all materials to promote enjoyment to Him. That is our constitutional position, and that is our liberated self, otherwise we’re under illusion, labouring under illusion. We are to tolerate this, that He’s the only enjoyer, everything to satisfy Him everything is meant. And we are all making encroachment of different ways and so we suffer. His position is such that He’s the enjoyer of everything. Everything exists to satisfy Him, and we are also. Our existence also to satisfy Him, then it is advaya-jñāna, then it is Absolute One. There are so many share holders – no! Ha, ha. Not separate person to get enjoyment, it must be connected, that is the highest, most important thing. “For Itself, Reality is For Itself.” So die to live, die to live, self determination, that is to die as we are at present, we are to die, and the golden friend from within will come out, that of a cent per cent servitor of the Lord. He’s the only enjoyer. We are to realise that fact, to swallow that bitter however that may be that bitter pill, that He’s the enjoyer, wholly. Otherwise only lip deep admittance that, ‘Yes, He’s all in all, He’s the Absolute.’ Only intellectual confession won’t do. From the heart we must accept the fact that He’s the all enjoyer and we are all fodders to fulfil His desire, and we must find our satisfaction in that position of us. Die to live. And He’s for Himself, He’s not subservient to any other thing in the world. Then He’s God, then He’s Kṛṣṇa. So we are out for the greatest fight ever one can have and think and dream of. We are soldiers to fight out that cause. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Mādhava Mahārāja: So one has to make a certain amount of preparation before he can preach. One has to prepare himself to a certain degree before he can preach.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. To maintain his position, right position, then he can distribute, so śravaṇa kīrtana. And if one is sincere the caitya Guru is there. The mahanta Guru may not be present always, so caitya Guru is there to help him, only he will have such sincerity of heart, proper seeking, proper search for the Truth Absolute. Then wherever in scripture, in the words, instructions of a sādhu he will just catch that and keep it, the highest jewel in his heart. “Oh. He’s such. I shall consider myself most successful and helpful if I get the chance of dying in this battle.” Ha, ha, ha. But really I do not die. A good soldier he will not care about the circumstances, but if call comes he will jump to give his life. Die to live. So wholesale death, what we are.

Edei kori sarbanas [?] Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says, “The new body will spring up from the fire of service.” Edei kori sarbanas [?]

And what we consider at present to be our very nearer enclosure that will all vanish. I shall have a new life in that domain, back to home, back to God, svarūpa-sundarn, and that is like a minor sleeping within the heart. That is also here within me, that is now, with morphine injection we swoon. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare. Hare Rāma.

So this is fight, fight for invisible, are you prepared for that? And whether I will have the chance of seeing Him very soon that is also uncertain. But still His news is such things there are and if I live at all I must live for that, otherwise life has no charm for me. The alternative dismissed in this way. If I have Kṛṣṇa I want to live, if not, or Kṛṣṇa bhakta, Guru, devotee, I shall live, otherwise life is tasteless. I don’t want to live any more.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare. Hare Rāma Hare Rāma.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Devotee: Śrīdhara Mahārāja, it is said, nikuñja-yūno rati-keli-siddhyai, [Śrī Śrī Gurv-aṣṭaka, 6], that the spiritual master is engaged in the most confidential service of the gopīs. Is that true for every Guru, or is it in special cases?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So the Guru tattva has been given to us to be seen that, “I am there. I am there.”

ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān, [nāvamanyeta karhicit

na martya-buddhyāsūyeta, sarva-deva-mayo guruḥ]

[“One should know the Ācārya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.17.27] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 1.46]

The highest thing present there without your consciousness. The guidance comes from Kṛṣṇa. He’s in the back, so everything is true there. So we are told that Kṛṣṇa’s will, delegation, we are not to forget, that Kṛṣṇa’s delegation, His will is at the back of this relief work for us. So as much as I’ll be awakened I’ll be able to trace the inner wealth and the inner gradation, progress, in Him. And He may even change this external figure, but the internal thread of distributing Kṛṣṇa bhakti, that will remain all along.

ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān, nāvamanyeta karhicit

na martya-buddhyāsūyeta, sarva-deva-mayo guruḥ

Why this has been given to us, though we find a devotee? Always by the devotee He does the work. Still He says in śāstra, “I am there giving respect for Me.”

In Ekādaśī general devotees they’re not offered this anna-prasāda, but we can offer that to Gurudeva only. We can bow down to Gurudeva, even in the front of the Deity, but we do not do so to ordinary Vaiṣṇava. This is the special characteristic of Gurudeva. Because in śāstra it is told that, “When My delegated power descends to take the devotees to Me, like a thread within.” And externally He may – a primary teacher, or an ordinary teacher, or a specialist doctor – according to my development He will adjust accordingly. It is His business. None can give Him without He Himself, so His will is there. He can only give Him, no other, but the devotees. So devotees they come to take me up. And wherever there’s Guru, duty of Guru, we are told to give respect to that form, the Supreme. Then as much – there is another secret – as much as we make progress we are going to be located properly, then according to His order we see a particular group of servitors and there finally we are adjusted to have the eternal serving order.

Kavi sri caitanya madhi kori vrnda daya kavi ana pai vaisnava pada chaya [?]

[Raghunātha Dāsa Goswāmī ?]

First negotiation with Him, and this He sends Guru, and gradually, in the conclusion also, He puts up with His confidential servitor group. “Go on serving Me with the help of them.” The last posting is like that.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Devotee: Since Lord Caitanya was teaching how to understand mādhurya-rasa...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: How to?

Devotee: He was elevating the conditioned soul to the point of mādhurya-rasa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ke bolchen?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mādhurya-rasa; Lord Caitanya teaching mādhurya-rasa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mādhurya-rasa, selected few. When He was chanting about mādhurya-rasa in Śrīvāsa Aṅgan only selected group. And to the ordinary people that Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahā-mantra, the general thing.

Antaranga kari sange kari rasa sadhan [?] And Bahirange sange kari krsna sankirtan [?]

Amongst the public, Kṛṣṇa saṅkīrtana – selected group, few...

...

Talking about the highest attainment of rasa, mādhurya-rasa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. In Bhāgavatam it is also said: ‘rudro ‘dvijaṁ viṣam. If one is not Mahādeva, if he drinks poison, he’s sure to die. But Mahādeva took the poison and ultimately it came like an ornament in his throat, Nīlakaṇṭha, that ornament, ‘rudro ‘dvijaṁ viṣam.

naitat samācarej jātu manasāpi hy anīśvaraḥ

vinaśyaty ācaran mauḍhyād yathā ‘rudro ‘dvijaṁ viṣam

[“One should never imitate the behaviour of great personalities. One who foolishly does so, even mentally, is doomed, just as one who imitates Lord Śiva drinking poison.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 10.33.30]

After giving description of the rasa-līlā Śukadeva gives a warning: “That what I told, this is the higher attainment, but one must be, must make himself fit to accept it, otherwise they misunderstand, he will mistake, and they will have to die. Samācarej jātu manasāpi. Even mentally, by imagination one must not venture to approach such things, manasāpi. Anīśvaraḥ, who is not master of his own, who is slave of his senses, they must not venture to come to such degree of confidential pastimes of the Lord. Then: ________ mauḍhyād, and if out of foolishness, ignorance, if they come in contact they will have to die. Vinaśyaty ācaran mauḍhyād yathā. If due to ignorance they anyhow come to partake in it, even mentally, they will have to die, a spiritual death. Vinaśyaty ācaran mauḍhyād. How? Yathā ‘rudro ‘dvijaṁ viṣam. If one is not Śiva and he takes poison, he’s sure to die. But Śiva after drinking so much poison only he was ornamented, Nīlakaṇṭha.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

We must have self analysis what we are, where we are, and what is the nature of our aspiration, clear knowledge and with the company of the sādhu always.

Once, when the first starting of Bengal Chemicals here in Bengal, in India also first, P.C. Raya, the famous chemist, and Kartik Bose, a good doctor and organiser, they started Bengal Chemicals: that was the first medicine factory in India. Now Bombay and Madras, so many places, but then that was first. And according to their book knowledge they went to prepare some medicine. But to their astonishment they found that it is only smoke it is producing, but none of the desired medicine. Then, stopping that, Kartik Bose he ran to Kunava [?], the British firm, near Calcutta, with motor. I heard it from Swāmī Mahārāja. He ran to Kunava [?], and there was the British firm. He took him to their own factory, and with their help they came to produce the desired medicine. Otherwise only smoking – that was produced. So practical knowledge is necessary, is very urgently necessary, that can help us, the practical knowledge. They were scholars. P.C. Raya, he was a renowned chemist. He had some research also, Dr. P.C. Raya. And that was in Allahabad, through Swāmī Mahārāja they opened the...

End of 81.10.19.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.28_81.10.30.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:...very shortly he will get that thing. Śrutibhir vimṛgyām [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 10.47.61] The Vedas are only searching for Him. Yogendra durgama gati [?] And the great yogīs cannot have any trace where He’s residing. So: Sastavi navastar [?] sudurlabha bhagavata hi loke, the real devotees are very rarely to be found in this world.

[aksnoh phalam tvadrsa-darsanam hi, tanoh phalam tvadrsa-gatrasangah

jihva phalam tvadrsa-kirtanam hi,] sudurlabha bhagavata hi loke

[O Vaisnava! To see you is the perfection of the eyes. To touch your holy feet is the perfection of the body. To vibrate your holy qualities is the perfection of the tongue, for it is very rare to find a pure devotee within this world.] [Hari-bhakti-sudhodaya, 13.2] & [Gauḍīya Kaṇṭhahāra, 3.47]

We may not contact with a sham thing, we must be very much cautious. We may not make real progress but we may not take anything for something, one thing for another thing. That is tama guṇa. In tama guṇa, the nature of tama guṇa is said in Bhagavad-gītā, he takes something instead of another thing. That is the sign of tama guṇa. There is selection but wrong selection. Wrong selection is the nature of tama guṇa. And the raja guṇa, little higher, it cannot ascertain. And sattya guṇa can hit the right thing. That is the distinction. So this tama guṇa influence that urges us for wrong selection. Selection, we can’t wait for any selection, selection must be done: very asahiṣṇunā, unforbearing, so wrong selection comes out of that temperament without giving the real value to the real thing. That’s the greatest enemy. We should wait and we should get, we should have a mind to – proper price for the proper thing. That sort of attitude we must have.

tṛṇād api sunīcena, taror api sahiṣṇunā [amāninā mānadena, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ]

[“One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more forbearing than a tree, who gives due honour to others without desiring it for himself is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa.”] [Śikṣāṣṭakam, 3]

That is also, teaches us, wait and see, taror api sahiṣṇunā, not like a voracious eater, whatever I shall get I shall swallow it, whatever it may be, without considering what is. Hare Kṛṣṇa. That impatient patient: a patient who is very impatient in taking his diet.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

I feel a little more tired today, perhaps for that afternoon engagement yesterday.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya Dayal. Nitāi Caitanya Dayal.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, we are feeling like you are protecting us. We feel that you are protecting us – our future.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: We depend on you, on your grace.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Whatever topics are coming I am going on to say something according to my knowledge and my experience. Śāstric knowledge, knowledge drawn from, we have heard from our Guru Mahārāja, and experience I have got during his stay and after his departure. I’m sincerely trying to put that for your consideration, so much, nothing more.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

And I feel always that what Guru Mahārāja wanted from me I did not mind much for that. In my last days he’s rather exacting from me some sort of use, from his side. That is my reward. I consider that to be my reward, that in old age, very feeble condition, but still I’m utilised by him, unexpectedly surrounded and snatched from the, what little experience I have got in my life coming in connection with that divine master. That is my own reward. I’ll be satisfied with that. Gaura Hari. Just before my demise I’m forcibly engaged in kīrtana.

He was very fond of kīrtana our Guru Mahārāja. We saw he couldn’t, can’t speak, still if anyone came he cannot but speak. I saw, we saw it with our own eyes, if anyone comes.

Once in Bombay one Marati [?] gentleman came to hear from him. “Who is sādhu?” That was his question.

He was very tired and he asked me to answer. I began with this śloka of Bhāgavatam:

sādhavo hṛdayaṁ mahyaṁ, sādhūnāṁ hṛdayaṁ tv aham

mad-anyat te na jānanti, nāhaṁ tebhyo manāg api

[“My pure devotees are always in My heart, and I am always in their heart. My devotees know nothing but Me, and I know nothing but them.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 9.4.68]

I began with this śloka but he was not satisfied. He took it from me and began to talk about sādhu. But I thought that I was misunderstood. I...

...

Devotee: The following is a darśana of His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī recorded on October thirtieth, nineteen eighty one.

Devotee: ___________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Jaladhi means seven, jaladhi means sagar, sapta sagar, so the emblem – ishu [?] means five, panca van, ishu means van, ishu represents five, and jaladhi seven, seven, five. Then the Veda, four. And conquesta vana gadhi [?] it is a custom that will be just opposite. The four will come, jaladhi seven, ishu means five, and veda means four. Cari veda, panca van, sapta samudra. And that will be best opposite, it is a custom. So the four, five, seven, four hundred fifty seven, this is the custom.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: All right. Venkatta could not understand this, and I also of course couldn’t.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Everywhere in Sanskrit, not in figure but in this sign, the sound, representing...

Devotee: _______________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In every śloka you find that is the custom.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes, very nice.

Devotee: __________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Three eyes of the, Mahādeva and...

Devotee: __________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Indicates four, five is vana [?] panca sad [?], then six is etoo [?] the seasons, seven, samudra. Also same thing, eight, vasu, asta vasu, nine, nidi, nava nidi, ten, direction. Indra, Ekadas, Rudra...

Devotee: __________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________________________________ [?]

Different signs there are. Yuga also four, Veda four, Yuga, Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara, Kali, that is also accepted as four. Guṇa also as three, sattya, raja, tama: guṇa may be used for three. In this way there are different words which carry the meaning of that...

Devotee: __________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who are you?

Devotees: Kaśirāma dāsa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kaśirāma.

Devotee: _____________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: So another question: different subject.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In Imlitalā I wrote a few ślokas there in the stone, it is put there. Then there was one thing, none can explain the meaning in that place.

And one Sakhī Bābu who reconstructed that position, that present temple, he told that when Mahāprabhu visited this place, when Govinda Mahārāja from Badarikāśrama he halted in Vṛndāvana, he asked, “What year Mahāprabhu visited this place?”

And Govinda Mahārāja told, “Gurudeva has, or, Mahārāja has composed these Sanskrit ślokas – it must be mentioned there.” Then he pointed out, this is the time.

Ratnesu vedaneti [?]

There it was mentioned, ratnesu vedani, what is the meaning of this ratnesu? So many paṇḍitas they also come; can’t understand ratnesu vedaneti. Ratnesu generally they take the seventh vivakti [?] in plural number, devasu, narasu, ratnesu, but ratna and esu, ratnesu, they can’t follow that. Ratnesu vedanite [?]

The four, five, and ratna means nine, nava ratna. Then he pointed out that this is it, this is the time when Mahāprabhu visited here, ratnesu vedanite.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Same principle here.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In the – always generally this custom – in Rāmānanda Rāya, Godāvarī, there is: Goravadhi yadi yuga āśrama yuge gauri yuga āśrama yuge [?]

Yuga means four, āśrama means four, āśrama - catur āśrama, brahmacārī, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsī, four āśramas there are four, yuga there are also four, Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara, Kali. Yuga āśrama yuge, four, four, four. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: This, in the translation of Caitanya-caritāmṛta by our Guru Mahārāja, on the verse:

śikṣā-guruke ta’ jāni, kṛṣṇera svarūpa, antaryāmī, bhakta-śreṣṭha, - ei dui rūpa

[“One should know the instructing spiritual master (śikṣā guru) to be Kṛṣṇa Himself. As Guru, Kṛṣṇa manifests as the Supersoul and as the best of devotees.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi- līlā, 1.47]

In the tattvarja he has written that: “There are two kinds is śikṣā guru, one is the liberated person fully absorbed in meditation in devotional service: and the other is he who invokes the disciple’s spiritual consciousness by means of relevant instructions.” Two types, one who’s absorbed in meditation in devotion – another who gives instruction; that means we can...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Within and without – from within who guides, that is also śikṣā Guru, by comparative study etc, dictates, dictation from within, for proper guidance, that is caitya Guru, the Guru that has got his position in our citya, in our heart. And śikṣā Guru, this is one, and another, second, the mahanta Guru who is fully established services of the Lord, he may be entrusted to take our direction of services from him: śikṣā Guru, dīkṣā Guru, they also represent Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Mahārāja, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has mentioned in his Vāṇī Vaibhava, antaraṅga and bahiraṅga Guru, that is the same?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Antaraṅga and bahiraṅga?

Devotee: Hmm, antaraṅga Guru and bahiraṅga Guru.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Antaraṅga Guru and bahiraṅga Guru, I want to, little more further step, what does he mean to understand, to follow. It may be another conception also, antaraṅga and bahiraṅga. Inner dictator and dictator from the outside, but that may include not even that śikṣā Guru, in the case of that avadhūta, fourteen [24?] Gurus. Everyone gives suggestion to him as a Guru. “I learn this thing from that bird. I learn this thing from that beast. I learn this thing from the ant.” That is chavish [?] fourteen Gurus, the avadhūta, in Bhāgavatam [beginning at 11.7.25] it is mentioned. He receives instruction from the nature also, suggesting something.

Suppose the bird cātaka who does not take water from the ground, but always expecting a drop from the cloud. This will give suggestion to us that we won’t take anything but what is given by the Guru, Vaiṣṇava, I must take that and nothing from anywhere else. And so many things when the mind is: māyā santuṣṭa-manasaḥ, sarvāḥ śivamayā.

[sadā santuṣṭa-manasaḥ, sarvāḥ śivamayā diśaḥ
śarkarā-kaṇṭakādibhyo, yathopānat-padaḥ śivam]

[“For a person who has suitable shoes on his feet, there is no danger even when he walks on pebbles and thorns. For him, everything is auspicious. Similarly, for one who is always self satisfied there is no distress; indeed, he feels happiness everywhere.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.15.17]

When He’s within he says everything is helping him to direct him towards the final end. He can read in a particular position, the sādhaka, almost a siddha, they find that everything is conducting him towards his desired end, whatever.

Mahāprabhu when dancing madly in the front of Jagannātha Deva, He was chanting an ordinary śloka, or ordinary poem, epic, but the suggestion there He’s taking and becoming mad in devotion. So all the reading of the environment – there is a particular stage when all will show towards Kṛṣṇa, ‘go towards this.’

Just as here in the land of exploitation whatever we see we try to get some sort of service from him, even a tree, even a beast, whatever we see, how to exact something from him. That is our lookout always, how to get some benefit from whatever I come across: exploitation, exploitation. And renunciation means everything is apathetic, everything is disgusting. Whatever I come across I become disgusted, that is bad, that is bad, that is bad. Everything is bad, uncongenial. That is the basis of the spirit of renunciation. We feel disturbed by anything and everything. And exploitation, we want to get some benefit, derive some sort of benefit from whatever we see.

And when established in the realm of service everything is helping him, ‘go, do this service, do this. I’m doing, you also do.’ That is in Vṛndāvana – that is really to live in Vṛndāvana, in Navadwīpa, where everything is – ‘I’m serving Kṛṣṇa, you also do your duty.’ That sort of instruction, that sort of wave will come to my plane of heart. ‘We are doing, you do. We are doing, you do,’ giving suggestion, a push towards my serving temperament. To be in Goloka, to be in Vaikuṇṭha, that means subtle plane has come there, atmosphere, their attraction, they’re all carrying to the centre.

In a mob, if I stand, by the push I can go, I have to go, go forward. Sometimes in a crowd, if I stand in the midst of a crowd I’m bound to go ahead because the whole crowd is moving forwards, I have no other alternative but to move forward.

So that current towards Kṛṣṇa, to the service, everyone will help me. ‘Come along with me, we are doing.’

And here, the land of exploitation, everything, everyone is exploiting tendency, whatever he’ll find. Even the Deities also, that is also being exploited. ‘Give something. I’m giving some one rupee bhoga to You, You give me a thousand rupees to favour me that I may get a good business. I’m giving something,’ the trading even with the Deity, with Nārāyaṇa. Because this is the land of exploitation we do not know anything but exploitation.

So exploitation, renunciation, and service, - there are also submission in them, in all these, mainly three stages. The exploitation, moral exploitation, and immoral exploitation: and the serving that is also according to some śāstric order, and spontaneous, automatic in Goloka. There is generally two divisions there. But exploitation, renunciation or abnegation, and then service, dedication, devotion, three planes of life. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

So bahiraṅga Guru that are coming to help me from outside, Guru, they’re, Guru means guide, they also help me to go towards my desired end. They’re also doing the duty of Guru to me. They’re exciting me, ‘go, do this, do this. We are doing, you also do. Come with us.’ Bahiraṅga Guru, and from within also, my urge from within, ‘you are still, sitting idle, do your duty. It’s high time.’ That is inner Guru. ‘And this is all transient. Try for the eternal good,’ that internal inspiration. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, here also it’s stated that the dīkṣā Guru is representative of Śrī Madana-mohana Vigraha, and śikṣā Guru is representative of Śrī Govindadeva Vigraha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Where do you find?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: This is in the purport, tatpariya, by our Guru Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is mentioned so far as I know that Madana-mohana sambandha, Govinda abhidheya, and Gopīnātha prayojana. Sambandha tattva Sanātana Goswāmī and his Lord of worship is Madana-mohana; that gives us sambandha. And Govinda, that is, that worship was given by Rūpa Goswāmī, and he’s the Ācārya of abhidheya, the means to end. And Gopīnātha, that is also reckoned as the, amongst one of the three Deities to be worshipped by the Gauḍīya. Gopīnātha, that is, gives us assurance to, and shelter for our whole life as gopī. So he’s prayojana Ācārya, prayojana tattva. It’s mentioned in that way. But here, where do you, read it out. I shall say.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Here it says, “The initiating spiritual master is a personal manifestation...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Initiating and who gives the Name, that is also included in initiation, bhāgavati dīkṣā?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So bhāgavati dīkṣā, Harināma and mantra, both?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Initiating master, he?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Is a personal manifestation of Śrīla Madana-mohana Vigraha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Then?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Whereas the instructing spiritual master is a personal representative of Śrīla Govindadeva Vigraha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Where have you found it? What is the source?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: That’s not given.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Where is he saying this?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: This is in the tatpariya to that śikṣā-guruke ta’ jāni, kṛṣṇera svarūpa. In the tatpariya.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Śikṣā-guruke ta’ jāni, kṛṣṇera svarūpa, antaryāmī, bhakta-śreṣṭha, - ei dui rūpa. Then: anything else there, no other?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes there is, a long tatpariya. The translation: “One should know the instructing spiritual master to be the personality of Kṛṣṇa. Lord Kṛṣṇa manifests Himself as the Supersoul and as the greatest devotee of the Lord.” [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 1.46]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So Kṛṣṇa and Madana-mohana one and the same. Śikṣā-guruke ta’ jāni, kṛṣṇera svarūpa. Dīkṣā Guru means Madana-mohana. And the abhidheya, what is that? Govinda? What is that?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He says [in the purport of Ādi-līlā, 1.47]: “Śrīla Sanātana Goswāmī is the ideal spiritual master, for he delivers [one] the shelter of the lotus feet of Madana-mohana. [Even though] one may be unable to travel on the field of Vṛndāvana due to forgetfulness of his relationship with the Supreme [Personality of Godhead] Lord, he can get an adequate opportunity to stay in Vṛndāvana and derive all spiritual benefits by the mercy of Sanātana Goswāmī.”

Then he says: “Śrī Govindajī acts [exactly] like the śikṣā-guru by teaching Arjuna Bhagavad-gītā. He is the original preceptor, for He gives us instructions and an opportunity to serve Him.”

Then he says: “The initiating spiritual master is a [personal] manifestation of Śrīla Madana-mohana Vigraha, whereas [the] instructing spiritual master is a personal representative of Śrīla Govindadeva Vigraha. Both of these Deities are worshipped at Vṛndāvana. Śrīla Gopīnātha is the ultimate attraction in spiritual realisation.” Then he says...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So it comes to that line.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The Gopīnātha ultimate; and instruction in the middle how to go on with our service that is from Govinda; and Madana-mohana you get a general conception of the whole and to attract, direct, where should I be, gathered, what is our ultimate connection with whom – that from Madana-mohana.

That means the highest power in the world discovered ever is charm, charming beauty. And Madana-mohana Who can even charm the Madana, here in the land of exploitation the principal cause of the whole movement is the principle of lust. To be united, the men and women will be united, and that is the object of the highest conception of pleasure. And we all undergo so many variegated nature, the remote aim is to have some of that sort of enjoyment. That is the engine which is moving this whole structure, to be united. Men and women will be united and thereby some different sort sense pleasure. All the pleasure is intensifiedly collected there, and anyone who is taking pain of doing so many things, the object is to that pleasure. That is the perverted reflection of the above.

So there also in Rādhā-Govinda milan and that sort of pleasure just the opposite, the Kṛṣṇa kāma, Madana-mohana, Who is charming even this Cupid, Cupid of this world. This is the lowest kāmanda tama, the extremely opposite thing here, the dense darkness; and that is the dense light, the nirmala bhaskara, that is the purest. To dedicate for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, the centre, the love; and this is the opposite for sense pleasure. So ultimately the highest force is the charm. The charm of loving nature and beauty: that is there, and here also the opposite.

Now that sort of attraction in a vague way, that is the cause of attracting, taking us to that land to be united with Kṛṣṇa in that mādhurya rasa, the kāma, the aprākṛta kāma and the prākṛta kāma. Then, we cannot feel or not, the main attraction of the two poles, south and north pole, the attraction. So when we cross the marginal line and put in the area of Vaikuṇṭha, that sort of attraction, knowing consciously or unconsciously, draws us that side: that is sambandha. That makes us – that is the very basis of the calculation of all other relations around. That is the main attraction for which we adjust and readjust and this way we move that side: sambandha jñāna. The cause of the relationship with that land is that main attractive power, Madana-mohana. Madana-mohana, His name is Madana-mohana. Kṛṣṇa means attraction, absolute attraction. And what is that absolute attraction? That is Madana in the nature of the last of this natha Madana-mohana, that is prema. Madana-mohana represents the prema. So that main attraction, consciously or unconsciously we are drawing towards that. That is sambandha. And I’m adjusted and readjusted in that while making advancement on that way. So the main thing is that Madana-mohana.

Then Govinda comes to be the presiding Deity of our duties. ‘Do this, do this, do this, then you’ll make progress,’ abhidheya. Abhidheya means ‘means to end.’ How you will make progress? Utilise your senses for His satisfaction, in this way, that way, that way, in details and go ahead. And that attraction, Madana-mohana, that is the beginning. And Govinda will help you to go ahead, eliminating something and receiving something, in this way utilising your senses, your brain, your intelligence, your body, mind, word, and utilising in this way go ahead. This is Govinda’s position.

And Gopīnātha, when you have reached your desired position, to give you shelter within His camp, to keep you for eternity. There with Gopīnātha you are a gopī and He’s your eternal master, and He gives you permanent shelter. That is prayojana. He will take the charge of you for eternity, look after you as a guardian, and you will be under His care forever. That is Gopīnātha. Prayojana.

In these three aspects the Lord approaches us, or accepts us. So we find special characteristic in three phases. Though one, but in three phases He comes to our help: so Madana-mohana, Govinda and Gopīnātha. And in our mantram also we find Kṛṣṇa, Govinda and Gopīnātha. Kṛṣṇa represents Madana-mohana in the mantram. The mantram which we get from Gurudeva, there also Kṛṣṇa, Govinda and Gopīnātha, and Kṛṣṇa represents Madana-mohana. And Govinda is there and Gopīnātha is also there in the mantram. Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, Madana-mohana. And Madana-mohana is not mentioned but Kṛṣṇa representing Madana-mohana in the mantram, so Kṛṣṇa and Madana-mohana one and the same. That is, attractor, simple attraction. And then the detailed action how we can adjust us with the attraction, and we can make progress. That is Govinda. And when reached our goal for permanent guidance, shelter, the arrangement is made by Gopīnātha. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta told that Gaura Kiśora Dāsa Bābājī was a mañjarī?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Guṇa Mañjarī.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: What mañjarī?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Guṇa Mañjarī.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: And that he also saw Rādhārāṇī in his Guru.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, he told. Did you find it anywhere?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: No, but you told Pradyumna once.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, but that is, he told just in this way: “If we can look at it with higher angle of vision we see him Rādhārāṇī.” Because he’s Guru:

ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān, [nāvamanyeta karhicit

na martya-buddhyāsūyeta, sarva-deva-mayo guruḥ]

[“One should know the Ācārya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.17.27] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 1.46]

“He’s my Guru. Guru’s function in the nearest way I find him this Gaura Kiśora Bābājī. But if I with mādhurya rasa touch I enter into her heart, into his heart, we find he’s worshipping in the mood of Guṇa Mañjarī in the camp of Rādhārāṇī. Then if we want to take it in a broader light, ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān, the connection coming from the up, then we can see the full mādhurya rasa. Mañjarī is a partial representation, but by the arrangement, by the law of Kṛṣṇa that Guru is myself, so with that said, if I follow that sort of outlook then we can have the mādhurya rasa in full fledge it is there for me. For me, the whole, the perfect rasa, not part representation: ostentatiously he’s a part representation of mādhurya rasa, but as the śāstra says, ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān, so you don’t think that your Guru is partial representation, but the representation of the whole. But in this particular mood I look on her that he’s not a mañjarī. In the most ordinary he’s Gaura Kiśora Bābājī Mahārāja. Then more internal vision I find Guṇa Mañjarī. Then again with the consonance of the śāstric order that he’s not partial representation but for me he’s full representation within him, in his inner, I can find Guru’s full, perfect. Whatever my want, it is not wanted there, it will come from Him, because at the background Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa means mādhurya rasa, the highest, the most magnanimous position is that of Rādhārāṇī. So if I look with a high expectation then I can find Rādhārāṇī in her.”

That was his explanation, we took in that way.

He told, plainly, “If I look with a head a little higher standard I find Rādhārāṇī. That full eight rasas, naiyika. Rādhārāṇī represents all the aspects of eight naiyikas in Her, and all else more or less partial representations. And if I try with a broader look I want towards Her I find that the whole of the eight kinds of naiyika rasa is present there for me, by the special grant of Lord Himself.”

The Guru to the śiṣya is a full thing not any partial mediator, though as a mediator he’s concise, but mediation may come through him as the will of the Supreme. The full may come at His will. So subjective cause we shall always remember.

Paśya me yogam aiśvaram [Bhagavad-gītā, 9. 5] “Arjuna, what am I? Look at Me! I’m not that Kṛṣṇa of you, your friend. Now you see so big.”

It is His will. So no under law, we can’t bring Him, we can’t bring the Infinite in a cage, however big, bigger it may be. You see, no bigger cage can accommodate Infinite. As our habit we want to know everything with boundary line: ‘This is this, this cannot be that, this cannot be that, this is this.’ We’re habituated to think like that. But in the case of Infinite, no boundary, no circumference, all centre. Everywhere there is centre, nowhere circumference. We’re approaching that, we must not forget that. So in an atom He can show Himself the full, full representation in an atom, through an atom He may see.

The vijñānī, the scientists, they’re going to analyse the atom, a very limited thing...

End of 81.10.28_81.10.30.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.30.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...going towards Infinite, no end. No end of analysis. Then they’re faced with Infinite knowledge, even when they’re going to analyse an atom. They’re forced to face the infinite aspect of the thing, beginning with an atom analysis. That is connected with Infinite. They will be surprised. The relativity of the atom the Infinite is backing. Something like that.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Gaura Nitāi. Gaura Nitāi.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura divides the brahma-bhūtaḥ stage into two platforms: the svarūpa gatar and the vastu gatar. Could you explain the difference between these two?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Svarūpa gata relating to himself and vastu gatar relating to the environment, svarūpa gatar and vastu gatar?. And that is also vastu siddhi and svarūpa siddhi. Svarūpa siddhi to realise the ideal in full, and vastu siddhi actual realisation with the environment: one more or less theoretical, another more or less practical. One by determination, by plan, ideal: another actual participation there.

Suppose some I.C.S. Officer he has passed practical examinations, everything he’s passed, he has attained the position of an I.C.S. Officer in full. Then he’s given a particular post and comes into practical experience. The theoretical qualification he has attained by passing the examination, then he’s given a post to act in that way. When he’s acting in his position in the service practically he’s doing those duties what he got in his training time to the fullest extent. Something like that.

That theoretical realisation to the full and then to be utilised in the practical life, that is svarūpa siddhi and vastu siddhi. Vastu siddhi by sādhana, by his śravaṇa, kīrtana, all the methods he has just reached the highest point of his life. Then it has been seen vastu siddhi, a process, when his realisation is full. Then where Kṛṣṇa in particular brahmāṇḍa having His bhauma līlā he gets a birth there, in the gopī section, and comes in the prapañca līlā of Kṛṣṇa. And then he gets recognition in the eternal līlā of Kṛṣṇa.

Some theoretical qualification attained, engaged in practical participation of the service. And it has been explained to us that this begins in this plane when Kṛṣṇa has descended and performing His līlā, and he gets a chance there. Suppose a select committee of selection: something like that, and then he’s put in the service in fact and he goes and gets engaged himself. Final, theoretical realisation, then beginning practical life. That is in both, in svarūpa siddhi and vastu siddhi; that means something like that.

But your, in every rasa, in sākhya rasa, vātsalya rasa, śanta, in every rasa it is like that, not only in mādhurya rasa but every rasa. When first svarūpa siddhi, theoretical realisation finished, and then practical engagement in the līlā. A little difference, appointment of the service, to make fit oneself and then get the appointment: this is the difference.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, since Kṛṣṇa’s descending through the Guru, as revealed to the disciple through the Guru... um...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And Guru means sad-guru we shall say, not trader, not opaque Guru, transparent, real Guru.

Devotee: Is it, will the disciple of a madhyama-adhikārī Guru achieve the same result as a disciple of an uttama-adhikārī Guru?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course. There may be a little difference, but according to his previous sukṛti we may recover the differences. Sincerity – that may be compensated gradually if we are sincere – just as the connection of Guru we may have by the arrangement of the Absolute, so also, after – in my case that madhyama-adhikārī Guru will give this instruction rightly. And also he may retire and I can have – just as in a birth I may have, I may meet one Guru, in another birth I may meet another Guru, but in substantial measurement it is all and same, may be some difference in form. So even in this life also it may be that after some instruction from a particular Guru I may get another śikṣā Guru where I can learn more. Ke? ________________________ [?]

It may not be impossible, because that Guru is one, ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 11.17.27]. Our sincerity and His grace, that is one and the same thing. His grace, simultaneously there may be Guru, we see. Simultaneously many Gurus are doing the work of the Ācārya, duty of the Ācārya. But He’s within, everywhere.

In Mahāprabhu’s time also, so many Ācāryas, they had their disciples, but everyone is to look at his own Guru as he’s the Supreme. He’s the most well wisher of mine, my guardian. But everywhere there is ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān.

So many mothers may simultaneously exist to represent their own good of their own sons, own children, and that every mother is the centre, the highest centre of affection to every child. Ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān. His grace may be deposited in that manner. But still there may be some difference though the maximum – not all mothers not equal, and the accomplishment of all the mothers are not equal. But still, generally we expect the maximum affection of the child is within his mother. That is the general way. But there may be taṭasthā-vicāra, this is relative, but the taṭasthā-vicāra from the absolute standpoint there are so many differences in the qualities of the mothers, in training, in intelligence, in affection, there may be. But according to their previous sukṛti they will come to particular mothers.

Always we are faced with these two things, relative and absolute consideration. Relative also necessary and absolute is also there devouring the whole, accommodating whole. All comprehensive, the absolute consideration, but still we cannot ignore the relative position and nature of things distributed. This is general common sense.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Would it be considered an aparādha if a disciple sees his initiating Guru as a madhyama-adhikārī and wants to seek an uttama-adhikārī as śikṣā Guru? Would that be considered an aparādha?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He says, “If we see our Guru as madhyama and we want to find another, uttama-adhikārī, will that be Guru aparādha?”

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You see, there are so many who takes, so many – Gaura Kiśora Bābājī Mahārāja, the Guru of our Guru Mahārāja, he took initiation from, as gṛhastha, from Advaita Goswāmī. But when, as if he surpassed his own Guru, his Guru was a gṛhastha, but he felt urge that he must devote himself fully for the service. Went to Vṛndāvana and took bābājī-veśa from another Guru of that type. In the strict sense he left this Guru by taking another Guru. There is a contest among the Goswāmīns that gṛhastha Guru can give his tyāgī Guru, a gṛhastha Guru, a Goswāmī, he can give the dress of renunciation to one’s own disciple, gṛhastha disciple. Gṛhastha Guru gṛhastha disciple, and the disciple wants to take the dress of renunciation, bābājī-veśa, vaikantic bhajan, the gṛhastha Guru when he’s representative of God he may give, otherwise it will be Guru tyāga. But the Bābājī class they don’t recognise that, “No. You are gṛhastha. How can you be the Guru of the tyāgī, bābājī?” So they’re forced to leave this Guru and go to bābājī Guru, tyāgī Guru, and there take that bābājī mantram. These things can go on under their guidance. So this is also a custom, Guru tyāga, it is not Guru tyāga because the real purpose is there.

Sometimes, as Jayatīrtha Mahārāja recommends, in the case of Mukundamālā, “I shall ask Rāmeśvara that he himself will send this Mukundamālā to you. I shall ask him to do this path; that he cannot put śraddhā in him, so it will be, it will look well if he sends himself to you. I shall try for that.”

So sometimes the gṛhastha Guru will say, “You want to take tyāgī you go and take initiation of the sannyāsa mantra there.” That is well and good. But sometimes they oppose, but still the custom is like that. The Bābājī and the Goswāmī they have got a difference to certain extent in this affair. So if by previous, as the result of previous karma one first comes to a Guru, just as this vartma-pradarśaka, he gets something like ṛtvika, and canvasses and makes him fit to a certain extent, and carries him to his own Guru, “Take initiation here.” But that is also a function of Guru, that function of recruiting. And Guru has also come to recruit. So recruitment, the service of recruitment may be distributed to certain – when parties are sincere there is no difficulty. But there is possibility of differences, and there’s the rub.

Devotee: There was one proposal that the ISKCON initiating Gurus that they’re madhyama- adhikārī so one may take initiation, dīkṣā, from madhyama-adhikārī.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You see, that is also, trouble, many things. Suppose in ISKCON, in general big geographical zone, but in a particular zone he cannot have his respect for the zonal Ācārya but for another Ācārya. His inner tendency he can’t check, inner choice, he has got choice by hearing the words of an Ācārya of another zone. From one zone a man sincerely has liking for the Ācārya of another zone. Then if he’s forced to take this Ācārya of his own zone then some difficult position with the disciple. So free choice, that will be good in one sense, and zonal administration that will be disturbed. So these are the practical difficulties in the management, with relative and absolute, free choice and custom, law, custom and free choice. Free choice and social law come in clash in every stage. They are to meet that difficulty, artificial life to be rejected, to be abolished, then free choice will be given amongst them. But that cannot be allowed for the geographical zonal, but in the mental sphere if we independent of the geography we consider the mental, we give superiority to the mental system, then it comes in clash. So there is facility of the administration, of the constitution, and difficulties also there. So in their own system such difficulty is there, and so one must be of wide thinking, to deal as much as natural he should be allowed to take. Take the part of more natural, that will be healthy. And much more of laws, regulations, committee, all these things, that will be artificial, more or less artificial, and idolatry. Form worshipper, making too much of that. That is also necessary to certain extent but not to the extreme, not to the extreme.

One and different, acintya bhedābheda, bhedābheda, always this motto to be respected, bheda, bhedābheda, and acintya, not within hard and fast rules, then it is again a machine. Natural and mechanic machine, rules and law, must go side by side. And it should be applied with a skill, with more understanding, and widely with more understanding and intelligence. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Artificial, laboured, and natural. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, yesterday you were saying that the time and space can expand and contract.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, ha, ha.

Devotee: So that is experienced by more advanced devotees, but the sādhaka he may also experience this?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is for particular cases, maybe. There is the sweet will of the Lord. The most needy, sometimes His attention is drawn to that, and sometimes some qualified also may be ignored. We cannot interfere with His independence.

“Why You have shown mercy in his case and not in the case of mine?”

We can’t take Him under law. That is not śaraṇāgati. When we put such question before Him then we deviate from the position of śaraṇāgati: not even we can be enlisted into the primary class. So what is the spirit of śaraṇāgati?

“If You come to consider, calculate, I have no hope. I’m such a mean fellow. If You come to calculate right and wrong I have no hope. So I have come to that school of You where only the mercy will be my hope. Only I want Your mercy, but You come to examine me I’ve got no hope.”

That is the primary necessity in our śaraṇāgati, in our surrendering. Surrender means that. Surrender does not allow you to think that, “Why You have shown grace on him and not on me?” That is anti surrendering temperament. No calculation! “If You come to calculate I have no hope. So some causeless mercy, if You can show some grace to me then I have that hope. I have come to that department of You all by surrendering. So anyone may have His voluntary mercy, I may not have. If I hesitate but think about the justice then I’m already cancelled from the list, my name will be struck out from the register, book.” Do you follow? No?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This is very hard, very disappointing.

Devotees: [Laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: One of the finest points in śaraṇāgati, what is surrender, what should be the quality of surrender.

mārobi rākhobi yo icchā tohārā, [nitya-dāsa prati tuwā adhikārā]

[“Slay me or protect me as You wish, for You are the master of Your eternal servant.”]

[From Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s Ātma-nivedana, 3.3]

So with this sort of understanding, this basis, we shall go to surrender. The surrender, calculation is not allowed in that department. Causeless mercy, the department is that of causeless mercy. May be extended to one and not extended to me, A.B.C. I have nothing to complain of the same. Ke?

Devotee: __________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: __________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________________________ [?]

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Then what more, the thunder, bolt from the blue. To become śaraṇāgata, to surrender means to give all, leave all the prospects, to be so emptied, no prospect, to be fully emptied, and then to surrender. Not a least application, a least mention in the petition; clean slate surrendering means, surrender. Complete dependence, to make or mar, to admit the right to make or mar. To admit that right in my master that, “I’m slave. I want be a slave.”

Mahāprabhu says: Jīvera 'svarūpa' haya-kṛṣṇera 'nitya-dāsa' [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya- līlā, 20.108] “That is your constitutional position.”

Will you go to, have you got that boldness to admit that, that you have got a full right of your master on you, so much boldness? “Yes, my master has got fullest right on me. I’m ready to go to the eternal hell, if a little pleasure in him.” This tale we see is very sweet to your ear, but to accept I suspect is harder, horrible. Jīvera 'svarūpa' haya-kṛṣṇera 'nitya-dāsa.' No risk no gain, whole risk whole gain. Such confidence, free, clear, bold choice; are you ready for that? Kṛṣṇa is not like a sweetmeat! Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. So cheap, so dear! Everywhere, nowhere!

“You all belong to Me.”

We don’t care for you. We are inhabitant of that land now. But really, we have got every right of Him, by constitution. We must be bold enough to call a spade a spade. That is the truth, and Mahāprabhu says that to us. That you are a spade, then don’t say that it an axe. It is a spade, a spade. What is what!

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Mahārāja, in Goloka Vṛndāvana there are some personalities, as I understand it, engaged in neutrality or śanta rasa. But Lord Caitanya says that unless one – He did not consider devotional service to begin until dāsya rasa. So how is it that śanta rasa can be present in Goloka Vṛndāvana?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He says...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Śanta rasa and dāsya rasa?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. How...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Śanta rasa is passive and dāsya rasa a little active in a particular way, active, and śanta rasa is passive.

Devotee: Lord Caitanya did not accept devotional service to begin until the stage of dāsya rasa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He says, until we come to dāsya, then there is no bhakti, there’s no sevā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This is also passive, in passive way, the taru, the creeper, the tree, the sand, the water, in Vṛndāvana, that is all cinmaya, caitan, that is all spiritual substance, but posing in that way.

vaikuṇṭhera pṛthivy ādi sakala cinmaya [māyika bhūtera tathi janma nāhi haya]

[“The earth, water, fire, air and ether of Vaikuṇṭha are all spiritual. Material elements are not found there.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 5.53]

Caitan means endowed with – that is conscious and endowed with freedom.

The siṁhāsana, the throne, they’re all vaibhava of Baladeva. The throne, this camara, this umbrella, serving in a passive way, extension of Baladeva, the potency of Baladeva they are. Whatever is necessary there in Vaikuṇṭha as materials, the servitors of different types, all conscious units, and extensions of Baladeva, in Vṛndāvana, Nityānanda here.

Devotee: Didn’t Lord Caitanya say that devotional service began with dāsya rasa?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: A little better, the śanta, the dāsya is a little better, and then confidential service that is more better than the servant’s service. And vātsalya rasa, filial service, that is better than this friendly service. And mādhurya rasa sevā that includes everything and that is considered to be the highest because the service of every element is present there, and in quality also it becomes superior to all.

When the servant brings a glass of water to his master, and wife she brings a glass of water to her husband – externally the same thing, but internally it gives more pleasure to the husband, than the, the wife’s service is better than the servant’s service. But externally only water affair!

So in mādhurya rasa – the vātsalya rasa prepares food to offer to the son, and mādhurya rasa also prepares food for the husband, but the mādhurya rasa service is more sweet. So all the service of all the rasa in the touch of mādhurya rasa becomes more qualified, it is samaha, all the rasas are within it, and also more sweet. So it is madhura, means sweet. Ke?

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Our Atreya Rsi he asked me not to deal with these things, to disturb the ISKCON Movement.

Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda has also dealt with these things in his books.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But our Akṣayānanda Mahārāja said that though you say these with much caution you say. Not without caution, necessary caution. But our way is such, the mantram, the Guru paramparā, all so much show that this is the way to our destination. But when we shall grow more and more in our experience, in our purity, we shall have to go though by this path to that temple, in this way we shall.

I’m very strict, than other God brothers. I do not exhibit any julan yatra or rasa yatra in the temple, but so many temples they do that.

Our Guru Mahārāja also, in kārtika-mas in Rādhā-kuṇḍa and Vṛndāvana, he chanted that aṣṭa-kālīya-līlā composed by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, but I do not do that. Instead of that I Kṛṣṇa satanam, Gaura satanam, and also only eight ślokas of Mahāprabhu, and that Damodara stotra, and that Rādhe jaya jaya, that one Rūpa Goswāmī śloka. I’m very strictly confined to lower level, than even Guru Mahārāja gave a little higher, but I’m very strict about that.

But still he asked me to be more sober and more considerate. Not to inaugurate the mādhurya rasa into the field of ISKCON and disturb them, because it is clearly in the Guru paramparā and in the mantra, so can’t avoid. So he mildly asked me not to give attention to that.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: If we only sit – if you do not speak, if we only sit here, still we consider ourselves most fortunate.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: The most fortunate.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nitāi Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Dhāma Govardhana especially.

Kuliyā prakāśe prabhu śrī kṛṣṇa caitanya ami nahi jani kahe te.

[kuliyā-grāmete āsi' śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya, hena nāhi, yā 're prabhu nā karilā dhanya]

[“At Koladvīpa - the Govardhana Hill of Vṛndāvana, concealed in Śrī Navadvīpa Dhāma - the Most Generous Absolute expressed Himself in His maximum generosity. Without considering any crime, He absolved whoever He found. He accepted them all.”] [Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Antya, 3.541]

The most merciful place Mahāprabhu appeared here. All the sinners of the highest type they were absolved of their sin, offences here in Kuliyā prakāśe, after sannyāsa when He came once to give a visit here. At that time whoever approached they got forgiveness. So I’ve selected this place, this Govardhana Kuliyā, the most magnanimous to the extreme one, and Nityānanda Prabhu also passing along both sides of the Ganges.

bhaja gaurāṅga, kaha gaurāṅga laha gauranger nāma,

yei jana gaurāṅga bhaje sei amāra prāna

[“Worship Gaurāṅga, speak of Gaurāṅga, chant Gaurāṅga's Name. Whoever worships Śrī Gaurāṅga is My life and soul. Come straight to the campaign of Śrī Caitanya and you will safely attain Vṛndāvana.”]

“Come under the flag of Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu. The least, by spending least energy the maximum gain you can hope, coming under His flag, and most natural and highest attainment, that you can’t dream of even.” He’s wandering from door to door, Nityānanda Prabhu, and with request and entreaty, heartfelt request, “Come.” Shedding tears, “You don’t know what things are going,” from door to door, “what valuable things and in what little price, small price, high things are going away.” From door to door, “to accept, take it, take it, very cheap but high, highly valuable.” Nityānanda Prabhu, from door to door. The prema, the love, the highest charm of the Lord, the land of beauty, the highest realisation of all the conscious world, and that has come to visit from door to door. “Accept it, accept Gaurāṅga, and I give admission card, I’m distributing admission card to you. Keep it, keep it, you will find the benefit to the utmost gain to you.”

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya.

What’s the time?

Devotee: Nine thirty.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Then, should we retire here, or any question? From whom: or all in thinking mood?

Devotees: [Laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That qualification of surrender that has shaken our brain?

Devotees: [Laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Shaken head: surrender.

jīvera 'svarūpa' haya-kṛṣṇera 'nitya-dāsa' [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.108]

Can you accept that you are eternal servant, you are slave of Kṛṣṇa? And Kṛṣṇa is so dignified that even slave has got the highest position and He’s such that it is not, He does not shrink to serve His slaves also. So great, so magnanimous!

ahaṁ bhakta-parārdhīno, hy asvatantra iva dvija

[sādhubhir grasta-hṛdayo, bhaktair bhakta-jana-priyaḥ]

[The Lord tells Durvāsā: “I am the slave of My devotees; I have no freedom apart from their will. Because they are completely pure and devoted to Me, My heart is controlled by them, and I reside always in their hearts. I am dependent not only on My devotees, but even on the servants of My devotees. Even the servants of My devotees are dear to Me.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 9.4.63]

“As if I am not independent, I feel My tendency to serve My devotees in such a way that I’m not independent, I’m under their direction. I feel like that.”

This is known as bhakti, devotion, śrī-kṛṣṇākarṣiṇī ca sā. Bhakti, the dedication, the devotion, is such wonderful type, thing, than jñāna, that knowledge. Knowing everything that is very charming, to know everything. ‘I’m master of everything, I know everything. That means I’m almost master of everything.’ But this consciousness, slavery, is highly above that. The real knowledge becomes as if servant to you, if you follow this path of surrender, śaraṇāgati. The Infinite comes within the fist of the finite. Can you imagine? Is it imaginable? That has been given by Mahāprabhu in Bhāgavatam. The plane is of such type. The biggest general in the clutch of a beautiful, loving girl – the paramount king commanding whole force may be in the clutch of a girl. We are told that someone was, dictator Napoleon, Julius or some lady.

Devotee: Bonaparte.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bonaparte, he was, I forgot the name of the lady.

Devotees: Caesar.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, no.

Devotee: No, the girl of Napoleon, wife of Napoleon.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: One lady, not Julius, not, some lady she had some influence over Napoleon. [Josephine?] So prema, love is a thing of such superiority, can control the whole...

End of 81.10.30.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.10.30.C_81.11.01.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...to the world of the highest value is love, charm, charm. So if you want that, śrī-kṛṣṇākarṣiṇī ca sā [Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, Purva, 1.17], the Kṛṣṇa, the Autocrat, is controlled by love and by nothing else. Love is such, prema is such, it can control the Autocrat, the Absolute Autocrat. He also can be controlled. This is the clue. And that has been, Mahāprabhu came with that idea, to distribute that. He may be Master of the Master, come in this way, this path will lead you somewhere, from where you’ll be able to control the Master of the Masters; a little of that, that quality, prema. Pancam purusyat [?] Śiva viriñcira vāñchita, the creator and destroyer of the world, they also aspire after a drop of such thing, Brahmā and Śiva. Śiva viriñcira vāñchita ye dhana jagate phelila ḍhāli.

[emana gaurāṅga vinu nāhi āra, hena avatāra habe ki hayeche

hena prema paracār, śiva viriñcira vāñchita ye dhana

jagate phelila ḍhāli, kāṅgāle pāiye khāila nāciye

bājāiyekaratāli, nāciyā gāhiyā khola karatāle

dhāiyā mātiyā phire, tarāsa pāiye śamaṇa kiṅkara

kabāṭa hānila dvāre, e tina bhuvana ānande bharila

uṭhila maṅgala śora, kahe premānande ehenā gaurāṅge

rati nā janmila mora]

[“O mind please listen. You have nothing else to be attached to except Śrī Gaurāṅga. Never in the past, nor in the future, will there be such a benevolent incarnation who has presented the matchless divine love ecstasy of God so generously. He poured into this world that ambrosial wealth which is ever cherished and hankered for even by great powerful personalities like Śiva and Viriñci (Brahmā). By His merciful grant, even the most common destitute persons were blessed with the chance to imbibe that nectar with great delight. Overwhelmed by spiritual ecstasy they began to sing the glory of the Lord and dance accompanied by the concert of rhythmic drums and sweet karatālas. Frightened by the power of such holy saṅkīrtana, the inauspicious atheists who were slaves to their mortal ego, ran away and hid in locked rooms to protect themselves from such purifying effect. All three worlds of existence (svarga, martya and patala) became blessed by receiving transcendental bliss and reverberated that auspicious sound. Premānanda says: “I can never have enough devotion to my beloved Gaurāṅga.”]

[Bhakti Nandan Svāmī’s Śrī Bhakti Rakṣaka Bhajana Madhuri, p 7] [Collection of verses, 147]

It falls like in a flow, that nectar which the creator of the world, the masters of creation and dissolution, they’re the masters of this visible world. The masters of creation and that of dissolution, they also aspire after a drop of such thing, śiva viriñcira vāñchita ye dhana. Such graceful incarnation Mahāprabhu came.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

So today I may stop here. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Jaya oṁ viṣṇupāda śrīla bhaktisiddhānta saraswatī goswāmī prabhupāda kī jaya!

Devotees: Jaya!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Śrīpāda A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja kī jaya!

Devotees: Jaya!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sevā vṛnda kī jaya!

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...comes to the physical plane, and then as a reaction comes to the human body: that is karma-phala.

Took the idea from radio, that there was one lama who is a refugee in India from Nepal, the Dalai Lama, he’s delivering lectures in Darjeeling or speaking somewhere else, saying that: “The misery does not fall from the sky, nor it grows from the earth, but it is our own karma.”

Buddhist Lama, may be depending on nature, karma, automatic. But there is some autocratic authority above that they do not admit. The Buddists cannot accommodate; everything within this nature, the law of nature. But transcendental power absolute, which can design and destine, it is above, that is not admitted there. But law of karma, transmigration of soul, that is admitted.

Indian atheism admits mostly transmigration of soul, and the individual consciousness in every creature, even in the animal and vegetable world. Everywhere there is soul and transmigration: two things, though they’re atheists but they admit these two things.

And though theist, still Christianity and Islam, they do not believe in transmigration, nor in individuality in the animals and the trees and vegetable kingdom. Even that is better in the eye of the theism, theistic view.

Devotee: Kaśirāma.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kaśirāma. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Ke?

Devotee: In Bhāgavatam, first canto, this verse:

tat sarvaṁ naḥ samācakṣva, pṛṣṭo yad iha kiñcana

manye tvāṁ viṣaye vācāṁ, snātam anyatra chāndasāt

[“We know that you are expert in the meaning of all subjects, except some portions of the Vedas, and thus you can clearly explain the answers to all the questions we have just put to you.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.4.13]

It explains that Sūta Goswāmī was very learned in the Vedas, but there were some portions of the Vedas that he was not familiar with. Could you explain that, how he was qualified to speak, but he was not familiar with some portions of the Vedas?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is told by Śaunaka – who, who is the – whose version? Śaunaka Ṛṣi? The statement of whom?

Devotee: Yes, I think Śaunaka.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Śaunaka, yes. They’re orthodox brāhmaṇas, they’re of the opinion that other than the brāhmaṇas – brāhmaṇas, kṣatriya, vaiśya – these three sections are allowed to read the Veda, to study Vedas. The śūdra section they’re unfit to understand the real purpose of the Vedas, so they’re barred from studying, study of Veda.

So he’s saying that, “We want to hear from you the Purāṇic tales, Purāṇa, Mahābhārata, that is approachable by everyone, even a śūdra. So we admit you to be the authority of the knowledge of Purāṇa. We won’t hear from you any Vedic doctrine. You have no – that is beyond your jurisdiction. So chāndasāt rte, only accept that of Veda, we consider you to be the well-versed in the knowledge of everything. So we ardently like to hear from you.”

That is the purpose. The Bengali is there, no? That is, the Veda, the Śruti, is to be understandable only by the dvija, those who get sacred thread, dvija, brāhmaṇa saṁskāra, brāhmaṇa saṁskāra is necessary before one is given admission in the study of Veda. That was the custom. Śūdra and antyaja, the out-caste, the last caste and the out-caste, they’re not considered eligible for the study of Veda. That meaning is mentioned here. They can’t understand the real purpose. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes. Was Śaunaka considered from the lower caste?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Śaunaka never comes from the brāhmaṇa family so he’s not to hear any reference of the Veda from Sūta Goswāmī because he did not belong to any dvija section, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya. These three are allowed to study Veda, not the śūdra. And the underlying principle, the śūdra that are too much engaged in the mortal world, they cannot understand the real spiritual purpose of things, because they’re very deeply engaged with mortal things, śoka, the reaction of which is to lament. Lamentation is the reaction of our too much attraction of the mortal wealth. Ke?

Devotee:______________ [?]

Devotee: Sūta Goswāmī was not of the dvija class?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No. His father, Romaharṣaṇa [Sūta], he was Ugraśravā, his father was Romaharṣaṇa, he was a direct disciple of Vedavyāsa. And Vedavyāsa only gave him the right of the Purāṇa. The Purāṇa was entrusted to Romaharṣaṇa Sūta. Romaharṣaṇa Sūta, the father of this Ugraśravā [Sūta Goswāmī]. It is also mentioned there that the Purāṇa section was entrusted to Romaharṣaṇa, the father of Sūta.

Devotee: There are eighteen Purāṇas, six in the mode of goodness, six in tama, six in raja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Mainly divided into three, but really, Bhāgavata is not sattya, above that, nirguṇa, but still it is generally reckoned among the sattvica Purāṇa.

Devotee: I’ve heard that Gaṇeśa promised Vyāsadeva that he would write as long as Vyāsadeva spoke.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Devotee: Gaṇeśa would write about...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mahābhārata.

Devotee: That is Mahābhārata only?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, in the case of Mahābhārata. There a special writer was necessary, expert was necessary. Ordinary books many could record, write. And that was sixty lākhs of śloka, so a specialist was necessary for that purpose to write. And he was going like automatic, he will say and one will write, in this way the revelation will come to be recorded. In the form of impulse it was reserved in the mind of Vedavyāsa, pushing to come out. And to record some specialist was necessary and Gaṇeśa was offered and he accepted that. It is told that Gaṇeśa had less memory, so the writing was invented only for him and in his time. Before this, the sharp memory, they could carry everything in their brain, memory. But Gaṇeśa, being elephant headed, less memory, man, god: and so it was necessary to evolve the writing system, and he was expert in that, writing.

Devotee: Śrīdhara Mahārāja: in the fourth canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the chapter about Mahārāja Purañjana it is stated there that when the spiritual master leaves the planet, the Supersoul, the Paramātmā, manifests Himself before the sincere disciple to give him instruction. Could you explain that!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is, Paramātmā means caitya Guru. Mahanta Guru and caitya, two, mahanta Guru external and caitya Guru inside, and Paramātmā instruction and caitya Guru:

ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān, [nāvamanyeta karhicit

na martya-buddhyāsūyeta, sarva-deva-mayo guruḥ]

[“One should know the Ācārya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.17.27] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 1.46]

So the process of revelation to the qualified disciple comes from above. From outside, there is also that link, and inside also there is link. Only yesterday or day before we were talking about those things:

śikṣā-guruke ta’ jāni, kṛṣṇera svarūpa, antaryāmī, bhakta-śreṣṭha, - ei dui rūpa

[“One should know the instructing spiritual master (śikṣā guru) to be Kṛṣṇa Himself. As Guru, Kṛṣṇa manifests as the Supersoul and as the best of devotees.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi- līlā, 1.47]

And Swāmī Mahārāja’s quotation in that connection one read out. There, Guru external and internal Guru. It was discussed the other day in details. Paramātmā means internal dictator, and if Guru is God Himself, then no harm, with a little deeper vision we see that it is coming from Him. Caitya Guru and Paramātmā, we may take as one and same. Inner voice; according to the purity of our consciousness we can detect inner voice, caitya Guru. More grossly, covered, mahanta Guru is indispensable. In developed condition, the caitya Guru, one can catch the dictation of caitya Guru, inner voice, may be of Paramātmā, and even from above. Sometimes, perhaps in dream, or in some trance, or otherwise, another Vaiṣṇava, previous Gurudeva, Mahāprabhu, they can also appear and give some instruction. It is also not impossible.

Devotee: One time, one of the present...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Swāmī Mahārāja told: “If I die here don’t be disappointed. Your grandfather is there.” He told, is it not? Have you heard?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I have heard that he gave consolation to his disciples in America when he was seriously ill there. “Your grandfather is there. Don’t be disappointed. He will help you. He will come and help you.” That is in that way from internal push. “What I’m doing it is not only – don’t limit it to my duty, but it has got its root higher above, and they’re conscious of the fact that the truth is being distributed in the length and breadth of this world. And it has got design, higher, and so I go away and then some other help will come surely to you, won’t be stopped.” That was his idea. That was his idea that, “I did not come, it is not an accidental event that I have come to you. Just as when fighting goes on the front fighters they may fall down, but at the back there is supply. So also, it is designed, not an accident for which I have come to you.”

Devotee: One time, one of the present ISKCON Ācārya’s had one disciple who had a dream that his Guru came and gave him some instruction in the dream, but the Guru himself was not conscious of this event. Is this the Supersoul working?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That depends upon the condition of the two – particular position of the disciple. All dreams are not true. And in dream his own Guru appeared and gave something, and Guru refuses, ‘No, I did not.’

Devotee: Guru said he was not conscious of that. But he understood it to be the working of the Supersoul because the dictation in the dream...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So circumstances, we must be aware of the circumstance and then we can pass any opinion, otherwise not. What sort of dictation, and under what condition, and what is the subject of that dream? These things should be supplied; then we can say something, give some opinion; though it is not impossible. It was necessary for the higher agent to give something from the form of the Guru, it also may be necessary. Ke?

Devotee: ______________________________________ [?]

Devotee: ...explain how the pursuit of music is an impediment in one’s advancement of devotional service.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say? What does he mean?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He says, sangeet is impediment, obstacle, baddha in bhakti, he wants to know why.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is, it can help, but it is difficult to utilise in devotion. Generally, that tempts us to this physical pleasure, sense pleasure, so it is baddha, obstacle. Because it has got more power to attract the heart, the inner: the inner self is attracted by the music, the sound. Sound is most effective and it can enter into the very subtle plane. So if it carries poison it can do a great harm. At the same time if it can carry nectar it will also help us in that extent. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You?

Devotee: Yes.

Devotee: Because our Swāmī Mahārāja was...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Most effective it comes from Goloka, Kṛṣṇa’s flute, the origin, most powerful. If that is misused, a great offence: and if it is for utilisation it will also help us to a great deal, the sound.

Śrīla Govinda Mahārāja: __________________________________________ [?]

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Religion is proper adjustment. Things are there, only adjustment and readjustment, that is what we are to do according to our general conception of the whole, sambandha jñāna. Details should be explained by the general consciousness, general knowledge. According to formula we are to explain the branches, the details, so that it may not clash with others existing, it must come in the system, in harmony with the system, current system. It may not clash with any other courses that are already current, it may not clash. If new laws are to be introduced it must be done with this consciousness that it may not clash with other existing laws. So you are to look out with a broad view and a perspective of the environment, and then to go on to solve the problem; may not be antagonistic with the laws existing in the environment, by-laws. Sambandha jñāna: that is the source of all replies of all questions.

Once, one of my senior God brothers, our Guru Mahārāja was living at that time, he asked me to explain the beginning, somewhere, “You explain this śloka; few ślokas.”

He gave it to me. I asked him, I want if consultation with dictionary is necessary I should be allowed with?

“Yes.”

Then I gave, once consulted dictionary and I gave the explanation.

Then he told, “Nowhere in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there will be anything that you won’t be able to explain. You’ll be able to give meaning to any passage in any place of Bhāgavatam.” He remarked.

So central knowledge, universal knowledge we must be well known to be. So details you’ll be able to reach from the conclusion if the general principals you have in your hand. You’ll be able to deduce the true things because this cannot be that. The Method of Residue – Method of Residue do you know? One who knows the movements of the planets but suddenly finds that one planet he should move in this line but little deviation in the path. How? According to the law, according to the calculation based on that law it can’t, it must come through this line, but little deviation. What’s the reason? Then with powerful telescope found there is another planet and that is attracting it for the time being, so the little deviation.

So in this way new things are discovered. It should go in this line, but why this – that general view, this vyatikram, this exception only can come keeping the real interest, this advaya jñāna, the bhedābheda, all these things, the general laws should be kept there, and keeping them intact you are to evolve. What the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, the law of the prema, the division, all these things must be in the background when we’ll have to come to a new conclusion. This cannot but be this. And if it is that then you are to verify with no disturbance to the existing environment. It will be deduced from the environment. The general knowledge about the thing and that is clear, should be clear and infallible.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. In other words, that is the grace from upwards, in reality, His will, divine will, ultimately... Ke? ___________________________ [?] Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, Kṛṣṇa has three individual separate energies, saṁvīt, sandhīnī and hlādinī. I’ve been told that those are divided into three further divisions, cit, jaiva and jara.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Jaiva is taṭasthā, the margin of the two: jara, misconceived cit: misconception cit is the original: jara is the misconception of the same: and jīva is the margin between the two, cit, acit, margin, but mainly very weak cit.

Devotee: So saṁvīt, that is represented as jñāna.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Devotee: So jaiva jñāna: what is an example of jaiva jñāna?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Jaiva jñāna is a vulnerable knowledge, very small quantity and quality, defective. Proper conception and misconception, between the two this jaiva jñāna. Taṭasthā, bhedābheda prakāśa. Kṛṣṇera taṭasthā-śakti, bhedābheda prakāśa. In a nutshell the definition is this.

jīvera 'svarūpa' haya-kṛṣṇera 'nitya-dāsa' [kṛṣṇera 'taṭasthā-śakti' bhedābheda-prakāśa']

[“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.”] [Caitanya- caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.108]

The universal standpoint it comes that he’s a subordinate of the centre, the cit jagat, of the truth, but kṛṣṇera 'taṭasthā-śakti', the last point of cit jagat, cid means right conception, wrong conception of the cit. So the last verge of the proper conception of the cit jagat, and just near the misconception: that is jara. So it is very weak, the cit is very weak. The proper conception is very weak, before he comes he’s transformed into misconception, a vague conception. Proper conception is being converted into misconception, and the last point is jīva. And coming into details some are nearer to misconception. There are so many dust consciousness, and some nearer to misconception, some nearer to proper conception, to detect, to come into details in that.

If we want to be very fond of analysis, but without going to that knowing the thing through śraddhā we can get, “Oh, we can get that intuition within us. It need not go into the analysis of so many things.” The practical knowledge – when we take some food, or it is not possible always how much protein, how much carbohydrates, how much this or that, we generally take, we’ll get the fruit. So though śraddhā we can pass all these scrutinising. We’ll be tempted that we want sweetness, we want ānanda, we want beauty.

Only the main question, whether we want to be a monarch or a servant of the higher? To master in the hell or to serve in heaven, we are to make choice between these two.

Milton says, from the mouth of Satan, “It is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.”

But ours is the opposite, “It is better to serve in heaven than to reign in hell.”

And the Satanic idea, “It is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.” That is coming from the mouth of Satan.

But the opposite we are to deal with. The reign has got reaction, and the service has got its nectarine reaction. So the fools will select to reign what is almost impossible, what is suicidal, no foresight. But to serve in heaven, service in form, but really it will get highly qualified things as its own, association, but always all master and he’s servant. But they’re allowed to enter into the higher and higher sphere as a servant, what one cannot think when he’s reigning. He’s reigning on the plane of stools _________________ [?] And maybe a worm but in nectar.

Devotees: [In the background, downstairs possibly] _________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _____________________________________________ [?]

...

Devotee: Śrīdhara Mahārāja, there’s symptoms, pure devotee exhibits symptoms like when he hears Kṛṣṇa’s Name he may have standing of hairs on the body, shivering, so forth, but these external symptoms...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is of two kinds, one artificial another real. The artificial to be avoided: that we acquire only through the hankering for fame, we want that imitation, to get pratiṣṭhā, fame from these foolish people that I’m a devotee. Nisarga piscila sante tada viyasa pare vicara [?] The sham signs are of two kinds. Generally acquired by previous karma, some have got that type of temperament, natural temperament, easily can shed tears, and easily can astonish, or something like that. And there is another class that by – they can learn. Advyasa pare vicara [?] By practising we can acquire that sort of physical signs. Nisarga piscila [?] Naturally – piscila means very soft hearted. piscila sante tada vyasa pare vicara [?] An artificial practice by two methods we can show such signs in the body. That is imitation. That is bad. That must be avoided. It is mentioned in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu by Rūpa Goswāmī. So we are to, as much as possible we are to avoid that, the external signs.

Devotee: But generally...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: From your section also the complaint came against Jayatīrtha Mahārāja, that he shows so many signs and he preaches himself to be of the highest plane. Jayapataka came and wrote letter also. I discarded all these things. That can never be. That is high and high. Mahāprabhu showed that. There was one, this Rāmadāsa Bābājī, very miraculously he could imitate all those things, discarded very hatefully by Prabhupāda, Guru Mahārāja. And we know, and so many mistakes in the siddhānta and the character-less-ness there, all are showing such feats. That is all imitation and that should be considered as direct offence to the higher Vaiṣṇava, nitya puruṣa. That the highest thing I’m imitating here to exploit their good name, then I’m a blasphemer in the society, sampradāya. That should not be encouraged in any way. When, that stage is very high and when that will come it will be irresistible, and generally that does not come in the human section, baddha-mukta...

End of 81.10.30.C_81.11.01.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.01.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...sign when one attains bhāva bhakti. Then sneha, mana, pranaya, rāga, anurāga, bhāva – very little bhāva generally in mādhurya rasa, it is mainly within the right of, within the existence of Rādhārāṇī, and to distribute it to some others, of higher nature. In sākhya rasa only Subal and others that have got some connection with mādhurya rasa, they get this bhāva. It is mentioned in the scripture what sort of bhāva may come to what stage. In other stages, dāsya, sākhya, ordinary sākhya, ordinary vātsalya it cannot be found. Generally it comes in mādhurya rasa in high standard, and to certain extent vātsalya rasa, and rarely in the sākhya rasa, only with few. And in dāsya rasa, bhāva may not be traced, won’t have any bhāva, get those expressions. Not to that degree the intensity of love comes as to produce bhāva. It has been mentioned in details in the books in the science of devotion. So it should not be indulged in. We cannot purchase it from the market. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: But since the Vaiṣṇava does not want to exhibit those symptoms then how does one detect the pure Vaiṣṇava? How does one detect who is on the highest platform?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The judgement, the decision, not by the physical feats. They’re all deception of imitation. How other things we can recognise? There must be some intrinsic:

bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir, anyatra [caiṣa trika eka-kālaḥ

prapadyamānasya yathāśnataḥ syus, tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣudapāyo 'nughāsam]

[“As with every mouthful an eater feels the threefold effects of his satisfaction, his stomach being filled, and his hunger being dispelled, in the same way when a surrendered soul serves the Lord he realises devotion of three natures simultaneously: devotion in love, the personal appearance of the Lord who is the abode of love, and detachment from all other things.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.42]

By this: anyatra, viraktir, and some real conception about the Absolute, and also earnestness for the service. When one enters a particular science then he can know who is an expert of that science or not. An artist cannot know the progress of science. So as a bona fide student of a particular school he’ll be able to understand what is what in that department. He must be bona fide student and his study must be with – from a Vaiṣṇava, true Vaiṣṇava. The standpoint must come from that side. And it is eligibility, that is faith, bhagya, that sukṛti:

kona bhāgye kona jīvera ‘śraddhā’ yadi haya, [tabe sei jīva ‘sādhu-saṅga’ ye karaya]

[“If, by good fortune, a living entity develops faith in Kṛṣṇa, he begins to associate with devotees.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 23.9]

To come to wild goose chase, the concrete things, as you have done, concrete things, prospects you have left, and you have come to know which is almost unknowable. You can spare sufficient time for this, what is so vague, so abstract, so unknowable; leaving these concrete things of enjoyment in the world. Why? How? And that also to be examined, to be tested and rejected: so many students may send their application, but all – their general examination and by the elimination, selected few, of particular study. So also the faith, generally you have left your attachment for the concrete thing and come for the abstract. And again, what sort of abstract, and what mundane touch you have in your mind, in your aspiration, that is to be examined. In this way selection is always selection of the purity of purpose.

So to become slave, are you ready to become slave to your ideal, highest ideal? How much you are to sacrifice? Eternal slavery: have you got so much faith for your ideal to make it high? That show will be the test thereby. How far, what is the intensity of your reverence for the ideal? What is your price, eternal slavery, are you ready to pay such money to purchase your ideal?

How bold, how sacrificing, dedication addiction degree? The men of that plane they will come and examine, and will give you visa from door to door from different zone. “With this desire you can go up to Vaikuṇṭha. Then with this you can come with more sacrifice to Ayodhyā, Dvārakā, Mathurā, Vṛndāvana.” In this way the zonal visa will be granted to you by examining how far you can be able to render service in that intensity which is demanded from that quarter.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Mahāprabhu says: “If for the devotion of Kṛṣṇa it is demanded that in a second you are to undergo crores of times killing, you may kill crores of times in a second, or in a minute, that is not proper price. Deha-tyāge kṛṣṇa yadi pāiye, koṭi-deha kṣaṇeke tabe chāḍite pāriye.”

[sanātana, deha-tyāge kṛṣṇa yadi pāiye, koṭi-deha kṣaṇeke tabe chāḍite pāriye,

deha-tyāge kṛṣṇa nā paī, pāiye bhajane, kṛṣṇa-prāptyera upāya kona nāhi 'bhakti' vine]

[“My dear Sanātana,” He said: “If I could attain Kṛṣṇa by committing suicide, I would certainly give up millions of bodies without a moment’s hesitation.”] [“You should know that one cannot attain Kṛṣṇa simply by giving up the body. Kṛṣṇa is attainable by devotional service. There is no other means to attain Him.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 4.55-56]

To give our life, unity of sacrifice, says if it is demanded that for Kṛṣṇa it is necessary that you will have to give your life crore times I’m ready for that. But that is not the line. All our attraction is only considered in this body, our attraction for enjoyment depends on this body. And our attraction in this mortal world centred in this body and this may be sacrificed crores of times. One is ready. But that also does not take us to that domain. This standard we are to think in the beginning that what sort of sacrifice is real sacrifice. Not to dismiss our attraction for the mundane wholesale, but our positive appreciation for the serving life. Go slow, but sure. Śravaṇa kīrtana; that has been recommended from that quarter: “This is the only path to come here, not by showing your heroism of a mortal type.”

So surrender; that has been told the lowest is surrender for the positive. Sham surrender for material end we find in the soldiers. They also do not care for physical death, but, what for? In any form or other some mundane, most for fame, in the relativity of the mundane world! Or mad – when he’s mad he can also – does not know what is good or bad, they do anything and die. Ignorance and necessity of the mundane, master-ship or fame, but connecting with this mundane world. But our aspiration and the purity of the aspiration, for the ideal, our higher ideal in the land of dedication, that should be considered to be the unit which is required from us for our ambition. Śraddhā, adau śraddhā, and that comes from sukṛti, independent of us, ajñāta sukṛti, by the grace of the other world. Bhaktyā sañjātayā bhaktyā.

[smarantaḥ smārayantaś ca, mitho 'ghaugha-haraṁ harim

bhaktyā sañjātayā bhaktyā, bibhraty utpulakāṁ tanum]

[“The devotees of the Lord constantly discuss the glories of the Personality of Godhead among themselves. Thus they constantly remember the Lord and remind one another of His qualities and pastimes. In this way, by their devotion to the principles of bhakti-yoga, the devotees please the Personality of Godhead, who takes away from them everything inauspicious. Being purified of all impediments, the devotees awaken to pure love of Godhead, and thus, even within this world, their spiritualised bodies exhibit symptoms of transcendental ecstasy, such as standing of the bodily hairs on end.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.3.31]

Bhakti cannot be produced by anything mundane. Bhakti only can produce bhakti. It is ahaitukī, it is causeless. None can produce bhakti, but bhakti himself can extend. So the cause is in the upper world, not here: and cannot but be. So we are to utilise that. Smallest free will: that can try to utilise their grace. So very cautiously and relying on the Vaiṣṇava from our inner most sanction of heart we are to surrender to the Vaiṣṇava. Vaisnava ran kai kari kori [?]

Professor Sanyal he took this point so much that won’t do anything without the order of a Vaiṣṇava. Once in, that was sometimes thought too much, but he was so strict. Train from one place accompanied by the Vaiṣṇava if he’ll have to go to another place: all got up in the train, he’s standing, because no Vaiṣṇava has ordered him to come in the carriage, he’s standing there. Too much! But anyhow he had such, that Professor Sanyal he was a good scholar, head of the examination of a particular university, but he had so much adherence to that, ‘without the order of Vaiṣṇava I won’t move an inch.’ That was his general motto of life: the Vaiṣṇava.

When from the hired house in Calcutta, Maṭha was transferred in the present own house by bhajan, May, the Deity was carried in the chariot and it was placed in the new temple. Then the uttsav, the feeding of the devotees and the public, till at least one o’clock at night we went to take our bed. Mine, newly entered that night, so anywhere anyone spread his bedding and slept: my bedding was just near the side of the bedding of Nisikanta Sanyal, the writer of Krishna Caitanya, and Editor of Harmonist. Anyhow, at night he felt some time that he’s dying.

In the morning he told me, very slowly, “Last night I felt just my heart is failing. And I thought that I should awake you, arouse you. But I thought that very much tired you are, I should not disturb a Vaiṣṇava from his rest. The whole day and night, half night, he worked and he’s so tired and sleeping. I should not disturb him. Let me see whether this crisis goes away. But anyhow it went away, but I’m feeling very weak.”

I knew that man is very serious, not an ordinary man. Immediately I told to Prabhupāda Guru Mahārāja that Professor Sanyal was saying this. They also knew that he won’t say anything in colour. Immediately doctors were arranged. So going, dying, still he won’t like to disturb, an ordinary person, disturb his sleep, rest, so acute, serious man, and won’t do anything if not ordered by a Vaiṣṇava.

And he also told me, he was my senior, a little senior, he told me particularly once that, “If I read Bhāgavatam or Caitanya-caritāmṛtam of my own accord, it won’t be bhakti, it will be karma or jñāna. But if Vaiṣṇava orders you to read, to go on with the reading, that will be devotion.”

Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Otherwise you are reading to acquire knowledge. To acquire knowledge, it is not service. To acquire knowledge to keep our position high, it will help you to deliver lecture, and you will have appreciation – this is all mundane. But strictly the whole of your energy will be spent only by the direction of the up, then it is service, then it will be service. Not for your interest, that you will be the judge of your own crime. You won’t go to occupy the position of a judge in your own case. You are to practice, that you may not take part in giving the order in what way you will utilise your energy. It must come – quite disinterested you will be – and it must come from above and you are to serve. In this way you are to practice within. It must be for other’s interest. And when you will be judge of your own offence you will always give judgement in your own favour. That possibility is there.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Self abnegation, to the extreme, and it should be weighed not according to my consciousness but it should be judged – the judgement must come from the other side. Whether I’m dedicating or in the form of dedicating I’m enjoying, going to exploit, the very subtle point, because exploitation in the higher plane may not seem in the gross plane to be exploitation at all.

In the beginning this karma-kāṇḍa, the capitalists they give much money but with the far sight that they will – more than that money they will draw. In the beginning capitalist are distributing money, taking out the money from their own path. But the object is that in future thousand times more money he will draw from the zone. So ostentatious self distribution is no self distribution at all. So it should be judged from another quarter. So it is difficult.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

na prema-gandho 'sti darāpi me harau, krandāmi saubhāgya-bharaṁ prakāśitum

[vaṁśī-vilāsy-ānana-lokanaṁ vinā, vibharmmi yat prāṇa-pataṅgakān vṛthā]

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said: “My dear friends, I have not the slightest tinge of love of Godhead within My heart. When you see Me crying in separation, I am just falsely exhibiting a demonstration of My great fortune. Indeed, not seeing the beautiful face of Kṛṣṇa playing His flute, I continue to live My life like an insect, without purpose.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya- līlā, 2.45]

The standard where Mahāprabhu Himself says: “I’m crying, shedding tears so much, it’s only for the fame, ‘Oh, you see I have got Kṛṣṇa prema, love for Kṛṣṇa. To attract people towards me I’m shedding tears. This is all artificial.’” Mahāprabhu Himself says to raise the standard where for us – ‘Don’t be make believe, meaning, I’m a devotee.’

Amita vaisnava ei buddhi hoile amani naha goyami [?]

Pratiṣṭhā sayasi hrdaya sadusi hoi boni ganu yam [?]

Tomara kinkara apani mani va sadovi mani taji [?]

Tomara uccistha pada yada renu sada niscara pada ji [?]

Always live in the relativity of my Master, Vaiṣṇava dāsa. I can do anything and everything, but by the order of Vaiṣṇava. Superior, always connect you with some higher dictator. This way you go, safe, you are safe with this principle that I’m doing under the guidance of a Vaiṣṇava, and never independent. That sort of attitude we shall develop within us. Our independent thinking, original thinking, must be buried for all.

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate]

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe, nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill-fated.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

If I do not deceive myself none can deceive me.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Purity, quality not quantity, quality in the surrender, the way of surrender, surrender more, more, to the – that is, ‘Die to live.’ Self determination, and the way of self determination is to die to live. Everything for Him, otherwise He cannot be Absolute. Everything. I’m searching for the Absolute and everything is for Him, For Itself. It is His. And I must submit to that law faithfully that everything is for Him. We are for Him, not He’s for us. Everything for Him, I’m also for Him.

The Māyāvādīs they cannot flourish here in their foresight when they find that we can’t flourish here and they enter into a cell of suicide. But they can’t tolerate that everything is for Him. We are also for Him. We are for Him, this is not for us, they can find that out, that all we survey it is not for us, we can’t thrive here, in their campaign that, ‘everything is for me, for us.’ They can find that clearly that, ‘nothing for me so I must go and enter into suicidal self.’

But there is something, ‘Everything for Him, I’m also for Him,’ they can’t take in their brain that broad idea. That is the difference between the Vaiṣṇava and the jñānī. Jñānī can realise that we cannot thrive in the mortal environment: this much, the negative side. But the positive side, the optimistic side, that there is something and everything is for Him, not for me, and there I thrive, in that land, that plane. And, ‘Die to Live,’ this is selfish admonition, svarūpa siddhi, this is mukti, liberation proper is there, ‘Die to Live,’ self determination. By death, as much, not only this flesh, the internal body of different layers, sukṣma deha, we are to give up everything. And also in the cit, this Vaikuṇṭha conception, then also there are differences, this Rāmacandra conception, Dvārakā conception, we’re to pass through those layers also in the purely spiritual plane, to enter, to sacrifice more. To risk more, and character of wholesale and it finds path in the mādhurya rasa, twenty four hours engagement. That is the highest. Even vātsalya rasa cannot give twenty four hours. Only in mādhurya rasa it is possible, twenty four hours engagement. It may be harsh, it may be very cruel, but it is there mentioned in the śāstra. And we also get some conjecture, idea. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

In mādhurya rasa also, in Dvārakā and svakīya there is also not fully present, but only in Vṛndāvana. And it is peculiar that in parakīya which is not possible, not available always, but internal intensity is so great that in separation there is union. So drawn, heart is so drawn, that union in separation cannot dismiss union. So thick, so intense, and so mixed, inter mixing, that even separation cannot do away with union. So inter mixing in the fullest sense. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Rādhe jaya jaya mādhava-dayite. Rādhe jaya jaya mādhava-dayite.

[From Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī’s Śrī Rādhikā-stava]

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

yadi gaura nā hoita, tabe ki hoita, kemone dharitām de

rādhāra mahimā, prema-rasa-sīmā jagate jānāta ke

[madhura vṛndā vipina mādhurī praveśa cāturī sāra

baraja yuvatī bhāvera bhakati śakati hoita kāra]

[Vāsudeva Datta has said: “If Mahāprabhu had not appeared then how could we sustain our lives? How could we live? What type of ecstatic rasa has He imbibed that we have been able to have a little taste? Without this our lives would be impossible. Who else could take us to the acme of realisation of the position of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. She holds the highest position. She is the greatest victim to the consuming capacity of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. She stands as the greatest sacrifice before Kṛṣṇa’s infinite consuming power. Rasarāj-Mahābhav - the rasa is there, and She is the drawer of that rasa from the storehouse. She has such negative capacity that She can draw out the rasa to the highest degree both in quality and quantity.”]

Devotion means love, and love means highest sacrifice, self forgetfulness. Self forgetfulness in the service of Kṛṣṇa Who can draw most, attract most. There, to reach that plane, that plane of self sacrifice, of self forgetfulness in the service of the Divinity. Die to live. Everything is for Him. He’s the cause of everything. It is by Itself and it is for Itself. Very small words, very small sounds: By Itself, Reality must be by Itself and for Itself. The Infinite meaning is within, this is the, By Itself and for Itself.

ahaṁ hi sarva-yajñānāṁ, bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca

[na tu mām abhijānanti, tattvenātaś cyavanti te]

[“-Because I alone am the enjoyer and rewarder of all sacrifices. But since they cannot know Me in this way, they again undergo birth, disease, infirmity, and death.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.24]

Yajnesa hari sarva yajnesa_________ [?] To realise that, then you’ll find peace proper.

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ, sarva-loka-maheśvaram

suhṛdaṁ sarvva-bhūtānāṁ, [jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati]

[“I am the enjoyer of the results of sacrifice performed by the fruit-hunter, as well as the results of austerity performed by the liberation-seeker - I am their only worshippable object; I am Nārāyaṇa, the indwelling monitor of all planes of life, and the Supreme Worshippable Personality who awards liberation. And I am the well-wisher of all - I am Kṛṣṇa, the devotee’s most adorable friend. The soul who thus knows My true identity attains the ecstasy of knowing his own original divine identity.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 5.29]

“I’m not a cruel king, but I’m friendly to you. I’m all in all but I’m friendly to you all. Don’t forget this, and you are to adjust with this fact. Then only you can get peace proper. You come to the fact and adjust with the fact, truth, and then you’ll get peace.”

“Oh, my interest is represented in the Absolute control of everything in this world. Why should I bother? Why should I bother?”

“And I shall go to promote, to make his hand strong if it is necessary.”

If we get that chance to help His work, His service: that is service if He utilises me in any sort of service. This is the Absolute current of the world: the current, the progress, whatever, the Absolute current. We’re in the opposition party: as an independent unit we form opposition party of the Absolute current. We want to create our separate current in our separate kingdom, and also combined, or maybe engage us in a clash with different current and different units here. But to join in the Absolute current, to be agent of that current, that is what is necessary for us, for the peace and harmony, and for the fulfilment of our life.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

_______________________________________ [?] Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Dayal Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi. _________ [?] is sleeping? Hmm?

Devotee: Yes.

Devotee: Śrīdhara Mahārāja, in our preaching we have to preach that one should accept a Spiritual Master, a Guru. So should we recommend someone specifically or just preach about the principle of taking initiation from Guru?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He says, “When we do pracāra we have to, with newcomers...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We are fortunate if we get guidance, direct guidance of a Vaiṣṇava, in every step. In every step we should consider to be our highest interest and to seek and get the opportunity of practising that I’m a servant. I’m not dictator. To take the position of a dictator is very risky. Always we shall be eager to get the position of a servant. But at the same time, as much as we can tend the purity of whose – about the dictator, that my own judgement of course cannot but be absolute in that position. Selection of my Master, that is voluntary, that depends on me, as much as I can do according to purity I must be sincere to select my Master. As much as I can detect devotion proper in him, not any designing for any mundane purpose; to whom I cast my fate. And it is a fortune if I can get such under whose direction I will continue all my energy, I’ll engage my whole energy under his dictation. Let me have a fine touch with the higher entity. I shall consider to be blessed if I get a real guide. The whole fortune is concentrated there, and utmost sincerity in getting that, such higher dictation. Service, but service of Kṛṣṇa, service, these two things: first thing service, and service of Kṛṣṇa, not of Satan, or any other mediator.

So internal purity of purpose and selection out of that. The conscience that took me to my present Master whom we appreciate so much, I cannot neglect that conscience, summarily reject his dictation. At the same time I must not put too much faith in my own judgement. I shall try to verify in anyhow sincerity will guide me, my sincerity.

Na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40] Because my Guardian is fully awake, is looking after everything. None can deceive me if I’m sincere towards Him. We must have such sort of faith in us. His eye, Guardian’s eye is over me. So if I sincerely select some Master under whom I’m working, and if He’s wrong then very soon that will be set aside, because the Absolute Guardian’s eye is always over us to protect from misguidance. Acceptance of the Masters: at the same time, purity of the purpose, two things. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Is acceptance of sannyāsa Guru on the same level as dīkṣā Guru, or śikṣā Guru?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That depends upon the Absolute consideration. A relative question; anyone may be greater than another, but a relative question. Nāma Guru is principal, Name, and then dīkṣā Guru to help him. And sannyāsa Guru for preaching purpose. And this is the general calculation from the limited standpoint. But from Absolute consideration, who holds the higher position in the Absolute consideration, he’s bigger, he’s greater, higher.

The vartma-pradarśaka Guru, the Nāma Guru, the mantra Guru, sannyāsa Guru, and the śikṣā Guru, independent of them as my friend also may give some instruction. And that is also not to be eliminated, śikṣā Guru. No mantra connection but giving and taking. What defect is in me I am informing him and he’s also giving some instructions: ‘Do this.’ That is also a sort of Guru, helping, helps us, of different type. And our gratitude will also be proportionate. I’ll be able to understand when I can feel that plane, that what sort of help, and what type, and what magnitude I got from what agent, I’ll be able to feel that, that this much benefit I got in my progress from that quarter. Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

Sanatana mukhe krsna more sikhaila [?] As the first question arose, he does not know through him, superior agent can manage to give, to transmit some advice to a person. That the mediator may not know, sending something through a peon. The higher agent sending through a peon, give just delivery to that man. It is also possible.

End of 81.11.01.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.02.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Devotee: ...and one GBC man, Atreya Ṛṣi he will come. He’s from Iran, so he’ll represent the Muslim faith who have been converted to sanātana dharma, so this way they will be preaching.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Now Caru Swāmī is engaged in that meeting for how many days?

Devotee: I do not know. He’s very busy.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Very busy; and the meeting is taking place in Grand Hotel? Where, in hotel?

Devotee: I think so, one big conference.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But you don’t know how many days it is advertised to take place? You don’t know?

Devotee: I’m not sure, Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Do you know anything of Sarvabhavana Prabhu?

Devotee: He will come either on Wednesday...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Evening or Thursday morning?

Devotee: ... or if he can’t come on Wednesday he’ll come at the latest by Sunday.

Devotees: _______________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: __________________________________________________ [?]

Then do you know anything who are present in Vṛndāvana utsava, do you know?

Devotee: I did not hear any news from Vṛndāvana.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You did not hear any ready news.

But do you know anything about Haṁsadūta Mahārāja, he’s coming, to India?

Devotee: No, I did not hear anything specific.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Dayādhara?

Devotee: No, I do not know.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Only Atreya Ṛṣi is coming?

Devotee: I heard he was coming.

Devotee: Some of them should be here about the fifth. They’re expecting some of the GBC men to come here on the fifth.

Devotee: Eighteen. They expect eighteen GBC men to come to Māyāpur and eight of the Gurus are supposed to come to Māyāpur to see the work on Prabhupāda’s Samādhi.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right. They’ll have a meeting here and will consider the present situation.

Devotees: [Laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is natural: should take place. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So Caru Swāmī he may not be expected this week here. He told that he will come here this Monday, but for the present engagement, busy engagement there, I think he won’t be able to spare time to come here for the time being.

Devotee: That’s possible. I’m not sure. He did not say he was coming today.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right, let me, let us see. Akasha prabhava prabhavata vat [?]

Fruit falling from the sky, we shall try to reckon things in that way. Everything connected with Infinite. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Depending, learning to depend on the will of Kṛṣṇa. Not much calculation of our human brain, either individual or a group. Generally according to our understanding of the scripture and the practices of the great personages we shall chalk out. But as regards the result we shall always be open that anything may come. Mā phaleṣu kadācana, karmaṇy evādhikāras te.

[karmaṇy evādhikāras te, mā phaleṣu kadācana

mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr, mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi]

[“I shall now describe niṣkāma karma-yoga, the path of selfless action. You have a right to perform your natural prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to any fruits of that action. You should neither act with desire to enjoy the fruits of your work, nor, as a result, should you be attached to neglecting your duties.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.47]

Engage yourself always, but don’t connect yourself with any consequences. Never go to connect yourself with the consequence. What will be the result of so many things, and above all, the Supreme Will. That is the fact. So don’t bother uselessly and waste your energy. Full attention you try to give to the duty and not to the after effect of what the result, the duty will acquire. Duty cannot acquire any result, any consequence, any fruit. But it is graced, grace, prasādam. Whatever comes from the Infinite wave that should be considered as grace. And what we should do, that with the spirit of service, not with the result of tradery, trade, na sa bhṛtyaḥ sa vai vaṇik.

[nānyathā te 'khila-guro, ghaṭeta karuṇātmanaḥ

yas ta āśiṣa āśāste, na sa bhṛtyaḥ sa vai vaṇik]

[Prahlāda Mahārāja states: “Otherwise, O my Lord, O supreme instructor of the entire world, You are so kind to Your devotee that You could not induce him to do something un beneficial for him. On the other hand, one who desires some material benefit in exchange for devotional service cannot be Your pure devotee. Indeed, he is no better than a merchant who wants profit in exchange for service.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.10.4]

We shall do anything and everything with the aim of serving the Infinite. With clean hands we shall go on doing work, with clean hands. Not contaminated by any consequence. Service and prasāda corresponding: what comes from the infinite environment that is prasāda, grace. I have no claim in that. And what I am doing also with no claim, no application with that. No expectation even. Simply, it has been attached to me as my duty. I am doing. No future fixing. That will be māyā. We shall try to live under the sky. Free. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then heart will find a relief.

Asankalpa jayit kamam [?] Sankalpa means parikalpana, this pancana parikalpana, five years plan. And also sometimes we may be allowed to make plan, but with this provision, full knowledge that whether it will reach its goal, that depends wholly on the Divine Will. With that we may plan. Suppose a meeting is organised, we shall try and we shall in the press also, notices are also circulated, there will be a meeting and some persons will deliver lectures. We will go on, but with openness that any hindrance may come and may stop. Still, we shall go on with the sense of duty. It is my duty I am doing. And God willing it will be successful, so God overhead. Try to live in the eternity, in the relativity of eternity, Vaikuṇṭha vās.

So misconceptions come from the Māyāvādī School. ‘When everything depends on Him then where is our quota, our duty?’ The Vaiṣṇava School they gave that work, the conception of service. That is the nature of the service. Without any definite result one can work with full energy, fullest energy. It is possible. The future is uncertain, still, the work is earnest. Rather the opposite, the whole concentration in the work, not in the future result.

karmaṇy evādhikāras te, mā phaleṣu kadācana

mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr, mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi

Don’t be discouraged because you have no demand, no right in the result, so don’t be discouraged. Mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi. A great warning, necessary warning, or everyone will be discouraged, that when we have no part to take in the consequence, why should we labour? That is not a very small point, not insignificant. So immediate warning is there. Mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi. This misfortune may not come down in you, to stop the work. Go on working. In the cooperative system, so many labourers are engaged, they will do their duty and things are going, the production going hither thither. Then in time the remuneration is coming to him, in coin. He is giving in the form of energy and when it is coming to him as coin, in time, proper time it comes to him. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So don’t be miser to devote your energy for the system, where you are at present. Ke?

Devotee: ____________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: __________________________ [?] Karmaṇy evādhikāras te, mā phaleṣu kadācana. “Here it is omitted. The result, that is under My disposal. Only the negative side has been told here, not the positive. It is Mine.”

ahaṁ hi sarva-yajñānāṁ, bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca

[na tu mām abhijānanti, tattvenātaś cyavanti te]

[“-Because I alone am the enjoyer and rewarder of all sacrifices. But since they cannot know Me in this way, they again undergo birth, disease, infirmity, and death.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.24]

“It is Mine. Ahaṁ hi sarva-yajñānāṁ, bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca. This selfless work I enjoy, for My enjoyment. And proportionately it is distributed to any and every point, separately existing all over the universe. But it is better for you to think that it is wholly Mine, wholly Mine. And when I distribute the result to you, you cannot have any claim. It is pure distribution. That is grace. No reason, no justice you should try to bring in there. But mercy you may think. It is so free that you may consider it to be mercy. Don’t expect any justice: ‘that I am giving so much labour and I must get that, the law of justice that will ordain in this way.’ Never! You engage your energy; you give your energy free. And what I shall give in return that will be free, not under the consideration of justice.”

Service and grace, mercy! Open, clear, the account is always clear. No demand, mutual demand. Such transaction, that is freedom proper, the conception of real freedom is there, real freedom. A dynamic selflessness: not a static selflessness like Māyāvādī. Selflessness means sound sleep or something like that, self effacement. Selflessness does not naturally come to self effacement, but it is of dynamic character, selflessness. Self giving, self surrendering, selflessness and self giving: towards what? Giving to the centre, to the Absolute, that sort of selflessness is what is demanded from every point, from every worker, every labourer. Only there the happiness of freedom can exist, freedom. Happiness of freedom can only exist there. Labour, energy utilized by intelligence that can produce something. Foolish labour may not flourish. So, dedication of our labour freely to the highest intelligence: that will fetch more. So without any miserly habit we can dedicate. We shall in get in ample quality, which cannot be imagined by us even so.

'Dāsa' kari' vetana more deha prema-dhana. “Please accept me as Your slave, and give my salary in terms of love, that I can acquire real love for You and Your own and everything that belongs to You, so love, that more and more I can dedicate. Give me salary in form of love. Love means more giving spirit, self distributing spirit, spirit of self distributing. Intense inspiration of self distribution: that I want as my salary. Not seeking any comfort, but to be more dynamic, not static. To become more dynamic, such salary I want. The capacity of my giving may be increased. That should be my salary.” 'Dāsa' kari' vetana more deha prema-dhana. Prema means self giving, self distribution, the tendency to distribute oneself. Self distribution, self surrender and self distribution with self surrender. With the basis of self surrender, self distribution begins. 'Dāsa' kari' vetana more deha prema-dhana. So to pray to get love, prema, what does it mean? Oh. You want something. But what is that something, if analysed, that is more intense inspiration to give, so defeats its own object.

Mā phaleṣu kadācana. But that phala, that fruit has been transformed into love, with the more interest to serve. That is not ordinary fruit. The Vaiṣṇavas they want service, more hankering for service. And the salary, more worth and more earnestness for service. They want that sort of salary. So this is the universe the Vaiṣṇavas have discovered. But it has been given down to the experience of the senses of the Vaiṣṇavas from above through revelation. There is a domain of such conception. And if you like you can come by this, such and such way, you may come; so much self abnegation. There is a domain, a country where such persons live. If you would like to be a resident of that land, then come; then come. Calculative in the lower portion, Paravyoma, and beyond calculation, automatic, that is Goloka. Gaura Haribol. And it cannot calculate how much one can sacrifice.

rādhā-mukunda-pada-sambhava-gharmmabindu-

nirmmañcanopakaraṇe kṛta-deha-lakṣyām

[Rūpa Goswāmī says when Lalitā Devī finds a drop of perspiration at the feet of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Govinda, she furiously engages herself to remove it. “How has it come there? We are circumambulating Them to see that not the least pain can enter this domain to trouble Them. But how without our notice has this perspiration appeared? Perspiration, perspiration!” So she is furiously chastising herself, and wants to immediately take birth one lākh (100,000) times - with that force she comes to remove that drop of perspiration from the lotus feet of either of the Divine Couple. If the least difficulty is seen in the serving area, the Lord’s Associates can’t tolerate it in any way, and such eagerness, self abuse and earnestness is found in them.] [Lalitāṣṭakam, 1]

The hint of a particular standard has been given. When Lalitā Devī finds a drop of sweat on the foot of Rādhā-Govinda, she furiously engages herself to remove that sweat. “How it has come there? We are circumambulating Them that no, least pain can enter into this domain to trouble Them. But how without our notice this sweat has come? There must have been some plane, sweat, sweat, gharmmabindu.” So she’s furiously chastising herself and wants to take at once, gharmmabindu, nirmmañcanopakaraṇe kṛta-deha-lakṣyām, one lākh of bodies. With that force she comes to remove that drop of sweat on the foot of any one of Them.

Such eagerness and such self abusing: and earnestness. The least difficulty seen in the serving area they can’t tolerate it in any way. With so much earnestness they run.

[sanātana,] deha-tyāge kṛṣṇa yadi pāiye, koṭi-deha kṣaṇeke tabe chāḍite pāriye,

[“My dear Sanātana, if I could attain Kṛṣṇa by committing suicide, I would certainly give up millions of bodies without a moment’s hesitation.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 4.55]

Mahāprabhu said: “To attain the service of Kṛṣṇa, crores times just now I want to die, to embrace death.”

This sort of unit is used there, in that domain. Earnestness, eagerness for service, self dedication, self distribution of such high type, such noble type: inconceivable. So self sacrifice is nothing, that is only a unit, and on a developed plane the structure is built there. Sacrifice, for the country, for the society.

Some years ago I found in a newspaper that: “What is the difference between an ordinary thief and a congressman?” In the paper that gentleman told that, “Thieves first steal then go to jail, prison house: and the congressman just the opposite. In the time they were freedom fighters first and then went to jail, put to jail by the British government in the prison house. And now they are stealing. Stealing first and prison next: and that is general. But here so called patrons, they first finish their prison life and now they are looting, that is the difference.” Do you follow?

Devotees: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I asked him, the Indian man.

Devotee: Yes, yes.

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So our patriotism, sacrifice for the country, comes to such a reactionary position, social service, service for the country, service for humanity.

_____________________________________________________ [?] There is a proverb:

______________________ [?] “Mullah can run up to the Mosque, not beyond.”

Devotee: In Vaiṣṇava raja what is the duty of a citizen Mahārāja?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Duty if a citizen? To work under the guidance of a proper Vaiṣṇava. That should be the duty. The guidance must come from such high level, higher plane. Such aspiration, this is the conception of Vaiṣṇavism proper. If we can understand then we shall try to be guided under such high conception. The dictation should come. And then we may hope that we may reach one day that plane, taking up that thread. If we have real eagerness for such life, if we consider that this is the highest form of life, the noblest form of life, it is what is found in Braja, this aspiration will gradually take me there. Lobhita janme pai ucchistha vadi yar [?] The greed, the earnestness, the taste, that will give the real birth, and gradually take me that side.

Devotee: _______________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Lobha, śraddhā means lobha in other words. Śraddhā when a little grown it is considered laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ.

[kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvitā matiḥ, kriyatāṁ yadi kuto 'pi labhyate

tatra laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ, janma-koṭi-sukṛtair na labhyate]

[“Pure devotional service to Kṛṣṇa cannot be obtained by performing pious activities even for millions of births. It can be purchased only by paying one price: intense eagerness. Wherever it is available, one must purchase it immediately.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.70]

“I want that sincerely.” That is the price, my earnest desire for the thing, sincere earnest desire for the thing, that is the price. No other price it can be purchased by. Earnest desire! “Yes, I want that. I can’t live without that. I cannot live in such plane. If it is possible there is such a plane, noble plane of life, I must go there. I can’t tolerate this atmosphere where everyone is exploiting his brother, environment, in any way or other. I want to get rid of that life.”

The candan is dissipating itself and distributing sweet scent. You know candan? When rubbing, disappearing, self dissipation, and in the form of scent it is mixing itself in the atmosphere. That sort of risk every member is ready to take. Whatever, for the least happiness, pleasure of Kṛṣṇa we are ready to contract for eternal life to go to hell: that sort of reactionary conception there. The indirect is also helping the direct in such a way. It is possibility, any eventuality, any possibility for my future risk. Not only present I am taking the risk but I am taking my future also in this way, under the risk, and want to go more rapidly.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Mahārāja, did the gopī’s husbands know that their wives were meeting with Kṛṣṇa? And if so, were they disturbed by that?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: The gopī’s husbands, did they know that the gopīs meet with Kṛṣṇa? Are they in knowledge the gopīs are meeting with Kṛṣṇa? And if so, if they have got knowledge, do they feel any trouble?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Coming to details, that is too much for us. But still, sometimes they get such information and also try to punish his wife or anyone, his wife or sister or anything. But ultimately that vanishes in some way or other. It is managed by Kṛṣṇa’s special will in some way. Sometimes with some fight and hitch and sometimes by illusory energy that doubt is cleared.

Kṛṣṇa-Kali: once Rādhārāṇī’s sister-in-law, Kutila, she called her brother, “You don’t care, you don’t believe me? But now come, I shall just show you, you can see with your own eyes that your wife is with that boy.”

And he went there, and at that time Kṛṣṇa became Kali. And Rādhārāṇī used to worship Kṛṣṇa. And the husband saw and then he chastised his sister. “What do you say? I see that she is worshipping Kali.”

Then that lady, his sister, what could she say? Kṛṣṇa-Kali: in this way.

And some other way, also it is mentioned that He had to kill in Kordvan [?] the husband of Tulasī perhaps. In Kordvan, Kṛṣṇa killed him, that āsura. Anyhow, it is managed, it is something illusory, like a dreamy consciousness. Any shape, as just in a dream, anything can take any shape, any time, free. So it is sometimes like that we have heard. But we may not venture to enter that plane very boldly. When we shall be able to live in that plane it will be clear to us. But it is said like that. Many ways it may be used, in different ways. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Mahārāja, I’d like to enquire about when the Lord is saguṇa or nirguṇa. What is the difference between nirguṇa and saguṇa? When He’s saguṇa or when He’s nirguṇa - in form and without form?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Saguṇa means misconceived ideas. That is saguṇa, of different stages. A gross misconception, and slight, more slight, but it is under misconception. And nirguṇa, what is true, under all circumstances, and all the times, past, future, present: that is nirguṇa, that unassailable wave. Absolute means that can’t be changed: can’t be challenged or changed, Absolute wave. The Absolute Good He’s having His play in a particular way. And all other non absolute individual waves if come into clash with that will be broke into pieces and it will be nowhere, evaporate.

Suppose a big storm is coming and you want to create some opposite current of the air, by any machine or your ..... That will be carried on nowhere. Nothing can oppose that. So Absolute power’s playing is like that. And that is not ordinary force but the highest type of force, the noblest type of force: highest good. So, only to mix in that harmony, to dance with the harmony of that higher wave, that is what is necessary. And that is really pleasing. And to come in clash with that Absolute plane, wave, that will be fruitless and that will bring misery to us. Something like that you may think.

The Absolute will is playing, and it is Absolute will and Absolute good. That is playing in His own way. And if you come in contact you cannot but come. If in that harmony if you can you can dance, it is all right. You will find pleasure, highest pleasure. Otherwise if you can create any wave against that Supreme wave that will be finished in no time and you will feel pain.

Any challenging wave cannot be tolerated or cannot release that Absolute wave. That is going on. And that is the ecstasy itself you may think, līlā, ānandam, the charm, the beauty. The highest thing we can conceive, it is of that type. The highest good of our aspiration is that type. Not undesirable: it’s desirable. And it is our diseased eye that cannot see that, our diseased mind that cannot appreciate that. That is the conception.

So not only give up your own individual creation of any selfish wave, but come in consonance of that wave. Adjust yourself fully with the movement of that wave. That is what is necessary. Then you will find that is a happy wave and you’ll merge in that happy wave. That is what is necessary.

End of 81.11.02.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.02.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is nirguṇa. The guṇa that can never be opposed. With so much force, in every way. So much goodness, so much force, so much intellect, in any way, it is the supreme. It can never be challenged. To challenge is to misconceive. The whole basis of any challenge of that wave, that is mere misconception. Because consciously none ventures to oppose that and lose his everything. So it is misconception of ones selfish nature. Ke? Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Can a devotee be a yogī?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: A yogī comes to be devotee. When a devotee wants to become a yogī, he’s not proper devotee. But a yogī when he’s leaving the yoga and trying to enter into devotion, at that point may be seen. But then a devotee comes to be a yogī, then he’s coming down. He’s falling. What is the difference between a yogī and a devotee? What do you think, the difference?

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ, mad-gatenāntarātmanā

[śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ, sa me yuktatamo mataḥ]

[“In My opinion, of all types of yogīs, the most elevated of all is he who surrenders his heart to Me and serves Me in devotion with sincere, internal faith.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.47]

...

The highest acme of knowledge is to self surrender. Surrender to the Supreme. And in a yogī,

tapasvibhyo ‘dhiko yogī, jñānibhyo ‘pi mato ‘dhikaḥ

karmibhyaś cādhiko yogī, tasmād yogī bhavārjuna

[“The yogī who is a worshipper of the Supersoul is superior to persons engrossed in severe austerities such as the cāndrāyaṇa, superior to the worshippers of Brahman, and superior to the fruitive workers. Know this certainly to be My conclusion. Therefore, O Arjuna, be a yogī.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.46]

But: yoginām api sarveṣāṁ, mad-gatenāntarātmanā, śraddhāvān. Ādau śraddhā. In the devotional school the primary necessity is śraddhā. And these yogīs ultimately after so many feats, they have come to that plane of that śraddhā. Śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ, sa me yuktatamo mataḥ. Then he is recognized as to be the highest. Otherwise not.

nāhaṁ vedair na tapasā, na dānena na cejyayā

śakya evaṁ-vidho draṣṭuṁ, dṛṣṭavān asi yan mama

[“Neither by study of the Vedas, nor by austerity, charity, or sacrifice, can anyone behold My human like form of Supreme Absolute Truth (Parabrahman) which you are now seeing before you.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 11.53]

Devaṛṣi also says,

yamādibhir yoga-pathaiḥ, kāma-lobha-hato muhuḥ

mukunda-sevayā yadvat, tathāddhātmā na śāmyati

[“The agitated mind, repeatedly taken captive by its enemy in the form of depravity rooted in lust and greed, is directly mastered by serving the Supreme Lord, Mukunda. It can never be likewise checked or pacified by practising the eight-fold yogic discipline, which is generally based on sensual and mental repression (yama, niyama, etc).”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.6.35]

We generally consider the negative side, that by yama, niyama, all these practices we can stop, we can get relief from the hands of our enemies, that kāma, krodha, lobha, moha. But that is only temporary. Devaṛṣi Nārada says in Bhāgavatam, yamādibhir yoga-pathaiḥ. By prāṇāyāma and other processes we can acquire temporary control over our senses, but not permanent. And by bhakti, whatever we get, that is permanent, kāma-lobha-hato muhuḥ, mukunda-sevayā yadvat, tathāddhātmā na śāmyati. And also in Ajāmila ________ [?]

kecit kevalayā bhaktyā, vāsudeva-parāyaṇāḥ

aghaṁ dhunvanti kārtsnyena, nīhāram iva bhāskaraḥ

[“Only a rare person who has adopted complete, unalloyed devotional service to Kṛṣṇa can uproot the weeds of sinful actions with no possibility that they will revive. He can do this simply by discharging devotional service, just as the sun can immediately dissipate fog by its rays.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 6.1.15]

Only by a very drop of devotion, one can do away with all that is necessary for penances, to get out of the mood of doing mischief to the environment. But the yoga, or the repentance, and other processes of getting out of this sinful mentality, that is all temporary. For the time being it may do, it may help in controlling the negative propensities, not permanently. But what we acquire from the higher plane, that is śraddhā, that is permanent progress, that never:

nehābhikrama-nāśo ‘sti, pratyavāyo na vidyate

svalpam apy asya dharmasya, trāyate mahato bhayāt

[“Even a small beginning in this devotional service cannot go in vain, nor can any loss be suffered. The most insignificant practice of such devotional service saves one from the all-devouring fear of repeated birth and death in this world.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.40]

This karma-yoga, the proper basis of devotion, karma-yoga, to give up the phala and as a duty to take up the work. That is the basis of bhakti.

karmaṇy evādhikāras te, mā phaleṣu [kadācana

mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr, mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi]

[“I shall now describe niṣkāma karma-yoga, the path of selfless action. You have a right to perform your natural prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to any fruits of that action. You should neither act with desire to enjoy the fruits of your work, nor, as a result, should you be attached to neglecting your duties.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.47]

Only it is not karma-yoga, it goes, yukta āsīta mat-paraḥ.

[tāni sarvāṇi saṁyamya, yukta āsīta mat-paraḥ

vaśe hi yasyendriyāṇi, tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā]

[“By the practice of perfect devotion to Me, the bhakti-yogīs bring their senses under proper control. One whose senses are controlled is truly intelligent.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.61]

“It is meant for Me. Don’t go to capture the result of your duty. That is meant for Me. It is Mine. And you are also Mine. So what you can produce that is also Mine. And don’t try to escape from that happy consideration, happy prospect of you, this way, that way. Think that I am Absolute Good. No apprehension will be there. Absolute Good, I am autocrat but I am good.”

A good guardian can rule the subordinate child, or minors. He knows my best interest more than myself, more than I know. So such sort of noble thinking must come within us. Not only we must disbelieve ourselves, but at the same time we have to put faith in some higher object. Then we can go to the line of Vaiṣṇava. Helplessness in ones own self, but no faith to be put anywhere, that is Māyāvādā. No faith in our present life, and at the same time no faith outside also. But the Vaiṣṇava, they have no faith in their own present self, but they cannot leave away the faith in such a holy and noble thing. They seek where to put faith, and find, ‘Yes, we can put faith with the Absolute. It is reality, it is not concoction, not a dream.’ That he comes to realize, coming in connection with sādhu, first by sukṛti, then by śraddhā. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: In order to develop śraddhā among the public...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: If one has got developed faith in Him, then he will be in a position to develop it amongst the public, according to his capacity. He does not know what is faith, how can he spread it to others?

bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya janma yāra / janma sārthaka kari’ kara para-upakāra

[“One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India [Bhārata-varṣa] should make his life successful and work for the benefit of all other people.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi- līlā, 9.41]

Asida katha majam sadayet [?] When one is plodding under ignorance, how will he be able to remove other’s ignorance? But he can do with considerable faith under the guidance of higher persons. If he has got partial faith, with partial faith he can begin work under the guidance of a faith of a grown up faith.

Devotee: Mahāprabhu was doing in some places something like that. Mahāprabhu He shown to Murārī Gupta the form of Rāmacandra. So many ways, some places...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Rāmacandra, Kṛṣṇacandra, very akin, in the same plane, of different type, but the plane is the same, almost.

Devotee: But by showing only Murārī Gupta got more faith on Him, Mahāprabhu.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, but still he could not remove himself from the circle of service to Rāmacandra, there. But some connection he got about Mahāprabhu. But still he’s sticking to the service of Rāmacandra.

And the father of Jīva Goswāmī, Anupama, he had also a similar case. Sanātana Goswāmī and Rūpa Goswāmī tried their best to take their brother in the service of Kṛṣṇa.

Parama madhu brajendra kumar [?]

But he prayed to them, “No, if you have grace in me, please grace me that I can engage myself more and more closely towards the side of Rāmacandra. I can’t come away from that.”

Just like Hanumān.

Sri nathi janaki nathi abhedi paramatmi ___________________________kama locana [?]

Not only here but in Kṛṣṇa līlā also. The vātsalya-rasa people, they can’t come from there, to join mādhurya-rasa. Or the friend section they cannot come out of there, to join vātsalya-rasa. In this way, yei rasa, sei sarvottama.

[kintu yāṅra yei rasa, sei sarvottama / taṭa-stha hañā vicārile, āche tara-tama]

[“It is true that whatever relationship a particular devotee has with the Lord is the best for him; still, when we study all the different methods from a neutral position, we can understand that there are higher and lower degrees of love.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya līlā, 8.83]

But that is the differentiation in the positive world. Not much harm, but they are in the positive, but there is gradation amongst the servitors in the positive. But still that is something. That is not nothing, or that is not illusory something. But that is something. That is nirguṇa, but nirguṇa has got also different intensities in the wave. And according to the intensity, different types of rasa, quality also may differentiate, intensity, not only quantity there is quality also.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, there are yogīs and jñānīs also there in the Absolute, in nirguṇa, in Goloka?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, no. Yogīs, jñānīs not nirguṇa. Yogīs, jñānīs, they naturally may come to Brahmaloka, not further. That is within the passport area, yogīs, jñānīs. But when it comes in connection with devotion then the visa begins. It is this side, yogī and jñānī. It is higher, up to Tapa, Jana, Satyaloka. And their highest end is to get nirvana. Some brahma nirvana, yogī, Paramātmā nirvana, sāyujya. Paramātmā, jīvātmā, one and the same. The jñānī nirvana rather the oneness with the all accommodating conception. And the yogī nirvana with the all pervading conception, Paramātmā, aṇor aṇīyān. As much as we shall analyse, within that the Lord is there. Whatever small, within that the Lord is there. He’s everywhere. He’s accommodating everything and He is residing in everything. The yogīs, they enquire after the Paramātmā, Who is within everything, that side, that aspect. And the jñānī, the all accommodating sphere, everything coming from the circumference: and yogīs, the centre. Something like that. But that is within this māyāic area. Sāyujya, when they reach their highest goal they think themselves one with them, sāyujya mukti. But with śraddhā we can cross that land and enter into the land of devotion. That is more subtle and more tasteful and more....... what is in your hand? That mālā? Do you follow. They are reaching Brahmaloka. That is āroha-panthā, climbing up by gist of the own force, own power. Climbing up, ascending method. The yogīs, jñānīs, ascending method. He’s the subject and all around is objective world. He’s the subject. And with śraddhā we are to enter into the super subjective world with the spirit of service. New life begins there. And that comes from within. That is more subtle than the yogīs and jñānīs can expect them or can feel them to be.

Devotee: Are there any yogīs and jñānīs who have acquired visa to enter?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: If they feel in any - generally it is not possible to dissuade them from their object. They are firm there. but if they meet a powerful devotee, then they can. Just as Śukadeva. Anyhow, coming in contact with his devotee father Vyāsadeva, he was taken in from the jungle with some śloka, infused the new idea. And he says, “From nirguṇa I have come to saguṇa, brahma-jñāna. In the case of Bilvamaṅgala, we find, in anyway with some wonderful interference they come back from that plane to the plane of the devotee. That is very particular and special case, but generally the current they catch takes them to nirvana.

Devotee: What about Durvāsā Muni?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Paramātmā nirvana, and the Paramātmā this brahma-nirvana and Paramātmā nirvana. Durvāsā yes.

Devotee: Durvāsā Muni, he was a yogī, but he had entrance to Vaikuṇṭha, he could go there.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is not that Vaikuṇṭha. Just as an Indian can see American Consul in Delhi. Like that. In brahmāṇḍa there is Kṣīrodakaśāyī Avatāra. And he met there, and not Vaikuṇṭha proper. Bhu Vaikuṇṭha rather, that is known as Bhu Vaikuṇṭha. There is an American Ambassador house here in India. You can meet, American means there. Something like that. Bhu Vaikuṇṭha. Vaikuṇṭha extended here in a particular place. Like Kṣīrodakaśāyī samudra [?] There under the guidance of Brahmā and Śiva, the gods are also meeting there Nārāyaṇa. And they are making petition, “That by the cruel dealings of the demons we are driven from the heaven and we are undergoing so many pains. You come to relieve us.” In this way they are going to Viṣṇu. That is in Bhu Vaikuṇṭha, not Vaikuṇṭha proper. The Catuḥsana they can go, they are śanta-rasa bhaktas, from Satyaloka. Sometimes they can go to have darśana of Nārāyaṇa and then come to Satyaloka. No attraction for this world, but small attraction for Vaikuṇṭha. From that borderline they have some passport to cross the borderline to go some and then to come back. That sort of passport the Catuḥsana has got, some.

Devotee: Is Jesus Christ considered a Vaiṣṇava or a yogī. Would you consider him a great yogī, because He performed many mystical yoga tricks, like walking on water.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is another thing. He was a devotee. But He performed only to attract some attraction of the public. He showed some miracles.

Mahāprabhu also did some at some times. He embraced Sanātana Goswāmī, the body was purified like anything. The whole troubles over his body, so many itches and oozing, the pus oozing, that was immediately cured.

There was one Kustha Vipra in Śrī Kurmam, a devotee, he was with leprosy of the extreme type. And he was very eager to have darśana of Mahāprabhu, but Mahāprabhu went away. And that man fell senseless, “Oh, Mahāprabhu came and He did not give me darśana.” And Mahāprabhu went away about a mile, he ran from that place and embraced that Kustha Vipra Vasudeva, and his leprosy was cured. Not only, but a good figure, beautiful figure, immediately. That is another.

Then also when this Amogha was dying of cholera, and Mahāprabhu touched him.

______________ [?] In this way.

Then Advaita Prabhu’s son, Gopāla, also.

One Bhod Ācārya, Bhoda scholar. He was an Acarya and had many disciples in Andhradesh. He had a great discussion with Mahāprabhu, and they managed to offer some mahā-prasāda to Mahāprabhu, but really there was some meat or other filthy things. But a big bird suddenly came and took the plate. Then that plate was thrown down onto the head of the Ācārya, and he fell. And the disciples surrounding him began to wail.

Then Mahāprabhu said, “You say, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa and your Ācārya will come up.”

And they did so, and the Ācārya came up.

All these things, many things Mahāprabhu showed. That is from that plane to attract ordinary people. Sometimes they show to the foolish people that sort of, something like miracles.

Devotee: I heard that the gopīs were previously Ṛṣis who got the desire to become gopīs.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The original gopīs are always eternal, but some foreigners are also allowed to join there, the subordinate group. The Śruti, the Daṇḍakaranya Ṛṣis, by their special prayer they are taken in. When they accepted that gopī mentality, gopī bhajan with most earnestness, they were allowed. They got siddhi by the grace of the Lord and were allowed to enter there. By the grace of Rāmacandra the munis. And the Śruti also by their prayer which was heard by Kṛṣṇa and taken in, they joined. At they same time Lakṣmī Devī from Vaikuṇṭha, she can’t enter into that area. So, only through a particular process one can attain, and not taken his own particular position he can enter, but he must accept the change, the process. He must accept the change. And anyone may be changed.

The inner self is there and the outer encasement must vanish, and then one will find that he is gopī and he will find necessarily I am in that plane, and her duty also, her or his duty. The inner type of him may be a sakhā or sakhī, or vātsalya rasa, or servant, in many stages of service. And according to his inner acquaintance he will go there.

Devotee: That’s in eternal Goloka?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Eternal Goloka, Vaikuṇṭha Goloka, some may be stopped in Vaikuṇṭha also, in the service of Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa. And some may be stopped in Ayodhyā as servitors of Rāmacandra. Some may, as within, some may reach up to Dvārakā, some to Mathurā, some to Vṛndāvana. And there very different orders of servitors. Gradation is there.

Devotee: What is the difference between Satyaloka and Tapaloka?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Tapaloka the penance is principle, then that is Tapaloka. And Satyaloka, the sattva guṇa in its highest form, self abnegation it the highest form, Satyaloka. And then above Satyaloka, on the other side of Brahmaloka, there is Śivaloka and Vaikuṇṭhaloka. Subtler and subtler and more subtle conception. From misconception to proper conception. These are all stages, when one is avoiding misconception and going to proper conception. And in the proper conception area there is also different gradations. According to the degree of sacrifice he can accommodate within him, quality and quantity, both. Just as here according to ones knowledge and ones energy: ignorance and science and nescience, and then energy more or less. So many variegated creations we find, but ultimately some knowledge and some ignorance, so variegated. So there also service of different quality, both quantity and quality. According to that classification, according to quality, classification, gradation, infinite.

Devotee: Are Brahmaloka and Satyaloka the same?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Brahmaloka proper, that is the abscissa, no man’s land, sāyujya mukti, sound sleep. When one looses his own individual identification, that stage, such stage of the soul for some long time. But it is not permanent, but for a long time he will have to sleep a sound slumber, Brahmaloka. Vimukta-māninas, they think that, ‘We are in the highest stage of life,’ vimukta-māninas. Tvayi asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ. But because they do find any attraction for the higher thing, they will have to come back ultimately again in this world. He cannot catch the opposite current, then this current will again bring him down. But for the time being for a long period, he will, if you may say so, enjoy the sound sleep.

[ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas, tvayi asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ

āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ, patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ]

[“O lotus-eyed Lord, although non devotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure. Although they may rise to the level of impersonal Brahman realisation, they fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they neglect to worship Your lotus feet.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 10.2.32]

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Swāmī, in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, in the twentieth chapter, Sanātana Goswāmī is speaking with Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu says,

ei-mata brahmāṇḍa-madhye sabāra ‘parakāśa’, sapta-dvīpe nava-khaṇḍe yāṅhāra vilāsa

[“Within the universe the Lord is situated in different spiritual manifestations. These are situated on seven islands in nine sections. Thus Their pastimes are going on.”] [Caitanya- caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.218]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I’ve already told that Kṣīrodakaśāyī, this mandar in Badrinārāyaṇa, and about the American Consul, in Delhi, in Calcutta, in provinces, in this way here and there. So here also God sends His representation of different type in different places. In Mandari Madhusudan. Somewhere this, somewhere that Avatāra, somewhere another Avatāra, in this way perhaps it is mentioned.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, when our Guru Mahārāja was translating Bhāgavata there was some conversation with yourself regarding the sun and moon. The moon is closer or the sun is closer?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. I showed one direction that is not in consideration of physical distance, but I think it will be better, the distance of influence. Influence. Just as we may see in the political, Russia is nearer to India than America, err, than Pakistan. Pakistan is very near, close by, but we may say that Russia is nearer to India than Pakistan. So how? The nearness, calculation of the friendly relations or influence. So I like say that we may take in that way, not in physical distance. Suns influence over the Earth is first, next that of Moon, next that of Mars. In this way perhaps we may proceed. I gave some hint in that direction. So if we are challenged we may take this course. But my ultimate basis of argument is that it is subjective. It is like a hypnotist. As the Lord showed Śukadeva at that time, it is described like that. He might have showed that sort to anyone and everyone. And sometimes, one in particular, and it is in His hands. Subjective control: not the objective will control us to see a thing, but the subject as He likes can make a show like a hypnotist. That is my view. So everything can be explained. The higher seer is controlling us to see anything. A man here, “Oh you see Me, I and this.” Another man won’t see. The subjective control, like that of a hypnotist. Viśvarūpa darśana in Bhagavad-gītā. What is it? “Arjuna you see this. I am so and so.” And Arjuna is seeing that. “I can’t see it more.” “Yes, I am.” Closing. So it’s not that the object is controlling the experience of the subject, but the super subject is controlling the experience of the lower subject. That is my understanding. Everything is controlled by the higher.

ūrdhva-mūlam adhaḥ-śākham, aśvatthaṁ prāhur avyāyam

[chandāṁsi yasya parṇāni, yas taṁ veda sa veda-vit]

[“The holy scriptures proclaim that this material world is like an unchangeable Banyan tree with its roots facing upwards and its branches down, known as an Aśvattha (transitory) tree. Its nutriments are the Vedic aphorisms, which are represented by its leaves. Whoever knows this tree in this way is a genuine knower of the Vedas.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 15.1]

The root is above, not from the fossil. The fossil will control me to see him as fossil always, no such base law, such a mean law I am ready to accept.

Devotee: If some argument comes, how do we describe that the moon is nearer?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Moon, not in the physical measurement of distance, but influence. The greatest influence, in the line of influence, Sun is the nearest to Earth. And in the line of influence Moon is the next, and so on. Otherwise, Swāmī Mahārāja he pointed out to the west that in every nation we find Sunday, Monday, this that order, why that? Why that? The Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, in this way the order, it is found in every nationality almost. There must be something.

Devotee: They say that it’s because God created the world in seven days. The Christians say that the reason why it’s Sunday then Monday is because God created the world in six days and then He had to rest.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Still, why Sun first?

Devotee: They have no answer to that.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The Sun has got most intimate connection with Earth, near, but near in what respect? Nearest from the standpoint of influence. The greatest influence Sun has got, the Sun, the ray, heat, that is nearest to the Earth in intensity, that is in influence. It has got greatest hold over this Earth, the Sun. So Sun is nearest. Sun means not that lump, but Sun means Sun’s rays, Sun’s heat, light. So nearest, that is more influence the Sun has got over the Earth first, and next the Moon. That also we can experience, nearest. The second influence over the Earth the Moon has got. And in mass we are told in the physical also sense nearest to the Earth. Some sort of influence that must imbibe, have to imbibe.

Devotee: That means when we talk about influence whether we won’t take up like Māyāvādī.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Eh? What’s Māyāvādī?

Devotee: Because we’re not giving much importance for the Deity, only influence we are getting.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The influence is also matter, it is also material, the light, heat, that is material thing. And here I’m not talking about the spiritual. But it is material, only subtle or electricity, more powerful than any force ever found. But that is far away, hitherto, now it is found that is very near.

Devotee: Our Swāmī Mahārāja said that, “The astronauts they did not go to the Moon but they might have gone to the planet Rahu.”

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It may not be always. It may be that they are misguided in their way of calculation, the method of calculation. Not that Moon, the Moon which has got the influence over the Earth, not that Moon.

Devotee: There’s more than one Moon?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That may be, many Moons there may be, in different: infinite number of Moons there may be. There is some pinda what is getting light from the Sun and focussing that to another material body, that is a Moon. Earth has got this Moon and there is another method of calculation. It is all relative. If we consider the Sun to be fixed, then Moon and other planets moving in a particular way. But if we don’t consider the Sun to be the centre, if I consider the Pole Star to be the centre, and then how the progress of moving? We take a photo. Then what will be the effect. Sun moving, this moving, this moving, and then, from that consideration, that this Moon may not be some planet to this Earth. Its movement, describing the path, that will be another thing. The Earth’s way another, Sun’s way another. But because we fix the Sun as the centre we take the picture, we find that this is moving around, this is moving around. But if the centre is changed, and the movement accordingly, then a new picture of chaotic order will come in the calculation. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ke bolchen?

Devotee: _____________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha. What do you say? Do you follow?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: So then what is the original point?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The relative and dynamic also, we have to learn of all these things, dynamic. Suppose, there is an example also, that one ship moving, and there is the mast. And one ant is climbing up the mast. What is the resultant of the mast, of that ant? It is moving, the Earth is moving, and the ship also moving, and the ant is also moving. So what will be the real part, locus, of the ant? So in this way, in relation to the Earth, or relation to the Sun, so it will vary. No location. So according to the centre, so many moving, and according to centre we can chalk out some way. If the centre is removed, then the photo, the line of movement will be different. Remove the centre then your photo of the path described by them cannot but be different. So the Sun with this, the whole solar system is moving around the Polar Star, Dhruvaloka. Because Dhruva and Prasini, Dhruva and this Earth, Polar Star and the Earth almost continue in the same position. So if Polar Star we take as the centre, the Earth will seem to be stand still. And the Sun and other planets are moving. So if one says the Earth is not moving, we can’t discard it. Because if we take the Polar Star, Earth maintaining same position always, the Earth is fixed. Though moving, everything is moving, but in that relativity.

Two trains parallel, going, and that window man and this window man, equal speed, their position is unchanged, not moving. So all relative, no end, only standpoint varies. So Sun, not only, but globe what is, we don’t know, but Sun’s rays, Sun’s heat, that is very nearer, having the most influence over the Earth. So Sun is described as nearer to the Earth. And next the Moons influence on the Earth. Then the Mars, in this way. Let them calculate in what respect they have more influence accordingly over the Earth. Let the scientists invent, discover and then to come to challenge to us. And this is somewhat relative, mundane. But my stand is in the extreme cause, that the subject, He’s controlling to see, this lower subject. Higher subject is regulating the lower subject, what to see, what to not see. And not the fixed objective world, that is controlling the seer.

I heard that recently one French scientist discovered that the colour is not outside but it is in the eye. In ours also creation, sāṅkhya philosophy, that it is coming, the pañca tan-mātra, then it is bifurcated as eye, as light, and as colour. The Sun, the light...

End of 81.11.02.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.02.C_81.11.03.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...one thing divided in three ways. And so also, ear to receive, and sound, that is tama guṇa, and this is raja guṇa, and ether, sound, and ether is tama guṇa, and sound raja guṇa, and sattya guṇa, this ear. In this way, eye, light, and colour. Without light we can’t see the colour, the rūpa, figure. So coming from the same source in these three ways, so also, ether, sound and ear, coming from the same source: just as branch off, viṣaya-pravālāḥ, in Bhagavad-gītā [15.2]. From the seed, sprout is coming, then the trunk, then branches, then leaves, in this way, ūrdhva-mūlam [Bhagavad-gītā, 15.1], the root is above and it is coming, creating things coming down, and the cause is above. So Bhagavad-gītā says, who gets such conception he knows properly Veda. Yas taṁ veda sa veda-vit, he’s veda-vit, he knows the real purpose of Veda who knows it well that the cause of this world is above, not down.

[ūrdhva-mūlam adhaḥ-śākham, aśvatthaṁ prāhur avyāyam

chandāṁsi yasya parṇāni, yas taṁ veda sa veda-vit]

[“The holy scriptures proclaim that this material world is like an unchangeable Banyan tree with its roots facing upwards and its branches down, known as an Aśvattha (transitory) tree. Its nutriments are the Vedic aphorisms, which are represented by its leaves. Whoever knows this tree in this way is a genuine knower of the Vedas.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 15.1]

Do you understand? Partially! Something!

Devotee: Something!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And you? Here?

Devotee: Partially.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________ [?] That is my satisfaction.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Śrīdhara Mahārāja, the scientists they’re trying to send different vehicles to other planets. Is that possible that they can by some space ship or by some physical means go to another planet?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Is it possible to reach other planets by the space ship or the machine?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The yogīs may go visit there.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: By machine.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: By machine? I don’t know that. You ask the scientists.

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Whether by machine one can, by mental body one can reach anywhere by the process of yoga.

Devotee: When they ask...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The Russians came some five or six years ago, some scientists came to India to find out from the yogīs that, “With more speed of electricity that mind can go, the speed of the thought can go most fast. And in that process if I want to go to Moon or any other stars, we are sending our sputnik, that word, a mechanic, through the mind can we contact with that process?” But they told now we failed to understand. It’s not possible, never, point blank. Some eight Russian scientists came to visit India. Mano javit [?] Mind is the most fast traveller. Nothing can go with more speed than mind. So with the possibility of the help of the mental speed we can reach to any star object of our need or anything. That was their point of investigation, but anyhow they failed, I was told in newspaper. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, after the Śukadeva Goswāmī spoke Bhāgavatam, what did he do then?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is not mentioned. Yadami vikrama sartam [?] He came from unknown quarter and again mixed in the unknown. When he came from unknown direction, and also when that function was finished he mixed himself with the beggars that gathered there in great number. Entered into the mob and hid himself there. The father was there, his Guru, and the Nārada Goswāmī was also there. But he came only to finish some function to give the Bhāgavata truth, as interpolated by the Divine. It was inaugurated you must take name in the middle yadivar, such a highest thing. That is devotion percolated by knowledge, cid-vilāsa. Transcendental cosmos was percolated by spiritual, by consciousness spirituality that he came.

Devotee: When Dakṣa had his head cut off and got the head of a goat, he still maintained his same mentality. So is it understood that the mind is simply a reflection of the heart: from that example?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But by the law of miracle when a goat’s head can be put into the human body then other things also may be managed from that subtle power. Not only Dakṣa, but Gaṇeśa had the same fate, not only Gaṇeśa but Hayagrīva, Nārāyaṇa, that also fits in. But subtle power may transfer quality of this to that and manage. Not only that, when Nārāyaṇa comes in the shape of Varāha He’s not limited in Varāha, mastiska [?] Or as fish, Matsya Avatāra, Nṛsiṁha Avatāra, but supernatural knowledge can exist, can come down in any instrument. He can work through any instrument, the Matsya, Kūrma, because that is not in the physical, in the case of Nārāyaṇa. And here also that Supreme Will may work and can show wonder. Higher will is the cause, not the material. That shows the efficacy of the higher existence. Subtle powers are master of the gross, and not gross is master of the subtle. Supreme Will may do it.

Gandhi used to live in a cottage, and big men wants to see him he comes to live in that thereby. The superior intellect or superior morality or all other which is big, just as human intellect that can control the lion, the elephant, the mammoth, so finer thing can control the gross lower thing.

So in the Supreme Will, by law, by the special power reserved in Mahādeva, can, that made it possible, in the case of Dakṣa. Exceptional, there may be exceptional in the law of creation, that is also wonderful. Why B should be after A, not C? That is the first arithmetic arrangement we are accustomed to accept. But the officer, organiser, higher will can organise things otherwise. We are accustomed to write from left to right, but Arabian system just the opposite. So organisation may be affecting in various ways.

The will, the penance, after all, sweet will of the Lord is above all, can make or mar, and do anything and everything. The cause is given as such, and as much as that is transferred in a particular way they can use that sort of power there. Only distribution of power, distribution of power in nature there is. The judge can pass order of hanging a person, and the magistrate may not do so, but he can keep and he can punish him by laws, so distribution of power. Everything is possible with the Absolute Will and that is distributed according to the gradation, and so anything may happen anywhere.

But that all proves that spirit is above matter, spirit is guiding, not the matter. Forcing, matter has produced spirit so matter is controlling spirit, not that conception. Spirit is always above matter, over and above matter in all consideration. So the miracles may come. What is not according to the general law of the matter, when we see that to be effected then we think, ‘what is it, how is it?’ But sweet will is above. Then we, our expectation will be wide, ‘Yes, anything may happen. Some sort of necessity was there and the highest dispensation has done it. Everything is possible.” A dead man is again, may have life: so many miracles.

Devotee: One time someone asked Swāmī Mahārāja, “Why do you not perform miracles?” And Swāmī Mahārāja said that, “Actually, changing these persons...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: To show miracles means to deceive people: a deception for deception. When sometimes it is necessary one may take to that course, deception, “I’m a higher deceiver than you, so submit to me.”

Devotee: Like that Sai Bābā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sai Bābā: and another hypnotist, P.C. Shakar [?] I exposed him, ‘That you are a hypnotist and no spiritual background. You are a great deceiver.’ Exposed him!

Devotee: What if influence are just growing [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No. After that it is falling away I heard, after P.C. Sakhar I exposed him.

Devotee: I have gone just one year before, his place, I have seen very shoes near about ten square kilometre whole of āśrama. [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That may be, not impossible, because the purchasers of that quality, what he’s distributing the purchasers are also self deceivers.

Devotee: But even the scientist are rushing _________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Self cheater, the cheaters they’re making crowd around them. They like to know something of cheating the people by some offering of this mundane. So people should be educated what to desire. That is the first thing, what to desire, the siddhi, or to give up all the siddhi, to be master of siddhi or to be saved from the hands of siddhi, what is desirable? One wants to establish a kingdom, and another like Bharata they’re very busy to leave, to get away from the influence of a kingdom. There are different strata. One is busy to acquire some, someone wants to purchase some poison, perhaps to kill some bird or insect, or sometimes to kill him, wants poison. Another he will avoid the shop of poison. Why? Different aim of life; one purchases poison, another avoids poison. Why: type of different layer. So besides this the mastership over the globe, that is poison. Bhāgavata says:

Na narka pristham na ca para nistham na sarvabhauma na rasadi patram [?]

Any relation with matter, that is dangerous, whether as a master or as a servant; anyhow to be, to remain in the relativity of mortal things that is dangerous, we must dismiss that wholesale, that will be, then they are also Māyāvādī. But not this mean fellow. But Vaiṣṇava’s not only wants to get out of this mortal area but to enter into a safe and healthy position. That is another thing, as a servant. ‘It is better to,’ Satan says, ‘it is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.’ But Vaiṣṇava says, ‘It is better to serve in heaven than to reign in hell.’ The opposite! Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: As a yogī you want to make master of this material thing, transient, mortal, what will disappear wholesale in the time of pralaya. Then where will be the position of that Sai Baba when this whole globe will vanish, the whole solar system, the whole creation will vanish? Then what effect this Sai Baba will be able to produce? Benefit to the...

Devotee: But he’s also making people chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Sai Baba, in his āśrama this Hari Nāma is going on twenty four hours.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But Hari Nāma, what sort of Hari Nāma? That imitation Hari Nāma! Hari is not there, only this illusory imitation of sound.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Namaskāra.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The spirit is not – namaskāra bahiray, only imitating sound, but Hari is not the sound. Sound is a stage which is produced by ether, ordinary sound. But the Name is not the sound that can be produced by two lips or tongue. A machine also can produce sound. The Hare Kṛṣṇa can be produced by the gramophone also. The physical sound, but spirit, life, ātmā, Paramātmā, above that: that sort of thing must be present there. Only the bottle and the label, that is not all the thing, but the contained, the substance contained there may be a poison or may be honey. But honey is all in all and not the bottle.

Devotee: Achar. A preacher when he has to see other category of life other than Sai Baba or a Māyāvādī, a Vaiṣṇava can go and see them, or Vaiṣṇava can go only for preaching?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Vaiṣṇava will go, can visit anyone and everyone, but according to his capacity. Vaiṣṇava may visit Sai Baba not to become his disciple, but if he can make himself his disciple or the disciple of his Guru he can visit.

Mahāprabhu met Sārvabhauma to conquer him, Prakāśānanda to conquer him, and not to become disciple of them.

Our Swāmī Mahārāja sometimes encouraged me: “Let us go to see Gandhi, Jawaharlal [Paṇḍita Nehru] and convert them.” Now and then he used to encourage me, “Let us go.” Of course when he was in business, at that time, many a time he’d try to provoke me, “Let us go, why not? We must capture, break down.”

So, with the object of capturing them, to convert them, we can meet anyone according to our own capacity. But not to be converted by them, not with so weak a man that may be converted he will avoid that bad association, that the māyā may capture him through that agent, a weak must not go. But a strong man he will go.

Devotee: _________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then he will try to have good company. By their association to increase his own strength, where he is, so that he may destroy and demolish the anti party. That sort of capacity he must develop in him sufficiently.

Devotee: It’s like our Akṣayānanda Mahārāja he drove out Rajneesh from Poona.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, he’s so powerful. Who is that Rajneesh? I did not know much about him. Now I hear his name. The other day I found in the paper that the real Rajneesh was killed two years or three years ago, and imitation Rajneesh was there, and now he’s driven to America. There was an article found in Ānanda Bazaar Patrikā within a month or so there was an article. The real Rajneesh he was murdered two or three years back, before, and the imitation now he has been driven away to America.

Devotee: Yes. Maybe it’s possible.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And what is his creed? He tried to utilise the sense experience for the higher realisation, is it?

Devotees: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The sum total? The sahajiyā, the baula, they’re also almost of same opinion.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He wrote a book, Sambhoga Sei Samādhi.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What samādhi?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Sambhoga Sei Samādhi.

Devotee: From Sex to Super Consciousness.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Sex to Samādhi. Number one rākṣasa!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There is a school of that type not only that, this baula, the tantric also. The tantric they also try to utilise all these mundane purpose to such an end that it will take me above.

But Kṛṣṇa, the reality is dead to them. By this empirical method, ascending method, they can go. The grace may not come, that will come down, Kṛṣṇa’s grace will come down in Guru pāramparyeṇa, it is not admitted by these fellows. Not by devising any method, or tactics, dexterity, they will be able to catch the sarvatantra satantra, Who is independent of the independent, the Absolute, by some jugglery! Just as one man told that, “Śaṅkara’s philosophy is intellectual jugglery, fruitless jugglery.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam tusarva artamam [?]

[śreyaḥ sṛtiṁ bhaktim udasya te vibho, kliśyanti ye] kevala-bodha-labdhaye

teṣām asau kleśala eva śiṣyate, nānyad yathā sthūla-tuṣāvaghātinām

[“My dear Lord, devotional service unto You is the only auspicious path. If one gives it up simply for speculative knowledge or the understanding that these living beings are spirit souls and the material world is false, he undergoes a great deal of trouble. He only gains troublesome and inauspicious activities. His endeavours are like beating a husk that is already devoid of rice. One’s labour becomes fruitless.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.14.4] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.22]

So their finding means, devising means of different types to reach to the highest goal. And the highest goal is something else, mundane, where the jīva soul can become master. He must come down, adhokṣaja, without His permission, without His recommended process, none can enter there. So that should be the clear, high road towards that, by submission to that sweet will, that will be the only way to go to. He’s independent. None can force Him to come within his laboratory. He’s independent, Absolute Independent. And the only method sanctioned by Him can take him there towards Him. When He wants to make Himself known, only through that process He can be approached. Otherwise without giving importance to His will anyone can go and see and take Him within his fist, what is this? Do you follow?

Devotees: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So śrauta-panthā, avaroha-panthā; that must be accepted. His Sweet Will, will come and accept who will go there with His consent only, that is the road to go to Adhokṣaja, to the Absolute Good, Absolute Will. Not any means devised by any brain that can control Him to accept them as His servant or anything else. This avaroha-panthā, this yoga, avaroha-panthā, all these are avaroha-panthā, inductive method. But deductive method, descending method, adhokṣaja:

nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo, na medhayā na bahunā śrutena

yam evaiṣa vṛnute tena labhyas, [tasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛnute tanūṁ svām]

[“One cannot understand the substance of the Paramātmā, the Supersoul residing within everyone’s heart, by means of expertise in logic, intelligence or learning. When the living entity begs the Lord for His mercy, being desirous of His transcendental loving service, then the Supreme Lord reveals His self-manifest form directly before him.”] [Katha-Upaniṣad, 1.2.23]

Whomever He will accept he can go in there in His land, not anyone at their free will. He’s such, yam evaiṣa vṛnute tena labhyas, super subject, when He allows others, lower subject to approach in His own sphere they can go, with the spirit of service; with no other object. Only with the spirit surrendering wholesale, recruitment and disarmed, wholesale disarmed, and when taken the faith of absolute surrender they can be allowed to enter that domain, and never otherwise. Not to explore, not to become monarch in a particular higher island to colonise. Yam evaiṣa vṛnute tena labhyas.

tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā

[upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ, jñāninas tattva darśinaḥ]

[“You will be able to attain all this knowledge by satisfying the enlightened spiritual master with prostrate obeisances, relevant enquiry, and sincere service. Great souls who are most expert in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will teach you that divine knowledge.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.34]

Never otherwise! Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then I retire here.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

...

______________________________ [?]

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: We think you are always in Divinity. That is why we came because we’re not.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In different sphere, ha, ha. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. The vyāsāsana, a particular type of mood, to talk from vyāsāsana, to be in a surrendered position where the proper inspiration, dictation may come: particular mood. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Our Guru Mahārāja told once, “When, from vyāsāsana one is faced with the śloka of Bhāgavatam:

ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān, nāvamanyeta karhicit

na martya-buddhyāsūyeta, sarva-deva-mayo guruḥ

[“One should know the Ācārya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.17.27]

Ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān, should he pronounce this śloka, or being afraid, frightened, he will go, he will fly away? Or he will have to face to explain the real meaning of this śloka? Ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān. “I am Ācārya. I am God. I am ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān. You know your Ācārya as God Himself. So I am in the position of the Ācārya, so am I God? Should we face this problem of explanation or fly away? Ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān, a relative position.”

In another time he told in Varṣāṇā, when circumambulation of the whole of Vraja maṇḍala. “Our relative position of a disciple requires that the paramparā up to my Gurudeva it is not kaniṣṭha adhikārī but that the whole thing down intact up to this.” We are asked to have such notion about Guru.

Then by the line of descent, not diminished, gradually! The highest Guru, Brahmā, then another, Nārada, little diminished śiṣya, disciple, so a little inferior to his Guru. So the third also inferior to the second, fourth also inferior to the third, this should not be thought. Ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān, this thread within, that good will of the Supreme backing the whole thing. So to the disciple, relatively, they will have such perspective consideration. He will try his best, ‘That I have come to the highest intensity.’ That will help him to imbibe the faith, encourage his faith. Fault finding with Guru, that will be suicidal, suicidal for the disciple. This is the general thing; that generally we should have such faith to develop, because as much as I am eager, sincerely to come to God, the cooperation from His side is not defective. To the fullest extent He has come down to cooperate with me, my sincere hankering. No defect can be there. I want Him and He also comes to meet me. If I’m sincere He’s also more than that. I’m eager, He’s also more eager to meet me. There cannot be anything wrong in His part. He’s omniscient. He’s omnipotent. I’m approaching not to a blind thing, and not a tinge of ingratitude may be there. So seeing that He’s come to the fullest extent to sympathise with me I’m guided to a particular Guru and by his internal direction, and also he has come to cooperate with me. With best sincerity he has come. That should be our attitude.

But from, this is relative, we shall try to take the benefit of this, but for my previous offensive activity if any disaster may come in my way, and then it is mentioned everywhere, especially in Hari-Nāma-cintāmaṇi – the greatest misfortune ever we can conceive is to find fault in Gurudeva, is actually due to my ill fate, my ill fortune it has occurred before me. And that is also, and that offence gone, that period finished, I may feel by my previous sukṛti another sort of light, another sort of light by previous sukṛti, that I have done wrong. I have done wrong. And at the guidance there is also Guru, that śikṣā Guru, or in any way, that is also a branch of the current of the Lord, same Lord. Helping me to detect some sort of defect whom I previously took to be perfect, such disaster, it may not occur, we shall wish that such disaster may not occur in anyone’s fate. But still, if it is the fact, then with the help of another Guru we may seek the judgement of the present Guru. It is mention in Hari-Nāma-cintāmaṇi. With the help of another Vaiṣṇava if such light awakes in my mind that I’m so tolerant, forbearing. Still I find anyhow the Guru is showing, that may be a test to me also, he’s showing his practice does not harmonise, is not in proper adjustment with his own voice and the voice of the śāstra, and the voice of other Vaiṣṇava, or other Ācāryas. If such sort of new suspicion and awakening we find, we are to verify from the Vaiṣṇava. And then when it should be clear I shall have to replace me in some other line. But that is not desirable, and that is very rarely found in anyone’s case. And that is sometimes the result of some inconsiderate and almost hurried faced selection, with some hesitating mind, with some pressure from outside also, ulterior purpose. That sort of ill choice, wrong choice, might have occurred. In that way we are to take it, because I cannot march on blind. The scriptures, the Vaiṣṇavas, other, they’re in broad daylight and I cannot march with my eyes blind, or closed. Gaura Haribol.It is real, and it is not supposition, on the way and the goal what I’m desired to make advance towards, that is not the way of suspicion. The broad daylight as if we shall march seeing everything more clear, thousand times clear than we live and move here in this plane. Bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.20.30] it must untie all different forms of desires ever fostered and placed in my heart, within my mental system, that the whole ties will be untied. I don’t want anything, so untie, I don’t want it. I want nothing. Bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś. Chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ, all my doubts must be cleared. This is the, and that cannot but be this, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ. At least I’m in the line of progress that my doubts are being cleared gradually, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ. All suspicion clearing light I’m getting gradually. Kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi. ___________ [?]

Devotees: ____________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Where is he going?

Devotee: I’ll be right back. I have to go do something.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ke?

Devotees: He’ll be back he said. Coming back, some duty.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ, kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi. All the past acquired tendency, or attraction for this mundane plane will vanish. Mayi dṛṣṭe 'khilātmani, and the real master of the real world will appear before me, on my eye, what is what. Mayi dṛṣṭe 'khilātmani, what is what, that harmony, that unity, that conclusion, that beauty, charm, our innate hankerings will all find satisfaction in that one plane. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari...

End of 81.11.02.C_81.11.03.A

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Start of 81.11.03.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: We try to serve Guru and Kṛṣṇa, Vaiṣṇavas. And other side due to purva saṁskāra the tendency to offend like that, kuñjara-śaucavat, elephant’s bath, [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 6.1.10] So two battles are there: how to...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is, we shall try to use our free will only to connect more and more with the positive side.

jāto-śraddho mat kathāsu, nirviṇṇaḥ sarvva-karmmasu

veda-duḥkhātmakān kāmān, parityāge 'py anīśvaraḥ

[“He who has imbibed heart’s faith in the tidings of My Name, nature and pastimes; who has become indifferent to all kinds of fruitive work and its rewards; who has learned that all forms of enjoyment of sensual passions ultimately transform into misery, yet he is unable to fully abandon such passions - such a faithful devotee, being determined that his shortcomings will be dispelled by the potency of devotion, gradually comes to abhor those evil passions that enslave him, knowing the havoc they wreak - and he serves Me with love: When his object is pure and sincere, I give him My mercy.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.20.27]

tato bhajeta māṁ prītaḥ śraddhālur dṛḍha-niścayaḥ

juṣamāṇaś ca tān kāmān duḥkhodarkāṁś ca garhayan

[“But the śraddhā or pure attraction he has acquired for Me is of eternal nature. It cannot be subdued or cut off by any mundane or ordinary attempt. Despite undergoing so many sufferings, he goes on remembering Me. His thinking, aspiration and earnestness is for Me, and the more he is compelled to suffer from the pressure of the environment, a firmness in Me becomes more and more sure, and finally, invulnerable. And by standing the test of all these trials, he will stand - stand and grow beyond the jurisdiction of these mundane forces. The more pressure comes from outside, the more firmness he feels in the necessity of My help to him.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.20.28]

proktena bhakti-yogena bhajato mā 'sakṛn muneḥ

kāmā hṛdayyā naśyanti sarvve mayi hṛdi sthite

[“When an intelligent person engages constantly in worshipping Me through loving devotional service as described by Me, his heart becomes firmly situated in Me. Thus all material desires within his heart are destroyed.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.20.29]

bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, [chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ

kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi, mayi dṛṣṭe 'khilātmani]

[“The knot in the heart is pierced, all misgivings are cut to pieces and the chain of fruitive actions is terminated when I am seen as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 11.20.30]

In ekadas again this śloka occurs, bhidyate hṛdaya, it is in the first canto and also in the eleventh. Jāto-śraddho mat kathāsu. “One who has got some faith in Me, mat kathāsu, nirviṇṇaḥ sarvva-karmmasu, and in wholesale dealing he does not want any connection of the world, no charm, nirviṇṇaḥ sarvva-karmmasu, in the general sense. The general resolution of his mind to leave them and come ahead, go ahead. Veda-duḥkhātmakān kāmān, he knows fully well that if I indulge myself into exploiting habit, veda-duḥkha, it will produce some misery, some reaction sure to come. Veda-duḥkhātmakān kāmān, parityāge 'py anīśvaraḥ. But sometimes things seem helpless, can’t control, 'py anīśvaraḥ. Mat kathāsu, nirviṇṇaḥ sarvva-karmmasu, veda- duḥkhātmakān kāmān, parityāge 'py anīśvaraḥ.

Tato bhajeta māṁ prītaḥ śraddhālur dṛḍha-niścayaḥ. But they have no other way to be recommended, but with more intensity to tread to the same course. No other alternative. Only this ananya-bhakti, the exclusive devotional path: that is the only relief, no other. So, tato bhajeta māṁ prītaḥ, try his best to increase his positive activity as much as possible. Tato bhajeta māṁ prītaḥ śraddhālur dṛḍha-niścayaḥ. With more firmness and more perseverance he will try to follow the same course. That is the only way. No other alternative. The exclusive way he has, the maximum beneficial way he has got, so he’ll try to with whole energy to devote to intensify his journey towards the positive. Śraddhālur dṛḍha-niścayaḥ, juṣamāṇaś ca tān kāmān duḥkhodarkāṁś ca garhayan. As long as he cannot shake off all these previous habits he will have to tolerate, forbear. Tān kāmān duḥkhodarkāṁś ca. And that will produce some misery and he will have to suffer, to take it in his back. Duḥkhodarkāṁś ca garhayan.

Proktena bhakti-yogena bhajato mā 'sakṛn muneḥ, kāmā hṛdayyā naśyanti sarvve mayi. Then gradually the day will dawn, he will find one day that they’re retiring, that after trying their utmost, now they have failed and they’re going back. Proktena bhakti-yogena bhajato mā 'sakṛn muneḥ, kāmā hṛdayyā naśyanti sarvve mayi hṛdi sthite. “Gradually I shall come down in the plane of his heart and everything will be pleasure. The night of the hail and storm that will go away, and the dawn will be clear, sun will rise. That is seen.”

This is in one’s own case. But if he finds such a case in the Vaiṣṇava, superior than he, then Jīva Goswāmī Prabhu has told that there may be some misconception also. In one’s own case he will deal with himself with this idea, and in another case, especially if he’s considered to be a higher Vaiṣṇava, he’s advised that there may be another thing, another outlook. What is it? Sometimes in a Vaiṣṇava of higher realisation some anartha abruptly is seen to come, to appear, but that is to increase the speed of his progress. Do you follow?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Some undesirable things, events, take place, and repentant fire of great intensity came there and push him towards the higher: more higher region. Just as a rocket is thrown, the background gets a very great push. Is it not? Do you follow?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Correct. Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: If you want to take a lift, some pressure in the back side, so sometimes in the case of Vaiṣṇava, it also may be seen, that something, little wrong anyhow appeared in his heart and a great fire of reactionary type made him help to a great progress. “What am I? How this came to me?” From that sometimes is seen in a Vaiṣṇava of higher type, so we may not misread that, misread that. That is not really – that is really a part of progress. By the Lord’s wish for greater promotion sometimes apparently it comes there. But that should not be reckoned as setback. That should be included in the improving line. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Jīva Goswāmī Prabhu has mentioned this. Be careful about to judge Vaiṣṇava character. There may be by the wish of Lord such event also.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya. Mahāprabhu. Gaura Mahāprabhu.

And sometimes it is also possible that we can’t understand his ways. We think it otherwise. So we are warned not to venture to discuss about the practices of a Vaiṣṇava.

dṛṣṭaiḥ svabhāva-janitair vapuṣaś ca doṣair

na prākṛtatvam iha bhakta-janasya paśyet

gaṅgāmbhasāṁ na khalu budbuda-phena-paṅkair

brahma-dravatvam apagacchati nīra-dharmaiḥ

[“Being situated in his original Kṛṣṇa conscious position, a pure devotee does not identify with the body. Such a devotee should not be seen from a materialistic point of view. Indeed, one should overlook a devotee’s having a body born in a low family, a body with a bad complexion, a deformed body, or a diseased or infirm body. According to ordinary vision, such imperfections may seem prominent in the body of a pure devotee, but despite such seeming defects, the body of a pure devotee cannot be polluted. It is exactly like the waters of the Ganges, which sometimes during the rainy season are full of bubbles, foam and mud. The Ganges waters do not become polluted. Those who are advanced in spiritual understanding will bathe in the Ganges without considering the condition of the water.”] [Śrī Upadeśāmṛta, 6]

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Upadeśāmṛta.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Upadeśāmṛta. Dṛṣṭaiḥ svabhāva-janitair vapuṣaś ca doṣair. If we find a Vaiṣṇava he has got a disease, why? He’s a perfect man, the Gurudeva’s considered to be perfect. Why he suffers from disease? One Vaiṣṇava, why he’s blind? Why he’s lame? Why he’s not perfect if he’s favourite of the Lord Supreme? Then why this sort of defect shall be? Svabhāva-janitair vapuṣaś ca. And also easily irritated and chastising giving strictures to the disciples. Or one has got particular taste for particular food. Why these things should be? These trifles may disturb our mind. That Rūpa Goswāmī gives us warning. Dṛṣṭaiḥ svabhāva-janitair vapuṣaś ca doṣair. Physical or mental, doṣair, any defect if you detect in a Vaiṣṇava, don’t reckon it as this mundane defect. Don’t consider those things to be mundane, polluting.

gaṅgāmbhasāṁ, prākṛtatvam iha bhakta-janasya paśyet, gaṅgāmbhasāṁ na khalu budbuda-phena-paṅkair, brahma-dravatvam apagacchati nīra-dharmaiḥ.

The example is given of this Ganges water. The Ganges water if we touch it we are purified by the order of the creator. It is told that if we touch we’re purified; we need not take bath, nīra-dharmaiḥ. But if we find that there is some dirt there, budbuda, the fermentation, foam, budbuda-phena, and paṅkair, and mixed with mud, then that water can’t pure you, if you think, but it is not so. The dirty Ganges water can purify you. That purification what will be effect to you that is not of mundane type. That is of another type. So the dirty character cannot force the Ganges water to lose its purifying, that purifying in another plane. So this trifling thing that Vaiṣṇava is little ill, he is fond of a particular food, or he’s engaged with a particular man, he cannot do his duty properly, by these things a Vaiṣṇava cannot be judged. In another plane his activity, his purifying tendency is being spread and transmitted in another plane, in the highest plane, in the plane of the causal region. So we are to take that, not the external feature should be identified with the internal things. In an earthen pot the pure water may be. In a golden pot a poisonous water may be, may stay. So by the external activity we can’t judge the internal man. Internal signs must be found to judge him: defect in that plane must be found and not defect in this plane. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

So many parṣada bhakta were gṛhastha with Mahāprabhu and others, and they were giving birth to child, so they came in connection with the women, so they’re suffering under the lust propensity. We should not take like that. We are so low in our nature that we cannot conceive that without lustfulness one cannot produce child. The ideal is high. Bhajami grha mediyam [?] Bhāgavatam says, oh, Gītā says: Prajanaś cāsmi kandarpaḥ.

[āyudhānām ahaṁ vajraṁ, dhenūnām asmi kāmadhuk

prajanaś cāsmi kandarpaḥ, sarpāṇām asmi vāsukiḥ]

[“Of weapons I am the thunderbolt, and of cows I am the heavenly desire-fulfilling cow. Of cupids I am he who ensures progeny, and among the single-headed venomous snakes I am Vāsuki, the king of all snakes.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 10.28]

“Where only production is necessary, as kāma, I am there. Not hrte, not for sense pleasure. When for sense pleasure two united I’m not there. Only necessity of producing child I’m there.”

That is as pure as anything. The attitude is to be blamed. The exploiting tendency is to be blamed, not the activity.

karmaṇy akarma yaḥ paśyed, akarmaṇi ca karma yaḥ

sa buddhimān manuṣyeṣu, sa yuktaḥ kṛtsna-karma-kṛt

[“One who realises that the selfless action performed by the man of pure knowledge is never subject to bondage and is therefore in fact inaction whereas the abnegation practised by a renunciate of impure heart is the ill-fated cause of bondage he is, among men, the intelligent yogī and factual executor of all works.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.18]

When one can detect no action in action, and in absence of action there is action, who can detect in such a way, he’s really a man of reason or proper intelligence. Do you follow? No?

Devotees: Yes. Yes. No; very hard to understand that verse of the Gītā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In Gītā, anaśakta, if we’re anaśakta, if we have not special exploiting tendency then I’m an agent cent per cent of the main power.

[yasya nāhaṅkṛto bhāvo, buddhir yasya na lipyate]

hatvāpi sa imāḹ lokān, na hanti na nibadhyate

[“He who is free from egotism (arising from aversion to the Absolute), and whose intelligence is not implicated (in worldly activities) even if he kills every living being in the whole world, he does not kill at all, and neither does he suffer a murderer’s consequences.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.17]

He may be an agent to kill the whole universe but he does not do anything. Cent per cent agent of the Absolute Force, that Absolute Wave, playing in the Absolute Wave cent per cent: it is possible. Faultless activity is possible.

Kant said; the German philosopher Kant, “That no action can be completely pure, only good will.”

But we shall say, so called good will is also impure here in the mundane world.

So any action, the standpoint of service, and standpoint of renunciation, and standpoint of exploitation should be judged. Anything may be, every action may take place from the plane of exploitation, and plane of renunciation for retiring purpose and gradually it will vanish. And the highest plane only by the, to carry out the Divine Will of the Lord whatever he’s doing, nirguṇa. That is nirguṇa. Everything may happen, but not only selfless, but from self surrendered plane, any inspiration comes carrying out His order. It is difficult but still it exists. It may be difficult but it is there, and that is our highest thing of attainment. Not this vilāsa, not movement should be rejected; movement, dynamic character, it may seem to be equal with the exploiting energy, but it is not so. The current coming from the Absolute Centre and obeying the order, that is automatic, that is nirguṇa: colourless, faultless of any selfishness. Any crookedness is not to be found there. The clear, automatic, purest wave, all good, Absolute Good, the origin is Absolute Good, the wave coming and you are a unit of that plane. So that is the land desired, desirable, our most desirable thing is that. Nothing is bad but the attitude, the poison within. That poison should be driven – everything may remain – the poison should be removed from within.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

To serve the Vaiṣṇava, to serve Guru, to serve the Lord, we will be up for anything, even we shall take the risk of going to hell, ha, ha, and contacting for eternity. So much risk, but the whole concentration for the centre. So it is nothing, it is safe, no apprehension practically, but so much risk gives us promotion to the highest quarter of the servitors.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja he wanted to hear, very fond of hearing from me. But I told him, śravaṇa and kīrtana, not only śravaṇa, śravaṇa-kīrttana-jale karaye secana.

[mālī hañā kare sei bīja āropaṇa, śravaṇa-kīrttana-jale karaye secana]

[“When a person receives the seed of devotional service, he should take care of it by becoming a gardener and sowing the seed in his heart. If he waters the seed gradually by the process of śravaṇa and kīrtana, the seed will begin to sprout.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 19.152]

To receive and to reproduce, that is what is naturally necessary, śravaṇa kīrtana, to receive, to hear, and to chant, to receive and to reproduce, to distribute; two things together. Only taking goods from the higher capitalist and stock it, that was not Mahāprabhu’s idea. Distribute it. Your goods shed must be vacant, so get supply and give supply. The current, that will be more helpful for one’s progress, will be acquainted with the market, and to face different type of demands, and accordingly to get selected goods from, that this is the demand of the market. I want such things. So the stale character will be eliminated thereby, up to that living business. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Sundar. Gaura Sundar.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, Droṇācārya, he was a brāhmaṇa, but he held a grudge against Mahārāja Drupada. So how is that possible, that a brāhmaṇa can hold a grudge?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Brāhmaṇas are not free from grudge. You see in the Purāṇa so many brāhmaṇas they are throwing curse to this man, that man. So that higher type of brāhmaṇa he may not have. Durvāsā, he’s also throwing curse to a Vaiṣṇava like Ambarīṣa Mahārāja. So brāhmaṇas are not free from – they’re approaching to the renunciation, to the plane of renunciation, but not fully attained that.

What to speak of them, even Catuḥsana, they went to visit Vaikuṇṭha - Lakṣmī Nārāyaṇa, and when Jaya Vijaya, the gatekeepers, they opposed, and they threw curse upon them. And Nārāyaṇa came out, but they acquired some power so curse must take effect. But Nārāyaṇa He gave stricture, mild stricture to the Catuḥsana, to the brāhmaṇas, who were brāhmaṇas of higher type, and in the tinge of devotion; there also it came. But sometimes it is required to help some līlā of Nārāyaṇa. In the Vaiṣṇava School... Ke?

That may be of two types. Somewhere they’re utilised as instruments of the Supreme Will, there they’re faultless. And sometimes that previous tendency is still pursuing that man. So particular cases should be judged in particular way, individually, cases should be judged individually. Sometimes for universal play it may be necessary, and sometimes the past tendency of exploiting the environment is not yet finished. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

Droṇācārya was insulted by Drupada perhaps in his previous life so he took the advantage. Droṇācārya was a poor brāhmaṇa – I don’t remember completely, but as much as I remember, Aśvatthāmā, his son, for some milk, he had no milk to give to Aśvatthāmā, and some rice powder with water prepared like milk was given to Aśvatthāmā and very satisfied began to dance, “That I have drunk milk.”

And that caused some pain in the heart of Droṇācārya, and he approached his classmate Drupada, “That I’m very poor. My son can’t drink a little milk. So if you help me to certain extent.”

But Drupada anyhow dismissed him.

And he had that grudge. “A poor brāhmaṇa, I approached my kṣatriya friend, he’s a king, but he dismissed me without considering the least. He could not understand my inner pain.”

So when, after, when he came to Bhīṣma for some engagement, service, and Bhīṣma knew him previously. Droṇācārya was a disciple student of Paraśurāma and Bhīṣma also got training of weapons from Paraśurāma. They knew one another. So Bhīṣma kept him as the training master of the Kaurava Pāṇḍava, gave engagement. And when both the Pāṇḍava Kaurava they acquired satisfactory knowledge in fighting then they offered, “We want to give some Guru dakṣiṇa.”

Then Droṇācārya, “How I’m to utilise this then, this Guru dakṣiṇa?” The memory of the misdeed, misbehaviour of his former classmate Drupada came in his mind, and he ordered them, “Just go and capture the kingdom of Drupada for me.” And they went and captured successfully. Arjuna was there so they were successful. And perhaps – as much as I remember, took Drupada as captive to Droṇācārya.

Then Droṇācārya told: “What is this? You did not spare a farthing to purchase a little milk for my son, and today I’m the king and you are ousted. What’s the fun? Anyhow, as a brāhmaṇa I don’t want your kingdom, you go and take it. I have given you some lesson, I’ve taught you a lesson.”

Perhaps that’s the story. ________________________________________________ [?]

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

________________________________ [?] Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Devotee: Many devotees in the west are interested in astrology. Can you say something about the benefit of astrology for devotees, or whether that’s not beneficial?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Astrology has nothing to do with devotion, but one who has already acquired that knowledge he may utilise it for preaching purpose, that is to capture people with that, just as yoga siddhi. So people may be attracted by them and then he will – just as Tamal Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja is going to China to open a hostel for the students, and gradually to enter into the mind of the people. So through the astrology one can enter into a particular mind with the plea of astrological knowledge, otherwise astrology has nothing to do with the pure devotion, or any other knowledge. But that may be utilised for the purpose of recruitment – if it is already there.

Vaiṣṇava of lower order, that may be a temptation also, it may be harmful. By the knowledge of astrology he may come to such association that may lead him astray, to money, or women, or fame, take me away. Kanak, kāminī, pratiṣṭhā, by exercise of that too much if it’s not controlled to serve the Vaiṣṇava, the sampradāya, then it may snatch him away from the path of devotion if in preliminary stage. That is, if I ride on a horse and can’t control, then the horse may take me away, here, there. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Devotee: Is it of any use for a devotee to know what his future holds through astrology?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No. Vaiṣṇava transaction is independent of astrology. The astrological calculation cannot always cover the Vaiṣṇava life, their dependent, their movement, their fortune, cannot reflect. With the previous karma the future prospect drawn in the astrology that also may be cancelled, by that wonderful new development. They do not care for the astrology because the previous karma, it is according to the calculation of the previous karma, but that may be ignored. So there is a saying,

kṛṣṇa bhakta haya yadi balavāna, bidhīra kalama kāṭhi kore khān khān

[Lord Brahmā says: “If a devotee of Śrī Kṛṣṇa is very powerful, he can easily cut into pieces that which is written down as his destiny.”]

If a strong devotion appears in a devotee then he can cut asunder the laws and rules of the creator even. The favour on the person of a king may take him independent of the law in the administration. The law always does not apply always on a person who is a favourite of the king himself. That is another way. That casts a shade in the future that such nature, such class of past can produce this future. The calculation is of the previous activity. That casts some shade, shadow, on his future – that is astrology. But that past wholesale can be removed and demolished in a particular case of a Vaiṣṇava life – life of a Vaiṣṇava, can be ignored. Kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi, mayi dṛṣṭe 'khilātmani.

[bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ]

kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi, mayi dṛṣṭe 'khilātmani

[“The knot in the heart is pierced, all misgivings are cut to pieces and the chain of fruitive actions is terminated when I am seen as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 11.20.30]

Previous karma that vanishes, diminishes, according to the degree of devotion. No new karma of those and previous karma also destroyed by the power of dedication. When the karma itself is removed then its forecast, its future production, is also removed with it. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Devotee: At the time of initiation, dīkṣā, the spiritual master, does he not take all the karma, the past karma of the śiṣya?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He takes like – court of wards state [?] Do you know it? State when incumbent it is given to the government. Do you know this? No?

Devotee: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: When, suppose, a province, United States, a particular province that is not working smoothly, properly, in debt, or in miss-management, then the centre captures it.

Devotee: Oh yes, I understand.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Takes it, the responsibility, and the responsibility is taken by the centre and the previous staff allowed to work on, the basis. The whole management, the whole administration staff not cancelled, only the leaders. The managing capacity of new nature passed through them.

...

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, when Draupadī first saw Karna, she had some feeling apparently that Karna was her son, but she didn’t approach him.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who? Kuntī?

Devotee: Kuntī! Excuse me! When Kuntī first saw Karna...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Some intuition, intuitive impression.

Devotee: But she didn’t approach him to reveal. Can you – is there some reason why?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Some social difficulty. Ha, ha, ha. ___________________________ [?]

You see, nirguṇa things, what is nirguṇa, we cannot find fault with them measuring from the standard of this mundane world. It may come in any form, in the lowest form, in the lowest standard. A devotee may take birth in the lowest section, even may take birth in the animal section, but still it may be nirguṇa. So they’re all parṣada, the Kuntī, Pāṇḍava, they’re taken down here from Goloka. They’re in the relativity of the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa Himself, so their activities should not be judged. That is jñāna-sunya-bhakti. They come to play – suppose a king’s son he’s selected by the drama party to play the part...

End of 81.11.03.B

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Start of 81.11.03.C_81.11.05.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...like that. And the Kuntī, Pāṇḍava, they’re all eternally related to Kṛṣṇa līlā, so their practices and activities, though it seems to fit the lower standard of the society, but it is not so. Kuntī showed that before her marriage – of course, you know the fact about the birth of Karṇa?

Devotee: Yes, about the boon, and Visvasvān coming.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kuntī Devī she got – it is shown as līlā of this mundane type that she got some mantram that with pronouncing that mantram, whomever she will invite he will come to her. Then in her curiosity, to satisfy curiosity, to test whether the mantram is real or not, she invited the Sun [god], and the Sun came.

But Sun told that, “You have invited me so I want to enjoy you.”

And Kuntī Devī was afraid, but she could not avoid because she invited by the mantram. So they were united and Kuntī gave birth of a child, and he was Karṇa. But before her marriage the Sun came. Anyhow she managed to give his birth and privately managed through her maidservant to put him in a safe position, she floated him in the Ganges water. She did not kill the child, the baby, took him for prestige, but left for fate. Left the child to live on his fate, by chance he may live, so she left him.

And the child in that pot floating came to a particular place and he was taken up by one lady who was the wife of a charioteer. She took it and found that beautiful child and she kept and nurtured, and then boy was grown, the Karṇa-suta, suta-putra.

And now, Kuntī Devī generally did not know whether that child is living or not. But when she found Karṇa she felt some sort of intuitive attraction, and there were some signs also similar to her body.

Once Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja also told, when after the death of Karṇa when Kuntī Devī asked his son, “You offer some śrāddha ceremony, something for Karṇa, he was your eldest brother.”

Then Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja told: “What is this mother? You did not say it previously. Then we should not kill our elder brother. Rather, we shall ask him to take the throne, and I did not take the throne. I won’t. He should have been the king, our elder brother. And I throw a curse in the dynasty that hence they won’t be able to keep any secret in their mind.” It ended there. And Yudhiṣṭhira expressed at that time, “When I marked the foot of Karṇa it looked to me similar to that of my mother, your foot and Karṇa’s foot almost similar. I had some sort of doubt, suspicion, but I thought no, it may be chance coincidence.”

Queen Kuntī also privately once met Karṇa and told, “Don’t go against my son. You are my first child. And in such occasion I could not keep you with me, I had to leave you. But the fact is this.”

Karṇa knew it, he refused her request, “No. When you were so cruel to me as to leave me and float me to the Ganges, you have done such wrong towards me so I won’t accept your proposal. Especially I have given hope to Duryodhana and I must side with him in the battle, and he’s also fostering that same hope, “The Karṇa is on my side.” I can’t frustrate him, disappoint him at this moment. So I promise to you that now you are mother of five children, five sons, and you will always remain the mother of five sons. I shall have to fight with Arjuna – I may die or Arjuna will die, I shall kill Arjuna or Arjuna will kill me. So anyhow, five sons will remain. That much I can say. I won’t attempt for killing other four sons of you.”

There it was in that way.

Kṛṣṇa also privately met Karṇa when He went for peace to Duryodhana. That, “Karṇa, perhaps you may know or may not know, I know, that you are the eldest brother of the Pāṇḍava, so don’t side with Duryodhana. You come this side and the fight may be avoided and you’ll be the king in that party. Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja he will forsake throne for you, he’s so religious, so virtuous, you come.”

Karṇa told, “No. I can’t be a coward. I have encouraged Duryodhana for this fight and perhaps mostly he depends on me for his success. In the last moment I can’t frustrate him. Don’t entreat me in that way. Don’t try to tempt me.” Karṇa answered.

Then anyhow, that birth in her girl stage forced her for the considering the social position of the day to leave this child. And what is your answer, your question now? Why Kuntī?

Devotee: Why she didn’t approach Karṇa at that time, at that particular time when she first saw him?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: When Karṇa was performing penances in a particular place, Karṇa Prayaga, on the way to Badrinātha, Kuntī met there Karṇa and requested, but Karṇa refused. And Kṛṣṇa also approached, Karṇa refused. Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. But we’re not to judge the objectionable characteristic in these events of Karṇa or Draupadī.

ahaila draupadi kunti tara mandara tari tata panca karna sanitya parta mahasana [?]

From ordinary standard the life of these five ladies are objectionable in character. But the guardians of the society they are giving the circular to the social persons, “That don’t go to find fault with these five ladies by their external activity. They’re as pure as anything. If you rather take their name you will be purified. The external activity is far from their inner mentality. They have come here to play the part.”

As I told previously, the prince is playing the part of a sweeper, by the will of the Supreme Master. This is Ahaila. In her case, perhaps you do not know, Ahaila was the wife of Gottam, the Guru of the deva Indra. Anyhow Indra approached her. Ahaila was innocent, in the garb of Gottama, Ahaila was innocent, but she was cursed by her husband to become a stone, and she had no other alternative but to accept that misfortune, fate. But she was pure, cent per cent. But she had to suffer for fault of others, of higher agents.

Or like Draupadī, five husbands she had to accept, but as the dispensation of the higher authority, not by her choice. It was her sacrifice to accept such order. That in sacrifice the purity is not hampered in any way but it is increased. Draupadī, Kuntī.

And Kuntī’s case to – by the order of Pāṇḍu, her husband, and also to verify the influence of the mantram of Durvāsā she did so. So she’s not to be contaminated in taking her in connection with the filthy exploiting lustful environment. Kuntī.

Tara, Tara was the wife of Bali, but she, when Bali died she was, as the social custom, she had to marry Bali’s brother Sugrīva. But Tara, she’s not responsible for that, accepting second husband. It is the social custom of the day. She was as pure as, chaste as previously, life.

Mandadari also in a similar condition after the death of Rāvaṇa as their social custom she was, as the custom, she was accepted by Vibhiṣana to be his queen. So that does not harm the purity of, chastity of Mandadari. She was as pure, as chaste as before.

So though ostentatiously these five ladies are seen to accept a second husband but they are as pure of the highest type as we can ever conceive. So much so that if one can take their name after leaving their bed they will be purified by coming in contact with. So they’re internally pure, but they had to accept the life of apparent impurity by the order of higher sanction, higher authority, but at heart they’re more than ordinary purity.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitai.

Devotee: Is there some karma left to go through all these things, for these ladies? They came from Goloka Vṛndāvana and still they have to go through these things. There was some karma left, from previous?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No karma, the līlā pertaining to Kṛṣṇa that is considered as nitya-līlā, eternal thing going on that way come here. That is one thing. And sometimes, not in these cases, but in similar cases we find that some souls under the influence of karma they also enter there and absorbed. Avatāras, there’s the function when the governor comes to see and visit a district, the function of the magistrate is absorbed in him. Whatever he will order the magistrate he’s compelled to carry that. No independence there for the magistrate. Something like that, the power is absorbed.

So when the parṣada they descend, so many, they, it is said in scriptures that some prostitutes of heaven they were absorbed in the gopīs. And different order of Avatāra was absorbed in Kṛṣṇa. The Yuga Avatāra Kṛṣṇa was absorbed in Svayaṁ-Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa. Mahāprabhu as Yuga Avatāra Mahāprabhu absorbed in Svayaṁ-Bhagavān Mahāprabhu. Sometimes it has been described in the Purāṇa in such a way, they absorbed.

So, there was a question in Kṛṣṇa Balarāma līlā that once Brahmā when the Earth intolerant of the burden of sin went to Brahmā, “Absolve me, save me, I can’t tolerate so much sinfulness on my surface. Just give some relief. The demons must be done away with.”

So Brahmā tore out from his head two hairs, and he gave, showed that, “The two Avatāras are going to take birth on your surface and They will do away with the demons, Bhū-bhāra- haraṇakāri, Keśāvatāra.”

And some say that the birth of Kṛṣṇa Balarama is only from Brahmā’s hair, so how They can be Svayaṁ-Bhagavān or Nārāyaṇa? But that is apparent thing. It is absorbed in that. In this way some things are absorbed there.

So the Moon had to come down for sixteen years in this Earth and that entered Abhimanu the parṣada of Kṛṣṇa, entered there. And other things were also of that type. When Svayaṁ- Bhagavān with His own group comes to show the pastimes here, some other incidents also put to enter that program, and that is finished there. The Purāṇic experts have dealt with things in this way.

Some say that Kṛṣṇa is always playful, but when He’s seen to kill the demons it’s the function of Nārāyaṇa to deal with the demons. Kṛṣṇa is always a playful and singing personality, undisturbed by any violence. But the different functions of Nārāyaṇa They have to do this, to remove the difficulties of highest type when it’s to be done, by Them.

When the king goes to visit a particular place he’s at ease, at least he shows like that. But the police or military, it is their duty to keep up the peaceful atmosphere and remove the disturbing element. It is their function. And the king, he does not care for his safety. The others, of lower existence, that is to manage for the safety of the free movement of the king, free play of the king.

Gaura Haribol.

Śrīla Govinda Mahārāja: ______________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The definition of a sādhu is given in Padma-Purāṇa, that one who has dedicated him and his whole paraphernalia to Kṛṣṇa, and he finds pleasure in the singing and talking about Kṛṣṇa, hearing about Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīla Govinda Mahārāja: _________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And whatever apparently belongs to him that is all surrendered ________ not only a sādhu is a surrendered soul. But sometimes he may be seen that he has not surrendered himself but whole of his paraphernalia surrendered by him. “Whatever Kṛṣṇa may think He may do anything. If He takes my son: yes, it is His will.” He’s not affected. Takes his money, wealth, “Yes, it is His will: He has taken.” In this way apparently he may be in possession of many things, but everything is dedicated, and he himself also. And his real nature is always to hear and to chant about Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīla Govinda Mahārāja: ___________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There his whole attraction is kṛṣṇānusilāna, to hear and to chant and to do anything for Him, His bidding, but he has got his paraphernalia, but whole thing dedicated to Kṛṣṇa, in his free judgement. No special attraction for anyone, any member of the paraphernalia, either house, the money, the son, the wife, or fame - if some ill-fame comes to him, “Yes, it is given by Kṛṣṇa.” Everything he takes it is surrendered to Kṛṣṇa – he’s sādhu. Not that only with a kaupīna he’s moving through the world, on the surface. The external renunciation: that is not the real sign of a sādhu.

With a kingdom, like Ambarīṣa, with whole kingdom he was a surrendered soul to Kṛṣṇa. When Durvāsā went to burn him he did not shrink back. “Yes, if I’m an offender I must be burned.” He took that firm position there, faced opposition unhesitatingly he stood there. “If it’s Kṛṣṇa’s will to burn me He may burn.” Na chacar pandandi par [?] But when Sudarśana came to burn Durvāsā he fled like anything, here, there, this, that, but Ambarīṣa the surrendered soul. “If it is the Divine Will let it be done.” So with whole kingdom he’s a devotee. And the sannyāsī with only his kaupīna not surrendered he’s flying here there.

bhayaṁ dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syād, [īśād apetasya viparyyayo 'smṛtiḥ

tan-māyayāto budha ābhajet taṁ, bhaktyaikayeśaṁ guru-devatātmā]

[“Fear arises when a living entity misidentifies himself as the material body because of absorption in the external, illusory energy of the Lord. When the living entity thus turns away from the Supreme Lord, he also forgets his own constitutional position as a servant of the Lord. This bewildering, fearful condition is effected by the potency for illusion, called māyā. Therefore, an intelligent person should engage unflinchingly in the unalloyed devotional service of the Lord, under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, whom he should accept as his worshippable deity and as his very life and soul.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.37]

He’s afraid. He’s a prey of fear.

Devotee: So there’s no room for politics in religion.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Politics: that may be ostentatiously diplomacy, yes, may be. Politics but must be interest cent per cent for Kṛṣṇa. Whatever you can utilise in the service of Kṛṣṇa that is devotion. It may be politics, it may be thieving, stealing, it may be dacoiting, it may be murder also.

Devotee: Love and rupture.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Whatever, but one condition, wholesale cent per cent for the interest of Kṛṣṇa. The criterion only that. He’s requesting Yudhiṣṭhira, “Tell lie.” Yudhiṣṭhira hesitating. “Tell lie.” So above law, His will, His play, sweet will, and because He’s the Absolute Good everything is justified. Because we’re ignorant we cannot see the beauty, the goodness, in His behaviour or His play, His movement. __________________ [?] All right, I may stop here today.

Devotees: Jaya oṁ viṣṇu-pāda...

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...more than wonder, it is almost impossible. So I say, I like to say rather, that śaktyāveśa.

Devotee: Mahārāja, about that yesterday’s paper in Russia. There was one line in yesterday’s paper that in Moscow they were chanting in a square, I don’t know the name of the square. They were chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh! It entered in Moscow?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. It says, “Taken by storm.”

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Swāmī Mahārāja told me that when he visited Moscow, and perhaps he had an interview with Brezhnev or _________ [?] or some gentleman, “That they told that we don’t want that any conception of religion should be dealt with here.”

Swāmī Mahārāja told, “I told them that – they told that we don’t to honour any instruction of any gentleman – but Swāmī Mahara told, “You are following the instruction of Lenin, you do, and I want simply to say what Kṛṣṇa has asked us to do. So when you are taking Lenin you may hear what Kṛṣṇa has said.”

“No, no, no. You will talk about religion. Lenin will talk about our value.”

In this way, anyhow after his visit I find with wonder that they have taken away that law, ‘that none will be able to lead any religious life.’ That law withdrawn and now everyone is free to go on with his religious principle, that after Swāmī Mahārāja visited the place the law was overturned against religion there. And now I first hear that kīrtana is also allowed, Hare Kṛṣṇa. In the paper perhaps I also heard, saw, that a tendency towards Hare Kṛṣṇa Movement in Russia. And they’re trying how to check that. That was out in a paper I think. They want to check, of course with all other tendencies, there some other tendencies also they found in the youngsters, and one of them is towards Hare Kṛṣṇa Movement inclination. The reaction is sure to come – today or tomorrow. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Everyone is moving in a circle, in a circle, even, laya pralaya, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya [Brahma-saṁhitā, 44] All circular movement, short or long, either short circle or longer, bigger circle, in a circular movement, everything we find. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

34:00 to 36:25, Bengali [?]

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Everyone wants to come to it, to serve, to enhance, with the spirit of enhancement, enhancing, not to enjoy. Enjoying mood is very lower, animal consciousness. You must rise above animal consciousness. And renunciation is destructive. And dedication is really constructive world.

Devotee: Renunciation destructive?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Renunciation destructive, that is mukti, ultimately to renounce everything, then to be resolved in a zero. Why? Renunciation means, tyageti mukti. “I renounce everything.” No relativity, nothing to see, nothing to hear, all the connections of the environment cut off, suṣupti, just like suṣupti, sound sleep. Samādhi is like that, no consciousness of the environment, “Then I’ll be polluted in the company of that.”

Dṛśya-darśana-drāṣṭā – tripuṭi-vināśa, [Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam, p xix], the seer, sight, and seen. The seen enters into the seer, and seeing so tripuṭi-vināśa, the object, the subject, and the transaction between them, both comes to one point, sāyujya mukti, so complete renunciation, it is destructive.

Renunciation of the abscissa, of the negative side, comes to abscissa, a marginal point. Then we must make advancement towards the positive, but with opposite temperament. We shall withdraw from the negative and come to abscissa, and then we are to make – begin our progress towards the positive. What is positive? Which is more valuable than my own self, super subjective realm – I’m subject, I’m taṭasthā śakti, cetana, very lower subject, subject that has got very lower capacity, and there is higher capacity, subjective world, adhokṣaja.

Why do you stop? From fossil you are coming to the mental, to the consciousness, and don’t stop, you must produce other side towards the Infinite, ātmā, jīvātmā, Paramātmā, then Nārāyaṇa conception of Kṛṣṇa. In this way it is going to the Infinite. So jīvātmā is sprung up from the taṭasthā śakti, marginal potency is jīva. Then the positive world is left there from Vaikuṇṭha, from Śivaloka proper, from Śivaloka, Vaikuṇṭhaloka, and upward. We are to enter into that domain. That is the positive, eternal, that has got no death. This is mortal side, it is illusion, misconception, māyā means misconception, so we must withdraw from the misconception totally, and then proper knowledge, what is what, there we are to enter into, adhokṣaja. Adhakrta indriya jnanam yena. The substance which has, adhakrta indriya, who is existing above the knowledge of sense experience: our senses, eye, nose, etc, my mind, they have got experience of a particular thing, that is mortal world, that is a substance which transcending this world of experience is existing. In Bhagavad-gītā you might have found:

indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur, indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ

manasas tu parā buddhir, buddher yaḥ paratas tu saḥ

[“The learned proclaim that the senses are superior to inert objects, the mind is superior to the senses, and the faculty of resolute intelligence is superior to the mind. And he who is superior to the intelligence is the soul himself.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 3.42]

And in Upaniṣad a parallel passage ________________ [?] Leading towards ātmā, Upaniṣad, _____________ [?] It is common, Gītā and Upaniṣad, indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur, indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥmanasas tu parā buddhir. Then Gītā says, buddher yaḥ paratas tu saḥ, you are that. And Upaniṣad says, buddher ātmā parantapa. The great ātmā is above your reasoning faculty. So if we march that way, then the ātmā, above intelligence, the ātmā, and then Paramātmā, in this way the unexplored area is towards that direction, higher, subjective. That is super subjective area, and jīva is taṭasthā, between the two. So withdrawal from the negative side, that is not the wholesale attainment, the fulfilment of life, and that is renunciation, complete withdrawal from the negative side and to take position in the abscissa, that is renunciation complete, sāyujya mukti.

And then everything will be different by that of a servitor and we may be allowed to enter into the positive realm of service where every unit is a dedicating principle. Here, every unit is consuming, consumer, enjoying unit. And there, every unit is a dedicating one, wholesale. Without that no existence is possible in that land, that plane, all dedicating, giving but do not take, in this way. Here, always want to consume, all consumer, jīvo jīvasya jīvanam [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 1.13.47]. All consumer here, want to consume, wants to live at the cost of others. “I’m king of all I survey. I want to live, and I want that everything will be at my beck and call.” But there, the opposite, so many guardians, all guardians. I’m servant, and everyone considers him to be so.

Here, the combination of all enjoying principle, and there, all serving principle, everyone. And there is a gradation in quality, quantity. So without serving attitude none can enter into that domain. Just the opposite camp! That is in carrying current, the current is carrying Yogamāyā, carrying towards the Lord, and here, out carrying current, taking us away from the God, from the God conception of the centre. But there the whole current is tending towards the centre, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And all the units there, they’re very eager to catch under the influence, with the help of that current to make their advance towards the centre. Another peculiar land where everything is a dedicating unit, and none wants any absorvation from the environment, all giving.

Putting, saving money in the bank, and no cheque, no withdrawal, always giving, giving, that is, our ātmā means that. Ātmā is an atom whose very nature is such, to give and not to take. And with that atom from Vaikuṇṭha the whole land is constructed. Everything is there. Cetana, that consciousness, plus service – and here, consciousness plus exploitation, enjoyment, everyone is busy to enjoy. And there, everyone is busy to serve, the Divinity, nobility, the land of nobleness, and dignified land. None wants to take anything. And they think that is their highest end, to become a slave, of the beautiful Absolute, the competition for that, to become a slave.

Who can dedicate: Hegelian theory, “Die to live,” Hegel’s another thing, “Die to live. If you want to live properly, you will have to die as you are at present.”

End of 81.11.03.C_81.11.05.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.05.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...the alloy will be driven. Die to Live. Your present ego will have to go, and internal golden ego will come out. And that will really be the member in that sphere, that Vaikuṇṭha Goloka. In Vaikuṇṭha there is some calculation, the grandeur, awe, reverence, power. And in Goloka it is spontaneous and very plain, simple, beautiful, and sacrifice, the degree of sacrifice is in its highest reach there in Goloka. Competition is there, but just opposite competition there: Yogamāyā, and this is Mahāmāyā, the out carrying current and the in carrying current. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

A vast land and this is just a small portion. Just as in a country there are so many prison houses and their position is very meagre. So, the main is under the good control of the government, the prison control is in a very less position, holds a very small position. So also māyā - only those that rebel, it is for them only, such a small portion occupied. And the vast portion is normal, with normal life, filled with normal... tripad vibhuti and this is ekapada vibhuti.

___________________________________________________________________ [?]

Caitanya-caritāmṛta, he says that, “I can’t see well, memory is not very sharp, still I am going. I don’t know how it is possible.” _____________________________________ [?]

Something like my stage, it is coming to be similar. Eyes lost, memory also slackened. But anyhow you relish my discourse, you all. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

mukam karoti vācālaṁ panghum langhāyate girīm

[yat kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī gurun dīna-tāranam]

[“I offer my respectful obeisances unto Mādhava, Who is the Personification of transcendental bliss. By His mercy, a blind man can see the stars in the sky, a lame man can cross mountains, and a dumb man can speak eloquent words of poetry.”] [Bhavārtha Dipikā, maṅgala stotram, 1]

Mukam karoti vācālaṁ. God works wonders, adbutkrama, Urukrama is the name of Vāmandeva. Adbutkrama also His name, that of wonderful stride. His every step produces wonder, Urukrama, adbutkrama means wonder. So mukam karoti vācālaṁ, one who can speak, He can speak through him. Gaura Haribol.

Where is that chaddar? That turiya? Now catching cold! [Laughter] When young in age are also swimming in this pool, continuously [Laughter] for hours together, swimming, even in winter season, and now? [Laughter]

The Wordsworth’s poem is there: Old man plundered by fair and shinning wealth, something will be spared what is needed not. Miser’s pensioner. Youth is prodigals favourite and old age is miser’s pensioner. Perhaps in his poem Daffodils or something like that, or Lesser Celandine? There is a flower which generally when hail and storm comes it closes itself and when sun shines it opens. But once Wordsworth was passing by the street where on the side that lesser celandine or perhaps a type of flower, he found there, and hail and storm came but the flower is exposed to the nature, not closed.

Then he says, “I found that flower and muttered within myself, what is this? When hail and storm it closes and any amount of hail and storm it can tolerate, forbear. But now it is exposed, it won’t close. What’s the matter? Then it came to my mind that, Oh, it is old and it has got no capacity of closing, exposed to the nature.”

And that came to draw this moral, that young, many superfluous energy which may not be necessary at that time. Their favourite prodigal, who gives anything to anyone without caring for any, whether it will be finished or not, but whatever comes it will be prodigal. And miser who generally does not want to give anything to anybody, his pension, no work, still he is to pay. So his condition is very peculiar, helpless. So old age is miser’s pensioner. He won’t get anything. But young age prodigals favourite. So the conclusion: “Old man from your fair and shinning youth if something could be spared that is needed not and if that may be added in your old age it will help, be better.”

[The Lesser Celandine]

[1] There is a flower, the lesser celandine,

That shrinks, like many more, from cold and rain;

And, the first moment that the sun may shine,

Bright as the sun himself, 'tis out again!

[2] When hailstones have been falling, swarm on swarm,

Or blasts the green field and the trees distressed,

Oft have I seen it muffled up from harm,

In close self-shelter, like a thing at rest.

[3] But lately, one rough day, this flower I passed,

And recognized it, though an altered form,

Now standing forth an offering to the blast,

And buffeted at will by rain and storm.

[4] I stopped, and said, with inly-muttered voice,

"It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold:

This neither is its courage nor its choice,

But its necessity in being old.

[5] "The sunshine may not cheer it, nor the dew;

It cannot help itself in its decay;

Stiff in its members, withered, changed of hue."

And, in my spleen, I smiled that it was grey.

[6] To be a prodigals favourite - then, worse truth,

A miser's pensioner - behold our lot!

O man, that from thy fair and shining youth

Age might but take the things youth needed not!]

[English poet, William Wordsworth. 1770-1850]

...

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Mahārāja, when should a devotee accept disciples?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: When he feels that it is necessary for the service of his Guru; and upward, the Lord, Guru, Vaiṣṇava, sampradāya. When he feels bona fide urge within him that, ‘you are to do that, on behalf, for the satisfaction of your higher agencies.’ Not to satisfy his own whim, to get fame, name, money etc., kanak, kāminī, pratiṣṭhā. The highest is pratiṣṭhā, fame, position, prestige. Not for that, but for the service of the upper Guru. Urge, if he feels within him, he may do sometimes even reluctantly he has to begin. And gradually of course he becomes accustomed to do that. But the starting must be with this sincere and fair motive. Not for himself, but for the service of his Guru, and for the benefit of the public. If he is confident for the benefit of the public he feels an urge from within him that they should be helped, for the satisfaction of my Gurudeva, to continue his ways.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. And also in the background he will find, ‘I was a patient, I have used this medicine, diet, and I feel better, out of disease gradually, and I’m sincerely confident that this will help him as it did myself,’ that sort of background, and then that urge.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya Dayal. Nitāi Caitanya. Mahāprabhu.

Devotee: Mahārāja, can women become Guru?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, if she sincerely feels that she can help others, she may be. There are so many. Jāhnavā Devī, wife of Nityānanda Prabhu, she began extensively this spiritual movement. And there are many of them, can become.

Devotee: She must be in the renounced order of life?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course somewhat, a gṛhastha, when gṛhastha she may initiate gṛhasthas. But generally it is not found that the ladies will take the robe of renunciation; that is red cloth or something. But they deal with, they may have respect even of the sannyāsīns but they remain as gṛhasthas and may continue gṛhastha śiṣya.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, did Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta give that bābājī-veśa to anyone?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, some, but that was, we find, that was considered something like vānaprastha. Who were bona fide in their life of renunciation, but not very fit to preach, but bhajan could go on with, such people got bābājī-veśa from him. In Vṛndāvana, no bad tendency, good character and good earnestness for speaking the Name, but not fitness to preach, to approach the public, generally, such few persons were given bābājī-veśa in old age. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Did Bhaktisiddhānta Mahārāja use a vyāsāsana? Did he have a vyāsāsana in his temples?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not permanent, the day of vyāsa-pūjā of course. Not permanent vyāsāsana as I hear the present Ācāryas of ISKCON they have introduced. I don’t know whether in Swāmī Mahārāja’s time that fixed vyāsāsana was there.

Devotees: Yes: generally. Most established temples had one fixed vyāsāsana for Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So they are following in that order. But our Gurudeva did not have any vyāsāsana, fixed thing. But whenever he would come everyone must go and offer some flowers for worship, this fashion also was not present that time. Of course he has come from a particular place, those who are not engaged in the service outside they will gather and have daṇḍavats. And he will retire into his bedroom in chair. They would have one special room and there the bedding and the chair and the floor – there offered our obeisances. And sometimes one may sit there for some time and after offering obeisances would come back. No permanent establishment to show any respect.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: There was one of our God brothers, he was a gṛhastha, and he was told by doctors that he will die very soon, within one or two years, so our Guru Mahārāja gave him this bābājī-veśa. He was an American and he was the only person he gave this dress. Then later he was told by other doctors that he would live. So he went back to his family.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh. Back to his family!

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. He came to Māyāpur or Vṛndāvana and he was told, ordered by Guru Mahārāja to chant one crore and all this, eat only once, and so on.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Make the best of a bad bargain. The standard will be lowered, but still considering his future he can’t follow up that standard. So don’t go astray completely, as much as you can do you do. Sometimes that is a discouraging incident in the organization. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, Lord Rāmacandra He took the vow of ekapatni vrata. So we see in society that there are generally more women than men. And it is a fact that every woman should be protected, either by first her father, then husband, then eldest son. So how are we to compensate for the excess amount of women who won’t be protected if each man is only to take one wife?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This is general recommendation for the good of the society. In Manu it is: pitā rakṣati kaumāre, bharttā rakṣati yauvane – bhartta ke so ko loke nastre________ [?]

Ladies should never be allowed to live an independent life. The father will be her guardian in her childhood, and the husband in her youthful life, and in old age the son will protect her, give protection. This was the law in Manu in the Hindu society, in general. And we appreciate that.

Where’s the rub? Where is the difficulty? Generally they need protection; otherwise if the society has no such control then they will be prey to any man and every man. That would be chaotic and free play of sensuality. Is that – can be adored, or respected? What is this? This is the life of the jungle. So, and constitutionally they’re such that they can’t protect them. Man is the aggressor, woman aggressed party. So if both let lose then the man can control the woman easily. So special protection must come from the – if civilised, the men will come to protect their chastity, otherwise let lose it will be like a jungle, there will be free play of sensuality. Is it desirable at all for any society, respectable society? The reality needs this, that free choice, that no protection of the women, the men and women they will be prey to sensuality. To check that the guardian’s strong hand should control them. They’re weaker section. Sometimes against their will they’re forced to accept their lot, fate. So protection is necessary.

Not only so it is mentioned in some Yajnavalka or Seti [?] the social law that when the test whether a country has got good government, the test will be this, that if a young lady decorated by the ornaments, jewels, can live under a tree at the night, and none attacks her, then we shall say that the country’s governed well. You see? Passing the night under the shade of a tree, a young lady well ornamented, well decorated, if she can pass her night safely under a tree, then real good government is in that land. That is the test of a good government. Such standard was in India.

Devotee: But we see that the women in the west they do not want protection.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: One, because they do not give much value in their chastity, they do not attach so much importance.

Devotee: So then should polygamy be allowed?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Polygamy, generally it is allowed and explained in this way. That a good son, good child we want, independent of sensual pleasure. So the ladies they will have general inclination to get a good child. So good seed is necessary for the land, cultivated land, and good seeds good crops, and bad seed bad crop. So unqualified persons should not be allowed only for sense satisfaction to marry and produce diseased child. Qualified children the country will aspire after, and so men of good health and good mind, they should be allowed to produce many children by many wives. It is for the good of the country. And only that union object only should be to produce good child, and not for sensual pleasure. That is the idea. Prajana na ratae [?] In Gītā: prajanaś cāsmi kandarpaḥ.

[āyudhānām ahaṁ vajraṁ, dhenūnām asmi kāmadhuk

prajanaś cāsmi kandarpaḥ, sarpāṇām asmi vāsukiḥ]

[“Of weapons I am the thunderbolt, and of cows I am the heavenly desire-fulfilling cow. Of cupids I am he who ensures progeny, and among the single-headed venomous snakes I am Vāsuki, the king of all snakes.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 10. 28]

“I am lust there only when there is necessity to produce a child, good child, not for sense pleasure.”

In Bhāgavata: Prajaya na rote [?] For child and not for – rote means sense pleasure. It is a degraded position of the mind to lose one’s power, vigour. Sense pleasure, there’s a reaction for both the parties, their health, mind, intellect, everything is lost. So that cannot be promoted, cannot be encouraged, that sort of union for pleasure. It has got no far fetching good consequence, it is rather degrading to hanker for what is carnal desire. That is even found in the lower section of animals. Higher section like lions and others they are not prey to that sort of sense pleasure. So that cannot be encouraged in any way, for physically, mentally, morally, religiously, that should be avoided as much as possible.

And only when there is necessity Vyāsadeva is coming and producing a child. The purity of purpose even it may not care for marriage, as it was in ancient times. That marriage ceremony also was not necessary if the mass has got such a degree of control, they won’t misuse. If such time is possible that none will misuse his energy, and no spirit of aggression, no law is necessary, no protection is necessary. The movement is free, just as it was found in Tapovan generally, in the circle of the ṛṣis, it was they may be free, everyone had self control. And undesirable, only when some inspiration comes to produce a child then only they will – prajanaś cāsmi. Otherwise they’re all brahmacārī, intact, only to do the duty, as if to discharge the duty they will do it with the spirit of doing some duty, and not for sense pleasure. That may not be practicable but this ideal is there, the full self control. And waste of energy and sense pleasure, to become a victim of sense pleasure like a beast, is that a life?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Where is that Tapovan?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Scattered here and there in the bed of Himalaya and so.

Devotee: So we see now that the society is so over-run with varṇa-saṅkara, so what would a Kṛṣṇa conscious government do to rid itself of this varṇa-saṅkara? How would they control it, or I mean rid themselves of it?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is more wide view, from more wide view, anyone come to, this is sattya guṇa arrangement, in the guṇa māyā jagat. And Mahāprabhu said: “None is disqualified, even an antyaja is qualified, a brāhmaṇa unqualified, another, nirguṇa movement.” All vitiated here from top to bottom, the whole thing is sinful, more or less. From the consideration of the nirguṇa plane the brāhmaṇa holding the highest position, highest control, the master of his own senses, but if devoid of devotion to Kṛṣṇa he’s also a worst rebel. From broader view these differences are neglected, and anyone who has got śraddhā, real śraddhā while wandering through these cycles of different birth and death, wherever we find a little śraddhā in the lowest or in the highest, we accept them. So not much importance is given on this sattvica guṇa, in the relativity of good and bad: sattvica, the morality, the purity of exploitation in the world, that is good, but if it’s not connected with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then the good bad, everything is bad. Because the man on the top, holding the position in the top place he will again have to go to the lowest position. Do you see?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No permanent position: temporary good position, but that will lead him again to the lower position. So when the consideration comes for the eternal relief, with low and up, no much considered difference. Sometimes the lower may have greater chance.

[32:20 - 33:10 [?] ...then, sādhana-daśā, to go on with the sādhana, the processes, for realisation, śravaṇa- kīrtana, sādhu-saṅga, śravaṇa-kīrtana _______________ [?] etc., then āpana-daśā, then he can feel within himself that he has reached the desired position, āpana-daśā. Then prapanna, then he may feel tendency within himself to distribute it to others for their good, prapanna.

______________________________________________________ [?]

To one’s own satisfaction he’ll listen, praṅipāta, paripraśna, sevā – higher knowledge...

______________________________________________________ [?]

nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo, na medhayā na bahunā śrutena

yam evaiṣa vṛnute tena labhyas, [tasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛnute tanūṁ svām]

[“One cannot understand the substance of the Paramātmā, the Super-soul residing within everyone’s heart, by means of expertise in logic, intelligence or learning. When the living entity begs the Lord for His mercy, being desirous of His transcendental loving service, then the Supreme Lord reveals His self-manifest form directly before him.”] [Kathopaniṣad, 1.2.23] & [Muṇḍaka-Upaniṣad, 2.3.2]

Higher knowledge, superior spiritual knowledge... [34:38 - 36:15 [?]

[tad vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum evābhigacchet, samit paniḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma niṣṭham]

[“One who wants scientific knowledge about the Supreme Truth must approach a bona fide Guru and offer him everything required for sacrifice. The Guru must be fixed in the truth, having heard it from a genuine source.”] [Muṇḍaka-Upaniṣad, 1.2.12]

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Did you not meet Acyūtānanda at that time?

Devotee: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Acyūtānanda is expected I heard here.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Not certain – a rumour.

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: One brahmaratri was entered into that night. Time and space can be controlled by handling the consciousness. Normal time, when one goes, the unit also varies, if one goes to Satyaloka, a moment there when he comes back a yuga finished. It is unit, the human hour, in one hour there may be worms or insects where a thousand generations finished within one hour of human life. The unit of time is/can be measured very meagrely and be the standard, or like hypnotism, the control from the subjective centre, the big and small, all relative. According to the longevity the division of the time, bigger and smaller. What is small to Brahmā it is big to us.

One brahmaratri was entered in rasa līlā. In one night it was managed that one brahmaratri was entered there, still, for the gopīs it seemed that within a moment the whole night finished, this life. The intensity of happiness was of such a degree that start and finished, “When we began just now and it’s finished. What is this?”

But from the absolute measurement Śukadeva says one brahmaratra was entered within. Still the relative consciousness dismissed that. “No: the smallest period of time this night.” So all control, like hypnotiser, subjective control. Do you understand? Fossil is not the controller, object is not the controller of experience, but just like hypnotism the Super Subject is controlling the whole thing, what to see, what to feel, what to hear. Not anything fixed from the objective world. But as the Super Subject wants me to see, I cannot but see that, to hear them, to experience them.

ūrdhva-mūlam adhaḥ-śākham, aśvatthaṁ prāhur avyayam

chandāṁsi yasya parṇāni, yas taṁ veda sa veda-vit

[“The Supreme Lord said: The holy scriptures proclaim that this material world is like an unchangeable Banyan tree with its roots facing upwards and its branches down, known as an Aśvattha (transitory) tree. Its nutriments are the Vedic aphorisms, which are represented by its leaves. Whoever knows this tree in this way is a genuine knower of the Vedas.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 15.1]

The veda-vit, Veda means the knowledge transmitted from above to the lower, the revelation, the knowledge of revelation. That is the truth. The knowledge of experience has no value; it is all concoction, or illusion, misunderstanding, plane of misunderstanding, misjudgement. So no knowledge of experience can be relied on for – in connection when we are to judge anything in the connection of reality. In the connection of reality, no knowledge drawn from our experience can be utilised because it is all misconception. Only real knowledge can come down from the quarter of normal understanding that is through the Veda. So śrauta siddhānta, śruti, and all these pramāṇa evidences cancelled. Do you follow?

Pratyakṣa, parokṣa, aparokṣa, adhokṣaja, and aprakṛta. Amala-pramāṇa, āmnāyaḥ, anumāṇa, pramāṇa, śabda-paramāṇa. All cancelled when the śabda-paramāṇa stands, in the case of understanding about the reality, consideration about reality, all these are cancelled, because it is drawn from the world of misconception, māyā. Mā – yā, ‘what is not that.’ Māyā means mā – yā, yā means ye and mā means no.

Devotee: Could you please explain the māyā Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ________________________ [?] Mahā-māyā, one of the greatest hoax.

______________________________________ [?] Measured knowledge: Infinite characteristic.

____________________________________________________________ [?] Iron, what is this?

_______________________________________________________ [?] We are given some stand on the environment and in our vocabulary we continue that sort of knowledge in that place.

________________________________________________________________ [?]

The conception of a particular thing what is true in my society that is not true in another society. What is poison to me that is nectar to another! The oxygen is our life and the oxygen is poison to tree. So about oxygen we have recorded something, but the tree world they will record something else. In this way this thrust, stamp on the environment that is not a reality. That is all relative calculation interest, so miyate anayat, the knowledge by which we measure things, but everything has got infinite capacity, quality, direction; inconceivable position, that is reality. And we put some partial interested opinion in them that they’re such, but they’re not such. Independent of my selfish interest they have got their independent value. What is that? So miyate, this māyāic knowledge experience of this world all cancelled, does not stand in the plane of reality, real calculation. That is śabda. That means the infallible region, their record of their acquaintance and when that is extended to us we must rely on that, and won’t rely on knowledge of our own experience.

In another case - gradation of knowledge: pratyakṣa, parokṣa, aparokṣa, adhokṣaja, and aprakṛta, five stages of knowledge coming. Pratyakṣa, some direct sense perception: parokṣa, experienced by others, not by me; that is parokṣa: aparokṣa, has been told as being like sound sleep, samādhi – we have got a sort of experience ___________________________________ [?]

I slept a good sleep, I slept happily. But at that time I have got no knowledge, but when we come down I say, I assert that I slept very happily. So a sort of particular knowledge was there, otherwise how can when I come I can assert, that has been told as aparokṣa buddhi by Śaṅkara School and others.

Then the Rāmānuja comes and says that the fourth stage of knowledge and that is adhokṣaja.

Adhakrta indriya jnanam. There is a transcendental knowledge which supersedes all knowledge of experiences. In other words, super subjective knowledge. When that fine and subtle knowledge comes down in the plane of my existence, my soul, I can trace it, I can feel it, I can understand. And when it withdraws I’m nowhere. Finer knowledge can descend in my gross consciousness and when that withdraws itself I can’t have it, adhokṣaja. Adhakrta indriya jnanam yena. Sense experience knowledge...

End of 81.11.05.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.05.C_81.11.06.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...transcendental. We are subject and this is the objective world. We gather knowledge of them as experience, pratyakṣa, parokṣa, aparokṣa, up to that. And the knowledge of fourth dimension that is more subtle, more higher, but made of consciousness, superior consciousness, that may come. __________________________________________ [?]

Higher knowledge may come down within our gross consciousness, and when that knowledge withdraws, only the memory I can detect. “Oh! I got some sort of wonderful experience in me, some revolutionary thing, and that’s gone, very sweet and more broad in its capacity. But now I don’t feel it in me. That’s withdrawn.” That is adhokṣaja, Vaikuṇṭha. Then, next higher stage...

Devotee: ____________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Adha means lower _______________________ [?] Sense experience, which is higher than sense experience knowledge: Jīva Goswāmī: Adhakrtam indriyam jñāna yena. The particular knowledge which can make this knowledge of experience lower to it, adhokṣaja, adhakrtam indriyam jñāna, the knowledge of experience has been pushed down. That is in superior position. There is a knowledge that is more independent, that can connect this knowledge, but this knowledge cannot connect that without His sanction, adhokṣaja. And the highest portion, Mahāprabhu says, Bhāgavatam: kevala jñāna or aprakṛta, means to give us warning, that don’t accept that as this mundane: similar to mundane but not same, meaning Kṛṣṇa Goloka līlā, nara-līlā, Bhagavān. Four-handed, fifteen-legged, that this is we have not experienced which is easy for us to accept that as higher knowledge.

Devotee: Vaikuṇṭha rasa līlā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In Vaikuṇṭha, but in Goloka we find only human form of experience, life, everything. That is very near to this mundane conception, but it is the supreme-most.

kṛṣṇera yateka khelā, sarvottama nara-līlā, nara-vapu tāhāra svarūpa

[gope-veśa, veṇu-kara nava kiśora, nata-vara, nara līlāra haya anurūpa]

[“Lord Kṛṣṇa has many pastimes, of which His pastimes as a human being are the best. His form as a human being is the Supreme Transcendental Form. In this form, He is a cowherd boy. He carries a flute in His hand, and His youth is new. He is also an expert dancer. All this is just suitable for His pastimes as a human being.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 21.101]

Nara-līlā, this is so perfect that He comes within this lower experience, but still, it is not of that type. His extension, His capacity, His control, is so powerful that it can take the shape of this mundane, but not mundane, but play as mundane.

avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā, mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam

paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto, mama bhūta-maheśvaram

[“Unable to comprehend My super-excellent divine form of human features, ignorant men blaspheme Me - the Supreme Lord of all beings - by considering Me a mere human being.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.11]

“I’m the Master of everything, but still when I come down, ordinary people can’t understand Me. They take Me as one of them.”

Devotee: __________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Aprakṛta – prakṛta vāt na tu prakṛtam, like mundane but not mundane, so un-mundane, something like that, non-mundane, there is every chance of reckoning it as mundane, but it is not so. Aprakṛta not prakṛta. And Bhāgavata also told, kevala, kevala means the wholesale knowledge.

Devotee: __________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Caitanya-caritāmṛta and Mahāprabhu mentioned aprakṛta, prakṛta vāt __________________________ [?] Not mundane, is non mundane.

Devotee: Pratyakṣa, parokṣa, aparokṣa, adhokṣaja, and aprakṛta.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Adhokṣaja and aprakṛta, fifth stage of knowledge. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Today I stop here. Gaura Haribol.

...

Devotee: ...the conception of Puruṣa prakṛti, just like.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Puruṣa prakṛti. Misunderstanding, that is the cause, direct cause of the world of creation, and the background is supplied by the Puruṣa. What is seen, that is not, that is wrong, so real conception is not to be had here. Illusion, the background is real but the angle of vision is wrong. Angle of vision is wrong, that is māyā – the māyā exists, the error exists in the angle of vision, but the background is all right, it is not nothing, only misconception. Misconception means the knowledge drawn that is false but something in the background that is real. Mistaken, one thing taken for another thing; a rope taken for a serpent...

Devotee: ______________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But there is _________ [?] the mirage, we think water, the background is there, that is all right, but only the judgement that is wrong, conception, angle of vision is wrong. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Māyā nimitta kārana. This can be applied only in the case of the worldly experience. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Māyā nimitta kārana.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nimitta kārana, māyā withdrawn, then the right things will come to your vision.

Devotee: _______________________________________ [?] When you’re making a pot, where is that ultimate nimitta kārana?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is the conception __________________________________ [?]

Devotee: _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nimitta kārana _____________ It can be pushed then the necessity of the human beings. Though it is stated that the kumbaka [?] and the rods, all these things, cakra, they’re also helping, and upādānā coming, earth coming, that is upādānā, coming from another quarter. But really if we trace it more exhaustively then we shall find the necessity of the human beings. That is the reason, the nimitta kārana, why it’s created, constructed, because the human society feels the necessity of such form.

Devotee: But if the māyā is nimitta cause, what is the upādānā cause?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Upādānā from which the – that being created, or that being drawn – which is used for the purpose.

Devotee: Achar. How far the God, God is the upādānā cause, that I can’t understand. Why God is upādānā cause?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Because He exists only truly.

Devotee: Achar.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: His existence is the fact, and what we think to be the world, that is the concoction of our mistake, misconception. The other day, yesterday I told that we thrust our necessity on the environment and abuse that. Māyā, miyate mā - yā, what is not, that is, we are in the midst of a particular conception of the environment which is not really so. For our special interest we thrust on the environment that sort of needy misleading...

Devotee: Māyā also a creation of God!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course, everything created by God, or we may think coexisting with Him.

Devotee: But what is the need of māyā?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is automatically the effect of the outcome, or the vulnerable free will of the jīva. The world exists, just as the prison houses exist on the evil desire for the encroachment on other’s property. If that misdeed is absent, prison house is absent. If disease is absent, hospitals are absent. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No disease, no hospital. No sin, no crime, no prison house. And why, what is the reason of the crime? The vulnerability of the free thinkers. Why free thinking is vulnerable? Because it is very meagre, small, aṇu cetana, aṇu sadinaka, limited freedom, limited free will limited, limitation of free will. That is the cause of this world. No misuse of free will, no world.

Devotee: The world is also māyā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, this is māyā. Prison houses are necessary. Kala kuti, Durgā Devī is kala kuti, in Brahma-saṁhitā [44] it is mentioned: chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni vibharti durgā. Kala kuti, prison keeper. Why prison? Because there is vulnerability in the choice of freedom, encroachment on other’s property. Otherwise no world is necessary. But because it is possible so prison houses are there.

na kartṛtvaṁ na karmāni, lokasya sṛjati prabhuḥ

na karma-phala-saṁyogam, svabhāvas tu pravartate

[“Due to their tendency towards ignorance since immeasurable time, the living beings act, considering themselves the doers or inaugurators of action. The Supreme Lord does not generate their misconception of considering themselves doers, nor does He generate their actions or their attachment to the fruits of those actions.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 5.14]

The circumstance needs it. Circumstance of what type: the vulnerable free will are encroaching on another’s life. And conceived as another; and that is māyā. Māyā means mā yā, self interest independent of absolute interest. That is the cause, self seeking, and that also in a manner which can encroach other’s interest. That is desperate self seeking, that is the exploiting nature, just the opposite, exploitation means under māyā.

Devotee: Exploitation means under māyā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. No māyā no exploitation. Exploitation, and if we go ahead a little more and renunciation also, both exploitation and renunciation is under māyā, that is self seeking. That is to separate one’s self from the organic whole. That is a revolt against the organic whole.

_____________________________________________________ [?] Jīva enters into – say, he may start out of curiosity and then comes in the factor of time and space in this mundane world.

Devotee: ____________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The time and space, factor of our thought – beginning then enters into this space of physical time and factor. Beginning means first rebel, revolt and captivated. Very fine things!

Once in Purī one gentleman he was the honorary secretary, honorary president of, the honorary officer in insurance company or so, he came to Prabhupāda, our Guru Mahārāja and put such question, this question. “Why, what, how, the life in bondage began: how first started? Who is responsible, either God, or māyā, or jīva? Three factors, God is, His power, His paramount power, and the māyā is there which takes, comes to capture the jīva, and the jīva is independent, so we are told. Then how it was begun? Why the first cause of such beginning that jīva’s contact with the world? Jīva is told free, God of course is Absolutely Free, and the māyā is there and the māyā is playing with us, but when first start, who is responsible?”

_____________________________________________ [?]

And Prabhupāda answered him, and that gentleman can’t understand, follow, and in various ways he’s pushing on. Prabhupāda was very much, apparently, feeling disturbance and he was very weak, heart trouble. Then I, and a few other persons of our Maṭha including Professor Prabhu Nisikanta Sanyal, writer of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Chaitanya, Vasudeva Prabhu, who was made Ācārya. Then Mādhava Mahārāja, Hayagrīva Prabhu, and many others were present. I was also there. I could not tolerate this. I offered obeisance to Prabhupāda and asked his permission: “That he can’t follow your arguments, statements. Please order me to answer his questions.”

Prabhupāda did happily he did, “Yes, you may talk with him.”

I caught that man. Proof by exhaustion, in philosophy, is it not? Have you gone? Proof by exhaustion, do you know? Are you not acquainted?

Devotee: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That method I took up. That one by one let us try. Suppose if by the pleasure of God, God is the cause, then what is the next step? What it will be? The jīva is suffering from misery and God He’s the cause of the suffering of the jīva: do you adjust it that He’s omniscient, He’s omnipotent, and He’s all benevolent, and He’s the God, and He’s seeing the fun when so many jīva souls they’re under misery, they’re suffering like anything. And He can also deliver them but He does not do seeing the fun. Can you accept that conception with Godhead?

“No, I can’t.”

Then, He may not be the cause of the suffering of the jīva.

“Yes.”

And that if māyā – I can’t give the statement exactly what I gave there, but with my faint memory whatever...

Devotee: ________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: If māyā is the cause then so many other questions come. The māyā is more powerful than jīva and God. Māyā is torturing the jīva and omniscient God He’s seeing the fun. No justice in the world. God is aloof, and māyā is attacking and torturing the jīva. Is that the position of the God? Is that God perfect one? Then, few other steps also I explained. After this, this will be this, this will be this.

“No, that cannot be accepted.”

The sufferer, he’s responsible for his own suffering, and this happens in this way. I explained to him that if we leave the responsibility on the shoulder of māyā, these are the difficulties. On the shoulder of God, these are the difficulties. The cause of the suffering of the jīva, of the soul, must be within him, and how it begins in this way, first start of free will. In the beginning it is like that of curiosity, and then when you connect once with māyā then māyā gets some influence over it. In this way, God does not come to interfere with the freedom of the soul. Consciousness means endowed with freedom. But jīva is a particle of consciousness so his freedom is also a particle, vulnerable. So vulnerability of the free will of jīva soul, that is the cause, the first starting, and then māyā comes. Just as when one begins any intoxication, first starting is something like curiosity, and then the intoxication gets some position, some impulse is created, momentum. And then his freedom is not, he loses his freedom. The free will of the jīva gradually comes into the clutches of māyā, losing its own free choice.

That man admitted that.

And this is in the clear introspection of the sādhaka it can be seen, the very subtle-most thing, the starting that cannot be detected by ordinary consciousness. So they have given:

na kartṛtvaṁ na karmāni, lokasya sṛjati prabhuḥ

na karma-phala-saṁyogam, svabhāvas tu pravartate

[“Due to their tendency towards ignorance since immeasurable time, the living beings act, considering themselves the doers or inaugurators of action. The Supreme Lord does not generate their misconception of considering themselves doers, nor does He generate their actions or their attachment to the fruits of those actions.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 5.14]

It is by nature of the existence of things they happen to come in this way automatic: encroachment and consequence.

Devotee: But this question – I cannot understand. When māyā surrounds the jīva, and also God, jīva is now independent, the māyā surrounds jīva.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Jīva is independent, yes. at the side of jīva. Jīva is taṭasthā śakti, kṛṣṇera taṭasthā śakti, marginal potency. In carrying, out carrying, and the meeting point is jīva, buffer state, taṭasthā śakti, meeting point, meeting plane, of both the opposite potencies, that is taṭasthā, there lies...

Devotee: Jīva never dependent?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Dependent? No. That is because it is a part of consciousness it is endowed with free will.

Devotee: Is endowed with?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Free will! Free will eliminated it will be matter, the iron, stone, no consciousness. Consciousness means endowed with free will. Devoid of free will no consciousness there can be.

Devotee: Is it possible for jīva to be dependent?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Dependent? Dependent, he’s always independent. Independent sometimes subdued. Independence is always there otherwise he cannot return from one side to another side. His salvation, liberation, would have been impossible if he had lost the independence forever. Independence is there but it is surrounded with other power, another foreign force. When in intoxication it is overpowered by some other force, but still independence within, otherwise he cannot get out any time.

Devotee: Māyā is also the intoxication of jīva, just like...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, like intoxication, misunderstanding. Intoxication, that is the spirit of exploitation, want to exploit, want to enjoy. To want to enjoy and want to service and between the two complete renunciation.

Devotee: ____________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We tend to exploit, miscalculation leads us for exploitation, miscalculation. ‘That we shall be able to thrive there on the soil, let us go and establish a colony there. I shall thrive thereby.’ This miscalculation, misunderstanding is the cause.

Devotee: So jīvan mukta then is not out of this māyā?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is, jīvan mukta means of different types there may be.

Vastava buddhi śuddha nahi krsna bhakti vineer [?]

Real devotion is, real liberation is within the area of Yogamāyā, that is after mukti. Mukti proper only to withdraw from the negative side: that cannot be mukti proper. Self determination, the positive side, to be reinstated in its highest possible prospect in the service of Kṛṣṇa, that is the perfect conception of mukti, or liberation. Only withdrawal from the area of māyā, that is not enough. That cannot give us the real position of a liberated soul.

muktir hitvān-yathā-rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ

[“Liberation is the permanent situation of the form of the living entity after he gives up the changeable gross and subtle material bodies.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 2.10.6]

The definition of mukti given by Bhāgavatam, svarūpe sabāra haya, golokete sthiti, to be reinstated in the proper function in relation to the service of Kṛṣṇa, that is mukti, a positive attainment.

Just as when there is a disease temperature, temperature gone, but that does not mean that full health has been recovered. So he’s out of disease, but to get the healthy position that is something more, positive attainment.

So mukti proper means something positive, not only withdrawn from the negative side. That is not proper mukti. Self determination, mukti means self determination, to be reinstated in the function in the eternity which is designed for me. To be active in the serving system, that is mukti proper, the positive actual meaning of the mukti, to get, to be reinstated in proper health, not only absence of temperature. There it may begin, but then positive progress and to attend to the highest position possible for highest prospect, to be reinstated in the highest prospect which is possible for him in his constitutional position. But these are not the things which are very important for our real progress of life. _______________________________________________ [?] Śraddhā, faith, in the Absolute Good, faith in the bright side of the life, that is bright side of the life, to have the faith, and to work for that. ______________________________________ [?] Only who is well versed in the law of the country, he can give up crime, it is not true. Criminal mentality is another thing, independent of the knowledge of the law of the country. Knows the law fully well, but still he’s a criminal, he can’t but commit crime. So this knowledge cannot save us. That is something else. What do you say?

Devotees: Yes. It’s fact!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Some of the best criminals are the most knowledgeable of the laws, therefore they know how to...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: They know how they can utilise the law in their favour of exploitation. The capitalists they also maintain many lawyers to support their exploitation. So knowledge of the law has nothing to do with the purity of our life and achievement. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So real thing is sukṛti, it is traced in this way, first ajñāta-sukṛti, ādau śraddhā, when it is the good faith comes over the surface of our mind, consciousness, that of this type:

yasmin vijñāte sarvam evam vijñātam bhavati / yasmin prāpte sarvam idam prāptam bhavati

tad vijyi jnasa tad eva brahma

There is a particular thing, if I can know that I shall know everything. If I get that I shall get everything. It is possible. It is not impossible, it is possible.

yasmin vijñāte sarvam evam vijñātam bhavati / yasmin prāpte sarvam idam prāptam bhavati

This central faith or central achievement is true.

yathā taror mula niṣecanena, tṛpyanti tat-skandha bhujopaśākhāḥ

prānopahārāc ca yathendriyānāṁ, tathaiva sarvārhaṇam acyutejyā

[“Just as if you pour water onto the root of a tree, the whole tree is fed, and just as when you supply food to the stomach, the whole body is fed, so if you can gain knowledge of the prime cause, Brahman, then you can know anything and everything.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 4.31.14]

If we pour water into the root of the tree, whole tree is fed. If we put food into the stomach, whole body is fed. Such things are possible in our achievement of knowledge. If we can know the central truth, the whole is known. To get that I have some good relation with Him, I can have good relation with all. This central existence is possible. When such knowledge awakens in one’s mind he gets faith, śraddhā.

'śraddhā' - sabde - viśvāsa kahe sudṛḍha niścaya / kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya

[“Śraddhā is confident, firm faith that by rendering transcendental loving service to Kṛṣṇa one automatically performs all subsidiary activities. Such faith is favourable to the discharge of devotional service.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.62]

sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

[ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo, mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ]

[“Totally abandoning all kinds of religion, surrender exclusively unto Me. I will liberate you from all kinds of sins, so do not despair.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]

yasmin tuṣṭe jagat tuṣṭam priṇite priṇito jagat

[By satisfying Kṛṣṇa, the whole universe becomes satisfied, for one who is dear to Kṛṣṇa is dear to the whole universe.]

However wonderful this may be but this is true. This is possible. When such awakening of faith comes within one’s mind then he gets śraddhā. And what is the cause of the śraddhā that can produce such faith? Sukṛti.

bhaktis tu bhagavad-bhaktasaṅgena parijāyate

sat-saṅgaḥ prāpyate puṁbhiḥ sukṛtaiḥ pūrvva-sañcitaiḥ

[“Actually we can recognise a sādhu by sukṛti. Apparently we can know him from the śāstras, the scriptures, because the śāstra helps us to know who is a sādhu, and the sādhu gives us the interpretation of the śāstra. So sādhu and śāstra are interdependent, but the sādhu holds the more important position and the śāstra has the secondary position. The living śāstra is the sādhu, but to know who is guru, who is sādhu, we are to consult the descriptions given about them in the scriptures. The symptoms of the sādhu, both of the guru as well as the disciple, have been written in the Bhāgavatam, in the Gītā and in the Upaniṣads.”] [Bṛhan-Nāradīya-Purāṇa]

Generally such faith comes when we come in contact with a real sādhu, a bona fide sādhu. And how such connection is effected? That pūrvva sukṛti, what is that sukṛti? That is divided into two sections, ajñāta, jñāta. In the first stage ajñāta sukṛti, unconsciously I get my energy utilised for the service of the Supreme. I do not know, but my energy is utilised, and as reaction gets something from nirguṇa, from the cent per cent truth conception, the conception of cent per cent truth. My energy is connected there with that without my consciousness by the sādhus. I have created, constructed a garden, flowers utilised by a sādhu for the service of Kṛṣṇa. I do not know anything but because my energy was utilised... _______________________________ [?]

...

...a patient unconscious, then outsiders come, some injection, some sort of medicine applied, then he gets his consciousness. Then the doctor will consult, “What is the matter? How is your pain? Where is it?” Cooperation, before cooperation unconscious help necessary for the patient who has lost his consciousness, and then, partial consciousness with his cooperation the treatment continues.

So in the first stage unconsciously some connection comes to him from the nirguṇa. Nirguṇa means guṇatita, satya, raja, tama, triguṇa – this is negative side, this is diseased, satya, raja, tama, triguṇa. Nirguṇa means nirbadi, guṇa means badi, māyā, satya, raja, tama, three divisions, stages of māyā, that is disease. Normal, healthy, that is nirguṇa, nirbadi, from that perfect harmonised world, from there some agent comes and utilises my energy without my consciousness, and that as a reaction I get something.

And when that thing’s accumulated to certain degree then comes jñāta sukṛti, or with half consciousness we cooperate with the sādhu and acquire more. Then when that sukṛti is collected to a particular stage, it is named as śraddhā. That is, there is something, if we can get that, all my want will be removed. My real fulfilment I shall achieve. This sort of consciousness arises, awakens in one’s mind, and that is śraddhā. And when that śraddhā, that sort of faith arises in one’s mind he then tries his best to connect him with so many...

End of 81.11.05.C_81.11.06.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.06.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... they’re trying in that line to improve their lot, approaching towards that.

bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ

kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi, mayi dṛṣṭe 'khilātmani

[“The knot in the heart is pierced, all misgivings are cut to pieces and the chain of fruitive actions is terminated when I am seen as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 11.20.30]

There is such a thing if we can come in connection with Him, then bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, so many ties within us, karmana-vasana, ‘I want this, I want that’ and I tie myself with a particular desire. Then all the ties are all untied, released. ‘I do not want anything.’ All the ties, so many ties with so many things all cleared. Bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, thousands, lākhs of granthiś there in the heart all untied. ‘I don’t want anything.’ Then, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ, suspicions, doubts, are innumerable, all cleared. All the doubts cleared, it is impossible almost, but it is true, doubts cleared, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ. Kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi, and the sufferings, good or bad in this world which was in store for me, I must have to undergo, that also finished. Mayi dṛṣṭe 'khilātmani, when that truthful aspect of the thing we come in connection with.

Just as dara, we see, I take, there is a tree, I may take it as a ghost, and so many plans, purposes, how to get relief of that and these things, how to get. But when that is found, ‘No, that is a tree, that is my father standing there,’ the whole thing vanishes, plan, purpose, design, activity spirit, gone. So the whole necessity, engagement, calculation, vanishes, when we can see that the environment I’m not to fight for but I’m to embrace as my friend. It is not my foe, it is my friend. The whole management: that is my friend, friendly management, and only my apprehension from the friend as foe. And that clears everything vanishes. So, ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅga:

[ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo’ tha bhajana-kriyā

tato’ nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt tato niṣṭhā rucis tataḥ

athāsaktis tato bhāvas tataḥ premābhyudañcati

sādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥ prādurbhāve bhavet kramaḥ]

[“In the beginning there must be faith. Then one becomes interested in associating with pure devotees. Thereafter one is initiated by the spiritual master and executes the regulative principles under his orders. Thus one is freed from all unwanted habits and becomes firmly fixed in devotional service. Thereafter, one develops taste and then attachment. This is the way of sādhana-bhakti, the execution of devotional service according to the regulative principles. Gradually spiritual emotions manifest and intensify, then finally there is an awakening of divine love. This is the gradual development of love of Godhead for the devotee interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, 1.4.15-16]

When that śraddhā, there is a, one if they can connect with Him, nothing will be necessary any more, it will be of utmost satisfaction. Then I go to the sādhu who are after such searching, and with their influence I begin my life of searching, kṛṣṇānusandhāna, athāto brahma-jijñāsā. In Jaimini, dharma-jijñāsā, what is our real duty. And Vedānta, brahma-jijñāsā, who is the most accommodating thing, my biggest thing? Who? Why? What is the characteristic of the all accommodating thing, this brahma-jijñāsā, bṛhata?

Devotee: ___________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bṛhata, who can accommodate everything in it, that is Brahman. And Paramātmā Who is present everywhere, aṇor aṇīyān, minutest of the minute, Paramātmā within, searching within Antaryāmī, the subtle most existence within, within atom, within electron, and most accommodating Brahman. From where I came to here: Brahman? Yasmin vijnante sarvam idam.

Devotee: ___________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ah! Dharma-jijñāsā, duty, what is my duty. Vedavyāsa Vedānta is brahma-jijñāsā, Who is the all comprehensive entity, brahma-jijñāsā. And Mahāprabhu’s kṛṣṇānusandhāna: Kaha jal kaha tan____________ [?] Then the searching, Kṛṣṇa means searching who is the enjoyer, not accommodating element, nor all permeating, nor all accommodating aspect of the environment. But who is my owner, who is my enjoyer, for whom I am created, who will fulfil my whole aspiration? For Itself, in the words of Hegel. For whom I am created, who can fulfil my existence, to search, the development towards that. He’s all in all, not the all accommodating space, nor the all permeating atom. But my highest need is to fulfil whose satisfaction I am created. I can get the corresponding satisfaction only in that plane. Bhokta ami bhoga ama bhokta ke [?] Who is my enjoyer, kṛṣṇānusandhāna, Kṛṣṇa conception of the ultimate reality is who can enjoy. The rasa, raso vai saḥ, akhila-rasāmṛta-murtiḥ, rasa is in the enjoyment, not in the enquiry who is the ultimate, vidura kasthaya. Most accommodating or most subtle permeating, Paramātmā and Brahman, but the transaction in the fulfilment of taking and giving bhoga, in that we as a sisti karta, generally we go to Nārāyaṇa, and as the enjoyer if we want for the fulfilment of our everything.

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ, sarva-loka-maheśvaram

suhṛdaṁ sarvva-bhūtānāṁ, jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati

[“I am the enjoyer of the results of sacrifice performed by the fruit-hunter, as well as the results of austerity performed by the liberation-seeker - I am their only worshippable object; I am Nārāyaṇa, the indwelling monitor of all planes of life, and the Supreme Worshippable Personality who awards liberation. And I am the well-wisher of all - I am Kṛṣṇa, the devotee’s most adorable friend. The soul who thus knows My true identity attains the ecstasy of knowing his own original divine identity.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 5.29]

“Everything for Me, you are for Me, you are My own.”

And He’s my friend. To seek for a friend, not for the geographical expression of the environment, but to find a friend, find a friend of universal interest in this world.

Mahāprabhu taught that. “Search after friend, not for duty, and nor for knowledge, not for karma, nor for knowledge, but for your friend you search.”

Bhāgavata teaches us that. Purāṇa generally teaches us that. Search for a real friend. The search of your heart, not for brain, brain’s satisfaction, nor for the satisfaction of the muscle, karma, or brain, but heart, the most important. And try to satisfy your heart, search for the heart for heart. There is heart, noble heart, and try to search for the higher heart to help your tiny heart. Your inner most necessity is to satisfy your heart, not brain.

So science cannot satisfy you. Without this civilisation, scientific civilisation of grand characteristic one can find satisfaction in a hut, in plain living fully satisfied. Science means exploitation of the nature, and to get a loan from the nature, and they will have to clear the debt. To every action there is equal and opposite reaction. So this civilisation that is incurring loan, debt, no contribution, all negative contribution: movement in the negative, progress in the negative side, this civilisation.

So plain living, high thinking, as it was in the yuga of the ṛṣi, in the day of the ṛṣis in India, plain living. Ṛṣis, they tried to search something grand and beautiful, but beauty was not so much laid stress on. But when Bhāgavata came by the instruction of Nārada Goswāmī, and from Bhāgavatam, Mahāprabhu took it to be the highest goal of all animation.

“You don’t know you are searching after love, loving heart. Loving heart can satisfy you: affection and not knowledge.”

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva, jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

[sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir, ye prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi tais tri-lokyām]

[Lord Brahmā said to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa: “Oh Lord, Oh Unconquerable One, those devotees who, completely giving up all attempts on the path of jñāna of attaining the non-differentiated platform known as Brahma by hearing the transcendental narratives of Your pastimes (kathā), which emanates from the lotus mouths of the mahā-bhāgavat sādhus and pass their lives by engaging their body, mind and words in pure devotion, easily conquer You (they easily get Your transcendental association), although You are the most difficult to attain in the three worlds.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.14.3]

Give up hatefully the quest after knowing things of your environment. But try to fulfil your thirst, your heart, your hankering for rasa, for ānandam, for beauty, for love, for charm, for harmony.

Westerners have used the word harmony, some philosophers, in place of beauty and love. They say harmony is beauty, harmony is love. And discord is the opposite, undesirable. So beauty, reality the beautiful. Martineau, the European scholar Martineau, who has written the Ethics, one book Ethics written by Martineau.

The reality the beautiful. Satyam, śivam, sundaram, we want sundaram. Mahāprabhu says jñāne prayāsam udapāsya, knowledge is not necessary at all for the fulfilment of our life. Only through śraddhā we can attain everything, our earnest hankering desire for rasa. Rasa is the only thing for which, knowingly or unknowingly, every one of us are earnestly praying. That is rasa, not knowledge, not energy. Neither energy nor knowledge, neither power nor knowledge, but the rasa, satisfaction, ecstasy. That is our...

na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ, [durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ

andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās, te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ]

[Prahlāda Mahārāja says: “Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or Guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Viṣṇu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labour, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold miseries.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 7.5.31]

Prahlāda Mahārāja says, bahir-artha-māninaḥ, we’re making much of the cover, and not which is within the cover, sas, substance within the cover. We are enchanted by the glamour of the cover only, of everything, but we must penetrate into the substance which is contained in the cover. That is Viṣṇu Who is permeating everything. What is His nature? How loving and affectionate He is for us? His sympathy, His love, His sacrifice, all these things we shall try to discover, and accordingly to fix our path what way we should select and make progress on.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. So jñāne prayāsam udapāsya, jñāna-sunya-bhakti, Eho bahya. When the, independent of knowledge, our devotion which has eliminated any calculation, only through faith, Mahāprabhu was, “Yes, it is here.” Faith is not frustrated, because the all consciousness atmosphere is present.

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate]

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe, nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill-fated.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

If you are sincere the all consciousness is ready to help you. You may not be afraid. So śraddhā, jñāna-sunya-bhakti, śraddhā, go on with...

Devotee: _______________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Jñāna-sunya-bhakti, jñāne prayāsam udapāsya, when he, that is, jñāna-sunya-bhakti means he wants to offer himself, not to take the advantage of his knowledge of the environment, as a subject. Jñāna means he is laying stress on his subjective position, and bhakti is anti jñāna. Become object, to be a doll in His hand. He will handle you. You try to become a doll in the hand of the Supreme Power, objective, become passive, no active attainment, ‘that I shall gather what is really useful to me. I know everything.’ Don’t indulge in that sort of attitude within you. Surrender to the Absolute Knowledge, Absolute Affection. Then, you as a subject you cannot come in touch with Him. He’s adhokṣaja, He can come to you but you cannot go up to Him. You are very gross consciousness, you cannot make the subtle consciousness as the object of your sense; but finite...

Once in Karachi one Ārya Samāji leader came to me while preaching that side: “If finite can know Infinite He’s no Infinite.”

I answered, ‘If Infinite cannot make Himself known to finite He’s not Infinite.”

Just opposite, so He can come but I cannot go to Him. This is the fact. I’m of lower stuff. So to attract Him towards me, that is surrender, devotion, negative side, to increase the negative side of our aspect so that the positive feels attraction and comes down to embrace me, to accept me. That is the path of devotion, to invite Him.

“Come to my lower level. I can’t go to the higher level where You are.” So the search of the higher for the lower will be of such nature. “I am very low. I hold the lower position. And You are so high. You can come, You can purify, You can take me, You can utilise me for Your higher purpose. I am otherwise, I am helpless, neglected. Be pleased.”

That is the path of bhakti and that can help us really to come in connection with the Superior Existence, and not by knowledge, ‘That I can bring everything within and make prison within my area of knowledge.’ We can’t make Him prisoner, to keep, to catch, and to keep within the cage of our knowledge. It is not possible at all. So the path of devotion can only help us. He’s so high and so infinite in every respect, so great, and we are so small. So the mercy, sympathy, love, grace, that is the only plane through which we both can come together.

What do you say Akṣayānanda Mahārāja?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes, very nicely put, beautiful.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Mahāprabhu came with such news to us, so take His Name and think you’re most meanest of the mean. You desire immediate help otherwise I’m gone. Try, not artificially but sincerely feel your helpless position, and also try to intimate it to the centre Who is Infinite Love, sympathy. That is the most plain way to attain our fulfilment, most simple, no artificiality. No science is necessary here. Heart’s earnestness! “Help me.”

Devotee: Heart’s earnestness! A beautiful concept, heart’s earnestness!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Earnestness of the heart, automatic, spontaneous, and you will be taken within His family life.

“No, no, My boy, you are not so low. You are My own. You are My own.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

martyo yadā tyakta-samasta-karmā, niveditātmā vicikīrṣito me

tadāmṛtatvaṁ pratipadyamāno, mayātma-bhūyāya ca kalpate vai

[“One who is subjected to birth and death attains immortality when he gives up all material activities, dedicates his life to the execution of My order, and acts according to My directions. In this way, he becomes fit to enjoy the spiritual bliss derived from exchanging loving mellows with Me.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.29.34]

dīkṣā-kāle bhakta kare ātma-samarpaṇa, sei kāle kṛṣṇa tāre kare ātma-sama

sei deha kare tāra cid-ānanda-maya, aprākṛta-dehe tāṅra caraṇa bhajaya

[“At the time of initiation, when a devotee fully surrenders unto the service of the Lord, Kṛṣṇa accepts him to be as good as Himself.”] – [“When the devotee’s body is thus transformed into spiritual existence, the devotee, in that transcendental body, renders service to the lotus feet of the Lord.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 4.192-3]

Brahma bhūyāya kalpate, ātmā bhūyāya kalpate, “I accept him as My family member.”

The gopīs also in Kurukṣetra: “We are not jñānīs, we are not yogīs, we are not karmī, that You give consolation that we may take that path and pass our time, kill our time. We are not to be dismissed by that sort of cunning attempt of You. We have already lived a life as Your family member, and nothing less than that can satisfy us. You remain sure we can’t be deceived by any other offer, however dazzling and charming You may send to us.”

Gehaṁ juṣām api manasy udiyāt.

[āhuś ca te nalina-nābha padāravindaṁ, yogeśvarair hṛdi vicintyam agādha-bodhaiḥ

saṁsāra-kūpa-patitottaraṇāvalambaṁ, gehaṁ juṣām api manasy udiyāt sadā naḥ]

[“The gopīs spoke thus: ‘Dear Lord, whose navel is just like a lotus flower, Your lotus feet are the only shelter for those who have fallen into the deep well of material existence. Your feet are worshipped and meditated upon by great mystic yogīs and highly learned philosophers. We wish that these lotus feet may also be awakened within our hearts, although we are only ordinary persons engaged in household affairs.’”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.82.48] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 13.136]

“Our demand is fixed, and we want You as a family member in Vṛndāvana. Nothing less can satisfy us, we are such and such. We are in Vṛndāvana. We are plain thinking persons, half savage, but we understand this as the highest point of our interest, to have You amongst us as a family member. And neither an abstract meditation and nor the temporary relief worker in the mundane activity of self elevation; neither karmī nor jñānī. We have got the taste of getting You within our family life. We can’t forget that any time.”

And Kṛṣṇa says: “That rest assured I am yours, because the whole world of different sections, saints, they think that they’re fortunate if they can come in My connection. Everyone thinks that he’s fortunate if anyhow he may come in connection with My affection. And that man, or that person, or that entity I am, I think it My fortune that I came in your connection. I consider Myself to be fortunate because I came in connection with you, so simple, so surrendering, so loving, so self forgetful, you are. I can’t forget you. I thought that I’m really fortunate that I came in your connection. The world thinks if they come in My connection they’re fortunate, and such am I that I think that I’m fortunate that I got your connection. So I’m always yours. My appreciation for you is to such intensity, so rest assured. Only to minimise or remove some trouble in the earthly affairs I am waiting here. I am always with you.”

That was His secret advice or response to the gopīs. And they came back:

Se śloka suni radha kandila sakha baddha krsne prapte priti te haila [?]

Rādhārāṇī could understand this purpose of the saying of Kṛṣṇa and She thought that, “Kṛṣṇa is fully Mine. He’s within My affectionate zone. I need not bother Myself for any imaginary despair or disappointment. He’s Mine, wherever He is He’s Mine.”

With this faith, Rādhārāṇī came back from Kurukṣetra to Vṛndāvana.

And Mahāprabhu in Jagannātha taking from Kurukṣetra to Nava-Vṛndāvana, to Guṇḍicā Mandeer with that spirit, taking Kṛṣṇa from Dvārakā, “Dvārakā Kṛṣṇa we take Him to Vṛndāvana.”

Devotee: ___________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: __________________________ [?]

Devotee: ___________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _____________________________________________ [?]

In Dvārakā Kṛṣṇa constructed, just as Swāmī Mahārāja, ‘New Vṛndāvana,’ so Kṛṣṇa constructed a ‘New Vṛndāvana’ in Dvārakā, within the area of Dvārakā, in the pattern of Vṛndāvana. And sometimes to, for His internal peace He used to walk in that garden that was built in the model of Vṛndāvana. To find His internal peace He used to walk in that Vṛndāvana. And so perhaps Dvārakā is mentioned there. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. _______________________________________ [?]

Devotees: _______________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: __________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Lord Caitanya told Vāsudeva Datta, “That simply by your desire any living entity can be given love of God, or liberation.” Can we also develop the same potency as Vāsudeva Datta?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What is his...

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Caitanya Mahāprabhu told Vāsudeva Datta, “That by your desire anyone can get Kṛṣṇa prema.” So can we also become as powerful as Vāsudeva Datta? Is it possible for us to become as powerful as...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Powerful?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. Śakti shali, as Vāsudeva Datta, that by our desire others will also get Kṛṣṇa prema, is it possible? He’s enquiring.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It depends on the intensity of devotion of a devotee.

Mahāprabhu told, “You can sell Me anywhere if you like. You have tied Me with your door of affection so much that like ordinary property of sale you can sell Me here and there. I’m so much indebted to you through your serving attitude. I’m your own. Whatever you like you may do with Me.”

That type of devotion was found in Vāsudeva Datta. And that is also, there are also superior type of devotion we can understand of Caitanyadeva. But that was a peculiar type of devotion in Vāsudeva. We can trace his special desire, sympathy, for so many suffering souls at large.

And Haridāsa Ṭhākura also came to help Him.

Mahāprabhu told that, “Vāsudeva, if the whole world is released, then do you mean that the world will be non existent forever?”

Then, it was told that previously Rāmacandra also took the whole of Ayodhyā with Him, but again Ayodhyā was filled up by the supply from the Causal Play.

So Haridāsa Ṭhākura says, “When You have chanted Kṛṣṇa Nāma,” Haridāsa Ṭhākura says to Mahāprabhu, “You Yourself are chanting the Name of Kṛṣṇa and whoever is fortunate to hear that, that sound enters in the ear of whatever the man be, however sinful, and he may be conscious or unconscious, stone, trees, and so many, everyone will be released. And then again the supply will come from the sukṣma, this Brahmaloka, the taṭasthā plane, it will come to take place, to fill up the vacuum.”

Mahāprabhu told then, “Kṛṣṇa is not bankrupt. When a devotee of your type has sincerely filed a petition to Kṛṣṇa to release all the existing souls, they must have to be released. He fulfils the desire of His devotee. It is His nature. And you offer that you’ll have to go to eternal hell for their relief, but He’s not so bankrupt that for this little grace He will have to show He will take help from you as reaction by sending you to hell He will have to release all these souls. It is not such. A finite within infinite, what is its position? Nothing! A drop in the ocean – one drop taken up, we can’t understand from where it is again filled up. So the Infinite will is such. When you want it, they’ve already been released. But still, the surrounding has again filling it up instantaneously. Instantaneously the vacuum is filled up. It is the manner of the Infinite. So what we finite will go to calculate by applying our logic or mathematics? Hare Kṛṣṇa. ______________________ [?]

Devotee: ________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _____ paripraśna – enquiry is always allowed. Enquire! Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: __________________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________________________________ [?]

End of 81.11.06.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.07.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________________ [?]

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: …No, I think he outwardly told something, but I think his return is definite.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________ [?]

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: I still think he’s firm.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol!

The standard of realisation, the quality, that is all important, that should be kept. Not only the magnitude of preaching, but what we are preaching. The quality cannot be ignored. It must be kept up, the standard high, and true as much as possible. The true conception, the clear conception for the thing, that must be kept up. Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol!

Once, during the time of Akbar, a Mogul king, very generous, many Hindus also joined him but only Pratap Singha the Nawab Niwar [?], he did not submit to the Mogul. Then one day Pratap Singha was single handed fighting out of, Akbar was very powerful, extensive kingdom, and Pratap Singha only a chief in Raja Putana. Mamsingh and other chiefs of Raja Putana also joined, even Pratap Singha’s own brother, he also sided Akbar. But Pratap Singha with single handed fight he fought with Akbar.

One day it happened so that when he was, he had his camp in a hill and his wife prepared some bread, and one, this forest cat came and took away the bread, forest cat living in the forest, forest cat came and took away the bread. And the prince, the son of Pratap Singh had to fast that day. Pratap Singh was away in the, with the soldiers here and there, and when this news reached him, ‘that my son is fasting because his bread is taken away by some forest cat, and no other food stuffs remained in the house, within the camp.’ Then he felt some weakness in him.

Akbar, he’s offering to make peace, truce, to make truce, time to time. He was generous man, but his paraphernalia was very vindictive to Pratap Singh. But at this moment Pratap Singh felt a little weakness and he wrote a letter to Akbar. “I am ready for truce, or peace.”

Then, when the letter reached the hand of Akbar, Akbar, “Should we believe that this is his letter? He’s such a fighting man of independent spirit, indomitable.”

Then one of his ministers, Mohammedan ministers, Haydi [?], he told that, “It must be planned by any of his enemies. He can’t write this letter for peace, so it’s not him, an enemy has sent this letter to defame him.”

In the meantime that Mohammedan gentleman he wrote a private letter to Pratap Singh that, “Such a letter has come in your name. I do not believe. But still if it’s really yours, I advise you to withdraw, to deny, that this letter is yours if any weak moment you might have written this. Because the future Raja Putana will have to come to you for the seed to sow in the soil of Raja Putana. Other chiefs are all polluted, they’re below the standard. And you have kept the standard up with your, single handed with the flag.”

That letter he wrote to Pratap Singh and he recovered. From the temporary depression he recovered. And again with the roaring of a lion he began. We find in history.

So the quality, the quality, there are different classes, someone, they aspire after quantity more, their nature is that, the quantity. But hankering after quality, the improvement, that is more desirable, svalpam apy asya dharmasya, trāyate mahato bhayāt:

[nehābhikrama-nāśo ’sti, pratyavāyo na vidyate

svalpam apy asya dharmasya, trāyate mahato bhayāt]

[“Even a small beginning in this devotional service cannot go in vain, nor can any loss be suffered. The most insignificant practice of such devotional service saves one from the all-devouring fear of repeated birth and death in this world.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.40]

Higher things, very small, can give us more, small things can give more. As much higher as it is it is accommodating in another way. The gold in small quantity can give many things. So the platinum perhaps, the most precious thing in the world at present is platinum. A small dust or speck of it is worth much gold. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. We appreciate quality more than quantity. Connotation not denotation, connotation increases denotation decreases. Denotation increases, connotation cannot but diminish. ______________________ [?] Substance, when you say substance, everything is included. Then living bodies, stones, earth, eliminated. Then animals, then trees etc, eliminated, then rational animal, only human beings, animals, insects, worms eliminated. Then wise men, ordinary rational men eliminated. Connotation increases denotation decreases. Quantity decreases quality increases, and if quantity is to increase then you are to sacrifice the quality.

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu, kaścid yatati siddhaye

yatatām api siddhānāṁ, kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ

[“Out of countless souls, some may have reached the human form of life, and among many thousands of human beings, some endeavour to attain direct perception of the individual soul and the Supersoul; and among many thousands of such aspirants who have attained to seeing the soul and the Supersoul, only a few receive actual perception of Me, Śyāmasundara.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 7.3]

muktānām api siddhānāṁ nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇa

sudurlabhaḥ praśāntātmā koṭiṣv api mahā-mune

[“O great sage, among many millions who are liberated and perfect in knowledge of liberation, one may be a devotee of Lord Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa. Such devotees, who are fully peaceful, are extremely rare.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 6.14.5]

____________________________________________________ [?] Gaura Haribol! Hare Kṛṣṇa.

My thirst is always for quality, quality, peculiar nature for quality. So number must decrease, number of friends, companions, cannot but decrease if we are to appreciate quality most the number of our companions necessarily decrease.

Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol! Nitāi Gaura Haribol! Nitāi Gaura Haribol!

Devotee: Cāṇakya Paṇḍit has said that one moon is better than many, many stars, because many stars do not give much light, but one moon can dispel…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ekas candra tamo hanti natha ta raja __________ [?]

Devotee: So you’re like that moon.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol! Nitāi Gaura Haribol!

I rather hate, or feel beneath my dignity to stand against Swāmī Mahārāja’s campaign. I’m very ______________________________________ [?] Susceptible, or something like that.

Devotee: Sentimental.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not sentimental _______________________________________ [?]

Sensitiveness, I’m very sensitive. Feel distressed that Swāmī Mahārāja’s campaign that will be affected in any way by me. My sentiment is that. At the same time I find it my duty if anyone comes for real help, if I have that capacity then I cannot but help him. And especially those that cannot stand the present administrative system of the ISKCON, if necessary to help them, that is my idea.

Swāmī Mahārāja himself also requested me, not only once but several times that, “You are to look after.” I did not think at that time that I shall survive him, so I did not give any, much attention to his words then. Repeatedly he told, “You are to look after them. I have taken them this side.” And his plan was also that, “I shall, they’re constructing one quarter here, suitably, and I have asked them, another quarter just side by side for yourself and you will have to stay there. When I shall go abroad you are to take care.”

I told, it’s not possible always but sometimes I shall go and stay there with you.

Anyhow, our Guru Mahārāja wanted me, and it is natural that what we have got in us to help the newcomers with that. That should be our duty, and only fair duty, not like that I shall become an anti centre. I’m afraid of that. That is my nature always. That is my very nature through childhood. Still I maintain that nature. Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol!

So I have asked anyone who came with that sort of object that my work will be, help will be of a relieving nature, to start a relief work, not a fighting campaign. Those that are disappointed, going away dejected, depressed, try to help them. Come so far, nearer, near Mahāprabhu and Gurudeva, his teachings, Bhāgavatam, and they will go away? In that case I shall try to come to take them back. “Don’t go. Come under the banner of Mahāprabhu.” In such position, relief work. And they should also try. At the same time consciously or unconsciously their standard cannot but improve. What do you think?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: They say, “Some of us are going, are disassociating with us, what for? They’re not satisfied. Their enquiry is not satisfied within us.” So if we are to take them back then you must improve our quality also. They’ll have to try to keep up the quality, and the internal feud they avoid. Anyhow, His will, will be done. What do you say Aksayānanda Mahārāja?

Aksayānanda Mahārāja: Yes, by your grace.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: His will, will be done, God’s will, Kṛṣṇa’s will. Hare Kṛṣṇa. I’m an old man, infirm, can’t see, can’t see, can’t sing more. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Anyhow passing my days, waiting for my last day. What do you say?

Devotee: Your vision goes much beyond the body.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol! Ha, ha, ha, ha. Encouraging me!

Devotee: Ha, ha, ha, ha. You’re encouraging us.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha. Like to encourage everyone!

yāre dekha, tāre kaha ’kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa

[kabhu nā vādhibe tomāra viṣaya-taraṅga, punarapi ei ṭhāñi pābe mora saṅga]

[“Instruct whoever you meet in the science of Kṛṣṇa. Teach them the instructions of Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā, and the teachings about Kṛṣṇa in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way, on My order, become a Guru and liberate everyone in the land. If you follow this instruction, the waves of materialism within this world will not affect you. Indeed, if you follow My order, you will soon attain My association.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 7.128-9]

“Even take the risk of the responsibility of a position of a Guru for Me to help others.”

So begin and continue the relief work here. Amṛta, śṛṇvantu viśve amṛtasya putrāḥ. Of what standard you are created for? And where you are plodding in the mud?

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Rāma. Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol!

yadi gaura nā hoita, tabe ki hoita, kemone dharitām de

rādhāra mahimā, prema-rasa-sīmā jagate jānāta ke

[madhura vṛndā vipina mādhurī praveśa cāturī sāra

baraja yuvatī bhāvera bhakati śakati hoita kāra]

[Vāsudeva Datta]

If Mahāprabhu did not come, who could show the highest standard of realisation and the greatness and nobility of Rādhārāṇī? What can be the standard of sacrifice? Love means sacrifice. The very gist, the very life of love is sacrifice, and sacrifice becomes so intense and so sweet it takes the shape of prema, love. By sacrifice we thrive. By enjoying we lose.

Devotee: _________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Tyāga ______________________________________________ [?]

Tyāga will be destructive and withdrawal from the negative side, but participation in the positive, what is life for something, or everything only created for renunciation? Or the whole existence is hateful, that we shall dismiss the whole paraphernalia and I am the purest and everything is hateful, to be hated? If I come in connection with the environment I will be polluted: this is a negative side. But in the higher life the circumstance, the environment will purify me. All Guru, all liberated, all noble. And I am only an insignificant man. And they will all, the whole environment will feed me, will come to feed me. There is such a soil. I want to live in that as a servant. To serve in heaven, is better than to reign in hell. And the no reigning, no serving, that is an abscisa, a stage of death. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Bhoga, tyāga, sevā, synthesis, three planes of life, that of enjoyment, that of renunciation, and that of service. Enjoyment also karma, vikarma, immoral activity and moral activity. And sevā also, calculative service and automatic, spontaneous service, the highest. Pratyakṣa, parokṣa, aparokṣa, adhokṣaja and aprakṛta, or kevala.

In Madras, I have told them perhaps, one Satyavan Tīrtha of Madhva School, big Ācārya. Myself, Bon Mahārāja and Hayagrīva Prabhu [known later as] Mādhava Mahārāja. Mādhava Mahārāja was white clad brahmacāri, we went to meet that gentleman Satyavan Tīrtha, mahanta of Utaradhi [?] Maṭha. In the course of our conversation it came that Śrī Mūrti, he told that, “Within Śrī Mūrti there is God.” We told that Śrī Mūrti wholesale is God.

devi vigraha grayam nesyari vidyate kacit [?]

That He, the possessor of the body, and the body possessed, no distinction can be maintained there in the case of Śrī Mūrti.

But then he maintained, “No!” And unfortunately he gave out that, “The Śālagrāma is there and if we strike it with a club then it becomes, it is reduced to powder.”

Then we put our hands into the ear, covered our ears with our palms. Then there was a current of wonder we experienced.

There are so many Barristers, Advocates, Professors, especially those that are within their Madhva School. And they suddenly found, “What is this? Our Gurudeva has uttered such expressions that these gentlemen they cannot forbear that, they are stopping their ear, covering their ear. What filthy talk, expression, might have been uttered by him?” So astonished.

And this man was also puzzled. Then the discussion began. He told that, “Madhvācārya himself has told like that, this that.”

Then I could remember one śloka of Bhāgavatam and I thought that meaning in the favour of such argument that śloka can be utilised.

[ādi-madhyāvasāneṣu, vairāgyākhyāna-saṁyutam

hari-līlā-kathā-vrātā-, mṛtānandita-sat-suram]

sarva-vedānta-sāraṁ yad, brahmātmaikatva-lakṣaṇam

vastv advitīyaṁ tan-niṣṭhaṁ, kaivalyaika-prayojanam

[“From beginning to end, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is full of narrations that encourage renunciation of material life, as well as nectarine accounts of Lord Hari’s transcendental pastimes, which give ecstasy to the saintly devotees and demigods. This Bhāgavatam is the essence of all Vedānta philosophy because its subject matter is the Absolute Truth, which, while non-different from the spirit soul, is the ultimate reality, one without a second. The goal of this literature is exclusive devotional service unto that Supreme Truth.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 12.13.11-12]

Apparently it seems that Bhāgavatam is supporting the conclusion of Vedānta, so called Māyāvādī Vedānta. Sarva-vedānta-sāraṁ yad. Here in the conclusive śloka Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says, Vyāsadeva, “What is the gist of all Vedānta? Sarva-vedānta-sāraṁ yad. What is that? Brahmātmaikatva-lakṣaṇam. Apparently it seems ātmā means jīvātmā and brahma, so ham. Brahmātmaikatva-lakṣaṇam, ātmā and brahma of equal sign, equal nature, equal status. And that is the very gist, very substance of the whole of Vedānta. Sarva-vedānta-sāraṁ yad, brahmātmaikatva-lakṣaṇam vastv advitīyaṁ. And that is one absolute whole, vastv advitī. Tan-niṣṭhaṁ, pertaining to that, kaivalyam, the, kaivalyam means oneness, the consciousness of oneness, kaivalyaika, that is the very prayojana, prayojana means, prayojana, that is necessity, that is, that sort of continuous one whole conception, that is what is real need of us.” Apparently, this is the śloka.

And once, I’d only joined recently Gauḍīya Maṭha, and then Prabhupāda was, one gentleman, one old gentleman came with this śloka to Prabhupāda. With this śloka, this supposed Śaṅkara philosophy, with the conclusive śloka of Bhāgavatam that supports Śaṅkara philosophy. I was, I had joined Gauḍīya Maṭha perhaps, but I had some Sanskrit knowledge, I could understand. That man, with the basis of this śloka came to argue that the Bhāgavat also supposed so ham. Brahmātmaikatva-lakṣaṇam vastv advitīyaṁ.

Then Prabhupāda suddenly told, “Oh, you are not that man, that man, who criticised Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in his Śrī-Kṛṣṇa-Saṁhita?”

Then he was a little perplexed. “No, no. I said only this. I said only this. You please take seat I’m coming just.”

Prabhupāda went up and took Bhāgavatam, a piece of Jīva Goswāmī’s tika. “You please attend. I am explaining. It is not mine. What Jīva Goswāmī says you please hear.” Prabhupāda began explaining.

I found two things different here. Sarva-vedānta-sāraṁ yad, brahmātmaikatva-lakṣaṇam. Brahmātmaikatva-lakṣaṇam. Ātmā means Paramātmā.

Prabhupāda, “Jīva Goswāmī says it is not jīvātmā it is Paramātmā.”

atma devi vidu viresh sadar paramatmani [?]

The meaning of ātmā is Paramātmā also. Why Paramātmā? In the beginning Bhāgavat has already promised: brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate:

[vadanti tat tattva-vidas-tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam

brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate]

[“Great seers of the truth understanding the nature of Supreme Knowledge have described that non dual truth in three ways: as Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.11]

The conception of advaya-jñāna, of one whole, the jñānīs, they take it a Brahman conception, all accommodating aspect. The yogīs, they take that the prime cause is the all pervading thing, Paramātmā. And the devotees, they take Him as the enjoyer, Bhagavān, aisadya maysisthi gata [?] Advaya-jñāna is conceived by these three different sections like in three different ways, so really it is not ātmā. Brahman, Paramātmā, Bhagavān. This Bhagavān is proved perfect and He’s embracing the true conception of Brahma and Paramātmā, all accommodating and all permeating. With this, that is advaya-jñāna, Absolute, finite and infinite plus Absolute. Conditioned and unconditioned both combined, Absolute. It is said like this. And it is not my version, it is, you see Jīva Goswāmī has written. And you appeal to your common sense in the beginning that was the data and that has been established and Bhāgavatam says in the conclusion, “I have established this, the Brahman, Paramātmā, Bhagavān, three aspects of the one whole.” And Bhagavān is the superior conception which includes the two other functions.

sarva-vedānta-sāraṁ yad, brahmātmaikatva-lakṣaṇam

vastv advitīyaṁ tan-niṣṭhaṁ, kaivalyaika-prayojanam

[This Bhāgavatam is the essence of all Vedānta philosophy because its subject matter is the Absolute Truth, which, while non-different from the spirit soul, is the ultimate reality, one without a second. The goal of this literature is exclusive devotional service unto that Supreme Truth.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 12.13.12]

Then there is another word, niṣṭha. This is advaya-jñāna, one whole, and tan-niṣṭhaṁ, kaivalyam, and the spontaneous and continuous knowledge pertaining to that, niṣṭha. Niṣṭha means adherence, adherence to such conception of the reality, tan-niṣṭhaṁ. Kaivalyam means continuous, not tampered or …

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Uncorrupted.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Uninterrupted, continuous, to remain in continuous consciousness of such, about the consciousness of such real absolute, tan-niṣṭhaṁ, pertaining to that. So a second thing is existing, who will be, who will get that niṣṭha to such, he’s separate, that is one thing. Then with the basis of this śloka I challenged him. But he did not admit, he’s this side that side. Then I gave him one example.

When Kṛṣṇa disappeared and the blood through the arrow and that entered into His sole, any blood oozing?

He said, “Yes.”

But what is that blood? We saw with our eyes that blood oozing. Is that blood a material blood?

He said, “No.”

Then why, why? If that blood is not material but I experience with my fleshy eye that it is material blood. So what we say about Śālagrāma that when broken it comes to pieces? That is also my material vision. That is not real. I won’t allow me to understand, to deviate from that higher conception of things. devo dehi vidha puram [?]

Into the material standard, to see that there are so many particles of stone, that is my offensive vision. He was stopped there. That kaivalyaika-prayojanam, I won’t allow me to deviate from my continuous faith that this cannot be pertaining to the Supreme Nature of the Absolute: that cannot be. My sense is deceiving me, just as in the case of the blood oozing from the sole of Kṛṣṇa. That man could not say anything. So kaivalyaika-prayojanam, we don’t believe our mundane senses. Always we should keep the standard in our faith that this cannot be this, this is this. This māyā is coming, intervening, trying to disturb my faith, of Kṛṣṇa. It may bring this, this, that, that, but we must not allow our standard to be lowered. Keep up the faith. This cannot be. It is śāstra.

Just as the Muslims they don’t admit, the orthodox Muslims, that the Russia and America is going to the Moon. And the Moon is held in very venerable position by the Muslims. “No, no, we don’t believe that, that they have gone to that Moon.”

Swāmīji Mahārāja also disallowed. So faith, this is local experience, local experience. We have got the world of our experience, and a worm and an insect it has got also the world of theirs, from generation to generation that civilisation is going down. Every section they have got their own civilisation, and coming down. So what value that civilisation has got to human civilisation, scientific, non scientific, so many conceptions in different civilisations. We must not allow to deviate, to come down from the faith, because:

mallānām aśanir nṛṇāṁ naravaraḥ strīṇāṁ smaro mūrttimān,

mṛtyur bhojapater virāḍ aviduṣāṁ tattvaṁ paraṁ yogināṁ.

[mallānām aśanir nṛṇāṁ naravaraḥ strīṇāṁ smaro mūrttimān

gopānāṁ svajano ’satāṁ kṣitibhujāṁ śāstā svapitro śiśuḥ

mṛtyur bhojapater virāḍ aviduṣāṁ tattvaṁ paraṁ yogināṁ

vṛṣṇīnāṁ paradevateti vidito raṅgaṁ gataḥ sāgrajaḥ]

[“O King, Śrī Kṛṣṇa then appeared as a thunderbolt to the wrestlers, as the supreme male to the men, as Cupid incarnate to the ladies, as a friend to the cowherds men; as an emperor to the wicked kings, as a child to His father and mother, as death to Kaṁsa, as the universal form of the world to the ignorant; as the Supreme Truth to the yogīs, as the Supreme Worshipful Lord to the Vṛṣṇis - and along with Baladeva He entered the arena.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.43.17]

Kṛṣṇa is entering the arena of Kaṁsa for the fighting, and different sections are having different impressions of Him. One says that a thunder is approaching, “Oh, paraṁ tattvaṁ yogināṁ.” The maternal devotees say, “Oh, here is my child, very affectionate child.” In this way, only one thing is estimated in different ways there. It is His will, yam evaiṣa vṛnute.

[nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo, na medhayā na bahunā śrutena

yam evaiṣa vṛnute tena labhyas, tasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛnute tanūṁ svām]

[“One cannot understand the substance of the Paramātmā, the Super-soul residing within everyone’s heart, by means of expertise in logic, intelligence or learning. When the living entity begs the Lord for His mercy, being desirous of His transcendental loving service, then the Supreme Lord reveals His self-manifest form directly before him.”] [Katha-Upaniṣad, 1.2.23]

One man can see, another man cannot see. When Kṛṣṇa is showing Viśvarūpa to Arjuna, all others could not see that. Sanjaya could see by the inspiration of Vyāsadeva and he is describing the thing. But others, they’re all blind to that thing. So it depends upon the subjective sweet will what to show, what to not show. So we must keep our faith up in a standard that His sweet will can express Him and the world in any way He likes. Subjective control, that of a hypnotiser, that all experiences depends on a hypnotist, the key is in his hands. What to see, what to not see, “See this, no, no, you are seeing this.” “Yes, I am seeing that.” So the whole experience is of that type.

_______________________________ [?] What do you find? _________________________ [?]

What is in Bengali script, and language, that will be open to you. Extensive literature of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Caitanya-Bhāgavat, Caitanya-mangala, Bhakti- Ratnā-kara, so many literatures in Bengali, original, that original works about Mahāprabhu.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: We are very anxious to read that.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, anxious. So this is not loss of time to you?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Not at all, greatest value.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol! Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

________________________________________________________________________ [?]

They should do. They should not show indifference or negligence.

____________________________________[?]

If he finds anything for such adherence to this place, then of course he’s free…

Devotee: To do whatever he likes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Everyone is such. That’s not bad. What they’re doing they should do that. Paternal affection, paternity, son of the same father, they must try to live together. It is laudable.

Devotees: Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Laudable. But at the same time they should keep the standard, the dignity, of the paternity. What do you say? Don’t allow themselves to lower their standard of living for which they’re out. They have left their country, their associates, their culture, so many things they have sacrificed. For what? And that must be given the first preference. What do you say? What for, we have joined ISKCON, what for? We must want that, we are mad for that, and we want to be, to continue more and more mad. Madness we want to increase.

Devotees: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _____________ [?] a Bengali song ________________________ [?]

If I can reach the standard of madness for the truth, then I shall show my ecstasy of joy by ______________ [?] in this way, a sign of the reflexive action.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol!

āmi - eka bātula, tumi - dvitīya bātula, [ataeva tomāya āmāya ha-i sama-tula]

[“I am insane, mad, bāula - pāgala - eccentric. I am one eccentric, and you are another. Therefore, we two are of the same class.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.291]

Mahāprabhu says, “I am a type of mad and you are another.” Ataeva tomāya āmāya ha-i sama-tula, yourself and Myself, we are of same rank. You want to enquire about the truth. You are so mad, so intense in your quest, and ordinary people they will think us to be in the class of madness, they’ll group us, they’ll say, ‘What is this? These fellows are led astray. The common standard of our happy life they’re ignoring in such a way, trampling under their foot. They’re mad persons.’ Not to be intelligible by the ordinary intellectual section of the public, āmi - eka bātula. You are a second bātula. You have left the Prime Ministership of the ________ [?] and are running after phantasmagoria.” Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Our Guru Mahārāja wrote, Who is Crazy? He wrote one article, Who is Crazy?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Crazy? Yes! In Gītā:

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ, tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni, sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

[“While spiritual awareness is like night for the living beings enchanted by materialism, the self-realised soul remains awake, directly relishing the divine ecstasy of his uninterrupted spiritual intelligence. On the contrary, the wakefulness of materialistic persons addicted to sense enjoyment is night for the self-realised person who is completely indifferent to such pursuits. The realised souls, indifferent to the mundane, are ever joyful in the divine ecstatic plane, while the general mass is infatuated by fleeting mundane fancies devoid of spiritual joy.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.69]

What is night to a particular section that is day to another section and vice versa.

Arovinda told when he joined first in the revolutionary movement in Bengal, and when he was taken for trial in Calcutta High Court, three letters came out at that time what he wrote about his wife, to his wife. And Arovinda’s father-in-law was Dewan of Barada State and so he wrote three letters to his wife. There he mentioned that...

End of 81.11.07.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.07.B_81.11.09.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: …success, but you may consider Myself to be a madman. But if you possibly can embrace this mad expedition you may join Me. But otherwise you will seek for yourself. If I can come out successful then world will take Me as a genius, but what about success? I have not been able to enter into the real activity so long, what about success; it’s long away, far away. So you may express Me as mad, and if you don’t like to become mad with Me then you take your position safe and independent.”

So mad, so anyone who has got a great ambition and began his life, he may consider himself to be mad in the eye of the public, mad, madman, so mad in different sphere.

And Mahāprabhu He also told Himself as madman, āmi - eka bātula. “And you are the second mad. You have come to meet Me, to have a training in madness.”

Ha, ha, ha, ha. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol! Ei bhrama prasat priya_______ [?]

In another time Mahāprabhu says in Benares in the meeting of the great Māyāvādī scholars.

patai kandai madhai kante [?]

Then when coming in contact with Mahāprabhu, the leader of the Māyāvādī sannyāsīns, Prakāśānanda, he had, he could not but sympathise towards Mahāprabhu, seeing His open figure. “There is nothing artificial in Him, so simple, unseen simplicity found there, and great, magnanimous, noble feeling within the body.”

He could not un detect it, so impressed by that he came to His place and taking by His hand, “Why do you take Your seat here? You come and take Your seat along with us.”

Then with much earnestness and respect, he put the question. “You are here in Benares. We belong to the same rank. You have taken sannyāsa from Keśava Bhāratī. He’s our section. But You don’t meet us. What’s the matter?”

“I am, that Bhāratī School is considered to be a lower one so it does not look well that I shall take My seat along with you, so I am a little far.”

“No, no, no, another thing I put,” he put, “We don’t think that you are a crooked or hypocrite seeking something else. But very plain, simple, dignified and nobleness in Your appearance we find. One question I want to ask. Why do You leave Vedānta, the study and discussion of Vedānta? And You indulge in singing and dancing. What are these things? Please explain. You are not a trader. I feel there must be some good foundation. Why do You do that?”

Then Mahāprabhu told that, “My Guru gave Me this Name of the Lord and asked Me to go on.” hasai kalai morai [?] “I continued taking the Name. Automatically it came to Me and that forced Me to dance and to chant. I do not do it wilfully. Then I took to some self control and went to My Guru. ‘What is this? You gave Me this mantram and I am going to be mad day by day by chanting.’”

[prabhu kahe – śuna, śrīpāda, ihāra kāraṇa] / guru more mūrkha dekhi’ karila śāsana

[Śrī Caitanya replied to Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī: “My dear sir, kindly hear the reason. My spiritual master considered Me a fool, and therefore he chastised Me.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi- līlā, 7.71]

mūrkha tumi, tomāra nāhika vedāntādhikāra / ‘kṛṣṇa-mantra’ japa sadā, - ei mantra-sāra

[“‘You are a fool,’ he said. ‘You are not qualified to study Vedānta philosophy, and therefore You must always chant the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa. This is the essence of all mantras or Vedic hymns.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 7.72]

In this way, “Now, when I found Me to be besides Myself I went to My Guru again, ‘What is this that these thing are coming irresistibly in Me? I can’t contain My sober temperament. Then My Gurudeva told that, ‘You are a very fortunate soul. This is the real consequence of taking the Hari Nāma in a proper way. It is mentioned in Bhāgavatam.”

evaṁ vrataḥ svapriya-nāma-kīrtyā jātanurāgo druta-citta ucchaiḥ

hasatyatho roditi rauti gāyatyunmādan-nṛtyati loka-vāhyaḥ

[“When a person is actually advanced and takes pleasure in chanting the Holy Name of the Lord, who is very dear to him, he is agitated and loudly chants the Holy Name. He also laughs, cries, becomes agitated and chants just like a madman, not caring for outsiders.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 11.2.40]

“He told me the very real success of taking the Name You have got, You are so fortunate. And I am also fortunate that I have got a disciple of Your status.” But I do not do it with any motive but automatically I can’t check all these things. Unmādan-nṛtyati loka-vāhyaḥ.”

Then Prakāśānanda put some questions concerning Vedānta.

Then Mahāprabhu came out with His real colour. “The Vyāsadeva, only to give a successful opposition to the non Vedic, so many logician’s books, logical books, to meet with that, to face with that danger of the atheism He composed this Vedānta-sutra. This is full of devotional meaning.” In this way He began to explain. “The Vyāsadeva, Nārāyaṇa Himself, He has given us, to take us to the school of devotion. But it has been, the Śaṅkara, the great scholar Śaṅkara by the order of Nārāyaṇa, he gave some misconceived commentary, not proper.” In this way He began to explain the Upaniṣad and the Vedānta-sutra. All the exposition of Śaṅkara was cancelled and the positive meaning was supplied therein.

apāṇi-pādo javano grahitā, [paśyaty acakṣuḥ sa śṛṇoty akarṇaḥ

sa vetti vedyaṁ na ca tasyāsti vettā, tam āhur agryaṁ puruṣaṁ mahāntam]

[“The Lord has no hands or legs, yet He walks and touches. The Lord has no eyes or ears, yet He sees and hears.”] [Śvetāśvatara-Upaniṣad, 3.19]

He has got no hands and feet but He can go and He can hold, He can catch. Paśyaty acakṣuḥ, He has not eye but He can see. What does it mean? That here, this prakṛta, this fleshy, not eye of flesh and nerve but real eye He has got. That is cinmaya, conscious eye He has got, conscious hands, conscious legs, everything He has got but all made of spiritual stuff and not mundane. That is the real purport. In this way He gave the positive explanation of Vedānta and Upaniṣad.

Then they were nonplussed. Then there came a check in the flow of the Māyāvādā preaching. And it is told that Prakāśānanda after all left everything and accepted the devotional cult, Prakāśānanda. Unmādan-nṛtyati loka-vāhyaḥ, makes one mad, the intensity of the ecstasy makes one mad. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

evaṁ vrataḥ svapriya-nāma-kīrtyā jātanurāgo druta-citta ucchaiḥ

hasatyatho roditi rauti gāyatyunmādan-nṛtyati loka-vāhyaḥ

[“When a person is actually advanced and takes pleasure in chanting the Holy Name of the Lord, who is very dear to him, he is agitated and loudly chants the Holy Name. He also laughs, cries, becomes agitated and chants just like a madman, not caring for outsiders.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 11.2.40]

He does not care for the popular opinion that how they will take it. They say, “Oh, this man is mad.” He does not care, does not allow to take care of such adverse opinions.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol! Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Nitāi. ______________________________ [?]

…

Every drop is infinite. Infinite minus infinite is infinite. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya, pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate.

[oṁ pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ, pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate

pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya, pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate]

[“The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the complete whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the complete whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.”] [Śrī Īśopaniṣad, Invocation]

__________________________________________________________________ [?]

Everywhere centre nowhere circumference. Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol!

____________________________________________________________________ [?]

Everywhere there is centre and nowhere circumference. You get the idea of the infinite from this.

Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol!

[About eleven minutes of spoken Bengali [?]

Only seventeen lākhs income of the Jaipur state and he has already committed one lākh to pay to Andra University, as requested by Radhakrishna. Radhakrishna was not rastra puti [?] at that time he was Vice Chancellor. First I met Radhakrishna with Bon Mahārāja when he was in Calcutta University, a Professor of English. Then he became Vice Chancellor after Asutosh he left Calcutta University and the Andra University when separated from Madras. Radhakrishna he was an Andra brāhmaṇa so they requested him to take the charge of that new University in Andra. And Radhakrishna could influence this Jaipur Raj to contribute one lākh of rupees every year. And he was a very benevolent man of great type, good type, and he agreed.

That new dewan _____________ he was a young man, newcomer just from London, he was in charge of the whole state.

When Jaipur Raj he signed in our cheque that: “I want to contribute what is necessary for the construction of the Gauḍīya Maṭha temple at Madras, I want to supply the money.”

And at the same time he requested me to meet the dewan. I tried to avoid but he repeatedly requested. “The money is in his hands, he’s in direct connection with the revenue, so he will have to manage to pay. I can only theoretically give some order.”

Then I had to meet him when I could not avoid. When I faced him he opposed outright.

“What do you say Swāmījī? We are poor people, ādivāsī, half fed, half clad, and if anything remains after the expense of the administration then I shall, I like to spend it for their help, those poor men. And I shall have to give money for Madras fund? If you could construct a temple here then also somewhat I can, I could consider. That he will find a place of recreation, it may be utilised for them. You will construct a temple in Madras town and these people will be exploited for that. I’m the last man to pay for this. This Raja, what does he know about this state management? The other day he was wandering in the street, that Radhakrishna. And some other men made a conspiracy, and the real owner was the queen of that late Raja, and she was anyhow managed to go back to her father’s house in Lucknow. And this man, a puppet, has been selected as king, declared by the government, they managed to do this. And he does not know anything about the state management. I can’t hear. Rather I am very much perturbed that I shall have to pay one lākh of rupees from seventeen lākhs for the University. I feel much disturbance for that.”

He flatly refused. Then I thought, what I thought I have faced the right thing. Now what to do? Internally I am praying very fervently to Gurudeva. I am a worthless creature. I am spoiling the whole thing. The Raja has donated and the dewan is opposing. What is this? Praying internally, and outwardly I caught him. As it came to my mind I quoted this śloka of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

vikrīḍitaṁ vraja-vadhūbhir idaṁ ca viṣṇoḥ, śraddhānvito 'nuśṛṇuyād atha varṇayed yaḥ

bhaktiṁ parām bhagavati pratilabhya kāmaṁ, hṛd-rogam āśv apahinoty acireṇa dhīraḥ

[“One who hears with firm faith the supra-mundane amorous affairs of Lord Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs, as described by a pure devotee of the Lord, soon becomes freed from mundane lust and achieves divine love of Kṛṣṇa.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.33.39]

I started with this śloka and put this argument: that you want to help them, we also are very eager to help the same persons. But your way of approach is different, and ours also, in another way we want to help. This, the power of aspiration, achievement, greed for things, this has been diagnosed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by Śukadeva Goswāmī as heart disease, kāmaṁ, “I want this, I want that, I want this.”

sahasra nityati sata sastra laksana sate ______________________________________ [?]

In this increasing succession it goes up. So it is the heart disease, it has been diagnosed as that by the great author of Bhāgavatam, exponent of Bhāgavatam, Śukadeva, heart disease. When I was a hog I devoured, swallowed, a hillock of stools, but hunger not appeased. When a birth of an elephant I devoured a whole jungle, but my hunger is not appeased. So many persons have amassed money, buildings, in great, but their hunger is more and more increasing to exploit to get more. So it is heart disease. And when, the only cure, is when we can conceive that everything for the service, meant, created for the service of Kṛṣṇa, the whole, to the highest degree. The vraja-vadhū, the damsels of Vṛndāvana and their nature of service to the highest intensity of dedication, if one can learn and adjust, then he may be cured eternally, finally, for this aspiration - “I want this, I want that, I want that,” for this terrible disease. I put so fervently and internally I was praying for my ineligibility that, “My Gurudeva I fail here.”

So anyhow that man was moved and somewhat his eyes where wet with tears.

He told, “Swāmījī, I believe in God.”

I told, your eyes are evidence to that.

“Yes, I shall pay your money.”

Then I told to Mahārājah that yes, your dewan is prepared to pay the money. He was also very cheerful. And then when he sent the first cheque, I was not in Madras, I was in Bombay. His cheque to my name went to Madras Maṭha, and from that it was directed to Bombay Maṭha, where I was staying at that time. I got the cheque and others also wondered that, “What is this? Five thousand cheque: that is running after you?” Ha, ha, ha, ha. Then with one of my God brothers through him I sent a cheque to Guru Mahārāja, and then Madras Temple was begun. In this way things went on really. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

That is a notable thing that it came to me that strongly I put forward. Of course, taking in my name that when I had the birth of a hog, or birth of an elephant I devoured jungles and hills of stools, but hunger is not appeased. It is, the way to appease the hunger, it has been called the disease, heart disease. And to cure the heart disease - “That everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa.” And with such intensity and eagerness we are to render service to Him. And a little bit of that will cure our heart disease. Vraja-vadhūbhir idaṁ ca viṣṇoḥ, unqualified surrender, and most intense type of service, like homoeopathic dose, one drop is sufficient to quench all the thirst in a man for anything in this world. High degree of self dedication towards Kṛṣṇa. The central man of acceptance, he’s of such type, and the jīvas also of same nature. And that transaction if for a moment one can give his touch in his heart, he’s cured of the disease of devouring this and that and anything, forever. That is the medicine. Do you follow?

Devotees: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The only medicine. One drop, one drop of that high type of serving attitude, if any jīva comes in connection with our heart, the whole heart is transformed into another. Śukadeva Goswāmī says, heart disease, hṛd-rogam āśv apahinoty, very easily and very soon, apahinoty, hatefully he can reject that this is a disease, not to be first origin had, “I want more, I want more food, grow more food.”

Devotee: Ha, ha, ha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol! The consumer, to be in the position of a consumer. We are a child of the soil of infinite, Vaikuṇṭha, not grow and then eat. Ha, ha. Ample, infinite resources, and when that land is a land of dedication everyone is giving, none is consuming, taking. The spirit is such. And what he’s taking, that is also as prasādam, a different type of acceptance of taking, not a life drawn from ideas of this world. There one gives to get back more, alasa, alakanka, and there, gets clear, never to have any claim with that gift. That is service, and done thankfully, not only thankfully but with heart’s inner most satisfaction, thinking himself so much graced.

Service is their own property, natural property, service, not enjoying, service. Dāsa' kari' vetana more deha prema-dhana. The idea we are to enquire after. What is this? Dāsa' kari' vetana more deha prema-dhana: the remuneration in terms of love. What is love? That more intense tendency to serve: that is prema, intense tendency, inner most intense tendency to serve and serve. Increase the degree of serving spirit. That is my remuneration. That is my remuneration for my service. That is prema. Die to live, Hegelian words, die to live. And He’s for Itself. You are for Him, everything for Him, not for any other but Him, for Him, and, die to live.

__________________________________________ [?] Suitable, die to live, and He’s by Itself and for Itself. Revolutionary, only few words, but most revolutionary.

Devotee: Die to live.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sādhana mane, you are to die as you are at present. The ahaṅkāra, the ego, must be dissolved to the final. What you are at present that must be dissolved, the ego, die. As you are you have to die, and a new self will emerge from within. The golden self will emerge from within, and the external coating, or dirty coating, that will be finished. If you want to have a life of proper living, or for want of proper living, you will have to give up the mode of your present living. Die to live. And He is by itself and for itself. ___________________________ [?]

Now we disperse the meeting today. We want to close. Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol! Gaura Haribol! Nitāi Caitanya.

…

bahiraṅga saṅga godhi nāma-saṅkīrtana antaraṅga saṅga koraḥ rasa sadan.

[A poem from Śrī Caitanya Bhāgavata]

The culmination of saṅkīrtana! …extensive necessity is represented in rasa and ecstasy, in anāndam, beauty. Everything is seeking for that, in every stage of our life. None can deny that I don’t want happiness, pleasure, but only difference of classification, a difference in quality. Connotation increases, denotation decreases. Connotation to be increased and elimination at the same time, of the lower order. In this way the progress culminates in mukhya rasam, which is the gist of all rasa, the highest standard of all rasa. Complete self surrender, complete self surrender can only take place in mādhurya-rasa. In other stages, partial, for the object of our fulfilment must be only there. Otherwise we must be satisfied with partial attainment or fulfilment, though we may think there that this is the best relative position.

The difficulty is always to adjust between relative and absolute knowledge, and relative and absolute achievement. All through, the relative, provincial, local, and central, and the central must have the better hand. Central knowledge, achievement, otherwise we’ll miss the hit. What for? Die to live. Ha, ha. We will have to die at every step for better living. And Reality is for Itself, the Hegelian philosophy and basis. Reality is by Itself and for Itself. He is, Hegel told, ‘it,’ but we like to tell it, ‘He.’ He is for Himself. Otherwise He’s not absolute reality. He’ll be subservient to another, and he will be more important. It must be, here lies the spirit in Vaiṣṇavism. Reality is always for Itself, for Himself.

ahaṁ hi sarva-yajñānāṁ, bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca

[na tu mām abhijānanti, tattvenātaś cyavanti te]

[“Because I alone am the enjoyer and rewarder of all sacrifices. But since they cannot know Me in this way, they again undergo birth, disease, infirmity, and death.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.24]

“Everything culminates in Me, for My enjoyment.”

And that enjoyment must be complete and perfect, with dedication. Dedication is not wrong, because ‘die to live.’ You will have to die, with all our evil tendencies we are to die. Then only we can expect to reach that highest standard of sacrifice, wholesale sacrifice, nothing less. And that is only possible in mādhurya rasa. And we are told that twenty four hours engagement with the Supreme Lord is only possible in mādhurya rasa, nowhere else, not even vātsalya rasa or friendly rasa. That is the rasa, adi rasa, mukhya rasa, principal, including all rasa. Not only quantitatively but qualitatively included. A servant is serving...

End of 81.11.07.B_81.11.09.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.09.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...so it is such.

pūjāla rāgapaṭha gaurava bāṅge, [mattala hari-jana viṣaya range]

[“The path of divine love is worshippable to us

and should be held overhead as our highest aspiration.”]

_________ Guru Mahārāja, always to show reverence to the plane of love, highest love, we don’t find trespasser there, that is ____________ but our aim will be there, and we should consider ourselves to be in the lower __________________ always, and here always showing respect to that highest peak. The summon bonum is there. We are not fit but we must have our attention fixed there, fixed there, what is what, sambandha jñāna. Who am I? ____________________ [?]

That does not mean that I shall run at the peak and I devour and finish everything. That is not to be, in any time. It is infinite. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Pūjāla rāgapaṭha gaurava bāṅge. So much so Dāsa Goswāmī himself says that:

sakhyāya te mama namo 'stu namo 'stu nityam / dāsyāya te mama raso 'stu raso 'stu satyam

[Śrīla Raghunātha Dāsa Goswāmī, the greatest exponent of the faith of servitude to Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, Rādhā-dāsyam, wrote: “I won’t allow myself to become fascinated by the proposal of the higher level service as a friend, sākhya. Rather, I shall tend always to do the lower service, dāsya, the service of the servant. I shall not consider myself to be a high-class servitor and I shall always tend to go towards the lower class of service. But He may forcibly take me to a higher service - “No, you are no longer to serve there; now you must serve in this higher category.”]

[Vilāpa-kusamāñjali, 16]

What to speak of mādhurya rasa, he says that, “Even the sākhya rasa I want to show my reverence. And I shall try my best to stick to the dāsya rasa, the layer of service. I’m a servant. Kṛṣṇa always gives first regard to the raga. But the servants, servitors, they will always show their earnest for law, for viddhi. I’m not fit for working in the way of pure love. I must, according to śāstra, I must go on.” That will be the tendency of individuals who is – but my Gurudeva he’s in the highest position. He’s there. And for his service I must venture to enter that domain. And after service I come down and I must place myself in a position befitting me. But my Guru is there, and I can’t be disconnected with him. Anyhow I shall have to go and serve him. And he’s serving in the highest position. And to serve him, Gurudeva, Vaiṣṇava, I shall have to enter there, awe-fully, with awe and reverence, anyhow, and then I shall come down and stay in my own place.

That was the ideal of our Guru Mahārāja. “They will stay in Rādhā-kuṇḍa but we must come a step lower to take our shelter in Govardhana, and where from we can every day go have the service finished and then come back to Govardhana, a little lower position.”

And that spirit will save me. That sort of tendency will keep me fit and safe. Pūjāla rāgapaṭha gaurava bāṅge. The spirit of loving service, that should be kept always on the head, and a little lower I must take my position, because I cannot leave off my connection with that highest position. My Gurudeva is there. In this way this is the strategy of high spiritual life.

____________________________________ [?] I may be posted in nearby for his closer service.

Tai śiṣya tava thakur sarva da nara eva pūjā ka [?] This strategy was given by our Gurudeva. Always remain under the guidance of Gurudeva, Vaiṣṇava; you’ll be safe. Otherwise any, you may go to the lowest position, you are not safe. His connection is indispensable, the connection of your Guru. At the same time your Guru holds the highest position, supreme position, you must keep that in your mind always. He does not hold any lower position. He’s the best of the servitors. His position is unique.

Devotee: That is very clear.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And I am a servant. He has accepted me. It is indispensable for me to serve him...

...

... as his father, so flesh connection, and you have gone there to purchase very cheap thing – valuable thing from the black market you have gone to purchase.

vaikuṇṭhera pṛthivy ādi sakala cinmaya [māyika bhūtera tathi janma nāhi haya]

[“The earth, water, fire, air and ether of Vaikuṇṭha are all spiritual. Material elements are not found there.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 5.53]

Don’t you know where to enter there, that bhajan, how the highest position it is? The land is more valuable than the stuff you are made of, the land of Guru, and no servant. Nothing under your foot: this is not so easy a thing, but still it is, there is. We are theistic not atheistic. It is there. It is with our Guru Mahārāja. According to our capacity he’s giving us by instalment. As much as we’ll be able to improve our condition he’ll give more and more higher things. We are in diseased condition so rich dishes is not fit for us. As much as we shall improve ourselves then rich dishes may come to us. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya.

08:22 - 11:08 Bengali [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... approaching, in the way of black marketing, and you are to reap the result of your own actions. What can I do?

Devotee: ______________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Twenty one days fasting, in Delhi, in the house of _________________ Birhandra [?] went to see him, and Birhandra passed a remark, I saw in the paper, Birhandra told: “Hereafter, the physicians have to learn that the sustaining point of life is not within the body but outside also.” That was the remark of Birhandra. “That may be located outside the body also, otherwise it is not possible that twenty one days fasting in which way the Gandhi is observing he can live more, but something else is giving his vitality.”

________________________________________________ [?] The physician from here by meditation he can remove the disease of a man who is a thousand miles away.

Devotee: Not only that__________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Transmission of magnanimity, mental force.

tapasyati sarva apara samsara samudya tari [?]

This un crossable devotion of death and birth one can cross easily.

samutida badhi samula kari [?]

The disease which has come in its ripe position, instantaneously that can be removed, totally cured.

samula kari, asesa janma dhuta parva nadhi [?]

In a second it can destroy the seed of all the sinful births and deaths of his whole life. That is so powerful. Not only antiseptic but life giving, in all planes it may work, not only in higher plane but physical plane, everywhere His ways are unrestricted. He’s Hari. But generally the devotees they do not want to use His energy for these lower purposes of life. They want to get higher and higher and higher. Even mukti, the liberation also they don’t want, they all aspire liberation, that also they abhor, the devotees. “Wherever I’ll be posted that does not matter, but only my sincere connection with You. I can’t tolerate that any link between me and You will be cut. Only the link, long missing link, the link with You, that may be retained. You may post anywhere. I don’t care for that, even in hell, even in the beast and vegetable kingdom, wherever, only please keep up the link of Your grace towards me.”

paśu-pakhī ho ‘ye thāki svarge bā niroye, taba bhakti rahu bhaktivinoda-hṛdoye

[“Be my life in heaven or in hell, be it as a bird or a beast, may devotion to You always remain in the heart of Bhaktivinoda.”] [Śikṣāṣṭakam, 4, from The Songs of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, p 136]

nija-karma-guṇa-doṣe je je janma pāi, janme janme jeno tava nāma-guṇa gāi

[“Whatever birth I may obtain due to the faults of my previous worldly activities, I pray that I may sing the glories of Your holy name birth after birth.”] [Śikṣāṣṭakam, 4, from The Songs of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, p 135]

I may be in hell and suffering, but within, the link, and don’t disconnect there. That is my vitality.

Devotee: _______________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: __________________________________ [?] The animal saw, detected, that any poison enters the body, the body itself constitutionally is of such nature that it tries to remove the poison. The body, the constitution itself, tries its best to remove the poison. Now, to do that in that process, what does it want, the body wants? It is expressed by his symptoms. So such things should be, such help should be given to it that can produce such system in the body. Sama saman samayate [?] That is the line of his thinking. Sama saman samayate [?] The body itself is trying its best to remove, and to do that in that process he’s showing some symptoms, and that, accordingly can produce that symptom, that should be dealt with, applied. And that will help the very system who is already trying his best to cure, to remove the poison. That is one thing. And the sukṣma, that is another thing, the fine dilution.

Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān [Kaṭha Upaniṣad, 1.2.20] The Brahman aspect and the Paramātmā aspect, two aspects, all permeating and all embracing, all accommodating, big and small, two sides of the representation of the Lord; the fine efficiency, not only in the all accommodating circumference but in the all-pervading centre. So he took that Paramātmā aspect, aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān, the Paramātmā aspect, the fine, try the fine, and the fine force being out today, atomic energy, electronic energy. The force is not only contained in the big but also in the smallest portion, as Paramātmā line, Brahman line and Paramātmā line, both sides. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. All permeating and all embracing, all accommodating.

Brahmata brhata bima prihata sukha [?] Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Satakoti aniyan___________________________ [?]

Devotee: So Mahārāja, I find, at least in my own case, I have no conception of the goal, and I have no emotional connection. I’m coming from an atheistic background, non believing, and my only connection is my Guru Mahārāja, and with him I have some little bit, although insincere...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Have you got any aspiration, that is rasa, sukha...

Devotee: Yes. The aspiration is also coming from...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: None can say that I do not want happiness. But what is happiness proper? You are to start from there – what is happiness proper, which is controlling the whole, His position must be superior to all.

Devotee: I have some understanding of that.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, I’m coming to that, that why the happiness is not to be traced in the objective side, and why it is in the subjective side? I only want to make it clear to you, who is demanded by every atom in the world, happiness, raso vai saḥ. Everyone wants, from atheist to a theist, always, everyone wants maximum happiness. We can’t deny that. Now, what will be the position of that happiness? Everyone wants Him so is it an objective thing, or its position is superior than all the seekers? What does your common sense say?

Devotee: It must be superior.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It must be superior.

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then if we are person then He’s super person.

Devotee: Yes. It is common sense.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Super-person and rasa, if those two things, super-personality and embodiment of rasa, that is reality the beautiful, charm, and it is given by Bhāgavatam. Not force, not power, nor awe, reverence, but beauty controlling the whole. Attraction gives cohesion, shape, among the molecules, atoms, the attraction combines them and gives the colour, the figure, all these, only this fine force of attraction. So also that akāṛṣṇa, kāṛṣṇa, that attraction when living, that is love, attraction endowed with life, vitality, living, that is love. And love attracting everything and giving movement of dynamic character. His dancing, līlā, and He’s all-attractor, so go towards Him. That is as a scientific calculation we must be nearer the centre of attraction, the centre of beauty and love. That is a scientific thing, not unscientific.

Devotee: Yes. Scientific, it is common sense, there is some understanding, but what is the emotional connection? Emotional connection is not there.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Emotional connection we should try to...

Devotee: It is there with the Spiritual Master.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Emotion may be misleading. Mostly emotionality is misleading, so we must be careful and guard against the emotionality to enter into the domain. As duty we should try to discharge our services in the colour of duty, and if emotion comes we shall keep it aside.

Devotee: But isn’t love emotional?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, love is emotion, but emotion won’t be allowed to lose the sense of duty, service.

There is an occasion, the Dāruka once was fanning Kṛṣṇa, and then he considered his fortune – “How fortunate am I that I have got this facility of fanning my Lord.” And some tears came and sentiment came and some sort of paralysis in his hand and the fanning was disturbed, then he’s cursing himself. “What is this sentiment that is discouraging my service, stands in the way of my service.” He’s cursing his own sentiment.

So sentiment may come, but we won’t encourage them, we should discourage that; that we shall mind to the duty, to the service. And automatically those sentiments should be in such way handled they will come under our leg and give a push upwards. The sentiments will give push upwards and they won’t be allowed to come and cover and dissuade from our duty and service. In that way they should be used.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

We can find there is a list of the mantram. The mantram we get from the Guru Mahārāja there is a list, gradual process. We may not be immediately fit to reach that goal, but the goal is there, at least distant view we must foster in our mind that we are to go so high, so far. A seed of that I must foster that my line is there, my fate, my fortune, is connected with so high. With that idea we shall go and we shall not try to hurry, go make progress hurriedly and fall and die.

Devotee: So chanting of the mantram has to be beyond...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course, with much self control, that I do not understand. It is given to me. That is, when grown up I shall be able to. So many documents, I’m a minor, father gives so many documents, when I shall grow up then I shall look at the documents and find out where is what, something like that. I’m a minor but my father has given me so many things in documents and I must verify according to the document I must discover my property, in that way, I’m now a minor. But I must have some intuitive knowledge within me that in these documents I have got property. When I shall be major I shall have them. That sort of faith must be within us, though minor, must be conscious of my high future only through the documents, something like that. The mantra, the Guru paramparā, we must not be cowed down our self. Gaura Haribol. At the same time we must think that I’m a minor, but still with this hope, the prospect is there, and I may be somewhat conscious of the fact in these documents. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. What about that Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Prabhu?

Devotee: Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja, he’s well. He went for bringing some of his goods from Los Angeles, and he’s planning to open a new centre.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Independent of ISKCON?

Devotee: Not necessarily, I’m not sure how independent, but he wants to cooperate with me, he’s saying, and he wants to start his centre in, near San Francisco. We discussed it, I offered...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: San Francisco is in whose zone?

Devotee: My zone.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You are President?

Devotee: I am GBC.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ācārya or President?

Devotees: I am – GBC Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: GBC ___________________________ [?]

Devotee: Not all GBC is Ācārya.

Devotee: _________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No Ācārya? Then if anyone...

Devotee: I am the serving GBC, not Ācārya GBC, a dog.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then if anyone comes to be initiated then who takes that duty, in your zone?

Devotee: We recommend, so many God brothers are there, they are qualified, we recommend someone.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh! They’re vartma-pradarśaka.

Devotee: For example, in Iran I have ten, fifteen men, we’re recommending Kīrtanānanda Swāmī.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You’re open, always?

Devotee: Yes. This is easier. Because I’m not qualified it’s safer.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right.

Devotee: So, it is actually much more comfortable in this way.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Devotee: Not so much risk.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is risky and with great responsibility.

Devotee: Yes. Of course the service is...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. [Group laughter] But by the order of the master we are to embrace death even in the fight. The order of the General...

Devotee: Yes. But the Generals, there are some qualified God brothers...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course.

Devotee: ... so as long as they are there there’s no need...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The both, relative and absolute question always. The relative position and the absolute consideration, both must be combined to give judgement in every incident. Man is but the guinea stamp, rank is but the guinea stamp, man is the goal for that. There may be many kings, many generals, but Napoleon, Hannibal, then Julius Caesar, they have got, but the generals there have been many in number. Rank is but the guinea stamp, kings also there have been many.

Devotee: Mahārāja, on this point, my realisation is that Prabhupāda’s creation is a new creation, it’s brand new. It was talked about, it was discussed by previous Ācāryas, but he created International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness. And he told us that if we cooperate we will be successful. So to me, more important than carrying on this disciplic succession the next Ācārya-ship, it is...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes... told him in that way when they wanted to oust this Haṁsadūta, Tamal Kṛṣṇa, then Jayatīrtha, and when they came to me I told it is direct appointment of your Prabhupāda...

Devotee: Yes. Together. Stay.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Don’t minimise their position so easily.

Devotee: Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: If you find any fault, in a friendly line you try to have through your discussion have to come to a peaceful settlement. Otherwise in another day you’ll be in the same position.

Devotee: Yes, correct. This has been my position. [Background laughter] This is not funny.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And the faith of the people in ISKCON in general will vanish.

Devotee: That is correct. This is very sad.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And direct appointment is vulnerable, then all may be vulnerable, so the whole faith on the ISKCON will be destroyed.

Devotee: Yes. I never, you may wish to know Mahārāja that I have in GBC I have always been opposed to disposing anyone, to any of this. I stood up against every one of those cases.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Elimination.

Devotee: Elimination. That I see that the most crucial thing is that not so much important that we each become independently qualified but that it is more important to stay together.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Devotee: This is Prabhupāda’s desire.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. United we stand and divided we fall.

Devotee: Yes. And this unity for this purpose I offered Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja complete, I even told him I will leave this building, you be in charge. You be the spiritual father of this community. We will take all spiritual instruction from you, but stay with us. But he considered and he appreciated that, but he said that there is some independent thinking and therefore he would feel that it is best that he be associated, but not in the same house.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So absolute and relative, taṭasthā and apeksik, these two things very disturbing element. The administration, the body is well and good for the activity, but the body is devoid of the spirit of its purpose, then it will be idolatry.

Devotee: Exactly.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The worshipping of the form.

Devotee: Idols.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So the spirit should always be given the high importance.

Devotee: Preference, exactly.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We must be able to stand up to mark with the spirit.

Devotee: Spirit, meaning.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Otherwise it has got no meaning, that may be anti meaning.

Devotee: Exactly. This is my position in San Francisco also. This is how I started and why I started that programme because I said always emphasis has been on form, no meaning, no content, no spirit.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Here once when Gandhi was challenged by the C.R. Das [?], Motilal the father of Jawaharlal [Nehru], they captured the Congress, Gandhi withdrawn silently. “You were my friends the other day helping so much in my programme. Now when you have lost your faith in my programme I retire from the Constitution, that National Congress. You occupy it and you through the Constitution you work in your own way.” And he withdrew.

So much so that he even gave up to be a member of Four Annas. Anyone paying four annas he may be recognised as a member of the National Congress. But he withdrew from that position also, that four anna paying membership. “That is my inner voice. I see it clearly that your programme is sure to meet failure, so I don’t like to be a party to that.” The whole Congress he left.

Then after few years hither thither moving, in Lucknow Congress again they met to take out Gandhi back otherwise it is lifeless. Then in Lucknow Congress they again invited the Gandhiji: “A living programme you will have to give to the Congress otherwise we are all tired, we are tired with our programme.”

Then it was left to Gandhiji. Gandhiji he took the responsibility and he told: once Rabindranath met Gandhi: “What do you do now, now the whole Congress has given the burden on you?”

“I’m thinking furiously.” Gandhi told.

Rabindranath very little slightly he remarked this that, “I asked him what you are doing, the burden, the responsibility of the whole National Congress on you now?” ‘I’m thinking furiously,’ with a little ______________ ridiculous way Rabindranath put it.

But I knew somewhat Gandhi. I thought that, really he’s thinking furiously because he’s going to take a furious one, taking so many lives to risk to accept voluntary death, so it cannot but be furious, in spite of such remark from Rabindranath.

Then Gandhi came and he began, the result of his furious thinking came the salt disobedience, then within no time he only with seventy members from his own āśrama he started towards some sea shore, Gandhi, where to prepare salt without giving tax. Before that he put a petition to the then Viceroy, perhaps Lord Irwin: “Please take off the salt law. The poor men’s salt if you tax there they are also disturbed. So please withdraw your salt tax law.”

But Irwin did not give much importance to that.

Then he began that salt law breaking, civil disobedience. First he started with chatting and very lightly talking in this way. Then he began the war. So many lives he began to sacrifice. The ten circles [?] He told at that time that, “I’m going very easily and simply to start, but very soon a time is coming when the whole India will be shaking with the waves of this power which cannot be detected now.”

That we saw. At that time I’m here, Gauḍīya Maṭha. In first movement I was with him, and the second movement I already came to Gauḍīya Maṭha and I had to fight with the Congressmen at that time. “You are fighting for extended selfishness. Selfishness of a person, even worship to the family members, then it’s extended to the family, then to the village, to the province, to the country. But in the relation of infinite it is extended selfishness. Better fight – fighting with country and country, but in consideration with the infinite it is a point, extended selfishness. And fighting this you are fighting for the freedom of the senses, not fighting from the senses – freedom for the senses or freedom from the senses. Internal fight should be begun, the freedom from the senses, that should be our aim, and you are fighting for the senses, to give fodder to the senses more, depriving others.”

Devotee: So the life of ISKCON, the spirit of ISKCON, is Prabhupāda.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Inner voice, what I told by Gandhi’s example.

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is inner voice.

Devotee: Yes. Inner voice standard...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And the committee, the Indian Congress and one man differed for his inner voice. So inner voice that is something...

Devotee: The inner voice is...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is antaryāmī, mahanta Guru or caitya Guru, caitya Guru, inner voice, but that is very difficult to detect and to feel, to trace, it is difficult, what is what.

Devotee: But Prabhupāda has given us instructions. His instructions are our standards.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In America also that Abraham declared, “Government of the people, government for the people, and by the people.” We differ that ‘by the people.’ Of the people, for the people, but not by the people – by someone greater, so the committee, it is administration for the people, and of the people, but not by the people. The committee must have a source of inspiration from higher level.

There is a common saying, “The voice of the people is the voice of God. Vox populi is vox dei.” But we don’t admit that, not always. So the voice of the committee may not always be the voice of God, or Guru. So the superior stalwarts there must be to guide the committee. The committee should follow these maxims: how far we’ve been able to catch the very purpose of the advice of Guru Mahārāja?

The lower section we shall take, as Newton told, “I’m only collecting a pebble in the shore near the ocean of knowledge.” But the lower section than Newton has reached the high position, so always holding relative position. Aspiration must be for the higher, and we must try to give help according to our capacity to the lower, jīva-doya, as much as I know.

Ṛṣi ṛṇī, pitṛi ṛṇī, we are born with five debts, loans, from the father, mother, then from the society, even from the environment, the vegetables, the cows, etc., and Ṛṣi ṛṇī, the previous scholars, they have given their research, given many things, we are taking the advantage of that, electric fan, light, heat, all these things, research scholars, we’re indebted to them, Ṛṣi ṛṇī. So _______________ [?]

Devotee: So these five debts are there.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Anyhow, progress is possible, we shall always be looking after for new researchers, new ṛṣis, so we shall try to help them, though are of lower order, at the same time we try to become real disciple of the higher entities and to indent more, then that will be living organic whole. The father is the son not only inherit his father but he will try his best to develop the estate left by his father...

End of 81.11.09.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.09.C_81.11.10.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...only accept from his disciple and his son, Parajan, the son may defeat me.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Jaya.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The disciple may defeat me, so we shall try to enhance the property left to us by our father.

Atreya Ṛṣi: That is only possible...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... and not allow ourselves to go down, in this way...

Atreya Ṛṣi: This is only possible if we ISKCON devotees can say that our God brother can also defeat me. That is also all right.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ISKCON, you will try to be sincere. There is possibility, there is possibility also that the power makes us mad.

Atreya Ṛṣi: That is correct. That’s possible. It’s an exception.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We should save ourselves from that. Sometimes our friends they will come and remind one another. Anyhow it must be a living body not dying. Living, growing body.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes, exactly. And even if some parts of the body are dying we must go on with the living body, and correct.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, and to invite vitality whenever it gets, of course in the right line.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes. Exactly.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Eliminating all: anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ, the books, the documents are there.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes. Instructions are there.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The books, the Swāmī Mahārājaji’s documents, the Bhāgavatam, the documents are there and reading the documents we shall recover the properties unknown to me.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes. Exactly.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In this way the śāstra is there, the Gurus are there, they are not envious to us, all liberal.

Atreya Ṛṣi: You’re here also, you’re giving us good advice.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We must have to have closer connection with them, and to keep up the vitality of the machinery. There we can take the advantage of the machinery. But at the same time to keep up the vitality of the machinery we shall be always alert to keeping with the living connection with the living thing.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Jaya.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: There is another consideration, I was just thinking, that is to look at it from Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja’s point of view also, that he’s starting something new. Now ISKCON leaders should accept him or what he’s doing...

Atreya Ṛṣi: Of course, of course.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Like then only they’ll be able to cooperate...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: They should be open for that.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes. They are open. I mean they may not be, but I’m open.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: They should be open otherwise they will be rotten. If they are apathetic towards that, that new light, new light, ever new light, that connection, then it is sure that they will have to go down, the committee. So the, in the trade also, this ______ indent and...

Atreya Ṛṣi: Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja is...

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Export and import.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Export and import.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes, give and take, exactly, balanced.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is dynamic, export and import must be careful of both the sides, exporting and importing.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes, give and take.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Otherwise bankrupt.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes. Definitely. His intentions are very good. He’s very sincere, he’s very sincere.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: That way Atreya Ṛṣi Prabhu is very broad minded. He always gives...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And also very cautious and very affectionate.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: But he’s very outspoken also. He’s not very popular among the GBC.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Impartial. Impartial and unprejudiced, one who can conquer his prejudice he can stand in the line of...

Atreya Ṛṣi: I’m only prejudiced for sense gratification.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And to detect that, the eye is with you. Ha, ha, ha. That is your wealth: that is your wealth that you have got the eye.

oṁ ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā

cakṣur unmilitaṁ yena, tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ

[“I was blind in the darkness of ignorance but my Spiritual Master applied the ointment of proper spiritual knowledge and thus opened my eyes. Unto him I offer my respectful obeisances.”]

Atreya Ṛṣi: That’s your mercy, and my Guru Mahārāja’s mercy.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You’re given the eye to see. That is the most important, what is good and bad, and then to accept and reject. First the eye is necessary. Nitāi. Eye, then there is justice: above there is mercy. In the plane of mercy, justice is the standard, but above that...

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes. That is what is lacking Mahārāja...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is mercy, land of mercy, compassion, grace.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes, compassion. How to get that Mahārāja?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: To aspire after śraddhā, faith, faith aspiration, earnestness, then the negative, to increase the quality of our negativity, that we are so mean: the positive will be automatically attracted. Try to increase the power of your position as a negative one, tṛṇād api sunīcena, dainyam, ātma-nivedanam, surrender, hankering, that is our wealth. We are śakti, potency means negative side, increase your negative side and the positive will automatically be attracted towards you.

Atreya Ṛṣi: I had, I was in Purī for two nights I dreamed of the same concept. By Lord Jagannātha’s mercy I was dreaming that I was surrendering...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mahāprabhu inundated the place with tendency and emotion divine.

Atreya Ṛṣi: It was wonderful, but when I am awake I am a rascal. I am not surrendered. In my sleep, a little bit...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You have been allowed to see your future, your future plane of activity.

Atreya Ṛṣi: Yes I hope that it is true. I hope it is true.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, yes, that is the land of mercy.

Atreya Ṛṣi: I was crying.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. So you are fortunate, you are fortunate. In previous life you have done enough. As a result of that you are in such a position. Wherever we are born in whatever nationality, that is external stages of civilization. But independent of this outer civilization there is another plane within us and outside, and that is of that characteristic, most fundamental, spacious. Kola kasta [?] Kola [?] means the developed thing and the kasta means background. In the background there are so many pictures and so many models may be constructed, but the kasta, the background, the extreme walls, the plenary thing which accommodates so many kola of developed substance on that background, on that plane, the plenary position is acquaintance, nature, we are to imbibe. We have to look for the plane of highest good, beauty. All developed in two sides, in the way of misunderstanding and the way of proper understanding. Yogamāyā, centre carrying, carrying towards the centre, carrying away from the centre, two ways and two sorts of development. This māyik development, this is said to be the perverted reflection of the original. By tracing in the shadow we can have some knowledge of the original, by analysing the shadow, the shape and other things. We can have some idea of the original. So the rasa, rasa vibhag, differentiation in the existence of rasa. That has been detected in that way as it is given to us by the scriptural authorities.

vaikuṇṭhāj janito varā madhu-purī tatrāpi rāsotsavād

vṛndāraṇyam udāra-pāṇi-ramaṇāt tatrāpi govardhanaḥ

[rādhā-kuṇḍam ihāpi gokula-pateḥ premāmṛtāplāvanāt

kuryād asya virājato giri-taṭe sevāṁ vivekī na kaḥ]

[“The holy place known as Mathurā is spiritually superior to Vaikuṇṭha, the transcendental world, because the Lord appeared there. Superior to Mathurā-purī is the transcendental forest of Vṛndāvana because of Kṛṣṇa’s rāsa-līlā pastimes. And superior to the forest of Vṛndāvana is Govardhana Hill, for it was raised by the divine hand of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and was the site of His various loving pastimes. And, above all, the super-excellent Śrī Rādhā-kuṇḍa stands supreme, for it is over-flooded with the ambrosial nectarean prema of the Lord of Gokula, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Where, then, is that intelligent person who is unwilling to serve this divine Rādhā-kuṇḍa, which is situated at the foot of Govardhana Hill?”] [Śrī Upadeśāmṛta, 9]

karmibhyaḥ parito hareḥ priyatayā vyaktiṁ yayur jñāninas

tebhyo jñāna-vimukta-bhakti-paramāḥ premaika-niṣṭhās tataḥ

[tebhyas tāḥ paśu-pāla-paṅkaja-dṛśas tābhyo ‘pi sā rādhikā

preṣṭhā tadvad iyaṁ tadīya-sarasī tāṁ nāśrayet kaḥ kṛtī]

[“There are those in the world who regulate their tendency for exploitation in accordance with the scriptural rules and thereby seek gradual elevation to the spiritual domain. However, superior to them are those wise men who, having given up the tendency to lord over others, attempt to dive deep into the realm of consciousness. But far superior to them are the pure devotees who are free from any mundane ambitions and are liberated from knowledge, not by knowledge, having achieved divine love. They have gained entrance into the land of dedication and are engaged there spontaneously in the Lord’s loving service. Among all devotees, however, the gopīs are the highest, for they have forsaken everyone, including their families, and everything, including the strictures of the Vedas, and have taken complete shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, accepting Him as their only protection. But among all the gopīs, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī reigns supreme. For Kṛṣṇa left the company of millions of gopīs during the rasa dance to search for Her alone. She is so dear to Śrī Kṛṣṇa that the pond in which She bathes is His very favourite place. Who but a madman would not aspire to render service, under the shelter of superior devotees, in that most exalted of all holy places.”] [Śrī Upadeśāmṛta, 10]

How the development is to be traced in the spiritual side, in the divinity. This has been given by direct inspiration of Mahāprabhu by Rūpa Goswāmī, karmibhyaḥ parito hareḥ priyatayā vyaktiṁ yayur jñāninas. Sarvva-vedānta-vit-koṭ yā viṣṇubhakto viśiṣyate, vaiṣṇavānāṁ sahasrebhyaḥ ekāntyeko viśiṣyate.

[brāhmaṇānāṁ sahasrebhyaḥ satra-yājī viśiṣyate

satra-yāji-sahasrebhyaḥ sarvva-vedānta-pāragaḥ

sarvva-vedānta-vit-koṭ yā viṣṇubhakto viśiṣyate

vaiṣṇavānāṁ sahasrebhyaḥ ekāntyeko viśiṣyate]

[“Among many thousands of brāhmaṇas, a yajñika brāhmaṇa is best. Among thousands of yajñika brāhmaṇas, one who fully knows Vedānta is best. Among millions of knowers of Vedānta, one who is a devotee of Viṣṇu is best. And among thousands of devotees of Viṣṇu, one who is an unalloyed Vaiṣṇava is best.”] [Garuḍa-Purāṇa] & [Hari-bhakti-vilāsa, 10.117] & [Bhakti- Sandarbha, 117]

In Garuḍa-Purāṇa - how to trace the development in the right way: way of truthfulness. Life means adjustment, readjustment, life means, can’t stop still, life does allow us to be stand still. Progressing, and that sort of temperament must be kept, must be created if it is possible. That I shall make progress, progress, I shall increase the property of my paternal inheritance. That should be our attitude.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya. Dayal Nitāi. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya.

yadi gaura nā hoita, tabe ki hoita, kemone dharitām de

[rādhāra mahimā, prema-rasa-sīmā jagate jānāta ke

madhura vṛndā vipina mādhurī praveśa cāturī sāra

baraja yuvatī bhāvera bhakati śakati hoita kāra]

[“If Mahāprabhu had not appeared then how could we sustain our lives? How could we live? What type of ecstatic rasa has He imbibed that we have been able to have a little taste? Without this our lives would be impossible. Who else could take us to the acme of realisation of the position of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. She holds the highest position. She is the greatest victim to the consuming capacity of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. She stands as the greatest sacrifice before Kṛṣṇa’s infinite consuming power. Rasarāj-Mahābhava - the rasa is there, and She is the drawer of that rasa from the storehouse. She has such negative capacity that She can draw out the rasa to the highest degree both in quality and quantity.”]

Vāsudeva Datta he says, Vāsudeva Ghosa, one of the principle associates of Rādhārāṇī, aṣṭa-sakhī, one of the aṣṭa-sakhīs in Vṛndāvana, and here one sakhī was Vāsudeva Ghosa. And he says in appreciation of Mahāprabhu incarnation, His descent here: “How could I keep up my life if Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu did not come down? If I did not come in touch of Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu how could I live at all? As a soul near to life, so near to vitality. It is the vitality of the vitality. If this sort of more efficient vitality I could not come in touch, then I should then I should have been finished.” In this way of nearness he’s accommodating Mahāprabhu. “I could not, I could not live at all if I had not such sort of nectar extended in me. It was simply impossible for me to go on with my life. Yadi gaura nā hoita, kemone hoita, the whole thing seems to be like a...

...

The quality of culture should be considered. That is the important thing, culture.

Gandhi told, “That Jawaharlal [Pandit Nehru] by birth Hindu, and by culture he’s British, and by creed he was a Mohammedan.” Gandhi.

But Swāmī Mahārāja told that, “We have heard, that by birth he may not be a Hindu.”

In close connection with this Motilal family, and another Kashmeeri, Muslim family. A very close friend, very intimate. One gentleman who was the editor of the paper named Independent.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Kesi Damona, yesterday he came also.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh! With another gentleman?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. He’s staying in Māyāpur.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He’s there, and you have come alone. Gaura Hari. He comes from?

Devotee: London.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Today Jayatīrtha Mahārāja is expected there?

Devotee: Yes, he is coming about eleven thirty.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Along with, his own disciples?

Devotee: Just one servant.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And no news of that gentleman, Haṁsadūta?

Devotee: I saw him in Delhi, about three days ago, he was leaving India.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I had told him go to visit Laṅkā, Śrī Laṅkā.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. What was your point yesterday?

Devotee: I was trying to understand...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: I have another question, a philosophical question. The jīva in māyā, in the material energy before he meets a sādhu, before he meets a sādhu, when he gets the human form, does he have free will in how he engages in māyā or is he completely dominated? And what is the relationship between his destiny and the actions he performs, how much he can choose or is he just completely driven...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: How much independence does the jīva have, to serve māyā or to serve Kṛṣṇa?

Devotee: No_________________________________ [?]

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: You have to make the question a little clearer.

Devotee: He wants to know, before the jīva meets the sādhu, before he’s in the material energy, how much free will does he have, how much choice does he have?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Before he meets the sādhu when wandering through the different positions when he meets the sādhu that depends on the sukṛti, ajñāta and jñāta-sukṛti, then śraddhā. And according to the quality and quantity of the śraddhā then he will be able to cooperate with the sādhu.

Devotee: But before he meets the sādhu, in the human body how much free will does he have, is he completely dominated by māyā, or can he choose what form of sinful activities...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Free will at that time is secondary, it is there, but the sukṛti, śraddhā that has taken the primary position, it guides it. Before that māyā was principle thing and free will suppressed, and now we have accommodated śraddhā, then free will is predominated by that śraddhā, free will follows śraddhā.

Devotee: How can a person engage in, or accumulate sukṛti if he has no knowledge of these matters?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is passive, independent of him, some sādhu by his free will he takes, utilises some of his energy without his consciousness, ajñāta-sukṛti. And then that develops to a stage, then he feels some inner tendency to do, to help something, sādhu, without knowing what benefit he may get or not, subconscious region, intuitively. Then when śraddhā comes on the surface then he finds himself tempted, why he should meet sādhu. Then comes and talks with the sādhu, and thereby the comparative study of good and bad, all these things expressed in consciousness, in the conscious area.

Devotee: So ultimately it is dependent on Kṛṣṇa. It’s ultimately dependent on Kṛṣṇa to send the sādhu.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not always, the sādhu, the nature of sukṛti, the sukṛti, the śraddhā created by sukṛti that will help him to select sādhu. The red robe does not mean a sādhu. The sādhu according to his faith, śraddhā means faith. Birds of the same feather flock together, so sādhu-saṅga. Who is sādhu? He eliminates other sādhus and selects Kṛṣṇa bhakta as sādhu. The śraddhā lies in sukṛti, the type of faith, the quality of faith. It may be of different types, but real faith, real śraddhā, that will guide. So sādhu, some Brahman darśana, some Paramātmā darśana, some Bhāgavat darśana, some Kṛṣṇa darśana, differentiate. The nature of sukṛti that should be the primary cause: the quality. The sukṛti that he got came from a Kṛṣṇa bhakta, or a Nārāyaṇa bhakta, or a Māyāvādī sādhu, it will depend on it. So, on the whole it is:

brahmāṇḍa brhamite kona bhāgyavān jīva [guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja]

[“Wandering throughout the material universe, the very fortunate living entity who receives the grace of Guru and Kṛṣṇa receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service.”] [Caitanya- caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 19.151]

That is in the infinite, not in finite calculation.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

So Mahāprabhu laid stress in jñāna-sunya-bhakti. If we approach this side, no end, analysis, analysis, analysis - atom, electron, proton, neutron, we’ll go on. And bigger also, the ether, then something else, something else, that is all, no end. Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān [The Paramātmā aspect and the Brahman aspect, Kaṭha Upaniṣad, 1.2.20] So middle point, middle side, Bhagavān madhyama akar, in the centre. So don’t try to find Him in the last extremity, nor in the nearness, but in the middle sphere, to try to find Him where you are, and similar to you.

kṛṣṇera yateka khelā, sarvottama nara-līlā, nara-vapu tāhāra svarūpa

[gope-veśa, veṇu-kara nava kiśora, nata-vara, nara līlāra haya anurūpa]

[“Lord Kṛṣṇa has many pastimes, of which His pastimes as a human being are the best. His form as a human being is the Supreme Transcendental Form. In this form, He is a cowherd boy. He carries a flute in His hand, and His youth is new. He is also an expert dancer. All this is just suitable for His pastimes as a human being.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 21.101)

Your necessity will be removed, satisfied by Him. Not by the circumference, and nor by the smallest part of the material conception. But only by surrender you can connect with Him. And in what way He will, He best treating to you, He will decide, let Him to decide. Hare Kṛṣṇa, no prayer, only address, Hare Kṛṣṇa. ‘I want you.’ No petition of any colour. ‘You decide what will suit me, You consider. Only I want You. I’m in danger. I want Your protection. How to do? That is decided by You. It is not my decision.’ There we get most from His consideration. So only to try to increase, if possible, the degree of surrender, that is what is necessary really in us: surrender, ātma-nikṣepaḥ. The śaraṇāgati has been analysed in six ways.

ānukūlyasya saṅkalpaḥ, prātikūlya-vivarjjanam

rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāso, goptṛtve varaṇaṁ tathā.

ātma-nikṣepa kārpaṇye, [ṣaḍ-vidhā śaraṇāgatiḥ

evaṁ paryyāyataś cāsminn, ekaikādhyāya-saṅgrahaḥ]

[“The six limbs of surrender are as follows: 1-To accept everything favourable for devotion to Kṛṣṇa. 2-To reject everything unfavourable for devotion to Kṛṣṇa. 3-To be confident that Kṛṣṇa will grant His protection. 4-To embrace Kṛṣṇa’s guardianship. 5-To offer oneself unto Him. 6-To consider oneself lowly and bereft.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.100]

Śrī Jīva Goswāmī says that goptṛtve varaṇaṁ, that is the central, centre of śaraṇāgati, goptṛtve varaṇaṁ, to call Him, to give protection, ‘protect me,’ prayer for protection, goptṛtve. Gopta [?] means rakta tattva palankatva [?]. ‘Take my charge.’ There is the gist of śaraṇāgati. ‘Please take my charge. I’m unable. I’m unfit. I’m undone. Please take my charge.’ That is the very life of śaraṇāgati, according to Jīva Gosvami. That is the centre, and what is favourable to accept that, what is opposite to reject that. And trying to caste one’s own self at His feet. ‘I’m the meanest of the mean. I’m the most helpless. So I want your shelter. You please take charge. I’m unfit to take the responsibility for my own good management.’ So the central attempt should be of that type. ‘I can’t tolerate any longer any independent life, my Lord. I’m disgusted to go on with a life independent. I can’t, that is, I want slavery.’

Jīvera 'svarūpa' haya-kṛṣṇera 'nitya-dāsa' [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.108]

‘I want to be Your slave. Others may be, but I do not think myself to be developed enough to take my own charge, my own responsibility. I’m so reckless, so mean, so worthless, so useless, so useless, so please accept me. Any service of Your feet, anyhow give me shelter. I don’t rely on me. I have come to take shelter under Your holy feet. You are my guardian.’

That is śaraṇāgati. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Goptṛtve varaṇaṁ, to accept Him as guardian, absolute guardian, goptṛtve varaṇaṁ. It is difficult for the finite to stand with head erect. In the clash that is going on between the so many souls, the competition. Everywhere there is competition, so it is really the most intelligent way to have the Supreme Power as guardian.

‘I can’t stand this competition in this world. So I want really to have a guardian, a protector. I want protection. I’m disgusted with this continuous battle, fighting with the environment. I don’t find any rest, always in competition.’ Sa-tulyātiśaya-dhvaṁsaṁ, yathā maṇḍala-vartinām.

evaṁ lokaṁ paraṁ vidyān, naśvaraṁ karma-nirmitam

sa-tulyātiśaya-dhvaṁsaṁ, yathā maṇḍala-vartinām

[“One cannot find perfect happiness even on the heavenly planets, which one can attain in the next life by ritualistic ceremonies and sacrifices. Even in material heaven the living entity is disturbed by rivalry with his equals and envy of those superior to him. And since one’s residence in heaven is finished with the exhaustion of pious fruitive activities, the denizens of heaven are afflicted by fear, anticipating the destruction of their heavenly life. Thus they resemble kings who, though enviously admired by ordinary citizens, are constantly harassed by enemy kings and who therefore never attain actual happiness.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.3.20]

_____________________ [?] Nava Yogendra _____________ [?]

______________________ [?] No, one of the Yogendras in his advice.

evaṁ lokaṁ paraṁ vidyān – duḥkha-hatyai sukhāya ca

karmāṇy ārabhamāṇānāṁ, duḥkha-hatyai sukhāya ca

paśyet pāka-viparyāsaṁ, mithunī-cāriṇāṁ nṛṇām

[“Śrī Prabuddha said: Accepting the roles of male and female in human society, the conditioned souls unite in sexual relationships. Thus they constantly make material endeavours to eliminate their unhappiness and unlimitedly increase their pleasure. But one should see that they inevitably achieve the opposite result. In other words, their happiness inevitably vanishes, and as they grow older their material discomfort increases.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.3.18]

The soul, jīva soul, to kill the misery and to achieve happiness, pleasure. But first he begins with karma. Karmāṇy ārabhamāṇānāṁ, duḥkha-hatyai sukhāya ca, duḥkha-hatyai, to kill misery, to do away with the misery and to get pleasure. For this purpose he takes up the way of karma, trying to elevate one’s own self to acquire some energy. And to consume something, and to distribute to the friends, and to deceive the enemies, in this way he wants to achieve some sort of pleasure in life.

karmāṇy ārabhamāṇānāṁ, duḥkha-hatyai sukhāya ca

paśyet pāka-viparyāsaṁ, mithunī-cāriṇāṁ nṛṇām

And to get maximum pleasure he finds he must accept a wife, mainly, pleasure depends on that sort of life, to get pleasure he takes a wife.

karmāṇy ārabhamāṇānāṁ, duḥkha-hatyai sukhāya ca

paśyet pāka-viparyāsaṁ, mithunī-cāriṇāṁ nṛṇām

[nityārtidena vittena, durlabhenātma-mṛtyunā]

gṛhāpatyāpta-paśubhiḥ, kā prītiḥ sādhitaiś calaiḥ

[“Wealth is a perpetual source of distress, it is most difficult to acquire, and it is virtual death for the soul. What satisfaction does one actually gain from his wealth? Similarly, how can one gain ultimate or permanent happiness from one’s so-called home, children, relatives and domestic animals, which are all maintained by one’s hard-earned money?”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.3.19]

When he begins a married life to make himself happy, but gradually comes to face the adverse circumstance, gṛhāpatyāpta-paśubhiḥ, kā prītiḥ sādhitaiś calaiḥ. Then after accepting a wife he finds that a permanent quarter is necessary, what was already unnecessary, he could take rest in any place. But after entering into the conjugal life a fixed house is necessary, a home is necessary, gṛhā. Then āpatyā, next the issue [children] come, appears āpatyā. Paśubhiḥ, then either the cow, or horse, or dog, something, some help from the animals also necessary. Gṛhāpatyāpta-paśubhiḥ, kā prītiḥ sādhitaiś. Then he becomes to face the stern reality, one by one vanishing, to repair the building, then for the upkeep of the family some doctors, medicines, food, etc. And the cows or horses they are also dying, and to fill up the gap. In this way more and more energy and instead of pleasure, the labour, misery, that is capturing the major position. Gṛhāpatyāpta-paśubhiḥ, kā prītiḥ sādhitaiś. And then after all everything is vanishing, changing, so we cannot rely for ever for our happiness, for pleasure, on any mortal thing: that becomes the conclusion. I am taking by one hand, another hand is passing away, he’s always in the want. So in the company of mortal wealth, elements, we can’t find real happiness, happiness proper. This conclusion he comes to, kā prītiḥ sādhitaiś calaiḥ. Gṛhāpatyāpta-paśubhiḥ, kā prītiḥ sādhitaiś. Evaṁ lokaṁ paraṁ vidyān, naśvaraṁ karma-nirmitam. In this way he comes to calculate, that not only this life but in after life in heaven also we are told that Indra after his term is over but he had to come down.

ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, punar āvartino ‘rjuna

[mām upetya tu kaunteya, punar janma na vidyate]

[“O Arjuna, from the planet of Lord Brahmā downwards, the residents of all planets are naturally subjected to repeated birth and death. But, O Kaunteya, upon reaching Me, there is no rebirth.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 8.16]

So by giving some gift I get it untroubled in my afterlife in a higher plane, but that is also finished, that has got also a finishing, end, so: kā prītiḥ sādhitaiś calaiḥ, and evaṁ lokaṁ paraṁ, this life and the afterlife in the relativity of the mortality. Paraṁ vidyān, naśvaraṁ karma- nirmitam, and karma-nirmitam lokaṁ, which is earned by material energy, the pleasure that we shall try to earn by exercising many here in the material energy, is kayshna, is always diminishing, changing, going, naśvaraṁ karma.

Sa-tulyātiśaya-dhvaṁsaṁ, there is another trouble there, sa-tulyātiśaya-dhvaṁsaṁ. A life when living in this way, we’re in the midst of these troubling circles, different circles of life, sa-tulyu. Generally we are in competition with the same class. I am merchant, I have got competition with another merchant of a similar nature. I am a student, I have competition with another student. In this wherever I shall go I have to face this field of competition. Combination, sa-tulyu, atiśaya, dhvaṁsaṁ. Sa-tulyātiśaya-dhvaṁsaṁ, yathā maṇḍala-vartinām. There is competition amongst the co-workers. Sa-tulyātiśaya-dhvaṁsaṁ, yathā maṇḍala-vartinām.

That is, I missed the link. Anyhow, the meaning goes this way: I want to cross him. I cannot be pleased if I can’t defeat my equals. And I had... Ah! In a circle of my life, of elevationists, we find three classes, some equals, some superiors, holding superior position, and some of lower position. So, who are holding the equal position, they fight them, and the jealousy for the upper. And when I improve my condition, again, I have got thousand rupees income and my competition with the persons of that income, I want to cross them. When I just cross them and go up, then the ten thousand income, they come within my competition, and wherever I go I find I am always in the circle of competition, wherever I go. There I find there is equalled positioned men, and always in that competition. In this way, always living in the life of competition, then finally I have to go, disappointed. Yathā maṇḍala-vartinām. And always we find ourselves in the, in a circle, maṇḍala-varti and always some lower, some equal, and some higher. So always in competition we find ourselves and ultimately everything vanishes. Yathā maṇḍala-vartinām, up to Brahmā, this amangala, this death, death extends its jurisdiction up to Brahmā. Sa-tulyātiśaya-dhvaṁsaṁ, yathā maṇḍala-vartinām.

durlabho mānuṣo deho, dehināṁ kṣaṇa-bhaṅguraḥ

tatrāpi durlabhaṁ manye, vaikuṇṭha-priya-darśanam

[“For the conditioned souls, the human body is most difficult to achieve, and it can be lost at any moment. But I think that even those who have achieved human life rarely gain the association of pure devotees, who are very dear to the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.29]

A little after: then anyhow he comes across a sādhu then his life proper begins in this way. Durlabho mānuṣo deho, dehināṁ kṣaṇa-bhaṅguraḥ. He comes to realize that this human life is very, very rarely found. Dehināṁ kṣaṇa-bhaṅguraḥ. But it is very brittle, any moment it may be dropped down, and we may be deceived of this position. We can’t say for certain that I shall live so long, clearly can’t say. Dehināṁ kṣaṇa-bhaṅguraḥ, tatrāpi durlabhaṁ manye, vaikuṇṭha- priya-darśanam.

End of 81.11.09.C_81.11.10.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.10.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...precious and more rare, our connection with the sādhu, vaikuṇṭha priya rasa. Those that are favourite to Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa, to find their company, that is also very, very rare in our life. So whenever it occurs in any auspicious moment we shall try to take benefit of that.

When Nimi Mahārāja arranged for a broad type of yajña ______________________[?]

Suddenly the Nava Yogendra, nine Yogendra, the masters of yogīns appeared in that yajña sthal, in that area. And Nimi Mahārāja, disconnecting him with yajña that was going on there, without offering any seat for them began the enquiry. And the introduction is this way.

“You have come. You may go away. Any moment you may go. Immediately you may disappear. You have appeared, by my fortune, and to my misfortune you may disappear this moment.”

So without losing a single second he began his enquiry, Nimi Mahārāja, to the Nava Yogendra. One by one he put nine questions, and each one of them answered his question. Kavi, Havir, Antarīkṣa, Prabuddha, Pippalāyana, Āvirhotra, Drumila, Camasa and Karabhājana, the nine, they’re sons of Ṛṣabhadeva, born yogīs, Nava Yogendra. In the sayings of Karabhājana we find about Yuga-Avatāra, reference about Yuga-Avatāra, and about Kṛṣṇa and Mahāprabhu also, this Karabhājana: in Dvāpara-yuga the Yuga-Avatāra.

kṛta śuklaś catur-bāhu [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.5.21]

[In Satya-yuga the Lord is white and four-armed]

tretāyāṁ rakta-varṇo ‘sau [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.5.24]

[In Tretā-yuga the Lord appears with a red complexion]

dvāpare bhagavāñ śyāmaḥ pīta-vāsā nijāyudhaḥ [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.5.27]

[In Dvāpara-yuga the Supreme Personality of Godhead appears with a dark blue complexion, wearing yellow garments]

In this way after the description he comes to Kali and says:

iti dvāpara urv-īśa, stuvanti jagad-īśvaram / nānā-tantra-vidhānena, kalāv api tathā śṛṇu

[“O King, up to Dvāpara-yuga, I have finished describing the incarnations for different ages who come to remind the people of the most appropriate duty for their age. They come to tell us, ‘If you do this, you will get the greatest benefit.’ O king, after the Dvāpara age is finished, the age of Kali comes. The incarnation for the age of Kali has been mentioned in many places in the scriptures, and now I am just going to explain that information to you.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.5.31]

“O king, up Dvāpara-yuga I have finished mentioning about the Yuga-Avatāra. They come to remind the people that this is the most appropriate duty for the least span of time, yuga, you do this, you do and you’ll get more benefit. So iti dvāpara urv-īśa, O king, up to Dvāpara I have finished. Now, nānā-tantra-vidhānena, kalāv api tathā śṛṇu, by many Tantra, Purāṇa it has been mentioned about the Yuga-Avatāra of Kali, and I’m just going to forward to you that.”

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣā ‘kṛṣṇaṁ sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam

yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ

[“In the age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the Names of Kṛṣṇa. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Kṛṣṇa Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.5.32] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 3.52]

“Very shortly and in suppressed expression: only this śloka.”

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣā ‘kṛṣṇaṁ sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam

yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ

“The ordinary meaning kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ, of black colour, tviṣā ‘kṛṣṇaṁ, but by lustre He’s not black, tviṣā ‘kṛṣṇaṁ. Sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam, and with Him similar companion will come also. Yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair, and He is mainly worshipped by the process of saṅkīrtana. Saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ, and very sharp intellect, the sumedhasaḥ, the persons of good intellect, proper intellect, they will perform this, not ordinary.”

That was his, it is mentioned in Bhāgavatam. Jīva Goswāmī gives the explanation: kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ, His colour is really blue or black. Tviṣā ‘kṛṣṇaṁ, the parallel passage also Jīva Goswāmī, parallel śloka here composed, kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣā ‘kṛṣṇaṁ sāṅgopāṅgāstra, Jīva Goswāmī says:

antaḥ kṛṣṇaṁ bahir gauraṁ, darśitāṅgādi-vaibhavam

kalau saṅkīrtanādyai sma, kṛṣṇa-caitanyam āśritāḥ

[“I take shelter of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is outwardly of a golden complexion, but is inwardly Kṛṣṇa Himself. In this age of Kali, He displays His expansions while performing congregational chanting of the Holy Names of Kṛṣṇa. That He is blackish within means that internally He is Kṛṣṇa; that He is golden without means that He has accepted the mood of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. In the age of Kali, that Golden Lord is seen accompanied by His expansions, associates, and intimate devotees performing saṅkīrtana.”] [Tattva-Sandarbha, 2]

& [Krama-Sandarbha]

This is parallel śloka composed by Jīva Goswāmī. Antaḥ kṛṣṇaṁ bahir gauraṁ – kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣā ‘kṛṣṇaṁ. Generally His colour is black, and tviṣā kanta, Kṛṣṇa: that is lustre also black, generally. Then how it is possible? Then tviṣā ‘akṛṣṇaṁ, the sandhi is there. His colour is kṛṣṇa but His colour, the lustre is akṛṣṇa, not kṛṣṇa, not black. Then not black does not mean pita, gaura; that is golden. Then, where do you get that akṛṣṇa? You may say the kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ, colour is kṛṣṇa, and also the lustre, the halo is kṛṣṇa, this is redundant. So you say the lustre is akṛṣṇa. Akṛṣṇa means non black, but non black does not mean yellow. Where do you get this yellow?

[āsan varṇās trayo hy asya, gṛhṇato 'nuyugaṁ tanūḥ]

śuklo raktas tathā pīta, idānīṁ kṛṣṇatāṁ gataḥ

[“In past incarnations, this boy has appeared with different complexions: white, red, and gold, according to the particular age in which He appeared. Now He has assumed this blackish colour.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.8.13] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.331]

We find when Garga Ṛṣi came to Vṛndāvana, Vasudeva sent him for the particular function of Nāma-karaṇa [Name-giving ceremony] of Kṛṣṇa. Then Garga came to the house of Nanda, and proposed, “Vasudeva has sent me. Your child is grown up and now some particular function to be made. And the Nāma-karaṇa will bear the same, śuklo raktas, you don’t take Him as an ordinary child. He’s a child of peculiar acquaintance, śuklo raktas tathā pīta, idānīṁ kṛṣṇatāṁ gataḥ. He comes as white in Satya-yuga, red in Tretā-yuga, and also He comes in yellow. Now He has come as black.”

So the pīta [yellow colour] is here, left for Kali-yuga. Do you follow? Śuklo raktas tathā pīta, idānīṁ kṛṣṇatāṁ gataḥ. But in other ages there’s white, red, and yellow, and now in Dvāpara He has become black. So pīta comes to Kali. And there is another also in rukma varṇaṁ, in Upaniṣad:

yadā paśya paśyate rukma-varṇaṁ, kartāraṁ īśam purusaṁ brahma-yonim

tada vidyan punya-pape vidhuya, niranjanah paramam samyam upaiti

[“When one realizes the golden form of Lord Gauranga, Who is the ultimate actor and the source of the Supreme Brahman, he attains the highest knowledge. He transcends both pious and impious activities, becomes free from worldly bondage, and enters the divine abode of the Lord.”]

[Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad, 3.3]

Rukma varṇaṁ means yellow, and here also the pīta comes to akṛṣṇa, non black means yellow. So antaḥ kṛṣṇaṁ bahir gauraṁ, the black colour is emitting out, as if, through the yellow lustre, antaḥ kṛṣṇaṁ bahir gauraṁ.

In other words, the fact is that Kṛṣṇa wanted to come as incarnation of Kali – this Kali-yuga, and to fulfil His promise in Vṛndāvana that, “I shall chant the glory of the gopīs, and especially of Rādhārāṇī. I shall take, chant Her Name, Her glory, and roll on the earth, on the dust of the earth.”

But Rādhārāṇī told: “I won’t allow Your body to roll on the earth, on the dust of the earth. I shall cover You. I shall cover You.”

So: antaḥ kṛṣṇaṁ bahir gauraṁ, bhāva, kānti, so both mood, as well as lustre, the colour of Rādhārāṇī captured Kṛṣṇa when He came here in Kali. Not in all Kali but on special Kali, the twenty eighth day of Brahmā. In all the days of Brahmā, every yuga, every Yuga-Avatāra comes, but only on the twenty eighth day of Brahmā – astavim satachu yuge [?] Svayaṁ-Bhagavān in Vṛndāvana, and Svayaṁ-Bhagavān in Navadwīpa, these are both Yuga-Avatāra, absorbed there. So antaḥ kṛṣṇaṁ, kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣā, ‘akṛṣṇaṁ means... antaḥ kṛṣṇaṁ bahir gauraṁ, darśitāṅgādi-vaibhavam. He does not come alone. He comes with His paraphernalia, suitable companions, to do His duty. And this Kali, double function. First to preach the Nāma-saṅkīrtana, and most important, the second is the special of this age is rādhā-bhāva-dyuti-suvalita, to, Kṛṣṇa posing Himself in the mood of Rādhārāṇī wants to taste His own rasa. He’s raso vai saḥ.

“I am rasa Himself, but how, and what intensity of finest rasa in Me I like to taste only devotees can taste.”

So He took the posing of Rādhārāṇī to taste Himself, His own self as Kṛṣṇa, the central and final perfection, abode of rasa. Only Rādhārāṇī can taste that rasa maximum, and He had to take that nature, that mood, that temperament, to taste His own intrinsic ecstasy. So for that He came down. And the first duty to spread Nāma-saṅkīrtana and the secondary internal private duty was to – bhajana vibhajana prayojana avatārī, to taste His own intrinsic ecstasy in the mood of Rādhārāṇī.

So in Purī, with Rāya Rāmānanda, Svarūpa, and others similar, that great union in separation. The ocean of separation, union in separation, that sort of life continuously twelve years, the last twelve years He past His time only in the process of tasting.

Sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam, yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ. And that incarnation is generally worshipped by saṅkīrtana. Without saṅkīrtana Gaurāṅga and His paraphernalia cannot be worshipped. He’s satisfied with the type of worship mainly where His saṅkīrtana. He’s propounder of saṅkīrtana. He loves saṅkīrtana, and He gets satisfaction only by saṅkīrtana, Nāma-saṅkīrtana, yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ.

And only the sukṛti-van, not all, the common mob cannot join this campaign. The sukṛti-van, who has good guidance internally, good fortune, fortunate persons that can catch the very gist of truth, that what should be the highest ideal, the criterion of the ideal. That is love, that is the supreme thing, the most rare as well as the most precious thing is love, and nothing else, bhāgavata-prema, love, beauty, charm. This is the highest thing ever known to the world, and those that can catch this they are really sumedhasaḥ, good intellect: well intellect. Otherwise rubbish brain can’t detect what is right, what is wrong, or how much it is precious, more precious, than what, they cannot understand, can’t follow. Sumedhasaḥ, their intellect is good, who can detect, by the end, by the plan, by the object of a man, he should be judged from his aspiration, or how valuable a thing, his ideal. Man is, should be judged by his ideal. If ideal is great the man is great. The ideal – one who possesses the highest ideal, he should be considered to be the man of higher order. So sumedhasaḥ, they can only understand, and they generally practice this sort:

Kalau nama matye bhagavan idyate hari [?] They take to this path, this process, of satisfying the supreme Nāma-yajña. In Bhāgavatam this is mentioned, in Mahābhārata also and different places. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

So Karabhājana Ṛṣi, the last of the Nava-Yogendra, he gave us the clue about the Yuga-Avatāra and that of Mahāprabhu, the Yuga-Avatāra of this Kali-yuga, and in a very mystic way. Why not very plainly? It must come to our mind. So many Avatāra’s are clearly described, and here, when he came to say about Caitanyadeva, Yuga-Avatāra of Kali, in a mystic form he cast it. What’s the matter? It is found in Prahlāda’s sayings, channaḥ kalau yad abhavas tri-yugo 'tha sa tvam.

[itthaṁ nṛ-tiryag-ṛṣi-deva-jhaṣāvatārair, lokān vibhāvayasi haṁsi jagat pratīpān
dharmaṁ mahā-puruṣa pāsi yugānuvṛttaṁ, channaḥ kalau yad abhavas tri-yugo ’tha sa tvam]

[“In this way, my Lord, You appear in various incarnations as a human being, an animal, a great saint, a demigod, a fish or a tortoise, thus maintaining the entire creation in different planetary systems and killing the demoniac principles. According to the age, O my Lord, You protect the principles of religion. In the Age of Kali, however, You do not assert Yourself as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and therefore You are known as Triyuga, or the Lord who appears in three yugas.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.9.38]

“O Lord, one of Your Names is Triyuga. Triyuga means one who incarnates in three of the yugas - Satya, Treta, and Dvāpara - and not in Kali. And why? Channaḥ - because the incarnation in Kali is in disguise.”

There we find the key to this mystic way of representing Mahāprabhu to the sumedhasaḥ, that particular circle, so that ordinary people may not have any clue, sumedhasaḥ. So channaḥ kalau, it is the...

Sārvabhauma put this question to Gopīnātha Ācārya, before he met Mahāprabhu, er, after meeting Mahāprabhu, then Gopīnātha Ācārya, his brother-in-law, he was residing in Navadwīpa and he was in favour of Mahāprabhu – both of them had a talk about Mahāprabhu Caitanyadeva.

Then Sārvabhauma began to praise Mahāprabhu in his own line as a beautiful man, and big scholar also. “I have got much attraction for Him, but the one thing I can’t find very judicious in Him that in young age He has taken sannyāsa. Long life left, how will He be able to keep up the dignity of the life of a young sannyāsī? I like Him, but I can’t sit idle. I must help Him. I like that boy very much. I shall have to help Him as a guardian, so that He may not lose His prestige by giving up sannyāsa, attracted by the fascination of the worldly pleasures.”

Gopīnātha could not tolerate all these guardian-like advises. “What do you think about Him? He’s a young man, very beautiful, very charming, and very scholarly, and so He has attracted your attention and you want to become His guardian to keep up the purity of His life, and you’ll have to help Him. What do you mean saying all these things? Don’t you know that He’s really the Āvatāra of Kali-yuga. He inaugurated saṅkīrtana in Navadwīpa, and it is found in the śāstra.”

[Sārvabhauma replied:] “No, no. You have not come to an ordinary person, that you will say and I will take. This is a hard nut to crack. What do you say? No Kali-yuga Āvatāra. It is in one of the Names that Viṣṇu is Triyuga, in Viṣṇu-sahasra-nāma, in Mahābhārata. That means He has got no Āvatāra in Kali, except that Dās Āvatāra, Kalki Āvatāra, in the last stage of Kali, so not Yuga-Āvatāra, so Triyuga.”

Then Gopīnātha also put: “You think yourself very proud that you know all the, you have gone through all the śāstras. But Mahābhārata and Śrīmad-Bhāgavata they’re the principal śāstra of the sanātanists, and you have got no particular knowledge about that. So from Bhāgavatam and Mahābhārata:

suvarṇa-varṇo hemāṅgo, varāṅgaś candanāṅgadī

sannyāsa-kṛc chamaḥ śānto, niṣṭhā-śānti-parāyaṇaḥ

[“Appearing in a handsome golden form with limbs smeared with sandalwood paste, He looks like a figure of beauty made of molten gold. He accepts the sannyāsa order and always remains equipoised and peaceful. He is the highest resort of peace and devotion.”] [Caitanya- caritāmṛta, Ādī-līlā, 3.49]

He quoted this passage from Mahābhārata, Bhāgavatam, and pushed that: “Here we find that direct Āvatāra in Kali, and Nāma-saṅkīrtana to spread and He has done it. He’s not a man but He’s the Lord Himself.”

[Sārvabhauma replied:] “No, no. Go away. Mind your own business. Then you will come to teach me.”

In this way, about Mahāprabhu – I can’t remember, some other point...

But anyhow, Sārvabhauma asked Śrī Caitanyadeva: “I’d like to teach Vedānta so that You can keep up the standard of Your mind that this world is nothing, so no charm You may feel hereafter to enter again into mundane life.”

[Śrī Caitanyadeva said] “Yes, you are My guardian. Whatever you’ll say I must do that. I must come, and at your suitable time I must learn Vedānta from you.”

Then, another thing, Gopīnātha told to Śrī Caitanyadeva that: “Sārvabhauma was saying like this. He does not know Your real acquaintances.”

[Śrī Caitanyadeva said] “No, no. Why do you say against him? He’s My guardian. He’s My father’s class mate. So he has got much affection for Me from that, so he poses himself as My guardian and he’s looking after My welfare. I don’t see any fault there.”

Then Mahāprabhu is hearing and Sārvabhauma speaking Vedānta. Mahāprabhu keeping silent; only like a good boy in a submissive attitude, giving hearing. But Sārvabhauma after seven days of teaching, then he had some doubt in his mind: “What’s the matter? I’m such a scholar in Vedānta, and nyāya darśana, and I’m trying my best with all my intelligence I’m coming to put before Him the inner meaning of the Vedānta, but no response from Him. Only like a dumb and deaf as if He’s only attending, sitting quietly. But I can’t say that He can’t understand. He has a sharp intellect. That I’m sure He possesses. But still, no appreciation, no response whatsoever. No question, whether He understands or not, nothing of the kind. Then what am I doing?” He could not keep himself and put the question straight to Him. “That more than perhaps seven days I have been explaining the inner meaning of Vedānta. And so many sannyāsīns come to me to be taught about the Vedānta. But You don’t find any enquiry in my talk, in my explanation. You keep silent, a wonderful silence, a strange silence.”

Then Mahāprabhu came out: “Sārvabhauma, what you explain, that is on the basis of Śaṅkara philosophy. But I heard that Śaṅkarācārya has rather covered the real purpose of Vedānta. Vyāsadeva is a theistic person, cent per cent. He has prepared this Vedānta. And what you say that is all atheistic colour. And I heard that Śaṅkarācārya, by the order of Nārāyaṇa, he just put a screen over the real meaning, purpose of Vedānta.”

Then, Sārvabhauma was an intelligent man, he realised, “That in a very soft way He wants to say that what I’m explaining that is all false. What does He say? I’m labouring diligently explaining for seven days with my earnest capacity, utmost capacity, and now He comes out with His own colour to say that what I’m explaining is all false. What does He say?”

Still, as like a gentleman way Sārvabhauma anyhow hesitatingly put this bold question to Caitanyadeva: “Then You say that what I’m explaining for so many days that is all unsubstantial, unreal. Then can You give the proper meaning – this is improper, this is false – the real meaning of Vedānta?”

[Caitanyadeva replied] “If you order Me I shall, I may try. Vyāsa sūtra, it is very ornamental, it is very lustrous in itself. It is all leading towards that Parabrahman, that Kṛṣṇa.” Then, anyhow Mahāprabhu began with this introduction and He told: “The Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the real explanation, explanatory book of Vedānta.”

artho 'yaṁ brahma sūtrānāṁ, bhāratārtha-vinirṇayaḥ

gāyatrī bhāṣya rūpo 'sau, vedārthaḥ paribriṁhitaḥ

[“Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam represents the real purport of Vedānta-sūtra. And although it is very difficult to draw out the real purpose of the one hundred thousand verse epic Mahābhārata, the great history of the world, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam has come to give its real meaning. The mother of all Vedic knowledge is the Gāyatrī mantra. Śrīmad Bhāgavatam gives the gist of Gāyatrī in a very full-fledged way. And the supplementary truths of the Vedas are also found within Śrīmad Bhāgavatam.”] [Garuḍa-Purāna]

In Padma-Purāna or Garuḍa-Purāna it is mentioned perhaps. Artho 'yaṁ brahma sūtrānāṁ, this Bhāgavatam is the real, represents the real purport of Vedānta-sūtra, brahma sūtrānāṁ. Bhāratārtha-vinirṇayaḥ, and that vast literature of Mahābhārata, one lākh of śloka, it is very difficult to take out the real purpose of that book. Śrīmad-Bhāgavata has come to give the real meaning, bhāratārtha-vinirṇayaḥ. Gāyatrī bhāṣya rūpo 'sau, the mother of the Vedic knowledge is Gāyatrī, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavata really gives the very gist explained in a full-fledged way, that of Gāyatrī. Vedārthaḥ paribriṁhitaḥ, and the conscious supplementary teachings of the Veda are also here. So Bhāgavata is the – Vedānta must be explained in the line of the truth which has been expressed in Bhāgavata, then the real meaning will be.”

Then when the question of Bhāgavata came, then Sārvabhauma could not, as smārta he could not deny Bhāgavatam, so he told, “Yes. Bhāgavata also I like, and especially there is a śloka:

ātmārāmāś ca munayo, nirgranthā apy urukrame

kurvanty ahaitukīṁ bhaktim, ittham-bhūta guṇo hariḥ

[“Those sages who, being merged in the bliss of the spirit soul, are totally free from the binding knot of mental images - they too engage in the unmotivated service of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the performer of marvellous deeds. This is but one of the qualities of the Supreme Lord Hari, who charms the entire world.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.7.10]

“A very beautiful śloka there is.” Then Sārvabhauma himself, to regain his lost prestige, he began to explain this ātmārāmā śloka, and in eight ways he explained it, this ātmārāmā śloka.

Then Mahāprabhu, as previously, He’s hearing, then after finishing his eight ways of explanation of this śloka Sārvabhauma thought that he had regained his position, to certain extent. Still, as courtesy, he put to Mahāprabhu: “Are You satisfied with this explanation? But if You can give more light to that, of course I may listen to that.”

Then Mahāprabhu: “If you order Me I may try.” Then Mahāprabhu gave eighteen different types of explanations of that śloka, leaving away those nine [?] already taken by Sārvabhauma.

Then while attending to that explanation Sārvabhauma gradually losing his position – finished. The pride is finished. “Such consistent and beautiful, devotional and irresistible explanations are coming, superseding all those that with great energy and effort I came to the position to explain. And what I thought, no human being can cross this sort of explanation. So it is no human intellect can cross my, these different sorts of explanation. It is all covering. But this young boy what’s He doing?”

And gradually he lost his faith in him, nonplussed. And then he saw, when the thought came that, “Gopīnātha told that He’s not a man. This is not possible for a man to explain things in this way, so He’s something super natural.”

Then he found Caitanyadeva in His, that Nārāyaṇa and Kṛṣṇa, He’s there. And he almost fainted. Then anyhow when he rose from his trance found that that boy with humility He’s sitting there, and He’s in the position of a student.

Then Mahāprabhu told that, “Today I may go, by your consent?”

[Sārvabhauma told] “Yes, yes, You may go now.” Mahāprabhu went away and Sārvabhauma remained there. After some time he recovered and began, “What is this I saw, Catuḥbhuja Nārāyaṇa, then Vaṁṣīvādana Kṛṣṇa? He’s not a man. So I’m not defeated by a man; that is my solace.” Sārvabhauma became a changed man.

vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yoga, śikṣārtham ekaḥ puruṣaḥ purāṇaḥ

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-śarīra-dhāri, kṛpāmbudhir yas tam ahaṁ prapadye

[“I surrender unto the lotus feet of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is an ocean of mercy. He is the original Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, and has descended to teach us the real meaning of knowledge, renunciation, and devotion to Him.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 6.254]

kālān naṣṭam bhakti-yogaṁ nijaṁ yaḥ, prāduṣkartuṁ kṛṣṇa-caitanya-nāmā

āvirbhūtas tasya pādāravinde, gāḍhaṁ gāḍhaṁ līyatāṁ citta-bhṛṅgaḥ

[Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya said: “Let the honeybee of my mind dive deep into the lotus feet of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa Himself. He has appeared to revive the path of unalloyed devotion, which had almost become lost due to the influence of time.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 6.255]

These two ślokas composed by Sārvabhauma expressing that He’s the incarnation of Nārāyaṇa.

Next morning, very early morning, Mahāprabhu with some prasādam from the Jagannātha temple ran to Sārvabhauma. Sārvabhauma was still in bed and Mahāprabhu came and asked aloud: “Sārvabhauma, what a wonderful taste of this Jagannātha prasādam, a very extraordinary taste. You please take it. I have come to you with this prasādam.”

Sārvabhauma anyhow rose up from the bed, and Mahāprabhu is offering, and he can’t but take. But not cleansing his mouth, a brāhmaṇa paṇḍita he will always cleanse his mouth, then he’ll do some functions, sandhya, vandana, jāpa, then he’ll take prasādam. But Mahāprabhu came and He’s about to give it to his hand, what to do, he had to take.

Mahāprabhu told: “We have got from our previous experience what the taste is of these things, this is ghee, the rice, the sweet, and the spices, we all know how, what taste they have got, but this is wonderful. This has touched the lips, the saliva of Kṛṣṇa Himself, so it is wonderfully tasteful.”

Then Sārvabhauma took and with uttering some mantram.

śuskaṁ paryuṣitaṁ vāpi, nītaṁ vā dūra-deśataḥ

prāpti-mātreṅa bhoktavyaṁ, nātra kāla-vicāraṇā

[“One should take the mahā-prasāda of Śrī Kṛṣṇa as soon as one receives it, without consideration of time or place, even though it may be dried up, stale, or brought from a distant country.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 6.225]

na deśa-niyamas tatra, na kāla-niyamas tathā

prāptam annaṁ drutaṁ śiṣtair, bhoktavyaṁ harir abravit

[“The prasāda of Śrī Kṛṣṇa is to be taken by gentlemen as soon as it is received, without hesitation. There are no regulative principles concerning time and place. This is the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 6.226]

Before taking any food, and began to dance. And Mahāprabhu also began to dance. And Mahāprabhu told: “Today I have conquered the whole when I conquered a scholar like Sārvabhauma.” ________________________________________ [?] “Sārvabhauma he has got so much faith in mahā-prasāda that without doing any Vedic function he took the prasādam. My mission is successful.”

He began to dance and Sārvabhauma began to dance __________________ [?] and Sārvabhauma fell in a swoon. And then after some time Sārvabhauma’s rising he came to the feet of Mahāprabhu: “Please deliver me from...

“No, no, Sārvabhauma you are so great. You are My guardian. For you I have come here.”

All these things! Then Gopīnātha Ācārya said: “Well, Sārvabhauma, how are you?”

[Sārvabhauma replied] “It is by your grace that I got the grace of Mahāprabhu. You are my friend, in this way.”

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. So, today I may stop here.

End of 81.11.10.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.11.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...it is not possible for us to observe the right day, then the day after we shall select. In the case of especially Ekādaśī it has been mentioned, not day before but day after. That should be accepted. That is the direction of Jīva Goswāmī.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: According to the almanac, this is the most inauspicious day of the year.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This is the happiest and most fortunate day for you because being born on this day you came to Guru and Kṛṣṇa. Many birthdays already passed, but this birthday has taken you in connection of Kṛṣṇa. So it should be respected by you also. Not only by your disciples, friends and relatives but you also have some respect for this day ________ blessed you.

So, in Rāmānanda Rāya Saṁvāda we find:

ye kāle vā svapane, dekhinu vaṁśi vadane, sei kāle āilā dui vairi

‘ānanda’ āra ‘madana,’ hari’ nila mora mana, dekhite nā pāinu netra bhari’

[punaḥ yadi kona kṣaṇa, kayāya kṛṣṇa daraśana, tabe sei ghaṭī-kṣaṇa-pala

diyā mālya-candana, nānā ratna-ābharaṇa, alaṅkṛta karimu sakala]

[“Whenever I had the chance to see Lord Kṛṣṇa’s face and His flute, even in a dream, two enemies would appear before Me. They were pleasure and Cupid, and since they took away My mind, I was not able to see the face of Kṛṣṇa to the full satisfaction of My eyes.”] [“If by chance such a moment comes when I can once again see Kṛṣṇa, then I shall worship those seconds, moments and hours with flower garlands and pulp of sandalwood and decorate them with all kinds of jewels and ornaments.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 2.37-8]

“When in My trance I came to have a divine vision of Kṛṣṇa, two enemies suddenly appeared.” Rādhārāṇī said; these are the sayings of Rādhārāṇī. ‘Ānanda’ āra ‘madana. “The ecstasy and also a feeling which is corresponding to the extreme love in complete self surrender. Ānanda’ āra ‘madana,’ hari’ nila mora mana, dekhite nā pāinu netra bhari’. And I could not see Kṛṣṇa very clearly. These two enemies disturbed Me. The ecstasy made Me self forgetful. And also My greed for His touch, that also another enemy. They did not allow Me to have a clear vision of Kṛṣṇa, darśana. So My thirst is not quenched of seeing Him.”

punaḥ yadi kona kṣaṇa, kayāya kṛṣṇa daraśana, tabe sei ghaṭī-kṣaṇa-pala

diyā mālya-candana, nānā ratna-ābharaṇa, alaṅkṛta karimu sakala

“Again if I get chance of that darśana, if fortunately any more chance I get of His darśana then what should I do? I shall rather, avoiding Kṛṣṇa, I shall rather try to worship the time, that moment, that minute, that second. I shall try to worship and propitiate the time that time may stay for some time. Punaḥ yadi kona kṣaṇa, kayāya kṛṣṇa daraśana, tabe sei ghaṭī-kṣaṇa-pala, diyā mālya-candana. With garlands and with sandal paste I shall try to worship the time, and not Kṛṣṇa. If time stands being propitiated with My respectful behaviour, then Kṛṣṇa will be there. _______________ [?] alaṅkṛta karimu sakala. Try to fix this time. You stay for some time. The Kṛṣṇa showing time, you be eternal here. Like lightening you come and go, vanish.”

So the time, we are to worship, deśa, kala, patra. The time, the place, that is also cinmaya, the paraphernalia of Kṛṣṇa is also worth, be fortunate to worship the paraphernalia more than we shall have to honour the paraphernalia more than Him. That is the clue to success. Kāṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa sambandha. They are devotee and He is at their disposal. So if we can propitiate them, they will take interest about me and they can keep them, I can’t. I am helpless.

Devotee: So that is why we have come to take shelter at your lotus feet.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

ārādhanānām sarveśāṁ, viṣṇor ārādhanaṁ param

tasmāt parataraṁ devi, tadīyānām samārcanam

[“O Devī, the most exalted system of worship is the worship of Lord Viṣṇu. Greater than that is the worship of tadīya, or anything belonging to Viṣṇu.”] [Padma-Purāṇa] & [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 11.2.45, purport] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 12.38, purport]

Once, Pārvatī-devī asked Mahādeva: “Of all the worship, whose worship is the best?”

Then Mahādeva told plainly: “The worshipping and devotion of Lord Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu; that is the highest.”

Then Pārvatī was a little mortified and disappointed: “But I am serving Mahādeva, so I’m holding a little lower position.”

But the next line came: Tasmāt parataraṁ devi, tadīyānām samārcanam. “That more than that, devotion of the devotees of the Lord, that is more than that, more than the devotion of the Lord Himself.”

Then Pārvatī smiled. “Then I am serving the devotee of the Lord, Mahādeva is a devotee, vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ. So I am in the right side, doing the best.”

[nimna-gānāṁ yathā gaṅgā, devānām acyuto yathā
vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ, purāṇānām idam tathā]

[“Just as the Gaṅgā is the greatest of all rivers, Lord Acyuta the supreme among deities and Lord Śambhu [Śiva] the greatest of Vaiṣṇavas, so Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the greatest of all Purāṇas.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 12.13.16] & [SCSM’s Śrī Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā, p 144]

And also Kṛṣṇa has said:

[ye me bhakta-janāḥ partha, ne me bhaktaś ca te janāḥ]

mad bhaktānāṁ ca ye bhaktās, te me bhaktatamā mataḥ

“Those that worship Me direct, they are not devotee of the right type. But real devotees are those who are devoted to My own devotee.” [Ādi-Purāṇa] & [Laghu-Bhāgavatāmṛta, 2.6] & [BBT’s Mukunda-mālā-stotra, 25, purport]

So, and that is true. If you love me, love my dog. To love ones dog, how much intensity to love, be with the master when one can love his dog. His dog, of course, not to take away the dog for himself: not with that idea, independent love for the dog. But because his dog, so I love him. That is the higher test to our love, whether real love or not.

So, because the Lord Himself is more pleased if He sees that His servant is being served. Why? Because His servants, they always serve Him and they won’t take anything in return from Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa tries to give something, but they won’t take. No express to enter something in return of the service. Cent per cent service: and not any possibility of any remuneration there. Not a hole through which some remuneration can be pushed. Wholesale servant, nothing but. He tries His best to give something in return, but He fails. But when He sees that this desired end is done by someone else, some third person, He becomes indebted to him, more.

“What I want to try My best to do, and I can’t, but another person is doing My job. What I wanted, he’s doing, I can’t. I fail. I like to do, but I fail, not accepted. But another person is doing the same thing which I desired.”

So He’s more inclined, Kṛṣṇa is more favourable to the man who is serving His servant. Then He comes to serve him. That is the underlying purpose, that, mad bhaktānāṁ ca ye bhaktās, te me bhaktatamā mataḥ. “Those that are devotee of My devotee, they are My real devotee of My heart.” So bhakta-pūjā.

Devotee: Kṛṣṇa feels that through these devotees He can pay back His debt to His servants. Is that the mood Mahārāja?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, on His behalf, what He can’t, He’s unfit, another man is doing that, then He cannot but be satisfied from the core of His heart. “I’m trying my utmost, earnest to give something, to help me, but he won’t accept.” But another man is doing that, so He’s much inclined to that man who is doing that which He could not do. Mad bhaktānāṁ ca ye bhaktās, te me bhaktatamā mataḥ. Superlative degree: so bhakta-pūjā, honouring the devotee.

Devotee: ________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _____________________ [?] Affirmed in Bhāgavatam and in Veda. Also it is mentioned by Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Vṛndāvana Dāsa Ṭhākura, amāra bhakta-pūjā, amā haite bala [“Worship of the devotees is the best kind of worship.”] So bhakta-pūjā is also necessary.

[ādaraḥ paricaryāyāṁ, sarvāṅgair abhivandanam

mad-bhakta-pūjābhyadhikā, sarva-bhūteṣu man-matiḥ]

[Kṛṣṇa said: “My devotees take great care and respect in rendering Me service, offering obeisances with all their bodily limbs, and - above all - worshipping My devotees. They see all living entities as related to Me.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.19.21]

Devotee: In the Bhāgavatam it mentions Mahārāja that, amāra bhakta-pūjā, amā haite bala, but till we heard it from you, we did not know why.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You know it, guru-pūjā, bhakta srestha guru, mukuṇḍa prestha, bhakta srestha gurudeva, to worship Him, to respect Him, to devote everything to Him, that is a big thing. And you are aware of the fact, through Swāmī Mahārāja, of bhakta-pūjā. But at the same time we should look for that, who is bhakta. That is also to be ascertained, what is the sign of a real Vaiṣṇava, bhakta. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Yesterday you were discussing the progression from the sense objects, to the senses, to the mind, to the intelligence, and then to the conscious background of our life, the Brahman, and then beyond that to the person who is the source of the Brahman. And if someone were to succeed in going beyond the cloudiness of the mind, intelligence and so forth, and to reach the basic level of the conscious background of existence, then what kind of conscious adjustment has to be made at that point in order to pierce into the Vaikuṇṭha, or to go into the Vaikuṇṭha?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Do you understand?

Devotee: The later part I couldn’t.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Again repeat.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: If the soul, freed from that cloud, infinitesimal soul, fully aware of himself as spirit and not body and mind, then in that position, he is aware of the existence of Nārāyaṇa above him in the Vaikuṇṭha. And he wants to direct his consciousness towards that, what is the system at that point. How is it to be done?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ke bolchen?

Devotee: [17:10 - 17:55, Bengali [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The real man who will worship his inside by sādhana, he is being discovered. And he will come to do the needful, the inner man. The inner soul, he will awake, and it will be his duty to do. And the external cover that will go away, vanish away gradually. And the inner man will come out to do his duty. Whatever circumstance he is faced, to do justice to the circumstance. Whether Nārāyaṇa, or Vāsudeva, or Kṛṣṇa, Baladeva, it is already there and he will come and recognize the object of his worship and love and duty. Am I clear?

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Yes, very clear.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Back to God, back to home. He will recognize when he’ll enter into the home, he will gradually recognize who is who, and to whom, how to deal. To enter into home means that, to be reinstated.

kṛti-sādhyā bhavet sādhya-bhāva sā sādhanābhidhā

nitya-siddhasya bhāvasya prākaṭyaṁ hṛdi sādhyatā

[“The process of devotional service - beginning with chanting and hearing - is called sādhana-bhakti. This includes the regulative principles that are intended to awaken one to devotional service. Devotional service is always dormant in everyone’s heart, and by the offence-less chanting of the Holy Names of Kṛṣṇa, one’s original dormant Kṛṣṇa consciousness is awakened, as the beginning of sādhana-bhakti. This can be divided into many different parts, such as, - faith, association with devotees, initiation by the spiritual master, engagement in devotional service under the instructions of a spiritual master, steadiness in devotional service and the awakening of a taste for devotional service. In this way, one can become attached to Kṛṣṇa and His service, and when this attachment is intensified, it results in ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa.”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, 1.2.2]

What is already there, only to discover, remove the cover, that is what is sādhana. The sādhana confines itself to uncovering. And it is there, he will recognize his own object, and duty also, everything.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: It lies in his nature to be attracted to that. So that nature will come out.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Yes. The atmosphere, paraphernalia, inner tendency, they will say, ‘you are to do this.’

During the last Great War, here, in Calcutta in the Writers [?] building, perhaps the government, they had painted a picture of the dress of the soldier. And there, just below, it is written, “Take this dress and the dress will say you what to do. Dress yourself with this uniform, and the uniform will say you what to do.”

So the paraphernalia and the inner awakening, they will say [to] you more clearly, this life is a vague one. But that is more and more clear, and more real, and more and more tasteful. So once it begins to vanish, it will be nowhere. When it will come in contact with that high power of divine love or anything like that, knowledge, this will vanish like anything. It will fly away of its own accord. That is reality and this is after all unreal foreign thing, which has covered. So when the sun rises, darkness flies away. What direction it can’t ascertain.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: We’ve heard that Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was worshipping Gaura and Gadādhara at some time. Could you explain that relationship?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaurāṅga and?

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Gadādhara.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gadādhara, yes. When devotees of Gaurāṅga, they have got twofold characteristic within: one, participating in Kṛṣṇa līlā, another in Gaura līlā. One in mādhurya: another in audārya. One confined into their own līlā with Kṛṣṇa, another with the idea of distributing that to the public, mādhurya and audārya.

Now, amongst those fortunate souls, or parṣadas, or servitors, there are also three gradations. One more attracted to Kṛṣṇa līlā, another more attracted to Gaura līlā, and some in the middle position. But when one is in Gaura līlā if his innate hankering comes to have a darśana of Kṛṣṇa līlā then of course the Gaura-Gadādhara appears to him as Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.

And when participating in Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa līlā if sometimes he has got any will to have a conception of the figure Gaura līlā, how it will come, then he says that Rādhā-Govinda is transformed into Gaura-Gadādhara, in this way.

In this way, when inclination is to have the hankering for the service of particular līlā the Lord Himself manifests Himself in that paraphernalia, that nature, to satisfy the inner will of the devotee, for giving room to that sort of service. A peculiar tendency of service arises at times in the heart of the devotee, the Lord appears in that way to receive, to fulfil his desire to receive his services in that way, in that form. That is the reason, sometimes.

Sometimes a servant he is seeing his master in a plain dress. But suppose he had some hankering, ‘I want to see my master in a gorgeous dress,’ then the master, when he comes to know that, he appears before him in a gorgeous dress, grand, And sometimes in plain dress.

Sometimes one may appear as a king, as a lover, as a friend, according to the demand, or the hankering of the circumstance and the paraphernalia. But both, or everything, is eternal, only change of phase. And that also, some devotees are seeing in some way, another in another way.

And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is saying, “Gaura-Gadādhara and Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa They are.”

Another devotee standing by the side, he may not see that. To satisfy the inner hankering, the opposite, the relative side also comes to response, the other side, vice versa. The law of relativity makes it possible.

When Rāmānanda Rāya, Mahāprabhu wanted to show His own: ‘Who are you?’

Rāmānanda Rāya, from the nature of the inquisitiveness of Mahāprabhu, Śrī Caitanyadeva, he had some mystic idea in his mind. “Who is He? He’s not an ordinary person, or sannyāsī, or a scholar, but something more. These inquiries are coming from where? His high inquisitiveness is a mystic, most undetectable thing. He must be Kṛṣṇa Himself, otherwise all these subtle points rising in my mind and making me, and forcing me to relate all these things.” Then he came with his open statement. “Who are You? I don’t think You are an ordinary sannyāsī scholar. But You must say to me who are You? You are Kṛṣṇa Himself. I have got a great impression, inspiration like that. And You must not hide me.”

Raya kahe chare bhuli bare bhuli [?] “First I saw as an ordinary brāhmaṇa sannyāsī, preaching about devotion of Kṛṣṇa. But gradually as You rise in a gradual improving process in Your inquiry, then the doubt in my mind arose. You have come to me. I have not gone to You. You have kindly come to me, to purify this nasty person. And now You conceal Yourself from me. I can’t understand. But whoever You be, I am sure that what You are inquiring after, You are that thing. You are He, Him, He is You.”

pahile dekhiluṅ tomāra sannyāsi-svarūpa, [ebe tomā dekhi muñi śyāma-gopa-rūpa]

[Rāmānanda Rāya then told Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, “At first I saw You appear like a sannyāsī, but now I am seeing You as Śyāmasundara, the cowherd boy.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.268]

“Gradually my vision, my estimations about You are changing, changing, changing. First I saw You as a sannyāsī, brāhmaṇa, a devotee. And gradually I am of opinion that You are śyāma gopa rūpa, that cowherd boy, absolute in the garb of cowherd boy.”

tomāra sammukhe dekhi kāñcana-pañcālikā, tāṅra gaura-kāntye tomāra sarva aṅga ḍhākā

[“I now see You appearing like a golden doll, and Your entire body appears covered by a golden lustre.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.269]

“What is the peculiar thing I am seeing? That a golden figure is just standing by Your side, and the grace of that Lady has covered Your body. I see like that. What is this? What is the mystery? Please divulge it to me. With folded palm I ask You.”

Then Mahāprabhu told:

gaura aṅga nahe mora — rādhāṅga-sparśana, gopendra-suta vinā teṅho nā sparśe anya-jana

[“Actually My body does not have a fair complexion. It only appears so because it has touched the body of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. However, She does not touch anyone but the son of Nanda Mahārāja.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.287]

“My colour, My own colour is not yellow. But by the touch of Rādhārāṇī it shows like, appears like yellow. Her grace has covered Me. And: gopendra-suta vinā teṅho nā sparśe anya-jana. And She never touches anybody than Her lover, the cowherd Kṛṣṇa. So who am I? Now you know for yourself.”

Rasa-rāja mahābhāva dui eka rūpa, Rasa-rāja, the ecstasy, highest ecstasy personified and the highest appreciator of that ecstasy, both combined. Rasa-rāja mahābhāva dui eka rūpa.

[tabe hāsi’ tāṅre prabhu dekhāila svarūpa] ‘rasa-rāja’, ‘mahābhāva’ — dui eka rūpa

[“Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the reservoir of all pleasure, and Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is the personification of ecstatic love of Godhead. These two forms had combined as one in Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. This being the case, Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu revealed His real form to Rāmānanda Rāya.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.282]

dekhi’ rāmānanda hailā ānande mūrcchite, [dharite nā pāre deha, paḍilā bhūmite]

[“Upon seeing this form, Rāmānanda Rāya lost consciousness in transcendental bliss. Unable to remain standing, he fell to the ground.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.283]

Rāmānanda could not stand any longer there, could not retain his normal consciousness, but fainted. Dharite nā pāre deha, paḍilā bhūmite. Of course they are seating, but he could not maintain his seating posture: a swoon.

prabhu tāṅre hasta sparśi’ karāilā cetana, [sannyāsīra veṣa dekhi’ vismita haila mana]

[“When Rāmānanda Rāya fell to the ground unconscious, Caitanya Mahāprabhu touched his hand, and he immediately regained consciousness. But when he saw Lord Caitanya in the dress of a sannyāsī, he was struck with wonder.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.284]

Mahāprabhu touched him to awaken him, to take him in the normal position. Then Rāmānanda again saw that sannyāsī, that golden sannyāsī sitting in his front. Then after a pause Mahāprabhu told: “Now I can come? Now it is late, I am going.”

Rāmānanda struck dumb there. Mahāprabhu went away to the brāhmaṇa’s house.

pahile dekhiluṅ tomāra sannyāsi-svarūpa, ebe tomā dekhi muñi śyāma-gopa-rūpa

[Rāmānanda Rāya then told Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, “At first I saw You appear like a sannyāsī, but now I am seeing You as Śyāmasundara, the cowherd boy.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.268]

Only once Mahāprabhu showed Himself in this way, to Rāya Rāmānanda, and never anywhere in His whole līlā, we find. ____________ [?] There He expressed Himself, showed Himself in that type, who am I? Who am I? Rāmānanda Rāya, Rāmānanda Rāya.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura told, of course in his own humble way he is producing himself to us: “That when I began the study about Caitanya līlā, very sweet, charming. But I failed to understand why Caitanyadeva, a great scholar and man of character, He recommended to us the highest līlā of the Lord in Vṛndāvana. That is in His autocratic way, thieving, stealing, then quarrelling with the neighbours and friends. And so much so that He’s having illicit connection with the girls there. What is this? And this has been supported by a person like Caitanyadeva, of the purest character and the finest intellect. How is this possible? I prayed fervently. Lord if I am fit, You please reveal it in me. I can’t, I fail to understand, follow. That this is the highest attainment we should aspire after. How it is possible?” Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said that: “That revelation came in me, how it is the highest conception of our all sorts of ideas, highest ideal. And at the same time, this simultaneously came in me that Caitanyadeva was that Kṛṣṇa Himself, none but.”

So absolute good, good, He is the autocrat. Everything belongs to Him. Everything belongs to Him. Then what filthy impression we go to bear about Him, that dirt is within us. We think that we are masters, that someone of my position is master of the world, so Kṛṣṇa is the trespasser. But in reality just the opposite, everything belongs to Him. And to establish any right over anything, that is trespassing. That is encroachment, unfair encroachment. Everything belongs to, īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ [Śrī Īśopaniṣad, 1]. The opposite is cent per cent true. And we think that it is in my possession, it is mine, that is misunderstanding, that is untrue.

So in the realm of Yogamāyā such posing is there but to enhance the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa Himself. It is necessary. It is couched in that way. As if it belongs to others. This is a peculiar process by which one can serve Kṛṣṇa in a variegated and ever new nature. A plan by Yogamāyā: the paraphernalia has been dressed in such a way. That is īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ, everything is the object for Him to enjoy, the absolute owner, the absolute enjoyer, the absolute good. And by His enjoyment everything gets its highest fulfilment of life. His position is such. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Ke?

Devotee: _______________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________ [?] Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Parakīya: a peculiar thing. Svakīya, He is the absolute master over everything. That consciousness normally it is the highest conception. But anything more, then something like māyā, not māyā, Yogamāyā, brings some more efficient plan, efficient plan to increase the intensity of the rasa as they are, in its proper pervasion, how, to make it what is very cheap, to make it unavailable. Just here in the present day the capitalists to increase the price they put underground, many things underground. And they keep the market strong, sharp.

So it is necessary that to arrange in such a way that the union is not very easy. It is very rarely to be found. To increase the demand, to increase the hunger of both the parties, and to increase the intensity of the love in union, it has been planned like that by Yogamāyā. To make it rare, not only rare, but also risky: from the social consideration, and also so much so that as if we are committing something unlawful. The risk, the intensity of risk, how much love: love, only rightful transaction. Can’t you take any risk for love? That is more intensified if one can take, baits himself. Both the parties take bait of their good name, fame etc., for the risk of that. Still the attraction: everything one side and attraction another side. The attraction gets the better hand. This is love proper, this is parakīya.

The highest love mādhurya and that is also vātsalya also. Yaśodā sometimes she hears that some say that He is Devakī’s son. “No, no, no. Why? Some say that He’s not my child, but some god has come to become my child. How it can be? Never! He’s my child.”

That sense of parakīya, some say like that: “One day then He may go away, leaving, that I may lose His affection.” So that is more intense than her filial love, parakīya. But it is not mine. It won’t stay permanently. Anyhow the separation may occur...

End of 81.11.11.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.11.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...in vātsalya also, so in sākhya also. In Vṛndāvana, this is the peculiarity, parakīya. The sakhā, “His will and thought and His conduct, seems to us that He is not sometimes our superior, superior thing. So not an ordinary friend we may hanker that a permanent friendship with Him. Maybe that He will leave us and go away in His own higher place. How then should we live? It would it be impossible to live. How we are enjoying this cow driving and also in the forest and these things, if He is withdrawn? He is the gem in the garland in the precious gem. If He is withdrawn then how these things will be conducted? It will be impossible for us. Our very limbs won’t move. We may lose Him.”

This apprehension exacts the love, more intensely from the core of the heart. This parakīya, a process, a peculiar process adopted in Vṛndāvana. Of course it is eternal but it has been devised there. It is eternally devised, the mādhurya rasa, and then to make every rasa to be more intense, the scarcity of that union has been always pushing in the background. You may lose it, be alert. Be alert to the maximum degree. You may lose it any moment. This idea makes the thing more, more intense. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

And the background, you will always think of, that no enjoying temperament is there. That is also though similar, but not same. That is all, and the purity that both the parties not aggressor, they serve Him. Here both parties aggressors, both have got some demand in union. But there it is the outlook, or the object of to serve the other. In every, in vātsalya rasa, śakhya rasa, mādhurya rasa, only with a serving approach it will serving temperament. Though it seems aggressor or aggressed, but really no enjoying spirit can be there. Lord Himself, Kṛṣṇa Himself, Nārāyaṇa Himself, though are master: Raja prakrti ranjana [?] Rāmacandra’s ideal is the ideal king. And what is the ideal of the king? prakrti ranjanath [?]

One who can please his subjects more, he is called raja. So their thought is in the highest degree of goodwill for all, the whole organization. The stomach gets the food, but in the interest of the whole of the body. The root takes water but whatever direction but for the whole organism. Distributing, not consuming, to attract and to consume in a centre, but it is also being distributed. That is the very nature of that land of dedication. That is Vaikuṇṭha, and Goloka, more intense. Not only in consideration with law but spontaneous love, distribution, self distribution by spontaneous love. That is Goloka: both the parties seeking the pleasure of the other, both the parties. Both the parties seeking self pleasure can unite, and both the parties seeking the serving of the other party also unite.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Devotee: Mahārāja, in our preaching we meet with many difficulties and disturbances. So, by understanding the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness we see that these are being arranged by Kṛṣṇa, but yet somehow in spite of this knowledge we are still disturbed. So how do we actually come to the point of removing the disturbance altogether?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha. Just what we talked is the basis of your question. The answer is there. To make it more important, more valuable, these things are arranged. You were saying they are taking, then no importance, much importance in the transaction. You see, what is undesirable, that is also utilized in the preaching. That is also getting the chance of service. What is undesirable to us, that is also harmonized, given some position. And it helps us to have a real taste of the thing. If earned with labour, the sweat of our brow, that is more tasteful. And what is easily accessible we do not find much taste there. To make it more valuable such things are necessary. And one who is favoured to undergo more pain for carrying this good news to the doors, he is more benefited and more favoured, gets more remuneration. Vini, vidi, vici. It is not so simple. Christ had to give his life. Socrates only declared that soul is immortal; for that he had to give up his life. And what is disturbance? Sometimes the devotees of real type they invite such pain, such misery. Kuntī Devī told:

vipadaḥ santu tāḥ śaśvat, tatra tatra jagad-guro

[bhavato darśanam yat syād, apunar bhava-darśanam]

[Queen Kuntī Devī prayed to Kṛṣṇa: “I wish that all those calamities (poisoning, arson, cannibalism, the vicious assembly, exile in the forest, the battle), would occur again and again so that we could have Your darśana again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.8.25]

“Let the danger, calamity may visit us always because that calamity attracts You, our friend to us. Only our calamity draws You to us. And we consider ourselves to be most fortunate.”

Calamity is no calamity when calamity can draw my friend to me. And peace of life, it keeps my friend away from me, that peace is not desirable. The pain of hunger is necessary for the enjoyment of feeding, taking food, it is necessary.

Devotee: So then sometimes the argument is given. We say that the spiritual world is sat-cit-ānanda. And people say if there is no pain then how can you enjoy pleasure? So that is actually a valid argument even in spiritual world.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. There is pain, there is pleasure. And pain is also there. But pain may be of different quality. The pain; suppose a patriot he sacrifices his life for the public, for the country. When there was fasting in Ireland, five or six persons continuously they observed fighting for their country. Feeling pain but in that pain there is a sort of pleasure; the quality, that is quality.

So Rādhārāṇī and gopī they are also: “We may lose the company of Kṛṣṇa.”

That is very painful. Their separation for a moment is very painful, but the pain of another type. The pleasure is also of another type, pain also another type.

When preaching in Madras, one gentleman put this question to me: “You say the highest ideal of you is Caitanyadeva, and what He is doing? He is always crying and lamenting, ‘I don’t get Kṛṣṇa.’ He’s rubbing His mouth in the wall, and what not, so many signs of ecstatic pain, great pain. And that is the ideal? We rather shuddered to have a conception of that highest realization of Caitanyadeva.”

That will cover your question, is it not? Ousted! I told him as it was mentioned.

bahye viṣajvāla haya, bhitare ānandamāya, kṛṣṇa premara adbhuta carite

[“The wonderful characteristic of divine love of Kṛṣṇa is that although externally, it works like fiery lava, internally it is like sweet nectar that fills the heart with the greatest joy.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 2.50]

The pain only superficial, and the ānanda is there. When one sacrifices his life for the others, in ordinary for love of country, and also society, something, or religion, they feel some pleasure within of a higher type, and the pain outside, negligent. As you like! Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

But do you like, because when awake you cannot but feel some pain. So when in sound sleep you don’t feel any pain. Do you like to sleep all the time? Because no pain can enter your mind, like the Māyāvādī’s in samādhi, do you like that? That if you are awake, some sort of pain or other, but when in sound sleep, no pain, morphine injected, no pain. Will you prefer that? Why? If not, why not? Then what is more pleasing, to stop all sorts of feelings and to become a stone, fossil? Do you want to go back to fossilism, because no pain, no pleasure? But there is such pleasure which can utilize pain also in its service. Just as suppose hunger. Hunger means a slight pain. And when otherwise, when you are eating, that pleasure will be absent if hunger is not there. It is removing that pain, that apparent pain. That is being appeased by your taking food. That is necessary measure, in the background. Pain is more than pleasure. Such, internally it is so pleasing. Ke?

[16:04 - 18:12, Bengali conversations [?]

I was posted at that time in Kurukṣetra and there was that exhibition of Kṛṣṇa coming from Dvārakā, and the gopīs and others, all going, the Pāṇḍavas, all going to meet Kṛṣṇa on the occasion of that solar eclipse.

[18:40 - 20:15, Bengali conversations [?]

...

... The Māyāvādī School there in Ayodhyā. He came to see that Kurukṣetra Maṭha.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

____________________ [?] Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Śrīdhara Mahārāja is my Guru.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mahāprabhu also accepted Īśvara Purī as Guru, and Keśava Bhāratī as sannyāsa Guru.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Paramahaṁsa Mahārāja is saying that Śrīdhara Mahārāja is his sannyāsa Guru.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Utilising me.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja is saying that even Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted sannyāsa from Keśava Bhāratī.

Devotee: ___________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: ___________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ________ [?] When that Maṭha came to light then Prabhupāda himself proposed him to take sannyāsa. But he was reluctant at that time. Perhaps he thought that what sort of service he’s engaged in, that is more suitable for him. So he did not show much earnestness for taking sannyāsa. “The service is all in all, and what is the necessity of the red cloth? That may bring some sense of prestige, pratiṣṭhā. We don’t like that.” That was his idea. But ultimately he preferred that, “Prabhupāda loved that tridaṇḍī-sannyāsī, and in his last days to fulfil his proposal which formally he put to me, I should accept the garb of a sannyāsī, I admit.”

Sannyāsa, of course for preaching it is an advantageous position of dignity. Otherwise Mahāprabhu said: sannyāsī more prema prayojana ye kadasa sannyāsa koina canya haila more [?]

He says that, “External renunciation is no renunciation at all. The internal purity of the heart, preparedness for the service of Kṛṣṇa and His devotees, that is really what is necessary for our good. Not to accept the external role and then do whatever you like. That will bring rather a reaction into the society.”

So prema prayojana. Anyhow the gṛhastha:

gṛhe vā vanete thāke, 'hā gaurāṅga' bo'le ḍāke, narottamo māge tāra saṅga

[Sāvaraṇa-śrī-gaura-mahimā, The Glories of Śrī Gaurāṅga, from Prārthanā]

[BBT’s Songs of the Vaiṣṇava Ācāryas, p 75-80]

[Bhakti Nandan Svāmī’s Śrī Bhakti Rakṣaka Bhajana Madhuri, p 7-8]

Narottama Ṭhākura says: “It matters little whether he is a householder or he is a sannyāsī. But how much love for Gaurāṅga he fosters in his heart; that is to be considered most valuable.”

But because it is necessary for the preaching purpose to take the favourable role of a sannyāsī we accept that. And sannyāsī of two kinds, bābājī for bhajan and the tridaṇḍī-sannyāsī for the propaganda of the Vaiṣṇava cult: tridaṇḍī. And ekadaṇḍī just the opposite says that, “We are God. We are more than God because Brahman is above God. The God conception is Brahman mixed with māyā, sattva guṇa. And when we are liberated we go above God, Brahman.” So, they are more than God. They do not want any God. That is, they are the highest stuff. But when they are asked that: “From the Brahma kabe, you are that Brahman, and from the Brahman this jīva has come. Again after you acquired the same position you will have to come down. Then what is the good of attaining the same position?

ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, punar āvartino ‘rjuna

[mām upetya tu kaunteya, punar janma na vidyate]

[“O Arjuna, from the planet of Lord Brahmā downwards, the residents of all planets are naturally subjected to repeated birth and death. But, O Kaunteya, upon reaching Me, there is no rebirth.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 8.16]

ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas, tvayi asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ

āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ, patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ

[Lord Brahmā said: “O lotus-eyed Lord, although non devotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure. Although they may rise to the level of impersonal Brahman realisation, they fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they neglect to worship Your lotus feet.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.2.32]

You can’t catch the other current carrying high, can’t catch, you can’t secure any visa. By the power of passport you can go to the last extremity of this country. But if you can’t get any visa, you will have to come back home, come in the lower position again. So, vimukti, going to the last extremity of the country, vimukta-māninas, ‘I am out of danger which may be expected from my country.’ Suppose one has committed something wrong and going away from the country, and he has gone to the buffer state and thinks that, ‘I am safe.’ But he wants to enter into the other country, but if he fails there to secure a visa then he will again have to come back. Ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas. He thinks himself, ‘There I’m completely free.’ Tvayi asta-bhāvād. Because there is some obstacle between yourself and Him, aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ, there is something, he has got miscalculation, something wrong in his calculation. He will have to come back again here.

And in Rāmānanda-Saṁvāda more clearly, but in a mystic way it is mentioned. Mukti, bhukti vāñche yei, kāhāṅ duṅhāra gati?’ “There are two sections. One aspire after salvation, another aspires after good enjoyment. What is their respective goal?” Mahāprabhu’s asking Rāmānanda Rāya.

Rāmānanda said: ‘sthāvara-deha, deva-deha yaiche avasthiti’. Their fate meets these two stages, deva-deha, and sthāvara-deha. Who gets deva-deha? Those that aspire after good enjoyment, necessarily they get the svarga loka, and there for the time being gets some pleasure, deva-deha. And sthāvara-deha, that is the remaining must have to go to the liberated section. They come to the life of fossil, sthāvara, because that is nothing to them. Only unconscious stage, in sound sleep, that is also not self conscious. And the body of the Himalaya, sthāvara, sthāvaranam Himalaya, he’s within Himalaya, the soul of Himalaya. That is also unconscious of his own self, in the fossil figure, sthāvara-deha.

‘mukti, bhukti vāñche yei, kāhāṅ duṅhāra gati?’ ‘sthāvara-deha, deva-deha yaiche avasthiti’

[“And what is the destination of those who desire liberation and those who desire sense gratification?” Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu asked.] [Ramananda Raya replied, “Those who attempt to merge into the existence of the Supreme Lord will have to accept a body like that of a tree. And those who are overly inclined toward sense gratification will attain the bodies of demigods.’’]

[Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.257]

And sthāvara-deha, and that Bhāgavata śloka: [10.2.32]

āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ, patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ

That Professor Sanyal he interpreted in this way. That when, after liberation, they go, they rush to occupy the throne of the Lord, and for that crime they are hurled down, down, to the last extremity. So they have to go to the life of a fossil, that Himalaya and other, this solid. The very meagre conscious within a big solid figure, more low than the creepers and the trees: the last point of creation, the stones, sthāvara-deha, we find in Rāmānanda Rāya. And also in Bhāgavatam [10.2.32], ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa. Though they may think themselves to be the occupier of the highest position, they’re extremely liberated, in the extreme point of liberation. But because they have not in their calculation the other aspect of reality, only in the verge, the world of misconception, and no proper conception of any touch, then to come again in the deepest portion of the misconception. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Ke?

Devotee: Mukundamālā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mukundamālā. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Paramahaṁsa Mahārāja, do you know this sannyāsī and another Akṣayānanda? They are two sannyāsīns of Swāmī Mahārāja.

Devotee: ___________ is sick, he didn’t come here.

Devotee: __________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________ [?] He’s in charge of London Gauḍīya Maṭha, whole of England, South Africa, and many zones under him.

Devotees: _________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________________ [?] Goswāmī Mahārāja converted a lady, and her name was given as Vinoda vāṇī. One lady took Hari-Nāma from Goswāmī Mahārāja. It started there. And Swāmī Mahārāja over-flooded.

Devotees: [Laughter – Haribol.]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Miracle!

Devotee: _______________________________________ [?]

Devotee: _______________________________________ [?]

Devotee: __________________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Śrī Rādhā prana bandhu. That is mentioned in Govinda-līlāmṛtam, by Kavirāja Goswāmī.

Devotees: __________________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________________ [?] Ānantadeva, Kesa, sesa, ka, isa and sesa, Brahmā, Śiva and Ānanta. _________________________________________ [?]

Śrī Rādhā prana bandhu. _____________________________________________________ [?] He has also composed one book by name Govinda-līlāmṛtam, and there the aṣṭa-kālīya-līlā, the eight prahara līlā of Rādhā-Govinda has been described elaborately in that book, Govinda- līlāmṛtam.

Devotee: Is that in Sanskrit?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, Sanskrit.

Devotee: With anybody’s translation or tika?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, it is there. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. But it is for the higher students. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Gaura Hari.

Devotee: But in the Jaiva Dharma Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura mentions some of the aṣṭa-kālīya-līlās.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, he’s given everything in a nutshell, with much caution.

[naitat samācarej jātu manasāpi hy anīśvaraḥ]

vinaśyaty ācaran mauḍhyād yathā ‘rudro ‘dvijaṁ viṣam

[“One should never imitate the behaviour of great personalities. One who foolishly does so, even mentally, is doomed, just as one who imitates Lord Śiva drinking poison.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 10.33.30]

vikrīḍitaṁ vraja-vadhūbhir idaṁ ca viṣṇoḥ, śraddhānvito 'nuśṛṇuyād atha varṇayed yaḥ

bhaktiṁ parām bhagavati pratilabhya kāmaṁ, hṛd-rogam āśv apahinoty acireṇa dhīraḥ

[“One who hears with firm faith the supra mundane amorous affairs of Lord Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs, as described by a pure devotee of the Lord, soon becomes freed from mundane lust and achieves divine love of Kṛṣṇa.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.33.39]

Here Jīva Goswāmī explains, 'nuśṛṇuyād atha, must listen from a real source - so he will get there the caution that it is not like lust, just the opposite of lust, so with that attitude you are to approach. Dhīra, who is master of his own senses, he is only qualified to try to accept, listen, to enter into this līlā. Not those that are not masters of their own house, own senses.

And if he does, it is in another śloka. Vinaśyaty ācaran mauḍhyād, if due to ignorance, anyone ventures to enter into this domain, due to ignorance, ācaran mauḍhyād, manasāpi, even in mind, even mentally, vinaśyaty, he will be doomed. How? If, who is not Śiva, if he takes the poison he’s sure to die. And Śiva took the poison and then ornamental thing came in his throat, Nīlakaṇṭha. By the folded palm, Śiva he drank the poison, but that was an ornament to his throat, in the body, but if who is not Śiva if he takes poison he’s sure to die. So one who is not dhīra and who has got no anu-śravaṇa, proper listening, if they venture to enter into this domain, he’s sure to die. The warning is given in Bhāgavatam by Śukadeva Goswāmī. It is nectar, but still, you should, properly you must come to it. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise there is a possibility of mistaking it for your awkward enjoyment. Then you will be doomed forever. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. _______________________ [?] Akṣayānanda Mahārāja ___________________ [?]

Devotee: He got some pain on the ear.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ear? Sometimes he’s suffering with such disease, now and then, ear: but any medicine?

Devotee: Yes, he has taken some medicine.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He’s alone there, or anyone...

Devotee: No he is alone.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Alone. And where is Parisevan? Here? Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. No further news from Venkatta Prabhu?

Devotee: No Mahārāja, no news.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Any news of Mādhavānanda Prabhu, or who is he?

Devotee: Mādhava Prabhu, the scientist.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He delivered lecture to Calcutta. Where is he? In Bombay?

Devotee: He did not come to Calcutta Mahārāja. Mādhava Prabhu could not come to Calcutta for the programme. He was supposed to come.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Did he come here? No? Mādhavānanda, or what is his name?

Devotees: Mādhava Prabhu. Scientist. _______________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Scientist. Doctor; he is concerned with the Bhaktivedanta Institute in Bombay.

Devotee: Yes. So he went to Vṛndāvana and from there he went to Bombay, he was supposed to come to the program but he did not. Even Bhakti Svarūpa Dāmodara Mahārāja was supposed to come, but he also could not come.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Could not come, but the name was there.

Devotee: _____________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, Navadwīpa has, just like this is Gupta Govardhana here, so that must mean also that there is Sevā Kuñja here in Navadvīpa, and Rādhā-kuṇḍa is here also?

Devotee: _____________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Rādhā-kuṇḍa is somewhat distant, on the other side of the rail line. There is little deeper Rādhā-kuṇḍa to be located there.

Devotee: _____ Sevā Kuñja ______ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There maybe. It is mentioned in Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s Dhāma-Parikramā, and Narahari Sarakara’s Dāsa-Parikramā: details to be found there.

Devotee: Mahārāja, why wasn’t Jagadānanda Paṇḍita told by Mahāprabhu not to go to Vṛndāvana, or stay in Vṛndāvana?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Why?

End of 81.11.11.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.11.C_81.11.12.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...was very simple, plain, and full of sentiments, and only, his highest qualification, the greatest attraction for Mahāprabhu. So, Mahāprabhu did not want that that sort of sentimentality will be out in Vraja maṇḍala at the time. After all there was Mohammedan rule, and so many different sections also there underground. Rūpa and Sanātana, especially Sanātana was the most sober person to deal with things in that locality.

And so He asked him: “If you want to go, go, but don’t remain there for a long time. And as long as you will stay there you must remain under the care of Sanātana. And another two instructions, don’t climb up the Govardhana. Govardhana is Kṛṣṇa Himself, consider that. And also don’t imitate the practices of the vraja-vāsīs. Only give them your respect from respectable distance. Don’t try to mix with them. Then you will have the chance of misunderstanding.”

With all these instructions He sent him there. Over sentimental reasons: that was the cause for which Mahāprabhu did not like that he will go there and freely display so much sentiments for Mahāprabhu, still he did.

And Sanātana Goswāmī came with red cloth as turban around his head. Then Jagadānanda was very much overjoyed to find, “Oh, is this the cloth of Mahāprabhu Himself?”

“No, no, this is a cloth of another sannyāsī, Mukunda Sarasvatī.”

“Is it?” He was then just going to place the cooking pot on the oven. And with that pot he came to... “Who can tolerate. You are one of the principle followers of Mahāprabhu, Caitanyadeva and you put another sannyāsīs cloth on your head? Who can tolerate?”

Sanātana Goswāmī told then, “Yes, what I came to see I have discovered that. Your love of such degree of intolerance, exclusive devotion of Mahāprabhu in you Paṇḍita, only to find out that, I came with this robe.”

And then ________ [?] he was nonplussed what to do? He went on, so over sentimentalism.

He took one pot of chandana paste for the use of Mahāprabhu and took it from here three hundred miles to Purī and put it just before. “I have got it with much trouble this one pot full of chandana oil and Prabhu must use it in his here, here (head).”

“No, no, it is not possible. What you say? I am a sannyāsī, that sandal scent oil I shall smear on My head and when I shall go to have darśana of Jagannātha what will the people, the public will say? They’ll say, ‘so much of a luxury of a sannyāsī. They call bad name for Me. And it will please you? Your labour will be successful, just hand it over to the temple of Jagannātha, and there the lamp will burn with this scented oil, and Jagannātha will enjoy and your labour will be fulfilled, you do that.”

But Jagadānanda he took the big pot and just before Mahāprabhu thrust there, threw it down, and pot broken and the oil spilled out in the compound. And he straight run to his own quarter, and closing from inside, and stayed there for three days without food. Without food three days passed.

At the end of the third day, Mahāprabhu could not contain any longer. He went straight to him. “Hey, Jagadānanda, what is the matter? So sentimental! Anyhow, get up. Today I shall come and take My prasādam here cooked by your own hand. Get out.”

Then what Jagadānanda can do? “Mahāprabhu will take prasādam in my own hand, cooked by my own hand.” He had to get out and began cooking.

Then Mahāprabhu came. “Very, very sweet today, especially things are very, very sweet. Perhaps the labour of anger, angry labour is more valuable than ordinary labour.”

In this way! Then after taking food, “Now you take food. I am standing.”

“No, no, no Prabhu You must go and take rest. I shall take, I shall take.”

“Then, Govinda, you remain. And after he has taken his food you just inform Me that he has taken.”

In this way Jagadānanda was over sentimental, as Satyabhāmā’s character, abhimānī, very sensitive, very sensitive for small things, much sentiment. Jagadānanda Prema vivarta. The reaction, a particular characteristic of the reaction of love divine, a peculiar type. That is also reckoned in the signs of divine love.

Just as Satyabhāmā bhāma-bhāva, bhāma, and that is the highest class, that bhāma nature in nayika. Whatever is offered from the nayika, from the lover, apparently that is refused, instantly. “No, that is not possible.” And to increase the earnestness of the lover, that sort of nature is more valuable in the signs of love, we are told, nirantara-bhāma.

Rādhārāṇī’s nature is also of that type, nirantara-bhāma, always with opposition, the spirit of opposition, a peculiar thing. And we are told by the experts of that rasa learning, that this is of the highest type, which enhances the intensity of the other side.

In Jagadānanda a peculiar type as in Satyabhāmā. So it has been told when Vṛndāvana līlā after Kṛṣṇa went to Mathurā then that was underground. That it is underground means under this ordinary vision – and apart from – and the gopīs they went to Dvārakā. And Satyabhāmā went from a portion of lustre of Rādhārāṇī, and Rukmiṇī from Chandra, Chandra. Chandravālī more judicious, and Rādhārāṇī more sentimental, sentiment has got the upper hand than judiciousness in love matters. So in Dvārakā the judiciousness got the upper hand, Rukmiṇī. The liberation there came to the upper hand, and the sentiment had to go down. Rādhārāṇī’s connection, Her shadow was considered of lower value. And the judiciousness of Chandravālī, the cleverness, that came in the first rank in Dvārakā. What was adored in its highest glory in Vrndavana there in that circumstance it cannot play so highly, a little less; secondary value. These are the peculiarities in līlā.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

yathā yathā gaura padāravinde, vindeta bhaktiṁ kṛta puṇya rāśiḥ

tathā tathot sarpati hṛdy akasmāt, rādhā padāmbhoja sudhāmbhu-rāśiḥ

[Prabodhānanda Saraswatī Ṭhākura says: “As much as we devote ourselves to the lotus feet of Śrī Gaurāṅga, we will automatically achieve the nectarine service of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī in Vṛndāvana. An investment in Navadwīpa Dhāma will automatically take one to Vṛndāvana. How one will be carried there will be unknown to him. But those who have good fortune invest everything in the service of Gaurāṅga. If they do that, they will find that everything has automatically been offered to the divine feet of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. She will accept them in Her confidential service and give them engagement, saying: ‘Oh, you have a good recommendation from Navadwīpa; I immediately appoint you to this service.’”] [Caitanya-Candandrāmṛta, 88]

As much as one can engage himself in the service of Gaura līlā automatically he finds within himself the internal development of the service of Śrī Rādhikā in Braja līlā, automatically. Begins here, gets from there, it leaves there automatically, and spontaneous and that is in a very high order of quality, order of high quality, that prāpti. So to begin with Gaura līlā, and to begin with Nityānanda, Gaura-Gadādhara and then we’ll find ourselves, “I woke one morning and found myself famous.”

The Elegy, the writer of Gray’s Elegy, the Gray wrote one poetry. “The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.”

“The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,

And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,

Awaits alike the inevitable hour;

The path of glory leads but to the grave.”

[Elegy written in a country churchyard. (1751)

[Thomas Gray, 1716-71, English poet]

_____________________ [?] After everything we’ll have to go to the grave here.

________________________________________________________________ [?]

“I woke one morning and found myself famous.” That was his version. He wrote in the evening this poetry, which got sent to the newspaper. And when he woke next morning he’s finding so many gentle great men have come to visit him, to have a visit of him. “I woke one morning and found myself,” – that poetry, after the writing of the poetry the next morning so many men came to see him. “I woke one morning and found myself famous.”

So if we begin properly in Gaura līlā we shall find that we are in the midst of Vṛndāvana līlā, the highest quarter. Woke one morning and found myself there. Unknowingly I shall find myself there. I have got a good position in the Vṛndāvana līlā.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Today we close here. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...long time immemorial he is struggling with the waves in the ocean and now coming to safe position, should I push him back again into the ocean? I say that, that a long, long time the jīva has come to save himself; to home, back to God back to home. He’s coming home, in safe position. Again I shall push him back into the ocean to struggle there, to die? I can’t be so cruel to do that.

‘Never mind my son, my child. You may try to find out and take forcibly. But voluntarily I cannot hand over anyone to go away from the āśrama and to engage again in the service of māyā, illusion, misery.’

So that was his posing: with that sort of earnestness he wanted to push __________ [?]

Back to God, back to home, svarūpe sabāra haya, golokete sthiti: [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 2.10.6] We are really child of that soil. Anyhow by our bad luck we have come here with the false idea of thriving. But the opposite circumstance we have to meet and to struggle under.

Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam. In Bhagavad-gītā [13.9] the Lord says: “Where there is birth, there is death, there are infirmities and there is disease, there can never be happiness proper, can never be.”

The fine intellect, the sattvic intellect, the high class intellect only can detect this, where to live, to select the place, where to live. And we must live in such a place where these four fold troubles are absent.

ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, punar āvartino ‘rjuna

[mām upetya tu kaunteya, punar janma na vidyate]

[“O Arjuna, from the planet of Lord Brahmā downwards, the residents of all planets are naturally subjected to repeated birth and death. But, O Kaunteya, upon reaching Me, there is no rebirth.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 8.16]

So we select the place where to live, where to build your home, your house, ābrahma- bhuvanāl lokāḥ, punar āvartino ‘rjuna.

karmaṇāṁ pariṇāṁitvād, ā-viriñcyād amaṅgalam

[vipaścin naśvaraṁ paśyed, adṛṣṭam api dṛṣṭa-vat]

[“An intelligent person should see that any material activity is subject to constant transformation and that even on the planet of Lord Brahmā there is thus simply unhappiness. Indeed, a wise man can understand that just as all he has seen is temporary, similarly, all things within the universe have a beginning and an end.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.19.18]

Action here all reactionary, so up to Brahmā the mourn, the lamentation, up to Brahmā who is the creator of this mundane world and necessarily he’s in relativity of this mundane world; he will have to mourn, to lament. What to speak of what we, us, ā-viriñcyād amaṅgalam, we must have such foresight, such foresight. And such sincere love to our own self.

uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ, nātmānam avasādayet

[ātmaiva hy ātmano bandhur, ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ]

[“The living being must be delivered from the dark well of material life by means of the mind detached from sense objects, and he must never in any way be flung down into the material world by the mind enchanted by sense objects - because the mind is sometimes his friend, and in another situation the very same mind is rather the enemy.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.5]

Try to relieve yourself from these adverse circumstances. If you can’t do so, you are your enemy. And if successfully you can come out of these adverse circumstance then you are your friend. Otherwise we all are our enemies. What we are doing that is going against our real interest, under influence of illusory energy. Who is coming?

Devotees: Kāśīrāma.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So, illusory energy, so no credit. However proud we may feel that is all false. So ignorance must be uprooted. And we must know, understand how to help ourselves. What is help proper? What is help proper to a jīva soul? The parents they also apparently we are to admit they love their child. But what sort of love, ignorant, ignorant love, they do not know to love themselves also. Uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ, nātmānam avasādayet, don’t degrade you, ātmā, ātmaiva hy ātmano bandhur, ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ, you can be your own friend or you can be your own enemy. You are at liberty to do so. That is the nature of your vulnerable free will. Constitutionally you are such, acintya bhedābheda, accommodate you within the whole absolute consideration.

bandhur ātmātmanas tasya, yenaivātmātmanā jitaḥ

[anātmanas tu śatrutve, vartetātmaiva śatruvat]

[“For the soul who has conquered his mind, his mind is his friend and well-wisher. For a person unable to control it, his own mind remains constantly engaged in his disservice, like an enemy.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.6]

Who can control his mental propensities, impulse, and can guide himself properly, he is his friend. But who lets loose his own mental impulse to take its own way in free choice, he is his own enemy, yenaivātmātmanā jitaḥ, so it depends on you. The free choice is with you, your fortune, or you can degrade yourself, your choice.

[na tad bhāsayate sūryo, na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ]

yad gatvā na nivartante, tad dhāma paramaṁ mama

[“My supreme holy abode is that place which the surrendered souls reach, never to return again to this deathly plane. Upon going there, one never returns to this material world. Neither sun, nor moon, nor fire - nothing can illuminate that all-illuminating supreme abode.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 15.6]

“Worshippers of other gods, demigods, they attain the vicinity of that god, parṣada, closer, intimate position with the god. But that is antavat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ, for the time being. And that also is considered pleasure limited. But those that like to come to us, worship us they come to My zone, tad dhāma paramaṁ mama.”

antavat tu phalaṁ teṣāṁ, tad bhavaty alpa-medhasām

devān deva-yajo yānti, mad-bhaktā yānti mām api

[“But the fruit obtained by those provincially interested worshippers of the various demigods is temporary. They reach their respective gods, but My devotees obtain Me.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 7.23]

“And, yad gatvā na nivartante, tad dhāma paramaṁ mama, any progress towards Me if it is really taken then no loss, no apprehension of any loss or setback.”

nehābhikrama-nāśo 'sti, pratyavāyo na vidyate

svalpam apy asya dharmasya, trāyate mahato bhayāt

[“Even a small beginning in this devotional service cannot go in vain, nor can any loss be suffered. The most insignificant practice of such devotional service saves one from the all-devouring fear of repeated birth and death in this world.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.40]

Our approach towards nirguṇa, towards cent percent true conception, our approach has got no setback, nehābhikrama-nāśo 'sti, if for the time being it is left, it is there. Again if I am to begin from there, it won’t be lost. Pratyavāyo na vidyate, and no external obstacles can check it. It is in such a plane, the progress.

“In the deepest plane, to come to Me, that is to have a contact with the deepest plane. And the very nature of the plane is such that any connection cannot be opposed by other gross planes of limited power. They are not bold enough to come in opposition with this the absolute plenary wave. They have no power to interfere. My plane is such, and the waves of the plane is such, ahaitukī apratihatā, it is causeless and it can never be opposed, apratihatā. None can oppose it. None venture to come in opposition, to stand in opposition when one has commenced his journey towards Me clear, none venture to come to oppose him. My control over the whole is of such quality.”

Mādhavendra Purī perhaps said,

kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśās

teṣāṁ jātā mayi na karuṇā na trapā nopaśāntiḥ

utsṛjyaitān atha yadu-pate sāmprataṁ labdha-buddhis

tvām āyātaḥ śaraṇam abhayaṁ māṁ niyuṅkṣv ātma-dāsye

[“O my Lord, there is no limit to the unwanted orders of lusty desires. Although I have rendered them so much service, they have not shown any mercy to me. I have not been ashamed to serve them, nor have I even desired to give them up. O my Lord, O head of the Yadu dynasty, recently, however, my intelligence has been awakened, and now I am giving them up. Due to transcendental intelligence, I now refuse to follow the unwanted orders of these desires and I now come to You to surrender myself at Your fearless lotus feet. Kindly engage me in Your personal service and save me.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.16]

“Oh Lord of the Yadu dynasty, Kṛṣṇa, I have come to Your feet to explain my position. Please consider. What is that position? Kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśās. So long I have left no stone unturned to satisfy my masters, this kāma, krodha, lobha, moha, mada, mātsarya, these inner six enemies. They exacted very cruelly and very harshly so great amount of service from me. But nothing, not a drop of peace I have got as my remuneration from them. I am not paid anything for the same. From time immemorial I’m rendering service to these my enemies. But up to now I could not see any satisfaction in their face, as hard as previous, before. Pālitā durnideśās. And what, note, whatever they have ordered, instantly I have to obey that. In the mid of night my lord told, ‘Oh, you must go there and steal something, some fruit from there.’ In this way, midnight you must _____ your enemy, the krodha, the anger has roused him at midnight to kill some other person. I have obeyed that. So what not I have done to carry out the order of these my enemies living within me. Now I am disgusted my Lord. I am now feeling disgusted.

Kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśās, teṣāṁ jātā mayi na karuṇā. But I could not satisfy them, propitiate them. Na trapā nopaśāntiḥ, and I also, fie to my own self that no reaction has yet come in me for that, na trapā, I am not ashamed for that. Nopaśāntiḥ, and not any reactionary temporary truce that I stop, I can’t do for the time being, give me some rest, nopaśāntiḥ.

But anyhow I don’t know why, how I have run to You, I have run to You, utsṛjyaitān, I could avoid their vigilant eye and I have run to You. Utsṛjyaitān atha yadu-pate sāmprataṁ labdha-buddhis, tvām āyātaḥ, I have approached You. Śaraṇam abhayaṁ māṁ niyuṅkṣv ātma-dāsye. You are the real shelter Who can save me from those enemies. I have got this sort of dictation from inside. Māṁ niyuṅkṣv ātma-dāsye. Please give me some engagement. If You engage me then they’ll all fly in fear. Only if they hear that You have given me shelter and some engagement then whatever their account book may say they will fly, be afraid of.”

So in that plane if we have any contact, can make any contact with that plane nirguṇa bhumi, then other plenary influences will withdraw at once.

nehābhikrama-nāśo 'sti, pratyavāyo na vidyate

svalpam apy asya dharmasya, trāyate mahato bhayāt

[“Even a small beginning in this devotional service cannot go in vain, nor can any loss be suffered. The most insignificant practice of such devotional service saves one from the all-devouring fear of repeated birth and death in this world.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.40]

“And I shall be saved from great disaster. Please grant me some shelter there.”

That is the advice, instruction of our Guru Mādhavendra Purī. “Anyhow run when they are little unmindful to you, in that moment run to take the shelter, they will all fly away.”

Haribol. Haribol. Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: We feel that, by somehow or other, being at your lotus feet we must have gotten that opportunity to run out from them.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: I was thinking that each one of us is GBC for some particular zone, but you are GBC for Vaikuṇṭha zone.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nitāi Caitanya. It is your spacious view and _________ [?]

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: We all want to be in your zone.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I am trying to be in the zone in the dust of my divine master. That is, I aspire that my zone will be in the dust of my divine master. Mahāprabhu says:

ayi nanda-tanuja kiṅkaraṁ, patitaṁ māṁ viṣame bhavāmbudhau

kṛpayā tava pāda-paṅkaja-sthita-dhūlī-sadṛśaṁ vicintaya

[“O son of Nanda Mahārāja, I am Your eternal servant, yet because of my own karma, I have fallen into this terrible ocean of birth and death. Accept this fallen soul and consider me a particle of dust at Your holy lotus feet.”] [Śikṣāṣṭakam, 5]

“Oh, the son of Nanda, please, please consider Me one of the dust of Your feet, of Your holy foot. Kiṅkaraṁ, patitaṁ māṁ viṣame bhavāmbudhau. I am struggling in the great ocean, ocean of birth and death, birth and death, the chain, mortality. I am too tired. Now if You kindly consider Me as one of the dust touching Your feet I am relieved.”

That same very conclusion that any connection; any connection with that nirguṇa can get us wholesale relief. What of relief? Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura says:

bhaktis tvayi sthiratarā bhagavan yadi syād, daivena nah phalati divya-kiśora-mūrttiḥ

muktih svayaṁ mukulitānjali sevate ‘smān, dharmārtha-kāma-gatayaḥ samaya-pratīkṣāḥ

[“O Supreme Lord, if our devotion for You were more steadfast, Your adolescent form would naturally arise within our hearts. Oh Devotion, you are of such a magnanimous nature, if there is any way that we can have your least favour, then mukti will wait to serve us with open arms. What to speak of mukti, even dharma, artha, and kāma will be waiting far, far away for whenever their calling bell is sounding. Then, they will rush to our feet saying: ‘What do you want?’ Then there would not be the slightest necessity to pray for the triple pursuits of religiosity, gain, and sensual desire, and their negation in the form of liberation, because mukti will personally attend us as a concomitant subsidiary fruit of devotion in the form of deliverance from ignorance, her hands cupped in prayer; and the fruits of bhukti will eagerly await their orders, from us, should any necessity arise for them in the service of Your lotus feet.”] [Krsna-karnamrta, 107]

“Bhaktis tvayi sthiratarā, if we can have bhakti proper, a drop of devotion proper in Your feet, bhagavan yadi syād, daivena nah phalati divya-kiśora-mūrttiḥ, and fortunately enough we can have, we can find any connection with divya-kiśora-mūrttiḥ, the young charming figure of Kṛṣṇa, of You, muktih svayaṁ mukulitānjali sevate ‘smān, salvation, liberation, that freedom from the influences of the enemies, that thing like a maidservant will come to serve me, mukulitānjali sevate ‘smān, with folded palms the mukti she will come to serve me. ‘What sort of arrangement here, may I help in any way, may be utilised in any way for your pleasure?’ Mukti will come. And dharma, artha, kāma ___ and dharma, artha, kāma, this three-fold ends they will await outside, anything necessary for you they will come. The calling bell always awaiting the time when the call will enter, they will be there. Muktih svayaṁ mukulitānjali sevate ‘smān. None will venture to have any aggression towards me. That is so sweet, so sweet, so noble, and free from all sorts of troubles. The charm, the circle, the zone, the zone: Your zone is so charming none ventures to come because they’ll be converted. So they are very careful to keep away, very careful.”

kintu suja abhasa sthane bhase abhasa suje anu nahe tahe prakas [?]

krsna surya sama; maya haya andhakara/ yaha krsna, tahan nahi maya adhikara [?]

kintu suja abhasa sthane bhase abhasa suje anu nahe tahe prakas [?]

A little analogy, description, what is Kṛṣṇa, what is māyā, the sun and darkness. Kṛṣṇa surya sama maya haya andhakara [?] Where there is the sun there is no darkness. Ke?

Devotee: __________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: __________________ [?] The peculiarity of this, that where is sun, there is no darkness: but that is not sufficient. Suja abhasa sthane bhase abhasa [?] Only māyā can be detected where sun ray is getting its limit. There only it can be traced. In darkness only, in deep darkness one cannot ascertain what is darkness, what is light. But when the light is withdrawing there we can feel the darkness coming, what is darkness. To understand one, the help of other is also necessary. So darkness cannot live, cannot acquaint itself independently. Suja abhasa sthane bhase abhasa [?] Only have acquaintance is dependent on the existence of the sun. In this way!

Devotees: __________________________ bhakti rakṣaka [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Bhakti rakṣaka, gate keeper. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi Gaura Hari. Nitāi Caitanya. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: You have to let us in through the gate.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says:

[bāndhiyā nikaṭe, āmāre pālibe, rohibo tomāra dvāre]

pratīpa-janere, āsite nā dibo, rākhibo gaṝera pare

[“Chain me nearby and and maintain me as You will. I shall remain at the doorstep and allow no enemies to enter Your house. I will keep them at the bounds of the moat surrounding Your home.”] [Goptṛtve-varaṇa, 3, from The Songs Of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, p 21-22]

He is conceiving himself as a dog, gate keeper. And if anyone comes to enter he’ll oppose, the holy area, with such attitude you must enter, and not a place for the hypocrites.

Devotee: ______________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha. Hare Kṛṣṇa. ______________________ is paramahaṁsa.

Devotee: ______________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Four sections amongst sannyāsīs, kuṭicaka, bahudaka, haṁsa, paramahaṁsa, four stages of a sannyāsa stage, subdivision. Kuṭicaka when he hankers after a cottage life, excluded from others he wants to go on his own way, a secluded cottage life, kuṭicaka. Bahudaka, then he wants, feels inspiration to carry out his mission to many places outside, provinces. Udaka means water, he takes water in many places, variegated places he takes water. That means he is a preacher bahudaka. Bahu means many and udaka means water, bahudaka. He drinks waters of many lands. That means that he wanders and with a preaching idea. What he has realized he wants to give it to others, bahudaka. Then haṁsa, the third stage is that of haṁsa. It means that he can take out the gist and leave the undesirable things. Haṁsa, just as the swan, it has got the special capacity, if milk and water mixed together, the swan he can take out the milk and the water portion will be left. That has got the peculiar capacity of the haṁsa in any way. And he becomes haṁsa. Whatever comes to him he leaves out the undesirable things, and what is the gist, the substance, he can take, even from the śāstra...

End of 81.11.11.C_81.11.12.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.12.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... and leave the lesser thing, non important, he can, the important thing, the gist, the very purpose, he can take out from any places. That is haṁsa. And paramahaṁsa, he’s very expert in that affair. He never deviates for a moment from the world of substance into that of non substance, the cover, he’s always with the substance, Paramātmā, cent percent established.

Devotee: ______________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He was white clad, but he was above many sannyāsīns, we have heard direct from our Guru Mahārāja, this. And also we have seen with our own eyes his practices, practices in life.

Devotee: ______________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. One who gets bhakti he is more beggar, greater beggar, is it not? Who can beg bhakti, he has got it. The more you get the more you want, this is the nature of bhakti. So it said that I have not bhakti. Mahāprabhu told:

na prema-gandho ‘sti darāpi me harau, krandāmi saubhāgya-bharaṁ prakāśitum

[vaṁśī-vilāsy-ānana-lokanaṁ vinā, vibharmmi yat prāṇa-pataṅgakān vṛthā]

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said: “O My companion, I do not have the slightest scent of love for Kṛṣṇa - and yet, I cry. This is only for the purpose of exhibiting My great fortune. Without seeing the lovely face of Kṛṣṇa playing His flute, I worthlessly pass My days, like an insignificant insect.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 2.45]

“I am the first class hypocrite.” Mahāprabhu, He is blaming His own self looking towards us. The purity, the standard of purity has no end. It has not end. But here purity ends. No such thought is possible. So He says: na prema-gandho ‘sti darāpi me harau. “Not even a drop of devotion in Me.”

Krandāmi. “Then why do You weep so much, You wail so much, You cry aloud? You are showing so many signs of separation?”

Saubhāgya-bharaṁ prakāśitum. “It is only to purchase name from the public, fame, name and fame, pratiṣṭhā. Krandāmi saubhāgya. “You can see how fortunate I am, I have got Kṛṣṇa prema. Only to canvas, this is My real object, innate object?”

“Why you say so?”

Vaṁśī-vilāsy-ānana-lokanaṁ vinā, vibharmmi yat prāṇa-pataṅgakān vṛthā. “This is proof positive because I am sustaining My body, I am carrying My head, flesh and blood, all these things I am carrying without having a connection of Kṛṣṇa. I am tolerating this life separated from His service. This is sufficient to prove that I have – such beautiful is He that without getting any connection one can never live. One must die. If slight, like lightning one can have the taste of that charm you can’t continue to live further without further connection. So deep, so deep attraction, so deep charm, so deep beauty, that once coming in connection he can’t live, continue his life without having that same thing again. It is impossible to live in separation. And I’m doing that, so I have not real attraction for Him. Then I could not tolerate, so beautiful the separation is intolerable. And because I continue in My life of separation it is sure, a definite proof that I have no proper attraction as it should have been. In comparison with the intensity of the beauty, to maintain separation, that is impossible. And because I am doing that it is a clear proof that I have not real attraction for Him.” So Mahāprabhu says _____________________________ [?]

And by anyhow by bringing us in connection with that thing we can raise our position, however slight it may be. But our appreciation from far off of these thoughts and principles that cannot but improve our position, however slight it may be. This is our wealth, the wealth of wealth and nothing else. And fortunately we may not have any depreciation for such ideal in future any longer. That is our earnest prayer; that we may retain our position, how far it may be in connection in the relativity of such high ideal. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: _________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi. Nitāi. ______________________ [?]

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. ______________________________________ [?]

The great epic written by the poet Marga [?] its name is Śiśupāla Bod [?]

There is a śloka, a poem, where he says: Banati kalapi yajna tan [?]

Our association with sādhu, that gives prophesy of our gain in three span of time, past, present and future. When we are in association with a sādhu at the present we are gainer by his influence. And it also foretells that in previous time also I had good sukṛti so I have come. And so this association has been possible. So he says of my past life, indicates my good fortune of the past life as a result of which I have come to a saint. And it also gives us hope for the future. The present talk must produce some good fruit, good result in future. So the association indicates our fortune of the three stages of time, past, present and future. So you have come from so far and are engaging ourselves in these talks, high talks in divinity. We are all grateful to you. In my old age it is almost impossible that I should come, I should be utilized by my Guru Mahārāja in this way to talk about Mahāprabhu. And you friends are coming and exacting me what is stored, I could store from my Guru Mahārāja in my heart, that culture.

This is life. Why? Saṅkīrtana has been in the highest phase of sādhana. Śrotā, dhata, both parties they are benefited. In Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura says: “One feeds himself. Another with hundreds he feeds hundreds and feeds himself. Who is better?” So saṅkīrtana, many persons are benefited, and by japam and other things, he himself. Saṅkīrtana. Saṅkīrtana means preaching. The proper meaning of saṅkīrtana not only to speak loud or in a tone of music, but preaching, to culture wholesale with the full-fledged capacity to culture, to preach, kīrtana, to assert. The attention, the mind, all can be engaged, cannot but be engaged in kīrtana. We can’t say irrelevant, so automatically the concentration must be present there when one is talking about Kṛṣṇa. But in dhyāna and japa we may be unmindful. So it is best for him who is chanting and at the same time it is so good for the environment, saṅkīrtana.

satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ, yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ

namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā, nitya-yuktā upāsate

[“Disregarding the purity or impurity of time, place, and circumstances, those great souls are constantly absorbed in singing or narrating the glories of My Holy Name, form, qualities, pastimes, and paraphernalia. They are attentive to the irrevocable and conclusive definition of My nature, personality, and expansions, and they strictly follow the rules and regulations for taking the Holy Name and observing holy days such as Ekādaśī. Following all the practices of devotion beginning with offering obeisances unto Me, the devotees, earnestly longing for their eternal relationship with Me in the future, worship Me by the path of engaging in My transcendental devotional service.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.14]

mac-cittā mad-gata prāṇā, [bodhayantaḥ parasparam

kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ, tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca]

[“My devotees mix together, talk about Me, and exchange thoughts that give consolation to their hearts. And they live as if this talk about Me is their food. It gives them a high kind of pleasure, and they find that when they talk about Me among themselves, they feel as if they are enjoying My presence.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 10.9]

Mac-cittā. “In his heart he keeps Me, mad-gata prāṇā, mac-cittā in his intellect, and mad-gata prāṇā in his heart. Mac-cittā mad-gata prāṇā, cit, that is in his consciousness and in his heart the feeling, the abode of sentiment and feeling that is also controlled by My presence, mad-gata prāṇā. Then it comes out from the heart through the consciousness, intellect, it covers, inundates everything and comes out.” Bodhayantaḥ parasparam, amongst their own intimate circle they also try to present and to also receive, sometimes gives and takes, gives and takes, bodhayantaḥ parasparam. One helping another and he also helping him to understand. Kathayantaś ca māṁ nityaṁ, and also distributing in the lower circles also about Him. Tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca, and they find their satisfaction only in that function and never elsewhere, māṁ nityaṁ, tuṣyanti, always, always. Always they are engaged, engages themselves in such, either chatting about Kṛṣṇa amongst a friendly circle and sometimes in the form of instruction delivering the message of Kṛṣṇa, kathayantaś ca māṁ. Tuṣyanti, and that is their highest satisfaction. Ramanti, as if the highest ecstasy in satisfaction they can feel there when in connection with that stage of the service of Kṛṣṇa, ramaniya, ramana. Even it is mentioned even by Śaṅkara that it is touching, it is aiming at mādhurya rasa līlā of Bhagavān, ramanti ca. Tuṣyanti ca ramanti ca. Kṛṣṇa leads, the saṅkīrtana leads us to the highest peak of our attainment, the saṅkīrtana, Nāma saṅkīrtana. Nāma saṅkīrtana kalau parama pai [?]

kaler doṣa-nidhe rājann asti hy eko mahān guṇaḥ

kīrttanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet

[Śukadeva Goswāmī tells Parīkṣit Mahārāja: “O King, the age of Kali, the repository of all evils, has but one glorious characteristic: in this age, those who simply chant the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa are liberated and reach the Supreme Lord.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 12.3.51]

The negative result, emancipation, and the positive paraṁ vrajet, you can reach the highest position, Śukadeva says. Apparently kali-kala seems to be very unfortunate but if we can dive deep into it, its nature, we find there the unqualified grace of Kṛṣṇa underground. That especially He has given the privilege of taking His Name as a method of sādhana, of our realization. So:

Krpa desu pada rajan kala vincanti sambhava [?]

So sukṛti van, the good fortunate, the fortunate people, good fortune people, they aspire after a birth in Kali-yuga which is apparently so lower in its conception, in merits. But who understand about the special grace of Kṛṣṇa for the Kali-yuga, they hanker after a birth in Kali avoiding Satya, Tretā, etc. Such valuable gain is possible in this Kali-yuga. Especially Mahāprabhu comes and He distributes the Holy Name and His love, especially this Kali. This Kali, _________ special Kali in which rādhā-govinda-milita-tanu, Yuga-Avatāra. In this Kali-yuga it is infinitely favourable to acquire our highest fortune; direct connection with the highest form of life, highest form.

The king has come to do the function of a magistrate. Outwardly in the function of a magistrate, temporarily, but really he is the king. So more than ordinary magistrate he can grant anything to us.

So this Yuga-Avatāra Mahāprabhu this time He is rādhā-govinda-milita-tanu. So from Him we can improve our fortune in an immense magnitude, which can never be overestimated.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

And this valuable birth of human beings, now we are talking of the same, talking of so fortunate we may consider ourselves to be, in this Dhāma, the aparādha-bhañjan, the Govardhana, gupta Govardhana, we are here. And Mahāprabhu, our Gurudeva, Prabhupāda, Swāmī Mahārāja, Mahāprabhu, Goswāmīn’s, they are all over our head. We are under their inspection. They are seeing, they are omniscient.

nāhaṁ vasāmi vaikuṇṭhe, yogināṁ hṛdayeṣu vā

mad bhaktāḥ yatra gāyanti, tatra tiṣṭhāmi nārada

[The Lord Himself says: “O, Nārada, wherever My devotees sing My praises I cannot but be present there.”] [Within the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 4.2.41 purport]

“Nārada, I do not make Myself present, vaikuṇṭhe, in Vaikuṇṭha, the relativity of the infinite. By infinites characteristic has no charm for Me. Vaikuṇṭhe, yogināṁ hṛdayeṣu vā. Not even where the yogīs are trying their best to connect with My subtle-most knowing omniscient characteristic, Antaryāmī they are searching for. They have tried their best to connect with My all-pervading and all-knowing capacity. I don’t like to attend there also. Mad bhaktāḥ yatra gāyanti. But really My attraction is only for that assembly where My devotees are singing and dancing with My name. That is My place of attraction really, I clearly say to you. Mad bhaktāḥ yatra gāyanti, tatra tiṣṭhāmi nārada. When in an assembly, in a congregation they are talking and singing and dancing about mentioning My name.”

So that saṅkīrtana, the all-attractive, saṅkīrtana that was given by Mahāprabhu. And its direct consequence is to take one to the highest quarter of the Braja līlā, passing through Vaikuṇṭha and others ignoring on the way. Nāma, special train, it will reach, stop only in Vṛndāvana, nowhere in any side. Hari Haribol. To the land of beauty and charm, all-controlling, no power, no siddhi, to show the miracle, the capacity. Sai Bābā and others they want to show miracle to the people and take them away from the real thing. Dedication, dedication, dedication, and you gain, gain, gain, thrive by dedication. And lose by seeking enjoyment, exploitation.

Dāruka is fanning Kṛṣṇa. But at that time suddenly some consciousness about his own fortune peaked in him. “Oh, I am so fortunate that I have got the chance of serving my master.” And so he was influenced by that sentiment, his hand stopped, moving hand was stopped. Then he came to his senses. “What? My sentiment about my fortune is causing disturbance in my service.” So he deals with him.

Devotee: ____________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _____________________________________________________ [?]

...laid much stress in this sevonmukhata. Only physical sound is not the Vaikuṇṭha sound, the Name. The Name proper, to have connection with the Name proper, the Divine Name, we must have to attain to improve our serving spirit. Only through service, through dedication we can go up. The exploitation, that is enjoyment, and renunciation, these two are the enemies, two conceptions. The conception of enjoyment, enjoyment means exploitation, the elevation, so-called elevation, and also the spirit of renunciation. Spirit of renunciation that is the greater enemy, that encourages us to the idea that we can live independently. We are independent! But we are not independent.

We are constitutionally we are slave of the slave. And there we thrive. And we are to appreciate that slavery is fortune. This is a big, hard nut to crack, to accept, that how slavery can be gain, it is fortune. So Kṛṣṇa is so great, so great, that His slavery is of high, high noble order. He is so good, so great. Without that sort of temperament it is impossible for us to go and approach, to have any connection, cause of intimate connection. He lives in such a high sphere. It is impossible to meet Him. So only by the acceptance of His intimate slavery that we can hope to enter that domain: it is so high for us, so high.

So we should try to understand really how slavery can be the highest attainment. On that basis we shall try to calculate how higher position Kṛṣṇa holds. And that is spontaneous, and that is happy. The atmosphere is so happy, the very atmosphere. In any way if we can enter that atmosphere, that zone, we cannot but be happy to our best understanding, our best feeling; conception. That will be the evidence, clear evidence. So it is such. That slavery is the highest attainment, then how high zone that must be, we are to conceive in that way. What sort of inconceivable higher type of life is possible there, the beauty, the charm, the love.

At the same time, vice versa; that sort of, that is vice versa. As much as dedication intense towards Kṛṣṇa similar dedication reaction comes from Kṛṣṇa. A finite person, he gives his whole thing. And the infinite if He gives some small portion, more than enough, he cannot contain. So to have the chance of giving and taking in that sphere how covetable and fortunate that space should be. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Turiya krsna nahi sesa sambandha [?] There are other incarnations of Kṛṣṇa that are more or less busy with some official activity, either here in this world of māyā, for the relief work, or in Vaikuṇṭha also. But turiya Kṛṣṇa He has got no duty attached; always free, always enjoying freedom, free transaction ________ [?] and no definite aim. At His sweet will He’s moving there, so free, and so: temperament of a prodigal, free temperament, sweet will playing freely. And that can give anything and everything at its least pleasure there, and it is such.

Svarūpa Dāmodara and Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita they had a discourse in Purī, during that Herā- Pañcamī day. Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita espousing the cause of Vaikuṇṭha, Lakṣmī Devī, in favour of Lakṣmī Devī, so grandeur, so beauty, so all these things, splendour, and also casting a glance towards Vṛndāvana. “What is there? There is only flower and a creeper and some tails here and there of the peacocks. What is there?”

Svarūpa Dāmodara could not contain, could not tolerate. “Śrīvāsa, you don’t remember? You also have some touch with Vṛndāvana, with Vṛndāvana atmosphere as Nārada. Don’t you know?”

Where the grandeur is enough, they become tedious with that grandeur, majestic plane. One can feel feverish to stay always in the midst of grandeur. But in Vṛndāvana, so plain, humble, simple. That is a place for the highest realized soul. And there it has been described that underground: Mukti svayam dharma artha kama _____ māyā pratiksa [?] Whenever necessary they are coming in, rushing in. They are all kalpa-taru. The kāmadhenu, whatever is necessary, only immediately supplied. But naturally they are rather disgusted with the vanity of the splendour-us life of splendour and grandeur. And that is:

kṛṣṇera yateka khelā, sarvottama nara-līlā, nara-vapu tāhāra svarūpa

[gope-veśa, veṇu-kara nava kiśora, nata-vara, nara līlāra haya anurūpa]

[“Lord Kṛṣṇa has many pastimes, of which His pastimes as a human being are the best. His form as a human being is the Supreme Transcendental Form. In this form, He is a cowherd boy. He carries a flute in His hand, and His youth is new. He is also an expert dancer. All this is just suitable for His pastimes as a human being.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 21.101]

This is aprākṛta or kevala, kevala, aprākṛta, the highest, the fifth and the highest stage of existence, aprākṛta. Like prākṛta, kevala, conception of aprākṛta.

Yateka khelā, sarvottama nara-līlā, nara-vapu tāhāra svarūpa. Of all the displays of the absolute good or beauty, His play in the form of this human nature, that reaches the supreme position, charm there. Nara-vapu tāhāra svarūpa. It includes everything, its spaciousness endless, all-embracing. Even which is seen to be blameable, that is also included in that highest plane, highest pastimes, nothing neglected. And that shows more beauty, having a touch of the highest plane. Which is negligible, which is hated, we are accustomed to hate, to approach with hate and contempt and apathy: that is also harmonized in such a beautiful way. There is no room of rejecting everything. The fullest play, with fully dressed, the play is fully dressed, dressed to the extreme. Thieving, the beating, quarrelling, all these apparently mundane and hateful things are beautifully placed, adjusted there.

So it had been the most spacious and most, the deeper essence of harmony had to be evolved to accommodate and adjust all these things, so, very sweet and very nice. The deepest influence or deepest beauty, so far we can guess, has been drawn out to make all these things beautiful, more beautiful, more energy, more efficient, and more best quality things have to be taken out to decorate, to make all these blameable things also to play the part to enhance the beauty. In fact, everything is beautiful. That is more beautiful. That stealing, the master is stealing, He’s quarrelling, He’s doing so many objectionable things. He makes Himself engaged with a party, very enjoyable.

All that could take me away from His consciousness, they are utilized there. I have not room to fly away. Which side should I fly? Come in connection with that, no space that I shall fly away from there. Everything will remind me about my master. So exhaustively dealt, most exhaustively dealt. The beauty has flowed itself whatsoever to the farthest extremity so as to embrace everything and we have no place to run away outside. Captured, wholesale captured. Wherever possibly our attention may be diverted that is already captured there. Where should we fly there? No room. Wholesale dedication, attraction, capturing, wholesale capturing; wholesale capturing: no way out!

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Mahāprabhu, Gaurāṅga Sundar, Gurudeva, Śrī Gurudeva.

Swāmī Mahārāja was such a great friend of mine. He went away; still he is with me through you all. So kind, he is with me, forcibly engaging me. Where we shall get such a good friend, a kind friend, where shall I get?

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. I am a miserly minded man, indolent habit.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Pralap, what I’m you talking, this is almost irrelevant, but you are giving some value, otherwise it is all meaningless for the public, pralap, delirium, that is something like delirium.

āmi - eka bātula, tumi - dvitīya bātula, ataeva tomāya āmāya ha-i sama-tula

[Mahāprabhu said: “I am insane, mad, bāula - pāgala - eccentric. I am one eccentric, and you are another. Therefore, we two are of the same class.”] [So He told to Rāmānanda Rāya. It is not to be expressed outside - not to be divulged. Still, the bāulas, the eccentrics - so called, they cannot check their ecstasy. They express it anyway.] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.291]

“I am an irrelevant madman and you are also of that type.” So Mahāprabhu says, “We are both are of equal platform.” So it has got no value outside in the public, no value.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. The communist will say: “They are spoiling the country.”

There was one scholar, historian, Dakal Banerjee, or some [?] and he dugout in Harapar [?] the most ancient relics of the present civilization. He, in his history mentioned that: “Caitanyadeva is the cause of the downfall of the Orissa Empire. Before Caitanyadeva Pratāparudra was only Hindu king independent, all these, Bengal and other portion, northern India, under Mohammedans, __________ [?] But Pratāparudra maintained his zone, Hindu kingdom. But after Mahāprabhu visited Orissa Pratāparudra became His devotee and the marshal spirit was discouraged and then Mohammedans attacked and take under their rule. So Caitanyadeva is the cause of the fall of the Orissa Empire, so Caitanyadeva is to be blamed. Pratāparudra was spoiled by Caitanyadeva, his marshal spirit gone and then came under foreign rule.”

End of 81.11.12.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.12.C_81.11.13.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Devotee: ...they were dancing crazily.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who?

Devotees: Worshipping Durgā. The locals in the streets last night were drunk and intoxicated and dancing crazily.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Taking wine and madly dancing, enjoying.

Devotee: No enjoyment.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There, enjoying means - like ghost or something. _____________ [?]

So, you may manage to stay here this night. It will go on in the street, this mad dancing up till late at night, nine, ten, it will go on, this mad dancing, chanting and sometimes bombing also may not be impossible between the parties. So if you’d like to stay here for this night I shall ask Hari Caran to look after that.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: But Bhāvānanda is expecting me and we have to speak tonight, so I have to take the risk.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh! Then you will try to go by the eastern side by the banks of the Ganges as far as possible.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Yes. Different route we can take.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. You three have to go, is it?

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Just two of us; myself and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam dāsa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Higher existence in the subjective way, we are to have a conception of that truth. Not only human consciousness is the highest thing ever created or existing, but more than human intellect, higher and higher and higher intellects are still existing. We are object and they’re as a subject. Within the subjective existence we’re objects. Then we can have some idea whether the domain of the Lord God is existing or not.

The human consciousness, the Māyāvādīns, the Śaṅkara School, they say that human consciousness, that is the highest thing ever existing. And independent of flesh connection, the soul consciousness of the human stage, jīvātmā, that is the highest thing, and not more finer and higher things can exist.

But the śāstra says the Paramātmā is superior existence to jīvātmā, and the Bhāgavata conception, the Vāsudeva conception, is more high. And Nārāyaṇa conception is again higher, and Kṛṣṇa conception is the highest. And there also division in Dvārakā, Mathurā, and Vṛndāvana. Mahāprabhu and Bhāgavatam says, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam.

[ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ, kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam

indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ, mṛḍayanti yuge yuge]

[“All the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.3.28]

The Vṛndāvana conception of Kṛṣṇa, of the Supreme Entity, is the highest, because the beauty is above all, all grandeur, all power. Beauty and love, that is the ultimate controlling power, and not this physical power, or mental power, or intellectual power, or anything else. And Absolute Good is Absolute Beauty is the Absolute Controller. Mercy is above justice. We cannot think that anything can be greater than justice. Justice must be the highest thing. But we are told that mercy is above justice. But who can show mercy? Not an ordinary person, but king, who can compensate for the loss in the justice, he can give mercy. So, the highest God which can compensate, is able to compensate anything and everything, there is a realm and there He is making pastimes with His paraphernalia of equal type. There is such a law, provision, beyond the justice, beyond the sense of our justice in our puppy brain.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya.

kṛṣṇera yateka khelā, sarvottama nara-līlā, nara-vapu tāhāra svarūpa

[gope-veśa, veṇu-kara nava kiśora, nata-vara, nara līlāra haya anurūpa]

[“Lord Kṛṣṇa has many pastimes, of which His pastimes as a human being are the best. His form as a human being is the Supreme Transcendental Form. In this form, He is a cowherd boy. He carries a flute in His hand, and His youth is new. He is also an expert dancer. All this is just suitable for His pastimes as a human being.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 21.101]

Stealing, quarrelling, beating, all these apparent anomalies, that contributes to the sweetness of the atmosphere there. The stuff is of such material. Apparently which is wrong, that is more enjoyable, such is the plane, such is the plane. He can just ask, “Mother, give Me some butter.” A simple thing! Mother is ready, “Yes, yes, how much, how much?” But He won’t do that. Stealthily He’ll go and take butter. Not only Himself, sometimes to His friends, and even sometimes to the monkeys. But everything His own, but He’s using in a particular manner, and is exciting, which is apparently an aggression but it pleases the mother, the fine naths of the mother very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: What is called mind?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Saṅkalpa vikalpa kamatmanah, the faculty within which aspires something and despises something, that principle within is called mind. “I want this, I want that. I won’t like this, I won’t like this. I won’t take this.” Rāga-dveṣa, inclination for something, and also hate for another thing, the plane where these two things exist within us, that is known as mind, saṅkalpa vikalpa. “I shall do this, I shall do this. I won’t do that, I won’t do that.” These two opposite propensities or tendencies which are within us that is known as mind.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

...

Yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham, nityābhiyuktānāṁ, yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham

[ananyāś cintayanto māṁ, ye janāḥ paryupāsate

teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ, yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy aham]

[“I personally assume the whole responsibility of acquiring and protecting the necessities of My fully dependent devotees who are always absorbed in thought of Me alone, and who worship Me exclusively in all respects.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.22]

What is necessary, supply, and what is in possession, protect.

aho bakī yaṁ stana-kāla-kūṭaṁ, jighāṁsayāpāyayad apy asādhvī

lebhe gatiṁ dhātry-ucitāṁ tato 'nyaṁ, kaṁ vā dayāluṁ śaraṇaṁ vrajema

[“How astonishing! When Pūtanā, the wicked sister of Bakāsura, tried to kill child Kṛṣṇa by offering Him deadly poison on her breasts, she reached a position befitting the Lord’s nursemaid. Could I ever have as merciful a shelter as that of Lord Kṛṣṇa?”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 3.2.23]

Uddhava’s statement, the principal devotee Uddhava, his version in Bhāgavatam, kaṁ vā dayāluṁ. “Where should I surrender? Where should I surrender? When I find that Pūtanā in the garb of maternal affection went to kill Him, and how the wonderful reaction. She was given the higher post, that of a motherly position: so kind, so benevolent. Except Him, where should I surrender? Aho bakī yaṁ stana-kāla-kūṭaṁ. Smearing with poison the breast put into the mouth of the child Kṛṣṇa, infant Kṛṣṇa, and she was blessed with such a high and affectionate post. Then how to measure His grace, His mercy, infinite mercy? Beyond expectation – grace and mercy is beyond expectation. Rather, the opposite, such magnanimous behaviour towards the greatest enemy. Beyond justice there is mercy, and such degree of mercy, such type of mercy, such quality of mercy, quality and intensity, both. Where shall I find such a standard of grace? So I must fall flat at the divine feet of such _________ [?] such Lord. Why should not any man of intelligence; man of normal thinking, should not run to fall flat at the feet of such magnanimous personality, aspect of the Absolute love?”

aho bakī yaṁ stana-kāla-kūṭaṁ, jighāṁsayāpāyayad apy asādhvī

lebhe gatiṁ dhātry-ucitāṁ tato 'nyaṁ, kaṁ vā dayāluṁ śaraṇaṁ vrajema

Who else are here? ___________________ [?] And here?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Vidagdha dāsa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Vidagdha. Oh, you have come after long time.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: I’ve been coming Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then?

Devotee: Jagadiśa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then?

Devotees: Kāśīrāma dāsa.

Devotee: Kāśī Miśra dāsa.

Devotee: Mukundamālā.

Devotee: Kāśīrāma dāsa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We should approach, the finite should approach the infinite with this spirit, that if justice is applied I have no hope. So that department I omit. I only come to seek my saving, to seek my fortune, to search my fortune in any department where there’s no calculation of right and wrong, merit and demerit. I have come to that department my Lord because I do not know what is in me. I can’t analyse and study my own heart. I’m unknown to my own self. I’m so helpless, so wretched, that I do not know myself. Then how should I venture to appeal in a department where there will be calculation of credit, demerit, and then something will be granted? So I don’t want that. I don’t want any decision – no decision, surrender. I surrender. Whatever You may like You may do with me. I’m the worst of the sinners, you may take it, admit it. Now what to do with me? I have come. You saviour I have come to You, if there is any possibility save me. This open appeal!

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. One sided, one sided, nothing to expect from my side, nothing to be expected from my side. What to do? This is my condition. That will cleanse our – this sort of self abnegation will automatically cleanse our heart, our innate nature. And the greatest attention from above can be invited by this attitude. So śaraṇāgati, that is the only way to be reinstated in our loss if we can say so, disconnected from our possible prospect. The possible prospect which we may cherish in the inner most quarter of our heart; very easily and also very quickly if we want to have that privilege. That plain speaking and with naked body, mind, everything exposed. Parihāre 'pi lajjā me, kiṁ bruve puruṣottama. My Lord, I feel ashamed to give out the nature of my misdeeds in my past life, or at present also, so many things are within my mind. I myself feel ashamed. How shall I take out to You? So many pure things, flowers, and other pure things are offered to You. And what of me, I have come with the most filthy thing to offer to You. I myself feel ashamed with my offering that I’ve come to You for Your worship.

mat-tulyo nāsti pāpātmā, nāparādhī ca kaścana

parihāre 'pi lajjā me, kiṁ bruve puruṣottama

[“There is no parallel to my sinful, criminal life. Everything that can be conceived of as bad is found in me. O Supreme Lord, I am even ashamed to come before You to petition, ‘please forgive my offences.’ What more can I say than this?”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, 1.2.154]

There is not any parallel to me, pāpātmā, sinful, nāsti pāpātmā, nāparādhī ca, criminal. Everything bad what can be conceived is in me. It is very difficult to give publicity about the characteristic of this heinous sin and crime. Still, Your nature, Your existence, Your fame, Your benevolence, cannot but attract me, that You can save me. You can save me, You can purify. With that hope, hoping against hope I have come to You. And only one solace I have got, consolation, that I’m the real object of Your tendency to purify the meanest. Those that are most needful, the most needy, they have got some claim, from the negative side, because needy, so worst needy I am, and that is my qualification, I’m the most needy, meanest of the mean. So only by that I can attract Your attention and appeal to Your magnanimity. That is my only hope that I am needy. I’m the most needy. And I feel or I do not feel, but still some sort of subconscious element in me. Mat-tulyo nāsti pāpātmā, nāparādhī ca kaścana, parihāre 'pi lajjā me, kiṁ bruve.

yuvatīnām yathā yūni, yūnañca yuvatau yathā

mano ‘bhiramate tadvan, mano ‘bhiramatām tvayi

[“Just as a young boy feels attraction for a young girl, I want that sort of attraction towards You. I want to be engrossed in You, forgetting all material paraphernalia. And by sincere surrender, at once, our progress begins. And the development of that kind of attraction takes us to the topmost rank. I want that intimate connection with You, my Lord. I am the neediest of the needy, but at the same time I have this ambition. I am so disgusted with the world outside that I want the most intense and comprehensive relationship with You. With this attitude, the surrendering process begins and rises step by step. I want that standard of divine love, of intimacy with You. I want to dive deep within You.”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, 1.2.153]

________________ [?] parihas upahas, what is the English? Ridicule, ridicule of the providence inevitable, is this, that my ambition is of such type, that just as a young boy feels attraction for a young girl, yuvatīnām yathā yūni, yūnañca yuvatau yathā, mano ‘bhiramate tadvan, mano ‘bhiramatām tvayi, the attention, I want that sort of attention towards You, may be engrossed forgetting all paraphernalia, bhiramatām. Then it takes the turn. By surrendering the work began. Sincere surrendering automatically at once progress began, yuvatīnām yathā yūni, the topmost rank. That sort of connection, intimate connection, I want with You my Lord. The neediest of the needy, at the same time I have got such sort of ambition. I’m so much disgusted with the world outside that I want most intense and comprehensive encroachment of You on me. Then with this, the result of the surrendering began and it is rising step by step, yuvatīnām yathā yūni, yūnañca. That standard I want, my intimacy with You. I want to dive deep within you.

govinda-vallabhe rādhe, prārthaye tvām ahaṁ sadā

[tvadīyam iti jānātu, govindo māṁ tvayā saha]

[“O Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, the dearest of Lord Govinda, this is always my request to You - please let Lord Govinda, along with Yourself, consider me to be one of Your assistants.”]

[Hari-bhakti-vilāsa] & [BBT’s 1978 Arcana-Paddhati, page 70]

This is in the sandhya mantram, all these prayers.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Which śāstra?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In Arcanacana.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Yes, I know those verses, but which śāstra do they come from?

govinda-vallabhe rādhe, prārthaye tvām ahaṁ sadā

tvadīyam iti jānātu, govindo māṁ tvayā saha

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It comes from, the Arcana comes from Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Goswāmī’s Hari-bhakti-vilāsa. From there it has sprung, through him. It is there, the śāstra that is eternal, eternal flow of a particular current of knowledge. Everything is eternal, Vaikuṇṭha, Goloka. But just as Sun comes up and goes down, appears and disappears, the thought is eternal thought. In a particular stage it is there, but sometimes appears and sometimes gone down. Govinda-vallabhe rādhe, prārthaye tvām ahaṁ sadā. Suddenly a turn towards:

[Kṛṣṇa says] “Oh, do you want that sort of rasa, nature of dealings with Me? It is not within My department. You’ll have to go to another department. Go then to the department of Rādhikā.”

Then at once his thought is transferred towards that side, govinda-vallabhe rādhe, prārthaye tvām, he’s monopolised there. It is Her monopoly.

[Kṛṣṇa says] “What is your inner quest, it is not within My department. You’ll have to go elsewhere, and file a petition there.”

And with this inspiration at once he’s putting his petition to Her, govinda-vallabhe, “Oh You Śrī Rādhikā, whose master and sustainer, or whose Lord of heart is Govinda, I have come to You, the Lord of Your heart is Govinda. Govinda means, we find Him in the Veda, Who can give engagement, give fulfilment to all our channels of knowledge and perception, indriya, go means indriya, sense. We can feel perception as well as knowledge. The master gives fulfilment to all the senses, all the channels of our acquisition: Govinda. Govinda-vallabhe, and that Govinda is Your Lord. And vallabha, just the opposite also, vice versa, You are Mistress of the heart of Govinda. You are Mistress. You are the Queen of the heart of Govinda. I’m directed to come to You with my petition. Prārthaye tvām ahaṁ sadā, tvadīyam iti jānātu. You will enlist my name within Your group. Then I can be admitted in that department. You may reckon me along with You as a servitor in Your group.

rādhe vṛndāvanādhīśe, karuṇāmṛta-vāhini

[kṛpayā nija-pādābja, dāsyaṁ mahyam pradīyatām]

[“O Rādhe, O Queen of Vṛndāvana, You are like a flowing river filled with the nectar of mercy. Please be kind upon me, and bestow upon me some small service at Your lotus feet.”]

[Hari-bhakti-vilāsa] & [BBT’s 1978 Arcana-Paddhati, page 70]

You are the Queen of the whole of Vṛndāvana. Rasotsava, the Master, or Mistress, what should be? The Queen of the whole management of rasotsava, raso means rasa, ecstasy, and that is immensely, infinitely flowing, infinite flow of ecstasy, rasa, prachuja, enough, sufficient, unlimited. This is of rasa, that is rasa, _____________ [?] and that is the speciality of Vṛndāvana. Rasa, the ādi-rasa, the original rasa, is mādhurya, and other rasas are so many branches of that rasa in its peculiar developing characteristic. Ādi-rasa, the mukhya-rasa, if analysed all the rasas are to be found there. So rasa, rasa prārthaye is possible in mādhurya-rasa in Vṛndāvana plane.

vaikuṇṭhāj janito varā madhu-purī tatrāpi rāsotsavād

vṛndāraṇyam [udāra-pāṇi-ramaṇāt tatrāpi govardhanaḥ

rādhā-kuṇḍam ihāpi gokula-pateḥ premāmṛtāplāvanāt

kuryād asya virājato giri-taṭe sevāṁ vivekī na kaḥ]

[“The holy place known as Mathurā is spiritually superior to Vaikuṇṭha, the transcendental world, because the Lord appeared there. Superior to Mathurā-purī is the transcendental forest of Vṛndāvana because of Kṛṣṇa’s rāsa-līlā pastimes. And superior to the forest of Vṛndāvana is Govardhana Hill, for it was raised by the divine hand of Śrī Kṛṣṇa and was the site of His various loving pastimes. And, above all, the super-excellent Śrī Rādhā-kuṇḍa stands supreme, for it is over-flooded with the ambrosial nectarine prema of the Lord of Gokula, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Where, then, is that intelligent person who is unwilling to serve this divine Rādhā-kuṇḍa, which is situated at the foot of Govardhana Hill?”] [Śrī Upadeśāmṛta, 9]

Where is janma-līlā, the vātsalya-rasa in Mathurā, or in Vṛndāvana, that is eho uttama, Mahāprabhu says in Rāmānanda-Saṁvāda: “Yes, this is good, so far, yes, it is.” When there is contamination of reason and rhyme, He said that “eho bāhya, this is superficial.” Then jñāna-sunya-bhakti, “Yes, it is, here you are, it is bhakti. We can recognise it as devotion proper.” Then sākhya-rasa, eho bāhya, dāsya-rasa, eho bāhya. Vātsalya-rasa, eho uttama, the son-hood of Godhead, “It is good.” Mādhurya-rasa, yes it is good.” And at that stage rasa, vṛndāraṇyam, that is the suitable place to deal with that rasa in extensive character, rasa, mādhurya-rasa in extensive character that is in Vṛndāvana; that is rasa, rāsotsavād vṛndāraṇyam. Then again, going, developed, Govardhana, Rādhā-kuṇḍa, but rāsotsavād vṛndāraṇyam. Tvadīyam iti jānātu, govindo māṁ tvayā saha. Rādhe vṛndāvanādhīśe. You are the Queen of that sort of līlā.

The highest type of nectar is flowing. You are like a river, a nectarine river of nectar flowing.

sukha-rūpa kṛṣṇa kare sukha āsvādana, bhakta-gaṇe sukha dite ‘hlādinī’-kāraṇa

[“Ecstasy personified is Kṛṣṇa Himself, and He feels, tastes and enjoys Himself; but only through faith is it possible to transmit and distribute that ecstasy and joy to others. Faith is the very nature of the hlādinī-śakti, the ecstasy potency, which is represented in full by Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. It can transmit total Kṛṣṇa consciousness to the devotees outside. Faith is the halo of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, by the light of which others may understand Kṛṣṇa. When the negative combines with the positive, realisation of Their function is distributed to all other negative parts.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.158]

The very nature of Kṛṣṇa has been given to us that He’s ecstasy Himself and He Himself is tasting Him, He’s tasting His innate ecstasy Himself. Self conscious, happy principle, self conscious, He’s ecstasy, He knows it, He feels it. And to distribute that innate ecstasy to the outside, hlādinī, a particular potency is indispensable, and that is hlādinī. And the gist of that hlādinī is Rādhikā, whose drawing the inner most rasa, ecstasy, of the highest order, extracting as if from the – from within and taking without, to outside, taking and distributing it outside, hlādinī-śakti.

So, karuṇāmṛta-vāhini, it is mentioned there that karuṇāmṛta, that is the ecstasy mixed with magnanimity, the flow is coming from that great fountain, carrying out. Just as the river coming from the womb of the mountain may carry many valuable minerals with its current to the outside. So the hlādinī potency is carrying out that from the abode of the rasa-svarūpa, of the ecstasy, so many valuable things to distribute it to the others, the rasa flow, flow of sweetness and also magnanimity, taken out. Karuṇāmṛta-vāhini, kṛpayā nija-pādābja, dāsyaṁ mahyam pradīyatām.

Another change categorical effected in the meantime in the progress. What is that? The change came in the mind, ‘Oh, Kṛṣṇa is secondary to me. My primary connection I find is with You. I want Your service direct and not that of Kṛṣṇa.’ This sort of awakening in the heart comes in a surrendered soul. That intimate adherence and obligation to the next agent, nearest agent, I shall thrive thereby, more. More benefit I’ll be able to draw by my closest attention in the nearest agency. And it is His lookout to see the upper connections. My best interest is to preserve and to improve my connection with the next and nearest agent. Of course that should be pure, genuine, and it is the business, the lookout of that agency, that agent, to keep his connection, his favourable, normal connection with the hierarchy, higher hierarchy, so:

Guru bhakta tat sarvam gurum bhaktya surujaya [?]

Concentration, all one’s attention should be concentrated in the service of his Guru, with this idea.

govinda-vallabhe rādhe, prārthaye tvām ahaṁ sadā

tvadīyam iti jānātu, govindo māṁ tvayā saha

Rādhe vṛndāvanādhīśe, first to go to Kṛṣṇa. First thing, ‘I’m helpless,’ of course, all things are sincere, helplessness, then protection from Kṛṣṇa, then protection for sweetness, and then sweetness of particular type, preference, and then to go to that department. And then to pray there for the final closest connection or permanent membership as a servitor there, kṛpayā nija-pādābja, dāsyaṁ mahyam pradīyatām. Here is the end of the highest achievement of the Gauḍīya School.

[Raghunātha] Dāsa Goswāmī: bakārināpi [from the śloka āśābharair-amṛta-sindhu], Dāsa Goswāmī says, who, for sixteen years continuously was living in the association of Śrī Caitanyadeva, Svarūpa Dāmodara, etc, and after their disappearance, disgusted with his future days he went to Vṛndāvana to finish his period. But when he met Rūpa and Sanātana he saw another vision, a dream of new life. ‘That Mahāprabhu and Svarūpa Dāmodara from the physical eye disappeared, but He’s living here in Rūpa and Sanātana within His activities preaching tendency He’s here as living as anything.’ He could not, he had to reject the idea of going away from here, and with new vigour he began to serve there...

End of 81.11.12.C_81.11.13.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.13.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... last days. “O Rādhike, I want Your service. If You are not propitiated with me I do not want Kṛṣṇa. I do not want this, that.” Āśābharair – his śloka is this. And he’s admitted as the prayojana Ācārya, the Ācārya, the Guru who has given, who has shown us what is the highest end of our life, prayojana tattva, the destination, the determinater of our destination is Raghunātha Dāsa. And this śloka proves his position, makes him as the giver of our, the disposer of our destination, this śloka.

āśābharair-amṛta-sindhu-mayaiḥ kathañcit, kālo mayātigamitaḥ kila sāmprataṁ hi

tvaṁ cet kṛpaṁ mayi vidhāsyasi naiva kiṁ me, prānair vrajema ca varoru bakārināpi?

[“O Varoru my beautiful, most magnanimous Goddess, my heart is flooded with an ocean of nectarean hopes. I have somehow been passing time until now eagerly longing for Your grace, which is an ocean of ever cherished nectar. If still You do not bestow Your mercy on me then of what use to me are my life, the land of Vraja, or even Śrī Kṛṣṇa who without You, is simply a mighty hero, the destroyer of demoniac forces like Baka.”]

[Śrīla Raghunātha Dāsa Goswāmī’s, Vilāpa-Kusumāñjali, 102]

[From Bhakti Nandan Svāmī’s, Śrī Bhakti Rakṣaka Bhajana Madhuri, p 39]

Āśābharair-amṛta-sindhu-mayaiḥ kathañcit, kālo mayātigamitaḥ. A direct prayer to Rādhārāṇī. Āśābharair-amṛta-sindhu-mayaiḥ. “A particular type of hope which is compared with nectar, so sweet, so sweet and so assuring. So sweet, so assuring, and so, in the point of magnitude, quality, in every way ________ and weight, both there. Amṛta-sindhu-mayaiḥ. Like that of an ocean, unlimited ocean of nectar. Amṛta-sindhu-mayaiḥ kathañcit, kālo mayātigamitaḥ. With that hope I’m anyhow passing my days, I’m flagging my days, dragging my life through these tedious days, only for that hope. That hope is sustaining me, that the nectar ocean of hope, that is attracting me and sustaining me. Anyhow I’m dragging my days through, only saved. Otherwise Mahāprabhu, I’ve lost the direct association of Mahāprabhu, Svarūpa Dāmodara and so many, still I’m living. Why? I have got a particular ray of hope and the prospect is great. And the quality is also very high. Amṛta-sindhu-mayaiḥ kathañcit, kālo mayātigamitaḥ kila sāmprataṁ. But my patience has come perhaps I think just to the end. My patience reached to the end. I can’t endure it any longer. I can’t wait. I’m finished. I can’t wait any more. Kālo mayātigamitaḥ kila sāmprataṁ hi. At this moment, even this moment, if You do not be gracious on me, then I’m finished, gone. I shall lose the chance, forever.

Kālo mayātigamitaḥ kila sāmprataṁ hi, tvaṁ cet kṛpaṁ mayi vidhāsyasi naiva kiṁ me, prānair. I don’t like to keep up my, continue my life. It is useless. I can’t tolerate the company of my own vitality. Vrajema. Even which is dearer than my life, this Vraja, this paraphernalia, Vṛndāvana, I’m disgusted with them. It is always pinching me. Vrajema varoru bakārināpi. What to speak more, even I’m disgusted with Kṛṣṇa also, what to say. It is a shame to utter such words from the mouth. Even I don’t like, I can’t like Him. Tvaṁ cet kṛpaṁ mayi vidhāsyasi. Until and unless You take me up within Your camp, in Your confidential camp of service, such a charm I have come, I have got the clue of such a charm is there within the service of Your camp, that the whole is tasteless to me. And I can’t maintain my existence even in Vṛndāvana, and even Kṛṣṇa, what to speak, bakārināpi.”

So Rādhā-dāsya, Rādhā-kiṅkarā, that has been said to be the highest attainment of the whole School given by Mahāprabhu, the gist from Bhāgavatam. Uddhava, from Brahmā to Vṛndāvana, a bridge, Kṛṣṇa’s own version, from Brahmā, Śiva, Baladeva, Lakṣmī, Himself, Uddhava: Uddhava, Vṛndāvana, and Vraja gopīs, Rādhārāṇī, in this way.

Rāmānanda Rāya, to Mahāprabhu, eho uttama, when the question or reference to Rādhārāṇī came, eho sarvottam, Mahāprabhu says, ordinary the gopīs, sarvottam. “Very, very good.” Then, age kaha ara, then Rāmānanda told that of Rādhārāṇī. The gopī, this Uddhava took to gopī, and from gopī to hlādinī, that is also categorical difference, from ordinary gopī. That was proved in rasa-līlā.

When Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs openly their transaction of heart, from that divine rasa, flowing, inundating, Rādhārāṇī also was there, and She also had some contribution to that common rasa-līlā, this play of the mādhurya-rasa of parakīya to such extent. Then, suddenly, dissatisfaction came in Rādhārāṇī’s heart. “I’m also counted in this common flow of rasa, some abhimāna, some reaction, came in Her mind. Suddenly here, after displaying Her superior, peculiar type of dancing and singing, etc., to give a flow of new type there introducing, She suddenly departed, left that circle.

And Kṛṣṇa suddenly found that, “Rādhārāṇī is not here, so it is tasteless. Though the flow is there, but the gist, the quality is a little down.” So He felt, “Why is it not so satisfactory to Me, to My inner heart?” Some ebb in the tide He felt, and then from inspection found that She’s absent. Then He felt Himself disappointed, and He also left that circle and went to search after Her.

So though this parakīya is there, the Vṛndāvana is there, the gopī is there, mādhurya-rasa is there, still there is categorical difference between the other gopīs and the particular camp of Rādhārāṇī; qualitative difference, qualitative and quantitative, in every way, categorical difference.

[kaṁsārir api saṁsara, vāsanā-baddhaśṛnkhalām]

rādhām ādhāya hṛdaye, tatyaja vraja sundariḥ

[“Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa took Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī within His heart, for He wanted to dance with Her. In this way, He left the arena of the rāsa dance and the company of all the other beautiful damsels of Vraja.”] [Gītā-Govinda, 3.1] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.106]

Jayadeva has described in this way. So taking Rādhā within His heart, Kṛṣṇa also disappeared, departed, for search of Rādhārāṇī. So Her position is so.

śata-koṭi-gopīte nahe kāma-nirvāpaṇa [tāhātei anumāni śrī-rādhikāra guṇa]

[“Lord Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental desires for loving exchanges could not be satisfied even in the midst of billions of gopīs. Thus He went searching after Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. Just imagine how transcendentally qualified She is!”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.116]

There are so many, in quantity, but in quality a little less, so many, but their total combination could not satisfy Him: the qualitative difference. So that is found: Ei sad bhavadi nischay [?] So Rūpānuga sampradāya means who have got that peculiar taste in the camp of Rādhārāṇī what is all service. No entrance of any mundane exploitation or renunciation. Not even the legalised devotion, śāstric devotion, which is controlled by, whatsoever, any law. That’s spontaneous, automatic, of the highest type, automatic. Purity automatic, natural purity automatic, and that is also of the highest type. Sacrifice to the highest degree is only possible there in that camp. This sort of divine feeling, or sentiment, is distributed from that camp of Rādhārāṇī, which can never be compared with any attainment whatsoever hitherto known, even in the eternal factor of time and space. So,

[rādhe vṛndāvanādhīśe], karuṇāmṛta-vāhini

[kṛpayā nija-pādābja, dāsyaṁ mahyam pradīyatām]

[“O Rādhe, O Queen of Vṛndāvana, You are like a flowing river filled with the nectar of mercy. Please be kind upon me, and bestow upon me some small service at Your lotus feet.”] [Hari-bhakti-vilāsa] & [BBT’s 1978 Arcana-Paddhati, page 70]

Then another stage for which we should be prepared. Should we try to enter into the camp of Rādhārāṇī that there we can have in that better atmosphere we shall have Kṛṣṇa’s presence more confidentially? We have contact of Kṛṣṇa very intimately so we want to enter into that camp? No! What more? We want to avoid the connection of Kṛṣṇa but concentrate in the service of Rādhārāṇī. Why? What benefit is there? What more benefit is possible there?

If I approach with my energy to give service direct to Kṛṣṇa I shall be loser. But if my energy is utilised for who can serve in the highest degree, through him [or her] if my energy goes to Kṛṣṇa I’ll be more benefited. That is the idea. Rādhārāṇī’s service to Kṛṣṇa is of the highest order, in every way, and if my energy I can put to help the living of Rādhārāṇī, if utilised there in Her service, and with that service being enhanced, more enhanced, She will do service to Kṛṣṇa and the reaction through Her will pass to me as reward. That will be of the highest type.

So the sakhīs of Rādhārāṇī their general inclination is not to come in direct connection with Kṛṣṇa, they avoid. They avoid. But still, it is the benevolent nature, the generous nature of Rādhārāṇī to connect them, some time or other with some plea. But their innate nature always to avoid Kṛṣṇa, and to concentrate in the service, because they’re, pada puspa pata [?] they’re eternally the branches, sprouts coming out from Rādhārāṇī. She’s the trunk and they are branches, and this is their sambandha. In that, there is another, higher thing. Ha, ha.

Rūpānuga, why? Rādhā-kiṅkarā, it is eliminating everything, even Nārāyaṇa, to go to Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa not Dvārakā, Mathurā, in Vṛndāvana: then again Vṛndāvana where free mixing without any hesitation in connection with other camp, with Rādhārāṇī that is the highest. Then eliminating that, direct service to Rādhārāṇī, that is considered to be the highest. And again, why rūpānuga? Rūpānuga, there is another point. Who is Rūpa? Rūpa Mañjarī.

Generally, the hierarchy there is eternal. Those that are of the new recruits, they are taken, they can occupy a particular rank of mañjarī in mādhurya-rasa, the new recruits. And the leader of the mañjarīs is Rūpa, Śrī Rūpa Mañjarī. What is the speciality there in the mañjarī, than the sakhī? Rādhārāṇī, then Lalitā’s camp, then under Lalitā there is Rūpa Mañjarī. And what is the peculiar position there? The new recruits come to that status. Now, the privilege of this mañjarī class we are to most respectfully and most attentively we are to attend.

That when Rādhā-Govinda They’re in secrecy, in secret camp, the advanced sakhī, they do not like to approach there to disturb Their confidential mixing. Because they’re a little grown up they’re well versed in the art of that play, so if they come there, both of Them feel shy, so some disturbance. But the younger girls, small girls, they can enter there, and They have no hesitation in free mixing. So in that highest stage of the mixing of Rādhā-Govinda, free play of Rādhā-Govinda, these mañjarīs, the younger girls, they can have admission. But the grown up sakhī they cannot have admission there.

So, if we can connect it – firstly new recruit they come to mañjarī class, up to mañjarī class, and then mañjarī has got that sort of special advantage under the leadership of Rūpa Mañjarī, so they get the best advantage there. The most secret type of pure service is open to the mañjarī what is not even to the sakhī, and that is in Rādhārāṇī’s camp. So rūpānuga position, the most profitable, the most profitable position has been given out by Mahāprabhu maybe as shown as fixed that that is the highest, the limit of your fortune in Kṛṣṇa’s concern. This has been shown.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Un-expectable, un-designable, and beyond hope: our prospect lies there in that subtle camp of Śrī Rūpa, Rūpa Mañjarī, Rūpa Goswāmī. So the camp, the sampradāya of Rūpa Goswāmī and Mahāprabhu is known as rūpānuga sampradāya. There is located our fate, our fortune.

Now, we are to conduct our self in such a way that naturally we can go, we can raise ourselves, or we can connect ourselves with that sort of ideal from here. We must not allow ourselves to be satisfied with nothing than this sort of the high ideal. That should be the highest mark of our life, highest goal of our life. And we are to adjust ourselves from our present position – “how should we proceed?”

The other day, as I told, to Atreya Ṛṣi, ‘That we are minor, but my father has left so many documents about the properties. So many documents left, father away, leaving the documents here. I am a minor son. I should try to find out what properties belong to me, in the document. And when I shall attain majority and become major then I shall go to take possession according to the documents.”

So śāstra is there, the rāgānugā śāstra is with me. He’s given, was left by my Guru, my guardian, my father, anyhow. And as I shall grow in age more and more in the spiritual line I shall have to detect what is my prospect, what is my wealth. And I must recover them. I must have them. It is in the document. It is mine. This is our position, we are minor, but we must be major, and we must have demand for the service which is meant for us, by our guardians.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. We’re putting in our claim with you.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: We think that with the absence of the father the court has appointed a guardian in order to keep us out of mischief in the first place and also to regulate our inheritance.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. This is not mine. This is the property of my Gurudeva. And Swāmī Mahārāja gave you clue. He has cast aside widely the key. With the key coming and the iron chest open and find out...

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Haribol. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...ornaments and gems of such type are in the chest, in the almira.

Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

āmi - eka bātula, tumi - dvitīya bātula, ataeva tomāya āmāya ha-i sama-tula

[Mahāprabhu said to Rāmānanda Rāya: “I am insane, mad, bāula - pāgala - eccentric. I am one eccentric, and you are another. Therefore, we two are of the same class.”] [Caitanya- caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.291]

Ke bhai kahibe kaihila kiba bati ai [?] Who will come to appreciate? They will say, ‘O this is all – disorganised brain. They’re trying to take electricity from the sky. Leaving away this concrete earth they are like cātaka, that bird, one drop from the sky, and all these waters rejected.’ But that type of bird Rūpa Goswāmī says, cātaka, there’s a class of bird who never takes any drop of water from the earth. Their nature is always for a drop water to cast their eye on the cloud. ‘One drop, patik-jal,’ that is a Bengali expression, ‘patik-jal,’ a drop of pure water.’ That is their cry, ‘A drop of pure water,’ with their mouth, beak towards the sky, towards the cloud, ‘patik-jal.’ And they never use any water from the earth. So ours is like that.

viracaya mayi daṇḍaṁ dīnabandho dayāṁ vā, [gatir iha na bhavattaḥ kācid anyā mamāsti

nipatatu śata-koṭir nirbharaṁ vā navāmbhas, tad api kila payodaḥ stūyate cātakena]

[“O friend of the needy, whether You chastise me or reward me, in the whole wide world I have no other shelter but You. Whether the thunderbolt strikes or torrents of fresh waters shower down, the Cātaka bird (who drinks only the falling rainwater) perpetually goes on singing the glories of the raincloud.”] [Śrī-Rūpapādānāṁ]

The spirit of that bird is described in this way by Rūpa Goswāmī. “You may punish me O cloud, you may punish me. If thunder comes I’ll be nowhere. You can push down a thunder, viracaya mayi daṇḍaṁ. Dīnabandho dayāṁ vā, but you can give me sufficient water. And how much can I take with my small beak? A flood of water may come, rain may come. Viracaya mayi daṇḍaṁ dīnabandho dayāṁ vā. Hey, O the Lord of the poor, of the helpless, You can give me a drop of Your devotion. Or You may punish me like anything. Just as a cātaka bird he’s always praying for a drop of water. The cloud may satisfy it immensely or by sending thunder finish him, efface him from the Earth. The bird has no other alternative by nature. So also my position is like that bird. You may finish me, destroy me, efface me from this creation of Yours, or You may save me by only a drop of Your grace. Viracaya mayi daṇḍaṁ dīnabandho dayāṁ vā, gatir iha na bhavattaḥ kācid anyā mamāsti. I won’t search after my satisfaction in the earth, in the mud. That is finished, never to go back to search my fortune in the earth, in the mundane. I’m already fixed to do or die. Rather, I must receive Your grace, a drop of Your grace, or You may finish me, You can efface me from this world. Viracaya mayi daṇḍaṁ dīnabandho dayāṁ vā, gatir iha na bhavattaḥ kācid anyā mamāsti, nipatatu śata-koṭir nirbharaṁ vā navāmbhas. Śata-koṭir means vajra, thunder, nirbharaṁ vā, or sufficient water, rainwater may fall. And not only quench his thirst but even bathing and satisfying him to his utmost hankering, necessity. Nirbharaṁ vā navāmbhas, tad api kila payodaḥ stūyate cātakena. So we should never go to search our fortune in the mud, but always towards the high sky, higher sky.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

After all, this is perverted reflection. The subtle is the master and the gross is the servant. The present science says the gross is the master and the subtle is the servant, product. But ours the opposite, the subtle is the high; that we shall have to admit, the fine is higher and the gross is lower. So low is giving birth to high and they can’t accept that high is giving birth to low, can’t accept this. A communist idea; no appreciation of any efficiency, only majority, mass, no appreciation for connotation, only adore the denotation. The fine thing not to be appreciated, only gross: that is fool’s experience. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

So Hegel is very helpful. ‘Reality must be by Itself and for Itself.’ If you admit at all that there is an absolute cause then He must have control over these two conditions. He’s by Itself, He’s His own cause, He has created Himself, He’s His own creation, He’s self-existing, self-evident, self-existent, you must have to admit. None has produced Him. Then that would hold the higher position. So He must be by Itself. And more precious quality, It is for Itself, only for His own fulfilment, own satisfaction. Not a secondary position to satisfy another, then that would hold the supreme position. So to be reality these two qualities must be given to it. By Itself and for Itself, For Itself, He’s the enjoyer. Everything, every movement means for His fulfilment, His satisfaction, to fulfil His own hankering and desire, līlā. That is līlā, for His pastimes. Krsna sukha ____________ [?]

Whatever is happening, to satisfy Him, otherwise no value. Which is not going to satisfy Him that is degrading, deterioration; no progress: that cannot be counted as progress, deterioration. When we can catch the purpose of life, our normal contribution of every part should contribute something for the satisfaction of that great universal whole. For Itself: For Himself, everything conscious that everything For Himself. I am also For Himself. Must have connection with that central necessity – His satisfaction, then the harmony is there, otherwise anarchy, discord, anarchy. Then they’ll have to reap the consequence of their own karma. So this is disturbance, action and reaction, between nation, or between individual, action reaction, suffer. And big brained people, they call themselves very big brained, so many fools, big brained demons. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Masters of the world, and managers, they can make and mar. We are told that Satan is the next efficient to God, according to this Mohammedan scripture. The next qualified to God is Satan. And it is a temperament to revolt – demon. Hare Kṛṣṇa: A demon civilisation.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Oxygen killer, this civilisation is oxygen killer, dealing death blow to oxygen which is indispensable for the animals to live. America has come to Indian Ocean, already declared two years ago one gentleman told, “That to keep up the present civilisation this oil is indispensable.”

So oil is indispensable to keep up the present civilisation. Without oil we shall have to die. So it is better to fight and die. The civilisation will have to die fasting. Before that you’ll fight and die a natural death, a living death. So America opened a centre here in __________ [?] Two years or three years ago. One American gentleman told this plainly. “For the scarcity of oil we shall have to die as we are at present. Then before that we must try to fight to get the oil. So oil we have need, without oil we can’t live, as we are. So for the safety to get the oil, the food of our civilisation is oil, and for the food we must fight and if necessary we shall die.”

Russia is also approaching towards that oilfield, and America is also coming and they have influenced that already, the Durban, South Africa, then captured Nasa [?], the Cairo, and then Pakistan. Turkey was also in his favour, then so many others are in his favour. And Russia is that. And India, in the name of democracy, more inclined towards Russia than that of America. But when China attacked India, at that time Jawaharlal [Pandit Nehru] had to pray for help from America. “Give me that atomic energy, otherwise the demon China cannot be taught a lesson. I want.” Kennedy perhaps was the President at the time. “I want atomic energy.” British came forward in a moment, “That you are within my commonwealth. I’m at your disposal. Whatever help you want I’m ready.” British came the next morning. When at midnight Jawaharlal connected with Kennedy for atomic energy, and the next morning we found that British has come so liberally: “At your disposal, whatever, by soldier, by weapons, any, by money. The China demon must be crushed through you. You also have manpower. Begin, we are at your back.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. We are, those that are Godly, we have got our sympathy with them. And non godly they’re far from us whatever they may do. A stranger may be friend if he’s a sādhu. A father may be a guest if he’s asādhu, non godly. The flesh connection, the world connection, and the soul connection – soul connection should be given preference everywhere. And soul connection of different types there are, Mahāprabhu and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam soul connection as They have supplied to me, revealed to us our highest regard for that.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

So realisation, proper realisation, that is all-important, and administration should help that, then it will have value. Śrutibhir vimṛgyām [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.47.61], all the revealed truth is only directing the direction. “This side, this way, you march this way.” Śruti, śāstra, scripture, Śrutibhir, so many revealed advices, instructions, but not ordinary mundane advices, but revealed, there is also instalment, revealed instructions are only directing towards the direction. Śrutibhir vimṛgyām, “Go this side, go this side.” The realisation, the goal of our realisation is of such unattainable type; so dear, so rare. Śrutibhir vimṛgyām. A Bhāgavata śloka, Śukadeva says, “They are also searching after, this way, this way, this way.” So different types of revealed truth, different groups, they’re always, ‘This side, this side, this side.’

End of 81.11.13.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.13.C_81.11.14.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... even of the śruti, revealed truth; that also very carefully handled.

Noni veda yavata mat kathasu savan mayo [?]

neha yat karma dharmāya, na virāgāya kalpate / na tīrtha-pada-sevāyai, jīvann api mṛto hi saḥ

[“Anyone whose work does not elevate him to religious life, whose religious life does not lead to renunciation, and whose renunciation does not lead to devotional service to the Supreme Lord, is counted among the living dead.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 3.23.56]

If duty,

dharmasya hy āpavargyasya, nārtho ‘rthāyopakalpate

[nārthasya dharmaikāntasya, kāmo lābhāya hi smṛtaḥ]

[“All dharmas (religions, duties, occupational positions, social functions) are certainly meant for ultimate liberation. They should never be performed for material gain. Furthermore, according to sages, one who is engaged in the ultimate occupational duty should never use material gain to cultivate sense gratification.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.9]

Duty should always be aimed towards the highest achievement of life, highest fulfilment of life. Duty should be arranged in that way. Dharma āpavagya. Its end, its aim should always be towards the highest attainment. Duty should be couched in such a way. And artha, money should come to help duty, to discharge duty money should be utilised. And kāma, dharma, artha, kāma, kāma that is our connection with material things, that should be arranged in such a way that what is necessary for the upkeep of our life, in that way, not for enjoying purpose. We should accept the material energy from outside to such extent which will help me best to keep up my health. And I shall earn money and the money should be used to help my duty, and duty should be arranged in such a way that we may take up to the highest end, dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa, the four-fold ends of life.

But here, the sense pleasure, that is our aim, and we make money for that, and dharma means duty we arrange in such a way that the sense perception, that sense pleasure may be permanent. ‘I shall distribute to others and it will be saved in the nature and after my life I shall get that.’ Dharma, artha, kāma. Dharma means to distribute sense pleasure to others. That is, to make it stored, to give the money to the bank, to give it to the nature, and the nature will again repay me in future. That is dharma, in the ordinary sense it is going on in that way, dharma, artha, kāma, three-fold ends of life.

But real, the Bhāgavata says, this adjustment will be this way, that this sense pleasure – not sense pleasure but to take some help through the senses for the upkeep of the body. And that body will collect energy and that energy will help you to discharge you duty and your duty should be always set in such a way that it will take you up to reach your goal. That should be the arrangement in Vedas but deva, ṛṣi mutilate it and clothed in this way. For the sense pleasure they contact with matter. And then to purchase sense pleasure and to distribute they want money. And then when distribute sense pleasure to others, this feeding, clothing, medicine, all these, this bodily help, it is in store for him, after his death he will again get those things from nature, in this way.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Nitāi Nitāi.

Should I stop here? Any question? Specially what I told now, any question on the basis of that, any question may come? Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. So how to make adjustment in our own lives most accurately in order to always maintain the highest spiritual quality.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: To be with the association of the same type, but little higher position, sādhu, śāstra. We should select an environment. Just as when we fail to keep up our health, we change our place where the atmosphere will be very helpful to me, the water, the air, helpful unconsciously they will help me for the improvement of my health, body. So also when I feel that I want help from outside to intensify my inner holy tendency then I shall try to put me in the favourable environment, where from knowingly, unknowingly, I can gather, I can breathe in that high ideal atmosphere. Consciously, unconsciously, it will improve me, that example, their talk, their connection, the prasādam, in every way, that will contribute to me to recoup my health, and to improve my health. The association, sādhu, and sādhu that is a more higher type of association and passive śāstra. Śāstra is passive and sādhu is active helper. If any error, he will come and correct: but śāstra won’t be able to correct. Only I am to impose my thought on it and to make progress drawing from within my own cash box, my own storehouse. I’m to evolve. And that will be easy to get help from the sādhu. He will examine me, ‘Oh, don’t do this. Do this.’ He’s active. And this is passive. But anyhow we can improve our condition only with the help of these two sādhu-śastra-kṛpāya yadi krsna. All through!

[sādhu-śastra-kṛpāya yadi kṛṣṇonmukha haya, sei jīva nistare, māyā tāhāre chāḍaya]

[“If the conditioned soul becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious by the mercy of saintly persons who voluntarily preach scriptural injunctions and help him to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, the conditioned soul is liberated from the clutches of māyā, who gives him up.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.120]

Krsna prema janme punati mukhanga [?] The beginning is also with the company of sādhu and when sufficiently acquired, then also we want the company of sādhu. Wherever we are there are the paraphernalia, helping paraphernalia to engage myself in the service to Guru in so many forms. They are all busy themselves to serve, and their association, their instruction also comes to us to engage, to utilize us in the service of Kṛṣṇa.

So try to improve our environment to accept anyhow. When we are in danger in any place then sometimes losing consciousness, sometimes consciousness coming, some accident, what do I do? They say, ‘My father is there, my mother, my friend is there. Take my body home, at their disposal. And they will look after me.’ This sort of help we like to get from the stranger.

So also who knows the value of my life, put me there. So sādhus know the value of my spiritual value, spiritual life, value of spiritual life. So anyhow, put me in their circle. And they know the valuation of spiritual life and they will come and nurse for their master of their own accord to increase their society. They have interest. So they cannot but nurse me. It is their interest also, to make their circle wide and by the new recruit for the service of Kṛṣṇa, they will be rewarded. So it is their interest to take care of us. Anyhow to throw myself at the vicinity of the sādhus.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura

Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

How long you are to stay here, we can expect your company?

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: After the answer to that last question, I think that I should move into the āśrama here, to acquire the shelter of a personality such as yourself so that I can make progress in spiritual life.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Rūpa Goswāmī asked Mahāprabhu after first initiation, “Please allow me to be always in Your company.”

Mahāprabhu replied, “You are always with Me, especially if you obey My order you will be with Me. And disobeying and keeping My company, that will not be to be with Me.”

The body association is not association proper. The mental association, the body may be far, but the mind may be near only by obedience, the anugata, the perseverance. That is saṅga of the cetana. In the case of the soul, one soul can keep association with another soul only through the same tenor of mind, only through obedience, anugata. Body may be far off, but by anugatam, perseverance, one can be near. That was told by Mahāprabhu to Rūpa Goswāmī.

“Now you go to Vṛndāvana. It is for Kṛṣṇa’s cause. It is necessary that you go to Vṛndāvana and do all these duties. Then you will be near. Only bodily close connection is not to live near.”

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: But Rūpa Goswāmī is far, far beyond us. And therefore he was able to maintain obedience in all situations. We are afraid that if we go then we may lose the proper frame of mind for obedience.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So we are to inform that, ‘This is my desire, and I feel such.’ And the response as it will come we are to abide by. And then I am near. Otherwise, ‘No, you go do this?’ ‘No, I don’t do this. I must keep close to your body.’

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: You just tell us what to do.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So śravaṇa, kīrtana, to hear and to distribute, to indent and to export. That is the main direction of Mahāprabhu. Receive and distribute, receive and clear. And more and higher things will be entrusted with you. And you are to distribute it properly to the public, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa.

[yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa, āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa

kabhu nā vādhibe tomāra viṣaya-taraṅga, punarapi ei ṭhāñi pābe mora saṅga]

[“Instruct whoever you meet in the science of Kṛṣṇa. Teach them the instructions of Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā, and the teachings about Kṛṣṇa in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way, on My order, become a Guru and liberate everyone in the land. If you follow this instruction, the waves of materialism within this world will not affect you. Indeed, if you follow My order, you will soon attain My association.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 7.128-9]

The general order, command of Mahāprabhu: “Be agent of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, true agent of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Don’t try to exploit by that selfish exploitation. By agent, pure agent of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you will get My help. You will get My help. Punarapi ei ṭhāñi pābe mora. Here you will have My company. My presence you will feel if you obey My order. I am here, I am at your back. If you disregard Me I am also far off. Yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa. The agent of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, you are Mine. I am at your back.”

Swāmī Mahārāja told when he felt some sickness there that he may not live any longer, “Your grandfather is there on your back. Don’t be depressed.” He told somewhere in America to a section. “Your grandfather is there to help you. You don’t be discouraged if I disappear. By the will of Kṛṣṇa if I am withdrawn, you don’t be disappointed, dejected. Your grandfather is there. So in any way Kṛṣṇa is there to back. Or from the unseen quarter I shall back you, in some way or other, in any way.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Two years ago with the help of my God brother, Sanskrit expert Kuśakratha dāsa, I wrote one aṣṭakam to our Śrīla Prabhupāda. And at the end of the eight verses, the ninth verse is there and the prayer was: Ya vayidam sri prabhupada devam kirtyastakam sustu patanta nityam.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In Sanskrit?

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Gaurodayacarya vicitra saktya te krsna vartam pada danta bhumyam.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Slowly, pronounce it slowly so that I shall follow.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: My pronunciation is not very good and I am ignorant character, as far as Sanskrit is concerned, but I’ll try.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, does not matter. Bhāva-grāhī-janārdanaḥ. Murko badhati visnaya dhiro badhati visnove [?] An ignorant man he says visnaya, in Sanskrit it is incorrect, visnave, it should be visnave, but he says visnaya. Murko badhati visnaya dhiro badhati visnove [?] A scholar he says visnave visnave namah. And muka visnaya namah grammatically incorrect. __________________ [?] The experts say that both is equal. Bhāva-grāhī-janārdanaḥ. He sees the thought underlying that sound, bhāva-grāhī. He is eager for the meaning, couched in the word, not very particular about the word. Not very particular about the packet, the sound is packet and the meaning is the substance. So He is very particular about the substance, not for the packet, the word. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Bhāva-grāhī-janārdanaḥ. The very purpose, the purity of purpose: that is His lookout. Not the dress but the man.

Devotee: ______________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ________________________________ [?]

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: I am embarrassed to say any verse in front of Śrīdhara Mahārāja. I will repeat it.

Ya vayidam sri prabhupada deva kirtyastakam sustu patanta nityam. Gaurodayacarya vicitra saktya. Gaurodayacarya, the Ācārya is coming from Lord Caitanya, vicitra saktya.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaurodayacarya, the agent of the magnanimity of Gaurāṅga Himself.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Yes. Actually I’ll just say the English. The idea is that the authors of the aṣṭakam are praying to the Ācāryas who are representing Lord Caitanya to empower all of the chanters of this aṣṭakam to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness all over the world.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. The agent of Gaurāṅga who has got the order of free distribution widely to the world: the all world agent of Gaurāṅga.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: We want the agency from the factory, we are requesting.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He was an agent in the beginning for the medicine. But later on he got the agency of the highest medicine to remove the ignorance, the avidyā.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jaya.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: His physical medicine to cure the physical diseases and that took him up to the highest medicine to cure the avidyā, vyādhi, disease, the disease of ignorance. To remove the whole world, that agency he got. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: In my earlier service days I was in charge of Spiritual Sky incense company, selling fragrances, agarbati and perfume for the institution, raising funds. So perhaps you could empower me to spread the fragrance of your words all over the world.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. It maybe His will. We stop here.

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: __________________________________________________________________ [?]

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Would you object if we, because we don’t very much like to hear that those persons who are your disciples are considered to be somehow disloyal, or that persons who are coming to see you are somehow disloyal to Śrīla Prabhupāda, our Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I’ll be happy if they’re a little accommodating. And that will be judicious _________ to be, they’re judicious. I hope that they should be of accommodating nature. That would be better – of tolerant spirit. Otherwise amongst them also the hitch may break out very soon, as it did recently. It may be repeated.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: So then we may try to make some effort in order to help them philosophically to understand how important it may be to accommodate Your Divine Grace.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, as much as I can, I shall try always at the disposal to harmonise.

Devotee: ________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________________________ [?]

...Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī, and A.C. Bhaktivedānta is eliminated from ______

But I asked, Gadādhara took dīkṣā from me. I asked him, ‘The Nāma dīkṣā you have got; that is the principle thing. So you can accept your paramparā Swāmī Mahārāja, you need not mention my name there – Swāmī Mahārāja, and then Bhaktisiddhānta, the sannyāsa paramparā.

After the departure of our Guru Mahārāja the first sannyāsa was taken by the founder of Gauḍīya Saṅga, the senior-most disciple of Prabhupāda was sent to London also for preaching. He took sannyāsa from me. But I did not demand, and I asked him not to mention my name as his Gurudeva, sannyāsa Guru.

Keśava Bharati was not so very important to Mahāprabhu – but sannyāsa Guru, of course in our heart we shall as much as appreciate his qualification, we cannot but show our reverence to him, respect to him. But formally we may not mention his name.

So what to speak of sannyāsa Guru, even the sādhu – as in the case of Dayādhara [Gaurāṅga] who was recommended and sent to me by the Ācārya of his own zone, that is Haṁsadūta. Haṁsadūta himself sent Dayādhara to me. And I gave him dīkṣā, pañcarātrika, this Gāyatrī dīkṣā, brāhmaṇa dīkṣā. And at the same time advised: “You have taken Hari Nāma from Swāmī Mahārāja; that is the principal thing, the Nāma dīkṣā, so you may not, need not, mention my name in the paramparā.”

I’m not very eager to – I’m sitting in a corner, the whole life, idle, as idle as possible. And in the last days if by my fortune my Guru Mahārāja takes something from me what he’s kept with me, I shall consider it fortune. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Whatever you do, do avoiding as much hitch as much as possible avoid hitch with the competition. Only for the best interest of mankind, loka sandhana machati [?] For the good of the people, with clear conscience, to do some service for those that are coming with faith – that way, you should. Not much with the stamp, but the gold, the material, that’s what’s necessary.

Devotee: _____________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: As less as possible. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Mahārāja, when Gopīnātha stole the condensed milk from Mādhavendra Purī, Mādhavendra Purī immediately left that village so he would not become glorified by the residents. But nonetheless, wherever he went because he was such an exalted devotee he could not help but be glorified.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: For fear of glory he fled from Purī at once.

Devotees: But his fame followed him. We think that your good self is in the same position. We cannot help but want to glorify you.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then the opposite I shall do. Respect, no, all fame must come to me. This should be my attitude. We will be the last man to accept that. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: ________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Self-abnegation, that is the first condition in the bond we must sign, self-abnegation. All to Him: nothing in me. If I go to claim, then I shall have a black mark then and there. I pray that that black thing may not enter my heart. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: _________________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: We thought to write one paper, a philosophical paper, trying to explain from our limited point of view your Divine Grace’s relationship with our society, and your society.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Society, especially Swāmī Mahārāja. The intimate relationship with Swāmī Mahārāja and also the society, ISKCON, I love.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. So we’ll do that. We can do that, to present your love for Swāmī Mahārāja Prabhupāda.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You will do according to your conscience but always remembering that I am not on the side of any collision. Avoid the collision. Do according to your sincere heart and conscience. But as much as possible avoid the collision, the competition, the bad name, bad will.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: That we also want.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. In a sober way: not in excited way. What you do in sober brain, cool brain, and never with any excitement. You can also convey to that Yaśodā-nandana and other qualified men who can’t keep good relationship with present administration of ISKCON. You may come in contact with them and discuss, consult, and as much as possible go on in a combined effort, but with cool and sober brain and temperament: as far as possible not disturbing others, not making others opponent.

tṛṇād api sunīcena, taror api sahiṣṇunā / amāninā mānadena, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

[“One who is humbler than a blade of grass, more forbearing than a tree, who gives due honour to others without desiring it for himself is qualified to always chant the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa.”] [Śikṣāṣṭakam, 3]

Slow and steady wins the race. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi Gaura-Gadādhara

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: I am going tomorrow to Purī, early, so I won’t be able to come to see you tomorrow morning. I am supposed to meet Jayapataka Swāmī in Purī. He has agreed that I may be the GBC for Purī and develop Purī for the society. And also Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s bhajan-kuṭīra is there. Our society has got that possession now and I’m supposed to rehabilitate that place and develop it as a shrine to Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. So we are going to work on that, and also to develop the institute there as we previously discussed. We want to work on that. Then if I can perhaps I will come back for another day or two before I go back to London, if I can.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Before starting from London you will visit here again.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: I would like to. I am feeling too much attraction to stay with you.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You are a busy man. Some urgent information may come from London and you have to go straight there.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: I’m avoiding getting any information from London in case that is the intimation. But before I go I have to discuss one thing with you privately, a private matter, if it is all right, if I can take leave of my followers just for a few minutes and have a very private discussion of a very important matter to myself.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right. Now?

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: If it is possible. It should take only ten to fifteen minutes perhaps.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Yes.

Devotee: This is going on.

Jayatīrtha Mahārāja: Oh that should be turned off please. Thank you.

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... ṛṣīṇāṁ cāmalātmanām, so many ṛṣis by their penances or other processes they have acquired the purity of their heart to a sufficient degree. Bhaktir mukunda-caraṇe, na prāyeṇopajāyate. But often it is seen that they have got no attraction for Mukunda. Some Brahman, some Paramātmā, some go to Śiva, all these things. Devānāṁ śuddha-sattvānām. Not only God but qualification is there, śuddha sattva, devata, deva of higher type, high posted gods. Ṛṣīṇāṁ cāmalātmanām. Not only ṛṣi, the śāstric scholars, but āmalātmanām, the purity of heart is also to be traced in them. Bhaktir mukunda-caraṇe, na prāyeṇa. This is a very strange thing that they have got no inclination towards Mukunda, connected hither thither. Sudurllabhā.

[devānāṁ śuddha-sattvānām, ṛṣīṇāṁ cāmalātmanām

bhaktir mukunda-caraṇe, na prāyeṇopajāyate]

[“Demigods situated in the mode of goodness and great saints cleansed of the dirt of material enjoyment hardly ever render pure devotional service at the lotus feet of Mukunda. Therefore how could Vṛtrāsura have become such a great devotee?”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 6.14.2]

So in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu:

kleśa-ghnī śubhadā mokṣa-, laghutā-kṛt sudurllabhā

sāndrānanda-viśeṣātmā, śrī-kṛṣṇākarṣiṇī ca sā

[“Uttamā-bhakti, the purest devotion, is the vanquisher of all sin and ignorance, and the bestower of all auspiciousness; liberation is belittled in the presence of such devotion, which is very rarely attained, the embodiment of the deepest ecstasy, and the attractor of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself.”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, Pūrvva, 1.17]

These are statements about the developed stages of devotion. It develops in such a way. Sudurllabhā, even when you have rejected liberation, ‘I don’t want liberation. I hate liberation,’ then also He may not come to you, sudurllabhā. After mokṣa laghutā-kṛt, when you have passed the stage that you do not care for complete liberation, then also it will be not easily got. It is such. By complete renunciation, that is not qualification to attain Him. Some tinge there, then you will have to wait, and only through the grace of the sādhus that you can have. If you have clearly got the passport, no defect in your passport, that does not mean that you will get the visa. Sudurllabhā, still you are to attend hard sometimes to have entrance into that domain.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Your socks.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And that is without my notice. Gaura Haribol. He or his attendant?

Devotees: He himself did. Jayatīrtha Mahārāja, he took them.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Laulyaṁ, eagerness.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And perhaps these two have been presented by him.

Devotee: He has two pairs of new socks.

Devotee: I brought them for you.

Devotee: Madana-mohana [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You gave this here, sweater, and this?

Devotee: Yes please: also as well.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh!

Devotee: You see, I did not see you. When I was in London buying a pullover like this for myself, I went into the shop, an Oxford Street shop, and then there I liked that one. And when I tried it was too big, and I said, ‘I’m not going to give it back. It’s for my Guru Mahārāja.’

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Slack and soft.

Devotee: At that time I said, ‘This is for my Guru Mahārāja.’ I did not see you. I did not come to India even.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Very suiting, very suiting in old age. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. We have to understand and realise, from what height Swāmī Mahārāja came to you. He approached you, and he came down from what sort of high position he came down to take you there. You are to appreciate that. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he prayed for the appearance of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta, he prayed to the Lord for the appearance of a pure devotee?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is not clear but it is also mentioned in a way: Sri gauranga parishad thakura bhakativinode dehin pati dhira bandhu kali tam vinasi ________________________ [?]

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s will to push his teachings to the world, his earnest desire to push, that was the cause of drawing him here.

Prabhupāda has written, Śrī svarūpa dāmodara. Gadādhara, Svarūpa Dāmodara, they are always in this Dhāma, they are always engaged in their service to Gaurāṅga, and in different garb. Sometimes over the surface, sometimes underground. In this Dhāma they are always engaged. But for the good fortune of the people of this time, anyhow they came over the surface in the garb of Gaura Kiśora Bābājī and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. Gadādhara – Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura: and Svarūpa Dāmodara – Gaura Kiśora Bābājī. _______ vraje radha krsna ____ prakash _______ [?]

This secret truth may not be, should not be given publicity to ordinary people. By their will these things should be given inner inspiration. The divine will is everything. The ultimate thread is the will of Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī. Gadādhara, Mahāprabhu came anyhow. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and then mainly in the form of śāstra and modernised way it was delivered by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and it was given to Prabhupāda. It is very peculiar – Prabhupāda did not like to accept this duty.

But Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura told him, “You like to lead a life of religious luxury? You think that these things will be very troublesome to take up the work, the service of Mahāprabhu; that will be very troublesome to you. Do you want to be nirviśeṣa-vādī...?”

End of 81.11.13.C_81.11.14.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.14.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...so many of my preceptors are there. They have come to help me. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. The strong will for propaganda, especially in the west, and he began. And wonderfully Swāmī Mahārāja came in and took up the thread, and he showed a miracle, given to us, how he has taken you all, to fulfil the desire of our Guru Mahārāja which we heard with our own ears. “That I want to decorate Māyāpur, Mahāprabhu, Dhāma, with gold and jewels. That is going to happen, to take place.”

And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura professing, “That is so plain, that love of God; that should be the very life of religion. And so explicitly it is given in Bhāgavatam and by Mahāprabhu. Other religious conceptions are sure to merge in near future into this doctrine that is love of God. And God is Lord of love and love of God, so near, so familiar with Him if we can attain, then all other religious conceptions will have to retire, and all will merge, enter into it. That only one religion led by Mahāprabhu.” He could see as if, “So plain thing, why should it not be accepted by all? We want love, we want God, but if through love we can come near Him, which fool will discourage this, abandon this proposal, if it is put in the right way?” And there is the possibility.

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grama, sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the pioneer of Śrī Kṛṣṇa saṅkīrtana. He said: “I have come to inaugurate the chanting of the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa, and that Name will reach every nook and corner of the universe.”] [Chaitanya-Bhāgavata]

“To every corner of every village that is existent in the wide world, everywhere My name will reach every corner. That is going to be effected.”

And we see such magnitude of propaganda, of such prema dharma, love divine, will be possible – we could not dream of even. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. But love and lust must be differentiated. Lust mundane and love divine, the highest acme of divinity.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, you say that we must try to appreciate the high level that Swāmī Mahārāja has come down from, for us. But he has accepted you as his śikṣā Guru. So how we are to appreciate you?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Ha, ha. That will be, your realization will justify what you heard from Swāmī Mahārāja from his mouth, from his books, whether what I say is tally with that or not. You may measure in that; anyone should measure from what plane this is coming. These sounds are coming from the same plane. But that will depend on your understanding, your sincere earnestness in your understanding. The vibration is giving the pressure in a similar way or something else? It depends on the individual case.

Just as Hiranyagarba and Nadiyānanda they also received the vibration coming from Swāmī Mahārāja but they could not catch it properly. So they are impressed with another type of vibration from Lalitā Prasād and caught there. That seemed to them more true and more charming, caught by that.

The recipient will receive that vibration, according to the genuineness, of that it will be. There are so many goswāmīns, they are also making disciples________ [?] but they could not venture to capture us. Hare Kṛṣṇa. What is the difference? Because their chief marketeer, things may be rotten, does not matter, cheaper. By not proper price they are ready to give. So such will be the consequence of those.

But we are of other type. If Kṛṣṇa comes Himself, then also we shall try, “Are you Kṛṣṇa?” I shall go and ask my Guru Mahārāja whether you are Kṛṣṇa or not.” Over cautious! What more you have to fear from me. Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

Swāmī Mahārāja has clearly written, given cautions about those sahajiyās. It is plain, clear, not in vague talk, the sahajiyās. And he will enter, cut off the cage and gone to fly in this bloody atmosphere. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Śrīdhara Mahārāja, sometimes in preaching, in order to present the philosophy in a palatable way it becomes watered down. So how do we present the philosophy as it is, but at the same time present it so that people will appreciate?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Preaching the truth, and to satisfy the public is not one thing. Those that ignore the truth and go more towards the popularity, they go to danger, the pratiṣṭhā. You must keep up to the standard of Guru Mahārāja who will always be conscious. You must be within the camp, and then fight. Don’t go outside the camp, the circumference of the camp. The popularity is a dangerous thing. To please the people, to get more response, to lower the standard, that would not be judicious. You must remain in the plane of protection. So to please the public if you go down to their standard, that won’t be well, according to me. Those that have gone that way generally they are punished by the nature, we have seen.

Our Guru Mahārāja told that they are ______________ [?] canvasser. He told some sannyāsī that, “You are an agent of the people. Not my servant.”

So servant of Guru and an agent of the public come to seek some opportunity or some privilege from Guru, both different. On behalf of the public the popularity means he thinks that ‘so many men are under me, and on their behalf I shall go and plead to our Guru Mahārāja.’ That is one thing. Seemingly, apparently that is also devotion, but that is a dangerous pose. But you will always be able to carry out the order of Guru Mahārāja. Guru Mahārāja your first intimate connection. And if he asks, ‘No, don’t bother with the public.’ I must not go there. That attitude will be safe for the preacher. I am going on behalf of the higher authority, and not to search after men and money and fame thereby. The position of Ācārya, preacher of the Ācārya, that is a great temptation: to take them down from the purity of higher type. First we are servant of my master, and on his behalf I am approaching the public. And never on behalf of the public I’m approaching Guru Mahārāja to plead for them. Of course there are some particular examples, something like that, but they are of different, special type.

As we see in Rāmānuja, Rāmānuja he, different dīkṣā, in the dīkṣā of śaraṇāgati, surrendering, that is considered for them as the highest. He went to one renowned sādhu.

And he knew that Rāmānuja is very popular, “But my mantram should not be popularized then its appreciation will decrease.” So he accepted Rāmānuja as disciple but gave warning, “Don’t disclose this valuable mantram to anybody. If you promise then I shall give it to you.”

Then Rāmānuja agreed and got that mantram, śaraṇāgati prapati. The public in general was awaiting to see that position, “That Rāmānuja who is so favourable, in favour of us and he is giving this pledge of getting the mantram that he won’t use it for the public.”

Then after, as soon as Rāmānuja got out from the camp of Guru, so many standing, and he uttered that mantram to all.

Guru called for him – Kanchipurna, “What have you done?”

“I have given it to them. I have disclosed.”

“Why? You already pledged that you won’t utter it to the public.”

“Yes I did, my Lord, yes I did so.”

“Then why have you broken the promise? Do you know what is the...?”

“I know fully well the consequence is eternal hell for me. But, your mantram that is absolute. They will be saved. All of them will be saved forever. Let me go to the hell for eternity. I don’t care for that my Lord.”

Then at once he withdrew. “No, no, no curse. You are a God-sent person to do good to the people by this. You are all right.”

So sometimes it may be seen, but this is a very particular case.

Just as Vasudeva Datta appealed for the public to Mahāprabhu: “Please, they are parṣada bhakta. They are always with Him, inseparably connected. Their will is His will, almost.” He also recommended, “Take all the sins of all the living body and put on my head and I go to suffer on their behalf for eternity. I can’t tolerate that they are suffering so much and there is the ocean of nectar nearby. And still they will go on suffering. I can’t tolerate my Lord this sin, so please do it.”

Gaura Haribol. But we should not think ourselves that we are in that grade. We are ordinary. We shall always try to keep nearby our master, divine master. And only under protective area we shall live and extend our hand to the public, as much as possible. Sādhaka, siddha, different stages there are. Self-forgetfulness: that is also a stage. Self-sacrifice, the Christian public they say that self-forgetfulness is higher than self-sacrifice. They trace self-sacrifice in Socrates and self-forgetfulness in Christ. That is their point, self-forgetfulness for the good of others. But there must be a standard, standard of goodness. ________________________________________ [?]

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: So Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura also wanted that so many people would, he was also pleading somehow that so many people should come to the Lord?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. He saw with his divine eye that by the will of the Supreme is such that we can expect that in great number they will come. So if that inspiration is felt in any heart he can’t, he won’t be able to control. It comes from that higher level. What degree? But the caution we should also remember in our mind.

That in a famine the workers will jump according to their heart, for relief work, or in an epidemic also. Famine and epidemic generally goes together. But he must take caution about his own health and then to serve the people. Otherwise he will also catch that contamination and die and who will then serve them?

So very cautiously one should push forward. And of course to chant or improve one’s own health also it is necessary, the culture, the cultivation, kīrtana. But Hari kīrtana under the guidance of sādhu, Guru, that should be always in our mind when we shall. To do good to others that is laudable especially such goodness of such degree. But there also we shall be concerned that I must keep myself fit as a mediator of the truth, may not become opaque, we may remain transparent, remain transparent. That is always having connection with the headquarters. Wherever these planes they keep connection with the guiding tower, or something like that: if that connection is gone then that plane also in danger. So the connection with head quarter, that should always be kept carefully. They will be able to guide. So we must have connection with the head quarter, Guru paramparā, wherever we go flying. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, our Guru Mahārāja he used to say when preaching, he used to use the word rascal. He used to say, “These people are all rascals.” We have seen, with no compromise, very fearless, in his room...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ah. Rascals, don’t trust them. They will attack you in any way. Unscrupulously attack may come from that side. Because the Satan he himself irritated that my kingdom is being lost. He will inspire them in many ways. But you are protected by the divine power, may not be afraid. So you will be always careful about your, that iron dress, armour, must be within armour. The Satan is there, the reactionary party is there. They won’t tolerate so easily that their kingdom will vanish. Christ was crucified. Socrates was dealt with capital punishment. Śrī Caitanya Deva was as if driven out from Navadwīpa. He saw the Kalidāsa. That is planned, designed by one tantric Kṛṣṇānanda against this Vaiṣṇava rasa. But it is to a sober and wise man, it is self inconsistent.

The rasa of father and mother, they considered Mahādeva, Śiva, as father, and śakti as mother. And they are showing their private play as father and mother. That in itself is rasābhāsa, a polluted conception. The union of father and mother to conceive by the son is a nasty idea. That itself in māyā, illusion, ignorance of the bad type. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari.

It is pointed out by Kavi Karṇapūra, even Kalidāsa is also a renowned poet in Sanskrit literature, Kalidāsa, he is also accused in such a way. He says, “Mahādeva and Parvati as father and mother, and he is describing their pastimes, private pastimes. A filthy thing, a clash in the rasa, vātsalya and mādhurya. The son should not enter into that layer, plane.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Mahārāja, I have heard that Bhaktisiddhānta Prabhupāda approached Gaura Kiśora Dāsa Bābājī three times for initiation before he was accepted. Can you explain that?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: For initiation, yes. He told, I heard it from his mouth: “That by order of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura I approached him.”

And at that time so many pseudo stalwarts of Vaiṣṇava dharma, this Caran dāsa, the Guru of Rāmadāsa, the samaj bhadi and others, they wanted to get Prabhupāda as their disciple. They tried their best. “That he is a promising young man and if we can get him as disciple then of course my line will be very gloriously extended.” They tried.

But Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura asked him, Gaura Kiśora Bābājī Mahārāja, and he came, proposed.

Bābājī Mahārāja told: “I shall ask Mahāprabhu. If He likes, if He grants, then of course I can do it.”

Then after some days he again came and proposed.

“Oh, I forgot. I forgot to ask.”

“We are told that so many pseudo stalwarts they are hankering after me and this Bābājī Mahārāja, almost unknown, knows so much extensive prestige in the circles of the Vaiṣṇava. But he says he forgot.”

Again another day: a similar thing.

“Then why is this? Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura also asked me and that also I told to him. That by recommendation of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura I come to you. And he says that he forgot. ‘First I shall ask Mahāprabhu, and then I forgot, I forgot.’ Then I thought what’s the cause?”

In his own way what he told I am saying to you.

“That I thought that I have some ego. That I am of pure moral character, and I am a good scholar, and I have got indomitable strength of mind to go on with my idea. This ego, this is no qualification. He wants to...” - known words forgotten. “What he wants to express by this, that these qualifications are nothing. So I must think, my attitude should be that I am unfit, and I am begging for his grace. I have come to beg his grace. Śaraṇāgati, I am helpless. I am poorest of the poor. With humility I shall have to approach. That without your grace my life is going to be spoiled. I am quite helpless, Mahārāja. I want your kindness. Without this attitude he won’t be willing. So that reaction came in my mind that these are no qualifications of a disciple to approach the Guru. Oh, my pride was crushed, that I’m disqualified, so disqualified that he did not, he ignored me so much that he failed to tell about me to Mahāprabhu. It is not even in his memory. So negligible. I am hurt. Then I came to my approach to Guru should be of that attitude, that is the idea.”

Then when he approached next time, “Yes, Mahāprabhu has accepted you.”

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

And when Bon Mahārāja returned from England, he put so many questions disturbing to our Guru Mahārāja. “What do you know? In this country they are so great, so cultured, so grand. Staying here we cannot have any proper estimation of that civilization which is at present in London.” In this way he wanted say: “They were all ignorant. So if you have to preach in London, in Europe, we will have to be trained in a different way.” That was his advice to our Guru Mahārāja.

And Guru Mahārāja being pressed, rather attacked by his own disciple in such a way, he withdrew himself in such a position told: “It is not our way of thinking. Our Guru Mahārāja Gaura Kiśora Dāsa Bābājī did not know to sign his name also, even, he did not know how to sign his own name. But we thought that in the nail of his toe all the scholarship, wealth, everything is there. That is our conception, way of thinking like that. He is in possession of such a thing, everything included there.” In a mild and humble way he is representing himself in that way.

But there was Nisikanta Professor Sanyal, he came like a tiger to attack Bon Mahārāja. “What do you say? You have lost all you have got from your Guru Mahārāja. You are bold enough to talk in such a boisterous way. You have forgot how to behave to our divine master.” He came out furiously.

And then Bon Mahārāja had a check. So Prabhupāda told, Bon Mahārāja went to preach: “My first year in England, my second year in England.” Prabhupāda’s going through it. “You see Bon Mahārāja is thinking he has done tremendous activity. He met Lord Zetland, and Halifax, Hunt, all these, seeing, and given tea party, all these things he was doing there. But no mention of name of this poor fellow in any place, no name of Prabhupāda there. Money sent there. Gorgeously he’s approaching the big men, big tea party inviting, sometimes giving speech.”

At that time, requested by Prabhupāda I was in Madras Maṭha. He requested me, “Try to see such C.P. Rāma Swāmī [?]” He was very, very favourite to Lady Wellington who was the Viceroy at the time. And he could help us a great deal. So he told me, “Just approach C.P. Rāma Swāmī [?] to help us in our Europe propaganda, by his influence through the Viceroy.”

I approached him, and he came from the opposite side to attack me. “You have sent preachers there, what they are doing? They are rather lowering the standard of Indian religious thought. Like sycophant running after the officers there. But here, Gandhi, a half clad man, he has raised the standard of Indian theological conception there. But these fellows are running after those gorgeous persons, the officers in power. And they ridicule when they are absent, they say, ‘You see the sannyāsīns are supposed to give up everything, they are teaching us in such a way, What is this? How India is going on? In this way going on.”

I told him, that thorn by thorn, one thorn entered into the sole, by the help of another thorn we want to take it out.

“No, no.” He told. “That thorn won’t come out. This thorn also will enter there.” That was while he was so much disappointed.

The man who is in the back, the general, he is quite wakeful to the fact, and if the first batch dies the next batch will go to attack. Why you are afraid so much? I told.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

But Swāmī Mahārāja has come with flying colours, unexpectedly. And only, we are in sorrow that Guru Mahārāja is not here to share this joy. Of course he is there, he is enjoying the victory, but we can’t see. If he would have been here amongst, with us, how delighted he would have been, how much pleased he was to see.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya.

Then when Bon Mahārāja cut such a figure, Prabhupāda wanted to send me there.

I told, I cannot mix, I cannot understand their language clearly. And I have no very knack to mix with them, their customs, habits, all these things. But if you order, I must go, must obey. But I don’t think that I shall be able to show any progress in the activity there.

Then Professor Sanyal told me, “Do you know why he wants to send you there?”

No, I don’t know.

“Because you won’t be converted.”

Then I answered, Yes, I am quite confident there. None can convert me from the grace of Mahāprabhu and Prabhupāda. I am sure that no thought can convert, can disturb me, take me away from the holy feet of my master and Prabhupāda, I am sure there. I am a small insignificant person, but anyhow I feel that what a beautiful conception I have got about the Absolute, I think no other proposal can entice me anywhere. Gaura Haribol.

Then he sent [Bhakti Saranga] Goswāmī Mahārāja, the founder of the Gauḍīya Saṅga, and then disappeared. But in reply, “There is one left who will be able to represent me to Goswāmī Mahārāja.” In that poem, that poem represented the real substance of the teachings of Mahāprabhu. That was his idea, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. Only one poem was written when he was present: so many others afterwards.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. But I think, I did not go, but I got the privilege of serving his bed of disappearance – regular duty to attend him before his disappearance, I managed to do. And also he graced me with that singing of the song of the highest order in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava School. That fortune I got from him. Gaura Haribol.

End of 81.11.14.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.14.C_81.11.15.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... He remarked, “You are ease lover,” he remarked, “You are ease lover.” So also you all see I’m ease lover, sitting tight in a corner, ease lover. Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: But great nectar flowing – sitting tight but so much nectar flowing.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But he’s so benevolent, so sympathetic to me, that he has taken you all from so far to hear from me. I did not go to preach amongst you. But you all have come, divine arrangement, and so late in my life when my memory is not normal, searching after this word, that word, to express my view. In that sphere also he did not spare me. My Gurudeva, he’s so kind and gracious. And that was his weak point, Guru Mahārāja’s. His love and attraction for Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was such acuity that I wrote in praise of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he was conquered. I feel it in my own heart. Because I wrote in praise of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and that was accurate, clear, and dignified, so he is so much gracious to me. That is my innate conception. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s representation is also a marvellous thing about the teachings of Mahāprabhu. The original writers, the Goswāmīns, in Sanskrit they have described many things. And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is translating, but the translation seems to be more accurate and sweet than the original. He writes in such a type, such a type. The translation and that according to our feeling, that is better than the original: it is wonderful, more expressive, more clear, more up to date.

So we close the class now. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Jaya oṁ viṣṇupāda...

...

Dayādhara Gaurāṅga: I have never heard of any astrological meaning to his birth, especially on the same day.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In day also, different parts also, and generally there will be differences in combination of different domains. Whole day may not continue to be of same type. There may be some differences also, one thing. Another thing, that will depend on who is appearing, his previous karma and his worth, and especially his inner capacity of resisting the bad omens, and the grace of the Lord in him previously acquired. All these things will come into account. And the result will be the consequence. Not only time and space, but the person who is being born, his capacity, his previous acquisition, all these also to be considered. And the day means whole day may not have equal influence. It may be different in different parts of the day: all these things to be calculated.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then there is another angle of vision. In Kali-yuga the Nāma saṅkīrtana has been given as the means to our highest end. So because the age is iron, so the bhajana will also be of lower type. It is not that, just the opposite. Because the time is so much vitiated, that ordinary means they cannot produce their desired end. But the highest thing, that is above all external circumstances, unfavourable circumstances, that can only stand. So also the worst may be the time, but at that time if a devotee of Kṛṣṇa appears then that can’t have any influence over him. Rather that will be purified. That time, that bad time will have a record to add to its auspicious character. There may be so great thing. And generally that is with nirguṇa. They do not care for the materially good or bad symptoms, that nirguṇa.

Generally when Kṛṣṇa appeared the place was a prison house, the black night and hail and storm, apparently it was very ominous. But His appearance made everything pure. He’s touchstone. A bad iron or good iron, or bad brass or good brass, a bad silver or good silver, when it comes in connection with touchstone then that becomes gold, and gold of a higher type. This mundane power cannot affect in any way, independent of that. Suba suka, auspicious or ominous, it is confined here in the domain of loss and gain.

In the eternal atmosphere, every contribution is for the service of the Lord. It is all auspicious: waves of that plane all healthy, wholesome, because it is connected with the absolute good. What apparently seems to be bad, if that comes in connection with the absolute good, that is cent per cent good. Only one thing, whether to please Him, whether it is in connection with the absolute harmony: that will justify, it’s existence, it’s character, it’s future, everything. Only one whether it is to satisfy, for Himself. It is to satisfy the Absolute Autocrat. Only one criterion and nothing else, no other calculation will stand there.

He is above law. The absolute, law comes from it, justice comes from it. It is rather in the plane of mercy. Justice presupposes there may be many interests, and to bring harmony amongst them, some adjustment in the many conceptions of different interest. So advaya-jñāna, oneness, where it is absolutely oneness, unity, absolute unity: there no question of justice, can analyse, can arise. We are told that is mercy, it is beauty, it is ecstasy, it is good, and unchallengeable. That is autocracy. It’s sweetness, it’s charm. That is the conception of the Absolute, Prime Cause. Everything For Himself, Hegelian language, everything meant for His satisfaction. He is the Absolute. Everything is meant for Him, so no consideration of right, wrong, good, bad: only one good. Whatever He likes, that is good. No law, no measurement, no calculation, all useless, groundless. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

And generally it was thought that is an absolute power. But Mahāprabhu says, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, “No; absolute beauty, absolute good, not power.” That is the peculiarity of Bhāgavatam, and Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava, Mahāprabhu, that beauty is controlling, love controlling, love and beauty similar. Love controlling. No objection should come to that, from any quarter of reasonable thinkers, love, charm; no room for any objection.

And we are preacher of that. That is your inner wealth, love. A particle in you and the source, the ocean is there. You are connected. Find out the plane, the subtle-most plane, the subtle-most, there is electric plane, ethereal plane, the airy plane, so many plane, the light plane, heat plane in the world. So this is the subtle-most all-embracing plane which is irresistible and which is the sustainer of all other planes of life and vitality, anything and everything. Find out, dive deep within your heart and you will find out a trace of that plane in you. And try to work in that plane, eliminating all these external, superficial planes of life, interests of life. That is the interest, the common interest of every living thing. That is the deepest identification of you all. There is peace, proper. The highest conception of peace is there only, in the plane of love divine. And what is going on in the name of love here, country love, society love, lady love, money love, that is all sham; tasteless, useless and brings a reaction. And that is non reactionary. That can absorb everything and what you get as a reaction that is also enhancement of that thing. That is no reaction as we understand it in this plane.

'Dāsa' kari' vetana more deha prema-dhana. The surrender to the extreme to become the highest conception of slave and the remuneration is also of this type. That give me remuneration in the terms of love, more propensity to serve, dedication. Supply me the capital of dedication as my salary, so more I can dedicate. Supply that energy and that goodness in me. The service is its own reward. I shall serve and I get salary that I can serve more correctly and more affectionately, that sort of reaction. Remuneration is also of that type, reaction. But in these superficial planes the remuneration, the reaction; that is of bad type. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha- doṣānudarśanam [Bhagavad-gītā, 13.9] It will produce such results, such effects.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Our preaching we find out that you are a loving unit, so all the hitches should be removed. Our underlying principle to ask everybody that you are really a unit of love, love. Eliminate all sorts of discords. If such things be allowed to be preached then it would be really more than heaven of our conception. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

This Rāma Prasād, one devotee of the śakti worshippers: Mano jamin raila patite avad kailya failta sanat [?] His poem – if you cultivate the human heart then you will find what sort of gold is being produced thereby, cultivate heart. By cultivating the earth outside, try to cultivate your heart, and the golden production will come from within, mine your own cultivation within. That will produce more valuable things. So that type, dive deep into your heart.

Like Mahāprabhu says: “Go deeper.” Rāmānanda Rāya saṁvāda, whatever Rāmānanda says, Mahāprabhu says: “Go deeper, go deeper.” “Eho bāhya āge kaha āra, eho bāhya āge kaha āra. [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.59] This is also superficial. Go more deep.”

Then Rāmānanda: another plane, another plane, another plane – in this way lastly going to the plane of Śrī Rādhikā. “I think that is the highest plane of dedication and love and beauty.”

“Yes, it is. Yes it is there.”

And how to attain that, that was the question of Mahāprabhu to Rāya Rāmānanda, how to attain? It is also mentioned there. With the help of the friends of that, they are the canvassers, recruiters. So with their help we can enter, as well as we can get service, engagement and everything.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

One who is really engaged in such research then he does not care which is the prison house or the temple; may be equal to him. His object of search is within his heart. None can oppose it. None can oppose it. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Śrīdhara Mahārāja, will you explain the circumstances of Lord Caitanya’s disappearance and why it is not mentioned in Caitanya-caritāmṛta?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What did I do, say?

Devotee: Would you explain the circumstances of Lord Caitanya’s disappearance and why it is not mentioned in Caitanya-caritāmṛta?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I told it already? What did I say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: No, he’s asking, can you explain it?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh, can I explain, why it is not mentioned?

Not only of Caitanyadeva, but also Nityānanda Prabhu, Advaita Prabhu, Viṣṇu-tattva omitted because we are not encouraged to think that Their body was mundane and They must have been done away with either by burial, or by burning, or any some other way it has been disposed. Out of curiosity, so it is omitted. That it is, not material, so the material end is not to be encouraged, not to be mentioned, in any way.

There are many versions about Mahāprabhu’s disappearance. Some say He entered into Jagannātha, in the body of Jagannātha. Some say He entered, Gadādhara Paṇḍita says He entered into his own Gopīnātha Deva. Some say He walked over the sea, away. In this way various descriptions we find. Some say He started above entrance the Sun. So everything may be true simultaneously. Gadādhara Paṇḍita has seen that He came and just entered, my Deity and disappeared. And some devotees were in Jagannātha temple they say He other days generally He used to look at Jagannātha from far. But that day He was advancing slowly. And coming to Jagannātha He said some words and embraced Jagannātha and disappeared. And some say he was walking over the sea and disappeared. And some say that He towards the Sun He approached and disappeared. Everything may be true simultaneously. As He wished to show about His disappearance to the devotees, they saw like that, and many could not see how He went back.

...

...find out that His body was not material. How it is possible we are to understand that. How it is possible: that without any material body one can show a material body. Body is not of matter but still He can show that as if it was of matter. That will be the problem.

Whether it is possible. Even we are told a ghost can appear and disappear. So many yogīs by dint of their psychic power by exercising that they can appear and disappear. And so many incarnations of God hither to known to the world They can appear and disappear. So why should it may not be of that type? No difference. To expect such is not to expect much.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Dayādhara Gaurāṅga: Mahārāja, the wife of Dhṛtarāṣṭra.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gāndhārī. Yes.

Dayādhara Gaurāṅga: It’s said in the Mahābhārata that before she became the wife of Dhṛtarāṣṭra she was known all over Bhārata-varṣa as a devotee of Śaṅkara, Śiva. I wondered if that had any bearing on the fate of Dhṛtarāṣṭra?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Why? Have you got any sign in Dhṛtarāṣṭra previous to his marriage that he was devotee of Viṣṇu or Nārāyaṇa? And then her association will have converted him to go away from the devotion of Kṛṣṇa. Have you got any such evidence?

Dayādhara Gaurāṅga: No, I don’t.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then – Dhṛtarāṣṭra is the representation of mind, mānasa: Vidura that of conscience representation, conscience, but Dhṛtarāṣṭra as mānasa, mind, mind’s inclination towards enjoyment more, so for wife, for children, more inclined. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

The Bhīṣma the sense of duty. All may be vitiated. Vidura holds the higher position there. The sense of duty that may take misdirection. As we say in the case of Draupadī’s - the endeavour to make Draupadī naked. Bhīṣma did not come with opposition. A sober man, a devotee, but his conscience was cowed down by the sense of duty. Of course he explained that, “Yudhiṣṭhira understands more about the conception of duty, and when he does not give any opposition so I could not.” That was Bhīṣma’s explanation. “That is the real direction of the Veda in such condition. A purport of Veda is known most by Yudhiṣṭhira than ourselves. When he’s tolerating, I could not say anything.”

But Vidura did not care for that. He simply saw the general goodness of the dynasty in future and boldly approached Dhṛtarāṣṭra. “Under your care, taking the advantage of your guardianship, what these brutes are doing. They are bringing danger to your own dynasty by such activity. You are dishonouring Pāṇḍava or you are dishonouring your own self. She is also connected with your family. Should you not help her in such distressed stage?”

Then Dhṛtarāṣṭra was awakened from mind, pressed by the conscience, asserted and asked Duryodhana to put end to such misdeed. And asked Draupadī should be taken to me. And then Draupadī was taken to him. That is a great test: the attempt to make Draupadī naked in the assembly, that is a great test, a trial, to find out who is who. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Pāṇḍava’s also did not object?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: They thought that they were bound down by the vow. Bhīma now and then he burst and he is promising – checked by Arjuna, “We are one, what my elder brother has done, silently we must accept that. Don’t be boisterous. Then the enemy, they will enjoy our dissension amongst us.” In this way Arjuna dissuaded Bhīma, at times.

And Bhīma used to give his promise, “I shall break your thigh, Duḥśāsana. I shall drink the blood of your chest.” Now and then Bhīma’s outburst and expressing his promise in future, and he did that.

But Pāṇḍavas was to tolerate anything and everything, “That the extreme may come over us. We shall try to stand even in such condition, united – united with our hope towards Kṛṣṇa.”

And Kṛṣṇa came to relieve. When Draupadī, that is a place of the highest type of devotion, when Draupadī was placed under such awkward position she looked after the respectable members in the assembly, no response. Looked towards her formal husbands, they’re so big, so great, so powerful, indomitable, no response. Then disappointed from all quarters all help in this extreme moment, she had to come; with one hand to help herself from the exploit and with another hand towards Lord Kṛṣṇa, then left her, that self help also and with both palms together prayed for Kṛṣṇa. And there is a word gopī-jana-vallabha, reverence towards Kṛṣṇa’s Vṛndāvana līlā. Nowhere in Mahābhārata can we find any reference to Braja līlā of Kṛṣṇa. All Dvārakā, Mathurā. But only here we find from the lips of Draupadī, Braja.

“Hey, gopī-jana-vallabha, You are protector of all. We after all belong to You. And You come to my relief.” When frustrated from the help of her own husbands, so powerful, then she had to come back, pati pati nam [?] “The Master of the masters. The Master of the masters, the original Master, we belong after all to You. Keep me in such acute position. O, gopī-jana- vallabha, You are friend of the gopīs in Vṛndāvana. Without consideration of the social position and status and ownership, even conferred by the śāstra, the law under Veda. Your connection with us is above law. I take shelter there for my protection.”

Immediately help came. We are told Kṛṣṇa ordered all the merits acquired by previous life of Draupadī, may be immediately converted to protect her in the form of cloth, clothing. And the clothing got infinite character. And is drawing, drawing, cloth drawing and the cloth extending, cloth extending, no end. She’s all right there: cloth coming. That was her position.

And then Vidura went to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, “What mishaps are being done by your sons. And you are sitting tight. You are responsible for all this misbehaviour. It will destroy; it will burn the whole dynasty, whole capitol, everyone of us here. Just quench the fire, put out the fire.”

Then Dhṛtarāṣṭra he called for Draupadī. “Take heart.”

Then of course order gave and some truce was effected there. “They will go to the forest with Draupadī for twelve years. And after finishing that forest living, for one year they will live hiding. Then if at that time they can be traced then again twelve year’s banishment, in this way, again one year’s disguise. If found out again twelve years forest banishment, in this way.

But at the end they came and fought. Kṛṣṇa went as peacemaker. That failed. Then the fight came. Hare Kṛṣṇa. And there we find in Gītā, Bhīṣma stood as the leader of the Kuru dynasty, and this side really, Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa.

tataḥ śvetair hayair yukte, mahati syandane sthitau

mādhavaḥ pāṇḍavaś caiva, divyau śaṅkhau pradadhmatuḥ

[“On the other side, Lord Sri Krsna and Arjuna, in a grand chariot drawn by white horses, resounded their divine conch shells.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 1.14]

They began. The first war cry and the response came first from Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna; Pāñcajanya and Devadatta. They uttered, “We are prepared, ready to fight. Begin.” This way, then the Bhagavad-gītā came. Arjuna tried to back away, and to excite Arjuna to begin the battle Kṛṣṇa had to advise so many things, and the instruction is known as Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā, the physical non-violence has been crushed there. And non-violence of Gandhi is for material purposes, non-violence for material purposes. That has been crushed. No meaning: that is all sham; that is also māyā. That is also māyā. Truth is independent of this material violence and non-violence.

End of 81.11.14.C_81.11.15.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.15.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...not to save this, should we utilize the faculty of non-violence. It is a prison house and no kindness should be shown, no liberality should be seen to keep the prison house intact. The whole prison houses may be demolished, no harm to the soul. The truth is of such nature. The truth real is of such nature.

What is hiṁsā, what is ahiṁsā? Apparently what is hiṁsā that may be – apparently what is ahiṁsā, non-violent, if correctly analysed, that may be found to be violence. Apparent non-violence may be detected as violence from a better searching attempt. That was putting much faith in this illusory aspect. This is not search after truth. This is not real search after truth. Real search after truth will be independent of this material importance. That is independent. That comes from the other side.

The [Philippe] Petain when he came in, he was in the second great war, the French general was some Petain or someone, gentleman. And he came in contact with Hitler and had a truce to save his country. And he did so. By surrendering to Hitler’s Germany, France was externally saved. But when [Charles] de Gaulle came back from England, he tried that Petain, that general, previous general, who really saved France from the attack. And the general was given capital punishment. He wanted to save physical France at the cost of the honour of the real France. Perhaps that was his point. So physical non-violence, this was dishonoured and condemned.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Mahārāja, when Vāsudeva Datta was talking to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu about the deliverance of the whole universe of all the living entities within it, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that all of them already were liberated. My question is, at that time all the living entities after dying they were, after leaving this body were liberated? Or this is a continuous process and still going on?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We conceive that they are all removed. Suppose in an ocean, if we take a pot of water, how many seconds it takes to fill up the gap?

Devotee: Immediately.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Immediately, we cannot trace even the time. It is infinite; a brahmāṇḍa is like that, a drop. It may be taken out, but immediately, in no time it will be seen to do that. So no, it is not unreasonable. If we have got theistic conception in a right way, then it is like that. A whole brahmāṇḍa is a point in the infinite, a point removed, immediately it was filled up, so many brahmāṇḍa. And in the Virajā so many brahmāṇḍas are floating like a small seed. A huge brahmāṇḍa is relatively like a small seed, a mustard seed, and floating, an innumerable number in the ocean of Virajā, prakṛti. So it is difficult for us to think that how much time it took to remove the whole brahmāṇḍa, and how, all these things. But in the infinite characteristic it is no exertion at all, nothing of the kind.

Ordinary time, we cannot find any concentration of much wealth, money, etc., in a particular field, but in the time of war we find when that great exertion of the nations, immediately a place, a forest is removed and a camp is established in twenty-four hours. Such huge expense, we cannot think how it is possible. But great power they have got of that type – a question of the amount of energy and intelligence – not wanting there.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

What is wonder to us that is negligent movement there. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Only willing and automatically done!

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Dayādhara Gaurāṅga: Mahārāja, what is the criteria for cultivating the internal spiritual growth, as opposed to external activity, or service also in Kṛṣṇa consciousness?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is increased favourable tendency, progress may be traced. A man is known by his company. The test, that is the criteria whether he is hankering for the association of the good or bad environment: his taste, his eagerness to associate, known by his company. Which ever way his taste is working, progression; that is to be looked on. What does he love? Sādhu-saṅga, more and more affinity towards the sādhu, and śāstra – of that order, it is the environment, increasing his taste, progressively increasing his taste for particular thing. That will prove, either we are making progress or deteriorating – going in the front or backing, that can be known by the measurement of external environment. And going towards the theistic conception or coming back from that sort of deep conception to more subtle or more gross? Importance is being increased to me for which side?

bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir, anyatra [caiṣa trika eka-kālaḥ

prapadyamānasya yathāśnataḥ syus, tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣudapāyo 'nughāsam]

[“As with every mouthful an eater feels the threefold effects of his satisfaction, his stomach being filled, and his hunger being dispelled, in the same way when a surrendered soul serves the Lord he realises devotion of three natures simultaneously: devotion in love, the personal appearance of the Lord who is the abode of love, and detachment from all other things.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.42]

With the progress towards the spiritual side, my disgust about the material things will increase when I have some clear conception about the spiritual truth towards which I am making advance. And my affinity, my spirit also will have some acceleration in my progress. They will show whether I am making progress, or I am standing still, or I am going back. Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir, anyatra caiṣa trika eka. And internal satisfaction will also stand guarantee. I shall be my own witness from within, whether I am gaining or losing. My own understanding will stand guarantee, pareśānubhavo.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Rāma. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Dayādhara Gaurāṅga: Is it possible that sometimes we can gain a closer concept of the absolute by serving, manipulating the external nature, rather than doing bhajan, doing personal bhajan?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, bhajan and activity, the activity may be more than bhajan, and the bhajan may be illusion. So that is not the thing by which to be judged. Only in the surrendering! I am asked by Guru Mahārāja to go to some activity. I thought I am engaged in bhajan. But my superior sādhu, he asked me to go to some other duty. Apparently I may feel a little disturbed. But in that case, own bhajan should not be entrusted much. If I know fully well that who has ordered me, he holds superior position to me, then own bhajan should be stopped and to carry out the order of superior person, that should be accepted. Because that will fetch something of higher order, of higher plane to me, This is more or less in ascending method. And that is in descending way of coming, from higher it is coming. It will fetch more subtle and higher value for me. I may earn silver but that may come in gold. ____________________ [?] Command of a Vaiṣṇava will be more, it will fetch more than I shall do myself. That should be considered, but if the Vaiṣṇava who is ordering me, he’s of superior type, if I can understand them. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Dayādhara Gaurāṅga: You once explained to me, I was asking you about writing. I was telling you that sometimes the realizations and how to express myself writing was very easy up to a point and then became very, very difficult, So I asked you, should I continue or should I go to something else? It seems that the inspiration, or the incentive to write was disappearing.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I can’t follow what you say.

Dayādhara Gaurāṅga: Ok. I was explaining that while writing, writing a Bhaktivedānta Institute literature or...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You were writing an article? Yes. At that time?

Dayādhara Gaurāṅga: Yes. And I was feeling very much inspired to write. As if I was getting some inspiration, motivation, from another source.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: A spontaneous flow you were feeling that was coming. At that time some gentlemen wanted you to – what you are to do?

Dayādhara Gaurāṅga: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That will depend in what regard you understand the man who is ordering you. If you have much reverence for him you may at least mild protest, ‘That a little after I am coming. Will there be any harm?’

If he says, ‘No, you must come now,’ you keep it now and go away.

You may request him, ‘That only stop for a few minutes, or an hour, I’m engage in some deep duty.’

But still, if he argues, ‘No, you leave it – come.’ And if you had higher respect for him, you leave it and go. But if you have any question about his superiority, that will be another thing. But if you are sure that he’s of higher status then you will give up your own engagement, your own realization, and go to obey his order.

When one is engaged in worshipping his own Deity in the temple at that time some sādhu has come, sādhu has come from outside. And he knows it that he has come, he will leave his engagement in the worship of the Deity. He will go and he will welcome, show his courtesy to the sādhu, make arrangement. Then he will come again here. If he does not go, he commits offence.

In the case of Gajaraja, the King Pāndya in southern India, he was engaged in worshipping his own Deity. And at that time Agastya Ṛṣi he came. And his officers tried to inform him. He also could understand. But he posed that he did not hear. And after finishing his worship, he came out. But because he consciously took the pose of a ____ as if he can’t hear, that sort of posing. That his consciousness was drawn to be of a gross character, more gross. So in next birth he had to take that of an elephant, Gajaraja. And when he was in a battle with a big crocodile – but he was a devotee, he had devotion of Kṛṣṇa within his heart. He cried for help from Kṛṣṇa. And Kṛṣṇa went and cut the crocodile and saved His servant, previous servant in the form of elephant. It is told that he had to take the birth of an elephant because he posed himself that he is not hearing. Some sort of the mentality of an elephant he took. So one should leave his own engagement and go to do his needful service for the sādhu of superior order.

Dayādhara Gaurāṅga: This was also circumstance with Mahārāja Parīkṣit?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Parīkṣit’s case is something else. Śrīngi – that man was not a devotee, that Śrīngi. Parīkṣit was a better class of devotee, but the duty of a king, that sort of formality. That was the cause. Parīkṣit at heart he was right. He thought that, ‘If I go back without the water, that man will be responsible for not doing his duty towards the guest. And as result of that his hard earned tapasya, the fruit of his penance will be taken away by me. And instead of doing that, I may assert as a king and for this wrong behaviour I am punishing him. Let me punish him because he failed to discharge his proper duty as an āśramite.” So he put the dead snake and put it with the end of his bow on the neck. But sincerely he did it with his best knowledge that he may not take away the result of the penances which he is so painfully earning. So as a king he gave a sort of punishment.

That was misunderstood by his son who had some power of penances, though boy, previously earned in his previous life, and he cursed him. He accepted that. And that was the cause of the great Bhāgavatam. Parīkṣit is not to be condemned in any way. But here the Pāndya king he’s really to be condemned, but Parīkṣit is a leader, that is nirguṇa. That is mere show. But here in the case of Pāndya it is not a show. It was really the fact. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: In Caitanya-caritāmṛta there is a story about Minaketana Rāma dāsa and that pūjārī. One pūjārī was worshipping the Deity. And Minaketana Rāma dāsa because he did not show respect he said here is the second Romaharṣāna sūta.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. What’s the difficulty?

Devotee: I was just wondering if maybe you could elaborate on that also?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What’s the question?

Devotee: I was just thinking that this is another illustration.

Dayādhara Gaurāṅga: Another example.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Another example, Yes. He did right. This Minaketana Rāma dāsa, he was a devotee of Nityānanda Prabhu. And sometimes he felt within himself the presence of Nityānanda to such a degree that he forgot himself, and did many, showed many feats of devotional sentiments. Minaketana Rāma dāsa was of that type. And when in the house of Kavirāja Goswāmī there was a function. And there one brāhmaṇa pūjārī worshipper named Guṇarnava Misra, a brāhmaṇa pūjārī, he engaged himself in the worship of the family Deity. And Minaketana Rāma dāsa, the intimate devotee of Nityānanda was present there. And so many persons knew him that he is a devotee of high order, and came to show their respect to Minaketana Rāma dāsa. But the pūjārī did not care. He thought, ‘I am already engaged in the Deity worship,’ and he did not think that he should give up his engagement and again come to worship him, to show his respect to that devotee. At that, Rāma dāsa he was dissatisfied with his attitude, he thought that those that are showing respect to him, that is really not to him but to his master Nityānanda.

And in Naimīṣaranya also when Romaharṣāna sūta he was engaged in chanting Bhāgavatam, Baladeva presented, Baladeva means Nityānanda, Nityānanda Baladeva, Baladeva was present there. And he did not leave his reading of Bhāgavatam and did not come also to show any respect to Baladeva. So he was punished by Baladeva. “That you are reading Bhāgavatam, but you don’t know that the very purpose, the object of Bhāgavatam is present at your front, and you don’t know to respect him. Bhāgavatam is full of the greatness, nobleness of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. And you were reading that. And I am nearest to Kṛṣṇa, you don’t come to respect Me. That is not to show respect to Kṛṣṇa. In fact, only theoretical, only intellectualism you are continuing, what is intellectual. And you have no idea about the very fact, very purpose of Bhāgavatam. So this sort of sham explanation and reading of the scriptures, that cannot be encouraged. It should be punished.” In this way he was punished.

And here also similar thing, and that Minaketana Rāma dāsa, he cited that. “That is the second Romaharṣāna, engaged in the formal things, but where is more material, substantial ignoring that. Nityānanda, my Lord of my heart, he has by dishonouring me he’s really dishonouring Nityānanda, my Lord. So he should be punished.” That was his idea.

And then the brother of Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja he was there. He had some faith in Mahāprabhu, because of his extraordinary scholarship perhaps, but no faith in Nityānanda Prabhu, who was so closely connected with Mahāprabhu, Śrī Caitanyadeva. So he perhaps took the side of that brāhmaṇa. “Why this Rāma dāsa has been excited and saying against that gentleman who is engaged in the pious worshipping of the Deity, he’s wrong.”

But Kavirāja Goswāmī could not tolerate that. He gave a stricture to his own brother. “What do you say? That is not correct. Caitanya, Nityānanda, They are not separate things. You have some respect for Śrī Caitanyadeva but not for Nityānanda? That is ardha-kukkuṭī-nyāya.”

[dui bhāi eka-tanu - samāna-prakāśa, nityānanda nā māna, tomāra habe sarva-nāśa

ekete viśvāsa, anye nā kara sammāna, “ardha-kukkuṭī-nyāya” tomāra pramāṇa

kiṁvā, doṅhā nā māniñā hao ta’ pāṣaṇḍa, eke māni’ āre nā māni, - ei-mata bhaṇḍa]

[“These two brothers (Gaura and Nitāi) are like one body; They are identical manifestations. If you do not believe in Lord Nityānanda, you will fall down. If you have faith in one but disrespect the other, your logic is like the logic of accepting half a hen. It would be better to be an atheist by slighting both brothers than a hypocrite by believing in one and slighting the other.”]

[Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 5.175-176-177]

“One of – you give recognition, another half you don’t like to take into account, disregard. So this is hypocritical: other way that you are really an atheist. You have no respect for Śrī Caitanyadeva also. That is only a show.”

So in this way, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja pleaded for Minaketana Rāma dāsa: that is for Nityānanda Prabhu’s order, than this sort of formal worship of the brāhmaṇa.

Then in the early morning Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Goswāmī had a dream that Nityānanda with His paraphernalia has appeared very vehemently, very clearly before him and says: “Oh, you Kṛṣṇadāsa, I am very much pleased by your attitude, and come, I want to admit, give you admission in Vṛndāvana līlā.”

āre āre kṛṣṇadāsa, nā karaha bhaya, vṛndāvane yāha, - tāṅhā sarva labhya haya

[“O My dear Kṛṣṇadāsa, do not be afraid. Go to Vṛndāvana, for there you will attain all things.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 5.195]

“You will be crowned by the highest type of success.”

Then I rose: “What sort of dream, so clear I saw. Nityānanda Prabhu ordered me, appeared to me in such a vivid expression and clearly ordered me to go to Vṛndāvana. I must not lose this chance,” he thought in his mind and began to make arrangement for leaving to Vṛndāvana: and he did so. And he says, “I am so mean: purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha.

[jagāi mādhāi haite muñi se pāpiṣṭha, purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha

mora nāma śune yei tāra puṇya kṣaya, mora nāma laya yei tāra pāpa haya]

[Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Goswāmī says: “I am worse than a worm in stool. When Jagāi and Mādhāi came in the relativity of Mahāprabhu they were considered to be the worst sinners, but I am worse than them. My sins are so dirty no one can even dream such things. I am such a great sinner that whoever will hear about me, dirt and sin will enter him through his coming in contact with my name. Sin will enter one who once hears my name, and his good qualities will vanish.”]

[Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 5.205-6]

“I am the meanest creature than a worm in the stool. Purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha, jagāi mādhāi haite muñi se pāpiṣṭha: more and more sinner than that standard sinner notorious Jagāi Mādhāi. Mora nāma śune yei tāra puṇya kṣaya: whoever takes my name his merits diminishes, who takes my name. Whoever hears my name his merit diminishes, and who takes my name he commits sin. Such a nasty type of man I am. And Nityānanda Prabhu’s grace took me to Vṛndāvana and gave me as my masters Bhaṭṭa Raghunātha, Rūpa, Sanātana, and this Madana- mohana, Govinda, Gopīnātha and what not. I am in an ocean of successful happiness, ecstasy. It is a shameful thing to speak so highly of ones own self but I cannot avoid it, because I can’t forget what sort of grace of Nityānanda Prabhu. It is only citing my example. I stand witness to the grace of Nityānanda. A man of such lowest type has been raised to so high, to have got the association of such great men like Rūpa, Sanātana and Raghunātha, all these things, so many teachings and so many siddhānta and what not. I have got so many things I can’t deny that Nityānanda Prabhu’s grace and how it is effective.”

preme matta nityānanda kṛpā-avatāra, uttama, adhama, kichu nā kare vicāra

[ye āge paḍaye tāre karaye nistāra, ataeva nistārilā mo-hena durācāra]

[Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Goswāmī says: “Lord Nityānanda, who is always intoxicated by divine love, is the great saviour of destitute jīvas and the magnanimous incarnation of divine mercy. His benevolent nature does not discriminate between high and low, or qualified and unqualified. He simply delivers, from material existence, anyone who comes before Him and falls at His lotus feet surrendering themselves to Him with all sincerity. Therefore He also mercifully delivered me who am so fallen and disqualified.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 5.208-9]

“Oh, you people I cry, I loudly speak it out to you, that there is that causeless mercy, there is a store of department of causeless mercy. And Nityānanda Prabhu is the master of that storehouse. And independent of my qualification He has given it to me. So I am here chanting the glory, the great glory of that great Gurudeva, Nityānanda, the great mercy, ocean of mercy, and causeless mercy. He’s mad in His duty of distribution of the divine love. And whoever is coming in front He’s given it to him, without any consideration of his eligibility or non-eligibility. Such is the most magnanimous nature of Nityānanda Prabhu. Only to give out that to you public for your future, banish it. I am sacrificing me, my shame for, shamefully I am presenting my, citing my example before you.”

That is the version of Kavirāja Goswāmī and most similar case I have told.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. What’s the time?

Devotee: Twenty to ten.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Twenty to ten. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Then we may stop here today. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

End of 81.11.15.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.17.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Any Question?

Devotee: Mahārāja, in the incarnations of Kṛṣṇa, do They have different personal identities, separate identities?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, both, common and different, something common, something different, different posing, function also different. Acintya bhedābheda, that should be applied everywhere, bhedābheda, distinction and non-distinction, simultaneously. Internal connection is everywhere, especially towards upward, and functional differences.

That is to be traced everywhere more or less. Even in this world, a man in his family, a man in the office, a man wandering in the foreign land – internally one and the same, but externally their functions, their attitude, mood, cannot but be different. In ones own land one is a king, and when he’s wandering in a foreign land he may even be a captive. In his own mood he will be in such a way, mood will be different.

So in Kṛṣṇa conception of different positions, not to be afraid of being a captive, but mood will be different in different places. Svayaṁ-Bhagavān is different from tad-ekātma, and the prabhāva, vaibhava, prakāśa, vilāsa, the difference in His posing, in mood, in nature.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Vṛndāvana Kṛṣṇa does not care for any Mathurā and Dvārakā Kṛṣṇa. He’s in a playful mood, playing freely in a very plain place where the friends are also of a similar nature. Not any gorgeous style, kingly style, where different from Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa. Nanda-nandana is different from Vāsudeva. Vāsudeva aspiring after the sweet playful stage of Vṛndāvana, but He can’t become that at once. He has self-imposed duties and some engagement. He cannot leave that immediately. But He feels in His heart that: “I was very happy when I was young in Vṛndāvana, playing. Now the burden of duty does not allow Me sufficient time.” In such posing difference, opposite. Taking responsibility though it is all self-made.

Just as one man enjoying his leisure but when he has taken voluntarily any honorary post, in any municipality, or any company anywhere, honorary post, but still some responsibility. And sometimes he thinks, “When I had no such responsibility I could enjoy my time more freely.” In this way: self-imposed responsibility of different type of administration, or duty, anything else.

That differentiates what is the position, the conception of the gradation of the Absolute even. But still the oneness within, it must be admitted. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. He’s conscious of His Vṛndāvana līlā, Mathurā līlā, Dvārakā līlā.

Even we can also retain our playing stage in childhood. Though in old age also when busy so many discharging the duties of our youthful – afterlife, when we have responsible duty to discharge, we can remember. But we have created our own new atmosphere, and that seems to be binding on us. Something like that. It’s all voluntary but still accepting different responsibility and to become different in mood and nature and behaviour, all these things.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. And then He’s also Nārāyaṇa, that Kṛṣṇa is also Kāraṇodakaśāyī – in different ways. Main centre also Kṛṣṇa, Vṛndāvana Kṛṣṇa, Mathurā Kṛṣṇa, Dvārakā. Then again Kṛṣṇa with Yaśodā, Kṛṣṇa with gopīs, Kṛṣṇa with friends, cows, and devotees also: different moods and types. And in another main centre, in the lower house, near Vaikuṇṭha, Nārāyaṇa, He also has His extended self, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, Vāsudeva, Aniruddha, etc. And They have got also so many sub-officers and They are also represented in this way in twenty-four main forms in Vaikuṇṭha, different forms, different figure, different colour, in this way.

Eko ham baho śyāma. One – the play becomes many, variegated nature, a system, and it is eternal. It is eternal in that eternal domain. And here only it is coming and going. Sometimes comes and goes, pralaya, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya [Brahma-saṁhitā, 44]. And there that is eternal play, in the plane of dedication. No loss, all gain: so all sustenance, no death. Equilibrium comes action and reaction in the land of action and reaction: naturally in the background equilibrium. Equilibrium means Virajā, Brahmaloka, action, reaction, karma. And where there is all dedication, no equilibrium. Equilibrium in the middle stage, this can be stopped. That cannot be stopped, changing, dynamic in character. But a total stop of Vaikuṇṭha līlā is not possible, svarūpa-śakti, nitya-līlā. And this is anitya in the mortal area, and its necessity because it is based on exploitation, action, reaction. The basis is enjoyment, exploitation. That can’t stand. Exploitation cannot stand for all the time. It must have its reaction and ultimately sometimes full stop. That is equilibrium, Virajā, Brahmaloka, sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya, coming, staying, and perishing, in the plane of exploitation, it is necessary we see.

But that is not in the land of dedication. All contribution, resourcefulness is unlimited, unlimited, no necessity of any stop or any work. There, work is life giving. But here labour is like eating, vitality eating, dissipation, and there, life giving. As long as one apparently has love of labour his remuneration is to get more and more energy for more labour; no other remuneration. So it has got no weariness, no weariness as we find here.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Whole thing like music: whole thing, beauty, music, beauty. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Sundaram: satyam, śivam, sundaram, the highest level is that of sundaram stage; sundar, beautiful, beautiful, love, charm, ānandam, harmony. Gaura Haribol. We have to conceive them in that light. That light, the acme of our highest end, prema. Not the wholesale stoppage of our movement in Brahman conception, the perfect rest, physical rest. But that is more than rest. By rest we recoup our loss. But there no loss, always gain, so rest is not necessary at all.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. And that business, rolling business, that means the gain is always adding into the capital, is being added into the capital; that is rolling business. The service and the remuneration that is added into the serving nature, capital increasing. In this way rolling business, like that, always.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Mahāprabhu Gaurāṅga Sundar.

This is prema, this is love. Apparently there is dissipation, risk in wholesale surrender. But really by the back door one is gaining very much, the most profitable business.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari.

Here we are in movement but always searching after rest, to regain more energy to work. Dissipation, the mortal effect, always: this material world, and up to mind, up to ego. Separate, that is the most healthy cooperative business, and here seeking after separate interest. Everyone is ultimately for himself. And the cooperation with others, that is also meant for one’s own interest, not to cooperate for the common gain. Dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syād [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.37]

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Madana manohara is not here?

Devotee: Yes Mahārāja, I am here. From yesterday I’m here.

Devotee: _____________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________________________ [?] Bhāvānanda Mahārāja is here?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He’s here, Jayapataka Swāmī not?

Devotee: Mahāmuni is in Māyāpur. He will be here at ten o’clock this morning.

Devotee: Jayapataka I think has left. I don’t think Jayapataka is at Māyāpur: only Dhṛṣṭadyumna Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Only Bhāvānanda Mahārāja is here. Did Bhakti Caru Swāmī come to Māyāpur?

Devotee: No. He’s in Calcutta. He was preoccupied with the conference, the all religions conference. They had a large preaching program in Calcutta of which maybe three thousand people attended. It was three nights in a row, for life members only.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That was already finished, I am told. Again new engagement, all right, anyhow their program is changed. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

I was told that Caru Swāmī would come to visit Māyāpur day before yesterday, Sunday.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Devotee: Śrīdhara Mahārāja, I had one question. In the śāstras it says that simultaneously and differently we are one with Kṛṣṇa. This seems to be a śāstra that the Māyāvādīs pick up and use a great deal, sometimes in their arguments. And I’m very confused.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Our common is that we are also consciousness, caitan. Kṛṣṇa is also caitan. That is, it is conscious, not matter, there the common. But He’s infinite consciousness and we are only a particle of consciousness anu-caitanya, bṛhat-caitanya, anu-caitanya. Cetan, that is spirit. His spirit – the Absolute, and we are spirit – the dust, a point. So we have got great difference with Him.

Kṛṣṇa has got sixty four qualities. It is mentioned in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu. What are they? Nārāyaṇa sixty in number. Ordinary influential [demi] gods they are fifty five. And the ordinary jīva soul, only fifty: and very meagre, infinitesimal, fifty qualities in quantity infinitesimal, very smallest of the small. And Indra, the devata when they develop into Indra, the devata’s position, some more qualifications added to them, and a little more, very small extension, or development. And in Nārāyaṇa only full sixty qualities are present, and in Kṛṣṇa sixty four – Nārāyaṇa sixty and Kṛṣṇa sixty four in fullest magnitude, the qualities. What are they? It is mentioned, in Brahma-saṁhitā and in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, in Jaiva Dharma also you may find in Bengali. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So that is the difference.

Devotee: It’s very clear.

Devotee: Śrīdhara Mahārāja, when one becomes fully conscious of his spiritual identity does his present mind and intelligence, does it become purified or does he lose those and realize...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It just vanishes. Misconception of a thing and when proper conception comes the misconception vanishes. It may come back again for some time. Suppose there is a post. I take it when in dusk, not more light, ‘Oh, there is a man.’ The post is there, and when in want of sufficient light I may mistake it as a man standing. And that may occur for some time also. Not only one day but sometimes it may be repeated. ‘No, no, no, that post is there. It is not a man.’ It may occur for some time. But when he comes to understand that it is a post the conception of man vanishes. And ultimately when I’m fully conscious I can retain that memory within me and seeing the post no longer I should think that the man standing, like that. Do you follow? Not clear?

Devotee: I’m wondering, does the present mind, the material mind and intelligence, does that become purified?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mind is to see things with the view of exploitation; that is mind. ‘It is for my satisfaction, not for Kṛṣṇa’s satisfaction.’ What is meant for Kṛṣṇa’s service, I mistake it as the thing which is meant for my service. When fully conscious that everything is meant for the service of Kṛṣṇa, even myself, nothing is created for my satisfaction, but everything exists for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, even including me. Then mind, no mind. Mind is a transaction of a usurper, that what is others, I think it is mine and I begin my transaction with that. That is mind, bhoga-buddhi, saṅkalpa-vikalpa. ‘How I can utilize for my purpose, how I can avoid this which come to hinder my enjoyment.’ This is mind. And when nothing for meant, I am also meant even for the other, then no function of mind remains, mind has to go away forever.

But if offence, only salvation then again mind may again come back in the mental system, within the cage mental system, if he deviates from the permanent knowledge that everything meant for Him, for the Lord. For the time being, he may have some sort of conception that everything is meant for God, not for me. Again he may deviate. ‘It is not for me.’ But when definitely he realizes that everything has got positive meaning and it is for Him, and I am also for Him, firmly established, then mind disappears forever. Then another mind will, from within, in its position may arise from my inner heart; how I shall serve. How I shall enjoy, this is our present mind, and how I shall serve, by this, by that, that is another.

Anai rday more mora mana vrndavana mane mane eka kori mane [?]

Ordinary peoples mind, their ordinary thinking in their interest of loss and gain of this world calculation. But after attaining the highest stage, Mahāprabhu says His mind is Vṛndāvana. He is always seeking after how to satisfy Kṛṣṇa, the gopīs, the other inmates there. That is another internal mind. That is all pure spiritual, but doing the function of a mind, as we find here, similar. This is perverted reflection of that real mind. Mind means to invite something and to discard something. Such plan, ‘I want this, this, this. I want to avoid this, that, that.’ That is mind. It will help me and it will disturb me. What will disturb me I must dismiss. And what will help me I must imbibe. In this way the mind works and helps the ātmā to do his service. Mind generally here means this mind, relating to the plane of exploitation. That will vanish. That is only a reflection, perverted reflection. The original is there, that is the real concern. Sarvve mano-nigraha-lakṣaṇāntaḥ, in Bhāgavatam.

[dānaṁ svadharmmo niyamo yamaś ca, śrutañ ca karmmāṇi ca sad-vratāni

sarvve mano-nigraha-lakṣaṇāntaḥ, paro hi yogo manasaḥ samādhiḥ]

[“Charity, constant and conditional prescribed duties, mental and sensual control, hearing the scriptures, holy vows and duties - all these are observed to gain subjugation of the mind. Mental control is known as the supreme yoga.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.23.45]

The consequence of all forms of different processes of progress is meant to get away from this present mind of exploiting nature. Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, so if the mind that we have now is a perverted reflection of our spiritual mind, does the spiritual mind also accept and reject but for Kṛṣṇa, in relation to Kṛṣṇa?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, but in a different nature. Just as [Raghunātha] Dāsa Goswāmī says in his prayer to Rādhārāṇī, [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 2.36-37-38] “If you are not propitiated with me I do not want Kṛṣṇa. Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, I want Kṛṣṇa always with You. Without You I don’t like to search after, or even to see Kṛṣṇa, without Your connection.”

That sort of līlā is to be found there. We want to avoid Kṛṣṇa. Gurudeva of the highest leaders of the potency of the wholesale service of Kṛṣṇa, if we feel any avoidance of the leader of our group then we won’t go to search any independent compromise with the proprietor. Something like that. We are a part of potency. And the all-embracing potency is there, and keeping harmony with Her interest, we shall have. We are in the negative side, keeping the interest of the negative aspect wholesale. Then I shall want connection with the positive, not ignoring the interest of the negative, I shall go for any selfish interest to meet with the positive. Something like that. Without the grace of Rādhārāṇī, the leader of particular rasa, so also in vātsalya rasa over-crossing Yaśodā, I won’t to go to show – sākhya rasa. One newcomer he must not try to cross the right of his master Śrīdham, Sudham, etc., and to be eager to establish direct connection with Kṛṣṇa. That over-crossing that should be avoided for his healthy upkeep. If he does so, it will be suicidal, so they cannot do that. Never leaders should be disrespected of his own group. And that the Gurudeva comes there. Never crossing Guru one will go to Kṛṣṇa. Yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto ‘pi – yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo, by whose grace we get the grace of the Supreme. And yasya prasādād, if He is dissatisfied then, na gatiḥ kuto ‘pi, I am nowhere.

[yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo, yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto ‘pi

dhyāyan stuvaṁs tasya yaśas tri sandhyaṁ, vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam]

[“By the mercy of the spiritual master one receives the benediction of Kṛṣṇa. Without the grace of the spiritual master, one cannot make any advancement. Therefore, I should always remember and praise the spiritual master. At least three times a day I should offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master.”] [Śrī Śrī Gurv-aṣṭaka, 8]

This should be, not only here, but this should be kept to the highest position also this principle. This is an eternal principle, always. The quality of subordination must be retained. And don’t try to become the highest entity. That will be useless and that will be something like Māyāvādā. That I am the principle of surrender, that takes us always in the lower, it will attract us only for the lower position. And automatically we shall find that we are raised to be higher. As much as you shall try to come to the lowest I shall find automatically I am going towards high, surrender. Tad dāsa-dāsa-dāsānāṁ dāsatvaṁ dehi me prabho.

[maj-janmanaḥ phalam idaṁ madhu-kaiṭabhāre, mat prārthanīya mad anugraha eṣa eva]

tvad bhṛtya-bhṛtya-paricāraka-bhṛtya-bhṛtya-, bhṛtyasya bhṛtyam iti māṁ smara lokanātha

[“O Supreme Lord of all beings, O slayer of the demons Madhu and Kaiṭabha, this is the purpose of my life, this is my prayer, and this is Your grace - that You will remember me as Your servant, a servant of a servant of a Vaiṣṇava, a servant of a servant of such a servant of a servant of a Vaiṣṇava, and a servant of a servant of the servant of a servant of a Vaiṣṇava’s servant’s servant.”] [Mukunda-Mālā-stotra, 25]

Śaraṇāgati, surrender – surrender means what? Surrender to the wholesale of Kṛṣṇa. Not only Kṛṣṇa but also His servitors, Kṛṣṇa with His servitors He’s one whole. Not excluding His servitors, Kṛṣṇa is whole. So that should be kept in our mind always, so we won’t venture to displease the servitors of Kṛṣṇa.

Of course in the higher section we find that is managed by Yogamāyā. We have got no hand there. Different camp and how to increase the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, so different camps, sometimes opposite camps are created for His satisfaction. There also we must abide by the leader of the camp. It is designed by Yogamāyā. We have got no hand there.

But our general tendency will always be to go to the lower side, wherever we shall be put, whatever camp we shall be, we shall have to acquire by the innate nature, our tendency always to be towards the service of the lowest type.

But the leaders, they by appreciating our inner quality, they may force us to be some higher position. No separate ambition should be encouraged there, is encouraged there, no ambition. Quality is self-effulgent. It will take you. You have not to become ambitious for that position. Ambition may be, but that pertaining to service only. But risk with service, always with the tendency of self deprecating. Die to live. Die to live. We must remember this theory all along. But you don’t die thereby, you really have to live, a more developed life. But your tendency will be always to die, so much risk at every point of discharging your duty; the wholesale risk. And that you really innately develop your position. You are externally never seeking any position. A position will automatically come, can’t be resisted. Irresistibly it will come by your dedication.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Devotee: I want to make a question but Mahārāja, I cannot speak English very well.

Devotee: He had an inquiry and then he will say it in his own language and Mahārāja will translate.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right, he may say to him.

Devotee: ___________________________________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: We find that in this taṭasthā-śakti there are two tendencies; one is to surrender to Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But the other one is not to surrender. But he’s asking why there has to be these two tendencies? Why?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Why?

Devotee: They are opposite, so why there have to be, since we are energy of Kṛṣṇa?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is for the peculiar position as called margin. Margin means having influence, containing influence both the sides, that is margin. So by constitutionally it is there. Because taṭasthā-śakti. Tata means a margin. Tata means neither water nor land; something like no man’s land, and the line of demarcation between the two, so it is...

End of 81.11.17.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.17.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...with the influences of the two sides, so it is by peculiar position, and jīva, he is such. You make him understand.

Devotee: ____________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Why Kṛṣṇa makes the jīva-śakti in this way to have to fight? Why?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is automatically existing with Him, because the origin - just light and darkness. Without darkness light cannot be understood. So finite and infinite both existing in the Absolute, otherwise it cannot be felt. With the help of the negative we can utilize the positive. One depends on the other for its own interest. Analysing the thought we have come in this connection. Even from all different planes it has been understood that thing and not that thing, finite even requires infinite. Infinite even requires finite for its true representation, understanding. So it is there. Light means not light, all darkness. So the Māyāvādīs they say, ‘In the beginning no light, no darkness.’ Light can be understood only with the help of darkness. When both one, there is nothing, no darkness, no light. That means all darkness, all darkness.

But the Vaiṣṇava philosophy says that, ‘No, eternally both existing simultaneously, light and darkness. Conception and misconception, Kṛṣṇa and māyā, this is eternally existing. Kṛṣṇa with His full potency, and also a perverted shadow of His real domain: with different gradation, the svarūpa-śakti and the māyā-śakti, the right conception and the wrong conception of the thing.’

And between the thing which sometimes wrong conception, sometimes right conception, that is the nature of the marginal potency, the meeting plane of both. This is existing and this is being explained by the experts of the department. That such is the position of the reality, where we are. It requires to explain the reality and non-reality. Non-reality is there, Otherwise we are under influence of whom? We are suffering, and the reality is there, otherwise what for we aspire after? So suffering is there and happiness is there. Good is there, bad is there. And to explain the position of the simultaneous existence of all of them, it has been analysed, the real nature of the things have been analysed in such a way.

And Mahāprabhu’s opinion that Kṛṣṇa with His potency mainly in the direct command of Him, and then something which is in enjoying, trying to enjoy their own freedom is misguided. And Kṛṣṇa has made arrangement also to take them in within His domain. In this way things are going on, continuing.

jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya, kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’ / kṛṣṇera ‘taṭasthā-śakti’ ‘bhedābheda-prakāśa’

[sūryāṁśa-kiraṇa, yaiche agni-jvālā-caya / svābhāvika kṛṣṇera tina-prakāra ‘śakti’ haya]

[“It is the living entity’s constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa because he is the marginal energy of Kṛṣṇa and a manifestation simultaneously one with and different from the Lord, like a molecular particle of sunshine or fire. Kṛṣṇa has three varieties of energy.”]

[Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.108-109]

That is the very nature of the existence of the reality requires such explanation which is the most harmonious.

Devotee: ______________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There is a book written by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Caitanya-śikṣāmṛta. I don’t know whether that has been translated into English. Might have been; in Madras perhaps. There the western philosophy and Bhaktivinoda, Mahāprabhu’s philosophy has been explained, combined. So if you get that, you can read that, you’ll be more benefited. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s decisions are so couched to suite the westerners, western thinkers, Caitanya-śikṣāmṛta. Jaiva Dharma the eastern: more connecting eastern thought and philosophy, and Caitanya-śikṣāmṛta more connecting western philosophy. These things have been detailed everywhere of course.

We are to understand with all care and attention, the differences. No end of any analysis. We may divide, and then divide, divide, divide, atom, electron, proton, neutron, go on, go on, no end, no end. And in the bigger sphere also no end, bigger, bigger, bigger.

So in the middle, within our capacity, we are to get some workable basis of our bhakti, our devotion. I have repeatedly told that following the way of knowledge we cannot have any solution. Our attention should be utilized towards faith, śraddhā. Because we are subject, we are a substance with subjective capacity which is limited. And we are going to talk about superior subjective characteristic. Its very nature not to come within the jurisdiction of our knowledge: transcendental.

But, how it is possible? That only satisfied with our attitude, attitude of humility, when that comes down what He is, what He is. Finite cannot expect that the whole infinity will enter within his tiny cell. But by his earnestness, being satisfied with his serving attitude, He comes down to touch the finite by His partial representation, then it will feel that much, it can feel that much, the finite. We should know that. We should be always conscious of the fact that we are infinitesimal. And we cannot hope that the whole infinite will come within my fist. That is nonsense.

Only so the recommended, the path of śraddhā, faith, śraddhā, that is serving attitude, surrender. Then whenever and whatever little He’ll kindly make me taste, I shall taste, I shall understand that. That should be the proper characteristic of a finite enquirer. Otherwise it will be redundant, kotivadi, over swallowing nature. And that is impossible, that will enslave me to somewhere else if we cannot understand this plain truth that I am finite. I want to know infinite. I cannot make him the prisoner of my box. But only by my humble temperament I can attract Him partially, and as much as He kindly wills me to taste, that is enough for me.

Eka-bindu jagat ḍubāya [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 15.19] One drop will inundate the whole of the world. This is His nature. So how audacious I can be that I shall draw Infinite and force Him to enter into my fist. That is suicidal. I must always be conscious of our own position. What is my position? And what I am going to know? And so bearing with a sober consideration we shall try to understand the ways and means that are extended to us by the gracious, great personages. And very patiently and very modestly, only when He wants to make Him known to me, I can know, as much, so that much. Not otherwise. That is our position, and to know the whole thing that is ludicrous, that is suicidal. That is the most foolish reactionary conception. Then that is nullified, there is no God, there is no Absolute, who will enter the cage, the one cell of my brain. That sort of God we have never come to worship. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya:

[jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva, jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir, ye prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi tais tri-lokyām]

[Lord Brahmā said to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa: “Oh Lord, Oh Unconquerable One, those devotees who, completely giving up all attempts on the path of jñāna of attaining the non-differentiated platform known as Brahma by hearing the transcendental narratives of Your pastimes, which emanates from the lotus mouths of the mahā-bhāgavat sādhus and pass their lives by engaging their body, mind and words in pure devotion, easily conquer You (they easily get Your transcendental association), although You are the most difficult to attain in the three worlds.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.14.3]

A great club on the head of knowledge, inquisitiveness: too much inquisitiveness that will be crushed by a strike of a club. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya. Hatefully that should be cast aside ‘that I shall know’, udapāsya. Namanta eva, submit, learn submission, and in that way He will be propitiated with you and come to make yourself know something about Him. And whatever small you will know that will inundate your whole. Eka-bindu jagat ḍubāya [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 15.19]. One drop of the infinite is sufficient to cover the whole facts of the whole universe. Such character He has got. We shall, by mouth we shall pronounce infinite, but we shall treat it as a small worm. Infinite is not a small worm that we can tackle it, Him in any way. One drop, eka-bindu jagat ḍubāya, by one drop of infinite the whole finite can be inundated, over-flooded. About knowledge, about science, happiness, everything, power: in every respect. So we are going to approach such a great and great and great thing. And what should be our attitude proper? We must be conscious of our position. Not as a master, but servant of the servant of the servant of the servant. In this way, that is the proper way to approach.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. He does not know English perhaps. You are to explain my position, what I say, in Spanish.

Devotee: He understands, but he has a little problem in speaking, but he understands.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He can’t say. But do you follow, no?

Devotee: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Rāma Rāma. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, besides the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Bhagavad-gītā and Caitanya- caritāmṛta, which other of the Vaiṣṇava literatures are the most important for the mass of people?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Caitanya-caritāmṛta most important, Caitanya-Bhāgavata, etc. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s literature, and the Goswāmīs, Jīva Goswāmī’s Bhāgavata-sandharba, and Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, Bṛhat-Bhāgavatāmṛtam, all these books, they represent the gist, the very substance, Laghu-Bhāgavatāmṛtam, the gist, substance of the śāstra, many śāstra. In Bhāgavatam [1.3.41] also:

[tad idaṁ grāhayām āsa, sutam ātmavatāṁ varam]

sarva-vedetihāsānāṁ, sāraṁ sāraṁ samuddhṛtam

[Śrī Vyāsadeva delivered it to his son, who is the most respected among the self-realized, after extracting the cream of all Vedic literatures and histories of the universe.]

In Bhāgavatam, Vyāsadeva says, “The whole gist, the gist from all the scriptures, the very substance has been collected here.”

Veda, Itihāsa. Sarva-vedetihāsānāṁ. Veda, revealed truth and the Itihāsa means the covering, the experience, knowledge of experience, both. Which is beyond experience: that is revealed truth, and what is got by the experience, knowledge of experience, Itihāsa, collected the very substance from everywhere and put here in Bhāgavatam in an adjusted manner. Sarva-vedetihāsānāṁ, sāraṁ sāraṁ samuddhṛtam. It has been placed here in Bhāgavatam.

And again from Bhāgavatam also, under the direction of Mahāprabhu, the Goswāmīns, they have also – in Bhāgavatam many stories are given to make us understand, help, and they have also added more historical examples with very, substance of the substance. They have served as more suiting to us, the Goswāmīns, under the guidance of Mahāprabhu.

So we are to approach these scriptures with submissive heart and attitude. ‘Please reveal within our heart what is contained in you.’ The śāstra should also be approached with a submissive attitude, not in a challenging mood, ‘that with the dint of intellectual power I shall conquer what is described here. All thoughts I shall conquer.’ Not with that attitude.

It is higher thing, it is cetan, it is independent, it has got free will. The śāstra, though posed in the form of so many letters, types, and this, that way. But there also behind, His free will in the śāstra. They are cetan, they can reveal to me and not reveal to me, reveal them to me.

So in the beginning we worship to make us understand that that holds superior position than the reader, the śāstra, that vigraha. Though inanimate characteristic, material characteristic, it is standing. Scripture also, in material posing, with some black and white and some paper, what is this? So, it holds superior position, I must adore and pray, and then I shall go to read as a student, not as a master, that I shall collect anything and everything, that I am a collector. It is not with that attitude that we shall approach śāstra. Praṅipāta, paripraśna, sevā. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, in Bhakti-Ratnākara there’s a section, something to do that we may not accept, that Gaura-nagarī.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Something as Gaura-nagarī-vada, so that is not wholesale to be taken. And Narahari Sarakara Ṭhākura, and others, though they are parṣada, they are eternal servants to Śrī Caitanyadeva, but they have some special attraction for Vṛndāvana līlā. So some of their followers have misunderstood that aspect, and they have tried to enter that Kṛṣṇa līlā within, the character of Gaura līlā. There the misconception of the predecessors, misunderstood by the posterity. They entered Kṛṣṇa līlā into Gaura līlā.

In Gaura līlā there are three sections. One section more attached to Gaura līlā, the magnanimous side. Another more towards the mādhurya side, and another the middle class, three classes. And Narahari Sarakara Ṭhākura, they’re more addicted to the Kṛṣṇa līlā. They did not like at all that Kṛṣṇa will come in such a garb and take the role of sannyāsī and He will take the trouble, could not tolerate at all. And they did not like to give even recognition to Kṛṣṇa as Gaurāṅga.

‘We won’t like to, we can’t see Your sannyāsa veśa, hear all this. You are our Kṛṣṇa. Why You have come in this role?’

That is the particular attitude in their service. And that was misunderstood by some of the posterity. And they came with Gaura-nagarī. That mādhurya-rasa was forcibly entered into the Ācārya rasa. Ācārya rasa, with regard, he will preach to the outside that it is only reserved for Vrndavana Kṛṣṇa, not even in Mathurā, Dvārakā. In Vrndavana Kṛṣṇa is this rasa parakīya and that won’t come anywhere else. And when Kṛṣṇa has come in the role of a sādhu, sannyāsī, Ācārya, He cannot go on internally two-fold life internally doing Kṛṣṇa upasana, enjoying with the gopīs and externally He is preaching as an Ācārya, holy man. The two things cannot go together. That is rasābhāsa.

Suppose when the husband has entered into the temple to serve the Deity, and the wife is making arrangements for his worshipping materials. Then she would act in such a way before the Deity. What are things what is ordered by husband, the worshipper, she will supply them. And she should not enter into the temple and there she will cut jokes with her husband in the temple compound when he is engaged in worship. That is rasābhāsa. There is a clash and that becomes, produces some bad effect, nasty thing.

So, Mahāprabhu, Kṛṣṇa as a Guru, He is playing a part of an Ācārya, Guru. And at the same time He cannot be in that rasa, an enjoyer. He is giving, He’s trying to make the public understand the dignity, how dignified is that. That is His duty. He can engage to the ordinary people to make them understand that this is not like kāma, the ordinary lust, sense satisfaction of this world. With this great position He has come to do His duty. At that time they cannot believe in that way. So the misunderstanding of the posterity of the Narahari Sarakara Ṭhākura group, in Bhakti-Ratnākara that has entered.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: So the book, the work is perfect, the book is perfect, but we should know the mood of the writer.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Historical and geographical side. Not historical all, but geographical side it has been mentioned by our Guru Mahārāja, the geographical and some historical is there, but not the tattva, the ontological side. And the historical that comes with that mal conception of ontology. That historical must be eliminated. It was not so, all concocted. Viṣṇu Prīya and her so many sakhīs with that they are mourning that Mahāprabhu taken sannyāsa. And they want to have in their enjoyment. Viṣṇu Prīya, Gaura Nārāyaṇa in Vaikuṇṭha, and Viṣṇu Prīya continuing her penances when her husband has taken sannyāsa. It is told that Viṣṇu Prīya took the Name and when one round finished, one rice. In this way, the rice how much was collected she cooked that and offered to Gaurāṅga and then took at once. That was her diet, so much penances she practised, we are told. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Śrīdhara Mahārāja, can fine gems such as the one that you are wearing on your right hand have any practical value for us jīva souls in this Kali-yuga?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I can’t follow.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: If we wear ring on the finger with a gem, can we get some value in the Kali-yuga, for the jīva; spiritual value?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not spiritual value but physical value, just as when we take medicine from the doctor. Somewhat such value it may give us. If I am sick I do not say, ‘Oh, Kṛṣṇa please make us out of disease.’ These trifle things we do not enlist in our prayer. We just go to the doctor and get his help. In this way if anything there be let me take the benefit and go on. In that attitude one may dress, just as we take the warm dress in winter. Not that saying that, ‘I won’t take any warm dress, let Kṛṣṇa protect me, or, I won’t be protected.’ That sort of rude prayer, or mundane things to pray from Him, this is not bhakti proper.

Devotee: _______________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What is necessary, it should be that, use what is easily available. So as much as this warm dress is with me, as is possible to secure, I shall accept that. And that must not be my all attention that I shall, anyhow I shall have to secure some warm dress. To jīva, to make too much to purchase medicine and paying to the doctors: too much of everything is bad. Food also so, whatever will help me in the service of the Lord, I shall accept so much, not more, not less. Adi ke nona dayanca cavati param atata [?]

If I take less and the energy become less, I cannot devote maximum energy to Him, then I will be loser. Just as an officer of a king, if he becomes too much miser and do not like to expend in protecting, expect money for protection of the property, then he is doing disservice to the zamīndār or the king, because he will spend from the fund of the king for the protection of the property of the king. If he does miserly then he will be responsible for that.

So everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. And I shall take as much as necessary for the maximum service to Him. That will be the economy proper. If I become miser, not to accept, utilize things of Kṛṣṇa thinking that I am taking much and this is all waste. And if for that if I cannot render the standard service then I’ll be loser. He’s infinite, Kṛṣṇa’s property infinite. As much as I can, I shall take but for the maximum service of Him. That should be my object. No want here. It is all infinite. Kṛṣṇa is not bankrupt... to maintain His devotees. But the devotees will accept as much as for...

yuktāhāra-vihārasya, yukta-ceṣṭasya karmasu

yukta-svapnāvabodhasya, yogo bhavati duḥkha-hā

[“For a person who eats, relaxes, and exerts himself in all duties in a regulated way, and who keeps regular hours in proper measure, the practice of yoga gradually becomes the source of dispelling all worldly suffering.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.17]

prāpañcikatayā buddhyā, hari-sambandhi-vastunaḥ

mumukṣubhiḥ parityāgo, vairāgyaṁ phalgu kathyate.

[anāsaktasya viṣayān, yathārham upayuñjataḥ

nirbandhaḥ kṛṣṇa-sambandhe, yuktaṁ vairāgyam ucyate]

[“That renunciation which is practised by those desirous of impersonal liberation and rejects things in connection with Śrī Hari, thinking them to be material, is called phālgu-vairāgya, external or false renunciation.”] [“That renunciation in which there is no attachment for the objects of the senses, but in which everything is seen in relationship to Kṛṣṇa and all things are engaged in His service is called yukta-vairāgya, or practical renunciation.”] [Padma-Purāṇa] & [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, Pūrva-vibhāga, 2.125-6]

Phālgu, that is deceptive vairāgya, phālgu vairāgya, and real vairāgya is whatever will be necessary for the maximum service I can render, I shall take that; not more not less. Yukta vairāgya.

Devotee: _________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Tapa phala hai vinischai [?]

ārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kiṁ, nārādhito yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kiṁ

antar bahir yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kiṁ, nāntar bahir yadi haris tapasā tataḥ kiṁ

[“If one is worshipping the Lord properly, what is the use of severe penances? And if one is not properly worshipping the Lord, what is the use of severe penances? If Śrī Kṛṣṇa is realised within and without everything that exists, what is the use of severe penances? And if Śrī Kṛṣṇa is not realised within and without everything, what is the use of severe penances?”] [Pañcarātra]

Penance is not my object of life, to take minimum is not the object. Maximum service and whatever will be favourable to do that, I shall accept that. Not renunciation is my object. My object is service, and efficient service, and also if possible high magnitude and high quality. And for that service whatever will be necessary, and whatever will be available easily I shall take that.

Sometimes that is done for pratiṣṭhā, for good name of a sādhu. There is one Tinkari Goswāmī, he takes this canvass; instead of cloth he uses canvass cloth. But there are so many in the Nimbarka sampradāya they, the kaupīna with wood and iron ______ that sort of kaupīna they take. And there are Nagas also, they’re all bare bodied, do not care for taking any dress, and that may take oneself to be renunciation, they say, and that will merge into nothing. Tyāga, that is more dangerous for a devotee because that takes towards pratiṣṭhā, name and fame. Austerity is not the end in itself. Austerity, that will lead to renunciation, sāyujya-mukti. Service we want and whatever...

Ambarīṣa Mahārāja he could get bhakti whereas Durvāsā was eliminated.

When Durvāsā approached Nārāyaṇa and told that, “I am a brāhmaṇa, I am a sannyāsī. I should have more favourable consideration than Ambarīṣa to You.”

Then Nārāyaṇa told, “You are brāhmaṇa and he is a kṣatriya. He is a gṛhastha, you are a sannyāsī. But when you wanted to burn him he did not, went back. He stood fixed there, and thinking that, ‘I have committed some offence perhaps on the feet of Durvāsā.’ With this humility he stood firm. He was ready to take the results of his bad action, did not shirk away.

But you, you being sannyāsī, for fear of your life you are moving to Brahmā, going to Śiva and then coming to Me, so much afraid of your body, the ātmā buddhi. You are sannyāsī, brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa means you are My devotee you say.

But Ekādaśī is My vrata, My day. And for the respect of that Ekādaśī Ambarīṣa took a drop of water on the lip, not to disrespect you as a guest, honourable guest. His idea was only to keep up the, to show the superiority of My vrata. Ekādaśī means My vrata. To give respect to My vrata he took a drop of water, not for feeding his belly. And he could not tolerate. You yourself did that. You took something to keep up your vrata intact. But Ambarīṣa also did for My sake, not to insult you. And you could not tolerate that. And you are My devotee more than him?”

That argument was put to Durvāsā by Nārāyaṇa Himself.

“Now you will have to go to him. If he does not care me, ‘No, no, go and see what is the real nature of a devotee.’

Then Durvāsā had to come. And then Ambarīṣa pacified Sudarśana. And then Durvāsā came to his senses.

aho ananta-dāsānāṁ, mahattvaṁ [dṛṣṭam adya me / kṛtāgaso 'pi yad rājan, mangalāni samīhase]

[“I have seen the greatness of the servitors of the Anantadev, Śrī Nārāyaṇa. You are so magnanimous that although I am an offender you have prayed for me. You hold an unparalleled position in the whole universe.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 9.5.14]

Then how noble characteristic of the servants of Nārāyaṇa. We are all running after Brahman and Paramātmā, our fate is another. So tapasya, to abnegate everything, to cut our connection with the environment: that is not our object. Rather to utilize everything for the service of the Lord. Why should we eliminate? Why should I disregard. They are not to be blamed. If anything to be blamed it is my temperament, my attitude. Everything should be utilized for the service of the Lord. The environment is not to be blamed. Only my attitude is to be blamed, that I want to exploit them. I should not do that. But there I do not care. But real utility of myself I am servitor and I should engage the whole environment for His service. That is my proper self. The purity demands it and not to renounce them, not to reject, not to dishonour them. To use with them properly, with reverence, and they will draw something from me, for me. They will earn something if I utilize them for the service of the Lord. I shall get something more. They’ll help us to earn for me. So why should I reject them, the environment, the paraphernalia? They should rather excite me. ‘Oh, utilize me to the service of the Lord. I am inanimate, born inanimate, I am looking after you. You utilize me for the service of the Lord. With that expectation I am looking at you and you are rejecting me?’ In that case I shall be a sinner by rejecting, dismissing the environment. They are not to be blamed. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

īśāvāsyam idaṁ sarvaṁ, yat kiñca jagatyāṁ jagat

tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā, mā gṛdhaḥ kasya svid dhanam

[“Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.”]

[Śrī Īśopaniṣad, 1]

I shall be a unit of serving the Lord with everything, whatever I find, come across. There I should be in a proper position. I am in the midst of the infinite. Whole infinite is a dedicating world, and not an exploiting world, and I must come in the midst of such atmosphere. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

End of 81.11.17.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.18.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... after a big campaign. I also gave some suggestion; that you want to work in such a way then you may do, this, that, and so on. But after he left me I’m thinking that I did not give him the necessary caution, that there is possibility that you will be engrossed, that maharamba, for which Rūpa Goswāmī has given the warning. Maharamba – if we have ambition, too much ambition, which is beyond my capacity, then the whole energy will be absorbed there, and I shall have to lose my spiritual development. So much engrossed, occupied, the whole energy will be occupied by that great attempt. You’ll be lost in that sort of work.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Lost in the attempt?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Lost in the attempt, and no freedom will be left for self consideration, self development. So external activity must be proportionate to ones own capacity: maharamba otherwise, he’ll be lost in his endeavour for the same. Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that will be, that environment, paraphernalia, consciousness, will be more. And self consciousness, self realisation, will have no food. The ration will be stopped for self realisation, and the whole energy will be eaten, devoured, by the maharamba. Bahu śāstra kalad vyasa [?] To know more and more, more and more, the thirst: that thirst is never to be quenched, so that must be proportionate with ones own self realisation side by side. Otherwise that is also a class of anartha, which is not necessary. Artha means prayojana, necessary, anartha means unnecessary, anartha, no artha, anartha, unnecessary. Nothing has limit, but must be adjusted according to ones own capacity.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, the Haridāsa Dāsa, he is recognised? Haridāsa Dāsa. Vaiṣṇava abhidhan. He is disciple of Bhaktisiddhānta...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. With much caution we may enter there, a dictionary, some history, not siddhānta. Those who do not put faith in our Guru Mahārāja, that is, those who could not understand the special characteristic of the pure bhajan which came through our Guru Mahārāja there must be some wrong. And that is in a fine way. So many things common, external, but something internal missing, there must be, because they could not give due respect to a pure Vaiṣṇava. So there must be something missing. And I must be careful that that fine śraddhā, which is peculiar to this line, that may not be lost there by the external charm, of scholarship, or extensive knowledge, or similar things. Why he could not give due respect, reverence to a Vaiṣṇava, as our Guru, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Bhaktisiddhānta Ṭhākura? What was wrong? What was amiss there? That is a very subtle thing, so we must be very particular.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. That was troubling me also.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So Vaiṣṇava virudha, Vaiṣṇava aparādhi, Vaiṣṇava virodita, that is a very fine and indestructible at the same time. So to gain something I shall be loser of a valuable property, which is more fine and more higher. Yo yac chraddhaḥ sa eva saḥ [Bhagavad-gītā, 17.3] We shall be classified according to our purity of our śraddhā. Śraddhā is the finest thing. Śraddhā for which? The audarsa, that is the finest capital of everyone’s life, the highest capital, the aim of our object, the aim proper. It may be misdirected, misguided, the aim, accurate aim, and that is the richest wealth of anyone’s life. What ideal, what higher ideal one has got, according to that his fortune will be judged. It’s very difficult to get in this world, the conception of the highest ideal. The difference is according to that, everywhere. Everywhere, in all fields, social, political, historical, everywhere, the ideal guides the man, the jīva. Ideal Realism, ideal is not imaginary, it is the real. In future that stands, and what we are in the midst of vanishes. The ideal stands. Ones ideal is his future life. His future life is there with the ideal, and the present will be rejected, if we are progressing in our life.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, I’ve heard that there is a book – just as Caitanya-caritāmṛta, I’ve heard that there is Nityānanda-caritāmṛta, is there such a book written?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, not such a book.

Devotee: Śrīdhara Mahārāja, does Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa always appear as the Dvāpara-yuga Avatāra?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bhagavān Kṛṣṇacandra, He descended here in Dvāpara. In the last time of Dvāpara He appeared, in Dvāpara.

Devotee: Does He personally appear in every Dvāpara-yuga?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not Svayaṁ-Bhagavān but Yuga-Avatāra. Yuga-Avatāra and Svayaṁ-Bhagavān is two, different. Yuga-Avatāra, when He comes to inaugurate the yuga-dharma, the duty specially designed for that time; that is Yuga-Avatāra. And Svayaṁ-Bhagavān, Who can absorb everything in Him in all the ways, in beauty, in consciousness, in existence, all respects, everything is resting on Him. The cause of anything and everything, the ultimate cause, the conception of the highest cause: that is Svayaṁ-Bhagavān. Kala kastardi rupena parynama paraya [?] Both foundation and the development on the foundation: of course, with His potency, as a whole.

Devotee: This is true also of Lord Caitanya?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Only of different colour, in and out – out He’s black, He’s yellow, and the inner, that is His līlā is within, but fixed group, and Lord Caitanya comes to distribute that thing which is confined in the group to the public, magnanimous, mahā-vadanyāya. He’s a distributor of the inner wealth: something more. He’s tasting Himself and also making distribution. Caitanya. And Kṛṣṇa is tasting Himself in a particular group. And with whole group Śrī Caitanyadeva tasting Himself and also engaged in distribution of the same.

Devotee: Are the pastimes of the Yuga-Avatāras always carried out with the same characters? For instance...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Devotee: The incarnations of Kṛṣṇa, like say Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nṛsiṁhadeva has nothing to do with Kṛṣṇa. Nṛsiṁhadeva’s position is generally in Vaikuṇṭha – not in Goloka. But even in Goloka there is as a token of God, Śiva and others, in that way it may be said. The Deity function, not human function they have got. Nara-līlā sangit, not the friends of His nara-līlā, that humanly pastimes, as representation of God there. But this humanly conception in the līlā, that is accepted as very, very conducive for Kṛṣṇa līlā. Aprākṛta.

kṛṣṇera yateka khelā, sarvottama nara-līlā, [nara-vapu tāhāra svarūpa

gope-veśa, veṇu-kara nava kiśora, nata-vara, nara līlāra haya anurūpa]

[“Lord Kṛṣṇa has many pastimes, of which His pastimes as a human being are the best. His form as a human being is the Supreme Transcendental Form. In this form, He is a cowherd boy. He carries a flute in His hand, and His youth is new. He is also an expert dancer. All this is just suitable for His pastimes as a human being.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 21.101]

It plays the best in human ways. In other words, human society has been designed after the highest līlā of Kṛṣṇa – even over [demi] gods. As gods, this cannot have a full play, that Vṛndāvana līlā, the Vṛndāvana līlā as it is, that cannot suit the society of the gods. That is original, and the human creation, race, has been designed after that. Human section has more freedom, they enjoy more freedom. The gods, by their past action, they are to carry out and their lot almost fixed, like the animals. Animals, they have got some responsibility to suffer from their past action, and gods also, but not for sin but merit, merit and demerit. God’s have got their pressure, prejudice, about merit, and this demerit – below, but human section in the middle they are left with more freedom. So, to take the line of Kṛṣṇa, the human society, that is more fit.

labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte, mānuṣyam [artha-dam anityam apīha dhīraḥ

tūrṇaṁ yateta na pated anu-mṛtyu yāvan, niḥśreyasāya viṣayaḥ khalu sarvataḥ syāt]

[“The human form of life is very rarely attained, and although temporary, gives us a chance to achieve the supreme goal of life. Therefore, those who are grave and intelligent should immediately strive for perfection before another death occurs. There are so many forms of life: the aquatics, the vegetable kingdom, the animals, the birds, ghosts and other living beings, but only in this human position do we hold the key to the complete solution of the problems of life.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.9.29]

Here, Jīva Goswāmī explains that below human, viru hiker hitvam [?] And above human, bhoga nivindra satram [?] They’re left free, between the two, the gods and the animals, between the two, the human society, that is more favourable because they’re more free. They’re tempted by their previous birth acquired merit, they’re tempted to enjoy that. So that sort of prejudice to enjoy. And in the lower section, the ignorance, the lack of consideration of good and bad. Arekarai hitvam, and bhoga nivindra satram [?] But between the two, the human section they enjoy more freedom, for free choice. It is the more favourable position for free choice. So the appeal has come to the human species, labdhvā su-durlabham idaṁ bahu-sambhavānte, mānuṣyam. You are just in the fitness of order and you can begin it from here. If you go down then you will lose chance. If you go up there also you will lose chance. Prejudice, merit prejudice and demerit prejudice. Here, the balance, you can have free choice in this birth. That advice is given by the ṛṣis.

Devotee: Śrīdhara Mahārāja, Lord Nṛsiṁha appears in every millennium as the Yuga-Avatāra, He comes in Satya-yuga...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not Yuga-Avatāra, He’s vaibhava Avatāra, līlā Avatāra.

Devotee: Līlā Avatāra. So do Jaya and Vijaya, do they always appear with Lord Nṛsiṁha?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Lord Nṛsiṁha with that Jaya Vijaya comes. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Temporary necessity: so many things, temporary necessity. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Loko niyam matai vartma dasanta vesu [?] Kalidāsa says in Shakuntala.

Yati kathastha _____________________________ loko niyam matai vartma dasanta vesu [?]

One side we find that Moon is setting. Sunset, the Moon is disappearing, going down. What is the Moon? Moon is conceived to be the sustainers of all the ausadhi, this paddy, this wheat, and other food stuff, ausadhi, and also so many herbs. So, being the master of the sustenance that Moon has to go down. And the other side, the Sun is rising, and his chariot is Aruna. Arun means half varun condition. Varun means in the womb, non differentiated figure of a child, embryo, not fully developed, varun, and he’s considered to be ominous. And he’s just on the front of the Sun but still he’s rising, Sun. Both have luminous bodies, but still, one is rising with ominous things at his front, and another being the master of all miracles, he has to go down. What does it show? Deridosha [?] Both of them have luminous bodies. _________________________ [?] One had to depart, another had to come – in a rising position, and in a down position. Loko niyam matai vartma dasanta [?]

This is to teach the public to be prepared for their changed conditions; that nothing remains. Change is going on every moment, second. Our childhood, our youth, then old age, then death: again appearance in some part of the globe. In this way it is going on, time passing on. Time and tide waits for none. Be conscious of your own time. Samahe sarvata mam [?] The present: that is the most valuable. Trust no future however pleasant. And what is gone is gone, not to return. Be present. And the change is inevitable. So try to derive benefit from the present as much as you can. Utilise it. We can believe only in the present. The past may teach us, and future may give some hope, but that is uncertain. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. The present is representation of the eternity, representation. In the eternal world, mainly, everything is always present, co-existence. Eternal time, though passing but still relatively it is always present. Passing has no value because it cannot take us to mortality. That sort of change is not there. Always present tense. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Everywhere there is centre, and if everywhere there is centre in the infinite, then everywhere there is present tense. Nothing lost.

The son of the preceptor of Kṛṣṇa, Sandīpanī, he was dead. When Kṛṣṇa finished His study in the Gurukula, then as a custom Kṛṣṇa asked, “What dakṣiṇā I’m to pay?”

Then His Gurudeva told, “Just go and consult Your mother,” his wife, teacher’s wife.

And after consulting with her, in consultation she told, “We are told that Kṛṣṇa is not a human being. We hear like that, though in His endeavour we can’t detect it, but we are told that He’s not an ordinary man, He’s the Lord Himself. So He can do anything and everything. So I have lost my child, I want to get him back. That is His dakṣiṇā, You offer him.”

Then Gurudeva came out and told, “I had a consultation with my wife and her heart felt desire is that You can do anything and everything, within her belief. So she is very eager to get from You as that Guru dakṣiṇā her lost child.”

“All right.” Kṛṣṇa went, and came with his child.

So death is nothing with Him. In the plane of relativity there is loss, gain, but in absolute consciousness everything is there. Even the smallest, the sand, dust, has got its record and history, everything recorded, in the absolute mind as clear as anything. Nothing lost.

One day I felt a miracle, then I had an awareness, seat just shuddered here, in that chair, suddenly a great whirlwind came and many things were taken away here and there. I could not find this chaddar like this which I put around my neck. “Where is it?” I tried my best, just came from this side and went that side. I tried my best to search for it perhaps: then at last I thought that this must have been drowned in this pond or Ganges anyhow. But that was against the storm, the wind, how that is possible? But anyhow it came to my mind, it is not within my consciousness, but the universal consciousness. Wherever it be it is there. He knows it. It is, where it is, it is reflected in universal consciousness. That was so clear in me that as if I was making a charge against universal consciousness. ‘You know it. You know it where that, my thing might sit, in what corner, in what bush, or in what part of the water, but it is not without Your consciousness.’ As if in the spirit of charging the earnestness came in me. I don’t know why it was so intense in me, but He’s seeing everything. We can’t, we can’t. But whatever it is the universal consciousness it is there. He sees everything. But to my astonishment, the morning I found, someone told, ‘that is there within the branches of a tree,’ someone told that is there. And the thought came in mind, that universal mind, consciousness, that anyhow managed to get Him there. Ha, ha. A trifle thing, but it was very clear in my mind at that time, that universal consciousness contains anything, every sand, dust, is recorded like anything. Everything is recorded, high or big, that consciousness, that is present. That is past to us but present in Him, future to us but present in Him. Past, future, present, all represented there, but still, that may not be the highest conception of the truth. This nara-līlā does not accept that to be the highest. That is a middle position. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

One day I was sitting in this chair, suddenly I felt that some higher subjective nature has come down and surrounded me, the whole consciousness. My whole conscious body is surrounded by some higher subjective substance, superior to that of my own consciousness. ‘What is this?’ There were two gentlemen staying, I told them, ‘At present it is strange that I’m feeling this that my whole existence has been surrounded completely.’ And at that time it came to mind – we are told that the Vaikuṇṭha ratha comes and takes one from here to the upper world. Is it like that? To take me, I’m within that super subjective area. Will that take me now, to the super subjective world? But as soon as I expressed the idea to the outside people: gradually withdrawn. So many things are there in the subjective world. Hare Kṛṣṇa. And still it is not the highest conception of the subjective sphere: so many things.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya.

Nṛsiṁha Avatāra, Prahlāda. In different kalpa it may be of different type. Prahlāda and this Hiraṇyakaśipu, all may not be copy of the same līlā, but similar things occur. Ānanta līlā. It will be repeated always in the same manner: no guarantee. But generally similar things are repeated because of the similar necessity of the environment it is necessary in a modified way. Just as rain in the rainy season, the chill in the winter season, that varies. Something copied, something as before, something different. So kalpa veda has been accepted as suggested by Jīva Goswāmī: not exactly similar in every kalpa but some modification. Because that is necessary for the mass of the human or other animal, according to their need it is designed, in a similar but not same way. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Infinite possibility is always there, cannot be measured. So what to speak of others, Brahmā himself he’s benumbed to think out that even the superior entity above Nārāyaṇa can come down in a childish play of ordinary rank. He could not think out, the great Brahmā, Brahmā-mohana.

No end of searching, so begin to taste as much as possible, sat-cit-ānanda, existence, knowledge and feeling. Don’t think that after passing existence, finishing existence, that another sort of existence will come to consider the analysis of knowledge, then after finishing that you’ll go to enquire about the feeling of pain and pleasure. If you do then you can’t; you won’t be able to reach into the area of knowledge, or more than that feeling of pain and pleasure. So as least as possible you engage with the sat, the existence, and some portion for the knowledge, and some portion of the feeling, from the beginning as early as possible. Don’t think that you will finish one and then begin another.

So we are advised that through surrender you try come in touch with the highest phase, sat-cit-ānanda, or sundaram. You try. This is a short cut, by surrender you may come. Otherwise as everything is infinite you will be lost somewhere. You won’t be able to come to the last phase, that ānanda, or sundaram, beauty ________ rasa. So all other developments – step by step, that has been ignored in this mundane, Bhūr, Bhuvar, Svar, Mahar, Janar, Tapar.

No. When the agent from the highest has come to you: at once connect with him. And ignoring all these intermediate stages, try to contact with him to go to there, so sādhu-saṅga. The position of a brāhmaṇa, the position of a god, the position of a ṛṣi, the position of a siddha, as that gentleman gone to yoga, yoga-siddhi, then with that capacity I shall try with a little more speed towards that – but don’t lose your energy and time. Only connect yourself with the agent of the highest order, and through taking that advantage, that sort of help, sādhu-saṅga you try to connect direct with that highest zone.

End of 81.11.18.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.18.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All the phases of infinite are infinite. So for finite it will not be possible that through gradual process you go to the highest. That will be waste of energy. So:

brahmāṇḍa brhamite kona bhāgyavān jīva, guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde [pāya bhakti-latā-bīja]

[“Wandering throughout the material universe, the very fortunate living entity who receives the grace of Guru and Kṛṣṇa receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service.”] [Caitanya- caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 19.151]

There is an arrangement to send His agent here, to the lowest class. And anyhow try to have that connection, and avoiding all these environmental circumstances, try to have a direct connection and to go, to be recruited from there, and by the agent of that highest layer.

No end of knowledge, no end of the lower consciousness of investigating about those that have no knowledge, like fossil, earth, etc., things without knowledge. And there is also a stage of knowledge, knowing, in so many things it is found, the sphere of knowledge, and devoid of knowledge there is also existence. We may go on with our research about stone, about iron, about so many minerals. We may go on with the association of researching there. Or we may use our knowledge only in the analysis and getting any benefit from them. That is culture of matter. And also we can engage ourselves in the enquiry of the products of so many wise men. This book, that book, that book, that book, we may go on reading, reading, reading, what is in the area of knowing, of the knowledge of this world, or of the world after. We can pass our time and energy in the connection of that.

But we are advised not to dive, not to lose yourself, not to be lost in the quest of that experience, parokṣa-anuvati. Pratyakṣa-anuvati and parokṣa-anuvati, don’t be lost there in the realm of parokṣa-anuvati, parokṣa-jñānam, what is experienced by the others. But try to surrender. Understand the utility and fineness and superiority of surrendering to the true agent that is sent from above to you in the descending method, śrauta, revelation. Don’t be enchanted by the knowledge that has been evolved from here, āroha-panthā, discovered, researched, research: research scholars. But dismiss them. Try to capture revealed truth which is coming from the perfect realm to save you. Try to connect with that and you will be infinitely more, more, benefited, than to pass through the parokṣa and pratyakṣa knowledge.

The Śaṅkara School say that, “Aparokṣa is not any type of knowledge: that is something like sound sleep.”

But Rāmānuja and other Vaiṣṇava Ācāryas say, “Yes, that is a domain. The basis is devotion, the surrender, and that higher knowledge, more than beauty, ānanda-sundara, that sort, that knowledge is meagre, more ānanda. By surrendering, by devotional tendency you can come in touch with that higher form of life.”

That prema, that is categorically different from the knowledge. The knowledge may seem to be a very strange thing to you, in comparison with fossils. Fossil also, this present civilisation is mad for this fossil analysis, taking out so many things, for the aeroplane, for the – they’re very particular about this apparent side.

They have __ spoiled the Moon. The Moon had some venerable position, respectable position, and a beautiful position in the heart of so many men. But the conception of the Moon is spoiled by these scientist; no charm. ‘The Moon is – what is it, a lump of stone and mud or something like that.’

But the former poets, what was their outlook about the Moon, they would draw from the Moon. That is also part of civilisation. That is also necessary in poetry. That is also important for the newly married couple; Moon. The analysis; suppose the charm of a male figure for a woman, the charm of the women’s figure for the male, if it is analysed in the medical laboratory what is there? Flesh and blood and bone, but can they check the charm? Is it not real? It is more real. The charm, the beauty of a boy, new born babe, all these things, this is also a part of the world and a part of pleasure and pain. We cannot ignore that. But everything, ‘this analysis that is the truth and this is all false.’ This is capturing the main portion of human pleasure and pain. This analysis of the stone, this gas, the mineral substance, all necessary to promote the pleasure of the society, and will anyone be – will anyone agree that the charm of the women’s body may be abolished and we shall only, deception, what we shall get in the room of deception. And that valuation will be attached to them. None will give such consent. Rather we shall remain in the land of imagination. We don’t want this stern reality. You chemist, you physician, you go off from here. You take all the charm from my life. So what is what? What is what? There is business, the machine, the machinery information, the computer, and the robot.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. The reverence to the God, to the sādhu, the science will say, “No, no. All this is idle imagination.”

Then, what is real? The reality, the physical strength of one over the other: that is the be all and end all of our life, to predominate over the environment; that is the be all and end all? What for? What for, all these things?

A few days ago it was told that America wants one state world. One must be so powerful that being afraid of him everyone will lead a life of submission. No apprehension of war or any disturbance. Previously it was something like that, but that is no solution. Now it is not possible, it is impossible almost, one state world. So we acquire more power to make one state world and then it will be peaceful, peace will reign in the world. That is all mania, impractical. So also, wild goose chasing, wild goose chasing. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva, [jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir, ye prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi tais tri-lokyām]

[Lord Brahmā said to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa: “Oh Lord, Oh Unconquerable One, those devotees who, completely giving up all attempts on the path of jñāna of attaining the non-differentiated platform known as Brahma by hearing the transcendental narratives of Your pastimes (kathā), which emanates from the lotus mouths of the mahā-bhāgavat sādhus and pass their lives by engaging their body, mind and words in pure devotion, easily conquer You (they easily get Your transcendental association), although You are the most difficult to attain in the three worlds.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.14.3]

So learn to be humble, modest, and that is the path to come in connection with the superior. If you want a real connection with the superior, learn to be, qualify yourself with the quality of that of a slave. As much as submissive, as much as surrendering, then you will be taken with much earnestness, much adoration, you’ll be accepted with adoration. Go to acquire the limit of slave quality and you’ll be adored as much from the higher quarter, from the highest quarter, from the higher region. You will be meant for, qualify yourself in that way. The highest quarter you may earn by your submission. If you really want a sphere which is higher and higher than you, the only way, try to acquire the submissive nature, the humility necessary to come to that higher thing. Admit that you are gross, you are of lower stuff. If you really want the higher association you will have to admit this reality of your existence. Do that and qualify yourself for the higher plane of life. This is not cowardice. This is, the real intelligence is here, this realistic thought. This is not imagination. The highest realisation, human brain fighting with each other, and no further, higher thing thereby: what is this? Atheism, hated thing. __________ [?] Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gauḍīya Maṭha encourages slave mentality. Fool’s remark: ‘slave mentality.’ You are slavery to this present, this half knowledge civilisation. You are all slaves, of matter. And Newton’s law is there, like Yāmarāja, the god of death, equal and opposite reaction stands. You are exploiting, you will be exploited. Mind it. So don’t go to exploit. Take just the opposite, and try to become a member in the assembly of the highest plane, and how it is possible. Come to realistic thinking, because death will remove us surely from this plane, however pleasant, even if it is imagination it may be, this dreaming land won’t stand. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. As sure as death, it is told, as sure as death. Other things may not be sure, but death is sure, and it is all comprehensive, it won’t exclude anyone. It is sure. So if you are courageous enough, come to fight with that death. How to get out of the death? If you’re bold enough to come to fight the problem of death, not only for you but for all. Have you got such courage, and such resources, and such education? Otherwise go back. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa. Hare Rāma.

Devotee: _________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________ [?] Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Pramana Swāmī may be expected during this Dol Yatra Mahotsav, Mahāprabhu’s birth ceremony. And how long you expect to stay in Vṛndāvana?

Devotee: For about a week.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And then you are to go back. All right. Gaura Haribol.

Devotees: ________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Anyhow passing your days in foreign land may be so many difficulties. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees: ______________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Many inconvenience may come, but of course we are to endure, to forbear. Whenever we are out of home, some sort of un- comforts we must have to undergo, but we may not care for that. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. This is not a pleasure trip, is it not; a trip for trial. Pain should be, ordinary, little inconveniences should be our association in the path of spiritual realisation. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: ___________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________________________________ [?] Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Hare Hare. Hare Rāma. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Śrīdhara Mahārāja, how does one get a proper conception of śraddhā as real substance?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What do you mean by śraddhā? The self conscious śraddhā, śraddhā will say what is śraddhā. And the outer signs will be, śraddhā will bring one in connection with higher substance. He will be indifferent with the present environment and will be seen in search for which is not found in the present environment. He will seem to move almost aimlessly here and there, not finding the object of his search anywhere. So he will try to associate where is that śraddhā, in the heart of any man if there is śraddhā. Birds of the same feather flock together.

________________________ [?] Śraddhā will attract śraddhā and he will try his best to associate wherever he will find śraddhā, and exclusively, indifferent to the environment. His aim will concentrate there only and the śraddhā will ask him to seek for śraddhā only, eliminating all other things from his aims. He won’t be able to tolerate any aim other than it. And the śraddhā is grown from sukṛti that comes independent of this world, from another world through the agency of the world of śraddhā; in this way. Just as knowledge can know what is knowledge, so śraddhā can appreciate what is śraddhā. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Śraddhā cakṣuḥ, the love can understand what is love, the corresponding thing.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Mahāprabhu.

Kṛṣṇa consciousness: God consciousness developed into Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Śraddhā gives us company of the Lord according to its degree of quality, intensity of quality, it takes not only takes to God but keeps there. And it is possible that all the time, the whole time, twenty four hours engagement is possible in the service of God, through śraddhā. God is inconceivable faith, inconceivable faith to the remotest good, goodness. That becomes practical in our life.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. The ambition, the aspiration, the good will, the hope, everything reaches there in its finest and highest form. In other words, our innate hankerings are all satisfied, perfectly satisfied. No other hankering remains. Rather, we cannot sometimes tolerate so much grace, so much ecstasy. Sometimes one dances like a madman, chants aloud, sometimes dancing, sometimes in fit also, can’t tolerate. The meagre consciousness cannot accommodate that flow; for the time being that may be unconscious. Again comes up and begins to dance like a madman with intensity of the ecstasy.

evaṁ vrataḥ svapriya-nāma-kīrtyā jātanurāgo druta-citta ucchaiḥ

[hasatyatho roditi rauti gāyatyunmādan-nṛtyati lokavāhyaḥ]

[“When a person is actually advanced and takes pleasure in chanting the Holy Name of the Lord, who is very dear to him, he is agitated and loudly chants the Holy Name. He also laughs, cries, becomes agitated and chants just like a madman, not caring for outsiders.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 11.2.40]

Hasatyatho, laughing, meaningless laugh, sometimes. Hasatyatho roditi, sometimes begin to cry, ‘I got the chance. I could not serve up to my satisfaction. I have lost the chance.’ And began to cry, ‘I’m enjoying, so many souls they are deprived of this great ecstasy,’ began to cry. Hasatyatho roditi rauti, meaningless crying aloud, some endless sounds produces. Roditi rauti gāyaty, sometimes singing in a beautiful tone. Unmādan-nṛtyati, like a madman dancing, jumping. Nṛtyati lokavāhyaḥ, without caring what the public will say, he does that without caring any public remark, he’s above that, both the remark of the civilised and none civilised persons of the so called world, lokavāhyaḥ. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. He’s full in his own way. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma. Where the public is awake, it is his night, darkness. Where he’s awake, the public cannot reach there.

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ, tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni, sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

[“While spiritual awareness is like night for the living beings enchanted by materialism, the self-realised soul remains awake, directly relishing the divine ecstasy of his un-interrupted spiritual intelligence. On the contrary, the wakefulness of materialistic persons addicted to sense enjoyment is night for the self-realised person who is completely indifferent to such pursuits. The realised souls, indifferent to the mundane, are ever joyful in the divine ecstatic plane, while the general mass is infatuated by fleeting mundane fancies devoid of spiritual joy.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.69]

But there is imitation also. I heard in the last great war, there was one island, Hawaii or something like that, between Japan and America: there was a research scholar, perhaps American or so, I don’t know. And his activity was always with the Sun and the light in the sky, and so many things, his researches. But really he was a spy of Japan. And when the tension of the war reached to climax, and who will attack first then he will get great advantage, and the attack must be stealthy. But Japan also, Japan says that Hitler has engaged the western power. Only America, leaving away Japan he can’t join this. So America and Japan, these two were very closely antagonistic. And who will attack first whom? Japan, through this spy, everyone is watching another’s movement. America concentrated the ninth fleet, that big navy, in Hawaii, stealthily. And Japan suddenly attacked them, and war began between America and Japan. That man supplied the news, that man who was researching with the sky, he anyhow gave the news to Japan, ‘The navy, some nine fleets or something has come here,’ and suddenly by night attacked by Japan, bombarded those nine: a great loss. It was later detected that that man in the garb of research he was the spy of Japan.

So imitation can be so dangerous. As a research scholar he’s indifferent to the world interest, he’s researching, but this poison was within him to betray his own country. So something, under the garb of scholarship, innocent research, knowledge, this sort of poison there was.

So the sahajiyā and other so many imitationists are also there, in the garb of good will, to Godliness and so many things, heinous things may be concealed within. Hare Kṛṣṇa. No śraddhā but displaying śraddhā, displaying some faith. So we shall be more careful about the company. The company which is so valuable, indispensably valuable, but there also we shall have to be very cautious in our selection of association. Association is the be all and end all, all important. But the selection of the association, our real fortune depends there. So good association, good company is the most valuable thing in the world. The most valuable thing is a good companion.

Sudurlabha bhagavatite [?]

Sat-saṅgaḥ śevadhir nṛṇām. Saṁsāre ‘smin kṣaṇārdho ‘pi sat-saṅgaḥ śevadhir nṛṇām

[ata ātyantikaṁ kṣemaṁ pṛcchāmo bhavato ‘naghāḥ

saṁsāre ‘smin kṣaṇārdho ‘pi sat-saṅgaḥ śevadhir nṛṇām]

[King Nimi asked the nine Yogendras: “O sinless ones! We therefore enquire from you about that which is supremely auspicious for all living beings, for in this world of birth and death, association with saints - even for half a moment - is the most valuable treasure in human society.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.30]

In nava-yogendra saṅga pat.

durlabho mānuṣo deho, dehināṁ kṣaṇa-bhaṅguraḥ

[tatrāpi durlabhaṁ manye, vaikuṇṭha-priya-darśanam]

[“For the conditioned souls, the human body is most difficult to achieve, and it can be lost at any moment. But I think that even those who have achieved human life rarely gain the association of pure devotees, who are dear to the Lord of Vaikuṇṭha.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.29]

This human life is very rarely got. If we look around, everywhere there is life, but how many handfuls of human life? So if we cast a broad look around, so many souls under different conditions, and we have attained this valuable form of human life, endowed with so much advantage. Durlabho mānuṣo deho, dehināṁ kṣaṇa. But it is not permanent acquirement. It may be doomed immediately, destroyed immediately. And as a result of our previous action I may have to go again into darkness. It is not acquired permanently, kṣaṇa-bhaṅguraḥ. Tatrāpi durlabhaṁ manye, vaikuṇṭha-priya-darśanam. It is rarely got, and again there the connection of the Vaikuṇṭha vadi, of the man of the Lord. To get that association is more and more rare.

Saṁsāre ‘smin kṣaṇārdho ‘pi sat-saṅgaḥ śevadhir nṛṇām. Even for a moment if we get the association of the divine people it can turn the tenor of our whole life. Sat-saṅgaḥ śevadhir. Even a moment’s association: that should be considered like a gem, śevadhir. Śevadhir means diamond or gem, should be considered, śevadhir nṛṇām. The only desire, most valuable thing, a slight connection with the divine agent, no such valuable thing we can hope to achieve in our life that can give us a turn to the highest good, śevadhir nṛṇām. Gaura Haribol. Saṁsāre ‘smin kṣaṇārdho ‘pi sat-saṅgaḥ śevadhir nṛṇām. So if anything to be aspired after, that is the association of the agent of the divine, the divinity of the highest conception.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

So much intensity in dedication towards the Supreme Beauty we have never found as we find in the life of Śrī Caitanyadeva. How? Only hearing the Name entered Kṛṣṇadāsa fainted: looking at the Vigraha of Jagannātha in Purī, floods oozing from the eyes. Slight connection and great result found in the reaction in the body, mind.

There are so many religious men so far traced in history, but so much intensity coming in contact with the highest conception of the Lord, the effect, so much intense is never found in any of the devotees of the whole world in the whole history, except that of Rādhikā. Equal, equal there, so much intense hankering to serve the Lord, to be united with Him, aspiring after union with the Lord: so much intensity never found in the history of any religion of the world, as we find in Rādhikā and Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu; and then somewhat in Nityānanda and other places.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

So much hankering, so much intense attraction for the highest truth; that is what has taken us to Gauḍīya Maṭha. We have no sympathy, no charm for anything, or any proposal, or any principle ever so given to this world. But the connection of Rādhārāṇī and Gaurāṅgadeva has attracted us most in its highest conception. Everything is trash.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

strī-putrādi-kathaṁ jahur viṣayiṇaḥ śāstra-pravādaṁ budhā

[yogīndrā vijahur marun niyamaka-kleśaṁ tapas tāpasāḥ

jñānābhyāsa-vidhiṁ jahuś ca yatayaś caitanyacandre param

āviṣkurvati bhakti-yogapadavīṁ naivānya āsīd rasaḥ]

[“Something most wonderful and miraculous has happened because the Divine full moon Śrī Caitanyacandra has graciously illuminated the sky of everyone’s heart, imbuing them with ambrosial transcendental love. Being deeply attracted by that, the materialists have given up talking about their wives, children and mundane affairs. The paṇḍits have given up arguing the scriptural conclusions, the yogīs have given up the difficulty of controlling the breath, the ascetics have given up their austerity, and the impersonalist renunciates have given up their pursuit of impersonal philosophy. Now there is only one exclusive and super excellent taste, the nectar of pure devotional service, compared to which, nothing else is attractive any more.”] [Caitanya- Candrāmṛta, 113]

Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī, the previous Guru of Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Goswāmī who was a Rāmānuja Vaiṣṇava, and after coming in connection with Mahāprabhu he left everything and settled in Vṛndāvana near Śrī Kuṇḍa. And has written Navadwīpa Dhāma Sataka, Vṛndāvana Dhāma Sataka, Rādhā-rasa-sudha-nidhi, and so many books.

Strī-putrādi-kathaṁ jahur viṣayiṇaḥ is one of his poems. Strī-putrādi-kathaṁ jahur viṣayiṇaḥ. When Mahāprabhu came and expressed Himself here with His transcendental devotion towards Kṛṣṇa, strī-putrādi-kathaṁ jahur viṣayiṇaḥ, the ordinary worldly people for the time being left their talks about their wife and children. For the time being they stopped all those talks.

Śāstra-pravādaṁ budhā. The scholars for the time being gave a pause to their talk about the different meanings of the scriptures, comparative study of different scriptures, what they say, what is the purport, what is the meaning of so many scriptures and what is the difference. Śāstra-pravādaṁ budhā.

Yogīndrā vijahur marun niyamaka-kleśaṁ. And the yogīs they left for the time being the pain of acquiring mastership over the breathing, their breath. They left the practice of controlling their breath and thereby to attain some mystic condition of mind. Marun niyamaka-kleśaṁ tapas tāpasāḥ. Those who are addicted to self imposed pain, that is penances, they gave up that sort of idea temporarily, tapas tāpasāḥ.

strī-putrādi-kathaṁ jahur viṣayiṇaḥ śāstra-pravādaṁ budhā

yogīndrā vijahur marun niyamaka-kleśaṁ tapas tāpasāḥ

Jñānābhyāsa-vidhiṁ jahuś ca yatayaś. The sannyāsīns they left that culture of Vedānta, what is true, what is false, māyā, and what is Brahman, all these things. Jñānābhyāsa-vidhiṁ jahuś ca yatayaś. Caitanyacandre param, āviṣkurvati bhakti-yogapadavīṁ naivānya āsīd rasaḥ. Temporarily the taste in all their practices ceased, temporarily stopped, and some wonderful...

End of 81.11.18.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.18.C_81.11.21.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... was brought by Caitanyadeva here in the phenomenal world. They all looked with wonder and stopped their own practices in which they were engaged, engrossed so fully. Left it for the time being, leaving everything, everyone had a look in the strange attempt of Caitanyadeva. “What has He got? He is showing so many feats, never known to the world of devotees. Crying, crying after hours together, days together, crying. Hours together laughing, sometimes fainted, sometimes dancing. What are these feats? And Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, He’s chanting in such a way, the whole area, all the hearts in the area are as if melting away. Such piteous sound coming out of Him and creating a wave, that hard hearts are also being melted by the degree of that piteous-ness in the wailing. He has lost such a great jewel of His life, of His heart, as if heart has been taken out of Him. He’s so crying, wailing, such a degree of wailing, none have experienced ever. The most piteous thing has come down.” In this way so many feats are coming day and night. All were astounded and leaving everything, only staring at the movements of Śrī Caitanya.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Today I stop here.

Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Mahāprabhu. Gaurāṅga Hari. Gaurāṅga.

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... the normal position should be discovered. Not to acquire anything. But to do away with the filthy thing that has covered the innate wealth.

Then he wanted to give some punishment to the students. ‘Why you are complaining?’

__________________ [?] but when they take the law in their own hands then the professor he could not tolerate. But none will say who has done it. Then he _______________ [?] told that he’s afraid, he knows, but he’s afraid to take the name. Then he will be nowhere. Then he managed that all the students have to pass through the library where the gems is sitting. The principal is sitting in a chair and that ________ [?] was engaged to manage the books in the almira. And the arrangement was made that when the real culprit will pass through one by one, all the students will pass through the room, and when the real culprit he will pass, you should make some sign by rubbing his toe on the floor. That was the arrangement. And he did so. When Subash was passing through, the servant he rubbed with his toe he rubbed the floor. And he could understand by the sign. Then of course he expelled Subash, and also one or two from Missionary College. That Asutosh Mukarjee he was a friend of the students, he admitted, he made arrangements to admit him in the Scottish Church College, where from Swāmī Mahārāja also was educated. Swāmī Mahārāja and Subash Gosh almost contemporary. In age perhaps both of them perhaps 1896 perhaps. Swāmī Mahārāja 1896 or 94? I am 95, 1895 I am born. Swāmī Mahārāja perhaps 96. One year junior. Subash Gosh 96?

Devotees: 96.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: They’re of equal age, almost. Swāmī Mahārāja was born in August perhaps and Subash perhaps in the end, few months junior to Swāmī Mahārāja. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Scottish Church: that was a Christian Missionary College, Scottish Church. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So the British think that they have civilised Indians.

Devotee: They’re a most prejudiced nation. They are very prejudice.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. In first great war the Kaiser he declared that free ocean, free nation, while the British had monopoly over the whole ocean, all the oceans under their control. ‘We are masters of all the oceans. Free ocean, free nation.’ That was the slogan of Kaiser of Germany. But both the times America came to her relief. And it was, we read in B.A. class, Burke quoted, foretold that, in Burke’s speech, of American Conciliation. Succession and conciliation, two speeches the Burke delivered in Parliament of the day. There Burke mentioned that, “Give America liberty. One day it may be so that in old age the daughter will suck the mother to save her.” In two great wars such things we saw. That America came at the last point to help British and British was saved anyhow. We found in newspaper the Germans and British was defeated in every battle, but winning the war. And Germans they are victorious in every battle, but they lost, they are defeated in war, war and battle. The last breath that could be retained in the war, that is the difficulty. And America came in the last time to help, twice. That time Wilson was the President in the first great war. And the second great war perhaps Kennedy.

Devotee: No, Roosevelt.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Roosevelt. Oh, Kennedy was a little soldier at that time.

Devotee: __________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, the Durgā pūjā in Navadwīpa was introduced by that Kṛṣṇa Chanda, Kali pūjā?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kṛṣṇa Chandra, at that time he might have encouraged, but it is from before.

This rasa recently finished, perhaps that was inaugurated in his time, might have been inaugurated. And then his time the smārta paṇḍita, the śakta, worshippers of the śakti, they came to power to such a degree that at that time the worshippers of Mahāprabhu installed by Viṣṇu Priya Devī, they are afraid.

There was a famine at that time and the brahmins, the paṇḍitas, the scholars, smārta scholars, they lodged a complaint to Mahārājah Kṛṣṇa Chandra that, “The man is being worshipped and that is the root of the present famine. So man worshipping must be stopped. Caitanyadeva was a man, and his wife Viṣṇu Priya she installed his idol and that is being worshipped, and that is the cause of this famine.”

So apprehending that that pūjā of Mahāprabhu will be disturbed, then the pūjārī, the priest, that is the posterity in the line of Viṣṇu Priya, they managed to build an underground room and there placed Mahāprabhu, and some sort of sugar sweetmeats placed, and then it was covered so that they may not come and disturb.

At that time one miracle took place. The Manipur Raja, he was already a Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava, a disciple of Narottama Ṭhākura’s line. And he was independent chief, and he was under Mohammedan rule, Kṛṣṇa Chandra. And he got a dream that, ‘My pūjā in Navadwīpa at stake. You go and start it there.’

And also one paṇḍita bābājī in Vṛndāvana, he also got a dream.

Who is there?

Devotees: Mukunda Mālā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Got a dream that, ‘The paṇḍits of Navadwīpa they have influenced Mahārājah. And that Śrī Caitanyadeva is a man, and not God. And His worship has been stopped. So you go there and invite the paṇḍits there and prove that in śāstra the mention of Avatāra of Caitanya, you try to prove there, to establish.’

So both came here. First the Manipur Raja came and he saw Kṛṣṇa Nagar Raja and prayed for a piece of land here, on lease. And Kṛṣṇa Nagar Raja could not avoid, he gave him. ‘But a free lease I am giving to you as much as you want; as much land.’

‘No, no, I want this and not free but on lease, some I shall pay at least.’

So some land, a portion was given to Manipur Raja, settlement of lease. And as he was independent he established Anu Mahāprabhu, that present Anu Mahāprabhu he established there and began worshipping.

And Tota Rāma Bābājī also came. And he saw this Manipur Mahārājah Kṛṣṇa Chandra. “That I am told. I am coming from Vṛndāvana. I have knowledge about the scriptures. I heard that Caitanyadeva is an Avatāra. It is not mentioned in the śāstra. I am to prove that it is in the śāstra. I have come. You call your paṇḍit, that one thing oppose, that Caitanyadeva is Avatāra.”

Then Kṛṣṇa Nagar Raja Ācārya he also – already he was influenced by Manipur. And now at the request of Ṭhākura Rāma dāsa Bābājī paṇḍit he invited an assembly of the scholars. They came, they tried their best, but they were refuted by Ṭhākura Rāma dāsa Bābājī. So many scriptures, and it is mentioned there, the Yuga-Avatāra, and who will inaugurate Nāma saṅkīrtana, Hari Nāma saṅkīrtana. Kalau patama sanjayam [?] Who is that? You ask your paṇḍits to find out, who is that person.”

Anyhow the argument went on but they could not satisfactorily prove that, that Yuga-Avatāra, who is that Yuga-Avatāra? And there was also influence of the Manipur Mahārājah. Anyhow they are defeated, they accepted defeat. And then the old Deity installed by Viṣṇu Priya Devī that was taken out from underground. And as before publicly He was worshipped. Then, that is Mahāprabhu and Manipur Raja then changed the name, Anu Mahāprabhu. There is big Mahāprabhu, there is chota, small in that sense or anu means posture, afterwards. That was the ādi, the original, previous, and this is afterwards. Anu Mahāprabhu name was given to this Deity, and both Mahāprabhus were being worshipped here. Now of course many other Mahāprabhu have been installed, including ours, Śrī Mūrti. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Do you feel inconvenience in the Sun?

Devotees: No, it is nice now?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yourself; no trouble yourself?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, but the Sun not on the face. There is a shadow of the pillar.

________ coming? No?

Devotees: Not yet.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He will take bath then come, with cool brain. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Devotion, dedication: Mahāprabhu Gaurāṅga Sundar.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, Rūpa Goswāmī he has given three types of suka; three different types of suka. One is vaisayika, brahma and aiswar. So aisvara suka, what is that aisvara suka?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Aiswara suka pertaining to, concerning the Lord Īśvara. Īśvara means Lord, ‘that I have got my master. I am servant, I have got my master,’ the happiness drawn from this consciousness, that is aiswara suka. ‘I have got my master.’ But, ‘I am the master. I am neither master nor servant. I am the master,’ vaisayika suka. ‘I am servant, dāsa. I have got my master.’ That is aiswara suka. And brahma suka that is sound sleep, that samādhi, brahmāsmi, with this idea they enter into brahman conception.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: So vaisayika means I am the master.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I am the master, exploitation.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: That is not bhakti?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, no. Vaisayika suka that is the pleasure drawn from exploitation, vaisayika suka: that I am the master, I am the enjoyer. I am the enjoyer or I am the server or I am nowhere, brahma suka, pertaining sambandha yukta, connecting.

Devotee: _________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: __________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Mahārāja, after that, after he explains those three types then Rūpa Goswāmī gives one more śloka, the following śloka,

sidhaya parama ascarya bhuktir muktis ca sasvati [?]

nityam ca parama anandam avede govinda bhakti ta [?]

And then in the śloka arta it gives the...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: These both are included there.

Devotee: Both are included.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It supersedes and that is so intense, and so graphic that these tiny pleasures that are included there. Something like that. What is the śloka again?

Devotee: It says:

anima adi siddhi bhukti rupa visay suka nitya mukti rupa brahma suka [?]

o nitya paramananda rupa aiswar suka govinda bhakti dwara labhaya thake [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That includes all these trifle suka, and more than that. In quality, quantity, this is nothing. If we compare this trifle conception of pleasure it is there in the ocean, more than that.

Devotee: Govinda bhakti, that is higher than aisvara suka?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. All the suka included there, and in a better way represented, not only quantity but quality also. It is infinitely greater.

Devotee: So quality is greater in Govinda bhakti.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Quality and quantity, this is meagre. When these classes of pleasures come in comparison with that; it seems to be hateful. This is not suka at all.

yad-avadhi mama cetaḥ kṛṣṇa padāravinde, nava-nava-rasa-dhāmany udyataṁ rantum āsīt

tad-avadhi bata nāri-saṅgame smaryamāne, bhavati mukha-vikaraḥ suṣṭhu niṣṭhīvanaṁ ca

[Yamunācārya said: “Since I have been engaged in the transcendental loving service of Kṛṣṇa, realising ever new pleasure in Him, whenever I think of sex pleasure, I spit at the thought, and my lips curl with distaste.”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, dakṣiṇa-vibhāga, 5.39]

In Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu there is another śloka: “That so long my heart has come in connection with the service of Kṛṣṇa, loving service of Kṛṣṇa, I feel a strange class of happiness, so long whenever I have come in connection with such sort of ecstasy. From that time, bata nāri-saṅgame smaryamāne, the pleasure which we derive from the union with a women when that comes in mind, bhavati mukha-vikaraḥ, the muscles of the mouth get some hateful posture and, suṣṭhu niṣṭhīvanaṁ ca, some spitting temperament comes, like hatefulness. Mukha-vikaraḥ, that is very nasty. So some gesture in the mouth, in the face, as well as the spit comes in the hateful, in the tongue. When we, what is adored so much in the world, that the pleasure of union with a lady, when that comes in that hateful posture and spit comes to my mind. That is so noble and so highly sort of, expressed, that joy.”

So this vaisayika suka and the brahma suka, they are hated by one who is installed in the service of Govinda, really the fact is that. There he says all the suka small or great conceived here acquired by enjoyment and renunciation is included there in that ocean. Another type that this suka is hateful when we get that: we have to harmonize these two lines of thoughts. That this is not suka at all, this is not pleasure at all. When one enters the domain of that ecstatic love, then these things no longer have any position in his heart that it is a pleasing sensation. It is not pleasing. It is a hateful thing. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Devotee: Mahārāja, ________________________________________________ [?]

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... śanta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya and left by touching mādhurya rasa. And the whole mādhurya rasa has been dealt in Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi. That is for the higher students of devotion, mādhurya rasa. The analysis of mādhurya rasa is found in Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi. And that is a supplementary to Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu. And Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has given a short, Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi means gem, and kirana means ray, the ray of that mani. That is the name of another book which is the gist of Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi, and Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu-bindu, Kirana-bindu-kona. And Sanātana Goswāmī Prabhu has written Bṛhat-Bhāgavatāmṛta, and Rūpa Goswāmī Laghu-Bhāgavatāmrta, short. And he has given kona, āmṛta kona, Bhāgavatāmṛta a drop of that nectar. A drop of nectar, and a drop of ocean, and ray of the gem, three books very short, very gist of three books composed by Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura. Kirana-bindu-kona, in short one who can go through these three books, they can get some idea about Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu and Bṛhat-Bhāgavatāmṛta and Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi, three books. They are elaborate and very short. It is given by Viśvanātha, the gist of these three books, important books of the devotional cult. Kirana-bindhu-kona. Kirana that is Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi-kirana, and bindhu, that of Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu and Kona that of Bhāgavatāmṛtam kona.

Devotee: Kona means?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kona means a very small particle, a small particle of nectar, āmṛta kona, a particle of nectar, and the drop of the ocean, and the ray of the gem. The gem, what is another name of the gem?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Jewel.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Jewel and gem similar, synonymous?

Devotee: Yes.

Devotee: Rūpa Goswāmī has also written one book Uddhava Sandesa?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes Uddhava Sandesa. Uddhava was sent by Kṛṣṇa to meet the gopīs, the vraja-vāsīs, Nanda, Yaśodā, the cow boys and the gopīs. And the topics between them, the gopīs and Uddhava has been described there, Uddhava’s experience in Braja. Uddhava Sandesa.

Books there are many, but if we follow the real method of study, otherwise everything will be gone over and nothing got there, so study. The real process of study, praṅipāta, paripraśna, sevā, otherwise all book knowledge and no conception, so that will be useless.

Devotees: Dry labour, like a dry thing.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Everything is underground I walk over it. You may think like that but really it may not be so. He may not have touch, only the literary portion. But he cannot have the touch, that intellectualism.

In the language our Guru Mahārāja, the honey is in a bottle and it is corked. But the bee is sitting on the bottle and trying to get the honey: useless. So between the bee and the honey, there is that glass screen.

So intellectualism and the real feeling, participation, he mentioned that is quite a different thing. Not only nothing, but mischievous. That will encourage one, if Kṛṣṇa līlā is not properly approached then there will be a mischief, he will feel encouragement in his experience of the lust. That will utilize for those sciences he will utilize in his lady love and will commit a great offence, and never to return to that land.

So the warning has been given in Bhāgavatam by Śukadeva Goswāmī. If you have no control over your senses don’t venture to touch, to come to this area. Then you will be doomed. If without getting the status of Śiva, Mahādeva if you drink poison, you won’t become Nīlakaṇṭha, but you’ll have to die immediately.

naitat samācarej jātu manasāpi hy anīśvaraḥ

[vinaśyaty ācaran mauḍhyād yathā ‘rudro ‘dvijaṁ viṣam]

[“One should never imitate the behaviour of great personalities. One who foolishly does so, even mentally, is doomed, just as one who imitates Lord Śiva drinking poison.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 10.33.30]

Even not mentally, not mentally, manasāpi, anīśvaraḥ, who has no self control, control over his senses and the other enemies, vinaśyaty, he’s sure to die, yathā ‘rudro ‘dvijaṁ viṣam, one who is not Śiva if he takes the poison by his folded palm he is sure to die. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. The opposite thing: one is by dedication to the Lord, while another is exploitation to the extreme, mean stage, exploitation of the mean stage, kāma. Kāma – andhatamaḥ, prema – nirmmala bhāskara.

[ataeva kāma-preme bahuta antara, kāma – andhatamaḥ, prema – nirmmala bhāskara]

[“There is a gulf of difference between lust and love; lust is dense darkness, love is the brightest sun.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 4.171]

This is the most dense darkness, and that is the most pleasing light.

Devotee: Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākura Mahārāja he has written books, his personal books he has given, he has written?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, he has written in English that Vedanta Morphology, Relative Worlds, Rāya Rāmānanda, in English. Then Bhaktivinode Ṭhākura’s Life and Precepts of Mahāprabhu and then commentary composed by Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī. And there are many poems also composed by him. Mainly his commentary is very important, the collection, extensive character to prove and to establish the teachings of Mahāprabhu, Kavirāja Goswāmī etc. Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. _________________________ [?] Any trouble; mental?

Devotee: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Say what is the anomaly? Disappointed if we do not know anything, if there is any want, we are ordinary people. Infinite number of wants may be within us. So we are here, but to ameliorate our condition, the tendency that is to be raised. Fallen jīva we are but we want to rise up, wake. We want to wake. Awake, arise or shall be forever fallen.

uttiṣṭhataḥ jāgrataḥ prapya varāṇ nibodhataḥ

[kṣurasya dhārā niśitā duratyayā durgaṁ pathas tat kavayo vadanti]

[“Awake, arise: Having obtained the human form of life, you must not sleep in the darkness of ignorance. Awaken knowledge of your real self by associating with great souls and obtaining their mercy. This material creation is as sharp as a razor’s edge, for it is the cause of many miseries. It is impossible to cross over without transcendental knowledge. Therefore one must take shelter of the great learned transcendentalists who forever sing the praises of that Supreme Person who is the destroyer of birth and death.”] [Kaṭha-Upaniṣad, 1.3.14]

You have got, in our Guru Mahārāja’s language, words, ‘volcanic energy.’ He sometimes used this expression ‘volcanic energy.’ You have got that energy and it should not be misguided. Properly guided it will fetch the most precious thing for you. Gaura Haribol. Proper guidance, that is the most important thing in the life of everyone and all, proper guidance. We have got raw materials with us. And that is the post of Gurudeva, karṇadhāram. The boat is there, but only rowing is not sufficient. One who knows the destination, the helmsman, he can guide. The rowing is there, the boat is there, the helmsman, guru karṇadhāram. In Bhāgavatam [11.20.17] there is a śloka:

nṛ-deham ādyaṁ sulabhaṁ sudurllabhaṁ, plavaṁ sukalpaṁ guru-karṇadhāram

mayānukūlena nabhasvateritaṁ, pumān bhavābdhiṁ na taret sa ātmahā

[“The human body, which can award all benefit in life, is automatically obtained by the laws of nature, although it is a very rare achievement. This human body can be compared to a perfectly constructed boat having the spiritual master as the captain and the instructions of the Personality of Godhead as favourable winds impelling it on its course. Considering all these advantages, a human being who does not utilize his human life to cross the ocean of material existence must be considered the killer of his own soul.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.20.17]

Kṛṣṇa Himself says that one who does not take the advantage of this human birth, he commits suicide. How? It is described here, nṛ-deham, this human body, human figure, ādyaṁ sulabhaṁ sudurllabhaṁ, plavaṁ. This is a boat, a raft, well planned, sukalpaṁ, well planned, suiting the purpose, sukalpaṁ. Ādyaṁ, primary necessity, deham, if we want to cross this ocean of birth and death and disease then first thing is necessary this human body, human birth, nṛ-deham ādyaṁ. First sulabhaṁ, a good bargain: sudurllabhaṁ, and very rarely we can acquire such position, sudurllabhaṁ. Sulabhaṁ, sudurllabhaṁ; sulabhaṁ means a good bargain, in the course of our wandering through the vicious cycle of birth and death, sulabhaṁ, it is a good acquisition to get this human body. And that is sudurllabhaṁ, and not very easily we can acquire this position of a human body, because:

jalajā nava lakṣāni, sthāvarā lakṣa viṁśati

[kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ, pakṣiṇām daśa lakṣaṇam

triṁsal lakṣāni paśavaḥ, catur lakṣāṇi mānuṣaḥ]

[In the laws of Manu, it is written: “There are 900,000 kinds of aquatics, 2,000,000 kinds of trees and plants, 1,100,000 kinds of insects and reptiles, 1,000,000 kinds of birds, 3,000,000 kinds of four-legged beasts, and 400,000 kinds of human species.”] [Viṣṇu-Purāṇa]

The course, the current of karma is passing in a vigorous way and in the midst of that the karma, wherever, anywhere it can lead me. Sometimes trees, insects, worms, animals, even gods, yogīs, so many, up to Satyaloka, just below Brahmaloka the current is vehemently in speed. Sulabhaṁ sudurllabhaṁ plavaṁ, sulabhaṁ means we have acquired it after much trouble. Sudurllabhaṁ plavaṁ, it is like a boat or a raft. Sukalpaṁ, well-planned, well-planned to serve the purpose, nṛ-deham ādyaṁ sulabhaṁ sudurllabhaṁ plavaṁ sukalpaṁ, well-planned, well-designed to serve the purpose, sukalpaṁ. Guru-karṇadhāram, we must secure a proper Guru who will be at the helm, guru-karṇadhāram. Nṛ-deham ādyaṁ sulabhaṁ sudurllabhaṁ, plavaṁ sukalpaṁ guru-karṇadhāram, mayānukūlena nabhasvateritaṁ: “And I work as the favourable wind,” Kṛṣṇa says. Favourable wind, mayānukūlena nabhasvatā, nabhasva means vayu, wind. Mayānukūlena nabhasvateritaṁ pumān bhavābdhiṁ na taret, taking all these advantages, if...

End of 81.11.18.C_81.11.21.A

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Start of 81.11.21.B_81.11.23.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... he commits sure suicide thereby. If such a great and happy chance he misses in his life, that it is almost suicide, equal to suicide, so ātmahā, ātmāgatih, he kills himself. In Ekadas Skanda Bhāgavatam it is told.

The knowledge in the area of experience, in the world of experience is vulnerable, challengeable, because the area is already under misconception. So every experience here is bound to be erroneous. So how we can be saved? Only normal knowledge should be indented from outside this māyāic area, the influence of māyā. Māyā means mā - yā misunderstanding, miscalculation, so proper knowledge should be indented from outside this area of misconception. More or less everyone has got misconception here.

Only those that have intended and have taken advantage of practising the knowledge which has come from outside this area, that is vaidic, śrautic, revealed knowledge, that is to be accepted as our guide. And that is deposited in different centres here. And we should take them as guide who have got, who is the storehouse of the knowledge that is indented from outside this māyāic area. Śāstric knowledge, Vedic knowledge, revealed knowledge.

And there is also classification. We may indent from foreign countries. But all may not be of equal status, according to the capacity, necessity of different types of revealed knowledge. Revealed knowledge they are true, but all may not be one and the same. There is also gradation: that Vaikuṇṭha knowledge, and that Śivaloka knowledge, and that Goloka knowledge. There will be some differentiation. But that is instalment of truth, and not a misconceived thing. So according to our fortune and that is our sukṛti, what sort of help unconsciously you have received from that nirguṇa, guṇātīta world that will guide me towards. And also my innate tendency, by the cooperation of the both I shall have to go, that innate tendency that is the most reliable guide.

Otherwise I may be, as Gopakumar in Bṛhat-Bhāgavatāmṛta, we may be taken to some state in Śivaloka but after some time he will feel some dissatisfaction within him. Then he will be given chance of the higher plane. And there he will go and for some time again wait, and again the same thing, no satisfaction. Then another agent comes and takes him up. In this way by the gradual development he’s reaching towards Kṛṣṇa līlā. It has been shown in Bṛhat- Bhāgavatāmṛta by Sanātana Goswāmī who is the Ācārya of the sambandha jñāna, what is what. What is what, that has been delivered by Sanātana Goswāmī, inspired by Mahāprabhu. Who am I, where am I? What is my environment? What are the prospects, different stages? All these things have been analytically represented by him. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So we should not omit any step. If one step is omitted then the gap will be there in me. We must closely follow in our progress, gradual process; gradual process.

ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo’ tha bhajana-kriyā

[tato’ nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt tato niṣṭhā rucis tataḥ

athāsaktis tato bhāvas tataḥ premābhyudañcati

sādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥ prādurbhāve bhavet kramaḥ]

[“In the beginning there must be faith. Then one becomes interested in associating with pure devotees. Thereafter one is initiated by the spiritual master and executes the regulative principles under his orders. Thus one is freed from all unwanted habits and becomes firmly fixed in devotional service. Thereafter, one develops taste and then attachment. This is the way of sādhana-bhakti, the execution of devotional service according to the regulative principles. Gradually spiritual emotions manifest and intensify, then finally there is an awakening of divine love. This is the gradual development of love of Godhead for the devotee interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, 1.4.15-16]

Pratiṣṭhā, our ambition, sometimes to get at the top very shortly may encourage us to omit steps between. And there that should be mourned afterwards. Progress must be solid, not hollow. Whatever I shall have I must finish it perfectly; then I shall go up. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo’ tha bhajana-kriyā, tato’ nartha-nivṛttiḥ, tato niṣṭhā, tataḥ ruci, tataḥ saktis tato bhāvas. All these stages we have to pass through and very cleverly and very sincerely. Then we shall find that it is reality, it is reality. Otherwise it may remain in the realm of concoction, imagination, imagination. And we won’t get any strength within thereby. And anyone may come and he may push me from my position. That won’t be, if I can take me, can take position in my real place, none can shake me or push me out.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Energy must be at the disposal of the Supreme Lord. “Work for Me.”

But where is the guarantee? Only the agent, bona fide agent: and also to a certain extent the scripture, the real, the bona fide agent, that my energy will reach there and get benefit. Benefit, of what sort, to purify me, to make me sincere, sincere disciple, or sincere purchaser, consumer. Convert me to a bona fide, one seller and purchaser, customer; that will change me into a bona fide customer. My energy will go there, raw things will go there and fetch for me something that is to make me sincere customer, permanent customer of that material and nothing else. That is the agent, there lies the skill of the agent. And the main selection of the proper bona fide agent, he will feel that his capital is also going, increasing, increasing becoming more and more customer of that: goods. So it will go to Goloka and the coin will come in dollar, in pound, or in this, that. And that has got market here, a valuable thing will come.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Energy we have got more or less everyone of us. Of course the indolent, the tamo-guṇa, no energy but they can also be utilized. The cow, cow milk can be utilized. So many things a clever devotee may utilize many things for the service of the Lord. And thereby they are also paid in terms of sukṛti and one day they will also rise up, wake up to go towards Goloka, Kṛṣṇaloka, towards Vṛndāvana. One day they will be able to purchase a ticket for Vṛndāvana. The tree, the creeper, everyone may get the chance, Goloka. We have to know first how that is the summum bonam of our life. What is that? Leaving everything aside we shall accept that to be the only goal, only destination. What is there? What is there?

Otherwise everything will be imitation. If that cannot capture my inner heart then everything will be imitation and for the time being. That means that I have got some other mal conception of different goals, different destinations: the idea. Why leaving aside everything I shall feel attraction for Vṛndāvana? What scientific reason may be there? Scientific, what is that thing? Is that reliable? We must have this self analysis. We must put this question to our own heart. What is the cause? Eliminating everything I am captured by that idea. What for? Will it endure, or for the time being I am captivated by some fleeting charm. If it is real: why? I am to explain to others and also in the beginning I shall have to explain to myself, to my conscience, why. I must be confident about that, about my movement, my behaviour, my tendency, my aspiration. Am I not going to deceive me? Setting aside so different conceptions of realities offered by the materialist, by the so called renunciationist, so called spiritualist, imitationist. Eliminating all these offers I am going: but what for? I must explain it to my own conscience. Any ulterior motive about the temporary conversion I have taken? I am a hired man of any other school, or a real agent of the Goloka, of Kṛṣṇaloka? ______________________ [?] Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

If I am not correct then I will mislead many. So I should correct myself, how sort of responsibility is there. To become a preacher, what sort of responsibility. We must be sincere in our attempt. Otherwise the filthy things from outside I shall indent within me. So I must be clear, sincere to myself first, myself first. Svayam asiddha katha anyam sadayet [?] If I have it then I can give it to others. What I have I can give that only. At least I must be a true mediator. Sometimes it is possible that if I am not perfect, still I can have a pose by the grace of the sādhu that what will come that may not be contaminated with my filthy heart, but may pass through. It is also possible sometimes, but not for long. That will gradually convert me. So we must have connection with the above agent.

yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa, [āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa

kabhu nā vādhibe tomāra viṣaya-taraṅga, punarapi ei ṭhāñi pābe mora saṅga]

[“Instruct whoever you meet in the science of Kṛṣṇa. Teach them the instructions of Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā, and the teachings about Kṛṣṇa in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way, on My order, become a Guru and liberate everyone in the land. If you follow this instruction, the waves of materialism within this world will not affect you. Indeed, if you follow My order, you will soon attain My association.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 7.128-9]

Some sort of sukṛti is necessary there. I do not realize it fully but I have got a vague idea that this is good. So I transmit. I cannot make it as my own, but only a temporary canvasser, a temporary post I can hold only. For the time being I am working as a mediator. Apparently these goods are seeming to me very good, you take it and use it and you will be able to know the benefit. And you may take it from me or I, of the source I also make you known. Take it from there. Sincerity is necessary everywhere. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa. So here Mahāprabhu assures that in any way, anyone comes to deal with this thing he cannot but be purified; cannot but be purified. We may think, take it as an enemy, or in any way, but these things of so much intense purity, that it will in the long run will purify him, yāre dekha, tare, be important, at least the Name, any and every man. Who can say this? The highest authority can only give such order. “Some goods may be lost, I won’t care for that. Go on; give it to one and all.” Gaura Haribol. Nityānanda Prabhu was of that type. “Distribute it everywhere. No fear of anyone. Anywhere and everywhere distribute it, My order.” That sort of high source can give such order. Yāre dekha. Mahāprabhu says to Nityānanda, Kavirāja Goswāmī says:

preme matta nityānanda kṛpā-avatāra, uttama adhama kichu nā kare vicāra

[ye āge paḍaye tāre karaye nistāra, ataeva nistārilā mo-hena durācāra]

[Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Goswāmī says: “Lord Nityānanda, who is always intoxicated by divine love, is the great saviour of destitute jīvas and the magnanimous incarnation of divine mercy. His benevolent nature does not discriminate between high and low, or qualified and unqualified. He simply delivers, from material existence, anyone who comes before Him and falls at His lotus feet surrendering themselves to Him with all sincerity. Therefore He also mercifully delivered me who am so fallen and disqualified.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 5.208-9]

“No discrimination whether one is fit or unfit. Inundate, flood. Uttama adhama kichu nā kare vicāra, ye āge paḍaye tāre karaye nistāra. Whoever come across then he’s released. _________ [?]

Then only when his grace came to such a high degree I fell there. An ordinary course could not cure me. But it was such high order that I could not but fall within that jurisdiction. So the meanest of the mean, a person like me has been purified. I can’t deny that I am purified. Then it will be blaspheme; it will be blame on the great name of Nityānanda. I can’t tolerate that. Whether it may be my pride, my boast, boasting, but still I cannot but admit that how magnanimous is the boundary of the great gift of Nityānanda. Only to advertise in the public, to give publicity to all I have come. I venture to say that I have got something. I have got something. I have got Rūpa, Sanātana. I have got Raghunātha my Guru. I have got Vṛndāvana, Govindaji, Madana-mohana, Gopīnātha. All these things I have got. I can’t be a liar, ungrateful. All these concrete things I have got, I feel it really. So the grace of Nityānanda makes me utter all these things, as if, unconsciously, subconsciously, or something like that, I cannot but, I’m inspired, anything you may say, that the grace of Nityānanda. Otherwise I shall be ungrateful, I shall be a thief, a cheat, if I don’t admit what I have got, where I was, and where I am today, a grand difference to certain extent. But this is all grace, all credit to Nityānanda Prabhu, and nothing mine. Mine negative, the negative of the negative capacity I had.”

Kavirāja Goswāmī says like that.

Gaura Haribol. That is a hope for us: Nityānanda Prabhu.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: _____________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ________________ [?] Then other members from Calcutta coming, I shall have to talk with them, can’t avoid that. So today I...

Devotee: Everyone comes for your advice.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course, old man with grey hair. They think, they feel some charm, get something from that, some sort of advice they come. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Great things are here.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And to my best understanding, what I know I say to them.

Devotee: Perhaps they are feeling that there is a great treasure, some jewels stored.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: One gentleman Suputinatha, he was an experienced lawyer, a good scholar also. Come from a high family ________. He told me that, “Your disinterested nature and strong common sense has made you unique in this mission,” he told me. “Strong common sense and disinterested nature, that has made you unique in the mission.” That was his remark about me.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: We also find the same thing, fantastic.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Hari. At least Swāmī Mahārāja gave recognition that, “Go there,” that Acyutānanda and Rāmānuja, “Go there, no apprehension, and you will remain there safe. Go to him.” And he wrote a letter to Govinda Mahārāja, not to me. “I am sending because I know Mahārāja and they will be safe there under his guidance. Please ask Mahārāja to give them shelter.” The first letter came in the name of Govinda Mahārāja. He was very affectionate to him. Next door and like a brisky boy he came at age of seventeen he joined the Maṭha, and very brisky and went to his family he also come. Every day he used to come to us.

_________________________________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: _______________[?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Swāmī Mahārāja was in Bombay, business. Then Madhusudana Mahārāja was there, Maṭha commander in Bombay Maṭha, for long time. He was in close connection with him. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. So: connection off?

...

Devotee: I feel____________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes heart aspiration, inspiration, faith. Śraddhā, main thing is faith.

Devotee: __________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: __________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:

kṛṣṇa se tomāra, krsna dite pāro, tomāra śakati ache

[āmi to’ kāṅgāla, ‘kṛṣṇa’ ‘kṛṣṇa’ boli’, dhāi tava pāche pāche]

[Kṛṣṇa is yours. You are able to give Him to me, for such is your power. I am indeed wretched and simply run after you, crying, “Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa!”] [Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s, Ohe! Vaiṣṇava Ṭhākura, verse 4, from Śaraṇāgati]

To distribute God to the people, to distribute infinite to the finite: it is simply impossible to think how infinite can be distributed amongst the finite.

Devotee: __________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________ [?] Swāmī Mahārāja, if he did not come and went to the western people then how we could keep our life? So much necessity for the truth we feel at present. But if we did not get that connection then how we could live without this sort of experience, hope and conception, the benevolent conception of the Lord. Without this how we could maintain our life? This is our boon. This is the peculiarity, back to God, back to home. How leaving the home we are living in the foreign land? That becomes the feeling. How, without knowing my own home I was travelling in the foreign land, everywhere a foreigner, and no nationality of mine. Here, there, not in only human race, but sometimes birds, beasts, insects, worms, trees and what not, travelling in different part without my own nationality, without my home, my native country, sweet, sweet home. How it was possible?

It is my well known thing I feel that this is my wealth. This is my wealth. This is my support; support of my life, the taste of my life, the salt of my life is this. How could we drag on our life, a tasteless life? That should be the attitude. Long missing link; the link is known to me as I feel. It was my own thing, the heart of my heart. And I was deprived of that by illusion, forcibly. Illusion forcibly separated me from my own friends and own support, own heart. That should be the feeling in a man. When he’s sincere here in this life he will feel more and more.

Vasudeva_______________________________________ [?] ‘And still my thirst is not quenched. I can’t make more, further advance. I feel that my heart is not up to mark to help me properly. I feel that my heart has been made of stone, is not melting. It should have melted more and more. But I find a resistance from within. Has my heart been constructed by stone?’

That is also a feeling in those who have accumulated much. No thirst ever to be quenched. It grows more and more. The more one has the more one wants. That is the nature, very nature of love, prema. The thirst is never quenched; progressing, progressing, want more, more, more eagerness, more intensity of eagerness. And that we find in most intensity in Rādhārāṇī as well as Mahāprabhu. Not so much intensity to be found anywhere.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

That is in our front as ideal. And we are to march on without caring for any obstacle that may come in our way, whatever it be. The ideal is there. And fire within my heart, the fire of hankering. Reducing everything to ashes, all our other desirability’s, march towards that goal. Trust no future however pleasant. Act, act in the present. So only the present time should be utilized to its utmost effect, or success. That should be our motto. No trust in future. The present is with me and I must try to squeeze out my real prospect from the present moment. Present moment should be utilized in such a way. ‘I can’t wait.’

Mahāprabhu says, “Please show Me. I can’t tolerate, I can’t maintain My life. I can’t maintain My existence without the touch of that great loving Lord.”

That is the motto standing on our front. And we must adjust accordingly.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Who is he?

Devotee: Mukunda Mālā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: 38:18 - 38:45 [Bengali?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... secondary, non important thing. After Mahāprabhu appears with His divine love, things of the highest order are being distributed thereby, and it is very rarely to be found. Satya-yuga is nothing to that. Satya-yuga is also hankering after, the experts, the qualified persons in Satya-yuga they want to have a birth in Kali-yuga. Such advantage this Kali has got, especially this Kali. Not ordinary Kali is also like that. Because the advantage of special favour of Hari Nāma has been given there, allotted. But when asta vinchu chatu yuga [?], when Mahāprabhu comes as Rādhā-Govinda combined, that is not to be compared to anything else. That ordinary relief work that is of very lower order; lower order. Varṇāśrama, only a plan fitted to supply the basis of theism. And it also loses its very nature, challenges, commits suicide if he cannot connect with Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As we find:

ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā, varṇāśrama vibhāgaśaḥ

svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya, saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam.

[“O best among the twice-born, it is therefore concluded that the highest perfection one can achieve by discharging the duties prescribed for one’s own occupation according to caste divisions and orders of life is to please the Personality of Godhead.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.13]

Varṇāśrama must have connection with hari-toṣaṇam, otherwise:

dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhithaḥ puṁsāṁ, viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ

notpādayed yadi ratiṁ, śrama eva hi kevalam

[“The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labour if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.8]

If varṇāśrama cannot connect with Kṛṣṇa consciousness then that varṇāśrama is āsura. That loses, that commits suicide. That has got no value. Only a favourable platform from where we can conveniently connect with the Lord.

Atasya chadiya varṇāśrama dhāma akincana hoiya loi krsnaika sara [?]

nīca-jāti nahe kṛṣṇa-bhajane ayogya, sat-kula-vipra nahe bhajanera yogya

yei bhaje sei baḍa, abhakta - hīna, chāra, kṛṣṇa-bhajane nāhi jāti-kulādi-vicāra

[“Birth in a low family is no disqualification for the execution of devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa, and birth in an aristocratic brāhmaṇa family is no qualification. Anyone who takes to devotional service is exalted, whereas a non-devotee is always condemned and abominable. Therefore in the discharge of devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa, there is no consideration of the status of one’s family.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 4.66-7]

This is direct connection with nirguṇa, guṇātīta. Varṇāśrama is within saguṇa. Varṇāśrama is a favourable adjustment to help us in the life of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Devotee: __________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ________________________________________________ [?]

Sattva guṇa may not necessarily connect with nirguna. From there also it comes down.

ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, [punar āvartino ‘rjuna

mām upetya tu kaunteya, punar janma na vidyate]

[“O Arjuna, from the planet of Lord Brahmā downwards, the residents of all planets are naturally subjected to repeated birth and death. But, O Kaunteya, upon reaching Me, there is no rebirth.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 8.16]

Bhūr, Bhuvaḥ, Svaḥ, Mahā, Jana, Tapa, and Satyaloka – sat-guṇa, then nirguṇa is Virajā, the non-differentiated, Brahmaloka. Then nirguṇa differentiation, differentiative nirguṇa begins from Śivaloka, Vaikuṇṭhaloka, upward. And the acme is in Kṛṣṇaloka. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So:

sarva-dharmān parityajya, [mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo, mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ]

[“Totally abandoning all kinds of religion, surrender exclusively unto Me. I will liberate you from all kinds of sins, so do not despair.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]

Tavat karmani kurvita na ne vidyeta yavata mat kathasu ____________ [?]

Niyatam kurnatyam __________________________________________________ [?]

yajñārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra, loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ

[tad-artham karma kaunteya, mukta-saṅgaḥ samācara]

[“Selfless duty performed as an offering to the Supreme Lord is called yajña, or sacrifice. O Arjuna, all action performed for any other purpose is the cause of bondage in this world of repeated birth and death. Therefore, remaining unattached to the fruits of action, perform all your duties in the spirit of such sacrifice. Such action is the means of entering the path of devotion, and with the awakening of true perception of the Lord, it will enable you to attain to pure, unalloyed devotion, free from all material qualities (nirguṇa-bhakti).”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 3.9]

Yajño vai viṣṇu [Sacrifice is meant exclusively for Viṣṇu, or Kṛṣṇa.]

ahaṁ hi sarva-yajñānāṁ, bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca

[na tu mām abhijānanti, tattvenātaś cyavanti te]

[“-Because I alone am the enjoyer and rewarder of all sacrifices. But since they cannot know Me in this way, they again undergo birth, disease, infirmity, and death.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.24]

Otherwise the spirit of activity will bind you with matter, tightly, then:

[śreyān dravyamayād yajñāj, jñāna-yajñaḥ parantapa]

sarvaṁ karmākhilaṁ pārtha, jñāne parisamāpyate

[“O Arjuna, subduer of the enemy, of those various sacrifices, the sacrifice of knowledge as mentioned, brahmāgnāv apare is far superior to the sacrifice of various articles, indicated by brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma haviḥ, because all action ultimately culminates in knowledge.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.33]

It may give us the touch of pure consciousness. But pure consciousness, this jīva consciousness is vulnerable. Kṛṣṇa consciousness must have connection with jīva consciousness. Otherwise that jīva consciousness, that is not safe. That can again revert, come down, ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ. ā-virincyād amaṅgalam [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.19.18] Brahmā is also within the jurisdiction of amaṅgala, that is ominous existence, that is he’ll have to come down, deplore, reaction, lamentation: only to get the visa of the nirguṇa dhāma.

[na tad bhāsayate sūryo, na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ]

yad gatvā na nivartante, tad dhāma paramaṁ mama

[“My supreme holy abode is that place which the surrendered souls reach, never to return again to this deathly plane. Upon going there, one never returns to this material world. Neither sun, nor moon, nor fire - nothing can illuminate that all-illuminating supreme abode.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 15.6]

“My great sphere, My noble sphere is that entering which one cannot have to come back, fall back. That is My own sphere, that in carrying current. The current automatically carrying him towards Me, that Yogamāyā. That is made by Yogamāyā. The current always carrying towards Me, not out carrying but in carrying current.”

Devotee: By the Yogamāyā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yogamāyā means yoga, and mahā-māyā...

Devotee: Oh, he’s mediator to make connection with Lord.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So everything, the whole environment will try to draw me towards the centre, all favourable. Here also if we keep in sādhu-saṅga then all the sādhus, the prasāda, everything connected with Kṛṣṇa; that will help to promote me towards my goal.

End of 81.11.21.B_81.11.23.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.23.C

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...but the thief will enter. So Kṛṣṇa, because He’s a thief He can enter our heart. We have walled up all direction, none can enter. Only as a thief, unwanted thief He will enter, and we will be saved. Because He’s a thief we have got some hope, ha, ha, ha, otherwise we are undone. Ha, ha, ha.

Devotee: Ha, ha, ha. __________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All sorts of opposition but thief won’t lose that chance. So because He’s a thief we are saved. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Devotee: You are also stealing our hearts. [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. So He’s stealing, He’s the thief within.

Devotee: He’s influenced you also.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: We pray that only the feet of our spiritual master will always rise in our heart to clear all karmas and darkness.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. So absolute good is aggressor, and we have got some hope – trespasser, we have got some hope.

Devotee: _______________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There was one Haji Mohammed Marsine [?] in Hoogly, a good man, Mohammedan. He used to, old big zamīndār and money, he used to help the poor. But there were some gentlemen who were suffering from poverty but thinking it beneath their dignity to come and beg from him. In that case, he used to throw some money while passing in darkness by his door, within some bag some money he’d throw and run away: Mohammed Marsine [?] one gentleman in Hooghly. So money is coming through a thief, so...

Devotee: _______________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bilvamaṅgala says: Hatena kenapi bayam satena dasi kritar gopa vidhu brajena [?] “I was walking with the pride that so-ham, I am.”

Syamananda singha syama labdha diksa [?] I got my initiation from the throne of the guru of Māyāvādī so-ham, I am Brahman. From that dignified position I got my initiation. But what is this? Syamananda singha syama labdha diksa [?] One line missing.

Hatena kenapi bayam satena dasi kritar gopa vidhu brajena [?] But the debauch of the gopīs, the heart stealer of the gopīs, gopa vidhu brajena, who was the hunter of the gopīs, one suddenly stole my heart, hatena, very suddenly, hatena, and aggressively He snatched my heart and ran away, and I’m running after Him. Hatena kenapi bayam satena dasi kritar gopa vidhu brajena [?] I’m now reduced into His slave. I can’t live without Him. I’m running after Him. What is my... I was so-ham. My guru is of that position. We hold big position here. And now what is my condition? My heart has been snatched by someone who is that gopī debauch, hunter, that has suddenly snatched my heart. And I am slave to that ________ what is my condition?”

So stealing of the heart, stealer of the heart, of the wealth, a looter, plunderer, the plunderer of our wealth within our heart. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. All our wealth He comes to plunder, he comes to loot.

Devotee: Śikṣāṣṭakam [8], āśliṣya vā pāda-ratāṁ pinaṣṭu mām, adarśanān marma-hatāṁ.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yathā tathā vā vidadhātu ______________ whatever He may be, because He has looted. My heart is not with me, and under any condition I am after Him. No other remedy, no remedy but to run after Him because my heart has been stolen. My heart is stolen by Him and I have no other remedy but to run after.

Devotee: Mac-cittā mad-gata prāṇā, bodhayantaḥ parasparam [Bhagavad-gītā, 10.9]

Man-manā bhava mad-bhakto [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.65]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

[About forty seconds of Bengali (?) conversation]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... previous life was political ______________ no, that life has been seized, and new life, they are converted into new life. Then that C.I.D he also was converted.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Devotee: ______________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Purely spiritual. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi. Nitāi.

What about your Mahāmuni? He left you? Is he staying in Māyāpur or gone to Calcutta?

Devotees: Māyāpur.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Māyāpur. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi Caitanya. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

[No sound for about forty five seconds]

[Then about sixty seconds of Bengali (?) conversation]

[Then no sound for the last one minute forty seconds]

End of 81.11.23.C

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.24.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...who are well versed in the Vedic knowledge, they are vidva, they are scholars. Vidvadbhiḥ sevitaḥ. And what they accept in their life, practising, those who are well established in Vedic knowledge, they are practising for themselves. That sort is dharma, vidvadbhiḥ sevitaḥ. Sadbhir, then, not only by the scholars, but by the sādhu: that means not intellectual realisation, understanding, but who has got śābde pare ca niṣṇātam [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 11.3.21], who has got some affinity and attraction and got guidance from that revelation, revealed truth, sadbhir. Nityam adveṣa-rāgibhiḥ. And the negative phase will be adveṣa-rāgibhiḥ, they’re indifferent to any gain and loss of this world. They’re perfectly spiritual, their faith is that way, and they have no faith in mundane loss and gain. Nityam adveṣa-rāgibhiḥ. Not veṣa nor rāga, neither preference, nor this spiritual rejection of mundane wealth, things, adveṣa. Hṛdayenābhyanujñāto, and the fourth is he must get his heart’s approval, from internal approval he must have. Hṛdayenābhyanujñāto. The heart will say, ‘Yes, it is this. I’m satisfied.’ These four signs there must be in the conception of one’s duty – approved by the Vedas, approved by the realised souls, and no affinity for the loss and gain of this mundane world, and approved by one’s own conscience, inner feeling. These four signs there should be in duty; then it is duty.

vidvadbhiḥ sevitaḥ sadbhir, nityam adveṣa-rāgibhiḥ

hṛdayenābhyanujñāto, yo dharmas taṁ nibhodhata

[“We can feel within our heart whether we are gainers or losers. That tasting machine is within us. As we progress in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, our karma, our connection with this material world, will evaporate in no time, and spacious knowledge will come to satisfy us. At that time, we shall feel the object of our life everywhere.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.20.30] & [Manu-Saṁhitā, 2.1]

In Bhāgavata [11.2.42]:

bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir, anyatra [caiṣa trika eka-kālaḥ

prapadyamānasya yathāśnataḥ syus, tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣudapāyo 'nughāsam]

[“As with every mouthful an eater feels the threefold effects of his satisfaction, his stomach being filled, and his hunger being dispelled, in the same way when a surrendered soul serves the Lord he realises devotion of three natures simultaneously: devotion in love, the personal appearance of the Lord who is the abode of love, and detachment from all other things.”]

Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir, anyatra. So vidvadbhiḥ sevitaḥ sadbhir means pareśānubhavo, nityam adveṣa-rāgibhiḥ, viraktir, anyatra. And bhakti means approval from the heart, and both nistha.

vidvadbhiḥ sevitaḥ sadbhir, nityam adveṣa-rāgibhiḥ

hṛdayenābhyanujñāto, yo dharmas taṁ nibhodhata

In what connection it came? Definition: Oh, that who will be a bona fide preacher.

Swāmī Mahārāja said: “All that sincerely came to me and have appreciated my cause, my truth, he’s a bona fide agent to distribute my, to extend, to distribute my call to the public.”

But he must be indifferent to the loss and gain of this mundane world. He must be true to his own principle, and the principle of Swāmī Mahārāja. And with some sort of knowledge in the scripture, Nāma bhajan etc., and of course heart’s approval is with them: must be sincere. He must feel some urge from within, ‘That this is the wealth of my Guru Mahārāja. I shall distribute them all around, and I’ll dispel the darkness, the ignorance of the people at large. This is the blessing of the Lord.’

...

Visaye sangaye asteya siddhanta _________ [?] the beginning I forget.

atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca, [prajalpo niyamāgrahaḥ

jana-saṅgaś ca laulyaṁ ca, ṣaḍbhir bhaktir vinaśyati]

[“One’s devotional service is spoiled when he becomes too entangled in the following six activities: (1) atyāhāra - eating more than necessary or collecting more funds than required; (2) prayāsa - over-endeavouring for mundane things that are very difficult to obtain; (3) prajalpa - talking unnecessarily about mundane subject matters; (4) niyamāgraha - practising the scriptural rules and regulations only for the sake of following them and not for the sake of spiritual advancement, or rejecting the rules and regulations of the scripture and working independently or whimsically; (5) jana-saṅga - associating with worldly-minded persons who are not interested in Kṛṣṇa consciousness; and (6) laulyaṁ - being greedy for mundane achievements.”] [Śrī Upadeśāmṛta, 2]

To become too much adherent to particular cause – of course except that of devotion, prayāsaś ca. When one engages himself in a, to attain something he devotes his... energy for his... becomes mad. You should not be so much mad to go on to a particular destination. Wait and see the wave. Try to read the divine wave what is coming to you, and how it wants you to adjust with the environment. You are to read that and go on. And because you have begun, you have chosen a particular direction to start, and there are so many opposite currents and you engage yourself only in that blindly, that will be a hindrance. So yukta-vairāgya, you must have to read not this side, I shall have to move that side. Not blind madness for any particular action. You must read the environment, the circumstances, and do accordingly.

Prajalpa, indulgence in talking about ordinary things. We should try to keep up our energy and utilise for the service only, and not allow us to discuss ordinary things of these mundane topics, towards too much attraction for newspapers, and to read through them and keep. But sometimes the preachers they should have some knowledge of the environment, so for that purpose he may read newspaper. And only to make his speech as a living one, or modern, not of the ancient type, but to meet the men of modern education, some modern things we should have to have some connection. Then the speech, the preaching will be a living one; otherwise it will be something like dead. So the present ways of the time we shall have to be acquainted with, but not to be a voracious reader of newspaper or any other news. The object will always be to take the advantage of the situation, what is going on around, asteya siddhante laulyam [?]

Laulyaṁ means very softness. Whatever proposal comes he accepts that without – laulyaṁ has got another meaning, softness of course towards the truth, amenable, to be humble, that is another thing, laulyaṁ. Laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ.

[kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvitā matiḥ, kriyatāṁ yadi kuto ‘pi labhyate

tatra laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ, janma-koṭi-sukṛtair na labhyate]

[“Pure devotional service to Kṛṣṇa cannot be obtained by performing pious activities even for millions of births. It can be purchased only by paying one price: intense eagerness. Wherever it is available, one must purchase it immediately.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.70]

Our earnestness is only the only price to attain that divine love. But here laulyaṁ means karkat [?] laulyaṁ. Whatever is presented before me I want to, I feel some weakness within me to get that. That is laulyaṁ. Too much, without consideration we accept anything and everything. Whatever is presented before me I feel tempted for that. That is laulyaṁ, that sort of attitude, whatever comes he purchases that, without consideration whether it will be beneficial or injurious. No time to think like that. That is laulyaṁ.

Atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca, prajalpo niyamāgrahaḥ, jana-saṅgaś ca laulyaṁ ca. Atyāhāraḥ prayāsaś ca, prajalpo niyamāgrahaḥ. The niyamāgrahaḥ is one thing, niyamāgrahaḥ means to do much of a particular law, and to ignore also the law, total ignoring of the law. Law means laws and rules that are given in the scripture, that law, śāstric law, śāstric rule. ‘No, don’t care for that, any śāstric rule, and viddhi,’ to hate the viddhi, ‘so I want raga. I want spontaneous tendency within me. I don’t care for any śāstric rules.’ To make too much of that, that is also bad. Either, and to make much of the rules, only to accept the viddhi, and there is no chance of the internal flow to...

End of 81.11.24.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.25.B_81.11.26.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________ [?] vaiṣṇava pradhāna ______ [?] but in the course of his activity he came to face with such opposition. He was tempted and lost himself. _________ [?] vaiṣṇava pradhāna [?] When one is required to change his Guru, for some reason or other.

______________________________ [?] He lost. Then a bona fide disciple to disassociate from him and to take new course. Of course that is not very fortunate, but unfortunately if it happens in the life of anyone, what to do? He should not be doomed. So he has to change his course. That is also provision, but that is very rare. Generally, that is a disastrous misfortune in one’s life that he is to change. It is not a happy thing. But still it happens but for his previous karma, he must have to change for necessity. He cannot consciously allow himself to go to hell.

Whenever he gets his conscience dictation, ‘This is so and so. I have come and I have taken a wrong train. I shall go to Delhi in a junction but by mistake I have taken another train. It is carrying two or three stations in the opposite direction. Then I come to senses, what is the matter? Why I am at this station. Then I have to consult and then to get down and take the right train to go to the right goal.’ Something like that, the wrong selection. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

The cooperation, hearty cooperation with the Ācārya, that is necessary, if that is challenged in any way, and which side is blamed, is erroneous, all these things should be considered. Sometimes it may happen that the śiṣya, the disciple came with some good will, and now he has got deviation. He may see, ‘That it may be too much for me. I can’t accept him, so I must go to a more mild temperament, or a less qualified Guru who may support my ill dealings also, to certain extent.’ Sometimes the separation may be effected from the fault of the disciple also. It may be. He can’t stand; then he goes back and takes a sahajiyā guru. Just as Nadiyānanda and Hiranyagarbha, misguided, against the will of Swāmī Mahārāja they went to Lalitā Prasāda and got very cheap and less price, very cheap bargain, and they swallowed that pill.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: So then the best question is, the real question is, how can I serve?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, service, service is all important, always, that, ‘I may be, my necessity is to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. I am far away. Through what connection my energy may reach to His satisfaction; and that is the main problem. Through whom my energy may be utilized for His satisfaction.’ That is the general necessity, and hankering, and everything. That idea should regulate all our thoughts. ‘How, I am far off, how my energy can be utilized for His satisfaction: or for the satisfaction of His own, real parṣada?’ One and same thing, that should always be the subject of our quest, how? How? Whatever little knowledge I can command that must be utilized only in this, how? And bhaktyā sañjātayā bhaktyā...

[smarantaḥ smārayantaś ca, mitho 'ghaugha-haraṁ harim

bhaktyā sañjātayā bhaktyā, bibhraty utpulakāṁ tanum]

[“The devotees of the Lord constantly discuss the glories of the Personality of Godhead among themselves. Thus they constantly remember the Lord and remind one another of His qualities and pastimes. In this way, by their devotion to the principles of bhakti-yoga, the devotees please the Personality of Godhead, who takes away from them everything inauspicious. Being purified of all impediments, the devotees awaken to pure love of Godhead, and thus, even within this world, their spiritualised bodies exhibit symptoms of transcendental ecstasy, such as standing of the bodily hairs on end.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.3.31]

...and if a little progress in the right direction – that will help me more and more. That will fetch the remuneration. That will be transformed into that real tendency, gain. The interest will be transformed into capital. 'Dāsa' kari' vetana more deha prema-dhana. That means the interest is converted into capital, and more interest. And that interest is again adding capital, and more interest. 'Dāsa' kari' vetana more deha prema-dhana, the prema, love, tendency to serve. I shall serve and the remuneration will be more tendency to serve, more and more tendency to serve. The whole thing will be added in the capital. The production will come, automatically to add the capital, 'dāsa' kari' vetana more, the dedication, world of dedication. And the exploitation is just the opposite, always adding to the loan, whatever, as much as I exploit, it is being added to the loan: my debt, capital.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Gaura Hari.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitai Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, when Lord Caitanya took sannyāsa from Keśava Bhāratī, was Keśava Bhāratī a Vaiṣṇava or a Māyāvādī?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ostentatiously, Māyāvādī, but coming in connection with Caitanya Mahāprabhu he became Vaiṣṇava. That will be easy explanation. Otherwise we may also think that he was a Vaiṣṇava in the garb of Māyāvādī to help the pracāra, the preaching of Mahāprabhu for the formal help to Him. He was already there in that post. The Māyāvādī sannyāsīs had recognition at that time much over India, all over. And Mahāprabhu took that garb for that purpose, to facilitate His preaching activity. All these things may be explained. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. But generally we may take it like that. Keśava Bhāratī began to sing and dance with Mahāprabhu when He began after sannyāsa. The saṅkīrtana Keśava Bhāratī also joined. He was immediately converted.

And before taking the mantram Mahāprabhu Himself gave him the same mantram. “Please consider whether this mantram I got in dream, whether this is applicable. You please consider it.”

In it this way Mahāprabhu gave the mantram to him.

“Yes, yes, it is all right. I shall give You that.”

You have seen that place, Katwa? No?

Devotee: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Hari. On the banks of the Ganges like this, there is the āśrama of Keśava Bhāratī. _________________________ [?] I have written in that poem.

lakṣa locanāśru-varṣa-harṣa-keśa-kartanaṁ, [koṭi-kantha-kṛṣṇa-kīrtanāḍhya-daṇḍa dhāranam

nyāsi-vesa-sarva-deśa-hā-hutāśa-kārtaraṁ, prema-dhāma-devam eva naumi gaura-sundaram]

[“Amidst the showering of tears of sorrow from the eyes of millions, He gladly cut off His beautiful long hair. As He accepted His daṇḍa, millions of voices were singing the glories of Kṛṣṇa. Thereafter the people of all lands cried out desperately in grief when they saw Him in the dress of a sannyāsī. I sing with joy the unending glories of my golden Lord Gaurasundara the beautiful, the divine abode of pure love.”] [Śrī Śrī Premadhāma-deva-stotram, 16]

Thousands of people are shedding tears. And Mahāprabhu He’s having a shave of His beautiful hair, beautiful figure, beautiful curly hairs: like Śukadeva Goswāmī.

And the barber he’s going to shave and he’s shivering back, can’t. “How I can shave this curled, beautiful hair, from the beautiful head?” He shrank away. Anyhow, the order must be carried out. He began with his tears. And thousands of people seeing the scene they are crying, some aloud. Some even became mad, could not stand the scene.

One of them, the father of Śrīnivāsa Ācārya, Caitanya dāsa Padmanabha Bhaṭṭācārya he was a class friend of Mahāprabhu. And he went to his father-in-law’s house near Katwa from Chakondi on the other part of the Ganges, and heard that Caitanya, Nimāi Paṇḍita has come to take sannyāsa. He went to see that. And seeing all this he became dumb. And after that was finished he became half-mad. And from him, nothing came from his mouth but Caitanya. Whatever anyone said - Caitanya. He heard the name, that Kṛṣṇa Caitanya. Whatever anyone says to him, Caitanya. No word comes from his mouth, he’s mad. Then his name was Caitanya dāsa. The former name Padmanabha that vanished and everyone used to call him by the name of Caitanya, Caitanya dāsa. Half mad he went. The scenery he could not stand.

Keśava Bhāratī he, the sannyāsī, in his heart, he also did not venture to give Him sannyāsa. “Such a beautiful young man of infinite promise, of the world, He will take sannyāsa? Then how, we cannot tolerate His life of renunciation. How His wife and mother and other near devotees they can tolerate? So many will die. If I give sannyāsa to Him many of His kinsman will die, so we can’t tolerate.” So, such was the wailing.

Lakṣa locanāśru-varṣa-harṣa. But Mahāprabhu is very cheerful. He Himself is very cheerful. “I am going to relieve so many souls from their eternal misery and affliction. I am going to accept that task, that task that for which I have promised to deliver the whole world from this ocean of misery and to take them to the nectarine world.” He is very happy. He is cheerful. Lakṣa locanāśru-varṣa-harṣa-keśa-kartanaṁ, koṭi-kantha-kṛṣṇa-kīrtanāḍhya-daṇḍa dhāranam. And within the high tension of Kṛṣṇa kīrtana then He took the daṇḍam. Hā-hutāśa, sarva-deśa. And the whole world around was diving in the ocean of despair and sorrow. Hā-hutāśa, sarva-deśa. Kṛṣṇa-caitanyākhya-kṛṣṇa-nāma-jīva-tāraṇam, [Premadhāma-deva-stotram, 17]

Devotee: ____________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Lakṣa locanāśru-varṣa-harṣa-keśa-kartanaṁ, I forget. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. And Mahāprabhu He Himself was also mad. “I must run to Vṛndāvana.” His attitude was like that. “I have given up all My connection with the apparent attraction. And exclusively I must run to Vṛndāvana to engage Myself exclusively in the service of Kṛṣṇa.”

etāṁ sa āsthāya parātma-niṣṭhām, adhyāsitāṁ pūrvatamair mahaṛṣibhiḥ

ahaṁ tariṣyāmi duranta-pāraṁ, tamo mukundāṇghri-niṣevayaiva

[As a brāhmaṇa from Avantī-deśa said: “I shall cross over the insurmountable ocean of nescience by being firmly fixed in the service of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. This was approved by the previous ācāryas, who were fixed in firm devotion to the Lord, Paramātmā, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.23.57] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 3.6]

In Bhāgavatam there is a story of tridaṇḍī-bhikṣu of Avantī. There is this śloka. This śloka Mahāprabhu sang and ran after Vṛndāvana.

prabhu kahe – sādhu ei bhikṣura vacana, mukunda sevana-vrata kaila nirdhāraṇa

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu approved the purport of this verse on account of the determination of the mendicant devotee to engage in the service of Lord Mukunda. He gave His approval of this verse, indicating that it was very good.] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 3.7]

parātma-niṣṭhā-mātra veṣa-dhāraṇa, mukunda-sevāya haya saṁsāra-tāraṇa

[The real purpose of accepting sannyāsa is to dedicate oneself to the service of Mukunda. By serving Mukunda, one can actually be liberated from the bondage of material existence.] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 3.8]

“This dress, this garment of a sannyāsī is meant only for external adjustment. But the real thing is to serve Mukunda. Now I have cut off all My connection with all conception of duties, and the only duty is one duty; that is the service of Mukunda. And I must run to Vṛndāvana and engage Myself in the cent per cent service of Mukunda there. No other consideration of any other duties to be attended by Me.”

In this way madly He began to run, but no direction, sometimes this side, sometimes that side, but running, always running. And Nityānanda Prabhu, Mukunda, Jagadānanda and Candraśekhara, these four are also trying to follow Him but they can’t. Sometimes darkness came, night came, and at their best they are trying to follow Him, sometimes Mahāprabhu is lost in darkness. They are all disappointed. Then they find, they come to hear that some piteous tone of wailing, ‘Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa.’ And with that direction they are going that side. And they saw Mahāprabhu fell on the crops, on the ground, and chanting like that, ‘Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa.’ Then they began to...

Devotee: _______________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________________________________ [?]

In this way whether night or day running, going to Vṛndāvana. Then anyhow the attraction of the devotees got the better side. And Mahāprabhu was attracted in His trance towards this side, “I’m going to Vṛndāvana.” But the direction is opposite, towards Śāntipura. And Nityānanda Prabhu and others they are following.

Then after twelve years consciousness, this worldly consciousness, as if to be said, coming back, and Nityānanda Prabhu appeared in His front.

Mahāprabhu asking, “Where do you go, You Śrīpād sannyāsī?”

Nityānanda Prabhu also in red cloth, He can’t recognize Nityānanda Prabhu, so familiar. But He’s looking; only a sannyāsī is going in front of Him.

“You Śrīpād: where do you go?”

“I shall go to Vṛndāvana,” Nityānanda Prabhu says.

“I shall go to Vṛndāvana with You. How far Vṛndāvana will be from here?”

“Just see, there is Yamunā.” Nityānanda was showing the Ganges, near Kalna. He’s showing the Ganges saying, “Here You see Yamunā.”

“Oh, We have come so near to Yamunā?” Then Mahāprabhu took His bath in Yamunā.

aho bhāgya, yamunāre pāiluṅ daraśana, [eta bali’ yamunāra karena stavana]

[The Lord said: “Oh, what good fortune! Now I have seen the River Yamunā.” Thus thinking the Ganges to be the River Yamunā, Caitanya Mahāprabhu began to offer prayers to it.”]

[Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 3.27]

There is a śloka:

cid-ānanda-bhanoḥ sadā nanda-sunoḥ, para-prema-pātri drava-brahma-gātrī

aghānāṁ lavitrī jagat-kṣema-dhātrī, pavitrī-kriyān no vapur mitra-putrī

[“O daughter of the sun: although you have appeared in the form of water, you are most dear to the son of Nanda, who is the spiritual sun. You dispel the sins of all sinners. Please purify this mortal body.”] [Caitanya-candrodaya-nāṭaka, 5.13] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 3.28]

“O daughter of the sun, Yamunā, purify My body. Cid-ānanda-bhanoḥ sadā nanda-sunoḥ. The son of Nanda, who is the spiritual sun, para-prema-pātri, you are very favourite to Him. Drava-brahma-gātrī. Though you appeared in the form of a liquid, but your real acquaintance is there. Drava-brahma-gātrī. Aghānāṁ lavitrī. You can dispel the sin, clear the sin of the sinners. Aghānāṁ lavitrī jagat-kṣema-dhātrī, pavitrī-kriyān no vapur mitra-putrī. Please purify this mortal body.”

With this song He entered the Yamunā and finishing His bath.

Nityānanda Prabhu managed beforehand, He had sent Chandraśekhara, “Go and inform Advaita Ācārya to come with a boat and new bahirvāsa [fresh garments], and from there go to Śacī Devī and inform them that we have taken Him to the house of Advaita Ācārya.”

Then after finishing His bath when He came again on the bank He saw that Advaita Ācārya was suddenly here. The ordinary knowledge is gradually becoming clear. “You are Advaita Ācārya I see. I can recognize you. How could you come to Vṛndāvana, how do you know that I am in Vṛndāvana? You are Advaita Ācārya?”

Advaita Ācārya said, “Yes, I am Advaita Ācārya. And it is for my fortune that You have come here near the Ganges.”

“Oh, it is Ganges?”

“Yes.”

prabhu kahe, - nityānanda āmāre vañcilā, gaṅgāke āniyā more yamunā kahilā

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu then said, “Nityānanda has cheated Me. He has brought Me to the bank of the Ganges and told Me that it was the Yamunā.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 3.34]

Then Mahāprabhu came perfectly in this world, His consciousness. “Oh, then the whole, it is a conspiracy of Nityānanda. He has taken Me here on the Ganges and He has said it is Yamunā. A hoax, I am prey to His hoax.”

ācārya kahe, mithyā nahe śrīpāda-vacana, yamunāte snāna tumi karilā ekhana

[When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu accused Nityānanda of cheating Him, Śrīla Advaita Ācārya said, “Whatever Nityānanda Prabhu has told You is not false. You have indeed just now taken Your bath in the River Yamunā.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 3.35]

Advaita Ācārya came with argument, “No, no, Nityānanda Prabhu has not spoken any falsehood. You have really taken bath in Yamunā. Yamunā and Gaṅgā, the confluence in Allahabad and it is mentioned in the śāstra, in the western side the Yamunā and the eastern side is Ganges. Now You have taken Your bath in the western side so You have taken Your bath in Yamunā according to the śāstra. So He has not told any lie.

Anyhow I have come with this new bahirvāsa [new cloth] for You. The wet bahirvāsa You leave and take this new garb. And anyhow I have managed to cook something. For three days You are fasting. And today as a sannyāsī You have some bhikṣā in my house, the poor man, You must come here.” With folded palm, then what to do? They took Him by the boat to Śāntipura house.

And then next morning Śacī Devī came and about ten or twelve days Mahāprabhu passed there in kīrtana. Acyutānanda, the youngest son of Adwaita Ācārya, he was great devotee, he told so many things. Raghunātha also came there to meet Him.

And then after ten or twelve days He started for, Śacī Devī told, Mahāprabhu asked Śacī Devī, “This body is fully yours. Whatever you will order I shall carry out that. I give it to you My mother.”

Saci Devi told, “If You remain here of course it will be my pleasure, but people will blame You. I would not be able to tolerate that. So you please live in Nīlācala, in Purī, not so far as in Vṛndāvana. There so many people always coming and going, close to our place. Sometimes the devotees will go and come and I shall get Your news, that You are all well. And I shall be satisfied thereby. I don’t ask You to remain at home. Then the world will blame You. I won’t be able to tolerate that.”

So Mahāprabhu started for Nīlācala and stayed there. Two years He had a tour in southern India making so many devotees, so many scholars and devotees. And especially Rāya Rāmānanda and Sārvabhauma, all these things are there.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Rāmānanda-saṁvāda, that is unique thing for the devotees. By gradual process from varṇāśrama to the highest acme of our realization has been very beautifully and very cleverly, very reasonably has been described there, to capture ones heart. Hare Kṛṣṇa. The whole adjustment of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava philosophy is to be found there, if one minutely goes through that conversation. The conversation covers the whole distance. The whole development of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism is there. It is so great and so beautiful, so charming and so fulfilling all our aspirations, it is there. Rāmānanda at Godāvarī. And Mahāprabhu also came with His full fledged svarūpa, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa-milita and never He expressed Himself in that light, that as Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa both combined He has come here. Only it is disclosed on the banks of Godāvarī there, Rāmānanda.

Gaura Hari. And Rāmānanda is told to be Viśākhā sakhī, Viśākhā sakhī. So much so that some say that Mahāprabhu He showed to take initiation from Īśvara Purī, He showed to take sannyāsa from Keśava Bhāratī, and He showed to take rāga-mārga initiation from Rāmānanda.

Sakhī līlā vistari sakhī asvadhayi [?] Only the sakhī’s are entitled to give entrance into that mādhurya rasa līlā of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, none else. Only the she-friends of Rādhārāṇī, they are also eligible only to give admission to others, to allow their admission or entrance into their group, it is their master. Rāmānanda was a sakhī. Mahāprabhu He is there but it His show: direction, a mystic direction that we must submit to a sakhī and sakhī can discuss.

Kalidāsa, he has discussed the pastimes of father and mother. That is according to the ornamental thing, it is very awkward thing. One should not describe the secret pastimes of father and mother. That is awkward, ludicrous.

So only sakhī, the she-friends, they can only deal perfectly, they’re entitled to deal in a perfect way, complete way, the dealings of the nayikā, the hero and heroine of the transcendental realm.

So Mahāprabhu’s making inquiry and Rāmānanda is answering, replying. It shows that Mahāprabhu is hearing from Rāmānanda. To Keśava Bhāratī He also put the mantram and took from him. And here also He’s inspiring Rāmānanda, and the answer coming from the mouth of Rāmānanda, what is the līlā of Rādhā-Govinda, all these things, Vṛndāvana. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Rādhā-bhāva, mahā-bhāva, rasa-rāja mahābhāva dui eka rūpa.

[tabe hāsi’ tāṅre prabhu dekhāila svarūpa] ‘rasa-rāja’, ‘mahābhāva’ — dui eka rūpa

[Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the reservoir of all pleasure, and Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is the personification of ecstatic love of Godhead. These two forms combined as one in Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. This being the case, Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu revealed His real form to Rāmānanda Rāya.]

[Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.282]

dekhi’ rāmānanda hailā ānande mūrcchite [dharite nā pāre deha, paḍilā bhūmite]

[Upon seeing this form, Rāmānanda Rāya lost consciousness in transcendental bliss. Unable to remain standing, he fell to the ground.] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.283]

Rāmānanda could not stand. He fell down and unconscious. Rāmānanda fell down unconscious after having a darśana of that Rādhā-Govinda milita and Mahāprabhu. Then Mahāprabhu by touching his body again took him into proper consciousness. And Rāmānanda saw that the same sannyāsī is sitting in his front. Then Mahāprabhu said, “Today it is late, I shall go now.”

“Yes, You can go. Mahāprabhu.”

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

No more today, here we finish. What’s the time? Half past nine.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

...

Devotee: Sometimes mind is giving me very much problems and I become very lazy. Sometimes I don’t like to get up in the morning. I like to sleep very long. And I don’t like to chant my rounds. This time I have not so much attraction to any devotional activity. So what can I do not to fall in this condition?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The only medicine is the association. To associate with those whom you can regard, you have got regard. To keep you in their association so they can help you from your slothfulness. Association is the most powerful thing to convert from one thing to another. Saṅga, bad saṅga, bad association takes one towards bad direction, and good association towards good direction. No medicine, of any other, this is the medicine.

And next, the good scripture, śāstra, sādhu and śāstra. Sādhu is more living and śāstra is passive, sādhu is active. So active help is necessary and anyhow to put ones own self in the charge of a sādhu for whom he has got sufficient regard. You won’t be able to avoid his request, his order, so to live with such a sādhu, gentleman. That he will take care of me and he will try to goad me towards my destination. My well-wisher who wish me well and take care of me and will come to help me out of his own accord through affection for me, so to earn, to make arrangements of such company. My senses, that is the environment is drawing towards it for exploitation, or slothful tama-guṇa, for sleep and for indolence, this is tama-guṇa, and raja-guṇa, exploiting tendency. These are enemies.

And if possible to engage in some responsible service, responsibility automatically engages us in activity. So some responsible duty under the direction of whom we can respect, revere, that is necessary to take me up again. To rise up with energy and engage in the service of the unknown good which is far off, and the presence of which we can feel in the sādhu. In their activity, their endeavour, their talk, discourse, everything, we can trace the divinity, divine presence only in the conduct of the sādhu. Otherwise that is far off from me. And I may tend to go away because that seems to be unknown and unknowable. But the living and the earnest activity and the hope, enterprise, all these things may encourage me to be reinstated in my former expectation and prospect. That is becoming vague, the prospect, the ideal prospect, spiritual prospect is becoming vague, fading away, so the despair and depression. Hare Kṛṣṇa. To associate with sādhu whom you can regard and to get some responsible duty from him: that can help.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, there is a verse in the Bhāgavatam, it starts:

atra sargo visargaś ca, sthānaṁ poṣaṇam ūtayaḥ

manvantareśānukathā, nirodho muktir āśrayaḥ

[Śrī Śukadeva Goswāmī said: In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there are ten divisions of statements regarding the following: the creation of the universe, sub-creation, planetary systems, protection by the Lord, the creative impetus, the change of Manus, the science of God, returning home, back to Godhead, liberation, and the summum bonum.] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 2.10.1]

Could you explain?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In this scripture so many things have been related...

End of 81.11.25.B_81.11.26.A

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Start of 81.11.26.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: World is here, I am here, and I am unsatisfied. How can my inner self be satisfied? That is our necessity, how the inner thirst can be quenched. We are in want. How this want can be removed, by what process? There are so many things. I have got this body, the bone, the nervous system, the blood, and to know anything and everything about them, and what is the composition of the blood. These things are unnecessary details, not necessary. I am uneasy. I want to remove... The question should be regulated like this. Ke ami, who am I? And why I am troubled? _____________________ [?] I don’t know how to get rid of these problems. A general question, I am concerned with these general questions, this inquiry athāto brahma-jijñāsā, where from I have come? How I am living, and what is my future? These are the main questions concerning me and I must concentrate whole of my energy to solve that; not only myself but whatever I look and see and experience. The answer: yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante, the broad way, the wide way, the solution for all.

yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante, yena jātāni jīvanti

yat prayanty abhiṣamviśanti, tad brahma tad vijijñāsa

[“The Supreme Brahman is the origin and shelter of all living beings. When there is creation, He brings them forth from their original state, and at the time of annihilation, He devours them. After creation, everything rests in His omnipotence, and after annihilation, everything again returns to rest in Him.”] [Taittirīya Upaniṣad, 3.1]

There should be a nature of question, inquiry: a method of proper inquiry. Inquire after this and that, hundred things, that is waste of energy. The śāstric inquiry has been couched in such way. Where from we have come, and what maintains, sustains me? And what is my future? Why I am uneasy? And how my inner fulfilment I can get, acquire? Our questions, our inquiry should be in such a standard way, otherwise they’re disease of inquiry, not inquiry proper. So many curiosities may come and that has got no end. So we should learn how to question, how to make inquiry. And our energy has got some value; not to waste it, in every way. In inquiry to fulfil, in the way of fulfilment also how to reach the goal, save our energy and regulate in a particular proper channel, proper channel. Then in Kali-yuga sādhu-saṅga, Kṛṣṇa Nāma, a standard company, a standard association, that is the real and only helpful necessity of our life. Otherwise deviation from that, I may be misguided at any place, any stage. Sādhu-saṅga and Kṛṣṇa Nāma. Sādhu-saṅge kṛṣṇa-nāma ei mātra cāi, only this thing is necessary.

sādhu-saṅge kṛṣṇa-nāma ei mātra cāi, saṁsāra jinite āra kona vasttu nāi.

To get out of the undesirability nothing is so useful, nothing is so useful. The substance of all advice, Mahāprabhu says. Sādhu-saṅge kṛṣṇa-nāma, only Kṛṣṇa Nāma without sādhu that is also to go on with difficulty: sādhu-saṅga, in one word sādhu-saṅga. The standard inquirer, a standard realizing soul, anyhow, to get his company, secure his company, then everything we get. And sādhu śreṣṭha is Guru, Gurudeva is the king of the sādhus, of the good men, a divine personality who can guide. Guru means who can guide me satisfactorily, in other words, whom I can believe, whom I can trust to my utmost understanding and submit, surrender. My inquiry is being fulfilled to its utmost necessity. But still I can’t limit him more. Then we are to surrender. As much as I can make inquiry that is satisfied. And also I find that what I do not know, that is to be traced there, traced there, so I can trust and surrender, cast myself at His mercy, some mystic confidant. Then we surrender. The best of the sādhu of my experience, I can’t measure divinity and honesty in him. As much as I can get, I can know, I can enter, more than satisfied, so cast there, of the unknown hope. Try to collect all the energy possible to surrender at his disposal, and do accordingly.

Amar naihita [?] I do not belong to myself. I belong to him. With this spirit! I have no right. I have already offered me, given away to him. And whatever he will direct, detect, I must do that; this moral obligation I have got with him. I won’t indulge in letting out my so many internal mental propensities to go their own way. I won’t be master, any longer master of my own. My master is the Ācārya. I want to have that sort of thing, that option, that interest-less work, non-interest apparently, apparently not my individual interest. My individual interest has been sacrificed. So a higher conception I have got of the higher world. My ego, I must not allow myself to be the king of my own self. My good consideration has taken me to such a place that I can surrender. By surrendering I may earn more, that mystic idea, conception.

My suggestion, my conception and my suggestion, what duty I am to take, that is lower than I am satisfied. Then if I do according to his direction and suggestion I’ll be more benefited, some sort of underground hope, a strong hope, deep hope of such character. Then we’ll be more gainer, more gainer. Higher direction from above, higher submission, higher direction from higher and higher, deeper sphere of love and duty, high wave, I am to connect with the high and subtle-most wave. And I will be more benefited. That is the idea. So I shall try to be at the disposal of the higher agency of the higher thinking and higher provinces. On the whole that should be the idea, to come in connection with the higher layer of life, the most subtle layer of life. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Anyhow! Different waves there are around, all of different types, of different interests, of different loss and gain. But to connect with the highest, that should be our...

...

There was one Bakut Singh [?] in Punjab. He was a revolutionist, anarchist. When I was in Delhi, nineteen twenty nine or so, some of them, a man of Punjab Bakut Singh, and he was a good man on the whole, and very bold. I was there in Delhi at that time. He and ___________ [?] or someone, came as a visitor in the parliament house and threw some bomb on the parliament, to make show, not to hurt anybody. Then an inquiry was made.

And they came to give their statement. “But what is this fun? Only to show our objection, our protest, I have thrown this, not to kill anyone, but to dishonour this sort of parliament. This is no svārāj, no independence, no real parliament. It is a sham. So we despise it.”

Anyhow with this thread some inquiry was made, and it was found that he’s entangled with many murder cases also. So he was hanged.

There was a case and the Gandhi at that time went to – Erwin was the viceroy, went to propose to Erwin that, “Release him, he’s a good boy. And hang me in his place, I offer myself.”

“Why you do so?”

“He’s a very good man but only he is in the hiṁsā, the violent way, violent means he has been taken. And by my offering my life for him, he may change from violent to non-violent. That is my hope. So I offer.”

Erwin rejected.

Bakut Singh was hanged, and before his hanging he told, “I am very eager to see the life after death. This has been finished to me. The charm of this life has already been finished. Only I am very eager to see, what is the life after death?”

So from time to time this comes to my mind. And I also say to my friends that the charm of this life, it is finished. What is there more? Already we have got good experience, this is all stale. After all, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi [Bhagavad-gītā, 13.9], where these four enemies are present there cannot be any real happiness. Where is death, there cannot be any happiness, always under the threatening of death. So this is finished, no charm. With eagerness we must make inquiry for a soil where to live, must select a higher plane where we can really live.

[na tad bhāsayate sūryo, na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ]

yad gatvā na nivartante, tad dhāma paramaṁ mama

[“My supreme holy abode is that place which the surrendered souls reach, never to return again to this deathly plane. Upon going there, one never returns to this material world. Neither sun, nor moon, nor fire - nothing can illuminate that all-illuminating supreme abode.”] [Bhagavad-gita, 15.6]

ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, punar āvartino ‘rjuna

mām upetya tu kaunteya, punar janma na vidyate

[“O Arjuna, from the planet of Lord Brahmā downwards, the residents of all planets are naturally subjected to repeated birth and death. But, O Kaunteya, upon reaching Me, there is no rebirth.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 8.16]

“A permanent acquisition only is possible in My plane.”

And these occupations and kingship are all dream. So if we want to get out of this dreamy life and enter into reality then raise yourself to the standard of finding, however subtle it may be, the plane of reality which cannot be devoured by death. Collect your energy to build up something permanent. And what will be demolished the next moment, you are going to invest your energy for that, a foolish attempt.

uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ, nātmānam avasādayet

ātmaiva hy ātmano bandhur, ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ

[“The living being must be delivered from the dark well of material life by means of the mind detached from sense objects, and he must never in any way be flung down into the material world by the mind enchanted by sense objects - because the mind is sometimes his friend, and in another situation the very same mind is rather the enemy.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.5]

You are your friend, mind it. And you are your enemy also. You are your own enemy if you do not mind your own development, your progress real; then you are your enemy. And you can be your own friend. And none can do so much help to you as you yourself can do.

bandhur ātmātmanas tasya, yenaivātmātmanā jitaḥ

[anātmanas tu śatrutve, vartetātmaiva śatruvat]

[“For the soul who has conquered his mind, his mind is his friend and well-wisher. For a person unable to control it, his own mind remains constantly engaged in his disservice, like an enemy.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.6]

If you can have self-control, collect yourself, your energy from going astray and direct it to the proper channel where you can really thrive, then you are your friend. And if you allow yourself to be led by so many senses of lower nature, and who are always trying to move in the land of reaction, exploitation and reaction, suffering: then you are your own enemy. You have done with your own. Consider all these things.

[iti te jñānam ākhyātaṁ, guhyād guhyataraṁ mayā]

vimṛśyaitad aśeṣeṇa, yathecchasi tathā kuru

[“I have now disclosed more and more hidden treasures to you. Remember all this, and then do as you wish.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.63]

Consider and consider deeply, and take the right step what to do. A human life is very valuable. You have got the power of discretion, discrimination. If you go in the other such as reaction compelled by the reactionary wave as a tree or a beast, where you will be? And can you tell for certain that the next life you may not be degraded into an animal life, what guarantee is there? And everything is not in debt. The progress is not in darkness, in ignorance only. You will be able to feel what real progress is if you really participate in it. Then you will feel, hṛdaye nābhya nujñāto [Mānu-Saṁhitā, 2.1], your heart’s approval you will get, you can feel. Your inner approval you can feel, you can conceive. Not that a bogus hope has been given to you and you will be taken in a foreign land and there you’ll be murdered and whatever. No, it is not like that.

bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir, [anyatra caiṣa trika eka-kālaḥ

prapadyamānasya yathāśnataḥ syus, tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣudapāyo ‘nughāsam]

[“As with every mouthful an eater feels the threefold effects of his satisfaction, his stomach being filled, and his hunger being dispelled, in the same way when a surrendered soul serves the Lord he realises devotion of three natures simultaneously: devotion in love, the personal appearance of the Lord who is the abode of love, and detachment from all other things.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.42]

Then that famous śloka of Bhāgavatam:

bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ

[kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi, dṛṣṭa evātmanīśvare]

[“Thus the knot in the heart is pierced, and all misgivings are cut to pieces. The chain of fruitive actions is terminated when one sees the self as master.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.21]

Whenever you are eating something, your belly will be a witness. Your belly will say, “Yes I an eating. Yes I am eating.” Bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo – prapadyamānasya yathāśnataḥ syus – bhakti – tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣudapāyo [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.42]. The satisfaction of the hunger, and gaining strength more than when you are unfed, and the conscious experience that you are fed, tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣudapāyo. And no longer any feeling of necessity of eating more and more: these are the proofs for your progress. Hare Kṛṣṇa. The most valuable time and it is being lost by misapplication. For want of misapplication, mal application, the most valuable time, energy is being lost. Awake, arise.

uttiṣṭhataḥ jāgrataḥ prapya varāṇ nibodhataḥ

[kṣurasya dhārā niśitā duratyayā durgaṁ pathas tat kavayo vadanti]

[“Awake, arise: Having obtained the human form of life, you must not sleep in the darkness of ignorance. Awaken knowledge of your real self by associating with great souls and obtaining their mercy. This material creation is as sharp as a razor’s edge, for it is the cause of many miseries. It is impossible to cross over without transcendental knowledge. Therefore one must take shelter of the great learned transcendentalists who forever sing the praises of that Supreme Person who is the destroyer of birth and death.”] [Kaṭha-Upaniṣad, 1.3.14]

And engage yourself to address others also to engage this campaign. And that will also help you in a particular way that you may not be slothful, as regards your question.

One of our God brothers, the founder of Gauḍīya Saṅga, [Bhakti Saranga] Goswāmī Mahārāja who took sannyāsa from me, but he was a senior man. After Bon Mahārāja, when I refused, then he was sent to England. And there one Vinode Vani, one English lady was made disciple by him. Then he told when he was householder he collected few disciples. Then one young man, now that Viṣṇujñāna, he’s Bon Bihari Bābājī, he’s in Vṛndāvana at present, he was young, about twenty-five or thirty, newly married. But he left his house and came to live with Guru, his Gurudeva, Goswāmī Mahārāja. And Goswāmī Mahārāja was a householder at that time.

I went to take him from his house from Kalpur [?] but – then he came. Fifteen days I stayed there with him to take him out of his household life. And then he came to Midnapur and within few days he took sannyāsa from me.

At that time he pronounced some words. “That Viṣṇujñāna he has given me sannyāsa. That that young disciple, my disciple in young age he has come out of his house, leaving his young wife, and I am living the life of a householder and my disciple is so strong in his adherence, attempt. That pinched me now and then. So that is the prime cause of my accepting sannyāsa life.”

So when we preach, we say so many big things to others, but if I cannot keep myself in a standard life, then how they will take me? This will also try to keep me, to help me for keeping a standard life. So preaching, preaching is also, to engage oneself in preaching, that is also helpful to keep up our life aim, standard. That I am saying so many big things to others and if I am seen to be a defaulter, the prestige, that will also help me to certain extent. But it will be dangerous without proper guidance. We must not jump into the world of preaching meeting so many variegated nature of men. And it is also possible that I may be lost there. I may be lost there also. So under the guidance of some higher agent we should engage ourselves in the activity, a busy program. Engage ourselves in busy program so we may not have any spare time to go on indulging with all these trifle matters. These are all helpful to us. And then also recapitulate, when I came to our Guru Mahārāja, what for? I was, some mal purpose I had, or for some real purpose. Then why I am making treachery with me? If that is my best understanding when I accepted his dīkṣā then I am making treachery with my conscience, my good will. My high position, all these things should be discussed and thought out to help us. And mainly association with a higher, good devotee, a good devotee of higher type: and keeping engagement, as busy as possible. Not without any program, not vacant mind. Idle man’s brain is the devils workshop. Do you know that saying?

Devotees: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So fully packed, responsibility. Without responsibility, none can catch the mind and convert. Responsibility only can catch the mind and engage itself in work. Otherwise the body may work; the mind will go hither thither. But the sense of responsibility, while lying, while eating, the mind is to be engaged; how to do this, how, what plan of this. Gaura Haribol. These are the practical experiences.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Dayal Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākura he chastised that sakhībhekī, do you know the story on that?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Sakhībhekī – āula, bāula, karttābhajā, neḍā, daraveśa, sāṅi, sahajiyā, sakhībhekī, smārta, jata-gosāñi, ativāḍī, cūḍādhārī and gaurāṅga-nāgarī.

_____________________________________________ [?] That they are almost imitationist, sakhībhekī is also a type of imitation. They think that if physically I can take the robe of a sakhī that will always remind me that I am a female. And I got the mantram also from my guru, in the sahajiyā section it is in vogue that your age is eleven, twelve, thirteen, like that. You are a girl of that age. And your next higher is that mañjarī, Rūpa Mañjarī, Vilāsa Mañjarī, or so and so. You conceive yourself in that line and go on. Take Hari Nāma, do anything and everything and you try to get that abhimāna, that type of ego within you, that you are a young girl and you are in the association of so many sakhīs and you have got charge of particular service, you try to do that. Externally you beg and maintain your life anyhow, but internally you go on thinking like that. And though male you may accept the dress of a female. That will help you to your conception that you are a woman. Do that. That is, sakhībhekī comes from that idea.

And that man, that sādhu I told, was a sakhībhekī. But when I gave a strong impression, ‘Why you are deceiving you by taking the robe you are already reduced to woman ego. Full male ego is within you. And by your taking the colour you will be easily mixed with the women and you will die thereby.’ Then anyhow he came out, he gave up his, shaved his long hair like the ladies, and that dress also off. And he came to me, ‘Accept me ___________[?]

There was one ________ sakhībhekī in Rāmadāsa Bābājī Maṭha, that Samaj Bihari, Lalitā Sakhī. He was a brāhmaṇa and we are told he was graduate also. He came to Caraṇa Dāsa Bābājī. And anyhow I saw him once before coming, joining this Gauḍīya Maṭha when I was wandering to seek proper Gurudeva, once I went their āśrama and there found that gentleman. His age was at that time about near fifty, this side that side; a big figure but clad in lady dress, and trying to imitate movements like the ladies.

But then I did not know Gauḍīya Maṭha. Anyhow, one gentleman amongst the visitors they came with Gauḍīya, that comes from Gauḍīya Maṭha, from our Guru Mahārāja. And there was some remark about that sakhībhekī. And one gentleman he read, “Gauḍīya has written in this way there describing this sakhībhekī.”

Before this he was in a very serious posture, won’t talk to anybody, in a grave posing. But when one gentleman read something from Gauḍīya Patrikā, then he came out. “Oh, what they have told in their remark that is wrong. You can see another Patrikā. That is from that gentleman.” Sonar Gaurāṅga, or something like that, the editor of a big volume of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Principal of ________ College, that Rādhā-Govindanātha. He has got a big edition of Caitanya-caritāmṛta. He used to publish Sonar Gaurāṅga, one Patrikā, monthly perhaps. That sham sakhī came with that book. “You can see also this Patrikā is supporting me.” He came to show.

I did not know all these things at that time. I was simply a sight seer and hearing all these things. What is matter, what is this Gauḍīya Patrika, where from? And in support there is another Patrikā. And only this I marked, that he was very serious and with pose of a very big person but when that criticism came out, he came out, the man came out from the lady dress to protest earnestly. “That oh, they are abusing. They do not know. As you see this also is there.” This I marked.

Sakhībhekī, they have got some sort of argument that if we take red dress, sannyāsīs, a dress of the garment of a sannyāsī, it will remind me that I am not to participate with the ordinary people. I have got my particular, peculiar holy dress, I must go accordingly. So something, but from where to where, imitation, imitation of what? The other day I told to that gentleman, Hiranyagarbha:

vaikuṇṭhera pṛthivy ādi sakala cinmaya, [māyika bhūtera tathi janma nāhi haya]

[“The earth, water, fire, air and ether of Vaikuṇṭha are all spiritual. Material elements are not found there.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 5.53]

The mathematical calculation is there. I am taṭasthā, jīva, and the higher sphere is made up of higher stuff than myself. They’re all Guru, the earth, the water, the air, everything is Guru, cent per cent Guru. And only as a slave I can enter there, according to degree of my free acceptance of slavery, and earnestness for that. In that higher sphere, that is subjective. We are subject in relation to this world of object. But, that is super-subject, super-subject. If at all I am go there, then without devotion, without dedication, wholesale dedication we cannot have any entrance. Then we’ll get something wrong. In this mundane world we shall get something and satisfy ourselves, ‘Yes, I have got.’ It is very easy buyers, without price want to buy. It is Godly and the highest conception of Godhead, all these things are gone, very cheap bargainers. We rather want to pay for our desired thing, object of our desire. We won’t be miser there.

Na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40] None can deceive you if you do not deceive yourself, deceive you. Higher, higher, higher, superior: not to enjoy. Satisfaction in giving: and giving for which? This body for freedom fighting that is also a type of sacrifice. And to some section it is the highest sacrifice to give the life for the country, for the nation.

But Mahāprabhu says, “It is tamo dharma. This is sacrifice of the lowest order. Why? To think that this body is all in all, this is a poison to the soul. The negative representation of the soul, and to give that, and to get the highest achievement of the soul, this is ludicrous. Tamo dharma. If only by sacrificing this body, flesh and blood, we can attain Kṛṣṇa, then every second I want to accept death crores of times.” Mahāprabhu says. ____________________________________ [?]

What is this body? Nothing; trifle thing. The standard of giving...

End of 81.11.26.B

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Start of 81.11.26.C_81.11.28.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...what to give, the sacrifice of the body is nothing.” In the case of Sanātana Goswāmī Mahāprabhu is saying like that, “Then what type of sacrifice, the inner and higher sacrifice. Sacrifice your whole soul, your whole future. To sacrifice your whole future prospect, whole prospect, for the cause, then the highest entity will move a little in your favour. So the whole future, the whole high future, whole prospect, He comes to give to me. Then of course I should consider its case.” Not only this point of eternal life, this body, ha, ha, ha.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. He’s very clever. Kṛṣṇa is very clever. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

So the sakhībhekī: imitation. Imitation, they’re confined to body consciousness, mainly body consciousness, and that is minor. Proper conception of what Kṛṣṇa is, it is wanting there. The Kṛṣṇa is which side? Brahman, Paramātmā, Bhagavān, Svayam Bhagavān, and His planes. What is Brahma? ‘Virajā,’ ‘brahmaloka,’ bhedi’ ‘paravyoma’ pāya, tabe yāya tad upari ‘goloka- vṛndāvana’.

[upajiyā bāḍe latā ‘brahmāṇḍa’ bhedi’ yāya, ‘virajā,’ ‘brahmaloka,’ bhedi’ ‘paravyoma’ pāya

tabe yāya tad upari ‘goloka-vṛndāvana’, ‘kṛṣṇa-caraṇa’-kalpavṛkṣe kare ārohana]

[“The creeper of devotion is born, and grows to pierce the wall of the universe. It crosses the Virajā River and the Brahman plane, and reaches to the Vaikuṇṭha plane. Then it grows further up to Goloka Vṛndāvana, finally reaching to embrace the wish-yielding tree of Kṛṣṇa’s Lotus Feet.”]

[Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 19.153-4]

What is called Virajā, what is known as Brahman, then what is Paravyoma, and where is Goloka? We must have some conception, vague conception of that, idea of that. Neti, neti, neti, this is not, this is not, this is not. Brahmāṇḍa’ bhedi, what is brahmāṇḍa? Bhūr, Bhuvaḥ, Svaḥ, Mahā, Jana, Tapa, Satya, different stages of this mundane life: this mundane life, not only this flesh and blood. Without flesh and blood our mental system also can live independent of this physical body in different strata of mundane sphere. Bhuvaḥ, Mahā, Jana, Tapa, Satya - only the mental body lives there, no physical, the mental body. Then the dissolution of the mental body we come to what is called Virajā, the last verge of this mundane world. Then the Brahmaloka, at the lowest verge of the spiritual, the pure conscious life, then to enter into specified differentiated Vaikuṇṭha-loka dedication begins, dedication begins. This is mathematical calculation, scientific calculation. Then the soul enters into a world where the stuff of which is superior than the soul who is entering. So, only grace, only grace, no matter of right, no matter of right, no question of right, only grace, anugraha, Vaiṣṇava anugraha, Bhagavān anugraha. There is no justice in the land of mercy, but in the lower sphere some principal of justice sometimes peeping in our heart. Some other thing, justification, some sort of elements of justice now and then peeps into our heart. But when that heart is crossed we are taken to Kṛṣṇaloka, Goloka, this is wholly eliminated, eliminated. That is, they’re lost in the pure wave in that Goloka, their love, affection, rāga-mārga. No consideration that he’s low, he’s high, but automatic like a robot man, like a computer, automatic activity, just as…voluntary and non-voluntary activity, just as the stomach, the stomach is doing its duty, it is not voluntary. What is the name in philosophy?

Devotee: Automatic.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It’s automatic, but there is another specific word. Voluntary and non-voluntary, non-voluntary there is another word is there in philosophy. So that is automatic, that is like… Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Spontaneous?

Devotee: Sympathetic.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Ha, ha. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Innate? You’ve lost us.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I can’t recollect. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

Anyhow, there is subconscious region, reaction, that is under, not come over the flow towards the consciousness, for sub-conscious reasons that activity goes on.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

We can have a little glimpse, guess, what sort of life that is. But we are to cross the threshold of exploitation and renunciation, both, and dedication of calculative and of non-calculative, two types of dedication.

deha-smṛti nāhi yāra, saṁsāra-kūpa kāhāṅ tāra, tāhā haite nā cāhe uddhāra

[viraha-samudra-jale, kāma-timiṅgile gile, gopī-gaṇe neha’ tāra pāra]

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu continued: “The gopīs are fallen in the great ocean of separation, and they are being devoured by the timiṅgila fish, which represent their ambition to serve You. The gopīs are to be delivered from the mouths of these timiṅgila fish, for they are pure devotees. Since they have no material conception of life, why should they aspire for liberation? The gopīs do not want that liberation desired by the yogīs and jñānīs, for they are already liberated from the ocean of material existence.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 13.142]

“No consciousness of any bodily existence, so it is needless to say that like karmī we want Your help to get out of this mundane realm. That does not apply in our case my Lord; that does not apply. ______________ [?] You want that the people will laugh at You? Your proposal is so vacant, so ludicrous. Do You take us in that category? That we are fallen in the deep well and by taking You as the help to come out of that, do we care, have we any conception of our bodily interest? You think that? We are ashamed by Your talk. We feel shame.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is the outside meaning, and internal meaning is another. And they could understand the Lord Himself say. “The others think themselves fortunate if they come in My contact. But in your case I think it is My fortune that I have got affection of you.”

Devotee: ____________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________________________________________ [?]

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Brahmara durlabha prema sava tari yati [?] What is so much rare to even Brahmā the creator of this, in the market, Nityānanda Prabhu has come with that thing and from door to door approaching, “Take this, take this, take this.” What is that? Brahmara durlabha prema. What is aspired after by the great creator of this universe, unapproachable by him, and that has been taken down here, and He’s wandering from door to door. “Accept this.”

In ages, this thing never comes to this plane of life, in ages. Love, divine love, how magnanimous it is. Feel it for yourself. You know only to consume at the cost of others of the environment. You think that a big consumer is a big fortunate man. You are settled in this sort of conception of life, that exploitation.

The great scientists can exploit even the inanimate, not only animate but even the inanimate in the most crude form, they’re expert to exploit them also. Great scientists do not know the real nature, the real and stern nature of the environment that they are to pay back to the farthing, with interest. And getting easy loan from the nature, does not know the stern laws of nature. They’re very boasting of their civilised society.

But just the opposite, not to consume, but to be consumed. Consumed by whom? By the debauch, to be consumed by the highest centre of the Absolute Good, that sort of fortune. There is life, and there is life real. Real life is there only. No reaction, above reaction, rather, the sustainer of the whole, this sort of nature can sustain the whole of the existence. Not only mundane, non-mundane, that wave, that sustaining wave of all the universe gets food from that type of sacrifice which is in the highest causal plane. Who wants the honour of that sort of sacrificed life? And how beautiful, how sweet that is it is inconceivable, such type of self-giving, how sweet. Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Not exploiting but giving, utilising and utilising in the highest quarter, in the subtle-most plane. That sort of self-giving. Not to the hand of the dacoit, not for the nation, not for this or that, ordinary. The highest sustaining wave that is springing up from that fountain: there to contribute, to contribute your energy.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Mahāprabhu. Mahāprabhu. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja. Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya was a Māyāvādī in his previous life, yet he understood ecstatic symptoms of love of Kṛṣṇa. How is it that he was familiar with that?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: By the special grace of Mahāprabhu. He was of the standard of Bṛhaspati, the master of knowledge, but by the special grace of Mahāprabhu he was converted into that, he was taken.

Transformation may take place in different, four ways, may be divided into two, one free choice of the Lord, another acquiring by the jīva soul in gradual process. Sārvabhauma’s case is mostly the grace that came from Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The greatest part of his realisation was of that nature.

He had some talk with Rāya Rāmānanda previously, the devotee connection. Rāmānanda was a devotee of higher type. He came in his connection but could not crush his ego. But when Mahāprabhu came that sukṛti was crossed without limit and instantaneously converted. And then he could know that, “I could not appreciate Rāmānanda Rāya, for some internal hindrance. Now by Your grace my cover is discovered, heart can understand, can appreciate the dignity of Rāya Rāmānanda and his advices. Please, You are going to the south for a preaching tour, please meet Rāya Rāmānanda on the banks of Godāvarī and You will find high satisfaction coming in contact with him.”

‘rāmānanda rāya’ āche godāvarī-tīre, sambhāṣile jānibe tumi tāṅhāra tīre.

[‘rāmānanda rāya’ āche godāvarī-tīre, adhikārī hayena teṅho vidyānagare]

[“In the town of Vidyānagara, on the bank of the Godāvarī, there is a responsible government officer named Rāmānanda Rāya.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 7.62]

[pāṇḍitya āra bhakti-rasa, — duṅhera teṅho sīmā / sambhāṣile jānibe tumi tāṅhāra mahimā]

[“He is a most learned scholar as well as an expert in devotional mellows. Actually he is most exalted, and if You talk with him, You will see how glorious he is.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 7.65]

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Mahāprabhu. Mahāprabhu. Gaurāṅga. Hari.

Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi.

Devotee: Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja. It is said that Mādhavendra Purī introduced devotional service in conjugal love; he introduced that to Mādhva sampradāya. Does that mean it was not known…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That means it is by the interference from above. In Mādhva School we do not find such degree of quality and quantity of devotion, especially in mādhurya-rasa, in Mādhva School. But it is first found in Mādhavendra Purī. When, just before his disappearance he’s lamenting that, ‘I could not get the grace of Kṛṣṇa.’

ayi-dīna-dayārdra-nātha he, mathurā-nātha kadāvalokyase

hṛdayaṁ tvad-aloka-kātaraṁ, dayita bhrāmyati kiṁ karomy aham

[While passing away from the material world, Śrīla Mādhavendra Purī chanted the following verse: “O gentle-hearted Lord, ever gracious upon the destitute, O Lord of Mathurā, when shall I see You again? In Your absence my broken heart trembles. Beloved! What shall I do now?”]

[Padyāvalī] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 8.34]

“Oh my Lord, Oh the Lord of my heart, You are not casting a glance on this poor soul. The master of my heart, how can I tolerate this life without Your confidential grace?” With this he left his body. Dayita, kiṁ karomy aham, “What can I do if You do not accept me in the zone of Your higher affectionate area, circle. Rather, in despair I am going, leaving this body here.” The Lord of Mathurā.

There we see, and then one of his disciples was Rāmacandra Purī, he came to console his Guru. “Why do you mourn? You are Brahman yourself. Consider, meditate that, you have nothing to mourn and nothing to gain. You are that nirviśeṣa brahma. You think like that. Why do you lament?”

Then Mādhavendra Purī was very much enraged. “You be off. If I die seeing your face then I will be doomed, you be off from here.”

And Īśvara Purī attended Mādhavendra Purī in his last time, and he got the grace of the Guru, Mādhavendra Purī. And he was rewarded by the acceptance of Mahāprabhu as his Gurudeva, that Īśvara Purī. praray sadar [?] Full of divine love his heart was. And Mādhavendra Purī, Īśvara Purī. And before Mādhavendra Purī he was the, perhaps Lakṣmīpatī, disciple of Lakṣmīpatī of the Mādhva School. But there we do not find such trace, devotion, but devotion not of that hearty type, ordinary, formal devotion, subjugation, allegiance, all these things. But deep, heart concern is found only from Mādhavendra Purī. The Lord of our heart: Lord of love, beauty, attracting the whole system, inner system of our existence, the attraction of the whole, inner system of our existence. Kṛṣṇa. We cannot do without Him. He’s in such a way within us, we cannot think of any independent life without Him. It is impossible, in that plane. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Every nath is feeling it.

Prati aṅga lāgi kānde, prati aṅga mora [From Jñāna Dāsa’s Vaiṣṇava-padāvali: Anthology of Vaiṣṇava Songs] There is one Vaiṣṇava kavi, after Mahāprabhu, says, “That My every,” in case of, by the mouth of Rādhārāṇī, “That My every limb is crying for the corresponding limb of My Lord.” Prati aṅga lāgi kānde, prati aṅga mora. “Every part of My, every inch of My, every atom of My body is hankering, is crying to embrace the corresponding atom of the body of My Lord.”

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. These are big things spoken by a mean mouth.

mahāprabhu laksa katagu nityānanda [?] What sort of body then we have within us, and how to trace out that? That is the problem. How to trace out that sort of body within us? Is it possible? It’s beyond the ambition of the ambition.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi.

Dayal Nitāi. Gurudeva. Śrī Gurudeva. Śrī Gurudeva. Śrī Gurudeva. Nitāi. Nitāi.

What is the time?

Devotee: Half past nine.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Half past nine.

Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Mahāprabhu. Mahāprabhu. Mahāprabhu. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Rāma. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Today I stop here. No more. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Jaya Oṁ Viṣṇu-Pāda...

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Our Guru Mahārāja wanted to capture the whole territory of māyā, to convert it into Kṛṣṇa conscious region, domain. The nature of his fighting with māyā was like this, could not tolerate that there should be any place where Kṛṣṇa consciousness will be absent. That is intolerable. Everything must come under the jurisdiction of Mahāprabhu Śrī Caitanyadeva. Whether it is possible or impossible he does not care. Ha, ha. But his dues, “My duty is to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness.”

Devotee: __________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________________________ [?] Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: So Bhaktisiddhānta wanted the, no place…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He wanted to conquer the whole territory of māyā. That was his faith. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. And attack from different directions, attacking māyā.

One of the moderate leaders of the time was Madhanman Madhava [?] He was pro Hindu, when he came to Calcutta Maṭha, and he had some knowledge of the Hindu scriptures and somewhat of Bhāgavatam also. So when he heard, he put many questions, and replied. Only he told that, “I am not, I can’t imagine two things - such deep knowledge in Bhāgavatam, and such application at every stage of argument reciting, giving the quotation of Bhāgavat śloka. Whatever the subject matter of the discussion, the Bhāgavat śloka in support of that. That so much deep knowledge of Bhāgavatam I have never seen and heard, conceived even. Another thing, a daily religious paper, I can’t conceive that one daily religious paper may go on.”

Prabhupāda answered, “We are talking about Vaikuṇṭha, that unlimited world, and this is māyā, the limited world. So many daily newspapers are going on with the subject of this limited world. And the unlimited world only one daily newspaper, and that is inconceivable to you. So many…”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Influenced by the discussion of our Guru Mahārāja, that Malavira [?] he started Śuddhi [?], like Ārya Samāj, in his own way. But he was not successful in that matter. The orthodox UP [Uttar Pradesh] section did not allow. But the Śuddhi of Gauḍīya Maṭh is of a different kind. It is based on scientific principle, śuddhi, that Hari Nāma. It is mentioned in the śastra, “The least of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness can purify, immense, it is so powerful, disinfecting, that the least connection of Kṛṣṇa consciousness can purify miraculously. Kṛṣṇa consciousness, but it must be proper Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa consciousness proper, that can purify. The nirguṇa, the highest class of nirguṇa conception, nirguṇa existence, like homoeopathic dose, can work marvellous.

yan-nāmadheya-śravaṇānukīrttanāt, yat prahvaṇād yat smaraṇād api kvacit

śvādo 'pi sadyaḥ savanāya kalpate, kutaḥ punas te bhagavan nu darśanāt

[Devahūti says: “O Lord, if he just hears Your Name, then chants it, offer You obeisances and remembers You, even a person born as a dog-eating outcaste instantly becomes eligible to perform the Soma sacrifice; to say nothing of the purification of those who see You directly.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 3.33.6]

Immediately, instantaneously, any man from the lowest class may be fit for the highest duty of a brāhmaṇa, and then brāhmaṇa. Brahmacārya, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa. If sat-saṇga, if association of the sādhus we can get, then by the combined force any bold attempt may be taken up, taken up. Otherwise gṛhastha Vaiṣṇava also can be there, but they will be a little more careful because they’re compelled to transact with ordinary viṣayī people there.

But sannyāsīns may not care for that, exclusively given up their life for. And in sannyāsa there are also four stages, kuṭīcaka, bahūdaka, haṁsa, paramahaṁsa - the four stages in the life of a sannyāsī. Kuṭīcaka means to confine oneself in a cottage and to go on assimilation, in connection of assimilation of what he has accepted, to be settled in that position, and then to begin pracāra. Bahūdaka, that a suggestion comes from water of different lands, so he should not stay in one place, generally. He will move around all the parts, mixing with different persons and talking about Kṛṣṇa, his own creed. Like a canvasser he will invite test and consolidate himself, his position of thought. “What I have taken, I am taking it to the market at large and if any more efficient thing may come to me as proposal I am to compare with that. And also, at the same time, the superiority of the things of my Gurudeva I am spreading anywhere and everywhere.” And indirectly his position is becoming solid, consolidated. Then, haṁsa, wherever he may be does not matter, but he can take out the gist of everything towards service of Kṛṣṇa, tat paratvena nirmalam.

[sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ, tat paratvena nirmalam / hṛṣīkena hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate]

[“Pure devotion is service to the Supreme Lord which is free from all relative conceptions of self interest.”] [Nārada Pañcarātra]

He can come to realise then fully, everything coming in connection with Kṛṣṇa, may be accepted, and that is real standard of purity. And paramahaṁsa he’s established there. He cannot but see anything which is not in the interest of Kṛṣṇa. Whatever things come to him, he’s already connecting with Kṛṣṇa and his thought can never be disturbed by any outside waves of any nature, any thought of any nature, paramahaṁsa.

But, to abide by the order of our Gurudeva, that is everything, from the beginning to end, one may live there under the direct guidance of Guru. It is always nirguṇa. For our guidance we have got that mantram. Also we may consult the meaning of them. It is meant, I am meant for what? It is there, the formula is there. My future, I am here, so and so, and what should be the object of my aspiration, the life of my aspiration? That is in the mantram.

Generally, first we are to begin with Guru pūjā, a connection with the mediator, with the soul agent. We are to have, to acquire a happy relationship with him. And then, next, Gaurāṅga, the Absolute as in the form of Guru. This is Vaiṣṇava Guru and that is Bhāgavat Guru, when the Gopāla, God Himself has come in a grand way to do the, to teach the function of Guru. That is Gaurāṅga, the universal Guru: Guru Himself, the Absolute Himself in the garb of Guru. Then there also, how we are to adjust with Guru and Gaurāṅga, and what They mean, to take us where? These are to enquired there in the formula.

Then we see that they’re, they want us to guide towards Kṛṣṇa conception of Vṛndāvana, not this Nārāyaṇa conception. The grand Guru Gaurāṅga His mission is that of Vṛndāvana, exclusively, and He wants us to guide there, to Vṛndāvana Kṛṣṇa, this Kiṣora Kṛṣṇa playing with the gopīs. Not in Dvārakā, Mathurā or Kurukṣetra, Gītā, the Kṛṣṇa of Gītā, we are to cross that. And the Kṛṣṇa of Bhāgavatam, and that also crossing His Dvārakā līlā, the Mahābharata līlā, and only Vṛndāvana līlā in Bhāgavatam specially. There are also Purāṇa, Brahma-Vaivarta, Padma-Purāṇa, and here there, there is mention of the Vṛndāvana līlā…

End of 81.11.26.C_81.11.28.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.28.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: …I’ve dealt it in a most vigorous way, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. All other thoughts have been dealt there, comparison also drawn, in such a strong and vigorous way, that Kṛṣṇa līlā of Vṛndāvana has been established, one cannot conceive of that, extraordinary. Over the jñānīs especially, a karmī may generally, they do not know to analyse very much, but the jñānīs, that salvationist school, they generally fight with the devotional school. They like to say that devotion is below and jñāna is the highest. But Śukadeva in Bhāgavatam so boldly inaugurated that that is from the other side, not this side of knowledge, not the acme of our mundane knowledge. But in the inconceivable world it holds the supreme position. You are to look the Vraja līlā like that. It is not a thing of the objective area, but it is super super-subjective area holding the highest position, the zenith. You are to look with this angle of vision towards Kṛṣṇa līlā.

So, we are drawn to Kṛṣṇa līlā and especially we find in our Guru paramparā, and also in the mantram we find we are desired to be directed towards mādhurya-rasa, the main current, all others partial representation. In mādhurya-rasa, it is full of all rasa, the vātsalya, and sākhya, and the dāsya, śanta, everything included there. It represents the whole, and others are partial representations. Everything is good in its own position, still, from the Absolute consideration and from our Guru paramparā line and from the line of the mantram, we see, if we analyse, it is very plainly we find that this is all pertaining to mādhurya-rasa, the mantram we are in.

And by sannyāsa, another mantra, the last mantram which is given to a sannyāsī or to a bābājī, the fifth āśrama, fourth āśrama, brahmacārya, gṛhastha, vānaprastha, sannyāsa, and the fifth āśrama is that of bābājī. Bābājī and sannyāsī, those that are engaged whole time in Kṛṣṇa consciousness in service, they’re given the same mantra, kaupīna and same mantra. One with daṇḍa and another without daṇḍa, who are meant for preaching they are given daṇḍa for the facility of preaching, for the social status. But both of them are given the mantra of the same nature, same meaning. What is that? There it is mentioned about Rādhā-dāsyam, not only Kṛṣṇa-dāsya, the inner meaning of the mantra which is given in the time of sannyāsa, that shows us the direction that your direction is, your goal is that side. That is the meaning of the sannyāsa mantram. According to our progress we’ll be able to understand in future. In a nutshell, the direction is given hereby, what speciality there is in the mantram which is given at the time of sannyāsa.

One of my God brothers, Śrauti Mahārāja, he asked me, “What is the meaning of that mantram?” And he thought that it is leading towards Mahāprabhu, and he asked me to put this question to my Guru Mahārāja. He did not do it direct, but he asked me anyhow, “You please ask Prabhupāda.” And I did so.

And then with some stress he told, “No, it is not meant to Śrī Gaurāṅga, but it is really meant to gopī-dāsya.”

In that way he gave the explanation of the mantram to me. Gaura Hari. And I also conveyed it to Śrauti Mahārāja that Prabhupāda told like this, and your suggestion is cancelled.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. So these are things mysterious to our present stage, but a vague idea that this is the direction towards which we are to start and march and reach one day or other, our highest goal. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya.

Of course, it is most laudable that we have come to such ideal, highest ideal, but to have a mark in the real ideal does not mean that we have realised it. We must be careful there, in our journey. We must not be be-fooled that none can be-fool me also. We are also to be very careful in our journey, many things to hinder. The association of the sincere, better, sādhu, that is the most useful thing. And also, secondary, to engage oneself busy in the service under the direction of a bona fide person who can connect with the higher domain, higher stage of progress. It will fetch value, the work, the energy will fetch value according to quality and quantity. Not only by quantity, any service, the quantity side is not all, but the more important side is quality. Quality, the higher plane, connecting with the higher plane, the energy is being divested through some person where, in what sort of plane? My energy is going to be transformed into another higher energy in what sort of plane? That is the very important thing. Only quantity should not be considered, but the quality, quality, that is very rarely found, higher quality. We must always be very particular to detect and to connect with the high quality available, otherwise we will be loser, loser. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

And the same time we shall be consulting with the scriptures written by the great personages of our Guru paramparā, admitted by Guru paramparā, the books. And we should think that those books are not inanimate. Apparently inanimate, passive, but they can also help actively. In general, books may help us in a passive way, as if I am to understand, I am to, as my capacity allows, I am to focus and then to get something from the book. But it is not limited there. We should think that the book is personified, personal thing, personified. If he likes, he can divulge him to me, reveal. And specially, in matters of our recognition of who is a sādhu proper and not, we are mostly guided by the scriptures, there, the comparative study. Of course the sukṛti is underlying we can’t deny, but superficially the books also guide us to select who is really sādhu and who is not sādhu. The knowledge of the experts has been collected there for that department. The spiritual experts they have placed there the result of their experience in the spiritual life, so that helps us to make a selection of sādhu and Guru a great deal, a great deal. And also we must approach.

I remember, perhaps as a result of my previous birth, when I got that Gāyatrī, without consulting any books, or the meaning book, which is explaining the meaning of Gāyatrī, I appealed to Gāyatrī itself, herself. “Please reveal in me what you are.” In this spirit, that it is living, it is not only these mundane words, a cluster of mundane words, but it is a living thing, Gāyatrī herself. And if she likes she can express her inner nature in me. With that spirit I used to continue the japam of Gāyatrī in my young age, with that idea, and that was corroborated by Gauḍīya Maṭh also when I joined there, the śāstra.

In Kurukṣetra, one dvadisi [?] of that time, he came to see our Guru Mahārāja there, and he put, “How we shall know who is a sādhu or not?”

Then he told, “Generally to know sādhu we are to consult the scriptures. And with this spirit, that is not ordinary book, that can assert, that can hide itself, or can come to my knowledge. With this idea we are to consult scripture, they’re animate not inanimate. Then the śāstra will come to help us about the selection of who is a sādhu, in a general way. Then of course the sukṛti underlying for the previous, that inner guidance he has accepted.”

When Bihand Raya [?], he was a good doctor, when he was dying, then the junior doctors, best among them, purposely came to cure him. He was heart specialist, Bihand Raya and a genius. The doctors told, “That this is the case?”

“Yes, yes, I understand.”

“Then this…

“Yes, I also am of the same opinion with you. But who will receive the injection and put into work he is absent. The receiver of the injection is absent in the vitality. That is the medicine for such disease but the receiving capacity must be in the body to receive the medicine and utilise it.”

So also, the external help may come but the receiver must be up to that standard to receive and utilise to fulfil its purpose, own purpose. That is sukṛti, sukṛti within, that takes the external help and utilises it in constructive work. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. There is sukṛti, ajñāta-sukṛti, jñāta-sukṛti, then śāstra, then śraddhā, sādhu, in this way, śravaṇa, varaṇa, guru karan, bhajana and sādhana, then āpana, gradually by bhajana, sādhana, it will think that yes, it is my own, it is my inner wealth. A stage when one can feel, it is what I was searching for, my heart pleasing thing. When the inner nature will feel, then it is becoming āpana, that is, he’s near the home. Very sweet, then also, go on, with more energy and more speed, more confident way, go on. This is what I was, a necessity I was searching for, with this hearty energy one makes progress, āpana. Then prapanna also, not only I taste it, it must be given widely to all. They’re also suffering from the same problem that I was suffering from, so it must be spread all over widely. That is prapanna, and very well established, fully established, no doubt. No doubt that I shall do any mischief to the people if I spread, propagate this thing then the best benefit I shall be giving to the world, no doubt. Bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.21 & 11.20.30]. All doubts are cleared. This is the thing for which not only myself but the whole world is madly searching for, searching for.

Yasmin vijñāte sarvam evam vijñātam bhavati [“By knowing Him, everything is known - by getting Him, everything is gained.”] This is the only enquiry of the world. They’re moving unsatisfied, only searching for this sort of satisfaction and nothing of standard lower. This is the quest. The whole world, the moving, moving for sukham, for pleasure, for satisfaction, for ecstasy, joy, and this is the form or material substance that everyone is madly searching for.

Athāto brahma-jijñāsā, why I have come with the brahma-jijñāsā enquiry of Brahman in Vedānta? It is a particular interest? No, the most general interest of all animation this brahma-jijñāsā. I am voicing the whole animation. Knowingly, unknowingly, they’re all after this brahma-jijñāsā. I am putting only in a scientific way, brahma-jijñāsā. Intuitively, intuitively, here everything is moving to search for what? That is this Brahman conception.

And Mahāprabhu, that Brahman is something like inner substance? No, it is Kṛṣṇa. Mahāprabhu put Kṛṣṇa in the place of Brahman, Bhāgavatam. It is not Brahman. Of course, next goal it may be, but the further conception of the highest goal we shall find that there is Kṛṣṇa. That conception, the Kṛṣṇa conception which is, whose halo is Brahman, the halo of the domain of pastimes of Kṛṣṇa is Brahman.

So when a ship makes progress, a lighthouse, then another lighthouse, in that way shows the way. The Brahman, and what is Brahman? Brhatama [?] _________________ [?] That all accommodating, most general: then the real representation of the most general to be found in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It is inert, no movement this ordinary Brahman, nirviśeṣa. But saviśeṣa, the differentiation and specification, pastimes, everything will be there, but still it will be all-accommodating, even this Brahman also. There is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In this way our attention is drawn towards the most general question of all the world which none can deny if a little sensible in their own disease or want, cannot but say. ‘We have no interest in Kṛṣṇa consciousness,’ it is a particular sect.

Once I delivered a lecture in Gedli Badlebiri [?] Of course, I went on with Manu-saṁhitā beginning, what is dharma? And then came to Brahman conception, and then from Brahman conception I tried to prove the Vāsudeva conception, and then Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa. In this way I went to Kṛṣṇa conception of Godhead in a broad and universal way I marshalling.

Then there was one pleader, he began to cry. “We were so great in our previous, in our ancient days, but now these fellows they come to entice us that we are far advanced in previous time, we were only like savage. Now in the scientific age of civilisation we have advanced so much. But Swāmījī what you say that our ancient predecessors were so great, so noble, and I feel proud.” In this way he began to cry in the meeting.

And there was another scholar who was made president in Poona in some Pali conference, one Mr. Bosak. Anyhow he happened to be present there. We did not know him, but he came out of his own accord and asked permission to say something in favour of us. Then when permitted he rose and began to tell. “So long we knew that Vaiṣṇava dharma is a branch of Hindu dharma. But what I have heard today from Swāmījī that Vaiṣṇava dharma is the highest conception, the highest goal of whole of Hindu dharma. The whole of Hindu dharma is trying its utmost to lead us to the Vaiṣṇava dharma, what Mahāprabhu has given from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.” He told like that, and also asked me that, “Your lectures should be arranged amongst the scholars of India in different places.” Ha, ha, he told like that. Gaura Haribol. So Vaiṣṇava dharma means such, not only of the Hindu dharma, source of Hindu, any dharma must lead to Vaiṣṇava dharma otherwise it is a faulty one. Not only dharma.

dharmaḥ projjhita-kaitavo ‘tra paramo nirmat-sarāṇāṁ satāṁ

[vedyaṁ vāstavam atra vastu śivadaṁ tāpa-trayonmūlanam

śrīmad-bhāgavate mahā-muni-kṛte kiṁ vā parair īśvaraḥ

sadyo hṛdy avarudhyate ‘tra kṛtibhiḥ śuśrūṣubhis tat-kṣaṇāt]

[“Completely rejecting all religious activities which are materially motivated, this Bhāgavata-Purāṇa propounds the highest truth, which is understandable by those devotees who are fully pure in heart. The highest truth is reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all. Such truth uproots the threefold miseries. This beautiful Bhāgavatam, compiled by the great sage Vyāsadeva (in his maturity), is sufficient in itself for God realisation. What is the need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhāgavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 1.1.2]

Those that are jealous, have jealousy in any way, or rather at the bottom of their heart, he can’t tolerate, everything belongs - one gentleman came to our Guru Mahārāja in Calcutta...

Devotee: ___________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________________________ [?] What did I say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: In Calcutta, one gentleman.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ah! One gentleman on [Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākura] Prabhupāda’s poetry: Kāminīra kāma, nahe tava dhāma, tāhāra mālika kevala “yādava.”

[From Vaiṣṇava ke? Who is a Vaiṣṇava? Mahājana-racita gītã, from Gauḍīya Kaṇṭhahāra, 3.24]

[And in the collection of Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja’s ślokas, 236]

The literal meaning is, the kāminīra kāma, the enjoying aspect of the women is not for you; it is only reserved for Kṛṣṇa. Tāhāra mālika kevala “yādava.” Kṛṣṇa is the only enjoyer of the beauty or anything to be enjoyed from the women section. It is mentioned there literally in that portion.

Then one gentleman came, “What do you say by this? Then, who are we? Have you written it in the literal sense that all the women are meant only for, the women enjoyment is only meant for Kṛṣṇa, and none else?”

“Yes, yes, that is the true naked meaning of this. That such enjoyment, such type of enjoyment is meant only for Kṛṣṇa, and all will be trespasser. So now come to think whether Kṛṣṇa was a debauch. And kanak, the money, the master of money is Nārāyaṇa, Lakṣmīpatī, the wealth, and we are all servants, servitors, more or less in different ways. And Baladeva, the Guru, is that of name and fame, kanak, kāminī, pratiṣṭhā. Kāminī for Kṛṣṇa conception, to be adjusted, otherwise we are lost, must be adjusted with Him. Any kāminī consciousness, lady consciousness must have connection with Kṛṣṇa. And any money conception, wealth conception, must have connection with Nārāyaṇa, the subsidiary function. And all the name and fame must be connected with Baladeva. Baladeva, Nityānānda, here Baladeva, there Baladeva and Rādhikā. Who is in the first layer, who is distributing Kṛṣṇa, all the fame will go to him or her who is distributing Kṛṣṇa here in the world. The prime cause of distributing Kṛṣṇa, s/he will have the whole glory, must go there. So much glory can never be expected anywhere. Is s/he giving Kṛṣṇa? More glorious position, more fame, can anyone hope to attain? Who can give Kṛṣṇa, s/he holds the highest fame, is the owner of the highest fame. And all the money should be used for the service, and that is Nārāyaṇa, Lakṣmīpatī is the command of everything. And the kāminī conception, that must be connected with Kṛṣṇa and nowhere else, in any different way, different service.”

We may find in Vṛndāvana, we must try to find this finest link, Vṛndāvana or Navadwīpa, so many producing child also, even the insects and the birds and the beasts are also producing child, what is that? But in the real novel conception the link is in this way. Only to serve Kṛṣṇa in that aspect, excite Him, or creating a favourable atmosphere, they’re doing selfless, with self effacement. Not only self effacement but there is self surrendering of the type of exciting Kṛṣṇa or making arrangement in the favourable of Kṛṣṇa sambhoga, for enjoyment of Kṛṣṇa. Otherwise if this enjoying spirit is there then they will be a member of this mundane, this brahmāṇḍa. Exploitation, exploiting sense already eliminated here, in Virajā, and then enters there. So we may conceive or we may not conceive, but still, everything there only actuated by the motive of service, and there’s the purity, tat paratvena nirmalam.

[sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ, tat paratvena nirmalam / hṛṣīkena hṛṣīkeśa-sevanaṁ bhaktir ucyate]

[“Pure devotion is service to the Supreme Lord which is free from all relative conceptions of self interest.”] [Nārada Pañcarātra]

The nirmalata, the purity depends only how much it is for the satisfaction of the centre, the purity; the criterion of measuring the purity is here. Am I clear? Follow? Otherwise we will be here, exploitation. There, no exploitation, but the whole thing informally retained but materially all full of service, that purity, otherwise no entrance in that domain. So we will be very cautious about the real theme of exploitation. What does it mean? No exploitation there, all serving, that is divinity. Without dedication, without serving, no divinity is possible, what about the possibility of entering into Vṛndāvana, not only that, Śiva-loka, Vaikuṇṭha-loka. And that is most intensive in mādhurya-rasa. These are the things, we should be up to mark, we should try, the standard, the conception of such standard, must be on our front. However far it may be, we may not make any easy compromise with the very cheap thing in this world. The high ideal, the highest ideal, according to the height of the ideal, our whole future hope will depend on, our future will depend on our ideal. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, in the Manaḥ-Śikṣā…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Manaḥ-Śikṣā, yes, by [Śrīla Raghunātha] Dāsa Goswāmī.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: …he’s talking about the sādhaka, he says - actually it’s in Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s tika - he says in there that there are, he divides the sādhaka into three - svanistha, parinisthita and then the last one is niropeksha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Niropeksa?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sādhaka.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes, three types, svanistha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: First, the lower is svanistha, and then?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Svanistha, and then parinisthita, and then nirapeksha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nirapeksha is the highest type?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nirapeksha, parinisthita ________________ [?] Then he says that nirapeksha is the highest type. That is fully eliminated of his own selfish view.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nirapeksha. But I can’t follow it fully because there the nirapeksha must mean that so much selfless that he must become, the akha party [?] to Rādhārāṇī or to Yaśodā or to some leader of his company. Partiality must be there in the highest conception, but that is our highest attainment so it may be considered as nirapeksha. Nirapeksha that is automatic, we are playing as doll in the hand of Yogamāyā. That is, by nirapeksha it may be meant that, nirmatsarā, as Yogamāyā handling us we are doing, not any selfish end in life. But it is expressed also that they’re partial to their own leader in different groups of service, servitors. Always they’re partial to the leader of their own group. But that may be looked out in the way of nirapeksha and there it will mean that what they’re doing, no selfish idea, but as handled by Yogamāyā. Quite selfless, the selfless, the highest degree of selflessness is to allow oneself to be, to play at the hand of the Yogamāyā, svarūpa-śakti, then of course the two things may be kept together. The partiality is there but that partiality has no svanistha, or parinisthita in general, excluding his own self interest, that general, to join in the general interest of the whole. Then, the development further, that is nirapeksha, that means he does not know himself, or herself, in what s/he’s used, but mere instrument to the cent per cent in the hand of Yogamāyā. It may be conceived. And in another also this Dāsa Goswāmī says:

yat kincha tena gurumakhi katam go gosthe samam hitat [?]

sadva nanda mayam mukunda dyaitam lila anukulam param [?]

Whatever we see in Vṛndāvana in connection with Kṛṣṇa, tena, the grass, guruma, the shrub, khi kata, the worms, insects, goṣṭhe samam hitat sadva, all filled with joy. Mukunda dyaitam, they’re all favourite to Mukunda. Lilanukulam param, they’re always conducive to the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, no other function. Cent per cent function of them only to help the extensive līlā of Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana, they’re all contributing their existence meaning only that. That contribution, every dust, every drop is a contributing, helping agent towards the whole, that līlā of Kṛṣṇa. No sort of existence cannot be imagined there in Vṛndāvana. Gaura Haribol. That is Vṛndāvana real, that is proper.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, what is the conception of… in Bhaktivinoda’s tika he’s describing the different types of kapatata.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kapatata, yes.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: And he says that…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Deceitfulness.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Nirapeksha, in nirapeksha one may become what is called atmambarita. So how would you express that in English, atmambarita?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This is all mundane, this is mundane, the negative side, atmambarita in a sādhu, ‘that I am all in all, I am all in all.’ And there is ācārya abhimāna also. We are to understand ācārya abhimāna. As [Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta] Swāmīji Mahārāja just before his retirement he told, “If for the necessity of my propaganda I might have abused some of my God brothers, I beg forgiveness for that.” Ācārya abhimāna. When surcharged with the feeling that I am to propagate all these things, whatever I think necessary I must take the help of that, ācārya abhimāna. We may think everything as a straw, value of straw, surcharged with such inspiration sometimes to go on. But that is svambaritam? What do you say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Atmambarita.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Atmambarita. ‘I know everything. What I say, do that. Don’t care for the order of others.’ This sort of ego sometimes used in the Ācārya section. ‘They do not know anything. What I say, do that.’ This sort of assertion that is sometimes necessary in the position of an Ācārya and leader.

But that is an inspired thing, not the matsara of this world. That is given by - when Lalitā Devī even venturing to give stricture to Kṛṣṇa, she says, “You don’t know the noble character of my sakhī Rādhikā.”

Or when Yaśodā is going to whip Kṛṣṇa: that is atmambarita. “You, boy, don’t know, don’t know how to use these things I have collected with great affection, and have collected for You and Your men, Your father, and You are distributing to the monkeys, to the monkeys, those valuable things. I shall punish You.” And she’s punishing Him. That is also atmambarita, but that is another type.

And atmambarita real which is to condemned, that of this mundane world. The assertion that the Śiva, Māhadeva, that is the greatest atmambari, the leader of the separatist movement, dvitīyābhiniveśa, from there. He’s the source of all matsara and atmambarita. ________ the master of this māyic world, of the world of misconception, dvitīyābhiniveśa, the conception of a second interest, that begins from Māhadeva, Māyāpati, Māhadeva, the leader of the oppositionist, that, “No, we have got separate interest, and we must assert for that.” Rudra, ahaṅkāra, atmambarita. “I am all in all, everything for me.” This is a demonic quality, atmambarita. Matsara, and the Māyāvādīs also...

End of 81.11.28.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.28.C

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... ‘I am that Brahman.’ And that is anti devotion. So we must realise the meaning in accordance with the conception of the whole. Only partial understanding won’t help us much, but in consonance with the whole, the verification with other siddhānta, that remaining, then we must take it.

The general conception, that self concentrated, and then no concentrated that is tyāga, and then Kṛṣṇa concentrated, or Nārāyaṇa, that is upper concentrated. Self concentrated in a world, and no concentration that is nirapekṣa in that sense, that is Virajā, Brahmaloka. And God concentrated, God, sapekṣa, bhāgavat sapekṣa, that is from Vaikuṇṭha, paravyoma. They’re God sapekṣa, they’re always in the side of God. And nirapekṣa proper is found only in Virajā and Brahmaloka. And the sādhaka also nirapekṣa, he must be apekṣa yukta, always partial to his Guru, to his own group, in this way. Otherwise differentiation is impossible. Differentiation and hierarchy, where there is, there must be some sort of assertion. ‘This is good and that is not so good.’ Śanta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya, mādhurya, the comparison between them: the dāsya is better than śanta, sākhya is better.

“āge kaha āra.” [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.59] Mahāprabhu, “Go deeper, go deeper. Go higher. Yes, this is better. Then go more, further.”

In this way the development in the theism, it is there, the elimination is there. So if nirapekṣa means the all equal, then that is to be found only in Brahmaloka and Virajā, but some sort of partiality must be there because the gradation is there. All is not equal. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So in nirapekṣa in that sense, if I get the passage, then I can say in what meaning it has been utilised, wording has been used there. Hmm? What did you say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Once you were describing about the differences in the different siddhāntas of the four main Ācāryas. You were talking about the differences in the siddhānta of Rāmānujācārya, Nimbarkācārya, Viṣṇusvāmī...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, there are differences. There is something common, something different everywhere. Mahāprabhu’s summary of the most grand siddhānta is acintya bhedābheda. Everywhere there is something common something different. This is the general representation of the nature of the whole infinite, bhedābheda. In some points there must be something common, and in some points there must be something different, cannot be otherwise. And the demarcation of difference that is acintya because that depends on the sweet will of the highest will, so it is acintya bhedābheda, inconceivable. Why? Because in His conception all rights reserved there, so it is acintya, but bhedābheda, it cannot but be, something common something different. This is Mahāprabhu’s statement, His direction about the conception acintya bhedābheda.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, you were talking about Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s – Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura had said that there were four things which Caitanya Mahāprabhu accepted. And one of those, I was wondering where they came from?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: One from another, another place, He has taken two from each sampradāya. In one place he has written that one qualification from one sampradāya. In another place I have found he has given two things taken from four sampradāyas. That is also found in some place. By minute examination he has declared that two from each sampradāya.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: So Mahārāja, the tadīya...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Tadīya from Rāmānuja.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Then the vigraha upāsanā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Vigraha upāsanā, Nimbarka, and vigraha sevā from, vigraha from Madhvācārya, and others, rāga-mārga from Viṣṇusvāmī, Śrīdhara Swāmī sampradāya.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Then the bhedābheda siddhānta.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bhedābheda, that is from dvaitādvaita Nimbarka: and in another place, the fourth, paricaryya and bhedābheda from Nimbarka. And Vigraha and bheda, Bhagavān jīva, the bheda is the greater thing, from Madhva. And from Rāmānuja tadīya and prapatti: and from Viṣṇusvāmī this rāga-mārga and sevā. In two places I found that in one place he has given one from each, four: and another two from each. Very subtly he has differentiated like that.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

A normal position: to come to normal position. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. But if anything abnormal I’m delivering then to come to a normal position I think in you, what I say if anything is defective please set me right again. Perhaps with this idea: Nitāi Gaura Haribol, I cry like that, should I say anything wrong, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Gaura Haribol, Nitāi Caitanya Dayal, Gaura Haribol.

There is one śloka and it is passing in the name of Vyāsadeva. After: when I was in Chittagang I delivered lecture according to Bhāgavatam. The brāhmaṇas they’re all Śaṅkarites, Māyāvādīs. I tried to establish there, ________ Personal God is above Brahman, in this way in Gītā. One brāhmaṇa stood up with this śloka: the śloka I don’t remember, anyhow it is mentioned there that after producing all the Purāṇas, and including Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the Vyāsadeva at last he spoke this ślokam. The subject matter is such.

“That You are so big You are infinite, and in the words I have encaged You, that You are such, Your rūpa is such, Your guṇa is such. I have depicted all these things in Purāṇa. You are the infinite; I have taken You within the finite, revelation, finite description, and this and that, so many things. So I beg forgiveness to You.” The Vyāsadeva he begged forgiveness. “That so infinite I have put in a cage, so our words are all finite, the meaning is also finite, to us. And we are trying to make delivery with the help of those finite words and finite meanings.”

What is this? This is a fun. But still we cannot but do according to our position. The infinite can, that my saying: ‘If Infinite cannot make Himself known to finite He’s not Infinite.’ The basis of that: if He takes the reign of my flow it is all right. And whenever my mundane touch impedes, of course it cannot but be mundane.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Śaraṇāgata. Once when in Assam, Sarabhoga Gauḍīya Maṭha, Prabhupāda went to install Deities there. Generally Śrauti Mahārāja does all those things. But at that time I was requested to perform the necessary things before Prabhupāda goes and enters the temple and he performs his pūjā and then the door is opened, then Bhagavān is there, Kṛṣṇa is there in the Deity. I decorated the throne, the Deity, everything. And that was placed in a high position. And I thought that Prabhupāda will have some trouble to go up and put Tulasī on the feet of the Deity. So I placed Tulasī also, everything, without uttering any mantram. The whole thing I finished and came away.

And then Prabhupāda went in. I did not know that it was his nature, his custom, that he puts Tulasī candan on the foot of the Deity and thereby he invites Deity to be there, to the public. I did not know that. I put the Tulasī also, finished everything without uttering any mantram. Only hand transaction I did.

Prabhupāda went, and came out, sitting and doing something, came out and told: “The Deities Themselves are – have appeared here, out of Their Own accord.” As if he had not to invite Them. “Of Their Own accord They have come here, appeared here.” That was his remark coming out.

Then Kuñja Bābu, Tīrtha Mahārāja, he came to ask me silently, “Have you put Tulasī on the foot of the Deity?”

“Yes, but without any mantram.”

“Why?”

“I did not know, but it is troublesome, but I considered that to put Tulasī, or to do anything that will be very troublesome for Prabhupāda. It’s in such a high position it was placed. So whatever to be physically done I have finished, but without uttering any mantram.”

Anyhow it finished there. Then when in the meeting, delivering lectures, Prabhupāda for the second time he repeated that, “The Deities in this Maṭha have appeared out of Their own accord.”

I was frightened, then I have done a great wrong. Then also what to do, some repentance came without knowing it fully well how I was bold enough to enter the room, I did not know it, mortified, but did not speak anything.

Then Prabhupāda came to Calutta and myself and this Mādhava Mahārāja, who was Hayagrīva Brahmacārī at that time, a party came to Mymensingh. Then we found in Nadiyā Prakāśa an article and there also it is mentioned that, “The Deities in Assam Maṭha, Sarabhoga Gauḍīya Maṭha, have appeared of Their Own accord.”

Then I was very much depressed and wrote a letter to Prabhupāda. “I have done a great offence. Please forgive me. I did not know. Unknowingly I have done. But you must forgive me, otherwise I’m nowhere.”

Then he replied in a letter. Gaura Haribol. ____________________________________ [?]

“One who has surrendered, he has got no offence. No offence he can make; one who has surrendered.” That was his reply.

Then Hayagrīva Prabhu, afterwards Mādhava Mahārāja: “A great certificate for you.”

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So we are indulged to speak in language we are given whether we are fit or unfit; given some certificate, some license, ‘go and speak.’

yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa, [āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa

kabhu nā vādhibe tomāra viṣaya-taraṅga, punarapi ei ṭhāñi pābe mora saṅga]

[“Instruct whoever you meet in the science of Kṛṣṇa. Teach them the instructions of Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā, and the teachings about Kṛṣṇa in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way, on My order, become a Guru and liberate everyone in the land. If you follow this instruction, the waves of materialism within this world will not affect you. Indeed, if you follow My order, you will soon attain My association.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 7.128-9]

A license is there. We are faulty. He knows it very well. Still, why He selects us to speak on His behalf? Gaura Nityānanda. So we are to remember to go back to Their feet. What I am saying of course it must not be perfect, but still it is Your wish, and I’m trying to fulfil Your order that is in this way. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Now, what’s the time, again?

Devotee: Twenty minutes to ten.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then we stop here today. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

End of 81.11.28.C

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.29.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...every jīva, every soul. The three representatives of Nārāyaṇa is there. There they’re concerned with the jīva soul in other words, they’re concerned; they’re in charge of their fate. So when he’s recruited from here, their consent, their permission, their good will is necessary, and that is represented in tridaṇḍa. And also the free will of jīva, that is free acceptance, free acceptance to represent that, free cooperation, the jīva is also there.

So this is tridaṇḍa, this should be respected. Generally we should not keep it anywhere and everywhere in the earth, it’s not so. We show some respect and reverence we should do to the daṇḍa. Everything, of course, Vaiṣṇava should see as superior to his own position. And that is the custom, and that is the necessity of our behaviour which is compulsory when we are, we want to enter into Vaikuṇṭha. All should be seen with respect. I am the servant. They’re all my master.

So tridaṇḍa should also be seen like that. Though my own self is represented there but that is also in its divine character. So I shall give my reverence and respect, and devotion to the daṇḍa. That is, though I take it with me, but it should not be handled as a stick, or something like, not to support me, to help me in my ordinary movement. But I am carrying, just as the sacred thread, and also the daṇḍa of a sannyāsī. Always reminding me that I am a sannyāsī, I have, punished, my kāya, mano and vākya, my thought, word and deed. These three phases of my endeavour has been punished, controlled. Not to join that, they should not be any longer, they should not have their connection with the world of exploitation. So long as they did, that has been given daṇḍa, punished, punishment has been allotted for that, and from now I have completely withdrawn my thought, word and deed. Not to participate with the world of exploitation and renunciation, but I shall engage them only cent per cent in the service of Viṣṇu and Vaiṣṇava of my Lord. Henceforth I take this pledge that henceforth I shall engage my thought, word and deed. Three things I shall engage only for the service of the cause of the divinity, for the service of my Lord and His own. It represents that emblem that no longer have I any interest in this mundane world but I am a dedicated soul in all respects to engage myself in the service of the Lord.

And the permission I have got from the three, the, in charge of the individual soul, and in charge of the brahmāṇḍa, Garbhodakaśāyī, Kṣīrodakaśāyī, Garbhodakaśāyī, and who’s in charge of the whole of all the brahmāṇḍas that are floating in Virajā. He’s above all, Mahā Viṣṇu. With Their permission I have secured the privilege to engage me in the service transcendental to all these phases of life, known as the plane of renunciation and exploitation and only serving, service, dedication. I love that. I want to be a child of that soil. And that is the token I’m carrying always it will remind me. The permission of the, of this mundane world, they’re in charge. I have taking permission from them, this license. So, I must be true to my own self. I must dedicate myself for the cause, of the Vaikuṇṭha, Goloka, Kṛṣṇa, Vṛndāvana interest. I represent the interest of Vṛndāvana and Navadwīpa, Mahāprabhu, Kṛṣṇa and Vaiṣṇava. With this idea I shall move.

etāṁ sa āsthāya parātma-niṣṭhām, adhyāsitāṁ pūrvatamair maharṣibhiḥ

ahaṁ tariṣyāmi duranta-pāraṁ, tamo mukundāṅghri-niṣevayaiva

[As a brāhmaṇa from Avantī-deśa said - Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu also said:]

[“I shall cross over the insurmountable ocean of nescience by being firmly fixed in the service of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa. This was approved by the previous ācāryas, who were fixed in firm devotion to the Lord, Paramātmā, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 11.23.57] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 3.6]

Mahāprabhu took eka-daṇḍa sannyāsa from Keśava Bhāratī, externally. But internally He says this śloka, utters this śloka and starts for Vṛndāvana. What is that? Etāṁ sa āsthāya… Ke?

Devotee: _______________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ________________________ [?] Nitāi.

Devotee: Etāṁ sa āsthāya…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mahāprabhu, He chanted this poem of Bhāgavatam,

etāṁ sa āsthāya parātma-niṣṭhām, adhyāsitāṁ pūrvatamair maharṣibhiḥ

ahaṁ tariṣyāmi duranta-pāraṁ, tamo mukundāṅghri-niṣevayaiva

The Bengali verse there in caritāmṛta.

prabhu kahe - sādhu ei bhikṣura vacana, mukunda sevana-vrata kaila nirdhāraṇa

parātma-niṣṭhā-mātra veṣa-dhāraṇa, mukunda-sevāya haya saṁsāra-tāraṇa

sei veṣa kaila, ebe vṛndāvana giyā, kṛṣṇa-niṣevaṇa kari nibhṛte vasiyā

[“Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu approved the purport of this verse on account of the determination of the mendicant devotee to engage in the service of Lord Mukunda. He gave His approval of this verse, indicating that is was very good.”] [“The real purpose of accepting sannyāsa is to dedicate oneself to the service of Mukunda. By serving Mukunda, one can actually be liberated from the bondage of material existence.”] [“After accepting the sannyāsa order, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu decided to go to Vṛndāvana and engage Himself wholly and solely in the service of Mukunda in a solitary place.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 3.7-9]

Mahāprabhu said, “I have taken this tridaṇḍa veṣa,” though outwardly He took this eka-daṇḍa, but internally He says, “I have taken tridaṇḍa sannyāsa, which is recommended in Bhāgavatam, and now, the veṣa, this outward dress, only niṣṭhā-mātra, only will remind Me about My future duty. But the real thing what is necessary is the service.”

If we take the daṇḍa, carry the daṇḍa but do not do my duty, then it will be fruitless. It is an emblem. But the real thing, service, to do my duty, to do the service of Viṣṇu, Vaiṣṇava, Kṛṣṇa, Vṛndāvana, that is the real purpose of the śloka.

Prabhu kahe - sādhu ei bhikṣura vacana, the tridaṇḍī-bhikṣu, this is the story coming hereafter, in eka-dasa, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That brāhmaṇa he was chanting this śloka and Mahāprabhu’s repeating that and says, prabhu kahe - sādhu ei bhikṣura, “Oh, this is very well and good. The tridaṇḍī-bhikṣu of Bhāgavatam in a passage with other __________ [?] Kṛṣṇa Himself is relating this story to Uddhava, of a brāhmaṇa. “This is very well and good.”

Sādhu ei bhikṣura vacana, mukunda sevana-vrata kaila nirdhāraṇa. Why? He ultimately came to conclusion that the service of Mukunda, Kṛṣṇa. Mukunda means mu kun da, something which can make, which can show the salvation, liberation, awkward. Mere liberation from exploitation that is awkward. There is such positive thing in the dedicating world. So mu, mukti, mu means the abnegation of mukti, mukti means liberation. Ku means makes awkward. Mu kun da, dadhati it can give something which can show the liberation as an awkward thing. That is Mukunda. The meaning of the word Mukunda is such. He is the giver of such a thing which can show the renunciationists are most awkward, such a thing, Mukunda.

Prabhu kahe - sādhu ei bhikṣura vacana, mukunda sevana-vrata kaila nirdhāraṇa. He has come to the conclusion that the service of Mukunda, that is the fulfilment, the highest aim of our life.

Parātma-niṣṭhā-mātra veṣa-dhāraṇa, this dress, this garment, this is only to help us externally in the society. Some social position it is, that if I approach anyone easily I can get someone alms for my food. A social status only I can get with this dress. But the real thing is the service, to discharge our duty to Mukunda and His own.

Parātma-niṣṭhā-mātra veṣa-dhāraṇa, mukunda-sevāya haya saṁsāra-tāraṇa. By serving Mukunda we can get rid very easily from the troubles of our previous activities and we are taken in the vicinity of Mukunda and His paraphernalia.

Sei veṣa kaila, ebe vṛndāvana giyā. So I must try to approach Vṛndāvana, the favourable place, and there I shall go on with chanting the Name, and service.”

And now the story as described by Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself to Uddhava, it runs like this.

There was one brāhmaṇa in Avantī, Gwalior [?] near, in U.P. [Uttar Pradesh] perhaps a state in Rajaputana [?] Gwalior [?], that was formerly Avantī.

And where Sandīpanī Ṛṣi used to live, he had his āśrama. And Kṛṣṇa went to Sandīpanī Ṛṣi for His training after He came to Mathurā, and got the sacred thread of the kṣatriya. And then went to take some training in Gurukula, He stayed for some time in Gurukula under Sandīpanī as Guru and there He got some education, Vedic education etc. He showed like that, with Sudama and other friends there.

There was one brāhmaṇa, the brāhmaṇa was in the beginning he was substantial, a rich man, but he was very miserly, and social duties he did not attend, discharge in any way. So the reaction came very soon. And the thieves, dacoits, they also took a portion. Then there was some litigation and money was spent there. Then some fire or this that. In this way his accumulated wealth, property was lost. Even, he did not allow his own relatives to feed much, he was so miserly, very miserly, miser of the miser. But anyhow the wealth was finished and he was reduced to a pauper.

Then he came to his senses. “Oh, I lived my life in a very awkward way, but now, everything is taken from me. I had such vanity, such pride, that I did not offer even, neither to the gods, nor to the ancestors, nor to the social beggars, nor to even the wife, nor the children, nothing, no relatives. But now everything gone, they have left me. I am a street beggar. It does not matter. Whom shall I blame for this?”

He began to, “Is it the ill will of the graha, the stars, are the stars responsible for this, or the gods, or the Lord Himself?” Anyway he’s taking, considering so many alternatives and dismissing. “No, they’re not. It is my own karma,” he made responsible. “It is my own karma, nothing to be blamed, my own karma,” in this way. “But now, perhaps, the Lord is propitiated with me, so He has taken me on the straight. Then what shall I do? Leaving these which were so friendly to me the other day, and now they have cheated me. So I won’t depend on anything else but I start a new life enquiring after the enquiry of the Supreme Master.”

In this way he was, he became indifferent to everything of this world and started and got tridaṇḍa from some sādhu and began to move, taking the Name of Mukunda, Kṛṣṇa. So much so that collecting some food in the bank of a river he’s going to take the prasādam, someone came, someone came and passed urine there. “What is this O Lord?”

So moving through the street someone says, “What is this in your hand you old man? Just give it to me and let me see.”

He does not give it so sometimes he takes it. Then, “Please give it, it is mine, life long association with sacred things, given by Gurudeva.”

“Take it.”

Then when he went to catch: then again taking it back, in this way.

Someone says, “Oh sādhu where are you going?”

He says, “I am going there.”

“Oh, why, what for, what do you want?” In this way the men of the society began to disturb him in the most nasty way in different positions.

Then some said, when he wants to get something from his mouth, “Say why do you?” If he does not, “If he says no then we don’t believe it. Say something then also in turn pronounce some filthy thing.” If he does not speak anything, “Oh, he must be a thief or a dacoit, he does not speak anything. Let’s go, hurry up, bind him down.”

In this way, wherever he goes he is meeting this undesirable treatment from the society.

Then this came to him, “Why? I was such a wealthy man. I was in that position. I have lost everything and come to live a good life; still I am being treated so harshly, cruelly. Who is responsible for all this?”

Now that śloka: “Is it the stars, or the gods, or the Lord Himself?” So many alternatives they came into his mind then dismissed them, “No, this cannot be, this cannot be, this cannot be. My own karma is responsible for all these things.” Then with this, whatever, he comes he’s anyhow tolerating, with the spirit of toleration he began his singing about Kṛṣṇa, Mukunda.

So Kṛṣṇa Himself, and the result of the past activities have come to take, to realise their debt, so we must be very forbearing, forbearing. The past action, debt, should be cleared and you won’t hesitate, or won’t falter in any way. Nothing can check your progress towards the positive direction, with the help of the… If you wander alone, but it is very easy when you live in the association of the sādhus, and get some responsible services, then it becomes very easy. The bhajan becomes very easy when we live together with sādhus, in their company, by mutual help.

Like Napoleonic chair, do you know that Napoleonic chair? Once Napoleon in a battle was compelled to pass a chilly night, very cold night, in a marshy ground with his soldiers. They can’t, there’s no place to take any rest, to lie down, even to sit, all standing in a marshy land. Then he evolved a policy of taking rest, at least by sitting in a chair. How it is possible? There is nothing. So he asked his soldiers to stand in a circle, and asked them to take their seat in such a way that everyone will sit on the lap of another. One, he’s sitting on the lap of another, and another one is sitting on his lap, in this way, in a circular way, everyone is sitting, he gets the lap of another. B sits on the lap of A, then C sits on the lap of B, D sits on the lap, in a circular way, then the last man also gives lap to the first, in this way.

And Washington also did one time. He was in a very cold night, in a play to pass, he and one of his friends perhaps. “I’m cold, chilly, I can’t stand; so chilly, cold.” Then that came that, “Let us wrestle against one another.” So the whole night by wrestling the inner warmth came and they could stand that chill. Otherwise they would have to die.

So the company of the sādhu helps us in that way, mutual help we can get from one another and it becomes very easy to go on, on our journey. Many difficult solutions we get, problems are solved if we can keep the company of the sādhus, by mutual help. ________________ [?] filled by another gentleman, and he may have another ______ [?] that may be applied by another. In any way that is the most comfortable journey if we go with company towards the help of Kṛṣṇa. So tridaṇḍī-bhikṣu pathana you have reminded me, generally, it is read from Bhāgavatam when such function occurs.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Then perhaps Venkatta is not coming perhaps due to some strike in the ferry ghat, or something. Or Satsvarūpa Mahārāja might have dissuaded him also: that also may be. But anyhow, through an independent boat from a little far off from the ferry ghat one may cross. Let us see. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. _________________________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Guru Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes?

Devotee: This question of Hinduism and Muslim is coming up, so we’re not Hindus but in some way we may speak on behalf of Hindus.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We are not Hindus in the general sense. We are Vaiṣṇava, we are kāṛṣṇa. The varṇāśrama that is a, that is step to Vaiṣṇava dharma, Vaiṣṇavism. And favourable step, it is utilised and we may begin from varṇāśrama dharma but we are to leave that when we enter the domain of nirguṇa. Varṇāśrama is concerned with sattya-guṇa, up to sattya-guṇa, and then, even we are to leave varṇāśrama when we enter into nirguṇa, Vaiṣṇavism proper.

Karma - our activities, the yoga - our attention, and the jñāna - our acquisition: when they leave their own colour and surrenders into complete dedicated life, then it becomes Vaiṣṇavism. They have to leave their past steps. Karma, if all the karma is done only for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa then it is well and good, it is Vaiṣṇavism. And the jñāna when it ceases all its enquiry surrendering to the sweet will of Kṛṣṇa, then it is Vaiṣṇavism, they enter the realm of Vaiṣṇavism. And yoga, the attention, the direction of our energy, internal, fine, subtle energy, when it stops seeking any other achievement but concentrate wholly for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, then it comes, enters the area of Vaiṣṇavism, leaving: bhakti-mukha-nirīkṣaka karma-yoga-jñāna. The karma and the jñāna and the yoga, they cannot give their promised result without the help of bhakti, without the support of the wave of the universal wave or force.

If God withdraws all His energy from them, to support them, they’re nowhere. But they can give their – just as so many companies, independent companies there may be, insurance company, and this banking company, but if government does not withdraw it from them they can work. But if the government withdraws they cannot exist. But they can thrive, they can work well at the supposed backing of the government, at the passive support of the government. Government withdrawn they are nowhere. So the power, the potency of Kṛṣṇa, the sympathy withdrawn, the karma, yoga, jñāna nowhere. But the supposed support of the, on the basis of the supposed support of the government, of Kṛṣṇa’s will, they can work on independently, give their own. So karma,

[kṛṣṇa-bhakti haya abhidheya-pradhāna,] bhakti-mukha-nirīkṣaka karma-yoga-jñāna

[“Devotional service to Kṛṣṇa is the chief function of the living entity. There are different methods for the liberation of the conditioned soul – karma, jñāna, yoga and bhakti – but all are dependent on bhakti.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.17]

In caritāmṛta, they are always looking at the face of bhakti, the service to Kṛṣṇa.

ei saba sādhanera ati tuccha bala, [kṛṣṇa-bhakti vinā tāhā dite nāre phala]

[“But for devotional service, all other methods for spiritual self-realization are weak and insignificant. Unless one comes to the devotional service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, jñāna and yoga cannot give the desired results.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.18]

What they give, that is very negligible thing. Bhakti, the service, she does not depend on anything else. She can go independently, from any point. From any point of our life, only with the connection of a bona fide agent we can link with bhakti and we can go on independently without taking any help from the energy, from the fine attention, and our inquisitive spirit. Everything may be rejected, and only through service, through a sādhu, one can go on safely towards Vaikuṇṭha. So the varṇāśrama generally, the sanātana dharma means the varṇāśrama, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra. That brāhmaṇa, the highest section, their qualification is this that they seek something which is not mundane, which is conscious, but not having any clear conception of the conscious world: some vague conception of the spiritual world. Not very clear, so:

brāhmaṇānāṁ sahasrebhyaḥ satra-yājī viśiṣyate

satra-yāji-sahasrebhyaḥ [sarvva-vedānta-pāragaḥ

sarvva-vedānta-vit-koṭ yā viṣṇubhakto viśiṣyate

vaiṣṇavānāṁ sahasrebhyaḥ ekāntyeko viśiṣyate]

[“Among many thousands of brāhmaṇas, a yajñika brāhmaṇa is best. Among thousands of yajñika brāhmaṇas, one who fully knows Vedānta is best. Among millions of knowers of Vedānta, one who is a devotee of Viṣṇu is best. And among thousands of devotees of Viṣṇu, one who is an unalloyed Vaiṣṇava is best.”] [Hari-Bhakti-Vilāsa, 10.117] & [Garuḍa-Purāṇa] & [Bhakti- Sandarbha, 117]

Satra-yāji means who is engaged in sacrifice which is meant, the model, the typical, that everything should be done to satisfy Him, the central truth, Kṛṣṇa. Satra-yāji-sahasrebhyaḥ sarvva-vedānta-pāragaḥ. Then it may come to the stage of an enquirer, vaidantic, who loves to deal with consciousness, fine things, vedānta-pāragaḥ. Sarvva-vedānta-vit-koṭ yā viṣṇubhakto viśiṣyate. There the yogī and the jñānī they are stayed there, like karmī they’re not dealing with gross things but they’re dealing with – they’re busy in their dealing with the very subtle things of consciousness. But mere consciousness does not mean God consciousness, the consciousness of the self, consciousness of the cause of this material world, so many things. So brāhmaṇas who are the head of the varṇāśrama dharma they’re more addicted than matter to spirit. But they have not got the real and cosmic idea in the complete idea of the spiritual world, purely spiritual world, not of Vaikuṇṭha, nor of Goloka. So the Vaiṣṇava,

bahūnāṁ janmanām ante, jñānavān māṁ prapadyate

[vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti, sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ]

[“After many, many births and deaths, one who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 7.19]

When the jñānī surrenders to the feet of Vāsudeva then he becomes a Vaiṣṇava. Vaiṣṇava is there. And when karmī,

yajñārthāt karmaṇo 'nyatra, loko 'yaṁ karma-bandhanaḥ

[tad-artham karma kaunteya, mukta-saṅgaḥ samācara]

[“Selfless duty performed as an offering to the Supreme Lord is called yajña, or sacrifice. O Arjuna, all action performed for any other purpose is the cause of bondage in this world of repeated birth and death. Therefore, remaining unattached to the fruits of action, perform all your duties in the spirit of such sacrifice. Such action is the means of entering the path of devotion, and with the awakening of true perception of the Lord, it will enable you to attain to pure, unalloyed devotion, free from all material qualities (nirguṇa-bhakti).”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 3.9]

He can come to understand that any work which is not for Viṣṇu that will bind me with the matter, reaction, then he comes to be Vaiṣṇava. And the yogīs,

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ, mad-gatenāntarātmanā

śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ, sa me yuktatamo mataḥ

[“In My opinion, of all types of yogīs, the most elevated of all is he who surrenders his heart to Me and serves Me in devotion with sincere, internal faith.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.47]

He’s following so many mystic practices in body or mind and trying to raise his consciousness into higher, subtle sphere of the world. But when leaving all those things he comes to make contact with the devotee and begins his bhajan then he’s all right. He becomes Vaiṣṇava.

So varṇāśrama has been accepted as so many steps; that śūdra mentality, vaiśya mentality, kṣatriya mentality, and brāhmaṇa mentality, then Vaiṣṇava mentality. When they accept Vaiṣṇava mentality, Viṣṇu is all in all, and we are only, our real position is that of a servant of Him, and he begins that life, dismissing all his ambitions in this mundane world whether gross or subtle, then he becomes Vaiṣṇava.

The Vaiṣṇava, as they will preach Hinduism, to certain, getting the centre, the centre is Kṛṣṇa. And for that you couch in this way. You may earn money, but spend at least a greater portion for the service of Kṛṣṇa, for the propaganda of His name, be a vaiśya. The kṣatriya you organise the force and try to help the Vaiṣṇavism, the service of Kṛṣṇa. And with the recognition you as vaiśya, the organising capacity, the fighting capacity, that will be utilised for them, fully accepted, whoever you are. And the brāhmaṇas you explain the Vedic scriptures and Purāṇa etc, but connect you with that Kṛṣṇa is all in all. No other gods are equal or more than Him. So in that way you connect, so we shall accept you. And the śūdra, you can give some, devote some energy, so try to utilise your energy for the service of Kṛṣṇa. Then we shall have some relation with you. Anyone you be, if you come to utilise yourself in the service of Kṛṣṇa we are in your favour. We have got recognition for you. ___________________________________________________ [?]

But you do not connect with the service of Kṛṣṇa then doing your own respective duty you will have to be the prey of that reaction that is to go down. Up and down, up and down. This vicious circle you can’t get out of. Only with the connection of Kṛṣṇa the autocrat, the great repository of love and beauty, connect with Him, you are saved. Otherwise in whatever position you are, if you’re apathetic to that you are doomed. That is our position. The Kṛṣṇa conception that is the real purpose of the varṇāśrama but they cannot ascertain that, mostly, and they wander up and down. That is our creed. That is nirguṇa and this is all saguṇa, going up and down.

ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, punar āvartino ‘rjuna

mām upetya tu kaunteya, punar janma na vidyate

[“O Arjuna, from the planet of Lord Brahmā downwards, the residents of all planets are naturally subjected to repeated birth and death. But, O Kaunteya, upon reaching Me, there is no rebirth.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 8.16]

Nitāi Gaura Gadādhara. Nitāi Gaura Gadādhara. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Devotee: So on the other side, you’ve just explained how to bring the Hindus to the highest goal, to Kṛṣṇa, but the Muslims also, we want to bring them also, yes?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is very difficult for them. They have got some opposite saṁskāra. So that sort of habit – habit is the second nature, to give up ones habit is not very easy. Theoretically one may say anything and everything, but practically to come to the standard it is difficult for them, to get out of their false creed and to accept totally in heart, mind and deed, it is very difficult. But if it is so we must accept him.

Haridāsa Ṭhākura he was not only accepted amongst the Vaiṣṇavas, the brāhmaṇas also took the water of his feet when he disappeared, we find from Caitanya-caritāmṛta. But Haridāsa Ṭhākura in his turn, “No, no, I’m fit to sit, take prasādam along with the Vaiṣṇava. No, no, I do not venture. I have not come to such a standard.”

Sanātana Goswāmī though he came from a brāhmaṇa...

End of 81.11.29.A

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Start of 81.11.29.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...some differences within the relatives, they left their place and came to live to Purī Jagannātha. And from there came to live near Ganges, Naihati [?]. And from there they are taken by some zamīndār to Yasor [?] district. Then by chance the bursar [?] the king of Bengal, his capitol was near Mouther [?] Gaur [?] he got they are born of royal family and extremely intelligent and also good organiser.

So anyhow he took them and appointed Sanātana Goswāmī as Prime Minister, Chief Minister, and Rūpa Goswāmī as his Secretary, and left all the responsibility for the state, left on them, and he used to make merry, in this way.

But that Sanātana Goswāmī when – he was very scholarly and a devotee from previous life. So after managing the state he got sufficient time and he used to read Bhāgavatam and the Mahābhārata, all the scriptures, Purāṇas. And he found that the Yuga-Avatāra of Kali He must have come now. It is already high time. He must have come down, the Yuga-Avatāra. Where He will come? He’s watching, and he’s, the sign there must be that He’ll begin Hari kīrtana, Kṛṣṇa kīrtana, in a very vigorous and very spacious and comprehensive way. Then he marked that in Navadwīpa that the genius Nimāi Paṇḍita, He has begun this kīrtana, Hari kīrtana, which is the Yuga-Dharma of Kali. Then he began to correspond with Nimāi Paṇḍita.

“That we are so wretched. I knew from the śāstra that You have come to save the world in Kali as it is promised in śāstra. I think You are that person. You are not human being. We are so wretched, we are engaged in this diplomatic life. How we can be saved from this?”

Mahāprabhu from Navadwīpa anyhow replied.

para-vyasaninī nārī, vyagrāpi gṛha-karmmasu / tad evāsvādayaty antar, nava-saṅga-rasāyanam

[“A married lady who has love and affection for another gentleman may be seen to be always engaged in her household activities but her heart always realises, or tastes, the company of that person whom she loves. Though outwardly she is seen to be very busy with household work, at heart she’s always enjoying the company of her beloved. Similarly, outwardly you may be captured and may be seen to be busy in the association of the government’s activities, but your heart is not there. It is searching something, and it is receiving the benefit of the association of that inner substance.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 1.211]

“You need not be afraid of your life. Just as,” He gave an example, “Just as a woman who has got a lover other than husband, she maybe busy in the household affairs, but still, she at her heart enjoys the company in her memory with that lover. So you, externally you’re very busy with political activities, but at heart you are, you’re heart is given to this Kṛṣṇa consciousness, so you don’t be afraid of your future life.”

Then again after sannyāsa Mahāprabhu came after five years of tour from south India once more to Navadwīpa, and on His way to Vṛndāvana He met Sanātana and Rūpa there in Marga [?] And after having a discussion with Mahāprabhu he was prepared to leave their service and to join Mahāprabhu. Mahāprabhu asked them to go to Vṛndāvana and to do such duties according to His plan, and they did so. And when Sanātana Goswāmī came to Purī he lived with Haridāsa Ṭhākura because they’re mixing with the Mohammedan king, their habits, almost external habits are like that of Muslims. That sort of beard, like ________ [?] he had, and also the dress like the bursar [?] in this way, and very close connection with them. So general brāhmaṇas and Hindus they took them, they are already foreigners but Bengal brāhmaṇas, so they’re almost Muslims. So when Sanātana Goswāmī went to Purī, he used to keep up with Haridāsa Ṭhākura. He did not join Mahāprabhu’s party in that house, in that temple, that which is known as, where Mahāprabhu stayed?

Devotee: Gambhīrā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gambhīrā. He did not come there but he used to live with Haridāsa Ṭhākura who was a Mohammedan. And when Mahāprabhu went to take His bath in the sea, He, usually, daily, met Sanātana or Rūpa whoever they come in Haridāsa Ṭhākura’s āśrama when He was going to take His bath and stopped there for some time and had a talk, discussion, everything. And after taking bath He came to live in this Gambhīrā, Rādhā-Kantha Maṭha.

One day when Mahāprabhu was staying in, when He was invited to take prasādam in Gadādhara Paṇḍit’s āśrama, there is Tota-Gopīnātha, where Paṇḍita Gadādhara he used to live there and had his Gopīnātha he used worship. And Mahāprabhu was invited and went and anyhow He had a mind to call Sanātana there, perhaps some prasāda or not. Then Sanātana Goswāmī, it was noon time and the sun is burning over the head and Sanātana came by the way, the sea beach way, and his foot, the sole, that was burned, half burned. So many boils also came out.

Devotee: Blisters.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Blisters came out. Then Mahāprabhu marked, “By what way did you come here, which way?”

“I came by the seaside.”

“Seaside? The sands are hot like anything, you have come, you must have pain in your soles.”

“No, no, I do not feel much pain. You have called me so fortune I have got I have run.”

“Why do you, leaving, you did not come through the ordinary road?”

“I can’t venture to come through that road because so many servitors of the temple they’re coming and going by that road, and if in any way they feel any disturbance by my stature, presence, or anything, so I avoid that.”

“Yes, you are right. You have come to teach the standard of a Vaiṣṇava feeling, Vaiṣṇava behaviour. Not to interfere anyone in his own jurisdiction of faith, faith, but to be no cause of any disturbance to anyone outside, but to go on with his own bhajan, own service. Not interfering the circumstance, disturbing the environment.” So Mahāprabhu told... in way of appreciation He told like that. And Rūpa Goswāmī, and that was appreciated.

But when Haridāsa Ṭhākura on the other side passed away, Mahāprabhu took him on His breast and began to dance and He showed so much honour to Haridāsa Ṭhākura. And Himself took to, by the kīrtana procession, to the samādhi and He Himself threw the sand on the samādhi. And then seeing His grace towards Haridāsa Ṭhākura to such a degree, so many brāhmaṇas they also came and took water from the touch of Haridāsa Ṭhākura’s feet and drank it. Pādodaka, haridāsera pādodaka piye bhakta-gaṇa.

[haridāsera pādodaka piye bhakta-gaṇa, haridāsera aṅge dilā prasāda-candana]

[“Everyone drank the water that had touched the lotus feet of Haridāsa Ṭhākura, and then they smeared remnants of Lord Jagannātha’s sandalwood pulp over Haridāsa Ṭhākura’s body.”]

[Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 11.65]

And with most honour Haridāsa Ṭhākura was buried there on the sea shore. And some Tulasī was planted, and then circumambulation with Kṛṣṇa Nāma, and then after showing their highest honour to Haridāsa they came back.

So, though Haridāsa Ṭhākura and Sanātana, it is their beauty that they do not approach in a rash way to disturb the society. But Mahāprabhu and the Vaiṣṇava’s showed their special respect for them. They did not shrink away to show honour to a Vaiṣṇava.

And Haridāsa Ṭhākura also live on the other side of the Ganges near Śāntipura. There is a place where he engaged himself in bhajan and that was very near to Advaita Ācārya. Advaita Ācārya was the leader paṇḍita of the society at that time, and he usually came to him and sometimes he gave some prasādam in his own compound. In this way they dealt.

And Haridāsa Ṭhākura was called for explanation from the local administration, the Kāzī from Kalna, “That you have got birth very fortunately in the Muslim section. Why do you mix with the kaphes [?] the biharme [?] who was non-believer? Why do you mix and worshippers of so many idols? Why do you mix and you insult our Muslim society by mixing so closely with the Hindus. So you must be punished.”

And Haridāsa Ṭhākura was punished by whipping in 14 [21?] markets showing the public that, “Because he associates very closely with the Hindus, they who are non-believers in Islam, being a Mohammedan he does such an offence, so he’s being punished with whipping.”

In one or two market whippings everyone dies, but Haridāsa Ṭhākura after being whipped in 14 [21?] markets he did not feel any physical disturbance. Then he thought, “If I do not die then these punishment dealers, the whippers, they will be tried and they will be punished.” Then he posed in such a way that as he has, he’s dead.

And then information went to the Kāzī, and he told, “O, all right, that man he was a traitor so his future should not be honoured, not be buried, but throw him on the water of the Ganges.” And that was done.

And Haridāsa Ṭhākura after swimming he crossed the Ganges and went on regardless. And then, when this information came to Kāzī then he was aloof, “That cannot be, we can’t do any harm to him, he has acquired some psychic power or so.” He neglected.

Such things happened in that age of Mahāprabhu. They are not very aggressors but other parties gave them their earnest respect. In that way it was adjusted. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya. What’s the time?

Devotee: Ten to ten.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ten to ten. So tridaṇḍī upāsanā is finished from Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Anyhow, only the one thing - whatever you do, do it for Kṛṣṇa and kāṛṣṇa. Engage yourself wholesale for the service of the central good. That is the one.

yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi, yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat / yat tapasyasi kaunteya, tat kuruṣva mad arpaṇam

[“O son of Kuntī, whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you offer in charity, and whatever austere vows you may keep - do everything as an offering unto Me.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.27]

sarva-dharmān parityajya, [mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo, mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ]

[“Totally abandoning all kinds of religion, surrender exclusively unto Me. I will liberate you from all kinds of sins, so do not despair.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]

“I am everything. What more I shall say to you Arjuna? You are My friend. I won’t deceive you. I am all in all. If you do for Me your future will be the most successful one. In a nutshell this is this fact. You do that. Now, everything is told to you. Consider, and within yourself discriminate, and then do what you like to do. I am not going to interfere with your freedom. But things are such and I have kept it before you for your own free decision, free choice. That’s the gist of all the śāstra. I am raso vai saḥ, akhila rasāmṛta murtiḥ, the personification of all the desirable and differentiated ecstasy.”

That is preaching, the harmony of all the good things is represented there. And we want, fortunately we have got a liking for the same and we want to make our journey, to begin our journey towards that direction. And with His blessings and with blessings of the Guru and the Vaiṣṇava our journey may be fruitful without any hindrance. With this prayer we close today our sitting. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya. Jaya Oṁ Viṣṇu-Pāda...

End of 81.11.29.B

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Start of 81.11.30.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is Veda, to understand the Veda, leading to oneness and not to bifurcate and not many branches. The Veda is given many branches; you can accept any one of them; that is not the meaning of the Veda. It is ekaiana leading towards one. Mood of Veda skanda. Veda is a skanda and its branch is only one. Then, finished?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: That’s finished. This one devotee here Mahārāja that you have never met before, Citraketu, he is from England.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: When have you come from England?

Citraketu: I came from England about two years ago.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Two years ago, and where are you living?

Citraketu: I am staying in Chandrodaya Mandhir.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh, you are continuously living in Māyāpur, but you did not come to visit here?

Citraketu: I haven’t yet, no. This is my first time.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You are engaged in, what service?

Citraketu: I am on the staff of the samādhi, building Prabhupāda’s samādhi.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Samādhi construction, under?

Citraketu: ________ Surabhi Swāmī is the...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Surabhi, he’s a new man, hmm?

Citraketu: Surabhi Abhipālayantam Mahārāja.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: He’s the architect Mahārāja. He’s the architect for the samādhi.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh. But Surabhi...

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Surabhi Abhipālayantam Swāmī.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Surabhi Abhipālayantam Swāmī. And he’s disciple of?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Swāmī Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Swāmī Mahārāja, complete?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But I did not hear his name. That was under Satya....

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Satya-Nārāyaṇa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Satya-Nārāyaṇa, they’re the engineers there I heard. All right.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He’s the architect.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He’s the architect, well and good. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

How do you feel at present, inner encouragement that you are going, doing the most, you are in connection with the highest conception of reality? It is satisfying your heart. Your engagement is very tasteful? Heart is being satisfied by the duty you discharge? It should be like that. Heart’s inner satisfaction you must feel, that you are engaged in a very holy and divine duty. You try with this attitude to approach your duty. This is in the way of the highest fulfilment of my life, where I am engaged, fortunately. Generally we are engaged in the worldly affairs for fleeting sense pleasure. But the divinity has attracted me, far from my country here and He has given me the chance to approach beyond the space and time to my highest goal. So that devotee, divine pure devotee has devotion, duty, fortunately you have got. Thank your stars. Hare Kṛṣṇa. But you, you should thank your stars, that is my meaning, that you have come from far away to such a type of divinity. Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

Hṛdayenābhyanujñāto [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.20.30]. Must have approval from the inner heart that I am doing the right thing. So many things to engage ourselves attracting us from all sides, but we must concentrate in the service which is given to us by the higher realized souls. Self abnegation in the negative side, and positive participation in the highest service of the highest conception of divinity. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Striadish, here.

Devotee: Mahārāja, there are also two other devotees from Māyāpur, Vidagdha and Satyavak Prabhu.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Vidagdha is old friend I have seen many times, but I cannot see the face, I am devoid of sight, eyesight. And you are Parisevāna?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Parisevāna, Parisevāna, Harisevāna. Parisevāna means Harisevāna. Parisevāna. Pariniṣṭhita. Pari means samyak, fully, parito sarvata vyapi, most extensive. Wherever we cast our glance we see the same thing, pari vyapi, samyak. Pariniṣṭhito 'pi nairguṇye, pari means also deeply, very firmly.

pariniṣṭhito 'pi nairguṇye, uttamaḥ-śloka-līlayā / gṛhīta-cetā rājarṣe, ākhyānaṁ yad adhītavān

[“O saintly King, I was certainly situated perfectly in transcendence, yet I was still attracted by the delineation of the pastimes of the Lord, who is described by enlightened verses.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 2.1.9]

Pariniṣṭhito 'pi nairguṇye. “Though it is well known to all that I am firmly settled only in the Brahman conception and no mundane conception can enter into my mind, in any time, in any way. It is well known fact, and perhaps it should be admitted by all the stalwarts present here. But that I took the chance of studying this sort of variety, plurality, diversity, coming to oneness, after entering into oneness of all consciousness, all conscious, one. Not many, no diversity. In this stage I am firmly established. Still I have come, I have come to try with highest regard to study the diversity which already left in the mundane world, same diversity, same polarity.

What’s the explanation from me, these gentleman, these scholars can expect?

Uttamaḥ-śloka-līlayā. Uttamaḥ ____________________ [?] I have come in touch of such plurality or diversity which can, which is able to dispel all sorts of nescience, tamo, ignorance, darkness. This, though variety, but here they are common, that they can dispel the darkness, the ignorance. Uttamaḥ-śloka. And those that are devoid of that ignorance fully, it is best of that. Uttamaḥ ________________ [?] And then ______________ [?] Superlative degree. It is the highest type, holds highest quality of dispelling darkness or ignorance. I found it. I had my direct experience that Kṛṣṇa līlā though full of, apparently it is many, many things - His devotees, His Dhāma, His paraphernalia, so many things, His friends, His exploitation, so many kinds of things. But here it is common that everything is – He can dispel the darkness, uttamaḥ-śloka, and His play, very, very efficient to dispel darkness of different types. Uttamaḥ-śloka.

Gṛhīta-cetā. And so I have come to be a slave of such līlā. I am the witness myself. That Kṛṣṇa līlā, though it seems apparently to be of mundane character, but in reality it is just the opposite, because it can dispel the darkness of different kinds, and it discloses itself with proof, coexisting with it. It is very palatable and also dispels ignorance. Avidya, ajñāna, it can do away with, and very pleasing at the same time. Very pleasing, very ecstatic, so more knowledge, more accurate knowledge, and also ecstasy, anāndam, cit anāndam. Cit anāndam, inner satisfaction along with dispelling of darkness, or ignorance. These two things I have got from this Kṛṣṇa līlā.

So the general surface I have left and I am going up in the domain by discovering new things every moment, a progressing life I have got coming in touch. So this mundane world is to be compared with a reflection and perverted. And the original world is also of that model, but this is mundane, it is perverted, and that is original. So, what we find here, all is there in a very excellent condition, and here it is all in a nasty condition. But the model, ideal of everything that we find here in the shadow, that is already in the substance. And the highest plane of knowledge is not a non-differentiated or non-specified plane.

pariniṣṭhito 'pi nairguṇye, uttamaḥ-śloka-līlayā / gṛhīta-cetā rājarṣe, ākhyānaṁ yad adhītavān

And now today in this meeting of the scholars I shall try to inaugurate that, what I got from my reverend, revered father. Mahā-pauruṣiko bhavān [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 2.1.10] Ordinary people they cannot hope to be a student of such teachings. I consider you are a bona fide student to receive this sort of learning, education, study. So I like to deliver that great thing to you, great thing. Mahā-pauruṣiko bhavān. You do not aspire after ordinary things. You want something great. It seems to me that you want something great, not ordinary thing. Mahā-pauruṣiko. Puruṣārtha – dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa, these are ordinary puruṣārtha, aims of life, ideals of life. But I shall inaugurate here today beyond puruṣārtha, the object of life which is not under the limitation of these old stereotyped things. Tad ahaṁ te 'bhidhāsyāmi, mahā-pauruṣiko bhavān. Adhītavān dvāparādau, pitur dvaipāyanād aham [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 2.1.8] That great knowledge I got from my divine father. I shall deal with that today in this assembly of scholars to you.”

Before that, there was a difference of opinion amongst the scholars when Mahārāja Parīkṣit told, “Only seven days I am to live and how I can utilize the few days that I can attain my best fortune?”

Then there were yogīs, there were jñānīs, there were karmīs, they came with their own program there. “Mahārāja you can take this.” Some say dyana, some say tapa, some say yoga, all these things.”

Then Mahārāja told, “Only a few days in my hand and if all of you differ in your opinion to recommend me how I shall use these few days, then what can I do? Please be unanimous. Consult among yourselves and give some unanimous verdict and I shall do that.”

Just at that time Śukadeva appeared, and all unconsciously stood up, giving respect to that young man of sixteen, when he appeared suddenly. Such was the commanding presence of that boy, that young man of sixteen. And unanimously they told that, “You are greatly fortunate and we are also fortunate that this young man has come, about whom we hear so many stories but we couldn’t see him, but we’d like to see him. But anyhow today fortunately the day has come. And all of us want to hear something from his lips. Whatever he will say we also will hear along with you.”

So Mahārāja Parīkṣit took him and put him in a respectful way in the presidential chair, Śukadeva, the delivery manca [?], the platform where from Śukadeva began to talk. Parīkṣit Mahārāja he’s putting questions and he’s giving answers. In this way seven days the whole Bhāgavata came with the highest idea of our fate, how high our fortune may go up; how, to what height our fortune may lead us. That was given there.

Vyāsadeva, already in Mahābhārata and other Purāṇa, there is no thought which has not been dealt with there. So far in the world no such thought can be traced out what is not dealt out by Vyāsadeva. All possible thoughts of all different position has been dealt out. And lastly he gave this thought that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is the crown of all the thoughts. Embracing all and also superseding all. That has been given by him, whoever he may be. And is cleverly delivered by Śukadeva Goswāmī, couched in scholarship also, there’s no poverty in scholarship in Bhāgavatam. But something more, above scholarship, something more has been given there.

So these are the salient points which that even Śaṅkara – these are the most important points if you can understand, then we can easily enter into the domain of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism. What does Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism mean? The salient points, we must be very particular to know and understand, to inquire and understand these ten points.

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura also has given Daśa-Mūla. In Nimbarka sampradāya there is Daśa-Mūla, the ten points, the important ten points in Nimbarka. And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura also has given Daśa-Mūla, and beginning with:

āmnāyaḥ prāha tattvaṁ harim iha paramaṁ sarva-śaktim rasābdhiṁ

tad bhinnāmśāṁś ca jīvān prakṛti-kavalitān tad vimuktāṁś ca bhāvat

bhedābheda-prakāśaṁ sakalam api hareḥ sādhanaṁ śuddha-bhaktiṁ

sādhyaṁ tat prītim evety upadiśati harir-gauracandro bhaje tam

[(1) - The Vedic scriptures received through the authorised disciplic succession of bona fide spiritual masters state that: (2) - Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Absolute Truth. (3) - He is the source of all energies. (4) - He is the ocean of all transcendental mellows. (5) - The living entities are His separated parts and parcels. (6) - Due to forgetfulness of their constitutional position, the living entities are illusioned. (7) - By awakening their transcendental ecstatic affection and attraction for the Lord, all living souls can be liberated from illusion. (8) - All things are one with and different from Kṛṣṇa; this oneness and difference is acintya or inconceivable. (9) - Pure devotional service (śuddha-bhakti) is the only means to attain the supreme goal. (10) - The supreme goal is divine love of Kṛṣṇa.] [Daśa-mūla śloka, The ten essential principles of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism]

The summary, this śloka is the summary of all the points we are to know in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, and then also other nine perhaps elucidating the ten points one by one, one by one. The ten points are mentioned in the first śloka and other ślokas he explains the ten points one by one. And Prabhupāda also has given here – that is ten or twelve, what is the number?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: In this particular ________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Ten points or twelve points?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes. The number one...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, no. How many, ten? The number: total number?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Twelve.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Twelve. So if we can understand these twelve points then we can easily understand the whole of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. In different ways! Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. What is the time?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, the ten points in the Nimbarka sampradāya coincide to Bhaktivinoda’s ten points or are they different?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Somewhat different, there should be. Daśa-mūla.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: ___________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What is that?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Acar. Two types of bhakti, śuddha bhakti and then viddha. So viddha is not English, could be expressed in different ways.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Viddha means that mixed, contaminated. Śuddha bhakti, that pure devotion, an alloyed devotion, not unalloyed, there may be mixed with karma, jñāna, yoga, etc, they are alloy, and fleeting desires, anyābhilāṣa, karma, jñāna, mixed, alloyed; alloyed and unalloyed, śuddha and viddha. Viddha means alloyed. And unalloyed devotion that is śuddha. And what is the opposite of bhakti? Anyābhilāṣa, karma, jñāna. Ādi means yoga, śaithilya, etc. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Then he’s talking about the āśraya and visaya vigraha and it compares Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Āśraya means the negative side, the potency. And visaya means Kṛṣṇa in His different expression. Īśā tattva, Kṛṣṇa, Bhāgavat tattva and Bhāgavat śakti tattva. Śakti tattva is āśraya, potency. Up to Rādhārāṇī, Yaśodā, Nanda, all these, Predominated Moiety, that is āśraya. And Predominating Moiety, positive that is visaya. Visaya Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Rāma, Baladeva, all these are all visaya tattva, enjoyer class. And the enjoyed, that is the āśraya tattva, the potency. Potency and the possessor of potency!

Bhāratī Mahārāja: And Gaura-Gadādhara?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gadādhara is āśraya and Gaura He is visaya. But visaya has taken the mood, the nature of āśraya. That is Gaura, both combined. Reality, Kṛṣṇa when He has got, He has taken the posing of Rādhikā, that is Gaura. And the inaugurator of Nāma-saṅkīrtana, Gaura Nārāyaṇa, He is visaya, Avatāra. And Gaurāṅga, both Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa combined, really He is Kṛṣṇa but in the mood of Rādhikā. He has accepted the nature of Rādhikā. Kṛṣṇa when He’s searching after Himself, trying to taste what sort of ecstasy is in Him, self-searching. Self-searching Kṛṣṇa is Gaurāṅga. What sort of ecstasy there can be within Him, self introspection, self-searcher, searching, trying to understand Himself, His own wealth. Taking the mood of His devotee, that is Gaurāṅga. Svabhajana, vibhajana, and also distributing it to others; making inquiry to Himself and what He gets He distributes to others.

Sva-bhajana vibhajana prayojana avatārī. What is sva-bhajana? How He should be, how He can satisfy Himself, to search that, and to give that clue to the public. That is Gaurāṅga. When Kṛṣṇa is searching what is the peculiarity in Him, searching, and what He gets He distributes to others. Sva-bhajana vibhajana, dividing, His own bhajan, how He should be worshipped, how He should be served. When He enquires and He gives it out to the public, that is Gaurāṅga, when He’s distributing Himself to the public. That is Gaurāṅga, sva-bhajana, how He should be served. Serving Himself He’s showing to the public that how He should be served. And for that He had to take the mood of Rādhārāṇī, to search Himself. What is there? Why should others come to Him, what is He? And then He Himself giving to others, Kṛṣṇa is Guru. When Kṛṣṇa Himself is Guru then He’s Gaurāṅga.

guru-rūpa-hariṁ gauraṁ, rādhā-ruci-rucāvṛtam

nityaṁ naumi navadvīpe, nāma-kīrttana-narttanaiḥ

[“Perpetually do I sing the glories of Lord Gaurāṅga, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Hari, embraced by the heart and halo of Śrīmatī Rādhikā, and who has descended as the Divine Master. In this holy abode of Śrī Navadvīpa Dhāma, He is absorbed in the pastimes of profusely chanting the Holy Names, dancing in ecstasy.”] [Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam, p 2-3]

Guru-rūpa-hariṁ.

gaura-vāg-vigrahaṁ vande, gaurāṅgaṁ gaura-vaibhavam

gaura-saṅkirttanonmattaṁ, gaura-kāruṇya-sundaram

[“I make my obeisances unto the Deity, Gaura-Sarasvatī - the personified message of the Golden Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu - whose bodily lustre is of a beautiful golden hue, like that of the selfsame Lord Gaurasundara; who is the personal expansion of that supreme Lord Gaurahari; who is always intoxicated by preaching the message of that Golden Lord; and whose divine beauty blooms in the revelation of Lord Gaurāṅga’s mercy potency.”] [Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam, p 2]

Guru-rūpa-hariṁ. When Kṛṣṇa Himself is Guru, He is Gaura.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: ________________________________________________________ [?]

Pūrva-rāga, māna, prema-vaicittya, prabāsa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Union in separation.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes, a type of vipralambha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Vipralambha, the four kinds of main separation. Amongst the friends when there is separation that may be classified into four points.

Pūrva-rāga. Before meeting, both the parties, not actual meeting but anyhow come in some remote connection, either the name, or the portrait, something. First saw the name, or the tone of the flute. Not seen actually, no practical union, real meeting, but have some connection, either the sound of the flute, or a picture, or the Name itself, Kṛṣṇa Nāma. And Kṛṣṇa heard of Rādhā Nāma. In this way but not actual meeting took place so long, and there is separation, pang of separation. The Name is so sweet He can’t contain Himself or Herself. Rādhārāṇī when Kṛṣṇa Nāma entered Her ear, She was perturbed, “So sweet a Name is possible in the world.” Her reaction and some pain there also. “I can’t meet. So sweet a Name, Who possesses such a sweet Name, Whose playing of the flute is so sweet sound, I can’t meet Him.” A pang of separation: that is pūrva-rāga. Pūrva-rāga, that is also separation, before meeting, pūrva-rāga.

Then next, māna, māna means after meeting when there is some difference between Them, in trifle matters, but it actually comes to happen. This is the very nature of love. Rūpa Goswāmī says:

aher iva gatiḥ premṇaḥ, svabhāva-kuṭilā bhavet [ato hetor ahetoś ca, yūnor māna udañcati]

[“Just as a serpent naturally moves in a crooked way, in a zigzag way, the nature of love is naturally crooked. It is not straight. So the concerned parties quarrel, sometimes with cause and sometimes without cause, and separation comes. Separation is necessary for the transcendental pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.”] [Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi]

Just as a serpent goes by this curved way, not straight, it is his nature to go in that way. It is not a diseased going, when serpent going it is nature that he will go in this. So, Rūpa Goswāmī says, “Just like that, the progress, the path of love is also like that.” Ato hetor ahetoś ca, yūnor māna udañcati. So sometimes with some trifle cause or sometimes with no cause such feelings must come. Nothing, “No He’s neglecting Me. He wants to avoid Me,” some sort of sentiment comes. “And thereby I don’t like Your company.” Of course the cent percent liking and cent percent aspiration is there, but still for the time being some such opposite sentiments spring up from the underground. And for the time being some sort of clash in the sentiment and one avoids the company of the other. “I don’t like it.” That is māna.

Then prema-vaicittya. Jealousy rises to such a degree that They are already together, but still some sort of thought comes within and makes Them to think that it is far away. One occasion the example is given. Rādhārāṇī, this is all in the mādhurya rasa, not in other rasas. When Rādhārāṇī is standing by Kṛṣṇa Her shadow is reflected on the body of Kṛṣṇa, but anyhow the Yogamāyā has managed to rise in Her mind that, “Oh, another lady is closely fixed in His body.” The jealousy sprung in such a way that, “What is this? Another lady is within Him? How it can be tolerated?” So Her mind revolts. Then Lalitā Devī perhaps was there, some sakhī, she anyhow pushed Her. “What do You do? It is Your own reflection there.” Then She again came to senses. “Oh!” Then She particularly noticed and found, “Oh, it is My shadow, My shadow.” Then immediately gone. This is something like prema-vaicittya. The example is given like that.

And prabāsa: of course when, by circumstances it is arranged that One leaves the Other, that Kṛṣṇa went to Mathurā to attend other duties. And They were apparently neglected. And that is prabāsa. If it is for some limited time, that is sudur [?] prabāsa and other prabāsa something, two types of prabāsa. prabāsa pracrista [?], when one has left the country and gone to far off place, then the separation, that is prabāsa.

So four types of separation pangs between the lover and beloved: the pangs of separation.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. This is all of a very high type. We should not indulge in these topics carelessly. That will do some harm in our real realization in future, because the mundane characteristic is possible to be carried there. The mundane experience may try to take us down. With much caution. What we conceive, it is not in that plane. It is higher and higher plane. So we are not getting the real picture of things here, this is adulterated picture. It is alloyed picture of the conception of the original thing. We should take it in our mind. Not unalloyed conception of the thing. With this caution we are to deal with them.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Mahārāja, I was told...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who is this?

Devotee: This is Vidagdha Dāsa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Vidagdha-Mādhava, yes.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: I was told that our Swāmī Mahārāja that he wrote one sannyāsa that the goal is to cultivate this feeling of separation from Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. This feeling of separation is the mood, perhaps the goal of a Vaiṣṇava.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: To cultivate about sambhoga that is more dangerous, and the separation: that is little safe. To have separation, it is more safe to deal separation of the high type, but the union is very, very dangerous to deal with. That is the cause. We may participate to separation a little, though we should think that it is not of this plane. The pain of separation is not of this plane. But still the separation is less injurious. With caution we may talk little about that. But the sambhoga will be very, very dangerous. When Rādhā-Govinda, the sakhīs, They are combined and They are enjoying the company one another, that will be very, very dangerous to discuss, or to think, or to deal in any way from this mundane plane. A great offence it will create. That is the idea. So direct handling is more injurious. Indirect handling of separation as Mahāprabhu is showing, that is helpful to certain extent. Mahāprabhu, the devotees, they are showing so many pranks, can’t tolerate the separation of Kṛṣṇa.

[kāhāṅ mora prāna nātha muralī-vadana] kāhāṅ karoṅ kāhāṅ pāṅ vrajendra-nandana

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said: “Where is My beloved Kṛṣṇa? I can’t tolerate His separation. Where is the Lord of My life, who is playing His flute? What shall I do now? Where should I go to find the son of Mahārāja Nanda?”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 2.15]

“Oh, I can’t tolerate even my own living or my existence without Kṛṣṇa. Without His grace, without His company, I can’t maintain my, this undesirable existence.”

All these may help to certain extent to us. But we are not to imitate that. But as the highest ideal respectfully we are to look out. And that will help us to brush aside our anartha. How intense ones feeling of separation should be about Kṛṣṇa, and we don’t think, and if some tears come then we may not think that we have realized that stage. That sort of danger should be avoided.

na prema-gandho 'sti [darāpi me harau, krandāmi saubhāgya-bharaṁ prakāśitum

vaṁśī-vilāsy-ānana-lokanaṁ vinā, vibharmmi yat prāṇa-pataṅgakān vṛthā]

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said: “My dear friends, I have not the slightest tinge of love of Godhead within My heart. When you see Me crying in separation, I am just falsely exhibiting a demonstration of My great fortune. Indeed, not seeing the beautiful face of Kṛṣṇa playing His flute, I continue to live My life like an insect, without purpose.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya- līlā, 2.45]

Mahāprabhu says that, “I have not a drop of divine love in Me otherwise how can I maintain My, this mundane life...

End of 81.11.30.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.11.30.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...keep us within the fold. But my next step what is here I must be particular to get up on the step, and then that step, that step, that will be more helpful, and this idea will be above to attract me.

Sometimes it may create hope in me and this also may excite some spirit, they’ll say, “Oh, this is a fun. Caitanyadeva He’s crying and He’s doing this, just as a madman. Caitanyadeva was a madman.” So that can also excite, or may create offence to another also, but less offence. They say, “The model of Caitanya you accepted. What was His last days? He was always crying, and rubbing His face against the wall, and sometimes running to the sea. Is this your highest ideal of life? What is this? A ludicrous thing!”

So we must be in the proper channel, unalloyed devotion.

That Viskisan [?] told, “Yes, Caitanya was one of my devotees,” to Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura thought in his way, “This man should be removed very swiftly, quickly.” With such extensive prestige he says that Caitanya was his devotee.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Buddha suddhi. To keep up ones temperament in a normal position where he should be in his stage of realization. Nitāi Caitanya, this name will help, Nitāi Caitanya, set me right, set me right in my position. I am making too much advance, going beyond my jurisdiction. Please forgive and give me the proper adjustment; may not be maladjusted, by Your grace. But because I am requested to deal all these things and as much as possible keeping the respect of the thing I am trying to deal with intellectually, but keep me all right. Nitāi Caitanya. Heno nitāi vine bhāi rādhā kṛṣṇa pāite nāi.

[nitāi-pada-kamala koṭi candra-suśītala, ye chāyāya jagat juḍāya

hena nitāi vine bhāi rādhā-kṛṣṇa pāite nāi, dṛdha kari' dhara nitāir pāy]

[“The lotus feet of Prabhu Nityānanda are most pleasing, like the combined calming radiance of millions of moons. By receiving the cooling shade of His transcendental shelter the whole universe, scorched by heat of material existence, can be fully relieved and soothed. O dear brothers, without the grace of such a magnanimous personality as Prabhu Nityānanda, it is very difficult to attain divine loving service to Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in the groves of Vṛndāvana. Therefore firmly take shelter of His lotus feet with all sincere respect and love so you may reach that nectarine goal.”] [Manaḥ-śikṣā, from Prāthanā]

The foundation must be solid and proper. Then the structure should be erected. Otherwise whole thing will go down.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi.

Heno nitāi vine bhāi rādhā kṛṣṇa pāite nāi. The solid foundation we can get from Nityānanda. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

One day Nityānanda Prabhu came to Mahāprabhu’s house in Māyāpur, naked, quite naked. And there was so many, even perhaps Śacī Devī, Viṣṇu Priya, they were also there and other devotees. Nityānanda came quite naked. Then Mahāprabhu managed to give some cloth. And perhaps if the devotees think in a lower way, have any misconception about Him, so He asked Nityānanda for His kaupīna.

“Śrīpāda, I want to have Your kaupīna.” And He tore it up and distributed amongst the householders that were present. “Keep a piece of His kaupīna in some ____________ [?] And you in your hair or in your hand you preserve it as an ornament. This _________ [?] small ____ like thing in which some medicine, some kavach is mentioned and with a thread it is put in the hand or sometimes it is kept in the hair. Please keep it with you. Then you will be able to have sense control very soon. Nityānanda has got such self control to such a degree. He does not know anything of this world. So He can come naked amongst the male and female. His vairāgya is such, indifference to the world, to the mundane transaction. He’s so free from this mundane transaction, Nityānanda.”

So the grace of Nityānanda will construct the good foundation, His grace. This is all ekayana. Ekayana not bhodayana, not leading to many branches. Ekayana: that great, single, model, ideal. Most firm foundation His grace means. And then you may have any structure, it can be any weight. If you have faith in Nityānanda then that faith can bear any amount of weight, structure. It won’t betray you, the foundation won’t betray you. Nityānanda. So Swāmī Mahārāja laid stress in the devotion of Nityānanda amongst the westerners. Get His mercy, and then Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa afterwards. Mahāprabhu means Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. First Nityānanda, and then Gaurāṅga, then Rādhā-Govinda, three stages, you are to raise yourself up.

Ke? Subal Sakha. __________________ [?]

Devotee: __________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who of you will stay here to take prasādam? He has come to inquire, whether you will take prasādam and go or before that you go? You consult and say. He has come to know.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: ___________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: __________________________________________________ [?]

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. ____________________________________ [?]

Gaura Haribol. ____________________________________________________________ [?]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Classical language you are acquainted with, and colloquial, he’s expert in colloquial, and you are in classical.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Mahārāja, how does one attain the mercy of Lord Nityānanda?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nityānanda. Ha, ha. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Who finds more inclination to serve Gaurāṅga and His Dhāma and His servants, Nityānanda is very much kind to him who has got some tendency, special tendency to Gaura līlā. Nityānanda Prabhu He walked from door to door, “Take the Name of Gaurāṅga. I shall be your servant. You can purchase Me. Take the Name of Gaurāṅga. I’ll be sold to you without any price, any condition.” That was His temperament.

When Mahāprabhu sent Nityānanda, He was in Purī, sent Nityānanda, “Without You I don’t find anyone who can spread the Kṛṣṇa Nāma, Kṛṣṇa bhakti, who can spread because the Bengalis are very wicked in nature. They are more engaged in tantric and nyāya and smṛti. They are making too much of those trifle things, and puffed up, that they have finished everything, all knowledge. So that is a very hard field. And without You none will be able to awaken them, especially the masses. You separate from them, from the classes and approach the masses with Kṛṣṇa Nāma. And You are the fittest person.”

Nityānanda Prabhu came but without trying to take Kṛṣṇa Nāma He began to preach Gaura Nāma.

bhaja gaurāṅga, kaha gaurāṅga laha gauranger nāma,

yei jana gaurāṅga bhaje sei amāra prāna.

[“Worship Gaurāṅga, speak of Gaurāṅga, chant Gaurāṅga's Name. Whoever worships Śrī Gaurāṅga is My life and soul. Come straight to the campaign of Śrī Caitanya and you will safely attain Vṛndāvana.”]

Nityānanda Prabhu found it that,

‘kṛṣṇa-nāma’ kare aparādhera vicāra, [kṛṣṇa balile aparādhīra nā haya vikāra]

[There are offences to be considered while chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. Therefore, simply by chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, one does not become ecstatic.] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 8.24]

There is some danger connected that Kṛṣṇa līlā is very akin to this mundane debauch, this thieving, this lying, and all these things, very akin to a degraded soul. And Kṛṣṇa is of a reserved nature. It is very difficult to understand the purity of Kṛṣṇa līlā for the masses. The mass mind cannot approach Kṛṣṇa līlā as the highest attainment. So it will be difficult to preach. But Gaurāṅga līlā, when Kṛṣṇa has come to distribute to the public, with such capital in His mind of going, so, to submit to Gaura līlā a little, it will be easy, the sannyāsa tyāga līlā. And Gaurāṅga means a dynamo which wants to give Kṛṣṇa, to distribute Kṛṣṇa. And we must take to that, the most magnanimous, surcharged with intensified pity for the ordinary people, kindness, affection, even to the criminals. So anyhow to keep them to His connection then Kṛṣṇa līlā is already in their fist. So He began to preach about Gaurāṅga, not of Kṛṣṇa, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa līlā as commanded by Mahāprabhu. So bhaja gaurāṅga, kaha gaurāṅga He began.

And there is another instance described in Caitanya Bhāgavata. Śacī Devī had a dream that Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma is there in a throne. And Nityānanda is fighting with Balarāma.

“Come away from the throne. It is no longer Dvāpara-yuga. The age Kali has come and My Master Gaurāṅga must take the position of this throne. You come out.”

And Balarāma, He’s giving sort of opposition. “No, no, why should We come out? We are sitting on the throne from so long a time. Why should we come down?”

Nityānanda forcibly taking Him: and Balarāma is submitting slightly.

“My master Gaurāṅga He wants to take the opposition now. The age for Him has come.” So He’s very partial to Gaurāṅga. “Kṛṣṇa is far off. My Lord is Gaurāṅga. I must be very near and grateful to Him.”

To Guru, rather adjust. [Raghunātha] Dāsa Goswāmī says bakārināpi [from the verse beginning āśābharair-amṛta-sindhu, Vilāpa-Kusumāñjali, 102], “I want Your grace Rādhārāṇī. Without You I don’t want Kṛṣṇa, a separate Kṛṣṇa. And along with You, if I get You with Kṛṣṇa, I want. I want that, to serve, but never without You any Kṛṣṇa I never want it.”

So that should be the healthy attitude of the devotees, that they won’t try, the higher authorities under whom they can connect with Kṛṣṇa, the Gurudeva, the Vaiṣṇava, the hierarchy. They always try to intensify their faith. Who is giving the highest model or ideal, who is giving it to him, the next person from whom he’s getting it, then their allegiance must be highest there.

yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo, yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto 'pi

[dhyāyan stuvaṁs tasya yaśas tri sandhyaṁ, vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam]

[“By the mercy of the spiritual master one receives the benediction of Kṛṣṇa. Without the grace of the spiritual master, one cannot make any advancement. Therefore, I should always remember and praise the spiritual master. At least three times a day I should offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master.”] [Śrī Śrī Gurv-aṣṭaka, 8]

This is the position of Guru, by whose grace I can get anything, I can get the grace of Kṛṣṇa. And without whose grace, I have got no other prospect. So this way, who has given to me, the first connection, I must have reverence there. But at the same time I won’t conceive that is a doll. I must think, because I have come to, not a particular figure, but what he says, his upadeśa, the learning, what is attracting my heart.

I am not this body. I am the inquirer. And which is satisfying me, drawing the inquirer to the inquired, I must try to locate that thing in him, and not prākṛta buddhi. Not prākṛta buddhi. I am not this. Who am I, the disciple, only this body, this figure, the temperament, the caste, the figure, or the colour, or the scholarship, the intellectualism? No.

Who has come to seek, who is the party in me, and who is the party in Guru? That we must be conscious, we must be fully awake to that, awaken like that. What is the inner thing? I have come for which thing? We must be awake to our own interest. That is relative and absolute. The form we shall have to eliminate, ignore, and the spirit we have to keep up always. Otherwise, we may be form worshippers. What is, where is, who is Guru? Where to be located? What is his ideal? What does he really want me to do? What does he really want me to take? These things must not be dismissed from our idea. Not only formal adherence. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

The spiritual way: the spiritual man is going to the spiritual world to have the spiritual realization, all spiritual. And all conceptions of mundane, whether physical, or intellectual, or mental, that should be eliminated in our journey if we want to go to the inner world of substance. Hare Kṛṣṇa. It will decide my real progress, desire of life. The fulfilment is from the inner side always. If one can keep up that thread, then he will go, and he will get things of that quality.

Beautiful figure, the intellectual delivery, and so many other things may be. The style, the movement, the boldness, so many things there are. But what should be the highest thing in our realization? And for that we shall – progress means elimination and acceptance. And always it is a dynamic thing, otherwise we shall be dead.

Acceptance and elimination, natural selection: the scientists also say natural selection or something like that, survival of the fittest, natural selection, in the expression of the scientists, natural selection. Nature is selecting some and giving up something. In the course of the development of this worldly affair, so many animals, so many things were in the present but they are gone, by giving place to those, natural selection and survival of the fittest. It is dynamic. We are living in a dynamic world. So elimination, acceptance and elimination: that is progress. It is a progressive thing, not a static.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

To get the grace of Nityānanda we shall try to, as much as possible, to study the character of Śrī Gaurāṅga, to serve Him, His Dhāma, His persons, all these things. That will easily help us to get the grace of Nityānanda.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. ___________________________________________________________ [?]

Something I must contact in my present stage. And the highest ideal always I shall keep on my head, over my head. With this idea I shall do something here. The idea, the highest model, that is our all in all in our life. To get, to be acquainted with the conception of the highest idea, that is the best wealth in one’s life. And to be in the way of realization, one day, Rādhikā-mādhavāśāṁ, Dāsa Goswāmī says, “Rādhikā-mādhavāśāṁ, only we shall aspire after, cherish the hope that one day I may be taken in the plane where Rādhikā-Mādhava, Rādhā- Mādhava is in Their glory, sitting, or playing, mādhavāśāṁ. That should be our prospect, rādhikā- mādhavāśāṁ prāpto yasya prathitaḥ kṛpayā śrī-guruṁ taṁ nato 'smi.

[nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ manum api śacī-putram atra svarūpaṁ

rūpaṁ tasyāgrajam uru-purīṁ māthurīṁ goṣṭavāṭīm

rādhā-kuṇḍaṁ giri-varam aho rādhikā-mādhavāśāṁ

prāpto yasya prathita-kṛpayā śrī guruṁ taṁ nato 'smi]

[Śrīla Raghunātha Dāsa Goswāmī prays: “I only aspire after one thing. I cherish the hope that one day I may be welcomed into the plane where Rādhikā and Mādhava are in Their glory, sitting and playing.”]

Dāsa Goswāmī’s praṇāma mantra towards Guru; nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ, “I have got, I am fully indebted to Gurudeva. Why? Who has given me so many things, nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ. The highest conception of the Name, the highest sound, the highest form of sound which contains the highest form of thought, aspiration, ideal, everything. Manum api, and next mantram, first Name and then mantram. The Name is there. Without Name mantram is nothing. If the Name is withdrawn and another Name is put, the mantra will be opposite. If Kṛṣṇa Nāma is taken from the mantram and there we put another name, the whole mantram will go that direction. So Name is all in all. And mantra couched in such a way with some sort of prayer in the Name, that is mantra, “I want this.” Manum api śacī-putram. The great saviour, śacī-putra, Who is like a golden mountain standing to show the direction towards Kṛṣṇa līlā. Atra svarūpaṁ. And then His most favourite personal assistant Svarūpa Dāmodara who is the representation of Lalitā Devī: the most favourite friend of Rādhikā. Nāma-śreṣṭhaṁ manum api śacī-putram atra svarūpaṁ. Then rūpaṁ, who is ordered to distribute the higher types of devotion, the love. The worshipping, the reverence: that is of lower order, reverence. And love, of our innermost heart dealing, that rāgānugā bhakti was distributed through Rūpa Goswāmī. Mahāprabhu considered Rūpa the best to deal with this rāgānugā bhakti. Svarūpaṁ rūpaṁ tasyāgrajam. Then Sanātana who gives some sort of adjustment with rāgānugā bhakti, viddhi bhakti, what is what, a sort of acquaintance with the environment proper. Rūpaṁ tasyāgrajam uru-purīṁ māthurīṁ. Then he has given me this Mathurā maṇḍala where Rādhā-Govinda have Their pastimes, where every creeper, shrubs, sands, rivers, the jungle, the hill, everyone is bearing the acquaintance of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa līlā. Wherever I shall cast my glance they will help me in the remembrance of Rādhā-Govinda. I have got that from him. Māthurīṁ goṣṭavāṭīm, in ordinary Mathurā maṇḍala the goṣṭavāṭī where the cows, the milkman people, they got their village constructed, their association villages and so many, and their nature and their feelings I am being acquainted with, goṣṭavāṭīm. Rādhā-kuṇḍaṁ, Rādhā-kuṇḍa, a favourite place of Rādhā-Govinda for Their pastimes. Giri-varam aho, and this great Govardhana. Rādhikā-mādhavāśāṁ, and lastly he has given the hope, Rādhikā Mādhava. One day I can get the service of Rādhikā and Mādhava. All these assurances I have got from my Gurudeva, so I bow down my head with all my respects to that feet who has given so many things.”

So if we are conscious of all these matters, spiritual materials, then I can think that I have approached my Gurudeva properly. What is my Guru? What is my Guru? He is filled with all these things. There is my Guru. There is my Guru.

And devoid of that, “Oh, ISKCON has much wealth. Anyone can go and get food and so you run to ISKCON.” This is not the proper way of going to ISKCON. The C.I.D’s are always up, “Oh, they have got some political motive. ISKCON means America’s political posting in the garb of sādhus. Rather ISKCON means that C.I.A, ISKCON means a form of C.I.A.” There is another vision; so many visions about ISKCON. But what should the real ISKCON be? It is this. That Raghunātha Dāsa Goswāmī, he gives the real acquaintance of what is ISKCON, what does it mean. So we shall try to understand what is ISKCON. Svarūpa Dāmodara Swāmī he has already said I am told that, “We are holding the banner of ISKCON. You are going away.” Is it not? I heard from some gentleman that Svarūpa Dāmodara he has told, “We are in ISKCON proper. And you are administration; you are neglecting this Vedānta ke? ISKCON Vedānta Society. What is that name?

Devotees: Bhaktivedānta Institute.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bhaktivedānta. “This is real ISKCON.” So what is ISKCON? Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. ISKCON must not deviate from this line. Then that is ISKCON. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. We have not come to deceive ourselves, to fulfil ourselves. ISKCON will fulfil everyone’s inner demand, even extending to the vegetables and the stones, taking them to the feet of Mahāprabhu and the Goswāmīns. That was the end of Swāmī Mahārāja there. We understand and appreciate that. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

What’s the time?

Devotee: ________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _______________ [?] Oh, so long. Nitāi.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Is there time for another question Mahārāja?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: One more question, yes, let me try.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: I read in Swāmī Mahārāja’s books that one should not take the Holy Name as a servant. This is an offence. One should simply pray for some service, to serve the Name. Sometimes a devotee finds some dangerous situation, he may cry out the Holy Name, but that prayer is something like ‘save me from this danger’ yes. So is that an offence to take the Name in that sort of mood of, ‘take me out of this danger?’ Is that the wrong mood when one finds himself in a dangerous position?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course we may pray to the Name, to the sādhu, when he finds any danger. And danger in him means his spiritual life is justified to invoke or invoking the necessary protection there, being conscious of evaluation of his spiritual life. If the motive is a spiritual one then protection he must want. Rakṣiṣyatīti viśvāsaḥ and goptṛtve varaṇaṁ tathā. “You are my protector. If You leave me I will be lost. My aspiration to get service one day of You, that will be lost.” In this way in the spiritual connection we may invoke His help. But if my motive is otherwise to kanak, kāminī, pratiṣṭhā, then if I invoke help, that will, without spiritual for other things, that will be kāmana in the ordinary.

kāmais tais tair hṛta-jñānāḥ, prapadyante [‘nya-devatāḥ

taṁ taṁ niyamam āsthāya, prakṛtyā niyatāḥ svayā]

[“Persons whose good sense is perverted by some material desire become preoccupied with that desire, and thus they adopt the appropriate rules and regulations to worship ‘other gods’.”]

[Bhagavad-gītā, 7.20]

In the garb of devotion that will be. Suppose I’m tempted by something. And I feel tempted to go to that temptation, to embrace that temptation. At that time and I feel there may be some hindrance, some trouble, some danger, then if I, ‘save me from such temptation.’ If I pray to Him it is all right. But if I pray that smoothly I can get that prey of my temptation, that will be bad, awkward. Am I clear? For the satisfaction of my senses, if I want any protection from the high, it will be offence. But if I pray that I may be saved from that prey to keep my spiritual life, that will be all right. To up keep for the interest of my spiritual life, we are allowed to pray to Him. Without that how can we save ourselves? Always His protection, the protection of Guru, sādhu, and Lord, every protection from everywhere I shall try to cry for protection. But if I pray protection to satisfy my mundane object then that will be offence, aparādha.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujaṁ harer, bhajann apakvo ‘tha patet tato yadi

yatra kva vābhadram abhūd amuṣya kiṁ, ko vārtha āpto ‘bhajatāṁ sva-dharmataḥ

[“If someone takes to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even though he may not follow the prescribed duties in the śāstras, nor execute the devotional service properly, and even though in an immature stage he may fall down from the standard, there is no loss or danger for him. But if he carries out all the injunctions for purification in the śāstras, what does it avail him if he is not Kṛṣṇa conscious?”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.5.17]

Just as sarva-dharmān parityajya [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66] encourages us to take some risk, so also here in Bhāgavatam Devaṛṣi Nārada when he’s giving these ten ślokas as advice to Vyāsadeva. Tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujaṁ harer. The immediate call of duty, and the absolute call of duty. For the absolute call of duty we must give up the immediate call of duty. Tyaktvā sva-dharmaṁ caraṇāmbujaṁ harer, bhajann apakvo ‘tha patet tato yadi. And by doing that if temporarily I have to come down in the calculation of this worldly duty, Devaṛṣi Nārada says, “What do you lose thereby? No loss.” Because: Jagat prinite sakama tama varta siddhim vindeta manava [?]

[śreyān sva-dharmo viguṇaḥ, para-dharmāt svanuṣṭhitāt]

sva dharme nidhanaṁ śreyaḥ, para-dharmo bhayāvahaḥ

[“It is better to carry out one’s own duties a little imperfectly rather than faultlessly perform another’s duties. Know that even death is auspicious in the discharge of one’s duties appropriate to his natural position in the ordained socio-religious system, because to pursue another’s path is perilous.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 3.35]

So immediate call of duty you must attend here, it is recommended. And sarva-dharmān parityajya, here He says by attending to your ordinary call of duty, the very nearest call of duty, you may remain and go on in a safe position, safe way. But if you attempt to have something greater, you will have to take the risk. Otherwise, and ultimately you will be victorious because this will give you the result of very less value. And for that attempt you jump beyond your capacity. Then:

nehābhikrama-nāśo 'sti, pratyavāyo na vidyate

svalpam apy asya dharmasya, trāyate mahato bhayāt

[“Even a small beginning in this devotional service cannot go in vain, nor can any loss be suffered. The most insignificant practice of such devotional service saves one from the all- devouring fear of repeated birth and death in this world.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.40]

The going of higher quality what you have got, that is there, that can’t be destroyed, and that accumulated will give you chance and take you to the highest domain. So encouraging, there for progress, progress we must take the risk. And if we are cowed down by our conscientious consideration, then of course we have to lose, detrimental to our high prospect. But anyhow the connection, the favourable environment is highly required for the purpose; environment, association. If we take risk for the highest, there also the association will help us a great deal, a great deal.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Of course the adhikāra vicāra, one’s own capacity should also be taken into account. Otherwise the śāstra and the sādhu has come to the lowest order. The Ācārya: “Begin from here, take this piece, don’t take that piece, this meat, not that meat, take a woman; not go to the prostitutes, one woman.” From there the śāstra has come down to control us, to take us in a gradual way. That would be impossible, if I say that don’t go to women, don’t go to take any meat, then he will go, he will become a Mohammedan. He will leave the whole, utter at once. So to keep up considering his future, to keep up him giving some allowance, that was also in the scripture. But when one comes in connection with the nirguṇa that is another...

End of 81.11.30.B

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Start of 81.12.01.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...the ancient Indian system, the basis of that, knowledge above mortality; that is knowledge proper. Mundane knowledge has got no value. It does not stay. Knowledge permanent we are to enquire somewhere else. That is knowledge proper, which has got its stability and firm foundation. How to acquire that knowledge? How to acquire? So it has been dealt with in Vedic education. Veda means ‘know’, the meaning of the word Veda that is ‘know.’ No rhyme and reason shown for that, “Why you should know this?” No explanation. “Know.” Because doubt is absent in that plane, no cheating is possible in that plane. So simple direct transaction, do, know, all friendly, confidential, stainless conduct. This is good, that is good, no cheating tendency is possible, no suspicion, Veda.

This is the plane of misunderstanding, misgiving, doubt, suspicion, then inference, then examination. A vulnerable and vitiated plane where people cheat one another. So everyone cannot rely on others, he has to examine whether it is true, whether he’s being deceived or not. So he’s to check that, whatever is told to him, given to him, he’s to check whether he’s being deceived or not. But where cheating is unknown, the transactions are very simple and straight. No-one deceives anyone. From that plane what comes down, what suggestion comes down, that does not give any reason for that. Now, how to attain that sort of knowledge, true knowledge, non-misunderstanding zone and non-deceiving knowledge? In Bhagavad-gītā we find,

tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā

upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ, jñāninas tattva darśinaḥ

[“You will be able to attain all this knowledge by satisfying the enlightened spiritual master with prostrate obeisances, relevant enquiry, and sincere service. Great souls who are most expert in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will teach you that divine knowledge.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.34]

Tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā. With this remuneration you are to approach towards that domain of knowledge. Praṇipāt - surrender, paripraśna - honest enquiry, and sevā - serving attitude. More friendly with the mentality of slavery, you are to approach in that plane of knowledge. That higher knowledge won’t come to serve you, a person of status which is so low. If you want that at all, you are to serve Him. He will utilise you, and not you will be able to utilise Him, that higher knowledge. He’s subject. You are subject of this mundane world and you’ll have to become object to be handled by the super knowledge of that plane. If you want that, the connection of that higher knowledge, you are to approach in that attitude, that plane. Praṇipāt - that means I have finished my experience here. I have nothing to aspire after anything in this, no charm here for me, I have finished. Paripraśna - honest enquiry, submissive humility, humble enquiry with sincere eagerness, and not to challenge, not in a challenging mood, then that won’t care to come down to you. That is sufficient, full in itself, full in itself, or Himself. And sevā - you are to enter there only to fulfil their purpose. That can’t be subservient to you, a tiny person with meagre experience and conception of mean fulfilment. You cannot handle Him. If you like to be handled by Him, then you can only approach. So such favourable environment should be created in Gurukula where a knowledge proper is to be cultivated, if you want that at all. That is supreme, knowledge is supreme, that is not subservient to this mundane conception, the world of mortality. That is sat-cit-ānanda. That is unassailable existence, cit - that is consciousness in Himself…

End of 81.12.01.A

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Start of 81.12.02.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...karma-rangra, He has not anything to do direct with us. We are left free, and as we shall do, we shall get the result in that manner. He’s onlooker only ________ [?] But it is His duty to see that one may not go scot free. That is His lookout. So we are direct concerned with our karma. But karma kiyate, the result of karma, good or bad, that diminishes, vanishes, so we shall continue with karma always. Avoid bad karma we shall take to good karma, and the good karma must be continued. Beyond that there is no realm. He does not accept that cid vilasa, cid bhumika, the land of dedication is not admitted by Jaimini as well as Śaṅkara.

Only the Vaiṣṇava Ācārya they have discovered another plane of living, and that living by dedication. And that is the real world, and this is... They have only, of that faith. Direct world of living is there, a happy world.

And according to them, only this unhappy world is existing, and if you want pure happiness, like Jaimini says, that you will do always good work and you will enjoy heaven, heavenly life. So your work is everything _____________________ [?] That is the conception, so I show my respect towards my karma, he’s my providence. He can do anything and everything. So only we take shelter in karma.

And Śaṅkarācārya says, “No. Karma adhikāra, what we acquire by our karma, that is trifling, that is transient, and reactionary, so we shall try to find some complete rest from this wild goose chasing. To live here means wild goose chasing, and we must stop that and we shall take to complete eternal rest in samādhi, just like in suṣupti, sound sleep.” That is Buddhist or Śaṅkara in some way or other.

But the Vaiṣṇava Ācāryas say, “No. There is a world of happiness, and that is true, and we can live only by thorough dedication towards the absolute cause.” And there is gradation, Rāmānuja, Madhvācārya, Nimbarka, Viṣṇuswāmī. Rāmānandi section: from Rāmānuja, Rāmānandi, an offshoot. From Madhvācārya the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava. From Viṣṇuswāmī the Vallabha School, Vallabhācārya School. And from Nimbarka there’s Harivyāsa and Haridāsa School, little modified we find. From these schools also a main branch has sprung up.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Haribras?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nimbarka is called Haridāsa. The name was very much appreciated by Agbar Barsa [?]. He was Haridāsa. So there were some persons who make much with Haridāsa. But the original propounder of the faith was Harivyāsa, means Nimbarka, Nimbarkācārya. And they come from Catuḥsana, and Madhvācārya from Brahmā, Rāmānuja from Lakṣmī, and Viṣṇuswāmī from Rudra, Śiva. Śrī-brahma-rudra-sanakā vaiṣṇavāḥ kṣiti-pāvanāḥ

[sampradāya vihīnā ye mantrās te niṣiphalā matāḥ

ataḥ kalau bhaviṣyanti catvāraḥ sampradāyinaḥ

śrī-brahma-rudra-sanakā vaiṣṇavāḥ kṣiti-pāvanāḥ

catvāras te kalau bhāvyā hy utkale puruṣottamāt]

[“If someone receives a mantra from a Guru who doesn’t come in a bona fide sampradāya that mantra will have no potency and will be fruitless. Hence in the age of Kali there will arise four founders of sampradāyas, namely Śrī, Brahmā, Rudra and Sanaka. These four Vaiṣṇavas are the sanctifiers of the earth. Their four respective sampradāyas will arise from the Supreme Personality of Godhead in Utkal (Orissa).”] [Padma Purāṇa]

Middle age Ācārya from all these four camps is Śrī, Rāmānuja. And Brahmā means Madhvācārya. Rudra means Viṣṇuswāmī. And Catuḥsana is Nimbarka. A middle age Ācārya.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

What is Satsvarūpa doing there? Looking after administration, or writing?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: He’s writing. He’s leaving today for Vṛndāvana. He’s going back.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh. Vṛndāvana. And that gentleman, he’s also leaving for Vṛndāvana – Dāmodara.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Dāmodara, after two weeks.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh, he will stay here for two weeks. Hare Kṛṣṇa. No other gentleman has come there, newly?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: No. No one has come. Bhakti Caru Mahārāja has sent message he is coming.

Devotee: He’s coming today.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He’s coming today, there, with Gopāla Kṛṣṇa?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Satajanma and Hṛdayānanda.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But he told that he will accompany Gopāla Kṛṣṇa there today?

Devotee: I didn’t hear that he is coming today, Gopāla Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gopāla Kṛṣṇa. Then who told it? Hari Charan told it, that he will come with Gopāla Kṛṣṇa, perhaps this morning to Māyāpur and evening here. That he told, Hari Charan. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gopāla Kṛṣṇa he’s an Ācārya?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: No, GBC.

Devotee: He’s aspiring to be an Ācārya.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh! He’s trying to become Ācārya.

Devotee: They are promising.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. He perhaps last year he came to see me, or year before last?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Last year.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And he was a candidate for Ācāryaship he expressed.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Or this year it must have been.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But it was not granted so he was dissatisfied. This year perhaps he will get recognition. The principle has been accepted last year, they told, after their sitting finished. And Gopāla Kṛṣṇa came and told, “There are no new Ācāryas have been taken.”

I remarked, this is injudicious and unfortunate.

Then Bhāvānanda and Jayapataka came to me. “Perhaps you were misinformed. We have accepted the principle that we shall increase the number of Ācāryas. We are not against, so your remarks are based on erroneous information.”

But to accept the principle only is not the whole thing.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Where is Jidish Prabhu?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He said he’s coming.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, when you used to meet with our Prabhupāda at Sitakanta Banerjee Lane, did he used to tell you, or did you discuss that world preaching at that time, preaching all around the world? It might have come?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No. At that time perhaps he had no conception of world preaching, but all India preaching. And especially approaching the political leaders, and try to convert them. That tendency I found in him. Before that perhaps he might have said when he was in business in Bombay, and I was in that Maṭha, might have talked.

At that time Bon Mahārāja and a party they were preaching in England, Germany also. Bon Mahārāja met Hitler also. Hitler, he was busily engaged, there was an engagement with Hitler, but when he approached at the fixed time then he saw that Hitler is engaged in serious thought and moving in a corridor. And when he was informed that, ‘you have made engagement with Swāmī Bon,’ then he sent another gentleman. “I’m very busy now. You please on my behalf talk to Swāmīji.” He sent one gentleman, perhaps Goebbels or someone. But he saw that Hitler is like half mad he’s moving in the corridor. Bon Mahārāja told me.

Devotee: Hitler was very interested in Vedic literature, in a perverted way?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not in Vedic literature but some forms he observed what is akin to Vedic custom. That we appreciate. Just to put the females to the harem and to make them attentive towards nurturing good child, to produce good children for the country. And he ordered, perhaps made a law to sterilise the diseased persons to produce children. “I don’t want that the country will be full of some diseased men. Good health and good intellect men I want.” And also he announced that, “Any lady who will produce good children to the country they will be rewarded. They shall get a reward who will be able to contribute good children to the country.”

That is _______________________________ [?] The necessity of marrying is to produce good child, and not sense pleasure. Of course according to his conception of good child, that was then another. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Dictatorship, I like that, dictatorship. Of course in a good man, that is presupposed. There is Gurukula. Gurukula means Guru is all in all. The obedience, the discipline, we are to teach, we are to learn. Merit must be given upper hand. That vox populi is not vox dei. Vox dei should be vox populi. The vox populi is vox dei, the mass will guide, and the intelligentsia will be compelled to follow that: that is an unhealthy thing. The higher realisation will guide the lower. And higher realisation must come under the revealed truth: revelation guide. Here the sphere of misconception. So light must come from beyond the world of misconception, and we’ll be benefited thereby. That is the underlying idea.

When perhaps in the first issue of Back to Godhead I had one article there, and there I wrote in that spirit, “The Vyāsadeva the great dictator,” I put this expression, “The Vyāsadeva, the great dictator in the religious world. What he has received, he has written in the spirit of a dictatorship. Do this. Veda is dictator. Revealed truth is also dictator, in the spirit of dictatorship. Do this. Why? No reason. Do this. It will be your good.”

If one says, “Why?” he’s unqualified, he’s unqualified for the soil. If there is doubt, he’s only prepared to live in the land of doubt, suspicion, cheating, all these things. There is the unknown. In a wholesome healthy soil the cheating is unknown, so whatever one will say that will be true. Whatever another one will ask that will be true. That is supposed to be true cent per cent. None wants to deceive. That should be the character, characteristic of a normal soil.

When the mother says to the child: “You do this.”

“Why should I do mother: why should I do that?”

Giving something, “You take this food.”

“Oh. I should check if there is poison in it. With suspicion whether I should take this food given by my affectionate mother and I submit, I shall before taking I shall feel I should examine whether any wrong is there.”

This is a very lower type of life, undesirable. So in high plane of life such suspicion and examination and doubt, all these things that cannot prevail: simple transaction.

Devotee: But the king, the dictator, he is always very much doubtful. He’s always checking to see if the food is...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The land of doubtful, to live in the land of doubtfulness, that is not a happy thing. It is earned only by our ill fate, the result of our evil action. We are not fit to live in the normal land. Unfit, so we are pushed into the land of doubt, or land of deception. Doubt, deception, deception has grown within us doubt.

Devotee: _______________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________________ [?] Hare Kṛṣṇa. _________ [?] Who is here?

Devotee: Mukunda mālā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mukunda mālā. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. ___________________________________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: __________________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Vidagdha Prabhu, have you heard that Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Prabhu is coming from Māyāpur now, today?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: I have not heard.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You have not heard. And Navadwīpa Prabhu has heard?

Navadwīpa Prabhu: This morning my wife told me that just three were coming. Bhakti Caru, Sadadhanya Swāmī, and Adridharan, the president of Calcutta: but no mention of Gopāla Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. ________________________________________ [?]

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Swāmī Mahārāja, Beyond Birth And Death, ________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Beyond? Not between?

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Between we are having experience of our own, but beyond birth and death. _________________________ [?] beyond birth and death.

Devotee: __________________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Fool, a cartoon.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes, like that, exactly.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Beyond birth and death ________________________________ [?]

Skeleton. Who is dissatisfied with any food of this world, he wants to see if there is anything beyond birth and death, try to find out. Here, suffering concur, this is the highest production of this world ultimately is this figure, no food, trying to find out if any hope is outside.

Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja said ______________________ [?] “What is the news of the world, in general?” Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja told: _____________________________________________ [?]

Man is being seasoned in a cauldron. ______________________________ [?] ādhiyātmika, ādhibhautika, ādhidaivika. He’s being fried in a cauldron. Ādhiyātmika, with some repenting mood from within, from the pain of the disease from the body; and the ādhibhautika, one animal is attacking another. Ādhidaivika, the famine, flood, as the result of his previous karma is burning him. This is the – always being burned, every jīva soul in bondage is always being burned and the fire is of three types, the heat, and the heat is of three types. One, famine, flood, this ādhidaivika, these natural accidents; and then one jīva is troubling another, is the cause of misery, and then another type from within, either a disease or mental disease. So always suffering from these troubles, so such troubled man is trying to find out if anything beyond this world where ultimately we are a skeleton, nothing else. That may be the idea of the cartoon. The skeleton is peeping through a window whether there is any place where I can grow some flesh and blood which is being eaten up here and reducing to mere skeleton. Can I thrive in any other soil, in Candraloka, or in Sukra, or in any other place? Hare Kṛṣṇa. Vaikuṇṭha. Here skeleton is true, ultimately the skeleton is the truth here. Everything is being eaten up by the time and space and trying to reduce anyone and everyone to be a skeleton. “Oh you skeleton, try to find out a place where you can live a healthy life, you don’t have to become a skeleton. Thinking, thinking, thinking.”

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Vidagdha Prabhu, what duty you have got now to discharge there?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Still with the Māyāpur samādhi Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You have come to purchase something for samādhi, materials?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: No. Going to Calcutta.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh, you are going to Calcutta, to meet?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: I work with an artist in Calcutta. Mahārāja, Satya Nārāyaṇa Prabhu, we were discussing some of your Kṛṣṇa kathā and he was saying there would be a market, there would be some devotees very much interested in seeing a small book of your quotes. Of quotes we might get from tapes that we have taken.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: __________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Satya Nārāyaṇa Prabhu he’s in ISKCON, but he, why should he take trouble of publishing them? With any criticism, or as it is?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: As it is. He’s not editing. He’s not saying we should publish with BBT. But we should get some quotes, nice quotes we can use in our preaching all over the world.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. One who has got, who has caught that, he may do, he may publish. I have no objection. Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja he also asked me that, ‘May we print all these things?’ Yes, you do. Anyone who has heard it he may do and publish if he thinks what is to do some good to the world then of course he’s justified to do that. I don’t want to make it a trade. It must be the most benevolent trade of Mahāprabhu. No special trade, but His trade to convert all under Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That broadest idea we must embrace, one and all. It is for the interest of Mahāprabhu and Kṛṣṇa, Prabhupāda, Swāmī Mahārāja; for their interest if it is meant, worth something, everyone is at liberty to do that. It is not mine. If the words come from our master, from Kṛṣṇa, everyone should have right to accept that, and to spread that.

yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa, [āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa

kabhu nā vādhibe tomāra viṣaya-taraṅga, punarapi ei ṭhāñi pābe mora saṅga]

[“Instruct whoever you meet in the science of Kṛṣṇa. Teach them the instructions of Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā, and the teachings about Kṛṣṇa in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way, on My order, become a Guru and liberate everyone in the land. If you follow this instruction, the waves of materialism within this world will not affect you. Indeed, if you follow My order, you will soon attain My association.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 7.128-9]

If they consider that it’s Kṛṣṇa upadeśa then they’re at liberty to spread it anywhere and everywhere. His conscience to be justified: if he sincerely thinks that, of course he’ll do it. It is not mine, it is of my Gurudeva, and he will say it is of Mahāprabhu, He of Bhāgavatam, Vyāsadeva: in this way. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

And if anyone gets any real benefit out of that then I shall get reward from above and I shall get good will from them also. I want that sort of blessing for my own sustenance, I want that. Gaura Haribol. The reaction will come to me if really that is helpful, then reaction will come to me to bless me, to make me more fit for the service of my Lord. Gaura Haribol. Without that I may not have anything to cherish in my heart. I may not do. I pray to my Lord.

To make trade over this Hari kathā, our Guru Mahārāja condemned it, this Pran Gopāla Goswāmī and others. To make money Pran Gopāla Goswāmī came to Gaura Kiśora Bābājī Mahārāja to read Bhāgavatam. He requested Bābājī Mahārāja one day, “You hear how I explain Bhāgavatam.” Bābājī Mahārāja does not say anything. Then one day he himself came with his men and made arrangements and invited also the audience and went on explaining.

Bābājī Mahārāja is sitting silent. Then when he went away then he asked one of his attendants, “Cleanse this place.”

“Why? This is already very, no dirt, he already cleansed, plane, compound.”

“No, no, no. What I say you do it.”

“What do you say Bābājī Mahārāja? I can’t follow you. This is already very clear. Nothing is here. The Goswāmī just had his Bhāgavatam pāṭham here and it is very clear.”

“No, no. You say that you heard Bhāgavatam, I heard money, money, money. What he, so many talks, so many gestures, postures, so many singing tunes, all these things pronounced, pronouncing of the śloka, the art, everything only to get money, to earn money. He will advertise that, “Gaura Kiśora Bābājī he has heard Bhāgavatam from me.” So more demand will come and more money he will earn. He has not spoken anything in praise of the Lord. That was not his inner purpose, but how he will be able to earn more money. He’s using Bhāgavatam for that. And the money will be utilised for the pleasure of his children and wife. And he’s trying to force Kṛṣṇa to serve, using Kṛṣṇa to serve his wife and children. I see it like that. So this is filthy. Purify this place, and with some go-my, the cow dung.”

When in Australia, Swāmī Mahārāja, that paper cutting is with me perhaps, when Swāmī Mahārāja came down from the plane - got down, so many came to welcome him. Then one newspaper reporter just approached, “How these expenses you manage? You sell books, we are told.”

“But we are not book sellers,” he answered in a particular, peculiar way. “We are doing Kṛṣṇa kīrtana giving book about Kṛṣṇa, they are giving money. And money is used only for Kṛṣṇa kīrtana.”

In this way the rolling business for Kṛṣṇa, not any motive of trade, to serve other base purposes of human nature. So if it is in that way it is all right, but not for any trade. That is what is wanted.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Kṛṣṇa.

Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

The produce must go to Kṛṣṇa, must go to Guru, Vaiṣṇava, Kṛṣṇa and kāṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa and His own group.

ahaṁ hi sarva-yajñānāṁ, bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca

[na tu mām abhijānanti, tattvenātaś cyavanti te]

[“-Because I alone am the enjoyer and rewarder of all sacrifices. But since they cannot know Me in this way, they again undergo birth, disease, infirmity, and death.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.24]

“Only I am the sole enjoyer of the whole.”

Reality is For Itself, For Itself. That is the only criterion we should keep up in our mind. Artheṣu abhijñaḥ [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.1.1] He knows the meaning of every movement, even of an ant or a creeper. He has got the idea why the ant is moving to which direction, and the creeper blown by the wind, moving which way, what is the meaning. He Himself only knows it. Artheṣu abhijñaḥ, what is the purpose of this slight movement, or taking rest, He only knows and it is to fulfil His purpose. And we are to find out that plane of thinking and to become one with that, in consonance, in harmony, artheṣu abhijñaḥ.

Dhāmnā svena sadā nirasta-kuhakaṁ [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.1.1] Half knowledge, then misconception is outside, but in his own plane of thinking it is all harmony, all right, no over-lapping, no fight or natural selection or, what is that, natural selection and survival of the fittest. Always fighting, struggle: struggle of two kinds, struggles to create discord and struggle to be reinstated towards harmony. The sādhaka, the Vaiṣṇava, they’re also struggling, but to be reinstated into harmony, a harmonious life. That is desirable, here, that should be normal here. All should struggle to be reinstated into real harmony of the whole. But the struggle to get out opposite direction and prefer a life of devouring each other, disturbing each other, that is undesirable. That is māyā. At the cost of others to make one’s own self to be big, then that is also in a concocting line, illusory line. Everyone is struggling to become big, but that is illusion, māyā. That big is not properly big. The real bigness is on the other side.

dvau bhūta-sargau loke 'smin, daiva āsura eva ca

[daivo vistaraśaḥ prokta, āsuraṁ pārtha me śṛṇu]

[“O Pārtha, the living beings in this world are seen to be of two natures - godly and demoniac. I have already elaborately described the godly nature to you, so now hear from Me about the demoniac nature.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 16.6]

dvau bhuta-sargau loke’sminn daiva asura eva ca

visnu-bhaktah smrto daiva asuras-tada-viparyayah

[“There are two classes of men in this created world, the demoniac and the godly. The devotees of Lord Viṣṇu are the godly. Those who are just the opposite are called demons.”]

[Padma Purāṇa] & [Gauḍīya Kaṇṭhahāra, 14.1]

This is in Viṣṇu Purāṇa, and in Gītā, dvau bhūta-sargau loke 'smin, daiva āsura eva ca.

daivī sampad vimokṣāya, nibandhāyāsurī matā

[mā śucaḥ sampadaṁ daivīm, abhijāto 'si pāṇḍava]

[“The godly and virtuous qualities have been described as the cause of liberation, and the demoniac qualities have been described as the cause of certain bondage. O Pāṇḍava, you need not worry, for your nature is godly and virtuous from birth.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 16.5]

Āsurī meant only for closer bondage, and daiva that is who are struggling towards right direction. Two sections struggling here; one towards positive, another plodding in the negative, opposite. Dvau bhūta-sargau loke 'smin, daiva āsura eva ca. Daivī sampad vimokṣāya, nibandhāyāsurī matā, meant for that.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Who was telling of publishing? Satya Nārāyaṇa?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: No Mahārāja, it was an idea, he became very enlivened...

End of 81.12.02.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.02.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... that Guru will be disturbed.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: If that is so, the same common interest, we are to see whether it is the thing of that type or something else of lower type. And this should be applied in their case. In the next generation, what they’re applying for Swāmī Mahārāja, in the next generation, the disciple of one Ācārya he will feel the same thing about the disciple of another Ācārya, that my Guru is Jagat Guru, and his Guru he thinks Jagat Guru. And if he makes disciples of his Guru to keep up the fame of his own Guru, then my Guru’s portion is being taken up. The same thing will be repeated in the next generation amongst them. Then Prabhupāda will not be the centre of interest, the other eleven Ācāryas they will become independent centre, and their Guru’s will fight with this principle, that to appreciate the words of another Ācārya is to diminish the fame of my Ācārya. The same thing will be repeated there. So one who does not know the real quality of the thing, they will quarrel in this way. And that will go on to infinite time; infinity. Do you follow?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The quality of things, wherever we get it; we are to feel, understand and accept, in our own interest as well as for the interest of all. So the absolute and the relative, I am always talking, that these two will come into seeming apparent fight. But the absolute should be accepted and the relative should be sacrificed. But still, the relative is necessary.

A boy, he must put his whole faith in the teacher in the primary school, otherwise it will be hampering if he thinks that, ‘what my teacher teaches me, that is all false, or of lower type.’ But when he will grow up he will accept another higher education teacher, and that does not mean that the primary teacher is neglected or insulted.

Progress means elimination and progress means acceptance. For our own interest wherever we find akin to what was given by our Guru Mahārāja, to enlighten that more and to make me understand more clearly what I heard from Guru Mahārāja, that will be acceptable, for his cause. Otherwise, what I have taken in the prison house of my mind, my scholarship, or my any other inner cell, I shall fix Him there? But He has got infinite possibility. He is not a finite thing. He is infinite. And as much as in the cell of my brain I have imprisoned him, I shall only stick to that? What is this? I am a living thing, or I am also a dead particle of a sand? Any growth, what I have received from him, can it grow, or it is finished there? I have reached the infinite standard? What do they think? What they have accepted, they could accept, that’s the limit, and nothing more?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: They think there’s nothing more. They say there’s nothing more.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nothing more! Then we show our daṇḍavats to them from far away. Dandavata dulata bhakativinoda veti [?] We are not worshippers of that, that they are finished, they have attained perfection. If they think like that, they, all those ten, eleven Ācāryas they have attained perfection, we hate it. Still they should consider that they are students, and not finished professors who has known anything and everything. They should think themselves to be bona fide students, still students. And they have come to talk about the infinite and not finite thing.

na prema-gandho 'sti darāpi me harau [krandāmi saubhāgya-bharaṁ prakāśitum

vaṁśī-vilāsy-ānana-lokanaṁ vinā, vibharmmi yat prāṇa-pataṅgakān vṛthā]

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said: “My dear friends, I have not the slightest tinge of love of Godhead within My heart. When you see Me crying in separation, I am just falsely exhibiting a demonstration of My great fortune. Indeed, not seeing the beautiful face of Kṛṣṇa playing His flute, I continue to live My life like an insect, without purpose.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya- līlā, 2.45]

Then why Jayapataka runs, Bhāvānanda runs to me, to check Jayatīrtha that he says, “I have so many sentiments, sattvika-bhāva.” That he’s a bona fide Ācārya, recognition from Swāmī Mahārāja himself? Why do they come? Why do they come against Haṁsadūta? That he’s doing wrong. What is the justification? They have attained the finished stage? Why do they come against Tamal Kṛṣṇa? And want to make them oust? They have all attained perfection? Then why one comes to fight against another even to oust them from the society? What is there? This false vanity. They have not come in connection with infinite, the transactions of finite things they are engaged in. What’s the time?

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nine thirty?

Devotee: Five to ten.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nearly ten.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: These are the problems that I face every day.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. That is every day that will be in our minds also always, the fight between finite and infinite knowledge. Not only in them, but within us also, this fight will go on. That I have known, what I have known, it is the absolute? No. I have not finished knowledge, yet I have to know. Yet I have to know.

The Brahmā himself says that, “I am fully deceived by Your līlā Master. I am nowhere.” The Brahmā himself says, “Everyone says, one who has come in connection with the infinite, he cannot but say this; that I am nothing.”

That should be the salient point. Purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi sei laghiṣṭha [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 5.205] The propounder of the greatest śāstra in Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, he says, how his posing is, and the sincere posing, purīṣera kīṭa haite. They’re ashamed to express their negative character, negative development which is real wealth for the disciple, for the potency; to increase the negative characteristic of the seeker? Purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi sei laghiṣṭha. They feel ashamed there? Muñi sei laghiṣṭha. Jagāi mādhāi haite muñi se pāpiṣṭha. Kavirāja Goswāmī says and sincerely says, and still we try to have the dust of his feet. Because he says of himself as so low, so mean. Such a negative character is shown there. So we fall at his feet. And if he says, “I have finished, God, Caitanya is my disciple,” we shall shoot him.

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Like Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura as he dealt with Bishkisana. [the bogus incarnation of Viṣṇu] Gaura Haribol. [laughing] So you get me excited. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya. Take this off. You have recorded me. You are putting me into a cell, a prison house. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Gadādhara.

End of 81.12.02.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.03.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam is with you?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: If I may take it and do final correction after Madhusudana Mahārāja has read it. Because one or two pages...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He has gone through partially, and also given his opinion, that it is not up to mark.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: I see.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Caru Swāmī has kept that copy with him, but he’s very busy.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. He has four chapters.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: With him only?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yeah.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Others?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: I have, copies.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: First four chapters he took?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. And Venkatta also has four chapters, copies. I made three copies.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Only three copies? Full, three copies, you have produced?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yeah.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And one given to Caru Swāmī, no, only first four chapters?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The rest with you?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: And some with Venkatta, three chapters.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Three? Then seven, another three.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: I’m holding the remainder.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Another three, but that is one copy, and another which you have given to me.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes, that’s the original.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There is also there eight chapters?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: No, that’s the whole thing.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The all, complete.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yeah.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And another copy, these two copies, another third copy with whom?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Myself.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Complete?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Not complete because…

Bhāratī Mahārāja: [Venkatta] I have some parts of that chapter.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Why?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Because one part, some parts, part with him.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is, some with Caru Swāmī, you, and he?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yeah.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This is one copy, and one full given to me. And the third copy?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: I have it.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Full?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Well, you see, Mahārāja, what they have is from the same chapter, so I’m without some. But he’ll give it to me now. I’m lacking in some chapters, but he has it.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right. You have three full copies are there?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yeah.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Full set, three? One set with me.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: One set with you and one with me now.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

[About 2:40 minutes of Bengali?]

Bhāratī Mahārāja: What did they put, some type of meat? What type of meat was it?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The dead body of the buffalo, of the cow, they put there on the other bank of the tank. Outside the water, in that fallow land they have cast the dead body. And we are opposing that, “No, just in front of the Maṭha. Dehastan, such nasty thing should not be done. You take it far off.” But the youngsters of communist mentality they won’t care, they get joy in doing such disturbing things. They’re enjoying here, the tamasic ānanda. This is piśāci, this is piśācik, not raja-guṇa, not the demons, lower than demonic, that is piśācik.

Devotees: Goblins. Witches. Ghosts.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Witches, ghosts. Shakespeare’s ghost was a little gentle.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: More dignified.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That’s more dignified that showed himself to Hamlet, father’s ghost. In this word ghost, that means some body of lustre, that is God the Ghost.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Holy Ghost.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Holy Ghost. That is without this material figure. God the Holy Ghost, God the son, and God the father, Trinity. God the creator, and God in the Guru, comes to relieve as Guru, God as Guru, God as creator, and God as in its inconceivable, transcendental existence. That is beyond our calculation, that is Holy Ghost, something nearer to Brahman. Ghost, it is beyond our conception. That is some halo, which we cannot discriminate, it is beyond our discrimination. And of these three forms, what is considered to be the highest, the original? No such mention?

Devotee: God the Father. They say that they’re all the same.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: One and the same of course.

Devotee: But they say that the Father is the highest conception.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Father is highest conception, the creator. And then, what? What is the necessity of the Holy Ghost, their transcendental conception of Him? Which we cannot discriminate, differentiate and specify, what is the necessity of that aspect? Is that the most original conception, and from there the Father conception has come out? And from Father, the Son conception, that is the Guru conception has come out. What is the fundamental conception? Is it hazy, or it is of differentiated character? Maybe beyond our present conception, but if He likes, as we say, He can make us conceive of His one part, however negligent it may be. But if He likes He can help us to conceive Him, what He is. That is one thing. And He’s beyond conception, the eternal aspect, that we cannot be eligible to have any trace of that, they’re in His power also, to make that part to bring to our front, area of conception, what is the nature of that.

Devotee: Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Devotee: There is a book in the United States which was discovered in the library called [Journey to] Unknown India. And it is about during the Second World War when the foreigners were imprisoned or kept in the containment camps, concentration camps, here in India. And there’s a story about one man who came from Austria, he was the author, who was writing his biography, his experiences.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: __________________________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Your Godbrother, your German Godbrother, he met your Godbrother in the concentration camp.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. German Godbrother, one Herr Schulze [later Sadānanda dāsa], he was concentrated because he had German nationality he was taken into concentration camp. At that time, some European gentleman, maybe Austrian I don’t know, he was also taken into prison and they were in the same room, both of them stayed for long time. And from Schulze my Godbrother, he got many things. He got many instructions about Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism and he was converted mentally. And when he came out then Schulze took him to Bon Mahārāja and he took initiation from Bon Mahārāja. I forget his name.

Devotee: Walter... [Eidlitz.] [Later Vāmana dāsa]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then he went to Europe and he preached, he was a very eloquent speaker I heard, and he preached very widely, especially in Italy and Norway, Sweden. Perhaps he took his nationality in Sweden. Sweden was some neutral country. He took nationality in Sweden and lived there and he was preaching about Gaura-Nityānanda. So much so that one Indian, Bengali gentleman, after attending his meeting in Italy he came here and described that, “You say that the whole world will be converted into Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism. It is not impossible, because what I saw with my own eyes in Italy in a big assembly the gentleman is delivering his lecture and sometimes in the middle of his lecture, “Gaura-Nityānanda kī jaya” and the whole mob is repeating, “Gaura-Nityānanda kī jaya.”

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: “That I saw with my own eyes in a meeting in Italy. So I think you say that one day the whole world will come under the banner of Gaura-Nityānanda it may not be impossible.” One gentleman told. So he was a good speaker and was a very energetic man and he was doing in such a way I heard it, from different sources. But one source is so vivid.

But I asked also Swāmī Mahārāja, “Have you come across with that gentleman who did so much for Gaura-Nityānanda? Is he living or dead?”

Swāmī Mahārāja said, “I don’t know about him, perhaps he has been dead.” Swāmī Mahārāja told me.

I told him, already, he’s very energetic and very pushing man and he was preaching very sincerely. I got information from different sources. You please try to find him out and he will help you a great deal perhaps.

Devotee: In the prison camp there were many, many Christians, so he was preaching that concept of the Trinity. He was explaining it to them, to the Christian Ministers and the Priests there in the concentration camp, telling them something to do with Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The Schulze he had much affection for me. When he came I was in Bombay. Bon Mahārāja came with two gentlemen, German gentlemen. One Herr Schulze a good scholar, he was conversant in eight languages of Europe, and a good scholar. And another, a son of a Baron, he knew only the cultivation etc. Both of them came. I was at that time in charge of Bombay Maṭha, and Swāmī Mahārāja was also there, and Madhusudan Mahārāja he was also there at that time. I went to receive them from the ship and took them in the morning, our Maṭha. I found Bon Mahārāja a quite changed man, no daṇḍam, no tuft of hair, and also English fashion. Then in a round table, I have already told many times, we took our seat, that Schulze, Swāmī Mahārāja, Bon Mahārāja, myself, perhaps these four or five in a round table conference. I asked Bon Mahārāja, why do I find you in such dress? Your previous dress no trace.

Then he, in a dignified way answered me, replied to me. “Oh, there these, your orthodox fashion can’t work, or can’t stay. England is another type of land. They also dress orthodox formality, blind faith, so that cannot be pushed there. And they have got their own understanding, own reasoning, own philosophy, etc.”

But I was already a student of philosophy here, so I read arguments on both the sides for the atheists and the theist, so I had my strong position in the side of the theist. I challenged him. What are the questions that cannot be answered? Although they may be atheists of the worst type, but I think I can answer, reply to the questions of the atheist also. So there the argument began, discussion began, and at last Bon Mahārāja was defeated.

And Swāmī Mahārāja spoke aloud, cried aloud, “Here Europe is defeated by Asia.”

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And Schulze, that German scholar he was very minutely watching the discussion between myself and Bon Mahārāja. Then, I asked him, in course of conversation he told, “That lectures of Bon Mahārāja did not attract me most, but I was really attracted by the book of Sanyal, Professor Nisikanta Sanyal, M.A. Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, that book attracted me really, the thought underlying.”

Anyhow, he was able to speak the salient points of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, and he had some special affection for me also.

But Bon Mahārāja he moved, wandered about European states and more catholic in his behaviour, conduct. So he generally had choice to live sometimes with Bon Mahārāja.

And there was another gentleman Satyavasta Vakurvya [?] he was also an M.A. and very external indifference, vairāgya, so he had much inclination with him. And later on I found some sort of inclination towards Śaṅkara philosophy, to my disappointment. I sometimes heard him to plead for Śaṅkara philosophy. So I caught that gentleman, that Satyavastabhya, Satyanjan [?] You are going away from cid-vilāsa, that is transcendental differentiated philosophy, and going towards non-differentiated. What is your reason? In Mathurā I gave a challenge to him. And of course he at that time he was defeated. I put it this way: mathura atattva [?], in Bhāgavatam:

dīkṣā-kāle bhakta kare ātma-samarpaṇa, sei kāle kṛṣṇa tāre kare ātma-sama

[“At the time of initiation, when a devotee fully surrenders unto the service of the Lord, Kṛṣṇa accepts him to be as good as Himself.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 4.192]

No, this verse:

śaraṇāgatera, akiñcanera – eka -i lakṣaṇa, tāra madhye praveśaye ’ātma-samarpaṇa’

[“There are two kinds of devotees - those who are fully satiated and free from all material desires and those who are fully surrendered to the lotus feet of the Lord. Their qualities are one and the same, but those who are fully surrendered to Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet are qualified with another transcendental quality, ātma-samarpaṇa, full surrender without reservation.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.99]

I challenged to him to explain this point, what is the meaning underlying. A śaraṇāgata, one who has surrendered, he’s already akiñcana, akiñcana - that he thinks he has got nothing, he is not master of anything in this world, akiñcana. That is your highest point - akiñcana, niṣkiñcana, nothing to desire, nothing to possess, but this is the basis of śaraṇāgati, it is the negative side. But śaraṇāgati has come to something positive. Tāra madhye praveśaye ’ātma-samarpaṇa’. He’s not only selfless, self-effacement is already there, then he again surrenders him, surrenders him to what? To higher substance, it is sure, certain. If he connects himself with some surrendered area, a higher area, how do you explain this? Then he could not.

martyo yadā tyakta-samasta-karmā, niveditātmā vicikīrṣito me

tadāmṛtatvaṁ pratipadyamāno, mayātma-bhūyāya ca kalpate vai

[“One who is subjected to birth and death attains immortality when he gives up all material activities, dedicates his life to the execution of My order, and acts according to My directions. In this way, he becomes fit to enjoy the spiritual bliss derived from exchanging loving mellows with Me.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.29.34]

How do you explain this?

Then that gentleman, though my God-brother, he told, “Your discussions should take place in Benares.” Benares is the highest seat of the Māyāvādīns. So that gentleman lastly had this deplorable connection with Māyāvāda, this Schulze. No further connection with him I got. Now I think they’re all gone, those two, not living any more.

So to cross the debt of niṣkiñcana, that with the conception that we are not master. Religions generally go up to that. But we have got our Master. We are not masters of this world, this is finished. But I have no right in the whole of the organisation, that I am a paid part of the whole and I have got my respective duty towards the whole. That is to be awake in another world, another plane of life, and that is the subtle, most subtle, and there properly we are there.

svarūpe sabāra haya, golokete sthiti:

muktir hitvān-yathā-rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ

[“This is Vṛndāvana, Vṛndāvana is so friendly, so sweet, so near to us, and such a well-wisher of ours. We are quite at home there, sweet, sweet home. In our innate and innermost existence, we are members of that plane.”] [“Liberation is the permanent situation of the form of the living entity after he gives up the changeable gross and subtle material bodies.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 2.10.6]

We are in diseased condition here and when we are healthy we have got our plane of living. That is the Bhāgavata, the positive Vaiṣṇava conception, not only negative side of life but the positive side, self-determination, or svarūpe sabāra haya, golokete sthiti, and muktir hitvān-yathā-rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ. There is some svarūpe beyond the jurisdiction of the misconception. There is a particular place and position of mine in the universe. What is that? That is to be found out. There is the rub. Without serving that, only trying to serve the negative side, I am suffering, I am suffering. In all conceptions of my life I find suffering, suffering, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi [Bhagavad-gītā, 13.9]. But there is a conception where the life is worth living for. That positive side has been neglected everywhere almost, in so many different conceptions of religious view. Gaura Haribol! The nirmat-sarāṇāṁ satāṁ [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.1.2], these are all realisations of the matsara’s life.

And the egoistic school they cannot give up totally their egoism, “That I am master.” In subtle of the subtle form it remains, “That I am master. I am Brahman. I am a part of that master element. I am a part of that master element.”

That I am a part of the subsidiary element, subordinate element, they cannot think it out, their matsara, their jealousy, something like that is the root cause there. But if they become a little generous in their intrinsic conception then the higher realm is there and infinitely higher. And I am created of smaller stuff. Only with the help of that higher I can improve my condition and have a position in the higher plane, if I become nirmat-sarāṇā in the process and Kṛṣṇa-dāsa. I am a junior. I am lower position. If I come to that opposite conception of life, then my prospect is very high and higher. They cannot accommodate that, so nirmat-sarāṇāṁ satāṁ.

In Bhāgavatam while talking, there is the dictator. If I can accept the garment of dictatorship then my lot, my fortune, may become most high. A serving, a submission, submissive attitude, the dictatorial aspect of the world: only fullest submission if I can show, then the dictatorial aspect of the world will take me up, and higher, higher prospect I shall get.

Despot, Autocrat, because that is absolute good, so absolute knowledge, absolute good, absolute everything absolute, then why should I not submit to Him, being in a vulnerable position as I experience here? So that is suicidal not to accept that. I am of lower creation, and I can find it in every step of my life, that I am a hindrance, I am of limited creation. But at the same time, higher creation there may be, why should I deny that? What right have I got to deny that? Here also I am experiencing so many things of high and low. From the highest stone, to the scientific man who is controlling the stone of this here thing, hierarchy is there. And what is the trouble of believing that there is hierarchy in the original site, the higher world, also? What’s the wrong there? Only matsarata, the egoism and too much egoism, the worst type of egoism, nasty, that is in the way. That is the hindrance to our real progress of life. Mahāprabhu announced:

jīvera ’svarūpa’ haya-kṛṣṇera ’nitya-dāsa’, [kṛṣṇera ’taṭasthā-śakti’ bhedābheda-prakāśa’]

[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.] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.108]

In naked terms, you are a slave to that highest entity. This is you innate natural acquaintance. You are such. Your inner self has got such intrinsic position with the Absolute. Absolute is so high. With whom we are connected His position is so high and you are a slave. Jīvera ’svarūpa’ haya-kṛṣṇera ’nitya-dāsa’. The all-attracting and the conscious attraction, and attraction by love, that is the centre, nature of the centre. And you are a slave to that great force of love and beauty. You are so fortunate. You may thank your God that you are so fortunate that you can be handled in any way by that Absolute Beauty, Charm, Existence, Knowledge, everything, the highest centre. You are connected, not divorced. You are not barred by your birth, not to enter that domain. But you have got the position there. The position, as a gentleman you should understand from your experience of this world. If you want a real position there you should be of what nature? You yourself will judge it, of the most subordinate. As much as you’ll have to go to the higher power you’ll have to accept the position of a subordinate. It is clear from your own present experience. We should be satisfied with that, otherwise you’ll be barred and cast aside here, where the rubbish is thrown out, you’ll be thrown out there. If I’m a gentleman, think like a gentleman, you are so limited and you have got so high prospect, high prospect, and infinitely higher than you. Still, you have got a position there. And should we not be prepared to accept that honourable position there? And what is that? The Lord Himself says that if you become a slave, He becomes also your slave. What more you need? What more you can expect?

ahaṁ bhakta-parārdhīno, hy asvatantra [iva dvija

sādhubhir grasta-hṛdayo, bhaktair bhakta-jana-priyaḥ]

[The Lord tells Durvāsā: “I am the slave of My devotees; I have no freedom apart from their will. Because they are completely pure and devoted to Me, My heart is controlled by them, and I reside always in their hearts. I am dependent not only on My devotees, but even on the servants of My devotees. Even the servants of My devotees are dear to Me.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 9.4.63]

“Though intrinsically, independently I have the highest position of controlling everything, but this śaraṇāgati controls Me, but in a different way, through the way of affection. Not by power, not by necessity, not by intrinsic existence, but through love.”

You be satisfied with that. And not only there, you can enter into the harem also; you can enter into the motherly relationship. What more you may want? The Lord is coming to be whipped by you. What is this matter, and you are not satisfied fully?

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura. Nitāi Gaura. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Mahāprabhu Gaurāṅga Sundara. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Giri Mahārāja is alone there?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mm. He’s up and about now.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Up? Gaura Sundara. Gaura Sundara. Gaura Sundara.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Can you describe the work which Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākura did in Navadwīpa, the work he did as far as building temples in Navadwīpa - how he started his mission within Navadwīpa building temples, or maybe after he disappeared, which disciples took leading roles in those management and…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What is the necessity of that? You want to write a history?

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Satsvarūpa Mahārāja wanted a general idea of which temples are in which islands and so forth. Which temples have been established when Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākura was present, in the islands of Navadwīpa?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That cannot be the subject of a lecture, but when we are to sit together and then we have to go through it, ancient memory, and gradually collect from there and to enlist. You may try to find it from Saraswatī Jaya Śrī as well as consulting the Gauḍīya, the papers. In the beginning Sajjana-Toṣaṇī [renamed The Harmonist, an English monthly], that was founded by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and Prabhupāda in his early life of preaching, but before, he edited that Sajjana-Toṣaṇī, after Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura for some time. Then he published his own paper as Gauḍīya, then daily Nadīyā Prakash, then Paramarthi in Oriya, then Kīrtana in Assam, and then Harmonist in English, from Calcutta - one part in Sanskrit, another part in English, and then published Bhāgavatam in Hindi. These were the papers published by him. And Saraswatī Jaya Śrī, his biography, that was begun by Sundarānanda, but later on he was led astray and perhaps those books that were in their possession they’re all destroyed. And before that some collection hither and thither, that has been saved, what I am told, I do not know it exactly. Saraswatī Jaya Śrī. Śrī and vaibhava, that later part perhaps he began, the second part he began to write in the beginning, and collect the materials of the first part. But perhaps the book was not finished, in this way, topsy-turvy. It may be the Divine Will.

Just as Kṛṣṇa, when Kṛṣṇa went off, the dissension began after His demise, and the dissension began in the lifetime of Kṛṣṇa. And also after Rāmacandra, then the dark age came. No historian can trace what after Rāmacandra, what was the affairs in the throne of Ayodhyā, not of much importance. This is the way. He knows. Generally things happen in this way.

The rocket has got its basis very strong, to take a push, some negative push is necessary. So previous and after; a wave, high wave, means both sides are a little lower. Drawing water, then the wave becomes high on both sides. That is the nature, thesis, antithesis, synthesis - in the language of Hegel - thesis, antithesis, synthesis; progress of the world of this type.

aher iva gatiḥ premṇaḥ, svabhāva-kuṭilā bhavet

[ato hetor ahetoś ca, yūnor māna udañcati]

[“Just as a serpent naturally moves in a crooked way, in a zigzag way, the nature of love is naturally crooked. It is not straight. So the concerned parties quarrel, sometimes with cause and sometimes without cause, and separation comes. Separation is necessary for the transcendental pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa.”] [Ujjvala-Nīlamaṇi]

As Rūpa Goswāmī says, the movement is in a crooked way. That is the nature. That is the nature of the movement, up and down, there must be, up and down must be to, this is the unavoidable necessity of vilāsa. Vilāsa means play, jaya para jaya, small and big. Vilāsa means important, non-important. Vilāsa presupposes the existence of such differentiated character, in good, in bad, everywhere. Aher iva gatiḥ premṇaḥ, svabhāva-kuṭilā bhavet, otherwise there cannot be any vilāsa, any play, good and bad. Vilāsa means that, showing…

End of 81.12.03.A

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Start of 81.12.03.B_81.12.04.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...done on it as a dissension all this. No valuation we can do out of that. Hare Kṛṣṇa. The gradation there must be, and there is. Competition in a dacoit and competition amongst the free fighters, more and less, back and front, there must be. Freedom fighters amongst them also may be competition, and also for the dacoits also there competition, high and low, forward and backward. Vilāsa means competition and competition means high and low. And both of them are supporting a particular aim, it may be. We must be, make ourselves prepared with that, general rules of existence, so we must not be misguided by that.

‘Because Kṛṣṇa could not control His subordinates, they fought amongst each other and died, all finished, so how Kṛṣṇa can be the highest personage?’ This is redundant, irrelevant, unnecessary and irrelevant, to understand what is true and what is not true. No contribution we can find from here. The criterion you’ll have to find in another plane of understanding, whether He’s high, why He could control, but why He did not control the situation? A man is not judged by this type of his activity.

Why Kṛṣṇa fled away from the battle eighteen times from Jarāsandha? Jarāsandha attacked Mathurā and Kṛṣṇa fled away. What is at the bottom? He was a coward, we are to think? So, we should not go to judge things in this process. That process is rather quite different. The criterion of, this mundane criterion may not be tried there with that.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. This is misguiding, we’ll be very warned against committing such error to apply the criterion of one thing to another, to apply it to another. The physical power if we apply in the case of the intelligentsia we shall have to fail. They’re different standpoints. Lion is great from one point, elephant is great, man also great from another point, man is greater from another point, in this way. The great power, previously the land animals, then navy, and now air, then bombing, then the gas war, now atomic war, and then electronic, in this way it is going differently, no end.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. What is what? What is what? Bhūr, Bhuvaḥ, Svaḥ, Mahā, Jana, Tapa, Satya, Virajā, Bramhaloka, Śivaloka, Vaikuṇṭha, we are to, the process, these are the processes that have been sent to us. Try to know by this process what is the main, the backbone, where all sorts of knowledge is, connected over. Why, what is this Bhuvaḥloka and Bhūrloka? Bhuvaḥloka - how it is more, it is better - how? Then Mahā - what is the special quality there? Jana, Tapa, Satya - what is the speciality? On the whole, the exploitation is diminishing gradually, but that is also by different stages. Then exploitation finishes, vanishes in Virajā. Then, hazy conception of the other dedicating land, then, we can get Śivaloka - the lowest portion, of some independence, some serving attitude, not wholesale. Then, awe and reverence and serving in Nārāyaṇa. In this way the standard will be gold, between marks, yens, and roubles, and pounds, and dollars, rupees, that sukha, ānandam, ecstasy, fulfilment, that will be the standard. And we are to have self-approval to accept that standard first; that is śraddhāmayo ’yaṁ loka.

If you have got regard for that earnestness then that loka, that plane may come to you. But the world of colour can only come with the eye, the world of sound that comes only with the ear. So, through śraddhā we can approach a world, a type of world, not by other, by ear, eye, touch, etc. Or even by the mind of who is full with the thoughts of this world of exploitation experience, not by that. Even our reason; that is only connected with the experience - that also cannot give us that idea, in this way. But faith can take us to higher existence, and we shall, we are to find out a science in the faith. The faith has also got its science, faith, its nature, its analysis, its quality, its development, different stages. But there is another thing. Analysis of the eye experience, analysis of the sound experience, analysis of the reason experience, so analysis of the faith, science of the faith is also there. That how śraddhā goes, what way, and what finds it around, it side by side.

Devotee: Mahārāja _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Bhāratī Mahārāja: Mahārāja, you once said that it’s very difficult to differentiate between the intelligence and the soul, buddhi and ātmā, very fine dividing line.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not very fine, but of course fine, buddhi nistha atmika [?] The faculty within us which gives decree and dismissal, dismiss. This is this, this is that, this cannot be this. This sort of faculty is buddhi, reason, faculty of judgement, this is. And ātmā is light. The light focussed from above, then the reason can see, ’this is black, this is white, this is rotten, this is fresh.’ The buddhi he gives decision - ’this is good, this is bad.’ But light in the background is absolutely necessary, ātmā is of that light type, ātmā, otherwise no activity is possible without light, ātmā is the light.

Yayedam dharyate jagat [Bhagavad-gītā, 7.5] Entering into this world, the ātmā, the ātmā is a party and this exploiting experience another party, exploited experience another party. And ātmā, it is difficult to understand the real characteristic of ātmā, but it should be compared as light, knowledge, background. And because the knowledge is there, the light is there, then discrimination about anything, it may be rubbish, it may be a rotten thing, or it may be a flower, it may be stool, but discrimination is possible, whether it is good, whether it is helpful, it is non-helpful, it is injurious, all sorts of discrimination is found, comes from buddhi, reason, the reason.

The reason, in Western philosophy, they say, reason applied in this mundane world, this generally we say as reason. And that is, in the higher sphere, the name is conscience, that is their view. The conscience when it is utilised in the higher sphere, and reason when it is applied in the lower sphere. But anyhow, the decision is with buddhi, but it is called buddhi in reference with this mundane loss or gain, here. And ātmā is light, nothing to do, no interest, real interest with this system of experience of the mundane pleasure. Ātmā has no real interest, but only is a party for its choice, erroneous choice, ātmā.

Devotee: Mahārāja __________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _______________ [?] The weakness in ātmā, that is rather the cause. Ātmā really finds no interest here in exploitation, but his weakness, his curiosity, has connected him with this world of exploitation. That is the subtle-most connecting link, the very subtle, most subtle, through weakness, the curiosity, joining him with this. But he cannot be happy. Without him no feeling is possible, everything is blind, all energy has no fulfilment. Because he is there, therefore he is the party, but he’s minor. __________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: ___________________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Very weak, and that is the fundamental position we are to draw out all reasoning from that basis, that data. So soul should not be entangled with this mundane interest, wholly, because he’s above that. And also because he’s in connection with this side, margin, this side margin, so somewhat connected. So we cannot consider itself the part of this world, but by the influence of this side it may be considered that he is in our side. And from the Vaikuṇṭha, the other side others also they may think, seeing his marginal position, that he may be in our side, the peculiar position of the soul, taṭasthā.

[jīvera ’svarūpa’ haya-kṛṣṇera ’nitya-dāsa’] kṛṣṇera ’taṭasthā-śakti’ bhedābheda-prakāśa’

[“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.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.108]

The general idea has been given like that. So we cannot think that he’s a member of this mundane world, and we shall go to apply our mundane laws over him, that won’t be, he’s above. At the same time without his connection these things cannot be concocted, as the light is necessary. A party may be minor, but anyhow a fictitious party must be established, to explain all these things. So jīva soul is just like a point, has existence but no magnitude, something like that, a line, no breadth, length no breadth. So he’s marginal line, neither it is member, this mundane law can be applied over him: nor this mundane activity can be explained without his passive support.

So we cannot, the other day he may be changed, he may say, “No, I don’t want, sarva-dharmān parityajya, [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66] I have no connection with you,” he may assert in one second, it may be possible. The buffer state can be occupied by the higher power on the other side in a second. But still we should consider it to be buffer. So without ātmā no party is there. Who is the enjoyer, of good and bad, or pure or impure? The question, the bhoktā, the enjoyer is necessary. That this is detrimental, the feeling is necessary in the background of all these affairs, that this is pleasing me, and this is not pleasing me, this is pleasing and non-pleasing. Who’s the party who will say? Then the case will stand, otherwise no case. One feeler, either pleasure or pain, the feeler, the party must stand, otherwise no case can stand. Enjoyer, puruṣa, but puruṣa is of such type without him nothing can be explained, nothing can be set up, got up. And he also, we cannot rely him to be the full party, the full support from him, any moment he may withdraw. He may say, “I am a subject of the other land, not yours.”

So such background we are to, our position, otherwise we have no hope. If voluntarily we have any place here, then we have no hope to go up in the upper world. We can go there clear, no contamination we have to carry, it is not within our nature, our existence, this māyā, this exploitation. Otherwise if we have something, permanent element of this exploitation within us, we could not go there with clean hands. We are to carry that nasty thing with us - it is not permanent within a soul, but the connection for the time being. Making here enter with something like curiosity, not real interest. That is this world, a position of the soul in this world, because he has his prospect, higher prospect that side.

If the whole world is abolished, soul may not be affected, but it may stand with so many just as in the time of a sound sleep, no necessity we feel of the world in sound sleep. But in subtle form it is there as long as the touch in the finest form, again the consciousness comes and feels awake and the interest also comes out. The memory comes out of the previous day, of the previous time, and takes up in the world. But the sound sleep apparently all connections cut off, no feeling of any necessity at that time. In samādhi a very, very long time, a pure type of sound sleep, but entrance into the other world that is a revolutionary prospectus, fulfilment for the soul.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Just as intoxication, our connection with wine, without wine we can live well, but if I enter into intoxicating habit then some sort of uneasiness, but if cut off, then it is all right. So wine may not be thought as a necessary part of my mental system, ‘without wine I can’t live, my mind cannot exist,’ not that. But still, any good or bad goes ultimately to me through the wine, he has that sort of habit, pernicious, intoxication. Something like that. It is not a part, but still, without myself in the background, no calculation of good or bad, nothing can exist.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Ke? Parisevān?

Devotee: Mukunda-mālā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mukunda-mālā. Where is Parisevān?

Devotee: Here Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Here, ha, ha. I can’t see, ha, ha, ha. A great drawback, every moment, ‘who is you, who is you?’ A tedious thing, every day meeting, and still, ‘who are you, who are you?’ Ha, ha.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Your vision is in the spiritual world.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Spiritual world?

Devotee: You’re always seeing Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: If you see that, that I’m seeing Kṛṣṇa, so you have got that direction also. Well and good. Gaura Haribol. By the blessings of you all I may attain that, that vision. Always taking Him into consideration I shall see, move, live, everything. The standpoint will be there. Kṛṣṇa, Mahāprabhu, Gurudeva, āśraya-vigraha, highest āśraya-vigraha, Rādhārāṇī, so many: to fix our eye and accordingly move. The point of interest is there. With this view we shall live and move. The interest, point of interest, the point of interest must be wakeful to the point of interest. That will regulate all our movement, every movement, every step we shall take fixing our attention, fullest attention as much as we can collect, the centre, the centre of our interest. And it may be by the grace of all, in Kṛṣṇa, Mahāprabhu, Nityanānda, Rādhārāṇī, of same type, more or less. They’re akin, not antagonistic, they’re in harmony. No hitch, there may be competition but no hitch, not any incurring displeasure because all centred in the interest of one.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

So, it is taken off?

Devotee: Yes. I have it here. I’m holding it. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Now, what’s the time?

Devotees: Ten to ten.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So today we retire here. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Jaya oṁ Viṣṇu-pāda Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Goswāmī Prabhupāda kī jaya.

Devotees: Jaya.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Śrīpāda Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja kī jaya.

Devotees: Jaya.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sevā vṛnda kī jaya.

........

... protector: the approach that, “You please give me shelter, please give me shelter.” That is the salient thought. Others are extension, vaibhava, anga, limbs. Goptṛtve varaṇaṁ, the prayer, “Please accept me. Please give me shelter.” And what is favourable, to accept, what is unfavourable, to reject: and to throw one’s own self towards that direction, ātma-nikṣepaḥ. Kārpaṇyam, I am so low, so mean, so unfit. This is, they’re all side issue. Goptṛtve varaṇaṁ. Always try to retain to that sort of feeling, or prayer. “Please give me shelter. I am so and so, so I want to cast myself. Please accept me.” The central thought of śaraṇāgati. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. That is what - the definition of śaraṇāgati is given there, consulting so many other scriptures. Pādaikā-, śrayatvaṁ śaraṇāgatiḥ.

bhagavad-bhaktitaḥ sarvvam, ity utsṛjya vidher api

kaiṅkaryyaṁ kṛṣṇa-pādaikā-, śrayatvaṁ śaraṇāgatiḥ

[Being governed by the faith that all success is achieved by serving the Supreme Lord, to abandon servitude to even scriptural injunctions and take exclusive refuge in the lotus feet of Śrī Kṛṣṇa in every time, place and circumstance, is known as śaraṇāgati – unconditional surrender.] [Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam, 1.35]

A definition of śaraṇāgati is this. Collecting so many thoughts about it, it was composed by myself. Bhagavad-bhaktitaḥ sarvvam. Everything attainable we may get by, the highest fulfilment we may get, by our adherence and devotion to the Lord. With this idea, vidher api kaiṅkaryyaṁ, even our care for any śāstric rules and regulations that also will be avoided. Ity utsṛjya vidher api kaiṅkaryyaṁ kṛṣṇa-pādaikā-, śrayatvaṁ. And only one thing we should keep in mind, that I want to – want my shelter under the holy feet of the Lord. The whole duty is concentrated there. The conception of our whole duty is concentrated only in this sort. All others are extensions, or helping, but main thing to get our shelter under His holy feet. The scriptures are meaning only to this. So for that purpose, for giving in different classes of people, different recommendations are in the śāstra. There is a jungle there, and it is better to avoid all these and to take the central road. This is meant by all the different rules and regulations of the scriptures everywhere. The very gist is this, to realise that through śraddhā, sādhu-saṅga, and concentrate ones whole energy to engage in that. Āśraya, ‘I want shelter under Your holy feet.’ That is the be all and end all, of all our attempts, should be. This is śaraṇāgati.

And it has also been mentioned elsewhere, that only by śaraṇāgati can give us everything, not only it is the basis of our acquisition, but simply the śaraṇāgati can satisfy whole thing, it can produce everything. We shall only try to devote all our energy to acquire śaraṇāgati, and other necessary things will come out of their own accord. As much as my śaraṇāgati will be intense, Kṛṣṇa He will be mad to supply all other necessary things for me. We are only, śaraṇāgati, as I say now and then, to concentrate, to increase the negativity, the negative character of our position, dainyam, and concentrate wholly to śaraṇāgati. And other things will come automatically, by the will, but thereby, by intense prayer for śaraṇāgati Kṛṣṇa is moved and then everything is inevitable outcome of the will of Kṛṣṇa. Only to move Kṛṣṇa, to touch His heart, that is necessary, the whole concentration to touch His heart, then other things will come automatically. That is the key to the success of a devotee, of the life of a devotee. Am I clear?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: So a question arises, then is full śaraṇāgati possible only for uttama- adhikārī ? Śaraṇāgati, fully, is only with the uttama-adhikārī ?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course. As much as the devotion increases, the śaraṇāgati,

_____________________________ [?] and others also. To move the Autocrat, śaraṇāgati is indispensable, that we have to understand. No rules, regulations. Rules and regulations are nowhere, much. That also comes from Him, but for different sections. Śaraṇāgati is the very life of devotion, śaraṇāgati.

mārobi rākhobi yo icchā tohārā, [nitya-dāsa prati tuwā adhikārā]

[“Slay me or protect me as You wish, for You are the master of Your eternal servant.”]

[From Śaraṇāgati, 3, The Songs Of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, p 13]

“You can do anything and everything with me, anything. I’m Yours.” The risk, rather that is to take, in worldly sense to take the risk of being handled in any way He likes. “I’m Yours, unconditional, unconditional slavery.” Slavery means unconditional, is it not?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Slaves, a question of faith, faithful, more faithful. How much one slave can sacrifice? Not only fashion, not only law of the country, but the real slavery, voluntary slavery. And there is also degree.

“Slave mentality, Gauḍīya Maṭha promotes the slave mentality. They’re encouraging slave mentality into the country and spoiling the people.”

But you encourage slavery to the country conception. And slavery to the truth, to the goodness, to the absolute truth and goodness, absolute knowledge... ke?

_______________________________________ [?] Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: From the Vedas, we understand that the Vedic culture once existed throughout Bhārata-varṣa, the whole earth, the whole planet.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Only one, no. Bhārata-varṣa, Hari-varṣa, Kimpuruṣa-varṣa, so many other varṣa also, nine varṣa, nine divisions, Bhārata-varṣa is one of that, it is mentioned.

Devotee: Yes. So the historians they may say, ‘If this Vedic culture existed all over this earth, why is there no history of it in places like North America?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: They could not abrogate. So many things are gone. Not only Vedic culture, in any particular form or other so many things are going, and gone away.

Devotee: Why did it remain...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is deformed. Huh?

Devotee: Why has it remained in India but not in other parts of the world?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: India was selected by Him. That is His will. Just as at present America is selected for wealth: something, generally it is not, His will working, but the - His will is above everything, and still there is the karma, the sansti [?] karma, the result of the karma of the masses, that is. And one place must be selected. Bhārata-varṣa was selected. The question is, whether we shall give more importance to His selection or the geographical position, that fossilism. The fossil will be the cause, or His will will be the cause, prime, what will have preference? What should have the preference, His will that is from the conscious world and the cause comes down, or whether the fossil is producing in the form of geography and history the cause of incidents? What side you like to associate? Ha, ha.

No limit can be placed in His free will, free thinking. Everything is For Itself, and By Itself and For Itself. Everything is For Itself. Your consideration, my consideration, has got no value, no position. It is His free will, waving in His own manner, Autocratic manner. And there we have got some self consciousness within that wave of helplessness. So forceful is the wave, just as in earthquakes or in storms, we have got no position.

End of 81.12.03.B_81.12.04.A

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Start of 81.12.04.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...inference, or our calculation, or our fossil cause, have its place there, nothing. So surrender is necessary. Surrender and know, if He cares to make you know. Otherwise who are you to challenge the Infinite? Ke?

Devotees: Mukunda-mālā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You forget the very foundation of dedication. We are so helpless in the ocean, in the storm, in the earthquake. There are so many things in the atomic world also, man made. Then what we have got? Nothing, in the infinite. That our existence is eternal, we thank Him, that our existence may not be finished. Some will say that would have been better. “It is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven. Better to die than to accept the theory of slavery.” What do you say? Are you of that party?

Devotee: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Slavery is inconceivably a better life than so-called freedom of guṇḍā life. This is all guṇḍā life. Guṇḍā means rogue, rascal, and what are they? What other words are...

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Ruffians.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ruffians, and what is the most objectionable? Most intense ruffian?

Devotee: Dacoit.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Dacoit; that is a Hindi word, dacoit.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Dacat.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Dacat is Bengali.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: English we say dacoit.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Dasu in Sanskrit. _____________________________________ [?]

Alexander and the robber, there is a talk between the two. Alexander caught a robber and, “You are looting and robbing all these things, this thing.”

“But you are a greater robber,” the robber replied. “I am only in small villages and towns. But country after country you are robbing. Are you not a greater robber than myself?”

So everyone’s a robber here. Robber, looter, loot, that is also a Hindi word, looting. Ruffians, rogues, rascals, and what other terms are there?

Devotee: Scoundrel.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Scoundrel, which is the most intense?

Devotee: Prabhupāda uses a term, “The lowest of the mankind.”

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Narādhamāḥ.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Narādhamāḥ.

dvau bhūta-sargau loke 'smin, daiva āsura eva ca

[daivo vistaraśaḥ prokta, āsuraṁ pārtha me śṛṇu]

[“O Pārtha, the living beings in this world are seen to be of two natures - godly and demoniac. I have already elaborately described the godly nature to you, so now hear from Me about the demoniac nature.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 16.6]

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Miscreant.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Dvau bhūta-sargau loke 'smin, daiva āsura eva ca. Then what is the next line? Dvau bhūta-sargau loke 'smin, daiva āsura eva ca.

daivī sampad vimokṣāya, nibandhāyāsurī matā

[mā śucaḥ sampadaṁ daivīm, abhijāto 'si pāṇḍava]

[“The godly and virtuous qualities have been described as the cause of liberation, and the demoniac qualities have been described as the cause of certain bondage. O Pāṇḍava, you need not worry, for your nature is godly and virtuous from birth.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 16.5]

asatyam apratiṣṭhaṁ te, jagad āhur anīśvaram

aparaspara-sambhūtaṁ, kim anyat kāma-hetukam

[“The persons of demoniac nature say that the universe is nothing more than imaginary, baseless, godless, and born of their mutual cohabitation. They conclude that the whole world was created simply for lust.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 16.8]

This is the mentality of the demonic school thinker, demonic thinker. Asatyam apratiṣṭhaṁ. They say that this world has got no real basis at all, apratiṣṭhaṁ te. Jagad āhur anīśvaram. There is no God. Aparaspara-sambhūtaṁ. Only produced by chemical combinations. Kim anyat kāma-hetukam. And the sense pleasure is the highest attainment here. These are the theories of the atheist demonic school. Nothing good in their stock, either in present or in future. This is a class of thinkers. They’re worse than Satan. Satan has got recognition of God and fighting with Him, but there is recognition. Satan, he recognises God, but he’s a fighter against Him. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Satan. If you call one ‘You are Satan personified’ then what is that, more than scoundrel, ruffian, all these things, rascals, will that be the extreme? In the negative side, what word will be extreme, Satan or ruffian or rascal or rogue?

Devotees: Satan, demon.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Demon? Demon is the strongest term in the negative side?

Devotees: Yes. Satan is considered the leader of the demons in Christian...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Satan: Satan is considered to be the leader of the demons. So deva the divine, and the demonic, two sections: daiva and āsura; āsura demonic class, and daiva who admits divinity, who are approaching towards divinity, daiva. Towards consciousness, consideration, love, affection, justice, mercy. And others they’re of the nocturnal – what does he say? They’re agents of the nocturnal agents of darkness. They’re agents of darkness, ajñāna, ignorance. Three classes, ajñāna, jñāna, and prema, three classes. Ignorance, knowledge, and love, three phases, thinking, feeling, willing, and jñāna bala krīya ca, thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. The highest synthesis in love, prema, what can harmonise the impossible, prema only, mercy can accommodate everything, love can accommodate everything and harmonise. Justice, knowledge, cannot do: knowledge or justice cannot be all comprehensive. Some elimination must be there. But love, mercy, forgiveness – to err is human but to forgive is divine. We generally should think that justice must be the highest thing, that how a better thing is possible, more than justice, above justice? It is rather impossible. Justice must be the highest thing, otherwise there will be anarchy.

But there is a thing which is mercy, and the centre of that mercy, the cause of that mercy, must have such capacity as to bring the opposites together. To keep within His fold He must have the power of compensation. Only He can show mercy, who can compensate what is required in justice, He can do mercy. Otherwise the other party may be neglected and injustice will be there. That is not desirable. But mercy, or love, that can compensate more than demanded by the justice. The mercy is such position, He holds such position, plenary difference. And it is at the root, and Kṛṣṇa is there, the dedication to the utmost degree. And that is the source, that is the source where from nectar is being produced, that nectar producing plane, nectar producing plane; plane of love and mercy, above justice. Autocrat means above justice, so how good He should, must be: autocracy. Autocracy means above justice, so absolute goodness. Otherwise autocracy cannot be anywhere else, only with goodness. Autocracy presupposes goodness, in the real sense, otherwise it is more than hell. Real autocracy is possible only there in truth and goodness. Love can compensate anything, so broad, so spacious, so accommodating, so noble. The cause, and the prime cause, the ideal of the prime cause will be such. And if we can think a part of that we can be noble, we also can be promoted to the higher degree of our life of nobility. We think it that. No reaction, all reaction is digested there. Justice has its reaction, but love can digest all sorts of reaction, so far.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Gurudeva, when we take, honour prasāda, we are to appreciate how Kṛṣṇa has tasted it. In our preaching...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. We shall try to be attentive about that, that the conscious side of that prasāda, avoiding the material, the eye, the sense experience, eye experience, that also utilised for that purpose. They will be subservient to that consciousness with God, connecting. Eye experience, they will all be subservient. ‘It is in good colour,’ and then, ‘The scent is very good.’ But the others also, ‘The touch, it is not hard.’ All these, not to satisfy me, it has satisfied the Lord; the transfer of the centre from ones own ego to the Lord. All others subservient, all others finished. The main thing will come to harmonise everything towards the high. Be conscious that the enjoyer is He, enjoyer is He. Everything is For Himself, kṛṣṇa indriya tattva, kṛṣṇa santosh. How He has been satisfied, with the colour, with the scent, with the softness, with the dressing, all these things. Everything will go, we shall see if He’s satisfied then I shall try to follow His satisfaction. Everything will be thought, not in a primary way, but in a secondary way. How He has tasted, how He has tasted, He has liked it. My liking will be subordinate to His liking. Not a separate independent, but must be in submission to His taste and His satisfaction. In every way of life we shall seek, not only in prasādam, in every way of life we shall try to connect it with how He’s satisfied. Our always inquisitiveness will be how this thing is satisfying Him, the search. His satisfaction is to be searched in every action.

And because He’s far away, so next centre, the Guru, the Vaiṣṇava, the next, nearest centre. If he’s satisfied it is all right, then Kṛṣṇa is satisfied. It is guaranteed there. If Guru is satisfied with my service then I may take it that Kṛṣṇa is satisfied. Otherwise Guru will not show his satisfaction, in this way; nearest station. And if Guru is also absent, then any devotee who is superior – I can safely think he’s superior to me, then is he’s satisfied I shall try to be satisfied. In this way we shall seek the satisfaction of the supreme will – in every activity. Wherever I shall go, will it satisfy Kṛṣṇa, or my Gurudeva, or a Vaiṣṇava? Then I shall – don’t rely on your own. When none is present, you will ask within you, whether my Guru or Vaiṣṇava or Kṛṣṇa: ‘Are You satisfied? Will You be satisfied?’ We must inquire within. ‘Gurudeva, this dilemma, I am between this dilemma. What side I shall take? You please dictate me.’ With a clear mind, unbiased mind, we shall try to stand before the inner Guru. And if I find any suggestion we shall go, we shall do that. I am ready. No more may be expected from me. From my position, where I am, I shall try to be always faithful to Guru conception, to Vaiṣṇava conception, to Kṛṣṇa conception, Mahāprabhu conception, all these. Self effacement and self surrendering, mainly, that will be our way.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Adridhan told he will come, but after taking prasādam there perhaps, is it not, or may not come?

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

What the ṛṣis thinking, condition. So my plan is some relieving station...

Devotee: ...He wanted to know where Aranya Mahārāja was going to go, and I said he was going to London to preach. And then he said, “Well, he will not be given facility.” Then I said, well, if he has the desire to preach then the facility will come. That is the main thing.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And he will make recruitment in general for the Ācārya of that zone, no harm. And if any special case that may be taken here. But general recruitment, I think, then he’ll get their sympathy. What do you think? Hare Kṛṣṇa. Then they’ll be able to stand in a strong foundation with their present help.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: What happened?

Devotee: I have a problem with my arm. Sometimes it pops out.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Some pain in the arm came. He has some trouble sometimes on the arm.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In the right side?

Devotee: Left side.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Left side. Sudden pain?

Devotee: Yes. Sometimes, it pops out of the socket.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And how you get relief?

Devotee: Well, it dislocates, and then if I pull like this then it comes back in.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Dislocation? Sudden dislocation? No pressure, in ordinary stage, dislocation comes?

Devotee: Yes. Just comes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Perhaps any ________ in your movement, some reflex, some defect in the reflex action, then the dislocation comes.

Devotee: Sometimes. Yes. I was in an accident.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. And you can adjust it yourself?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I had experience of such a case. But that occurred not always, due to some pressure, not any time, while swimming or carrying, any pressure, may be misplaced and dislocation comes: again if properly located, all right, no pain.

Gaura Haribol. __________________________________ [?] Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, did Śrīla Bhaktivinoda give dīkṣā to any men?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He did.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Very few. Perhaps in his ____________ [?] about seven perhaps. That Tīrtha Mahārāja, the old Tīrtha Mahārāja, he was disciple of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, but given sannyāsa by our Prabhupāda.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: That’s Pradīp Tīrtha?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Pradīp Tīrtha. Yes. Then there was one Samba Banerjee, he was a moneyed man in ___________ [?] he got dīkṣā from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. There was one gentleman in Svarūpa Ganga from Vasanta ________ he was Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākuras. Another: lady, very educated lady, Vidulata [?] Bosh, had profound knowledge in Bhāgavatam, she studied Bhāgavatam from Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura direct. That lady I saw, disciple of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. Her son was also disciple of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura but I did not see him, already died, before mother.

Then another was Kamud [?] Babu who was in Bangladesh, perhaps he might have died by this time. But during the anarchical movement in Bangladesh the Pakistani soldiers came to shoot him. He told, “Stop for a little, and let me be ready for the last time.” So he went to his room and took the Harināma mālika and took his seat in the chair and asked them, “You may shoot me now.” But they fled away. [Group laughter] There was one Kamud [?] Babu.

There was another, Nakul Brahmacārī, living in ________ [?] he was a portrait maker. He was also Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s disciple.

So we saw so many disciples of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. But that may be counted on the fingers. But Prabhupāda’s disciples many, may have a thousand perhaps. And Swāmī Mahārāja perhaps lākhs ?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: No. Five thousand I’d say.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Five thousand.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Of course lākhs of people turning this side.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Connected?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sympathisers. His life members, how many? That will count to lākhs?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes, it will come to more than lākhs.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: They are half disciples. They are reading his books.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. Some of them also become – quite often they become, of course, full-fledged.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Nitāi.

Devotee: Yesterday I got the notification, letter came from the visa office in Calcutta.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He has ten more days _____________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh, visa.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: In India, ten more days.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Now, I’m to consult with you, what about the letter of Madhavānanda. The first week you may come to Calcutta, so one of you must help the scholars. The scholars should be the head, not the financier.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: So Madhava’s programme...

End of 81.12.04.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.09.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... your hope, prospect, is there, not here, the animal consciousness, paśu buddhi. Paśupati Śiva.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Means?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Śiva, Mahādeva, his name is Paśupati, the king of all body conscious souls, Mahādeva, Paśupati. And paś is māyā, Paśupati, paśa and paśu, ordinarily a soul in bondage they’re called paśu, animal. And Paśupati is Śiva, and the paśa means tie, tie is māyā, rope is māyā. Paśu, paśa, Paśupati. Now we are paśupati baddha jīva, when tied by the rope of māyā you are paśu, animal, paśa mukta sadāśiva, and if you get out of that bondage then you become śiva. That is sāṅkhya philosophy, so many śivas, there are many śivas, mukta souls, that the Jaiminism, and Sikhism perhaps, at the base. There are some, ‘No God but the sādhus are there. Mukta jīva, liberated souls are there, innumerable in number.’

Monard, English philosopher, Monard or someone, Monard’s theory, the seven particles of soul, or consciousness, some come in material understanding and some out, innumerable their number. I caught one gentleman, where they exist those numbers, innumerable numbers of liberated souls? Do they exist really? And so many, where they exist? And what is the relation between them? And is there anything to harmonise them? Can’t answer!

And there Bhāgavatam comes to talk about them. We are concerned with this side. But after liberation, where they live, how they live, what is their relation between, and is there anyone to harmonise them? Only such things are given by Bhāgavatam. We are to attend that now. This is sāṅkhya philosophy.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Dayaldulal, what does he say? He will stay here, or go to some other place?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He may stay about another week.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then, join Dhīra Kṛṣṇa?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Then back to his family in America.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: America. He was sent by Dhīra Kṛṣṇa?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. And he’s a gṛhastha, he has wife and child there. He’ll go back.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What is his vocation? You don’t know?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He told me. I forget now.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In business?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Some general thing like that, general type of thing.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Living single or with parents?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: No, wife...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Wife of course.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: No, separate from parents.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Generally married men they all live separate, is it?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. Joint family in our country is not common: possible but not generally done.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But there is: joint family exists?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Very little, practically not.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Very little, one per cent?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Maybe, the exception.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But every American they must have some state help, is it not?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes, if there’s sickness or disability then they have state help.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I was told that even from their birth every child must get two hundred dollars, the state will help with two hundred dollars for him or her.

Devotee: That’s only for families who are poor. Many, many poor families they have to get certain support for the children that are coming.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Only poor families.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Poor families, whose income is limited, they get that... remuneration.

Two hundred dollars. What is the extent, amount?

Devotee: Depending on the number of children, sometimes it is more than two hundred, sometimes less. If there are fewer children dependent then they get lesser amount.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I was told that all the Americans come here every one of them get two hundred rupees from the state, who comes here.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Not everyone.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Have you taken anything yet?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes Mahārāja we’ve taken.

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is the child of the other soil, not of this land. In our inner identification we are really a child of that soil. But we have come and made progress in the negative side, in the land of enemy. Land of enemy, we have made so much progress in the negative side. That is our position; and the wholesale of us like that, more or less. In the land of enemies land we are living, and all dealing also like enemy to one another. Suicidal place, land of suicide, all of us. This is such a domain. And how to get out? And only through the agent of that. And their connection, unconscious connection creates some sukṛti, unconscious help, independent of our consciousness; that is sukṛti, by the agents of that plane. And then gradually when sukṛti is accumulated to a certain extent, then we find something as śraddhā, some vague aspiration that there may be a place where we can live happily without reaction. The reaction in the form of janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi [Bhagavad-gītā, 13.9], janma, they have to take birth, mṛtyu, then we are to vanish, go away, jarā, infirmity, undesirable body, physical feeling, and vyādhi, every time the pain of disease we have to undergo, inevitable, such condition undesirable to anyone and everyone. And how should we get relief from that? We get a hope, a ray of hope, when we get śraddhā, as the result of the accumulated sukṛti, then śraddhā. Then it is possible consciously to approach a sādhu with little vague consciousness that there may be some prospect of life which can fulfil our inner desire, full of prospect. Then we approach a sādhu. Then under his guidance we go on with some practices which is promoting our intimacy to the persons, or to anything of that soil. And gradually we make advance.

And then after we pass some stages: bhajan, bhajana kriya, anartha-nivṛtti, the undesirable tendency within us gradually diminishes. Then we find within us ruci, real taste for that land, for that domain, real taste we find within us. Then of course it becomes easy to go on with our bhajan, when some real taste awakens within. That is ruci. And then it comes to āśakti, bhāva, when bhāva-bhakti we attain, get a real touch, and not very clear, but get the real touch, just as a bud of a flower. In that position when we come we are more or less safe. Before that we are not safe. We may be - may fall again, but if we can attain bhāva-bhakti then our position is safe, we can make progress, onward. And then we find we come in real contact with the land and the paraphernalia. Prema, that is known as prema. We enter into svarūpa-siddhi. Then sneha, mana, rāga, anurāga, bhāva, mahābhāva, so many developments in the stages of devotion is also, we have to have experience. In that way our path of progress, way of progress has been described. We can understand according to our capacity. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: What is the principle obstruction to this natural flow of love towards Kṛṣṇa?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Obstruction, anartha, two kinds: one of opposite sympathy and another of indifference, two. Bhukti mukti, bhoga tyāga, mainly these two. So many, if analysed so many classes, sub-classes, may be found, generally. And in another sense kanak, kāminī, pratiṣṭhā, attraction for the ladies for the men, and for the gents for the ladies: kāminī. Kanak then for money, energy under ones control, that can be converted to purchase any pleasure, kanak, kāminī. And pratiṣṭhā, and name and fame in this world, that popularity, that public spirit, all these are hindrances. And that may be classified under two heads generally: one is that exploitation and renunciation, bhukti mukti spriya, our tendency for these two. It can be grouped; undesirable things can be grouped under two heads, that enjoyment and renunciation. And kanak, kāminī, pratiṣṭhā, also in this, three heads also, mainly. Dharma, artha, kāma, mokṣa. These are also, but mokṣa has got its real conception in svarūpa siddhi, self determination. If mukti, liberation means that then well and good. But if liberation means to go the half way, only withdrawal from the negative side and not entrance into the positive one, then this mere withdrawal, mukti, that is not desirable. We must have a positive life, participation in the good deeds, good function of our inner tendency, fulfilment we must get there. And that must be dynamic, continuous. Ke ? _____________________________________ [?] Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Mahārāja, when a personality such as Duryodhana in Kṛṣṇa līlā, does he have a permanent position, like indifference to Kṛṣṇa eternal?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Relationship with Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That may not be eternal. That depends on His sweet will. Generally that is confined in this mundane world – and in the opposition party, though that is a type of service there. Still that is:

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ, jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam

ānukūlyena-kṛṣṇānu-śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā

[“One should render transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa favourably and without desire for material profit or gain through fruitive activities or philosophical speculation. That is called pure devotional service.”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, 1.1.11]

& [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 19-167]

Desirability is to serve Him in a favourable way. But there is a possibility of serving Him from the other side, indirect way; that is something. That is not like any position in this world of māyā, not illusion, but that is real. But still there is gradation, as in different rasa, as sākhya is higher than dāsya, vātsalya is higher than sākhya, mādhurya is higher than vātsalya, and parakīya that is higher than svakīya, gradation. In that sense there is also gradation in the oppositionist and the favourable servitors, some difference.

Devotee: In Caitanya-caritāmṛta it’s explained that there are right wing gopīs and left wing gopīs and left wing gopīs are in opposition.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. But still they have got their necessity in the service as a whole – the competition is necessary to increase the satisfaction in Kṛṣṇa. It is designed in that way by Yogamāyā. So they have their real position and efficacy there, but the gradation is: _________ [?] Higher and lower, that we must admit, it is a gradation, a development. Just as in the Viṣṇu tattva also Himself, Kṛṣṇa, Baladeva, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, Nārāyaṇa conception, so Nṛsiṁha, so many Avatāras. That is the difference in the conception, one and the same thing but functional difference. We are to trace, and we are to accept, we are to feel in practical life. So also in the svarūpa śakti, the negative side also, the positive and negative, negative side also there is gradation, we are to admit, a system. What do you say?

Devotee: Venkatta Prabhu was telling me that you were saying of the two, bhukti and mukti, enjoyment and renunciation, this tyāga, that renunciation is more dangerous.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, more dangerous, because it has got greater position than the exploitation, so that is – just as half truth is more dangerous than falsehood, because it can exploit more. It can misguide the devotees more. It has got some glamour of its own position over the exploitation, so it can capture the scholars there, so that is more dangerous. That one who wants his relief he says, ‘Oh, this is the conception of relief. No further.’ Who are really making progress towards their good, they captures on the way and says, ‘Here, you have come.’ In the name of that higher place they capture them. Who have some prestige over the land of exploitation, people will think, ‘Oh, that must be the highest goal.’ Half truth is more dangerous than falsehood. In that category it is more dangerous.

________________________________________________________ [?] And if he can once make you enter into the cell of that sāyujya mukti you are finished. When you’ll come out, there’s no calculative time, end. But in viṣayī the recruiters are coming and you may meet and that chance you will get here. But when in sāyujya mukti you are nowhere. To awaken you from that deepest possible sleep it is very hard, and rare. So that is more dangerous, like half truth is more dangerous than falsehood. In this line it will go. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes. But as the agents of the plane of love are the agents of Kṛṣṇa, then the agents of sāyujya mukti, that’s impersonal, so who are they working for? You say if one is captured within the sāyujya mukti he might not come out for an indefinite time. But why anyone is trying to bring anyone else into that impersonal conception?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Because he’s also suffering from the same disease. He thinks that it is the highest, so he recruits for his own purpose. He thinks that this is the high position, highest position.

ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas, tvayi asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ

[āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ, patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ]

[“O lotus-eyed Lord, although non-devotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure. Although they may rise to the level of impersonal Brahman realisation, they fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they neglect to worship Your lotus feet.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 10.2.32]

But they do not know that there’s mistake in their calculation, they can’t conceive, but thinks themselves they’re the liberated of the highest type, vimukta-māninas. They think themselves to be liberated of the highest type, so they recruit for their purpose. But there is mistake in their calculation. They’re not aware of the fact. They’re misguided and they also help others to misguide. ________________________ [?] One who is not established in truth how can he guide one towards the truth, if he himself has got no – if it would have been possible for him to know then he himself would go to that land, that direction. But he does not know that is false calculation. Misguided, misdirected.

Yam evaiṣa vṛnute tena labhyaḥ [Katha-Upaniṣad, 1.2.23] The mistake is there. That is the land, whom that conscious land wants to accept, he can go, otherwise by dint of one’s own power none can enter the land. The mistake is there. That is an independent, the soil is independent. We are independent, matter is non independent, and soil is independent here. And that is made of super soil, the very soil is independent. There’s the rub. If they accept, then the happy independent soul, jīva, can enter, otherwise not: such a land.

So, the question of becoming a slave, slavery, that slave mentality we are to accept, for the Absolute. And that is the highest qualification within us, that we should accept slave mentality, to be earnest about the association of the highest existence. Slave mentality. We must be ready to accept slavery to its perfection. Then we’ll be allowed to enter into that domain, otherwise no hope. So it is not very easy to accept slave mentality, eternal slavery. And not only that, slavery is our prospect. Are you ready to think that? Our prospect is within slavery.

Such higher entity exists, so broad minded you are to be, so hopeful. The hope and the faith will be of such a magnanimous type that to enter that land you will contract, you will sign the bond. Eternal slavery I’m going to accept. I want to enter that land. Such broadness, such magnanimous heart is necessary. We have to search our fate, search our fortune, and sign the bond of slavery. I want the association of the so high, that even as a slave I want that association. I earnestly hanker for that sweet land where my meagre personality can become a slave. Faith, such intense faith, so all our experience, knowledge, all fails. Only faith can carry there, śraddhā, devotion, and faith is the unit by which the structure has been constructed there, all faith, the land of faith; that is autonomy of faith. No calculation, because no robbing, no stealing, no cheating. Only through faith moving – it is automatic, the land of faith.

Only a nasty thing: that I shall be always alert that I may not be cheated in this way, in the land of so many cheats. Always I shall have to be alert, ‘I will be cheated, I will be cheated.’ That is a nasty life. So we must enter into a life where no cheating, no calculation, no reason, nothing: automatically all good. All are busy to give something to you, everyone. Everyone is mad to give something to help you, the opposite. We are suffering from the opposite, and there also the opposite. Everyone is promoting you, trying to promote you in your, pushing you towards your highest fortune, such a land. So become slave, the slaves are masters there, really. One who will have as much tendency of slavery, he will be put to head by all, that qualification.

Here also in the love of country, if a leader can sacrifice most then of course he becomes the head of the party, sacrifice, here also some sort we can find. By sacrifice most for the country, generally one may have faith in him and take him as their leader. But here, that is extended selfishness. The love of the country is extended selfishness. Fight with another country. Or for humanitarian, fight with the other minerals and vegetable kingdom: they’re constructing a great civilisation at the cost of the vegetable and the mineral substances, exploiting nature. The civilised section they’re more exploiting from the nature and that they’ll have to pay back to the farthing, pay off, to clear the debt. All comfort means loan. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And will you be able to preach this idea to the public? Ha, ha, ha, ha. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Be agent. Swāmī Mahārāja wanted you all to be agent.

yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa, [āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa

kabhu nā vādhibe tomāra viṣaya-taraṅga, punarapi ei ṭhāñi pābe mora saṅga]

[“Instruct whoever you meet in the science of Kṛṣṇa. Teach them the instructions of Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā, and the teachings about Kṛṣṇa in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way, on My order, become a Guru and liberate everyone in the land. If you follow this instruction, the waves of materialism within this world will not affect you. Indeed, if you follow My order, you will soon attain My association.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 7.128-9]

Speak about the special prospect of the land of Kṛṣṇa, Vṛndāvana. Nava-Vṛndāvana he has placed in America. Vṛndāvana somewhat, come to the consciousness of enquiry. “What is Nava-Vṛndāvana?” Anyhow, anyhow give connection with the idea of Vṛndāvana.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: On one tape I heard you say that the spiritual master is situated above the Supersoul. How did you mean that?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He said he heard you say on one tape, that the spiritual master is situated above the Supersoul, Paramātmā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Where’s the difficulty? When the spiritual master as a recruiter, this Paramātmā, that is Vāsudeva, Nārāyaṇa, this Rāmacandra, Dvārakesh, Brajesh, Kṛṣṇa, the spiritual master, not ordinary spiritual master, the spiritual master who’s a recruiter of Vṛndāvana, his function is over, his position of different department.

Just as from the consideration of the power, the Prime Minister, or the General, they’re next to the King. But from another consideration, the Queen has more power over the General, or over the Minister, she may possess. It may be possible. Something like that.

Paramātmā that is also: the Paramātmā conception that is also a function of the husband, of the governing side, in the government. And also the Guru who has got, the Gurudeva, the recruiter who is direct recruiting to the harem of the King, his position will be from the standpoint of the taṭasthā, means absolute consideration, that will be more desirable.

You say, the case of Uddhava, Kṛṣṇa says to Uddhava that, “You are My most favourite. How? Not Brahmā, nor Śiva, nor Baladeva, nor Lakṣmī, neither not even Myself. More than My own self you are My favourite.”

Do you follow this?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And that Uddhava says that, “I want feet dust of the gopīs.”

Then when any Gurudeva has come to recruit for the service of the land of gopī he’s superior practically. He holds superior position to that of Baladeva, Śiva, etc, Uddhava, etc. When the Lord Himself says...

ahaṁ bhakta-parārdhīno, hy asvatantra iva dvija

[sādhubhir grasta-hṛdayo, bhaktair bhakta-jana-priyaḥ]

[The Lord tells Durvāsā: “I am the slave of My devotees; I have no freedom apart from their will. Because they are completely pure and devoted to Me, My heart is controlled by them, and I reside always in their hearts. I am dependent not only on My devotees, but even on the servants of My devotees. Even the servants of My devotees are dear to Me.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 9.4.63]

...that is another department, where the Lord Himself says that, “I am, as if, dependent on My devotees.” In that sense, the Gurudeva who has come to give us position in the mādhurya rasa or vātsalya rasa of Vraja, his position, his loving affectionate position, favourite position to Kṛṣṇa, is more valuable than that of Paramātmā who’s pervading through all the souls there and giving reports to the higher office. Kṛṣṇa’s representation, His direct representation: in that way.

If we can say that Rādhārāṇī’s position is better than the position of Baladeva. From Baladeva all other departments are being evolved, except that of Rādhārāṇī, mādhurya rasa. So in the consideration of rasa, the nearest position with Kṛṣṇa is with that of service. The Gurudeva, though it is not in fact, his position is such, though in fact, though officially you may say that that is Paramātmā representing a function of Kṛṣṇa Himself, so his position must be given as the highest. But from the standpoint of necessity, the recruiter who comes to recruit for the highest department of the service of Kṛṣṇa, his position we shall find superior.

The gopīs when they come to see Nārāyaṇa, “Oh. Here’s Nārāyaṇa. We are offering our obeisances to You and please be propitiated and give us such a boon that we may get Kṛṣṇa.”

They don’t want Nārāyaṇa. But from Nārāyaṇa they pray for His grace, His blessing, that they can get the mercy, the affection of Kṛṣṇa, in this way. Not clear? What do you think? Clear?

Devotee: Yes, it’s clear.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Clear? In that sense the Gurudeva holds, not Gurudeva of all type, but the Gurudeva who is the recruiter for the highest quarter. That is also a function of Kṛṣṇa, but the prospect more high, the Gurudeva. And Gurudeva also may come in different temperament, Gurudeva in our sense who are direct recruiter to Vṛndāvana. And Gurudeva there may be also in the yogī that are recruiter to Paramātmā, it is not their question. They’re not better than Paramātmā, who is recruiting towards the interest of Paramātmā conception. And there are Gurudeva’s that are recruiter on behalf of Nārāyaṇa. Gurudeva also may have different phases, positions, Guru. And that is also advaya-jñāna. His sweet will is working everywhere, but still there is gradation. The Gurudeva, that is recruiter of the highest circle, his position will be better than the Guru and also for whom he’s working to recruit, because that is a limited position. And the recruiter for the highest position, he holds the supreme position than the – than his lowest aspect which is meant to help the souls of lower stages, in that sense.

We, as for us, we don’t want to go to Paramātmā. We’re indifferent there. We don’t like Paramātmā. We don’t like the Vasudeva, or Nārāyaṇa, or Rāmacandra, or even Dvārakesha, Mathuresha. But we like Gurudeva who gives us hope to take to Braja. So to me his position is higher than all these aspects of the Lord, of Lord Kṛṣṇa. In that sense it is told there perhaps, more desirable.

Devotee: So the Supersoul as caitya Guru only helps the living entity to the point of going back to Godhead, then his function is over. And then the spiritual master leads one on to higher and higher levels. Is that correct?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: The spiritual master leads us to a higher position than the Supersoul.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The highest prospect there...hmm?

Devotee: Caitya Guru drops off at the time of – Supersoul helps one to the point of going to the spiritual world, then His function is over.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Devotee: But the spiritual master will continue on and on and on.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That particular function of the absolute not desirable for me at all. So I don’t want Paramātmā. I don’t want the company of Nārāyaṇa, service of Nārāyaṇa. So more important my Gurudeva who will take me to Kṛṣṇa, my desired place; that is his position is superior to me. Everywhere I show my respect to them, but my inner heart’s desire is to go to Kṛṣṇa, and who will be able to take me there then he’s greater than – of highest interest for me. That does not mean that I shall hate Paramātmā or Nārāyaṇa, or any of the things, but in the consideration of my necessity, the higher position is my Gurudeva.

Even Raghunātha Dāsa Goswāmī says that, “I don’t want Kṛṣṇa if I do not have my Mistress Rādhā there. I don’t want Kṛṣṇa if independent of Rādhā.” So more attention towards Rādhā, this is Rādhā-dāsya. There is a conception of that line. Rādhā-dāsya, Rādhā-kaiṅkaryya, that is the highest attainment in the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava School. And that has been clearly stated in Dāsa Goswāmī’s prayer, who is called the highest specialist of the prayojana tattva, what is the real necessity of our life. He says that, “If you do not get the grace of Rādhārāṇī I don’t want You Kṛṣṇa without Rādhikā. Not independent connection with You I want in any time, any way, but always Your Mistress must be there along with You.”

End of 81.12.09.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.09.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... Paramātmā, even Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Can’t you follow?

Devotee: Yes. The Paramātmā is all pervading witness, He’s the witness of all the activities. And I’ve heard it said that...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Paramātmā is important in the relativity of the fallen souls that are in bondage. Paramātmā’s function is important to those that are entangling with the material world. Paramātmā has got His position there only. But the Gurudeva has his position in the liberated section, Vaikuṇṭha, Goloka, everywhere his important position. Without him no function can be undertaken or practised or finished.

Devotee: So I’ve heard it said that the Guru is present within his instructions.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, deha-dehi-vibhāgaś ca neśvare vidyate kvacit. [There is no distinction between the Supreme Lord and His personal body] [Within Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.6.2-4, Purport] His instruction, his body, his movements, his posture, gestures, inseparably connected. God vilāsa, His eye, nose, everything. Everything is there but inseparably connected, deha-dehi-vibhāgaś. His eye can hear. His nose can see. In Brahma-saṁhitā [5.32]

aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti, [paśyanti pānti kalayanti ciraṁ jaganti

ānanda-cinmaya-sad-ujjvala-vigrahasya, govindam ādi puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajami]

[I worship that Primeval Lord Govinda, whose Form is all-Ecstatic, all-Conscious and all-Truth, and thus, full of the most dazzling splendour; every Part of that Transcendental Form possesses the functions of all His Senses, as He eternally sees, maintains and regulates infinite universes, both spiritual and mundane.]

His leg can think, in this way. Just as in mind: mind can hear, mind can see, mind can touch, the central thing. But the eye cannot hear, the ear cannot see, but the mind, the internal body, that can see, that can hear everything, central thing. And the specialised, we may find that there is also ear, eye, so many things. So in this way it goes there. Aṅgāni yasya sakalendriya-vṛttimanti. That we should keep in our mind, to have conception of the higher type of existence. Not compartmental differences are so tight and fast and opposing. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Devotee: In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is stated that the Guru is either the representative of Rādhārāṇī, or Nityānanda, Balarāma.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In different rasa, different department of service. The head of the, He’s the head of all the departments of services, of those who are grouped in that department of service of Them.

Devotee: So Balarāma’s department is sākhya rasa or...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Balarāma mainly sākhya, vātsalya also included somewhat, śanta, all these, except that of mādhurya. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: The day before yesterday, on Monday, you were saying that one has to go gradually, otherwise they might become confused. So sometimes I feel confused. I want to know what, maybe I’m leaving something out in this sādhana. So what are the most important aspects of our sādhana?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sādhu-saṅga – any drawback to be compensated by our more intense relationship: that is of serving relationship with the sādhus who are representing that world. Who represents the dynamic characteristic of that soil. The greater sādhu, the more dynamic capacity personified by coming in contact. Just as if we’re cold we want fire to quench the coolness: in that way. We shall try to place ourselves nearer to the, to those agents which are emanating that power, that force around him, attracting that power of attraction towards Vaikuṇṭha, towards that land. We shall try to come being paralysed by coldness, by chill, and we must come to the fire, to have normal position, comfortable position. So we shall try to approach towards Vaikuṇṭha. But here Vaikuṇṭha means in the heart of the sādhu, _______________________________ [?] nearby him. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Devotee: Therefore we are coming to see you.

Devotee: To get warm.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ

kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi, mayi dṛṣṭe 'khilātmani

[“The knot in the heart is pierced, all misgivings are cut to pieces and the chain of fruitive actions is terminated when I am seen as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.20.30]

________________ [?] then our tendency to enjoy will also be diminished. And our past reaction that will also be little, and gradually we shall find that we are in the midst of that infinite, our consciousness is a part of the infinite consciousness. Consciousness is all in all. First consciousness and then the experience of the consciousness...

[Very muffled recording for about one minute]

When the Bhāgavata chanting finished by Śukadeva Goswāmī then in the conclusion Śukadeva asked Parīkṣit Mahārāja:

tvaṁ tu rājan mariṣyeti, paśu-buddhim imāṁ jahi

[na jātaḥ prāg abhūto 'dya, deha-vat tvaṁ na naṅkṣyasi]

[“O King, give up the animalistic mentality of thinking: “I am going to die.” Unlike the body, you have not taken birth. There was not a time in the past when you did not exist, and you are not about to be destroyed.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 12.5.2]

“Now, that you will die, destroy this animal consciousness, that ‘I shall die.’ This is all animal consciousness that I’m one with this body is myself, paśu-buddhi, that I’m animal, I’m this flesh and blood. This is not so. Keep continuous your consciousness as a member in the conscious world. Don’t allow you to come down in the material conception, that is paśu-buddhi, animal consciousness, that I am this flesh and blood. This is animal consciousness. You kill it, do away with it. Don’t allow your consciousness to come down to the world of material consciousness, flesh and blood. You won’t die. You’re a member of that plane. Tvaṁ tu rājan mariṣyeti, that the serpent, that Takṣaka will come and bite you and you will die, don’t allow yourself to identify that this body is yourself, don’t allow. Retain your consciousness that you’re a member of the conscious world. Don’t allow. Paśu-buddhim imāṁ jahi. That I’m this body ________ [?] you are living in a conscious world. Don’t allow yourself to come down. Then you are in the world of Brahman, pure consciousness, no death. Death is only possible in the body, but you’re not body, the body consciousness and what you see with your bodily eye, this bodily ear. Disconnect with that idea and try to live always in the conscious world.”

And Parīkṣit Mahārāja answered, “By your grace I’m fully established in that stage. No longer shall I be a victim to death. I’m above death. I can maintain my identity, and also I can live and move with so many conscious spirits.”

[Very muffled recording for about seventy seconds]

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Dayal Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi.

Devotee: Mahārāja, I’ve heard from one devotee who read from a large version of the Mahābhārata that there is some, the Mahābhārata tells a different story of the death of Parīkṣit Mahārāja. Is that true that there is in the Mahābhārata...

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Different from Bhāgavata.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, different angle of vision. From two standpoints it may be conceived. One, that kalpa-veda, Brahmā’s day’s program, every day’s program of Brahmā: that is one kalpa. Just as we also in our daily duty, routine, almost we repeat the same thing with some little difference. First coming out of the bed, cleansing face, then after taking tea, and then going to duty, some mainly common things there and some difference also. Not every day a complete copy of the previous day’s activity. So in Brahmā also one kalpa is one day; many things similar and some things different.

So in Purāṇa they have recorded the incidents that happened but we find these differ. One day’s routine has been copied by one man, and another day’s routine has been taken, described by another gentleman. So little difference we find there. Jīva Goswāmī Prabhu has explained like this that we find difference in different Purāṇa. One day’s record, another day’s record, a little difference there may be.

Some kalpa Varāhadeva came as white, some kalpa Varāhadeva came as śyāma, black. Mahāprabhu’s Avatāra has been described as harit [?] varna, like that of su-pak [?], and sometimes pita-varna, a different kalpa. Every Kali-yuga Mahāprabhu comes for Hari-Nāma-saṅkīrtana, but rādhā-govinda-milita-tanu, only one: Seet varaha kalpa [?] Asta vrmsitu yuge yuge [?] Mahāprabhu comes as Rādhā-Govinda, and in Kṛṣṇa līlā also that Rādhā-Govinda, Svayaṁ-Bhagavān. In other Dvāpara, that Yuga Avatāra Kṛṣṇa that is of different type. So differences have been harmonised in this way by Jīva Goswāmī. This is one thing. And another I told, by anything? What was the question?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Kalpa-veda.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, Kalpa-veda was one thing. What was his question?

Devotee: I wanted to, he was just saying, one devotee was saying it disturbed his mind that there was some contradiction...

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Between Mahābhārata and Bhāgavatam...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh! Mahābhārata and Bhāgavatam.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: The difference of the Parīkṣit līlā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Difference of kalpa, and so we find the difference in different scripture. Another thing, the angle of vision. Deeper vision can record the deeper representation, and superficial vision, one who records from superficial vision he will say something else, and from deeper vision he’ll say, “Oh, this is this.”

Or some doctor will examine the patient, he will find a particular type of disease: but another, genius doctor, he’ll say, “No. This is superficial. But the deepest vision is this, the disease is of this type. It is not dysentery, but it is typhoid.” Something like that. So there is also some differences according to the degree of the diagnosis.

But, just as in the case of the Varaha mandala samstan [?] Swāmī Mahārāja says that Sun is the nearest, then Moon, then this Mars. And it is also mentioned in the list of the bara [?] Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Or to come to conclusion or giving suggestion, that this is not in the respect of physical distance but influence. From the standpoint of influence Sun is nearest to the Earth. And the next influence we have from the Moon, and the third from the Mars. In this way, the calculation in this method, the distance, the degree of its presence of influence, the calculation standpoint is different.

So also – I missed what I was going to tell – Parīkṣit Mahārāja, Mahābhārata says that the Takṣaka came along and put his bite into the forehead, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says that the serpent came and touched his feet. That is represented, but we must not approach with the physical side of the history. From the standpoint of Bhāgavatam Parīkṣit is a devotee, and this is līlā of Kṛṣṇa. And the Takṣaka comes, touches, he’s a great devotee, he cannot give him bite on the forehead. It can give only touching by his feet most modestly he should deal with the, this is the view of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And in Mahābhārata to the ordinary was as we get here as the result of karma. Karma has come with his influence and circled his throat and gave his bite on the forehead. That is in the vision of – the same Vedavyāsa when he’s writing in the mood of Mahābhārata writing. But that is discarded by Devaṛṣi Nārada, he had a greater view, more holy view. Kṛṣṇa līlā, and any connection of Kṛṣṇa that should be valued very highly than ordinary laws. So from the standpoint of the author of Bhāgavatam, “Yes, this karma came to serve Parīkṣit, not to force his power, to assert his power, on him.” So the:

yata dekha vaiṣṇavera vyavahāra-duḥkha, niścaya jāniha tāhā paramānanda-sukha

[“When you see a Vaiṣṇava of the highest order who seems to be suffering from material misery, you should know for sure that he is really experiencing the highest ecstasy.”]

[Caitanya-Bhāgavata, Madhya, 9.240 – within Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 5.19.5, Purport]

& [Gauḍīya Kanthahara, 3.49]

Whatever you see _______________ [?] Vaiṣṇava, you don’t look at it as an ordinary patient suffering from his karma, his vyādhi. But he internally he’s enjoying. Just as Kuntī Devī says:

vipadaḥ santu [tāḥ śaśvat, tatra tatra jagad-guro

bhavato darśanam yat syād, apunar bhava-darśanam]

[Queen Kuntī Devī prayed to Kṛṣṇa: “I wish that all those calamities (poisoning, arson, cannibalism, the vicious assembly, exile in the forest, the battle), would occur again and again so that we could have Your darśana again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.8.25]

“Let the dangers come. But I want Kṛṣṇa because if vipadaḥ comes, danger comes, I get Kṛṣṇa.” So Kuntī’s approach towards any difficulty is not an ordinary proposal with the difficulty by all. Do you follow? Am I clear, a little?

Devotees: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So the standpoints differs. A devotee when suffering from a disease he does not care so much as an ordinary. “Oh, so many great losses will be incurred. If I die, what about these young boys, who will look after them? Where the estate will go?” But this sort pressures him much. But when a devotee is suffering from same the disease ________ [?] “Yes, Kṛṣṇa’s will, Kṛṣṇa’s will. Who’ll look after, He will see. If I die, yes I shall attain a higher position perhaps than this.” Not internally so much troubled. So the standpoints of the authors differ; deeper vision will, can disclose one thing, and the superficial vision, his record is something, and who can see deeply his record is different. Just as in the case of the diagnosis of a doctor. Something like that.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Ultimately the reign of the whole is in the hand of Kṛṣṇa. Whom He wants to see in a particular way, he cannot but see that. He’s entering the arena of Kaṁsa, someone’s seeing that He’s a great wrestler. Someone says, “Oh. Great Bhagavān is coming.” The parents say, “Oh. My child is coming, after so long.” Some say, “Oh. A big diplomatic ruler is approaching towards us.” As He wants Him to be seen by others the key is in His hand.

So we won’t think that all things are dead and there descriptions must be one and the same. It is all living, can move, and not dead body following here, they can’t move their limb. It’s all living, and the wire puller is everywhere, awake in every point. He can force us to see anything and everything: the greatest hypnotist. So all false:

'dvaite bhadrābhadra-jñāna, saba-'manodharma' / 'ei bhāla, ei manda',-ei saba 'bhrama'

[“In the material world, conceptions of good and bad are all mental concoctions. Therefore, saying, ‘This is good, this is bad,’ is a mistake.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 4.176]

This is all erroneous records. The Autocrat, His sweet will, that is everything. We are to gradually approach to that sort of causal position of the whole world, we are to approach.

[na tu māṁ śakyase draṣṭum, anenaiva sva-cakṣuṣā]

divyaṁ dadāmi te cakṣuḥ, paśya me yogam aiśvaram

[“By these present eyes of yours you will not be able to see Me. Therefore I give you supernatural eyes by which you can see My almighty, mystic power.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 11.8]

What is this, in the great battlefield of Kurukṣetra, Arjuna, divya-rūpa, when he was shown. How we are to accommodate that? Arjuna is seeing that. What is the cause? With that thing in our mind we shall try to have estimation of our environment, as well as our own self. Do you understand?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. What’s the time?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Ten to ten.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then here we stop.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

...

...decoration is very attractive. It was constructed by Man Singh [?], the General, the Chief of Jaipur, and the General of Argba Batsar [?]. And he was disciple of Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa who was son of Tapana Miśra, who lived in his later days in Benares and previously in Faridpur District, Bengal. Tapana Miśra, his son Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa, he was the Bhāgavata reader in the assembly of Rūpa Goswāmī and very, very sweet, and musical voice he possessed. And Man Singh [?], he became disciple to him.

nija śiṣye kari’ govindera mandira karāilā, [vaṁśī, makara, kuṇḍalādi ‘bhūṣaṇa’ kari’ dilā]

[“Subsequently, Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa ordered his disciples to construct a temple for Govinda. He prepared various ornaments for Govinda, including a flute and earrings shaped like sharks.”]

[Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 13.131]

It is mentioned in Caitanya-caritāmṛta that Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa constructed that Govindaji temple by his own disciple. And it was also engraved in the temple that Man Singh [?] has constructed this. So Man Singh [?] was the disciple of Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa, son of Tapana Miśra.

Devotee: But the Deities Rādhā-Govinda, this is not Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa’s...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Raghunātha Dāsa is another. Raghunātha Dāsa lived in Vṛndāvana along with Rūpa Goswāmī Prabhu. He’s a brāhmaṇa, Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa. And Raghunātha Dāsa he was kāyastha born. But Raghunātha Dāsa, his position was superior, though he himself told, Rati Mañjarī, and this Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa was Rasa Mañjarī, a little higher position. All of them in mādhurya rasa.

What was your position when Swāmī Mahārāja left, where you were?

Devotee: In America.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: When he departed, you were in service, or a householder, at that time when Swāmī Mahārāja departed?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: No, he’s a brahmacārī.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh. He’s a brahmacārī. And he was living with his friends?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: When Prabhupāda left the world?

Devotee: When Prabhupāda left I was pūjārī in our temple in Philadelphia.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Philadelphia.

...

...their discussion, question answered. One came from ________ University, Harvard.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. And your education there: how much?

Devotee: Twelve years.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Graduate, no more than that, Doctorate?

Devotee: No. No degree. Just twelve years high school.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Arts or the science.

Devotee: No, no. No arts, no science. No degree.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No such: general education.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: General.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And your parents? Your father is doing, which thing, what is he?

Devotee: He’s in electronic business.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Electrical business.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Electrical and electronic different.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yeah. Which one, electronic or electrical?

Devotee: He’s electronics, he’s working with this video tape.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Electronics, they’re more developed, electronic video.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: More developed, video, television, like they were doing here.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: How many brothers you have?

Devotee: Three.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Three brothers. They’re all living in a joint family?

Devotee: No, my families broken up, by divorce.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You are which son?

Devotee: Number two.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Second son.

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mother does not cry for you?

Devotee: No. A little bit.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Willingly. Willingly given up for the service of the God.

Devotee: She has sacrificed.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sacrificed, father also?

Devotee: Yes. She likes what I’m doing, but the father he’s a big hustler, he’s atheist, he doesn’t like.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Are they disciples, no?

Devotee: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But not anti, not against?

Devotee: My father he is against. He cannot say the word Kṛṣṇa. He’s such a demon.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But does he say God.

Devotee: No he doesn’t, he cannot say.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No. He can’t say God also. Allah?

Devotee: No. No he cannot say.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nothing of the kind.

Devotee: My mother she says Kṛṣṇa all the time though, she likes. Because they’re not living together, they’re divorced, the whole family is broken apart. This is common thing in America.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kṛṣṇa means all attractor. Can you deny Him? For the cohesion of all the atoms and electrons the attracting power is necessary. Attraction, that is the most fundamental potency and that is not dead, that is a living thing; and there you will find Kṛṣṇa all embracing, all organising, all attracting, and to attract all in conscious area, that does not mean nothing. That is everything. That is everything, who can attract everything, what powerful is He, and what capacity He has got. All attracting principle who can attract. Not only that is endowed, He can’t but admit that, that there must be all attracting potency. And that is a living thing, not a dead one. That is endowed with life and that becomes Kṛṣṇa. And when He attracts the conscious, then the attraction is known as love, beauty. Conscious unit can be attracted only by love and beauty. No force can do that. Force fails there. So all embracing, all loving, all beautiful, all ecstatic principle centre of the Absolute. Everything is for Him and He’s for everyone: friendly relation, suhṛdaṁ sarvva-bhūtānāṁ. Have you gone through Bhagavad-gītā?

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ, sarva-loka-maheśvaram

suhṛdaṁ sarvva-bhūtānāṁ, jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati

[“I am the enjoyer of the results of sacrifice performed by the fruit-hunter, as well as the results of austerity performed by the liberation-seeker - I am their only worshippable object; I am Nārāyaṇa, the indwelling monitor of all planes of life, and the Supreme Worshippable Personality who awards liberation. And I am the well-wisher of all - I am Kṛṣṇa, the devotee’s most adorable friend. The soul who thus knows My true identity attains the ecstasy of knowing his own original divine identity.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 5.29]

“Though I’m the enjoyer of everything, absolute owner and enjoyer, bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ, sarva-loka-maheśvaram, the Supreme of the Supreme am I, but suhṛdaṁ sarvva-bhūtānāṁ, at the same time I’m in friendly relation with all. If one comes to know that then he finds real peace in his heart.”

That is, the world is not a place of anarchy, there is administration, justice, mercy, and the highest entity, highest quarter of justice and mercy is a friend of mine. My interest is really, sincerely and truly represented there in His heart. Then I can sleep peacefully. No fear, no apprehension, even from atom bomb. The atom bomb will devastate only – suppose the coat or the cloth.

tvaṁ tu rājan mariṣyeti, paśu-buddhim imāṁ jahi

[na jātaḥ prāg abhūto 'dya, deha-vat tvaṁ na naṅkṣyasi]

[“O King, give up the animalistic mentality of thinking: “I am going to die.” Unlike the body, you have not taken birth. There was not a time in the past when you did not exist, and you are not about to be destroyed.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 12.5.2]

But our enemy is the animal consciousness. The body consciousness is our enemy, the world consciousness. I am all spirit, all soul. I am there. I am the child of that soil. Anyhow I have been dragged into this material consideration and identify myself more with the matter and forgotten my own position.

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.”] [Caitanya- caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.117]

Prabhupāda used to say deya saṁsāra dukḥa instead of that he sometimes, deya saṁsāra sukḥa. Ataeva māyā tāre deya saṁsāra sukḥa. This illusory pleasure, not only pain, but even so called pleasure has attracted us from the illusory quarter, aspect. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

We are to kill this animal consciousness that I am matter. The matter is indispensable part in me. No. It has nothing to do, it is a diseased mentality. Śukadeva Goswāmī says like that. Tvaṁ tu rājan mariṣyeti, paśu-buddhim imāṁ jahi. Just as in a dream we can think it is, we may have such a dream that my body, my throat is cut off and it is fallen there.

svapne yathā śiraś-chedaṁ, [pañcatvādy ātmanaḥ svayam

yasmāt paśyati dehasya, tata ātmā hy ajo 'maraḥ]

[“In a dream one can see his own head being cut off and thus understand that his actual self is standing apart from the dream experience. Similarly, while awake one can see that his body is a product of the five material elements. Therefore it is to be understood that the actual self, the soul, is distinct from the body it observes and is unborn and immortal.”]

In Bhāgavatam, [12.5.4]. In svapne, in dream we may see that my body beheaded and is remaining, fallen there. But unaffected I see that. If the indispensable connection with the body then the body is separated I should not live. But I’m seeing my body is cut off there. The seer, that is also in māyāic but subtle cage, sukṣma-śarira, but when that’s also gone, that subtle body, then we have got the real spiritual body. Then our approach towards matter will be quite different. Ke?

Devotee: _____________ [?]

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

And Rāmacandra’s kingdom: the name of the capitol of Rāmacandra?

Devotee: Ayodhyā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ayodhyā, and how many brothers?

Devotee: Three, three others.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Three others, Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa, Bhārata, Satrughna, four. Rāma Rāma Hare Hare. Rāmacandra’s position is between Nārāyaṇa and Dvārakesa, Vaikuṇṭha and Dvārakā. Ayodhyā’s position spiritually is above Vaikuṇṭha and below Dvārakā. Rāma is, Eko patni dar, single wife, not, bahu vallabha, like Kṛṣṇa, husband of many, Kṛṣṇa. But there is vātsalya rasa: what is absent in Vaikuṇṭha.

Mādhurya rasa proper according to our Guru Mahārāja is found only in Vṛndāvana. And Dvārakā, and Vaikuṇṭha, and Ayodhyā are more dāsya rasa, mainly of service type. Both parties are free, than the real mādhurya rasa is in its full swing there possibly. That I heard from Guru Mahārāja, my Prabhupāda. They’re so partial to Vṛndāvana rasa they could not give any recognition to mādhurya rasa in Dvārakā, or Ayodhyā, or Vaikuṇṭha. Categorically different, Vraja rasa, parakīya rasa, Vraja rasa, is categorically different from all other rasa in the realm of Svayaṁ-Bhagavān the beautiful, very enhanced. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, Nārada Muni is in dāsya rasa?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nārada Muni, not dāsya, mixed śanta, dāsya. The seer, knower, but not participator, jñāna-vimukta-bhakti-paramāḥ [Upadeśāmṛta, 10] Catuḥsana is śanta rasa, just above that, very __________________________________ [?] peculiar extension he goes everywhere. Some taste even in Vṛndāvana, but as a ṛṣi Devaṛṣi respected there, in Dvārakā, but nowhere he stays in a particular duty, he’s wandering.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Just water.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Anyone?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: No, no. Rain is coming down from the roof.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh. From the roof it’s coming from that cover and then it’s sometimes coming down.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So from here will he go to Māyāpur – now he has come to you only?

Devotee: No. I’ve only come here.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: To hear from Your Grace.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And not to Māyāpur for a visit? Once you must go there.

Devotee: Maybe we’ll go there for a visit. Yes, of course.

End of 81.12.09.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.12.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: …and if we want our shelter, that will be overhead, āśraya, shelter, shelter not below the leg, but shelter should be over the head. The Vedic mantra, the principal Ṛg Veda mantra (1.22.20) says: tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ divīva cakṣur ātatam.

[oṁ tad viṣṇo paramaṁ padaṁ sadā, paśyanti suraya divīva cakṣur ātatam

tad viprāso vipanyavo jāgṛvāṁśāḥ, samindhate viṣṇor yat paramaṁ padam]

[“As the sun and sunlight is continuous over the skies as light-giver to us (for that sunlight is the universal form of the Lord) similarly, the Divine Lotus Feet of the Lord Śrī Viṣṇu is always spread widely (like a canopy) over our head.”] [Ṛg Veda, 1.22.20]

The holy feet of Viṣṇu, yaḥ idaṁ viṣṇuḥ vyāpnotīti, who is pervading everywhere, His feet, His lowest portion towards us, paramaṁ, that is not to be neglected. That is very highly qualified from all standpoints, from the standpoint of fine existence, knowledge, as well as sweetness, paramaṁ padaṁ. Sadā paśyanti suraya, the scholars they’re always conscious of that fact, their real basis of life is there. Not an animal wandering in the forest, or on the earth, or mountain, or jungle. But the real man is in his consciousness, and conscious of some higher entity, always. Sadā paśyanti suraya, always seeing that, looking at that, conscious of that idea, ideal. Divīva cakṣur ātatam, vaguely or in a mystic way? No. As we see the sun in the sky so conspicuous, so clear, and so real. Tad viṣṇo paramaṁ padaṁ. So we shall really live and move in that higher consciousness, we are a child of that conscious world. So at the conclusion of Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, Śukadeva is giving warning to Parīkṣit Mahārāja, “The last, what I have got, what I have told to you so long, the firm basis you must be conscious of. What is that?”

tvaṁ tu rājan mariṣyeti, paśu-buddhim imāṁ jahi

[na jātaḥ prāg abhūto ’dya, deha-vat tvaṁ na naṅkṣyasi]

[“O King, give up the animalistic mentality of thinking: ‘I am going to die.’ Unlike the body, you have not taken birth. There was not a time in the past when you did not exist, and you are not about to be destroyed.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 12.5.2]

The serpent, that is the cheating, deception, serpent is the type of deception, stealthily it comes to bite and kills. Stealthily the ignorance has come and taken you down to the world of animal consciousness, and we are all moving under the deception we are this heavy flesh and blood, and for that, heavier earth is necessary to lift us above, on its lap. Ke?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Guru Mahārāja, Vidagdha Dāsa.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Vidagdha-Mādhava.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: And Kṛṣṇa Vallabha Prabhu, a new...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Divīva cakṣur ātatam, so our, mariṣyeti paśu-buddhim imāṁ jahi, do away with your animal consciousness that you are flesh and blood. No, you are not limited within flesh and blood, but you are a conscious unit and you won’t die. You are not a member of this dying world where everything is sure to die. Only for this misidentification this has come as a necessary truth on you, ‘that you are to die, you are to become infirm, you are to be born, you are to suffer from disease,’ all for misidentification of yourself with this body. So mariṣyeti, paśu- buddhim imāṁ jahi, this is animal consciousness that you are an animal.

But you are not so, you are a conscious unit, you are spirit, you are soul. Not only is the soul immortal, not only does God exist, not only He is the dispenser of good and bad, everything - but we, ourselves, are units of the conscious world. So paśu-buddhim imāṁ jahi, separate yourself eternally from that mania, from that misconception, misidentification, false identity with this material aspect, which is the result of your degraded life. Be reinstated to your glorious position that you are soul. And at the same time how it is possible? You are taṭastha by constitution, so you cannot stand on your own legs, you must have some shelter, either this mundane, considering yourself identified with the mundane world, or you must have some shelter above your head. Above your head, taṭastha, you must have shelter from the śvarūpa-śakti land, final land.

Paramaṁ padaṁ sadā, paśyanti suraya divīva cakṣur ātatam, cakṣur, viṣṇo paramaṁ pada, how His divine feet, the conception of the divine feet of Viṣṇu, of Nārāyaṇa, of Kṛṣṇa, that is, paramaṁ padaṁ, like sun to you in the material comparison. That is seer, that possible seeing, feeling, if He is withdrawn everything is dark. If Viṣṇu’s paramaṁ pada is withdrawn then everything will be dark. That is the light of light. And you must have a continuous eternal consciousness that above you there is another soil and your shelter is there, and you are a soul unit. This diabolical change you must have to adjust within you. That is your shelter. This is not your shelter; this is a prison house for you. So this broad and graphic comprehensive consideration must be at the basis of spiritual understanding. Otherwise we’ll have to be sahajiyā, imitationist. Imitationist, we are to cross this Hindenburg line.

Then, tad viṣṇo paramaṁ padaṁ, this is the basic advice of Ṛg-Veda, the first Veda that comes down from the upper world to this world. The primary conception which is needed from you all is that you must think that there’s a world above, and that ‘above’ means in the line of consciousness. Your highest acquaintance is that you are conscious, and that conscious world is above you on your head. You must have to adopt that as your shelter. You’ll move and live there. The diabolical change, here, you are in the atmosphere of exploitation, but that is the land of service. There, you are to think in terms of service. That is on your head. That is the superior region, more superior than you are made of. So do you want that connection? Or you will be better to reign in hell? Do you like to reign in hell or to serve in heaven? What do you like? You consider and then come out. If you do such, then you will have a land, you have got prospect, you have got everything up to Kṛṣṇa, the Absolute, you can reach. Otherwise you are to have eighty-four lakhs [8,400,000] of species.

jalajā nava lakṣāni, sthāvarā lakṣa viṁśati

kṛmayo rudra-saṅkhyakāḥ, pakṣiṇām daśa lakṣaṇam

triṁsal lakṣāni paśavaḥ, catur lakṣāṇi mānuṣaḥ

[In the laws of Manu, it is written: “There are 900,000 kinds of aquatics, 2,000,000 kinds of trees and plants, 1,100,000 kinds of insects and reptiles, 1,000,000 kinds of birds, 3,000,000 kinds of four-legged beasts, and 400,000 kinds of human species.”] [Viṣṇu-Purāṇa]

These are the eighty-four lakhs of classification under which you are to wander, action reaction, in this way. You are to select what you want to do. Do you want to be a member of the land of mortality, janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi [birth, death, old age and infirmity - [Bhagavad-gītā, 13.9] - or immortality? Then you are to pay for such ticket. And you are to take the visa. You will have to be prepared for such categorical beginning. And creed, the bond, you are to sign. That cause, that slavery.

jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya-kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’ [kṛṣṇera ‘taṭasthā-śakti’ bhedābheda-prakāśa’]

[“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.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.108]

That mystic land, the land of infinite hope and prosperity and prospect, if you want to go you will have to go as a slave, as a slave, because that is made of higher stuff than you yourselves are.

vaikuṇṭhera pṛthivy ādi sakala cinmaya, māyika bhūtera tathi janma nāhi haya

[“The earth, water, fire, air and ether of Vaikuṇṭha are all spiritual. Material elements are not found there.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 5.53]

They’re all consciousness, everything made of consciousness, spirit. And again, upper, that is ānandam, made of not only consciousness, but it is endowed with - just as medicine in the beginning it may be bitter, but in the higher stage the sweetness is added in the medicine. So in rāga-mārga, in Kṛṣṇaloka, there is not only consciousness, but there’s sweetness, the beauty, that is the prevailing element there.

So, ideal - when a ship without a rudder is moving distance, this way, that way, in the ocean. But if a particular ideal we have got, the Kṛṣṇa, Mahāprabhu, Bhāgavatam, then I am captivated, captured. This tuft of hair is tied with the feet of Guru Mahārāja and the divine grace. The tuft of hair captured, the head is captured there, and everything will be done through the head, the most reverential part of my body in this material world. So, one who has got a good ideal, he is in possession of a valuable wealth. Otherwise, these things, this kanak, kāminī, pratiṣṭhā - the popularity, then the materials of sense pleasure, and the money - all these things, but they’re all animal consciousness. They’re all properties in the land of animal consciousness. A diabolical change must be effected within us if we want really a life to be worth living.

So, ideal - a man should be judged by his ideal. What sort of ideal, how great an ideal has he got? And he’s trying to realise that. The man of the future, the man of tomorrow, should be judged by his ideal. If his ideal is great, he is great, because if he’s sincere, tomorrow he’ll reach there. After a few days he will reach there. So we should be judged by our ideal. I may not attain it. It is not very easy. It is not rotten goods that are to be very cheaply sold in the market. It is costly. But whatever may be the cost it does not matter.

I want not less than that highest thing, that advaya-jñāna, that Autocrat, that Goodness Autocrat, that Absolute Autocrat, that Supreme Most Commander of everything. I want that, nothing less than that. And I should live and move and feel myself, or whatever I shall do, at every second I shall have to realise that I am meant for that, I am meant for my ideal. I have no time to waste to hesitate, or this or that. Every moment, if with the ideal in our heart we move, every way, every minute I shall make some progress towards it if I can keep intact my relationship with my ideal. So that will control, that will inspire me, to any and every action, whatever I shall do, or undo, take rest, but that is on my head. And that will gradually take me out of all these entanglements and enticements, and one day or other I shall be able to reach there.

jāto-śraddho mat kathāsu, nirviṇṇaḥ sarvva-karmmasu

veda-duḥkhātmakān kāmān, parityāge ‘py anīśvaraḥ

[“He who has imbibed heart’s faith in the tidings of My Name, nature and pastimes; who has become indifferent to all kinds of fruitive work and its rewards; who has learned that all forms of enjoyment of sensual passions ultimately transform into misery, yet he is unable to fully abandon such passions - such a faithful devotee, being determined that his shortcomings will be dispelled by the potency of devotion, gradually comes to abhor those evil passions that enslave him, knowing the havoc they wreak - and he serves Me with love: When his object is pure and sincere, I give him My mercy.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.20.27]

“One who has by chance, has got a taste for Me, jāto-śraddho mat kathāsu, he has anyhow acquired some taste, mat kathāsu, in My talk, in My activities, in My movement, in Me, anyhow got some attraction, jāto-śraddho mat kathāsu, nirviṇṇaḥ sarvva-karmmasu. So necessarily, no other temptation can catch him and keep him under it any longer. Nirviṇṇaḥ sarvva-karmmasu, indifferent to all other activities and the results and outcome of that. Veda-duḥkhātmakān kāmān, he can understand within that all other things they bear some unpleasant reaction. ‘I’m in the midst of so many things already acquired. It is not very easy to leave them at once at my sweet will. Previously I had some obligation, I incurred it consciously, and abruptly I cannot cut off their connection. They won’t let me loose, get free.’ So veda-duḥkhātmakān kāmān, he can conceive that these are all pain producing. Parityāge ‘py anīśvaraḥ, but helpless, can’t make himself free at once from their clutches. Because already incurred debt the Shylocks won’t allow him to get out.”

tato bhajeta māṁ prītaḥ śraddhālur dṛḍha-niścayaḥ

[juṣamāṇaś ca tān kāmān duḥkhodarkāṁś ca garhayan]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.20.28]

“But what śraddhā, the pure attraction he has acquired for Me, that is of eternal nature. That cannot be subdued, or that cannot be cut off by any mundane, ordinary attempt. Tato bhajeta māṁ prītaḥ śraddhālur dṛḍha-niścayaḥ, though undergoing so many different ways and types of suffering, but he goes on with My memory, thinking, aspiration, earnestness for Me. Śraddhālur dṛḍha-niścayaḥ, and as much as he’s compelled to suffer from the pressure of the environment, the firmness in Me becomes more and more sure, invulnerable. And by the tests of all these stands beyond, and grows beyond the jurisdiction of these mundane forces. Bhajeta māṁ prītaḥ śraddhālur dṛḍha-niścayaḥ, as much pressure comes from outside, so much firmness he feels in the necessity of My help to him. Tato bhajeta māṁ prītaḥ śraddhālur dṛḍha-niścayaḥ.

Juṣamāṇaś ca tān kāmān duḥkhodarkāṁś ca garhayan, at the same time he gives his back towards all these pains of the world, and keeps Me in the front, and begins to move onward. Juṣamāṇaś ca tān kāmān duḥkhodarkāṁś ca garhayan. ‘Whatever You like, You can do, will do. I can’t say anything if my Master looks at it. It is His jurisdiction. But I won’t leave my new ideal, I can’t. Whatever may come, it may happen, no mind.’ Juṣamāṇaś ca tān kāmān duḥkhodarkāṁś ca garhayan. And at the same time he’s abusing himself, ‘What have I done? What have I done? It is rather the justice that I should be tormented; I should be troubled, in such ways. It is not wrong. It is not wrong. It is the just thing; just dealings have come over me. Because why should I have committed? I entered this wrong alliance, entered into the tribe of the guṇḍās for exploitation. The reaction that is coming on over me that is well and good.’ Blaming himself, not to blame the environment, not to blame the agents that are causing trouble to us, but the concentration comes within that. Garhayan, he’s blaming his own self, his own free will, own fate, in this way. That should be, that becomes the nature of his temperament at that time. He does not try to look and place the fault on the shoulders of others, but the whole burden he takes on his shoulders. ‘Yes, and the nature, the environment is doing justice to me, the traitor, the ambitious, the oppressor of the environment.’ Duḥkhodarkāṁś ca garhayan.

proktena bhakti-yogena [bhajato mā ‘sakṛn muneḥ

kāmā hṛdayyā naśyanti sarvve mayi hṛdi sthite]

[“When an intelligent person engages constantly in worshipping Me through loving devotional service as described by Me, his heart becomes firmly situated in Me. Thus all material desires within his heart are destroyed.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.20.29]

When he’s in the mood of such consciousness the bhakti-yoga becomes dṛḍha, it is more and more intense, more and more intense. When he began to blame himself, then the intensity of his progress…ke?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: We are going to catch a train to Calcutta, Mahārāja.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Going now?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Yes, unfortunately.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Vidagdha-Mādhava?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes, and Kṛṣṇa Vallabha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right. You have taken prasādam? No?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Some urgency to go.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right. Proktena bhakti-yogena bhajato mā ‘sakṛn muneḥ, then his attempt to make progress, to increase his progress, bhajato mā ‘sakṛn muneḥ, more and more with accelerated motion his intensity grows. Kāmā hṛdayyā naśyanti sarvve mayi hṛdi sthite, then, by My appearance, gradually, all his internal and external discrepancies, naśyanti, gradually destroyed, evaporates. Sarvve mayi hṛdi sthite, when by such type of approach he reaches My domain, or rather, I come down, I extend My existence to his heart, then everything disappears, sarvve mayi hṛdi sthite. Then:

bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, [chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ

kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi, mayi dṛṣṭe ‘khilātmani]

[“The knot in the heart is pierced, all misgivings are cut to pieces and the chain of fruitive actions is terminated when I am seen as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 11.20.30]

All the ties and entanglements, corners, angles, all vanish, crookedness vanishes. Straight, plain, graphic, spacious, all-embracing temperament he finds in the midst of; his atmosphere changes.

In the meantime I want to mention a practical experience. One day I was sitting in that chair, suddenly was thinking something, I felt some higher subjective sphere has come down and surrounded my existence. I felt, what is this? I never experienced, I had some peep from far off, but a new conscious atmosphere has come down and it has covered, surrounded my whole existence, whole knowledge. What is this? There was perhaps Arjunabhodi [?] and other gentleman, I could not but tell them, ‘Just now I feel the higher, I consider myself to be some subjective existence, but some higher subjective existence has come and surrounded my whole existence, whole feeling. Is it the ratha that came for Ajāmila? This next suggestion came to me, that the soul enters into a ratha and if this atmosphere, how it is covering my whole existence, conception of existence, take me anywhere; I shall have to go there. My whole conception of my own self is surrounded. And wherever it will go I have no other way but to go within, I’m within that. And I find that it is a living thing. It has got its choice. It has got its freedom. Then I had some new experience, the svarūpa-śakti atmosphere, and I am, just when the earth moves, the tree, anything also, automatically has to move, so, new soil.

Bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, all the ties, with so many attractions, so many things of different type of things of different promise, different achievement, at once dissolved. At once dissolved, no necessity, no necessity of them in this land. Hṛdaya-granthiś, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ. Hṛdayenābhyanujñāto [Manu, 2.1] Internal approval comes to ensure that where you have come this is your land. Chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ, no room of any doubt, all your hankerings are more than fulfilled here you’ll find, sarva-saṁśayāḥ. ‘I was searching, my whole body was searching only for me.’

In Vaiṣṇava-padāvali [Anthology of Vaiṣṇava Songs, by Jñāna Dāsa], there is an expression: prati aṅga lāge kānde prati aṅga mora. In mādhurya-rasa, where Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī is Śakti She says that, “My every limb is crying for the respective limb of My Lord. Not only My Self, but every part of My body earnestly aspiring for the other corresponding part of My Master’s.”

So, bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ, every part stands as witness, ‘Yes, we have come, have attained which we were searching after; the whole body and whole unit of the body; wholesale satisfaction. That this is my soil, this is my home; this is my home. The every atom of my body will say like that, that chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ. No trace of any doubt will be found, no room for that. But every atom they will find their fulfilment. ‘It is my home, it is my home. I am in home comfort I find.’ Kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi, and also the force of reaction won’t come to trouble him, to drag him down, or attract him towards the back. That is also cut off. Mayi dṛṣṭe ‘khilātmani. “And I am the fullest of the full perfection, and he will be able to feel everywhere My help, My assistance, My friendship. Wherever he will cast his glance, or move, or live, My friendship he will be able to trace. I am here, his friend is here. The friend is there, mayi dṛṣṭe ‘khilātmani.”

That should be the course of our life, the direction towards which we want to go. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says like that. Sweet, sweet home, sweet home; home, you are the child of that soil. This is, in one word that is the goal. Why is that the goal, highest goal? Because that is your home; svarūpe sabāra haya, golokete sthiti, this one word is sufficient to attract you. You are wandering in the foreign land, and that is your home. Home comfort you will get there and you won’t be able to deny that. So back to God, back to home, back to Godhead.

To avoid the Christian conception of God, the Godhead, our Guru Mahārāja Prabhupāda used the word Godhead, because bhagavatā. God means a particular conception of the same. So Godhead, what is at the back of the conception of God, that is Godhead; that is Svayaṁ Bhagavān - Bhagavān Himself, the highest conception, highest conception of God, that is Godhead, it is meant by that. So not back to God, but back to Godhead. That is the necessity of the name of the paper was given from such consideration. Back to God, back to home, it is a proverb perhaps, it is coming from previous time. But Back to Godhead that means that Svayaṁ Bhagavān which is the highest conception of God. So back to Godhead, and that is the home is there, home is there.

So, we are running hither and thither, we have got no principle, no principle of life, unsettled, so our position is very sad, no rest from here, from one, two, three, five, six. In this way, but that is a troublesome life. I can’t put my faith anywhere. That means I can’t find any friend anywhere. Friendless, I am moving friendless. I am moving amongst the foreigners, enemies, sometimes. But I must have some friend, some friendly atmosphere. I must attain such a position that I can fetch full faith; I can believe, I can trust, such company, such company. Otherwise my life will be miserable, miserable. Everywhere, what direction I shall cast my glance I can’t trust, I can’t trust, all inimical. That is a particular prison house to live in that atmosphere, to live in a prison house, all uncertain, all untrustworthy. That is a very deplorable position. So, by God’s grace it should come to us, that śraddhā. Not only I can trust, believe, but I shall have to, cannot but show my regard. Such a higher positioned life; that is gurum evābhigachet.

When we suffer from this uncertainty to the extreme, then we hanker after Guru, reliable source. Not only I can put something to him, we can trust him, but Guru means guardian who is a well-wisher of me more than I am of myself. Guardian means a friend who thinks more about me than I myself think about me, who knows about my welfare more than I do, to have a guardian, friend, Guru.

So Narottama Ṭhākura says, āśraya laiyā bhaje tāṅre kṛṣṇa nāhi tyaje: “If I get a bona fide guardian then my future is assured.” Kṛṣṇa cannot dismiss him so easily, because my guardian has some solid position there; and if I can enter into the domain of his care, that of my guardian, then my position is assured. So, āśraya laiyā bhaje tāṅre kṛṣṇa nāhi tyaje, āra saba mare akāraṇa: The others who have not yet been able to tie himself with the holy feet of his guardian, Guru, then his position is uncertain, and he may be enticed by any agent to any direction, his future is deplorable.

So to have a real ideal in life, and also a living guardian, that is real guardian, to have, if we can catch through our śraddhā, then almost, our future is more or less assured. Only my duty towards my guardian, my Gurudeva; that will be my lookout and the others will be done automatically. So, to run through the length and breadth of this wide world of this land of exploitation, nothing but exploitation of different natures, of different planes is visible, is existing. So only through śraddhā can we connect us with our highest goal and achievement and fulfilment; that should be solved. Then, real life begins. Otherwise like a ship without rudder that can be drifted away by the sea storm this side, that side, no end, endless, no meaning; no value. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Any question?

Devotee: Guru Mahārāja, you mentioned that the material world is like a prison house. Are the demigods such as Brahmā and Indra, are they also prisoners?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: They are also prisoners, just as there are officers in the prison house. The prisoner also may become an officer in that jail government. Prison government, senior and qualified prisoners they are also given some chance of a post. Is it not?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So they are like that. They are also imprisoned but their position is a little higher and so they are given some duty. Just as a cowboy keeps his cow, or a horseman keeps his horse, in that way. But they are also prisoners.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya.

Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya. Dayāl. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

The man who went away with Vidagdha, was he a newcomer?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Newcomer, for the first time he came here?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What is his name?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Kṛṣṇa Vallabha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kṛṣṇa Vallabha, yes. Who’s disciple? Swāmī Mahārāja?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: That we do not know Mahārāja; new to us also.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Sundara. And what part he comes from you also don’t know?

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Hari. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Mahārāja, in Bhāgavatam it says there are fourteen planetary systems.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Fourteen planetary systems.

Devotee: And yet...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Caudda bhuvan?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Caudda bhuvan. [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 12.16]

Devotee: ...when we see the sky at night we see so many stars and planets that it seems as though the number is unlimited...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is not that, not of that type.

Devotee: Not of that type?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No. Not all physical, but from physical to subtle, from consciousness towards this matter. The gradation from finer to finer, in this way it is going to consciousness, the gap between soul and matter, to fill up the gap from gross to subtle, then that is gross, further, subtle. In this way it is going to vanish in the conscious idea, from consciousness and unconsciousness, the hierarchy, the steps, from jara to cetana, from matter to spirit. So many steps, fine, finer, finest, in this way the conception is there. Bhūr, Bhuvar, Svar, Mahar, Janar, Tapar, Satya, then Virajā, then Brahmaloka: in Brahman we find the real existence of soul. And from Virajā this material consciousness...

End of 81.12.12.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.12.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: … Just as Bhagavad-gītā says:

indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur, indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ

manasas tu parā buddhir, buddher yaḥ paratas tu saḥ

[“The learned proclaim that the senses are superior to inert objects, the mind is superior to the senses, and the faculty of resolute intelligence is superior to the mind. And he who is superior to the intelligence is the soul himself.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 3.42]

In short, three or four steps given here in the middle, but more elaborated in details there are seven stages. In Gītā from the matter, then indriya second, then third is mind, and the fourth is judiciousness, reason, and the fifth, soul. But these, in four, but in details there are so many subdivisions also. Bhūr, Bhuvar, Svar, Mahar, Janar, Tapar, Satyaloka. Then soul means Brahman, there, yaḥ paratas tu saḥ, the saḥ represents Brahman; and indriya the second or third stage.

Or the stone, that is also sub divided, the stone, the water, the gas, the hill, the heat, the ether, so many sub divisions in the matter also. In one word it is matter, but sub divisions from gross to fine you will find. In matter also, in the stone also you’ll find the earth, the stone, the coal, the gold, the wood. So many things, hard things, gold, the silver, so many things in the sub division in the material world, and big division, that is the solid, the water, and then the heat, then the gas, then the ether, in this way.

But all these are felt by the senses, indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur, the senses are better than all these different conceptions of the solid. Then, the faculty of justice is categorically different from that of thinking, the impulse, “I want this, I don’t want that.” That sort of feeling is lower. And higher is, “No, don’t want that, it will produce such bad effect in you.” Judiciousness, reason, intelligence. And then there is citta, ahaṅkāra, so many gaps, not mentioned in Gītā, and then comes that soul, the realm of soul.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Dayāl Nitāi.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja. Then then conditioned soul gets some attraction to Lord Śiva at Maheśa Dhāma. What is their position?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. There is a master of this māyā, not a slave, slave of misunderstanding. But above misunderstanding: still in the relativity of misunderstanding, from the masterly position. The māyā in Bṛhat-Bhāgavatāmṛta, Sanātana Goswāmī has represented in this way. When one is liberated the Māyā Devī comes to him, “Why do you leave me? I like to serve you, you don’t forsake me.” In this way with submissive attitude she again comes to offer her service to śiva, that is, the liberated soul. But if he’s enticed by that charm, he may again enter here. But if indifferently he can leave, “No, no, I have my engagement, I have my duty. Therefore I have no time to satisfy anybody by taking his service. I have my Lord, I must serve Him.” With this attitude, śraddhā within him, he neglects it and goes up.

svadharmma-niṣṭhaḥ śata-janmabhiḥ pumān, viriñcatām eti tataḥ paraṁ hi mām

[avyākṛtaṁ bhāgavato ‘tha vaiṣṇavaṁ, padaṁ yathāhaṁ vibudhāḥ kalātyaye]

[“A person who executes his occupational duty properly for one hundred births becomes qualified to occupy the post of Brahmā, and if he becomes more qualified, he can approach Lord Śiva. A person who is directly surrendered to Lord Kṛṣṇa or Viṣṇu in unalloyed devotional service is immediately promoted to the spiritual planets. Lord Śiva and other demigods attain these planets after the destruction of this material world.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 4.24.29]

Mahādeva [Lord Śiva] says, that if one can perform his duties consecutively for a hundred births in varṇāśrama-dharma, he attains to the position of Brahmā. Svadharmma-niṣṭhaḥ śata-janmabhiḥ. Svadharmma, varṇāśrama-dharma, as it has been sanctioned, given by the Veda, “Do this.”

yataḥ pravṛttir bhūtānāṁ, yena sarvvam idaṁ tatam

svakarmmaṇā tam abhyarccya, siddhiṁ vindati mānavaḥ

[“A man achieves perfection by the performance of the appropriate duties prescribed for him according to his qualification. By the execution of his duties, he worships the Supreme Lord from whom the generation and impetus of all beings arises, and who permeates and pervades this entire universe (exercising His Supreme qualification of Lordship over one and all.”)] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.46]

In Bhagavad-gītā, niṣkāma, in Bhāgavatam also:

etāvān sāṅkhya-yogābhyāṁ svadharmma-pariniṣṭhayā

[janma-lābhaḥ paraḥ puṁsām ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ]

[“The highest perfection of human life, achieved either by complete knowledge of matter and spirit, by practice of mystic powers, or by perfect discharge of occupational duty, is to remember the Personality of Godhead at the end of life.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 2.1.6]

Yoga, sāṅkhya, sāṅkhya-jñāna, yoga, aṣṭāṅgādi yoga, and svadharmma-niṣṭhaḥ, niṣkāma- karma-yoga in varṇāśrama. Etāvān, ‘so far they can lead us, up to liberation, etāvān, so much they can come.’ Then, janma-lābhaḥ paraḥ puṁsām ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ, then the fulfilment of our life in the service of Nārāyaṇa, that we must get through śraddhā from a Guru. The positive, the visa, and passport may be given by these three classes, this yoga system, Paramātmā, those who are progressing towards the conception of Paramātmā. And the conception of this varṇāśrama-dharma as entrusted to us. And niṣkāma, ‘we are doing because Veda has recommended, ‘do it for our good, and don’t want anything as the consequence.’ With this attitude if the varṇāśrama-dharma is discharged, then also we can get the passport. And also, sāṅkhya-jñāna, neti, neti, neti, ‘this is not, this is not, this is not, this is all gross, all gross, all gross. I am soul, I am consciousness, I am spirit,’ the elimination, the sāṅkhya-jñāna. Etāvān sāṅkhya-yogābhyāṁ svadharmma-pariniṣṭhayā, janma-lābhaḥ. But the real fulfilment of life, ante nārāyaṇa-smṛtiḥ, after that, the memory of Nārāyaṇa, memory of Nārāyaṇa, His consciousness, Nārāyaṇa consciousness, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that can give us proper fulfilment. That is the visa into the svarūpa-śakti realm. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Clear?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. But they say sometimes that Maheśa Dhāma is spiritual, but it seems to be more taṭasthā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Spiritual, but Maheśa Dhāma’s of two kinds: first in the relativity of māyā, then the Sadāśiva, the devotee Śiva. He may be gṛhastha, he may be entangled with them, but he can conceive that he has got his superior position, superior realm, and he is holding the lowest position of that sphere. So, svadharmma-niṣṭhaḥ śata-janmabhiḥ pumān viriñcatām eti, one who can satisfactorily discharge his duty of varṇāśrama for a hundred lives, births; then he gets the position of Brahmā, who is the leader of the whole varṇāśrama here.

Tataḥ paraṁ hi mām, then Mahādeva says: “After this, if he can continue in this way, then he comes to my position, tataḥ paraṁ hi mām. Viriñcatām eti, that is Brahmā. Padavim labhate and then, tataḥ paraṁ, after that Brahmā is the creator and manager of this. And I am like rastrapati. Brahmā is like a prime minister, and like king the position is held by the Śiva, in the relativity with this brahmāṇḍa. He can even dismiss the prime minister and dissolve the parliament; a higher position, tataḥ paraṁ hi mām. Mām, what is mām? Avyākṛtaṁ, not much power is endowed in me. I am a little indifferent. Tataḥ paraṁ hi mām, avyākṛtaṁ, a-vy-ākṛtaṁ, not well specified, sometimes non-differentiated, with tyāga and vairāgya, the renunciation and the abnegation, that is the principle thing in me to be traced.

Mām avyākṛtaṁ bhāgavato ’tha vaiṣṇavaṁ padaṁ, Then above me there is another realm which is inhabited by the bhāgavata, the followers of Bhagavān, bhāgavato ’tha vaiṣṇavaṁ padaṁ; and they attain that as known as vaiṣṇava-pada, Vaikuṇṭha, vaiṣṇavaṁ padaṁ.

Yathāhaṁ vibudhāḥ kalātyaye, and every soul can get the attainment, and at the kalātyaye, when the wholesale dissolution, the highest dissolution is ordered, at that time I can also get release and can join them, and anyone may have that chance if they can move properly.”

svadharmma-niṣṭhaḥ śata-janmabhiḥ pumān, viriñcatām eti tataḥ paraṁ hi mām

avyākṛtaṁ bhāgavato ’tha vaiṣṇavaṁ, padaṁ yathāhaṁ vibudhāḥ kalātyaye

“O gods, this is the situation.” Mahādeva says in Bhāgavatam.

So we are to get some conception, what is what. How to measure exploitation, renunciation and devotion; devotion is this scriptural devotion and this love devotion. And here, karma also, regulated work, exploitation, and non regulated working, like guṇḍās and so many, vikarma, vikarma, karma, then jñāna, yoga, sāṅkhya, Vedānta, in this way. Then the positions, then Brahmā, Śiva, and then the master of māyā Śiva and then the servant of Viṣṇu, Nārāyaṇa, Śiva, and then the Vaikuṇṭha, and then the Goloka.

That will be my, have some conception; the map, that is the map we are to consult. ‘Here is America, here is Australia, here is Japan, here is this that, and on east side, west side of map.’ And if we are to go in a ship we must have the map, and the lifeboats, and so many things, the compass. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. And also, not only by those supposed emblems, but a practical knowledge, “That this is, yes, it is Bharata Marsagara. The position of this lighthouse and this verified; then I have come to Pacific. Here I find these are the signs.” That guide is more reliable, not theoretical but practical, śabde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ.

[tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta, jijñāsuḥ śreyaḥ uttamam

śabde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ, brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam]

[“Therefore any person who seriously desires real happiness must seek a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of the bona fide Guru is that he has realised the conclusions of the scriptures by deliberation and is able to convince others of those conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, should be understood to be bona fide spiritual masters.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.3.21]

Not only theoretical knowledge of the map but some practical experience of the way, such Guru is reliable and can save us, give us the real position. Nitāi. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Guru Mahārāja, does a jīva attain the position of Śiva?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Devotee: He becomes a Lord Śiva?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He can be śiva. When he’s out of māyā’s clutches, he’s out of māyā; and the Vaikuṇṭha devotee is more than Śiva. A spiritual molecule when he’s free from the clutches of exploitation tendency, he’s known as śiva. Pāśa-baddho bhavej jīvaḥ pāśa-muktaḥ sadāśivaḥ, when he’s enticed, entangled, he’s jīva. And when he’s free of that tie then he’s śiva, śivo ’ham.

But Kṛṣṇa says when He’s blessing Uddhava: “You are more dearer; you are more dear to Me than Brahmā, Śiva, in this way, Uddhava. Na tathā me priyatama ātmayonir, not Brahmā. Na śaṅkaraḥ, Śaṅkaraḥ is also, Śaṅkaraḥ means Śiva, he’s also not so much favourite to Me. Na tathā me priyatama ātmayonir na śaṅkaraḥ, na ca saṅkarṣaṇo, even My elder brother Saṅkarṣaṇa is not so favourite. Na śrīr, neither Lakṣmī Devī even, she’s not My favourite. Naivātmā, even My own body is not so much valuable to Me, yathā bhavān, as you are My favourite.”

[na tathā me priyatama ātmayonir na śaṅkaraḥ

na ca saṅkarṣaṇo na śrīr naivātmā ca yathā bhavān]

[“Neither Brahmā nor Śīva are as dear to Me as you; My elder brother Saṅkarṣaṇa is not as dear to Me as you, nor even Lakṣmī Devī. Even My own Self is not as dear to Me as you.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.14.15]

The bhaktas position, the position of a devotee is such. He’s above Brahmā, he’s above Śiva, he’s above Saṅkarṣaṇa, he’s above Lakṣmī, he’s above Kṛṣṇa Himself, by the sweet will of Kṛṣṇa, free will of Kṛṣṇa.

ahaṁ bhakta-parārdhīno, [hy asvatantra iva dvija

sādhubhir grasta-hṛdayo, bhaktair bhakta-jana-priyaḥ]

[The Lord tells Durvāsā: “I am the slave of My devotees; I have no freedom apart from their will. Because they are completely pure and devoted to Me, My heart is controlled by them, and I reside always in their hearts. I am dependent not only on My devotees, but even on the servants of My devotees. Even the servants of My devotees are dear to Me.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 9.4.63]

This is running in the way, in the way of love, not of justice; through affection. In the physical sense, in the sense of law, as in India we find that husband is the master of the wife. But it may be that through affection the wife may be the guide of the husband, through affection it is possible; so another line, another line of love, no matter of right.

So He says: “You are more than My own life.” And it is not a false thing the Lord says. “My devotee is dearer to Me. If anything wrong, any danger comes to him, I must stand. ‘First come to Me, and first finish Me, then you’ll catch My son, My devotee.” That is the attitude of the Lord. Any danger coming to the son, the father will go out, “No, no, first finish me, then you’ll go to my son, to make any harm.” It is the way of affection, and that is our solace.

So Mahāprabhu says: “You jīva, take that way, that department. Try to have a ticket, purchase a ticket of that department, śraddhā, through that devotion, and you will be…”

And again that Uddhava says to the gopīs that: “I want to be a creeper so that I can have feet dust of these divine damsels on my head. I want, I aspire after.”

What things are, Mahāprabhu gave so great things to us, so great a thing for us, out of His innate magnanimity. And He’s no other than Kṛṣṇa because none can give such, can give away such right to any and everybody without being Kṛṣṇa Himself. So the devotees say that He’s no other than Kṛṣṇa Himself. None can give. And not only Kṛṣṇa, but Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa combined, because it is the highest wealth of both of Them. So both of Them combined is entitled only to give this chance to the ordinary soul. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Mahāprabhu Dayāl Gaurāṅga. This is unthinkable _____________________ [?]

anarpita-carīṁ cirāt karuṇayāvatīrṇaḥ kalau

[samarpayitum unnatojjvala-rasāṁ sva-bhakti-śriyam

hariḥ puraṭa-sundara-dyuti-kadamba-sandīpitaḥ

sadā hṛdaya-kandare sphuratu vaḥ śacī-nandanaḥ]

[“May that Lord, who is known as the son of Śrīmatī Śacīdevī, be transcendentally situated in the innermost chambers of your heart. Resplendent with the radiance of molten gold, He has appeared in this age of Kali by His causeless mercy to bestow what no incarnation ever offered before: the most sublime and radiant spiritual knowledge of the mellow taste of His service.”]

[Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 1.4]

“What loss I am incurring, neglecting this chance. Whom should I say, whom should I tell, and who will believe that such a great chance I am missing, consciously? Whom should I tell about my disastrous misfortune?”

durllabha mānava janma labhiyā saṁsāre, kṛṣṇa nā bhajinu duḥkha kahiba kāhāre?

[From Kalyāṇa Kalpataru]

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura says: “To whom should I divulge my heart? Who will care to give audience, to attend? Such a great chance I am losing, trampling under my feet. I have got this human birth, and I have just come near the vicinity of the greatest fortunes and I neglect them?”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

...

[The next six lines are from a tape recording of the same date, but not on the MP3]

[From Sermons of the Guardian of Devotion, Vol. 2, p, 97]

[Devotee: We have heard that the nine islands of Navadwīpa represent the nine fundamental processes of devotional service.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The Holy Śrī Navadwīpa Dhāma is envisaged as a lotus flower. The centre of the lotus is the birthplace of Mahāprabhu and it represents ātma-nivedanam or self-surrender. One has to first surrender, and then all the practices of devotion follow. The petals of the lotus represent śravaṇam, kīrtanam, smaranam, pādasevanam...]

…then arcanam, vandanam, dāsyam. Then sākhya, half this side and half that side of the Ganges, divided, the sākhya it is divided by the Ganges, half this side, half that side. And ātma-nivedanam, that is the middle of the lotus…

Devotee: Whorl.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is the birthplace of Mahāprabhu, ātma-nivedanam. So, first to surrender, ātma-nivedan, and then the śravaṇ, then kīrtan, then smaran, pādasevan, arcan, vandanam, dāsya, sākhya divided, and then again so, up, nine islands, nine petals of the lotus. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes?

Devotee: It’s said that Kṛṣṇa He appears once in a day of Brahmā. How often does Mahāprabhu appear?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That very day, Mahāprabhu as Rādhā-Govinda combined, but every Kali-yuga He also comes to spread saṅkīrtana, Nāma-saṅkīrtana.

Devotee: Every Kali-yuga?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Every Kali-yuga. And every Dvāpara-yuga Kṛṣṇa also comes, but that all partial representation, not Svayaṁ-Bhagavān. The Yuga-Avatāras are not Svayaṁ-Bhagavān. Svayaṁ-Bhagavān only comes once in the day of Brahmā. And that rādhā-govinda-milita-tanu, Mahāprabhu, that also comes once in a day of Brahmā. All other yugas, Dvāpara, ordinary are Kṛṣṇa Avatāra and Gaura Avatāra only to preach Nāma-saṅkīrtana and Their paricarya. Dvāpare paricaryāyāṁ kalau tad hari-kīrtanāt.

[kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇuṁ, tretāyāṁ yajato makhaiḥ

dvāpare paricaryyāyāṁ, kalau tad hari-kīrtanāt]

[“Whatever result was obtained in Satya-yuga by meditating on Viṣṇu, in Tretā-yuga by performing sacrifices, and in Dvāpara-yuga by serving the Lord’s lotus feet can be obtained in Kali-yuga simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 12.3.52]

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

…

But Navadwīpa Prabhu goes away without taking prasādam here, is it?

Devotee: I have taken this morning Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Taken, oh, once you have taken.

Devotee: Mahārāja, I have one question. In Navadwīpa-bhāva-taraṅga by Bhaktivinoda, he is actually having visions of different pastimes of the Lord on the different islands?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Devotee: He writes it in the way where he seems to be aspiring to see these visions. Is he actually seeing these visions, or by his power…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, of course. He’s inspired, that vision to him is inspired. The Dhāma has inspired, has given true perspective of Him Himself, the Dhāma. “See Me.” According to the degree of devotion one’s inspection is of different type. As in the case of a doctor, a doctor sees a patient according to his capacity. The higher intelligence can see deeper. Everywhere, such is the case. The politician, a higher politician can see something.

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ, tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni, sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

[“While spiritual awareness is like night for the living beings enchanted by materialism, the self-realised soul remains awake, directly relishing the divine ecstasy of his un-interrupted spiritual intelligence. On the contrary, the wakefulness of materialistic persons addicted to sense enjoyment is night for the self-realised person who is completely indifferent to such pursuits. The realised souls, indifferent to the mundane, are ever joyful in the divine ecstatic plane, while the general mass is infatuated by fleeting mundane fancies devoid of spiritual joy.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.69]

The detector, according to his own position he can see so much deep The x-ray can see deeper, microscope can see deeper. So according to the capacity the vision comes off, revelation, revelation according to his capacity, deserving. Deserve and have.

mallānām aśanir nṛṇāṁ naravaraḥ strīṇāṁ smaro mūrttimān

[gopānāṁ svajano ’satāṁ kṣitibhujāṁ śāstā svapitro śiśuḥ

mṛtyur bhojapater virāḍ aviduṣāṁ tattvaṁ paraṁ yogināṁ

vṛṣṇīnāṁ paradevateti vidito raṅgaṁ gataḥ sāgrajaḥ]

[“O King, Śrī Kṛṣṇa then appeared as a thunderbolt to the wrestlers, as the supreme male to the men, as Cupid incarnate to the ladies, as a friend to the cow herdsmen; as an emperor to the wicked kings, as a child to His father and mother, as death to Kaṁsa, as the universal form of the world to the ignorant; as the Supreme Truth to the yogīs, as the Supreme Worshipful Lord to the Vṛṣṇis - and along with Baladeva He entered the arena.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.43.17]

Kṛṣṇa entering into the retina of the wrestlers, but different types of people are having different views of Him, according to their inner eye. They’re seeing Him like that in different ways, different attitudes, different degrees of consciousness. Variety, variegatedness of the experience, everywhere it may be applied in every case.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. _______________________ [?]

You must put questions, and to have analysis, that this is unintelligible, I want detailed analysis of the same. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Otherwise we shall think that you are satisfied. Ha, ha, ha. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Ke? Who is he?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Daśaratha sūta.

Devotee: Mahārāja, in America, or even here, when we are travelling, sometimes we keep japa- mālā and chant quietly in public. In public sometimes we chant quietly. Is this proper, we can chant publicly?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He’s asking can we do in public our japa, no fault?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. You can do; no fault. The inquiry may come; you will get opportunity to speak to them why you are doing.

“Why? What makes you chant this Name in this way?”

But if you are afraid that I won’t be able to explain to them, ha, ha, then you may, ha, ha, do it within. But still, of course, you may say, “Yes, I have got such faith. I have got such faith. I am doing.” And through the sound medium I can go to the truth. I can go to the truth. Sound is the medium utilised everywhere for every case. And here also why not sound should be the medium? So through the medium of sound I want to reach, my mind wants to reach to the place of origin of the sound. The vibration, the origin of the vibration I want to reach with the help of the sound. And one who will have to reach is more subtle than the sound. Sound is really gross thing for him, the ātmā, the soul, is more sound, subtle. So with the help of the sound, sound in the ordinary sense, but really, that sound is more subtle, the Vaikuṇṭha śabda. More sound and more subtle and more efficacy, everything more efficacy, living capacity, that sound. And my soul is a gross thing in comparison to that. But when it is touching my ears I can find that it is very subtle and I am gross, when I consider myself to be a bundle of material things around the spiritual existence, sound.

When this body will no longer exist, that sound will exist. The sound will exist, it is undying. Its origin comes from Goloka, Vṛndāvana; the finest plane ever known to the world, the finest of the finest plane ever known. Just as electric, ethereal, or finer, finer, so the finest ever known to the world is the layer of beauty and sweetness and love, the most original conception of existence ever known to any consciousness. And that is most universal. “I don’t want love. Love means sacrifice. I don’t want love.” None can say, if he knows the real meaning of love, I don’t want. I don’t want power. I may misuse it, in possession of a power is a great responsibility. Love also is a responsibility, but love I want from the higher, shelter in the loving lap, in the loving consideration. There, everyone will love me. I shall enter a domain, where in home, home is sweet, why? Everyone has some attraction and love, some blessing over me. So that is ‘home is sweet.’ Why? All favourable, all loving, all trustworthy, so home is sweet. So we want to go back to home; home, sweet, sweet home. Gaura Haribol.

svarūpe sabāra haya, golokete sthiti:

muktir hitvān-yathā-rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 2.10.6]

[“This is Vṛndāvana, Vṛndāvana is so friendly, so sweet, so near to us, and such a well-wisher of ours. We are quite at home there, sweet, sweet home. In our innate and innermost existence, we are members of that plane.”]

Svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ is mukti, self determination, the stage of self determination, as much as our self can attain, that is our most interest. And that is home, that is Goloka, that is the plane of Kṛṣṇa. The flute sound, the sound of His flute, the most attractive. Ha, ha. Rūpa Goswāmī gives the description, babhrāma vaṁśī-dhvaniḥ:

[rundhann ambubhṛtaś camatkṛti-paraṁ kurvvan muhus tumburuṁ

dhyānād antarayan sanandana-mukhān vismāpayan vedhasam

autsukyāvalibhir baliṁ caṭulayan bhogīndram āghūrṇayan

bhindann aṇḍa-kaṭāha-bhittim abhito babhrāma vaṁśī-dhvaniḥ]

[The most attractive sound is the sound of His flute. Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī has given a description: “Arresting the movement of the clouds, astonishing the Gandharvvas headed by Tumburu and breaking the meditation of the sages headed by Sanandana; astonishing the heart of Lord Brahmā, distracting the mind of the indomitable Balirāja with intense ecstasies, reeling the head of Ananta, the Serpent King who supports the earth planet, and piercing the covering of the universe - the vibration of Kṛṣṇa’s flute wandered all around.”]

Began to reverberate, how? Dvavisthati yam brahma [?] When the sound has entered into the ear of Brahmā, he’s reaction is, “What suggestion is coming, from what circle, what is this, puzzling me?” Then Anantadeva, ________ [?] who is keeping the whole, the infinite, that is within His attractive love, lap, containing so many material existence, Ananta. ____________ [?]

āghūrṇayan, His head is being, āghūrṇayan, is revolving, or what is this when the brain is disordered?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Reeling.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Reeling the head of the total force that has gathered all these brahmāṇḍas, so many lustrous masses, so many balls of masses. His head is reeling, vibration producing that, in such way. And attacking the inner most heart of Rādhārāṇī and the sakhās. And the cows they’re also, with their ears up, “What way we are wanted to go?” Ha, ha. So many suggestions are coming from that sound, to respective parties.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Does your mother feel any interest? Can she understand?

Devotee: Yes, she does, she very much likes coming here Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, she can understand also, but no question from her side?

Devotee: I was thinking that I have been a Gurukula teacher and I have noticed that when the children reach to be fourteen-fifteen then we are losing them. Material desires are taking over them so much that they don’t want to become Kṛṣṇa conscious. They want to be in māyā. What to do for these children?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: If we will good for them, and with that your good will for them, that will help you to devise a means for the time being. The children, they have got their different capacity and attitude and you are to deal accordingly. Where there is will there is way. You have got good will for them and that will help you to devise the means what will be necessary for the time being, na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid durgatiṁ.

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati]

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe, nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill-fated.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

The internal Guru, the caitya Guru, will help you if you are earnest to help them in that way in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Caitya Guru is there. You’ll think about your mahanta Guru also, and ask, “What shall I do in this case? Please give suggestion to me.” And if you are sincere the suggestion will come and guide you. Only sincerely you are to pray. He’s everywhere. He’s within you, and you ask Him, “My Master, what am I to do in this case? It is a peculiar case, a new case to me I think, so give me suggestion.” And if you are sincerely asking that will be fulfilled. Whatever you do with sincerity: that will be accepted from His side. Na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati. Our inner thing is a simple thing, only acquired thing in this world, that is complex and that is misguiding, misleading. The complexity, we are afraid of the complexity, crookedness, artificiality, too much egoism, self interest, all these things have made the situation very complex.

sahaje nirmala ei ‘brāhmaṇa’-hṛdaya [kṛṣṇera vasite ei yogya-sthāna haya]

[“The heart of a brāhmaṇa is by nature very clean; therefore it is a proper place for Kṛṣṇa to sit.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 15.274] & [Gauḍīya Kaṇṭhahāra, 14.38]

arjvavam brahmane saksat [Truthfulness is the symptom of a brāhmaṇa]

[Chandogya Upaniṣad] & [Gauḍīya Kanthahara, 14.46]

The simplicity is the main quality in a brāhmaṇa, brāhmaṇa heart. One who is simple, he’s a brāhmaṇa, really simple. He wants to avoid the brāhmaṇic nature, wants to avoid the diverse offerings of this mundane nature. He wants him to direct towards some higher direction. He does not appreciate, or does not like the complex offerings of presentation from the, from this mundane environment. Apathetic, on the whole apathetic to the offerings of the mundane nature, and he has got some approximate tendency towards the spiritual existence. That is brāhmaṇa. And simplicity is there. Unto the simple heart, the son. Ha, ha. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Crookedness is our enemy. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

You are to go back now to Māyāpur?

Devotee: To Māyāpur, yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. She’s a teacher in Gurukula where?

Devotee: In Los Angeles.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Los Angeles. That is the zone of Rāmeśvara Mahārāja?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Where is Arundhati now?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Wife of Pradyumna, where is she?

Devotee: I’m not sure.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Wife of Pradyumna, mother of Anirudha. Several times she came here. And Swāmī Mahārāja himself told that, “Anirudha imbibes devotion from his mother, not from father.” Arundhati.

And there was another lady Swāmī Mahārāja introduced to me in Māyāpur.

“She came, I collected her from sea shore.” Australia or New Zealand or something like that, or that Hawaii. “I collected her from sea shore, a sea shore girl, but now she’s very busily engaged in rendering service to the devotees: deeply engaged. Her change is very satisfactory.”

He told. She came here also and gave lecture, that lady. I forget her name.

I can’t see. My eyes are defective. So, the memory cannot, memory is also slackened. Whenever our Guru Mahārāja was in search for a śloka from Bhāgavata or anywhere for support of his lecture, I could supply that. He’s searching after some evidence, some śloka, I could at once supply that śloka to him. And sometimes even in advance that next śloka. He’s going in this way, the next thing will be necessary, this śloka to him. There I could also help him: the next demand of this śloka. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. But memory is going away. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Of course all those ślokas were only heard from him, and also their arrangement heard only...

End of 81.12.12.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.13.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...combined, asked Gandhiji, “So the whole responsibility is on you, you try to evolve some way how we can go onward for our independent endeavour.”

Gandhi took, then for some time he’s thinking and thinking. Once Rabindranatha met him and asked him, “What are you thinking? The whole responsibility of the Congress is now with you.”

“Yes, I’m thinking furiously.” Gandhi answered.

Rabindranatha in a taunting tone, at least it seemed to me, he expressed to a newspaper reporter, “I saw him and asked, the whole responsibility of the National Congress is with you. Now what are you thinking? He answered, ‘I am thinking furiously.’”

But afterwards he came with that lavan [?] satyagraha, the salt, disobedience of the salt law, salt act. He came with that, and wrote a letter to Lord Irwin who was the Viceroy at that time. “Poor man’s salt, so please withdraw the tax from that. The poorest people, they’re also compelled to use some salt. So taxation on that salt should be withdrawn. This is my, I implore to you to do. If you don’t do that then I will be compelled to disobey that law.”

Irwin did not care for that. Perhaps the instruction was there from the Privy Council.

Then Gandhi began, from his āśrama he went towards Dandi, a seashore place where he will begin the disobedience of the salt act. When he was going, about seventy five or so in the batch, marching, walking, not using any conveyance, but they’re in a party, they’re marching. And three or four days from that place, and chatting and talking, cheerful heart, marching, a merry making party, something like. Then begun that disobedience for the salt law, began to make salt purification and distribute then to the others.

At that time Gandhi told, when merry making he’s going to the jaws of death, “Then, what are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking in a few days when I shall begin this work, the whole India will shiver like earthquake, a few days more the whole of India will shiver as in earthquake. The whole nation will be like the stormy sea.”

And that was done. At that time I had left the Congress. I was in Gauḍīya Matha. I was in Madras at that time. But I felt that the whole, what he told I had faith in him that what he says, it should, it will be effected, and gradually that wave began to come. The whole country was on fire. But he foretold it in a very sober brain. The whole nation will come to it, a stormy wave, and it was. But when he pronounced this, a very sober sound, and soft hearted man. But he could foresee the furiousness.

And then I thought why he told to Rabindranatha, “I’m thinking furiously. I’m thinking furiously. That is, the furious things will come into existence very soon. In that layer I’m thinking. I’m thinking in such a layer that furiousness will be all around.” And that was.

So thought in a very sober and soft thing it may be the idea, and gradually when it takes actually figure, action, comes in the active field, it may be very dreadful. The play, play of different types, so it is able to fight with the concrete, the iron world. Hegel also says that everything in the beginning is an idea, only an idea, small idea.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Right. He says “Idea is the seed to a revolution.”

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Idea is everything into a huge force. Huge force comes in the plane of action, huge force. So abstract thinking, that is not to be neglected. That is the seed of all iron, concrete. Fine, fineness, not to be ignored or neglected, the fine things, the cause is fine and the effect is concrete. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: So what he said Mahārāja is that “An idea is the seed to a revolution and it is the time that separates the idea from action.”

Like even Prabhupāda when he was in New York and he was sitting in a park there was one gentleman who asked him, “What are you doing?”

Then Prabhupāda gave a whole explanation, “We have so many buildings, so many temples, so many books are being distributed.” But that was years before it actually started.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But in the beginning what started was Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhu Nityānanda in a lonely park with karatālas in his hands he started Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. That started, and within ten or fifteen years how huge shape it has been taken in the world. Hare Kṛṣṇa. And backed by the Universal Will. Universal Will was in favour and it advanced like anything. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. ___________ [?] have you read _________ [?]

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Little bit, yes Mahārāja, little bit, I know the story.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: __________________________ [?] that character he depicted in the line of karma yogī. Jñāna yogī is ______________ [?] karma yogī is ___________________ [?]

and bhakti yogī ________________ [?] bhakti yoga, jñāna yoga and karma yoga. Karma yoga externally is ordinary dutiful man but internally he’s connected with the infinite ___________ [?] there sometimes miraculous. _________________________ [?] long ago I read but I remember the idea _____________ [?] his finding. He has come to, his father-in-law, her husband came for some big loan to save his state. And she was a leader of the dacoit party__________________ [?]

and anyhow she gave it to her husband, Brajanatha [?] or someone, and that state was saved. Then her father-in-law, Brajanatha’s father, he took very treacherous step and he managed to, with the present British Government, that this dacoit ___________ [?] she may be handed over to the government. And it was managed that way and ____________ [?] was requested to meet in a particular place to take the rupee in some plea, through her husband. And she had her spies, she could know beforehand that her father-in-law is trying to hand over to the police. But still she, because she gave her word, in that moment in that place she came, with risk. Then the police also were informed and they’re also coming to catch her. And she was thinking, and perhaps the fight is going on with her men and the police, in the river, and she’s on the roof of the ___________ [?]

higher type of boat, what is the name? Some square boat of developed type. She’s on the roof of that type of bajra [?] and she’s looking at the sky, and could read, seeing the clouds and the position that very soon a storm is coming, she could detect. And she accordingly ordered the bajra men, “Be ready. As soon as I ask you to start towards this direction you will be ready, you will take the anchor, all these things, to start this direction.” And at that time the European police superintendent perhaps he has entered into the bajra, the lower story. And suddenly the anchors were all taken on and she gave the order, “Start this direction.” And bajra began to run in such a speed, helped by the storm, storm also came immediately. __________ [?] that European inspector he was cut off from his forces and he was captive there. He was taken in on the bajra when the bajra flew away, with the help of the storm.

So they have got some power to read the nature, the images. The genius they can read the nature and take advantage of it. It is all Divine Arrangement. Something like that. But they can detect. Leaders, exceptionally gifted persons, they can read things from the environment, and accordingly they begin their activity and attain extraordinary success in their life.

So Swāmī Mahārāja only began with the jingling of karatālas. Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya. Not long before – and that was an abstract, something abstract, small thing. Gaura Haribol.

Everything is such, but this is another thing, creation, sustenance, and destruction. But what we are talking, we are concerned with, that is a permanent thing, nitya līlā.

I was told when some gentleman _________________ [?] he was, did you meet this ________ [?] doctor _____________ [?] There is a doctor here, śuddha Vaiṣṇava, doctor, disciple of Tinkori Gosani – Bhaumi [?] Did you meet Bhaumi [?] doctor here?

Devotees: ____________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Doctor Bhaumi [?] told me one day that one Mohammedan gentleman joined ISKCON and he came to me...

Devotees: ____________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I asked him, why have you joined this mission? He told that, “From my childhood I had some mania to read religious books of different schools, and I did so. But when I came to read the Indian philosophy, Indian religion, then so many Purāṇa, so many things, Veda and other things, gave me such a great impression, that here it is mentioned about the time and space infinitely. Infinitely greater than other religious books have mentioned about the time and space. Time and space, Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara, Kali, and then Manu, this Indra and Manu, Tretā, Dvāpara, then the time of Brahmā, then again so many Brahmās go, vanishes. So in this way, and so many brahmāṇḍas they are floating like so many mustard seeds in the ocean. The idea of space and time, the idea has been related here in such a great magnitude that it attracted me towards it. That this must be the ancient, and most graphic, spacious, all accommodating. So some special faith came in Hinduism. And then when I came in connection with Swāmī Mahārāja it was easy for me to accept, to come.” You told?

Devotee: Yes. ________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi.

Once Aurobindo asked his disciple, one of his disciples from Pondicherry, “Get some Mahābhārata for me.” But he neglected. When he met him in Pondicherry, from Calcutta, Aurobindo enquired, “Have you taken the Mahābhārata with you?”

“No, no, I have not.”

“Why?”

“What the Mahābhārata will do there? So many impossible stories are mentioned there. So what is the necessity for you to – for Mahābhārata? There is a peculiar, that the Earth is on the hood of the huge serpent Anantadeva, like a mustard seed. All these fables are written there.”

“Why do you ignore this? The Anantadeva that means total force: you may take it as total force, and over it the Earth is standing. So we are to understand the way, the proper meaning in a proper way, then everything is all right.” He told like that.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: He’s a jñānī Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He’s a jñānī. He follows, I think, that Hegelian theory, panentheism. He’s not like Śaṅkara. He differs from Śaṅkara. He says mukti is the last snare of māyā. I read it in his Uttarpara Speech before joining Gauḍīya Maṭha, that book Uttarpara Speech there he wrote, delivered a lecture...

Devotee: __________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mukti is the last snare of māyā. That is his writing. Then Vāsudeva conception. And also he differed from Ramakrishna Mission, he says that kāminī kanchan, kanchan we must not avoid but as a trustee must deal with kanak, in money as a trustee, not as an enjoyer or owner, but as a trustee. He differs from them in this way. He’s a worshipper of Vāsudeva.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Is he? Because in one book I was reading, I was in a library of a doctor, and he was saying that ‘we can all become gopīkas also.’ And he was specifically mentioning Chandrāvalī’s name.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He’s Chandrāvalī?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: No, not that he’s Chandrāvalī, we can become like her, we should...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The opposition party.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: I don’t know why he picked on the name of Chandrāvalī...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Chandrāvalī’s the opposition party leader, and he becoming she may enter the group of Chandrāvalī, but cannot become Chandrāvalī himself. But most nasty thing what I heard from his men that now he has realised a position which is greater than Kṛṣṇa. I heard from some source. Then I hate him. I had some respect for him in the beginning, but when this sound entered my ear, that he says he’s now in higher position than that of Kṛṣṇa.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: He’s a Māyāvādī in the heart Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: His disciples, he’s more than Māyāvādī.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yeah, his disciples said it, ‘he’s greater than Kṛṣṇa.’

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Brahma sayujya aiti sasadya sayujya adhikari [?] Half truth is more dangerous than falsehood. He admits Kṛṣṇa, Vāsudeva, all these things. Now he has become greater than Kṛṣṇa. ________ [?] madness, insanity.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Prabhupāda used to say that his intelligence was stolen by that woman.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Maybe. When I was in Madras I was told by a person there, nineteen thirty one perhaps, there was one Mr Cowji [?] of Pondicherry, he had a house in Madras city. We were visiting so many persons and one day I entered his house, for begging, for collection purpose. Then in our discussion we, the topics of Aurobindo also came.

Then he told that, “Aurobindo is my – lives in his hired house, client, not client but, tenant. Aurobindo is my tenant. I’ve got a few houses there and he has hired one house, he’s my tenant, I know about him.” But he was a scholar, he had good name, but now a very bad reputation is spread in the locality. And what is that? That French lady has captured him and many bad remarks are running against him with the lady.”

I slightly protested that such a big person may not come so low. But perhaps the closer devotional relation has given birth to such an evil rumour. I can’t believe that he has degraded to such a position.

But he says, “No, no. It is the bad inclination, and many have detected, all these things.”

I told no, at that time, maybe. And it’s mentioned somewhere in Bhāgavata: harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā, manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ. He may be master of many attributes of the world, but if there is absence of real devotion, a drop, then we can’t rely. Any moment he may fall.

yasyāsti bhaktir bhagavaty akiñcana, sarvair guṇais tatra samāsate surāḥ

harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā, manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ

[“All the demigods and their exalted qualities, such as religious knowledge and renunciation, become manifest in the body of one who has developed unalloyed devotion for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vāsudeva. On the other hand, a person devoid of devotional service and engaged in material activities has no good qualities. Even if he is adept at the practice of mystic yoga, or the honest endeavour of maintaining his family and relatives, he must be driven by his own mental speculations and must engage in serving the Lord’s external energy. How can there be any good qualities in such a person?”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 5.18.12]

Not reliable, who are devoid of that highest type of thing, at least a bit, cannot be relied. Any moment the other qualities may deceive him, may cheat him any moment. But if there is real basis of Hari bhakti, a slight, a drop of devotion, faith, towards the Absolute, all other gods with their qualification are sure to remain there, because he has got the grace of the highest. So, and if that is absent they can at any moment fly away, may deceive him. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā. No guarantee, the entity that will give guarantee, he’s absent, so all fickle. Harāv abhaktasya kuto mahad-guṇā, manorathenāsati dhāvato bahiḥ.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. So I’m under deplorable condition, can’t remember so many familiar śloka, words I can’t remember. Look at my position, helpless position. This badra [?], the śloka, we were so conversant with, can’t remember, the appropriate word, can’t remember. Ha, ha, ha.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Mahārāja, naturally if you try you can surely remember, but you’re just giving us a chance for some service...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Of course such very thing we saw in our Guru Mahārāja also. But still he was only sixty three. Still he had to remember something, and we had to help him by taking the śloka just before he was searching for. But in that case now above eighty, eighty six, can remember some things by his grace. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Because he wanted me to speak something to the western civilised persons, and because Swāmī Mahārāja repeatedly requested me to look after the persons he’s taken here, so perhaps I’m spared. I think like that. I’m spared for the purpose anyhow. I’m also doing my duty with that idea. I should not have lived so long. Because I’m spared, my life is spared only for this purpose. Though anyhow though very much tired, still I try to attend somewhat what I can, try my utmost. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

mukam karoti vācālaṁ panghum langhāyate girīm

yat kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī gurun dīna-tāranam

[“I offer my respectful obeisances unto Mādhava, Who is the Personification of transcendental bliss. By His mercy, a blind man can see the stars in the sky, a lame man can cross mountains, and a dumb man can speak eloquent words of poetry.”] [Bhavārtha Dipikā, maṅgala stotram, 1]

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

...

...saying that, “I am too old, my hands are shivering, can’t write, can’t see well, but still I’m writing. I don’t know...

Gaura Sundara. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: _______________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________________________________________________ [?]

So you are to start for Calcutta today after taking prasādam?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Yes Mahārāja. But I was planning, yes. Abhimanyu was making much problem for my coming this time.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He wants to come here?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Yes. I promised him, but his school is closing on the eighteenth. So after that even his mother has been troubling me very much.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Come here to stay for some time.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Once, a friend of mine Mahārāja, he asked me one question, that was, “Why does Kṛṣṇa, I mean, does Kṛṣṇa need our love?” That was his question. “And why does Kṛṣṇa need our love?”

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We are already within the boundary of Kṛṣṇa and nothing can have its existence independent. No independent existence is possible with anything, so we are within His connection. Then what connection with Him we shall have? He’s the Lord of love. Some connection, and what sort of connection, that the affection, or automatic.

Devotees: _____________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ, jagad avyakta-mūrtinā. Vyakta-mūrtinā, avyakta-mūrtinā, two types, mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni: still, na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ. “It is My peculiar mystic position. Though I’m everywhere they cannot feel Me. And also if I leave they can feel Me.” Paśya me yogam aiśvaram. “The peculiar mystic position try to understand what am I, what is My position in the world, a very peculiar thing. I am everywhere, I am nowhere. Everything in Me, nothing in Me.” Paśya me yogam aiśvaram. That warning is there, paśya me yogam aiśvaram, please try to understand...

[mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ, jagad avyakta-mūrtinā

mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni, na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ.]

[na ca mat-sthāni bhūtāni, paśya me yogam aiśvaram

bhūta-bhṛn na ca bhūta-stho, mamātmā bhūta-bhāvanaḥ]

[“In an unmanifest manner, I pervade this entire universe, and everything conceivable is situated within Me - and yet, I am not situated within that total entity.”] [“And again, that is also not situated in Me. Just behold My inconceivable simultaneous one and different (acintya-bhedābheda) nature as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient originator and Lord of the universe! Although My very Self is the mainstay and guardian of all beings, I am not implicated by them.”] [Bhagavad-gīta, 9.4-5]

Ke?

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Navadwīpa Prabhu.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Navadwīpa Prabhu, Oh. Come alone?

Navadwīpa Prabhu: With my wife.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh, she has also come.

Paśya me yogam aiśvaram. “The peculiar position, a mystic position what I have, My relation with the external world. Try to understand.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Acintya bhedābheda, Mahāprabhu’s general remark about this world. “What is the position between oneness, unity, and diversity? And beyond one general law is this, acintya bhedābheda, something common something different. And the line of demarcation is in My hand, so inconceivable to you, simultaneous distinction and non distinction with anything and everything. They are also in such position, I am also in such position, simultaneous distinction and non distinction. That is My peculiar position, and others also, by My will. My will is everything. Let there be water there was water. Let there be fire there was fire.”

Will, sankalpa, if we go to trace the cause, otherwise it is eternal. One phase is all eternal, and above this phase, this world of creation, this is to be applied. And sometimes it was so subtle that it could not be traceable, but by some very subtle power it began to evolve. Evolution began and so many things came out. Just as a big tree coming from the seed, a small seed is producing a big tree, something like that, and again entering.

asato mā sad gamayo tāmaso mā, jyoti gamayo [mṛtyor mā amṛta gamayo]

[“I am mortal, make me eternal. I am ignorant, filled with nescience, take me to science, knowledge. And I am threatened with misery, guide me towards bliss.”]

[Bṛhad Āraṇyaka Upaniṣad, 1st Adhyaya, 3rd Brāhmaṇa, 23rd mantra]

One day non-existent, then again existent! Manu-saṁhitā just began with this. Manu is sitting and some ṛṣis approaching him asking the question, “Please advise about our duties.”

Then Manu came out with this advice. “What is dharma, you want to know.

vidvadbhiḥ sevitaḥ sadbhir, nityam adveṣa-rāgibhiḥ

hṛdayenābhyanujñāto, yo dharmas taṁ nibhodhata

[Manu-saṁhitā, 2.1]

Vidvadbhiḥ sevitaḥ. What is accepted, what is served, by the, vidvad means vedavit, who is well versed in the Vedic knowledge. Ordinary knowledge has no place because it is in the illusory sphere of misunderstanding, misconception. So any statement sprung up from this plane of misconception, that cannot be accepted as evidence, pramāṇa. So vedavit, who are well versed in the knowledge that is extended from above, which is free from misconception: who has got that knowledge, that revealed knowledge which is being extended from the upper side, beyond the jurisdiction of this misunderstanding, that is the standard knowledge, vidvad. And what they accept and they practice, whose conversant with that Vedic knowledge, revealed truth. Vidvadbhiḥ sevitaḥ sadbhir. And sādhus, those honest, innocent men, that have got no aspiration here, their practices have been, nityam adveṣa-rāgibhiḥ, and what will be the sign, the nature of the sādhu, the definition? Adveṣa-rāga, who has got neither any liking nor any disliking for anything in this world, who are in balance, no prejudice either in the positive or in the negative side of any achievement of this world; they’re sādhu. Nityam adveṣa-rāgibhiḥ. And hṛdayenābhyanujñāto, and also the inner heart will approve. You must have verification from the inner most feeling of your heart. That is dharma. That should be considered as the real conception of duty.”

Then he comes to,

āsīd idaṁ tamo bhūtam, aprajñātam alakṣanam

apratarkyam avijñeyaṁ, prasuptam iva sarvataḥ

[tataḥ svayambhur bhāgavān, avyaktavyaṁ jayan idam

mahābhutādi vṛtaujāḥ, prādur āsin tamonudaḥ]

[Just before the creative movement began, the marginal potency of the Lord was in a state of equilibrium. taṭasthā means equilibrium: āsīd idaṁ tamo bhūtam. Everything was in darkness, fully enveloped by ignorance. Alakṣanam means there was no possibility of any estimation; no symptoms of reality existed by which any conjecture or inference about the nature of reality would have been possible. And it was aprajñātam: science has no capacity for investigating the nature of that stage of existence. We can only say from here that it was completely immersed in deep sleep. The analogy of deep sleep may give us some conception of that period: prasuptam iva sarvatra. Material existence was as if in a sound sleep.] [Manu-saṁhitā, 1.1.5-6]

Suddenly jumps to the stage just before creation, “Āsīd idaṁ tamo bhūtam. In the former, preliminary stage, this world was like covered with dense darkness. That was in existence first, tamo bhūtam. Aprajñātam, and no knowledge about it was possible, aprajñātam. Alakṣanam, no sign one could read from it that he will produce some opinion, pass some opinion. If we get some symptom then on the basis of that we can pass some opinion. ‘Oh, this is this, this is that,’ but no symptoms, alakṣanam. Apratarkya, and so no argument was possible. So all dense darkness there so argument was not possible whether this is this or that is that. No basis of any argument, apratarkya. This Vedānta, the Śaṅkara, the Pātañjali, they will come with their logic, theistic or atheistic logic, the logicians had got no place at that time, no foundation, apratarkya. Avijñeyaṁ, and the scientist they have got also not to continue or begin their experiment with this or that. Prasuptam iva sarvataḥ, only one example I may give to you, that of a sound sleep. That is a type of a sound sleep. You may think it like that. In the beginning, the stage of the whole world may be compared with the sound sleep, prasuptam iva sarvataḥ, all in deep slumber. Tataḥ svayambhur bhāgavān, then from within the light came. Bhagavān, Nārāyaṇa.” In this way he’s beginning.

Now commentators have raised the question, “The ṛṣis came to know that advices about their duties, and Manu went to begin before this creation, what is the necessity? He could just say, ‘this is your duty, this is your duty,’ in that way, but he went to the root of the creation. This is unnecessary...

End of 81.12.13.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.13.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... Kuluk Bhaṭṭa’s tika is very – ka, k, Kuluk Bhaṭṭa, he has given a comprehensive commentary to Manasā Śikṣā, and he mentions, he raises this question, raising and says that, “All duties,” according to him, “That brahma-jñāna, that is the highest dharma, or duty, to know about the Supreme, about the highest, the biggest. That is the highest conception of our duty.”

In other words it may be thought that we must know the whole and our relation with the whole. We must know the Absolute. Absolute must be taken in diagnosis, in thinking out what should be our duty. Who am I? Where am I? That also must be taken into consideration because we can have a real conception about duty. Duty to whom? Duty to the next neighbour, that is not all. Duty must be extended to the highest quarter, in relation of the highest conception of things.

So from the beginning he’s from here in the beginning of the creation, in this way. So, the Kṛṣṇa conception, dharma, in the question of duty, Kṛṣṇa conception has to come. And that is the Absolute form of duty. Absolute nature of duty must have relation with the Absolute, cannot but be. And direct relationship with Him, and so closer connection with Him, that is very laudable and helpful and desirable also.

And Mahāprabhu from Bhāgavatam gives us the conception of a family life with the Lord, the family life. This is the peculiar and extraordinary conception of religion, of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, that we can live with Him as a family man. Gehaṁ juṣām.

He’s not a matter of understanding and limitation, nor we shall try to exact from Him our nearest desirable things, the karmī. Whatever I want, my whimsical mind, whatever it needs, we want the help of the Supreme to back that. That is karma-kāṇḍa. I want something and I want the help of the Supreme in that search, in that quest, furnishing me with the object of my enjoyment exploitation. I invite His good will: that is karma.

And jñāna, I want to know Him. Where is He? What is He? What is His nature? All these things to know, that is jñāna and yoga. They’re satisfied with a distant vision.

But the devotees, and especially the devotees of the mananga [?] type, that margara mārga [?] want to worship, adore, show reverence to the dignified position of the Lord of the whole infinite world, how can we hope to approach very closely to Him?

But Bhāgavatam has shown another phase of our life, that there is possibility, that there is a plane, and if we can find out our own identification with that plane, our relationship with that plane, in that plane if I can move, then we can go straight towards His personal, towards His enjoying, towards His loving aspect, rāga-mārga, the plane of love. If it is possible to dive deep, eliminating all our external encasement, with the help of the innermost existence you can dive deep and reach the plane of flowing love. With the help of that we can approach Him, in the particular service, and that is, as if, in the form of a family duty, giving, taking, freely, so freely, it is. To have Him it is possible.

And the gopīs they strictly stick up to that. “We are not jñānīs that we’ll be satisfied with abstract thinking of You. Nor we are karmī, that when we are in danger we shall pray for Your help and You will come and rescue us. We are not of that type. Nothing but our, this sort of prayer, we want Vṛndāvana, we want such paraphernalia, and we want You as our family Master. And nothing less than that we want to be satisfied. And be graceful to grant us that life.” Gehaṁ juṣām api manasy udiyāt sadā naḥ [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.82.49] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya- līlā, 13.136] “We may be very low, but You are so high. You are so great. You are so noble. We are lowest of the low. But You are noblest of the noble. So it may be possible. We are poorest of the poor. We are half civilised, jungle class of maids. But You can do anything and everything. Our hankering is this; that we want to live with, in a family manner, and nothing less than that can satisfy us.” Gehaṁ juṣām api manasy udiyāt sadā naḥ. “Concrete transaction of giving and taking, very thick and thin way, so close contact, if it is possible.”

And the devotee:

karmibhyaḥ parito hareḥ priyatayā vyaktiṁ yayur jñāninas

tebhyo jñāna-vimukta-bhakti-paramāḥ premaika-niṣṭhās tataḥ

[tebhyas tāḥ paśu-pāla-paṅkaja-dṛśas tābhyo ‘pi sā rādhikā

preṣṭhā tadvad iyaṁ tadīya-sarasī tāṁ nāśrayet kaḥ kṛtī]

[“There are those in the world who regulate their tendency for exploitation in accordance with the scriptural rules and thereby seek gradual elevation to the spiritual domain. However, superior to them are those wise men who, having given up the tendency to lord over others, attempt to dive deep into the realm of consciousness. But far superior to them are the pure devotees who are free from any mundane ambitions and are liberated from knowledge, not by knowledge, having achieved divine love. They have gained entrance into the land of dedication and are engaged there spontaneously in the Lord’s loving service. Among all devotees, however, the gopīs are the highest, for they have forsaken everyone, including their families, and everything, including the strictures of the Vedas, and have taken complete shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, accepting Him as their only protection. But among all the gopīs, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī reigns supreme. For Kṛṣṇa left the company of millions of gopīs during the rasa dance to search for Her alone. She is so dear to Śrī Kṛṣṇa that the pond in which She bathes is His very favourite place. Who but a madman would not aspire to render service, under the shelter of superior devotees, in that most exalted of all holy places?”] [Upadeśāmṛta, 10]

And premaika-niṣṭhā Uddhava he says that:

āsā maho caraṇa-renu-juṣām aham syām, [vṛndāvane kim api gulma-latauṣadhīnām

yā dustyajaṁ svajanam ārya-pathaṁ ca hitvā, bhejur mukunda-padavīṁ śrutibhir vimṛgyām]

[“The gopīs of Vṛndāvana have given up the association of their husbands, sons and other family members, who are very difficult to renounce, and they have sacrificed even their religious principles to take shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, which are sought after by even the Vedas. O grant me the fortune to be born as a blade of grass in Vṛndāvana, so that I may take the dust of those great souls upon my head.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.47.61]

How to measure that this is the standard given by the Bhāgavatam, how the nearness and dearness of the Lord is flowing in what way? Step by step going up, the Uddhava stands as staircase.

Kṛṣṇa Himself He pronounces this śloka, “From Brahmā to Śiva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Śrī, Myself, more than you Uddhava.”

And that Uddhava says, “I want to have the feet dust of those damsels of Vraja.”

In this way it can be measured like so many staircases it is proved that where is that position: in Bhāgavatam we get it.

And Mahāprabhu has given through His disciples. They have given in details how it is possible that jñāna-sunya-bhakti is above this jñāna bhakti. How jñāna-sunya-bhakti, why jñāna-sunya-bhakti? Oxymoron or something, virod alaṅkāra [?] jñāna-sunya-bhakti, what is this?

When I came to read this from Rāmānanda-saṁvāda, when jñāna-miśrā-bhakti, “Eho bahya, age kaha ara.” [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.59] jñāna-sunya-bhakti, “Eho bahya, age kaha ara.” Just a club on my head, ‘What is this, revolutionary, the most revolutionary remark: the jñāna, the knowledge, goes to hell, what is this? What higher thing can be there that the knowledge,

na hi jñānena sadṛśaṁ, pavitram iha vidyate

[tat svayaṁ yoga-saṁsiddhaḥ, kālenātmani vindati]

[“Among the aforementioned practices of sacrifice, austerity, and yoga, there is nothing as pure as divine knowledge. After a long time, a person who has achieved perfection in his practice on the path of selfless action realises such knowledge spontaneously within his heart.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.38]

Nothing is so pure as knowledge in the universe. Nothing is so pure as knowledge, in comparison of course with this matter. Knowledge is the purest thing ever found in the world, and that is being trampled down under foot. Jñāna-sunya-bhakti, summarily dismissed jñāna, that I shall know, that I can know, that I am such a proud that I can know the Infinite. But it is false attempt, wild goose chasing. That is suicidal to you. It is impossible that finite can know Infinite. So stop it, this mania, that you’ll be able to know everything, being a point you’ll be able to measure the whole infinite knowledge, this is nothing but mania. You will be subject and the whole infinite that will be object to you, it is a mania. Give it up. Come to the concrete reality. What is that?

You have got your place. You take such a pose, infinite can do anything and everything. He can come to you, take such a method, accept such a method, draw Him to you _____ He can do anything and everything. He can come so close to you, in any position you are, He can come there. So give up this vanity in your attempt to know, to finish Him, to imprison Him in your knowledge cell, of knowing faculty. Give up and come to the plane where you are nothing, dainya, the negativity, and the positive will come to embrace you. The Infinite can come to you. He’s Infinite. He can do anything and everything for you. So take that plane. Put your application in that department and you will be blessed, your heart will be fulfilled, your thirst will be quenched, in that plane. The plane of love, and that love also not calculating love, affection not calculating, without calculation, the automatic stage. You are to surrender yourself to certain extent. Your faith should be so much increased that you’ll have entrance in the automatic wave.

And there the Yogamāyā: the everything, your affinity about religion, non-religion, society, guardian, everything disappears in Vṛndāvana, only Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa is everything. He’s all in all. If there be anything that is wholly dependent on Him, He’s the sole proprietor, master, dealer, giver. And I have got no other alternative so far for my purpose, wholesale, that is necessary. And you are to gain, get your highest benefit from that stage of mind, of yourself. That sort of posing will bring for you your highest desired result. That was given by Mahāprabhu from Bhāgavatam.

And Devaṛṣi Nārada gave so much stress on that he gave stricture to Vyāsadeva. “What have you done? What you’ve done in the name of religious Ācārya, you have committed rather treachery to them.” Dharmma-kṛte 'nuśāsataḥ, svabhāva-raktasya mahān vyatikramaḥ.

[jugupsitaṁ dharma-kṛte 'nuśāsataḥ, svabhāva-raktasya mahān vyatikramaḥ

yad vākyato dharma itītaraḥ sthito, na manyate tasya nivāraṇaṁ janaḥ]

[“You have committed a great wrong. In your injunctions of religious duty for the masses, you have sanctioned condemnable worldly works for fulfilment of mundane desires. The masses are already by nature attached to condemnable worldly works for fulfilment of mundane desires. It is a great wrong because the worldly masses will conclude that your messages alone are the central religious duty. Even if they are taught by other knowers of the truth to refrain from those worldly works, they will not accept those teachings, or, they will not be able to understand them for themselves.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.5.15]

“Misguided, misdirection, you have misdirected them, you have cheated them, as a traitor, what you have recommended in the name of religion and the name of pure devotion, or duty. What is that? The very slight connection of that higher truth, that can suffice, inundate the whole. And if that is absent, the whole world, the prosperity given, that is all dead matter. That will be a rotten thing, the carcass, the shell. So what have you given?”

tad-vāg-visargo janatāgha-viplavo, yasmin prati-ślokam abaddhavaty api

nāmāny anantasya yaśo ‘nkitāni yat, śṛṇvanti gāyanti gṛṇanti sādhavaḥ

[“On the other hand, that literature which is full of descriptions of the transcendental glories of the name, fame, forms, pastimes, etc., of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a different creation, full of transcendental words directed toward bringing about a revolution in the impious lives of this world’s misdirected civilization. Such transcendental literatures, even though imperfectly composed, are heard, sung and accepted by purified men who are thoroughly honest.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 1.5.11]

Something like that.

na yad vacaś citra-padaṁ harer yaśo, jagat-pavitraṁ pragṛṇīta karhicit

tad vāyasaṁ tīrtham uśanti mānasā, na yatra haṁsā niramanty uśik-kṣayāḥ

[“Those words which do not describe the glories of the Lord, who alone can sanctify the atmosphere of the whole universe, are considered by saintly persons to be like unto a place of pilgrimage for crows. Since the all-perfect persons are inhabitants of the transcendental abode, they do not derive any pleasure there.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.5.10]

Without that everything is nothing. And with Him so many nasty things there also may be utilised. What in our consideration is very bad, that also may be utilised. Such a thing is He, and without Him whatever you’ll deal that is only a manner of deception to the outside and nothing else. The reality is He: all [else] sham. That should be the purpose of all your dealings, talking, hearing, breathing, eating, everything, must have some tinge, some colour, some recollection, some sort of relation with that object. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Earlier Mahārāja you had told me once you were delineating a story about Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākura, that at later stage he started handling money and giving out money as if it was the family of Rādhārāṇī, and that was the highest concept...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In Purī before a month or two months before his departure he’s handling money in Purī, that Puruṣottama Maṭha, that Caṭaka Parvata, his bungalow. And I was told, there was some anomaly in my mind that he’s talking with us, having discourse of such a higher type, and so many questions came. It seemed to be disturbing in us. But I was told that that is the duty of Rādhārāṇī. And before this, for some time Prabhupāda used to, he liked to use this word, majadooma [?] Rādhārāṇī as majadooma [?] We heard from his mouth many a time that ‘Rādhārāṇī is the majadooma [?] the leader of the household affairs of Kṛṣṇa, of Kṛṣṇa, majadooma [?] So She’s responsible to look after the whole family of Kṛṣṇa. It is Her responsibility to look after everything.

And Prabhupāda from the beginning I heard from him in the Maṭha, that, “Whatever is necessary here, I should have done everything but I can’t do. So they have come very kindly to assist me. But it is my responsibility, from the sweeping, cooking, ________ [?] everything, it is my duty, as a family of Mahāprabhu, Kṛṣṇa. So I should attend everything but I can’t. I’m a limited person. I’m a person with limitation. I can’t do it all, so Kṛṣṇa has sent them to help me.”

From the beginning, many a time I heard this from him. And lastly it was remarked that majadooma [?] he used to say that, “It is the duty, his responsibility to look after every affair there.”

So only to have discourse to advise the disciple that is a part of his duty, not the whole thing. The scholarly delivery of the lectures: that is not the be all and end all in the life of an Ācārya. And jñāna-sunya-bhakti, the service of that type, that is the main object of life.

In my young days I was very much indifferent to the ladies with some hateful attitude. Generally in the śāstra, the śūdra and the strī, they’re given lower position. And in the family of smārta I had that sort of knowledge, and anyhow not only irreverent but with something of contempt. But when I was from five to eight I was educated in a parsala [?] in my mother’s house. At that time one of my aunts, mother’s elder sister, she was a widow, from childhood, young age, without issue, she looked after me. And then when grown up, I had already come to my own house and school education, then college education, I had gone to visit that maternal uncle’s house.

And that aunt, she remarked, my, that nature, and suddenly she came with this remark that, “Don’t despise the ladies, the females, because they’re of the same rank with Lakṣmīji herself.” That she remarked suddenly. I did not expect such remark but anyhow she detected my attitude and came to say to me that, “Don’t despise them. They’re the, jati laksmi jati eka jatalam [?] They’re of the same rank with Lakṣmī Devī.”

Suddenly that came, and that created a change in my mind. That weakness may be in me but why should I look hatefully to the external atmosphere, environment?

Then gradually, Rādhārāṇī that is our highest goal, She has accepted, Gurudeva has given that direction that our highest fate, fortune, is entangled with the feet dust of that lady type of service. That is the highest type of service.

Anyhow by the grace of Mahāprabhu, then perhaps I got the second connection with Mahāprabhu in my college life when a fourth year student. On some such occasion it came a great disappointment about the worldly achievement. And when I was on fire at that time suddenly some book about Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, that Amniya Nimāi Carit came to me and I devoured that wholesale. The grace of Mahāprabhu came and took me, drew me towards this world.

Then that Bhāgavatam, of course Bhāgavatam was in our house, that paṇḍita family, so the Purāṇa, the Bhāgavata, the Gītā, Mahābhārata, all these cultures with the study and sakta, śāstra also that was the cultivation, discussion about them was in vogue there.

But anyhow, when I was twenty three then Mahāprabhu entered in my, He gave the feet dust on my head and I was turned towards this. Before that some attraction in Rāmacandra I had towards Rāmacandra, not Kṛṣṇa. But attraction for Kṛṣṇa came through Mahāprabhu and Gītā. Through Gītā, I had some attraction for Gītā. And Bhāgavatam also I considered in my childhood too high, something mystic, a mystic book, Bhāgavatam. And Gītā I was quite at home, when reading Bhagavad-gītā. But when Mahāprabhu entered my heart there was a diabolical change, took me, and from that time the highest mystic personality of Rādhārāṇī, through Mahāprabhu, that captured me.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. These things are not to be spoken. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Let them be graceful on me, a tiny soul. Any moment I may be cast anywhere, to the hell. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

jagāi mādhāi haite muñi se pāpiṣṭha, purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha

mora nāma śune yei tāra puṇya kṣaya, mora nāma laya yei tāra pāpa haya

[Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Goswāmī says: “I am worse than a worm in stool. When Jagāi and Mādhāi came in the relativity of Mahāprabhu they were considered to be the worst sinners, but I am worse than them. My sins are so dirty no one can even dream such things. I am such a great sinner that whoever will hear about me, dirt and sin will enter him through his coming in contact with my name. Sin will enter one who once hears my name, and his good qualities will vanish.”]

[“I am a person of the worst type, but the grace of Nityānanda Prabhu possesses such a high degree of disinfection that He has given me so many things: He has taken me to Vṛndāvana and has given the relationship of Rūpa, Raghunātha and Govinda. There is no qualification in me but all is the grace of Nityānanda Prabhu. It is shameful to speak about one’s own life but still I do this. Why? If I do not do so then I shall be ungrateful to the grace and magnanimity of Nityānanda Prabhu. So fallen am I but Nityānanda Prabhu has given me all these things: Vṛndāvana, Rūpa, Sanātana, Govinda, Mahāprabhu, Raghunātha Dāsa and so much else. It is all the gift of Nityānanda Prabhu. It is His unconditional gift to this one with no qualifications, and therefore I have mentioned: 'Yes I have such things.' If I do not say so then I shall be an offender to Nityānanda Prabhu’s grace, so I am compelled to confess that I am so sinful and fallen but by His grace I have received these things.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādī-līlā, 5.205-6]

How? Humility, the standard of humility has been shown to us. It can reach to what standard. Purīṣera kīṭa haite. Kavirāja Goswāmī, the giver of the greatest book, grantha, in the world, Caitanya-caritāmṛta. According to my consideration that the greatest, noblest, highest, book in the whole of the world, Caitanya-caritāmṛta. And the giver of that book he’s describing his position.

“Who am I? And now how I have been improved to a particular most desirable position, I can’t deny, because then I should be a traitor to my Gurudeva. His grace demands it properly to say that I have got something. I have got something. I can’t say that I have not got anything. I have got something. And that is only by the grace of my Gurudeva, Nityānanda Prabhu. But out of consideration of that grace, what is my position? My position is so mean, so low, so mean. So, the world from any position, wherever you are, if you come to catch the link, you will have, you may attain the highest object of your life, the highest fulfilment you can get. I am, I stand witness to that.”

In this way Kavirāja Goswāmī is encouraging us that from the lowest we can go so high, so high, and that is the peculiar qualification of the grace of Caitanyadeva. “Anyhow come and join this call of Nityānanda. Whoever you are it does not matter, but only accept this medicine. Then he’ll go up, this Brahmā, Śiva, etc., laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ.

[kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvitā matiḥ, kriyatāṁ yadi kuto 'pi labhyate

tatra laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ, janma-koṭi-sukṛtair na labhyate]

[“Pure devotional service to Kṛṣṇa cannot be obtained by performing pious activities even for millions of births. It can be purchased only by paying one price: intense eagerness. Wherever it is available, one must purchase it immediately.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.70]

Come to Gaurāṅga. Come to Gaurāṅga, and at once you’ll be purified to such an extent that you’ll be fit in the service of Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Mahārāja, you were saying that Ācārya, that personality who is bringing or offering the mādhurya concept in the līlā of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, he’s even on a higher platform than the Paramātmā feature of the Lord.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Paramātmā, certainly, why is Paramātmā conception is very meagre thing.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Is it that the outside manifestation of Paramātmā which is the Guru which is the sambandha Guru he leads up to Baladeva only?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No. Guru may be higher and higher, though in the line of potency, but he can give higher things.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Yes, but initially he’s the sambandha-jñāna, he’s representative of the sambandha-jñāna?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nothing to do with Paramātmā. The yogīs are not concerned with Paramātmā. That is direct recruitment through the, His agent. From any position according to sukṛti the representative of Kṛṣṇa, the agent comes and he may take him direct towards Vṛndāvana without going to Paramātmā, to Vāsudeva conception, to Nārāyaṇa conception. He may be recruited in a different way. It is not necessary that he will have to pass through this Paramātmā, the Kāraṇārṇavaśāyī, all these things. He’ll be taken so quickly, though these planes will be crossed, but unconsciously he may pass away through those stages. Those stages of our thought should be passed away, we must pass through, but unconsciously also we may be taken quickly without touching those stations, a special train: a special train without touching those stations. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

But still, in Bṛhat-Bhāgavatāmṛta Sanātana Goswāmī has shown how a devotee is passing through different stations, touching this station, then another station, then another station, to prove that this is higher than that, this is higher than that. To prove that he has stopped in different stations when taking Gopā Kumara to the highest position. But without touching those stations also one can go direct.

And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has written in Caitanya-śikṣāmṛtam, the kaniṣṭha adhikārī if fortunately comes in touch of uttama adhikārī, very easily he may pass through madhyama adhikārī which is very dangerous, as well as very argumentative. Madhyama, argument not in the kaniṣṭha adhikāra nor in the uttama adhikāra, but in madhyama adhikāra so many, that vicāra, this is good, this is bad, this is higher, this is lower. All this within the jurisdiction of madhyama adhikāra, and that is dangerous. Sometimes a madhyama adhikārī coming in contact with a greater, demonic argumentative man, he may come down. But kaniṣṭha adhikārī if he comes fortunately in direct connection with uttama adhikārī, unconsciously he may pass through madhyama adhikāra into uttama adhikāra. It is possible. If ruci, a real taste is created then no phase of argument can take us away, if the ruci is there. The kaniṣṭha adhikārī he may attain that ruci, his real taste for the thing, then the jñāna adhikāra, whether this is good, how that is bad, how that is good, this can be eliminated. This sphere can be eliminated and from the lowest position, if he accesses the ruci, through that he can enter into the land of ruci, the love, without caring for the stage of argument, this is good, this is bad, all these things.

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva

jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

[sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir

ye prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi tais tri-lokyām]

[“Oh Lord, Oh Unconquerable One, those devotees who, completely giving up all attempts on the path of jñāna of attaining the non-differentiated platform known as Brahma by hearing the transcendental narratives of Your pastimes, which emanates from the lotus mouths of the mahā-bhāgavat sādhus and pass their lives by engaging their body, mind and words in pure devotion, easily conquer You (they easily get Your transcendental association), although You are the most difficult to attain in the three worlds.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.14.3]

________________________________________________________________ [?]

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

________________________________________________________________ [?]

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Mahārāja, if a person enters Vṛndāvana can he again become conditioned?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No. From that stage none can come back. Sometimes it may seem, but that is only apparent, that is a part of līlā, no deviation proper is possible from that position. In different Purāṇa it might have been shown like that, but that is a part of līlā, play. In some Purāṇa it is mentioned that perhaps Subal or Sudama and Rādhārāṇī casting curse to one another for some trouble and they had to come down to this world, in this way or that way. But that is part of līlā. That is not real fall from that plane.

[na tad bhāsayate sūryo, na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ]

yad gatvā na nivartante, tad dhāma paramaṁ mama

[“My supreme holy abode is that place which the surrendered souls reach, never to return again to this deathly plane. Upon going there, one never returns to this material world. Neither sun, nor moon, nor fire - nothing can illuminate that all-illuminating supreme abode.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 15.6]

Once attained, none is cast off, cast down, thrown down from that plane, yad gatvā na nivartante.

ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, punar āvartino ‘rjuna

mām upetya tu kaunteya, punar janma na vidyate

[“O Arjuna, from the planet of Lord Brahmā downwards, the residents of all planets are naturally subjected to repeated birth and death. But, O Kaunteya, upon reaching Me, there is no rebirth.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 8.16]

Then yad gatvā na nivartante, tad dhāma, that in-carrying current, the current automatically carrying towards the centre, the land of in-carrying current. And out-carrying current is this here, land of misunderstanding. Yad gatvā na nivartante, tad dhāma paramaṁ mama. How sweet, the assurance, very sweet, this tad dhāma paramaṁ mama.

“That is My sweet land, sweet plane.”

No treachery, or pushing one back, pushing down. No such injustice. That is all finished. The possibility of injustice is banished from there. And the more we approach then more justice mix into mercy. Justice also vanishes, making presentation of us the land of mercy, sneha, dhaya, māyā, mamata, love, prema. What is very lowest, that also seems to be very good.

Kanacana padma locana [?] There is a verse in Bengali: “To a mother a blind son seems to be like a lotus eyed son.” That is, the affection shows like that, the land of affection, everything is shown in its bright aspect, attitude. Bright side meets of everything there. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. There is such a land. That is our hope. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. All of us we must aspire for such soil to live on, to live in.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Yesterday Mahārāja when we were coming on the train there was one singer, I think he was a bāula, so he came to our compartment and he was singing one song, ____________________ [?] So it was very, and he was a good singer also, very nice voice, and ________ Prabhu gave him some money ________ it was very appealing ________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bhaktyam ekaya grahyam [?] Bhakti alone can give you that position. Bhaktyam ekaya, kevala bhaktya. But what is the real nature of that bhakti, that I want to ask you Mahasayi Bhayu [?] Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. _____________ [?]

End of 81.12.13.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.13.C_81.12.14.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

______________________________________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: So Mahārāja, when somebody comes in contact with the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, is that because of his own past pious credits, like puṇya, or is this causeless mercy of Caitanya Mahāprabhu?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This is not puṇyam, that is called sukṛti; that is another type of puṇya that is of permanent nature. Puṇyam is generally reached in the relative world, in the world of misconception that is good and bad, puṇya is the cause of the good. But that is nirguṇa, free from all this good and bad in miscalculation.

Just as in our dream we can have a good dream and a bad dream, but all is false in the general sense. So here, good and bad in the calculation of this plane, wholesale is mistake, erroneous. So good and bad has not much difference, this is flickering.

And that is the real good from above, transcending this sphere; that is nirguṇa, guṇātīta. There is another plane which is free from misconception. Any energy we can collect from that quarter within us, that is sukṛti. And that sukṛti if it is accumulated to a certain stage then it produces something like śraddhā. And the nature of śraddhā is this, that if I can get one the whole thing is got. That type of knowledge rises in one’s heart. If we put food into the stomach the whole body is fed. So if I discharge my duty towards the central truth, the whole universe will be served by me. My duty to the whole will be done. This sort of faith arises in one’s mind and that becomes śraddhā, the name is śraddhā, and the śraddhā is developed and takes to the stage of divine love. And there we can meet the whole personified, the Absolute as Personified, madhyam akriti, to my plane, approachable by me. In this plane, in this way, we can meet Him.

Only the length and breadth and height, that is not the be all and end all of the highest entity. And at the same time, the opposite, what is within, the atom, then electron, then within electron there is something, and within that there is something. That least position, that is not the highest phase. The biggest and the smallest, that is not the highest phase. Just as elephant is not greater, a man is greater. The standard is in another way. So also, the madhyam akriti, the Absolute means not the biggest, Absolute means not the minutest, the Absolute may have everywhere, and in His personality and in His loving personality He’s found in the best conception, the central conception, the highest conception there. So we can come to meet Him there. Am I clear? No, somewhat?

Devotee: Yes. So it is not quantity, nor is it the smallest, but the quality, as you say the middle.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ah, middle. It is another plane where this physical measurement surveying has got no value. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: So in Bhāgavatam it’s stated that, “What kind of pious activities are performed by…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Pious means that nirguṇa, sukṛti, in that sense it has been used as pious. Not ordinary, because this is all filthy. And Kant has also said that, “No work can be absolutely good.” You take anything, suppose you are attending a patient, you are administering diet, service as in diet, and medicine. The medicine and diet come from the vegetable or animal kingdom, so to prepare that medicine and diet so many animals have been killed. So whatever you will go to do in this plane you cause some injury, some harm in the environment. Your existence is only creating nuisance. With the breath so many germs are being finished. With devouring food so many insects you are devouring. In this way you are putting step and the pressure of the soles so many germs are being killed, and again in the water, so many germs in the water, devouring, killing, jīvo jīvasya jīvanam.

[ahastāni sahastānāṁ, apadāni catuṣpadām / laghuni tatra mahatāṁ, jīvo jīvasya jīvanam]

[“Those who are devoid of hands are prey for those who have hands; those devoid of legs are prey for the four-legged. The weak are the subsistence of the strong, and the general rule holds that one living being is food for another.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.13.47]

No animal can live without causing death to so many lākhs of animals. So the very existence here in this plane is a nuisance and reactionary. And for this reaction, to every action there is equal and opposite reaction, we are going up and then going down, up and down, up and down, in this way the moving. The human beings taking loan from the vegetable and animal kingdom, as a reaction they have to go down, and they will again come and the loan should be cleared, in this way going up and down.

ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, punar āvartino ‘rjuna

[mām upetya tu kaunteya, punar janma na vidyate]

[“O Arjuna, from the planet of Lord Brahmā downwards, the residents of all planets are naturally subjected to repeated birth and death. But, O Kaunteya, upon reaching Me, there is no rebirth.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 8.16]

Pāpa, puṇya, in the land of misunderstanding it is going on in that way. So no action can be pure here in this mundane sphere. Everyone’s movement is causing disturbance to some other soul. They are also, by their karma, have been forced to accept that position of the lower animals, lower creation. So this is not a perfect world. Everyone is doing some mischief to another. Without that none can maintain his existence here without causing disturbance to the environment, none can maintain his existence. The atmosphere is so wrong, so filthy, so we are to get out of this sphere. And what of the calculation of good and bad, that is only for the time being. I am holding higher position for a few minutes, then I shall have to go back, go down, and who is in down he will come up. In this way the rolling, we are in the midst of that wave.

But we are to go out of this circular, vicious circle outside, and that is the land of service, unit, dedication, devotion. Everyone is a, just as here everyone is an exploiting unit, but in that plane everyone is a dedicating unit. Dedicating unit, that is the inner nature of every soul, dedicating unit. But here anyhow they have come, have become exploiting units, this outer world, everyone lives by exploitation, and there everyone lives by service, by dedication, the purest. And that is helping one another to be purest and purest, the diabolical difference. The land of service, land of dedication, land of devotion, it is possible, it is noble. Everyone is dedicating and they can live by that.

In a train, one who wants to enter into the boggie, everyone thinks, ‘I shall go first, I shall go first,’ there will be competition, fight. And that may be just the opposite, ‘No, no, you, old man, you go first. I am young, I shall go last.’ That attitude also may come.

So there, everyone, ‘No, no, I must, you go, you go ahead, you get the benefit. I shall take the remaining. You take first.’ The competition is of that type there. In every aspect of life they deal with dedicating spirit and that is the nature of that plane, that land.

Gaura Haribol. And it is noble, we can think it out from here, there must be a noble. Then renunciation, that dynamic renunciation, every moment, every second the renunciation is showing its dynamic character. And generally renunciation is noted as complete withdrawal from this land of exploitation. That is to be a zero. That may be compared with a sound sleep, the stage of sound sleep. But however after long time a slept man again comes to rise, he’s awake in the same sphere. So renunciation cannot be complete. It is a marginal, imaginary line, or plane.

ye ‘nye ‘ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas, tvayi asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ

[āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ, patanty adho ‘nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ]

[“O lotus-eyed Lord, although non-devotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure. Although they may rise to the level of impersonal Brahman realisation, they fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they neglect to worship Your lotus feet.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 10.2.32]

Because they have not come to the realisation of the Truth Absolute so their calculation is mistaken, aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ, āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ. After much affliction and much diligence they have climbed up to the highest position of this world. But if they do not catch the current which is begun from there towards centre, then he will have no other alternative but to come down to this plane again, repetition. Gatha gatam karma karma lavante [?]

naiṣkarmyam apy acyuta-bhāva-varjitaṁ, na śobhate jñānam alaṁ nirañjanam

kutaḥ punaḥ śaśvad abhadram īśvare, na cārpitaṁ karma yad apy akāraṇam

[“Knowledge of self-realisation, even though free from all material affinity, does not look well if devoid of a conception of the Infallible (God). What, then, is the use of fruitive activities, which are naturally painful from the very beginning and transient by nature, if they are not utilised for the devotional service of the Lord?”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.5.12]

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. They are the, these ślokas are the milestones, like milestones. We can gradually walk to a particular stage and then another milestone. In this way we can make progress. But if we catch a bus or an aeroplane, unknowingly we can pass over…

…

Devotee: Some devotee, I heard from him that vitamins are already in the body, that there is no vitamins in the food.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Devotee: He heard from somewhere that the vitamins are already in our body. It does not have to be supplied from external food however.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In some particular condition it may be so. In the case of the yogīs they may even take from the air the necessary food and dissipation is very meagre. In this way without taking food from outside they may stay for long time, long time. But they’re also not free from creating disturbance in the environment; the shaspashas [?] so many other things. And also, more in the fine stage, the thought, even thought has got its reaction outside. Not only action, but the thought, if it is of evil character it will have some effect in the environment, and this will also get reaction, it will fetch reaction for that. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So not only physical action but mental thought, mental waves also, they’re also carrying many filthy things.

Devotee: There is that story about one śūdra who was reading Bhāgavatam in Lord Rāmacandra’s kingdom…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bhāgavatam, making penances.

Devotee: Making penances.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And by order of Vaśiṣṭha a brāhmaṇa came who is the dead body of his son, “That why my son in such young age is meeting death? I am told that by the sin of the king it has been, occurred.” Then Rāmacandra referred it to Vaśiṣṭha and Vaśiṣṭha after meditation he says, “Yes, there is something wrong in the kingdom, a wrong wave. And what is that? The śūdra means samuk [?] he has commenced a severe type of penances. Then what should be done? He should be beheaded.” Rāmacandra approached him and beheaded.

When I was delivering lecture in Dacca University one student from the post graduate, Mohammedan student, after, when I began lecture I told, everywhere, that don’t disturb in the middle of the lecture but after the lecture is finished, any religious question you may, you are free to take with. Then the lecture finished and the Mohammedan student, of first post graduate college I was told, he came with this question. “According to you, Rāmacandra is the ideal king we are told. But why Rāmacandra beheaded that śūdra who was only engaging himself in penances?” That was his question.

I also answered according to my conscience, That what is śūdra? Śūdra means it comes, the origination from śūtra jartu [?] śūtra means śoka, one who’s a victim of mourning, lamentation, he’s reckoned as śūdra. Then, who has got to lament? Who makes much of this material, transient property, who knows his wealth only this transient thing, he’s compelled to lament because it will vanish, it won’t stay. So śūdra is he who makes much of the material property. And with that tendency he has commenced penance. What is the meaning of the penance? A particular process by which one may acquire much power, subtle power, that is tapasya. Then the śūdra, he has begun a subtle practice that he’ll get much power in his hands, as it was seen in history, that Rāvaṇa, Kumbhakarṇa, Hiraṇyakaśipu, made much penance and acquired much power. And then what was the result, the consequence of such tapasya? A great disaster was created in the universe. So many men killed, wars, devastation, all these disturbances in the atmosphere, and as the result of that he will have to suffer the consequences of that, those actions, of this. Then what is the benefit by their tapasya? Because he’s of śūdra mentality his aim is the achievements of lower thing and the reaction will have to suffer in the same, so that was nipped in the bud. I answered.

Then that man was silenced. And there the Principal was some Haridāsa Bhaṭṭācārya of Vaspara Paṇḍit [?] School. Then he appreciated it very much and came to me, “To answer such questions in such a way it is not very easy. You are acquainted with different thoughts of the world. You have silenced him.” In this way he eulogised me much. So, what was the question?

Devotee: You were saying Mahārāja that thought even can create real...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ah, the śūdra means that, Rāmacandra __________ [?] Boil is coming up, and by homoeopathic something is dealt in such a way that it cannot come up, nipped in the bud, the poisonous flower nipped in the bud, something like that. He is also saved from such bad action of his own, and the world is also saved from the effect of his bad action. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So sometimes what is seen to be cruel, the mother whips the son, ostentatiously, apparently it may be very cruel, but she’s saving by punishing the son, saving the son, not doing a bad action in his future time. So coercion is not always bad.

Devotee: Mahārāja, [Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta] Swāmī Mahārāja once told a story about this boy who used to live with his aunt, and because the aunt was very lenient the boy grew up to be very bad. So at a latter age he became a murderer, he used to kill people, so he was put into the jail. And so the aunt one day came to visit the child and when the child was speaking to the aunt, she put her ear near the bar. And at time the boy took the ear off the aunt and then said that, “If you were stricter with me when I was younger I would not be in this predicament now.”

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _______________________ [?]

Devotee: _______________________________________________ [?] She came to visit him in the jail, so because she was probably old she went to hear with her ear close to the bars. So that boy just pulled her ear out, and said that, ‘Actually you should have...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There is a story, we have read it in Bodhadaya [?] or some books of the younger age, so indulgence, sarshan [?] Even Yaśodā is whipping Kṛṣṇa, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, what more you want? The place of ruling, the controlling of the son in vātsalya-rasam, it is quite natural, and it has got some effect in this plane also. Though otherwise the jail, the law, the criminal, to punish the criminal, why these things can be explained, if it has got no value?

Devotee: Mahārāja, a tree, does it have more than one soul, living entity in it? Because when you take a branch of a tree and you put it in water and then you put it in the ground it will grow another tree.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hmm?

Devotee: _________________ [?] Is there more than one soul? Because he’s giving the example that if you take a branch of the tree and plant it in the earth it will again grow to be another tree.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No. But so many souls are wandering, and whenever they get the chance they enter there. Not many souls in one tree, or the potato and so many things, potato although cut by pieces and it is put into the earth, the different tree will come, potato. But the wandering, innumerable souls are wandering, seeking the opportunity of their proper birth to come down in the atmosphere. And whenever they get some chance, yes, just as when there is union in men and women, some soul enters there. They’re waiting for the chances, and nature supplies that accordingly. So many prison houses and the culprit is pushed in one place, in particular cell, different classification, so many types of prisons houses, rooms, and the culprit is there and he’s pushed there, in this way. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

…

…in His character, that so many men attracted by that are wandering through the streets, like so many birds as they make their shelter in the tree, these persons also attracted by the nature, by the beauty of Your character, they’re wandering and making shelter under the tree.

bahu veda vihanga vikracaryan [?] And eat by begging, don’t care for their staying comfort, bodily comfort. The sweetness of Your character has attracted him. Lakṣmī Devī herself, she’s also attracted by Your character, what to speak of women, half civilised in the jungle. That we should be attracted by the sweetness of Your character, it is not a big thing. The sweetness of the thought, of the ideal, that has attracted, and we must be faithful to our ideal. What brought us here, we must be faithful, we shall try to keep up the faith, and we may not be…

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Deviated.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Must not allow ourselves to be deviated or to go on other…

Bhakti Caru Swāmī: Blind alleys.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Blind alleys. Let the Lord save us, the Gurudeva save us. There may be so much temptation that may misguide us, mislead us. Let the Lord save us from those temptations which may come when we are given chances in the higher position. A position is a very dangerous thing, pratiṣṭhā. From the name and fame many things may come towards us, so let us be saved from that. We may be true to our own self, true to the Master, true to our ideal; that is the highest wealth in us. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. We are idealists, not realists, but ideal realism; we have faith in ideal realism, like Hegel’s ideal realism. Die to live. Die to live. And Reality is by Itself and for Itself. Reality is not subservient to anything else, then He’s no reality. Reality is for Itself. And die to live. Mahāprabhu says:

sanātana, deha-tyāge kṛṣṇa yadi pāiye, koṭi-deha kṣaṇeke tabe chāḍite pāriye,

[deha-tyāge kṛṣṇa nā paī, pāiye bhajane, kṛṣṇa-prāptyera upāya kona nāhi ‘bhakti’ vine]

[“My dear Sanātana,” He said: “If I could attain Kṛṣṇa by committing suicide, I would certainly give up millions of bodies without a moment’s hesitation.”] [“You should know that one cannot attain Kṛṣṇa simply by giving up the body. Kṛṣṇa is attainable by devotional service. There is no other means to attain Him.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 4.55-56]

“In this moment I am to die hundreds of times, crores of times, but this dying standard is nothing. Your physical body is false thing, and offering some false things to Him I want to say that I have done so much. That is all negative things.”

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Satyavak Prabhu? Any one of the Ācārya’s come in Māyāpur?

...

Talk about Kṛṣṇa, nothing else, He’s the reality, He’s the desired end of your life, not only of yours but of everyone.

na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ, [durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ

andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās, te ‘pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ]

[Prahlāda Mahārāja says: “Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or guru a similar blind man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Viṣṇu. As blind men guided by another blind man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labour, which are made of very strong cords, and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold miseries.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 7.5.31]

Ordinary people they can’t understand that their real interest is inside, inside the world, not with the apparent side. Everyone, from the core of his heart, is only enquiring after Kṛṣṇa, the Lord of love, the Lord of beauty. Everyone is in quest for that, but they cannot feel them, cannot understand that. But only help them to rouse in their mind that they’re in quest of Kṛṣṇa and nothing else. Nothing can quench their thirst, inner thirst, but Kṛṣṇa. Nothing can quench the thirst, that inner continued thirst all along, life after life, for thousands, crores of lives are going away searching, searching for something. And what is the object of that search? No less than Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is the beauty, the love, the harmony, such guardian, who can engage the whole of your demand.

Prati aṅga lāgi kānde, prati aṅga mora [From Jñāna Dasa’s Vaiṣṇava-padāvali (Anthology of Vaiṣṇava Songs) quoting Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī: “My every limb is crying for the respective limb of My Lord; not only My Self, but every part of My Body earnestly aspires for the corresponding part of My Master’s.”] Every part of your existence can have corresponding engagement only from Him and none else. That is Kṛṣṇa conception, He can engage you wholesale. Other conceptions of gods also cannot do that, cannot do that. So Mahāprabhu came with Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa, [āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa

kabhu nā vādhibe tomāra viṣaya-taraṅga, punarapi ei ṭhāñi pābe mora saṅga]

[“Instruct whoever you meet in the science of Kṛṣṇa. Teach them the instructions of Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā, and the teachings about Kṛṣṇa in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way, on My order, become a Guru and liberate everyone in the land. If you follow this instruction, the waves of materialism within this world will not affect you. Indeed, if you follow My order, you will soon attain My association.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 7.128-9]

And that is the greatest boon to the world, the greatest gift to the world ever known.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

The depth can be fulfilled up to the deepest portion of our life can have satisfactory engagement with Him. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. None can satisfy our thirst but Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. So, the Ācāryas that have got such realisation and that are trying to spread this wealth all around, how great they are, how useful they are in this world, none else but them. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Kiti-pāvana, cataro kiti-pāvana [?] These four sections of Vaiṣṇava Schools they are spreading this sort of idea, somewhat common and different, more or less they all are purifying this world.

Gaura Sundara. Gaura Sundara. Gaura Sundara. Gaura Sundara.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

So you are so fortunate, leaving everything aside, come to such a centre, to utilise your life in the connection of the service of the highest conception of divinity.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Now that gentleman perhaps gone to Calcutta: that Navadwīpa Prabhu?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes, this morning he was going.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He has gone? Do you know about Navadwīpa Prabhu, who was living at Māyāpur?

Devotee: I was looking for him this morning but I could not find him.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Today he might have left for Calcutta, on his way to, America?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. He’ll go straight to New York, or where?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Los Angeles.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Los Angeles.

Devotee: Is it? I think he said he was going to New York.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: New York, excuse me, sorry, New York.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Mahāprabhu. Gaurāṅga Sundara.

Many devotees came from Dacca side. One Tīrtha Mahārāja, old Tīrtha Mahārāja, and Vāsudeva Prabhu, Sundarānanda who was the editor of Gauḍīya-patrikā, and many books also he composed. Then the present Ācārya of Māyāpur, Kṛṣṇa-kanti Brahmacārī, now Śramaṇa Mahārāja. Vana Mahārāja in Vṛndāvana, he also comes from Dacca, many others. This Mādhava Mahārāja, he also comes from Dacca, but though he was brought up in maternal uncle’s house in Paripur [?] And Bhakti-sāra Āśrama, he also comes from Dacca, so many.

____________________________________________________ [?]

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Mahāprabhu. Gaurāṅga Sundara. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes?

Devotee: In the fourth canto in Bhāgavatam, Sunīti, the mother of Druva Mahārāja, she instructed Druva Mahārāja to go to the forest and search after Kṛṣṇa. Later, when Druva Mahārāja attained perfection and he was going back to Godhead, and he’s waiting for the, he said he would not go back to Godhead unless his mother would come also.

And Swāmī Mahārāja writes that his Guru Mahārāja Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta would say that, “I hope that I have got one disciple who is so powerful that he will take me back to Vaikuṇṭha with him.”

So my question is that, in some case could a spiritual master have a disciple who was more powerful than he himself?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sometimes it may be possible. When Lord Himself He becomes disciple, Kṛṣṇa becomes disciple to Sandīpanī. Mahāprabhu becomes disciple to Īśvara Purī. So some incarnations or some Vaiṣṇava of higher position they come to do, to discharge some duty here, and they, according to show the real process they accept some Guru. In that case it will be like that, the formal acceptance of Guru. This is also possible. And also in particular cases one who has got greater sukṛti, then he comes here, only the same thing in the process of accepting some Guru. Then his previous tendency asserts and takes him to high position.

Rasikānanda, he was also disciple to Śyāmānanda, but in Rasikānanda higher symptoms of devotion were seen. It may be possible in rare cases. That is like līlā, as the Lord Himself comes and accepts Guru, so also some advanced devotees they also sometimes come here and they…

yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas, tad tad evetaro janaḥ

sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute, lokas tad anuvartate

[“Whatever action is performed by a great man, the general masses imitate and follow. And whatever standards the great personality sets by exemplary acts, the whole world pursues as the right conclusion.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 3.21]

So to give importance and regard for the process of accepting Guru they also do like that, and in that case it comes to the same effect. In Dhruva’s case, Dhruva’s mother, she showed the way, vartma-pradarśaka Guru, something like that. Dhruva was much oppressed by his co-relationship with his step-mother, and others, and his mother tried to send him in quest of padma-palāśa-locan.

[nānyaṁ tataḥ padma-palāśa-locanād, duḥkha-cchidaṁ te mṛgayāmi kañcana

yo mṛgyate hasta-gṛhīta-padmayā, śriyetarair aṅga vimṛgyamāṇayā]

[“My dear Dhruva, as far as I am concerned, I do not find anyone who can mitigate your distress but the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose eyes are like lotus petals. Many demigods such as Lord Brahmā seek the pleasure of the goddess of fortune, but the goddess of fortune herself, with a lotus flower in her hand, is always ready to render service to the Supreme Lord.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 4.8.23]

He can give relief. So: sthana vilasi tapasi sthitoham [?] When Dhruva went in search of the Lord, he had in his mind to get the kingdom back, to become the successor of the throne of his father. But Devaṛṣi Nārada: “A boy of five, he was running for padma-palāśa-locan,” and Devaṛṣi Nārada came to his help. And by his company, his dīkṣā, his mind was changed when he could see the transcendental figure of Nārāyaṇa. Then he told ...... “But now a change has come in me. I came for searching of ordinary glass, but I have found the jewel. So no longer I have any desire for the glass.”

Sthana vilasi tapasi sthitoham tam prapto mam deva nindra vidyam [?]

Karcham vicinyam ado varinyam vratnam swamin kato smin varam nacari [?]

“I do not want any...

End of 81.12.13.C_81.12.14.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.14.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: … “I grant you that, and after that you will get Me. You will get both. But what for you came to Me in the beginning, you’ll get that also, and you’ll get Myself also.”

And Dhruva naturally he had his affection towards his mother, who really sent him to this direction. So vartma-pradarśaka Guru, not only mundane connection, but the spiritual connection also he got from her, so he could not forget her. He did not ask any favour for his father, or brother, or anyone else but mother. Why? His mother was the cause of his present wealth, so some sort of gratitude he had naturally for his mother, and asked that she should also be granted such grace. His mother was not really Guru but vartma-pradarśaka, gave suggestion to take the path towards the Lord.

And what Prabhupāda wrote, that we consider to be his modesty, his humility. “That one of my disciples will help me to go there.” That is good will for the disciple, blessing. This is taking, he’s seeing his disciple so great, not ordinary servant of Guru. Disciple is not a servant of the Guru, as if this is the standpoint or the vision of Guru to the disciple. Disciple should think that Guru is all in all, but Guru does not say that he is my servant. He says that, “The soul I have offered to the Deity and he’s my Gurudeva, he’s my pucher [?] Even an ordinary flower or fruit if we offer it to the Deity, then that flower we cannot enjoy but we are to serve that flower, we are to touch that flower on our head, which is offered already. So Guru offers some soul towards the divine feet of Kṛṣṇa and he sees that there is a pure thing coming in connection with Kṛṣṇa. “That is my, I should have some reverence towards him. He’s always dedicated towards Kṛṣṇa. Whatever is dedicated, whatever comes in connection with Kṛṣṇa, that should be considered as pure and with some reverence we are to deal with them.” That is the real vision of the Guru of uttama adhikārī. Hare Kṛṣṇa. He says rather, his own Guru’s vaibhava. “My Gurudeva has given so many things to help me in my activity, in my service to Kṛṣṇa. I can’t serve Kṛṣṇa alone, so my Gurudeva, to help me in my service, he has given so many assistants to me in my work, in my service towards Kṛṣṇa.” That is his vision, generally.

But when Gurudeva comes to chastise, to punish a disciple, he’s in pralarpita vakra [?] At that time he considers from the normal standpoint that he’s beside himself. The special will of Kṛṣṇa has descended in him to deal with the disciples in that way. When he thinks that, “I know, you do not know, and you must do this, otherwise I shall punish you.” This attitude is abnormal; this attitude in Guru that is abnormal. Mahāprabhu also has said, mention in, when He was teaching Sanātana Goswāmī, pralarp [?]

And our Prabhupāda also used that word pralarp, pralarpita vakra. That is a temporary egoistic feeling that descends in Guru when he considers that, “I am to punish him, I am to teach him,” in this way, that is not his normal position. The normal position, he’s the servant, and he’s meant to serve all, even including his disciples, serving, but service in the spiritual sense, service.

And Sanātana Goswāmī, Mahāprabhu says, pralarp. I forget the …….. pralarp.

Our Guru Mahārāja mentions in a letter when he’s addressing to a particular disciple, “This is my pralarpita vakra, my irrelevant talk to that particular disciple is this, that he should not do, behave in such a way. This is my irrelevant, I am abnormal, I say like that, pralarpita vakra. I pose myself in the position of a Guru and him as my disciple and I have a right to control him, chastise him, to abuse him, to punish him. That is not my normal position but some acquired tendency. By the divine will some sort of tendency comes in me and I become beside myself and behave in this way.”

And Mahāprabhu also showing such attitude when He’s giving His advice to Sanātana Goswāmī, “That what I say to you, this is My pralarp, My abnormal talk that I know about Kṛṣṇa and I have come to teach you. But really I feel that so many valuable things are going in a current passing through Me to you and I do not understand their real meaning. To favour you, Kṛṣṇa, through Me, is passing a current towards you. I feel, but I do not know the proper meaning of that.” In this way Mahāprabhu says to Sanātana.

I forget that, where, Gaura Haribol. Pralarp [?]

āmi - eka bātula, tumi - dvitīya bātula, ataeva tomāya āmāya ha-i sama-tula

[Mahāprabhu said: “I am insane, mad, bāula, pāgala, eccentric. I am one eccentric, and you are another. Therefore, we two are of the same class.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.291]

In Rāmānanda Rāya’s case, pralarp. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Posing, by the will of Kṛṣṇa that sort of posing comes in any heart. And that makes their thing as an instrument. In any place He can make anyone instrument of His, as agent of His will. In Nakula Brahmacārī also sometimes used like that, that āveśa, some sort of…

Devotee: Enthusiasm, āveśa?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Āveśa, some mood, I think, to create some mood and through that mood to do some work. To create a particular kind of mood in a person and to utilise that mood for His central activity, in any place. He creates a particular mood in any heart and utilises that as His centre of doing something outside in the environment, āveśa. Just as sometimes any god may capture any man’s heart or brain. Sometimes the ghost also comes and captures anyone’s consciousness and makes it his instrument to do this and that, āveśa. That sort of inspiration, something like inspiration, a particular mood is created in any place and there from it is utilised as the centre to do His work, that is āveśa.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

You have come here direct, or come to market and …?

Devotee: Direct.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Do you like to take prasādam here in the noon, or go back there before taking food?

Devotee: We’ll take prasāda in noontime.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes?

Devotee: What is the meaning of the word kṛpa, Guru kṛpa, the actual meaning? And how does it come from Guru and attained by the disciple?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kṛpa, Guru’s relation to disciple is all kṛpa. His will to extend what he has got within him, the extension of that to the disciple: that is kṛpa, his will. And accordingly his order is the medium, and his will he wants to assert through the order to the disciple, and because that is the service for the purpose of the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa that comes out as kṛpa. Without kṛpa we cannot get the connection, kṛpa from the higher, that is the connection from up to down. That will; the current, the flow: that is kṛpa. And by sevā we can invite that kṛpa with our earnest desire to serve. That can draw that, his sympathy, and his willing extension of the goodness what he has got in his heart. And that is about the Supreme Entity. A moneyed man can show kṛpa only by giving money. An educated man can give us kṛpa by extending his knowledge towards us, in this way. But the yogī Guru, jñānī Guru, karmī Guru, so many devotee Guru, Guru’s kṛpa to the disciple, that means his extension, his sympathy, his good will, to distribute that to the disciple. And the disciple when he has got such earnest hankering attitude he can receive that, by the serving:

tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā

[upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ, jñāninas tattva darśinaḥ]

[“You will be able to attain all this knowledge by satisfying the enlightened spiritual master with prostrate obeisances, relevant enquiry, and sincere service. Great souls who are most expert in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will teach you that divine knowledge.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.34]

__________________________________________________________________________ [?]

Only serving attitude can draw that grace, His will, sweet will, good will, good will kṛpa.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Dayal Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi.

Kṛpa, to extend the good will and the purity of the kṛpa or good will depends on the realisation of the person who is extending the kṛpa. _________________________________ [?]

__________________________________________________________________________ [?]

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yesterday you were saying, you mentioned Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja’s humility:

jagāi mādhāi haite muñi se pāpiṣṭha, purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha

[mora nāma śune yei tāra puṇya kṣaya, mora nāma laya yei tāra pāpa haya]

[Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Goswāmī says: “I am worse than a worm in stool. When Jagāi and Madhāi came in the relativity of Mahāprabhu they were considered to be the worst sinners, but I am worse than them. My sins are so dirty no one can even dream such things. I am such a great sinner that whoever will hear about me, dirt and sin will enter him through his coming in contact with my name. Sin will enter one who once hears my name, and his good qualities will vanish.”]

[Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādī-līlā, 5.205-6]

And also, Sanātana Goswāmī tells…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ______________________ [?] Sanātana Goswāmī’s dainya, that exceeds all, because he’s not abusing him, but he also mentions his predecessors, that we do not find anywhere. “I am so mean, so low,” it is mentioned in many places. But neti vaṁśa janma, “I am born in a mean line, my lineage also is mean,” this we do not find anywhere, such thing, neti vaṁśa janma moy neti vichar jal [?] He’s abusing his own origin also. I did not find it anywhere. It is easy to abuse one’s own self, but it is not so easy to abuse the very origin. But we find that there, in him only.

But the opposite in Jīva Goswāmī, he told that, “Our lineage is a very dignified one, they’re brāhmaṇa, they’re royal family, and they came from Mahārastra to Purī and from there to the banks of the Ganges. They’re of dignified position, which has produced Rūpa and Sanātana, that type of devotion never to be found anywhere.” That has been written by Jīva Goswāmī. “The devotee of the type of Rūpa and Sanātana never to be found anywhere,” Jīva Goswāmī has told, “Rūpa and Sanātana type is very high type.”

Once in Gauḍa-Maṇḍala, in Jaiva Dharma we find one Vaiṣṇava dāsa he’s asking his Guru, “The bhakti is nitya, or it comes from Caitanyadeva or Rāmānuja or someone, or it is eternal?”

Then the Guru is answering, “It is nitya, it is eternal,” he says, “but I asked Sanātana Goswāmī, bhagavāt-pārṣada, who is eternal paraphernalia amongst those of Mahāprabhu, I put this question to him in Vṛndāvana. And Sanātana Goswāmī answered, “Yes, bhakti is eternal, we find in the Veda and in many places, but if you have got special regard for me then I shall come to say that what Śrī Caitanyadeva brought here, this type of bhakti could not be found before Him.”

anarpita-carīṁ cirāt karuṇayāvatīrṇaḥ kalau

[samarpayitum unnatojjvala-rasāṁ sva-bhakti-śriyam

hariḥ puraṭa-sundara-dyuti-kadamba-sandīpitaḥ

sadā hṛdaya-kandare sphuratu vaḥ śacī-nandanaḥ]

[“May that Lord, who is known as the son of Śrīmatī Śacīdevī be transcendentally situated in the innermost chambers of your heart. Resplendent with the radiance of molten gold, He has appeared in this age of Kali by His causeless mercy to bestow what no incarnation ever offered before: the most sublime and radiant spiritual knowledge of the mellow taste of His service.”]

[Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 1.4]

Which has never been bestowed previously, He took that quality bhakti in this world for the ordinary people. What was reserved in Goloka, only for the selected few in Vraja, He has taken down that in this world for the public. So Sanātana Goswāmī says, “This is my opinion. But in the śāstra we find that bhakti is eternal. But the type, the prema-bhakti what Caitanyadeva has brought down here, never experienced before and mentioned anywhere we find.” That is the realisation of Sanātana. So Sanātana was such type of devotee.

prabhu kahe, - “tomā sparśi ātma pavitrite, bhakti-bale pāra tumi brahmāṇḍa śodhite

[The Lord replied, “I am touching you just to purify Myself because by the force of your devotional service you can purify the whole universe.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.56]

Mahāprabhu goes to embrace him and Sanātana is running away, “No, no, don’t touch me. I am meanest of the mean. So untouchable, so don’t touch me my Lord, You won’t touch me. I am meanest of the mean.”

Mahāprabhu forcibly embracing. “To purify Me I touch you Sanātana, not to purify you, but by your touching I may think I will be satisfied that I am being purified.” Tomā sparśi ātma pavitrite bhakti-bale pāra tumi brahmāṇḍa śodhite. “You have got such type of intense devotion that by dint of that you can purify the whole of the universe.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Sanātana.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Nitya sange nitya jati [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ni jati [?] But jati [?] you never mention, I do not find any mention about the jati [?]. Of course, in the case of Prahlāda, might have been mentioned, daitya ghuli [?] That my origin from the demonic line, but that is a gross thing, gross thing, that is already condemned. daitya, dewon daitya [?] And here, the devotional brāhmaṇa school, there also Sanātana says that, nit jati nit sange nicar yar [?] “Everything is, only my fortune that I have got Your connection. This is my only wealth.”

Devotee: Mahārāja. Madhvācārya of Udupi.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Devotee: That aṣṭa-madha, that eight madhas [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Devotee: They say the caste is there, by birth, that cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ, that śloka, making different way than us. They’re also from our Guru paramparā.

[cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ, guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ

tasya kartāram api māṁ, viddhy akartāram avyayam]

[Kṛṣṇa says: “According to the three modes of material nature and the work associated with them, the four divisions of human society are created by Me. And although I am the creator of this system, you should know that I am yet the non-doer, being unchangeable.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.13]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ, that is by principle. Generally we may accept that of the fleshy consideration, but from the extreme standpoint it is only guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ. In Bhāgavata also it is explained,

yasya lal lakṣaṇaṁ proktaṁ, puṁso varṇābhivyañjakam

yad anyatrāpi-dṛśyeta tat tenaiva vinirdiśet

[“If one shows the symptoms of being a brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya or śūdra, as described above, even if he has appeared in a different class, he should be accepted according to those symptoms of classification.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.11.35]

It is not accidental thing but it is based on some principle, sattya-guṇa. But Vaiṣṇava, Hari bhakta, is nirguṇa. So according to the degree of the devotion to Viṣṇu real varṇāśrama has been based on the principle.

Devotee: If they are right or wrong?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who?

Devotee: The aṣṭa-madha Udupi.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: If they give that the final consideration only with this flesh and bone then they’re wrong, they do not recognise the very spirit as given in Bhāgavatam. Just as if Devaṛṣi Nārada when he’s speaking about the dharma to the assembly in the court of Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja, the brāhmaṇa lakṣaṇaṁ is this, kṣatriya lakṣaṇaṁ is this, vaiśya is such, and śūdra is such. Their ideal is different according to their position. Now if we find that just in the case of Paraśurāma, son of a brāhmaṇa but His attitude is that of a kṣatriya, so Paraśurāma should be given recognition as kṣatriya not brāhmaṇa. At the same time Viśvāmitra he comes from kṣatriya school but his attitude, his nature is that of a brāhmaṇa, he should be given recognition as a brāhmaṇa. This is the purport of the Nārada’s saying there. Generally you may take…

Devotee: In Gītā [4.13] this guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Guṇa-karma, so brāhmaṇa’s guṇa is mentioned there, these are the qualifications of a brāhmaṇa. But if a brāhmaṇa is devoid of such guṇa then he should be considered a daitya, brahma-daitya.

Devotee: Guṇa is by this birth or previous births?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not previous birth. Guṇa is present there in his mind, the guṇa, the attitude. He has got, a brāhmaṇa, brahma janati brāhmaṇa [?] What, who is a brāhmaṇa? The standard, the qualification has been written there. Not by who is a born brāhmaṇa he’s a brāhmaṇa, brahma janati brāhmaṇa. Who is conscious of the spiritual substance he’s a brāhmaṇa and that is the real criterion. And this is ordinary because just as a doctor’s son may not be doctor, but doctor’s son has got the facility of becoming a doctor. From his childhood he’s seeing those bottles, the medicine, the test-tube, all these things he has got some experience. But still, if he’s an idiot, he should not be considered as a doctor. So this is. A brāhmaṇa’s son means by some previous good karma he has got the chance of being born in a brāhmaṇa family, and he gets the facility, facility of seeing and coming in contact and practices, all these things. But in spite of that, if he becomes an atheist he should not be considered a brāhmaṇa any longer.

Devotee: Not we are making, God is making brāhmaṇas.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: God is making, God is making, God has made on the principle, guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ. Not that brāhmaṇa’s son is brāhmaṇa, śūdra’s son is śūdra, then what is the meaning of the guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ?

“I have created on this principle, the principle is this, guṇa and karma, according to his quality and as well as his practice I have divided. But if that is found, this jati brāhmaṇa and vitya brāhmaṇa, but if come in a jati brāhmaṇa but that quality of a brāhmaṇa is absent then he should not be considered a brāhmaṇa any longer.”

Devotee: But the genetic science also do something.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What to speak of that. Narakāsura is son of Kṛṣṇa and he’s called āsura. Do you know Narakāsura? Have you heard his name, Narakāsura?

Devotee: Yes, yes, I have.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And he’s whose son? Varāhadeva’s son; when the Lord came as Varāha, by His contact the Earth produced Narakāsura, so son of Viṣṇu, but he’s āsura. What’s this? And this brāhmaṇa also sattya-guṇa and to nirguṇa it is nothing. A brāhmaṇa can again become a śūdra, become an antyaja. But nirguṇa if you can acquire once that won’t be diminished, that is of permanent nature, the nirguṇa quality is of permanent nature. But this is trifle, a brāhmaṇa can be again born as a śūdra. First one was a brāhmaṇa and then became dharma-vada, he was born in a vada family. Do you know from Mahābhārata dharma-vada (?), in his previous birth he was a brāhmaṇa. He was a minister’s son of a king, brāhmaṇa minister, but by his bad karma next birth he became baddha, hunter. So it is vulnerable, going up and down. And what is nirguṇa… nehābhikrama-nāśo ’sti, pratyavāyo na vidyate, when once acquired it won’t leave you any time. That is nirguṇa.

nehābhikrama-nāśo ’sti, pratyavāyo na vidyate

svalpam apy asya dharmasya, trāyate mahato bhayāt

[“Even a small beginning in this devotional service cannot go in vain, nor can any loss be suffered. The most insignificant practice of such devotional service saves one from the all-devouring fear of repeated birth and death in this world.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.40]

That is something else.

Devotee: But in ordinary sense we can find…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So in Bhāgavatam:

viprād-dvi-ṣaḍ guṇa yutād aravindanābha-, pādāravinda-vimukhāt śvapacaṁ variṣṭham

manye [tad-arpita-mano-vacane-hitārtha-, prāṇaṁ punāti sa kulaṁ na tu bhūrimānaḥ]

[If a brāhmaṇa has all twelve brahminical qualifications, but is not a devotee, and is averse to the lotus feet of the Lord, he is certainly lower than a dog eater who is a devotee but who has dedicated everything - mind, words, activities, life, and wealth - to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa. Such a devotee is superior to a brāhmaṇa because a devotee can purify his entire family, whereas the brāhmaṇa who is not a devotee is bound to be illusioned by the false prestige of his position and thus cannot purify even himself.] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.9.10]

“I consider the son of a caṇḍāla to be, to hold the higher position than a son of a brāhmaṇa who is endowed with twelve qualities of a brāhmaṇa.” Dvi-ṣaḍ guṇa, dvi means twice, ṣaḍ guṇa, six, twice six means twelve guṇas of a brāhmaṇa. “And above that a caṇḍāla if he has got real bhakti, real devotion to You.” It is mentioned there.

[The twelve qualities of a brāhmaṇa are: following religious principles, speaking truthfully, controlling the senses by undergoing austerities and penances, being free from jealousy, being intelligent, being tolerant, creating no enemies, performing yajña, giving charity, being steady, being well versed in Vedic study, and observing vows.]

māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya, ye ’pi syuḥ pāpa-yonayaḥ

striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdras, te ’pi yānti parāṁ gatim

[“O son of Pṛthā, low-born persons of degraded lineage, women, merchants, or labourers - they also attain the supreme destination by taking full refuge in Me.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.32]

“I am such that anyone coming in connection with Me, they achieve the highest position. And brāhmaṇa also if they come in My connection they will also attain. But without My connection, without the Vaiṣṇava connection, the brāhmaṇa they’re vulnerable going up and down.”

ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ, punar āvartino ’rjuna

[mām upetya tu kaunteya, punar janma na vidyate]

[“O Arjuna, from the planet of Lord Brahmā downwards, the residents of all planets are naturally subjected to repeated birth and death. But, O Kaunteya, upon reaching Me, there is no rebirth.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 8.16]

What to speak of brāhmaṇas, even Brahmā, avirincharde amangalam [?] Brahmā is also to die, to suffer from disease, the Brahmā what of brāhmaṇas. The whole thing, that is sattya-guṇa, sattya-guṇa, and that is nirguṇa. Sattya-guṇa, guṇa means vyādhi, guṇa means vyādhi, this is not a positive, it is a negative character thing, guṇa, and nirguṇa is positive, and guṇa is negative. It is vyādhi, means disease, but disease, a good disease and a bad disease. Brāhmaṇas means less disease, less serious, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, serious disease. But this is the diseased part of the world, and the wholesome part, that is nirguṇa, Vaikuṇṭha, etc. So guṇa, sattya-guṇa, that is less disease, disease of not very serious type, but still it is disease, sattya-guṇa. Guṇa, māyā-guṇa, it comes from māyā. Māyā means mā yā, misunderstanding, miscalculation, so brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, śūdra, all come from miscalculation, the wholesale under miscalculation, good and bad.

Just as it is generally told that the stool, the stool, there is raw and there is dried stool. Dried stool is little better than the raw stool, ha, ha. Do you follow? Stool, human stool, dried and fresh, what will be better? The dried is a little better than the fresh stool. Do you follow? So brāhmaṇas are a dried stool; because it is found on misconception, māyā, māyā means misconception, erroneous. In the land, in the plane or jurisdiction of error, less error or grave error, but it is error. Madhva School they’re more towards this flesh and blood, little partial they are.

Devotee: They’re also from our Guru paramparā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hmm. Guru paramparā, but Kṛṣṇa had also Guru, Sandīpanī, but whom should we take higher, Sandīpanī or Kṛṣṇa?

Then Madhva’s Guru is Brahmā, Brahmā sampradāya, Brahmā, Brahmā is Ādi Guru. That Brahmā cannot understand the ways of Kṛṣṇa, brahmā-vimohana. In Vṛndāvana these two chapters, brahmā-vimohana, Brahmā fails to understand the līlā of Kṛṣṇa. It is there but Madhva has abolished those chapters. He did not accept that Brahmā, Ādi Guru, he cannot be deluded in such a way. He did not accept that. But we find in every place in other schools, Nimbarka, Rāmānuja, there in Bhāgavatam we find that brahmā-vimohana, two chapters.

But Madhvācārya, then Madhvācārya, again we do not accept that, but we hate that. Madhvācārya says the gopīs, gopīs are sarvesya, gopīs in Vṛndāvana they’re prostitutes of the heaven. But we can’t accept that, with all our due respect to him, we differ from him, and we hate this idea.

We respect Rāmānuja, but one Viraha ācāryi [?] who is a commentator of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, his opinion is that Rādhārāṇī, She was the Avatāra of Śurpanākha, who was in the Rāma līlā as Śurpanākha, she came to be born as Rādhārāṇī. We hate it. But we have got general respect for Rāmānuja, because he conquered Śaṅkarācārya and pressed the bhakti over that.

We accept Mahāprabhu in toto and His interpretation of Bhāgavatam, not others interpretation. And also we have got our arguments, our realisation for that, we feel that. So our reverence for the old Ācāryas should be considered, then what, the Mahāprabhu: anarpita-carīṁ, what has never been given before You have taken that holiest thing to us, the Kṛṣṇa. Amongst Dāsa-Avatāra, no mention about Him. His brother Baladeva is mentioned amongst Dāsa-Avatāra. Then, should we not have recognition for Kṛṣṇa, Svayaṁ-Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa? Previous to that, Bhāgavatam it is not mentioned anywhere, then should we not accept Kṛṣṇa as He is the most original? So new things have, truth may evolve, and according to our inner tendency we are to accept and appreciate.

Devotee: We are very much proud of our Guru paramparā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Devotee: If there is a different opinion…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I saw that, when I was in charge of Madras, nineteen thirty one or so, the greatest amongst the Ācāryas, Satyavan Tīrtha, Utaradhi [?] he was the Ācārya of the Utaradhi Maṭha, eight Maṭhas…

Devotee: Yes. Aṣṭa Maṭha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Aṣṭa Maṭha, and some was entrusted with the worship of the Deity and some for preaching. And Utaradhi Maṭha was the greatest, at least the greatest number of followers, the Utaradhi Maṭha. And the Ācārya was Satyavan Tīrtha. And when he went to Benares and other places he used to beat drum, “Whoever Māyāvādī you are, I have come, come to discuss with me. I shall prove that you are erroneous.” Such type of a man he was. Then he came to Madras with elephants and horses and cows and so many, with big retinue he came, Madras, and so many followers, barristers, advocates, professors, followers.

We went to him, myself, Bana Mahārāja and this [Bhakti Dayita] Mādhava Mahārāja, at that time he was this Hayagrīva Brahmachāri, approached him. We are always out to get some collection from anybody, we approached him that, “We want to have Deities to be installed in our Maṭha, if you kindly can pay the cost we shall take the Deities.” With this idea we went. Of course, he gave something, not the whole.

But then, he, with his disciples, he’s sitting there, there is Gopāla Mūrti nearby. And he’s a sannyāsī, perhaps only one, and we two sannyāsīns went there. And the nilyasi nilmaskriya [?] sannyāsīs generally they do not bow down the head to any other, they’re hesitating.

Then he was an intelligent man, he told that, “Here is Gopāla.”

And we bowed down to Gopāla and he also bowed down to Gopāla at the same time, so the good manners finished there.

Now the talk began. In course of the talk the question of the Deities, the Arcā-Mūrti came up. Then, “The Gopāla, that Madhvācārya himself got from somewhere and that Gopāla we have got and I am keeping that Gopāla Mūrti with me and I am worshipping Him and doing my propaganda.” In this way he represented. Then the Śrī Mūrti, the ontology of Śrī Mūrti, Deity, Arcā; that came in, and he told, his opinion, “That inside the Arcā-Mūrti there is Lord.”

And our contention was the whole body, not an ordinary body. It may be seen by the fleshy eye as mineral or wood or stone or anything else, but the wholesale is Bhagavān, cinmaya. It is not matter, not the spirit within matter, but whole body is a conscious representation. That was our point. We also cited scripture, deha-dehi-vibhago yam nisyari vidyate kachit [?] In the case of the Deities we must not come to realise that there is some difference between the deha, the limb, the body, and the dehi, who is living inside the body. No distinction in the case of the Supreme Lord.

He told perhaps, “No, it is in the spiritual matter but in Arcā-Mūrti it is not so. What we can see here it is not so.” And unfortunately he gave an example, and that was very filthy one. “If we strike with a club the Śālagrāma, Śālagrāma is considered as born Deity, but if we strike it with a hammer then it is reduced to dust.”

When he pronounced this we put our hands over the ear.

And he was perplexed, and the whole respectable audience they also saw, “What is this? What our Gurudeva told that these sādhus they’re putting, covering their ears.”

Then the argument came, he told, “Madhvacarya himself has said like that. He told, that in the Deity there is the presence of the Lord, and Deity is not the Lord.” And he wants to continue his argument.

Then anyhow, I heard one śloka from Bhāgavatam from our Guru Mahārāja, I got some conception from that.

sarva-vedānta-sāraṁ yad, brahmātmaikatva-lakṣaṇam

vastv advitīyaṁ tan-niṣṭhaṁ, kaivalyaika-prayojanam

[This Bhāgavatam is the essence of all Vedānta philosophy because its subject matter is the Absolute Truth, which, while non-different from the spirit soul, is the ultimate reality, one without a second. The goal of this literature is exclusive devotional service unto that Supreme Truth.] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 12.13.12]

That I wanted to push, the meaning of that, the kaivalyaika-prayojanam, we must not come down to the level of our sense experience. But we shall try our best to retain our position in the scriptural description, and not come to rely on our senses, mundane senses. We must maintain what has been said in the scripture that is true, and what I see this is false. But he does not...

End of 81.12.14.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.16.B_81.12.19.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Devotee: I’ve heard that one has got some eternal connection with Hari Nāma Guru. Does he similarly have such connection with mantra Guru?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Both similar and same we may see. With slight difference we may think similar. Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, seemingly many devotees get confused because they want to have one master.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: And – but somehow there comes two.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But that is when they’re in a formal position, but when they enter into the material realization then they will not have such grievance, because he may see that what is Guru, Guru means he has come to give something. What is that thing? If he finds his thing in another place then that is his thing, one and the same, common interest. So formal difference reduced when one can catch the very substance of the teachings. For which the Guru should be respected, that is a thing, substance, some knowledge or some thread of love or anything. But when one is closely connected in intimacy with the thing which Guru comes to give us, then wherever it be, he will take it to be one and the same thing, friendly relation. And they are not antagonistic, they are cooperating, sincere, they are cooperating. Just as in the Vaiṣṇava fashion one will encourage. “No, no, you are to obey the order of him,” he will say in this way, the friendly relation with him. Though separate in figure, but at heart they are one and the same, because they have got the common cause. They have not come to fight, they have come to fight with the agents of Satan only, not among themselves. Is it not?

So, if we can recognize the real thing for which we are approaching the Guru, then in relation to that, we shall have our adjustment with śikṣā Guru, dīkṣā Guru, vartma-pradarśaka Guru, we are all indebted to them all, infinitely. I am helpless, what can I do? They are benevolent, infinitely gracious, they are my guardians. I may have many guardians. They are to look after my welfare, they have not come to destroy me.

So, Swāmī Mahārāja, he’s taking, I think, that after he has passed away, “That Śrīdhara Mahārāja, as I requested he’s taking up the standard. In his old age, when he is unfit physically, still, he is trying to keep up the standard; that they may not come down. If new questions arise, due to the course of time, he may try to solve them, to help them. He’s my friend. The rest of my activity, as far as possible, he will sympathetically deal to help them. The cause for which I was selected and I did so much by the grace of the Lord, the same cause may be enhanced by him whatever little may be possible for him in his old age to do, to contribute.” He may look with this idea.

Devotee: Mahārāja, when Kṛṣṇa comes, He also comes with His associates, His friends and paraphernalia, so is it the same also with the Guru? Our Swāmī Mahārāja, he also comes with his associates to play as his disciples?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, of different types.

Devotee: So his disciples are following his preaching mission, taking birth within different planetary systems to follow him?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is a general thing, that is a general way, but even there is gradation also there. Swāmī Mahārāja came, and the Gurudeva of Swāmī Mahārāja, he also came like that, is it not? So in this way you are to adjust. How many they came with? Mostly recruited, and very few may be his companion.

In the discussion of Sārvabhauma and Gopīnātha Ācārya, have you gone through Caitanya- caritāmṛta? When Sārvabhauma is opposing that, “Caitanyadeva cannot be an incarnation.” Gopīnātha Ācārya says, “You do not know in the śāstra.”

“No, no, in śāstra it is mentioned Tri-yuga, because in Kali-yuga He has got no direct incarnation, so one of His names in Tri-yuga.”

Gopīnātha Ācārya told that, “You think that you know much about śāstra, but in Bhāgavatam, Mahābhārata, there is direct mention of the Avatāra in Kali-yuga. You have got no knowledge, no recognition of that?”

Then Sārvabhauma, apparently defeated, he told, “You go and take prasādam, then afterwards you will come to teach me.” In this way.

Then Gopīnātha told in the discussion that, “Not by the dint of one’s study or his intelligence one can understand who is God, but only through His grace. God can be known only through His grace.”

Then Sārvabhauma said, “And you have got that grace, and I have not got that grace? What is the reasoning behind? You say that you have got grace, because you say that He is an incarnation. So you have got grace, and because I can’t give recognition to that, I have not got grace? What is the proof against this?”

Then there is one expression in Caitanya-caritāmṛta:

ācārya kahe, - "vastu-viṣaye haya vastu-jñāna, vastu-tattva-jñāna haya kṛpāte pramāṇa

[“It is evident that I have the grace of the Lord, because I know Him, and that you have not, because you deny Him.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 6.89]

“The evidence, the witness that I am right, this foundation is vastu-viṣaye haya vastu-jñāna, to know, to become, to come in a plane where from we can know what is what. That is the foundation on which I speak to you. Vastu-viṣaye haya vastu-jñāna, vastu-tattva-jñāna haya kṛpāte pramāṇa. That you have got the grace of the Lord and you know Him, and I have not because I deny Him, that should be the reason, then that answer is there, vastu-viṣaye. To know what is what, one’s own inner experience is the real evidence to him, and no outside things can give any proof. Hṛdaye nābhya nujñāto. The internal satisfaction, our connection or acquaintance with reality, that this is this.

Just as our Guru Mahārāja gave the example, that one is born in the darkness of a dungeon and if he is proposed, ‘Let us go to see the Sun,’ then he will go to carry a lantern in his hand, a candle. “O, so you say you will show me the Sun then?”

“No, no, no light is necessary to see the Sun.”

“Do you want to befool me? Nothing can be seen without the help of a light, nothing can be seen.”

Then he will catch him by the hand, and forcibly take him, “see the Sun.”

Then, “O, this is the Sun, by Sun’s light we can see the Sun.”

That sort of experience one will have. No calculation, no evidence, witness, but the experience, direct experience is the proof that He is there, like the Sun. In Bhāgavatam [11.22.34] also.

ātmā parijñāna-mayo vivādo, hy astīti nāstīti bhidārtha-niṣṭhaḥ

vyartho 'pi naivoparameta puṁsāṁ, mattaḥ parāvṛtta-dhiyāṁ sva-lokāt

[One party says: “God exists!” The other says: “God does not exist!” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam says that the ātmā is self effulgent, but still we find that one class of men say, “He exists, we see Him, He can be seen,” and another says: “He has never existed.” This quarrel has no end because one of the parties hasn’t got the eye to see what is self-evident. This quarrel is a useless waste of time, but still it will never stop; it will continue forever.”]

Ātmā parijñāna-mayo. What to speak of Kṛṣṇa, even the conscious unit, parijñāna-mayo, self-effulgent, it is all light. All light, ātmā parijñāna-mayo vivādo, hy astīti nāstīti bhidārtha- niṣṭhaḥ. Then why there is this quarrel? Some say that He is, some say that He’s not. Why this quarrel? Vivādo. But the exception says, “No, there is no God.” Some say, “No, there is God, God is.” Why this quarrel? Parijñāna-mayo vivādo, hy astīti nāstīti. Hy astīti, “Surely He exists.” “No, He never existed.” Such quarrel, nāstīti bhidārtha-niṣṭhaḥ, vyartho 'pi, it is useless, still, naivoparameta, it won’t end. It is useless, but still, it will continue. Where? In a particular section, nāstīti bhidārtha-niṣṭhaḥ, vyartho 'pi naivoparameta, it will have no end. Mattaḥ parāvṛtta- dhiyāṁ, in a particular section, just as those who have no eyes: no sun. Mattaḥ parāvṛtta-dhiyāṁ sva-lokāt, who has deviated from My conception, as well as his own conception. One who has got not his own conception, and at the same time, My conception, in that section, it will continue. But those who have got direct experience, there’s no question. It is. Ulūke nā dekhe yena sūryera kiraṇa.

[bhāgavata, bhārata-śāstra, āgama, purāṇa/caitanya-kṛṣṇa-avatāre prakaṭa pramāṇa.

pratyakṣe dekhaha nānā prakaṭa prabhāva/alaukika karma, alaukika anubhāva.

dekhiyā nā dekhe yata abhaktera gaṇa/ulūke nā dekhe yena sūryera kiraṇa.]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Mahābhārata, the Purāṇas, and other Vedic literatures all give evidence to prove that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the Avatāra of Kṛṣṇa Himself.”] [“One can also directly see Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s manifest influence in His uncommon deeds and uncommon Kṛṣṇa conscious realization.”] [“But faithless unbelievers do not see what is clearly evident, just as owls do not see the rays of the sun.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 3.84-86]

Just as the owls, the owl section, they cannot see, admit the existence of the sun. That does not mean the sun does not exist. Something like that. Our own realization will be the greatest proof.

vastu-viṣaye haya vastu-jñāna, vastu-tattva-jñāna haya kṛpāte pramāṇa

[“It is evident that I have the grace of the Lord, because I know Him, and that you have not, because you deny Him.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 6.89]

The eye, the janmāndha, the birth blind, when eye is opened anyhow they will be astonished to see that particular important aspect of the environment. But no eyes, no vision, no colour, no figure, this is the case. Gaura Hari. So, the seer, the feeler, those that have got their vision, they stand guarantee, that, “How can I deny the fact. I have seen this, I am feeling this. This is such and such. So magnanimous, so great, so benevolent, so all these things we can’t deny. You are unfortunate you can’t see.” Some see, some cannot see. In the same place, so many, one can see, another cannot see. Whom He likes to show him, he can see, one who He likes not to show him, he can’t see: such things.

In Kuru sabhā when Kṛṣṇa went to Duryodhana’s party, with some peace proposal between the Pāṇḍavas and the Kauravas, then Duryodhana, he thought that, ‘We have got the golden chance, now if I can put Kṛṣṇa into prison house, the Pāṇḍavas will die broken-hearted, no question of fighting with them.’

The Kauravas also joined, and they sent Duḥśāsana, “Go, and bind Him with this rope.”

Duḥśāsana came with the rope in hand and tried to bind.

There was Sātyaki, His attendant, he furiously came with a sword, Kṛṣṇa peacefully caught hold of his hand, the Sātyaki with the hand with sword.

And He began to show Himself in such a way that it perplexed Duḥśāsana.

“So many figures, on whom shall I put the rope? Where to put the rope? And whom to bind down?”

So many figures displayed. One side, Baladeva, another side Arjuna, and so many revered ṛṣis chanting His name, Duḥśāsana was perplexed. And Bhīṣma and Droṇa, they began to sing in praise of Kṛṣṇa.

“The Virāṭ Mūrti, what is this? This is a magnanimous great vision with so many phases.”

It was – the whole atmosphere filled with divine spirit. Then Devaṛṣi Nārada, and so many others also, ṛṣis, they began to chant in praise of Kṛṣṇa, in this way.

And Dhṛtarāṣṭra no eyes, but he can hear that in this meeting, “Suddenly they are all praising Kṛṣṇa, and some sort of wonderful things are happening around me, I can’t see.” He could feel. And he prayed to Kṛṣṇa. “For the moment, please remove my blindness, I would like to see Your great expression. But after ward You make me blind again, but for the time being, only remove my blindness.”

Kṛṣṇa told, “No necessity of removing your blindness, I say you can see, and you will see.”

Without even, the physical blindness was not bar to see that great vilasa of Kṛṣṇa. Only His will; the physical eye can’t see, the divine eye can feel Him, can see Him. And by the will of Kṛṣṇa, temporarily that divine eye was given to Dhṛtarāṣṭra and his blindness did not stand in the way of seeing, and he could see Kṛṣṇa.

So it is something like that. I say, “No, it is not here.” The eye can’t see many things, but with the microscope we can see. This ear can only come in contact with a sound of a particular degree. The high degree of sound cannot touch this ear: we can’t hear. We are told that the Sun, Moon, they are all revolving and a huge sound. But that degree of sound we can’t catch. Very meagre also we can’t catch, and very high also we can’t catch. So, light also. ___________ If any higher degree of light is here, we shall see darkness, and a lower, that is also darkness. Only in a particular stage of light: that our eye can catch. More intense light we can’t catch, more meagre also we can’t catch, a particular degree. This eye is prepared only to catch a particular plane of wave of the light. So, that is the case. Ear, everything is like that, touch, everything like that. If it is much more, that we can’t catch; if it is much less that we also can’t catch: everything. We are meant for a particular plane, a particular limit. We are a child of that soil.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Dayal Nitāi. Dayal Nitāi.

Devotee: Mahārāja, Swāmī Mahārāja told us that Guru, he takes responsibility for his disciples to make sure that they go back to Godhead. So, when the Guru departs, how does he maintain contact with the disciple so that he makes sure that...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hmm? What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: The Guru takes responsibility to take his disciple back to Godhead. So when the Guru departs, how does the disciple keep contact with his Guru, or how is the process of contact?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You see, it comes to the same point. Who is Guru? Why he is Guru? And Guru, śāstra, sādhu of one and the same tune, and we are to appreciate that, and our onward march will be guaranteed only by that. Otherwise Guru may be seen only by figure, only by vision of my eyes, the picture. The photo is not Guru. Still, he has got connection with the real Guru. The eye experience, the ear experience, of a person is not the whole experience. The real experience through his words, the idea, what he has given, that is Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So if I have real interest with Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then we are to adjust accordingly all other things. Otherwise, if I miss the real thing which Guru came to give me, if I miss that thing, then all will be doll worshipper, idol worshipper; idolatry. Only to follow the forms that will be idolatry. Why he is Guru? There are so many human figures, why he’s Guru? Because he’s a mediator, he’s a medium of a particular divine knowledge. That is the criterion everywhere to be tested. To put this test anywhere and everywhere. What is your interest? You came to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and where is Kṛṣṇa consciousness, there is Guru. There is your Guru. He’s Guru only because he’s in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and there is a particular degree. So, we must not make much about the form.

Kṛṣṇa says, when Uddhava put the question, “Why in the name of religion so many isms in the world. What’s the reason, and how we are to adjust? Every conception of religion that is found here independently, they can take me to the goal, or is there any gradation, or how are we to have a conception of so many conceptions of religion in the world?”

Then Kṛṣṇa told: “When the creation began, then what is religion, I transmitted it to the creator’s heart, Brahmā. And from Brahmā, that came to so many disciples, about ten or a dozen disciples. But according to the different capacity of those disciples, what they received, there was a little change, when they are giving delivery. So, I gave it to Brahmā, and that was one, when Brahmā told ten disciples, ________ [?] then when they received it in the soil of their heart, that same thing entered, but with a little modification everywhere. And again, when they gave delivery to their disciples again, more modification, in this way: prakṛti-vaicitryāt and pāramparyeṇa, one, the difference in the receiver, and another, in the succession, so gradually modified. Now we see that in the religious world there is a regular jungle. Some say to give stress in the penance, some in the gift, some perhaps in japa, some this, some that, so many branches have come. And also, antagonistic, some, pāṣaṇḍa-mata, [atheism] that is some ascending opinions also grown from the human mind against that modified descending opinions, so now we find there is a jungle.”

So He has come now and then...

yadā yadā hi dharmasya, glānir bhavati [bhārata

abhyutthānam adharmasya, tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmy aham]

[“O Bhārata, whenever there is a decline of religion and an uprising of irreligion, I personally appear, like a being born in this world.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.7]

...to set it right: when He says that it has been degraded in a high stage, then He has to come again, or to send His own person, “Go and set it right.” So, the recipients are different, and their conceptions also different. So, the difference cannot but be, but who can catch the real internal meaning, they will be saved, others may be misguided, and it will take a long time for them. Once having real connection with a real Guru, he won’t be lost, but the time will be taken very, very long. Can’t help, it is everywhere, it is a general thing. It is not only in the particular case of Swāmī Mahārāja, but it is a general thing. Kṛṣṇa says like that. Uddhava’s question answered by Kṛṣṇa in this way in the eleventh canto of Bhāgavatam, and it is quite intelligible. It is not an unreasonable thing, not a dogmatic thing, but quite reasonable.

I can’t say any more. I feel too much tired today.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: It’s so kind of you taking so much trouble to speak to us.

We’ll take our leave now. Jaya oṁ viṣṇu-pāda...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate]

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe, nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill-fated.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

If we can be sincere, we won’t be lost. Where is Kṛṣṇa kathā, there is my Guru. Every disciple cannot catch the real spirit of the advice of Guru, can’t catch in the same line.

There is another word, a little unhappy. Once a Mohammedan mullah he was explaining Koran, and so many in the audience. One old lady, she used to take her seat in a corner and as long as the mullah he is reading Koran the lady is weeping, tears are running down her cheeks profusely. So much so that one day that mullah met that lady, and asked her, “What do you find in my advice that you are so much impressed? Whenever I cast my glance and look to you, I find your eyes are shedding tears profusely. What do you find in my lecture?”

Then to his disappointment, the old lady answered, “I had one she-goat and her beard was just like that of you, and when she took her food, she was moving her head on the grass, just as you move your head. So you remind me of that dear she-goat. She was very much affectionate to me. I can’t stand to think of her without shedding tears, and for that purpose, I come to see your lecture.”

So, Kṛṣṇa Himself came down here, still there were so many enemies to Him. He Himself came.

With Jesus also we find one of His twelve disciples, one Judas was a traitor.

He told disappointedly that, “The one who will betray me is among you.”

“Who amongst us will betray you?”

“Yes, he is amongst in the twelve of you.”

So we should not think because we have come to a great man we have got everything, swallowed, devoured everything. It is not such an easy thing, so not an easy thing that we have finished, we have devoured. Only we have got a connection with the infinite good, and we are to progress with that capital. That I have got everything: that is rather the opposite feeling. One who will approach towards infinite, more and more, he will see that I am nowhere. The sign will be the opposite.

Still of course sometimes it is necessary to assert on the courage, and on the strength of the faith, that, ‘What I say, it is true,’ just as Newton did. Newton when he was told by his contemporaries, “You have reached the highest zenith of knowledge.” So marvellous discovery he came with that the people in his time thought that ‘he is sārvajñā, he knows everything. He has reached the, he has finished the whole area of the knowledge.’

But Newton told, “I know better than you, because I conceive that I am just collecting the pebbles at the seashore of the ocean of knowledge. The area of knowledge is like an ocean. I am just touching the shore. So I think that I am more learned than you all, because you say that I have finished all knowledge, but it cannot be finished. I have only touched. So, that is also an assertion, that I know more than you, because I know that the knowledge cannot be finished, and you think that that knowledge is finished.”

Jaya oṁ viṣṇu-pāda ...

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What is the meaning of the word bhaga? Bhagavān, you’ve heard the sound, word Bhagavān.

Devotee: Bhaga and varga, is this the same?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bhagavān. What does he say?

_________________________________________________________________________ [?]

aiśvaryasya samagrasya, vīryasya yaśasaḥ śriyaḥ

jñāna-vairāgyayoś caiva, ṣaṇṇāṁ bhaga itīṅgana

[Bhagavān, the Supreme Lord, is thus defined as, “He who is inseparably replete with the six inconceivable qualities of wealth, power, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation.”]

[Viṣṇu Purāṇa, 6.5.74] & [Gauḍīya Kanthahara, 7.28]

His six qualities, known as bhaga, bhaga means these six-fold qualities. Aiśvaryasya, samagrasya, vīryasya, yaśa śri, jñāna-vairāgya, all these six consist in Bhagavān, one who has got these six bhaga...

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: But he is vāca, of the voice, of the speech, of the...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Vāca, uda vāca, that is another thing, Udabhaga is another gentleman. There is another man whose name is Udabhaga. Udavāca.

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Vāca means speech, word, udavāca, the vāca, the word, all the words directing the high, udavāca. Vāca, the speech, or the word, or voice, or talk, have no concern with the lower things, udavāca, always tending towards, pertaining to the higher things, udavāca.

There is a class of yogī here in India, udavaho [?] some ________ [?] Always, and it is fixed, they cannot take it down again, it is fixed, udavaho. The meaning is to show that his activity will be towards the physical sense thereby. That is sahajiyā-vāda, prākṛta-sahajiyā. Our physical things should be used for the higher purpose. But the principle is eliminated, the real thing, the gist, the substance eliminated, and only an imitation is there physically. That’s the trouble.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Then that udaretaḥ [?] also.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Udaretaḥ [?] That is, the semen tendency is not for the purpose of the lower creation, not for lower creation, the tendency. Only for higher purpose it may be used, utilised, not for sense pleasure. It should not be utilised for sense pleasure, but for purpose necessary for the higher object, udaretaḥ. Retaḥ means sukra, semen. Semen is not utilised in mundane purpose, but for higher purpose it may be utilised, it is under control. So it may not be avoided always, it is not meant. Of course one who has accepted sannyāsa it is a separate case.

Otherwise Vyāsadeva, he, this ______ [?] purpose. Vyāsadeva was engaged and his son was Pāṇḍu and Dhṛtarāṣṭra. At the request of his former mother, Satyavatī, Vyāsadeva came to produce child in the wife of _____________ [?] malika, this ________ [?] The Pañca Pāṇḍava, they mentioned when they’re going from ________ [?] towards some unknown quarter, Yudhiṣṭhira, Duryodhana, made plot to murder them, so they’re hiding themselves. And they’re passing Kuntī and the Pañca Pāṇḍava, they’re passing from some unknown quarter from ______________ [?] Then from the forest, that ādivāsī lady, ādivāsī woman, girl, Bhīma’s figure was a very nice colour like a gold, and very developed body, and that ādivāsī woman she was also very vigorous and good figure. She suddenly found Bhīma and she wanted to have a child from Bhīma. She came and appealed to Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja. She could find that he’s the leader. “I want one child from your, this brother.”

Yudhiṣṭhira asked Kuntī Devī, Yudhiṣṭhira referred to Kuntī Devī, “My mother is there, you go to her.”

Then she fell at the feet of Kuntī Devī. “I want a child from your, this son.”

Kuntī Devī ordered Bhīma, “Go and satisfy her hankering. She wants a child from you.”

By the order of mother, Bhīma went with her.

So it is controlled, for some purpose when it is necessary, to serve higher purpose ________________ [?] in Raghu-vamsa. In Gītā, prajanaś cāsmi kandarpaḥ.

[āyudhānām ahaṁ vajraṁ, dhenūnām asmi kāmadhuk

prajanaś cāsmi kandarpaḥ, sarpāṇām asmi vāsukiḥ]

[“Of weapons I am the thunderbolt, and of cows I am the heavenly desire-fulfilling cow. Of cupids I am he who ensures progeny, and among the single-headed venomous snakes I am Vāsuki, the king of all snakes.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 10.28]

“In kandarpaḥ I am where, when it is necessary to produce a child there.”

____________________________ [?] Not for reti or sense satisfaction, but when necessary to produce a child it should be utilised. Then no brahmacārya is not affected in that case, it has got its utility, but not reti, not for sense pleasure. That is the meaning of the śāstra, prajanaś cāsmi kandarpaḥ, in Bhagavad-gītā.

And Bhāgavatam, ___________________ [?] not for his sense satisfaction, but for necessity, for utility it should be used, so udaretaḥ, Mahādeva is known as udaretaḥ _______ [?] that is his course, the aim towards high ________ [?]

And there is a peculiar mystic mention about Kṛṣṇa, avadhuta _________ [?] Kṛṣṇa, He mixed with the gopīs, but avadhuta ____________ [?] In such way He used with them _____ [?] this intercourse, that was controlled __________ [?] not in the sense of worldly pleasure, that He’s controlled, that is there. No kama gandha hina, it is independent of any nasty odour of this sense pleasure. This is the highest conception of Divinity.

End of 81.12.16.B_81.12.19.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.21.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...misunderstanding in a marginal position, and that marginal position is represented as śiva, which the cetana, the consciousness, as a whole which is some deep connection in the misconceived aspect of the world, that portion has been described as śiva. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The master of misconception, the relativity is eternal, the conscious relativity, the relativity of the consciousness with misconception, that aspect is known as Rudra, śiva. But eternal flow, eternal flow.

Devotee: So he has, he’s got, does he have an eternal position there?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: When the jīva consciousness as a whole, that is taṭasthā-śakti, where the in-carrying and out-carrying current meets together, the abscissa, proper conception and misconception meeting point, that portion of consciousness which is eternally connected with misconception, that consciousness is known as Rudra, śiva. Because, without consciousness matter has got no value, none to understand; without consciousness nothing can come to be cognizable. So because we have some conception of the material world, so the material conception has some sort of position. Otherwise it is quite darkness, no one to investigate, no one to know, no one to experience, then no mention is possible of that thing. So the consciousness which is in connection with misconception, not proper conception but misconception eternally connected, that sort of consciousness is called śiva. And Sadāśiva, a little higher consciousness of śiva, which is tending towards Vaikuṇṭha sevā, service, Sadāśiva. In Brahma-saṁhitā [8] also there is another: tal-liṅgaṁ bhagavān śambhur. The Kāraṇārṇavaśāyī or Sadāśiva, when he’s focused towards this māyic world and begins creation of this material world that is Bhagavān Śambhu, that portion is Śiva. On the whole, that conscious portion which is eternally connected with material consciousness or enjoying consciousness, that consciousness is known as śiva. Just as milk when in connection with acid it becomes curd, but curd cannot return to be milk. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes, yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The curd is nothing but milk, mainly, but the acid has transformed it into a curd and the curd cannot again return to be milk. So the conscious portion that has come in connection with māyā, misconception, and cannot avoid it, cannot free it as a whole, that portion is known as śiva, the master of this material world, the ostentatious enjoyer of this material property. That function is known as śiva. This is general. This is relativity of consciousness which is in the relativity of misconception. That portion is known as śiva.

māyāṁ tu prakṛtiṁ vidyān māyinaṁ tu maheśvaram

[“Understand that māyā is the material energy whereas the Supreme Lord is the Supreme Lord of māyā.”] [Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad, 4.10]

“Maheśvara is always Mine.”

He’s the Master of this misconceived world. Do you follow? The Master of this misconceived world, that false identification. And there is one at the back who got that misconception, misinterpretation or mis-enjoyment mood; that is śiva.

Devotee: ___________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Mahārāja, where I’m confused about this is that, does some jīva after some time does he take on that position?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I don’t follow.

Devotee: Does some jīva soul after some time does he after purification or after coming from a higher plane does he come to take the position of śiva? Or is this a manifestation of directly of Kṛṣṇa?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: When a jīva which is in – jīva means particle of consciousness, when he goes up to cross this ocean of misunderstanding and just released but still in the negativity of this māyā he may be śiva. When the jīva is going to Vaikuṇṭha and in the middle way, when he has crossed the boundary of this māyā, but still in connection, that portion is śiva.

Then also, this māyā śakti approaches him, “Why do you leave me? You stay here. I shall serve you. You should not neglect me.”

But if he accepts that proposal he becomes śiva. And if he does not care for that proposal and goes up, then he’ll go to Vaikuṇṭha, to Nārāyaṇa’s land. That marginal position is that of śiva.

Devotee: That’s very clear. One other thing, I’ve heard that if a soul...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: One who cannot catch the in-carrying current but the out-carrying current he has passed the stage of the out-carrying current, and in the margin, in the abscissa, and cannot catch really the in-carrying central current. In the marginal consciousness, understanding and misunderstanding, and the meeting point is there, the abscissa. And any conscious particle remaining in the abscissa, in the buffer state, in no man’s land, neither this side nor this side, he’s śiva. But when entered this side baddha-jīva and that side in the Yogamāyā current in the ground of service then he’s devotee. The enjoying mood and serving mood, and between the two that is śiva, that marginal position.

Devotee: Does he remain there?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Neither an enjoyer nor a servitor, that consciousness is that of śiva, sense enjoyer, the master of the misconceived world. Misconception means that, ‘I have got some separate existence, not dependent on the Supreme Entity, separate consciousness. Advaya-jñāna, not in the one harmony, but I have got my separate position.’ That consciousness is that of śiva. ‘I’m not slave to someone. I’ve got my independent position. I’m not servant to anyone, and I’m not subordinate to anyone. I have got my independent position.’ That position, that spirit is known as śiva. But really speaking that has got some connection with the misconceived world, then only he can think that, ‘I am independent. I’m not subservient to any other higher entity.’ That means he has got some connection, though he thinks himself free of the misconception world, but still he has got some continuation. So only he can assert that, ‘I am independent.’ But really he’s not independent; he’s a serving unit of the Supreme Entity, Absolute. But the conception of separate interest that makes one be to the position of śiva, Śambhu. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:

bhayaṁ dvitīyābhiniveśataḥ syād, [īśād apetasya viparyyayo 'smṛtiḥ

tan-māyayāto budha ābhajet taṁ, bhaktyaikayeśaṁ guru-devatātmā]

[“Fear arises when a living entity misidentifies himself as the material body because of absorption in the external, illusory energy of the Lord. When the living entity thus turns away from the Supreme Lord, he also forgets his own constitutional position as a servant of the Lord. This bewildering, fearful condition is effected by the potency for illusion, called māyā. Therefore, an intelligent person should engage unflinchingly in the unalloyed devotional service of the Lord, under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, whom he should accept as his worshippable deity and as his very life and soul.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.2.37]

The conception of a separate existence, that, ‘I have got an independent position and existence,’ that is śiva. ‘I’m not subservient to anyone.’

‘I’m subservient to Viṣṇu, Nārāyaṇa,’ that is devotion.

‘I’m master of this world,’ that is māyic jīva, baddha jīva. But still, who says that, ‘I am not subservient to Viṣṇu, to Nārāyaṇa, to Kṛṣṇa,’ then we trace that something, the influence of misunderstanding is there. Otherwise he could conceive that he’s Kṛṣṇa dāsa, he’s a real servant of Kṛṣṇa. But because he cannot do so, so he’s not pure, or free from the influence of māyā. So māyādhi pati, he thinks he’s master of māyā.

Devotee: Still though we read so many prayers...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:

ye 'nye 'ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas, tvayi asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ

āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ, patanty adho 'nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ

[“O lotus-eyed Lord, although non-devotees who accept severe austerities and penances to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence is impure. Although they may rise to the level of impersonal Brahman realisation, they fall down from their position of imagined superiority because they neglect to worship Your lotus feet.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 10.2.32]

They cannot take the advantage of the in-carrying current of devotion. Then after even climbing up to the highest position of this world, he has every possibility to come down again, because he can’t take the advantage of the higher current of devotion. So śiva is the resident of no man’s land: neither Vaikuṇṭha nor Devī Dhāma, master of Devī Dhāma. But extremely scrutinising if we are, then we find he cannot, he could not work out his full relief from māyā. If so, he could feel that he’s a servitor of Kṛṣṇa. But he can’t do so. So the influence of māyā is still there. Māyā means misunderstanding is still there. He can’t follow that he’s Kṛṣṇa dāsa.

Devotee: Vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is Sadāśiva, when he has entered, that is Sadāśiva, or Mahā Viṣṇu, almost of same position. That is when he has become Śiva, a devotee, and that first stage it is mentioned vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ, to create, to encourage the fallen soul that have got some affinity towards Śiva. For their good it has been said, vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ, that Śiva is reckoned also as a Vaiṣṇava. Those that are habituated to think that Śiva is an independent entity, and not Nārāyaṇa, and not Viṣṇu, to help those persons the recognition has been given to Śiva as a devotee, as a principal devotee, to draw their attention towards the highest good. Vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ. Dvādaśa mahā-jana:

svayambhūr nāradaḥ śambhuḥ kaumāraḥ kapilo manuḥ

[prahlādo janako bhīṣmo balir vaiyāsakir vayam

dvādaśaite vijānīmo dharmaṁ bhāgavataṁ bhaṭāḥ

guhyaṁ viśuddhaṁ durbodhaṁ yaṁ jñātvāmṛtam aśnute]

[Yamarāja lists the twelve mahā-janas, the twelve authorities on bhakti: “Lord Brahmā, Bhagavān, Nārada, Lord Śiva, the four Kumāras, Lord Kapila (the son of Devahūti), Svāyambhuva Manu, Prahlāda Mahārāja, Janaka Mahārāja, Bhīṣma, Bali Mahārāja, Śukadeva Goswāmī, and I myself know the real religious principle. My dear servants, this transcendental religious principle, which is known as bhāgavata-dharma, or surrender unto the Supreme Lord and love for Him, is uncontaminated by the material modes of nature. It is very confidential and difficult for ordinary human beings to understand, but if by chance a person fortunately understands it, he is immediately liberated, and thus he returns home, back to Godhead.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 6.3.20-1]

Śiva is mentioned, but the extreme followers of Śiva, the parsandas [?] though still they do not recognise that Śiva is a devotee of Kṛṣṇa. But yet, to help them, Śiva has got recognition in the class of a devotee. And that is Sadāśiva, and not Rudra. Rudra aspect is lower aspect, lower function of Śiva, and Sadāśiva, the devotee aspect of Śiva. That is the consciousness which that portion of consciousness which is nearer to Vaikuṇṭha that is Sadāśiva. And that portion that is no man’s land, the marginal position, taṭa, neither water nor earth, that is known as taṭa. But the watery side, that is Sadāśiva, and the land side of the taṭa that is Brahman, Rudra, in this way, the marginal position, between the serving world and the enjoying world. The marginal position is śiva. And which is towards the enjoying side that is Rudra, and which is towards the serving side that is Sadāśiva. That is imaginary division.

Sometimes Śiva is seen to be a servant, with servant consciousness he’s approaching Nārāyaṇa. And sometimes Śiva is seen to support the demons and going to fight with Nārāyaṇa for helping the demons. Two aspects of Śiva we find. Sometimes he’s standing against Nārāyaṇa and begins to fight with Nārāyaṇa, in support of the demonic disciples.

And sometimes he’s very repentant and asks Nārāyaṇa, “Why You have given me such a hopeless position? Very cruel You are to deal with me. You have given me such abhimāna. Please release me from such task, and always engage me in Your service.” That is also seen in him, at times.

So that is a very difficult thing to understand: the real position of Śiva, margin, two aspects combined. Mainly tyāga, something bhoga, something service, the margin means that. Śiva tattva, Guru tattva, Nāma tattva, and Śrī Vigraha tattva, these four are very difficult to have a clear idea of. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. ______________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Mahārāja, sometimes, I know this one person, he’s a very doubtful person. And when a concept of eternality comes in, like when we would say that the relationship with the Guru is eternal relationship, or that he...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Guru is not in the measure of limitation. We should try to understand the infinite characteristic of Guru. Guru has not entered into the cage of my mind, not a limited thing, so much breadth, so much width, so much thickness, this is not Guru. Guru, Kṛṣṇa, Guru highest servitor of Kṛṣṇa, in different rasa, in different mood, so Guru is infinite: and Kṛṣṇa says, “I am Guru.” So Guru tattva is not very easily understandable, śikṣā-guruke ta’ jāni, kṛṣṇera svarūpa.

[yadyapi āmāra guru - caitanyera dāsa, tathāpi jāniye āmi tāṅhāra prakāśa.

guru-kṛṣṇa-rūpa hana śāstrera pramāṇe, guru-rūpe kṛṣṇa kṛpā karena bhakta-gaṇe.

ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān, nāvamanyeta karhicit

na martya-buddhyāsūyeta, sarva-deva-mayo guruḥ.]

śikṣā-guruke ta’ jāni, kṛṣṇera svarūpa, [antaryāmī, bhakta-śreṣṭha, - ei dui rūpa]

[“Although I know my Guru is a servitor of Śrī Caitanya, I know him also as a full manifestation (prakāśa) of the Lord.”] [“According to the deliberate opinion and evidence of śāstra, the Guru is non-different from Kṛṣṇa, because it is through the Guru that Kṛṣṇa bestows His mercy upon His devotee and delivers them.”] [“One should understand the spiritual master to be as good as I am,” said the Blessed Lord. “Nobody should be jealous of the spiritual master or think of him as an ordinary man, because the spiritual master is the sum total of all the demigods.”] [“One should know the instructing spiritual master (śikṣā guru) to be Kṛṣṇa Himself. As Guru, Kṛṣṇa manifests as the Supersoul and as the best of devotees.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 1.44-7]

Where is the knowledge of Kṛṣṇa there is Guru, where is the knowledge of the service of Kṛṣṇa that is Guru. That is of different type, and different ways, this Nāma Guru, mantra Guru, vartma-pradarśaka Guru, sannyāsa Guru, but all tending towards one. And then otherwise, there are so many sham Gurus also, imitation Guru also. That is another thing. Who is guiding me towards Guru, Guru means guide, whoever is guiding me towards the centre, he is Guru.

And Bhāgavatam mentions that avadhuta has got twenty four Gurus. From somewhere else, from birds, from animals, he’s learning something, but he’s my Guru, giving, teaching me in this direction. Guru means guide, who guides me towards Kṛṣṇa, he is Guru, where ever he be. Not an imaginary cage, Guru is not a cage, in which he lives, still that has got some connection with that.

Then there is possibility of Guru tyāga also. How it is possible? If the real spirit of Guru is not there then that Guru should be discarded. It is also mentioned in the śāstra. Then what is Guru, we are to know. Guru tyāga is also possible, in very rare case, unfortunate though that is very much, still there is possibility. So Guru is not a limited cage of my vision, or my mental cage.

Wherever is Kṛṣṇa distributing Himself there is Guru. When Kṛṣṇa is distributing Himself in general He’s Mahāprabhu, and so many representatives of Mahāprabhu they’re Guru. Guru means light. Otherwise we shall be form worshippers. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: So what he’ll say is that the relationship with the Guru, with the individual Guru always eternal? Is that relationship always eternal?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Both. Kṛṣṇa as universal Avatāra also He can divide Himself. So Guru also can in different aspects he can come. At the same time different Guru may come. So many Ācārya, so many Ācārya they’re Guru to their disciples. How it is possible? Because the common is that they’re giving the same kind of advice, instruction about Kṛṣṇa. But still there must be some difference between them, but still the current is that Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They’re imparting Kṛṣṇa consciousness to so many persons. They’re Gurus.

So eleven Ācārya then the disciple of the Ācārya number one he should also give some respect as a Vaiṣṇava to another, some śikṣā Guru, or something to another Ācārya number two, Ācārya number four. They should not neglect or think as enemy. They’re also somewhat of Guru’s position to them, so such sort of respect they must convey. ___________________________ [?]

Devotees: _________________________________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Mahārāja, sometimes we realise that we have very little sincerity, for Kṛṣṇa, for the Guru, we strive in a very little as far as trying to approach Kṛṣṇa. And then all of a sudden after trying to approach Kṛṣṇa the Guru somehow tries to take us back home...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I can’t follow. What does he say?

Devotee: He says that we have, sometimes it seems as though we have very little sincerity, but somehow or other the Guru he tries to take us back by force.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. You are unfit, that sort of consciousness with the disciple it is good. And Gurudeva is taking me towards some higher direction, though I’m unfit. But still when we attend the cause of another we have got some sort of consciousness within that is taking me towards good thing. And also I look about the environment – I may be a fool, but whether others, how they accept him. And the scriptures, the experts of the department, they have also given their opinion, and I must have according to my capacity to consult that, sādhu and śāstra. With the help of these two we can approach Guru. And also from the approval of the innermost heart; sādhu, śāstra and improvement of our conscience, with the help of these three we can accept Guru, we generally go to accept Guru.

But there are also others who are deceiving themselves, “Oh. My Guru can cure so many diseases. Then my Guru can make me prosper in the material life, so I shall make him Guru.” That will be self deception. That is also found in the world, different types of Guru who gives material prosperity, material benefit. And there are some they carry Guru who gives us eternal sleep, saying, “That is the real place of taking rest and peace.” There are so many classes of Guru.

But generally our sukṛti guides us from underground. So śraddhā is the real merit who can take us to proper Guru and that śraddhā is the outcome of our past acquired sukṛti. And that sukṛti comes unconsciously from the agents of Kṛṣṇa. In this way the real progress of a jīva has been traced, ultimately. But śraddhā may be of different kinds, tamasic, rajasic, sattvic, and nirguṇa. And according to śraddhā one comes to such Guru.

Just as in the world also some go to a doctor to learn treatment and medicine, some go to the lawyer group to become a pleader to earn money.

So variety is also there in the spiritual conception. But there is possibility of comparative study, and the Śiva bhakta, Śakta bhakta, Nārāyaṇa bhakta, Kṛṣṇa bhakta. There is differentiation, and ultimately sukṛti – but our unconscious help from the agents of Kṛṣṇa that guides us really to Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa conception of Godhead.

And sometimes taken to some department again when the sukṛti comes trying to assert then we get sort, the Mohammedism, Christianity, the Śaktaism, the Śaivaism, and we come to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is also possible.

sarva-dharmān parityajya, [mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo, mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ]

[“Totally abandoning all kinds of religion, surrender exclusively unto Me. I will liberate you from all kinds of sins, so do not despair.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]

Dharma means conception of religious duty, dharma, pure duty, sacred duty, dharma. But Kṛṣṇa consciousness says that is so superior demand that has got, given us, that all conceptions of holy duties should be given up for His service. So gradation is always there. And how Kṛṣṇa consciousness holds the supreme position of pure attainment: that is to be understood by the help of scriptures as well as from the sādhus of that layer, śravaṇa kīrtana, sādhu śāstra.

‘sādhu saṅga,’ ‘sādhu saṅga,’ - sarva śāstre kaya

[lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya]

[“The verdict of all revealed scriptures is that by even a moment’s association with a pure devotee, one can attain all success.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.54]

The most importance has been given in the company of the sādhus for our higher realisation. So many conceptions of religious views we find, but what is the speciality of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that we are to understand by our knowledge, by our practice, by the experience of the companions, all these things.

Devotee: You mentioned Guru tyāga...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Guru tyāga, that is not really Guru tyāga but the misconceived Guru within us.

Devotee: Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja and I, we heard that perhaps Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura later on he rejected Vipina. Is this true? Vipina Goswāmī his Guru.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In fact not formally not only he did, and that is really he left him. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in his Hari-Nāma-cintāmaṇi book he has mentioned in what stage Guru tyāga can be effected. Guru tyāga, to ignore the proper guide, the leader, everything, life, that is very unfortunate thing. But still, if we have been misguided, when it comes to consciousness that I’m being misguided, one must leave, can’t help. So Guru tyāga is also there, give up.

You had perhaps some sort of Guru, some Christian, some Mohammedan, Catholic, Protestant, and then one changes one department, comes to another. It is everywhere we find. When Mohammed came there was no Muslim. After perhaps there were Jews, they have also their Guru. So Jesu came before there were Jews. They left their Guru and came to join Jesus’ party. Then Catholics, some they changed their view and go to the Protestants. So Guru tyāga is everywhere to be seen. When Mahāprabhu came so many leaving their other folds came to join Mahāprabhu’s party to take initiation: so it is not an impossible thing. We’ve also seen in our life, in history also that the Guru tyāga and that is also a great thing in many places.

But it must be considerate. It must be helpful. We must be very cautious to leave one and to have a new. But progress means elimination. And also at the same time the step, the foundation where we are standing, and before leaving that foundation we must be sure that where I’m going to take my post that is higher. Then only can I move my – I must leave the present ground and occupy the second. ____________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Guru Mahārāja, I live in Los Angeles, for at least a couple of more months I’ll live there before I move to where Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja is. But there I have some friends who are disciples of Rāmeśvara. They live near me, they live in the same building.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then consult with Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Prabhu and do whatever necessary. Consult with Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Prabhu and do the needful.

Devotee: Yes, but the question is...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I don’t like to disturb the ISKCON. If anyone is quite dissatisfied with the present administration of ISKCON and leaves their association, then I want to help them. But as long as one is under ISKCON I don’t like to disturb them. Some benefit they may have there. But if they cannot, they’re out of ISKCON; then those I like to help, if necessary, if possible. And I told, a relief work, I want to do some relief work. That those who are not healthy, unsatisfied with ISKCON, try to help them. I’ve asked Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Prabhu in this way. Don’t go to interfere with the ISKCON administration, but if you find that one is going away, depressed and dejected, disappointed, and leaving the fold of Swāmī Mahārāja and Mahāprabhu and Kṛṣṇa consciousness, try to help them. Don’t go to any direct hit with ISKCON.

Devotee: I’m very much aloof, I don’t.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Swāmī Mahārāja has created such a big thing, and I don’t like to disturb them. But those that are going away from ISKCON disappointed; try to, if possible, to take them within the fold of Mahāprabhu, and Swāmī Mahārāja.

What I say, Swāmī Mahārāja and myself and so many others got from our Guru Mahārāja and Mahāprabhu, so it is very akin, nearer things. So those who have been disappointed with the ISKCON management of the present time, try to help them, they may not go away cutting all connections with Mahāprabhu. So no competition but relief work. That was my instruction to him, and everyone.

In my old age I have no such ambition that I shall go to construct a separate mission. No, only just to help these diseased persons, disappointed persons, that much, not entering into any competitive work. In my young age when I was required to do so I did not. And your Swāmī Mahārāja also repeatedly requested me, “Please look after them.”

And Guru Mahārāja also ordered me to go to the west for preaching. “You have got some quality.”

And because you all come – I do not go but you all come to me, and I, though unfit in this old age in many ways, still I try my little if any good may be effected. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. __________________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: I have heard that if the living entity is born within the realm of Vṛndāvana Dhāma on the mundane plane it is his last birth in the material world, and after that he goes into Kṛṣṇa līlā. Is this the same for Navadwīpa Dhāma?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. The Navadwīpa Dhāma is more favourable to the devotees, more favourable. That is, it is more benevolent, mahā-vadanyāya. The men committing offences, they’ve also got some better chance in Navadwīpa Dhāma than in Vṛndāvana. For the fallen souls Navadwīpa Dhāma is more magnanimous and gracious. That is, Mahāprabhu, Nityānanda Prabhu, They’re most liberal to the offenders.

Devotee: So this is their last birth, they take birth now...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not in the physical sense, in the spiritual sense.

Devotee: We see so many things that are not Kṛṣṇa conscious going on, here, some fish eating, smoking cigarettes here, and worship of Kali, so many. How are we to see? How am I to see that? How should I see these people that are doing like that, but they’re within Navadwīpa?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Just as Kali-kāla, the iron age, most unfavourable, so Mahāprabhu and Hari Nāma comes, the most needy time and most needy place also. The Kṛṣṇa Nāma, Mahāprabhu, They come at the most needy, both in...

End of 81.12.21.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.21.B_81.12.22.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Devotee: Guru Mahārāja, it’s difficult for me to conceive how such a person, you know, should be dealt with. I mean, how should I see him? He takes birth in Navadwīpa Dhāma yet he doesn’t worship Mahāprabhu, externally…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mahāprabhu instructs to Jagadānanda Paṇḍita: “You go to Vṛndāvana, show your respect from a distance, but don’t mix with them closely.”

So general respect we must have for this Dhāma, but not particular attention to the present inhabitants, not coming in close connection with them, but a distant respect. That should be our policy. Though outwardly we do not feel anything favourable in them, but still, the furthest connection of this Dhāma will bring some distant future goodness for them, which at present we can’t feel and we can’t get benefited by that. So from a distance we show some revered attitude but don’t go closely to have their influence. Mahāprabhu asked Jagadānanda Paṇḍita when he stayed in Vṛndāvana. vṛndāvana jayje nara lekhi atara [?]

[śīghra āsiha, tāhāṅ nā rahiha cira-kāla, govardhane nā caḍiha dekhite ‘gopāla’]

[“You should remain in Vṛndāvana for only a short time and then return here as soon as possible. Also, do not climb Govardhana Hill to see the Gopāla Deity.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 13. 39]

“Don’t stay there for a long time, govardhane nā caḍiha dekhite ‘gopāla.’ To have a look of that Giridhari, don’t try to climb up on the hill. And about the vraja-vāsī, from far off you will show respect to them but don’t come in closer connection with them.”

And Kavirāja Goswāmī has written:

paścimera loka saba mūḍha anācāra, tāhāṅ pracārila doṅhe bhakti-sadācāra

[“The people in general on the western side of India were neither intelligent nor well behaved, but by the influence of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī they were trained in devotional service and good behaviour.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 10.89]

Sanātana Gosvāmī and Rūpa, they preached there the good conduct, bhakti-sadācāra, the devotee-like practices they preached there. Because they’re all mūḍha anācāra, they’re foolish and their practices were not very pure in Vṛndāvana. We find in Caitanya-caritāmṛta - paścimera loka saba mūḍha anācāra tāhāṅ pracārila doṅhe bhakti-sadācāra. So, on the whole we come that they have got fortune so they have come in connection with that Dhāma, but at present that is not properly developed, so we cannot get any benefit by their association. But Your connection with Vraja Dhāma they have got, very meagre. In this way we should tread with them. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Bhaktisiddhānta, one book I’ve been reading on Bhaktisiddhānta, he talks about sumati, sumati.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sumati?

Devotee: Yes, a good disposition.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. That sumati, su means good, but good to its extremist sense must come in Kṛṣṇa devotion, Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

‘dvaite bhadrābhadra-jñāna, saba-‘manodharma’ [‘ei bhāla, ei manda’,-ei saba ‘bhrama’]

[“In the material world, conceptions of good and bad are all mental concoctions. Therefore, saying, ‘This is good, this is bad,’ is a mistake.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 4.176]

The calculation of good, bad, in this misconceived area, the wholesale is false. But good and bad in the real plane of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, both is good. The opposition party and the real party, both have got some good position, efficacy. In a good governed land the opposition party has got also some value. And the evil government, when in the land there is evil government is standing, so both parties are bad. So what is good and bad, the intrinsic value we must try to observe, what is the criterion of good and bad. And the exploitation and renunciation, both are bad. And service is good. And service is of two kinds, one calculative and another surrendered. Surrendered service is the highest type of service, and that is found in Vṛndāvana, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Slavery to the extreme, and gain also to the extreme. Service means to accept slavery. He’s so good that if we can have the connection of slavery to Him we will be saved, so good.

As much degree of slavery we will be able to accept, we may attain such height of goodness. It is quite reasonable. Otherwise we won’t have any entrance into that holy land, the holiest land. Holiest land, we can have admission only if we offer our service to the extreme point of slavery, then we can be admitted, entered into that area, land. And unconditional, slavery of course is unconditional. That must be very heartfelt. Then we may be accepted to that holy domain. But slavery in that domain, that is far, far better, than the mastery of this land of exploitation, that of reaction. Reaction is very, very bad. And in the middle, the land of renunciation, that is neither good nor bad, nothing, zero. That is zero, freezing point.

Devotee: Guru Mahārāja, you mentioned that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta when he put on the brāhmaṇa’s thread that previously Jīva Goswāmī had written that one would have to take birth in the family of a brāhmaṇa to become a brāhmaṇa, but that some later mahājana would change the rule. Is this…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Jīva Goswāmī has written that ordinary sādhus, the yogīs, the brāhmaṇas, Śaṅkara, all these schools, they say that, “By the dint of our knowledge, the yoga and the devotion, we can destroy all the actions. But except, save and except, those actions that are being attached to this body to suffer, except this.” But the devotee school say, “No. The impurity for which this present attachment of the race, or anything, that also can be done away with by the influence of Kṛṣṇa Nāma.” Prārabdha, prārabdha-karma, that those karma that is already attached to be suffered or enjoyed in this body, that is prārabdha-karma. The other schools they think that without prārabdha that this body’s attached karma all other karmas may be finished. But the bhakta school says that by taking Hari Nāma, it is not possible by yoga and jñāna and other things, but by Kṛṣṇa Nāma one can get rid of all sorts of impurities, even in this birth, in this body. This body is the outcome of previous good and bad actions, but this also is purified, the prārabdha-karma.

Now, the question is if the prārabdha-karma is purified then one comes to the highest birth of a brāhmaṇa. Jīva Goswāmī says that he attains the position of a brāhmaṇa body. But, a brāhmaṇa body, brāhmaṇa boy, until and unless he’s given the sacred thread and mantram he’s not considered to be eligible to do the work of a brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa boy only when he’s conferred with upavit [?] saṁskāra, then also he’s eligible to worship Nārāyaṇa and do all other sacrifices what only the brāhmaṇas can do. So by taking the Name one is purified and becomes, attains the stage of a brāhmaṇa boy.

And Jīva Goswāmī says because we do not find any custom to give them sacred thread, so they must wait for the next birth. But Jīva Goswāmī admits that anyhow, whatever caste he may be, if he takes the Name of Kṛṣṇa then he discards the defects of his, of any other lower birth, and attains the position of a brāhmaṇa birth. It is admitted. It means he attains the position of a brāhmaṇa boy who has not been given any sacred thread. A brāhmaṇa boy until and unless he’s given the sacred thread he is not admitted for the services of Nārāyaṇa and any other yajñā. So, there is no custom introduced here to give them sacred thread, consequently they’re to wait for the next birth. That is the conclusion of Jīva Goswāmī.

But our Guru Mahārāja came with that, “When, no harm if they can be given sacred thread. The custom will be introduced. Custom may be introduced.” He says there is no such custom… but that may be introduced. Our Guru Mahārāja came to introduce that thing what was not in vogue, because he said that the two things are being given indulgence by not introducing that usage. What? Why? Those that get the Vaiṣṇava initiation, they think that they’re lower than brāhmaṇa. So they must be encouraged that no longer they’re in lower position, they’re fit to do all these services. They should also be encouraged. For that purpose, and another thing, the so-called brāhmaṇas, they’re proud of their flesh consciousness, they come to think that this Vaiṣṇava dīkṣā, who has got Vaiṣṇava dīkṣā, they are lower than us. So they’re committing offence to the Vaiṣṇava. So the brāhmaṇas and the so-called other higher castes, they should not be given the chance of committing Vaiṣṇava aparādha. And at the same time, those that are taking the Vaiṣṇava mantra, they also should not think themselves lower, that they’re unfit to do the worship of the worthy body brāhmaṇa can do, they cannot do that. So for this two-fold help in the Vaiṣṇava society, this function, this usage, should be introduced. So Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākura he boldly came forward to introduce this system for which Jīva Goswāmī told that because that is not the usage, though qualitatively it is all right, but because there is no custom so they have got no other alternative but to wait for their next birth. Do you follow? Am I clear?

Devotee: Yes. Jīva Goswāmī he wrote that someone would come, did he write that someone would come and introduce?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. If any mahājana, if a great personage he’ll come and introduce such custom, then it will be all right, no difficulty with rules of śāstra. The fact, it is all right. But none has introduced such custom so they have no other alternative but to wait. But if any mahājana comes and he begins such introduction, boldly, then it is all right from the standpoint of the fact, truth, it is all right. According to śāstra siddhānta it is not wrong, but only no custom, no usage, so again it is stopped. But if any mahājana comes and introduces such usage then it will be all right. And our Guru Mahārāja did that. He told, because two-fold disadvantages are found. The brāhmaṇas are committing offences against the Vaiṣṇavas, and the Vaiṣṇavas also think in their turn that they’re very lower. They cannot attain, so the regular faith in the Name is also being disturbed in them. So it must be introduced.

brāhmaṇānāṁ sahasrebhyaḥ satra-yājī viśiṣyate

satra-yāji-sahasrebhyaḥ sarvva-vedānta-pāragaḥ

sarvva-vedānta-vit-koṭ yā viṣṇubhakto viśiṣyate

vaiṣṇavānāṁ sahasrebhyaḥ ekāntyeko viśiṣyate

[“Among many thousands of brāhmaṇas, a yajñika brāhmaṇa is best. Among thousands of yajñika brāhmaṇas, one who fully knows Vedānta is best. Among millions of knowers of Vedānta, one who is a devotee of Viṣṇu is best. And among thousands of devotees of Viṣṇu, one who is an unalloyed Vaiṣṇava is best.”] [Hari-Bhakti-Vilāsa, 10.117] + [Bhakti-Sandarbha, 117]

That he is a devotee of Viṣṇu he is superior to crores of ordinary vaidāntik brāhmaṇas. A practical brāhmaṇa is better than a birth brāhmaṇa, practical means one who commits, who performs yajña, etc., worships Kṛṣṇa. And those that worship with material things, one who can worship with the help of his consciousness, he will be preferred, given more preference, vedānta-vit. Then the vedānta-vit they think that their goal is non-differentiated consciousness, so if one can have the idea of differentiated consciousness, then he will hold the higher position than crores of such vaidāntik brāhmaṇas, those who are suffering from the disease that spirituality means non-differentiated Brahman. So Viṣṇu bhakta, who can see the Personality in consciousness, they will be far more superior. And viṣṇubhakto sahasrebhyaḥ ekāntyeko viśiṣyate, and amongst the devotees who regulates themselves according to śāstra and calculation, they’re of lower order, in Vaikuṇṭha. And those that can have exclusively surrendered to the service of the Absolute Entity with the inner most love and faith, they’re dependable, they’re of the highest order.

……..

Devotee: When the disciple isn’t in the physical presence of his Guru, is it the same for him, his physical presence?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: What’s the question?

Devotee: When the disciple is not in physical presence of a Guru, is it as, you know, as um spiritually benefiting, as being, you know, apart?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Any spiritual difference?

Devotee: Yes, any spiritual difference?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Being physically together and being many miles away, any difference in the spiritual condition or not? He’s asking.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We can get benefit only through śraddhā. Guru’s position should not be considered as mundane. He should not be identified with his mundane appearance. Only through śraddhā we are able to approach him, from far off also. But still of course by physical vicinity we can get the chance of hearing from him, and also many practical dealings that may help us about the knowledge of Vaiṣṇava sadācāra, what should be the conduct of a Vaiṣṇava. All these things we can have some sort of conception. But śraddhā must be there. Physical closeness or distance, in both cases śraddhā or faith, respectable faith, must be there. And in the lower stage that physical nearness has got some more efficacy. By his movements, by his talks, instructions, we are to learn the spiritual etiquette, and also many spiritual ideals also may be cleared, ideal thoughts. Physical vicinity will be useful in the lower case, lower stage, but śraddhā must be there, that is faith. Otherwise we may commit offences. Physical nearness if devoid of faith then that may be the cause of offences against Gurudeva.

Sometimes senior Godbrothers may be very useful in helping our dealings to Gurudeva, for the beginners. His conduct may not be very clear and helpful always, so in that case some senior Godbrothers may come to help us, to explain his movements and do away with the differences.

īśvarāṇāṁ vachaḥ satyaṁ, tathaivacharitaṁ kvachit

teṣāṁ yat svavacho yuktaṁ buddhimāṁs tat samācharet

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.33.31]

The instructions of the great personages are always true, but their conduct, their practice may not be always useful to the beginners. Vachaḥ satyaṁ, tathaivacharitaṁ, acharitaṁ, not always may be useful, but their words are always useful, instructions, but not their practices always. So, fair understanding persons will accept those practices that are backed by his words, svavacho yuktaṁ buddhimāṁs tat samācharet, they will accept them also, because from his higher stage he may do something that will not be useful in my stage. _______________________________ [?]

He has got such spiritual power that little defects may not harm him in any way in the practice, little defects in practice may not harm him. So īśvarāṇāṁ vachaḥ satyaṁ, their instructions should always be followed, but their conduct not always. Only those conducts, practices, that are in consonance with his instructions, they should be accepted by the fair-minded beginners. Teṣāṁ yat svavacho yuktaṁ. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Guru Mahārāja, I had one question about…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Do you follow what I say?

Devotees: Yes, I understand. Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Am I clear?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Very clear.

Devotee: We shouldn’t try to imitate those who are very advanced.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not imitate but follow, not imitation but to pursue. Not anukaraṇa but anusaraṇa. Anusaraṇa and anukaraṇa, one is imitation and another to follow the footsteps. These things are different. What did you say?

Devotee: Well my question was that, is there a fixed number of living entities or does Kṛṣṇa always expand the number of living entities? Does He increase always?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Is there a fixed number? Jīvas, jīvātmā, is there a certain number fixed, or Kṛṣṇa can create more, expand the number? Generally we are told asankhya.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, we think it as asankhya, innumerable.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Immeasurable.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There was a question that whether jīva is free? If Kṛṣṇa is omniscient then how jīva’s action can be free? Do you follow? Kṛṣṇa is omniscient, God is omniscient, He knows everything, so the future of the jīva also. Then jīva is compelled to retrace that way then how he is free if it already fixed? Do you follow?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This naughty question. One Doctor of Philosophy put me this question in U.P. Allahabad. Ultimately he joined our Mission, that Kapoor jī in Vṛndāvana.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Oh yes, O.B.L. Kapoor.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Oudh Bihari Lal Kapoor. He put me this question. Then I put another question to him, God is free or not? He said, “Yes.” And He’s omniscient. How you can harmonise with the omniscience and free will of God? I put this question. If He’s omniscient He knows his future and he must go by that fixed road, then how he can be free? So jīva’s freedom, and he’s also part of the freedom of the Lord, and his knowledge and understanding also a part of the Supreme. - But if it is innumerable then how God is omniscient? If He does not know what is the number of the jīva soul then how He can be…

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: All knowing.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: …in a position of omniscience? He does not know, God does not know? So we are in the plane of limitation and counting. The laws and rules of the world of Infinite is something more. So He knows everything, He knows Himself. And also sometimes it is stated that He cannot finish Himself, both such characteristics going on. He knows Him, and also it is mentioned in Bhāgavatam that His potency is also not of less importance. Sometimes He Himself cannot measure the utility and capacity of His potency. That is also infinite. His every aspect is infinite.

So that is peculiar thing, peculiar thing that is not to be harmonised in our limited brain. The adhokṣaja, the ways and nature of the Infinite cannot be understood by our puppy brain, puppy brain. We must be conscious of the fact. And so, the Bhāgavatam has repeatedly requested us not to go to measure the Infinite. But submit to your own respective duty, you’ll draw more benefit thereby. Don’t go to measure the immeasurable. That is loss of energy. That is not possible for you. So if you get some insinuation from within that avoiding for inquiry into the Infinite, mind your duty what is attached to you, you’ll be more benefited thereby. And this is not your department. That will be wild goose chasing. It is impossible for you to measure the Infinite, so why waste of energy.

Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.14.3]. Be satisfied with the knowledge that you have come to Him, He’s such and such, and one drop is sufficient to inundate you wholly. One drop of nectar is sufficient to inundate the whole Earth, of your, infinite of your conception. Why do you bother only for knowing, knowing, knowing? It is immeasurable. So your inquisitive tendency is not very wholesome. Try to utilise you in the service of Him. Wherever you are posted try to give you wholly there, dedicate you there in your located position, and then from there you will benefit yourself to the highest degree. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva jīvanti.

Jñāna sunya bhakti - eho bāhya āge kaha āra [“This is superficial; go further.” Caitanya- caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.59] Jñāna-miśrā, inquisitiveness, that is adulterated bhakti, devotion, not devotion proper. There inquisitive characteristic is predominating, that sort of service is adulterated service. “I shall do something, I can create something,” this is karma-miśrā. “I can contribute something.” This egoistic feeling: that is karma-miśrā. And, “I should know everything,” too much curiosity to know everything, that is jñāna-miśrā.

Pure devotion, “Whatever given to me I am satisfied and I want to engage myself wholly in that point. Then that will be the best utility of my own self in the universe. Other tendencies are futile, not only futile, but it is injurious, it is losing my time, wasting my time.” This is pure bhakti. This is pure bhakti. Jñāna-sunya-bhakti, śraddhā proper, faith proper gives inspiration only to that.

karmaṇy evādhikāras te, mā phaleṣu [kadācana

mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr, mā te saṅgo ‘stv akarmaṇi]

[“I shall now describe niṣkāma karma-yoga, the path of selfless action. You have a right to perform your natural prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to any fruits of that action. You should neither act with desire to enjoy the fruits of your work, nor, as a result, should you be attached to neglecting your duties.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.47]

Never allow yourself to go into the calculation. Engage yourself deeply and deeply. Mā phaleṣu kadācana mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr, mā te saṅgo ‘stv akarmaṇi. When we enquire, we are surcharged with the spirit of enquiry, then that means some sort of doubt is there and attachment for the result, and the consequence. The underlying spirit under enquiry is that our attachment with the fruit, with the consequence of the work. Mā phaleṣu kadācana, whether I am doing, it will benefit some tasteful result to me or not. So that is anti slavery spirit. We must do our duty within the limit, within the limit.

And also we may be given the chance of leadership also, just as Guru, his function is always there, inspires you to do, to look after. Though that is also service, absolute service, one who has come to recommend and teach us what is absolute service, he’s also in the service, in the proper service. But still, we have to do something on behalf of Kṛṣṇa, to look after the welfare of so many, and what line will suit which man, and also sometimes to punish them, sometimes to accept their services for himself: these things done but only inspired by Kṛṣṇa. They say this is abnormal, and in their normal position the Guru is also a servant, he’s also serving Kṛṣṇa by showing leadership to so many. He’s more conscious with his connection with the upper world when serving.

“Because Kṛṣṇa wants me to punish this man for this purpose I do. Not for punishment, nor for showing my superiority to him that I am punishing him, but Kṛṣṇa wants me to, I can’t help. For His service I am to show that I am greater than him, I am controlling him, I am doing so many practices, that is to show my, that I am his master.”

This is, all these things are the effect of the serving spirit to Kṛṣṇa. So in every work he’s fully established in service. And service requires that he should be, he should guide, he should master over many; only for the service it may be necessary. Otherwise service, the duty, if He wants me to read a book, a scripture, then it is devotion. But, if to satisfy my curiosity I read the same book, that Bhāgavatam, that won’t be bhakti, won’t be devotion. I hear the lecture of Guru, Vaiṣṇava, with the object that I should get some benefit and I utilise it for some purpose to satisfy me, that won’t be devotion, ādau arpyeta paścād kriyeta.

[sā cārpitaiva satī yadi kriyeta, na tu kṛtā satī paścād arpyeta]

[“Devotional services must be first offered to the Lord, then performed; not performed and offered afterwards.”] [Śrīla Śrīdhara Swāmī]

I am hearing, I am listening to the words, the instructions of sādhu, Guru, for what purpose? Who will be the beneficiary? Kṛṣṇa. That sort of crude conception must be there. I’m not entity at all. The entity is He. I’m subservient. Whatever I shall earn it goes to Him. That sort of basic idea there should be in the devotional work, good or bad. Good or bad, whatever I acquire that will go to my Master. I’m not independent entity at all. I’m not the recipient. Slave.

Vikritasya yata paso [?] I’m just a domestic animal. The master he may do as he feels. He may sell me. The master may sell a domestic animal, the horse, or cow, and get the money and may utilise it in any way he likes. The domestic beast may not have any complaint there, nothing to say against the master. So think yourself in that plane, vikritasya [?] śaraṇāgati, surrender means of such quality surrender. Surrender of this type, that the owner of a domestic animal, a dog, a cow, a horse, I’m like that. He may utilise in any way He likes. That is the ideal of śaraṇāgati. We should conceive ourselves to be so much subordinate, to the Absolute Will. As much as we can realise this, the necessity of such submission, we gain, we are gainer, in the negative side. Try to increase your helplessness, the negative side. Then you’ll be nearer, nearer to the positive. The more the negative the more you can draw the positive. Bhakti, devotion proper is of such type, surrender, dainya. I’m nowhere. I’m helpless to the extreme. And that will draw the sympathy of your Guardian, your Master, so much.

End of 81.12.21.B_81.12.22.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.22.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. So faith, or śraddhā, that is the first thing necessary, and then the nearness, physical nearness. And when we are far, then also through letters also we can have his connection, but connection in a proper line, proper plane, that is the vital point. The proper plane, and plane is independent of energising in the gross and subtle way that is enquiry. Inquisitiveness and energising, that will go to the Guru, and jijñāsuḥ śreyaḥ uttamam...

[tasmād guruṁ prapadyeta, jijñāsuḥ śreyaḥ uttamam

śabde pare ca niṣṇātaṁ, brahmaṇy upaśamāśrayam]

[“Therefore any person who seriously desires real happiness must seek a bona fide spiritual master and take shelter of him by initiation. The qualification of the bona fide Guru is that he has realised the conclusions of the scriptures by deliberation and is able to convince others of those conclusions. Such great personalities, who have taken shelter of the Supreme Godhead, leaving aside all material considerations, should be understood to be bona fide spiritual masters.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.3.21]

…and enquiry after one’s own welfare: that is part and parcel of the quest. Quest means in Vedānta, brahma-jijñāsa, in the plane of knowing, knowledge; understanding.

But when it came to Mahāprabhu in the line of Bhāgavatam, plane of Bhāgavatam, from Vedānta, Veda is compared with a tree, Vedānta with the flower, and the Bhāgavata the ripe fruit. What is somewhat mixed with activity, that is in Veda, yajña, etc. In the flower it becomes only conscious enquiry, “Who am I? Where am I? What am I?” Then in the fruit, the utility, that is kṛṣṇānusandhāna. That is also, outwardly, somewhat of enquiry characteristic, but kṛṣṇānusandhāna, not brahma-jijñāsa. The enquiry about the Infinite, where I am, where I am a part only, that is in Vedānta, the enquiry about the infinite environment. And in Bhāgavatam, kṛṣṇānusandhāna, “Who is my master? Who is my guide? For whom I am?”

Reality is for Itself. In Bhāgavatam, in the plane of Bhāgavatam, the energy and the knowledge comes to seek after his guardian for whom he’s existing, Kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇānusandhāna. Brahma-jijñāsa in Vedānta has developed into a form of kṛṣṇānusandhāna, madly to enquire “Who is my master? With whom I may have my fulfilment of life? Who can engage them, engage myself to the fullest extent? Where is that master of my heart, the Lord of my heart?” That is in the plane of Bhāgavatam, the ripe fruit of the Veda tree.

And Mahāprabhu came with that, kṛṣṇānusandhāna, madly after enquiry, “Where is My master? Where is My Lord? I can’t retain Myself without My Lord.”

That has been, inactive in the world of activity, energising also we are seeking some rasa, some satisfaction, meagre satisfaction, so I undertake this work, that work, but common thing is satisfaction. In Vedānta that comes to a graphic, most wide form, “Who am I in the world? Where am I?” - in Vedānta, and that is the flower stage.

And in the fruit stage the same thing comes, “Where is my Lord? I belong to whom? Who will give the fulfilment of my life? Where is my guardian?” Kṛṣṇānusandhāna. “I am for Him. I am not for me, and not for the whole infinite I survey. And the Lord of my heart, the fulfilment of my heart, who can satisfy all thirst within me, where is that master?”

That is in Bhāgavatam stage. Mahāprabhu came with that. “Here your real enquiry is for this only, otherwise your enquiry won’t stop. Enquiry must come to this stage and have proper guidance and gradually you’ll be taken to Him, you master. You are seeking for whom, that rasa, that happiness, the pleasure, that is your master, that is your guardian, not your servant. That is not your servant that will come and satisfy you as though you are his master. Really, that is your everything, your master, your Lord, for which you are moving this way, that way, in the universe, enquiry, whatever you are doing. The centre, the centre is with you, that is making you active. You’re searching something that is fulfilment. And fulfilment in the highest stage means this, He’s Kṛṣṇa.”

And real search begins only when you come across with sad-guru, a Kṛṣṇa bhakta. Then proper enquiry begins there, scientific enquiry begins there. And with this idea we must, praṇipāt, paripraśna, then sevā.

[tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā

upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ, jñāninas tattva darśinaḥ]

[“You will be able to attain all this knowledge by satisfying the enlightened spiritual master with prostrate obeisance, relevant enquiry, and sincere service. Great souls who are most expert in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will teach you that divine knowledge.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.34]

You must be conscious that you are to be utilised by Him, whom you are searching after, sevā. Then you can only be lead in that way, the sevā. And the very beginning meagre stage it is śraddhā, faith. Faith can lead you to that great plane, the noble plane, faith. All other properties which you think are under your control, they’ll fail, the inquisitive tendency, or your energising ability, they will all fail to reach that plane.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Generally, when we are far away from the living source, the scriptures may help us, and the letters also may help us. And subordinate sādhus in the same line, they may help us. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

[śrīmad-bhāgavatārthānām āsvādo rasikaiḥ saha]

sajātī-yāśye snigdhe sādhau saṅgaḥ svato vare

[“One should taste the meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the association of pure devotees, and one should associate with the devotees who are more advanced than oneself and endowed with a similar type of affection for the Lord. Those that are in our line, who have the same high spiritual aspirations as we do, and who hold a superior position, to associate with such saintly persons will help us the most to progress towards the ultimate goal.”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, 1.2.91] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.131]

May not be of anti-line, for the beginners, one who cannot detect what is ānukūlya, what is satikūlya. Who are in some considerable safe position, he can meet the anti-party and he can fight with them, discard them. But for the beginners they should try to avoid their best those imitationists, or misguide them, misguidance. Sajātī-yāśye, of similar nature, similar mentality, of similar aim, and superior to me: a man of the same destination but he’s well-versed about the aim. Sajātī-yāśye snigdhe sādhau saṅgaḥ svato vare. Svato vare, superior to me but in the same line, of same goal. This sort of sādhu we should try always to meet, that is, to serve, to be influenced by them, to attend them. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

You are to leave today?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then, what more questions, if any?

Devotee: No. I don’t have any questions.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right.

Devotee: Completely satisfied with anything I could ask.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right. Let Kṛṣṇa fulfil your hankering, and bless you. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. You keep connection with Akṣayānanda Mahārāja here and there also Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. You’ll go direct to Dhira Kṛṣṇa Prabhu, Mahārāja?

Devotee: No, not for…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Through Purī and Vṛndāvana?

Devotee: No, no.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No?

Devotee: I’m going to Calcutta, then I’m going to America, Los Angeles.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Los Angeles.

Devotee: Then after, I think I must, after I buy a car I’m going to try to move up five hundred miles north to where Dhīra Kṛṣṇa lives. So then I will try to help with the publication of your books.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: With that Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāja?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So, who has said to me, I can’t remember, mentioned in letter, that this Prapanna-jīvanāmṛta, that will supply the foundation and make it sweeter, what Swāmī Mahārāja has given already.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Will supply the foundation and?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That more deeper, it will create, it will be, it will prove to be the foundation of what Swāmī Mahārāja has said, more deeper, and also sweetened what he has given. We have told this already, he mentioned, some letter perhaps, “What we find in Prapanna- jīvanāmṛta, it is more wide and more sweet in character.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: That was also my feeling.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Your feeling?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Prapanna-jīvanāmṛta. Because, there is also, just as a tree has got so many roots, so different type of sādhus, and their appreciation and their inner feeling has been collected there, like so many roots of a tree. And different lines of cultivation from different places has been supplied, and their great affinity capturing those.

When I was forced to leave the Mission of my Guru Mahārāja I came here quite helpless. I had to find, seek for some shelter. And I went through the books known to me that I got from my Guru Mahārāja, those references, and tried to dive deep in there and to collect. The basis of devotional life is śaraṇāgati and wherever I can find the traces recommending relatively śaraṇāgati I tried my best to collect them and to put together. The nectar, the nectar in life of one who has taken, who has surrendered himself to the feet of the Divine Lord, the basis, this is like that.

And I found there, in one place it is mentioned, “Śaraṇāgati, the surrender in itself is sufficient to produce all sorts of development in bhakti. Nothing else is necessary.” It is also mentioned in some place. “You only try to stick to śaraṇāgati, try your best to stick to śaraṇāgati, everything will come automatically to you from the other side. Your business will be always to adhere to the most intense degree possible to śaraṇāgati, nothing else necessary, then everything will come, will be supplied from up, upper world, from the Lord. Śaraṇāgati in itself is perfect. No other devotional practice, service is necessary, only śaraṇāgati is enough. Surrender, surrender, and without śaraṇāgati no bhakti can stand, no devotion can stand. Śaraṇāgati, the greatness, the nobility, the substantiality of śaraṇāgati has been sung, praised, appreciated in such a way, śaraṇāgati. That is surrender. Surrender is the very basis, surrendering temperament.”

“I am for You. You may utilise or You may neglect me. But I am Yours. You may accept or You may reject but You are my master. You are independent to deal in any way You like. You can put me in the eternal hell or You can adore me and take me on Your lap. In this way, every right You have got over me.”

With such heart we must approach towards our Lord. It is noble. It is divine. The Divinity in its highest degree we can find there. In our self-effacement not only, but in self-surrendering, real self-effacement we are to find out. In self-surrender, there is the self-effacement that is positive, to the positive, negative. Negative cannot exist without positive, and positive also so.

śakti sakti mato rajeva [?] Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Predominating, according to our Guru Mahārāja, Predominating Moiety and Predominated Moiety, two Moieties, two halves of one whole. Predominating and Predominated, both have got importance in Their existence, equal. One cannot stand without the other. And the fullest expression is Rādhā-Govinda, full-fledged, infinite, so our mantra, Guru paramparā, all leading to that, this rūpānuga-sampradāya, the mantram, we find, all leading towards that. And at the side, we are to cross this vātsalya-rasam, sākhya-rasam, dāsya-rasam, but directly towards mādhura- rasam, the Guru paramparā and the mantram, mantra-paramparā. It is in full, full rasa is there, all others partial, and subordinate, and subservient, supplemental. But the main rasa is mādhura-rasa, and there, service is supplemental, subservient to mādhura-rasa. They’re also necessary, mādhura-rasa does not stand alone, without its paraphernalia. Just as friends, then parents, such rasa must be around this rasa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. And very fortunately they can have a life in such a rasa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

yadi gaura nā hoita, tabe ki hoita, kemone dharitām de

[rādhāra mahimā, prema-rasa-sīmā jagate jānāta ke

madhura vṛndā vipina mādhurī praveśa cāturī sāra

baraja yuvatī bhāvera bhakati śakati hoita kāra]

Vāsudeva Datta says: “If Mahāprabhu did not appear at all then how could we sustain our lives? How could we live? What ecstatic rasa has He has taken in, and what we have, a little taste of? Without this our lives would have been impossible. Prema-rasa-sīmā jagate jānāta ke. Then who will make us know, take us to the acme of the realisation of the position of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī? She holds the highest realised position. She is the greatest victim to the consuming capacity of Kṛṣṇa is She. She stands as the greatest sacrifice, just before Kṛṣṇa’s infinite consuming power. Gaura Sundara. Rasa-rāja-mahābhava dui eka rūpa, [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.282], the rasa is there, and the drawer of the rasa from the store, from the source, to draw out the rasa, such negative capacity to draw to the highest degree, in quality and quantity. She’s there.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Swāmī Mahārāj says: “My Gurudeva, Rādhārāṇī, She will be very gracious to You Kṛṣṇa if You help me in discharging the order of my Gurudeva, if You help me in this propaganda.” He says there, is it not?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He says there in a poetry, rādhārāṇī khusī habe.

[kṛṣṇa tava puṇya habe bhāi

e-puṇya koribe jabe rādhārāṇī khusī habe

dhruva ati boli tomā tāi]

[“I emphatically say to you, O brothers, you will obtain your good fortune from the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa only when Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī becomes pleased with you.”]

[Prayer to the Lotus Feet of Kṛṣṇa, written on board the Jaladuta, Sept. 13, 1965]

[Songs of the Vaiṣṇava Ācāryas, page 26]

“If You help me, I am going to obey the order of my Gurudeva who is Rādhārāṇī, and if She is pleased, She will be pleased if You help me.” Ha, ha. “So You must help me.” Ha, ha, ha, ha. “You must help me. If You seek anything, You are in want of anything, that will be the good will of Rādhārāṇī. We want that. And She will be pleased with you if You help me because I am going to obey Her order, Guru Mahārāja, Who is none but Rādhārāṇī Personified,” he says. “So You must help me.” And Kṛṣṇa had no other alternative but to come down to him to help in his propaganda work. He had to come.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Ha, ha, ha, ha. We see all these things in my old age. I did not care for a cloth or any other in my youth, but now this thing, then this thing…

Devotees: Ha, ha, ha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then so many. Ha, ha. Sometimes only on the floor, sometimes on the wooden bench, I generally used to sleep. Even when in my college hostel life, ha, ha, they appreciated this I am told, “That he lies only on a blank wooden bench. Does not care for any pillow or any...

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mattress.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mat, what is this thing on the bed?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Blanket.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Blanket, did not care, in young age, did not care for rain or for the sun. I liked that I must be independent.

mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya, śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ

[āgamāpāyino 'nityās, tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata ]

[“O son of Kuntī, only the engagement of the senses with their objects gives rise to the sensations of cold, heat, pleasure, and pain. But these effects are temporary - they come and go. Therefore, O Bhārata, you are to endure them.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.14]

I must make myself fit against heat and cold, ha, ha, and water, watery season. But in my old age it is being paid with interest. Ha, ha, ha. Gaura Haribol.

yuktāhāra-vihārasya, yukta-ceṣṭasya karmasu

yukta-svapnāvabodhasya, yogo bhavati duḥkha-hā

[“For a person who eats, relaxes, and exerts himself in all duties in a regulated way, and who keeps regular hours in proper measure, the practice of yoga gradually becomes the source of dispelling all worldly suffering.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.17]

We must be always considerate and proper in our relationship with the environment. Temperate, we should become temperate, not miser, nor prodigal, neither miser nor prodigal in our dealings with the environment.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Sometimes we feel like a stone.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hmm?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: When you speak such wonderful things, that we can only sit like stone, like a rock.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Myself especially.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You’re like a rock?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Why?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: I don’t know. You speak so many wonderful things. We cannot dare to venture into that area perhaps.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It can soften you but petrify?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Ha, ha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

sakhyāya te mama namo 'stu namo 'stu nityam / dāsyāya te mama raso 'stu raso 'stu satyam

[Śrīla Raghunātha Dāsa Goswāmī, the greatest exponent of the faith of servitude to Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, Rādhā-dāsyam, wrote: “I won’t allow myself to become fascinated by the proposal of the higher level service as a friend, sākhya. Rather, I shall tend always to do the lower service, dāsya, the service of the servant. I shall not consider myself to be a high-class servitor and I shall always tend to go towards the lower class of service. But He may forcibly take me to a higher service - “No, you are no longer to serve there; now you must serve in this higher category.”]

[Vilāpa-kusamāñjali, 16]

Dāsa Goswāmī says: “My respect to the friendly relation with Kṛṣṇa, but let my taste, real taste, be towards the service. I should give preference to the service, to the duty of a servant, and let me learn to respect, to give respect to the higher form of services. That should be the quest, the tendency of a real devotee. Kṛṣṇa will take up, but he will go to take down, go down, to the lowest form of services. The tendency of the serving, “That I am not so qualified as to render higher service to You Kṛṣṇa, confidential service. I rather may be utilised in the lowest strata of service.” That will be, but Kṛṣṇa will take him up, take him or her up. The promotion will come from His side and the devotee will be reluctant to be utilised in the higher form of service. That will be sincere to that, “No, no. I’m not qualified to render such confidential service. I shall go to serve You in the lower order. That will suffice. I am not worthy of serving You in the higher stage.” That is the tendency of the real devotee, should be.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

When are you to start for Calcutta?

Devotee: The train is twenty after eleven, eleven twenty train.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________________________ [?] Hare Kṛṣṇa.

_______________________________ [?] Mahā-Dvādaśī. You take some curry and some...

Devotee: When I was initiated, Hari-Nāma, some of my God-brothers who were initiated then, they never saw Swāmī Mahārāja, they never saw him.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So you get Hari-Nāma through his ṛtvik, representative, not direct from him? What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Through mail, through letter?

Devotee: I saw him, I saw Śrīla Prabhupāda several times, but some of my God-brothers they never saw him.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: At any time?

Devotee: At any time.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Some disciples of our Gurudeva, they never saw him at any time, never met him.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Whom?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: To our Gurudeva, Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Swāmī Prabhupāda. They never met him.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But through his representative they have got their…

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Through a letter, he would give a letter and then the local President would make this yajñā…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: For both Hari-Nāma and dīkṣā, both?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Only through letter?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. But he’s saying that some disciples, their whole life they never met their Gurudeva.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But anyhow that will be useful.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: His will will work.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: His good will is at the back.

When he installed the Deity here in this Śrī Caitanya Māyāpur Candrodaya Maṭha, he invited me and asked me, “You will go and install.”

I went, and I was, my quarter was upstairs. Then he himself did all these things, the yajñā and things.

Then Govinda Mahārāja asked him, “You took Guru Mahārāja for the installation of your Deity, but you are doing it yourself.”

“Oh, he has come to do it; that is sufficient. I am doing it on his behalf.” That was his answer.

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: “That he has come with that purpose that is enough for me. I am watching. He has come for that.” That was his statement.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: That is more than enough for us.

Devotees: Ha, ha, ha, ha. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: More than enough for us. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And ___________ [?] when I reached there, Bhāvānanda drove the car, myself, Govinda Mahārāja, perhaps Nimāi, and it was somewhat late. And he was just going to take bath, so one napkin here, one napkin on the upper portion. And when he heard that I had suddenly reached there, he left, in that very position he came to receive me in the car, half naked.

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Half naked, one napkin on the waist, another napkin on the upper, two napkins, he came to receive me, so affectionate for me, and so intimate with me he was.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi.

I can’t forget, one lady, half mad she came from England to here. She told she lived in India with her father who was a high officer in the police department in British India. And she heard anyhow that Swāmī Mahārāja is in England, and got some dream, and went to meet him, very earnest, eager heart, but heard that Swāmī Mahārāja has left for India. And then, anyhow she managed to come to India, but little late. And here when she reached she heard that Swāmī Mahārāja has left the world. She came to Māyāpur, and here also.

“I got some dream that Swāmī Mahārāja has come to deliver the world and I’m so earnestly coming to meet him to be saved. A saviour he has come. But I missed him.”

And in the dress of a widow, no ornaments, no oil or anything in the hair, and half mad she came. A middle aged perhaps thirty or so, or forty maybe her age. She stood there, a blank look. “I’m frustrated with my life.” With some others also from Māyāpur, other ladies.

At that time many European ladies also lived here. I don’t know whether any European ladies still here, in Śrī Caitanya Candrodaya Maṭha. One Iranian lady she used to serve Swāmī Mahārāja’s sister, Bhāvinī Didi, Pishima, aunt. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

I heard about one of the ladies that she used to serve Tulasī and somehow or other when the coolies were working there and some injury to that Tulasī plant was done and she left her food and fasting. But after two days fast she was requested to break her fast. Then that man was found out. He came and apologised. He was forgiven. And then some bhoga pūjā was arranged for the Tulasī Devī and prasāda was distributed and then he could have prasāda after two days complete fast.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

“It is possible for us to live in a family with God, this attracted me,” one lady told here in her lecture, “That this attracted most, that we can live with God as a family person. Serve confidentially, Him, it is possible. Nothing can be more greater achievement than that for us fallen souls, that high ideal. That has captivated, captured.”

Then I told: gehaṁ juṣām api manasy udiyāt sadā naḥ [verse beginning āhuś ca te]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.82.49] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 13.136]

“We are not going to be satisfied by abstract meditation like the yogīs or jñānīs. Neither we want You like the instrumental agent to help Your own exploiting business like karmī. We want a concrete life of service in the vicinity of You, the Lord of the world and the Lord of my heart, the Master of my heart...

End of 81.12.22.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.22.C_81.12.23.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So near, so near, it is impossible for us even to dream of. But it is possible by the grace of Mahāprabhu and Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs. What more we can expect for our prospect. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Mahāprabhu says, “Don’t bother yourself with the enquiry in knowledge.”

Or to become master as in the present scientific civilisation, that you want everything under your control, the whole must come under your control; you will be the biggest controller, that is karmī. But the jñānī he wants to know every corner, nook and corner, where it is, what it is. No necessity of that. No charm for that, but only heartfelt service there of the most loving Lord; that is what is our prayer. So Mahāprabhu has eliminated the karmī, the jñānī, and jñāna sunya bhakti, that is a peculiar thing, jñāna sunya bhakti, no enquiry, no doubt. To satisfy, to relieve the doubt, knowledge is necessary to relieve the doubt. But doubt is unreal to the straight service. That should be left outside.

Faith, faith should guide us, or protect us. Under the protection of the faith we shall live and move, optimistic. Faith is optimistic. Knowledge is suspicious. Knowledge is suspicious, apprehension. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Scepticism, background is scepticism, knowledge. Faith is natural. Knowledge is indirect. Faith is direct. Knowledge, enquiry, is indirect, negative side, and not faith. Negative side of faith is knowledge: wants to verify the faith, verification of the faith. That we don’t like. We want to be born and die in faith, in the area of faith. In faith, a gentleman never deceives anyone. He won’t like to live in the plane of scepticism, doubts, and enquiring satisfaction, or this calculation. The normal tendency in faith, the normal tendency is not to deceive anyone. And that land we want to live in, where in dream also deception is impossible, can’t enter into that area, deception, verification, knowing everything, all these things. Everything automatic: in that plane we want to live, jñāna sunya bhakti, śraddhā – śraddhā ratir bhaktir anukramiṣyati.

[sataṁ prasaṅgān mama vīrya-saṁvido, bhavanti hṛt-karṇa-rasāyanāḥ kathāḥ

taj-joṣaṇād āśv apavarga-vartmani, śraddhā ratir bhaktir anukramiṣyati]

[“One will rapidly progress on the path of liberation, and naturally will develop firm faith, attraction and devotion, when he cultivates the activity of engaging in discussions about My glorious pastimes in the association of pure devotees. Such activities are very nourishing to the ear and heart.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 3.25.25]

The real good lives in that quarter. He does not allow himself to be a victim of your doubt and enquiry and scepticism. He does not want. He does not like that he’ll behold a position to you of your scepticism, “Whether I am, or whether I am not, You will be deceived, all these.” This poverty of heart! Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. So generous, in the deceiving plane: mahā-vadanyāya.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Acyutānanda wrote an article hearing from me and that was outed, published in Back to Godhead, and that was again further published in Back to Godhead, and again published in our Gauḍīya Darśana, the last, Govinda Mahārāja. ____________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Govinda Mahārāja: ____________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _______________________________ [?] That was very much appreciated in America I was told. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. ______________________ [?]

Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. _______________________ [?]

...

Any question?

Devotee: Mahārāja, you said something yesterday about jñāna miśrā bhakti. So one devotee told me that Prahlāda Mahārāja he’s a jñāna miśrā bhakta, but we thought from reading Bhāgavatam that he is pure devotee.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, he’s śuddha-bhakta, Prahlāda. In Bṛhat-Bhāgavatāmṛta we find that in the course of the realization of śuddha bhakti, a devotee is visiting different places.

First, karma-miśrā bhakti in Allahabad, a brāhmaṇa, moneyed man, on the occasion of Kumbha Mela, arranged for services of the different types of sādhus, then yajña, and finally with saṅkīrtana he finished his function there. And the devotee began his life there, he saw, mainly karma-kāṇḍa, but sādhu sevā, and ultimately the finishing touch with Nāma-saṅkīrtana, approached that gentleman, “You are very fortunate you are doing such and such things, utilization of your money and your caste, engaged in such holy engagement. Very fortunate you are.”

And then he told, “What I am doing? This is nothing. You just go to see the fortune of Indradyumna Mahārāja. He’s distributing the prasādam of Jagannātha in a great style. And how grand is the process worshipping of Nārāyaṇa there. Go and you appreciate.”

He went there, and also found the king extensively engaged with all his resources for the worship of Nārāyaṇa there; Jagannātha, and approached him, “You are so fortunate in this world.”

“What we can do brāhmaṇa? This is nothing. But if you just want to see how devotion should be practised, you go to Brahmā there.”

And he went to Brahmā, and there also this karma miśrā bhakti in its highest campaign he found, Indra and Brahmā, to Indra and then to Brahmā. So in śruti also in praise of Brahmā, “You are most fortunate.”

Brahmā guided him. And then perhaps it is the position of Nārada. Nārada approached Brahmā. Nārada was Brahmā’s son and also disciple. He told, “How great you are. How fortunate you are. You are entrusted by Nārāyaṇa Himself for the management of the whole of the brahmāṇḍa. And sometimes you are visiting Him for the guidance of the administration of the brahmāṇḍa. You are so fortunate. In śruti also we find some portion which is engaged in singing your glories.”

Then Brahmā felt a little disturbed. “What do you say Nārada? You are pumping me, my false pride. Did I not say to you that I am nothing? I am a small creature in the hand of Nārāyaṇa. Rather, I am engaged in external activity. I have no time that I can give to my devotional aspect or self in the interest of my devotional life. My Lord has rather deceived me, engaging me in such a busy matter. I am unfortunate. Rather you go to Mahādeva, Śiva, he does not care for anything of this world. He is aloof, indifferent, and he has got his aim toward Nārāyaṇa. His devotion is towards Rāmacandra, he’s very fond of Rāma Nāma. Parvatī Devī, she’s also helping him in discharging his devotional life, very happy.”

And then he went to Mahādeva. Nārada began to chant in praise of Śiva, that, “He’s the master of the world, and the Vedas also sing glories to him, so he holds the highest position, in this way.”

Then Śiva he was rather very excited, and a little angry, “What do you say Nārada? I am more indifference and knowledge, and penance, these holds my better portion. What little I have got for devotional service to Nārāyaṇa that is very negligible. Sometimes even I have got such apathetic spirit to Nārāyaṇa that I go to fight with Him, in favour of my favourite disciples. So I am disgusted with my position. Penance, power, siddhi, then indifference to the world, that is my fate.”

So up to this, this is jñāna miśrā bhakti. Brahmā is the ideal of karma miśrā, and Mahādeva is the type of jñāna miśrā bhakti. Some sort of affinity for an independent position. Not cent percent acceptance of the slavery of Nārāyaṇa, that is the service of Nārāyaṇa.

“If you really want to experience what is śuddha bhakti go to Prahlāda. There you will find śuddha-bhakti.”

In this way it has been directed to us to trace śuddha-bhakti beginning with Prahlāda, because Prahlāda does not want anything, na sa bhṛtyaḥ sa vai vaṇik, he says.

[nānyathā te 'khila-guro, ghaṭeta karuṇātmanaḥ

yas ta āśiṣa āśāste, na sa bhṛtyaḥ sa vai vaṇik]

[Prahlāda Mahārāja states: “Otherwise, O my Lord, O supreme instructor of the entire world, You are so kind to Your devotee that You could not induce him to do something un-beneficial for him. On the other hand, one who desires some material benefit in exchange for devotional service cannot be Your pure devotee. Indeed, he is no better than a merchant who wants profit in exchange for service.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.10.4]

“Whoever is doing something for the satisfaction of Nārāyaṇa wants anything in return, he’s not a servant. He’s a merchant, giving and taking, giving something and to take some price for that.”

So, Prahlāda is a śuddha bhakti, and only through the devotee of Nārāyaṇa one can have śuddha bhakti. All these peculiar achievements in the devotional world we can find from Prahlāda Mahārāja, śuddha bhakta. But that is of śanta rasa: not actual service, but perfect adherence to Nārāyaṇa under all circumstances. Whatever be the unfavourable condition in the environment, but he’s standing to the faith that Nārāyaṇa is all in all, and He’s our master. So, Prahlāda, śanta rasa, and the catuḥsana also to be reckoned there, śanta rasa bhakti.

Then when Nārada went to Prahlāda, Prahlāda is Nārada’s disciple; still to test, Nārada was approaching, to give us the measurement of the standard in the devotional world. Nārada approaching Prahlāda, says that, “I have come to see you Prahlāda. Mahādeva also he appreciates your position. You are really the devotee of Nārāyaṇa, Kṛṣṇa. So you are very fortunate. I have come to see how you are.”

Prahlāda told, “Gurudeva, you are all in all. You have come to test me. What you say, I have got by your grace. I am born in a demon family, so the demoniac qualities have not left me exclusively. Don’t you know that in Naimiṣāraṇya I went to fight with Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu? I repent for that. But what to do? He has given me such position. I can’t have the privilege of direct service to Him; only mentally I think of Him, that He’s everything. But I am devoid of rendering practical service to Him. That fortune I have not got. Hanumān, he’s really a devotee. How fortunate he is; what grace he has, he gave to Rāmacandra. I envy his situation, but what to do? His dispensing must be absolute. That must be accepted by us. But Hanumān’s position is really an enviable one. How attached to his master he is, and what magnitude of service he has done for his master.”

Then from there, Nārada went to visit Hanumān in ________ [?] When Nārada approached towards Hanumān’s residence, taking _________ [?] Rāma Rāma Rāma Rāma Rāma, Hanumān suddenly hearing the Name of his Master from some other quarter, he jumped towards that direction, and even in the sky, he embraced Nārada. “O! Who is helping me to hear the Rāma Nāma after so long a time? The song Rāma Nāma is enlivening me. I was dying without hearing Rāma Nāma.”

And tears were running down from the eyes of both of them. And then Nārada came to Hanumān’s quarters, and began to praise his fortune. “How fortunate you are Hanumān. You serve Rāmacandra so much intimately and you do not know anything but your master Rāmacandra. How great service you render to Rāmacandra. That has become an ideal for the whole of the world, in this way.”

Hanumān he told, “Yes, Rāmacandra, by His grace, I was able to do something, but it is all His grace. I am nothing. No worth. But now that Rāmacandra has come as Kṛṣṇa. But I can’t like any other incarnation but Rāmacandra. But I hear from a distance that how Kṛṣṇa, who is Rāmacandra Himself, He is showing His favour to the Pāṇḍavas. Pāṇḍavas are very fortunate. Like an intimate friend He’s dealing with the Pāṇḍavas. So, I have great appreciation for the fortune of the Pāṇḍavas.” In this way, he began to praise the Pāṇḍavas’ fortune.

Then Nārada, leaving him, went to the Pāṇḍavas, and there found Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja on the throne, and began to sing the glories of the devotees and the Pāṇḍavas; how they are friendly in their relationship with Kṛṣṇa; how fortunate they are.

Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja came out, “What do you say Devaṛṣi? Of course Kṛṣṇa favours us, we can’t deny that, but what is our position? We have no position at all. On the other hand, this I feel every now and then, that for us, by looking at the example of us, the Pāṇḍavas, the people won’t come to serve Kṛṣṇa, because they will calculate that being such intimate friends of Kṛṣṇa, the Pāṇḍavas, the whole of their life they had to pass through different troubles and dangers. So to become Kṛṣṇa bhakta means the whole life to suffer under trouble. So I am afraid that thinking of us, one will not venture to approach Kṛṣṇa, that, “Devotion to Kṛṣṇa means suffering like the Pāṇḍavas in the whole of their life.”

Devaṛṣi Nārada told, “No, no, we don’t look from that angle of vision. But what is danger or affliction to Pāṇḍava, what is the meaning of that? That is the messenger that Kṛṣṇa is coming. When there is danger with the Pāṇḍava is nothing but the messenger to say that Kṛṣṇa is coming to you. So your mother also told:

vipadaḥ santu tāḥ śaśvat, tatra tatra jagad-guro

bhavato darśanam yat syād, apunar bhava-darśanam

[Queen Kuntī Devī prayed to Kṛṣṇa: “I wish that all those calamities (poisoning, arson, cannibalism, the vicious assembly, exile in the forest, the battle), would occur again and again so that we could have Your darśana again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.8.25]

“That famous statement of Kuntī Devī, your mother, stands there. She says, Let those dangers come, may visit me always. I don’t care for that, because that brings Kṛṣṇa very closer towards us. So, we rather like the danger which brings Kṛṣṇa to our intimate and closer position.”

So, Pāṇḍava Yudhiṣṭhira says, “Yes, Kṛṣṇa visits us now and then, in the time of our dire need. But how the Yadus they are fortunate. Kṛṣṇa is always with them. How they do not care for any other power in the world. So, they are so proud of their Master Kṛṣṇa and how closely connected with them, very fortunate.”

Then, Nārada went to the Yadus and then began to chant many things in their praise.

They told, “What do you say, Devaṛṣi Nārada? He is with us of course, and at any time of great danger, He wants relief for us, but how much do we care for Him? We are living independently, careless about His existence. But among us, Uddhava, he is really His favourite. Whatever Kṛṣṇa does He consults with Uddhava, and whatever His very confidential things, Uddhava is present there; and in every case, He is very thick and thin with Uddhava. We envy his fortune, Uddhava.”

Then Nārada went to Uddhava, Uddhava hearing, “You are the most favourite of Kṛṣṇa; Kṛṣṇa says, ‘Even, what to speak of other devotees, even He holds you higher than His own life. You are in such higher position, so intimate, even more than His own life,’ He says.”

“Yes, of course, out of His causeless benevolence, He might have said like that. But I don’t think that I am His real devotee, especially after visiting Vṛndāvana, all my pride has been melted away by that sort of devotee. The serving spirit, the intensity of the love towards Kṛṣṇa I found in Vṛndāvana. Devaṛṣi I am nowhere. You know that statement. It is recorded in Bhāgavatam, where I disclosed my heart fully. What quality of love I found in the damsels of Vṛndāvana towards Kṛṣṇa, that I could not but aspire, that I want to be born in Vṛndāvana in the form of a shrub or a grass so that the feet dust of those divine damsels may easily touch my head. So, what do you say Devaṛṣi? If you would like to see real devotion, real love divine, you go to Vṛndāvana. Don’t put us in awkward position saying that we possess devotion to Kṛṣṇa. This is rather a mockery. That we are devotees of Kṛṣṇa, this is - to hear this, to say this - that is a mockery, a foundation-less utterance. A devotee proper of Lord Kṛṣṇa I found in Vṛndāvana.”

In this way, Sanātana Goswāmī tries his best to take us to the path; and the gradual development of devotion towards Kṛṣṇa.

So, what was your question? Prahlāda. Prahlāda has been accepted as the basis of śuddha bhakti, the beginning of śuddha bhakti, because there is śanta rasa. Above that there is dāsya rasa. Above that there is dāsya rasa, Hanumān, sākhya rasa, Pāṇḍavas, and Uddhava, somewhat sākhya connecting with vātsalya and mādhurya. In this way, the adherence, the devotion, our near adherence towards Kṛṣṇa runs in this way, to Vṛndāvana, and the acme is there. In Rāmānanda-saṁvāda also we find. Tebhyas tāḥ paśu-pāla-paṅkaja-dṛśas-tābhyo 'pi sā rādhikā.

[karmibhyaḥ parito hareḥ priyatayā vyaktiṁ yayur jñāninas

tebhyo jñāna-vimukta-bhakti-paramāḥ premaika-niṣṭhās tataḥ

tebhyas tāḥ paśu-pāla-paṅkaja-dṛśas tābhyo ‘pi sā rādhikā

preṣṭhā tadvad iyaṁ tadīya-sarasī tāṁ nāśrayet kaḥ kṛtī]

[“There are those in the world who regulate their tendency for exploitation in accordance with the scriptural rules and thereby seek gradual elevation to the spiritual domain. However, superior to them are those wise men who, having given up the tendency to lord over others, attempt to dive deep into the realm of consciousness. But far superior to them are the pure devotees who are free from any mundane ambitions and are liberated from knowledge, not by knowledge, having achieved divine love. They have gained entrance into the land of dedication and are engaged there spontaneously in the Lord’s loving service. Among all devotees, however, the gopīs are the highest, for they have forsaken everyone, including their families, and everything, including the strictures of the Vedas, and have taken complete shelter at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, accepting Him as their only protection. But among all the gopīs, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī reigns supreme. For Kṛṣṇa left the company of millions of gopīs during the rasa dance to search for Her alone. She is so dear to Śrī Kṛṣṇa that the pond in which She bathes is His very favourite place. Who but a madman would not aspire to render service, under the shelter of superior devotees, in that most exalted of all holy places.”] [Upadeśāmṛta, 10]

And Rādhārāṇī’s devotional service is categorically different from that of the gopīs. Then what type of serving spirit is to be found there, that is unaccountable, inconceivable.

Śrutibhir vimṛgyām [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.47.61] The Vedas, the ṛṣis that saw the Veda mantram, that is eternal, they are not creators of mantram, of Veda, they’re only seers. They are feelers of the current, and they are noting. That is śruti, the knowledge which is contained in the śruti, in the Veda, that is not created by anything, that is eternal; and passing, they are onlookers, and they are recorders. Śrutibhir vimṛgyām. Those śruti, Veda that have come to reveal the fundamental truth underlying the whole creation, they are only inquisitive of something, they’re inquiring about something. What is that thing they do not know. The highest revelation whatever, so long come down in the world, they are only seeking, searching for reality, but they have not come in connection with. Śrutibhir vimṛgyām.

That is Kṛṣṇa bhakti, Vraja bhakti. And Mahāprabhu came, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam came with the quality of that type of adherence to the truth. Unconditional surrender and adherence and searching and a serving attitude, seeking that fortune of serving the truth. Such a higher type of truth is existence, that if we can be a seeker after that we may consider ourselves to be the holders of the highest fortune, the possessors of the highest fortune. We can really post themselves in the path leading to that truth.

And self-surrender, that is the very basis and the degree of surrender. Surrender, ātma- nivedanam, whatever beautiful and valuable thing we come across, we cannot but surrender ourselves to that. That is the criterion. If anything higher we come across within our vicinity, our appreciation means our surrendering to that. So according to the degree of surrender, we are to measure that what sort of quality of the truth we have come across. That can be traced, that can be measured only according to the degree of our surrender. That what sort of truth we have come in connection with? That can be measured only by the intensity of our surrender, how much we could surrender to what I have come in connection with.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Can’t come back: and they know that no satisfaction one can feel that I have got. No trace of such satisfaction that I have achieved. Never! Degree and magnitude! The sweetness, the inner sweetness of the truth and its infinite characteristic is such, it can attract to the highest degree.

The yajña patnis, when the wives of the brāhmaṇas in the yajña some ladies are going to have darśana of Kṛṣṇa and one brāhmaṇa came and opposed this, stopped his wife. “No. I won’t allow you to go to see Kṛṣṇa.” He stopped her body but the life expired. The life expired, the dead body remained there, life ran, so much attraction she felt to have a darśana of Kṛṣṇa. Immediately lifeless body stood there and the life vanished.

Gaura Hari. Beauty, Reality the Beautiful, beauty absorbs us. Māyāvādīs, they say that the Brahman absorbs the individual soul so much that we cannot have any trace of that. But this is artificial conception of absorption. The real idea of absorption, the reality, the existence of the seer of the truth is not done away with. It is there but with life he’s absorbed, so absorbed and such attraction that maintaining separate existence also always one full of Kṛṣṇa consciousness to the highest degree, maintaining; showing to the world. Hare Kṛṣṇa. That oneness of Māyāvādī, that is of course crossed in the beginning.

brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā, na śocati na kāṅkṣati

[samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu, mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām]

[“The spotlessly pure-hearted and self-satisfied soul who has attained to his conscious divine nature neither grieves nor craves for anything. Seeing all beings equally (in the conception of My supreme energy), he gradually achieves supreme devotion (prema-bhakti) unto Me.”] [Bhagavad- gītā, 18.54]

There it is eliminated, ‘that I am one with Brahman.’ But here the attraction, union and separation, and different līlā pastimes, but still oneness cannot but think anything else. The līlā to maintain the stage and the process of līlā is – can be kept, can be maintained. No complete absorption and oneness and everything finished. Not that thing. Līlā is also eternal. His Name, His rūpa, His guṇa, His parikara, His līlā, all eternal, it is a dynamic thing not a static one. Union in separation also we are in union. In every stage the unity is there. But still because the līlā, the pastimes, the dynamic character requires this to be such. Otherwise, His self-giving, and devotees’ God-attainment would have been impossible.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja, how is your health? Some trouble in the ear?

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Śaraṇāgati. When I entered Gauḍīya Maṭha first I got Śaraṇāgati and that was so sweet to me that I purchased some copies and distributed amongst my friends. Only four paisa price, small booklet, four paisa, and I distributed amongst my friends.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Śaraṇāgati for four paisa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Śaraṇāgati compiled by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in Bengali, Śaraṇāgati, a small booklet, four paisa price at that time, I distributed amongst my friends. So sweet it touched my heart. Here is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa kathā is Kṛṣṇa Himself. Who can speak about Kṛṣṇa, Adhokṣaja, Śaraṇāgati.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: We have your book also with tikā; that you have given some tikā. I have that book also of Śaraṇāgati, with your own comments there.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura one bhāṣya.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. It’s very helpful.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I composed it in Nandagram where Kṛṣṇadāsa Bābājī was there. I lived...

End of 81.12.22.C_81.12.23.A

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Start of 81.12.23.B_81.12.24.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... that bhajan-kuṭīra there on the banks of Pavan-sarovara, Sanātana Goswāmī lived there. And Rūpa Goswāmī two miles off, in one place, Kadam-kandi, between Nanda-grāma and Yavata, the middle position, Kadam-kandi, there lived Rūpa Goswāmī.

And that introductory poem, in Śaraṇāgati, that tikā.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Introductory poetry in Sanskrit.

svairācārābdhi-saṁmagnān, jīvān gaurāṅghri-paṅkaje

uddhṛtya śaraṇāpatter, māhātmyaṁ samabodhayat

All souls they are saṁmagnān, they are diving or struggling in the ocean of svairācāra, pleasure seeking, anyābhilāṣa, immoral activities, whimsical activities. Mostly the jīvās are struggling in the ocean of whimsical activities, energising. Svairācārābdhi-saṁmagnān, jīvān gaurāṅghri-paṅkaje uddhṛtya, taking them out of that ocean, put them in the lotus feet of Śrī Gaurāṅga. You collected them from the ocean wide, the troubled ocean, and put in the lotus feet of Gaurāṅga. Svairācārābdhi-saṁmagnān, jīvān gaurāṅghri-paṅkaje, uddhṛtya śaraṇāpatter, māhātmyaṁ samabodhayat. And there placing them you began to instruct them about the great nobility of śaraṇāgati, the high value of śaraṇāgati. Samabodhayat, and tried to make them understand, to realise that what is the efficacy of śaraṇāgati proper. My Gurudeva did so, so I bow down to him first.

Then Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, in this way, I can’t remember that.

[ The forgotten verse begins with śrī-gaurānumataṁ svarūpa-viditaṁ rūpāgrajenādṛtaṁ]

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. śaraṇāgati. śaraṇāgati.

So, admission of śaraṇāgati, appreciation of śaraṇāgati, that means that we have come in the relativity of a great thing, a great substance, otherwise one can’t find the necessity of śaraṇāgati at all. “Why śaraṇāgati? We want to make master over everything.” Ha, ha. The science, the karmī, the exploitationist, they want everything under his control. But this is just the opposite, and opposite to the highest degree, that we have found such great, noble aspect of the nature that we want voluntarily to be offered to be the eternal servants of it. I am in relativity of such a magnanimous noble thing, śaraṇāgati.

Śaraṇāgati herself it is, she contains Kṛṣṇa within its boundary, within her boundary, Kṛṣṇa is. Cross śaraṇāgati and you will find Kṛṣṇa. Ha, ha. Śaraṇāgati, the halo, the halo of Kṛṣṇa is śaraṇāgati. Through śaraṇāgati we can approach to Kṛṣṇa conception. Not enquiry, not barren enquiry, but sincere and substantial enquiry, and that requires śaraṇāgati.

Praṇipāta, paripraśna, sevā. The praṇipāta, first you must give exclusive respect to Him otherwise you won’t allow yourself to approach. If you want to approach Him at all, the first qualification is praṇipāta, you must surrender, that you are approaching a great thing, and great, great, great in the infinite, so praṇipāta, and then paripraśna somewhat, to certain extent.

And then service, to be utilised by Him, to be utilised by Him. That means to taste the juice, to serve means to taste the juice. By serving only we can connect, we can feel, we can have any experience through service. Just opposite to enjoyment and indifference. Enjoyment, indifference and service, and service as duty and service as love, loving service, service is generally of two kinds. Service in consideration from the standpoint of duty in the Vaikuṇṭha: that also fetches something. But service of love, actuated through love only, that is amply given, that gives us amply. And there is also gradation, śanta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya, mādhurya, gradation there. This is reality in this world. In the world of enjoyment also we find more intense enjoyment in the lady love, intense enjoyment, and this is the perverted reflection. So there also, that sort of, that type of divine divinity there in the service, so mādhurya-rasa, and there is also gradation.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Big things in the small tongue, in a mean tongue, noble things in a mean tongue, noble words in a mean tongue! Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Lotus things from lotus mouth.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaurāṅga Sundara. Gaurāṅga Sundara. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Humble. We may let things flow towards downward, the flow from high to down. The most down place can contain, ha, ha, may not allow anything to flow away from that place, the container. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

na prema-gandho 'sti darāpi me harau, krandāmi saubhāgya-bharaṁ prakāśitum

vaṁśī-vilāsy-ānana-lokanaṁ vinā, vibharmmi yat prāṇa-pataṅgakān vṛthā

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said: “My dear friends, I have not the slightest tinge of love of Godhead within My heart. When you see Me crying in separation, I am just falsely exhibiting a demonstration of My great fortune. Indeed, not seeing the beautiful face of Kṛṣṇa playing His flute, I continue to live My life like an insect, without purpose.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya- līlā, 2.45]

“It is clear proof that I have no faith otherwise I could not have lived, I could not live in separation of that highest prospect.”

In this world also many men died of frustration, broken-hearted, a great loss cannot bear, dies broken-hearted.

So Mahāprabhu says, “That I am continuing My life, that is a proof positive that I have no attraction for Kṛṣṇa, otherwise I could not, I should not have lived, should not have lived.”

This is the standard, the direction, how highly valuable that Kṛṣṇa prema. Never go to pose and think that you are in possession of that. That can’t come in anyone’s possession. But it is a peculiar thing that the disciple he sees that, “It is in possession of my Gurudeva, or possession of Vaiṣṇava. I do not possess anything, but the Vaiṣṇava, it is in their possession I see, I can clearly see that it is in their possession.”

But the Vaiṣṇava says, “No, no, it is not in my possession, it is my Guru’s property. It is really the property of my Gurudeva. I am not fully aware whether it is with me. Of course when I say when he’s a mediator, can’t deny that something is passing through him. But I do not know it fully, I can’t appreciate them fully. But it is passing anyhow through me.”

Unknown and unknowable, a peculiar characteristic, adhokṣaja, the transaction of the adhokṣaja can’t touch, but he’s the agent, but he cannot, he’s not beneficiary but he’s the agent. None is beneficiary, everyone thinks they’re mere agent. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. That is so independent in characteristic, so independent, and valuable, the highest value. That cannot be subservient to the possessor, but still there is possessor.

And Kṛṣṇa Himself is to admit that, “Without My devotee I am nothing. I am nothing.”

If we had all been animals then no worth of gold, ha, ha, ha. Gold has no worth amongst the beasts, the animals.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotees: Mahārāja, is Prahlāda Mahārāja still in this universe or has he left?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Prahlāda Mahārāja?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Is he still living in this brahmāṇḍa, universe, or is he living somewhere else?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Prahlāda Mahārāja. He can be conceived to live with Nṛsiṁhadeva in His zone in Vaikuṇṭha. In Vaikuṇṭha there are different zones also, and twenty-four of them have been mentioned, in different Purāṇas, and there is also a zone of Nṛsiṁha. He’s there. Wherever there’s Nṛsiṁhadeva there is Prahlāda, wherever, in Arcā-Mūrti also, in the Arcā, Prahlāda is inseparably connected with Nṛsiṁhadeva. His presence is not only in one place, in Vaikuṇṭha, and also in different places wherever there is Nṛsiṁhadeva. That is the ideal devotee of Nṛsiṁha, viśraya and āśraya. They’re inseparably connected. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Kṛṣṇa is One, but there are so many Vigraha’s everywhere there is Kṛṣṇa. And also we can say the separate Kṛṣṇa, there is some union in separation. Ha, ha. The Kṛṣṇa of that temple, Rādhārāṇī of that temple. She says that, “I have not got it.” This is in Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

That Pratāparudra’s queen, she wanted to give her, that mukta, to Sākṣi Gopāla, Sākṣi Gopāla - so she hesitated and came back. Then she got a dream. No. She thought that, “There is no hole on the nose so how can I put it into His nose?” So she came back, and got a dream.

“No, no. I have got a hole in My nose. In My childhood, My mother, to decorate Me with this nose ornament she created a hole. I have got that. You just give that ornament to Me what you wanted to give.”

Then she again went and found, “Yes, there is a hole,” and put the ornament.

Once, during my Gurudeva’s time when this Bagh Bazaar Maṭh was installed, myself and Hayagrīva Brahmachārī, afterwards Mādhava Mahārāja, went to collect funds towards Dimondara [?] or some place. And there we approached a rich gentleman for collection, this utsava, “And for one days expenditure you please take it, bear it.”

Then he went to consult with his wife and came back and told, ha, ha, something else. “That my wife says that she wants to give a golden necklace to you. She saw that last night in a dream that a girl has come to her, ‘That I want to get a necklace, my necklace is stolen away, I want a necklace from you.’”

“And who are you?”

“I am Rādhārāṇī of Gauḍīya Maṭh Bagh Bazaar.”

Devotees: [Group laughter]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: “She got such a dream, so she is ready to give that. You are coming from Gauḍīya Maṭh Bagh Bazaar? So she’s willing to give to you a golden necklace for Rādhārāṇī, because the girl told that, ‘I am Rādhārāṇī of Gauḍīya Maṭh.’”

So Rādhārāṇī of Gauḍīya Maṭh, Rādhārāṇī of Chaitanya Maṭh, They’re also different - One and different. That is the peculiar conception how we could put in our fleshy brain, limited brain.

akigigraita ananta svarūpa [?] In the same Śrī Mūrti He has got His infinite phases.

“So I am Rādhārāṇī of Gauḍīya Maṭh Bagh Bazaar. I have come to - really, these ornaments were stolen perhaps a day or two before.”

Then I said yes, the ornament have been stolen we know, we know. Then your wife is very, very fortunate that Rādhārāṇī came to beg ornaments, especially necklace for Her, from your wife. She must be a devoted lady. Then she did so.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

_______________________________ [?] Mādhavendra Purī’s Gopāla.

“The, My servant being afraid of the Muslim invaders, anyhow put Me in the bush here and he fled. And there a long time I am un-served and I am unfed. I’m waiting for Mādhavendra Purī. When he will come and take Me out and install Me and will begin My services? I am waiting for you Mādhavendra Purī long time.” Ha, ha, ha. “I’m very hungry, I’m very hungry.”

All these things, Gaura Haribol. What is not in the cause cannot be in the effect. But the cause is perfect but the effect this is perverted, this is vulnerable. And the real is such.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. _______________________________ [?]

Devotee: _______________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There was one devotee of Mahāprabhu, Raghunandana, in Śrīkhaṇḍa. Narahari Sarakara, Raghunandana, and another, Mukunda, Raghunandana’s father, three devotees there. Raghunandana, he has been told to be incarnation of Pradyumna. Very beautiful and very devoted from boyhood.

And he, when Mukunda one day he went, he was a kavirāja, some call from a distance and he went to attend that, and asked Raghunandana, “You please make to eat, that is, serve the Deity.” Perhaps Gopāla or something, Raghunandana. “You are to offer, the offer made, then to Gopāla. And in the ordinary sense you are to make Him eat, my Deity.” This order he gave to his son, young son Raghunandana. Son means he’s of course more than fifteen to eighteen, something like that his age. He asked him, “You feed my Gopāla today. I am going. I can’t return.”

Then Raghunandana he, the (naividyam, the andam?) and the curry or what was given there, he appealed to Gopāla. “You take it, You take it.”

He says that He does not eat.

He began to cry, “What is this? My father will come and chastise me. You are not eating. How is this? You must have to eat.” And he began to cry. “My father ordered me that I must feed You, but You are not eating.” And began to cry such heartily that Gopāla had to eat.

Then the mother came to take out the bhoga phalla but there was nothing. “What is this? You have eaten the whole thing?”

“No, no, no. I have not eaten. The Deity has eaten.”

“No, no, you wicked son, what have you done? The Vigraha, the Arcā-Mūrti does He eat anything? Only looks over.”

“No. Father told me that, ‘you must feed Gopāla’ and in the beginning He did not come to feed, take, but I began to cry and He came and took everything.”

“What is this? No. We can’t believe it. You have eaten it.”

He began to cry. Then the father came, “What the matter?”

“This is so.”

“You boy, what do you say? It is impossible that the Deity will eat.”

“Yes my father, He did not eat in the beginning, but I began to cry, ‘my father requested me to feed You and You don’t eat. Then he’ll beat me.’ In this way, then He ate.”

Then his father told, “Can you show me? Can you show me my boy?”

“Yes, perhaps I can show.”

Then, when he was present he could not, but then it was arranged that he will be aloof and from afar he’s to look, and he could see that Raghunandana.

And when Raghunandana met with Mahāprabhu in Purī with his father, and uncle Narahari, Mahāprabhu is putting question to Mukunda. “You are Raghunandana’s father or Raghunandana is father to you?” Mahāprabhu’s putting this question to Mukunda Sākha.

Then, Mukunda could understand the meaning. “Yes. Raghunandana is our father, because, yāṅhā haite kṛṣṇa-bhakti sei guru haya.”

[śuni' harṣe kahe prabhu - “kahile niścaya, yāṅhā haite kṛṣṇa-bhakti sei guru haya”]

[Hearing Mukunda dāsa give this proper decision, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu confirmed it, saying, “Yes, it is correct. One who awakens devotion to Kṛṣṇa is certainly a spiritual master.”]

[Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 15.117]

“He has got the external body from me, but we got our devotion from him, so he’s our Guru, he’s my father. He is my Guru, he is my father.”

āmā sabāra kṛṣṇa-bhakti raghunandana haite, ataeva pitā - raghunandana āmāra niścite

[“All of us have attained devotion to Kṛṣṇa due to Raghunandana. Therefore in my mind he is my father.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 15.116]

“Yes, yāṅhā haite kṛṣṇa-bhakti sei guru haya. Who is Guru? Who holds superior position? Whoever be in the question of flesh and blood in historical fact, but who gives Kṛṣṇa bhakti, he’s Guru. You are all grateful to Raghunandana. To get your devotional family you are all indebted to him, that is Raghunandana.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. So everything is possible, everything impossible. What is impossible to the fool that is possible to the educated, so many scientific researchers.

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāṁ, tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī

[yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni, sā niśā paśyato muneḥ]

[“While spiritual awareness is like night for the living beings enchanted by materialism, the self-realised soul remains awake, directly relishing the divine ecstasy of his uninterrupted spiritual intelligence. On the contrary, the wakefulness of materialistic persons addicted to sense enjoyment is night for the self-realised person who is completely indifferent to such pursuits. The realised souls, indifferent to the mundane, are ever joyful in the divine ecstatic plane, while the general mass is infatuated by fleeting mundane fancies devoid of spiritual joy.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.69]

What is true to an intelligent man, to an ordinary man that is nothing, that is ludicrous. So one who has got devotion he has got all the pastimes of līlā in him, it is real to him. But who has not got that sort of eye… anye buddha chat kulyad visaya dhuli te kamona sei para tattva baive leki te [?] The eye is covered with the exploiting and renunciation dust so cannot have. Their sight is not deep enough to pierce through the cover and to see substance within the cover.

sarvatya krsnera murti kari jal mal sei leki te pari akhini amore [?]

anyi bhuta cakru yal visaya dhuli te kamona sei para tattva baive leki te [?]

Covered with the dusts, so many, so many fleeting desires, kāma, kamana, vāsanā, vāsanā, so many, infinite number of desires, vāsanā. Like so many dusts covered our eyes. And then the renunciation cover, indifference, indifference, atheism. “Nothing better than me” If those covers of exploitation and of renunciation, then positive serving member I am in the universe it is good. Then the goodness, innate goodness of the environment will come out to his eye and heart.

“Yes, you are a gentleman and you are living in the society of a gentleman.”

And dacoits, you find yourself in the midst of the dacoits necessarily. Birds of the same feather flock together, flock together. You are born in your desired circle so you cannot but see if you look around, all exploitationist, all exploitationist. I deserved so and I have been thrust into such society, the all exploitationist. Exploitationists of different kinds. Automatically we are being adjusted in that way according to our own desire we are pushed into a particular environment. And we find birds of the same feather flock together.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: But you are so kind that non gentlemen also can come to you.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha, non gentlemen, gentlemen. Mahāprabhu came amongst the non gentle to make them gentle. And our Guru Mahārāja and others benevolently they came. And we non gentle came for that purpose and we are asked, “Try to help and see that all gentle and whatever non gentle you find try to cleanse it and then you will be able to become a gentleman.” Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. So here we stop today.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Jaya oṁ viṣṇu-pāda...

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mahāprabhu putting questions and Rāmānanda answering. In this posing the whole of the theological development was expressed there on the banks of the Godāvarī: very sacred place.

Devotee: So that’s the meeting place of Lord Caitanya and Rāmānanda Rāya?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Devotee: Opposite Raja Bihari?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And at that time Prabhupāda when he sent me there he converted my name into Rāmānanda Dāsa, and sent there. He gave me the name from Rāmendrasundar he converted to Rāmānanda Dāsa and sent me to discover the land, as well as to construct a temple, and to install footprints there. And I lived there for some time and purchased land also there in which the Maṭha is now established. The land was purchased by me, of course by collections.

Rāmānanda Rāya arcay godavari diti [?] Very sweet, sweet and grand, generous, sweetness and generosity mixed. Magnanimity and sweetness mixed. Only, that is the place where Mahāprabhu showed His real self, who is He. Who was He; that was shown to Rāmānanda Rāya only in that place, and never we find anywhere else. Rasa-rāja mahābhāva dui eka rūpa [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.282] Both Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa combined. The most secret ocean of the truth was shown there only once. And we never found that that was expressed, revealed in any other place. Rasa-rāja mahābhāva dui eka rūpa. Rāmānanda could not contain himself. He lost his senses. By visiting that combined Vigraha Rāmānanda fell unconscious.

Then Mahāprabhu touching his body again took him to consciousness.

And then he saw that the sannyāsī is sitting on his front.

And then in a plea He left the place. That Mahāprabhu was Rādhā-Govinda Both combined. That He Himself showed in that place.

The naked, positive and negative origin of the whole, how They are. The most prime cause is beauty, twofold, Predominating and Predominated. Predominated part of the beauty and Predominating part of the beauty; that is supposed to be the prime cause of the whole existence. Mahāprabhu and Bhāgavatam says that. Not power, nor force, nothing of any other type, but beauty and love; that is the prime cause. That is a new grant to the world which was never given to the world, that the prime cause of the whole infinite is beauty and love. This is the speciality of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Mahāprabhu.

So we need not be afraid. The apprehension is only superficial, māyā. But in the depths of our lives achievement no apprehension: all love and beauty. So our future is guaranteed in a most optimistic way. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja _______________________________________ [?]

Devotee: I went to the town. I want to buy a picture of Kṛṣṇa, photograph. And there are many pictures of Kali which show that Kali is staying with her feet on a demon. She has killed some demon and she’s standing with her feet on the chest of this demon. There is a story like this.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Eh? What is that?

Devotee: There is a picture of Kali which shows that she is staying with her feet on the chest of a demon.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No.

Śrīla Govinda Mahārāja: _________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kali is standing on the Śiva.

Devotee: She’s standing on Lord Śiva?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Lord Śiva.

Devotee: What is the story?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That means that generally the jīva soul is considered as śiva intrinsically. But those that are under bondage, there the māyā is standing over the jīva soul. Really jīva soul should be the master of Kali, the māyā śakti. But actually when jīva is captured by māyā then śakti is having the predominating part and the jīva is at her feet, at her disposal. It is shown like that. That śiva means jīva soul, falling, and she’s māyā, the māyāic potency is standing on his chest. Then helplessly falling at the feet of the māyā potency the jīva, śiva, but in fact he should be, the jīva soul should be master of that force. But those that are in bondage their position is such, falling at the feet of the māyāic potency, illusory energy. They think that they’re master here. When they have come to exploit their real position is at the feet of the illusory potency. That has been depicted there.

Devotee: So the jīva soul is compared to Śiva?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Fallen soul, jīva soul, soul in bondage, is compared as under the feet of the illusory energy. But she should not be so. Really his position is that he’s master of that potency.

Devotee: So the picture does not mean that Kali is higher than Śiva because she’s standing with her feet on the top of Śiva?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No.____________ In the space of the fallen soul their position is such. But as śiva he must be lord of Kali.

Devotee: Yes, because the karmīs they misinterpret, they say Kali’s higher because she’s staying...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not interpretation but showing the fact, that this is really your position, you are śiva, but now under illusion you are her slave, you are being trampled down by the māyāic potency. You are being trampled by māyāic potency, but your real position is not so helpless, but you should be master of that potency. Pāśa-baddho bhavej jīvaḥ pāśa-muktaḥ sadāśivaḥ. When in bondage the position is such under the foot of the illusory potency. And when he’s liberated he’s over that potency.

Devotee: Yes. I understand now. The karmīs they say, they misinterpret, they say Kali is higher because she’s standing on top of Śiva.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mama māyā duratyayā.

daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī, mama māyā duratyayā

[mām eva ye prapadyante, māyām etāṁ taranti te]

[“This “trimodal,” supernatural, (alluring) deluding energy of Mine is practically insurmountable. However, those who fully surrender exclusively unto Me can certainly surpass this formidable fantasy.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 7.14]

“If the individual jīva soul if he leaves My connection it is invincible, the māyāic śakti is invincible by you. But if you get My connection, mām eva ye prapadyante, māyām etāṁ taranti te, whenever you get My connection the illusory potency will leave you. Otherwise you are very meagre...

End of 81.12.23.B_81.12.24.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.24.B_81.12.27.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: __________________________________ [?] Many people come, for them to accommodate. During the birth ceremony of Mahāprabhu on Gaura Pūrṇimā the parikramā circumambulation, many people come here and to accommodate one gentleman he’s constructing a building. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Any question?

Devotee: I want to know, now I’m conditioned soul, I’m in māyā. I do not do not know my relationship to Kṛṣṇa. It is said that I have an eternal relationship to Kṛṣṇa and I can know when I become pure, completely purified, then I will know what kind of relationship I have.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. When the mist will be cleared the sun will...

Devotee: Yes, the sun will come out.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...be in its full pristine glory. The mist of misunderstanding, anyābhilāṣa, karma, jñāna, that is a cover and that will be dissolved gradually and the internal relationship will appear.

Devotee: So this internal relationship, is this always the same or can this be also changed like from the parental loving affection to mādhurya, or from mādhurya to a servant? Do they have a change of this relationship?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That will be known gradually when the barrier will be cleared, the cover between, and that will be vague it will come to me. The preventive wall between the two, that will be faded, thinner and thinner, and then it will be conceived in gradual process. Hare Kṛṣṇa. When in the stage of bhāva bhakti then it will come into understanding somewhat and then gradually it will be clear. Anartha-nivṛtti, tataḥ ruci, āsakti, then bhāva. When the devotion will reach the stage of bhāva then of course it will appear to certain extent in vague way. And then by gradual process the definite identification will be clear. Through the attraction, the quality of attraction, one will feel from Kṛṣṇa it will clear gradually. The attraction, the connection between the two is intervened by anyābhilāṣa, karma, jñāna, these propensities of foreign things. And that will be thinner and thinner and then gradually the nature of attraction, in what rasa, and what depth and intensity, gradually it will come to be disclosed. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. And not imagination or vague: it is more clear than the sun. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Śrīdhara Mahārāja, I was reading a book about Kṛṣṇa līlā and the difference between prākṛta and aprākṛta.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Prākṛta and aprākṛta?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Aprākṛta, He’s always aprākṛta. Aprākṛta means similar to prākṛta, similar to human person, but it is not so. Not mundane but similar to mundane.

kṛṣṇera yateka khelā, sarvottama nara-līlā, [nara-vapu tāhāra svarūpa

gope-veśa, veṇu-kara nava kiśora, nata-vara, nara līlāra haya anurūpa]

[“Lord Kṛṣṇa has many pastimes, of which His pastimes as a human being are the best. His form as a human being is the Supreme Transcendental Form. In this form, He is a cowherd boy. He carries a flute in His hand, and His youth is new. He is also an expert dancer. All this is just suitable for His pastimes as a human being.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 21.101]

Amongst all His pastimes the human type of pastimes is the best, it has been mentioned, human being. His humanly behaviour has been considered to be best suited, highest conception, not Godly, or grave and majestic. That is not the highest type. The simplicity, these ordinary humanly pastimes has been considered to be the best of all. That is the most original. And grandeur, awe, reverence, that is not liked by the yogīs of the higher type: the grand majesty, all these things, awe, reverence, very far distant relation, and human, as if, equal with us, very close, very intensely intimate. And that has been said to be the highest mercy there. That is His real, highest position, when He’s such, so merciful. So merciful, so loving, so affectionate, just like in the same rank with His servitors. Sometimes mother Yaśodā whipping. He’s crying, weeping, and carrying the shoes of His father. And the friends are also climbing on His shoulder. In this way, very homely: very, very homely.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi Gaura Gadādhara. Nitāi Gaura Gadādhara. Gaura Haribol.

His magnanimity, His love and affection is of such a high degree that He becomes so ________[?] homely ____________ [?] the affection rise to...

...

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Mahārāja, when the Guru is here he engages us for something that Kṛṣṇa wants. But in the absence of our Guru we may do some devotional service according to our own initiative. How do we know if Kṛṣṇa wants that?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We shall try to ask our internal Guru. We shall try to get dictation from the internal: “In such case what may be required of me my Master? Please reveal.” With this idea we are to move, that caitya Guru. Or if any other śikṣā Guru is available outside. If śikṣā Guru is not available then we are to appeal to our internal caitya Guru.

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate]

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe, nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill-fated.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

The sincere they won’t have anything to repent. If he’s sincere to his own self he’ll have such dictation which will help him in his progress in his spiritual life. He’ll ask his Master within and put to test that. “What, in such case, what should please my Gurudeva, then I shall do that. As much as I can guess, as much as I can understand, I can feel, I am doing that, that this sincerity will be the last resort.” But if any outside śikṣā Guru is available we must consult with them. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Sometimes śikṣā Gurus have differences of opinion, many śikṣā Gurus.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In that case also I’m to appeal to my own inner Guru. “What should I take, please suggest to me, the internal suggestion?” Otherwise, what can I do? In every case we are to do like that, if any difference of opinion in the outside guides then we are to appeal to our own conscience _________________ [?] No other alternative. Or if possible to another recognised śikṣā Guru I may approach against these two difference of opinions. That I can do. And if there also I fail then I must appeal to my internal Guru: no other alternative.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: If I ask the Guru within my heart, the caitya Guru, then how do I know that the Guru is speaking to me and not my mind? Maybe my mind is telling me something.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That will be according to my own realised position. It may not be clear always, but we have no other alternative. Our inner judge, that is to decide finally, even if I come to my Gurudeva, that also by the inner selection took me there. I left my present environment and came to Swāmī Mahārāja, how? My internal guide helped me to accept him as Guru. So I can’t neglect him, my dictator within. If he has taken me to a right Guru then he may not be a traitor. We can consult with him as a friend, reliable friend, who has taken me to such a personality.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: We’re just neophytes, beginning devotees. We’re not so pure we think to communicate with the caitya Guru.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: If that is so it will be better for us to get a śikṣā Guru to secure if possible. That will be easy for us, more helpful. But in extreme case when that is not possible then fervently to appeal to our own Guru within, caitya Guru: no other alternative but that. And when our real Master is also living, I am posted in some duty far away, but some urgent step to be taken for some consideration, and no time, must take some decision, then what will I do? I may appeal to my inner Guru, what he will be pleased to accept. As I may consider within I shall do that, if no time to take his order from far off, immediate decision is necessary for something, then also we do such things. No time to come his direct order: I must make the decision immediately. At that time, this will please my Gurudeva. With this assertion I shall take up the duty, work. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: On this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Niveditātmā, it is mentioned, one who has surrendered, he may not commit any offence. If he’s surrendered and then appeals, “What am I to do my Master? Dictate me.” And he’ll do accordingly, sincerely, then if it is wrong also you are not to be a party to that wrong. It is like that, because not consciously he wanted to disobey him. You will try your utmost to obey him to cent percent, but from your position you are not a perfect man. So from your position, as much as possible you have done. He’ll be satisfied with that. He’s all-knowing. He’s omniscient. He has tried his best. From our position we shall try our best and we’ll be rewarded accordingly. There may not be any insincerity, duplicity, hypocrisy, self-suicidal.

Na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati. [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40] One who is sincere, who is thinking, who is trying to get the good, he’ll never be deceived. Gaura Haribol. We must be true to our own self, to our own conscience, in whatever plane we’ll be. We must be true to our consciousness in that plane. Again when we rise up we must consider according to the stage of that plane. We must not be insincere in the thinking within our plane.

His dictation is also of similar type. According to our stage he gives us some order. In higher stage he gives another type of order, another higher stage another type of order. According to our capacity, our stage, our nature, the orders come to us, otherwise it would be impossible for us to make any progress. According to our stage our duty should be entrusted, and the result expected accordingly. A man who has got the capacity of lifting one mound, he may not be asked that, ‘you must lift the weight of one hundred mounds.’ Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: It seems Mahārāja sometimes we think we’re sincere and we might have a little sincerity. But then we find out that we’re insincere, because of other levels, or other things started coming in so we find out our sincerity was nothing.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: I can’t follow. What does he say?

Devotee: Can you understand what I’m saying? Sometimes our sincerity, we’re sincere, but then all of a sudden we realise that the sincerity we have is only a superficial thing.

Devotee: We think we’re sincere, but the reality is that we’re not very sincere. We think that we’re very sincerely serving Kṛṣṇa but the reality becomes known that we’re actually very shallow in sincerity.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course. That may be in all cases it is possible and according to our stage we will be dealt with.

Devotee: So it seems that the, when we have the insincerity, then maybe we can become sincere again.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: A boy should be given the standard of examination of a boy, not a grown up man. Boy’s examination, boy’s questions in the examination of a boy will be like that of a boy, not of grown up man. A different standard, and gradually we’ll be taken to the higher standard.

parokṣa-vādo vedo 'yaṁ, bālānām anuśāsanam

[karma-mokṣāya karmāṇi, vidhatte hy agadaṁ yathā]

[“Childish and foolish people are attached to materialistic, fruitive activities, although the actual goal of life is to become free from such activities. Therefore, the Vedic injunctions indirectly lead one to the path of ultimate liberation by first prescribing fruitive religious activities, just as a father promises his child candy so that the child will take his medicine.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.3.44]

Just as a boy, a child will be guided with some modified policy, so that sort of process has been taken in to deal with us.

Devotee: Sometimes the Guru engages us in service which is...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Sometimes the Guru he engages us in service that is above our ability to perform, it’s beyond our capacity.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then you are to inform him that, ‘It is very difficult for me to do this.’ Then if he still urges then as you can you will do, you are to do. If you think that this is beyond your capacity you may just inform it to Gurudeva, your master that, ‘I’m not fit to, I don’t think me to be fit to discharge this sort of duty. You please consider.’ But still if he says, ‘No, you are to do this,’ then you will do as much as you can, if you have faith in that Guru. If you think he’s a real Guru you can do that, as much as you can. You must think then that he has some super motive to engage me in such a thing, some higher, some far-fetched idea. Then you’ll do, engage yourself in that. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Mahārāja, this Kṛṣṇa consciousness is very beautiful. The cult of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is very, very sweet. Many people become attracted by Kṛṣṇa and by Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So why sometimes some devotees they’re losing their taste and they’re going away after some time?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is: first thing it depends on the intensity of sukṛti, and second is of course free will, the circumstance. His independent will, the circumstance, and his previous initial merit. Every action is combination of several resultants, every action. In Bhagavad-gītā we find, pañcaitāni nibodha me karaṇaṁ ca pṛthag-vidham.

[pañcaitāni mahā-bāho, kāraṇāni nibodha me

sāṅkhye kṛtānte proktāni, siddhaye sarvva-karmmaṇām]

[adhiṣṭhānaṁ tathā kart, karaṇaṁ ca pṛthag-vidham

vividhāś ca pṛthak ceṣṭā, daivaṁ caivātra pañcamam]

[“O mighty hero, in the scripture known as Sāṅkhya, or Vedānta, these five causes of the accomplishment of all actions have been described, and you may now learn of these from Me.”]

[(With the help of these five factors, all actions are effected): The body (the place of action), ego (the performer - in the form of the knot of spirit and matter), the separate senses, the different endeavours, and destiny, or the intervention of the Supreme Universal Controller - the Supersoul.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.13-4]

If one event he’s to analyse then we are to find contribution from different parts. It is a combination of different forces. So generally his previous merit, and the present free will, and the environment, and the mercy of the Lord: it depends on these four, five things. That free will may commit Vaiṣṇava aparādha, and the previous merit, that means sukṛti, that keeps us floating on the standard, that level, that is the previous acquisition, keeps us on the standard of that type. And then the transaction of the free will: he may commit some offences also. And the environment, the paraphernalia around, their free will, their mercy. It depends on all these things. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Mahārāja, once one of your God brothers he was telling me that we’re chanting Hare Rāma in the mahā-mantra but we’re not supposed to say Rāma. He says this is not śuddha, we should say Rām. He said that we’re chanting Rāma, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma..

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Rā ma?

Devotee: Yes. He said this is not śuddha, not pure.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But Rām?

Devotee: Yes. But in kīrtana everybody’s chanting Rāma.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Rāma: that is the true pronunciation. But if one says Rām that does not mean that will be nothing, somewhat. The internal feeling, that is more important, underlying the sound. This Kṛṣṇa, Kanhaiyā, Kānhā, anything one may say, but mainly it depends on the internal realisation of the meaning of the word, bhāva. Rādhā, some say Rāi, Kanhai, in this way, very adorable way of addressing, Kānhā, Kamani. But internal, the wealth is within the feeling of the meaning, internal feeling of the meaning.

One has got a written name but mother may call him by the same sound and not fully according to grammar or enunciation. But that does not affect, her affection is all in all. If the mother calls her child by a name, the name may not be pronounced in the very strict sense but the affection behind the name calling that is more valuable.

So Rāma or Rām, that may not be very, the Rāma and Rām, that is not to be considered very valuably. But the internal feeling with which he’s taking the Name that is more and more important.

Devotee: So sometimes we’re introducing mahā-mantra to new persons, and they have no idea, no feeling what is Rāma what is Kṛṣṇa. How should they pronounce?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: They should do it naturally as Rāma not Rām. Rāma: that is the real pronunciation. But if one pronounces it as Rām that does not mean that the whole thing is spoiled. But Rāma: that is the correct pronunciation, grammatically correct. But everything depends on the heart, on the feeling, on the sincere dedication, surrender. That is the thing to be considered of most importance, the highest importance: your earnestness. The child calls the father papa or in any disfigured sound, but that is overlooked. The inner earnestness, that is to be reckoned.

Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Sometimes we’re introducing the chanting process to many new persons, but because of some previous idea they do not like the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. So we can tell them something else like Govinda Jaya Jaya or something like that?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That depends upon their stage of devotion, different variegated stages of devotion. Govinda Jaya Jaya, Govinda Jaya Jaya, but when asked to pronounce Hare Kṛṣṇa they do not show any encouragement there. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Our Guru Mahārāja has told us to chant minimum sixteen rounds. So for a neophyte devotee sometimes we don’t have so much attraction for our chanting sixteen rounds. What can we do to get more attraction for chanting?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Naturally minor differences, in chanting, but he must engage himself in the service. Service of the Name, and service of Guru, Vaiṣṇava, they’re almost equal. But still, the basis must be the service of the Name to certain extent. Your Guru Mahārāja introduced sixteen rounds. Our Guru Mahārāja told at least four rounds, because we were engaged more busily in the services. “You must see that the mālā may not fast. Some sort of services to the Nāma must be had, at least four rounds.” That was his instruction. “But when you get leisure you can do more, more, more.” Not only sixteen rounds but four sixteen rounds, one lākh: that is the general standard recommended by Mahāprabhu.

Devotee: One lākh?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: One lākh, when one is not in an organised body, living individually, especially. But when in the organised body they have always got orders from the superiors to do this, that, and always engaged in service, there it is relaxed: in that case it is relaxed. But when a gṛhastha living individually they should rather take one lākh: that is the general standard recommended by Mahāprabhu, and our Guru Mahārāja. But when in an organised body and they’re required to do services, running here and there, sometimes so much busy that he can’t sleep even in the night, in that case also he’ll try at least four rounds, when he’s getting no rest in twenty four hours, so busily engaged. But living individually as a gṛhastha he should take one lākh. That was the general recommendation. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nine thirty, is it?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Then I retire today.

...

...and Canada is more cold?

Devotee: Yes. Now they have snow all over Canada.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And Mexico, Venezuela, they’re hot country?

Devotee: Yes, similar to here.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The southern side of the equator?

One Rāmānuja came with Acyutānanda in the first trip. Now I understand that Rāmānuja he came from the hippy section and again he has returned to that hippy. Is it? But for some time got some sukṛti, gathered some sukṛti. Helplessly wandering, the jīva soul: attracted by different direction. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Hari.

...

Then the kṛṣṇa-smṛti, opposite, kṛṣṇa-smṛti and opposite is deha-smṛti. Gopī-gaṇe says:

deha-smṛti nāhi yāra, saṁsāra-kūpa kāhāṅ tāra, [tāhā haite nā cāhe uddhāra

viraha-samudra-jale, kāma-timiṅgile gile, gopī-gaṇe neha’ tāra pāra]

[Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu continued: “The gopīs are fallen in the great ocean of separation, and they are being devoured by the timiṅgila fish, which represent their ambition to serve You. The gopīs are to be delivered from the mouths of these timiṅgila fish, for they are pure devotees. Since they have no material conception of life, why should they aspire for liberation? The gopīs do not want that liberation desired by the yogīs and jñānīs, for they are already liberated from the ocean of material existence.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 13.142]

One who is unconscious of his material body, he has got no worldly connection, material connection. We are conscious of our material body and then come in connection with the material world, atmosphere. If we are unconscious, independent of this material body, no connection with the world, mortal. This is the medium between the material world and ātmā. First connection is mind, mental system, and then this body consciousness. Parīkṣit Mahārāja [Śukadeva] after finishing his Bhāgavata discourse in the conclusion he’s warning the audience, especially Parīkṣit.

tvaṁ tu rājan mariṣyeti, paśu-buddhim imāṁ jahi

[na jātaḥ prāg abhūto 'dya, deha-vat tvaṁ na naṅkṣyasi]

[“O King, give up the animalistic mentality of thinking: ‘I am going to die.’ Unlike the body, you have not taken birth. There was not a time in the past when you did not exist, and you are not about to be destroyed.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 12.5.2]

“O King, that you will die, give up this animal consciousness. Eliminate it fully from your attention that you will die. Don’t allow your attention to come down to material conception. You remain in your own soul conception. Take your stand firmly there. Why do you allow yourself to come down to the conception of this matter, your body: all these things? It is unnecessary. Don’t allow your attention to come down to material consciousness. You are independent of that. Think of your soul, and the higher soul, and its achievement with the higher soul’s prospect. Your transaction all upwards: stick to that. Why do you care to come down in this material conception of the world, or body, all these things? It is unnecessary. Independent of that you can live and move and very happily.”

Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Paśu-buddhi, this is animal consciousness: that I cannot stay without a body. What is this? You can stay without the body. The body’s left here you also stay. Why do you allow yourself to come in this consciousness of matter which is mortal? Don’t allow yourself to come down to have experience of this material world. This is animal consciousness. Kill it, butcher it. Tvaṁ tu rājan mariṣyeti, paśu-buddhim imāṁ jahi. That I shall die, this is animal consciousness. Just kill it, finally. At the same time try to soar up from soul to over-soul, from over-soul to the Nārāyaṇa conception, from there to the Kṛṣṇa conception. Try to live in Vraja connection with those divine damsels, how they’re recklessly engaged in serving the sweet will of their Lord. They’re all sacrificed emblem, prepared always.

That SS Army of Hitler with what: suicidal squadron, prepared for anything and everything.

So the Vraja gopīs are something like that, suicidal. For the slight satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa they ready to give up their whole, not only whole body, their whole prospect, whole thing, everything. Everything concerning, very: at second notice, such prepared-ness for the service of Kṛṣṇa with the whole risk of whole thing. That is the highest standard of life.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Hari. Sacrifice to the extreme we find. Sacrifice for the good. Sacrifice for the Absolute Good, and good, beauty, and bliss, ecstasy. So your abode will be very nearest according to the degree and intensity of sacrificing attitude. The nearer approach: by sacrifice we live, and by enjoying we lose, and by serving we thrive. By serving we thrive and by enjoying we lose. And renunciation is zero, no loss, no gain. In comparison with the positive acquisition it is loss. No loss, no gain, when there is no gain then that is a loss. In that sense that is a loss. Renunciation, mukti, salvation, mere liberation, that is a loss in comparison with the positive attainment of a servitor. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Reality is For Itself. It is for nothing else than Him, He. We are for Him. We are for Him. Our existence meant only for Him, service for Him. He’s the integer. He’s existing. He’s all in all, and we are all subservient.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

‘dayāl nitāi caitanya bo’le nāc re āmār man, nitāi caitanya bo’le nāc re āmār man,

aparādha dūre jābe, pābe prema-dhan, kṛṣṇa-nāme ruci ha’be, ghucibe bandhan

anāyāse saphal habe jīvera jīvan, vṛndāvane rādhā-śyāmer pā be darśan

nitāi caitanya bo’le nāc re āmār man

Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Gaura Gadādhara.

[(1)]

[‘dayāl nitāi caitanya bo’le nāc re āmār man, nāc re āmār man, nāc re āmār man]

[“O my mind, just dance! O my mind, just dance! O my mind, please dance, chanting, “dayāl nitāi caitanya!”]

...

[(2)]

[(emon dayāl to nāi he, mār kheye prema dey)

(tabe) aparādha dūre jābe, pābe prema-dhan

(aparādhera-vicāra to nāi he)

takhon kṛṣṇa-nāme ruci ha’be, ghucibe bandhan]

[“Such a merciful personality as Nityānanda Prabhu is not to be found anywhere. He suffers a beating from Jagāi and Mādhāi and still gives them love of God. When you become offenceless, you will obtain love of God; but in these names of Caitanya and Nitāi there is no consideration of offences. Once you have a taste for the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa, bondage to this world will come to an end.”]

...

[(3)]

[(anurāg to habe he)

takhon anāyāse saphal habe jīvera jīvan

(kṛṣṇa-rati vinā jīvan to miche he)

śeṣe vṛndāvane rādhā-śyāmer pā be darśan

(gaura-kṛpā hale he)]

[“When there is attachment to the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa, then, very easily, the life of a living being becomes successful. Without attachment to Kṛṣṇa, life is simply false. If the mercy of Lord Gaura is there, then at the end of life you will obtain the beautiful vision of Rādhā and Śyāma in Vṛndāvana.”]

[Dayāl Nitāi Caitanya, by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura]

[Within SCSM Kīrttan Guide, 4th Edition, p 54]

End of 81.12.24.B_81.12.27.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.27.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:

nīlāmbhodhi-taṭe sadā sva-virahā-kṣepanvitaṁ bāndhavaṁ

śrīmad-bhāgavatī kathā madirayā sañjīvayan bhāti yaḥ

śrīmad-bhāgavataṁ sadā sva-nayanāśru-pāyanaiḥ pūjayan

gosvāmi-prabaro gadādhara-vibhūr-bhūyāt mad-ekā-gatiḥ

[“On the shore of the broad blue ocean, Gadādhara Paṇḍita used to read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who was suffering from the great internal pain of separation from Himself (Kṛṣṇa). Gadādhara Paṇḍita supplied the wine of Kṛṣṇa līlā to intoxicate his afflicted friend and give Him relief. As he read, tears would fall from his eyes like flower offerings onto the pages of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. May the pleasure of that brilliant personality, Gadādhara Paṇḍita, the best of the Goswāmīs, be my only object in writing this book.”]

[Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja originally composed this verse to introduce his summary study of the 18,000 verse Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Just as Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura condensed the whole Bhāgavata principle into 1,000 verses in his Bhāgavata-arka-marici-mālā, Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja said he had a mind to consolidate it even more, to represent it within 300 verses, but he did not finish it.]

Mahāprabhu Gaurāṅga Sundar. Gaurāṅga Sundar. ______________________________ [?]

Nimāi is in his room studying?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha. Peculiar boy! Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. He knows to play mṛdaṅga, he knows to sing, he knows to deliver lecture, he knows to explain the Sanskrit, his pronunciation of Sanskrit verse also very accurate and sweet. He’s got qualities, but he’s beside himself.

Devotee: No, he’s not there Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not there.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He’s down somewhere.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He’s playing with that child, that son, Sarvabhavana’s son, Aniruddha, what’s his name?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Aniruddha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, Abhimanyu, playing with Abhimanyu. Ha, ha, ha.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Is he?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No? He’s not there?

Devotee: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. He’s fond of milk. Ha, ha. Śukadeva Goswāmī’s also stated, he only stood there where he found that one is milking the cow, stood for some time. And that man automatically took the pots of milk.

[sa go-dohana-mātraṁ hi, gṛheṣu gṛha-medhinām

avekṣate mahā-bhāgas, tīrthī-kurvaṁs tad āśramam]

[“He [Śukadeva Goswāmī] was accustomed to stay at the door of a householder only long enough for a cow to be milked. And he did this just to sanctify the residence.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 1.4.8]

Go-dohana-mātraṁ, he’s always moving, wandering. Only he was found to stand where he found that one is milking his cow, for some time, for the spiritual necessity, and taking some milk. No necessity of any house, or any room, or any dress, or anything else. Astonishing! Sixteen years old, but no dress, naked, and health is also full grown. No trace of austerity is there, full blown power, naked, with a vacant vision, searching vision for something else, transcendental, roaming about here and there. That is his external habit. Internally he’s roaming in the land of infinite beauty and charm. And his personality also was a charm to all the stalwarts of the scholars of the day, the charm, a mysterious charm, his personality – no scholarship, no yoga, nothing – satisfied in himself he’s roaming about – caring for nothing of this world. Only sometimes he’s seen to stand where cow milking, that has been mentioned. That is perhaps for the inspiration, Kṛṣṇa’s, at the intervention of Kṛṣṇa, to stand, and getting something, vanishing.

pariniṣṭhito 'pi nairguṇye, uttamaḥ-śloka-līlayā

[gṛhīta-cetā rājarṣe, ākhyānaṁ yad adhītavān,

tad ahaṁ te 'bhidhāsyāmi, mahā-pauruṣiko bhavān

yasya śraddadhatām āśu, syān mukunde matiḥ sate]

[“O saintly King, I was certainly situated perfectly in transcendence, yet I was still attracted by the delineation of the pastimes of the Lord, who is described by enlightened verses.”] [“That very Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam I shall recite before you because you are the most sincere devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. One who gives full attention and respect to hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam achieves unflinching faith in the Supreme Lord, the giver of salvation.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 2.1.9-10]

His mind is always following the meaning of the uttamaḥ-śloka. “How wonderful description in the Sanskrit poems there are about Kṛṣṇa, what wonderful, what wonderful, what wonder, wonder, wonder, land of wonder, land of wonder, love, beauty, charm, ecstasy, whatnot.”

Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

svapne yathā śiraś-chedaṁ, [pañcatvādy ātmanaḥ svayam

yasmāt paśyati dehasya, tata ātmā hy ajo 'maraḥ]

[“In a dream one can see his own head being cut off and thus understand that his actual self is standing apart from the dream experience. Similarly, while awake one can see that his body is a product of the five material elements. Therefore it is to be understood that the actual self, the soul, is distinct from the body it observes and is unborn and immortal.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 12.5.4]

A man may see that his body is falling there beheaded, but does not affect his existence or his perception. A body is beheaded there fallen, he’s seeing in his dream. So that connection with the body, the soul has got similar connection with this world. It is not affected. He may see standing the Earth vanished, but still he’s standing somewhere, Earth vanishes, it becomes pulverised, vanishes. So such is the independent position of the soul, but not dependent on material existence, but it thinks that material thing is indispensable necessary to maintain his existence, the wrong concoction. But in fact he may see in dream he’s there but the whole Earth has vanished, the Earth is going away from under his feet. He may see in dream the very Earth is going away from my feet where I’m standing. So such is the connection with the material world he has got, no necessity of material conception for him to stand on, which seems to be so much indispensable for our being: it is not so. It is independent. In the mental system that is also independent of the material existence, what to speak of soul. Soul has nothing to do with this matter. This is some foreign concocted dream, dream substance, this matter. This is our poison to the soul. The material conception is rather poison to the soul – drawing soul towards opposite interest.

So the Māyāvādī, the Buddhist, “With the dissolution of the material conception nothing remains.” Nothing remains according to Buddhists. And according to Śaṅkara, “Only some non-differentiated consciousness remains, and no individual conception there can stand.”

But the Vaiṣṇava says, “No, there is a world of reality made of higher stuff than your soul is. Soul is vulnerable consciousness, and invulnerable conscious world is there. And if you can manage to enter there only by the interest of serving, getting service there, to render a service there, with that interest you can enter, contact entrance into that land, and you will be happy. And that sort of adopt-ability is within you. That is your svarūpa, the adopt-ability of the positive life is within the soul inherent. You are to grow, full bloom, full blown, you reach the Goloka stage – blossom, in blossomed condition. And material adopt-ability, mal adopt-ability has taken us in the negative side, in different stages. We are wandering for that. Not only unnecessary but it is injurious for the soul, fallen condition. Nitāi Gaura Gadādhara. Nitāi Gaura Gadādhara.

Just as by swimming we can make progress, so also by hearing and kīrtana, chanting, we can make progress, śravaṇa kīrtana jali, to hear and to distribute it to others. What I’ve acquired I shall give it to others. In this way the progress is very fast, śravaṇa kīrtana, to take delivery from the capitalist and to give delivery to the customers. Indenting and exporting, in this way make fare progress, śravaṇa kīrtana, śravaṇa kīrtana, by passing. And the Absolute Capitalist He will supply, as much as we can make delivery to the customers. Mahāprabhu’s dictation is something like that.

yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa, [āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa

kabhu nā vādhibe tomāra viṣaya-taraṅga, punarapi ei ṭhāñi pābe mora saṅga]

[“Instruct whoever you meet in the science of Kṛṣṇa. Teach them the instructions of Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā, and the teachings about Kṛṣṇa in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way, on My order, become a Guru and liberate everyone in the land. If you follow this instruction, the waves of materialism within this world will not affect you. Indeed, if you follow My order, you will soon attain My association.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 7.128-9]

Give delivery of these goods to anyone and everyone and new light will come to you and distribute it to others. In this way dynamic, a passing life, progressive life you’ll have.

Mahāprabhu Gaurāṅga Sundara. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Rādhe jaya jaya Rādhe, Rādhe jaya jaya Rādhe, jaya jaya jayo jayo Rādhe,

Rādhe jaya jaya Rādhe, Rādhe jaya jaya Rādhe, jaya jaya jayo jayo Rādhe,

Rādhe jaya jaya Rādhe.

Mahāprabhu Gaurāṅga Sundara. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja, very cold?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No? You have got sufficient blanket?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: O yes, everything by your grace.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. His mercy: grace.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Our cold is how to catch the thread of that service.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Service?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What service? That you have got?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Our coldness, that we are cold so that the thread of service, bhakti proper.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Your preparedness for service that is your capital.

Devotees: [Laugh]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Madhan Manohan Prabhu has sent a letter that he’s coming to Vṛndāvana and he likes to purchase a plot there, and he has asked for my permission. Then he’ll stay there up to ten, after that he may come here. But as soon as possible he wanted me to give, if I think it proper, to give him order purchase some plot there. He likes that place very much.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: O yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Because, he says, none to criticise there. The devotees in any other place, people at large they want to criticise the Vaiṣṇava, the śikhā, the mālā, the very life.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. That is śanta rasa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Peaceful life, and the servant, they are ready to fight for, if necessary.

Swāmī Mahārāja invoked help, assistance from Kṛṣṇa. “Come to my help. I have been ordered by Your favourite to do this duty. Please help me. After discharging, or finishing this duty I shall again join Your play in Vṛndāvana. And there we shall play, we shall run, we shall...

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Jump and roll.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...jump and we shall do anything and everything in a boisterous way.” Ha, ha, ha. “Join Your campaign. But now a little duty I have got to discharge. And that is ordered by Your most favourite person. And if You help me for that then Your friend will be, that most favourite friend will be pleased with You. You’ll get some advantage there.”

In this way he’s posing. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Kṛṣṇa taba puṇya habe bhāi, “You will acquire good merit if You help me.” [From Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāja’s Prayer to the Lotus Feet of Kṛṣṇa, written on the Jaladuta, Sept 13th 1965]

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. When Kṛṣṇa He held that Govardhana Giri with the little finger of the left hand, then after the function was over, His friends the cowherds they told, “You did not hold it alone. We also helped You with our sticks. You mind it. You could not do it alone.” So they’re sharing the pleasure. And also they think, they do not care to think about His extraordinary majesty or power or anything else. “One among us, but very beautiful, we cannot but live without Him. We don’t know why, what for. But anyhow if He’s not in our midst we are all lifeless. When He comes we get the power of merriment, anything.” Very life to them. “Some peculiar power He possesses, but still He’s one of them, one of us. If there is He is God, no, no, He can’t be God. We don’t admit that. He’s our friend. Who says that He’s God? We don’t care. He’s our friend, and very charming friend.”

Yaśodā also: “He’s my son. Those people that do not like that I may live in peace they say so many things, that, ‘He’s God, He’s so and He’s so.’ Why do they say like that? He’s my child. They’re so much jealous and envious they don’t like that I may stay, I may live peacefully with my son and husband. So envious they are they say that He’s God, He’s so and He’s so. No. He’s my child. They cannot tolerate such a beautiful child I have got, they can’t tolerate that, so they’re floating speculations of different types. I don’t like these things. That will be some ominous thing to my child. Why He should go to be a god? Human beings as we are.”

kṛṣṇera yateka khelā, sarvottama nara-līlā, nara-vapu tāhāra svarūpa

[gope-veśa, veṇu-kara nava kiśora, nata-vara, nara līlāra haya anurūpa]

[“Lord Kṛṣṇa has many pastimes, of which His pastimes as a human being are the best. His form as a human being is the Supreme Transcendental Form. In this form, He is a cowherd boy. He carries a flute in His hand, and His youth is new. He is also an expert dancer. All this is just suitable for His pastimes as a human being.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 21.101]

Mahāprabhu taught all these things. Everyone’s society seems to be so much valuable, why? Because Kṛṣṇa’s original līlā is in this form. So the human society is created after His original social fashion, so they’re so important, this human society, human form, human civilisation, after that, it’s created after that. Sarvottama nara-līlā, nara-vapu tāhāra svarūpa.

And this has been mutilated in these days to say that human creation that is the highest of all creation. “Of all creation, human section is the highest. So we are masters of the fossil world. We are masters. We have not to give explanation for our activities to anyone. We are the masters.” That is the scientific civilisation. But sometimes they’re afraid. “If higher cultured people are found in sukragraha [?] or any other star then we are nowhere. In flying saucer if they come once to attack with new type of weapons then we are nowhere.” But before this they may fight with one another with atom bomb and they’re finished.

Gaura Haribol. Suicidal, this is suicidal, after all, discordant plane. One cannot live without devouring his environment. That is the law of the land. If you want to live, stay, you must devour your environment, otherwise you can’t stay. So suicidal plane, one eating another, one eating another; only then he can live, for the time being. So is this a land to live?

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

‘gaurāṅga bolite habe pulaka-śarīra, ‘hari hari’ bolite nayane ba’be nīra

āra kabe nitāi-cānder koruṇā hoibe, saṁsāra-vāsanā mora kabe tuccha ha’be

viṣaya chāriyā kabe śuddha ha’be mana, kabe hāma herabo śrī-vṛndāvana

rūpa-raghunātha-pade hoibe ākuti, kabe hāma bujhabo se jugala-pīriti

rūpa-raghunātha-pade rahu mora āśa, prāthanā koroye sadā narottama-dāsa

[From Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura’s Lālasāmayī Prārthanā]

[& page 70, Songs of the Vaiṣṇava Ācāryas]

Gaura Hari Haribol. Gaura Hari Hari. Gaura Nityānanda bol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Gadādhara bol. Gaura Hari Hari. Gaura Śrī Advaita bol. Gaura Hari Hari.

Gaura Śrīnivāsa bol. Gaura Hari Hari. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Mahāprabhu. Mahāprabhu. Mahāprabhu.

Today’s Sunday? Sunday! Have you taken prasādam?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hari. ...came, what is his name? Yesterday or day before yesterday.

(That of grave arm, maha-bhuja, bhuja, bhuk, bhoga yujya ?)

Who can consume infinite, that is __________ [?]

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

...

...to cross this jungle; to put into the highway, we want to go towards __________ [?]

Then that chief told, “Yes, my astrologer told me, reported to me, that you have not seven but eight coins with you – with your – this night I’d planned to kill you both and to take that. But you have come voluntarily to hand it over to me. I’m much satisfied with your behaviour. I won’t accept them – but only, as you are a good man I shall help you to get away from the jungle towards the highway.”

“No, no. If you don’t accept please be kind enough to accept this, otherwise anyone will kill me for this, so you please accept.”

Then he accepted and helped him to get out.

Sanātana Goswāmī came back and asked his attendant, “Have you got one more?”

“Yes, I have got one more.”

“You did not tell it so I could not know. Only one you have kept. If necessary for your service in any place with this coin you go back.”

Then Sanātana Goswāmī went alone: crossed the jungle path. And then he was in a mango tope [?] he’s sitting, too much tired, in Hajipur, Bihar. Then his brother-in-law was also serving under him, in the military department. He was sent to purchase some horses necessary for the battle. He, from the roof of a house suddenly found that in the mango tope a person seems like his brother-in-law, his wife’s brother. And Sanātana Goswāmī was his sister’s husband.

Devotee: They were brothers-in-law.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Both were brothers-in-law. And he came down and met him in a solitary garden. “What is this?”

“You don’t spread it. I’m flying away. Leaving __________ [?] against _____ [?] though I was imprisoned _____________ [?] I’m going away. Don’t make any...

Devotee: Alarm.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: “Alarm, or don’t inform it to others.”

“Then you will die, in such winter season without any dress you are starting towards that. Please accept this one blanket.” A costly blanket he gave.

“This is costly.”

“No, save yourself and then whatever you’ll do.”

Then with that _______________________________ [?] Then Sanātana Goswāmī went to Benares and there he heard that Caitanyadeva has come back from Vṛndāvana and staying here in Benares. Then he ascertained that Caitanyadeva is in the house of Candraśekhara. And he, Mahāprabhu is sitting on the veranda of the Candraśekhara. And Sanātana Goswāmī just did not venture to enter into the house, he wanted to enter but could not, he passed through the gate and took his seat on the other side.

But he could not avoid Mahāprabhu’s detection. Mahāprabhu asked the householder, Candraśekhara, “There is some vairāgī perhaps just outside the gate. Please call him to Me.”

Then Candraśekhara went out and saw, but did not find any vairāgī. “No, there is no vairāgī there.”

“But is anyone there, anyone else?”

“Yes, there is a fakir.”

“Yes, call that fakir.”

Then that daraveśa, ‘prabhu tomāya bolāya, āisa, daraveśa!’, he told: “My Lord is calling you, sending for you. You fortunate daraveśa come within.”

Śuni’ ānande sanātana karilā praveśa, Mahāprabhu hurriedly came down and went to embrace him.

Sanātana told, “No, no, I’m so mean, I’m so wretched. Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me.”

Prabhu kahe, – “tomā sparśi ātma pavitrite, Mahāprabhu says, “Only to purify Myself that I want to touch you Sanātana. You are so pure. You are so great. You possess Kṛṣṇa prema. You are so pure to the extreme. Only to purify Me I want to touch you.”

In this way Sanātana was embraced.

[candraśekharera ghare āsi’ dvārete vasilā, mahāprabhu jāni’ candraśekhare kahilā]

[‘dvāre eka ‘vaiṣṇava’ haya, bolāha tāṅhāre’ candraśekhara dekhe – ‘vaiṣṇava’ nāhika dvāre]

[‘dvārete vaiṣṇava nāhi’ – prabhure kahila, ‘keha haya’ kari’ prabhu tāhāre puchila]

[teṅho kahe – eka ‘daraveśa’ āche dvāre, ‘tāṅre āna’ prabhura vākye kahila tāṅhāre]

[‘prabhu tomāya bolāya, āisa, daraveśa!’, śuni’ ānande sanātana karilā praveśa]

[tāṅhāre aṅgane dekhi’ prabhu dhāñā āilā, tāṅre āliṅgana kari’ premāviṣṭa hailā]

[prabhu-sparśe premāviṣṭa ha-ilā sanātana, ‘more nā chuṅiha’ – kahe gadgada-vacana]

[dui-jane galāgali rodana apāra, dekhi’ candraśekharera ha-ila camatkāra]

[tabe prabhu tāṅra hāta dhari’ lañā gelā, piṇḍāra upare āpana-pāśe vasāilā]

[śrī-haste karena tāṅra aṅga sammārjana, teṅho kahe, – ‘more, prabhu, nā kara sparśana’]

[prabhu kahe, – “tomā sparśi ātma pavitrite, bhakti-bale pāra tumi brahmāṇḍa śodhite]

[bhavad-vidhā bhāgavatās, tīrtha-bhūtāḥ svayaṁ prabho

tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni, svāntaḥ-sthena gadā-bhṛtā]

[Sanātana Goswāmī then went to the house of Candraśekhara and sat down by the door. Understanding what was happening, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu spoke to Candraśekhara.] [Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “There is a devotee at your door. Please call him in.” Going outside, Candraśekhara could not see a Vaiṣṇava at his door.] [When Candraśekhara informed the Lord that no Vaiṣṇava was at his door, the Lord asked him, “Is there anyone at your door at all?”] [Candraśekhara replied, “There is a Muslim mendicant.” Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu immediately said, “Please bring him here.” Candraśekhara then spoke to Sanātana Goswāmī, who was still sitting beside the door.] [“O Muslim mendicant, please come in. The Lord is calling you.” Sanātana Goswāmī was very pleased to hear this order, and he entered Candraśekhara’s house.] [As soon as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu saw Sanātana Goswāmī in the courtyard, He immediately went up to him with great haste. After embracing him, the Lord was overwhelmed with ecstatic love.] [As soon as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu touched Sanātana Goswāmī, Sanātana was also overwhelmed with ecstatic love. In a faltering voice, he said, “O my Lord, do not touch me.”] [Shoulder to shoulder, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Sanātana Goswāmī began to cry unlimitedly. Candraśekhara was very astonished to see this.] [Catching his hand, Śrī Caitaya Mahāprabhu took Sanātana Goswāmī inside and made him sit in an elevated place next to Him.] [When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu began cleansing Sanātana Goswāmī’s body with His own transcendental hand, Sanātana Goswāmī said, “O my Lord, please do not touch me.”] [The Lord replied, “I am touching you just to purify Myself because by the force of your devotional service you can purify the whole universe.”] [“‘Saints of your calibre are themselves places of pilgrimage. Because of their purity, they are constant companions of the Lord, and therefore they can purify even the places of pilgrimage.’] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.46-56]

Then Sanātana had a talk, primary. And then Mahāprabhu was looking towards this valuable wrapper, casting glance. And Sanātana thought that, “Mahāprabhu does not like it. Repeatedly He’s casting His eyes on this valuable [blanket]. I’m a beggar. I’m eating by begging, and this valuable wrapper around my neck it does not look well.”

So Sanātana went to the Ganges to take bath and there he found that one Bengali gentleman, his kāṅthā, his cloth, prepared from old dhotis by sewing together, and one Bengali beggar after cleansing it he has given it to be dried in the sun. Sanātana approached him, “O my friend, will you take this rag and give me your cloth to me.”

He looks at his face, “You seem to be a man of consideration, but why do you laugh at me, ridicule me? This is highly valuable wrapper and you want to interchange. I don’t understand your ways.”

“No, no, you please be gracious. I appeal. It does not look well that I shall have. One gentleman has given it to me but it doesn’t fit my livelihood.” So anyhow he managed to get in exchange that old cloth for that wrapper.

And also Mahāprabhu felt that, bhadra karāñā [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.70] That big beard and moustache ____________ and a clean shave, and changing that valuable wrapper with that old cloth wrapper he came to Mahāprabhu. Mahāprabhu was highly pleased and gave him the dress which is now we find with the bābājīs, one for the upper part and another for the lower part, and kaupīna. And Tapana Miśra he went with new cloth, Sanātana did not accept. “Only give old, used one.” And with that old, used cloth he prepared his dress and went on the front of Mahāprabhu, and that was the bābājī dress of the present day.

In this way, two months Sanātana stayed there, and Mahāprabhu also to teach them full two months Mahāprabhu taught him about the devotional instructions of different Purāṇas, and that renowned ātmārāma śloka explanation.

When everything finished Sanātana Goswāmī told, “I want to hear those eighteen kinds of explanations You gave to a particular śloka of Bhāgavatam. I’d like to hear that if You please, if You think me fit to attend that please.”

Mahāprabhu told, “Generally I know variegated meanings come to My mind, that in the association of Sārvabhauma Paṇḍita that came at that time in My mind and I explained. Let Me try. Through your association what sort of explanations may come within My mind, let Me try.” In this way Mahāprabhu began to explain that śloka in different ways and it came to sixty one there; types of explanations from one śloka.

Then Sanātana Goswāmī told, “That You say of Yuga Avatāra, but who is the Yuga Avatāra in Kali-yuga?”

Devotee: _____________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _____________________________________________________ [?]

“Then this colour will be yellow, the figure will be such and such. And His behaviour will be to take everyone Kṛṣṇa Nāma, give Kṛṣṇa prema, He’s the Kali-yuga Avatāra?” Just meaning Mahāprabhu.

Mahāprabhu avoided, “You say all these cunning behaviour and hear about other things.” In this way avoided and went on.

And after the instruction and advices were finished then Sanātana Goswāmī, “You have given me the burden of responsibility of doing so many things which is not possible by this tiny soul. But if You grace me, You bless me, then I shall try what You have given me the responsibility of doing so many things.”

Lukta tīrtha udar vigraha prakasa, then śāstra prakasa, sadacar, all these śāstra.

Then Mahāprabhu told that, “I say that when you begin this work Kṛṣṇa will come to your help.”

“I do not know Kṛṣṇa. I know You alone. So if You bless me with Your feet dust then I get some inspiration.”

And Mahāprabhu put His hand on his head, and Sanātana Goswāmī forcibly took His feet on his head, “That this will help me when I shall begin.”

After that Mahāprabhu left for Purī and Sanātana Goswāmī anyhow stayed there.

“You go to Vṛndāvana. Rūpa is already trained in Allahabad and sent to Vṛndāvana with some charge...

Devotee: _____________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...and then both brothers there, and began to fulfil the orders of Mahāprabhu Śrī Caitanyadeva, those two brothers. Then gradually Gopāla Bhaṭṭa came, Raghunātha dāsa went, then that Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa also went there. Then Jīva Goswāmī also joined lastly, six Goswāmīs and Lokanātha Goswāmī, Bhugarbha Goswāmī. There was a party of Mahāprabhu. They began to spread the teachings and practices of Mahāprabhu there.

End of 81.12.27.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.27.C_81.12.29.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...are supplied by them, the scriptural aspect of the pracāra, and the practical by Nityānanda, Advaita, Śrīnivāsa Ācārya, in Bengal. They’re going on with practical duties, saṅkīrtana, making disciples. And the scriptural side was gathered, compiled and gathered and published by the Vṛndāvana party, under the lead of Sanātana, then Rūpa, Jīva, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa, and Raghunātha dāsa etc. They’re the authentic scriptural…

Devotee: Under the leadership of Sanātana Goswāmī Mahārāja. He was the leader of the scriptural compilation.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Physically, but that is with the viddhi…

Devotee: The rules and regulations.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The general…

Devotee: Scriptural injunction.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: …scriptural injunction, the injunction of the general devotional side. And the internal, raga side, that was relied with Rūpa Goswāmī to analyse the affection, love, and the, our affinity, the mental, the sentimental side. That was taken up by Śrī Rūpa, the rasa-vihara, śanta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya. The external side by Sanātana and the internal side of love given Vṛndāvana, and that was entrusted with Śrī Rūpa, he’s empowered, inspiration from Mahāprabhu for that. And Rūpa took up that anurāga side, the love affairs, divine love. He began to produce original scriptures. And Sanātana he collected many directions from different Purāṇas and other previous scriptures, holy scriptures, and by power of that he tried to prove that what Śrī Caitanyadeva has told, that is the real purpose of life. And in this way we can acquire that end of our life. The external side was supplied by Sanātana Goswāmī and the internal side by Rūpa Goswāmī. And Jīva Goswāmī afterwards came to prove and put that in Vedic and Vedāntic basis. That this is the object, the purpose of the Veda, the Vedānta, and the Purāṇa, they all say what’s the gist, the very purport, what Mahāprabhu has endowed our Guru, Goswāmī, Sanātana, Rūpa has done, that is proved by the scriptures, living scriptures of all of the sanātana-dhāma. And Gopāla Bhaṭṭa also gave some dictence about the smṛti from Rāmānuja section the bhaktiskal [?] also was added to that. In this way the things began, nearly four-hundred and a half years ago, four-fifty years back.

Devotee: Mahārāja, did Mahāprabhu in any place directly mention that He was the Supreme Personality?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That was only revealed with Rāmānanda.

Devotee: But that even not spoken out.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No. “You conceal it. Your intense divine love has forced Me to show this to you, but don’t divulge it to others.” In this way He showed, Rasa-rāja mahābhāva dui eka rūpa [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 8.282]. He was forced by Rāmānanda’s love to show in that way. And in other places also, in some mystic way, just as to…

Devotee: Murārī Gupta.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This Murārī Gupta in a way, that Tīrtha-vipra, to him. Suddenly in some places and then suppressed. In this way He showed.

Devotee: Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sārvabhauma, playfully, not direct, “That I am so.” To Tīrtha-vipra somewhat, and to Rāmānanda to the fullest extent, “That I am so and so.” That also in a suppressed way, somehow, “Don’t divulge it to others, don’t give it publicity.”

Devotee: Mahārāja, yesterday you were beginning to explain that Svarūpa Dāmodara Goswāmī, he had composed fourteen ślokas which is the basis of…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Basis of all.

Devotee: Yes. But I think something else came in between and you did not explain. Could we hear that explanation once more Mahārāja, if it is…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What?

Devotee: About these fourteen ślokas.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is found in Caitanya-caritāmṛta [Ādi-līlā, 1-14] who is Mahāprabhu, who is Nityānanda Prabhu, who is Gadādhara, who is Advaita, this Pañca-Tattva. Six ślokas for Mahāprabhu, five devoted to Nityānanda Prabhu, perhaps two for Advaita Prabhu, one for Gadādhara Paṇḍita, another for Pañca-Tattva perhaps. These fourteen ślokas came from Svarūpa Dāmodara and that is the basis of the whole līlā of Mahāprabhu. He was the most intimate, Rādhārāṇī, Lalitā, and he knew everything. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Svarūpa Dāmodara is within our Guru paramparā but not Rāmānanda. Rāmānanda is nearer to Kṛṣṇa than to Rādhārāṇī.

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Viśākhā Nāma, between the Two, middle-man. A little inclined towards Kṛṣṇa. But Lalitā is exclusively in the support of Rādhārāṇī. And sometimes she becomes haughty, ha, ha, towards Kṛṣṇa, cruel, to deal with Him, to keep up the dignity of her Mistress Śrī Rādhikā. She is_____________ [?]

Devotee: Unconcerned.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No. Desperate, sometimes she becomes desperate, crosses the reason and, the plane of reason and rhyme. Uttugga-sauhrda-visesa-vasat pragalbham, Rūpa Goswāmī, he’s describing her nature, Lalitā Devī.

rādhā-mukunda-pada-sambhava-gharmmabindu-, nirmmañcanopakaraṇe kṛta-deha-lakṣyām

uttugga-sauhrda-visesa-vasat pragalbham, devim gunaih sulalitam lalitam namami

[“I offer praṇāma unto the haughty Lalitā Devī who is charmingly endowed with many beautiful, sweet qualities (sulalita). She has natural expertise in all arts (lalita), thus her sevā self-manifests. She wipes away the glittering drops of perspiration which appear upon the lotus feet of Śrī Rādhā and Mādhava when They meet; and she is perpetually immersed in the most elevated mellow of sauhrda-rasa, or undivided absorption in fulfilling the heart’s desire of her intimate friend Śrīmatī Rādhikā.”] [Lalitastakam, 1]

Rūpa Goswāmī says, “I bow down to that great mistress Lalitā, whose nature is such. How? Rādhā-mukunda-pada-sambhava-gharmma-bindu-nirma. If she finds a little drop of sweat either in the foot of Rādhārāṇī or Mādhava she’s besides herself and wants to take one million bodies. How eagerly she wants to remove that drop of sweat. That is her eagerness, earnestness of service of Both of Them. She can’t tolerate that if a drop of sweat should come on Their feet she becomes mad to find it. And at least with one lākh of bodies, with that attitude she goes to remove that. So much affection she behaves towards Them. Rādhā-mukunda-pada-sambhava-gharmmabindu-, nirmmañcanopakaraṇe kṛta-deha-lakṣyām, uttugga-sauhrda-visesa-vasat pragalbham. Sometimes she’s a little ________ [?]

Devotee: Light?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ________________ [?] Boisterous, sometimes she seems to...

Devotee: Playful mood?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not playful, a little ugra [haughtiness]...

Devotee: Cruel?

Devotees: No. No.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: She crosses the limit of gentleness, discourteous, impertinence, some degree of impertinence is shown in her behaviour. Uttugga-sauhrda-visesa-vasat pragalbham. But over-talkative, she’s something more, unnecessary, but that is only meant for the highest degree of her affection towards the Both. Can’t tolerate, she becomes a little, prajalpa, talkative, over-talkative sometimes, crosses the limit of courtesy she’s seen sometimes. But that is only for the extreme attraction for Their good.

yam kam api vraja-kule vrsabhanujayah-, preksya sva-paksa-padavim anuruddhyamanam -

[sadyas tad ista-ghatanena krtarthayantim-, devim gunaih sulalitam lalitam namami]

[“I offer praṇāma unto the supremely charming Śrī Lalitā Devī, the treasure house of all good qualities. Upon seeing any young maiden anywhere in Vraja and discerning that she is inclined towards her priya-sakhī Śrīmatī Rādhikā, Lalitā immediately tells Rādhā that She must accept this person in Her own party (sva-paksa). Rādhā obeys Lalitā, who thus fulfils that maiden’s desires.”] [Lalitastakam, 7]

Whomever she’s coming across while walking in the streets of Vṛndāvana: “Come, join our side.” Ha, ha. “Join us, join us. There is Candrāvalī’s side and others. Join us, join us.” Whomever she finds, any girl. “Come, come, join us, join us, join the camp of Rādhārāṇī.” Yam kam api vraja-kule vrsabhanujayah-preksya sva-paksa-padavim anuruddhyamanam - sadyas tad ista. And if only she admits, “Yes, take me, accept me, yes…

Devotee: Enlist your name.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: “Yes, enlist her name. Come, join us.” In this way she’s moving. Sadyas tad ista-ghatanena krtarthayantim: fulfilling her aspiration immediately, “Come, join, take her to the office of Rūpa.” Ha, ha, ha…

Devotees: Ha, ha, ha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: … of Rūpa, if she will take up the invitation.” Big things! Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: This can only, such topics, although it is far above us Mahārāja, but never the less hearing it from you we might get a desire…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: … to approach that with utmost respect.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Very guarded, well-guarded, we shall try to if possible.

Devotee: Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So he showed his stand, but still of such time on that. Śrutibhir vimṛgyām [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.47.61], the Śruti, the Veda, from far away showing by fingers the braja-rasa in this side. Ha, ha. “In this side, go that side. We can’t approach more. In this way.” Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: There’s a wonderful prayer…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee:…by the Śrutis personified in Bṛhat-Bhāgavatāmṛta, Sanātana, it’s very beautiful..

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In Bhāgavatam also, the Śruti they’re trying to get their crime excused.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Forgiven.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: They say that, “We say that we Śruti we failed in our duty to express You my Lord. We rather, what we expressed that was something like Brahman. But You are so and so, so playful, so sweet, so accommodating, we could not understand. We could not express also even like that, our failure when we asked for that.” The Śrutis are saying like that.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

yadi gaura nā hoita, tabe ki hoita, kemone dharitām de

rādhāra mahimā, prema-rasa-sīmā jagate jānāta ke

[madhura vṛndā vipina mādhurī praveśa cāturī sāra

baraja yuvatī bhāvera bhakati śakati hoita kāra]

[Vāsudeva Datta]

“Who would come to divulge all these secrets of the harem of Kṛṣṇa if Mahāprabhu did not appear in this world with so much benevolence? It won’t be possible that a jīva can enter there in such a highest quarter of the līlā of the Lord.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. ________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Jaya oṁ viṣṇu-pāda paramahaṁsa...

…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: …Hyderabad, it is also within Andhra, Andhra Province.

Mādhava Mahārāja [Janakabhai]: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This temple, so Hyderabad has got some influence there, the richest temple in the whole of India.

Mādhava Mahārāja: I wanted to invite you to come there Mahārāja so they could meet you. I wanted to invite you to Tirupati so that they can meet you and maybe they can make you the Ācārya there.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha, ha. It is not possible for me to go so far. I wish you success from here.

Mādhava Mahārāja: They have put Bhakti Svarūpa Dāmodar Mahārāja, and myself, and Shankabrit dāsa, we are now…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And?

Mādhava Mahārāja: Shankabrit, he is one South Indian devotee. They have put us on the Advisory Council to the Executive Officer.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Shankabrit is a disciple of Swāmī Mahārāja?

Mādhava Mahārāja: Yes, yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. He comes from Andhra or Keral?

Mādhava Mahārāja: He comes from, perhaps from Bangalore, I think he may be from Bangalore, I’m not sure. He’s a notorious disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Tamil, Andhra, Tamil, and that Kanatak, and Kerala, four sections in the south.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Yes. So he wants us also to become active in the press, to bring up the quality of the printing. It’s very bad quality at present. But they have all modern machinery, computers, and big, big machines. They’re spending crores of rupees for printing press.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Caru Swāmī, has he reached there?

Mādhava Mahārāja: Bhakti Caru Mahārāja is there.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There?

Mādhava Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right.

Mādhava Mahārāja: He was lecturing with us and they liked him very much also. He gave a wonderful lecture, very scientific lecture for one hour and a half. They want him to write this lecture in a book and distribute it in Tamil also, in Telugu. So I also have some good news for you from Delhi.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What is this?

Mādhava Mahārāja: We had that big conference in Delhi you know…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That conference, yes, yes.

Mādhava Mahārāja: …with two Nobel laureates. So in the newspaper it says, “Nobel laureate debunks theory of evolution.” Debunk.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bunk?

Mādhava Mahārāja: Ha, ha. Debunk, ha, ha, ha.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Debunk.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Debunk means?

Mādhava Mahārāja: Means he has defeated the theory of evolution, he has thrown it out, Nobel laureate.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Defeats, means he defeated the theory of evolution.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh. The Darwin evolution.

Devotees: Refuted. It is finished.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is finished, all right.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is crushed, evaporated.

Mādhava Mahārāja: It says, “Nobel laureate Professor Illya Pragosene [?] of Belgium, here today, Darwin’s theory of evolution about chance and necessity was no longer valid.”

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The Hegel’s ‘Ideal Realism’ is there to back, ‘Ideal Realism.’ The reality is an idea, the beginning of everything the idea first. ‘Ideal Realism.’ Idea is not an abstract imaginary thing but it is real. Everything is the effect of ideas, starting with an idea and then it is translated into action. Everywhere we find that. The beginning with idea, and then it realises itself into action. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Ideal Realism: that is Hegel’s theory. And ours of course, consciousness first, then these are all effects of consciousness. So many kinds of experience, theirs rather connected, grathitha [?] means - just as, what is this to _____ [?] sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva, in Gītā:

[mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat, kiñcid asti dhanañjaya

mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ, sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva]

[“O Arjuna, there is nothing superior to Me. Everything depends on Me, just like pearls strung on a thread.] [Bhagavad-gītā, 7.7]

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Thread, threading.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ, sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva. “Just as in a thread so many jewels in a garland so I am within and everything is just like so many gems, jewels, and I am the sūtre grathitha [?] making them one, coming through, passing through them, sūtre. Mayi sarvam idaṁ protaṁ. Whatever you find it is all in Me in a thread, sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva, just as in a thread so many jewels are connected to make it a garland. So I am within just like a thread.”

So the beginning, the basis, the foundation, is He, the consciousness, the conscious will. And whatever everything is outwardly floating, the depth is the consciousness, He.

Devotees: _____________________________________________ [?]

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva, in Bhagavad-gītā you’ll find, sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva.

raso ‘ham apsu kaunteya, prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ

[praṇavaḥ sarva-vedeṣu, śabdaḥ khe pauruṣam nṛṣu]

[“O son of Kuntī, by the potency of the primordial element of taste, I am situated as the basis of the flavour of water; and by the opulence of effulgence, I am present in the sun and moon. I am present in the Vedas as their primeval sound vibration, the letter Oṁ; I am present in the atmosphere as the primordial element of sound; and as the Supreme Male, I am present in all men.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 7.8]

“The very gist of everything, all pervading, that is My, apparent, My one function is that, one of My functions, the pervading all through, keeping them, holding them. Raso ‘ham apsu kaunteya, prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ. In this way, the very gist of everything within Myself. And the conclusion is sūtre maṇi-gaṇā iva. Just as a thread He contains so many kinds of gems and flowers and many things, but the thread is there unifying. My position is such.”

Gaura Haribol.

Mādhava Mahārāja: So they said that when we presented our paper, we presented one paper…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is the beginning. You will be able to pulverise. Ha, ha.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha. They said we had established new school of thought. So I was wondering what will we call it?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: This is not, this is the oldest school, this is the oldest school, we have taken it up again.

Mādhava Mahārāja: What should we call this school? They should give us a name, the new school of thought. We were thinking of calling it ‘Interactionism,’ Interaction of life and matter. Do you think that would be appropriate?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Parīkṣit Mahārāja is told in the conclusion of Bhāgavatam by Śukadeva Goswāmī:

tvaṁ tu rājan mariṣyeti, paśu-buddhim imāṁ jahi

[na jātaḥ prāg abhūto ‘dya, deha-vat tvaṁ na naṅkṣyasi]

[“O King, give up the animalistic mentality of thinking: ‘I am going to die.’ Unlike the body, you have not taken birth. There was not a time in the past when you did not exist, and you are not about to be destroyed.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 12.5.2]

“That you will die, this is an animal consciousness. Don’t allow you to come down to the phenomenal world. You are independent; you can stay independently in the world of consciousness. And that is your eternal life. You come down in consciousness and influenced by the consciousness of matter, then you began to die and be reborn, because this matter comes and goes. But you are eternal soul. Why do you allow yourself to come down to material consciousness? You can retain your own ego and everything, pure in the spiritual sky, the spiritual atmosphere, independent of this matter. Don’t allow yourself to come, to indulge in, coming in material consciousness. If you do so you will die, and you will be born and death, birth and death; you will be victim to birth and death, because of your mal focused consciousness in this matter. Otherwise you can live independently, no necessity, no relativity of matter is necessary in your intrinsic life. This is, kill this wholesale, wholesale; butcher the idea. This is animal consciousness, paśu-buddhi, to come down and identify one with this physical frame. Why do you allow yourself to come down so low? That is the basis of spiritual consciousness. You can live and move freely. And you have got other prospects and resources in the spiritual world. Tvaṁ tu rājan mariṣyeti, paśu-buddhim, that I shall die, this is animal consciousness. Just kill it.”

And there’s another…the conclusion of Bhāgavatam he says, warning, “Are you afraid of dying now, you Parīkṣit. That serpent will come and bite you and you will die. Are you afraid of your death now, still now?”

“No, no, no. By your grace I am fully established in the conscious world. Now, whatever the serpent may like may do with this body. I don’t care to know what part he’s coming and biting and whatever will be the effect. I don’t care for that. I am fully established in my spiritual position, foundation.”

After the conclusion of Bhāgavatam he was asked in such a way, and he answered, replied also in that way.

So we find that in Mahābharata we find that snake rolled around his neck and then put a bite on the forehead. But in Bhāgavatam the snake came and touched his feet and Parīkṣit Mahārāja left the world. During Mahābharata stage what is the forehead biting, in Bhāgavata only touching the toe of the feet. So much negligence to this material existence, so much intensity of negligence in the material experience that the author of Bhāgavata says that the material disturbance only touched the feet. Whereas Mahābharata says it touched the head, gave his bite into the head. So material consciousness has been shown less importance in Bhāgavatam; well established. Same thing, same fact, but ignored, ignored its influence, the influence of matter over soul, so hatefully negligently shown in Bhāgavatam. But Mahābharata, some effect, that went to attack in the head.

These material incidents are of no importance. This is under the leg, under the foot, to be trampled down, material consciousness, prosperity, its charm, all these material achievements to be trampled down under foot.

Here we’ve got a real position by drinking the nectar of the līlā of the Supreme Entity. What do we care for these material things, achievements, or prosperity, or knowledge, or scholarship? Nothing of the thing, neglectfully dealt. We rather drunk deep the nectar of Kṛṣṇa līlā. The Mahābharata is not realised such a high stage, not dealt with. Gaura Haribol.

Anyhow, good sign, you’ve got good news and victory. But what’s the difficulty with ISKCON there? I am told that they already expressed that, “We don’t want to connect with ISKCON.” Is it true?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Tirupati.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Tirupati. Anything like that?

Mādhava Mahārāja: Well, some devotees have gone to Tirupati, and they were not pleased with their activities.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who was the leader of that party?

Mādhava Mahārāja: Different, no, not party, but different devotees have gone whom they found that were too aggressive. So, he only wants to have those devotees who are not, er, who understand the mentality…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yea, anyhow, Swāmī Mahārāja, you are there, Swāmī Mahārāja is there.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Yes. They know Swāmī Mahārāja. They respect him very much.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Whether ISKCON or this Trust, Vedānta Trust, one and the same.

Mādhava Mahārāja: But they discriminate between good devotees and bad devotees, ha, ha. So they are very pleased with Bhakti Svarūpa Dāmodar Mahārāja, he is very pleased with him. He likes him very much. So we are very happy to have him there to work with. We have made some programmes of giving lectures to the staff of TTD, and started one temple programme in one small temple in the housing colony. And they want us to do naga-saṅkīrtana daily, simple programme. They don’t want us to build one temple because already the temple is there. They simply want us to do naga-saṅkīrtana and give lectures on bhakti-yoga. Eventually they will give us some land. They want to get one hundred acres so we can build our institute.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: On the hill, or lowland?

Mādhava Mahārāja: On the lowland. The hill is considered Śeṣa-Nāga.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Śeṣa-Nāga.

Mādhava Mahārāja: ________________ [?] considers that hill to be Śeṣa-Nāga.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: On which side, the temple, on the southern?

Mādhava Mahārāja: I’m not sure which side that is. That is the side toward the Tirupati, when you’re coming up the hill…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The train from Gudru [?] from main line Gudru, Madras, Calcutta, from Gudru junction, a small, narrow gauge line going up, on which side of the line?

Mādhava Mahārāja: Well, when we’re coming from Gudur [?] to Tirupati you can see that side of the hill. You can see on the hill there is the hoods; the heads of Śeṣa-Nāga. And that mountain goes around and it curls around at the bottom, just like the tail.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There was a quarrel between Śaṅkara and Rāmānuja sampradāya there. And both of them demanded - the Śaṅkarācārya sampradāya told, “It is Śiva Mūrti”, and the Rāmānuja told, “No, He’s Viṣṇu Mūrti, Nārāyaṇa.” Then some weapons were placed there and the doors closed. Then, anyhow, it was found afterwards that the weapons of Nārāyaṇa had been caught by the hands of the Deity, and it was decided that He was Viṣṇu Mūrti not Śiva Mūrti. We are told like that. And also it is told that Rāmānuja was Śeṣa, Śeṣa Avatāra. Taking the body of a serpent, he entered through the drain and put the weapons into the hands of the Mūrti and then passed away, ha, ha, ha, ha, stealthily. There is a story like that. Balaji. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Mādhava Mahārāja: I also heard that Rāmānuja, he went up that hill with his knees, he tied his feet and he walked on his knees because he did not want to step on Śeṣa-Nāga, seven hills, seven mountains to cross, before getting to Baladeva.

Mahārāja, one Nobel laureate also stayed at our temple in Bombay. One Nobel prize winner, Nobel laureate, he stayed with us in Bhaktivedānta Institute in Bombay for two days.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who is he?

Mādhava Mahārāja: His name is George Wall, he’s from Harvard University, US. And he came and he stayed with us for two days and he gave lecture to the devotees in the temple, ha, ha, ha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Following your line, eh? Ha, ha, ha.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You are proud of your knowledge, proud of your knowledge, and you want to lower down the position of the knowledge itself. You must hold that it is a primary thing, and they’re all the effect of knowledge. And the stone producing knowledge, it is shameful to hear for the scholars. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. And to value with the valuation of knowledge, that is, it is coming from the stone, that fossil fatherism. Ha, ha, ha.

Mādhava Mahārāja: He thinks that we come from the star, from the dying star he says man has been born. The star had to die so that man can be born.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Moon or Sun, everything came from the Sun but where from does the Sun come? Matter comes from matter. What is the new thing? Earth, Moon, all comes from the Sun, but Sun is also material substance. So matter comes from matter, no new thing there. This is all stale. And that is no explanation at all. From matter is dividing itself into different planets, what is the charm in the argument there? From big matter particles are thrown this side that side. Is it an explanation? …sarge loko smin. Demonic and deity, what is from deity, adjective?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Divine.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Divine, the divine and demonic. The fossil father, that is demonic conception. The divine must come down from high to low. Divinity must be given the first preference in existence. Such noble thing, that is born only from stone? Suicidal to think that stone has given birth to divinity. What is this thing? How a man can think, a rational man?

Mādhava Mahārāja: It is very unreasonable, this idea is very unreasonable, but still, sometimes…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. Unreasonable, but it is foolish, unfortunate and meanness, mean-heartedness, that stone has produced divinity.

Mādhava Mahārāja: How is it that so many big, big scholars have been fooled by this theory?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You’ll be able, by the grace of Swāmī Mahārāja, to disperse them, throw them into the ocean. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. We sold many of our science books, you know we have some science books that we made, and at that conference many people bought those books, at least fifty-per-cent of the members bought our books. We were all sold out. And also we sold some Bhagavad-gītās. So they’re finding a lot of interest in our books now.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Many books distributed.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh, there?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yeah, by Janaka Bhaya, at the meeting in Delhi.

Mādhava Mahārāja: They thought this was very interesting, our approach, combining Eastern and Western philosophy. Somehow, all over the world, interest is developing in consciousness. I don’t know how but everyone is becoming interested.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Because in the internal nature everyone cannot but have sympathy. This is after all foreign thing, the Darwin theory and all these are misconceptions, ignorance, that cannot have its own independent existence. Just like a cover, spare, that cannot be really, outcome, foreign, the superficial.

Mādhava Mahārāja: But why so many people now are becoming interested, at this time especially?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ignorance.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Before, not so many people were interested.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Though foreign, avantu [?], not, like parasite, it has come, it is not innate but it is come from out, but still, at the present that has got the over reigning power, the ignorance. So, but still it cannot be intrinsic. It is only foreign thing, indented, not natural, but like dress. Barshan siji nani yatha vihay [?] We can take it, we can leave it, like the cover, like a garment, not innate.

Mādhava Mahārāja: But why at this time, now at present they’re giving up? Previously they were accepting and this time now they’re giving up, why this time is so special?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha. By this Kali-yuga the special grant of grace comes with Mahāprabhu gradually to help the people from such intense ignorance. Which is generally ________ [?] comes here to visit this mundane world. Satya, Tretā, Dvāpara, Kali. Just after winter comes summer, after summer rainy season, in this way the movement of the time. The Kali comes when ignorance gathered more. And then also to help the inmates of Kali a special grant also comes and thereby they’re benefited and they can do away with the darkness by that higher knowledge, higher grace. Māyā, ignorance is there, light is also there. In some places sometimes light predominates and in some places suppose darkness predominates. But that does not mean that darkness must be a positive thing. Light is desirable. That is positive thing. Darkness may not be given the importance of light, though it is eternal.

End of 81.12.27.C_81.12.29.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.29.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: …māyā is also eternal, misunderstanding, that is also eternal, this possibility, in the relativity. Kṛṣṇa.

Mādhava Mahārāja: I have one letter here from Bhakti Caru Mahārāja, he has written one letter from___________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is in English or Bengali?

Mādhava Mahārāja: Bengali.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Govinda Mahārāja, Caru Swāmī_________________________ [?]

...

To remove the defects of all other five darśanas Vyāsadeva had to compile Vedānta darśana in their form, in a logical form, Vedānta darśana. And the Bhāgavat is the commentary of that Vedānta darśana. Vedānta darśana is considered to be the flower in the tree, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam the ripe fruit. In this way the adjustment of the Vedic culture has been given, a developed form. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīdhara Swāmī also in his commentary in the introduction of Bhāgavatam also shown this path, that how the root is the sat-saṅga, then the Gāyatrī, then the praṇava, oṁkāra, then Gāyatrī, then the tree Veda, and then the fruit, the flower, and then fruit, Bhāgavatam, the desired ripe fruit. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, raso vai saḥ, is full of juice, nectar. How it has come from Veda and where from Veda comes. All these things have been described in a very nutshell way.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So that is the right way to move to the people, as least who have got some faith in the Veda, they should be dealt in such a way. ‘The Veda is developing in this way.’ And to show skilfully the stages of development step by step, and just like a theorism in a logical way we are to show to the public that this is blossoming in this way, the bud blossoming into a flower and then to fruit, how. The intermediate steps should be explained, supplied; then it will be easy to make them convinced. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Vedaiś ca sarvvair aham eva vedyaḥ.

[sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭho, mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca

vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo, vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham]

[“I am situated (as the Supersoul) within the heart of all souls, and from Me arises the soul’s remembrance, knowledge, and the dissipation of both (according to his karma, or action in the mundane plane). I am the exclusive knowable (ecstatic) principle of all the Vedas. I am the author of the Vedānta - Vedavyāsa, the expounder of the knowable meaning of the Vedas. And certainly I am the knower of the purport of the Vedas.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 15.15]

“I am the object, the aim, of all the Vedic mantrams, background. They’re all aiming towards Me, to prove Me.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. In Bhāgavatam also it is said, “If it fails to do so, this varṇāśrama, this Vedic tol, school’s instructions, Vedic education, if they fail to take to the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa then they’re useless. They’re wasting their energy. They’re committing suicide. And anyhow if they take us, any sort of training or education takes us to the conception of Kṛṣṇa to be the highest, it fulfils its object.”

dharmaḥ svanuṣṭhithaḥ puṁsāṁ, viṣvaksena-kathāsu yaḥ

notpādayed yadi ratiṁ, śrama eva hi kevalam

[“The occupational activities a man performs according to his own position are only so much useless labour if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Personality of Godhead.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.8]

...

…but it could not produce the desired result, that Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then that’s all a waste of energy. And there is another, just the opposite.

ataḥ pumbhir dvija-śreṣṭhā, varṇāśrama-vibhāgaśaḥ

svanuṣṭhitasya dharmasya, saṁsiddhir hari-toṣaṇam

[“O best among the twice-born, it is therefore concluded that the highest perfection one can achieve by discharging the duties prescribed for one’s own occupation according to caste divisions and orders of life is to please the Personality of Godhead.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 1.2.13]

But if one is found that he has reached to the stage of serving Kṛṣṇa then all his duties, past duties have been successful. The certificate can be issued to him blindly. He has reached the goal. So anyhow, whatever he did, all justified, because he reached the goal. And who misses the goal, then all his grandeur in discharging his duties of different stages, that all gone, because he misses the right end, the aim, missing the aim, object of those duties. So they’re all wasted. It is in Bhāgavatam. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: How can I chanting properly? My chanting not properly now.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Chant. By the living sources, by leaving of the evil influences aside, that sādhu and śāstra, first sādhu and then śāstra. From the association we are to draw, we are to try to get energy, direction, all in their association, favourable environment. When the medicine is failing to do its duty then we are advised to have a change of place, where unconsciously the air and water, everything, comes to our help to improve the health. Change, when the medicine fails to produce its result. So also, the environment, the environment and the energy within, two things, when the energy within is failing then strength must be acquired from the environment, favourable environment. That is the association, sat-saṅga, sat-saṅga. And the living, more living, the sādhus more living, and the next, passive saṅga, that is scripture. Sādhu śāstra, only two things can help us in our need. Guru is there. God sent sādhu for me, the agent, on His behalf. Then we can concentrate to him, to his submission. Otherwise the śikṣā Guru, the sādhu, and in want of that, the śāstra, the scriptures who can enlighten us about the thing we need.

sādhu-śastra-kṛpāya [yadi kṛṣṇonmukha haya, sei jīva nistare, māyā tāhāre chāḍaya]

[“If the conditioned soul becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious by the mercy of saintly persons who voluntarily preach scriptural injunctions and help him to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, the conditioned soul is liberated from the clutches of māyā, who gives him up.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.120]

This is the only remedy, first sādhu, that is living scripture, and then passive, active and passive environment. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So, and how to get association? Only through serving attitude we can have cooperation, not by indifference, or by aggression, aggressive tendency. To get anything from higher, that means only through service we can, the attitude of serving, we can draw them towards us. We can make master over our lower things, but when we are in want of higher things then only through serving, praṅipāta, paripraśna, sevā. By these three qualifications only we can imbibe things from higher sphere, serving attitude.

...

Devotee: …control.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gradually it will be controlled. If you want to kill an animal it takes some time to kill it. Ha, ha. So the anartha, they’re there, and to dispense with them some time is necessary. But that also, the energy of killing them, to remove them, that energy we should gather from higher sources, then with less energy we can do away with them.

[anyathā swatantra kāma anrthādi jāra dhāma, bhakti-patha sadā deya bhaṅga]

kibā bā karite parekāma-krodha sadhākere, jadi haya sādhu-janara saṅga

[“If lust is not controlled, then it becomes the breeding ground for a host of vices and checks one’s advancement on the path of devotional service. However, if one stays in the association of the saintly devotees, then that association will carry him beyond the influence of lust, anger, and their friends.”] [Śrīla Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura’s Śrī Prema-bhakti-candrikā, 2.11]

What the lust and greed and anger can do harm to a seeker after truth, the sādhu, who is in the path of realisation of Divinity, if you can fortunately have the intimate association of a sādhu? What, in other words then they cannot do anything. Because something is being spent, but another side income, coming and going. If help coming from the higher, that supersedes, then the spending, expenditure, cannot make any harm, kāma-krodha sadhākere. And there is also ________ [?] intelligent adjustment, we can get relief. It is such in Narottama Ṭhākura’s that:

'kāma' kṛṣṇa-karmārpaṇe, ['krodha' bhaktadveṣi-jāne, 'lobha' sādhu-saṅga harikathā

'moha' iṣṭa-lābha bine, 'mada' kṛṣṇa guṇagāne, niyukta kariba yathā tathā]

[“Lust I will engage in offering the fruits of my work to Lord Kṛṣṇa. Anger I will direct towards the enemies of the devotees. Greed I will engage by being greedy to hear the topics of Lord Hari in the association of the saintly devotees. Bewilderment will be manifested because I cannot immediately attain my worshippable Lord. Madness will be there when I madly glorify the transcendental attributes of Lord Kṛṣṇa. In this way I will engage each of these in the service of Lord Kṛṣṇa.”] [Śrīla Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura’s Śrī Prema-bhakti-candrikā, 2.10]

Some impulse we feel within, try to utilise in the service of the impulse, that force, try to utilise it, regulate it in the service of Kṛṣṇa. Krodha bhakta-dveṣi-jāne. Some apathy, anger, try to use it against those that are antagonistic to the sādhu, to the Kṛṣṇa bhakta. Lobha sādhu-saṅge. The greed you may try to engage in hearing from the lips of the sādhu some Hari kathā. Moha iṣta-labha-bine. Sometimes depression comes, try to utilise it when you are separated from a sādhu, iṣta-labha-bine. Mada kṛṣṇa-guṇa-gāne. Sometimes over energy appears within us. Engage that overflowing energy into dancing and chanting in the Name of Kṛṣṇa. Ha, ha. 'Mada' kṛṣṇa guṇagāne niyukta kariba yathā tathā. In this way some flow of energy, try to regulate them in the service of Kṛṣṇa. Anyhow manage it and you will be free from them in no time, in this way. And there is another thing.

[rajas tamaś ca sattvena, sattvaṁ copaśamena ca]

etat sarvaṁ gurau bhaktyā, puruṣo hy añjasā jayet

[“One must conquer the modes of passion and ignorance by developing the mode of goodness, and then one must become detached from the mode of goodness by promoting oneself to the platform of śuddha-sattva. All this can be automatically done if one engages in the service of the spiritual master with faith and devotion. In this way one can conquer the influence of the modes of nature.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.15.25]

In Bhāgavatam it is mentioned, Devaṛṣi Nārada is saying:

asaṅkalpāj jayet kāmaṁ, [krodhaṁ kāma-vivarjanāt

arthānarthekṣayā lobhaṁ, bhayaṁ tattvāvamarśanāt]

[“By making plans with determination, one should give up lusty desires for sense gratification. Similarly, by giving up envy one should conquer anger, by discussing the disadvantages of accumulating wealth one should give up greed, and by discussing the truth one should give up fear.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.15.22]

You have got many designs and plans to carry out, asaṅkalpāj. Don’t allow yourself to enter into such big, ambitious speculation. Thereby from the start you control. Don’t allow yourself to be busy with big engagements in life, ambitious engagements. Asaṅkalpāj jayet kāmaṁ. Krodhaṁ kāma-vivarjanāt. And bad temper sometimes comes within you. Only you withdraw from the beginning. That don’t settle, identify yourself fully with a particular plan, then any hindrance comes and you’ll be full into anger. And if you’re not very particularly addicted to a particular plan, no chance of being excited; that krodhaṁ kāma-vivarjanāt. Arthānarthekṣayā lobhaṁ. You have much greed for the money, you are to discriminate that what is the stage of money, money can do these things, whatever it can construct that automatically vanishes in course of time. So what is in the charm of money? Arthānarthekṣayā lobhaṁ. Bhayaṁ tattvāvamarśanāt. And if you’ve got any fear, apprehension, then you are to discriminate here in the plane, tattvāvamarśanāt. “Oh, so many things combined, this matter, the water, the ether, the combination of everything, and everything disappears, comes and stays for some time and disappears. So the birth and death in course of nature it is coming and going everywhere. Every second something is born and something is dying.” Calculating in this way you should leave your fear.

Etat sarvaṁ gurau bhaktyā. So many, a long list is given there in Bhāgavatam. And in the conclusion it is said, etat sarvaṁ gurau bhaktyā, puruṣo hy añjasā jayet. All these undesirables can be checked only by concentrating one’s attention towards the service of his Guru. ‘My Guru has ordered…oh, no fear, no other things, because my absolute guide he has ordered.’ We may take this advantage and everything will disappear in no time. Etat sarvaṁ gurau bhaktyā, puruṣo hy añjasā jayet. Very easily you’ll be able to cross over all these temptations and difficulties if you can concentrate only to the divine feet of your Guru Mahārāja. ‘He is my guide. I’m not my own. I belong to him. Whatever he’ll instruct I must do without caring for my individual loss and gain.’ In this way. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: How can you find a Guru?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha, ha. Your Guru is already there, and who is nearer to him… Why you accepted him as Guru, what for? What did you see peculiar in him? And that peculiarity wherever you will find, there you can rely as Guru. Same nature, same temperament, same instruction, same object, things of that stage, that layer, that plane what attracted you. You did not come to a figure, not attracted by a figure only, the eye experience, but you are attracted by a particular ideal, proposal, instruction, and that will be your real guide. Wherever you’ll find that your Guru is present there, in his instruction, in his advice, in his conception given about you and your environment, your prospect. All these things wherever you’ll find you will find your Guru. In your Guru eye or anywhere, wherever you will find what attracted your inner heart, you must try to find out that. …with the eye experience… experience, or touch experience, anything else, but the ideal, the advice.

Devotee: Most detectable with the heart.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Prospect, ah, the heart, the unfolding of his heart. He gave you the prospects of some supernatural sweetness and prospect, hope. Wherever you will find things of that layer, there you can find your Guru. He’s present there, and that is one with your Guru. The gist, the very existence of our Guru is of that consciousness, of that feeling, that sentiment, that hope, that knowledge, that light. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

The meaning of his words: our Guru Mahārāja departed forty four years ago, but we are living, but we have caught hold of his advices, the gist of his speech, advices, and his conduct, his movement. And looking after that and consulting that also with the similar scriptures and other past Vaiṣṇavas, making an adjustment we are moving forward so long. So long, and we don’t think that we have deviated from his divine feet. We are still there. His divine feet still within our heart as fresh as ever. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Enlivening us always. And what he said we find in Bhāgavatam, in Gītā, more deeper and deeper in his line, progressing, not deviating, by his grace.

And whatever new things come to us, we try to adjust with them in such a way that it may improve his advice and we may have some adjustment with them. What position, if any new things come we are to also give adjustment with that, keeping his glory above all. In his line we are to make adjustments if new things we come across, keeping the standard given by him intact. Ha, ha, ha.

...

…what is high, what is low, with that universal standard we apply and we find the taste. “What is this? It is gold, or it is silver, or it is iron, or it is mud?” By applying that standard of knowledge we examine and place them accordingly. “Oh you mud, you earth, you have come with a posing of the gold, never, go away. Go, take your place down there. Only with a glittering colour you have come, the mud, to take the position of the gold.”

Ha, ha, ha. What do you say? The eternal standard, that test. Gaura Haribol. Acintya bhedābheda, advaya-jñāna, satyam, śivam, sundaram, the conception of the progressive substance, satyam, śivam, sundaram. The eternal existence, the knowledge, and the beauty, ānandam, charm, how the superior conception, one after another. Acintya bhedābheda, and bhedābheda and advaya-jñāna. One all-harmonising organic whole, and there is difference and common, and that is in the hand of the Absolute Power. And Absolute Power is not, there is not any anarchy, but there is not only justice, but above that there is mercy. Not only consciousness, judgement, decision, judiciousness, but there is beauty, there is love, holding the supreme position, sympathy.

“I am friendly. I am the Absolute Power but I am friendly to you all. So don’t be afraid.”

ahaṁ hi sarva-yajñānāṁ, bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca

[na tu mām abhijānanti, tattvenātaś cyavanti te]

[“-Because I alone am the enjoyer and rewarder of all sacrifices. But since they cannot know Me in this way, they again undergo birth, disease, infirmity, and death.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.24]

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ, sarva-loka-maheśvaram

suhṛdaṁ sarvva-bhūtānāṁ, jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati

[“I am the enjoyer of the results of sacrifice performed by the fruit-hunter, as well as the results of austerity performed by the liberation-seeker - I am their only worshippable object; I am Nārāyaṇa, the indwelling monitor of all planes of life, and the Supreme Worshippable Personality who awards liberation. And I am the well-wisher of all - I am Kṛṣṇa, the devotee’s most adorable friend. The soul who thus knows My true identity attains the ecstasy of knowing his own original divine identity.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 5.29]

You will attain peace, you will get peace, only when you find that the final controlling agent is my friend. Then you’ll be, no apprehension you’ll have. The ultimate controller is my friend so my interest is well represented there. Then only I can find ease, no anxiety. You are to only find that, that I am not in a chaotic environment, but it is considerate, judicious, and the ultimate dispenser is my friend. Ha, ha, ha. This conception gets us living relief from any anxiety we can apprehend. Is it not?

Devotee: Yes Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, in Gītā it is said, Kṛṣṇa says that: “I am all in all but I am friend to you all,” So no misgivings, ha, ha, ha, no apprehension.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Mahārāja, if one wants to spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness, sometimes he has to engage in big projects in order to make a big impact.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course, if he’s inspired, if inspiration is there, not individual ambition, then it will devour you, it is pratiṣṭhā. But if within you find the inspiration then you’ll have no fear. If ordered, if from that side, then you are all right. Otherwise, not for your own individual name and fame, that is an anartha, that is, the agent of māyā will entice you and leave you in the darkness, ha, ha, after all. Pratiṣṭhā, one is pratiṣṭhā, the name and fame for individual aspiration, and the other the opposite rather to serve, to engage every narth for the service of Guru, to satisfy, to fulfil the order of the upper divinity. We must differentiate between the two.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Should one be afraid, should a person be afraid of his own personal individual…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So with the good association we can take any ambitious work, the faithful association, sādhu-saṅga. Our Venkatta Prabhu once he told me, in my Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam there is one poem composed by me, in the beginning, introduction.

antaḥ kavi-yaśas-kāmaṁ, sādhutāvaraṇaṁ bahiḥ

śudhyantu sādhavaḥ sarvve, duścikitsyam imaṁ janam

[“O saintly devotees, please purify this wrongdoer who on the pretext of saintliness desires in his heart the prestige of a poet, and who is thus afflicted with the practically incurable disease of insincerity.”] [Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam, 1.9]

There is a verse in the introduction I have written. “Within I have got some sort of ambition of being a poet, becoming a poet, ambition of a poet within. And outwardly I am under the cover of a sādhu, so a hopeless case for the doctors to treat. So I pray to the divine agents to come to my relief. This is my prayer.” This has been appreciated much by…

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Satsvarūpa Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Satsvarūpa Mahārāja, ha, ha. He’s also writing something. Perhaps he might have, ha, ha, ha, felt himself in that…

...

…suspicious of our purity, that I may not be misguided. “Is it for the service of Guru-Gaurāṅga or some inner mal purpose, evil purpose within me?” We’ll be very alert in our self analysis, self analysis. So our Guru, Kavirāja Goswāmī and others, Mahāprabhu: tṛṇād api sunīcena [Śikṣāṣṭakam, 3], purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha, jagāi mādhāi haite muñi se pāpiṣṭha, purīṣera kīṭa haite muñi se laghiṣṭha. [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, 5.205] This is their, they’re suspicious, they’re rather definitely accusing own self. “You are sinner of the sinner. You are sinner always.” They’re alert to chastise their inner feeling, inner existence, “That you are meanest of the mean.” It is, whatever good you find it is all grace from outside coming to you. In that case you may consider yourself to be fortunate. But as for your intrinsic value, that is all meanness there, if you are to find. You are traitor, you have left the Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and come to compromise with the illusory energy. How can you rely on yourself? This is your innate nature. You are a foreign land, atom. How have you joined this māyic campaign? Why have you joined this māyic campaign? You must think it deeply. Why are you here? This is your fault. So you are well known, notorious to me. I can’t rely on you. Only by the grace of the sādhus that you have some ray of hope.” In this way one is to chastise his own self.

Who is he, ke?

Devotees: ___________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains tṛṇād api sunīcena, “You consider yourself lower than a grass, blade of grass.” And he comes to explain why lower than a blade of grass. “It may be a material thing but still it has got its own position. And what about you? You are vikrta, your position is lower than a material existence. Why? A man may be a fool, but he’s not mad. A mad man is worse than a fool. So you are vikṛta, you are misguided, you are determined to dig your own grave, so your position is lower than a blade of grass. It may be zero, but you are negative value, you have got.” In this way Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is explaining this tṛṇād api sunīcena. “Why you are meaner than the blade of grass, why? You are misguided. But it retains its zero position, but you’re in the negative side, progressing.” Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In this way. A straw has got no independence, but you have got independence, free will, but working in the negative side. So your position is worse. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. One has got no capital but one has got loan, he’s less than that poor man, a man who has got loan. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi. Nitāi. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

___________________________________________________ [?]

Our Guru Mahārāja used to say about the power of illusion, misconception. This is compared with the leg of a cock. The cock moves in such a way as if its leg is very strong, very, very strong. With such gait, such posture and gesture, the cock moves. But how much power is there?

So our Guru Mahārāja generally used, “This is māyā but it has got the ignorance. When compared with the potency of Kṛṣṇa what power he has got? That may be brittle and broken with the least energy. But when compared with the potency of the sādhus then of course māyā is nothing.”

And one who is a soldier under some Napoleonic general he won’t care for Alps, but otherwise, if one climbs into Alps he will die; single ambition. The general is there, his insinuation, his order, has got that sort of value, from all sides of intelligence, and other weapons and other things, food, weapons, the guidance of a general makes the soldiers invincible. So under the command of the grand preceptor, a soldier, a sādhu, can do anything and everything because the general is there. His genius is guiding. Otherwise, singularly fighting, a soldier, how much he has got the power? Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: Initiation a necessary part of everyone?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Dīkṣā, is it necessary for everyone?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course, that is the general thing. Dīkṣā means what? Dīkṣā means divyaṁ jñānaṁ.

[divyaṁ jñānaṁ yato dadyāt, kuryāt pāpasya saṅkṣayam

tasmād dīkṣeti sā proktā, deśikais tattva-kovidaiḥ]

[“The process by which divine knowledge (divyaṁ jñānaṁ) is given and sins are destroyed is called dīkṣā by the highly learned scholars who are expert in spiritual affairs.”] [Hari-bhakti- vilāsa, 27]

That is a process through which divine knowledge and power is imparted to a person; that is a process, not a form, where there’s some material thing within the form, some substantial thing. There must be something given, not in terms of money or any material, but in form of knowledge and grace. Sometimes it is not detectable, just like homoeopathic globules. All the globules very similar, but the potency within, that is all in all. In a particular seed that big tree is within there. So the potency within, that is all-important. It will develop, express itself in proper time, whether it is a mustard seed, or very small, that is the seed of a banyan tree. The small seed can produce banyan tree, and the small seed very similar that mustard oil, seed, shrub; a homoeopathic globule. Akara [?] Only not the physical sound, but some good will within the sound, the knowledge, the prospect, everything, very fine, within the sound that is given to the disciple. And by cultivating that we gradually find, and the mania must be given, the sādhu-saṅga and others, otherwise it will die. It must be helped to develop naturally. The mania, some air, some water is necessary then it will prove that it is a banyan tree. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

Mādhava Mahārāja: In the other religions Mahārāja, like Christianity and…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, Christianity truly followed, it will take you to the Christian conception of Godhead. But there is Absolute, there is comparison. There is also, that is relative position, but in comparison the difference between the Christian conception of Godhead, or Mohammedan conception of Allah, how Nārāyaṇa conception, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, how they may be more effective, and more beautiful, more giving.

Mādhava Mahārāja: But there’s no initiation, no dīkṣā, in those religions.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In some way or other something must be there. Some sort of, some form must be there. Different process in form, but they will require you to do something.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Baptising, confession.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Baptising, then also, the different birth I am told, the Jesus cross. I have got some regard for Jesus also, how he gave out for the people, in what way he sacrificed, and firm faith in God, in the conception of Godhead. But in God also, different type, different conceptions of Godhead is there. Hare Kṛṣṇa. In instalments, something is better than nothing, in this way. He has established that a spiritual gain is all in all and this material achievement is nothing, firmly established here. That is laudable, admirable, but the conception of the goal is not so high, according to us, and not so scientifically described.

...

...that spirit over matter, God over, the dispensation over everyone. All these things have been accepted and this cannot but be appreciated, such position of Godhead, the guardianship over man and animals. But we find there the transmigration is not there. Individuality has not been admitted to live in the creatures and animals, animals have got no soul. The other insects and trees, plants, no soul: and no birth and rebirth. These things of course, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has said, “To which particular section where he preached it was not necessary to say the whole truth there, some things are left.”

parokṣa-vādo vedo 'yaṁ, bālānām anuśāsanam

[karma-mokṣāya karmāṇi, vidhatte hy agadaṁ yathā]

[“Childish and foolish people are attached to materialistic, fruitive activities, although the actual goal of life is to become free from such activities. Therefore, the Vedic injunctions indirectly lead one to the path of ultimate liberation by first prescribing fruitive religious activities, just as a father promises his child candy so that the child will take his medicine.”] [Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam, 11.3.44]

Just as when a child is to be taught the whole thing cannot be delivered at once, but by instalments. So we consider it that instalments suiting to the particular clan where he preached it. But that is primary education, but still it is education, we accept it.

And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has given it superior position of even that of Śaṅkara, the imagined God, the conception, the professing, to profess that ‘God is imaginary.’ But in Christianity and in Islam God is not imaginary, it is real. So in that sense it is superior to the Śaṅkara conception of so-called Vedānta, Hindu Vedānta.

End of 81.12.29.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.29.C_81.12.30.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Mādhava Mahārāja: I have one more question for you Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Mādhava Mahārāja: In order to understand a particular thing, one has to have experience of that thing and the absence of that thing. For instance, if you want to understand what you are, the self, if you want to understand the self that means you have to have experience…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of what you are not. Of course, that is a process of knowledge, yes. That this is this, and this is not that. What is Kṛṣṇa and what is not Kṛṣṇa, that is what is māyā.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But what is Kṛṣṇa, if you are to understand clearly what is Kṛṣṇa, what is non Kṛṣṇa that will automatically come.

Mādhava Mahārāja: So that is called in logic, logical corollaries.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Do you follow? So, whenever you like to have a proper conception of Kṛṣṇa you are to eliminate so many things that are apparent to Kṛṣṇa. In this way you are to develop your consciousness about Kṛṣṇa.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Is that true on…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In Kṛṣṇa consciousness, even it is said, Vṛndāvana Kṛṣṇa, and then, lower, is Mathurā, Dvārakā Kṛṣṇa, and then Rāmacandra Kṛṣṇa, this Nārāyaṇa Kṛṣṇa. There are so many different conceptions of Godhead.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Is that true…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Even Kṛṣṇa Himself says that, “I feel much charm when I see My figure in Vṛndāvana.” The Dvārakā Kṛṣṇa says. “I am charmed to find My Vṛndāvana līlā.” This is higher.

Mādhava Mahārāja: But is that true also in the Absolute world? Absolute platform, to understand one thing means…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We can get a guess, we can get an approximate conception from far away. “Where is that Kṛṣṇa?” He’s fully known, we may say, to Rādhārāṇī, even not to Yaśodā. All His internal moods are not known to Yaśodā, as it is known to Śrī Rādhikā. In this way, as He’s so much open to His confidential friends, He’s not so much known to the servitors - in this way - so gradation of knowing, and jurisdiction also. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So Svayaṁ-Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa.

Mādhava Mahārāja: I have written, we have written one paper…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Rādhāramana Kṛṣṇa, then Yaśodā Nandana, then Devakī Nandana, Rukmiṇī-pati, different conceptions in the subtle differences, subtle consideration. There are so many differences, may be.

Brahmā cannot understand Kṛṣṇa as Nārāyaṇa, so different from Nārāyaṇa he found. “What is this? Nārāyaṇa is all in all. I am known to Him, He is my Master. Under His direction I work and I control the whole world,” Brahmā says. “But this cowboy, who is he? He does not care for me. I am even not known to him, he does not know me, does not care.” So he wanted to test Him, by stealing His companions, and also the cow calves. But he found that he’s nowhere.

And the example is given there very fine, that in the sun, in the daytime, we can’t detect the glow-worm, we can’t see the glow-worm in the daytime. And also, we can’t see the mist in night. Night, in amavasya, __________ [?]

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Dark moon.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Dark moon, the dark moon, and new moon, new moon and full moon. In the dark moon night we can’t see the mist. That is the māyā of Brahmā. Brahmā wanted to introduce some policy to test Kṛṣṇa, but that cannot be detected, detectable, as mist is not detectable in dark moon. And the knowledge also is just as the glow-worm cannot be detected in the day’s light, so also, the grace, or any assertive tendency of Brahmā is like that to Kṛṣṇa. The lower thing is disappeared in the higher intensity of the same thing. So Brahmā also could not detect, what is Kṛṣṇa, though he’s so conversant with Nārāyaṇa.

So such special and revolutionary difference in the conception of the Reality, and we are to follow how through the grace of the sādhu and scripture, by their grace, by the light given by them. What is the difference between Nārāyaṇa, Rāmacandra, Dvārakesh? And very carefully we are to approach through the plane. Where is Nārāyaṇa? The Nārāyaṇa is greater, then Rāmacandra, then Dvārakesh, then Vṛndāvanesh. Very carefully we are to walk over, as if, to that plane to distinguish between the different conceptions of different positions of the Supreme Entity, of the Supreme Truth, the praṇipāta, paripraśna, sevā.

[tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā

upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ, jñāninas tattva darśinaḥ]

[“You will be able to attain all this knowledge by satisfying the enlightened spiritual master with prostrate obeisance, relevant enquiry, and sincere service. Great souls who are most expert in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will teach you that divine knowledge.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.34]

With these three acquisitions we can dare to approach to discriminate such different stages of the Absolute. By the Grace of Gurudeva it is possible, svarūpa-śakti, it is possible to discriminate. Gaura Haribol. It is done rather by the potency that is given, that is supplied from higher.

Sanātana Goswāmī says, “I am, what a tiny position I have got, meagre. I’m a man of no position. I am writing about, describing such, so many things about the harem of Kṛṣṇa. Rukminī is such and such, Satyabhāma is such and such. What audacity I have got that I am going to describe them, who are unknown to this plane. But someone is forcing my hand, and handling my pen, and making me to write.”

That will be seen. Wherever we say, or talk about that thing, “That Guru talks within me. I set myself aside and allow the Guru to talk through me, through me.” That is, the svarūpa-śakti is allowed, and the māyā and taṭasthā-śakti withdraws. And then it is possible that Divine flow may come down. One can set aside himself, his own ego, the ego surcharged with the knowledge of bodily experience, and allow the flow from the higher to come down and express Himself fully, to be this plane. Then only we can.

mukam karoti vācālaṁ panghum langhāyate [girīm

yat kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī gurun dīna-tāranam]

[“I offer my respectful obeisance unto Mādhava, Who is the Personification of transcendental bliss. By His mercy, a blind man can see the stars in the sky, a lame man can cross mountains, and a dumb man can speak eloquent words of poetry.”] [Bhavārtha Dipikā, maṅgala stotram, 1]

Then what is the necessity before going to speak from the Guru’s chair, invocation? First Guru, Gaurāṅga, Kṛṣṇa, and then to try to, that is to invite Them, “Come within me and You talk through me.” In this way. Is it not?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: To help them to talk, to withdraw one’s own egoistic experience of the world, of the lower order. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. He can speak about Him and none else, ha, ha. He can feel, setting aside, like audience we also, what is coming.

Once I remember in Gaya, only I was accompanying Guru Mahārāja. We went to visit a gentleman’s house, invited, and there he delivered lecture. Of course, lecture means Kanada lecture. And peculiar points of higher type came down from him. And I was, I felt much disturbed. No pen I took with me. I thought that such new points are coming down and it must be noted. But so uneasy I felt because I could not note them, that I could not hear also very attentively. And I was cursing me, no pen to note, and whole disturbed I felt because I could not note, so I can’t give full attention to hear, in such position. Then, I thought maybe anyhow, what to do but to accept the fate.

But it enhanced it more when Guru Mahārāja came back and told that, “You are a worthless man. So many fine points came through me today, that I also want to read them again.” He told. “I also feel the necessity of reading it again, the points that came through me at that time.”

So I was, I felt my position in the dilemma. In one side I thought myself very fortunate that I could appreciate those points to be very fine and high, because Guru Mahārāja himself says for him it was also necessary to see them again. So my appreciation and capacity is high, I was glad in that fact. And I could not collect them, when I thought like that, I cursed myself like anything. The fine points appreciated even by Guru Mahārāja, and he told that, “I wanted to see them once more.” I could not give them.

So speaking about the Supreme Entity is something like that. The speaker is not master of the thought. Ha, ha. The speaker may not be considered to be the master of the thought. He’s selected by His grace for the time being. We may think like that, he’s a selected medium. Gaura Hari. And He’s all-independent and our life is like that of a slave. We may be adored, we may be cast aside. Still, He’s our master.

āśliṣya vā pāda-ratāṁ pinaṣṭu mām, [adarśanān marma-hatāṁ karotu vā

yathā tathā vā vidadhātu lampaṭo, mat-prāna-nāthas tu sa eva nāparaḥ]

[“Kṛṣṇa may embrace me in love or trample me under His feet. He may break my heart by hiding Himself from me. Let that debauchee do whatever He likes, but He will always be the only Lord of my life.”] [Śikṣāṣṭakam, 8]

He may embrace me, put me in His lap, or He may kick me, throw me to… still, He’s my Lord. I have no other alternative. Mahāprabhu told, “This sort of attitude, one, a devotee should have towards the Absolute, Kṛṣṇa. The highest type is there.” Do you follow?

Mādhava Mahārāja: Yes Guru Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Thank you very much.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Hari.

With this new friend you have come.

Mādhava Mahārāja: He’s been working with Bhaktivedānta Institute with me in Bombay for one year.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: His name?

Mādhava Mahārāja: His name is Paramānanda.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Paramānanda. Oh, very pet name to our Guru Mahārāja. He came, Paramānanda Prabhu, we had one, and he came at the age of thirteen years. And he was very pet, and in the beginning time he came, Paramānanda Prabhu.

Mādhava Mahārāja: He’s only seventeen.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That name is very dear to us, Paramānanda. He comes from America?

Mādhava Mahārāja: He’s from Orissa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: O, Orissa. You know Bengali also?

Devotee: Actually Mahārāja I don’t speak Bengali. I am unashamed to begin, but I don’t speak Bengali.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What part of Orissa you come from?

Devotee: Gangam [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gangam, where?

Devotee: Barampur [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Barampur proper, town?

Devotee: No, near the one village Gondala [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Which? This side? Gondala, towards Aska [?]

Devotee: Near to Aska.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Near to Aska. Do you know anyone, any devotee of Gauḍīya Maṭh there? One Gaurāṅga Banamali, there are so many, who are our God brothers.

Devotee: I don’t even know______ temple or Maṭh______Puruṣottama.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Puruṣottama does not come from…

Devotee: Bhaktivinoda Āśrama.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bhaktivedānta?

Devotee: Bhaktivinoda Āśrama in Barampur.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In Barampur. Founder, who is that? Nityānanda? Who has got a press and he established this Hari Bhakti Vilāsa and …

Devotee: Ah, books, books, books.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Books, book publishing, that is Nityānanda, our God brother, in Barampur. And there is also a Temple there, there one small boy, boy of Miniakur State [?] Gopāla…

Devotee: Tomorrow I’m to go there.

Devotee: But now he’s not small boy.

Devotee: No, no. He’s now writing books: one press.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: One press. That is Nityānanda. And that Purī Mahārāja, Nṛsiṁha Kavirāja, formerly Nṛsiṁha Kavirāja now Purī Mahārāja. And one of his colleagues is Tīrtha Mahārāja now, formerly he was Puruṣottama Brahmacārī, they’re also preaching in that side.

Devotee: Tomorrow I’m to go there.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And you come across Suja Nārāyaṇa Panday?

Devotee: I do not know him.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You don’t know.

Devotee: I am only reading that book, Bhaktivinoda Āsramas.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Suja Nārāyaṇa Panday, he was, he lived for some time in Vṛndāvana also, sometimes in Bon Mahārāja’s Maṭh. And Ānanda you know? He lived for some time in, Ānanda Panda, in ISKCON also.

Devotee: Ānanda Panda? Where is he, Bombay?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, no. Here in, at Caitanya Candrodaya Maṭh and also in Vṛndāvana. For long time he lived there.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: I know him.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. You are known to those leaders? Nandavisaspati? Are you known to her, or Viśvanātha dāsa who was sometimes Governor of Orissa, and mukhavanti [?] chief minister, in the beginning, chief minister of Orissa?

Devotee: I did not know ___________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ________________ [?] Hare Kṛṣṇa. You have heard their name, Congress Leaders? _______________________ [?] Hare Kṛṣṇa. Do you know anything about Jagannātha, Utivadi Jagannātha? A section amongst the Vaiṣṇava, śuddha Vaiṣṇava there, Utivadi Jagannātha.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Utivadi Jagannātha, a type of Vaiṣṇava.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Contemporary Vaiṣṇava, contemporary of Mahāprabhu, Śrī Caitanyadeva. He has got a sampradāya there, in big number. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: What is that sampradāya?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Utivadi sampradāya.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Not of the four, not coming in the catuḥ sampradāya?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No. Do you know Bāladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa? Have you heard his name? Govinda-bhasyam of Vedānta, came from Oriya, Orissa. Śyāmānanda Prabhu came, Rāmānanda Prabhu from Midnapur. One Govinda dāsa. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Now we have some interest, so we want to keep up the interest. So I will try to be back_______ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You met Sarvabhavan Prabhu yesterday?

Mādhava Mahārāja: Yes. I saw him yesterday.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He came here.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Yes. He was translating your Prapanna-jīvanāmṛta, he was doing the translation. I’m also going to see Venkatta. I will go to Vṛndāvana for half a day and I will also speak with him. Do you have anything I can say to him?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, do, but you are not going to America soon?

Mādhava Mahārāja: No. I will be staying here.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You are to stay here.

Mādhava Mahārāja: I wish I could stay here with you all the time.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Unlike Akṣayānanda Mahārāja. Ha, ha. I do not have such good fortune.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Akṣayānanda Mahārāja is your representative. Ha, ha, ha.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Ha, ha, ha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He represents you all.

Mādhava Mahārāja: Ha, ha. I do not like to have anybody represent me in this matter. Ha, ha.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha. You consult together and do whatever you like. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: What time do you want to go to Calcutta?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow?

Mādhava Mahārāja: No, today. We’re going to Calcutta.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Today?

Mādhava Mahārāja: Yes. In two more hours, in one or two more hours we’ll go.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _______________________________________________ [?]

…

_______________________________________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Always dancing with Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There is a plane, so happy plane of life, planes of life, all plenary, so many different planes. Cowards live in a particular plane and the heroes also live in another plane, without caring for their life, and the coward dies many times before their death. Ha, ha. So different planes of life there are, different experience, different world, different world of different experience.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura watched when he was in Godrum that every day, early morning, a flow of wind from the eastern side, east-south-east corner, goes to Yoga-Piṭha side, Māyāpur side. “What’s the reason?” With inquisitive mind in the early morning he waits. “What’s this? Every day some wind passes from this side to that side.” Then one day the flash came into him. “Nṛsiṁhadeva goes to attend the maṅgala-ārātrikam of Mahāprabhu.” Then what is the dignity of Mahāprabhu that Nṛsiṁhadeva Himself, He runs to attend the maṅgala- ārātrikam? Different plenary existence, even in the conception of Godhead and service, His service.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Is this the reason why some devotees disagree with each other, because they are experiencing different planes?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Some difference in discrimination there may be, sesedikari ya nistha [?] Everyone thinks that his point is the highest, the relative position. In the relative thinking, such conception is there. A boy may think that, “My mother has got the greatest affection. So much affection I have never seen anywhere.” That is also existing, acintya bhedābheda, both relative and absolute consideration simultaneously. Ke?

Devotee: _________________________________________________________ [?]

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Mahārāja, in the Hari-bhakti-vilāsa by Sanātana Goswāmī he is recommending the puraścaryā process before initiation. And there’s one quote by our Swāmī Mahārāja in Madhya-līlā that states, “One must first undergo puraścaryā activities to bring success to the initiation of a devotee.”

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:

diksa purascarya viddhi apeksa na kori, astas parsay na sakal udhari [?]

There is a śloka, Govinda Mahārāja ______ [?]

no dīkṣāṁ na ca sat-kriyāṁ na ca puraścaryāṁ manāg īkṣate

mantro 'yam rasanā-spṛg eva phalati śrī kṛṣṇa nāmātmakaḥ

ākṛṣṭhiḥ kṛta-cetasāṁ sumanasām uccāṭanaṁ cāṁhasām

ācaṇḍālam amūka-loka sulabho vaśyaś ca mukti-śriyaḥ

no dīkṣāṁ na ca sat-kriyāṁ na ca puraścaryāṁ manāg īkṣate

mantro 'yam rasanā-spṛg eva phalati śrī kṛṣṇa nāmātmakaḥ

[“The Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa is an attractive feature for many saintly, liberated people. It is the annihilator of all sinful reactions and is so powerful that save for the dumb who cannot chant it, it is readily available to everyone, including the lowest type of man, the caṇḍāla. The Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa is the controller of the opulence of liberation, and it is identical with Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Simply by touching the Holy Name with one’s tongue, immediate effects are produced. Chanting the Holy Name does not depend on initiation, pious activities, or the puraścaryā regulative principles generally observed before initiation. The Holy Name does not wait for all these activities. It is self-sufficient.”] [Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī’s Padyāvalī, 29] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 15.110]

The Kṛṣṇa Nāma is more catholic. It does not care for so many regulations. It is generally, these are all formalities to help the real function, innate function. Kṛṣṇa Nāma is more concerned with the inner love, inner attraction. And that is very rarely to be found. So, so many formalities have been recommended anyhow to put, to help, to awaken, that inner attraction that is love. It is more concerned with love. And by mechanical processes love cannot be produced, so sādhu- saṅga, by sādhu-saṅga, the association of a devotee of higher type who has already awakened within the love for Kṛṣṇa. When that is possible, no other means, other means have almost become useless. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So sādhu-saṅga.

sādhu-saṅge kṛṣṇa-nāma ei mātra cāi, saṁsāra jinite āra kona vasttu nāi

The real thing is our internal attraction, ruci, bhāva, bhakti, prema. And that prema in another’s heart, that influence, just as in contagious disease also, infectious disease, so, ha, ha, ha, that infection, the prema in one’s heart, in the heart of a devotee, if we mix with and serve them, that is the royal road, ha, ha, ha, royal road. Others, by pressure, by this and that, try hard to intensify the movement of the heart that is coming down, something like that. So, if we can get the association of the devotees, then that is the highest thing. And the prema, the influence of prema direct coming, the flow coming and going. And then when that is not available then so many things and processes are recommended to do their quota, to help the inner awakening of the internal attraction, or ruci, ruci, love divine, that is.

...

But sādhu-saṅga, and kīrtana, Nāma-kīrtana. So the lakshidars [?] it is quoted in Caitanya- caritāmṛta, where? no dīkṣāṁ____________ laxidar [?] the brother of Śrīdhara Swāmī, Śrīdhara Swāmī has one brother, he _______________________________________ [?]

There this śloka is mentioned [Rūpa Goswāmī’s Padyāvalī, 29], and it is also quoted in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, [Madhya-līlā, 15.110]. Ākṛṣṭhiḥ kṛta-cetasāṁ, those that have got little contribution towards the service, of small extent, ākṛṣṭhiḥ kṛta-cetasāṁ. Kṛta means sukṛti, those that have got little amount of sukṛti, Kṛṣṇa Nāma draws them with only slight qualification. Kṛṣṇa Nāma is so generous with slight connection if it comes in contact it begins to act. Ākṛṣṭhiḥ kṛta- cetasāṁ sumanasām uccāṭanaṁ cāṁhasām.

And those that are a little good minded, their sins are brushed away, uccāṭanaṁ cāṁhasām, ācaṇḍālam amūka-loka sulabho. Even to the lowest, to the meanest position, it approaches to take up, not ordinary qualification, in the ordinary, in the general, even general qualification sometimes not necessary, goes down to draw from the meanest, from their lowest position, ācaṇḍālam amūka-loka sulabho.

Vaśyaś ca mukti-śriyaḥ, it is only – vaśyaś ca mukti-śriyaḥ – the resources that we can acquire after liberation proper, that is prema, it is only submissive to that, Kṛṣṇa Nāma. Only prema can control the Name. The higher type of love divine, that can have influence over the Name, can play with Him in any way, vaśyaś ca mukti-śriyaḥ.

No dīkṣāṁ na ca sat-kriyāṁ, it does not depend on any other things, like dīkṣā. Dīkṣā, that is mantra dīkṣā, that second initiation may not be necessary sometimes. But to help, second initiation has been introduced, but without second initiation, that is mantra, the help of tantra, it can work. Na ca sat-kriyāṁ, not in public works or good deeds in the worldly sense, can that have any contribution for getting the grace of the Name Divine, Kṛṣṇa Nāma.

Na ca puraścaryāṁ. And the śāstric process that in particular auspicious time, in particular holy place you should generally in the time of the solar eclipse or moon, lunar eclipse, and on the banks also of a sacred river, one will engage himself in counting the japam for thousands to limitation, limiting with thousands. All these fashions it does not care for. Na ca puraścaryāṁ manāg īkṣate mantro 'yam.

Mantro 'yam rasanā-spṛg eva phalati. This mantram which contains Kṛṣṇa Nāma, that is so generous and broad, wider and very catholic view, the Kṛṣṇa mantra, the Kṛṣṇa Nāma, Kṛṣṇa Name. Rasanā-spṛg eva phalati. Anyhow if it can come to touch the tongue it will produce the desired result. But only one thing to be presupposed, that the Nāma must be proper one, not a sham transaction, artificial, imitation transaction. A genuine Kṛṣṇa Nāma, that must be got from a Gurudeva, one who can pronounce, who can culture direct in the plane where Kṛṣṇa has got His līlā. In the Name the sound must be genuine sound originating from the wave of Goloka, Goloka, Kṛṣṇa’s place. The quality will be high and the conditions, circumstances, the strictness in the circumstances may be loosened. This is the, on the whole. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The quality, that will be high, and other conditions conducive to help them that are recommended so long, so far, that is, that may be neglected if the Kṛṣṇa Nāma proper we get, then these formalities may not be of much importance. That is the meaning. So puraścaryā of course that is conducive, that may help us, but that contribution may not be given so much importance. The more importance has been given to get the real Name from a real Guru and then to cultivate it with the serving temperament along with the real associates. That is what is really necessary.

And these things are recommended only for the gṛhastha that are living alone, always engaged in material engagements, worldly affairs. They will try. It is very difficult to have the eternal association and the service along with the devotees, unalloyed devotees. They should take to these advantages and may try to improve their condition gradually. For this, so many other things have been recommended.

But the main thing is that we must get the real thing, and the real mania is the association of the sādhu, and association means the serving attitude. Otherwise we can’t have any association proper with the higher layer. Association means service, and service of the genuine sādhu, and with that company if we get the real Name we can go straight and very shortly, shortly. That is the purpose of all the advice we find in different places, in different forms in the scriptures.

Hari-bhakti-vilāsa; that is mainly recommended for the householders who generally have a secluded life, may not have company easily with the association. They will take this sort of advantage, as occasionally in particular time and particular place they must give their attention to this thought and accumulate something, something, collect. That is the main idea.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Ha, ha. Once, our Guru Mahārāja wanted to pass the Puruṣottama month that occurred in the, perhaps August-September, during the day of Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī, Puruṣottama month, he wanted to pass it in Vṛndāvana. And sent Mādhava Mahārāja, you know, you have seen the Founder of Chaitanya Gauḍīya Maṭh?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: No Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Mādhava Mahārāja.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He was then Hayagrīva Brahmachāri, white clad. He sent him, wanted to send him in advance to hire a house in Mathurā. And the day he had to start for Mathurā for hiring the house in advance, that was Janmāṣṭamī, the birthday of Kṛṣṇa. And we are all fasting, and those that cannot fast, they may take some juice ________ [?] in this way we observed the day, Janmāṣṭamī day, the birthday of Kṛṣṇa. Prabhupāda ordered his personal cook, “Give some rice to Hayagrīva Brahmachāri. Prepare for him, that he will have to take the journey, and by fasting if he undertakes the journey there may be disturbance in the activity there in Mathurā.” And he must find out a house because after two days Prabhupāda is starting for there with his party. He asked, “Give him food.” Food means rice, not only other things, not anukalpa, but he proposed to give him rice. So such is the way.

That Kṛṣṇa Nāma, Kṛṣṇa mantra, it does not matter much about rules and regulations, but this is rāga-mārga, anurāga. And one must be fit for such stage. But Hayagrīva Prabhu anyhow took, not rice but some other things as anukalpa and started...

End of 81.12.29.C_81.12.30.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.30.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:...then he used to take fast, complete fast he used to observe. But for the service, he negligently, disregard of this viddhi-mārga, this ordinary physical regulation.

Vaidhī-bhāva, vaidhī bhakta du karastu raga de bhava nava te [?] So long we do not get any clue of the rāga-mārga, that the method of love and affection, we are to respect and observe so many rulings as are given to us, extended to us from the śāstra. But whenever we have got a tinge of that higher thing, the ruci, the greed, the sincere earnestness, for the truth, other formalities may be neglected. Or we should not waste our time for making too much for those formalities. The central thread is our sincere attraction. If that is anyhow achieved then we must not waste our time in allowing us to attend this side and that side. We attentively must follow that side, that most important inner thread, the sincere attraction for the love, and only with the help of the service of the devotees of that type of higher realisation.

[śrīmad-bhāgavatārthānām āsvādo rasikaiḥ saha]

sajātī-yāśye snigdhe sādhau saṅgaḥ svato vare

[“One should taste the meaning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in the association of pure devotees, and one should associate with the devotees who are more advanced than oneself and endowed with a similar type of affection for the Lord. Those that are in our line, who have the same high spiritual aspirations as we do, and who hold a superior position; to associate with such saintly persons will help us the most to progress towards the ultimate goal.”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, 1.2.91] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.131]

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. _________________________________ [?]

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Raghunātha dāsa placed all, he showed the, we understand the best example of following sankhya and all that, but still he was above it.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So, that will, in order to avoid the misapplication, we need not think that we have got that valuable thread of earnest attraction.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Then jump.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So, we may not jump, may not be too much optimistic in our realisation, so the care must be taken for that, Ācārya. And only we shall try to stick to the rulings of the śāstra, but whenever there is any position for selection, whether this side or that side, whether the sādhu-sevā or the rulings of the śāstra, we must select the service of the devotees. Do you follow?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:

sakhyāya te mama namo 'stu namo 'stu nityam / dāsyāya te mama raso 'stu raso 'stu satyam

[Śrīla Raghunātha Dāsa Goswāmī, the greatest exponent of the faith of servitude to Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, Rādhā-dāsyam, wrote: “I won’t allow myself to become fascinated by the proposal of the higher level service as a friend, sākhya. Rather, I shall tend always to do the lower service, dāsya, the service of the servant. I shall not consider myself to be a high-class servitor and I shall always tend to go towards the lower class of service. But He may forcibly take me to a higher service - “No, you are no longer to serve there; now you must serve in this higher category.”]

[Vilāpa-kusamāñjali, 16]

I am not, I have not attained such realisation of a higher type that I shall neglect all rulings and scriptures, the orders of the scriptures and thought, like the sahajiyā, that I have got that Kṛṣṇa prema and leaving everything aside I shall go in rāga-mārga. The lust, we may not misidentify love for lust. That sort of care must be taken. So the association of the real sādhu, that will make me right in my path. That is all important, the association, the normal association, higher association, that will do away, whatever difficulty will come, they will help to do it away. That is the all important thing, sādhu-saṅga, and then śāstra. But whenever the inner awakening of that love comes we shall try to take advantage of that valuable thing, not caring much for those that are meant for the ordinary people. But the sādhu-saṅga will guard me from all discrepancies. ____________________________ [?] Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

'sādhu saṅga,' 'sādhu saṅga,' - sarva śāstre kaya, lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya

[“The verdict of all revealed scriptures is that by even a moment’s association with a pure devotee, one can attain all success.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.54]

So when Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s recommendation if we closely try to follow we will find somewhat separate from that of Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswatī, because Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s recommendations are mostly for, not an organised sādhu saṅga, a solitary realisation. So he has given more stress to the life of a householder than that of a sannyāsī. “Remain a householder and strictly try to follow all these rulings.” We shall find more, such stress in the writings of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura.

But Prabhupāda he came with, he made it very cheap, the sādhu saṅga. He started a mission with the sādhus and then anyone and everyone he called and gave that sādhu saṅga, the services of the higher association, gradually. The first group is serving him, and the next group that is carrying out his order, another group serving the first class servants, then the second class servants. In this way all gets the chance of sādhu saṅga, sādhu saṅga, service of the Vaiṣṇava. That was very cheaply available. So all those rulings, they have not much value, which was meant for the secluded life, independent life of the gṛhastha. That that could be neglected, only that they got advantage of cent percent time serving advantage, a serving chance, sādhu, Vaiṣṇava sevā. Vaiṣṇava sevā is very rarely available because a Vaiṣṇava generally does not like to take any service. That is the difficulty. Vaiṣṇava generally, their tendency is not to take service from anyone. But here, in an organised body, necessarily, because he’s serving a higher type, this ordinary service he may take from someone, ordinary service, this cooking, then cleansing the dress, if another man does then he can engage himself in the higher type of service. And they can earn more, so no chance of being loser. So in this way, this organised, when the Vaiṣṇava sevā was available, then the most effective, most promoting advantage, we got here so we could – certain degree. Am I clear? No?

Devotees: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So Vaiṣṇava sevā is very rarely to be found because no Vaiṣṇava wants to take service for himself. But here, in an organic body, it was so arranged that one Vaiṣṇava he’s giving his service to another Vaiṣṇava of a lower type, but he’s getting the advantage in serving of a higher type of Vaiṣṇava. So, on the whole he’s a gainer, so he’s not loser, so he can give chance to others to serve him, he’s not become loser, and all together doing some higher form of service, engaged. So this is the key to attain the success being in the association of an organised body. That is their special advantage, to live in the association of the sādhus. What is very rarely available we can get here very cheaply, Vaiṣṇava sevā. Very cheaply we can get the chance of Vaiṣṇava sevā which is very rarely to be found.

And the Lord says that, “Who serves Me, he’s not My real servant. But who serves My servant, he’s My real servant.”

Because when God receives his service and He wants to give something but he won’t accept, the servant won’t accept anything from the God. “No, no. I shall serve. I won’t want anything as remuneration.” So God cannot give anything to the servant. But if anyone serves His servant then He thinks that, “He’s doing My duty.” So He’s very much inclined towards the servant of the servant. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:

ye me bhakta-janāḥ partha, ne me bhaktaś ca te janāḥ

mad bhaktānāṁ ca ye bhaktās, te me bhaktatamā mataḥ

[“Those who worship Me directly are not real devotees; real devotees are those who are devoted to My devotees.”] [Ādi Purāṇa]

“Those that are direct servitors, I do not care for them. But really, who serves My servants, they are My real servants. I am very much indebted to them, very much inclined to. Because what I cannot do, they, he’s doing on My behalf.”

Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So He’s very much propitiated with them.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: In Caitanya līlā Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu would practice kīrtana at Śrīnivāsa Ācārya’s house before They took this kīrtana to the people, there was some rehearsal, some practice behind closed doors, yes?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Eh? What do you say?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Lord Caitanya and the devotees…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He was engaged in Kṛṣṇa kīrtana in Śrīvāsa Aṅgan, then some ordinary people…

Vidagdha-Mādhava: No, They would practice Their kīrtana together and then They would go out with the kīrtana.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Naga-saṅkīrtana.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: After some time practising with the devotees They would go and present the kīrtana to the people in general, yes?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. First He began kīrtana in the compound of Śrīvāsa Ācārya, Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita, and then when the opposition came from outside, then He took up the challenge and introduced big processional kīrtana along the roads, streets of Nadia town, Navadwīpa town. But before that He used to perform kīrtana within the compound of Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita, in his house, within the house of Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita. But a challenge came.

Some lodged complaint to the town controller, administrator, “That there at night we can’t get sleep. These people they’re chanting loudly and this mṛdaṅga playing. We feel much disturbed. You do some sort of restriction, otherwise we’ll feel much disturbed.”

Then that Kāzī, the ruler of the town, he came on a visit and found that in some other houses also they’re playing with mṛdaṅga and kīrtana, dancing, all these things, and he opposed them. Perhaps they did not care. Then he broke the mṛdaṅga, the Kāzī, by his men, and went away.

And this news reached Nimāi Paṇḍita that, “Some of our neighbours had lodged complaint to the town’s administrator and he came and visited. And those that are following us used to chant kīrtana in their own respective house with mṛdaṅga. Some of the mṛdaṅgas have been broken and they’re warned against further saṅkīrtana in the house.”

Then Mahāprabhu said, “Let Me see what administrator, what Kāzī comes to oppose Me.” So ordered in a general, this processional kīrtana on the streets of Navadwīpa.

...

His quarter. And the Kāzī seeing that huge numbers collected, almost the whole town was mad to join that saṅkīrtana and dancing and chanting, and a huge mob. The Kāzī was much afraid and he entered into a corner of his house and hid himself there.

Then Mahāprabhu approached his, when He found no position in the road, then He entered the house of Kāzī. “Where is that Kāzī? You come out. Why do you disturb our saṅkīrtana. This is nothing of any political character. It is purely spiritual character. Why you have come to this?”

Then anyhow, Kāzī came very timid because the mob is overflowing mob, the Kāzī came out. And Mahāprabhu had a direct talk, and the Kāzī told that: “You are my nephew ________ [?] in the relation of the neighbourhood. So though I have disturbed with you but you’re Hindus, a particular section of the so-called Hindus, they lodged a complaint and I had to take some step against that.”

“But why today you have hid yourself?”

“The day when I broke the mṛdaṅga, that very night I had a dream, and a furious dream; that one Nṛsiṁha Mūrti just coming over my breast, sitting over my breast. ‘I shall tear asunder your breast. You have disturbed My saṅkīrtana.’ So I was much afraid and I left that campaign, so I don’t do, I don’t like to disturb You any longer. Whatever You like You can do.” In this way.

_____________________________________________________________ [?]

Devotees: ______________________________________________ [?]

Vidagdha-Mādhava: So, I’ve seen in our ISKCON many very wild kīrtanas. And I was wondering if there’s a proper mood, a proper attitude, or a guideline in how the group can derive the highest benefit in congregational chanting, if there’s a particular mood, or a particular consciousness in which the group could share and experience the Holy Name.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So our attention must always be given to the quality. But it is not possible to have it always. There are many types of devotees. So it has been mentioned that we should join such a kīrtana party, saṅkīrtana party, where at least the leader must be, at least one must be śuddha-bhakta, and under his guidance the different types of devotee may go on singing saṅkīrtana. But the guide, at least one, must be śuddha-bhakta, pure devotee. That has been told by Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. Otherwise we won’t join that, at least one śuddha-bhakta amongst the guide.

Devotee: ____________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ________________________________ [?] The purity of purpose you don’t find in their saṅkīrtana, the standard, the pure standard you say?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Well, I had an experience recently where the boys were very frivolous and not very serious. And I was wondering if there was a way to preach to these boys how one can engage in a kīrtana, or what’s the proper mood?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not self-control, nor proper devotional mood…

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: …but only physical movements you find there. Not mental or spiritual adjustment.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Something like that. Sometimes just slapstick kind of comedy kind of things.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Some kind of exhibition.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Yes, some kind of…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Playing mood, as if they’re playing, showing a play.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Imitation, rather than the real, more or less imitating. But the boys may be something but the leader of that kīrtana must be bona fide. The main object must be connected. Some may be of that type. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. They’re taking it very lightly, not seriously. Ha, ha. Hare Kṛṣṇa. All may not come with real purpose, but ulterior motive also many have gathered. So such things are seen to occur.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Caitanya. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Vidagdha Prabhu, you stayed last night here?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: No Mahārāja…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh, you went away and come this morning?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Any new face come there, no, yesterday?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Yesterday, Jayapataka Mahārāja, he just left.

I find myself very busy with this work, but sometimes I think, ‘what can I do for you?’

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No. You engage yourself busily there. I will be satisfied with that.

Devotee: What are you doing there?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: I work with artists, clay sculpting, in clay, many figures will adorn the samādhi, devatas and kīrtana all around the building, and devotional personalities, Hanumānjī, Prahlāda, King Pṛthu, Lakṣmī Devī, all around in many murals.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who is devising the plan?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Yes.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Who is?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: I am.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Plan and construction, both sides you are looking after?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Very good. Do it. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: But those figures will be outside?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Yes. I just went to Vṛndāvana and on the way stopped by Taj Mahal, and although from far distance it was very nice, coming closer it was disappointment, it was dry.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He came, they came to consult with me, “What sort of figures we should carve, engrave there?” Because there is a question that the Vaiṣṇava figure, figures of the Vaiṣṇavas should be worshipped, respected, should be given some respect of worshipping, devotional respect, and not as mere decoration. The Śrī Mūrti of the Deities in Bagh Bazaar Maṭh, with some steel frame, Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa Mūrtis They’re placed over the doors, but Prabhupāda discarded Them. “Remove Them.” And the Rādhā-Govinda Mūrtis and other Mūrtis just on the doors in steel frame, that was removed, and some oṁkāra, praṇava was replaced there.

So Keśava Mahārāja, the Vedānta Society, they have placed as gate-man, gate-keeper, the Vaiṣṇava, the Jagāi Mādhāi, and Vāsudeva, and Devānanda Paṇḍita, like gate-keepers they have engaged the Mūrti, and I discarded it. I don’t enter the temple for that. Our Guru Mahārāja he placed Madhvācārya, Rāmānuja, and Viṣṇuswāmī and Nimbārka and made arrangement for their worship.

In the south we find engraved figures of so many Deities on the outside of the temples, but our Guru Mahārāja did not allow. The Vaiṣṇava should be, wherever we find such emblem, we must bow down, some sort of devotional regard should be paid to them. They should not be placed in such a way that others will belittle it. Then we’ll be responsible for that. The ordinary people they may thrust some mud on the face, this and that.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: And birds may come…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And birds may come and pass their stool on the head. These things are anti devotional. And when they came to me for that engravement or erecting the idols here in Vṛndāvana temple I advised in that way. Very cautiously you will do in such a way, go on very cautiously, that people at large may not have any chance of showing disregard to the figures, respectable, venerable figures. We should have such thing in our mind.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: So what will be the condition here then?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: These things are sheltered but they’re outside, so far.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Not worshipped?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: No. That is the plan so far. But what about a mural, say, like a Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam scene with Mahārāja Parīkṣit and Śukadeva Goswāmī in a flat, a base relief? Yeah? Under a roof, is that acceptable or not?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Some sort of shelter must be there so that crows and other birds may not come ordinarily and put some filthy things there.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: I understand that.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And also, there should be some arrangement of showing some respect, either flower garlands or some chandan paste, some sort of respect should be shown. For devotion, not for pleasure seeking, that should help our devotional temperament to arouse.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Not just decoration.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not mere decoration.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: What about the demigods, let’s say…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Demigods may be said first, only demigods have no value. Demigods not showing respect to the God proper, some sort.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: And a devotee kīrtana, just not specific devotees, but devotees in kīrtana.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Anyhow some devotional respect should be given, in any position, that is desirable, not to belittle their connection.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: The idea behind the samādhi is, I believe, is to attract many…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: At most the śanta-rasa devotees, śanta-rasa, that may be placed to certain extent, śanta-rasa. But those that are engaged in the service of different types, sākhya, vātsalya, mādhurya-rasa servitors, they must be given some respectful environment. That should be the ideal to follow, that that may arouse respect and veneration into the heart of the sightseer.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: So if a person can respect a living sādhu then certainly he’ll respect the Mūrti. But if he can’t respect the living sādhu then he’ll make all offence to the Mūrti also.

Devotee: ________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________________________________ [?]

Though we find it extensively used in the southern temples, in the temples in the south we find lavishly such things. But our Guru Mahārāja did not allow, the belittling. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. A respectable position we may give such those figures so that with the attitude of veneration people will look at them respectfully, in this way. So somewhat inside, but outside the temple, engraving such things - Gaura Haribol - according to one’s own.

Devotees: _______________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________________________________________________ [?]

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitai Caitanya. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Mahārāja, I’ve seen in at least one purport where our Swāmī Mahārāja he says it’s not possible to go back to Godhead in one lifetime. Then, on the other extreme, a friend of mine in ISKCON claims that Prabhupāda, our Swāmī Mahārāja, gave the arrangement that if we simply chant sixteen rounds daily, follow four regulative principals, and do some service, we’re going back home, in this lifetime. Is this possible that the spiritual master can make such an arrangement?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: There may be, in a particular case there may be. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has written, in his way, that from the stage of varṇāśrama a man can go, a man can reach to the highest destination if he can utilise himself very properly. It is possible in one life to attain svarūpa-siddhi. But he told that from the conception of varṇāśrama, I found it, perhaps in Caitanya-Śikṣāmṛta or so. Anyhow it is not impossible but it is not to be trusted, very, in an ordinary way we can’t trust it, but it is not impossible, so much. By the grace of the Lord anything may be possible, anything and everything may be possible, there cannot be anything impossible. But still, generally we must prepare ourselves not to put faith in such things, that in one life we have attained the highest aim. But at the same time we may think that it may not be impossible, because the grace of the Infinite is also infinite. One may have such chance, though very, very rare. Nothing is impossible by, from the Absolute Grace.

But what to that person who is not well-versed in very plane of highest realisation. Just as one zamīndār of Chinipur [?] came to ask Prabhupāda, taking him in a solitary place. “Have you seen Kṛṣṇa, have you seen?” Very earnestly.

And Prabhupāda answered, “If I say I have seen, or I may say I have not seen, what is that to you? You learn, your necessity will be to learn what is Kṛṣṇa and how to see Him. That is your concern. And another may deceive you, ‘Yes, I have seen Kṛṣṇa.’ You do not know what is Kṛṣṇa, how to see, he may deceive you, exploit you. So that is not necessary. It is necessary to learn who is Kṛṣṇa. Where is He? And those that attain Him, what is their position? What is what? We are to know that. Otherwise such statements have no value, whether one can get Kṛṣṇa or one cannot.”

It depends on the knowledge of the enquirer, the direct realisation. Otherwise this is hearsay, ha, ha, no value to anyone. But still, it may give us some hope, “Yes, it is, let me try, let me try.” But the trial must be in a proper line, may not be misguided. There are so many difficulties and hindrances on the way. So many things may come that we may misconceive something for Kṛṣṇa. It is also not impossible, in the way of siddhi, so many different mysterious powers, and so many sceneries may be seen in the way of one’s sādhana. So the higher guidance may be always necessary, and the safe thing. Anyābhilāṣa, and the scripture as well as the living guide, always.

kṛṣṇa-bhakti-janma-mūla haya 'sādhu-saṅga'

[kṛṣṇa-prema janme, teṅho punar mukhya aṅga]

[“The root cause of devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa is association with advanced devotees. Even when one’s dormant love for Kṛṣṇa awakens, association with devotees is still most essential.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.83]

The very root of Kṛṣṇa bhakti, the very seed, the very basis, is the association with a genuine devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa-prema janme, when one has attained the highest thing, that is love, that prema for Kṛṣṇa, punar mukhya aṅga, at that time also, at that stage also, the sādhu plays the important part. Under no circumstances are the sādhus eliminated from our circle of bhajana, devotion. Always under the guidance of the Guru, this Rūpa Mañjarī, or Lalitā, or Yaśodā, Nanda, Śrīdama, Sudama, under Their guidance and with Their association we are to do our quota. So when we are liberated, we have attained that stage, there also sādhus are playing important part. So sādhu, real association that is all important from the beginning to the end. And under no circumstances that can be eliminated, even in the highest stage when I am engaged in the real service, there also, so many I like. In the midst of so many friends I am discharging my duty, not alone, never alone. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: From beginning to end. So it has been laid much stress and the beginners may not take it very happily, “Because between myself and Kṛṣṇa some other person will come to disturb the direct connection, that is not tolerable.” For the beginners it seems like that. But when one will come to higher realisation then they will feel. Just as I gave the example of the spectacles; the sight and the eye, there is something, the spectacles, but it enhances the view and not opposes. So sādhu never opposes but increases our inner relationship with, just as in telescope.

So, bhṛtyasya-bhṛtya-paricāraka-bhṛtya-bhṛtyasa [Mukunda-Mālā-stotra, 25].

So many guardians I have got, all well wishers, so I am safe. As many guardians I possess there in the higher circle I am so much safe for my well future. That is the line. So always I am servant of the servant of the servant of the servant, in this way they want. Outwardly it will be, “What is this? This is not desirable that I shall go so low and so many persons to tamper between.” Apparently it will seem like that, but it is not so, just the opposite.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

That is not opaque. Transparent, more and more transparent, and helping, sympathising, and not taking a part of my morsel, crust of bread, not like bread, finite thing that if they come to take part then I will be loser. It is not like that. But they will come with infinite resources to me, to educate me about the infinite character of the thing. Of different type, different mentalities, different stage, different light, different shade, they will come to me to represent, all well-wishers, all givers.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Caitanya.

End of 81.12.30.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.30.C_81.12.31.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Guru Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Could you tell us something of the character of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu? Could you speak a little bit on Gaura līlā, of the character of Mahāprabhu?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ___________ [?] Govinda Mahārāja _________ [?] What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s character. He just wants, he’s requesting you to speak something about the character, ha, ha, of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kṛṣṇa and Rādhārāṇī combined, when Both of Them combine, He’s very eager to grant the ordinary public persons to enter into the highest stage of realisation. When Both of them come down to the meanest circle to take them up into the highest position of realisation of giving Themselves, of distributing Themselves, Their all wealth. That is Mahāprabhu, Gaurāṅga.

“The highest wealth ever conceived, take, take it, I am bestowing it to you.”

He comes and invites all. That Kṛṣṇa, when Kṛṣṇa is graciously distributing Himself He’s Mahāprabhu, with Rādhārāṇī, both combined. Hare Kṛṣṇa. This is more wonderful than dream, than imagination, than any hallucination or speculation. Still, it is real. If we can accept it as so, then we have got the highest, possess the highest prospect, sukṛti, if I can take it in that way.

Sva-bhajana-vibhajana-prayojan-avatārī. Jīva Goswāmī gives this statement. When the Kṛṣṇa has got this object of life, He has come down to give out Himself to the public, sva-bhajana, vibhajana, wants to distribute amongst others, what is His own temperament, what He Himself is doing. He’s eager to give it to others. His own function He’s distributing to others, to the public. He has come in the form of Gaurāṅga. Sva-bhajana-vibhajana-prayojana, and avatārī means that highest conception of Godhead, He in such a pose that He wants to distribute Himself wholly to the public.

“Come, take possession of Myself, possession of Myself wholesale, come. I am the highest type of beauty, and charm, and sweetness, and anything you may conceive as desirable.”

Follow?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Kṛṣṇa Himself has become Guru. He has come Himself direct, to play the function of the Guru.

guru-rūpa-hariṁ gauraṁ, rādhā-ruci-rucāvṛtam

nityaṁ naumi navadvīpe, nāma-kīrttana-narttanaiḥ

[“Perpetually do I sing the glories of Lord Gaurāṅga, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Hari, embraced by the heart and halo of Śrīmatī Rādhikā, and who has descended as the Divine Master. In this holy abode of Śrī Navadvīpa Dhāma, He is absorbed in the pastimes of profusely chanting the Holy Names, dancing in ecstasy.”] [Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam, p2-3]

As an Ācārya, in the garb of an Ācārya Kṛṣṇa has come down. “I give you the clue, how, very shortly and very beautifully you can attain Me. I have come to help you to catch Me.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol.

“Take Me. I have come. And in this way I can be caught very easily.” Ha, ha, ha, ha. “If you want to catch Me, come this way, you thoroughly can capture Me.” Ha, ha, ha. “I am giving you the clue. The key of My storehouse you can come and loot, plunder, there.”

Gaura Haribol.

“But it is infinite. As much as you plunder it will increase and increase. No want is possible.”

jasai sindhu ahe kohe bhai napai ko [?]

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, when we chant śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu nityānanda, śrī-advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda, of course we have no doubt, but is that traced, that particular Pañca-Tattva mantra, is that traced? We can trace that in the writings of Bhaktivinoda perhaps? We don’t have any doubt but for the purpose of, sometimes people may query, “From where have you got this mantra?” Of course as far as we’re concerned there’s no difficulty.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It has come from the paraphernalia, but I could not have any trace in any scripture. And at the same time I am to tell you, there are two types of this Pañca-Tattva mantra. One in the Narahari Sarakara School, instead of Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita they put the name of Narahari Sarakara, Pañca-Tattva. But the Goswāmīs have accepted Pañca-Tattva as these five. In Caitanya-caritāmṛta we find Pañca-Tattva including Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita instead of Narahari Sarakara. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. And this is generally accepted, but there is a particular school, they like to introduce Narahari Sarakara instead of Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita. But Sanātana Goswāmī and others have given this. And Svarūpa Dāmodara, the highest authority in the Caitanya School accepted Paṇḍita Śrīvāsa. In Caitanya-caritāmṛta this śloka is also mentioned there, Pañca-Tattva with Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Mahārāja, could you tell us something about Ekādaśī, how that arrangement took place? Ekādaśī, there’s a story...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ekādaśī, yes, the history you may find in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa. But what I got, the purport from Guru Mahārāja, he told, he explained in a ontological way, that generally in the Ekādaśī tithi the tendency of enjoyment of Kṛṣṇa is increased, is increased. And so, the devotees on their part, they are exceptionally; become more busy to supply the objects of His enjoyment, this bhoga, for His bhoga, His enjoyment. And so they do not find much time to cook for themselves and engage themselves in their own livelihood. So upavāsa means they generally stay or live very near to Him to give, supply what is needed for His satisfaction, ____________ [?] to live in the vicinity of Kṛṣṇa and minimise their own necessities of life. That is one aspect.

Another thing from Purāṇa we understand, the sin on the day of Ekādaśī, generally sin selects their abode in some of the crops, and so they should not be used by the ordinary devotees. In general it is said, it is mentioned somewhere, taha upavasa jaha nama vai [?] It is mentioned in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, when the Bengal devotees went to have a darśana of Śrī Caitanyadeva during the ratha-yatra, they went direct in a procession to the abode of Mahāprabhu, the residence of Mahāprabhu. Only offering their respect from Śrībhadra [?] to Jagannātha, did not enter in. And there Mahāprabhu requested them to take some prasādam when they’re coming from a long distance and the fatigue of the travelling, all the concern, considering all these things. And they took prasādam, and then, under the guidance of Mahāprabhu they came to have darśana of Jagannātha.

Then Pratāparudra Mahārāja, from the roof of his house, palace, he’s looking at all these things and putting questions to Sārvabhauma Paṇḍita. “What is this? That generally people come to this place of pilgrimage and they make kora karma [?] and observe fasting, and then after having a darśana of Jagannātha they take food. But why these people without caring for the darśana of Jagannātha, or any fasting or any other observances, they’re taking food, and also being united with Mahāprabhu without having darśana of Jagannātha Deva?”

In that place it is mentioned, “Where there is Mahā prasāda, no necessity, no question of any fasting.” It is mentioned there. And accordingly, many persons, especially the father of Natali Subash [?] Janaki Bosh [?], he was a Pleader in Kattack, every Ekādaśī day he visited Purī so that he may not have to fast, observe the Ekādaśī, then take prasādam, rice, anu-prasādam. So many go there and take.

But Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, and śuddha-bhaktas, they ask us, that in that higher type of rāga-mārga that observance may not be necessary. But we do not consider ourselves in that position, so we observe fasting as recommended in Hari-bhakti-vilāsa.

So Ekādaśī, because Kṛṣṇa’s enjoying spirit increases, we should diminish our ordinary necessities of life in order to make more time to help His service. That is one underlying principle. And another, we should take not anything and everything, though in small quantities with a fasting mood, but some selected things where the sin does not enter in that particular time, or particular moment of the day, particular part of the time. From these two things we observe. We take something, not everything which we ordinarily take, and also we do not take much, anukalpa, means half feeding, less feeding, anukalpa means because we should rouse in our mind that this day the necessity I have got the special duty of supplying the services proper to my Master. This day He wants to receive more. It is by His will, it is His will, and I must abide by that.

Ekādaśī, especially in prapañca we find this doa bhatta [?], this ebb and tide, the whole nature is filled with more juice in the Ekādaśī day generally. And from the physical consideration also some say, if we observe fast before this full moon or new moon, no moon, then it is helpful for our physical health also, because the general ebb and tide wherever there is water. And eighty-five per cent in our body is water, so water, it will be wholesome for us also to observe some sort of fasting to keep our health regular normally. The physical meaning also is given in this way by some scholars.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

You are to take prasādam here, now, or to go away now? You have a call of your duty?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: I can stay. I stay away enough. I should probably stay here for some time.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Today you are to leave?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: No. I will stay.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Whole day?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: I have some duties in the afternoon.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Duties in afternoon. So after taking prasādam you’ll start for Māyāpur, is it?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right. Gaura Hari.

Kamalāsana: Mahārāja, Keith and I would like to know if we can stay here for a few weeks at your āśrama?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He’s asking if he and Keith could stay a few weeks at the āśrama?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Who is he?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Kamalāsana.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kamalāsana. Yes. You are at liberty to stay here as you like.

Kamalāsana: Thank you.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. It is meant to help the bona fide devotees who want to enquire, to know about Mahāprabhu and Kṛṣṇa and Gurudeva. It is meant for that purpose, so you live here as long as you like. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: That is very kind.

Kamalāsana: Yes.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: You’re very kind Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So today we may stop here...

…

So new, Satya Nārāyaṇa...

Devotee: Satyānanda.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Satyānanda, he’s only newcomer, only he?

Śrīla Govinda Mahārāja: No. Ten years ago he was initiated by Prabhupāda.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, newcomer...

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Newcomer here.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Did you visit this place here before, no?

Devotee: No. This is first time.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: First time, and you alone?

Devotees: _______________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: __________________________________________________ [?]

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Vidagdha-Mādhava Prabhu.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Vidagdha-Mādhava Prabhu, you come alone or along with him?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: I just came from Māyāpur, together.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Came from Māyāpur, but taken anything here, no?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: O yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Any question?

Devotee: Well no, not yet.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No, good, ha, ha. Then if any of you put some question to open discussion.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: I have a question. Yesterday you were saying if a pure devotee is leading a kīrtana then it is quite all right to join in this kīrtana. So my question is, how does one tell if a pure devotee is leading the kīrtana?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: The kīrtana should be lead by at least one śuddha-bhakta.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: At least, at least one, the leader, at least one must be śuddha-bhakta. Then we can expect any good result from joining that kīrtana party.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: But he’s asking, how to know, how will we know if he’s a śuddha- bhakta or not?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That will be there according to, as we decide in every other case also, our previous knowledge, experience, and inner consciousness, and opinions of the bona fide known sādhus. Generally, wherever we take some decision, how do we do? What are the ingredients on the basis of which we take any decision? In any case our previous experience, our internal suggestion, and also the opinions which I know, that is also within my experience, opinions about him, whom we know to be bona fide, their opinion about that leader, and my experience, whatever I have gathered previously. And then again my spiritual free reason, free reason in the spiritual field, that is conscience. And by the help of them I am to assert.

If I have already heard about him, gathered opinion from the higher circle whom I can place confidence, that it should be the first thing. The second thing, my experience of the śāstra, the scripture, that this should be the sign of a good devotee. And then, my internal approval, the new suggestion, then my mind, that is imitation, it is imitation without any life within. If you have got experience of the world of spiritual vitality then you’ll be able to detect whether that is lip deep or heart deep. You’ll be able to feel that, what is the depth, what is the depth of the words? Hare Kṛṣṇa.

And you will have to acknowledge that only the tune, only music is not kīrtana. Kīrtana, Hari kīrtana is something other than music. So mere music, music also can appeal our sentiment, but mere music is not Hari kīrtana. Hari is the all important factor, and Hari means serving attitude, and service, that must have certificate from the bona fide Vaiṣṇava. In this way we are to understand things spiritual. Spiritual things, test should be spiritual standard, and that should be gathered from that circle. In this way we are to proceed to every judgement concerning spiritual questions, that test, sādhu-śāstra.

Sādhu-śāstra, guru-vākya, cittete koriyā aikya, Narottama Ṭhākura says [in Śrī Guru- vandanā]. The sādhu, the opinion of the devotees, śāstra, the opinion of the spiritual scripture, guru-vākya, and we must try to harmonise with them what we have heard from our Gurudeva, adjustment. And cittete koriyā aikya, and internal approval. I shall have to gather about the consideration of those three, then I can go forward. This is the general line to negotiate with every new thing, new approach. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari.

What we are to do? This is not only within this physical world, nor in the mental world, nor in the scientific jurisdiction, but passing that; and also passing the stage of siddhi, mukti, the plane of exploitation and the plane of renunciation. And also the plane of viddhi-bhakti, that is constitutional dedication. Rāga-bhakti, that is spontaneous, natural, self giving, self surrendering. The degree of self surrender, that is to be considered, and that is to be given the highest importance, surrender. Our temperament of surrender it vanishes in rāga-bhakti, anurāga-bhakti, self dedication, self dedication. Just as exploitation, ruthless exploitation, lawless exploitation in the lowest. And there also, lawless exploited tendency is at the acme of the highest. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It is exploitation of two kinds, systematic and ruthless, lawless, and so, this is the perverted reflection. So, in the real world, reckless dedication, that is rāga-bhakti, not calculating. Calculated dedication in Vaikuṇṭha. So that is the standard, and accordingly our judgement should be taken or should be given. Gaura Haribol. The general conception is such, exploitation, dedication, and abscissa, marginal, no-man’s-land; that is renunciation. Renunciation means above exploitation, but dedication begins positive side, to give, die to live, Hegelian theory, die to live. That is the theory to be followed. Prepare yourself to die a hard death and you’ll find you’ll be gainer thereby. No risk no gain. As much risk, as much done, so much gain: that is the main theory all through, dedication and exploitation opposite, and lawless, ruthless exploitation, and risky dedication. Gaura Haribol. In this way we are to measure things. The quality, quality, as much dedication, so much qualitative highness, but that must be to the good, Absolute Good, then it’s guaranteed, otherwise everything is gone. Absolute Good is such. Praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā, tad viddhi:

[tad viddhi praṇipātena, paripraśnena sevayā

upadekṣyanti te jñānaṁ, jñāninas tattva darśinaḥ]

[“You will be able to attain all this knowledge by satisfying the enlightened spiritual master with prostrate obeisance, relevant enquiry, and sincere service. Great souls who are most expert in scriptural knowledge and endowed with direct realisation of the Supreme Absolute Truth will teach you that divine knowledge.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 4.34]

Higher knowledge is allowed only in such, towards such ethic, praṇipāt, paripraśna, sevā. If you have your liking at all for the enquiry of higher domain, you must couch yourself in this way, with this dress. That is, praṇipāt, surrender, paripraśna, honest enquiry, and sevā, that is the important thing. You are for Him, not He is for you. For Himself - Hegel - ha, ha, Hegel has given a good basis, ha, ha. Die to live, and, Reality is for Itself, and not for you, or everything. Reality cannot be dependent to any other thing, for His existence or to fulfil the purpose. He’s independent in the beginning and the end, the future and the past. He’s created by Himself, and future He’s meant to maintain His existence for His own purpose, not subservient to any other purpose, then He’s no Reality. So Reality is for Itself, Reality is by Itself, and your question, self determination, die to live. If you want to live a proper life you’ll have to die as you are at present with false ego. That is the broad thing to be followed particularly, the basis of Vaiṣṇavism proper.

But not details mentioned there. What is the real conception of the Reality? It is Vraja līlā, it is Kṛṣṇa conception, all these things. There they’re silent, that is, they’re silent. But Mahāprabhu, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, has taken it. Reality in Its highest conception cannot but be Śrī Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana, the cow boy. And you are to enquire about that, why He’s a cow boy? Why He’s not a brāhmaṇa? Why He’s not a yogī? Why He’s not a king, a mere cow boy? Gaura Haribol.

The medium: not the sattya-guṇa brāhmaṇa, nor the raja-guṇa kṣatriya king, but in the vaiśya mentality, nor the śūdra also, in the middle, a type of aboriginal vaiśya. Not capitalist vaiśya, cow keeper. Cow, sattya-guṇa, amongst the animals the cows are representative of sattya-guṇa, śanta. And it is told that amongst the animals the cow birth is the last. After that, that animal gets chance of a human birth, to come for, to be prepared for independent action. Otherwise they’re all enjoying or suffering the result of their past karma, no independent karma is possible in the paśu or in the devata, generally, only in the human, in the taṭasthā, in the middle position. They can, human birth is the only the basis of taking independent action, and all below, they’re suffering or enjoying the results of their past, no independent action possible there. And the last animal birth is cow. Innocent and giving, giving to others by milk, by cultivation help to the society, less taking and more giving, innocent position. Then after that, the term finished, gets another chance of human birth and new karma can arise from human birth.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Cow keeping, cow keeper, cow keeping is a most easy duty, easy task. Go-wallahing [?] with the gopīs, cow keeping girls, cow keeping girls. Human, to select human species, and again therein cow keeping, and again therein cow keeping girls. That comes the highest position, highest posing rather, posing, by which we can give our maximum service to the Supreme Entity. Boys also to somewhat. Boys, girls, grown up men, in different types, śanta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya, mādhurya in Vṛndāvana, the Yamunā, the peacock, the parrot, the cuckoo, the deer, they’re very favourable to create a favourable environment for the simple and sweet pastimes. Simple and sweet, simplicity is near sweetness, basis of sweetness. Complexity is not, simplicity. Within simplicity sweetness lives in, a simple way of life, not gorgeous, half jungle.

Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

George Washington, after finishing the war, he went to farmer’s life, we are told. In the last stage of his life he selected the life of a farmer. Not a warrior, or minister, or Prime Minister, or director, nothing else of the kind.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Anything?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Yes Mahārāja. Yesterday you were saying…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Though it is clear what you put: the first question?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Very clear.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: All right, then?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: So, we are going by Guru, śāstra and sādhu, and I would like to…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, our heart’s approval, our inner approval, we must give some trace there because that took me to my Guru. Guru is all in all, but who took me to that Guru? My inner sentiment, inner guide, it did not like anything else in the environment, but selected the advice. Who? I need not come, so many others they do not care to come, so many others that may ridicule this life. But what made me to come here? I cannot depreciate that internal approval, that conscience, sincerely. So that is also an important factor. Ultimately we are to depend on it most when collecting advice from the scriptures, when seeking advice and relying on the advice of a sādhu, my internal approval that my inner friend, that only takes me there. Otherwise I might not have come, so many others did not care to come. Who has taken me to this plane?

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate]

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe, nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill-fated.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

“One who sincerely wants real good he can never be deceived, can never be deceived, when really a seeker after truth. Na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati. My dear boy, one who is sincerely hankering after truth, he can never come across anything unfortunate.”

If apparently come across, misfortune, if apparently some misfortune comes to visit us in our way, that is to enhance our position, our improvement. Some sort of danger may come on the way, but if we are sincere they will come and test us and then they will beat the drum of my glory when they will be rejected, the temptations will be rejected, they will plead for us again. So sincerity, sincere hankering after the truth. And that is if we are to go to further and that is of course made of sukṛti, the grace of the divine agents that are wandering through this cursed land to help others unconsciously. That is the basis.

[bhaktis tu bhagavad-bhaktasaṅgena parijāyate]

sat-saṅgaḥ prāpyate puṁbhiḥ sukṛtaiḥ pūrvva-sañcitaiḥ

[“Actually we can recognise a sādhu by sukṛti. Apparently we can know him from the śāstras, the scriptures, because the śāstra helps us to know who is a sādhu, and the sādhu gives us the interpretation of the śāstra. So sādhu and śāstra are interdependent, but the sādhu holds the more important position and the śāstra has the secondary position. The living śāstra is the sādhu, but to know who is Guru, who is sādhu, we are to consult the descriptions given about them in the scriptures. The symptoms of the sādhu, both of the Guru as well as the disciple, have been written in the Bhāgavatam, in the Gītā and in the Upaniṣads.”] [Bṛhan-nāradīya Purāṇa]

And there, my unconscious help, unconsciously got help from the agents of the Lord who are wandering to do good to the people at large, that is accumulated, that has helped me to understand what is good and what is bad. That is sukṛti, ajñāta-sukṛti, jñāta-sukṛti, then śraddhā, then sādhu-saṅga. Then I have come on the surface to, in search of a sādhu and I have got my Guru, guide, and I’m there, and so many others necessary in the journey. And as much as possible I shall gather help from the outside when I’m passing through the street. Sādhana, śravaṇa-daśā, varaṇa-daśā, sādhana-daśā, āpana-daśā, prapanna-daśā, five stages of sādhana, of realisation. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: So yesterday we, you were instructing me that these devotees should not be outside. So to avoid the mistake...

End of 81.12.30.C_81.12.31.A

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.31.B

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Vidagdha-Mādhava: ... you could possibly give me some śāstric...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What can you do? The management, the administration is there, authority.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Yes ________ [?] reasonable argument ______ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: And you can put your plan to them, and also you may put to them that, “Śrīdhara Mahārāja says that they should be put, the venerable figures or pictures should be put in such a way that the general people may feel tendency to show some respect to them. And not that they should be placed in the exposure and they will be neglected by the people and the birds, animals, etc. That is his advice.”

And they came for Vṛndāvana matter, and I already told them that though it is seen in the southern provinces, but still our Guru Mahārāja’s feeling, sentiment, was in this way, and we try to follow that as much as possible. And it should be observed. But if they do not, what can you do?

Now, another vital question will come whether you’ll be a party to that or not. That is your point, lookout. But you should try that they should be put in a honourable position. Śrī Mūrti, Śrī Vigraha, or any of the spiritual things, should be placed in such a venerable position, atmosphere, so that draws respect and devotion of the public. Not only knowledge is necessary, but respectability should be drawn. Is it not?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not only knowledge, that above this, above this, but with due respect They should be placed, and highest honour should be given to Mahāprabhu and Kṛṣṇa. But they have got their respective position of respectability, then only it will prove that Mahāprabhu is on the highest respect. Otherwise, on whose head he’s placed if they’re not respected then who’ll go to respect the highest thing? Gradually distributed, the respect should be gradually distributed, and the publicity, pracāra, propaganda, means not only the dry knowledge but respectability, devotion also, in the exhibition. This is something like an exhibition. But exhibition must not be placed in such a way that it will be only the food of the archaeology, or only for dry siddhānta conception, knowledge. But the adjustment of the veneration, devotional tendency, must be depicted there, for the good of the public and propaganda.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Not just for architecture.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not mere architecture, and to distribute the knowledge, the gradation of the hierarchy, not only the hierarchy, but the devotional spirit should be dealt with, mixed there, mingled. That is my understanding from Guru Mahārāja’s conduct and I am to express that. Gaura Sundara. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Mahārāja, śravaṇa-daśā and varaṇa-daśā, second one.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Varaṇa-daśā, śravaṇa-daśā and varaṇa-daśā, that when satisfied, first hearing, that is a probational life, and varaṇa-daśā, “Yes, it is, śravaṇa, I am satisfied with śravaṇa, now I accept the guide, guru-karaṇa.” Varaṇa-daśā means I take admission, formal admission I take. “That I, we, accept you as our leader. Now, whatever you’ll say I must obey.” That is varaṇa-daśā. “I first accept the clan, different, the Christianity, the Mohammedanism, this thing that thing, but I come first to accept the particular creed, and next the man who’ll be able to satisfy me according to this creed, and will give me my desired end of life.” That is guru-karaṇa, to accept the creed and then to accept the guide, guru-karaṇa. Then varaṇa-daśā finished. Then sādhana-daśā begins. Under his guidance I am to go on with the practices. That is sādhana-daśā, the third. And then to come to realise, to attain some tangible position, that, “Yes, I am feeling what was in words, what was in propaganda, now my heart feels the touch of that thing.” That is āpana-daśā. And the prapanna-daśā, “I am well established and I can distribute it to others also.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Sundara. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Then there are five stages…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What? Five stages!

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Śravaṇa, varaṇa…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Śravaṇa, varaṇa, sādhana, sādhana, within the camp. Then āpana, to feel it, to come to the position of self experience of the thing, attainment of some, they come to come in touch with the reality, and then to be established in that real plane, and to, so that I can distribute it to others also.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Who is there, in that extremity?

Devotee: Bhakti-keg [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bhakti-keg. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: ____________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _______________________ [?]

Devotee: ____________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: __________________________________ [?] He may know partially, but still he wants to make it clear for others. _____________________ [?] What do you say?

Yari badhu ari butta sadhu le sakha [?] Mahāprabhu says to Sanātana Goswāmī when he put questions. “You know all these things, still of course, you are making questions, making enquiry. Because it is the nature of the sādhu, they know it well, but still, to make it more and more firm, they put the questions again and again.”

Ha, ha, ha. This is in the talk, discourse of Mahāprabhu and Sanātana Goswāmī. Yani lagdha laghi bhuddhi [?] With more firmness, puts questions.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi.

Dayāl Nitāi. Dayāl Nitāi. Dayāl Nitāi. Dayāl Nitāi. Dayāl Nitāi. Dayāl Nitāi. Dayāl Nitāi.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Mahārāja.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: You were explaining that in a particular stage of realisation one experiences within the heart, one gets that connection and then establishes himself in that plane. Then he’s more or less safe? He can go on in a safe way from that point? In other words, the external manifestation of Kṛṣṇa is the Guru. And the Guru helps one to contact caitya Guru, yes, the Paramātmā?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What does he say?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: There’s two questions. First question, when we have inner conviction are we safe? And second question, does the external Guru help us to contact the caitya Guru?

Vidagdha-Mādhava: That is the same? Is that the same? Are those two things the same?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Not only to contact, but the external Guru helps to prepare us so that we can infallibly read the direction of caitya Guru. Caitya Guru direction first we get in a raw way, and then mahāntaḥ Guru comes, with the help of caitya Guru we come to mahāntaḥ Guru, that caitya Guru’s help in raw. Not very systematically clear, a general. Then we come to mahāntaḥ Guru. We feel that caitya Guru’s internal hankering is being satisfied and elaborate and it is more beautifully decorated, delivered. Then, with the help of mahāntaḥ Guru we again come to find it in our caitya Guru. They’re helping one another. By the help of the mahāntaḥ Guru caitya Guru becomes more clear, or more developed. The inner caitya Guru that becomes more clear, cleansed from the different thoughts, ideas, mixed up from yogīc and jñānic and karmī, so many classes, they’re mixed. The raw things, they become more clear by the help of mahāntaḥ Guru. And they can give such adherence more and more to the mahāntaḥ Guru. In this way both help one another.

Otherwise cooperation is not possible. And sometimes it may also happen that after, with the help of caitya Guru we have come to mahāntaḥ Guru, then after accepting mahāntaḥ Guru my caitya Guru has again been covered. Then mahāntaḥ Guru will try to help him, to take him in again, and to cleanse the dirt that has covered my caitya Guru. Again, by his care we may get my caitya Guru back. Caitya Guru for the, temporarily may be buried, by anartha, by Vaiṣṇava aparādha, then mahāntaḥ Guru comes to our relief.

Sometimes many joins the Mission and then goes away. The Guru is there. But Guru does not allow so easy to go off. He tries his best to take him again in and to make him understand firmly. “Why you have gone away?”

“For such and such things, so many things, giving this monetary connection more importance, or free mixing with the ladies. These disturbed me, I went away.”

Then the mahāntaḥ Guru, if genuine, he will say, “No, no, this is in particular cases and that should be removed, that is not the real object. But for some purpose it has been allowed to certain extent for the good of them.” In this way he will explain the temporary connection. And again he will try to reinstate him. “These are of minor matters. In such grave and serious matters something, some dirt, may enter with some people coming within, but it will be finished in no time and he will get the real path. You won’t disturb yourself for this little, tiny, filthy things. Don’t go away.” In this way.

So many un grown, so many unfit persons join a Mission, so it is not impossible that some sort of anartha may again come to attack anyone, it is a fight within. And sometimes this party is winning ground and that party is losing. In this way, ultimately, the real party will win the battle. It is a battle, everyone’s heart will be a battle, because they’re sādhaka, not siddha. They’re not fully realised souls, they’re also in the process of realisation, sometimes coming back, sometimes going ahead, more. In this way, on the whole, they will have to make progress. So some sort of consideration and generosity should be allowed.

I am in a hospital, I am to think that I am in a hospital, there are so many diseased persons. This is not a place where all the healthy persons will live in the hospital. It is not possible. I am also a patient. There are so many patients. Patients are of different types, even some may die, and some progressing, and may come some setback. But you have got real interest for recovering my health. Ignoring all these facts I must go on with the doctor, taking his help in medicine and in diet, then I will be cured.

It does not mean that so many patients dying, so many degrading, so I will also degrade. In the school also, all may not pass, so many meets failure, but still, a determined student must go through. So, a little unsuccessful cases should not discourage me to follow my path of eternal benefit. I should not be cowed down by seeing, but it is my vital interest. I must be wakeful to the fact that it is my vital, my only interest, I can’t leave it, go away. Everyone goes. I must fight single with the enemy.

The Casabianca, have you gone through that poem of Casabianca?

[By the English poet Felicia Dorothea Hemans, 1793 – 1835, first published in 1826]

“The boy stood on the burning deck,” the French boy. “Whence all but he had fled.” Ha, ha, ha, ha. “All may fly away, I shall fight singularly.” With such determination, because this is my right of interest, I have already understood. I have already realised. I can’t shirk back.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Such determined resolution must come from within if it is deep-rooted within our heart we find once. That this is the thing I was searching after.

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: One question.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Devotee: You mentioned that, some, everyone is in the hospital and some are patients and they can get cured by the instructions of the doctor. So someone who is patient, can he take the position of a doctor?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What he says, the inefficiency of a doctor?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: No. Can a patient also become a doctor?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. When he’s fully cured and he studies the medicine and the necessary education of a doctor he can be doctor.

Devotee: But before, while he’s…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: By the appointment, by qualification and also by the appointment. You see? The qualification necessary first, and the appointment from the higher, hierarchy, administration, then you can become a doctor in the hospital. The private practice you can do if you are qualified, but to get, as a doctor, to become a doctor of a hospital you have some sanction from above. As an ordinary sādhu you can help this and that, but to become an Ācārya of a big position, you should have some sanction from above, prapanna-daśā.

Devotee: Who will decide whether the patient is qualified?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He will feel it within. Only external, written sanction is not necessary, by a letter. But he’s already awake in the internal world, and revolution, inspiration, that will come to him from the internal world. In such a way that these people are suffering and you know the medicine and you are seeing firm, “Go and help them.” The urge, the power from within that, “You have got the medicine and the patient suffering around. Why do you not apply the medicine, administer the medicine to the patients?” The urge will come. And you may see in the dream, and in wakeful stage also you find such urge, that internal insinuation, that will come to you. Helplessly you will advance to help the patients, because you know the medicine, you know the symptoms of the disease, and you have got the medicine, and it cannot but engage yourself in the treatment. That will be in broad daylight conception you will find. That will be more real than you see this world. This world of experience through the channels of the senses may be vague, but that will be clear, more, within, urge. “Why do you not give the medicine? The man is suffering and know everything. You have yourself, after using that medicine, you are cured, and you find the man is suffering from the same disease, and you have the medicine in your hand, why should you not apply? What reason, what explanation you have got not to do such?” Not money making, or for fame, but internal urge to help them. And you will find the noble predecessors also have asked us to do so.

yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśa, [āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra ei deśa

kabhu nā vādhibe tomāra viṣaya-taraṅga, punarapi ei ṭhāñi pābe mora saṅga]

[“Instruct whoever you meet in the science of Kṛṣṇa. Teach them the instructions of Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā, and the teachings about Kṛṣṇa in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way, on My order, become a Guru and liberate everyone in the land. If you follow this instruction, the waves of materialism within this world will not affect you. Indeed, if you follow My order, you will soon attain My association.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 7.128-9]

There is a ditch, a man will fall, and you know the fact, a man is going, blindly. You won’t try to save him? This is natural right, this natural feeling. When that will be plain, so plain to you the man will fall and die in the ditch and if you don’t help him you will be responsible. Ha, ha, ha. This common sense may be applied. But we must be sincere, and not for money, or for fame, or for any other worldly gain, that is the danger. Kanak, kāminī, pratiṣṭhā, the three mainly disturbing elements misguides us. But we are free from them, the street, the way, is broad and clear in which we shall walk, that is clear. Only these three things are disturbing, drawing me this side, that side, otherwise the way is clear. Do good, and what is good? God is good. And you will like to see that everyone becomes good by getting the God. God is good. God is good and great. Is it not? What is that general phrase? The God is good and great, or great and good. So, when that sincere feeling will be very clear to you, all your activities will be controlled by only that principal of life, and you will go on helping others. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Very tasteful and very safe and must be given to all. Let them come in a safe position in the dangerous zone, and to be happy. The medicine, tasteful medicine will make happy. That is in your possession. You cannot but do. And you will feel urge within that you help others, help others, with this real knowledge of walking. Where to go? How to go, and what for to go? All these general questions to be solved and helped, help to others.

'ke āmi,' 'kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya', [ihā nāhi jāni – 'kemane hita haya']

[“Who am I? Why do the threefold miseries always give me trouble? If I do not know this, how can I be benefited?”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 20.102]

Who am I? Why I am troubled? And how I can get my desired end? These fundamental problems should be solved. And if you have the solution you must give it to others. “Solve your problem, my friend, solve your problem.” That will be the mentality of a preacher, and very intense in Ācārya.

Devotee: Someone, he may have sincere urge to help others…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes.

Devotee: …but because he is not completely, may not understand danger…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: If he’s…

Devotee: …and he may himself become infected.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, if he finds that if he goes to, then with the help of the higher agent he may approach, otherwise not, he’ll be nowhere, he’ll be lost. When he’ll approach to cure a patient, the patient he’ll not be able to cure, that patient’s germ will attack him and he will also die with the patient. In that case he won’t approach. With the help of a higher doctor he may inform to the higher doctor with better medicine, “That please, hopeless patient, please see him.” He will approach a higher doctor. If there is any doubt that if I approach him with this meagre medicine and meagre instruments then I won’t be able to cure him, rather, I shall die. If in that case you won’t approach, you approach the doctor of higher position, superior position. Is it not, reasonable?

Devotee: Very reasonable.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja:

bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra, janma sārthaka kari’ kara para-upakāra

[“One who has taken his birth as a human being in the land of India [Bhārata-varṣa] should make his life successful and work for the benefit of all other people.”] [Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, 9.41]

But still it may be rarely found that doctor approaching with a good heart to cure the patient but he dies. That case is also not impossible. But that is not desirable.

Sometimes in a body when one approaches that relief work, some soldiers may be sacrificed before attaining the victory. The victorious party fighting with the enemy, they have also to incur some loss. So in a mission, in a propaganda, some soldiers who are asked to approach the rich men, to approach the women, sometimes some are lost. For the time being at least, but again they will come back. It may be possible.

But in a mission, as our Satsvarūpa Mahārāja has written in the biography of Swāmī Mahārāja, “Some drifted away but so many, more large number come to him again. And some old disciples left him, drifted away.” It is such a big campaign, some old disciples we find have gone away from him, but more large number has come towards him. But we expect that they will again come back, again come back. Because what taste they have got once, can’t forget.

nehābhikrama-nāśo 'sti, pratyavāyo na vidyate

svalpam apy asya dharmasya, trāyate mahato bhayāt

[“Even a small beginning in this devotional service cannot go in vain, nor can any loss be suffered. The most insignificant practice of such devotional service saves one from the all-devouring fear of repeated birth and death in this world.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 2.40]

What he has acquired that cannot be destroyed. Very eternal, durability is of very high degree. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. So, na me bhaktaḥ pranaśyati?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Kaunteya pratijānīhi, na me bhaktaḥ pranaśyati.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Kaunteya pratijānīhi, na me bhaktaḥ pranaśyati.

[kṣipram bhavati dharmātmā, śaśvac-chāntiṁ nigacchati

kaunteya pratijānīhi, na me bhaktaḥ pranaśyati]

[“He soon becomes righteous (dharmātmā) and attains lasting peace. O son of Kuntī, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 9.31]

“The assurance is there. If only for the time being he has come to Me, may be seen for some time to go away, but ultimately he must come to Me again.”

Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Devotee: I have one question about the conception of the Guru by the disciple, and that his conception of the Guru is absolute, but others may see the same person in a relative conception. So the doubt that I have is, a Guru seems to be relative or absolute…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Generally, in general it has been advised that one in the beginning he’s to look towards his Guru as the representative of the Lord Himself, the Absolute Himself. But when he makes some progress and some inner awakening begins, then he will gradually find that Kṛṣṇa, that the Absolute is a particular system, organic whole. And He has got His potency of different variety. And according to his inner awakening his fitness for a particular class of service, that should be considered and he will be taken in to that immediate guide of that type of service. So one may go to see his Guru, gradually he will find, some will find sākhya-rasa, some will go to vātsalya-rasa, some will go to mādhurya-rasa. According to his innate capacity, innate quality, he will be.

Mainly, the government, and then different departments of government. The acceptance of the government grants the service, then some examination, and then test. And he’ll be put to a particular department and he’ll find his immediate boss, under which he’ll say, “He’s my guide and under his direction I am to serve. And that is my maximum gain there.” In general, it is like that.

First, a whole system one, and then in a particular department of the system arrangement, according to the awakening and my fitness it will be considered. Then, finally posted I shall find that he is my Guru, under his guidance I am to do anything and everything. So Kṛṣṇa Guru, then in different camps, Rādhārāṇī, Yaśodā, then in the mādhurya-rasa comes Rūpa Mañjarī to Guru, in this way. And sees that is oneness, unity, one and the same, but more efficient service may be drawn from this point, not from higher point. I have my best utility if I am located here only. I can be best interested if I’m located here. But if I’m located in some higher circle then I’ll be the loser, I have not got such fitness so anomaly will be created. Do you follow?

Devotee: No.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: He does not follow.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You explain. You have followed?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Not fully.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ha, ha, not fully.

ācāryaṁ māṁ vijānīyān, [nāvamanyeta karhicit

na martya-buddhyāsūyeta, sarva-deva-mayo guru]

[“One should know the Ācārya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods.”]

[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.17.27]

In the beginning we are told that, “Ācārya, Guru is Myself.” And then [Raghunātha] Dāsa Goswāmī, the final Ācārya of prayojana, he says, mukunda-preṣṭhatve, sutatve guru-varaṁ.

[na dharmam-nādharmam-śruti-gaṇa-niruktam-kila kuru

vraje rādhā-kṛṣṇa-pracura-paricaryām iha tanuḥ

śacī-sūnum-nandīśvara-pati-sutatve guru-varaṁ

mukunda-preṣṭhatve smara padam ajasram-nanu manaḥ]

[“Mind, don’t do the pious and impious deeds described in the Vedas. Intently serve Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa in Vraja. Always remember that Lord Caitanya is the son of Mahārāja Nanda and my Guru is most dear to Lord Mukunda.”] [Manaḥ-śikṣā, 2]

He’s not God himself but his most favourite is the position of Ācārya. We are to harmonise between. Do you understand?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Sākṣād-dharitvena, kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya.

[sākṣād-dharitvena samasta-śāstrair, uktas tathā bhāvyata eva sadbhiḥ

kintu prabhor yaḥ priya eva tasya, vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam]

[“In the revealed scriptures it is declared that the spiritual master should be worshipped like the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and this injunction is obeyed by pure devotees of the Lord. The spiritual master is the most confidential servant of the Lord. Thus let us offer our respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of our spiritual master.”] [Śrī Śrī Gurv-aṣṭaka, 7]

Ultimately we find the most favourite of Him, His potency, that is Guru. But in the beginning, in general, in śāstra also it is mentioned that, “Brahman means Kṛṣṇa as a whole.” But clear vision, the Nārāyaṇa, the Vasudeva, then Nārāyaṇa, then Rāmacandra, Dvārakesh, and the most clear estimation we find is Kṛṣṇa within.

trayisti syama itya varitam pura tatasya he vivat gatha gatim [?]

vibhakta vai bhakta mam iti pramana mo naradesa [?]

When Kṛṣṇa, Uddhava, Balarāma, Three in a conference in Dvārakā, They saw that a mass of light is approaching towards Them. Then after a little found that there is a figure in the mass, in the light, within the light. Then further approach then found, “Oh, this is a male figure.” Then very near, “Oh, there is Devaṛṣi Nārada coming.” In this way, from far off we get the conception of a whole.

Just as the Himalaya, a distant view of the Himalaya you can have many things, but as much as you approach there you will find a particular path but more clearly. Then when entered there you’ll find your Lord, your own men, and you will mix there. At that time you are not finding the whole Himalaya, you are located in a particular position. And there the desired end of your life is fulfilled, and not with the whole Himalaya.

So Kṛṣṇa from far approach, we see, we have got a clear sat-cit-ānanda, infinite, infinite Kṛṣṇa. Then as much as we shall approach, because we are small we’ll be located in a particular position. In this way, according to my fitness I will be taken in to a particular position of His service. And there, whatever I get in the portion of His service, I will be engaged and the fullest satisfaction of my nature I will draw from there.

The Guru means guide, the first guide, the wholesale of Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa attracting me. Then attraction makes me to make progress towards Him. And I am a tiny fellow, and as much I gain, so many big visions, hazy big visions eliminated, and a particular place is more clear. In this way, in function, in size, in every matter, I’ll be located in a particular part of the infinite. And then as my duty towards that, that will draw for me the highest benefit.

In the rasa department, śanta, dāsya, sākhya, vātsalya, mādhurya, all these departments, according to my capacity I’ll be given admission in a particular department of rasa in service. Then there also many departments, in mādhurya-rasa, śanta-rasa, then according to my innermost fitness I shall be located in a particular department. So many departments of service, in mādhurya-rasa some are engaged in garlanding, some about bed matters, some about cooking affairs, in this way different departments. According to my capacity and fitness I’ll be taken in a particular department, and ultimately I’ll be placed in a position. “Do your duty here.” And immediate guide I shall see that he’s my Guru, whatever he says I am to do that, and thereby I am getting my best benefit, properly located. Religion is proper adjustment.

There are so many Ācārya, even in the Gauḍīya Mission. You have come to Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja, some peculiarity in him. Again, he has got many departments of service, this book selling, then this delivering lectures, and others, according to your fitness you’ll be given to serve in a particular department, in this way. But you are in connection with the whole ISKCON there. Wherever you are posted you are connected with the whole of ISKCON, but your specific duty is in a particular place. Gaura Hari. Not clear?

Devotee: Yes, but I’ve still…

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You joined the ISKCON first, but what is ISKCON? ISKCON is a huge thing with so many departments, so many Maṭhs, so many duties. You joined ISKCON, a hazy thing, a big thing. Then after you were admitted you were taken in and placed to some direction, to some post, part. Your attention is directed and you go there and gradually get some duty to discharge. You are in the whole of ISKCON is yours, but still you have got a particular department and particular duty, more and more. You may come to the personal secretary of Swāmī Mahārāja maybe. Or someone preaching, or someone cooking department. For cooking himself and cooking Guru Mahārāja, and some goes, “Oh no, go there, go to America, go to China. A dangerous position to preach, go there.” He’s also got a duty. So adjustment, entrance into ISKCON and then adjustment begins. Religion is proper adjustment according to the fitness of the man given admission. Can’t follow?

Devotee: I follow but still there’s some questions.

Vidagdha-Mādhava: Ask the question.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: According to your fitness, your fitness and their necessity. The necessity in the hues and of different type, according to your fitness you’ll be given a particular duty. What difficulty there may be in understanding this? Proper adjustment, that is infinite and you cannot swallow the infinite within you. You are detached, you are infinitesimal, and you are approaching the infinite. So you are to be located in a particular position of the infinite. You are to adjust in this way. You cannot devour the whole infinite within your belly. Do you follow? Do you like that, that I must devour the whole infinite within my belly? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. So you are to be located in a particular infinitesimal position. And in your case you will draw maximum remuneration from that. If you are placed in some other place you will be loser. According to this fitness the adjustment comes to us. And it is quite reasonable.

Devotee: So, example, some person comes to this ISKCON movement and he will understand by reading my spiritual master’s books that he must approach a Guru. And then he will approach one of the Guru’s in our ISKCON movement and accept him on the absolute, as absolute. But I may not see that same person like that. So it’s confusing to me how…

End of 81.12.31.B

* * * * * * * *

Start of 81.12.31.C_82.01.01.A

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: As much as possible we shall try towards Her satisfaction because our own hankering that is not a negligible factor. And also the advice given by the sādhus and the Guru and scriptures, and I am the person who is the, who is responsible after all for accepting anything and everything. I have accepted the Ācārya also on my own risk, and here also I’m to adjust according to myself. But we shall have to consider that my consideration may not be prejudiced by any mal object. That my selection may be genuine, may be sincere, and not to satisfy some ulterior motive, I’m to do that. I’m responsible ultimately for my own fortune.

Devotee: __________________________ a new person, his selection [?]

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: The disciple is responsible, he’s asking, Your Grace is speaking about the disciple is responsible for his selection.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course, ultimately he’s responsible. Why you have joined, how you have joined? On your own responsibility you have joined ISKCON. You have left Christianity, or Mohammedism, or Hinduism, you have joined ISKCON, on your responsibility. Ultimate responsibility is with the person who selects, who has got the right of selection, it is there only. We have jumped to Gauḍīya Mission, why? Taking the risk of anything else we have jumped, we have cast our fate. We are so much captured with the ideal, the beauty of the idea, that we jumped, left our previous environment and jumped to accept the new. Everyone is such, case is such.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Kṛṣṇa Saran Prabhu is here.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Oh! __________ Hare Kṛṣṇa _____________________ [?]

Devotee: A new man he accepts, he chooses a Guru, and he sees him as Absolute. But the God-brother of the Guru he may not see that he’s absolute in the same way.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Then how to adjust?

Devotee: Yes. How to adjust?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: He’s not requested also to see he’s absolute, he’s not requested, he’s brotherly position, but some outward respect he should show of a special character to help the new recruits. Whether the new recruits they have come to see him as absolute their sentiment may not be disturbed. This sort of consideration one should have. But internally he’s not bound to accept his God-brother as his own Guru. Am I clear?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: You are not compelled, you are not bound, to see him as Swāmī Mahārāja, you are seeing your Guru, not in that light. But you should have some consideration that the new persons that are recruited by him and who are expected to see him as Guru Absolute, you may not disturb their sentiment or feeling. With such caution you are to behave.

Devotee: The confusion in my mind is that the conception is only relative to ones own position, that it’s only absolute from your own position. If I, if a disciple sees his Guru as Absolute then it’s difficult to say who is actually Absolute. It’s very confusing to me.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The Guru is Absolute, the two Absolute, God is Absolute, then Guru is Absolute.

Devotee: But the Guru is Absolute according to ones position.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Now we are to think one thing. The God has also got different Avatāra, reverent attitude. You are to understand this mathematical, fundamental truth, that from zero if you add the zero it becomes zero. Zero into zero is zero. Zero minus zero is zero. So Infinite minus Infinite that is Infinite. Can you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So God may express Himself in different Avatāra, different type, still They’re Infinite. His every posing is Infinite, but still there is also gradation, according to rasa, classification, a posing. He’s One but different posing and there are differences in the posing. A King sometimes, a King as a general, a King as law maker, the King as husband and father, one man, but the question of superiority may be traced there also, what is the highest attitude of the King. He’s one. So there is differentiated character in the Absolute but still He’s one, in this way. He’s got potency. You are approaching the son of a King, you can consider that if I capture the son the King will be captured. And that is not false, wholly. So God’s favourite is also having some power of God. In this way we are to distribute. The Guru is favourite, Guru is not outside God. His own particular potency to deliver the fallen is there, enjoying maximum power, maximum power from Kṛṣṇa, Guru from Kṛṣṇa, in the department of delivering the fallen souls. We are to take in that way. But in Infinity that may not be divided like mundane things: quite separately. So we are to adjust in that way.

On the whole we want to say, and I have repeatedly said it, the Bhāgavata asks not to make much in the enquiry, that is to approach through knowledge, to know. That I’ll be able to finish by my knowledge, I’ll be able to satisfy my knowing faculty. I’ll be able to measure the whole thing with my tiny brain. In a particular cell of my head I shall put the Infinite as a prisoner. Give up this position.

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva, jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

[sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir, ye prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi tais tri-lokyām]

[“Oh Lord, Oh Unconquerable One, those devotees who, completely giving up all attempts on the path of jñāna of attaining the non-differentiated platform known as Brahma by hearing the transcendental narratives of Your pastimes (kathā), which emanates from the lotus mouths of the mahā-bhāgavat sādhus and pass their lives by engaging their body, mind and words in pure devotion, easily conquer You (they easily get Your transcendental association), although You are the most difficult to attain in the three worlds.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.14.3]

This is the speciality Bhāgavata School, by surrender you’ll be able to know, because He’s super-subjective. He won’t come to be the object of your tiny brain. If you work that way you will be disappointed. No tiny brain can finish, to know the whole thing by its power. So by surrendering, namanta eva, jīvanti.

When Mahāprabhu asking questions and Rāmānanda answering, then “Eho bahya, this is superficial. Our searching through jñāna, through knowledge, but that is superficial thing. That is not the real path.” Then he came, “Give up the vanity of thinking you can know anything and everything.” When he comes to surrender he comes to accept the real path to know Him, because if He makes Himself known to him he can know, and as much he can know that much.

Once I was asked, “If finite can know Infinite,” one Ārya Samāj leader, “He’s no Infinite.” His statement is, “If finite can know Infinite then He’s no Infinite.”

And my answer was, if Infinite cannot make Himself known to finite then He’s no Infinite. Infinite can make Himself known to finite according to its sweet will. But finite cannot force the Infinite to make Himself known to him. Do you follow?

Devotee: Hmm.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: So it has been recommended that jñāne prayāsa, leaving, dismissing your vanity that you’ll be able to know the Infinite. Dismiss that idea, that tendency, and surrender to Him, and accept the attitude of the negative to draw the positive. Positive cannot encroach out of itself, but in the negative. The positive can encroach and may be aggressive. And negative should put himself at the disposal of positive. Predominating Moiety and Predominated Moiety. Predominated Moiety is the potency, and Predominating Moiety is the possessor of the potency. Kṛṣṇa is the possessor of the potency, śaktimān, and śakti the potency at His disposal. So we are a part of potency, so we shall try with preparedness to receive Him. And when, according to His sweet will He comes to me I shall be able to get His touch. This is the path. No other path. So:

bhaktyāham ekayā grāhyaḥ [śraddhayātmā priyaḥ satām

bhaktiḥ punāti man-niṣṭhā śvapākān api sambhavāt]

[“I, the Supreme Lord and the most Beloved, am attainable by the pure saints, by virtue of the potency of their exclusive devotion born of faith (śraddhā). Exclusive devotion in Me purifies even the lowest outcastes known as caṇḍālas. Śva means dog. Even the dog-eaters, that is, the lower section, can also be purified from their lower birth.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.14.21]

Only through devotion, dedication, their preparedness to put at His disposal, to be dealt by Him, with this attitude, this is the negative characteristic so as to invite the positive. To invite the positive, that should be the characteristic of the negative, and that by humility, modesty, self- abnegation to the extreme, self-sacrifice. These are the qualifications of a devotee, should be, to improve his negative characteristic, to draw. The super subject, I’m subject, I’m experiencing the objective world, and who is super subject I’m object to Him. When He will care to come down in my plane I will have some sort of feeling, sentiment, experience, that one has come. Very finer thing has come in my gross consciousness, come down. I find so much ecstatic joy. “Oh, how subtle a thing has descended into my plane of consciousness, how wonderful it is, never experienced before. A very sweet, fine consciousness has come down in my gross area of consciousness.” I’ll be benumbed, astonished, wondered, astounded.

māraḥ svayaṁ nu madhura-dyuti-maṇḍalaṁ nu, mādhuryam eva nu mano-nayanāmṛtaṁ nu

venī-mṛjo nu mama jīvita-vallabho nu, kṛṣṇo 'yam abhyudayate mama locanāya

[“My dear friends, where is Kṛṣṇa, who is Cupid personified, brilliant as a kadamba flower? Where is Kṛṣṇa, sweetness Himself, the sweetest nectar for my eyes and mind? Where is Kṛṣṇa, who loosens the hair of the gopīs? He is the supreme source of divine bliss. He is my life and soul. Has He come before my eyes again?”] [Kṛṣṇa-Karṇāmṛtam, 68]

The finest conception of the sweet knowledge coming down to a heart of a devotee and his gradual experience is in this way, represented by Bilvamaṅgala Ṭhākura. First approach he felt, “Oh, Divine Cupid has come down in my plane of consciousness, māraḥ svayaṁ nu madhura-dyuti. Oh, this is infinite ray of sweetness has come, madhura-dyuti. Mādhurya, the very gist of sweetness I find, it can never be otherwise conceived, madhura-dyuti-maṇḍalaṁ. Nayanām, Oh, it is capturing my eyes also with beauty and other experiences. Other channels of experience all captured by that finer and finest consciousness, captured, whole pervaded. Nayanāmṛtaṁ nu, my eyes also are feeling that exceptional sweetness. Venī-mṛjo nu, Oh, He has accepted me as His sweetheart and He’s rubbing softly my venī, my hair, in mādhurya rasa He has accepted me. I’m now His. No other independent existence I have got. I am now fully, wholesale accepted by Him.”

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. No more, here I finish today. Gaura Haribol.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Jaya oṁ viṣṇu-pāda...

...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: New year’s day, nineteen thirty seven, this early morning Guru Mahārāja passed away. That also was Friday, first of January thirty seven, that was Friday, early morning. I attended his bed, sick bed, from two to four, and then another turn came to attend. I went to bed. Two of us were attending him...

[Unclear recording for about ten and a half minutes]

Then next day that was Saturday. Then at Calcutta Maṭha there is engagement, some gentlemen, perhaps some European gentlemen should come there, it was appointed so some of us must go there. And among the list my name was also. I was so much tired, can’t move my body, still, what to do, must go. Must go, no disobedience is possible just after the demise of Guru Mahārāja. The general secretary he wants me to go. I remember I felt inability but anyhow dragged myself to Calcutta.

And when I’m in Rāma-ghāṭa station junction I found that Lalitā Prasād is walking on the platform. Some told that Lalitā Bābū is there. From the railway carriage we had a look on him. That is the first time I saw him. Afterwards, once more I saw him. Twice I have seen him, Lalitā Prasād. He was a bachelor. He had service in the writers [?] building, government clan. Then retiring he opened an āśrama. In the beginning he was living with Prabhupāda in Yoga-pīṭha, but after Kuñja Bābu came, became general secretary and began to start the propaganda work, Lalitā Prasād had some difference with Kuñja Bābu, and he went away gradually, cutting connection with brother, our Guru Mahārāja. And established an āśrama there in the birth place of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, that is the maternal uncle’s house of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, that Udar [?]

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura comes from Calcutta Dutta family, renowned, and from the same family Vivekananda also came, that Datta family of Hat Cola [?] a renowned family in Calcutta, Datta family, Hat Cola [?] Datta. Vivekananda also came out of that family, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura also. But Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s mother’s birthplace was Ula [?] and he was born in maternal uncle’s house. They’re also zamīndārs, mustafi ______ [?] they’re zamīndārs, big zamīndārs of the time. But there he was born so that place has been taken up by Lalitā Prasād and made an āśrama and he lived there.

After little long time Prabhupāda passed away sixty three, and Lalitā Prasād over hundred, one or two, hundred one or two he lived after that.

He appreciated my poem about Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, I came to know through his sister. His sister came here some twenty years back perhaps or more. She told that, ‘he has appreciated your poem about Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura very much.’ And sometimes the disciples also come here now and then. I give some five rupees, ten rupees, in this way. Looking of course in taking the name of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura anyhow going on. Not to such accuracy and intensity as our Guru Mahārāja did, but to certain extent some connection or other. Hare Kṛṣṇa. According to our Guru Mahārāja he had some connection with Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura but that is contaminated with the flesh connection, more, than spiritual. Ha, ha. Baba, bada. He was son, and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was his father, he can’t forget that. Independent of that connection, of course he has got some idea but that is not very bona fide, we are told, and nearing towards sahajiyā vāda. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Madhvācārya has written a poem, Māyāvādā-Śata-Dūṣaṇī, a hundred poems against Māyāvādā. And our Guru Mahārāja, Prākṛta-rasa Śata-Dūṣaṇī, a hundred lines devoted to expose sahajiyāism, that is imitation of prema bhakti. What is lust, what is sense pleasure, to conceive that, to take that, in the place of divine love. This human love is conceived in a colour to be the divine love. What is so rare that even Brahmā and Śiva they cannot expect to possess that thing, that high thing. And they think they have already got, by, through imagination, imagining himself as a girl. And also, so much so that they imagine some gentleman, bābājī to be Kṛṣṇa. And they began to practice their relationship in that way, thinking that will be conducive, that will assist them to raise up their standard of life to that high creation, only by thinking, and in that way. A nasty thing, going on in the name. So the society looks down upon them as the pests of the society. So Prabhupāda gave a new line, the goswāmīns, you look at the śāstra and will find what is that.

manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu, kaścid yatati siddhaye

yatatām api siddhānāṁ, kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ

[“Out of countless souls, some may have reached the human form of life, and among many thousands of human beings, some endeavour to attain direct perception of the individual soul and the Supersoul; and among many thousands of such aspirants who have attained to seeing the soul and the Supersoul, only a few receive actual perception of Me, Śyāmasundara.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 7.3]

bahūnāṁ janmanām ante, jñānavān māṁ prapadyate

vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti, sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ

[“After many, many births and deaths, one who is actually in knowledge surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all that is. Such a great soul is very rare.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 7.19]

tapasvibhyo ‘dhiko yogī, jñanibhyo ‘pi mato ‘dhikaḥ

karmibhyaś cādhiko yogī, tasmād yogī bhavārjuna

[“A yogī is greater than an ascetic, a philosopher jñānī, or a fruitive working karmī. Therefore, O Arjuna, always be a yogī.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.46]

yoginām api sarveṣāṁ, mad-gatenāntarātmanā

śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ, sa me yuktatamo mataḥ

[“In My opinion, of all types of yogīs, the most elevated of all is he who surrenders his heart to Me and serves Me in devotion with sincere, internal faith.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 6.47]

In Bhāgavatam [6.14.5],

muktānām api siddhānāṁ nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇa

sudurlabhaḥ praśāntātmā koṭiṣv api mahā-mune

[“O great sage, among many millions who are liberated and perfect in knowledge of liberation, one may be a devotee of Lord Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa. Such devotees, who are fully peaceful, are extremely rare.”] & [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 19.150]

brāhmaṇānāṁ sahasrebhyaḥ satra-yājī viśiṣyate

satra-yāji-sahasrebhyaḥ sarvva-vedānta-pāragaḥ

sarvva-vedānta-vit-koṭ yā viṣṇubhakto viśiṣyate

vaiṣṇavānāṁ sahasrebhyaḥ ekāntyeko viśiṣyate

[“Among many thousands of brāhmaṇas, a yajñika brāhmaṇa is best. Among thousands of yajñika brāhmaṇas, one who fully knows Vedānta is best. Among millions of knowers of Vedānta, one who is a devotee of Viṣṇu is best. And among thousands of devotees of Viṣṇu, one who is an unalloyed Vaiṣṇava is best.”] [Hari-Bhakti-Vilāsa, 10.117] & [Bhakti-Sandarbha, 117]

In this way the steps are clearly shown, by climbing up by these steps then you are to go to that, you can go up to that place of wonderful dream. But that is more wonderful than dream, the Lord’s harem. Ha, ha. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari.

We could feel also how it is possible imitating such a filthy plane. Sense pleasure and the sense pleasure of the Adhokṣaja, of the Divinity, just two opposites. South pole and north pole. Sense pleasure, that is the lowest conception of pleasure. And to seek the pleasure of the senses of the highest conception of the Deity, which generally seems to be impossible, to reach to that standard, how much sacrifice and self abnegation and self surrendering is required. It is infinitely intensified stage in which we can hope to come to such a position and to find the personal characteristic of the Lord in full. And then again to approach Him, and not only to touch His holy feet which is also impossible to the consciousness at large that we can touch His feet. What to speak of to raise one’s self in a loving position and the love of the unreserved and of the highest type. This is dream of a dream.

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Haribol. One may think of that very rarely, but to achieve that, that is almost impossible. It is such. It is such. By his personal touch one can’t grasp it, but when they grasp, ‘Yes, it can be conceived, His such behaviour, such loving behaviour with the highest type of loving devotees,’ that may be thought out, but never with one’s own achievement. We can come up to such height as to think that Lord is very affectionately playing with His most favourite group so much. And never any selfish touch that will brush you aside, down, if you go to approach direct with your conception of ego.

Guru janma sitay bhumay sitay paya sata guṇa [?] That is of such nature that on the head of my Gurudeva that looks very beautiful. This is of such type, thing of such type that on the head of my Gurudeva it looks very well, very beautiful. By nature it is such, that in the highest position of my imagination I may guess to have His, to see His position. It’s so rarely seen and conceived that thing is to our society, our level, thinkers of our level.

Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol.

So first January, Friday, in nineteen thirty seven also such concurrence. In the middle also several times such concurrence must have been, must have happened, but I don’t remember. But this time I remembered that. This Friday, first January, and this occurred, same with that, thirty seven. Perhaps after seven years or so it may come, but the leap year also to be taken into consideration. Hare Kṛṣṇa. One day increased in every four days in a year...

End of 81.12.31.C_82.01.01.A