Sree Krishna Chaitanya By Nisikanta Sanyal (1933)

Sree Krishna Chaitanya

(VOL. I & II)

By

NISIKANTA SANYAL, M.A., BHAKTISHASTRI

Senior Professor of History,
Ravenshaw Collegue, Cuttack

WITH A FOREWORD

BY

PARAMAHAMSA PARIBRAJAKACARYA (108) SREE SRIMAD BHAKTI
SIDDHANTA SARASVATI GOSWAMI
President of Sree Vishwa Vaishnaba
Raj-Sabha

PUBLISHED BY

Tridandi Swami Bhakti Hradaya Bon

SREE GAUDIYA MATH, ROYAPETTAH, MADRAS 1933

Publisher preface

The Career and teachings of the Supreme Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya have
been faithfully recorded by His associates and best beloved servants, viz.,
the former acharyas. But the version of the subject that has been presented
by modern writers who base their narrative on the empiric study of the
Gaudiya Vaishnav literature and their experience of the practices of the
different hereditary sects of the Gaudiya Vaishnava Community, presents only
the external and necessarily misleading aspect of the transcendental subject.

His Divine Grace Paramahansa Paribrajakacharya Shree Shreemad Bhakti
Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami stands for the strictly transcendental exposition of
the religion of unalloyed devotion of the congregational chant of the Name
of Krishna taught and practised by the Supreme Lord, as the Divine
Dispensation of the present age. His Divine Grace’s editions and commentaries
of the original works of the school and numerous other publications embody
his transcendental exposition of the universal religion in strict pursuance of
the scriptural method followed by all the former Acharyas.

The present volume is an attempt to convey an idea of certain features of the
Transcendental Personality of the Supreme Lord through the medium of
the English Language by Professor N. K. Sanyal, M.A., of the Ravenshaw
College of Cuttack. The work has been a labour of love in the strict sense as
Professor Sanyal performed it during the intervals of leisure from the intellectual
preoccupations of his official duties by neglecting the claims of a naturally
fragile health. But the book written by him deserves to be placed before the
world for the reason that it offers the experience of a Transcendental subject as
realised by an empiric scholar and teacher of a recognised standing. Professor
Sanyal is, therefore, well-qualified to meet the requirements of empiric scholars
for understanding a transcendental subject. The Publisher hopes that the
sterling worth of the volume will be quickly appreciated by all sincere persons
as offering a most helpful and reliable introduction to the spiritual literatures
of this and other countries, that is essentially different in its point of view
and estimation of spiritual values from the fashionable idealistic and
materialistic philosophies of to-day. The work has the unique distinction of
being recognised by Shrila Paramahansa Goswami Maharaja as containing
an exposition of the subject on the true lines.

The Publisher has been working as the preacher of the Gaudiya Mission in the

Madras Presidency during several years and has been encouraged by the
keen general interest that has been taken in the activities of the Mission by
all sections of the cultured classes. This has led him to undertake the
publication of this reliable version of the career of Sree Chaitanya in the English
language which will remove a long-felt want and indicate the real relation of
the Teachings of the Supreme Lord to all current schools of theological
and philosophical thought. All the pecuniary proceeds of the work will be
available for the purpose of the Mission for spreading the true knowledge of
the principles and practices of the Religion of unalloyed devotion to all corners
of the world.

The publication of the volume has been helped by the generous pecuniary aid
offered by Rao Saheb T.Rajagopalachari, B. A., Srotriemdar of
Ernavur, Washermanpet, Madras, who has cheerfully borne the entire cost. He
has not been content with extending his financial patronage, but has followed
the progress of the printing of the work with watchful anxiety, regarding it as
his most sacred duty. His child-like simplicity and genuine whole-hearted desire
to make the tidings of the eternal religion available in a really intelligible
and reliable form suited to the mentality of the present generation have made
a great impression on the members of the Mission. May he be enabled to
realise the Mercy of Sree Gaursundar by means of this sincere serving
disposition.

The Madras Law Journal Press has given every facility to the Publisher in
bringing out the volume in the midst of his missionary activities which
entail frequent and long absences from the city of Madras. In spite of the
difficulties that were put in the way of the Press by such occurrences and by the
fact that it was necessary to revise the matter itself after it had been composed,
especially the Introduction and early chapters, the Proprietor of the Madras Law
Journal Press did not grudge to give every help towards the early publication of
the work. The finish of the work both as regards print and binding has been
truly admirable and exceeds even the very high record of this famous
establishment. The publisher accordingly takes this opportunity of offering his
grateful thanks to the Proprietor and the management of the Madras Law Journal
Press for their valuable help in bringing out this exquisitely printed volume
within such a short time.

Mr. C. V. Krishnaswami Iyer, B.A., Superintendent in the Secretariat of Port St.
George, Local Self-Government, has given very valuable assistance in

going through the proofs, in connection with the revision of the manuscript and
in preparing the Index. The sincere thanks of the Publisher are due to this
devoted servant of the Lord.

SREE GAUDIYA MATH, TRIDANDI GOSVAMI,

MADRAS, BHAKTIHRIDAYA BANA.

Jan. 20,1933

Preface

The writer does not intend the book for the Indians only, nor for any particular
sect or group of people. His appeal is to all persons, in every country, of
both sexes, young and old including children, for accepting the unique chance of
selfacquaintance offered by the living words of the present Most Revered
Spiritual Head of Sree M adhva-Gaudiya Community, His Divine Grace
Paramahansa Paribrajakacharya Sree Srimat Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati
Goswami Maharaj.

No one can be more alive to the endless imperfections of the book than the
unworthy writer. He has only one apology to offer to all his readers, viz., that he
was compelled to write by the overpowering necessity of placing his experiences
of the Personality and Activities of His Divine Grace and His associated
counterparts before the world by way of his humble service, in response to the
great and causeless mercy of Sree Guru towards a confirmed rationalist whose
case is more or less typical of that of his brethren. It is also for the same reason
that the work will be found to embody the method of rational enquiry being
committed to the apparently vain attempt of measuring the unlimited by its
admittedly incompatible resources. This performance would never have seen the
light of the day of actual publication but for the causeless kindness of the
Acharya who was pleased to accept this unworthy offering and thereby impart
the real value to the gropings of irreclaimable egotism.

My only request to the reader is that he or she may not really doubt that the
above words are penned by an unrepentant rationalist who has been unable
to find for himself the relief that he has the hardihood of declaring to be
within the reach of all. In his own case this is, no doubt, the real and
unpardonable piece of inconsistency. He is something like a privileged onlooker,
by unsolicited permission, of a secondary aspect of the transcendental activities
of the group of bona fide devotees of the Supreme Lord, Sree Krishna-
Chaitanya, who have been unaccountably pleased to appear in the midst of the
polemical generation of the present wrangling Age, for making real
eniightenment available to all persons who are compelled seriously to seek for
the same by the driving pressure of a denying rationalism.

It is the submission of this slight and imperfect narrative that the needed relief is
to be sought from the living source who is no other than the

Transcendental Agent of Godhead Himself. It is possible for the rational
judgment also to be satisfied, so far as such satisfaction is at all possible, if the
Office of the Acharya is recall, even though at first necessarily tentatively,
admitted by the establishment of personal communion, by temporary tmresen-ed
abeyance of one’s assertive judgment, with His Divine Grace, through the
enlightening help of His associated counterparts. The narrative seeks to set forth
some of the rational grounds in favour of the universal adoption of such course.

As the writer had to stay at a long distance from the publisher and printers by the
pressure of his official duties, many small and a few major inacuracies,
for which the writer is responsible, have unfortunately escaped detection. The
kind forgiveness of the reader is solicited for these regrettable shortcomings
which should be avoidable in a work of this nature.

RAVENSHAW COLLEGE, CUTTACK, SANYAL.

NISIKANTA

November 15,1932.

Contents

AUSPICATORY OBSERVANCE

Obeisance to Sree Gum, the devotees and the Supreme Lord. Sree Krishna-
Chaitanya did not appear primarily for delivering conditioned souls. The Real
Purpose of His Appearance concerns Himself as He is. Godhead is willing
and able to disclose His Own Specific Self.

INTRODUCTORY—VOL. I

CHAPTER I— OBJECT AND METHOD

The object is to write the theistic account of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya identical
with the Absolute Truth fully revealed by Himself. The Narrative has
been received from preceptors whose vision is undisturbed by physical or
mental obstruction. But they did not tell this thing in the present form and
language. Sources of the present work. Thakur Bhaktivinode is the pioneer of the
spiritual exposition of the Career of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya in the present Age.

CHAPTER II—THE REAL NATURE OF SREE KRISHNA

Empiric misinterpretation of the transcendental history of Krishna due to
sectarian rancour. Outline of the Career of Krishna.

CHAPTER III— THE HIGHEST WORSHIP OF SREE KRISHNA

The transcendental nature of the amorous service of Krishna by the spiritual
milkmaids of Braja is realisable by conditioned souls by gradual stages as
the result of their progressive endeavours on the path of spiritual living.

CHAPTER IV— COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RELIGION

The comparative study of Religion is the study of the Distinctive Divine
Personalities revealed by the Vedic and Puranic records.

CHAPTER V— HISTORY OF ATHEISM

The genesis and great variety of the atheistical schools directly and indirectly

dominate religious opinion of the world.

CHAPTER VI— HISTORY OF THEISM

Progressive revelation of the highest Divine service has been the correlative of
the growing volume and nature of atheistical opposition.

CHAPTER VII— THE FOUNDER-ACHARYAS

The systems of Sree Vishnuswami, Sree Nimbaditya, Sree Ramanuja and Sree
Madhva mark the revival of Vaishnavism traceable to the pre-historic
records. They embody the reverential worship of Vishnu. Their secondary value
consists in being an uncompromising protest against the opinions of the
speculative creeds. Their spiritual synthesis, although sound, is incomplete.

CHAPTER VIII— HISTORICAL VAISHNAVISM

Historical evidence of the prevalence of the worship of Vishnu, as
Transcendental Godhead, is available from time immemorial. Revelation is
an eternal spiritual process and not a mundane phenomenon occurring within
the span of measurable time. The nature of the historical position of
Srimad Bhagavatam.

CHAPTER IX— HISTORY OF DIVINE DESCENDANTS (AVATARAS)

The History of Theism is the History of the Descents of the Divinity and His
Paraphernalia to the mundane plane.

SREE KRISHNA-CHAITANYA— VOL. II

CHAPTER I: —COUNTRY AND SOCIETY

Spiritual Gauda and Nabadwip are different from the mundane country and town
bearing those names. Identification of the site of Old Nabadwip, the City of the
Nine Islands, and the places that are the scenes of the Activities of the Lord. Sree
Mayapur. Old Nabadwip was a famous university town. Current religious
practices of the period. Nature and cause of the unpopularity of the Vaishnavas.

CHAPTER II:— FAMILY AND ELDERS

Correspondence between the leelas of Sree Krishna and Sree Krishna-Chaitanya.
The kindreds, associates and servitors of the Lord form the eternal Divine
Paraphernalia Sree Jagannath Misra; Sree Nityananda; Sree Thakur Haridas;

Sree Advait ach aryya; Sree Madhabendra Puri; Sree Iswara Puri. Implications
of the Name ‘Sree Krishna Chaitanya’.

CHAPTER III:— BIRTH AND INFANCY

Advaita invokes the Birth of Sree Krishna. The Appearance of the Lord hinted in
the Scriptures. Divine Birth described. The Birth of the Lord hailed by
His elders. Spiritual nature of the event. Advent of the Lord was greeted by
the chant of Hari. Casting the horoscope of the divine infancy. Sachi Devi
worships the Ganges and the goddess Sasthi. The nature of the parental affection
of Jagannath Misra and Sachi Devi. Avatara (Descent) does not mean
‘Incarnation.’

CHAPTER IV:— INFANCY AND BOYHOOD

The Baby was attended by all the ladies of the neighbourhood who constantly
sang the Name of Hari to stop His cries. Extraordinary and funny
incidents happened daily. Naming of the Baby. Significance of the Name
‘Viswambhara’ The custom of testing the disposition of a new-born baby
embodies the underlying principle of the varnashrama. institution. The
Activities of Infant Nimai are very much appreciated by devotees. The Baby
catches hold of a venomous serpent and is couched on its coils. The Deeds of
Sree Chaitanya are not manifestations of yogic powers.

CHAPTER V:— BOYHOOD

Child Nimai dances to the ladies chant of Hari. He begs from passers-by fruits
and sweetmeats and gives them as reward to those ladies. His
reckless depredations in the neighbours’ houses. An extremely naughty Child.
The Boy is detected in the Act of eating raw earth in preference to fried rice
and sweetmeats. The Child is stolen by two thieves. The parents see the Foot¬
prints of Vishnu in the room of the Child. Nimai eats the food cooked by a
pilgrim brahmana for being offered to Divine Cow-Boy and manifests to him
His Own Divine Form of Gopala.

CHAPTER VI:— GROWING BOY

Beginning of study. Perforation of the ear. Tonsure. Learning the alphabet.
Strange Boyish demands. -Nimai ate the offerings prepared for Vishnu
on ekadashi day by Jagadis and Hiranya Pandits. The Lord is recognisable only
by His servants. Nimai was leader of all the turbulent Brahmana urchins.

His mischievous pranks at the bathing ghats of the Ganges. Imitations of
these Activities by modern pseudo -Incarnations. Supernatural experiences of
Sachi and Misra.

CHAPTER VII:— GROWING BOY (continued)

Nimai makes His mother promise to observe the ek adashi fast. His turbulence
continues to increase. He is afraid only of Viswarup, His elder brother.

Account of Viswarup. Attractiveness of Nimai. Viswarup renounces the world.
Advaita declares to the devotees the certainty of the Coming of Krishna within a
short time. Child Nimai shows Himself to the devotees in response to the
assurance of Advaita. Nimai becomes more attentive to His studies. The ban on
His studies is removed. The underlying principle of ceremonial purity
and impurity. His Investiture with the sacrificial thread. Sree Vamana and King
Bali. Nimai is admitted to the chatuspathi of Sree Gangadas Pandit. His relations
with His follow-students. Nimai’s timpani of the sutras of Kalapa la Vyakarnna.
Misra beholds in a dream the sannyas of Nimai. Misra’s disappearance.

CHAPTER VIII:— EARLY YOUTH AND STUDENT-LIFE

Love of Sachi Devi for Nimai. Wayward Conduct of Nimai towards Sachi Devi.
Nimai procures gold for the family in an unaccountable manner. Vaishnavism is
not sentimentalism. The career of Sree Chaitanya is to be followed, not imitated.
The beautiful appearance of Nimai as a student. Looked up to by the pupils of
Gangadas Pandit. Routine work at the Academy of Gangadas Pandit. Murari
Gupta. Nimai’s opposition to the mode of instruction current in the Academies of
Nabadwip.

CHAPTER IX:— PROFESSOR-LIFE AND MARRIAGE

Nimai Pandit sets up His Own Academy in the Chandi-Mandap of Mukunda-
Sanjaya. He regrets mal-interpretation of the Shastras by the empiric teachers of
Nabadwip. Meeting with Sree Lakshmi Devi. Nature of the Marriage
of Godhead. Banamali Ach aryya is match-maker. Marriage Ceremonies.

Sachi Devi realizes the Divine Nature of the Bride. Misunderstandings

regarding Marriage of Nimai Pandit.

CHAPTER X:— PROFESSOR-LIFE (continued)

Professor Nimai was admired by all except the Vaishnavas. Mukunda Datta.
Popular estimate of Kirtana as mode of worship. Nimai Pandit makes
the acquaintance of Sree Isvara Puri. Sree-Krishnaleelamrita. Sree Isvara
Puri’s loving devotion to Krishna. Nimai Pandit’s disputations with Mukunda
Datta and Gadadhar. Nimai Pandit’s logical riddles. Strolls the streets of
Nabadwip in the company of His pupils, inviting public disputation on any
subject. Discourses to pupils on the bank of the Ganges.

CHAPTER XI:— UNRECOGNIZED DIRECT MANIFESTATION

Manifestation of Himself as the Divinity under the guise of nervous malady.
Rationale of misunderstandings regarding spiritual manifestation. Is
such manifestation inconsistent with His role of Devotee? Complete
understanding of the subject not possible except by the mercy of the spiritual
preceptor. Specific difficulty in the way of physicians who put their faith in
Medical Science. Departmental view of Religion. Real nature of spiritual
activity.

CHAPTER XII:— IN THE STREETS OF NABADWIP

Afternoon visits to citizens. In a weaver’s home. In the milk-men’s quarter. In the
homes of a dealer of perfumes, a garland-maker, a betel-seller, a dealer
in conches. In the home of a diviner who calculates His former births.

The diviner’s realisation. The Lord’s conversation with Sridhar. Object of
these visits. Sridhar’s philosophy. Is begging the legitimate occupation of
Brahmanas? Did Sree Gaursundar approve the trade of the betel-seller ? The
eternally free state of the soul. Sachi hears the strains of the Divine Flute and has
the vision of the never-ending Divine Manifestations. Nature of the service of
Sree Sachi Devi. Arrogance of Sree Gaursundar. Sree Gaursundar did not engage
in amorous pastimes with hypothetical mistresses. Krishna’s conduct not to
be imitated by jivas. Mercy of Sree Gaursundar. Sribas Pandit
discourages arrogance of Sree Gaursundar. Reverential versus confidential
service.

CHAPTER XIII:— THE IDEAL HOUSEHOLDER

Hospitality to chance-guests. Charity and open-handed hospitality to chance-
guests the principal duties of every householder. The underlying principle of
such injunction. Provision for the poor. Relation of house holder to
Sannyasin. The specific Nature of the Charity of Sree Gaursundar. Duties of
Vaishnava Householder. Lakshhmi Devi cooks the family meals. Her household
duties described. Position of wife in the household of her husband. Personal
service of Godhead. Performance of domestic duties to please the Supreme Lord.
Menial work and personal subordination. Desire for sensuous enjoyment root-
cause of all mundane trouble. Relationship of Sree Lakshmi Devi to Sree
Gaurasundar grossly misunderstood by philanthropists. Sojourn of the Lord to
East Bengal. Sree Gaursundar teaches the Brahmanas of East Bengal. Effect of
His visit. Pretenders to saviourship condemned by Thakur Vrindavandas.

Ethical conduct obligatory on all. Moral life not the goal of human
activities. Disappearance of Sree Lakshmi Devi. Personality of Sree Lakshmi
Devi.

CHAPTER XIV:— TAPAN MISRA; RETURN FROM EAST BENGAL

Nimai Pandit accepts presents from His pupils. Trade in religious teaching
forbidden. Tapan Misra inquires about the real nature of the object and
method of spiritual practices. Tapan Misra’s dream. The Lord divulges to Tapan
Misra the Divine Dispensation of the Kali Age. The Mahamantra. Observations
on the creed. Misunderstandings. The simplest possible Creed. Is faith in
Creed rational? Mahamantra not a magical formula. Nature of spiritual
enlightenment. Return of Nimai Pandit from East Bengal. He learns about the
Disappearance of Sree Lakshmi Devi. Nimai Pandit consoles His mother.
Spiritual conduct and worldly needs. Grief of Sree Gaursundar.

CHAPTER XV:— MARRIAGE WITH SREE VISHNUPRIYA DEVI

The making of tilaka mark on the forehead compulsory for His students.
Distinction between tripundra and urdhapundra. Is tilaka mark a
“symbol”? Nimai Pandit shuns the society of woman. This is ignored by the
pseudo-sect of Gaur-Nagaris. Condemnation of sexuality by the Scriptures.
Spiritual amour and carnality. The charge that Sree Chaitanya was of unsound
mind. Marriage of the Lord for a second time. The sacrament of marriage. The
Conduct of Sree Chaitanya identical with, yet distinct from, the Leela of Sree
Krishna. Sree Chaitanya personates the function of Sree Radhika Kasinath
Pandit is matchmaker. The adhibas ceremony.

CHAPTER XVI:— MARRIAGE WITH SHREE VISHNUPRIYA
DEVI (continued)

The Marriage Ceremonies. Buddhimanta Kh an. Significance of the Lord’s
Marriage. The Personality of Sree Vishnupriya Devi. Sree, Bhu, and Neela.

The interdependant nature of the functions of the distinctive powers of the
Lord. Significance of the subsequent renunciation of the world by the Lord.

CHAPTER XVII:— TRIUMPHS OF LEARNING

New Method of Teaching. Nature of His erudition distinct from defective
intellectualism. Pandits of Nabadwipfailed to learn the Truth.

Personal meditation of theTeacher. Nimai Pandit exposes the sophistries of the
Pandits of Nabadwip. Controversy with Keshab Bhatta Conqueror of all
quarters’ (digvijayi). Deliverance of Keshab Bhatta. Popular appreciation of
the scholarship of the Lord.

CHAPTER XVIII:— SIGNIFICANCE OF SCHOLASTIC TRIUMPHS

The text of the shloka of Keshab Bhatta impeached by Sree Chaitanya. The
goddess of worldly learning always misleads her votaries. Sree Jiva
Goswami not an empiric controversialist. Plight of Keshab Bhatta. Real remedy
of real miseries. Cause and nature of the deliverance of Keshab Bhatta.

Empiric knowledge does not give possession of power. Empiric knowledge
superfluous on attainment of spiritual enlightenment. It is possible to know the
Truth. Nontranscendental knowledge subordinate to transcendental. The want to
know identical with the want to serve the Absolute. How inclination to serve
the Truth is produced. The shock of spiritual awakening. Sight of the
Lord. Function of empiric learning. Submission to the Divine Person.

Personality and Truth. Transcendental personality of the devotee. Keshab Bhatta
not to be confounded with Keshab Kashmiri. ‘Krama-deepika’. The
distinctive characteristic of the servants of Sree Gaursundar. Why the
achievements of this world pass away. Abuse of empiric knowledge aggravates
aversion to Truth. Arrogance of the devotee of the Lord the perfection of
humility.

CHAPTER XIX:— THAKUR HARIDAS BEFORE HIS MEETING WITH
SREE GAURSUNDAR

Thakur Haridas is the authorized divine agent for the promulgation of the chant

of the Holy Name, the new dispensation of the age. Born in a Muhammadan
family. Conversion of the harlot. Process of reclamation of sinners by the chant
of the Name explained. It is not blind faith. Sensuousness obstructs faith.
Conventional and real morality, ‘reformers’ often misunderstand the Scriptures.
The teaching of the Shastras is the function of Br ahmanas. Novelty of the new
worship resented by Hindus. Empiricism cannot consistently object to the chant
of the Name. The only function of the soul. Thakur Haridas is real Br ahman.
Raghun ath Das Goswami, then a boy, meets Thakur Haridas and receives his
mercy. Thakur Haridas exposition of the chant of the Name opposed by Gopal
Chakravarty as contravening the principles of monistic interpretation of the Ved
anta. Devotion, work and knowledge. Pessimism and optimism versus
Absolutism. Truth is not impersonal which is the limiting point of all rational
discussion. Submission to non-God. The Transcendental Sound. Grossness of the
ideal of Liberationism. Enjovment versus love. Children benefit by association
with S adhus.

CHAPTER XX:— THAKUR HARIDAS BEFORE HIS MEETING WITH
SREE GAURSUNDAR (continued

Thakur Haridas shifts to Fuli and meets Advaita Acharya. Chanting of the Name
identical with the amorous loving devotion of Braja. The Ten offences against
the Name. Thakur Haridas’ life at Fulia is altogether different from the practices
of prakrita sahajiyas (philanthrophists). Does Thakur Haridas’ creed provide for
the needs of our worldly life, or should it be admired from a distance like
Monism ? The real meaning of the Life of Sree Chaitanva can be realised by
following the teaching of Thakur Haridas. Thakur Haridas same as Brahma.
Chanting of the Name suits modern conditions. Realisation is progressive. How
to avoid the clutches of the pseudo-sadhu. The Kazi sets the Moslem Governor
against Thakur Haridas. Thakur Haridas’ advice to the prisoners. Does the
chanter of the Name require the so-called ‘necessaries’ of life? Thakur Haridas
ordered by the Governor to be beaten to death. The form of the dialogue, used in
transcendental narratives, should not be misunderstood. Principle of religious
toleration liable to be misunderstood. Why the persecution of Thakur Haridas
cannot be defended. Immunity of Thakur Haridas from bodily pain and injury.

CHAPTER XXI:— THAKUR HARIDAS (continued)

Exhibition of power by Thakur Haridas impresses his persecutors and secures
him against further molestation. Thakur Haridas dances at the show of the snake-

charmer. The cudgelling of the hypocrite Brahmana by the snake charmer.
Spiritual perturbation. The standing grievance of atheists. A Brahmana of
Harinadi opposes the chanting of the Name with a loud voice. Name and mantra.

CHAPTER XXII:— PILGRIMAGE TO GAYA AND INITIATION

Brahmana as sole custodian of the education of the people. The life, enjoined by
the Scriptures on a Brahmana, is the probationary stage of
spiritual enlightenment. The Lord sets out on pilgrimage to Gaya ostensibly for
the purpose of performing the funeral rites of His departed father. The Lord
visits Sree Madhusudana at Mandara. He drinks the feet-wash of Brahmana. The
Lord is the servant of His servant. At Poonapoona. The sight of the Foot-prints
of Sree Gadadhara produces in the Lord all the perturbations of loving
devotion and is the turning point of His career. The sight of Hari’s Feet produces
the serving disposition irrespective of fitness. The ethical problem. Ethical
necessity of Divine Grace. The Real Presence of the Feet of Sree Gadadhara at
Gaya as Archa. The Lord meets Sree Isvara Puri in the Temple of the Holy Feet
of Gadadhara. Meeting with Sree Guru. The Lord obtains the favour of
initiation (diksh a) from Sree Isvara Puri. The nature of unconditional surrender
to the Guru.

CHAPTER XXIII:— HIS INITIATION (continued)

The spiritual principle underlying ritualistic worship. Mentalist objections to
ritual. Quest for the substantive spiritual function rendered possible by the grace
of the bona fide teacher of the Truth. Objectionable form of association with
evil. Funeral rituals. Misunderstandings regarding the ritual of diksha Readiness
to appreciate the transcendental point of view in India, a valuable asset for
humanity. The relation of the Guru to his disciple. Mantra admits to the spiritual
communion which is necessary for its fruition. Connection of the new
dispensation with the older communions. Speedy effects of the Mantra on Nimai
Pandit. Nimai Pandit’s changed conduct. Miracles and transcendental events.
Human form of the Divinity.

CHAPTER XXIV:— HIS INITIATION AND AFTER

Method of service analogous to that of the mood of separation, alone available
on the material plane. Mood of separation different from asceticism. Infinity
of functions towards the Absolute. Cause of the sorrowful mood of Nimai

Pandit. His Search for Krishna as sann asin, not to be mistaken for salvationism.
Sight of Krishna the fulfillment of the probationary stage and beginning of the
real search. Archana and symbolical worship. Place of mantra in Archana.
Archana sanctioned by Godhead is fulfilled by the vision of the Divinity as He
is. Quasispiritual activities involve neither attachment nor aversion to mundane
entities but are full of spiritual interest. Archana and bhajana. Conduct prompted
by the higher form of worship cannot be understood by those who are not
spiritually advanced. The Religion of the Chant of the Name is supremely simple
and profound. The personality of a sadhu. Every one is naturally sincere.
Insincerity a suicidal folly. The Absolute does not deceive anybody. Physical
cases obstruct spiritual living. Persistence of spiritual memory possible by the
grace of the sadhu. Service of the sadhu possible only on the transcendental
plane. Perfect openness of mind is necessary for not grossly misunderstanding
the activity of Sree Chaitanya after His initiation, which is the subject of the next
volume.

Foreword

Men of culture are often found to devote themselves in acquiring knowledge of
various subjects which could prove efficacious to them in their needs; so we may
not confuse to accept all readers in the same line of thought. The
best scrutinizers of knowledge in their cultural extension should possess all
skill and dexterity to get their most covetable end having had a care for Eternity
and uninterrupted Blissful unalloyed Knowledge. This incarnate of the acme
of knowledge-seekers will be the best reader of this book when they can have
the privilege of comparing the merits of different views of pure theists.

Mental speculationists have diverse objects of investigation and their diversity
of seeking Knowledge would simply disturb the peaceful mentality having
been tempted by the duping features of external manifestations, quite suitable
and dove-tailing the present purposes of enjoyment by their imperfect senses.

The writer has got the prime object of furnishing a comparative study in which
the position of a reader has the highest place. This is his only ambition,
of healing the depraved mentality of the so-called culturists of True
Knowledge. But the readers have different motives of utilizing the product of
their enterprise of perusing the book. One class of readers are found to criticise
the merits and demerits of the writer in order to establish their superiority, with
a view to puff up their vanity. Another class is observed to muse over the
subject by spending their time for the gratification of their senses. The third
section of readers mean to profit by reading the book in order to regulate their
life for a better purpose. The under-estimation of a desirable element for some
utilisation through temporal gratification of senses, would not equipoise the third
position of the reader who will surely mark the distinctive situation by
comparing other things and agree with the author in spending his valuable time
for true amelioration.

The body of the book will appear before readers as a historical account of the
Journey of life of a Hero. But the Hero is not an ordinary mundane hero for
a hallucinative ambition with a spiritual tinge. The account will no doubt
show that the targetted Object of the manifestive spiritual world is Eternal
and identical with the Hero of the speaker. Hasty conclusions will be pouring
forth to oppose this by welcoming anthropomorphic and apotheotic thoughts.

The delineations will prove that the Object pointed to is beyond the
comprehension of crippled senses. And the Absolute Eternity made up of Pure

Knowledge and Incessant Bliss is never to be had within the compass of our
senses. All objects of the phenomena which are comprehended by senses have
temporal situation and deformed entity void of different ‘qualities’ that are
always submissive to senses.

Sree Krishna-Chaitanya’s inculcations of the Personality of Godhead cannot be
restricted to or accused as Idolatry. Idols are constructed of mundane
materials and are subject to the inspection of senses. The Eternal Absolute does
not exactly submit to these senses as He does not put Himself as a shareholder
of phenomenal things. Whichever comes under senses has equal value with one
of Nature’s products and forms to be a subject of the jurisdiction of senses.

The Eternal Absolute is inconceivable by limited senses. The partially eclipsed
views of the Absolute are shaky, non-absolute, liable to transformation and under
the clutch of the span of Time. The physical limitations are all accommodated
in Space, Time and particular entities. The naming of the Transcendental
Absolute through the lips of a mundane agent will surely seek after a size, a
colour, etc., and must undergo the ocular examination. The Transcendental
Absolute should in no case submit to our dermal perceptions, neither to our nasal
or lingual activities as well.

The Transcendental Sound has got a distinctive denomination from mundane
sounds which often tend to submit to the test of other senses. As
the Transcendental Sound has not been originated in mundane phenomena, He
will not be diffident in showing His true phase whose manifestive realisations
are identical with the Name Himself. In that case the essence of such Sound
would not permit the different entities of the same Object; as we find in
phenomenal objects tracings of numerical base instead of the integral unit. The
differential values are integrated in the Transcendence. So there is indication of
One Object by the dinning of the ethereal vibrations in different positions. These
sounds converge in One Point Who is known as the Absolute. This Absolute is
on the Eternal plane of All-Knowledge and Incessant Bliss and can have
manifestive Absolute phases with Him. If the various sounds are put into this
chaotic plane, there is no reconciliation of a synthetic method. This
unharmonising tendency will surely bring a contending and unpleasant
atmosphere which we experience everyday.

The uneclipsed phase of the Integral Sound will not in any case bring rupture,
but harmonise the contending phase due to the intervention of foreign intrusion.
The demarcating lines of comprehending the same thing through the chambers

of senses would lead to mundane enjoyment; whereas the ignorance of enjoying
things through limited scope would put the enjoyer within the barriers. When the
Observer is One, He sees everything and exercises all His Senses for His Own
gratification. But the servitors who are fractional entities cannot have any
harmonious situation unless all of them have got one aim of being predominated
over by the Absolute. The question of relativity does not become a barrier, as we
notice such deformities in these phenomena which are subject to Individuality,
Space and Time. This situation, solving the difficulties of mundane relativity and
Absolute, has been finally settled by the Transcendental unspotted manifestive
phase, instead of wrongly inculcating a hallucinative theory of Absolute by
negativing the conception of diversities.

The numerical situations of the different entities here have got a relative
representation which is certainly condemnable for its undesirability. The glaring
desirable features of relativity as delineated in the Transcendence should not be
anthropomorphised by our poverty-stricken knowledge and narrow views of
phenomenal disorders. In the Absolute Region we find descriptions of mutual
Manifestive phases, the Master there being One with millions of servitors of four
different classes. We further notice the Absolute as the Eternally Blissful Son of
the Entity of Unalloyed Knowledge. The Absolute Friend is the Cynosure of all
friendly eyes, as the Single Object of friendship.

He is the Consort of depending consorts and is the Predominating Singular
Object of unalloyed love of predominated objects. Whereas, in the
mundane plane we find many predominating agents together with
predominated sentients. People need not puzzle themselves with the ascription of
a motherly idea in the Supreme Absolute, as the seeming features of parents here
have got a dignified position which is nothing but a perverted conception of the
Real manifestive Absolute. Moreover we find that the parents get the
opportunity of serving their only coveted child from His very Birth in different
capacities. So the Eternal position of the Master is retained intact from the very
Advent of the Child. If we are to accept services from the Lord, Whom we have
to render our service, we are simply misled. The Divine Absolute should not be
classed as our servitor, as our eternal position is to render our all-time and
whole-hearted services to Him alone. A deviation from this will be tampering the
very principle of transcendental devotion. The author has wisely delineated
these crucial points in the Instructive Life of the Supreme Lord.

The enjoying temperament of this temporal world will find a good jerk in the

line of thought of approaching the Transcendence. Sree Krishna-Chaitanya,
the greatest world-teacher, has exhibited to his taught the transcendental
loving principle of unalloyed souls towards the Absoute All-love where
phenomenal dirts could not possibly contaminate the pleasant situation of
Manifestive Relativity. The unalloyed devotional exhibition in the Pastimes of
Sree Krishna-Chaitanya and His followings are -the best and greatest Boon that
could be had in the quest of the Absolute. Readers might have noticed one thing
in the vital principle of Transcendence of the Desertion of the enjoying mood
and the affinity for temporal deformed objects. This abnegation at the very outset
will create a puzzling sensation among the youngsters who have embarked on
the journey of life to aim after sensuous enjoyment in temporal phenomena.

So they may hastily discard the principle of showing diffidence for their
much coveted dream of enjoyment in this world. Sree Krishna-Chaitanya has
defined the proper use of the Relief that is offered by the non-meddling with
mundane affairs in an enjoying mood. He has not asked anybody to adopt the
indolent processes of non-co-operating with the phenomenal objects. He has
rather instructed to practice accepting mundane things when we can trace
the connections of the essence of such things with Sree Krishna, the
Manifested Fountain-head of the Absolute. His disclosure has set right the topsy¬
turvy, hodge-podge situation of this apparently chaotic world. He has
further cautioned the renouncers not to summarily reject the association of
relative things for fear of their proving to be detrimental to alienating the
peaceful soul from the mundane troubles by associating themselves with the
purposes of the manifested Absolute.

The busy people of this world have decided that the gratification of senses
should be the essential aim of all our enterprises here as well as in the
next world. So they have deemed it fit to adopt the principle of an ethical
religion supplying their wants and to fulfill whatever we are in need of. These
triple results are the covetable solutions of the enjoying calibre of sentient
entities. This sort of mentality is found in the enjoyers. But there is an opposite
section who believes that unless such desiring agencies are stopped, no eternal
good can be expected. So they have formulated a different goal for their
purpose. These men consider that salvation is required from phenomena by
practising a non-co-operative mood from all and even the necessaries of life,
which tantamount to suicidal commission. By following the high-sounding
words of annihilation in the Absolute by dismissing the three respective
positions of observer, observation and observed, they covet to be finally rescued
from phenomenal troubles.

The Supreme Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya has neither encouraged the enjoying
elevationists nor the renouncing Salvationists. He has prescribed the pure theistic
thought of spiritual devotion to the Personality of All-love by the loving function
of the unalloyed souls instead of plunging into the ocean of miseries which offer
extreme troubles to elevationists and to persons who, having bitter worldly
experience, desire to terminate their animation by the process of annihilation.

The Supreme Lord has Thereby settled the question of transmigration. The
Semites have, however, adopted a principle, by rejecting the theory of
metempsychosis, to dispense with the long extending life of a migratory
element. The love of the Absolute can never be attained by men who seek after
their aggrandisement or after their liberation. Persons who entertain the view of
their actual freedom from such selfish propensities, can have the privilege of
knowing what Prema is—which has no bartering system of ‘give and take 5
policy. The unalloyed souls are meant to love the All love with
the identification of their eternal loving element. The loving souls are not at
all dissatisfied whether the Supreme Lover is inclined to grant their prayer, on
the very understanding that their loving connection is inseparable. They at
the same time prove themselves to be quite content as their only lover has
deemed it fit to discard them and thereby enjoy by the services offered by them.
The consideration of exchange has confined the elevationists and Salvationists
to their respective gains; whereas, no such gain is aimed at by devotees who
have thoroughly comprehended their positions of non-traders. This unalloyed
love can never be expected in any agents who have got ulterior motives of
satisfying their pleasing and enjoying demeanor. Unalloyed service can only be
found in Prema which has a special characteristic of pure sacrifice without
any remuneration in return. No enjoying mood can have any place in
that unalloyed function.

The transcendental love should never be compared with the lustful mundane
position of an enjoyer. Prema reaches its acme in consorthood and the
lower stages in filial love, friendship, services and in neutrality. So this
Amorous transcendental love has no comparison with other loving affinities.

The cardinal point of this unique progression of love has got a steady infinite
dimension of activity which can have no equal in our experience. The
Absolute Prema is never to be confused with the shaky position of nuptial love
of mundane mortal people which tends to have reciprocal interest. But as it has
no bearing with deformed relativities, no claim can be asserted to combat with
the challengers through arguments.

The historical account connected with the Pastimes of the Absolute need not be
mixed with the mundane activities of transformable entities. But the
elaboration of transcendental accounts must not be discouraged owing to the
bitter experiences we have of our temporal life here. The incidental mentions
of history bear a reference of earthly things liable to be perished in time.

The essence of history need not be kept at arm’s length in consideration of
worldly associations which necessitate the existence of components of matter
or motion.

Descriptive accounts of history help us in considering the relation between the
already acquired knowledge and the welcoming of new thoughts. But in
the present case, where we are to deal with a case beyond Nature’s phenomena,
we should be cautious not to confuse with human frailties and mixing up
with temporal defective impressions of mundane relatives. Historicity of things
need not be summarily rejected if it renders help to comprehend the direction
and nature of the transcendental views. So every branch of knowledge has
efficacy to offer us first aid towards our advancement in the Region beyond
Nature.

The transcendental sensuous Activities of the Absolute have got transcendental
reference and avoid submitting to human senses which are but frail
and inadequate. The descriptions of the Transcendental Pastimes of the
Absolute need not be confused with metaphorical analogy, strictly confined to
our present situation, of acquiring knowledge. Allegories are figments and
are treated as innovations of older thoughts in a systematic way in order to place
a certain view of things. If they are meant for the purpose of the
Transcendent and not for our sensuous gratification, we can accept them for the
safety of our transcendental health instead of eliminating even the purpose.

Mental speculations may drag us to some secular purpose which we should
avoid for the sake of studying the Absolute Transcendent Who has
no contending character to expel the variegated similar manifestations as we
often perceive through our senses. So the author has described the Deeds which
bear a resemblance to that of history and allegory provided they are not
improperly carried to mundane restrictive merits.

History, fiction or poems have worldly values; but when they help us towards the
topics of Transcendence we need not have an anthropomorphic disposition. If we
bring down the Eternal Pastimes the Character of the Transcendence

is proselytised more or less to our sensuous purpose—a solemn offense which
we should not do.

Our intellectual advancement has proved the three different ways of attaining to
our different goals: (1) one track is known as fruitive track to propitiate deities to
meet and fulfill our demands by physical and mental entities. The dearth of
desired objects keeps us at a lower level and we want an amelioration and
elevation from the lowest level to the highest summit. In that case we consider
ourselves to be actors or perpetrators of our intended actions. When we are
actuated by such exciting mood we entertain a definite result which can serve
our purpose best. This activity of our physical and mental entities is strictly
confined in temporal and inadequate phases. (2) The quest of a different track is
insistently urged on our intellectual function when we want to desert the
fructifying demeanour of the mind. Desertion from the active life shows us a
different track of seeking the Absolute Intelligence by the process
of intellectualism. We want to sever our pleasure-seeking aptitude in
our passionate desires to destroy all sorts of selfishness accrued in
Nature’s temporary association. Renunciation from all temporal activities in this
plane of deformities offers us a mentality of stupefaction which may be termed
as abnegation. In the artificial process of dissociating ourselves from
the temporarily meddlings with foreign things which are set apart from our
entity, the actor merges himself in the Object pursued, dismissing his active
functions. This conglomeration is effected by the synthetic process of grouping
together limited things into an accumulative effect; but the accumulation
of diametrically opposite elements would never alone yield an opposite
element, save in the analogy of enhanced angularities as in the case of two right
angles. The neutral position of unalloyed intellectualism would lead us to the
result of the extended idea of limitation. Speculative method of synthetical
activities terminates in undifferenced situation of Knower, knowledge and the
object of knowledge.

(3) But the advancement would prove that the track of transcendental devotion
towards the Absolute is quite free from the summation of the fruitive
activities as well as the desertion from having a selfish desire to get a lion’s
share as a cosharer. The tracks of elevation and salvation have very little to do in
leading to the track of Devotion, as the devotional process has no object of
encouraging the f fruitive activities in extricating out the Variegated
Transcendental Eternal situation. The very process of salvation indicates in time
the two different predicaments of the situation which is a bar to the purpose of

Eternity. The Devotional process is quite independent of the two systems of
fruitseekers or enjoyers and abnegators or avoiders of self-destructive
enjoyment. Readers will no doubt secure the true rationalistic view from the
writings of this author.

Pure devotional aptitude need not wait for any help from the two other tracks but
is quite independent of them. Devotion can only be carried out when
the unalloyed position of the soul is determined. Such function should have
no component of two other foreign garments which have more or less
enshrouded the unalloyed soul in the two planes of association and dissociation
with temporal things. The devotional functions of the unalloyed soul need not
be observed by placing patches of clouds which are adaptable for the
limited plane, eclipsing the true aspects of the true eternal plane of devotion.

The Absolute Knowledge should not bear any reference of deviation and
whenever there is the different views we find that the different aspects deprive us
of the exact entity of the thing by our polytheistic views of the one thing.

The Absolute Truth is ever ready to welcome the different approaches of the
atomic parts of the Unalloyed Absolute. But when those atomic parts are
mixed up with foreign views they need not be dove-tailed with the Absolute
like unalloyed entities associated with the Unalloyed Absolute. The
distorted demeanour of the mind cannot approach the Unalloyed Absolute by the
easygoing mandate of receiving all sorts of services that may be rendered to
the One; but that One need not have a disfigured entity which is far off His
original Beautiful and Sublime Existence. If the Object of our approaching
be considered to be contaminated with evil associations inviting our
nefarious aptitude of enjoyment, we cannot expect to include ourselves to submit
to His Wishes.

First of all, the Object need not be tampered in any way by our whimsical mood
and our determination of self need not accompany any
anthropomorphic deformities which have no bearing in Him. The different
relations we experience in society should be carefully watched in the case of
associating ourselves with the Eternal Absolute. We need not carry the defects
and unpleasant pains along with us when we trace out our eternal relations
with Him. The Absolute Knowledge need not undergo the variegated form of
the enjoyable articles, sentient and insentient we meet here. But we are to
approach Him with our serving mood for His Eternal Enjoyment. We must not

be thinking of eliminating all foreign attributions in us unless we mean to
please Him by considering ourselves to be exactly suiting to His purpose which
may not be proving to create His annoyance as we experience on this painful
plane here. A close reading of the accounts of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya will
certainly lead us to the Manifestation of the Absolute in proper order.

If we have a sincere heart to associate ourselves with the Absolute, we must not
be considering Him to be our Servitor but we should pose ourselves in
the position of a servitor to suit one of His relationships. Our entities will then
be different ingredients of the service-holders of the Absolute. But as we are in
the habit of securing enjoyments as lords, we have got a quite
different determination of self as to lord it over other existences besides our own.
In order to set right this awkward taste, we should approach a true serving
friend who can regulate our evil propensities which are the bars of the true
functions of the unalloyed soul. We cannot make profit by the association of the
people who are very busy to culture their wrong habits as enjoyers of this
world instead of eliminating the undesirable inculcations of associating with
temporal things. The company of non-devotees and the counsels of apathetic
disposition towards the Absolute should by all means be avoided. If we fail to
get rid of such intoxicants, we are liable to miss the devotional functions of the
unalloyed soul, without making any progress towards the march for our eternal
welfare.

The question of occupation has been decided by the Personality of the Supreme
Lord in the all-time engagement of all individual souls proper for the
Absolute. The occupation of the mind is found to meddle with temporal objects
of phenomena; whereas the parts of the body have no other suitable position to
fit themselves for limited and temporal purposes. All acts should tend to
acquire virtue and happiness. All virtues and happinesses should lead to
sacrifice instead of captivating the soul for mundane purposes only. All
such dissociating mood with worldly sensuous attainment tends to the
occupation of the Absolute and this occupation should be no other function but
go to show the interest of the Absolute. The very conception of the external
structure and the internal existence, which is also considered as a subtle garment,
must not forfeit the interest of the Principal who is known to own these
two environments. The interest of the Principal, ‘soul’, should have no
ephemeral acquisition like the consumption of the mind and the body. Altruism
may prove to suffice for the higher aims of soul; but such deluding features
should not bar the progress of the soul in any way. The body and the mind are

shifting agents which, though at present incorporated with the soul, tend to
the temporary aggrandisement of the incorporated changeable parts. So
attention should be drawn to the interest of the soul proper whose functions
should not at all be crippled by the seeming necessaries of the mind and the body
revolting against the Eternal Blissful Knowledge, viz., the Absolute.

Our all-time occupation need not be confined to the highest reference of mental
culture in pure and simple altruism, where the reference of the Absolute
along with the reference of our behaviour towards the lower creation is
neglected.

The inclusion of an indirect service to an Impersonal God or our charitable
disposition to some extent towards lower animals by tutored
sympathising mentality, is optional and not compulsory.

The Great Absolute should predominate over the crippled forms of infinitesimal
absolutes who may appear at the outset as illustrations of nonabsolute. If the
synthetic process of all isolated entities does not go to One Undeviated Object of
the Absolute, it would prove to be a chaotic emporium of unassimilating
differences; so our mentalities require rectification to arrange their order in a
particular line. One of our friendly co-sharers should come forward to explain
before us the nature of the course that should be adopted for our methodic
comprehension of the irregularities in one line. This unparalleled mercy of the
One Friend and His associates is to regulate the disorderly conduct of the body
and the mind. The rhetorical principle of the predominating and predominated
functions in their bases of activities could give us the result of one of the four
ingredients that follow when we are relieved of the worldly deformed
conceptions in the pure spontaneity of a defined nature of eternal relationship
that exists between the Absolute and the significatory aspects of the internal
parts of the Absolute.

Whenever the specification of the Predominator is prominent, we necessarily
find the reciprocal predominated aspects, which may prove to be more than One,
as distinguished from the case of the Predominator. The Predominating Agent
has a singular significance over the multifarious predominated. This portion of
the analysis of the Transcendental Integer has become the most conspicuous
explanation offered to mankind by any of the guiding leaders to bring us towards
the Transcendence. Earnest readers will no doubt find this unique explanation
offered by the writer in the line of instructions received by him from the

Transcendental Hero, Whose Career and accounts have been portrayed in this
book.

The peculiar feature noticed in men apart from the lower creation is this that the
former can exchange thoughts and have the superiority of utilising
their experience through the recollections from history and acquired branches
of knowledge. They can show their felicitous mood in listening to Scriptures
also. So a comparative student can easily demarcate the line of the best and full
apart from transitory experiences of this world. The question of Eternity,

Full Knowledge and Bliss cannot be dealt by other agencies of life-save man; so
man need not neglect the position of the Absolute in the Ever-existence, in
Full Knowledge void of all sorts of ignorance and ills that flesh is heir to,
and Beatific Constancy of the Fountain-head. The solution of human life
should tend towards the approach of the Absolute Who is always courting us to
offer His help towards the fulfillment of the inadequate specialty we have in us.
And in order to gain an approach we should require the guidance of an
individual in whom we can place our reliance, instead of being credulous with
the smugglers of this world.

The Supreme Ford has left in this world a band of His followers who are always
helpful to mankind instead of deluding the intellectuals to turn
themselves idealists and evil-doers with an apparent phase of seekers of their
welfare. The author will no doubt be gratified if any of the readers can see his
way to scrutinise the Subject of the Transcendence in Whom we are all
vitally interested by sparing his valuable time to go through this book.

Before concluding this Foreword, I would like to introduce to the respected
readers the aspiring attitude of enlightening his readers on the
Transcendental Entity of Sree Krishna as well as His Phase of Instructor in Sree
Krishna-Chaitanya in the following points, with references to the context.

(N.B .—All the references are to chapter and verse of the .tenth skandha of
Srimad Bhagavatam).

Krishna is possessed of an unlimited intellect (84/22).

Krishna is inaccessible to sensuous knowledge (16/46).

Krishna is Ford of the infinity of worlds (69/17).

Krishna wields the power of creating the unlimited (87/28).

Krishna carries the impress of limitless power (87/14).

Krishna is possessed of inconceivable potency (10/29).

Krishna is unborn (59/28, 74/21).

Krishna solves all heterogeneous views (74/24).

Krishna is vanquished by exclusive devotion (14/3).

Krishna is Inner Guide (1/7).

Krishna is the Withholder of the energy of the wicked (60/19) -Krishna is the
Giver of salvation to jivas that are free from vanity (86/48). Krishna ordains the
worldly course of conceited jivas (86/48).

Krishna is Primal God (Deva) (40/1).

Krishna is Primal Person (Purusha) (63/38).

Krishna is overwhelming flood of bliss (83/4).

Krishna possesses fulfilled desire (47/46).

Krishna is self-delighted (60/20).

Krishna is the opponent of the sensuous (60/35).

Krishna is sung by the best of hymns (86/23).

Krishna is the dispeller of the night of pseudo-religion (14/40).

Krishna is devoid of increase and decrease (48/26).

Krishna is efficient and material cause (10/29).

Krishna is the only Truth (14/23 ).

Krishna is Awarder of the fruit of work (49/29).

Krishna is not subject to the consequences of work (84/17).

Krishna is the Seer of cause and effect (38/12).

Krishna is the Person who is time (1/7).

Krishna is Time s Own Self (70/26).

Krishna is even the Time of time (56/27).

Krishna is Present in the heart of every animate entity, like fire inside wood
(46/36).

Krishna is Grateful (48/26).

Krishna is the Augmentor (like the Full Moon) of the ocean of earth, gods,
twice-born and animals (14/40).

Krishna is the Tormentor of cannibalistic persons (14/40).

Krishna is the Destroyer of the pride of the arrogant (60/19).

Krishna is the Root-Cause of the origin, etc., of the world (14/23).

Krishna is the Cause of the world (40/1).

Krishna is the Creator of the world (70/38).

Krishna appears as if possessed of a body like that of mundane entities, for the
good of the world (14/55).

Krishna is the Guru (centre of gravity) of the world (80/44).

Krishna is the Refuge (ashraya) of jivas (individual souls) who are ,afraid of
birth and death (49/12).

Krishna is devoid of birth (46/38).

Krishna is equally the Internal Guide, Cause and Director of jivas (87/30).
Krishna is the Destroyer of the miseries of persons who employ themselves
in meditating upon Him (58/10).

Krishna is of the fourth dimension and self-manifest (66/38).

Krishna is Worthy of being gifted (74/24).

Krishna is the Punisher of the wicked (69/17).

Krishna is the God of gods (80/44).

Krishna is rarely cognisable by the gods (48/27).

Krishna is unconcerned about body, house, etc. (60/20)

Krishna is the Supreme Ruler of the greatest gods (73/8).

Krishna is the Exponent of Religion (69/40).

Krishna is the Eternal Son of Nanda (14/1).

Krishna is Visible to man with great difficulty (71/23).

Krishna’s Presence mocks the world of man (70/40).

Krishna is the Object of palatable drink of the human eye (71/33).

Krishna is the Internal Guide of all (31/4).

Krishna is Worthy of the worship of all the worlds (69/15).

Krishna accommodates all the worlds (59/30).

Krishna is the Manifestor of all light (63/34).

Krishna is unstinted in giving Himself away to one who recollects Him (80/11).
Krishna is the efficient Cause (87/50).

Krishna’ although devoid of all mundane quality, assumes mundane qualities by
His Inconceivable Power for the purposes of creation, etc. (46/40). Krishna is
not subject to change (64/29).

Krishna is not capable of discrimination by reason of being void of any
extraneous covering (87/29).

Krishna is the Giver of Himself to those who covet nothing (86/33).

Krishna loves those who covet nothing (60/14).

Krishna does no work (60/20).

Krishna is Human, Hidden, Primal Person (Purusha) (44/13).

Krishna is Present in the hearts of jivas like the five elements (82/45).
Krishna is the Supreme Sorcerer (70/37).

Krishna is Supreme Godhead and the Internal Guide of all (56/27).

Krishna is the Crest-jewel of those whose praises are sung by the sacred lore
(71/30).

Krishna is Primal Person and Ever-existing (14/23).

Krishna is the Highest among the Objects of worship (74/19).

Krishna is the Healer of the miseries of the submissive (73/16).

Krishna is the Destroyer of the sins of the submissive (31/7).

Krishna is the Destroyer of the distress of the submissive (73/8).

Krishna is the Residue after the Cataclysm (87/15).

Krishna is devoid of touch with mundane senses (87/28).

Krishna is the Soul and Friend of all animate entities (29/32).

Krishna is devoid of distinction appertaining to an alien (63/38,44).

Krishna is Inconceivable by His Nature (70/38).

Krishna is the Master of the Universe (70/37).

Krishna is the Nourisher of the Universe (85/5).

Krishna is the Sun that cheers the lotus of the kindred of the Vrishnis (14/40).
Krishna is the God worshipped by the Brahmanas (69/15).

Krishna is the Foremost of the Brahmanas (84/20).

Krishna is the Originator of Brahma (40/1).

Krishna is the Worshipped of Brahma (31/13).

Krishna loves His devotees (48/26).

Krishna wears Forms in accordance with the wishes of His devotee (59/25).
Krishna is eternally Present in Mathura (1/28).

Krishna is devoid of the sense of kinship and regards all in the same way
(46/37).

Krishna is beyond all Measuring Potency (Maya) (63/26).

Krishna is subdued by the love of Judhisthira (72/10).

Krishna is concealed by the screen of Maya from the sight of the-people (84/23).

Krishna does not follow the ways of the world (60/36).

Krishna is the Destroyer of the fear of the mundane sojourn of the submissive
(85/19).

Krishna is the Womb of the Scriptures (16-44, 80/45, 84/20).

Krishna is Sree Guru’s Own Self (80/33).

Krishna is devoid of hankering for wife, offspring, etc. (60/20).

Krishna is the Ordainer of the worldly sojourn and of the summum bonum (1/7).
Krishna is the Cause of all entities (8514).

Krishna is the Friend of the good (69/17).

Krishna is devoid of discrimination as of kinship (63/38, 44).

Krishna is Existence (56/27).

Krishna possesses true desire (80/44).

Krishna is the True Entity (87/17).

Krishna is True of speech (48/26).

Krishna is True of resolve (37/12).

Krishna sees with an equal Eye (16/33).

Krishna is the Cause of all causes (14/56-57,63/38,87/16).

Krishna is the Originator of all (59/28).

Krishna is the Soul’s own self of all jivas (individual souls) (14/55).
Krishna is Omniscient (16/48).

Krishna is All Seeing (38/18).

Krishna is the Embodiment of all gods (74/19, 86/54).

Krishna is the Seer of all (16/48).

Krishna is the Lord of all (37/23).

Krishna is the Stay (ashraya) of all entities (82|46).

Krishna is All-pervasive and Eternal (9/13).

Krishna is the Soul of all elements (86/31).

Krishna is the Knower of the minds of all elements (81/1).

Krishna is the soul’s self of all elements (74/24).

Krishna is the Inner Soul of all elements (37/11).

Krishna is the Internal Guide of all elements (47/29).

Krishna is the Cause of the origin of all elements (64|29).

Krishna is the Limit of all good (84/21).

Krishna is Omnipotent (37/12).

Krishna is the Lord of Lakshmi, the Presiding Deity of all riches (47/46).

Krishna is the Internal Guide of all (63/38, 72/6).

Krishna is the Stay (Ashraya) of all (40/15).

Krishna is Witness and Seer of Self (86/31).

Krishna is the Refuge of the good (80/9).

Krishna is most difficult to serve (88/11).

Krishna is the Friend of one’s heart (48/26).

Krishna is the Withholder of Creation (82/45).

Krishna is Withholder, Creator and Preserver (63/44).

Krishna is the Master of the functions of creation, etc. (16/49,37/12). Krishna is
devoid of distinction as of kinship (74/21).

Krishna is devoid of distinction as between kin and alien(72/6).

Krishna indwells the Universe created by Himself (48/19).

Krishna is satisfied by the taste of His Self-Delight (72/6).

Krishna is the Destroyer of the worldly sojourn of His devotees (60/43). Krishna
is the Wearer of body according to His Wish (1/7).

SREE KRISHNA-CHAITANYA MATH, BRINDABAN, MUTTRA.

CAMP:OFFICE OF’ THE CIRCUMAMBULATION SIDDHANTA
SARASWATI

OF THE CIRCLE OF BRAJA, MUTTRA (U.P.) 24th Nov., 1932

Volume I Introductory

1 Object And Method

The present work is an attempt to offer a theistic account in the English language
of the career and teachings of Sree Chaitanya. The number of existing English
books on the subject is very small. The life and precepts of Sree Chaitanya Mah
aprabhu by Thakur Bhaktivinode,^J.R.A.S., January, 1897, p.

130. The book can be had at the Gaudiya Math, Calcutta. 1 the pioneer of the
movement of pure devotion in our Age, although it gives a true account of
His life, is a comparatively short work. Other English works on the subject are
from the pens of self-sufficient misguided amateurs who have had no
practical experience of the teaching they have professed to expound. This is
opposed to the dictum of Sree Chaitanya that, “no one is fit to be a teacher of
religion who does not practice the same in his own life”. None of these works,
with the solitary exception of that by Thakur Bhaktivinode, deals properly with
the spiritual side of the teachings of Sree Chaitanya. The available
authoritative sources of information are quite exhaustive regarding the spiritual
aspect and offer a narrative of His doings and teachings that is both consistent
and free from contradictions. To these was added later another body of works of
a different character by pedantic pseudo-Vaishnava and faithless foreign
writers, that offer the concoctions of their own respective lines of thought.
Insincere writers have adopted without apology the point of view and garbled,
accounts of the pseudo-Vaishnava authors as the basis of their narratives.

The existing English works although they sometimes profess to be historical in
reality offer a superficial, extremely crude and misleading view of the
subject. They confine themselves almost exclusively to the esoteric issues. This
at least is not the method of the source-books, but a departure from the bona
fide position of the theme itself. The historical method proper should aim
at presenting the religion as it is really found in the genuine original sources
and in the spirit of its first propounders. But many of these writers, due to
their empirical training, have failed to observe this essential canon of
historical judgment. Moreover these writers generally happen to be very poorly
equipped in respect of their knowledge of the vast body of Scriptures to which

the teachings of Sree Chaitanya stand in the closest relationship; and, even if any
of them happen to possess a general acquaintance with the texts of
these Scriptures, they fail to take a scientific view of the subject due to lack
of spiritual insight.

The prominent defects that mar the value of these works are the purely empiric
point of view of their authors, their want of spiritual knowledge of the Scriptures
and their lack of critical caution in the choice and use of authorities.

The empiric method is unsuitable for the treatment of a spiritual subject. The
vision of the empiricist is confined to things of this world. The
Vaishnava authors on whose narratives we have to base our account of Sree
Chaitanya, were not empiricists. The subject of which they have left us the
account, is the Absolute, as distinct from the empiric, Truth that comes down to
them in the chain of disciplic succession from Godhead Himself. They acquired
this esoteric vision, when they prove to be true, by the methods of loyal
submission and sincere service at the feet of spiritual preceptors as enjoined by
the Scriptures on all those who desire to obtain spiritual enlightenment. They are
never tired of repeating that the Absolute Truth, inherent in a bona fide soul,
who expresses himself in their books’ is not derived from any experience of
this world and is not intelligible to those whose vision is obscured by
knowledge derived from the experience of this world.

The Absolute Truth is transcendental and, therefore, no human being can attain
to Him by his sensuous efforts, i.e., by the ascending process, as all
phenomena that are exposed to the faulty, limited senses are, by this virtue,
nontranscendental. The Absolute Truth is eternally existent but is not realizable
by men so long as they are not relieved of the aptitude, of their defective
vision. The Absolute Truth is to be received, undoubtedly in the spirit of
honest inquiry, from those wise men who bear no reference to the world of
their sensuous gratification.

Very few of the existing English works on Sree Chaitanya satisfy these essential
conditions of theistic authorship that are so strongly insisted upon by
these devotional writers without which such description carries no useful
purpose. On the contrary, these later writers are apt to offer their own views,
derived from their empiric association, regarding the subject-matter of the
original works, in a manner that leaves on the mind of the reader the impression
that they are more anxious to point out the crudities and errors of these old

authors than exhibit their views in a scientific and impartial manner. This is
certainly neither history nor religion but only an uncalled-for and useless
distortion of both.

The object of writing this book is to place before the English-knowing readers a
strictly accurate theistic account, of Sree Chaitanya, Who teaches the
Absolute Truth that has been handed down through the Ages by an unbroken
succession of unbiased spiritual preceptors. This narrative is broad-based on all
the authoritative sources and seeks to fully present the esoteric side as
explaining the esoteric in pursuance of the method of all really enlightened
writers on spiritual subjects.

The superiority of Sree Chaitanya to all other teachers and prophets consists in
this that He made fully known the Absolute Truth Who was only
partially unveiled by others. This is the special significance of Sree Chaitanya’s
Deeds and Teachings. Other teachers of the religion before him had allowed
more or less the worship of non-Godhead, having had reference and adulteration
of their present deformities. Sree Chaitanya came into this world to make
all people understand that in reference to their eternal existence they should
have nothing to do with non-Godhead. Sree Chaitanya, Who speaks the
language, is the Absolute Truth in His full manifestation. He has made people
understand the only true way of approaching Godhead Himself. This is the proof
that He is Godhead Himself. He is identical with Sree Krishna, not His Self as
Lord and Proprietor of all things, but in the attitude of the agony of separation
from the Absolute, i.e., Himself.

Sree Krishna opposed all addiction to ephemeral thoughts and activities. This
has been communicated to us through the channel of unbiased preceptors
who have no other interest except delivering in tact the whole of the Truth
received by them. The Absolute Truth is sure to be obscured if He is handled
by elevationists and Salvationists (karmins and jnanins), i.e., by those who
believe in worldly activities and in freedom from misery by means of
knowledge gradually gained through the senses. We do not want to learn about
the Absolute Truth from these. It is only the pencils of ray emanating from the
Sun when they happen to be received by the retina that enable one to see the
Sun directly even from a long distance. But we must be very careful that
nothing foreign interposes between the eye and the Sun, thus obstructing the
passage of the ray and preventing it from reaching the eye. This is the
epistemology of Absolute Knowledge offered by Sree Chaitanya. It is followed

in the brochure of Thakur Bhaktivinode referred to above. My object is only to
elaborate what is told briefly in that little book and elaborated in the
Bhagawatam and Charit amrita.

The peculiarity of my position, therefore, consists in this that I shake off the
views of the schools of mundane elevationists and Salvationists, the professors of
temporary enjoyments (bhukti) and permanent release from misery
attendant upon such enjoyment losing in the process the idea of the individual
self itself (mukti), for the reason that they do not lead to the Absolute Truth. We
are absolutists. We believe that our only duty is to follow the Absolute Who
has His Own eternal plane to stand. We hold that the most intelligent among
the contemporaries of Sree Chaitanya, those who sincerely followed Him,
really understood His teaching through serving love. This truth which they
received from Sree Chaitanya Himself has been communicated to my Preceptor
by a succession of sincere followers of the Absolute Truth reaching back to
them. Each one of this succession of preceptors submitted to the conditions of
sincere pupilage to his predecessors enabling the latter to impart to him the Truth
by the eradication of temporary, local errors and misconceptions that might
crop up in unguided critics. Due to this careful transmission of the full
Truth through unbiased preceptors to my unprejudiced Preceptor, I should
rightly claim him to be a contemporary of Sree Gaursundar Himself. Other lines
of teachers who deviate from my Preceptor are Absolutists only to an extent.

Had they been fully absolutist they would have come under the banner of the
line of Absolute Truth, which has no affinity of deviating from the Absolute
proper.

My Preceptor out of his unlimited mercy, which I craved, brought me to his path
by himself coming to me and dissuading me from following other ways and
means of language that would be intelligible to me in my then condition.

There is thus in my case a direct preceptorial connection extending right up to
the living sources undisturbed by physical or mental obstruction. The line of the
Absolutists has prevented us from going astray in any other direction but
to embrace Absolutism and has given us this careful training. I am a
regulated being and do not belong to the empiric school as I keep not any view
of deserting this line to join the challengers. My preceptors have been free
from mundane references being treaders of the path of the Absolute. We
are discussing the Deeds of Sree Chaitanya in the light of our preceptors. But
our preceptors did not tell us this thing in the present form and

language. Linguistically it is our maiden effort. We do not know whether we
shall succeed in this. We, however, claim to have received this narrative from
the living sources. Only the strict followers of Sree Chaitanya can obtain the
full view of the Absolute Truth. It cannot be had by the followers of any
other teacher who has a different angle of vision. All other lines only offer a
partial view. Sree Radha Govinda, the full Truth, is attainable only on this path.

I should be a sincere follower of my preceptor and of the preceptors of
my preceptor and have no intention of deviating from my preceptors. There is
no chance of foreign element getting into my account. There is no hypocrisy.

The only thing that is new is that I am trying to tell it through the medium of
a different diction and language, which happen to be different from those of
my preceptors.

In this connection it will not be out of place to refer to subtle and unconscious
prejudices that stand in the way of our giving a real hearing to a purely
spiritual subject. The life and teachings of Sree Chaitanya are not the special
concern of any narrow sect.

The knowledge of it is claimed to be indispensable for the whole animate and
inert world in as much as Sree Chaitanya is the living embodiment of the highest
and the most intimate distinctive forms of the service of the Supreme Lord to
which every being has a claim by his constituent principle. The service of
Godhead, however, has no affinity with anything of this transitory worlDas in
the case of meddling with non-God conception. The readers of
the transcendental Deeds (Leel a) of Sree Chaitanya may be divided into
three classes, viz., (1) those who read for the satisfaction of idle curiosity, (2)
those who read for gathering empiric knowledge to suit their taste and to mould
the same accordingly, and (3) lastly, those readers who are really seekers of
the Absolute Truth as distinct from the empirical, i.e., who sincerely
avail themselves of the full opportunity of their reading.

We need not stop to consider the case of that class of readers —the dilettantes
and mere literateurs—who read for the satisfaction of idle curiosity.

Those readers who will approach the subject in a real spirit of inquiry may take
up one of two possible attitudes. Some of these may consider the subject as
one that is capable of being understood in. the light of worldly experience like
any non-spiritual subject. Such persons will accept only those portions of this
work which may appear to them to agree with their existing convictions. But as

these convictions, in the case of empiricists, happen to be themselves based on
the experience of this world, which is changeable, they are in their nature
only relative, and not absolute, Truth. Those convictions are in fact unspiritual
and, instead of helping, prevent us from understanding the Absolute. Those
readers who, failing to grasp this real difference between the spiritual and the
physical and mental, may try to understand the subject with the help of their
empiric knowledge are bound to be dissatisfieDas they proceed with this study
and the net result of their labour in going through these pages may be even to
confirm them more strongly in their empiric, i.e., unspiritual, attitude. The object
of study in such case will be entirely missed.

That class of sincere readers who, recognising the difference between the
empiric and the spiritual Truth, are inclined to seek for the latter only in
these pages and may be prepared for the purpose to disregard, at least for the
time being, the clamorous opposition of their empiric convictions, and are thus
in a position to give the narrative a patient and sympathetic hearing, will be
thereby enabled to understand gradually the reason why the most sincerely
religious people happen to cherish the subject of this work with such tender
and absorbing devotion.

It is not possible to enter into the spirit of a subject unless a really patient hearing
is given to it. But it is very difficult to submit with patience to listen to a subject
that is declared to be situated completely beyond the scope of all experience and
convictions of the hearer. The ordeal that faces us on the threshold of spiritual
life is truly formidable. It is only such people who combine openness of mind
with a sincere desire to know not the empiric, changeable, relative, but the
Absolute, unchangeable, eternal Truth, that are enabled by the grace of Godhead
to listen patiently to a spiritual narrative which appears to be almost needless
from the point of view of the empiricist.

The transcendental career and teachings of Sree Chaitanya are bound to prove to
be of the highest interest to all sincere seekers of spiritual enlightenment.

The fact that Sree Chaitanya appears to be born in Bengal need not mislead those
readers who belong to a different country into supposing that His teachings are
meant for the people of Bengal or of India, of this or of a former Age. It is
difficult for most to free their minds completely from national, ethnological or
chronological prejudices in these days of militant nationalism and empiricism.
But the real meaning of the career of Sree Chaitanya will be missed if He be

regarded merely from any mundane point of view, viz., that of race or
nationality; limited time or limited space; physical bearing;
intellectual endowment, caste, creed or colour, etc. His teaching and activities
belong to the plane of the Absolute which transcends all the petty unwholesome
limitations of our worldly existence. Let the sympathetic reader lay aside these
subtle and unconscious prejudices and allow the eternal Truth to enter the mind
thus opened out to Him, without hastily passing the final judgment by a
mere cursory look at the title page. Whatever the quarter from which the
Absolute Truth enters His appearance and, in this matter His choice is free, the
Absolute Truth when He actually knocks at our door should be assured the
unreserved welcome that is His due from those who really seek for Him.

The sincere reader need also be on his guard against specific misconceptions at
the very outset, of an unfavourable kind. The Deeds and Teachings of
Sree Chaitanya have been consciously or unconsciously misrepresented by
most modern writers. We have already referred to this fact. Any idea, favourable
or unfavourable, regarding Sree Chaitanya that the reader may have
already formed from the writings of these authors or their partisans may be
temporarily laid aside to allow of an impartial hearing being given to the present
narrative. Dogmatism, superstition or self-sufficiency can never lead to spiritual
progress. Our readers are much more likely to gain what they require if they do
not reserve any contrary thought which is likely to receive these tidings coldly
or present them from taking Up a sympathetic and inquiring attitude. The
advice is to stop temporarily any conception that they may have already formed
and even to dismantle an awkward construction that may lie across the path of
their following the course of the narrative with seriousness of purpose.

The message of the transcendental realm that has come down to this phenomenal
world through the medium of sound is known as the Veda (i.e, knowledge), or as
the Sruti (i.e., that which is heard), as the ear alone of all the organs of sense is
fit to receive the distant message which is transmissible only in the form of
sound. The Absolute Truth, for the simple reason that He happens to be located
beyond the reach of our physical senses, cannot be directly perceived by us. All
the other senses, viz., those of touch, sight, smell, taste require, as the condition
of perceiving any object, actual contact with the same. But the ear possesses this
special peculiarity that it can perceive an object in subtle form without being in
gross material contact with it. As for example it is possible to hear about London
from Calcutta by means of the ear. It is not possible to learn anything about
London from Calcutta, in the same natural way, by means of any other sense.

The Scriptures, i.e., writings, are but the visualized -revealed transcendental
sounds. Therefore it is not so extraordinary as it seems at first sight that of all
our present organs the ear alone should be privileged to receive the message of
the Absolute. The transcendental sound is, however, different from ordinary
sound inasmuch as it is. identical with the object denoted by it, while the object
denoted by the latter is different as object from the sound which is a symbol to
signify the object without itself being the object.

The identity of the transcendental sound with the object denoted by such sound
is due to the fact that everything on the transcendental plane happens to be an
entity of incomprehensible infinite dimensions. This is not submitted to the
present limited understanding of man which is strictly limited to entities of three
dimensions only. The transcendental Truth possesses unity and is infinite by His
Nature. All this is contrary to our limited reason and so accustomed we are to the
rationale of limited experience that it appears to us to be therefore irrational.
Unless this really irrational opposition of our finite reason is temporarily stopped
it will effectively bar all access to the real infinite. But once the voice of
Godhead is allowed really to enter our attentive ear He will purify our perverted
reason and render it fit to appreciate that which in its present degraded state it is
unfit to understand. Let us, therefore, assume for the present that unwholesome
heterogeneity is not possible in the Absolute Who is altogether unitary in His
character.

The rational necessity of revelation for our knowledge of the Absolute should be
perfectly clear. The alternative to this are the multifarious spurious
theories regarding the Absolute that have been put forward from time to time by
the human mind. These man-made theories are, and can be, neither conclusive
in themselves nor in agreement with one another. They are liable to
constant modification with the progress of empiric knowledge These wrong
theories can never lead us to the Absolute Truth Who admits no such self-
contradiction as is inevitable with empiricists. The word of GodheaDas revealed
in the Veda, i.e., by means of the recorded transcendental sound, has been, and
will ever remain the only rationally possible source of all human knowledge
regarding the substantive nature of the unchallengeable Reality.

There is thus nothing irrational ab initio in holding that the Veda is the Word of
Godhead Himself. The Veda exists from eternity. The Veda, according to His
own version was originally revealed in this world to Sree Brahma the first jiva to
appear in the realm of physical Nature, and by him made available to other jivas,

that have since made their appearance in this world in course of time through the
channel of disciplic spiritual succession.

The Veda contains the Absolute Truth Whose service is the eternal and universal
function of the proper nature of all entities. Not being made by any one the Veda
is free from all taint of narrowness, error or partiality. The path to which He
points is the only one that should be trod by every soul if he wants to walk in the
way of Truth. It is necessary to put off all prejudices against the authority of the
revealed Scriptures arising out of misapprehension of the nature of the subject.
The admission of the supreme authority of the Veda does not involve the utter
annihilation of thinking. On the contrary it is the Absolute Truth Who enables us
to find the real value of empiric thought and its relation to ourselves. Nor does
the acceptance of the Veda involve the rejection of the Scriptures of other
countries. The revealed portions of all the Scriptures are one and the same. They
are the Word of Godhead differing only in the degree of manifestation. This
oneness of all revelation will become clearer in course of this narrative.

The Veda is self-existent and eternal. It was not made by anybody. It has the
quality of attracting to itself the devoted homage of all sincere souls. Men of this
world love a thing by reason of its worldly benefits for themselves. There
is nothing in the shape of worldly value to explain the acceptance of the Veda
by the most sincere seekers of the Truth. It is as if one is irresistibly
attracted towards a chance passer-by and welcomes him into one’s house by
a spontaneous instinct. No extraneous circumstance, no previously found
ties, would explain this spontaneous liking. It must be entirely due to some
innate excellence in the object of such attachment. The Veda has ever been loved
in this impartial and detached attitude. Theories that are made can
mislead inasmuch as they attempt to substitute the convictions of their authors in
place of those of others. It is the substitution of one untruth in place of another,
due to the vanity or spite of clever or aggressive thinkers. There is no room
for impartiality in such case. The Absolute Truth alone is really impartial.

His impartiality is the cause of the acceptance of His service by sincere souls.

The Absolute Truth Who finds implicit expression in the Vedas and the
Upanishads, has been put into a systematic and more explicit form in
the Brahmasutra of Sree Vyasadeva. In this remarkable work the subject has
been treated under the four heads of (1) relationship of everything with Godhead,
(2) solution of apparent heterogeneity that is found in Nature, (3) the means
of spiritual realisation, and (4) the object of spiritual function. The

Brahmasutra establishes the existence of personal Godhead, and devotion as the
means of realising transcendental love for GodheaDas the final object of such
activity.

The Authority of the Brahmasutra, as part and parcel of the revealed Scriptures,
is admitted by ah transcendentalists. The chain of disciplic succession in the case
of Sree Vyasadeva is as follows. Sree Vyasadeva received the Word from Sree N
arada who received it from Sree Brahma, the first god representing the bound
creation, to whom it was communicated by Sree N ar ayana Himself,
i.e., Personality of GodheaDas He exists in Sree Vaikuntha, the realm that is
free from ah limitation.

The Brahmasutra gives us the Truth in a highly condensed form. It is the
textbook of ah theistic philosophy. The conclusions embodied in it and their
significance have been elaborated in a number of commentaries written
by different authors.

Sree Vyasadeva is also the author of the Srimad Bhagawatam which gives us the
comprehensive history of the transcendental activities of Godhead Himself
and of His different Avataras. The deeds of Sree Krishna Who is declared by
the Veda to be Godhead Himself, as He is, constitute the central theme of this
great work The Srimad Bhagawatam thus forms, as it were, the natural
commentary, in the concrete or explicit form, of the Brahmasutra, from the pen
of their common author.

The Deeds of Sree Chaitanya, the Subject of the present work, are the living
Embodiment of the teaching of Srimad Bhagawatam. The Deeds and
Teachings of Sree Chaitanya stand alone as history of the service of the Supreme
Lord in the form of the deepest and perfectly unreserved intimacy.

The privilege of this form of service, the hidden truth of ah Scriptures, was never
before given to the fallen jiva. In the words of Sree Rupa Goswami Prabhu, the
authority on the esoteric significance of the Deeds of Sree Chaitanya, “God
Himself with the beautiful golden complexion out of mercy appeared in this
world in this most degenerate Age to confer the grace of devotion to Himself, of
the superior order that had not been given to this world before. Even the Geet a
which teaches the service of Godhead with singleminded devotion and in the
spirit of complete self-surrender, does not tell us much about the actual, concrete
form of the highest service. The Srimad Bhagawatam describes ah different

kinds of service in the concrete form and establishes the supreme excellence of
that which was practised by the transcendental milk-maids of Braja. Sree
Chaitanya is the living Embodiment of this highest and most intimate form of
the service of the Divinity.

The Brindabana pastimes of Sree Krishna, which have been given the place of
honour in the greatest devotional work of the whole world, are of all forms
of Divine service the one that is also liable to be most grossly misunderstood.
The subject will be treated in greater detail in its proper place in the body of
this work. It will suffice for our purpose here to state that Sree Chaitanya
made clearly manifest by His Deeds and Teachings what this form of service
really means. His Deeds are in fact the Brahmasutra, Geet a and the
Srimad Bhagawatam displayed to our view in the living form. He is the living
Vedanta. Other Avatars and prophets have taught the reverential worship of the
Supreme Lord. Sree Chaitanya proved by His Deeds that the highest form of
service is to be found in the Srimad Bhagawatam, that its inner meaning had not
been properly understood up to His time by anybody and that it offers what all
the Scriptures have been endeavouring from eternity unsuccessfully to express.

Sree Chaitanya’s own career is the concrete living expression of this highest
form of the service of the Lord.

The Deeds and Teachings of Sree Chaitanya offer everything that is contained in
the whole body of the Scriptures of this country or of any country. They give us
the complete view of the Absolute, which is not to be found in any
Scripture. And because it is the full view of the Absolute Truth that we get that
the Deeds and Teachings of Sree Chaitanya possess the quality of solving all
doubts and difficulties. It has the power of delivering from the thralldom of this
limited existence the elevationists who base their hope for mankind on
worldly activities and also the empiric philosopher who is caught in the cobweb
of his own ephemeral speculations. It throws open the gates of the limitless
world to all sorts and conditions of people by simply presenting the complete
view of the Truth which reconciles all apparent contradictions and composes all
the seeming differences and discords that so trouble the material world and,
in their place, it establishes the reign of universal spiritual Harmony.

No apology is needed from the historian of the Deeds of Sree Chaitanya for
anything in His transcendental career. His Deeds and Teachings, as we find them
recorded in the immortal works of His associates and followers, are not the

concoctions of the human imagination. Anyone who reads these sublime works
with an open mind, is bound to be convinced of the Absolute reality of all those
Activities. The task of the historian of Sree Chaitanya is rather not to miss the
least detail of His Divine career. This may not appeal to the taste of those
historians whose vision is incapable of passing the line of secular interests. But
they nevertheless constitute the most momentous facts of theistic history and are,
in fact, the goal to which all history leads and in which it should find its supreme
fulfillment and real explanation.

The pseudo-Vedantists are specially liable to under-estimate the significance of
the concrete activities of personal GodheaDas constituting His
fullest manifestation. According to them the Vedanta is a mere theory of the
Absolute and is, like any product of mental speculation, an abstract subject;
although such view is clearly opposed to that of Sree Vyasadeva himself who
would otherwise have not been at so much pains to describe minutely every
detail of the Activities of Godhead Himself and of all His Avataras and assign to
the Braja Pastimes of Krishna-Chandra the place of honour in his comprehensive
history of the Divinity. This is the subtle danger that threatens all who put their
trust in empiric wisdom. The Deeds of Sree Chaitanya are the practical
refutation of all casuistry and empiric speculations regarding the Absolute that
are to be found in all parts of the world.

The writer has ventured upon a task that is by its nature super-human not from
any pride of empiric knowledge. This task of propagating the eternal religion
of all animate beings has been handed down to him in the regular line of
spiritual discipleship. It was the wish of Thakur Bhaktivinode to spread the
knowledge of the eternal religion taught and practised by Sree Chaitanya to all
countries outside Bengal through the medium of the English language. The
writer would be failing in his duty towards his spiritual preceptor and towards
the growing community of the pure devotees who are desirous that the wish of
Thakur Bhaktivinode, the same as that of Sree Chaitanya Himself, should be
carried out, if he did not make a sincere effort of putting into the English
language information that he has received from his predecessors. The writer
feels no misgiving in thus offering to the world at large this message of the
Absolute inasmuch as in doing this he is only performing a duty that has
devolved on his unworthy shoulders in the regular chain of disciplic succession.
He makes his prostrated obeisances at the feet of the preceptor who opened his
sealed eyes by the spike of the collyrium of spiritual knowledge and all the
devotees of the Supreme Lord that the word of God may through their mercy

find expression in these pages.

The Absolute Truth cannot be discovered by the ascending effort of the human
mind. Such effort, as a matter of fact, leads to quite the opposite direction.

The Absolute Truth has been appropriately compared to the disc of the Sun. It is
not possible to find out the Sun during night with the help of the most
powerful lamp that can be devised by the ingenuity of man. The Sun can be seen
only by means of rays that come from itself. The Sun is visible when it is above
the horizon and there is nothing to obstruct our vision directed towards it. The
Sun is seen easily enough when these conditions are fulfilled. The Absolute
Truth is like the glorious disc of the Sun that is always above the horizon. But
we bound jivas cannot see it as we are led by our empiric knowledge to direct
our sealed eyes to the opposite direction and on the mists and clouds of
worldliness that further, obstruct our view. It is transcendental Truth that is
offered in these pages and not any speculations of the writer. This transcendental
Truth Whom he has received from his preceptor and Whom he is trying to impart
to others is not something that can be challenged by the limited reason of man.
His predecessors have been enabled to receive Him by submitting to Him, i.e.,
by listening to and accepting Him in the sense of practising and preaching
the same. This constitutes the sole justification of the present undertaking.

The writer is desirous of serving the Absolute Truth by telling Him to others as
by doing so he can serve himself and all animate beings in the only really
useful way.

This eternal function of the proper selves of all animate beings that has been
taught by Sree Chaitanya and all the revealed Scriptures is at once profound and
easy. It is easy because it possesses the quality of satisfying the wants of foolish,
senseless and unlettered persons. It is also profound inasmuch as it is capable of
benefiting the most erudite scholars, i.e. those who are masters of the art of
controversy and most deeply versed in the scriptures. This combination of
apparently opposite qualities is not to be found anywhere else in this world. In
fact any one who is free from bias can be heir of this religion; on this
simple condition it lies open to all mankind. The idealist no less than the
practical man of action is equally enabled by its means to successfully cross this
great ocean of limited, physical existence. But unthinking worldly minded
people have always been misled by its perverse forms as it has been often
misrepresented by the malice, worldly interest, or ignorance of its pseudo¬
preachers. The only way that is open to bound jivas for disentangling themselves
from the fetters of ignorance and thereby regaining their natural condition of the

spontaneous, spiritual service of the Lord, is that offered by the methods of
listening to the transcendental deeds of the Godhead from the lips of His
devotees and making the same known to others by obeying the Word of God in
their actual conduct and preaching it to others. It is only by constantly listening
to the Word of God from those who exclusively serve the Absolute and
practicing the same with body, mind and speech that the fallen jivas are enabled
gradually to get rid of their materialistic hallucinations which stand in their way
of realising their own proper nature and its true relationship with God and
therefore of serving Him in the proper manner.

The materials for the present work have been drawn from— (1) the
Sikshastakam of Sree Chaitanya which gives the summary of His teachings
in His own words; (2 and 3) the Karchas (memoirs) of Sree Murari Gupta and
of Sree Swarup Damodar (the latter as embodied in his works by Sree
Raghunath Das Goswamin, Sree Swarup Damodar’s closest associate); (4)

Prema Vivarta of Sree Jagadananda; (5) Sree-Krishna-Chaitanya-Chandrodaya-
Nataka of Kavi Karnapur; (6) Sree-Chaitanya-Charitahakavya of Sree
Chaitanya Das, the elder brother of Kavi Karnapur; (7) the works of Sree
Prabodhananda Saraswati; (8) the Bhajanamrita of Sree Narahari Sarkar Thakur;
(9) the numerous works left by five of the famous six Goswamins; (10) Sree
Brindbandas Thakur’s Sree-Chaitanya-Bhagawat; (1)) Sree Lochand as’s
Chaitanya-Mangal; (12) Sree Krishnadas Kaviraj’s Sree-Chaitanya-
Charitamrita and lastly (13) the works of those later writers who have strictly
followed the above authors. Most of these works are in Sanskrit, some of them in
Bengali.

Sree Chaitanya has not left any books written by Himself. A few shlokas
composed by Him are quoted in the works of His associates, the chief of
them being the Sikshastakam which gives in eight stanzas a summary of
his teachings.

Sree Murari Gupta was the constant companion of Sree Chaitanya’s younger
days. His memoirs are a careful record of the activities of Sree Chaitanya
at Nabadwip. Sree Swarup Damodar attended on the person of Sree
Chaitanya night and day throughout the period of His long residence at Puri. His
memoirs which have not come down to us in their separate form are the chief
authority as regards Sree Chaitanya’s latter career and relied upon by all
the contemporary writers. Sree Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswamin in his
detailed account of this part of Sree Chaitanya’s career made use of the

information which he obtained directly from Sree Raghunathdas Goswamin who
was the spiritual ward of Sree Swamp Damodar to whose charge he was
committed by the express command of Sree Chaitanya Himself. Pandit
Jagadananda was the loved playmate of Sree Chaitanya’s boyhood and His
constant companion to the end. Kavi Karnapur was the son of Sree Sivananda
Sen, one of the closest associates of Sree Chaitanya. Sree Chaitanyadas was the
elder brother of Kavi Karnapura. Sree Prabodhananda Saraswati was the
contemporary of Sree Chaitanya. He was a native of Southern India and the
younger brother of Sree Venkata Bhatta at whose house at Sree Rangam Sree
Chaitanya resided for the period of four months during His travels in the South.
Sree Pr abodhananda Saraswati was the uncle and preceptor of Sree Gop al
Bhatta, one of the six Goswamins. Sree Narahari Sarkar Thakur was one of Sree
Chaitanya’s principal associates.

Of the six Goswamins Sree Rupa and his elder brother Sree San atana were
instructed by Sree Chaitanya Himself in regard to the subject-matter of
their respective works. Sree Raghun athDas Goswamin got his information from
Sree Swarup Damodar and he himself associated with Sree Chaitanya. Sree
Gopal Bhatta’s connection with Sree Chaitanya has already been mentioned.

Sree Jiva was the nephew of Sree Rupa and San atana and was the disciple of the
former.

Sree Brindabandas Thakur was the recipient of the favour of Sree Nityananda,
the associated facsimile, so to say, of Sree Chaitanya. His mother Sree
Narayani was the niece of Sribash Pandit, the foremost of those Vaishnava
householders who were the direct followers of Sree Chaitanya. Sree Lochandas
got the materials of his work partly from Narahari Sarkar Thakur, one of
Sree Chaitanya’s close associates and by his devotional impressions. Sree
Krishnadas Goswamin got his information as has already been mentioned from
his preceptor Sree Raghunathdas, one of the six Goswamins .

Most of the works of the authors named above are still extant and they are the
authorities for all subsequent writers. The chief of these later authors
whose works have been consulted in the compilation of the present account are,
(1) Sree Narottamdas Thakur who was the disciple of Sree Lokanath
Goswamin, one of the closest associates of Sree Chaitanya, (2) Sree Viswanath
Chakravarty belonging to the line of disciples of Sree Narottamdas Thakur, (3)
Sree Baladev Vidyabhusan the first Gaudiya commentator of the Brahmasutra,
(4) Sree Narahari Chakravarty in the line of disciplic descent from Sree Viswan

ath Thakur, (5) Sree Bhaktivinode Thakur, the sincere guardian of the
true Vaishnavas of the present day, and (6) my Sree Gurudeva, His Divine
Grace Paramahansa Paribrajakacharya Sree Sreemat Bhaktisiddh anta
Saraswati Goswami Maharaj whose mercy is my only hope of attaining the
service of Godhead.

It will be seen from the above that there is no lack of materials of the most
reliable character available to the historian of the Career and Teachings of
Sree Chaitanya. It is, therefore, rather strange that the personality of Sree
Chaitanya has been misunderstood and misrepresented by a certain class of
writers. The neglect of the original sources was one cause of this. A constructive
motive was supplied by the animosity of sectarians and the greed of worldly
interests of pseudo-followers.

It was the life-work of Thakur Bhaktivinode to re-discover the true history of
Sree Chaitanya and make the same available to the present generation.

The magnitude of this service to his country, to humanity and to all animate
beings time alone will show. The eternal religion taught and practiced by
Sree Chaitanya have been made intelligible to the modern reader by the labours
of Thakur Bhaktivinode. It is bound to re-act most powerfully on all
existing religious convictions of the world and make possible the establishment
of universal spiritual harmony of which the whole world stands so much in
need. Most of the works of Thakur Bhaktivinode were, however, written in
Bengali and Sanskrit. The present work is a slight attempt to present in the
English language an outline of the Life and Teachings of Sree Chaitanya made
known by Thakur Bhaktivinode, the pioneer of the movement of pure devotion
in the present Age, which aims at restablishing in practice the eternal religion of
all animate beings revealed in the Scriptures and taught and practiced by
Sree Chaitanya. The activities of my most revered Preceptor are well known to
the world. His Divine Grace is commissioned by Godhead to spread the
Teaching of Sree Chaitanya to every village of the world and re-establish the
spiritual society. This was foretold by Thakur Bhaktivinode.

2 The Real Nature Of Sree Krishna

The historical aspect of Sree Krishna need not be considered as irrelevant or
mundane. The Absolute is always no other than Himself.

Antiquarian speculations regarding the historicity of Sree Krishna have thus,
inconceivably to us, an intimate bearing on the question of the real Nature of the
Absolute. The scheme of ancient History of India that is being worked out by
the researches of learned scholars has not yet been conclusively settled in regard
to the lay affairs of that remote period which may have witnessed the Great
War that is reported to have been fought out on the plains of Kurukshetra
between the Kurus and the Pandavas backed by their respective allies. But the
time is not far distant when it will be practicable to avoid prejudices
and misunderstandings that at present prevent our approaching that great event
in the proper spirit The Puranas are steadily winning the confidence of the
most hostile critics and the actual occurrence of the Great War is coming to
be recognised, on the authority of the Puranas, as having taken place at a
period which is not very far from 3000 B.C. The narration of the Mahabharata
may now be seriously accepted as providing a tentative basis for the historical
career of Sree Krishna. The Harivamsa, which forms the supplement of the
Great Epic, is not opposed to the Mahabharata either in the spirit or in the so-
called assumptions regarding particulars of the career of Sree Krishna that do
not appear in the Great Epic.

The difficulty in regard to the Bhagawatam has also become susceptible of
historical handling If that great Purana was actually composed in the
ninth century A.D., as seems not very improbable it should still be
historically possible to accept its testimony regarding even the events of the
Boyhood of Krishna. But from the lay point of view, this question is not of
absorbing interest in as much as the politically important activities in the career
of Sree Krishna belong to a later period. But from the point of view of religious
history, the story of the marvelous Boyhood of Krishna is all-important and
demands our most careful consideration.

The Mahabharata deals exclusively with the Doings of Krishna as King of
Dwaraka and Ruler of the Yadavas. But the mighty Deeds of Krishna recorded in
the Mahabharata form no part of the worship of Sree Sree Radha-
Govinda, which is the subject matter of the present work. Bhandarkar, in his
anxiety to redeem the worship of Krishna from the charge of immorality, might

prefer,the worship of the wedded Husband of Rukmini to that of Sree Sree
Radha-Krishna. But the Bhagawatam makes the Pastimes of Brindabana the
heart and kernel of the whole narrative of its deeds of Krishna as the Divinity,
and it is this which supplies all the materials for the prevalent worship of Sree
Sree Radha-Govinda. The political Krishna occupies but a secondary position, if
even that, in the sphere of worship.

The narrative of the Bhagawatam so far as it covers the same ground as the
Mahabharata does not differ materially from the story told by the Epic. But
the interpretation and point of view of the Bhagawatam is throughout
explicitly different from that of the Mahabharata even in its treatment of those
events that are common to the two works. The later date of the appearance of
the Bhagawatam, together with the new perspective adopted and the
prominence given in it to the Boyhood of Krishna, has given rise to the doubts
regarding the authenticity of its story of the Boyhood of Krishna, which is,
however, also found in several other Puranas of an admittedly more ancient
date.

Sectarian manipulation of history is assumed to be responsible for difference of
version in the treatment of even historical events that are connected with
the origin and growth of creeds. Theologians are supposed to be often ready to
be unmindful of any version that may appear to them to be opposed to the
tenets of the creed that they happen to profess. The Bhagawatam , judged by
this canon, has appeared to certain scholars as being less reliable, in the
considered historical sense, than the Great Epic. This view is also supposed to
cut at the root of the reality of the religion itself. The issue regarding religion
may be put thus: Did the Pastimes of Krishna at Brindabana manifest themselves
on the mundane plane at any period in the ordinary historical sense?

The answer should be, even from the historical point of view, partly, in the
affirmative and negative. The Bhagawatam is regarded by the Absolutists
as being both a work of the medieval period as well as the very Body of
the eternally existing Truth Himself. The argument, viz., that as it happens
to belong to the medieval period it cannot also at the same time be eternal that
is without any origin, is inapplicable to the Bhagawatam . The case is exactly
the same with the Brindabana Pastimes.. They are also regarded to be eternally
true. They are at the same time claimed to be historically true. But they are
not claimed to be merely historical events. They are, therefore, claimed to be
as being both old and new, or neither. They are not regarded as limitable by

the mundane categories.

It, therefore, becomes necessary to widen the scope of-the historical method
itself in order to treat such a subject with any principle of consistency.

The adherence to the scheme of gradual evolution of the creed has to be got rid
of. The test of contemporary evidence as proof of authenticity should be found
to be even more misleading for this particular purpose than it always is
ordinarily.

What is the reality of the degree of validity of contemporary evidence in the
ascertainment of the Truth? I record my opinion regarding a certain phenomenon
actually occurring before my very eyes. The statement is made up of the
narration of the occurrence and my individual opinion regarding its nature and
other particulars that I may suppose have a bearing on it. The narrative portion is
separated from opinion by the critics, and is accepted in that unexplained form as
historically true. If Krishna actually passed His Divine Boyhood in Brindabana
and performed at that place all the miracles before the very eyes of all the
people, the older narrative of the Mahabharata, it is argued, should have also
been cognizant of the same. If those miracles had been the most important of all
the Activities of Krishna, Who is the Hero of the Epic, they could not have been
altogether omitted by the writer of the Great Epic as they must have been actual
and well-known occurrences. Such argument, although legitimate within its due
limits in the case of mundane events, does not apply without a good deal of
modification to the Pastimes of the Divinity.

It is an option of the servants of Krishna, which they are not loth to exercise, to
divulge His Activities, or keep Them concealed from the knowledge even
of contemporaries. Those activities possess the special quality of being
recognised as true in the real and not merely historical sense, as soon as, and
whenever, they are so divulged to the unerring consciousness of the pure
individual soul.

On the other hand, the reality is impossible of being ever “discovered” by the
empiric historical method.

The Absolute chooses to present His deluding face to the sense-perception of
man. His deluding energy is all-powerful and is able to prevent the search
and discovery of the Truth, for Whose service, however, every individual soul
has an imperative necessity. The tentative categories of the mundane Logicians

are no other than fetters of the deluding Energy that tend to produce the
strange belief that the transitory and limited are necessarily also true. It is
this undoubted “fact” that vitiates the current short-sighted “historical” method
at its source. The reality of the Ocean is neither proved nor disproved by
the admission or denial of the ignorant dweller of the Taklamakan Desert.

Such admission or such denial is equally abortive and wide of the mark if
the observer has no knowledge of his subject. The issue itself as regards the
Truth does not exist for the pedant of the waterless desert of the narrow and
closely barriered Hinterland of Empiricism.

What value for instance are we to attach to such “historical” finding as this 5 viz.,
that the teaching of Sree Chaitanya was the cause of the political downfall
of Orissa? Sree Chaitanya teaches that the Absolute is served by all
conditions, beings and events, either consciously or unconsciously as regards the
agents themselves. The decline as well as the rise of empires and worlds serves
equally in their tiny ways the uncompassable Absolute. As soon as their relation
of service to the Absolute is grasped by the agents, the real consciousness of
the Truth is produced in the humble agent. So long as the Absolute continues to
be pedantically regarded as a part of Physical Nature, as cause or effect, there is
no consciousness at all even of the issue itself of the real Truth. Sree Chaitanya
and His Activities belong to the plane of the Absolute. The empiric historian,
with his geographical and chronological apparatus of observation, can have
really no proper idea of the grotesque anomaly that he unconsciously perpetrates
by his pedantic effort to gauze the Absolute by the standard supplied to her
victim by His deluding Energy in the form of the mundane categories that can
only limit and define, whereas the function that is required to be performed is to
get rid of the necessity of having to do either.

If Srimad Bhagawatam , which professes to treat of the Absolute, is considered
to be an object of this phenomenal world, how can it possibly impart to a person
who chooses to entertain such illogical thought, any knowledge of its contents?
The recipient of the consciousness of the Absolute as well as the communicant
of such consciousness must alike belong to the plane of the Absolute
consciousness. The empiric consciousness is not in the plane of the Absolute
consciousness at all. It can only bungle and commit a deliberate blunder by
attempting to limit and define the immeasurable and undefinable under the plea
of a necessity that need not be supposed to exist at all.

It is possible, if the limitations of the mental equipment are fully remembered

and allowed for, for a person desirous of treating the subject on the plane of
the Absolute to write the cautious narrative of the Activities of Godhead in
the limited vocabulary, without falling wholly into the deliberate blunders
of dogmatic empiricism. The revealed Scriptures belong to the class of
such authentic records regarding the Absolute. They need not be produced at
the time of appearance of the events on the mundane plane to be
historically acceptable as conveying the direct or first hand testimony of those
occurrences. They are quite independent of the conditions which the mind of the
empiric historian finds it impossible to shake off and which make it impossible
for him to conceive of the possibility of spiritual occurrences.

Therefore, empiric speculations regarding the so-called “historicity” of a
spiritual event instead of establishing its genuineness, only serve to display
the utter insufficiency of the empirical historical method itself for the purpose
of the treatment of the history of the Absolute.

For example, the complaint of the empiric scholar, that it is not possible to set
forth the nature of the development of spiritual life in India for lack of
definite chronology which renders a scientific classification of the original
works treating of Indian religion impossible, however plausible in itself it may
appear to be at first sight, is, in the light of the foregoing discussion, at once
found to be after all only the result of a wholly deluded attitude towards the
Absolute Himself. As if the development of spiritual life is capable of being
measured by the process of so-called mundane evolution based on the
chronological sequence of mundane occurrences!

Our contention is not that the Pastimes of Sree Krishna are historical events but
that they are a revelation of the Truth in the form of historical events.

The Pastimes of Sree Krishna are not, therefore, less true than any historical
events whatsoever. They are much more. All the historical events of this world
will be enabled to disclose the real elements of the Truth that they represent only
when they would be set forth in their proper relationship to the only eternal
Verity, viz., the Pastimes of Krishna. It is the historical events and the canons
of historical judgment that require to be brought into tune with the Truth, Who
is no other than Krishna. But the empiric historian does the exact opposite of
this. He assumes the truth of historical events and his canons of historical
judgment as the standard to which the Pastimes of Krishna are to conform for
the realisation of any element of the Truth that they may contain !

The whole difficulty is ultimately due to the muddled way of thinking favoured
by the empiricists that supposes itself to be self-sufficient for the purpose
of finding the Truth. It is empiricism that requires to be made properly
conscious of its limitations and to be forced into a serious consideration of the
nature of the Truth Whom it professes in and out of season to be so willing to
serve.

Once the nature of the Truth is taken into our serious consideration, the
inconclusiveness of the cult of historicity should be perfectly plain to
every impartial thinker. Further anxious consideration of the subject should
enable the empiric method to be limited to its proper scope and by such
limited employment to be enabled to serve the quest of the Unlimited.

As soon as the mind is directed to the question of the Nature of the Truth, it is
enabled by Tmth Himself to understand the otherwise inexplicable
postulations of the spiritual Scriptures that it is necessary to obey in order to
attain to the plane of the real quest of the Truth. Every circumstance even of this
world will then be found to be a help in the realisation of the Truth, and nothing
will be found to be a hindrance. The only hindrance, as a matter of fact, is the
empiric attitude itself. By the empiric attitude one is led to launch out on the
quest of the Absolute Truth with the resources of admittedly utter ignorance.

This foolhardiness must be made to cease. The method of submissive inquiry
enjoined by the Scriptures should be substituted after being properly learnt from
those who have themselves attained to the right knowledge of the same by the
proper method of submission. It is only after one has actually obtained the vision
of the Truth, Whose face is so completely hid from the sight of the
empiric thinker, that one can, under the guidance of the Truth Himself, set out on
the quest of the Truth with any chance of finding Him and proclaiming Him
to others.

So, although the method that has been employed throughout this narrative may
appear to be inconsistent with the demands of the blind empiric judgment,
the reader is requested for the very much more weighty reasons set forth above
to lend his listening ear to an attempt to apply the methods of the
revealed Scriptures for the purpose of describing the real Nature of Krishna and
His Pastimes, in pursuance of the mercy of the authorized Teachers, on the
ground that the method is the only one that claims to be applicable to the subject
of the Absolute.

As the working knowledge of the Nature of Sree Krishna is the starting point of
the search of the Truth, it is my purpose in this chapter to present the reader with
a summary of the traditional account of the real Nature of Sree Krishna, which is
revealed by the Scriptures of all Ages and countries in more or less explicit
forms.

The outline of the history of Sree Krishna as told in the Bhagavatam, which may
be accepted as the only authentic account for our purposes, is as follows At
the close of the cycle known as Dwapara Krishna manifested His Appearance
in Bharatabarsha. He was born at Mathura. He was the Son of Vasudeva.

His mother was Devaki, the sister of King Kamsa of the race of the
Bhojas. Apprehending harm to himself from the Issue of Vasudeva and Devaki,
Kamsa, that unworthy scion of the Bhoja, had cast the immaculate couple into
the royal prison which was most closely guarded. As they passed their days
inside the prison of Kamsa six sons were born in succession to Vasudeva and
Devaki. All of them were killed in their infancy by the cmel and fearful Kamsa.
Sree Balarama was born as their seventh issue. He was transferred to the keeping
of Rohini in Braja as foster-mother, the report being circulated that there had
been miscarriage at childbirth. Godhead Himself was the eighth issue of
Vasudeva and Devaki. He was conveyed by Vasudeva to the home of Nanda in
Braja, whose wife Yasoda had just then given birth to a daughter. Sree Krishna
was left to the care of Nanda and Yasoda in Braja and their daughter was brought
to Kamsa’s prison and exhibited as the eighth issue of Devaki.

Meanwhile Sree Krishna was growing up in Braja in the company of His brother,
Rama. Putana, an adept in slaughtering infants, was deputed by Kamsa to kill
Krishna under the pretense of giving Him suck by the profession of motherly
affection. Putana was killed by the halo of the power of the Infant Krishna. The
casuistical demon Trinavarta was slain. The cart for conveyance of their
baggages under which Krishna had been put to bed by His parents was smashed
by the kicks of the Divine Infant. He showed his mother, by opening His mouth,
that the whole world was accommodated therein. He made her see that nescience
served to foster love for the power of the Truth. The Infant displayed much
juvenile ignorance that was promotive of love for Himself, the True Cognition.
Noting the waywardness of her child the matronly milk-maid, embodying the
most exquisite degree of serving zeal, bethought of binding Krishna by means of
hempen cords; but in vain. But the Incompassable at last submitted to be bound
by the exclusive love of the affectionate Mistress of Nanda’s home. Krishna
broke the twin Arjuna trees in course of His childish sports, releasing the sons of

a god who had been reduced to that pitiable condition. Even the gods are liable
to lapse into the senseless condition of trees by addiction to evil deeds; and even
trees are enabled to regain the spiritual condition by the influence of accidental
association with the pure-hearted.

Krishna goes into the forest with His chums for pasturing the calves. There He
slays the demon Batsasur who represents the offenses of boyhood. It is now
that religious hypocrisy in the form of Bakasur brought up by Kamsa, is also
killed by Krishna of pure understanding. Aghasur also is slain. He is the
embodiment of the principle of cruelty. Thereupon Krishna dined out in the open
on the banks of the Yamuna in the company of His chums. The four-faced
Brahma stole the calves and the cowboys. The orderer of the phenomenal world
was thereupon deluded by the power of Krishna. By this episode the
complete supremacy of the immaculate Sweetness of Sree Krishna over every
other principle, was demonstrated. Krishna, the Beloved of the realm of the
perfect cognition, is not subject to any regulative restrictions. This also
was established. The opulence of Krishna suffers no curtailment even by the
total destruction of all spiritual and non-spiritual realms. No one is able to
set bounds to the incompassable ocean of the Power of Krishna. The evil-
minded Dhenukasura, the ass of blunt judgment, was destroyed by Baladeva,
the principle of the pure individual soul. The serpent Kaliya, the self
of crookedness and malice, polluted the waters of the Yamuna, the mellow
liquid of the spiritual principle. This wicked demon was thereupon slain by
Hari. When the wild forest-fire, the evil of internal faction within the
community, burst forth in all its destructive fury, Sree Krishna in Person
swallowed it up. Thus the Lord is ever solicitous of the well-being of Braja.

Then Rama killed the demon Pralamba, the thief in disguise who was sent by
Kamsa for stealing the children.

And when the sky began to be surcharged with the love-laden clouds heralding
the advent of the showery season, the milk-maids of Braja, who are loved
by Krishna and are by their nature of a loving disposition, felt intoxicated
by singing the Praises of Krishna. They were deeply stirred by the strains
of Krishna’s flute. They now worshipped Yogamaya who effects the union of
the individual soul with Krishna, with the desire of gaining Krishna as their
Lover. Those who are possessed of a strong desire to serve Krishna find that
there is no adjustment regarding themselves or their relation with others that
is necessary for the purpose, of which they need feel ashamed. They are no
longer disposed to conceal their minds. Krishna stole away the clothes of those

milkmaids at their bath to disclose the perfectly nude state which is the
immaculate sporting ground of Divine love. Sree Krishna feeling hungry begged
for food that had been prepared for offering at the sacrificial ceremony by the
ritualistic Brahmanas. But they did not give it to Him in the pride of their
superior status. Those sacrificial Brahmanas were addicted to a variety of
empirical interpretations of the Scriptures inspired by the desire of attainment of
worldly prosperity or by love for barren speculation which ends in the negation
of all specific forms of activity. By dint of their traditional attachment to the
Scriptures and the by-gone ancestors they are apt to degenerate into the mere
mechanical transmitters of the rules and taboos that are found in the
Scriptures. By reason of this vain attitude they are disabled to understand that
the attainment of love for Godhead is the only purpose of all those rules
and regulations. How can people with such mentality be induced to serve
Krishna. But the loyal wives of those sacrificial Brahmanas, despite the
opposition of their husbands, repaired to Sree Krishna in the forest and
surrendered themselves to the Feet of the Supreme Soul. This demonstrates the
truth that neither intellectual nor hereditary equipments are the cause of love for
Krishna. It also lays down the right principle of conduct of conditioned souls
as consisting in regarding everything with an equal eye. The varna and
ashrama institutions of man are intended for the regulation of the society of this
world.

If the social order is preserved it affords scope for association with pure-hearted
persons and thereby offers opportunities for discussions regarding the
supreme desideratum. These tend to spiritual progress. It is the possibility of
attainment of love of Krishna by their means that constitutes the value of the
institutions of varna and ashrama (the system of divinely ordained division of
social functions and grades). There can, therefore, be no disloyalty to the
purpose of the social arrangement if one gives up the observance of the social
rules for the sake of Krishna Himself. As a matter of fact, on the actual
attainment of the goal itself, the further pursuit of the means of its attainment
becomes unnecessary for all persons who are really desirous of obtaining the
goal. It is also no infringement of the purpose of the social code to allow such a
person full scope for serving Krishna. In enforcing social obligations it is,
therefore, necessary to consider the actual condition of individuals to whom they
are to apply. Otherwise the very object of social organization itself will be
wholly frustrated.

Hari then forbade the people to perform the sacrifice to Indra. The people were

wont to sacrifice to Indra to please him in order that he might send them
rain which was necessary for the sustenance of themselves and their flocks.

This represents the principle of utilitarian work on the basis of mutual co¬
operation for the safety and well-being of society. Indra being denied his
offerings, in anger tried to punish the denizens of Braja by sending down
torrential rain which flooded the fields and homesteads of the people. Hari
Himself protected the residents of Gokula from this peril. No harm can come to
the servants of Krishna if for the purpose of serving Him even their ordinary
domestic and social duties have to be given up altogether which may result in the
destruction of the world. No one can kill whom Krishna Himself protects. Even
the cosmic law is not binding on them. The devotees of Krishna are free from
all observance of all law except that of spiritual love for the Supreme
Lord. Through the realm of faith there flows the perennial stream of the
holy Yamuna. The transcendental river is the liquid essence of the pure
cognitive state. Nanda was in danger of being drowned in the waters of that river
of joy, but was mercifully rescued by his Son’s blissful Activity. Thereafter
Sree Krishna showed the cow-herds His Own Divine Majesty in the realm of
the Absolute. The Divine Majesty is always latent in the Personality of Krishna.
The Supreme Lord Who is the Beloved of the eternally free souls and their
following then performed the Pastime of the Dance in the circle of His beloved.
This Pastime manifests the principle of working of Divine love. Lord Hari, out
of His mercy, danced in the Rasa circle formed by the milk-maids. He promoted
the -growth of their highest love by separation, by His subsequent
disappearance.

The stellar system may supply a poor analogy of the Rasa Pastime. Just as the
Suns surrounded by their respective circling groups of satellites dance round the
Polar Star in the form of a circle, in the same manner, all individual
souls eternally enact their harmonious dance in their orbits round Sree Krishna
as the centre of the system, sustained therein by the force of Sree
Krishna’s overpowering attraction for all spiritual entities. In this vast round of
the Rasa dance, Sree Krishna is the only Male and all individual souls are
females. In the realm of the Absolute Sree Krishna is the sole Master and
Enjoyer. All the rest belong to the category of servants and objects of enjoyment
that minister to His sole pleasure. The Rasa Pastime is capable of being
analogically described in the vocabulary at our command only in terms of the
sexual relationship. The reason of this is that there is a real correspondence
between the two—the sexual relationship of this world being the unwholesome
reflection of the spiritual process in the mirror of this material world. The

analogy is, however, bound to prove misleading if due allowance is not made for
the radical difference between the substantive nature and location of the two
processes.

The principle of mundane amour resting on that of physical sex can never be
divested of its innate grossness and unwholesomeness. The grossness of worldly
enjoyment as well as the sensuousness and frailties of both the object and subject
of the sexual passion, are responsible for the imperfections of mundane amour.
The Rasa Pastime is absolutely free from any touch of unwholesomeness, all the
conditions being favourable for the promotion of the most perfect bliss by
universal association in the rites of the most exquisite love. No apprehension of
lewdness or sexuality must, therefore, be allowed to stand in the way of the
exhaustive consideration of this highest and allimportant spiritual subject.

The circular amorous dance or the Rasa Pastime expresses the manifestation of
Divine love in its perfectly unobscured form. The highest realisation of
this process consists in this, that in it Srimati Radhika, the highest object of
all reverence of all souls being that supreme blissful Power of Krishna
who expresses His specifically luscious quality, appears in person in the circle of
the dancers, in all Her most exquisite charm encompassed by the bhavas, her
suite of the most confidential female friends. At the close of the Pastime of
the circular dance there follows naturally sporting in the liquid current of
the Yamuna, the cognitive essence itself dissolving into liquid bliss on the
full manifestation of love.

Nanda who is the personality of spiritual bliss, is swallowed up by the boa-
constrictor of the joy of the liberation of merging in the Divine Essence. Krishna,
the Protector of His devotee, thereupon rescues him from his peril. The stubborn
demon Sankhachura, who sets fame over every other principle, is then slain in an
attempt to create disturbance in Braja. Keshi, the demon of the vanity of political
ambition, is next slain by Krishna, the Foe of Kamsa, when the Lord finally
made up His mind to return to Mathura.

Akrura, the contriver of all occurrences, then conducted Hari to Mathura. On His
arrival there, the Lord killed the sturdy wrestlers and then also slew
Kamsa himself with his younger brother, on the departure from this world of
atheism in the person of Kamsa, Sree Krishna bestowed the charge of the earth
on Kamsa’s progenitor, Ugrasena, who embodies the principle of
independence. The twin widows of Kamsa thereupon repaired to their parent, the

King of Magadha, the embodiment of elevationism, and submitted to him their
sorrows of the state of widowhood. On receiving this tiding, the King of
Magadha set out at the head of his armies and fought seventeen mighty battles
about the city of Mathura, but was every time defeated by Hari. When
Jarasandha at last beleaguered Mathura for the eighteenth time Krishna retired to
His own Capital of Dwarakapuri. The real significance of this episode consists in
this, that the potency of the principle of elevationism is constituted of the
eighteen categories of the ten personal lustrations from birth to death, the four¬
fold classification according to aptitude and the four-fold division into stages of
the individual life (varnashrama). When the seat of knowledge is finally
captured by these eighteen categories by fostering renunciation of the world,
there is manifested the disappearance of Godhead on the consequent emergence
of the longing for pseudo-liberation.

While Krishna abode in Mathura, He placed Himself under the charge of the
teacher of religion, and after completing His study of all the Shastras,
restored the life of His preceptor’s dead son. There is no necessity in the case of
Krishna, Who is naturally perfect, to endeavour for the acquisition of
knowledge. The episode indicates that the intellect of man makes progress in
erudition during its stage of residence at Mathura which is the Academy of all
learning.

Those who covet the fmits of their activities also cherish attachment to Krishna.
Their attachment to the Lord is charged with impurity. The attachment by
degrees grows into the well purified unadulterated liking for Krishna. This
salutary truth is manifested in the case of Kubja’s love for Krishna during His
sojourn in Mathura. Uddhava went to Gokula to be acquainted fully with the
loving state of Braja which is superior to all forms of devotion.

The Srutis affirm that the Pandavas represent the branch of righteousness, while
the Kauravas are the offshoots of unrighteous conduct. For this reason,

Sree Krishna is verily the Friend and Preserver of the family of the Pandavas. In
order to establish the well being of righteousness and for the deliverance of
sinners, the Lord deputed Akrura to Hastina as His messenger.

Jarasandha, the champion of unwholesome fruitive activity, beleaguered the
beautiful city of Mathura, the abode of the knowledge of the
undifferentiated Greatness and Nourishing Quality of the Divinity (Brahman).
Here the point that is established is that fruitive activity itself is of two kinds.

One variety is directed to the supreme desideratum itself. By such activities there
is growth of knowledge and by their conjunction liking for Godhead is
developed. This conjunction of activity, knowledge and the principle of Divine
service, is also variously designated as the process of karma, jnana or bhakti.
Those w ho possess real insight, call it the method of Harmony. But there is a
different variety of activity which is directed to a selfish purpose. This form is
known as karma-kanda, to distinguish it from the process of what is termed
karma-yoga. This selfish variety of fruitive activity often gives rise to
apprehension regarding the existence and attainment of Godhead and promotes
their union with atheism by wedding them with the latter. It is this unwholesome
variety of worldly activity that in the person of Jarasandha invaded the city of
Mathura.

Thereupon, Sree Krishna, of His own accord, conducted His friends, viz., the
community of His devotees, to the city of Dwaraka. This is the process of
the service of Godhead under the regulative principles of the Divine
Dispensation. The Yavana king belonged to a society that was not regulated by
the Divinely ordained principle of class and stage (varnashrama). Being thus
addicted to ignorant utilitarian activity and relying on the resources of such
activity and being thereby opposed also to the path of liberation by empiric
knowledge, the Yavana king scornfully kicked King Muchukunda representing
aptitude for the path of liberation. The Yavana king was thereupon destroyed by
the superior power of King Muchukunda. Hari then repaired to Dwaraka, the
seat of the Knowledge of the Divinity in all His Majesty. There the Lord wedded
Rukmini Devi, Embodiment of the Supreme Majesty of Godhead. Pradyumna,
God of love, was no sooner born from the womb of Rukmini, then he was stolen
away by Sambara, embodiment of the deluding Energy. The body of the God of
love had formerly been burnt up by Mahadeva, representing barren asceticism.

At that period Rati Devi, consort of Kama, God of love, had sought refuge in
the demoniac propensity for the lust of the flesh. Kamadeva of great prowess,
being now instructed by his consort Ratidevi, killed Sambara representing
the pleasures of the flesh and made his way to Dwaraka. By way of restoration
of the gem, Hari now wedded the auspicious Satyabhama, who is part and
parcel of Sree Radhika, the fullness of the quality of extreme loving
sensitiveness. Rukmini, with seven other ladies, were the reflections of the
Power of the most delicious and the very highest Divine love, appearing in the
conditions of Splendour and Majesty. They became the chief Queens of the
Royal Home of Krishna at Dwaraka. At Dwaraka Sree Krishna’s offspring and
relations multiplied apace. This points to an essential difference that

distinguishes reverential worship rendered to the Majesty of Godhead from that
of loving devotion. The former naturally tends to expand by the process of
division. The latter is indivisible. It is not possible to deal with this matter in
greater detail at this place. But the subject requires to be most carefully treated in
a separate treatise.

A certain demon proclaiming himself to be Vasudeva preached the doctrine of
undifferentiated Monism, at Kashi, the abode of Hara. The Lord of Roma,

Who is Godhead Himself, after slaying that demon, burnt Kashidham, the seat of
that corrupt opinion. The Lord seated on the back of Garuda slew the
demon Bhauma who was filled with the notion that the things of this material
universe are Godhead. This is idolatry. The worship of the Holy Divine Archa is
not to be confounded with the worship of idols. The latter consists of the two
coordinated varieties of pseudo-worship of Nature in its positive and
negative aspects. Godhead rescued the victims of idolatry by destroying the faith
in the undifferentiated Brahman, which is the subtle and more dangerous one of
the two forms of idolatry and by accepting the worship of their quondam
victims. By killing Jarasandha by the agency of Bheema, the. Lord rescued many
a king from the bondage of elevationism (worship of pure worldly utility).

He accepted unrestricted worship at the sacrifice of Yudhisthira and cut off
the head of Shishupala who was a personal enemy of Himself. At the battle of
Kurukshetra, Krishna afforded relief to the Earth groaning under her burden and,
having re-established the pure religion, saved spiritual society.

On His arrival at Dwaraka, the sage Narada was filled with great wonder on
beholding the Lord appearing at one and the same time in the homes of all
His different Consorts. The fact that Godhead is fully present everywhere and
in every soul, is much more wonderful than that He is One and pervades
the whole universe by His Divine Essence. The demon Dantavakra, embodiment
of barbarism, was slain. The Lord bestowed on Arjuna, His brother by the
religion-bond, the hand of His Own sister Subhadra in marriage. The Lord saved
the city of Dwaraka by destroying the efforts of Salwa backed by the knowledge
of the deceptive physical sciences. The beautiful products of material sciences
are nothing in comparison with the Doings of the Lord. King Nriga was
undergoing the punishment of unrighteous conduct in the form of a reptile. He
was delivered from the condition of a reptile by the mercy of the Lord.

Hari ate the raw rice given Him by the Brahmana Sudama, out of love. The Lord
is not so pleased with the offering of even sweatmeats that are made by

the pashandas (unbelievers). The monkey Dibida representing un-Godly
carnival, was killed by Baladeva embodying the essence of the pure soul full of
the love of Krishna. Baladeva performed the Pastime of love in the company
of milkmaids who were the different substantive aspects of the pure soul, in
a great forest in which there was a city made of the cognitive principle of
the pure soul.

These Divine Pastimes are enacted in the hearts of the devotees. They disappear
with the termination of the earthly sojourn of the devotees, just as the
show ceases on the actor leaving the stage. The Will of Krishna, in the form of
Time, having made the Yadavas, pure spiritual states, desist from their
Pastimes, overwhelmed the Divine Abode of Dwaraka by the waves of the ocean
of oblivion. The self-same Will of Krishna, who is the Source of ceaseless
joy, made the devotees give up their bodies, worn out by decay, and by
fomenting mutual discord, at Prabhas, representing the Knowledge of the
Divinity. The aptitude towards Krishna that dwells in the hearts of the devotees
attains to its pristine glory by its conjunction with the pure soul on his severance
from the physical body. It continues its full manifestation in Goloka which is the
highest portion of the realm of Vaikuntha.

These Activities of Sree Krishna never cease in Goloka, which is the innermost
Sphere of the realm of the Absolute and the Abode of the Supreme Lord in
the manifest unobstructed enjoyment of His own pure Nature. They are available
to the conditioned soul in terms of the categories of time, space, and agent,
in proportion to the realisation of his proper spiritual nature. This realisation
may remain confined to the detached relationship of the individual soul to the
Lord or expand into the form of a social function. It is this latter form that made
its appearance in the pure consciousness of Narada and Vyasa in the cycle of
the Dvapara Age. The spiritual consciousness is, therefore, susceptible
of manifesting its appearance in terms of the activities of individuals and also
of those of the community of pure souls. With the growth of the social instinct
the second form of manifestation makes its appearance in due course.

Regarded from the point of view of the associated spiritual consciousness Hari is
realised as fully manifest in Mathura, more fully in Dwaraka, and most fully of
all in Braja. The degree of purity of its blissfulness, is the measure of
the Plenitude of the Divine Manifestation. Judged by this standard, the
joyous activities of Braja form the highest platform of the spiritual realisation of
the individual soul. In this most blissful experience Krishna is ultimately

realisable as the Sweetheart of the spiritual milkmaids, the very highest point in
the process being the Blissful Activities of Krishna as the Beloved Consort of
Sree Radhika.

Those who have been enabled to taste the sweetness of these spiritual
realisations, are fully established in the eternal function of the pure soul. It is not
possible to elaborate the quality of the liquid sweetness of the process by means
of general terms. It is for this reason that the poetic sages have expounded the
Truth of the Activities of Krishna by their detailed concrete descriptions. The
Supreme bliss is obtainable only by the most solicitous service of Krishna. It is
not possible to attain real and abiding satisfaction by the contemplation of
Godhead as the Regulator and Companion of the individual soul, or by the
realisation of the Greatness of the undifferentiated Divinity by the process of
empiric Knowledge, or by worshipping Godhead by the method of the Sacrifice
(yajna) as the Giver of the fruits of utilitarian activities.

3 The Highest Worship Of Sree Krishna

The method of the worship of Krishna at Braja is the highest of all forms of
worship. The worships that are practiced at Mathura and Dwaraka, respectively,
owe their value in augmenting the exquisiteness of the Pastimes of Braja. It is
our purpose, therefore, to consider the worship of Braja in some detail at this
place. The discussion of the worship of Braja should not be withheld from the
cognizance of the conditioned souls, as by means of this alone they can be really
benefited. It is only when the conditioned soul is in the position to realise the
nature of the mode of worship at Braja that he is freed from the fear of death, by
obtaining the life eternal.

The subject of the worship of Braja may be conveniently considered by the
related methods of synthetic or positive and analytic or negative
treatment. Synthetically regarded the worship resolves itself into a system of
relationships divisible in their turn into five distinct grades. These grades are
called respectively the tranquilized state, condition of a servant, that of a friend,
that of parents, and finally that of consorts, in the order of increasing
excellence from the point of view of the detached observer.

In Braja certain denizens always regard themselves as the servants of the Prince
of Braja. Others consider themselves as His fortunate friends. Sridama, Subala,
etc., possess the pure friendly disposition. Yasoda, Rohini, Nanda are actuated by
undiluted parental affection. The consorts, with Sree Radhika, at their head,
regard themselves exclusively as the promoters of Krishna’s amorous love in the
dancing circle. Nowhere else except in Brindabana can there exist these
dispositions of pure exclusive relationships with Krishna. It is for this reason that
pure souls feel an instinctive attraction for the charming Brindabana In
Brindabana the Scriptures agree in declaring the amorous disposition to be the
highest of all. By the principle that Godhead happens to be the sole Enjoyer of
every entity, the individual soul is proved to be eternally ministrant to the
pleasure of Sree Krishna. In Braja, however, there exist no dividing limitations
as between Krishna and the serving individual souls like those that separate the
master from the servant in this world. On the contrary, there always prevails
indivisible supreme bliss in the visible form of these allloving relationships. The
consideration of loving separation also finds a place there for the sole purpose of
augmenting still further the happiness of loving union. This blissful disposition,
which belongs only to Braja, is realised in its gradual development by the careful

preliminary service of relationships that obtain outside Braja in Mathura and
Dwaraka.

The conditioned soul is eligible for service of Godhead only under the strictest
regulations. At a subsequent stage, on the appearance of attachment for Krishna,
the disposition of Braja gradually manifests itself. At this latter stage Krishna is
served internally with loving devotion, but outward regard is displayed towards
the regulative social institutions. This duplicity of disposition and practice is
known as Parakiya (relationship as to a paramour); because the condition of the
devotee resembles that of the wedded wife who may have unfortunately
contracted a passion, which is not to be indulged, for a person other than her
lawful husband. In these circumstances, the really loyal wife is under the painful
necessity, from an innate sense of duty, of showing all outward regard that is due
to her husband and of observing scrupulously the domestic and social
regulations, although she can no longer feel for them any real internal
attachment.

The apparently unintelligible and insincere attachment to society of the highest
class of devotees cannot avoid being misunderstood by those comparatively
advanced pupils who are in a position to appreciate the beneficient nature of the
Scriptural regulations for the promotion of the spiritual well-being of society.

But the highest class of devotees do not modify their method out of deference to
adverse criticisms even of such bona fide objectors. Those novices who are not
well advanced on the spiritual path are still less able to understand the ways of
loving devotion which actuate the best devotees.

There is a regular gradation in the growing manifestation of the pure
spontaneous attachment for Krishna. The growth of such attachment is
capable of being divided into three distinct stages in order of increasing
excellence, viz., (1) the love of conditioned souls adulterated by endeavour to
follow the Scriptural regulations, (2) love for Krishna on the Absolute plane but
wanting in the quality of intimacy, and finally (3) perfect love for Krishna free
from all extraneous dross. The limit of pure love for Krishna in Sree Radhika,
the Counter-Whole of Sree Krishna Himself, is termed mahabhava (the
loving condition major). Different fro. n the specific nature of mahabhava , but
closely approximating the same, there is found the eightfold assemblage of the
bhavas inhering in the pure individual souls. They are the eight Sakhis (the
Cher ami) of Sree Radhika. The bhavas of worshippers adjoining those of the
sakhis, are the manjaris (spray). The worshipper should in the first instance seek

the protection of the manjari whose bhava corresponds to the worshiper’s
own nature. He is, thereafter, to offer his submission to the sakhi who is served
by the manjari. If he obtains the mercy of the sakhi he will be enabled thereby
to attain to the refuge of the feet of Sree Radhika. In the circle of the great Rasa-
dance the worshippers, manjari, sakhi and Srimati Radhika, occupy
positions that are very much analogous to those of the satellite, planet, the sun
and the polar star respectively in the mundane stellar system. In the process
of augmentation of bhava, the promotion of the enjoyment of Krishna
becomes available for jeevas who have attained to the qualitv of mahabhava.

There are eighteen obstacles in the way of this exquisite consummation of bhava
which belongs to Braja. These are apt to pollute pure love and give rise to
offense. It is imperatively necessary to consider the nature of these obstacles by
way of the negative treatment of Braja-bhava, which should supplement
and help to prevent any grave misconception of the positive exposition.

The first obstacle is one’s encounter with the pseudo-Guru. The bad Guru is no
other than the demoness Putana who offers the suck of her poisoned breast
for killing new-born Krishna in the purified cognition of the soul. Worshippers
who have already obtained admission to the path of loving devotion should
ponder on the appearance of Putana in Braja and be thereby enabled to
remove the initial obstacle, viz., the bad spiritual guide. The Guru is either the
inner or outwardly manifested spiritual Guide. The soul in the state of
perfect concentration in the absolute samadhi, is the Guru of the soul. In other
words a person who places himself under the guidance of the reasoning faculty
and learns from it the method of worship, thereby gives the direction of himself
to the pseudo-Guru.

The dallyings of the empiric assertive rational faculty with the eternal religion by
the offer of her support for its furtherance, are comparable to the artifices of
Putana. Worshippers on the path of loving spiritual devotion owe it to
themselves to discard all assertive help of reasoning in the attempt to realise the
nature of the summum bonum, and seek instead the exclusive guidance
of spiritual concentration. The human being from whom one learns about
the substantive nature of worship of Godhead is the outwardly manifested
Guru. The bona fide Guru is the person who after realising the true nature of
the endeavour of loving devotion, instructs the submissive disciple
(sishya) regarding the summum bonum, taking into due consideration the
specific requirement of the latter. One who presumes to instruct others without

himself realising the nature of the course of loving devotion, or who, although
himself cognizant of the nature of the path of devotion, instructs the disciple
regarding the same without due consideration of the aptitude of the latter, is the
pseudoGuru. It is necessary by all means to renounce the guidance of such a
Guru.

The second obstacle on the path of loving devotion, in the order of appearance,
is wrong speculative controversy. In Braja, i.e., on the path of spontaneous love,
it is difficult for the proper spiritual state to appear until the demon Trinavarta,
embodiment of disloyal controversy, has been killed outright. All philosophical
speculation, all skeptical arguments of the pseudo Buddhists and empiric
rationalists, are obstructive of the growth of the disposition of Braja, in the
manner of the demon Trinavarta.

The third obstacle is represented by the laden cart. The injunctions of the
Scriptures are apt to be followed in their literal sense without due regard to their
meaning. This carrying of the lumber of Scriptural learning tends to smother the
infant Krishna and requires to be smashed with His help at the very outset, if the
object of the novice be to realise the state of natural love for Krishna. The
mechanical pedant has no access to Braja. The victims of the pseudo-Guru are
liable to fall into this plight by being prematurely initiated into the process of the
state of a female confidante engaged in service as of the manjari. Such victims
do not realise their misfortune by reason of their mechanical aptitude which is
exploited by, the pseudo-Guru to their utter ruin. Those who follow the advice of
such a Guru in their worship, quickly fall away from the path of devotion. The
amorous mood in such cases can never attain to the depth of the truly spiritual
process. But this is never realisable by the parties themselves.

The fourth obstacle “on the path” is termed juvenile offense. Persons who are
indifferent to the spiritual guide are thereby rendered subject to
the inconsistencies and frailties that beset naughty children. This enemy of
the infant Krishna is known as Batsasura. The novice must beware of the guiles
of this malicious demon and try to get rid of him at an early stage.

The fifth obstacle makes its appearance on the path of the theists (Vaishnavas) in
the form of the demon Baka. He is an exceedingly cunning fellow embodying
the principle of religious hypocrisy. It is this obstacle which is meant by the
offense against the Holy Name. Those who, falling into the clutches of the
pseudo -Guru by neglect of the proper exercise of their judgment, deceive

themselves by consenting to adopt the higher grade of worship to which they are
not entitled, fall under the category of the third class of offenders described
above. But those who, even after becoming aware of their unfitness, persist in
practicing the higher method of worship, hoping thereby to gain honour and
wealth for themselves, commit the offense of religious hypocrisy. Until this
defect is discarded, there can be no appearance of the principle of spontaneous
liking for Krishna. These hypocrites only deceive the world by the display of the
external insignia of sectarianism and pseudorenunciation. Those persons who
choose to show their regard for these arrogant persons in consideration of the
external marks exhibited by them, failing to attain the favour of Krishna, only
prove to be thorns in the sides of the people of this world. But It should also be
borne in mind in this connection that one should be careful not to allow his
caution in regard to the abuse of external signs to betray him into maligning a
person wearing the respective external marks of the theistic communities, whose
conduct may also embody the inner significance of those symbols. It is,
therefore, the constant duty of the Vaishnavas, by being neutral as regards
external marks, to seek for indications of inner love for Godhead and to associate
with and serve the sadhus whom they may be fortunate enough to recognize by
this test.

The sixth obstacle has the forms of cruelty and violence. This is the demon
Aghasura. It is possible for love to suffer gradual decay by the absence
of kindness for all animate beings. This must be so inasmuch as kindness
can never be a different principle from love for Krishna. There is no
substantive difference between love for Krishna and kindness to individual souls.

The seventh obstacle assumes the form of infatuation in the shape of an
apparently zealous study of the Vedas (scholasticism). Excessive and
exclusive attention to the propositions of the diverse polemical schools and
their conclusions and modes of argument, tend to lessen the poignancy and
clearness of the vision of the truths obtained in the exclusive mood. Even
Brahma himself doubted the truth of the real Nature of Krishna by reason of
such infatuation.

The eighth obstacle is offered by the demon Dhenukasura in the form of the ass,
who tries to prevent the palm fruits, which he is himself unable to taste, from
being enjoyed by others. The principles of Vaishnavism require for their due
appreciation the most penetrating judgment. Persons possessed of a blunted
understanding are exposed to this grave plight. The Vaishnava religion is

indivisible. There is no scope in it for sectarian narrowness. It is the bluntheaded
fool who is liable to misconceive the true nature of the Vaishnava community by
supposing it to be a sect distinct from other sects of this world. As a matter of
fact thick-headed persons are themselves unable to understand the teaching of
the spiritual works that have been penned by the former Acharyas of the
community and they are also apt to actively prevent others from having access to
those works. This is specially the case with those devotees possessed of a stunted
judgment who, being mechanically addicted to the regulations have no
inclination to strive for the attainment of the real status. But the Vaishnava
religion holds within itself the prospect of infinite progressive advance. Those
muddy-headed persons, who choose to remain confined within the literal
meaning of the narrow limits of the Scriptural regulations, being thereby led to
neglect the unconventional path of spontaneous love for Godhead, soon become
indistinguishable from persons who are wedded to the cult of fruitive mundane
activities. It is’ therefore’ never possible to make any progress in the Vaishnava
religion till Dhenukasura in the form of the ass has been killed.

The ninth obstacle is offered by the conduct of those weak-minded persons who
take to the unconventional method of service for the purpose of gratifying their
senses which it is not possible to do under the method of regulated service. This
is the conduct of the demon Brishabhasura. These persons will be killed by the
burning quality of Krishna’s personality. The example of such offensive conduct
is by no means rare among those hypocrites who make a parade of their
religiosity.

The tenth obstacle is offered by the cunning serpent Kaliya, representing
implacable brutality and treachery, who is apt to pour his deadly poison into the
melted souls of the Vaishnavas represented by the liquid current of the Yamuna.
The danger threatened by this fatal poison can be got rid of by the Grace of
Krishna.

The eleventh obstacle has the form of intra-communal discord. It is comparable
to the wild forest-fire. The disposition bred by narrow sectarianism rendering its
victim unable to recognize as Vaishnava one who does not assume the external
marks of the theistic community, multiplies the obstacles on the path of
attainment of the bona fide Guru and the actual companionship of the true
devotees. It is, therefore, obligatory on all persons to destroy the forest-fire by all
means.

The twelfth obstacle on the path of loving devotion is offered by the demon
Pralambasura who is prone to commit theft against one’s own self. The danger
is represented specifically by the theory of the Brahman of the Mayavadins who
advocate merging in the Brahman as the summum bonum and declare the self
realised condition to be one. that is absolutely devoid of any distinguishable
feature. The system is characterized by the defect of utter absence of the
principle of bliss either for the individual soul or for the Brahman who is
imagined to be perfectly unconcerned about anything. Persistent reflection on
those lines gives rise to doubt regarding the very existence of the Brahman and
produces conviction in the non-existence of the individual soul and the elaborate
concoction of a new science to account for the glaring discrepancies of the
Acharyas and proving the utter futility of all human thought and activity. This
mode of thinking sometimes finds its way among the Vaishnavas and creates a
good deal of trouble in the form of an advocacy of selfdestruction.

The thirteenth obstacle takes the form of the worship of Indra and other lesser
devatas in the hope of gaining worldly advantages. This prevents the growth of
love for Godhead and requires to be avoided with great care.

The offenses of theft of another’s property and telling of Lies are the fourteenth
obstacle. These are represented by the demon Byowrasura. They stand in the
way of one’s attaining to perfect love for Krishna and give a good deal of trouble
to the novice.

The fifteenth obstacle arises from addiction to intoxicants. In Braja the bliss, that
is experienced by the individual soul on his being freed from the troubles of
mind and body, is termed Nanda. There are found persons who betake to the use
of intoxicants supposing such habit to be promotive of the above form of bliss.
This quickly causes the serious drawback of selfforgetfulness. This predicament
is represented by Nanda’s sojourn to the abode of Varuna. This grave offense
must be avoided by all means. Those persons who have attained the mode of
loving devotion of Braja must, on no account, use any form of intoxicant.

The sixteenth obstacle has the form of a proneness to acquisition of fame and
honour, and desire for sensuous enjoyment, under the plea of devotion. This is
the demon Shanhachuda. Those persons who covet fame as the goal of their
activities, commit thereby the offense of arrogance. It is necessary for
Vaishnavas to be very careful about this matter.

The next obstacle is offered by the growing sense of blissfulness that tends to
increase by the cultivation of the habit of worship till it assumes the form of self
suppression approximating the state of merging with the Object of worship. This
mood for merging with the Divinity is a species of serpent that swallows up
Nanda. The novice should endeavour to be a bona fide servant of Godhead by
carefully avoiding this fatal temptation.

The eighteenth obstacle is the demon Keshi who has the form of the horse. As
the quality of devotion of the novice undergoes swift development, the sense of
one’s own superiority makes its appearance. If the novice gives a free scope to
the speculation regarding his own excellence, it is apt to lead him into the dire
offense of disrespect for the Divinity, causing his fall. It is, therefore, necessary
that such wicked sentiment may never arise in the heart of the Vaishnava. Even
after devotion has been fully developed the quality of sincere humility should
never be absent from the conduct of the Vaishnava. As the contrary of this tends
to happen, it becomes necessary for Krishna to kill the demon Keshi.

Those who are in the intellectual condition are required to free themselves from
those offenses which are to be found in the sphere of Mathura. Those who
have a taste for fruitive activity must be on their guard against the offenses that
are noticeable at Dwaraka. The devotees should dive completely into love for
Sree Krishna by avoiding all those obstacles as they are apt to breed trouble in
Braja.

The eternal Truth has been made manifest to this world by, Sree Vyasadeva in his
narrative of the Pastimes of Braja. But the real nature of the Truth cannot be
realised by means of knowledge born of the senses. The knowledge is
spontaneously experienced by the pure essence of the individual soul in his
exclusive state (samadhi). There are, however, pseudo-exclusive states which
must not be confounded with the spiritual condition proper in which there is no
presence of any mundane element. In this state the Truth becomes self-manifest
by the operation of the spiritual Potency of Divinity. This phenomenal world is
the distorted unwholesome reflection of the transcendental Realm. It is for this
reason that there is a correspondence between the phenomena of this world and
the events of the spiritual plane. The substantive reality, in the forms of the
Name, Form, Quality, Pastimes and the distinctive personality of His
Paraphernalia make their appearance to the soul in his exclusive state (samadhi).

It is necessary to keep all doubting speculations at their proper distance, if the

clear vision is to be maintained in tact. The least intrusion of such disturbing
element blurs and obliterates the spiritual perception. On the gradual subsidence
of mundane predilections, the transcendental Truth makes His Appearance by
corresponding stages, finally attaining His full concrete manifestation in the
Pastimes of Sree Krishna in Sree Brindabana. If the elimination of sensuous
speculation is not attended to with scrupulous care, the progress is towards
abstraction and absence of distinctive features in such realisation.

If it be our good fortune to attain to the sight of Brindabana, which is full of
every object of beauty, we would be in a position, with, the fullest assurance of
the truth of our realisation, to describe, by means of the admittedly imperfect
instrument of mundane vocabulary that we happen to possess for the purpose,
the most wonderful and blissful Form of Sree Krishna in Sree Brindabana. Such
description should not be supposed to be derived from our experience of this
world. It is the outcome of direct perception of the Substantial Reality of Whom
the rational phenomena of this world are the distorted unwholesome shadow. No
realisation of the substance can be reached by the logical manipulation of
confused speculation regarding His shadow whose only function is to mislead to
perfection.

The Beauty of Sree Krishna, described by those who have been fortunate enough
to realise the vision, is narrated below for the information of the reader; but the
meaning of the description cannot be grasped except in the perfect exclusive
state which, is wholly free from any speculative activity born of the mind.

The Figure of Godhead, fulfilling all requirements of the spiritual principle, is
like that of man. His Beauty seems to be represented by the
reflected correspondence of the inexpressibly cooling, soft, yellowish, blue that
is noticeable in the gem known as “Indranilamani” of this world, or is like
unto the impression of the first appearance of the rain-bearing clouds at the close
of the season of protracted draught. A certain combination of the triple
potency representing respectively the principles of existence, consciousness and
bliss, appears to be disposed in an indivisibly oblique manner about the Beauty
of Divinity. His Twin Eyes, focusing all the supremely jubilant brightness of
the realm of perfect living consciousness, set forth the Beauty of His
incomparable Figure. In the material world those Eyes may be found reflected in
the beauty of the fresh-blown lotus. On the Head of Godhead’s Own Divine
Form, there is observed a certain distinctive feature similar to which there is to
be found nothing at all in all our previous experience. All that can be said is that

the tail of the peacock is probably the reflection in this world of this
inexpressible peculiarity. A certain garland of flowers that have the easy
perfection of the soul, sets forth the beauty of the incomparable Neck of Sree
Krishna. The beauty of the natural flowers of the forest seems to be a reflection
of this particular feature. The Waist of Sree Krishna is encompassed by
knowledge that is manifested by the spiritual cognitive principle representing the
energy of the soul. It seems that the flash of lightning, skirting the fringe of a
massive assemblage of fresh, rain-bearing clouds reflects the beauty of the girdle
round the Waist of Sree Krishna. The kaustubha and other precious gems
and ornaments appertaining to the soul disseminate the beauty of the Person of
Sree Krishna. The spiritual agency by whose means the ravishing call, that
has power to draw the soul, manifests itself, is observed in the figure of a flute.
The flutes and other instruments of this world that serve to carry the musical
notes of every variety may be the reflection of the Divine Flute. The
inconceivable Figure of Sree Krishna is observed to be placed under the
Kadamba tree, embodying spiritual horripilation, on the grassy woodlands
sloping to the water’s edge of the Yamuna of the liquid spiritual essence. It is by
means of these spiritual symbols that the beloved Son of Nanda, Sree Krishna,
Lord of the spiritual Realm, makes His Appearance to the view of the
Vaishnavas in their exclusive state (samadhi)

But persons who are unfortunately blinded by empiric knowledge are unable to
find the Form and distinctive concrete aspects of the spiritual existence even
when the realm of the Absolute is actually brought before their eyes in the
exclusive state.

Sree Krishnachandra, in this manner, is realised, in the exclusive state, as
maddening the realm of pure souls by the strains of His Flute and attracting the
minds of the milkmaids (gopees). How may those who are infatuated by
the vanities of high lineage, etc., attain to Krishna? Persons who are free from
all worldly vanities are alone eligible for being attracted by Krishna. Those
who understand the nature of spiritual existence, know that sadhus fall into
two clearly defined groups, viz., (1) those who have attained to the state of
the gopees, and (2) those who follow in the footsteps of such self-realised souls.

The former are called siddhas and the latter sadhakas.

The graduated process of spiritual endeavour of those persons who have realised
the state of gopees, is as follows. In the course of their sojourn in this world, the

music of Krishna’s Flute enters the ear of a few exceptionally fortunate persons.
The sweetness of the music exercising its attraction on such persons makes them
fit for the highest spiritual status. This quickly dissipates their male disposition
which prompts people of this world to seek for their own sensuous enjoyment.

On the complete disappearance of the male disposition there is aroused another
temperament characterized by a spontaneous preference for following the
guidance of those who are possessed of the mellow quality of spiritual
consorthood. In this position the femininity of the soul in the form of capacity
for ministering to the enjoyment of Godhead, manifests itself. The expectation of
consorthood becomes so strong that the soul under its influence develops all the
external symptoms of the state of madness.

The first experience arises in the form of hearing about the specific Figure
(Rupa) of Krishna. This process falls into two parts. The first of these is of the
nature of spontaneous realisation of Krishna’s attraction in the sphere of one’s
ordinary cognitive activity. This event is called the hearing of the music of
Krishna’s Flute. This is followed by the hankering for listening to the narrative
regarding Krishna from those who have had an actual sight. This form of
listening to the Scriptural narratives of Krishna from the lips of sadhus, also
comes under this head.

The realisation of Krishna that is attainable by such hearing and study, forms the
division of spiritual endeavour which is called “listening to the Quality of
Krishna”: The next is seeing the delineation of Krishna as in a picture. This is
effected by the realisation of the Purpose and Supreme Skill of Krishna in the
design of this material world. He who has been enabled to realise that the
material world is the distorted perverted reflection of the realm of the Absolute,
is said to have had a sight of Krishna as in a picture. In other words, the
preliminary stages of the state of devotion to Vishnu, or Vaishnavata, accrues in
the three different ways of spontaneous realisation of its desirability, realisation
of the nature of Divine worship by the study of the Scriptures, and actual
personal experience of the Nature of Godhead from a consideration of the
wonderful organization of the material Universe Unadulterated faith in Krishna
as the source of the loving devotion of Braja is the preliminary stage in the
gradual appearance of the process of spiritual love. The appearance of this form
of unalloyed faith is followed by attainment of close association with the sadhus,
who are denizens of spiritual Braja. Such association is the cause of the
attainment of Krishna. Those persons who have the rare fortune of gaining the
companionship of sadhus in course of their further progress on the path of

spiritual endeavour, which is comparable to the stealthy approach of the
sweetheart to the secret place of meeting with her lover, may perchance realise,
at some rare moment, their auspicious meeting with the Supreme Object of their
love on the water’s edge of the Yamuna, the stream of the liquid essence of the
pure soul.

By meeting with Krishna, the transcendental bliss of Divine communion
(parananda) ensues which at once causes all worldly felicity
previously experienced to appear as infinitesimally trivial in comparison. The
supreme bliss grows apace in the heart, as the days pass, towards the most dearly
loved ever-new Form of the Soul of all souls. The root of spiritual love is
that attachment of the individual soul who is constituted of the principles of
pure cognition and bliss, towards the concentrated Divine Form of All-existence,
Allcognition and All-bliss, which is perfect in itself and natural for the soul.

This attachment (rati) under the favouring impulse of the principle of
mellowness (rasa) undergoes development by taking on the form of rasa.

Rasa is of twelve kinds. The five rasas of santa (equanimity), dasya (service),
sakhya (friendship), batsalya (parental affection) and madhura (consorthood),
are the five primary varieties. These five are of the nature of substantive
relationship. Beera (heroic), karuna (tender), raudra (keen), hasya (laughter),
bhayanaka (terrible), bibhatsa (abnormal) and adbhuta (wonderful), are the
seven secondary rasas. These arise spontaneously from the establishment of
relationship. Prior to the establishment of actual relationship there is no
possibility of external manifestation of attachment. These specific visible
manifestations are all secondary rasas.

Even after attachment (rati) has assumed the form of rasa (liquid mellowness), it
does not attain to its full resplendence except in combination with the four
samagris (ingredients), viz., (a) bibhaba (particular state), (b) anubhaba
(perception), (c) sattvika (natural indication of emotion), and (d) byabhichari
(transitory feeling), (a) Bibhaba is of two kinds, viz., (1) alambana (cause); and
(2) uddipana (aggravating agent). Alambana is again of two kinds, viz., (1)
Krishna, and (2) devotee of Krishna. The good qualities and distinctive natures
of Krishna and His devotees constitute the division of uddipana (i.e., excitant of
attachment or rati), (b) Anubhaba is of three kinds, viz., (1) alankara, (2)
udbhasvara, and (3) vachika.. Alankara, such as hava, bhava, etc., in all twenty
in number, has been classified into the three divisions of (1) angaja (of the

body), (2) ayatna ja (spontaneous), and (3) swabhabaja (of the individual nature
of a person). Sighing, dancing, rolling on the ground and such other activities are
called udbhasvara.. Alapa, bilapa, etc., are the twelve vachika anubhavas.
Stupefaction, sweating, etc., are the eight sattvika bikaras. Nirveda, etc., are the
thirty-three byabhichari bhavas. The rasa and all its ingredients (samagri) have
a constant bearing on the development of rati till it reaches the stage of
mahabhava..

The attachment (rati) for Krislma is sthayibhava (the permanent state) or the
rasa (mellow liquid principle) of bhakti (devotion). In conditioned souls the
principle manifests itself as bhakti or service. In the free state it appears as the
principle of love in the realm of the Absolute (Vaikuntha). Attachment
for Krishna develops up to the stage of mahabhava. The process of development
by the methods of identification with primary and secondary rasas and by the
help of ingredients enriching the variety of its manifestations, constitutes the
eternal treasure of the soul in her state of perfect spiritual freedom. It is this
which is also the object of endeavour of the conditioned souls. If it be urged that
there is no necessity for any attempt to attain that which is eternally inherent in
the soul, the answer is that the resuscitation of the eternal principle in
the conditioned state is the process of the spiritual endeavours of the
conditioned neophyte.

It has been realised in their natural exclusive state by great souls such as Sree
Vyasadeva, etc., and also by our Gurus that attachment (rati) for Krishna is the
most wholesome principle of the realised essence of the jeeva-soul. The nature
of the substantive reality is in a slight measure manifested in its reflected image.
It is for this reason that the principle of attraction between male and female in
this world has proved to be the most charming of all mundane entities. But the
attachment between male and female of this world is utterly insignificant and
condemnable in comparison with the principle of the transcendental reality. This
is indicated by the passage in the narrative of the circular dance in the
Bhagavatam, “He who listens to or recites to others, with due reverence and
faith, these Pastimes of Vishnu with the damsels of Braja, attains to the state of
transcendental devotion for Godhead resulting in the simultaneous and speedy
disappearance from his heart of the malady of mundane lust”. It is, as if, the
mirage of the desert is replaced by the shining water of the magnificent lake
offering the sorely-needed cooling drink to the thirsty traveler led astray by the
deceptive image of the life-giving liquid. I have described the limit of the love
and activity of the eternally self-realised souls towards the eternally realised

Personality of Sree Krishna. The limit of attachment is mahabhava, the limit of
activity is maha-rasa. This is also the limit of vocabulary sprung from the
material principle. That which lies beyond should be seen by means of the
exclusive state (samadhi).

It is the only thing needful to be imbued with serving love for Sree Krishna, of
the perfectly pure kind. It is the nature of genuine serving spiritual love to be
absolutely free from all worldly dross. A person, in whom this pure impulse
manifests itself, is thereby rendered perfectly pure in every detail of his conduct.
Such a person is naturally disinclined to ungodly conduct, all his affinities
having undergone a complete change of objective from the mundane to the
Absolute. But it is necessary to bear in mind that before concluding any conduct
to be blamable, the status of the person displaying such conduct should be
considered. This is the most material point. No conduct is universally good or
bad. If the attempt be made to arrive at a uniform body of rules of conduct which
are to be binding on all, such a procedure is sure to end in futile speculations and
to frustrate all real endeavour for ethical improvement. This is the great
disservice that has been done to man by speculative ethics. It has only served to
blunt the edge of natural goodness of judgment by entangling it in the meshes of
specious theories that are bound to be wholly wide of the mark. It is, therefore,
the first and foremost duty of every individual who is sincerely anxious of not
being deceived by the shadow, to avoid all barren speculative discussions, on
principle.

There is also another pitfall which is avoided by a person who is really inspired
by love for the substantive Truth and the desire for serving Him for the sake of
promoting His pleasure. Such a person never engages in sectarian hairsplitting.
He is found to maintain a discreet attitude towards sectarian disputes and in
respect of external symbols which differ in different communities. These issues,
as a matter of fact, derive all their value from the purpose which they
are instituted to serve. Their external face need, therefore, be neither
undervalued nor overestimated. The conduct of the devotee who is actuated by
natural love for the service of the Absolute, in these matters, should not,
therefore, be misunderstood. Such a person is neither opposed to, nor is he a
supporter of these external features as such.

Those who are servants of Hari know very well that no work is worth doing
which does not please Hari; neither is knowledge, by which attachment to Hari is
not engendered, of any value. Persons who are possessed of this truly rational

insight always engage themselves in activities that are promotive of spiritual
progress and desist from every form of activity which has anything else than
Hari as its objective. This consideration regulates the minutest detail of
the activities of the servants of Hari. They are not deflected from this course by
the breadth of an hair in life or in death, so constant is the loyalty of their
judgment and so utterly incapable of being overclouded by any extraneous
consideration. They are always possessed of unerring judgment, are full of the
natural humility of the pure soul and are constantly engaged in doing good to
all entities that exist.

They know truly that the soul is the only pure essence, that mind is a product of
the principle of inertia and that the gross physical body is a thing of the earth.
They are also well aware that the jiva (the individual soul) is the eternal servant
of Godhead whose spiritual function is of the nature of spontaneous liking for
the service of Krishna; that he is endowed with the aptitude for his natural
function of loving service even while he may be resident in this material world.
Possessing the true knowledge of all this, persons, who are endowed with the
spiritual disposition that is found on the plane of Braja, realising in their souls
absolute freedom from all stultifying influences of this phenomenal world, are
constantly engaged in the service of Krishna, the concentrated Personal
Embodiment of All-existence, All-cognition and Allbliss. This worship is
performed spontaneously in the exclusive state proper by the soul disengaged
from all mundane affinities.

It is when the impulse of love cannot be compassed by the pure spiritual essence
of the soul on account of its triumphant growth that it overflows its natural
bounds into the subtle mental body in which it manifests itself in a mixed form.
This gives rise to the mental worship consisting of the processes of manana
(resolution of service), smarana (recollection), dhyana (meditation), dharana
(retention, assimilation)’ the thought of bhutasuddhi (purification of the material
cases), etc. This mental worship need not be avoided on the ground that it is of a
mixed nature. This is inevitable till the dissolution of the material cases
themselves. But the process that extends to the mind and body from the soul
should be distinguished from the apparently similar process reached by mundane
sensuous speculation by its ascending effort. This latter is idolatry proper and is
categorically different from the mixed spiritual process.

These mental activities, derived from the soul, on undergoing still further
expansion, overflow into the gross physical body. Coming down to the tip of the

tongue it expresses itself as utterance of the chant of the Name, Quality, etc., of
Godhead. Attaining the proximity of the ear it brings about the hearing of the
same. To the eye it imparts the impulse of the vision of the Beauty and Figure of
Godhead. The pure spiritual moods of the soul overflow into the bodily
expressions of horripilation, shedding of tears, shivering, dancing, prostrations
by way of obeisance, rolling on the bare ground, acts of loving embrace, journey
to the holy tirthas connected with the Doings of Godhead, etc. This overflowing
of the spiritual principle into material activity, is inconceivable in its nature and
is the manifestation of the causeless mercy of the Divinity intended to bring
about the turning of the direction of mundane activity Godward. The institution
of honouring of mahaprasadam has been ordained by the Scriptures to bring
about the change of the activity of indulging in the pleasures of the table in the
direction of the service of Godhead. This argument holds also in the case of
other spiritual injunctions. This is the true significance of every ritual.

It is not to be supposed that persons who have realised the true nature of the
spiritual function, neglect the due performance of worldly activities that are
inspired by the mundane purpose. What the perfectly enlightened soul does is
this: she maintains internally the attitude of unconditional
feminine submissiveness towards Sree Krishna, while displaying the face of a
heroic masculinity in her external conduct towards persons and duties of this
world. Externally the pure devotee is found to be the most heroic among
ambitious workers, a male prepared to exercise all the prerogatives of his
superior sex among females, profoundly experienced in dealing with society, a
good teacher of boys, the greatest of those who possess the knowledge of our
material needs, but is withal skilled in turning them to the account of the
summum bonum, the peace-maker in war and the purifier of the hearts of sinners.
All this is found to co-exist with an opposite disposition, which is the outcome
of excessive increase of the impulse of spiritual love, which leads the devotee to
be averse to seeking popularity and to prefer the intimate service of his Beloved
in the seclusion of retirement from this world.

The points that are emphatically brought out by the considerations penned
above, are that it is not possible to serve Sree Krishna except under the direction,
or, what is strictly identical with the same, by association in the service, of pure
devotees who alone are in a position to distinguish the chaff from the grain. As
soon as the least point of real contact with the pure devotees is established by the
causeless grace of the latter, the fortunate recipient of such priceless favour is
thereby endowed with the faculty that can distinguish the essential from the non-

essential. The pure devotee is always accustomed to overlook all external defects
and accept only the inner significance of every occurrence. This, of course, does
not mean that one should continue to commit offenses in the expectation of such
indulgence. The deliberate offender cannot obtain the real mercy of the pure
devotee by reason of such offense. It is obligatory to follow the conduct of the
perfectly blameless servants of Sree Krishna if one is to realise the nature of
their unbounded mercy. If the hand of the observer is placed over his eye it is
bound to prevent his receiving the light of the glorious luminary, who is never
chary of pouring out, unasked and in unstinted profusion and without the least
reservation, his light and warmth towards everything.

Critics who are so unfortunate as to be disposed to stop their ear-holes against
the expostulations of self-realised souls and persist in looking at
the transcendental, perfectly purifying Pastimes of Sree Krishna through
the spectacles of their own malicious sensuous dispositions, are no wiser than
the person who does not spare to criticize the Sun and to blame that luminary
for withholding his light from one who is determined to keep his hand
tightly placed over his eyes. It is necessary to learn how to behave towards the
Truth if one is to make His acquaintance at all. Malicious misrepresentations and
willful misunderstandings cannot enable so-called critics to be enlightened about
the nature of the Truth nor to enlighten others regarding Him. I desire no
other boon than that of being sincerely disposed to make my complete
submission to the pure devotees of Sree Krishna for the sole reward of their
approval. I am confident of attaining to the sight of the Truth by following the
method which precludes all other desires than that of the causeless and exclusive
service of all the servants of the Absolute Truth. May the pure devotees pardon
the innumerable lapses of my aspiring attempt to follow in their holy footsteps
in all humility.

4 Comparative Study Of Religion

Empiric History is a narrative of events occurring in time and is, therefore,
necessarily limited by ascertained chronology. The ascertainment of
the chronological order of events has suggested and supplied the materials for
a science of growth or evolution deduced from the chronological sequence
of actual occurrences. Attempts have been made to apply the method
of chronological evolutionary treatment, in the face of oblivious difficulties, to
the subject of religion by a growing number of learned scholars resulting in
an apparently surprising degree of unanimity as regards the conclusions reached.

It is necessary at the outset of theistic history to attempt a valuation of the
speculations with reference to the worship of Sree Sree Radha-Krishna to
bring them into line with the Absolute Truth. The wide gap that separates
the worship of Sree Sree Radha-Krishna from the conclusions of empiric
religion requires to be explained in a systematic manner in the light of
transcendental history which is not limited by any limited chronology to a
limited world.

Sree Sree Radha-Krishna is the eternally coupled Divine Pair, Sree Radha being
the predominated, and Sree Krishna the predominating aspect,
indissolubly joined together, of the complete, active, Absolute Personality.
Radha-Krishna or the Absolute is thus a composite of two persons of whom One
predominates over the other. Neither of them is a Person of any exclusive or
limited sense. The Personality of the Divinity in either aspect is Absolute and,
therefore, also, All-inclusive. The impersonal view gives a partial and, therefore,
misleading aspect of the Absolute. Hastiness of judgment due to inherent defect
of understanding is responsible for mistaking the impersonal view as
being superior to that of Divine Personality. The Personality of the Absolute
should not also, on the other hand, be gratuitously confounded with the
personality of our defective empiric speculations, in which the truth is obscured
by the predominance of limiting, delusive, material reservations. Radha is not
the female of our perceptual or conceptual experience derived from
the observations of the phenomenal world by means of defective senses.

The Absolute can be neither male nor female of our experience for the
simple reason that such male or female can be but one of a number of
mutually exclusive entities and cannot, therefore, accommodate the rest of them.
It is the intention to avoid this difficulty arising from the defective nature of our

sense-experience that has led the empiric philosophers to hit upon the barren
and logically untenable notion of impersonality to indicate the nature of
the Absolute. This has only landed them in far worse difficulties.

The whole issue hinges on a right understanding of the nature of the Absolute.

If God were really a zero we could be saved the trouble of attempting to describe
His nature. If God is not zero, He should logically be both everything and no
particular thing, at one and the same time. Everything is in Radha-Krishna; but
Radha-Krishna is not identical with anything except Themselves.

In other words Radha-Krishna has a specific individual existence of Their own,
simultaneously with Their external all-pervasive existence. The external
entities in their individual aspect, are not constituent parts of Radha-Krishna as
the Absolute cannot be made up of a number of particulars nor even of
the aggregates of individual entities. As a matter of fact individual entities as
well as their aggregations are manifestations of Sree Krishna in and by the
plenary Divine Power Sree Radhika. The manifestations are neither outside,
nor identical with their Source.

The question how Sree Radhika can accommodate the material universe or other
persons partially similar to Herself occurs naturally enough to the speculative
mind whose activities are confined within the limits of three dimensions But it
would be sheer dogmatism and perfectly illogical to try to squeeze the Absolute
within the narrow mental scope for the reason that the mind is incapable of
conceiving existences of more than three dimensions or of less than one.

There cannot be such a thing as a comparative estimate of different creeds
without postulation of a standard of value. It is, of course, possible to find
out the values of the different creeds in terms of one of them. Let us suppose
that this is done with every one of the creeds by turn with conscientious
impartiality and sound judgment. Will it take us nearer the Absolute? Certainly
not. The Absolute could be approached only by means of the Absolute. If none
of these creeds be of the nature of the Absolute, the permutation and
combination of any number of relative entities can never yield any knowledge of
the Absolute. The method that should be applied is that of assigning local values
to the fractional parts by relating them to the Integer. Those who adopt the
moral principle as the standard by which to judge the local value of a creed, seek
to arrange the creeds in an order of moral superiority. As an instance, we may

take the methods of Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar, Barth and their followers. They try
to evaluate the worship of Sree Sree Radha-Krishna by the moral standard.

They consider the worship of Rama and Sita as superior being more moral than
the worship of Sree Sree Radha-Krishna. Such estimations assume the
absolute validity of the ill-defined moral standard of empiric thinkers. Those
extremely well informed writers could not have been wholly unaware of this
radical philosophical weakness of their standard of value in arriving at any
really dependable conclusion in regard to the relative worth of the different
creeds.

Idolatry is the proper logical denial of the worship of the Absolute. Idolatry is
the result of despair to find out the real truth. When the empiricist finds
it impossible to discover the Absolute by means of his abortive speculations,
but is anxious to provide a working hypothesis for good conduct, he dresses up
his known erroneous idea to do duty as the spurious substitute of
the inconceivable Absolute.

The moral principle cannot be clearly defined by those very persons who do not
scruple to proclaim it as the only safe test for the valuation of religions. Such
a method amounts really to nothing higher than a perverse advocacy of
a particular whim. The conclusions thus reached are also never claimed to
be unchangeable or absolute. The tentative and inconclusive nature of
the performance is held to be part and parcel of the law emanating from
the conscious will of a Person possessing the supreme power and governing
the cosmic evolution. This establishes the validity of the principle by shifting
the responsibility by way of self-contradiction to the shoulders of the
Absolute Himself. The irrational acquiescence of despairing individuals provides
its other sanction. As a matter of fact the method which is the fabrication of a
particular fallible human mind is confidently offered for the convinced tentative
(?) acceptance of all human minds on grounds indicated above. Morality is
nothing but an empiric fiction leading to no definite goal. It makes its votary
move perpetually in a vicious circle impelled by the desire to discover
rational support for the conduct of the average man after performance, on
grounds of expediency. Expediency is not, however, the acceptance of but the
refusal to accept, any definable principle of general conduct.

But the aspirations of the physical body and mind refuse to be satisfied even by
being allowed a free scope which cannot be realised in practice. The
moral philosopher ignores this ugly circumstance and makes a show of

sticking heroically to the worship of his idol which cannot save him from
constant and irremediable transgressions against itself! If this is not appreciated
by the victim, he is charged with the unpardonable crime of pessimism on-the,
ground that it is our moral (?) duty to try to make the best of a bad job. But are
we sure that the job is really bad and that it has not been made so by our
bungling and hypocritical method of approaching it?

The worship of Sree Sree Radha-Krishna is condemned by certain empiric
moralists because it seems to them to idolize promiscuous sexuality. But
is promiscuous sexuality really undesirable? Is it undesirable for the reason that
it is likely to prevent the realisation of the maximum sensual and other
pleasures derivable from regulated sexual act? Who is to be the judge? If the
attainment of the maximum pleasure by the individual be the desirable object,
has promiscuity been really proved to be incompatible with such object?

The ethical repugnance to promiscuity after all amounts to nothing more
serious than this that it is not in conformity with the status quo, and not that it
may not be made the status quo with proper and reasonable safeguards.

The empiric moral idea is no higher than the above. Lest my monopoly of
enjoyment of a particular male or female, whom I choose to like for the
time being, be jeopardized I become an advocate of monogamy (with or
without divorce?) and worshipper of Rama-Sita. If sexuality is bad, how can
even monogamy be good? If promiscuity is bad in itself, how can monogamy
be good in itself? By what test is goodness or badness itself to be determined?

It has never been possible for aspirations of the flesh endowed with a
pseudoconscious form by the mild to satisfy the genuine demands of our reason.

All speculations of the mind are inconclusive and erroneous. The moral notion
is, indeed, only one of those inexplicable entities that demand to be
explained. Those who erroneously think that the worship of Sree Sree Radha-
Krishna is immoral forget that no mental speculation has any access to the
Absolute Who is the Object of worship in this case.

What consolation does a mentalist expect by worshipping Rama-Sita? Is he,
thereby, likely to be encouraged in cultivating his monogamous nuptial relations
with assiduity ? Can such a conclusion be regarded as logically tenable. If God
happens to be monogamous, am I likely to become so, by contemplating His
conduct? Can also the very notion of monogamy or marriage apply to the
Absolute? We may not want to be promiscuous for absence of unlimited sexual

and other powers. It is only a counsel of possible discomfort. Why should we
suppose that God’s power is limited by any adverse condition, The attempt to
judge the Absolute by a limiting standard set up by ourselves for our regulation
is opposed to the notion of the Absolute. The Absolute is located beyond the
scope of our mental activity. The phenomenal world exposed to the view of our
senses is only an abrupt and unintelligible section of the whole Truth. We stand
powerless in the presence of the Infinity of Smallness and the Infinity of
Greatness that spread at either end beyond this limited span of the visible world
and refuse to show themselves to us. This is the tantalizing condition of the
existence of three dimensions into which we find ourselves securely imprisoned.
If any merciful being tries to communicate the tidings of the Absolute to us, he is
bound to fail completely unless he is also capable of imparting to us the
necessary receptive faculty. This is the position of the Agnostics to a certain
extent, as they are conscious of their limitations and are accordingly unprepared
to commit themselves to any opinions, favourable or unfavourable, regarding the
Absolute. It is a more consistent attitude than the self-sufficiency of Barth or
Bhandarkar.

The Skeptics disbelieve the possibility of the Absolute taking the initiative and
communicating Himself to us in a way that is beyond the comprehension of
our present limited faculties. The Skeptics, therefore, want to sit still in
sheer despair. The Atheists, indeed, speak only the language of delirium when
they positively deny the existence of the Absolute. They do not deny the fact
of relative existence or relative knowledge. How can they, therefore,
consistently refuse to admit the logical necessity of absolute existence and
absolute knowledge? Error can have, rationally speaking, no absolute existence
and even its seeming existence can only be a reflection of an absolute
existence erroneously apprehended by, our defective cognitive faculty.

Atheism represents at its very best only the crude cogitations of the
undeveloped intellect regarding the Inconceivable.

As a matter of fact the worship of Sree Sree Radha-Krishna or of Rama-Sita, if
they are regarded as historical entities located on the-mundane plane, is
rightly liable to the charge of anthropomorphism. By the mere assertion that a
form of such anthropomorphic worship is moral, its absolute nature is only
still further ignored. Those who choose unnecessarily to get engrossed in
the manipulation of relative speculation regarding the Absolute and declare it
as the only method of approach to the Absolute, owe a cautious hearing to
any one who does not muddle the real nature of the issue.

Almost the first thing that requires to be settled clearly and at the outset of any
so-called historical inquiry regarding religion, is whether the object of our quest
is, indeed, the Absolute. Those who are not prepared to admit that religion
should be identical with the quest of the Absolute, have an undoubted right of
criticizing the conclusions of those who accept the religion of the Absolute. This
is what the empiric thinkers have been indefatigable in doing all along. But is it
irrelevant to opine that empiric criticism is bound to be altogether wide of the
mark in such a case for the reason that the attempt to judge of the Absolute, or of
what is even claimed as the Absolute, is, by the fact of this very reservation,
removed wholly outside its self-admitted jurisdiction ?

The Absolutists rest their case on the fact that the Absolute can and does
communicate Himself by imparting to us the capacity of receiving Him. They go
further and assert that we are already eternally endowed by the Absolute with
such faculty, but are free to wilfully neglect to make the proper use of the same.
That the Absolute is, nevertheless, trying continuously to persuade us to be
willing to know Him by making the proper use of those faculties. These are the
fundamentals of every religion.

The Absolute is always speaking to us regarding Himself and we are always
deliberately shutting our ears to His Voice. The Absolute has been
eternally appearing to us in the Form of the Spiritual Scriptures as the testament
of His utterances. He is also sending down His agents in the human form to
speak to us with the human voice to make the same perceptible even to, our
sealed ears. All this is super-rational. The agents of the Absolute appear among
us in order to make the meaning of the spiritual Scriptures perceptible to our
dormant understanding. The Scriptures require to be interpreted to us by those
who know.

Those who are not prepared on principle to listen to the voice of the Absolute,
need not decide that it is not the voice of the Absolute, before giving it
their impartial and full hearing. Of course there is every risk of wasting our time
on scoundrels personating as agents of the Absolute bv dint of their
sheer impudence. It should not, however, take much time or trouble for an
honest enquirer to find these out. It is always possible to find the right teacher of
the Absolute, provided one really wants to find him. The agent of the
Absolute must also be eternally existent in the available form to all who want to
find him at all.

Very few of us really want to find the teacher of the Absolute even if we know
that it is easy to find him. Most of us have no interest for the Absolute. This
is partly due to our traditional wrong conception regarding the nature of
the Absolute. It is our purpose in this chapter to try to invite the attention of
the reader to certain widely prevalent misconceptions regarding the nature of
the Absolute, by an examination of the extent of their deviation from the
absolute standard.

The creeds that prevail n the world are divided naturally into two exclusive
groups according as they happen to follow the method of empiric search of the
Absolute or that of revelation. The empiric creeds may be broadly grouped into
four divisions, viz., (1) Theism, (2) Agnosticism and Skepticism, (3) Pantheism,
and (4) Undifferentiated Monism. The revealed religions show the following
order of evolution, viz., (1) worship of Godhead realised as a male Person
(Vasudeva), (2) as Couple (Lakshmi-Narayana, Rama-Sita), (3) as served by
many married consorts (Dwarakesha Krishna), and (4) as served spontaneously
by many consorts who follow no conventional matrimonial regulation in the
coupled form of Sree Sree Radha-Krishna.

The instinct of the service of the Absolute is innate in human nature. It is,
however, ordinarily overlaid with the negative dominating impulse of
selfgratification. According as the one or the other impulse proves stronger, a
man makes his choice as between the two broad divisions of religion. A person
who has full confidence in his own powers in attaining the Truth, follows
the empiric method. One who is convinced of the utter inadequacy of the
human intellect to find the Truth, is inclined to follow the method of revelation.

The empiricist worships (?) the mixed product resulting from his actual sensuous
experience. The word experience, as used in connection with empiricism, should
be understood as referring exclusively to knowledge of the external world
derived through the process of sense-perception. Sense-perception is the material
or limiting condition of all mental process. The mind is the meeting-ground of
the principle of animation with the inanimate material principle supplied by the
senses. Mental activities. The reaction of the animate principle on the inanimate.
It is a composite of two apparent incompatibles. No mental activity is possible
unless both principles are present. The principle of animation is mixed up with
or overlaid by that of inanimation, in the mental function.

It follows that empiric worship is bound to be either acceptance or rejection of

the material principle, in one or more of its aspects. In this case the mind is
the accepting or rejecting agent. The mind cannot function except by way
of acceptance or rejection of materials supplied by the senses. But the
mind cannot cease to function. It must either accept or reject and must also
continue to do so alternately. It cannot accept or reject for good. That would
tantamount to its own destruction.

Atheism represents the temporary rejecting function of alternatives by the mind.
The mind refuses to accept as true or desirable, because the two are really
identical in this case, any stationary condition, for the reason that it is afraid that
it would be suicidal. Atheism wants to live on the state of ever-changing activity.
It is the proper negation of the Absolute conceived as Inaction. It is justified in
disbelieving the Absolute by the evidence of its actual sense-experience. But it
should by parity of reason be equally prepared to extend the bounds of its
experience by any and every method. This, however, it is not always prepared to
do. For instance, it refuses to accept the method of submission to the Truth for
His realisation as enjoined by the revealed Scriptures. Atheism is thus proved to
be an exclusive partisan of the method of empiric self-sufficiency in spite of its
profession of. freedom from all bias to creed and dogma. Its sterility is due to
this hypocritical reservation. Its exclusive attachment to self gratification is the
cause of its disinclination to seek for the Truth and its consequent failure to find
Him.

Agnosticism and Skepticism deny the existence of possibility of the Knowledge
of the Absolute. Both do so on the strength of their limited experience
and without due consideration of the method proposed by the Scriptures. Both
have an attitude of disbelief towards the method of revelation by their
overconfidence in their own conclusions. This is really self-contradictory as
neither professes to be able to know the Truth. The Skeptic is the greater sinner
of the two, because he is not even prepared to admit the very existence of
the Absolute. Both really depend on the method of narrow dogmatism in their
own cases although appearing to condemn the attitude in the case of others.

The explanation of this irrational attitude is to be sought, as in the case of
atheists, in undue attachment to the prospects of this transitory world which is
father to the thought that it would be heroic not to seek to fly from the state
of ignorance and misery which is supposed by them to be unavoidable.

The argument that is used by the theists is that ignorance and misery is due to
the self-elected folly of the votaries of worldly vanities whose position
is psychologically unsound and is also opposed to the moral principle. It is

the Nihilistic attitude that becomes the worst of nuisances if it be allowed to
pass itself off as a constructive ideal.

The pantheistic attitude is the most treacherous of all as it wears the mask of
theism although in principle it is identical with atheism. The pantheists
profess to see God in phenomenal Nature. This is the concrete denial of the
Absolute. The theists do not counsel the worship of the limited and transitory.
The pantheists affect to find no difference between this world and the
spiritual realm. The pantheistic school appears in a variety of forms in this
world. The most common group being that which bears the name of Smartas in
India. The Smartas hold that the object of all worship enjoined by the Scriptures,
is the improvement of our worldly felicity, present and prospective. The view
finds its psychological support in the current literatures of the world which are
busy in vindicating the ways of the world. What the atheist is really afraid of, is
that he might be called upon to modify his worldly activities out of deference to
any transcendental consideration which in his opinion cannot possess any
present worldly value and may merely and falsely deprive him of a present
felicity. This is met by the pantheist with the assurance that the transcendental
would be of no use if it did not serve the plans of the worldling better than
otherwise. The pantheist, however, cannot really adduce sufficient rational
grounds for his contention except the testimony of experience of following the
performance, in blind faith, of the ceremonials laid down in the Shastras. The
pantheists are, therefore, more grossly worldly minded than even the professed
atheists. They are often confounded with the genuine theists with whom they
have nothing in common except their externals to a certain extent. The
pantheists, themselves, however, oppose the bona fide theists tooth and nail in
the matter of the proper interpretation of the Scriptures. It may be well to
mention in this connection that the Scriptures do contain a large body of
injunctions the performers of which are promised the reward of increased
worldly felicity. There are also text books that are specially devoted to the
vindication and glorification of the worldly point of view. The reason of this,
according to theistic interpreters, is that the Scriptures want to produce faith in
the transcendental even in those who value nothing but worldliness. These
worldlings are, therefore, promised what they want wrongly, on condition that
they should submit to certain regulations. These regulations have been so framed
as to serve the purpose of moderating their passion for present worldly
enjoyment by promoting the attitude of reflection towards the past and future.

Karma or worldly activity is the starting point of all pantheistic thought. It has

been analyzed in all its bearings in special treatises of the Scriptures.

Those treatises do not purposely go beyond the limit of the phenomenal world
in those discourses, which are intended exclusively for the edification of
those who are incapable of believing in anything higher than worldly activity.

But any impartial examination of the subject is bound to lead to a clearer
apprehension of the defects as well as the merits of the view that worldly activity
can supply all our needs.

It is not my intention to suggest that whatever is contained in the section ,of the
Scriptures dealing with rituals is necessarily true even from the worldly point of
view. The Smartas, indeed, hold that the rituals if properly performed, are really
efficacious. This may or may not be so. The Shastras contain numerous
statements to the effect that the promise of worldly reward, is meant to induce
persons with a childish judgment to be moderate in the matter of their sensuous
enjoyment. This may mean that the spiritual object is alone true while every
other prospect is fleeting and illusory. But the fleeting and illusory result itself is
valued by worldlings above every other thing. Whether the proper performance
of the rituals also actually yields the worldly results promised by the Scriptures,
is not relevant for our present purpose and the matter may, therefore, be left open
for those who want to speculate about it. This last is what the Smartas and their
school have been indefatigable in doing all over the world. These empiricists
have also produced a Science of Theology which is wide of the mark for the
spiritual purpose, although it may be more intelligible to and at the same time be
fully exposed to the attacks, of other sections of empiric thinkers.

The pantheists are worshippers of mundane objects possessing definite material
form and quantity. For this reason they are condemned as idolaters by those who
prefer more refined and intellectual forms of worship. It is,
however, philosophically impossible to draw any, line between one form of
empiric worship and another. All empiric schools ultimately depend on one’s
individual judgment for the ascertainment of Truth. It has been shown above that
the stuff of all such judgment is sense-perception which is thus the common
object of worship in a gross or refined form of all empiric worshippers.

The pantheists are led by their particular predilection to appreciate the objects
and relationships of this phenomenal world for their own sake in the light
of their empiric judgment. They are not prepared to admit the possibility of
the uselessness of such a quest not directed to a higher purpose. In other
words, they confound matter with the soul on principle. This is inevitable

inasmuch as and so long as they are not repelled from their conclusions by the
actual experience of the essential triviality of all worldly pursuits for their own
sake. This is a disposition which only experience can teach. The pantheists are
those who are in the heyday of their career of worldliness with an increasing
belief in its worth and prospects. The Scriptures lead these people gently by the
hand by seeming to agree with their conclusions and trying to modify their cause
by pleading the advantages of moderation even in the case of worldly activity
for its own sake. This is naturally and honestly construed by those who
are genuine believers in Pantheism as a confirmation of their view by
the Scriptures. But once the value of spiritual support begins to be really
cherished even those sections of the Scriptures that are apparently devoted to
the elucidation of the pantheistic position, offer sufficient material for our
serious consideration leading to increasing modification of the pantheistic view¬
point based thereon. The raw teachers of pantheism do incalculable harm by
their narrow sectarian advocacy of the principle of worldly felicity on the
authority of the Scriptures.

The unspiritual pantheistic view falls pat with the theory of Darwinian evolution
and has accordingly captured the hearts of those modern scholars who are still
under the spell of that theory. They are not, of course, prepared to admit their
partiality for materialism, thanks to the way of escape that has been cleverly
provided for them by the subtleties of the idealists who require careful attention
from all students of the Absolute. The pantheism of Sree Sankaracharya is the
typical case. He is the intellectual protagonist of the pantheistic view, basing his
conclusions on apparently rational interpretation of the Scriptures. The view,
which has really been in existence from a period long anterior to the time of
Sankara, in its present current form professes to follow mainly the exposition of
Sankara. But Sankara himself is not capable of being properly understood by a
materialist. The big literature of commentaries that has been brought into being
by the pseudo-followers of Sankara presents not Sankara’s view but that of the
commentators themselves.

Sankara seems to justify the worship of Nature in order to be able to get beyond
Nature to Nature’s God Who, he declares, is unintelligible to the limited
reason except as the incomprehensible reality identical with the cognitive
principle. This analysis contains an encouragement to idolaters (pantheists) with
a view to wean them ultimately from the worship of any form of mental
concoction.

The real difficulty that is experienced in accepting fully the philosophy of Sree
Sankaracharya is that it is not possible to agree with his proposal in favour of the
worship of Nature without discarding the purely spiritual point of view which
the theory ultimately professes to seek to establish. By material means it is never
possible to attain to the spiritual vision. Sankara does not also say so.

He was forced to recognize the forms of pantheistic worship in order to get a
hearing at all from idolaters. In this sense only his seeming advocacy of
the cause of pantheism can be regarded as consistent with the spiritual
standpoint.

But Sankara has been exploited for a quite different purpose by the school of
undifferentiated cognitive Monism. They want to make the ultimate
Reality devoid of all activity. They also want to make it a Unity that is
unintelligible and inexpressible. To this conclusion they try to arrive by
following mainly the dialectic method of Sankara and secondarily by idealistic
interpretation of the Scriptures. This is really empiricism pure and simple, the
reference to the Scriptures being merely to fortify the conclusions of mental
speculation. The objections to mental speculation as the method of quest of the
Absolute, therefore, apply fully to this school. It is in fact in order to escape from
this unanswerable charge that the believers in the undifferentiated Brahman
are constrained to make their inconsistent appeal to the Scriptures.

Looked at from the point of view of material thought the activity or existence of
the spiritual principle is only capable of being negatively suspected by it.

There can be no actual touch between material thought and the transcendental

Absolute. This is admitted by Sankara who looks at the Absolute from His plane.
But the words of Sankara are not comprehensible to those who do not possess
the transcendental altitude of his vision. The seemingly negative conclusion of
Sankara is accepted without its all-important reservations by the egoistic
disposition of empiric thinkers who can follow Sankara only to a certain distance
in the negative way. This is not their fault. It is inevitable. The spiritual issue can
never be approached by mental speculation. It is the purpose of Sree
Sankaracharya to demonstrate this to all open-minded persons by argument that
is also intelligible to mentalists. But those who do not possess the requisite
openness of judgment necessarily misunderstand the purpose of the great
Acharya.

The above four groups with their variants into which the empiric creeds are
divided have been eternally occupied in propagating views that are calculated
to lead us away from the quest of the Absolute. Unless one is prepared to cease
to be guided by the accumulated load of misconceptions that have
been sedulously impressed upon him by every empiric institution of this world it
is not possible to be able to be disposed to catch the real meaning of the
genuine teacher of the Absolute. That which I am going to relate next is,
therefore, categorically different from the subject-matter treated by the empiric
creeds.

The Absolute is claimed to be the Reality proper that is eternally located beyond
the scope of all experience of the limited and transitory available through the
physical senses. The very first question that has to be answered before actually
beginning a narration of the Absolute, is whether it will be possible for ordinary
people of this world to catch the true meaning of such a narrative. The answer is
given by the Scriptures. They say that the ordinary human being, provided he at
all believes in the Absolute and is prepared to give Him his unconditional
hearing, can by listening to the exposition of the activities of the Absolute
recorded in the Scripture from the lips of self-realised souls attain to the
knowledge of the Absolute, by the grace of the latter. This method is different
from that of empiric quest and leads to a definite and thoroughly dependable
result.

The personal factor which is capable of being done away with in empiric
epistemology, is the central and abiding feature of the method of the quest of the
Absolute enjoined by the Scriptures. The Guru is the pivot of the whole process.
The Scriptures regard the quest of the Absolute as identical with the quest of the
spiritual preceptor. As soon as the spiritual preceptor is found the negative quest
gives place to the positive knowledge.

Therefore the question is resolved into the quest of the spiritual teacher. He is to
be sought also by the spiritual method. There must be no empiric reservation in
the quest which must be an exclusive search for the Absolute. This is
the definition of shraddha ( faith). The necessity for it is not properly realised
by everybody. Those who do not experience the necessity will not find
the spiritual preceptor. Those who really feel it, will also find him. Till the
spiritual preceptor is found it is idle to waste one’s time on the study of the
Scriptures. It is not possible to understand the narrative of the Absolute without
the help of personal exposition by the preceptor. The preceptor and the disciple

have to be brought into personal contact with one another if the latter is to
benefit by the teaching. The personal relationship is that of absolute submission
to the teacher on the part of the disciple. This must be so because the
Predominating Absolute cannot be approached except by the method of absolute
submission on the part of the predominated atomic particles. This absolute
submission must not be fictitious. It must also be personal.

The following narratives of the Absolute are found in the Scriptures. Their real
meaning cannot be realised except by following the Scriptural method
stated above. This discourse should be regarded as helpful in arousing faith in
the Absolute by its rationalistic presentation of some of the grounds of such
faith. It has a negative and symbolic value. It loosens the hold of empiric
prejudices and thereby enables the Truth to be mirrored in our hearts opened to
receive Him. After the soul has got tired of the death-like monotony of mental
speculations regarding the Truth and has also had sufficient experience of the
delusive nature of both empiric knowledge and its promised prospects, he is
inclined by a sense of sheer helplessness and misery to turn to the method of
absolute submission to the spiritual preceptor, and the Scriptures for relief.

This negative attitude is turned into one of positive and earnest inquiry
by accidental association with sadhus. It is for the reason of finding the sadhu
that

a person who is utterly disgusted with worldly living and the method of mental
speculation, renounces the world and sets out on pilgrimage to holy places in
search of self-realised souls who are supposed to reside at such places. It is
rarely, indeed, that the true devotee of God reveals himself to the fortunate
seeker. The sadhu is himself a transcendental being. To really know the sadhu is
to be endowed with the spiritual vision. It is only by the Grace of God that the
transcendental nature of His devotee can be realised.

It is only after the sadhu has been found that spiritual pupilage can really begin
by the process of unconditional submission to his guidance. Then the
disciple has to pass through the period of novitiate. If he does this with a
guileless heart he is rewarded with the sight of God Himself and with His
transcendental and eternal service. This last is the summum bonum. There is,
however, gradation in the transcendental service of Godhead. It is not possible
for the soul liable to conditioned existence to have the full knowledge of the
Absolute. The jiva-soul is delicately poised on the border-line that separates the
limited from the spiritual. He has the potentiality of affinity for either. His

affinity for the limited is due to freedom of initiative inherent in all animation
conjoined to absence of perfect vision by reason of his tiny magnitude. Such
affinity is, however, really opposed to his proper nature which is essentially
spiritual. The affinity of the soul for the spiritual can, therefore, be maintained
only by the help of souls who are not liable to affinity for the limited. These
eternally free souls are the inseparable associated counterparts of the Supreme
Soul or Godhead Himself. The sadhus have no mundane affinity. By the help of
sadhus the conditioned soul is enabled to attain to the plane of the Absolute.

But the novice has to pass through definite grades of progressive revelation.

The full view of the Divinity is the last to be attained. The service of Divinity
attains its perfection only on attainment of the complete vision.

The first Appearance of Godhead to the view of the spiritual novice is as
Vasudeva or the Transcendental supreme single Male Person. This dissipates his
empiric error that the Truth is an abstract principle. The appearance of Vasudeva
also frees the novice from the error that mistakes the Personality of the Absolute
as having any mundane quality or reference.

Vasudeva is self-revealed in the unobstructive cognitive essence of the pure soul.
He is the positive Reality as distinguished from the abstraction of the mental
speculationists from the fleeting impressions of deluding entities limited by
material space and broken up by the operation of passing time. Vasudeva
is located above and beyond this unwholesome mundane plane. The realisation
of His Transcendental Personality is possible only to the spiritual
cognitive principle, which is the essence of the soul, as distinguished from
material or limiting principle. Vasudeva is the One Person without a second. He
is a Person with a Transcendental figure resembling the actual form of a male
human being but, inconceivably to us, free from all limited or unwholesome
characteristics of the human form that is familiar to us. Vasudeva appears as the
Sole Recipient of our service. He is realised as comprehending all existence
including that of His servitors. He is Male but free from all mundane
associations of sex. These opposite qualities are spontaneously reconciled in His
Transcendental Personality.

This is the first positive spiritual experience of the progressing novice. The
worshipper of Vasudeva is, therefore, a truly spiritual devotee. He
is categorically different from the atheist, agnostic, skeptic, elevationist

or Salvationist who are all of them strictly confined to the mundane plane.

The worship of Vasudeva is performed by the spiritual essence of the pure soul
on the transcendental plane. Vasudeva can be worshipped only by the process
that is absolutely free from all mundane reference. Therefore, the worship
of Vasudeva is also a gift of Vasudeva Himself. Vasudeva is identical in
essence with His worship and with His worshipper. All of them belong to the
same plane of the soul which is located beyond the scope of our limited
mental faculties. Vasudeva manifests Himself to the pure essence of the jiva-soul
as soon as the latter is at all disposed to serve Him in the proper way. It is
rarely that a conditioned soul can attain to the spiritual service of Vasudeva.

The conditioned soul is ordinarily prepared to be content with negative
speculation. Very few persons of this world realise the necessity of search for the
Supreme Personality Who is revealed to us by all the Scriptures.

Everything concerning Vasudeva is purely spiritual. His name, servitors,
paraphernalia, abode, form, activities are an inseparable part and parcel
of Himself. No amount of description can enable the reader to realise the nature
of Vasudeva so long as one is not freed from the fetters of his limited faculties
of apprehension. Vasudeva can be realised only by the grace of His devotee if
we are really prepared to follow his instructions in every act of our life.

The devotee of Vasudeva can alone properly instruct us regarding the nature of
the receptive attitude that is the natural position of the pure soul in regard to
the Absolute and which can be restored to the conditioned soul only by the grace
of Vasudeva if its attainment is sincerely desired by him, by the grace of
His devotee.

The sight of Vasudeva disposes of all the doubts and difficulties of atheists and
agnostics and skeptics, as a matter of course. The sight of Vasudeva
also destroys the idols of the pantheists and the nihilism of the pseudo-monists.
The Truth is actually found to have the figure of a human being. This is not in
any way derogatory to the Truth. Man is located in the middle position.

There extend on either side of him, above and below, two infinite gradations
of superior and inferior beings. Godhead would, therefore, be conceived by
our limited understanding as occupying the highest position in the series.

But would this assumption be also logical ? The prevailing notion in favour
of making Godhead something altogether unlike man is no less fanatical than
the opposite notion cherished by the anthropomorphists of making Him
identical with man. It is not impossible to steer clear of this double fanaticism.
The Scriptures declare that Godhead possesses a Form that is identical with

Himself and that the Divine Form is ultimately like that of man. Godhead has
an infinity of Forms but His Human Form is His Fullest, Highest and His
Own Specific Personality.

So Vasudeva is not to be confounded with any object of Physical Nature nor with
any product of mental speculation. He is located beyond Physical Nature and
beyond the mental scope. Yet Vasudeva has the Form of a human being. He has
an infinity of Forms who are secondary extensions of this original Divine Form.
The Scriptures fully support the Biblical dictum that man is made after God’s
own image. It is needless to labour the point further at this place.

The sight of Vasudeva, therefore, shatters all idols and substitutes of Divine
Personality by revealing the real Object of all worship. This is the beginning
of positive theism. Vasudeva, by His Human Form, pervades the whole
world. Hence He is Vishnu. But Vasudeva pervades the mundane world without
being of it. As pervading Physical Nature Vasudeva bears the name of Vishnu.
Those fortunate souls who realise this fact are called Vaishnavas or worshippers
of Vishnu. No one who is not a Vaishnava can be a theist. The Vaishnava is
endowed with the experience of the transcendental plane and is thus in a position
to understand how Godhead pervades all Physical Nature without possessing any
mundane organs or forms. The enlightenment is imparted by Vasudeva Himself.

The soul of man can know Vasudeva by His grace. The corresponding attitude in
the recipient of His Grace is that of the unconditionally submitting disposition. If
a person is not prepared to submit unreservedly for being enlightened by grace
he cannot attain to the sight of Vasudeva and is doomed by his own vain choice
to grope endlessly in the dark, unwholesome labyrinths of Physical Nature. By
such unspiritual activity the soul may attain all conceivable conditions on the
higher and lower mundane planes, but he can never attain to the vision of
Vasudeva. Vasudeva has strictly reserved the right of not being exposed to the
view of the conditioned soul who is not prepared to render Him willing and
unconditional service. Vasudeva manifests Himself to the unclouded cognition of
the soul in his perfect state of causeless, spontaneous, submissive devotion to
Himself. So the two processes are simultaneous without being in any way related
to one another as cause and effect. This is inconceivable to the limited
experience of men but need not be logically considered as impossible in the
Divinity. It ensures the reconciliation of perfect freedom of initiative on the part
of the individual soul with the necessity of unconditional dependence on the
Divinity for all real well-being. The empiricist’s contention that as all language is

a product of the limiting energy in the form of mundane Nature the very terms
used to denote a spiritual entity only prove the inevitable mundane origin of an
idea, does not apply to the case of the revealed vocabulary. It is not the
contention of the transcendentalist that the Reality is more than one. What the
transcendentalist declares is that there is possibility of suppressed, blurred and
misguided vision of the Reality. The Energy that causes this distortion
necessarily creates the mundane world of the distorted vision as the complement
of such vision. The whole affair is not also unrelated to the Reality. It is the
deluding face of the Reality Who is undoubtedly One. There is thus a running
correspondence between the mundane and the transcendental as far as there is no
actual suppression of the latter. The vocabulary of this world is, therefore,
applicable also to the transcendental realm but only in the transcendental sense.

The real difficulty is that the transcendental sense cannot be possessed by any
one who is not favoured by the Grace of God. The actual number of
such persons in the state of grace is very small in this world. The voice of
this infinitesimal minority is liable to be ignored by those whose object is
to proclaim views arrived at by their limited experiences. Once the necessity of
the transcendental vision is properly aroused in any person he is not likely, to
urge these empiric objections against the transcendental position.

The name ‘Vasudeva’ is identical with the Divinity. But this is true in the
transcendental sense only. In the transcendental sense, however, it is really true.
Nay more, Vasudeva is the only real Truth. He is the Absolute Truth Himself.

The empiric limited, relative apprehension of the name Vasudeva is not Absolute
Truth. It is the product of the distorted view of the Truth Who can be but
Absolute. In this distorted sense the empiric realisation is not untrue. But it is not
given to those who are themselves under the delusion to realise this actual state
of affairs. The person who possesses the absolute vision can alone understand
the real position of the empiricists. He does not ignore the empiric view nor
denies its existence. He only says that it is real, but distorted, view of the Truth
Who is one and the same in Himself .

It is of course not possible to push the empiricists up to the transcendental level
by the force of controversy alone. Because all appeal to the empiricists on
behalf of the Absolute is ultimately based on the realisation of the Absolute as
the only Reality. So long as a person does not possess the actual experience of
the Absolute he can but look through the false glasses that are alone available
to him. The empiricist can have no real Sight of the Absolute as He is, till he

is favoured by the Grace of God. At the most he can only admit the necessity
of Divine Grace for obtaining the view of the Absolute, Real or Substantive
Truth. It is only then that he can really understand the tme meaning of
the proposition regarding the Absolute, viz., that the Name Vasudeva is
identical with Godhead Himself.

Therefore, those who may be disposed to accept in principle the worship of
Vasudeva but are opposed to the phraseology and ritual that are
actually employed in His worship, still continue to flounder in the empiric bog.
Such blind assent will do them no real good. Their assent is assent in the
empiric sense which is no assent to the Absolute. But there is also such a thing
as real assent to the Absolute. This assent is the attitude of the awakened soul.
This assent is identical with the whole process of worship of Vasudeva,
including its ritual and vocabulary.

The objection to detail under the cover of a general assent to principle, is a
dangerous ruse that is often resorted to by self deluded mentalists for
avoiding, the clear confession of the Truth. The attitude is really at the far end
the product of that radical insincerity of disposition which feels an
abnormal perverse joy in opposing the Truth at all costs. The objection against
the vocabulary and ritual should be perfectly untenable if it is made to rest, as
it really is, on such thin casuistry. There does exist the legitimate
objection against lifeless ritual and pseudo-exhibitions of irrational orthodox.
But even condemnation of the hypocrite however justifiable in itself is liable
to degenerate into the most subtle and dangerous form of insincerity if it does
not proclaim a stronger inclination to the Truth Himself .

As a matter of fact the Tmth is one and indivisible. But He is not therefore,
really zero. When we think of Him we require to be on our guard
against worldliness on the one hand and hypocrisy on the other. The one leads
to worship of Physical Nature or Pantheism in all its forms and the other
to Nihilism which is only the negation of Pantheism and can exist at all only in
a relation of contradiction to it. Both Pantheism and Non-ism are accustomed
to profess its identity with Monotheism. The followers of both creeds
are worldlings of opposite schools who have no intention of acting up to
their professions. Neither is it practicable for them to do otherwise. It is possible
for them to be relieved of these anomalous conditions only by the actual
realisation of self-consistency by the attainment of the real knowledge of the
Truth which none of them possesses. The empiric ignorance of Truth is not one

of degree. It is one of category. The empiricists can form no idea of the nature of
the Truth as He really is. For such a person to set up as a critic of the Truth, is
sheer folly and malice. To try to mask one’s foolishness and malice under the
garb of a kind of a hollow ethical prejudice, makes it doubly worse. The empiric
critics of the worship of Vasudeva formulated in the Scriptures, should not
ruthlessly sin against these universal canons of sound constructive criticism.

It is for this very reason that the study of the Scriptures is forbidden to those who
do not possess the necessary preliminary knowledge that should
effectively prevent the assumption of an attitude of profanity. There is nothing to
be gained by any form of real opposition to the Truth. Even the empiricists
should be able to see this although in their distorted manner.

The different creeds and Scriptures as interpreted by the empiric judgment, tend
to the elaboration of a hybrid theology that is neither here nor there. Empiric
theology is a sheer contradiction in terms. The Absolute
comprehends everything but is Himself ever incomprehensible. The empiric
judgment is not honestly prepared to admit that the Absolute is the only
Substantive Existence. The moment that we admit this we realise the necessity
of waiting on the pleasure of the Absolute in all our activities. Vasudeva is
pleased to reveal Himself to this purified submissive state of the soul. The pure
soul fully recognizes the causeless Grace of Vasudeva as the sole sufficing cause
of the realisation of the Incomprehensible by our present otherwise limited
faculties. The pure soul deduces all his conclusions regarding proprietv of his
conduct from this fundamental admission.

Once this position is really taken up by the soul he ceases to quarrel with the
Scriptures even when he does not understand. He now knows that it is
not possible nor necessary to understand the Truth in the empiric sense of
the term. There is such a thing as real understanding which can be only a gift
from the living Truth and identical with Him. The appearance of the Truth on
His own initiative is both the cause and result of all real knowledge.

These processes are one and indivisible. They only manifest themselves to
the receptive consciousness of the submissive soul by their own free choice.

The empiric attitude is that of revolt against this unconditional supremacy of
the one living Truth. It stands in the way of unreserved faith in the Scriptures
as the necessary preliminary condition of the right understanding of the
Absolute. The attitude of submission to the Absolute is neither blind nor slavish
nor a gross form of superstition. It is the awakening of the real rational function

of which all mental activity is but disloyal, hideous caricature.

The spiritual guide who imparts the knowledge of the Absolute is then found to
be part and parcel of the true rational existence. The rituals of the
spiritual Scriptures are realised as the eternal function of the soul who is by his
real nature free from all worldly taint and weaknesses.

The fool’s paradise is the one that all persons possess by the inalienable right of
mundane birth. It is superfluous to carry the same into the real paradise. It
is necessary for the attainment of this latter purpose to desist from the building
of Babel. It is necessary to desist from all speculation on the subject as it
is obstructive of the advent of the Truth. The Truth is ever seeking entry into
the heart that is really open to welcome Him. The closed heart alone is busy in
the fool’s paradise and with its own disloyal fancies. Till one really knows Him
one need not proclaim that he does. This rule is admitted by all but is observed
by very few persons when they try to talk about the real Truth. The Truth
can never be mastered by our puppy brain. It is the puppy brain that should
be allowed to be mastered by the Truth for its own benefit. But it is the Nature
of Truth to accept only perfectly willing service. It is, therefore, only necessary
to reject all untruth and to await the coming of the Truth. This can be done if
we only choose to do it. When one wishes to render such unconditional homage
to the Truth his wish is fulfilled by the Truth Himself. The cobwebs of a
deceptive moral code cannot then any longer bind his eyes and stifle his heart’s
sincerity. Vasudeva then manifests Himself to the pure essence of the soul of His
loyal devotee.

As soon as a person is really established in the worship of Vasudeva by His
Grace he is endowed with the disposition that opens up to his vision the definite
vista of the Divine Realm. He is conducted by the Light of Vasudeva into the
Realm of the Absolute. He finds it inhabited by the servants of Vasudeva.
Vasudeva now presents His fuller Aspect in the coupled Form of Lakshmi-
Narayana, the Eternal Lord and His one eternal Consort ever linked to His side
as His Counter-Whole. Lakshmi is found to be the medium of all wellbeing.

Personality is conjoined with sex in the experience derived through our limited
senses. The principle of sex need not, therefore, be dismissed as
necessarily inapplicable to the Absolute. Male and female run through all
physical Nature binding together its jarring elements in a union of wonderful
harmony. Why should the sex be regarded as less indispensable in the Realm of

the Absolute? The principle of personality implies the co-existence of a specific
free will and its possessor. Thus stated it would seem to exclude all reference to
sex. The will is found to be the same in both male and female in this world. Sex
does not seem to modify the specific nature of the individual will. It is perfectly
possible to conceive a female form being endowed with the will of a male or
vice versa. The factor of the sex seems to lie on the surface. As Godhead and the
individual soul are ordinarily identified as regards their essence with the
cognitive principle itself it is imagined to be in keeping with such identification
not to admit the presence of the sex principle in Godhead.

This is, however, merely the psychological explanation of the genesis of the
view that ultimately favours the idea of impersonality. But impersonality
cannot stand on its own legs; it necessarily implies the personal. God should
include both. He should be both personal and impersonal. But He could not
be positively real without being personal. The negative quality can be but
a background but cannot itself be the picture. The impersonal idea is at best
of the nature of an inferential surmise of the Reality from an
unrecognisable distance. The closer view relieves us from the necessity of
retaining the dogmas of impersonality and abstraction.

Why should not Godhead be a Person. Why should He not be Male or Female?
Why should He be only sexless? As a Person why should He possess no
Form corresponding to our physical body? And corresponding to these arise
the questions “Why have I a sex. Is the sex a constituent of my present
personality? Would my personality suffer by elimination of sex? What
connection has the principle of sex with the physical body? Will my personality
be modified by any change in the physical body? These and similar questions lie
at the very basis of the individual life.

The rational attitude should be to recognise the fact of the sex and to admit the
existence of a corresponding spiritual principle. But it is not possible for
a person on the strength of mundane knowledge to form any idea of the nature
of the spiritual principle We are sometimes disposed to think that it is given to
us to approach the Absolute by way. of service in certain forms. The issue of
sex gives the direct lie to any such supposition. It shows clearly that it is
never possible to rise from the physio-mental plane to the spiritual. This of
course holds also in the case of similar empirical assumption regarding any
other principle of spiritual service.

But we can understand by the parity of reason that the principle must exist in an
inconceivable form. We are supported by the Scriptures. Sreemad Bhagavatam
makes the subject its central topic, round which all other topics are made to turn.
The principle is found to occupy a correspondingly important position in the life
of man in this world. So there is nothing peculiar or objectionable about the
position. The objection of purists is due to the ignorance of the full claim of the
Absolute.

By means of argument alone we cannot go beyond the point that we have now
reached. The sex is found to be admissible in the Absolute. But the nature of the
Personality of the Divine Couple, Sree Sree Lakshmi-Narayana, is other
wise unintelligible to the limited understanding. Its knowledge can only be
received by grace and is, therefore, a matter of actual realisation on the path of
spiritual endeavour.

We, therefore, reach the conclusion that the Divinity is a Transcendental Person.
His Personality manifests Himself to us at first as that of a Male. This is the
realisation of Divinity as Sree Vasudeva. Rut on closer acquaintance we find His
fuller Form of the Eternal Couple, viz., Sree Sree Lakshmi-Narayana.

Sree Narayana appears as the Lord, Sree Lakshmi as His Consort. Sree Narayana
is the Wielder and Sree Lakshmi is the Executrix of the Divine Will.

Sree Narayana manifests all His Activities through His Counter-Whole. This is
the nature of relationship between the Divine Couple.

The Sanskrit word “Shakti” expresses the spiritual principle that corresponds to
the female. The word may he rendered as “Energy” “Potency” or “Power”.

Sree Lakshmi is Divine Power. The personality of Power is feminine, that of
the Possessor of Power is Masculine. Godhead is the Possessor of infinite
Power. Power is not dissociable from her Possessor. In this sense Divine Power
is identical with Godhead. But Godhead is more than His Power. He is the
Source and Wielder of Power. In exercise of His Power Godhead is realised as
Couple. Godhead is fully realised as co-existing with His eternal Consort. The
nearest physical analogy is that of the Sun in the embrace of the assemblage of
heat and light. Neither light nor heat is the Sun who is their otherwise
unknowable Source. They are manifestations of the potency of the Sun. It is not
possible to describe the relationship of Power with the Source of all Power in
terms of any mental or physical experience. It is possible only to indicate it by
way of an extremely imperfect analogy.

The Eternal Consort of Godhead co-exists with Godhead. She is the
predominated moiety of the Absolute. The predominating moiety is her Lord and
Master, Godhead Himself. This is the fuller idea of the Divine Personality. In the
soul of man there also exists will in the embrace of power but both of them in an
infinitesimally small measure. This smallness of his magnitude is realised by the
individual soul by the service of the Divine Couple. It is possible for the soul of
the jiva to try to live on his own paltry resources. This leads to a wrong estimate
of his place and function in the Absolute. The point of view that such a course
produces is responsible for the misdirection of the soul’s activities in the state of
self-elected willful ignorance that is to be found in this world.

So there is progressive revelation of the nature of the Divinity on the path of
pure spiritual service. The upward tendency is towards realisation of the
nature of the full scope of all the concrete relationships imperfectly mirrored in
the deluding correspondences of this world, by the soul of man. In this world it
is given only to man to have a corresponding existence. The soul of man is
thus truly the centre of the phenomenal cosmos. This is not the case with any
other sentient being, either higher or lower, of this world. The beings of
apparently more favoured mundane worlds live under conditions that are less
favourable for the realisation of the Absolute. This is due to the fact that they
find their position more enjoyable. For the opposite reason the beings of lower
worlds or stages are also placed in a worse position than man with reference to
the Absolute.

These infinite gradations of life also exist as their corresponding realities in the
realm of the Absolute, enveloping the human personality by their
serving activities and affording necessary guidance for the realisation of the
most perfect service that is found also here on the plane that corresponds to that
of humanity. Sree Sree Lakshmi-Narayana are Objects of worship of this
spiritual human plane. They enable us to attain the realisation of the
concrete relationship of human service in its diffident forms. The development
of the serving principle leads gradually to the inner and more concrete planes of
the worship of Rama-Sita, of Sree Krishna in Dwaraka, of Sree Krishna in
Mathura and finally of Sree Krishna in Brindabana. The word “rasa” means that
which produces the sensation of “taste” in its most comprehensive sense. That
which imparts to human life the quality of being tasted by its possessor is the
most fundamental of all principles of value of life. The-range and quality of
the realised taste-imparting principle is the cause of the desire for and bliss
of existence. Man lives here in this world on the sweets and bitters of

his mundane sojourn. If he is deprived of this faculty of taste life is
rendered meaningless and contemptible.

The leavening principle points to the sexual relationship as one of its cardinal
references. This is consciously realisable by most persons in their
actual relationships in this world. But the sexual relationship, although capable
of being reached by way of argument as forming directly or indirectly the basis
of all sweetness and bitterness on the mundane plane, is itself apprehended as
a dangerous, delicate and unintelligible subject. It is also the basis of the taste
of grossness in its most unwholesome forms.

The worship of Godhead is realisable in terms of the quality of spiritual taste
evoked and fostered by His service. The relationships of this world, supplied
by their deluding correspondence, give a clue to the spiritual quality but they
can never give any substantive idea of the reality which is free from all
possibility of unwholesomeness. In fact it is the attitude of the individual soul
that is the cause of all experience of unwholesomeness born of limited vision. As
the scope of vision of the individual expands he realises an increasing
freedom from the sense of unwholesomeness. But this does not apply to the
mundane plane where the so called expansion of empiric knowledge (?) tends to
multiply ignorance and the possibility of unlimited grossness.

The conclusion to which such considerations tend to lead may be stated in the
following manner. Spiritual life is categorically different from the mundane.

No activity on the mundane plane by its mere dimension or manipulation, can
ever lead to the Absolute. The difference between the mundane and
spiritual function, may be indicated by the corresponding difference of attitude
towards the Absolute on the part of the individual soul. The mundane attitude is
that of a desire to lord it over the Absolute. The spiritual attitude is that of
service by the process of unconditional enlightening submission to the Absolute.
In proportion as submission to the Absolute tends to be perfected by
practice under the guidance of the Absolute, the scope of the spiritual vision of
the individual expands and produces a corresponding progressive excellence of
the tasting process. Judged by this standard the service of Sree Sree Radha-
Govinda is the perfection of bliss attainable by the individual soul.

Not that Sree Sree Radha-Govinda is essentially different from Lord Vasudeva.
They are one and the same, being the Divinity Himself. But the worshipper
of Lord Vasudeva does not possess the full scope of spiritual vision. He

can, however, obtain the expanded vision only by the faithful service of
Lord Vasudeva and by His grace.

The faithful servant of Lord Vasudeva will find in the Object of his worship Sree
Sree Lakshmi-Narayana, Sree Sree RamaSita, Sree Sree Dwarakesha-
Rukminisha-Krishna, Sree Sree Mathuresha-Krishna and finally Sree Sree
Radha-Krishna in Brindabana.

5 History Of Atheism

Faith in a Personal Godhead and inclination to serve Him are not the artificial
products of material civilization. Many books have been written by
empiric thinkers to prove the historical origin of a belief in God as a product
and concomitant of material circumstances. Such attempts betray an attitude of
selfcontradiction in regard to the nature of the super-mundane. These
writers, almost deliberately confound religion, which is the eternal spiritual
function of all individual souls, with the apparently similar mental speculations
on the same subject although it is more or less admitted by all persons as lying
outside the range of our sensuous experience. Nevertheless these assume religion
to be the equivalent of a bundle of ideas that have their temporary existence in
their own imaginations, and proceed to analyze what they suppose to be the
similar mental phenomena of past generations with the tacit object of finding
further support for, and for the elaboration of their pre-conceived views.

Religion is supposed to be only a special department of thought produced by the
mind by working on a particular aspect of the materials presented to it by the
senses. This mental religion is more or less the method as well as goal of
investigation of empiric moralists, theologians and scientists. Empiric criticism
of the Bible and all mental treatment of the subject of religion, are vitiated by the
adoption of this faulty method of begging the question at issue.

It is necessary to approach the subject with a mind free from prejudices that may
have been engendered by such tentative and inconclusive speculations. Love for
God and desire to serve Him are functions of the soul, and, as such, are located
beyond the sphere of our physico-mental experience which is strictly confined to
the sense-perceptions of material space and time. They are not of the nature of
positive or negative ideas, however refined, that have their non-permanent
existence in our sensuous mind, nor are they of the nature of physical activities
in continuation of such ideas, that bear the names of “love” and “service” in the
current speech of the world. These have a beginning and an end and by their
nature are subject to perpetual modifications. But love of God and service of
God which belong to the soul, are eternal and unchangeable. They are not erring
mental notions but the reality in the form of the only function of our souls and
belong to a plane of existence higher than the sensuous mind, to which no critic
of the empiric school has any access.

But our sensuous minds are, and have been always, enabled, by the grace of

God, to believe, no doubt dimly and imperfectly, in the great difference that must
always exist between the physio-mental and the spiritual, whenever we are in a
position to turn to the subject, which is always knocking at our door, our
unbiased attention, in other words, when we are sincerely desirous of knowing
the Absolute. On the path of such enquiry, the first axiom to which our
unreserved assent is invited is this, viz., that the service of the Absolute is the
only function of our soul in her pure, natural state. The fact may also be stated
thus in terms of her present temporary, deluded existence, viz., that
the inclination to serve the Absolute is innate in the soul and is,
spontaneously aroused and asserts its superiority to all other forms of activity as
soon as the nature of the service is properly explained, the resistance of her
physical and mental equipments notwithstanding provided she gives to the
subject, which she is free to do, her unbiased attention. This natural inclination
to serve God has been present in the souls of men in every position of their
material civilization and independently of such civilization.

This inclination to serve God and the actual service of God which exist eternally,
are screened from the view of deluded humanity by their preference for worldly
activities through ignorance due to the desire for meddling with objects that
seem to promise and also yield transient sensuous pleasures. But whenever there
has been a determined effort by atheists to suppress religion altogether it has
reacted against such pressure and successfully reasserted itself in a clearer form
than before, triumphantly silencing its opponents. It is possible to write the
history of this eternal conflict, in its various forms, of atheism against religion.
The history of theism which is eternal can, therefore, be said in this sense to
begin with this world, i.e., as soon as the individual soul comes under the
conditions of material space and time, due to her eternal tendency towards the
service of Godhead against her counter-tendency to worldliness, roused to
activity by atheistical opposition.

Atheism, the correlative of theism, is of this world and has always existed, and
has often predominated, in it. In this world men are found to be naturally divided
into two mutually hostile groups, viz., (1) those who seek what is permanently
good for them, and ( 2 ) those who desire what appears to be pleasant, without
considering the consequences of its acceptance. The number of those who
belong to the first group has always been infinitesimally small in this world
which is of the nature of a temporary abode, or rather, house of correction, of
those souls who have lapsed from the state of grace by reason of their preferring
the pursuit of selfish enjoyment to service of Godhead. Atheism has been on the

whole, the prevailing creed of this world. It has, however, been always
compelled to masquerade in the garb of religion. But whenever atheism has been
openly professed by the greatest leaders of thought and has appeared to be on the
point of scoring a final and decisive victory over its rival with their influential
support, the latter has invariably re-asserted itself, has demolished all efforts of
the former and has consolidated its position by the refutation of such arguments
as had been urged, or had seemed likely to be urged in the future, against it by its
opponents, to an extent that was within the grasp of the contemporaneous
generations. Atheistic opposition has thus resulted in the gradual and further
elucidation of the theistic position. But although the opponents of theism have
been silenced from time to time they are not always really converted to the views
of their victorious rival, with the exception of a very small number; although
most of them are compelled to profess a temporary, hypocritical allegiance to the
manifested Truth, from worldly considerations. These hypocritical followers,
indeed, afterwards prove the worst enemies of the re-established religion, and by
their show of its acceptance prepare to betray the citadel to the enemy, till at last
rottenness inside and outside the system necessitates a vigorous re-assertion of
the Truth for the benefit of the few who really want to serve God.

It takes a considerable time after birth for a man to acquire a fair measure of
experience of the material world. The term ‘matter’is applied to those
external objects and their qualities that are perceived by the senses. In proportion
as the senses of the child are developed they are enabled to have a fuller
‘knowledge’ of the qualities of material objects, and to enjoy in an apparently
more and more ‘conscious’ manner the pleasures yielded by such exercise of the
senses. The more the qualities of material objects are ‘enjoyed’the stronger the
desire for such enjoyment becomes, till gradually the minds of men become
so devotedly attached to this pleasurable exercise of the senses that they have
no taste left for anything else. The pleasures of sound, touch, colour, taste
and smell thus tend to colour and impart an overpowering charm to all activities
of the mind and invite the deluded soul to be naturalized to the condition.

The soul once enslaved to the mental outlook cannot be roused to grasp
the unwholesome transitory character of the earthly sojourn although
constantly reminded of the same by the most significant facts of her worldly
experience, viz., birth and death, and she seems to forget for all practical
purposes the fact that as soon as one dies one ceases to have any further
connection by way of continuity of consciousness with these very material
objects that appear to possess a distinctive individual reference to him when
alive. If by rare good fortune, the clear consciousness of the transitoriness of the

worldly life is awakened in the deluded soul, she naturally tries to desist from
the exclusive pursuit of worldly enjoyment and turns round to reconsider the
whole position. A person who stops in the midst of his worldly pursuits to
consider the implication of their transitory nature, puts to himself in some form
or other these three questions, viz. ‘Who am I, the apparent enjoyer of this
world?

’‘What is this vast world itself?’ ‘W hat is the real nature of the relation between
this world and myself?’

Whenever the soul with her back to worldly pursuits asks the above questions
she finds the answer in her own awakened consciousness The answer which
the inquiring soul receives being put together in a systematic form, comes to
be known as science and philosophy. The answer which the soul receives may
be either (1) her own real consistent answer or (2) of a heterogeneous
character. But why does not the soul, who is in essence the same, receive the
same kind of answer in all cases?

The real nature of the soul is purely spiritual. The answer which she gives when
she is in her own proper condition is the true answer and is the same in all cases.
This mundane world is not her real home. It is material, that is to say, not of the
essence of the soul but the product of the deluding power of God which makes it
resemble the realm of the spirit. The illusion-producing power who has made
this world is of the nature of the shadow of the superior spiritual power of the
Divinity. The individual soul is an infinitesimally small separable part of the
latter whose nature she shares. The soul resident in this unspiritual world is
under the delusion that her essence is material and she has a natural affinity with
the deluding power although there is really no such affinity at all. This is a
heterogeneous alliance. The deluded soul’s own proper nature is eclipsed and
becomes dormant by the operation of the deluding energy resulting in the
apparent identification by herself of her function with those of the body and
limited mind, being thus unnaturally alloyed with the qualities of material
energy. The individual soul whose real nature is purely spiritual, on imbibing
this mixed character by operation of the material energy of God, functions by
direction of the material mind in accordance with the dictates of this
adventitious, unnatural, ‘second’ nature. The spiritual principle of selfluminous
cognition, by such subordination to the principle of limitation, is perverted into
the mind of the fallen jiva which is an extraordinary mixture, or rather
incarceration, of spirit in a subtle material case. The answers that the mixed

mind under the lead of the deluding material energy of God, returns to the
questions put to it, are also necessarily heterogeneous, that is, selfcontradictory.
These answers of the soul fettered in the material mind reflect the heterogeneity
of customs, dress, food, language and mode of thought of the country of the
temporary sojourn of the physical body which encases the mind. Differences in
respect of place of residence, age and condition of the physical body, all tend to
make the answer correspondingly different in every case.

There is thus a twofold perversion due to the twofold incarceration of the soul in
matter, viz., in the subtle form of mind and grosser form of physical body,
by means of which she is deluded into relation of affinity with country,
race, language, etc., which differ in the case of different individuals represented
now by the physical body and mind.

In order to discuss in an adequate manner and in detail these heterogeneous
answers it would be necessary to examine the history of all countries, to
come into direct contact with the peoples by means of journeys through
those countries and to master the different languages of the world. This is not
the present purpose and a cursory glance at them will suffice to afford the reader
a working idea of their general nature.

Of the above two kinds of answers received by the soul that variety which is true
is also the one that is alone reasonable. The heterogeneous answers, although
extremely diverse in character, are also, however, divisible into two distinctive
groups. The first group constitutes the body of empiric practice and theory of
truth; the second group is represented by activities devised for the purpose of
securing selfish, transitory, material enjoyment [(1) jnana and (2) karma].

We have stated above that the true answer is also the rational one. If objection is
taken to our use of the word ‘rational’ in this connection on the ground that the
material reason admits its affinity with the heterogeneity of physical Nature, our
reply is that the vocabulary that is available for expressing spiritual facts has
acquired the material connotation by habitual abuse. The current vocabulary
both as regards its derivation and usage refers really and exclusively to the
transcendental. The words ‘rational’ and ‘reason’ used by us in connection with
the soul have reference to the distinctive spiritual faculty inherent in the soul that
can never err and always serves the transcendental Truth. The corresponding
material faculty that dominates the eclipsed soul being subservient to the
deluding energy, is, in the case of fallen souls, the approver, by its constitution,

of the heterogeneous existence. This faculty in its normal, spiritual condition
naturally responds in the really rational way.

That group of the two divisions of heterogeneous answers which has been named
practice and theory of truth is the perversion corresponding to the Truth in the
shape of answer returned by the pure soul that accepts the real and rejects the
unreal. This heterogeneous ‘knowledge’ in its synthetic or positive aspect
represents the qualities of matter and favours the view that matter is eternal and
the ultimate cause of everything, and, negatively, tries to establish the view that
the Brahman or the Absolute is devoid of all distinctive qualities, a conclusion
which is reached by the denial of the existence of matter.

That division of the heterogeneous answer which has been named activity in
quest of transitory, selfish enjoyment, is the pursuit by the soul, under
the domination of the deluding power, of non-God. The correlative of this is
the pure rational activity of the soul in the form of the service of Godhead
by means of spiritual thoughts and deeds.

The heterogeneous answer, with which most of us are more or less familiar, may
be conveniently considered under two heads, according to the nature of the
object of human life offered for our acceptance which is either (1)
material pleasure, or, (2) extinction of material existence. The heterogeneous
answer confines itself, as regards its subject of reference, to phenomenal Nature
which, according to this view, exhausts all existence. The view that holds
material pleasure as the end is in its turn divided into two sections according as
the pleasure to be pursued is either selfish or unselfish.

We shall consider first the view that the end of human life is the attainment of
selfish material pleasure. According to the supporters of this opinion there is
no God, no soul, no other world, and no moral consequence of acts done by
us. Our only proper function is to spend the time in constant sensuous
pleasures with discretion to avoid any unpleasant worldly consequence. Such
view has seldom been fully acted upon in civilized society. It has remained
practically confined as theory to the persons who have conceived and
propounded it in the different ages and countries. Such individuals are the
Brahmana Charvaka in India, Yang Chu in China, Leucippus in Greece,
Sardanapalus in Central Asia, Lucretius in Rome. Von Holbach maintains that
the religion that leads to one’s own selfish pleasure, is alone admissible. Religion
is defined by him as the contrivance of securing one’s own pleasure by means of

the pleasures of others. The professed followers of unselfish material enjoyment
have been very numerous and have in fact included the vast majority of the
people in all ages and countries. The school of godless fruitive work ( karma-
kandis) of India is probably the oldest body of the credal followers of this view.
According to this school Isvara (i.e ., the Supreme Ruler) is an entity that has no
antecedent ( apurva ). The view has been supported by learned mal-
interpretation of the Vedic Scriptures. Democritus, the exponent of the view in
ancient Greece, holds that unoccupied space and matter are eternal, the
difference between substances being quantitative and not qualitative. Knowledge
is merely the state of conjunction of certain external and internal substances. All
substances are made up of atoms. Kanada maintains the permanent qualitative
difference between different classes of atoms. According to the Vaisheshika
School the individual soul and the Oversoul belong to the category of
substances. Plato and Aristotle do not admit God to be the only eternal entity nor
as the only cause of the world. This makes their systems share the defects
noticeable in Kanada. Gassendi, Diderot and La Mettrie belong to this class.
According to Comte we should regard theism as infancy, philosophy as
childhood and positivism as mature stage in the evolution of thought. Men are
required to be philanthropically disposed and to be disinterestedly religious in
their conduct. The earth is the supreme fetish of Comte, the country his supreme
medium and human nature his supreme being. Mill is in substantial agreement
with Comte. The propounders of secularism in England include the names of
Mill, Lewis, Paine, Carlyle, Bentham, Combe, Holyoake, Bradlaugh.

But the faculty of reason, even when it happens to be engrossed in matter, if only
it could he induced to consider the subject in an impartial spirit, is bound to
reject all these views for their extremely bad logic. The materialist proclaims the
necessity and wisdom, above all things, of reducing the number of categories,
and in fact it is this which leads him to deny the existence of the transcendental.
But his own method leads him to the formulation of an infinite number of
categories. Materialism is artificial and unscientific as it ignores the principle of
self-consciousness and holds material Nature to be eternal. It calls self-
consciousness a quality of matter and at the same time asserts it to be
the regulative principle of the entity of which it is declared to be the quality.

It involves the subordination of the principle of self-consciousness, which is
the better and higher principle, to gross matter (Ferris). There is no proof of
the permanence of matter (Prof. Tyndal). Boucher and Moleschott hold matter
to be eternal, which is, however a mere assumption The view of Comte that
man should cease from the enquiry of the beginning and end of the world, if

really followed, would reduce man to equality with lifeless matter. No instance
of any self-born man or of a man generated by the process of progressive
evolution is known within the last three thousand years of human experience.

The argument from design, if it be admitted, points to the principle of
intelligence as the cause of the cosmic order and would thus be a complete
refutation of all forms of materialism.

If again we consider the actual conduct of materialists in regard to society we
find that they hold it necessary for men to be religious, in their acts. Sin
and righteousness are held to he productive respectively of pain and pleasure
of men in general. Pleasure for oneself should conform to the pleasure that
is disinterested. By the practice of religion sin and its resultant misery are got
rid of. It is necessary for men to investigate those laws that enable them
to maintain their existence in society. The actions performed by men bear
fruit even after their death for other beings of this world. In this sense acts never
die. Acts are transformed into forces that did not exist before, such forces,
being nourished by other future acts, are the cause of the continued improvement
of the world. This is the disinterested reward of one’s acts.

The professors of disinterested material pleasure as the object of human life are,
in fact, identical with the school that regard the selfish pleasure of oneself as the
object of life. This is proved by Von Holbach under the name of Miraboud in his
“System of Nature” (1770). In that work he has shown that there is no such thing
as disinterestedness in this world. Religion is only a contrivance of securing on’s
own pleasures by making others happy. No one would care to do that which did
not bring pleasure to himself. Even the sacrifice of life is made for pleasing
oneself. All pleasures flowing from religion are for one’s own self. Even love for
God is for one’s own pleasure. Whatever is natural is necessarily selfish because
nature refers to the self. Selfishness is natural. Disinterestedness is unnatural and
is never to be found.

The view that God is that which is without antecedent and identical with power
or force, as propounded by Jaimini and Western scholars, never appeals to those
who possess clearness of understanding. Those who accept their view have to be
content with a part of the whole. The view of the non-antecedentists is directly
opposed to the idea of God. Jaimini was well aware of the existence of a natural
inclination in the hearts of men to submit to God and has accordingly very
cleverly and with great assiduity conceived a god as the awarder of the fruits of
our actions and included him in his category of the nonantecedent It is due to

this cleverness in providing a reference to a god that the view of the Smarta
Pandits advocating godless fruitive works, has been so vigorously prevalent in
India. People with a cloudy intellect extend a ready welcome to the view of the
professors of so-called disinterestedness in the hope of securing at a trifling cost
the reward of unselfishness. This is another powerful reason for the spread of the
creed of atheistic fruitive works.

The instructions of the professors of disinterested material pleasures may be
appreciated at first, to a certain extent, by people by reason of their
own selfishness; but they will scruple less to commit sinful acts the more they
will enter into the spirit of the system. It is in this way that the system
quickly enough degenerates into one of expediency pure and simple in which
every individual member is free to act for his own pleasures in a way that
appears to him to be not obviously against the general interest, and soon learns
to care only for the external appearance of his acts. In the absence of a God to
punish, the only check on the most reckless pursuit of selfish pleasures will be
the fear of public exposure; and various expedients will accordingly be devised
for avoiding the consequences of such a contingency. The truth of this criticism
is corroborated by the notoriously lax practices of the ordinary Smarta
Pandits who are adepts in twisting the rules to any extent to suit their
individual purposes.

In the nominal provision for the worship of a god as found in this system we do
not notice any of the characteristics of real devotion to God. Some of these
even opine that the worship of God is only a variety of fruitive works; or, in
other words, that it is prescribed for people in a general way and is optional in
their own case. Comte has provided for the worship of his conceptions as God
for the reason that they appeared to him to be true. In this Comte is more
sincere; but Jaimini and the others are more far-sighted. The views of Comte
and Jaimini are identical in theory. Those theories of the elevationists in
effect sometimes affect to say to devotion’, “I follow you. I make men fit for
devotion to God. I shall bring the sinners to your feet after purifying their
minds”. These professions are the result of duplicity When work truly follows
devotion it does not claim any separate recognition of itself but is content to pass
under the name of devotion. So long, however, as work is disposed to retain its
own separate designation it seeks its own glorification as a rival process
claiming equality with devotion. This attitude leads it to claim all credit for
every effort for the advancement of science, of society and industry, etc. as
flowing from itself. But as a matter of fact when such work is transformed into

the nature of devotion, i.e., service of God, science, society, industry, etc., are
rendered even more glorious and progressive.

The view that material extinction is the proper object of life is held by the
philosophical schools of Buddhism and Jainism. The genesis of the view
is supplied by the fact that material pleasure is essentially trivial and is not
genial company for a spiritual being. The experience of this gives rise to the
theory that all existence is misery. It is a significant fact that the ordinary,
Buddhist of today, at any rate in Burma, is not a pessimist. He believes that God
exists eternally, that He has created the world. It is He who appeared in this
world as the Buddha and always exists as God in Heaven. Men will go to
Heaven by doing good works and by following the rules laid down by the
Buddha This is not the Buddhistic theory of the schools. In fact these pessimistic
views, that have been adumbrated with so much subtlety of argumentation, are
never accepted as common property by the Society. They are bound to remain
locked up in books and in the minds of their teachers. The general population, if
at any time they happen to pride themselves as the followers of these views, do
so under the impression that those views are identical with their own
cherished Opinions which, as have been pointed out above, are nothing but
the spontaneous concomitants of human nature. Love of Humanity as the object
of life, as propounded by Comte, worship of God under the name of the
Nonantecedent, a constituent part of his fruitive works, as devised by Jaimini,
the theory of material extinction propagated by Sakya Singha, all of these are
bound to be reduced by the general body of their respective practising followers
to one common form, viz., that of the religion that is natural to man. To
this consummation they are tending even at the present moment The pessimists
of western countries come under this category. There is no such thing as re-birth
according to these Western pessimists whose theory may be described as the
view of material extinction as the desired end of human life which itself is
limited to one single birth. The Buddhist and Jain Schools agree in holding
material extinction as the proper end of human life attainable through a cycle of
births and re-births.

According to Buddha the jiva can attain final extinction (parinirvana) as the
result of long practice of gentleness, patience, forgiveness,
kindness, unselfishness, meditation, renunciation and friendliness. There is
complete cessation of existence on the attainment of ultimate extinction
(parinirvana). After ordinary extinction (nirvana) existence as kindness persists.

The Jains maintain that in accordance with the stage of advancement of the jiva
due to the exercise of all the good qualities under the lead of kindness
and renunciation he attains successively to the conditions of Narada, a
Mahadeva, a Vasudeva, a Para-Vasudeva and finally the state of the Divinity
involved in total material extinction.

According to both Buddhists and Jains the material world is eternal. Work which
is without a beginning has an end. Existence is misery. Utter
extinction (parinirvana) is happiness. The system of fruitive works propounded
by Jaimini is harmful for the jiva. The rules that ensure utter extinction
(parinirvana) are alone productive of good Indra and other gods although they
are the masters of fruitive workers are the servants of those who follow the path
of utter extinction (parinirvana).

Schopenhauer and Hartmann are material extinctionists admitting a single birth.
According to Schopenhauer extinction is attainable by renouncing the desire for
existence, by, voluntary abnegation (tyag), humility, acceptance of physical
suffering, moral purity and asceticism (vairagya). According to Hartmann it is
not necessary to undergo any suffering. Extinction is easy of attainment after
death. Herr Bensa has demonstrated the impossibility of extinction by asserting
the eternal nature of misery.

Most of the followers of current monism are material extinctionists. One section
of the monists hopes for the spiritual bliss of the Brahman after extinction; the
other section accepting the extinction of all existence after death, does not admit
any other form of bliss. It is these latter whom I have classed as material
extinctionists.

In the theory of material extinction the specific nature of the jiva is left
uncertain. All these speculations are altogether atheistical. These views
having been put forward with the object of preventing the oppressions by
the exponents of material fruitive works could he propagated with such
great vigour by the enthusiasm and perseverance of their preachers. In India
on account of the oppression practiced on the Kshatriyas and the other varnas
by the Brahmanas in course of the latter’s efforts to further the establishment
of the godless creed of fruitive works and the universal supremacy of
the Brahmanas, the Kshatriyas handed together for the promulgation of
the Buddhist, and the Vaishyas similarly combined to spread the Jain creed.
When the factious spirit is reinforced by the clash of worldly interests it operates

with great vigour. The Buddhist and Jain views were propagated in India in this
way. In those countries into which those views were subsequently imported
they were accepted as God-sent due to the absence of a stronger critical faculty
in the peoples of those countries. It is a matter of history that the
modern professors of material extinctionism in Europe, were led to propagate
those views by their hatred of the Christian religion.

According to the Tantric view the whole world including the Chit and achit has
been created by an eternal power named Maya. When the zeal of
Buddhist preachers cooled down due to the barrenness of the philosophy of their
creed there was an attempt to rehabilitate those doctrines in a new garb. It is at
this stage that the Buddhist idea was transformed into the Tantric and the
new theory known as Mayavada was propounded. This cult of Maya passed
under the name of Buddhism inside that religion. This subtle form of Buddhism
under the separate designation of Mayavada spread rapidly among the non-
Buddhist populations. We have the genesis of the illusionist Vedantists when the
cult of Maya assumed the form of a philosophy resting on Vedic interpretation.
The same cult obtained currency among the hill tribes as Maya-Sakti-
Vada conforming to the Tantra Shastras. The Tantric view according to many
is derived from the Sankhya Philosophy of Kapila. But the latter is the
progenitor of the Saiva cult in which physical Nature occupies an honoured
position which may have been the cause of the mistaken view that assigns, to the
Tantric cult its Sankhya origin. In the Tantra physical Nature is the mother of
the conscious principle but these two are co-ordinate in the Sankhya philosophy.
A form of extinction in the shape of absorption into physical Nature has also
been imagined. The worshippers of the power of physical Nature
sometimes supplicate her in imitation of the manner in which the professors of
the principle of self-conscious power express the thoughts of their minds
in addressing God (vide Holbach).

In the Mahanirvana-Tantra Mahadeva in praying to the principal power Adya
Sakti Kali, addresses her in one passage as the creator of the world by the will
of Para-Brahma. This corresponds to Sankhya. But in other passages she
is described as alone existing in the form of chaos (tamas) after dissolution of
the cosmos (pralaya) ; and she is also declared to be identical with the
selfconscious principle in the jiva. All this is directly opposed to the Sankhya
view. It cannot be said that the Sakti-vada of the Tantras originated from
any philosophical system in particular. In fact the Tantra is so full of
selfcontradiction that it does not admit of any systematic consideration.

The distinctive Tantric processes, viz., the lata .sadhana, the panchamakara
sadhana, sura sadhana, etc., do not appear to have been derived from any
theistic philosophical system. Tantric (Saktivada) doctrine of supremacy of
material power cannot be considered to be very different in character from the
worship of the non-antecedent or god as mental formula (mantram) of atheistic
fruitive works and the worship of physical Nature devised by Comte, etc.

There are a few scholars who admit the existence of nothing except mental ideas.
They hold that the objective world has no real existence. Ideas are the only
entities. The soul that is held by others as the subjective reality, is
also ineffective. There is really nothing except ideas. Bishop Berkeley and a
few others are more or less of this opinion. It is they who have given the view
the name of Idealism.

Mill has also admitted this view to a certain extent. Idealism should not be

regarded as identical with spiritualism. Idealism is merely the

mental contemplation of material objects perceived through the senses.

Such contemplation establishes the connection of the principle of self-
consciousness with physical Nature. It is not essentially different from matter.
Idealism is, therefore, by no means outside materialism. Among the
undifferentiating monists a few have held that there are no such things as God or
any substantive cosmic entities, but it is only the ideas of them that have
existence and that it is the idea that is the undifferentiated truth. This view is
altogether trivial. Its professors never acted up to their principles. Idealism
should logically be classed under materialism.

There is a certain class of people who argue that what is supposed to exist, does
not really exist. All entities are impermanent and they belong to the category
of the non-existent as soon as they undergo transformation or
destruction. Therefore, the non-existent is the eternal and true. This opinion has
no substance. Such sophistical argument is advanced by a class of deluded
people who are especially fond of indulging in abstruse futile hair-splitting.

That the non-existent is true is a proposition that carries its own refutation. From
such abstruse speculations has arisen a body of opinions which is known in the
English language as Skepticism, supported by Hume and a few
others. Skepticism, although in itself it is inconclusive and unnatural, was at one
time welcomed by people and also accepted in practice. The doctrines of
selfish material pleasure and material extinction give rise to so much mischief in

the world that men came to entertain a great contempt even for the very name
of such religion. The nature of man is pure and endowed with the tendency,
of devotion to God. It never finds joy in materialism. Skepticism is nothing
but the last desperate attempt of the human reason to break its chains by its
own strength after it is banished by materialism to the dungeon of ignorance
and finds its hands and feet heavily fettered with chains of iron.

It was attempted to be established by rank materialism that matter is eternal and
that matter alone is true. Many echoed the views of Huxley that no matter what
the event may be unless it is affirmed to be the transformation of material causes
it is not a scientific proposition. Nothing can be proved except matter and that
which sets it in motion. The principles of cognition and feeling, it was affirmed,
will be altogether discarded by the Scriptures in the long run. The soul will be
steadily submerged under the rising tide of materialism. Freedom will be put into
bondage by the dead hand of Providence. It was when a numerous body, of men
were arguing in this immoral strain that the nature of man feeling its own
degradation made an attempt to direct its reason along a different track.
Disregarding all the evil consequences of this new effort, being determined to
destroy the materialistic theory at all costs, human reason gave birth to
Skepticism. The evil in the form of materialism was undoubtedly got rid of but
Skepticism did even more harm to theism than what it prevented. People began
to suspect that we cannot find the real truth. We can only experience the qualities
of objects. Where is the proof that even this experience is True? By means of the
senses we perceive different qualities separately. As for instance we perceive
colour by the eye, sound by the ear, smell by the nose, touch by the skin and
taste by the tongue. The knowledge of the object is obtained by means of the
aggregate of the qualities imbibed severally through the five channels of such
knowledge. We would have obtained the knowledge in a different form if instead
of five we had ten additional senses. Under the circumstances whatever
knowledge we happen to possess is wholly tentative and doubtful. By such
Skepticism although materialism was destroyed, spiritualism did not profit in
any way. Skepticism admits unreservedly the real existence of objects. What it
asserts is that we do not possess any knowledge of the real nature of objects as
our knowledge is imperfect, and also that we have no means of having the
requisite kind of knowledge. Skepticism destroys itself in as much as it admits
the undoubted existence of the reality. If there is such a thing as Absolute Reality
Skepticism is left no ground to stand upon. On a careful consideration
Skepticism appears to be meaningless jargon. Who is it that doubts that I exist?
—I myself? Therefore, I exist.

All these three views, viz., materialism or the doctrine of material power,
idealism and Skepticism are forms of atheism that have existed from
ancient times. These include all possible varieties of atheism. We have arrived at
the conclusion after careful enquiry that the claims of the atheists of recent times
to be propounders of original views, are untenable in every case. They
always express only the old views under a different name and garb. Many
systems of philosophy have been promulgated in this country. Of these Sankhya,
Naya, Vaishesika and Karltlanlimansa are professedly atheistical. Patanjala and
the pseudo monistic interpretation of Vedanta, are veiled forms of atheism. We
can, in this place, only bestow a passing glance at them.

Sankhya philosophical system: —God cannot be proved.— “ Isvarasidheh ” 1—
92. If God is admitted He must be either free

or dependent“Muktabaddhayorantyatrarabhavanna Tatsidhih” 1—93. Free God
is unrealizable. Dependent God has not the quality of Godship. Bijnana
Bhikshu commenting on this says that the following is, therefore, said in regard
to the particular passages of the Scriptures bearing on God, “ that they are
merely eulogistic of the free soul or in praise of the successful pursuit of
religious activities. God does not really exist”, “muktatmanah
prasamsha upasasiddhasyava, 1—96. This much for Sankhya.

The System ofNayaya philosophy: —It is made by Goutama. Goutama says that
there are sixteen entities, “pramana-prameya ….nihshreyashadhigamah ”.

The state of the highest good (nihshreyah) of Goutama is unintelligible. It
appears as if the good of the jiva is attained if he can prevail in argument. God
does not find a place among his sixteen entities. It is for this reason that the
Vedas says that the natural inclination to God should not be allowed to be
obsessed by casuistical argument. Goutama also notices the principle of evil.
“Duhkha-janmapravritti-dosa-mith-yajnana

namuttaraottarapaye tadanantarapayadapavargah. ” Deliverance (mukti) is
regarded in a general way as the cessation of extreme misery. According to
Goutama there is no joy in the state of deliverance. Therefore, there is absolutely
no such thing as Divine bliss. Whence the Nyava Shastra made by Goutama, is
opposed to the Vedas. Vaishesika philosophy made by Kanada: —This system
does not call for any elaborate discussion. If we consider the original .sutras
made by Kanada himself we do not find any eternal God therein. Certain authors
of this school have made an attempt to divest their system of its God-less-ness
by naming as supersoul (paramatma) a principle under the entity ‘embodied’
(dehi) which is one of the seven entities. But scholars such as Sankaracharya,

etc., in their respective commentaries on the Vedanta-sutra, have stated as their
conclusion that the Kanada-doctrine is non-Vedic and godless. As a matter of
fact it is found that those who do not admit that God is the Supreme Master
without any reservation, even though the word God be found in their systems,
are really atheists. It is the Nature of God that He must be recognized as the Lord
of all entities. The view which admits the existence of eternal entities on a
footing of equality with God, is atheistical Karma mimansa: —Jaimini is the
author of the original sutras of this system. He makes no mention of God. His
premier subject is dharma. “Chodana lakshanortho dharmah. Karmaike tatra
darshanat. ” The meaning conveyed by the Vedas is dharma. Its name is karma
(work). His commentator Sabaraswami writes in this connection as follows:
Katham punaridamavagamyate? Asti tadapurmam. ’ How is this to be known?
Therefore, there must be an entity which bears the name of ‘previously
nonexistent’ (apurva). When work is performed something previously non¬
existent is thereby manifested which awards the fruit. Where is the necessity of a
god for bestowing the fruits of actions? What more is there that could have been
said by modern atheists such as Comte, etc.?

Vedanta: —The Vedanta philosophy supports in every devotion to God. In its
commentaries dishonest thinkers have interpolated veiled Buddhistic
thought under the garb of non distinctive monism. But saintly persons have
shown the good path to the people of the world by composing with great care
proper commentaries of the original sutras. We shall consider the futility of
monism in another place.

Yoga: —The shastra made by Patanjali Rishi bears the name of Yoga-Shastra.

The following sutra is embodied in the chapter on method of the
Shastra: “Klesakarma-bipakashayairaparamristah purusavisesha Isvarah.

Tatra niratisayam sarvajnyavijam. Sha purbesamapi guruh
kalenanavachhedat. ” The being capable of taking the initiative untroubled by
tribulations in the four forms of misery, work, consequence (bipaka), subject
(asraya) bears the name of god. In him is located the seed of extreme
omniscience. He is the preceptor of all the people that have gone before, in as
much as he is uninterrupted by time. This statement of the subject of Godhead in
this system has led many to think that Patanjali is really a devotee of God. But
one who has read the Patanjali Yoga Shastra to its conclusion with special care
and judgment, cannot be so mistaken. In the Kaivalyapad occurs the principle
“Purusartha-sunyanam pratiprashavah kaivalyam svarupapratistha. va
chitisaktriti,” which is thus explained in the Bhojabritti:

“Chichhaktervrittisharupyanivrittou svarupamanam tat kaivalyamuchyate. ” The
non-alternative state (kaivalya) is the name of the existence of the cognitive
principle in its own proper condition. The point that requires to be considered in
this connection is this, viz., what is meant by The proper condition of the
cognitive principle’? That is to say, whether the jiva who has attained the non¬
alternative state (kaivalya) will have any function? After the jiva has attained the
non-alternative state (kaivalya) what will be his relation with the god of his
unrealized state? In the said Shastra there is unfortunately no answer to this
question. On repeated reading of this Shastra one is convinced that its god of the
state of unrealized effort, is a kind of entity that is conceived merely for the
success of worship. He is not to be found in the realized state. Can such Shastra
be considered as theistic?

All these atheistical opinions have been preached in this as well as other
countries under different names due to difference of language.

Reason is of two kinds, viz, pure reason and adulterated reason. The faculty of
the soul in its pure state that applies itself to the examination of the
selfconscious, may be described as pure reason. It is without defect and is
a function which is natural to the soul. The perverted form of the above
faculty due to association with the material principle that is found to guide the
soul when she is engrossed in matter, is the adulterated reason. This adulterated
or pseudo-reason is of two kinds, viz., (1) alloyed with fmitive works (karma-
misra,’ and (2) allied with empiric knowledge (jnana-misra). It is also
called sophistry (tarka). It is this which is condemnable for the reason that
there happens to be present in it the following defect, viz., error (bhrama),
delusion ( pramada.), deceit (bipralipsa) and inefficiency of the organs
(karanapatava). Its decision is defective in all cases. That which is established
by the real reason is the same in all cases. The opinions that are produced by the
adulterated reason are diverse and mutually conflicting. By acting in accordance
with those opinions the incarcerated jiva. earns only the bondage of ignorance as
the fruit of such procedure.

Adulterated reason owes its origin to the operation of matter. The material
picture which the individual soul, imprisoned in matter, receives in the
first instance by means of the senses, is carried to the brain by the nervous
process. The reason then goes to work on these pictures that are preserved in the
brain by the process of memory. This activity gives rise to various concoctions
and abstractions. The term ‘scientific knowledge’ is applied to the beauty that

is perceived by the assortment of those pictures. By the processes of analysis
and synthesis those pictures are made to yield hues in the form of
secondary conclusions. This is called reasoning. Comte said, “Assort that which
has been observed and from it investigate the truth”.

Let us now consider whether the reason which is brought to bear on the pictures
that have been obtained originally and exclusively from the material world can
be designated as reason born of matter. How is one to know about super-material
objects and their qualities through this process? If there happens to exist any
super-material entity there must, therefore, also necessarily exist for the
realization of the same some process that is suitable for such purpose. That those
who are not acquainted with this higher process, or do not like to be acquainted
with it due to prejudice, adopting the reason that is based on matter, will speak
the language of delirium, admits of no doubt. In those cases in which the
investigation of the material world happens to be the sole endeavour the reason
that stands on matter yields the best results. This adulterated reason is specially
effective in all forms of material affairs such as arts, bodily activities, warfare,
music, etc., etc. In the first place adulterated reason in alliance with empiric
knowledge, arrives at certain decisions and subsequently joining hands with
fruitive work completes them by carrying them out in practice. When the affair
of the railway was first settled in the mind of a materialist scholar, his reason
was at that time alloyed with empiric knowledge. When it was reduced to
practice the reason becoming imbued with fruitive work applied itself to the
work of manufacture. Works such as the industries, etc., are as a matter of fact
the proper subject of the adulterated reason. Supermaterial entities are not its
legitimate subject and’ therefore, its application to them is not practicable.
Super-material reason is in a position to act only in the case of super-material
entities. Materialism, the theory of material force, material extinctionism,
idealism,—all these systems, adopting the reason that is dependent on matter for
the purpose of investigating the cause of the world which happens to be super¬
material, could necessarily obtain no satisfaction. This was so because the
process they adopted for the purpose happened to be quite ridiculous. All the
books that have been written by them are, therefore, merely the meaningless
utterances of delirious persons. Although the real reason happens to be the
natural faculty of the soul yet the soul that is encased in matter, under the heavy
pressure of the load of matter for making it the exclusive subject of his
contemplation, shows greater honour to adulterated reason. Hence most people
of this world are upholders of the mixed reason. The super-material unalloyed
reason is very rare. Those alone who through good fortune are actively disposed

to serve the introspective faculty, are acquainted with the greatness of pure
reason or spontaneous exclusiveness (sahaja samadhi). From a remote antiquity
the world with a superficial vision paying honour to adulterated reason, had been
hoping to obtain from itself its own realization. All the different views which
were propounded by such reason, although they are at first accepted by it
with cordiality, prove unsatisfactory to itself in the long run. But the reason
even when it is limited or mixed, cannot be without relation to the soul. At times
it tries to do good to the soul. When after having brought forth the long series
of heterogeneous views and talked deliriously in many different ways
the adulterated reason could obtain no satisfaction it developed a feeling
of contempt for itself. It began to cry deliriously. It said, ‘Alas, how am
I abandoning my nature by straying far away from the soul to whom I
am eternally joined, having been occupied in such superficial activities!’
Lamenting in this way, weighed down with fear, it admits, when it happens to be
on its last legs, God as the Source of all activities. At this stage the human mind
proclaims to all countries that God is realizable by the adulterated reason. In this
mood Udayanacharya wrote his work, the Kusmanjali. In England the opinions
that are promulgated under the names of Deism and Natural Theology should
be recognized as meeting the approval of those people who profess those
opinions by reason of their being in the above-mentioned condition. The
theistic principle that is established by the process of adulterated reasoning,
is extremely imperfect and, in regard to the reality, is both foreign and
incomplete ; because the theistic conception that is brought about by reason in
alliance with matter, is a specific and limited idea, viz., that God is the mere
cause of matter. It is artificial in as much as there is in it no real advancement
towards the spiritual state proper, no direct activity of the soul nor any
investigation of the Reality. This will appear later in its proper place.

Such delirious mixed reason, even after admitting God, is unable to establish the
unity of God on account of materialistic errors. Sometimes it supposes God to be
a dual entity. Thereupon in their judgment the spiritual principle appears as one
god and the material principle as another god. The god, whose nature
is imagined to be spiritual, is supposed to be the source of good. The god as
the material principle, is opined as the cause of all evil. A certain scholar who
bore the name of Jaradvastra, in his work the Zendavesta, admitted the dual
nature of the divine principle in recognition of the eternity of the two gods, as
the evil and the good principle respectively. Theistically disposed persons
showed their contempt for him by designating him as the rotten interpreter
( jaran-mimansaka). This designation is retained even to this day, having been

applied subsequently in connection with all superficial persons of the schools of
fruitive work and empiric knowledge. Jaradvastra is an ancient scholar. His
view received no support in India but spread successfully in Iran. Becoming
infective his view produced, in the religion of the Jews and subsequently among
the followers of the Koran, Satan as the rival of God. About the time
when Jaradvastra was preaching his view of two gods, the necessity for three
gods being recognized among the Jews the doctrine of the Trinity was
originated. In the Trinitarian view at first the three gods were conceived as
separate from one another; and subsequently, when this appeared unsatisfactory
to the scholars, they elicited the inter-connection among them by the elaboration
of the theological principles represented by God, the Holy Ghost and
Christ respectively. In the particular Age or Sect in which Brahma, Vishnu and
Siva are conceived as different gods the unsatisfactory circumstance of similar
belief in three gods occurred also in India. Scholars having established the
theoretical unity of those three gods, have incorporated in many parts of the
Shastras advice discountenancing their separate existence. In different countries
there is also found to exist belief in many gods. Specially in very backward
countries monothism in a pure form is not found to prevail. At one time it was
the practice to regard the gods, such as Indr a, Chandra, Vayu, Varuna, etc.,
as mutually independent. The school of the mimmansakas
(interpretationists) correcting the above view subsequently established a single
god, viz., Brahma. All this is mere delirious utterances of reason deluded by
matter. God is one entity. Had He been more than one the world would have
never functioned in a beautiful manner. Different laws in conformity with
different wills in mutual conflict, would have undoubtedly wrecked the world.
That this visible universe has issued from the will of one powerful person,
cannot be denied by any person who feels the impulse of goodness.

The reasoning that is generated by the spontaneous cognition of the soul, is alone
pure and free from defect. The Truth that is elucidated by such reasoning, is
alone real. Reasoning can have no existence apart from instinctive knowledge.
The reasoning associated with the knowledge of external Nature, that is noticed
in the affairs of this world, is impure or mixed. The truths that are declared by
the mixed reason, are all of a trivial character. Even if it establishes God its
argument is never satisfactory. There is no applicability of the pervert reason to
the case of the Absolute Truth. All conclusions regarding the Absolute reached
by the pure reason on the basis provided by intuitive knowledge, are true. It may
be asked in this connection what intuitive knowledge is. The soul is self-
conscious and is, therefore, all knowledge. The knowledge that naturally exists

in the soul is spontaneous or intuitive knowledge. Intuitive knowledge is
eternally cognate to the soul. It is not produced by any process of material
experience. Pure reasoning is the name for a certain process of such intuitive
knowledge. Intuitive knowledge is ascertainable by the fact that the jiva has the
following realization from before the generation of any experience of the
material world, viz.

(1) I exist.

(2) I shall continue to exist.

(3) I have joy.

(4) There is a great entity that underlies and maintains my joy

(5) It is my nature to depend on the support of this entity.

(6) I am eternally guided by this entity.

(7) This support is extremely beautiful.

(8) I have no power of abandoning this support.

(9) My present state is lamentable.

(10) I ought to follow again my guide and support, giving up this
miserable condition.

(11) This world is not my eternal dwelling-place.

(12) By the progress of this world My eternal improvement is not secured.

Unless the reason adopts such intuitive knowledge it merely continues to wander
deliriously. There also exist certain axiomatic truths in the domain of spiritual
science. No spiritual progress is possible unless these are accepted and followed.

There is a certain class of people who cannot form a settled opinion of their own
after accepting pure intuitive knowledge and yet do not trust reason in all cases.
Admitting intuitive knowledge to a certain extent they recognize oneness of
God. Absorbed in knowledge they attain the exclusive state. But

this exclusiveness is not the natural state of samadhi in as much as it
exhibits abstruseness of thought. By such abstruse thinking even after piercing
through this gross world they fail to obtain the vision of the spiritual world
because the natural Truth does not manifest Himself without spontaneous
exclusiveness. Having observed the symbolic world they feel as if they have
seen the ultimate abiding-place of the jiva. In reality they only stand on the
symbol of the material world. The difference between the symbolic world and
material world consists in this that the material world is apprehensible by the
senses. The symbolic world is apprehensible by the mind. The symbolic world is
merely the subtle initial stage of the material world. The material world is of two
kinds, viz., (I) the very gross material world, and (2) the subtler world full of
light.

The astral body that the Theosophists talk about, is the lighted material body.

The symbolic body is subtler than the astral; that is to say, it is mental.

The subtle world that is full of the manifestations of power, according to
the Pantanjala Shastra and the opinion of Buddhist ascetics, is the symbolic
world. The spiritual entity is different from these. The non-alternative kaivalya)
state described in the Pantanjala Shastra, is merely the idea of the state that is
the opposite of the gross and the subtle, but shows no trace of any investigation
of the spiritual Truth. No one can Say what the relation of Godhead is to the
jiva after his attainment of the non-alternative state (kaivalya), or about
the whereabouts or the nature of God in the non-alternative ( kaivalya )
state, although a god is met with during the pre-realization stage of such
endeavour.

If the jiva on attainment of the non-alternative state (kaivalya) merge with God
then as a matter of fact it is monism. The Yogashastra, whether it is
Theosophy or Patanjali, is not for the eternal benefit of jiva. Yogashastra is one
of the numerous blind lanes that are found to exist between the grossest
materialism at one end and spiritual Truth at the other. And, therefore, it yields
no satisfaction to the jiva who is in quest of spiritual bliss.

Some hold that God has made this world for our enjoyment. We obtain the grace
of God by religious merit earned in course of sinless enjoyment of this world. It
may be objected to this that if this world had been made for yielding happiness
to the jiva, God would not make it so imperfect. God has to be blamed for
making it so imperfect if we assume that this world was intended by Him for our
happiness. If His purpose in creating the world had been to teach us to be

religious it would undoubtedly have been made differently because at present all
persons of this world cannot attain to religion.

Holders of the opposite view say that this world is intended for the punishment
of the jiva for offense committed by him. Being unable to find an
adequate answer to the question how the jiva could commit offense a certain
explanation has found a place in several religious systems to the following
effect. God having created the first jiva permitted him to live in a pleasant wood
in company of his wife. He forbade them to eat of the fruit of the tree
of knowledge. The first parents of mankind by the advice of a certain fallen
jiva having eaten the forbidden fruit, were expelled from the happy region for
the offense of disobedience to God and fell into this world which is so full
of misery. For this offense of the first parents all these jivas were born sinful.

As the offense could not be expiated by the jivas themselves a certain being, who
is like one limb of God, being born among men in the likeness of man, chose
to suffer death by taking upon his own shoulders the sin of all jivas, who
would follow him. Those jivas who followed him thereby easily earned
their deliverance while those who did not follow him were cast into the eternal
hell. It is not possible to comprehend with the normal understanding how
other jivas can be excused by the punishment of God becoming jiva.

According to the above the jiva exists as jiva from birth to death. The jiva,
therefore, did not exist before birth and, after death also, the jiva would have
no existence in this sphere of his work. Moreover man alone is meant by jiva.
Jiva cannot in the circumstances be a spiritual principle. He is to be conceived
as created in matter by accident or by the will of God. Why the jiva appears
in different periods and in different circumstances, is not understood. Why
should not other animals be counted among the jivas? Why should birds and
beasts be anterior to man? It is incomprehensible to those who obey God how it
can be the dispensation of God, Who is full of mercy, that man should earn
eternal heaven or suffer eternal damnation merely for his acts done in a single
birth. Those who belong to this School cannot serve God in any unselfish way.
They cultivate the arts and sciences under the belief that God Can be pleased by
one’s attempt to improve the world. But they remain ever ignorant of pure
devotion to God which is free from all impulses of worldly work and knowledge.
The service of God from a sense of duty can never be disinterested or natural.
That we shall serve God because He has been merciful to us, is a mean
conception, because it implies that we would not have served Him if He had not
been kind to us. We also cherish the immoral hope of future favours. If God

were considered as merciful for His bestowal of devotion it would not have
been objectionable in any way. In these religions such a statement is not to be
found. The mercy of God in this case only refers to the conveniences and
happiness incidental to the worldly life.

In this and other analogous creeds of a recent origin God is formless and
allpervasive. The pursuit of knowledge is the chief work of such systems. The
consideration arising from empiric knowledge that God is lowered if
considered to have a form, constantly troubles their minds. God, according to
this view, must be formless and all-pervasive because we have created Him such
by our knowledge and He cannot be anything else than this. This conception of
God degenerates into a form of idolatry that is straitly circumscribed by
materialistic considerations. The sky that is found in matter is also all-pervasive
and formless. The God of this School is like it. This is matter-worship.

The expressions used in the prayers and hymns of praise, which are the only
forms of worship in these creeds, are also altogether worldly. Those who hold
this view are generally self-sufficient. They keep aloof even from good
preceptors through fear lest such association may impart superstitions. Some
even hold that as the truth is inherent in the soul it can be realized by one’s
own independent efforts, and that, therefore, there is no necessity for submission
to a preceptor. Some opine that it is sufficient to accept the supreme Teacher.

God is the supreme Preceptor and Saviour. He destroys our sinful tendencies
by entering into our proper selves. There is no necessity for any human
preceptor. Some of them regard as God-given a certain book which is a
compilation from different sources. Others do not admit the authority of any
book through fear lest by recognizing the authority of any Scriptures errors are
admitted.

Although according to this view only there is only one God yet it is in many
parts inconsistent, full of insinuations of partiality against God and of no value to
jivas who are naturally disposed towards God. Instead of admitting a principle of
evil existing separately from God it considers the commission of sin as due to
the weakness of jivas for which also, as this view offers no other explanation.
God is tacitly held to be ultimately responsible. In the pride of empiric
knowledge they fail to grasp the difference between soul and mind. Their
spiritual science is stunted in its growth on account of arrogance engendered by
their superior knowledge of the physical sciences. Their spiritual knowledge is
so meager that they cannot distinguish between the spiritual principle and the
material principle in gross and subtle forms. They accordingly mistake the

symbolic for the spiritual.

From a long time a body of opinions bearing the name of advaita-vada (monism)
has been current in this country. This opinion is born of study of the Vedas under
the lead of narrow partisan bias. Although monism has also been preached by
many scholars outside India yet there seems to be little doubt that this view
spread originally to other countries from India. A few savants who accompanied
Alexander the Great into India, made the thorough acquaintance of it. This has
been hinted by authors of Greece and Rome in their own works. According to
advaita-vada the Brahman is the only entity. There is not and has never been any
second entity besides the Brahman. Distinctions such as spirit, matter and God
are due to conventional judgment. As a matter of fact the Brahman is the
unchanged cause of all cognisable principles. The Brahman is eternal, without
change, without form and without differentiation. In the Brahman there is no
adjunct, no kind of power and no kind of activity. There is no change of state or
transformation of the Brahman. All these expressions are to be found in different
parts of the Vedas. The professors of the monistic cult of the Brahman adopted
these statements without any objection, But when they turned their eyes towards
the differentiated world, they began to reflect how such Brahman can be the
cause of the world. Whence came the world ? Unless this was explained the
view which appealed to their tastes could not be rendered tenable. Arrived at this
point they began to think, and numerous issues were soon brought to light that
clamoured for solution. How can activity or the active power be admitted to the
Brahman which is without activity in any form? On the other hand caution was
necessary lest monism suffered any curtailment by the admission of a second
principle. Thinking on in this manner they first of all came to the conclusion that
there would be no violation of the monistic principle if a slight power of
transformation in the Brahman were admitted. The Brahman is the
transformation of itself. This transformation is cognisable. Those monists who
considered such admission as inconsistent with the monistic position, proposed
to account for the world by the assumption of deception or illusion (vivarta) due
to want of true knowledge; just as a stick may be mistakenly supposed to be a
snake. The world is unreal, a mere illusory idea. There is no world, no life. The
Brahman exists and there also exists an illusion in the shape of the knowledge of
the world. The names ‘avidya’ (nescience) ‘maya 5 (illusion) etc. arose out of the
effort to understand this deception thoroughly. A deception is never a real,
separate entity. Therefore, there is no infringement of the conclusion of monism
that the reality is only one. After this extraneous knowledge is subdued by the
knowledge of the Reality the apparent illusion is destroyed with the realization

of one entity, resulting in emancipation (mukti).Yet another body of scholars
refused to consider the theory of illusion as being altogether true. They said that
the world is not a piece of self evident deception. The illusion of the world owes
its maintenance to another hallucination, viz., the jiva or individual soul. The
jiva is not a separate entity from the Brahman. This would be an infringement of
the monistic principle. The jiva is the real illusion. These scholars are divided
into two groups. One of those held the view that the Brahman is like the great
sky appearing as jiva due to limitation like the portion of the great sky
enclosed within the pot. The other section thought this would be too great a
tampering with the Brahman, and necessitate His subordination to illusion.
Instead of doing this let the jiva be recognized as the reflection of the Brahman
like the image of the moon in the water. Being itself a false entity full of a
deceptive cognition in the way of the natural function of the principle of
nescience the jiva soul imagines this world as made up of matter. In reality the
Brahman is one and without a second. The jiva is not a separate entity. The
world also is not anything that has a separate existence from the Brahman.

The great error of these scholars, which they can neither see nor want to see, is
their assumption that the Brahman is only one admitting of the existence of
no second entity, and that there is no other real thing separate from the
Brahman. So long as the inconceivable power of the same Brahman is not
admitted all the above speculations are bound to be trivial. Is the powerless
Brahman proved to be one by the postulation of illusion by one, of ‘nescience’
by another, of ‘deception’ by a third and of ‘the deception of a deception’ by yet
another school ? In all these views the abandonment of the monistic position is
easily recognizable. The conception of the Brahman possessed of inconceivable
power, is an infinitely greater idea than that of the powerless Brahman. Neither
does the former necessitate the postulation of an entity foreign to the Brahman
for the purpose of preserving His so called unity. Monism fails utterly
to comprehend and harmonize all the statements of the Vedas and is equally-
powerless to promote the good of the jiva. We take leave of the subject
of monism with these general observations for the present, reserving the
specific consideration of the details of its numerous variants in connection with
the teaching of Mahaprabhu when He refutes the fallacies of this view.

All these are mere verbal juggleries or the mischievous prejudices of
selfopinionated controversialists. The Truth exists buried in the midst of
erroneous speculations. It is the office of the real investigator of Truth, on
ascertaining the nature of the untruths, to discard them and by making the direct

acquaintance with Truth to procure and treasure Him. Victor Cousin, the French
savant, although he rightly hit the method, failed in its actual application, due to
the fact that he employed himself in searching for the Absolute Truth in the piles
of empiric learning. Such effort is like the endeavour to obtain the grain by
the process of grinding the chaff. The real sifting has been done by Sree
Vyasadeva in his Brahmasutra and elaborated by himself in the Sreemad
Bhagavatam; and Sree Chaitanya Deva came into this world to make the religion
set forth in the Sreemad Bhagavatam possible of attainment by the fallen jiva..

Enough has been said on atheistic speculations to prove that they have always
exercised, and still continue to exercise, consciously or unconsciously to
their victims, a most pernicious influence on the human mind and prevent it
from giving even a hearing to the subject of the Absolute Truth. It was so in the
Age of Sree Chaitanya Deva. The South of India was the official stronghold of
all kinds of warring doctrines and it was the purpose of Sree Chaitanya in
traveling through the South to meet and refute the fallacies of the atheistical
scholars of the different schools and thereby destroy their sinister influence
which prevented the general body- of the people from giving their
unprejudiced attention to His teaching,

The reader will get some idea of the chaotic state of religious opinion in India at
the time of Sree Chaitanya Deva from the following brief sketch of the
principal schools of philosophy whose views were more or less current in that
Age. The more important of these have been compiled by Madhvacharya, a
follower of Sankara’s monism, who preceded Sree Chaitanya Deva by about two
centuries, in his work the Sarba-Darsana Sangraha which has been translated
into English by E. B. Cowell. The systems mainly prevalent at the time of Sree
Chaitanya Deva may be arranged in the following order:—

(1) The system of Charvaka, opposed to the Vedas, hankering for things other
than God,—a devoted admirer of worldly qualities,—atheistical.

( 2 ) The system of the Buddhists who hold everything as transitory, worship
worldly qualities, are atheistical, rely on abstruse and fallacious argument.

(3) The system of the Jaina arhats, indeterminists, worship worldly
qualities, rely- on abstruse and fallacious argument.

(4) The system of Sankhya, godless, holds the soul as devoid of quality,

relies on abstruse and fallacious argument.

(5) The system of Patanjala, acknowledges a god, holds the soul as devoid
of quality, relies on abstruse and fallacious argument.

(6) The system of Sankara, averse to God, professing the aim of
harmonizing conflicting opinions, pseudo-revelationist, pure monist,
rationalistic.

(7) The system of the Baiakaranas, materialists, pseudo revelationists,
worship god conceived as possessed of worldly qualities.

(8) The system of the Mimansakas, rely on the meaning of words, pseudo-
revelationists, worship god who is conceived as possessing worldly qualities.

(9) The system of the Naiyayikas, profess first beginning, process of effort
and the unknown factor, recognize the authority and validity of evidence other
than that of the Word of the Veda, worship god conceived as possessing
mundane qualities.

(10) The system of the Baisheshikas, profess first beginning, process of
effort, the unknown factor, recognize no other authority than that of the
Scriptures, worship god conceived as possessing mundane qualities.

(11) The system of the tranquilized Saivas, profess worldly enjoyment,
process of effort, the unknown factor, emancipation while still living in this
world, rationalistic, worship god conceived as possessing mundane qualities,
believe in God.

(12) The system of the Pratyabhijnas, profess material enjoyment, process of
effort, the unknown factor, hold emancipation on leaving the physical body, hold
unity of the soul, worship god conceived as possessing mundane qualities.

(13) The system of the Nakulish Pashupat Saivas, profess material
enjoyment, process of effort, the unknown factor, hold souls to be separate,
hold emancipation after leaving the body, believe in god as unrelated to
fruitive work, worship god conceived as possessing mundane qualities.

(14) The system of the Saivas, profess material enjoyment, process of effort,
the

unknown factor, hold emancipation as a bodiless state, hold souls as separate,
believe in god as related to fruitive work, worship god conceived as
possessing mundane qualities.

Charvaka —holds the living body as identical with the soul and its satisfaction as
the object of life. Direct perception is the only proof of reality. The highest good
consists in the pleasures produced by enjoyment of women, eating of wholesome
food and wearing the best apparel, etc. The pain that is incidental to these
pleasures should be avoided as far as possible. But it would he foolish to forego
the pleasure itself which is real for fear of the pain that may occasionally be
associated with it. There is no after-life. Those eminently learned men
who perform ceremonies enjoined by the Vedas at the cost of much wealth
and physical discomfort are all deluded by the long-standing custom of obeying
the Vedas, which were originally made by the hypocrite, the cunning knave and
the cannibal taking counsel together. The Vedas are full of false, atrocious,
immoral and ridiculous practices.

Buddhism. —The Buddhists are divided into four schools, viz., the Madhyamikas,
the Yogachariyas, the Sautranitikas and the Baibhasikas rendered by Cowell
as Nihilists, Subjective Idealists, Representationists, and
Presentationists, respectively. According to the first nothing exists except the
void. In other words, nothing is really- true. If anything had been really true it
would have been constantly perceivable in the waking state, in sleep and in
dream. According to the second external objects are non-existent. The soul
which is only momentary cognition, is alone true. The third school holds that
external objects are true and realizable by inference. According to the
Baibhasikas external objects are realizable by direct perception. According to all
the schools the principal duty consists in worshipping this body by nourishing
the twelve dimensions of which it is made, viz., the five active organs, the five
perceptual organs and the two perceptuo-volitional organs of the mind and the
faculty of discrimination. According to the Buddhists ‘Sugata’ is God, the world
is momentarily perishable, direct perception and inference are the evidence;
and misery, dimension, aggregate an(l the path are the four truths. The
entity misery is constituted of its five limbs, viz., knowledge, pain,
cognition, impression and colour. The twelve dimensions have already been
mentioned. The attachments and repugnances that arise spontaneously in the
hearts of men, are called the principle of aggregation. The fixed persuasion that
all impressions are momentary, bears the name of the path. .Moksha
or emancipation is identical with this last.

Jainism The general term of the sect is arhat. The Jains are that sect of the arhats
that follows the teachings of the Jina. The arhats refute the theory
of momentariness of the Buddhists and admit the continuity and eternal
existence of the soul. The body is the measure of the jiva. The Arhat is God. He
is omniscient and free from attachment, repugnance, etc. The three jewels
are right view, right knowledge, and right conduct. The right view consists of
the right faith which is prevention of opposition or doubt regarding the
truth declared by the Jina. The right knowledge consists of the knowledge of
the truth declared by the Jina in a condensed or elaborate form. Right
conduct consists in the abandonment of condemned activities. Right conduct is
of five kinds, viz., not to kill any jiva whether it is locomotive or stationary, not
to accept more than is given, not to steal, to speak words that are true,
beneficial and also agreeable, to give up lust, anger, etc., and to avoid undue
attachment for all things. These five constitute the great obligation. The highest
state is attained by practicing these, They are ‘syad-vadins’ ie, believe in the
doctrine of relativity, indefiniteness or indeterminateness, as opposed to the idea
of the absolute.

Sankhya .—The propounder of the Sankhya system of philosophy is Kapila.
There are two Kapilas. Kapila, the son of Kardama and Devahuti, belongs to
the Satya Yuga. He is the Kapila mentioned in the Sreemad Bhagavatam. His
view, which is also known as Sankhya, is recorded in the Bhagavatam.. It
contains many statements that refer to the system of pure devotion. He must be
carefully distinguished from Kapila, the propounder of the atheistical view of the
current Sankhya philosophy which is our present subject. The atheist Kapila was
born of the Agni-family in the Treta Yuga..

According to the Sankhya there are really two fundamental entities, viz., the
pradhana or prakrid (i.e., the material principle) and the purusha (i.e., the soul).
Prakrid undergoes transformation. The purusha is an essence unaffected. The
twenty-five entities of the Sankhya, from the enumeration of which the system
derives its name, consist of primordial matter (mula prakrid), mahat, mistaken
egoism (ahamkara) , the five subtle elements (panchatanmatrah), the five
organs of sense, the five organs of action, the mind which is the organ of both
sense and action, the five principles of gross matter and the soul (purusha). Of
these the first is the pure essence of matter in the sense that it is not the effect of
any other cause but is the cause of all the other material principles. The next
groups in the series consisting of the seven categories from mahat to the five
subtle elements, are related to one another as cause and effect each being the

cause of the following entity. They are, therefore, both cause and effect. The five
principles of gross matter are not the cause of any other entity. They are merely
effect. Purusha or the soul is eternal and unchangeable. It is neither the cause nor
the effect of anything.

Primordial matter (prakriti) is constituted of the three qualities, viz., sattva, rajas
and tamas. The state of equilibrium of these three qualities is prakriti.

The qualities (gunas) are material and transformable. The whole world is
the transformation of the qualities. The sattva quality is happiness itself, it is
light and illuminating. Its function is equable (santa). The rajas quality is made
of misery and is active. Its function is terrible (ghora). The quality of tamas
is stupefying, it is heavy and suppressive. Its function is irrational (murha)

. Although thus mutually, opposed they co-operate with one another and
thus produce the world. The world is thus full of pleasure, pain and
ignorance. Pleasure and pain are the qualities of the principle of discrimination
(mahat or buddhi), i.e. of matter, and not of the soul. These qualities of the
material intelligence are reflected in the soul. The soul is eternal, free from the
material qualities, self-conscious, witness, active, different from matter and
many- in number. The material (prakriti) is the inactive principle, which is
itself unconscious, but moving by the proximity of the soul. The soul is
liberated when this relationship with the material principle is recognised by him.
Such recognition leads the soul to dissociate himself from prakriti. This is
the summum bonum and is called mukti or liberation.

Yoga. —This system was propounded by Patanjala Muni. It is also called theistic
Sankhya. It recognizes in addition to the twenty-five entities of
Sankhya mentioned above a twenty-sixth entity, viz. , god. The summum bonum
is called the non-alternative state (kaivalya) which is reached by the eight
processes of yoga by which the activities of the mind are controlled and
subdued. The worship of god helps the purification and tranquilization of the
mind. The system is very similar to Sankhya, the chief differences being that it
recognizes the attainment of emancipation as dependent on the grace of god and
also lays stress on the eightfold yoga practices. On attainment of the state of
freedom from any form of activity (asamprajnata samadhi or mukti) misery
finally disappears. This is the goal. It will be noticed that although the existence
of God is admitted in the pre-non-alternative stages, He is only a secondary
entity, the primary- object being the attainment of a desirable state for oneself
which does not appear to be in any way related to God after it is realised.

The system of Sankara .—Sankara has tried to deduce the doctrine of pure
monism from the Brahma sutra of Maharshi Veda-Vyasa. According to
this system the Brahman alone is true, all else is untrue. The world
perceived through the senses is an illusion like the mistaking of the rope for the
snake. There is no difference between the individual soul and the highest Soul
Who is the Brahman. It is similar to the Nihilistic school of Buddhism and has
been considered to be a form of Buddhism under the garb of lip-loyalty to
the Scriptures. Its Brahman is only a negation of the material world and has
no definable nature of its own. The assertion that the nature of the Brahman
is spiritual (chit) as distinct from unconscious matter (achit), differentiates
it theoretically but not practically from the doctrine of ‘Void’ of the Buddhists.

It commits material suicide in order to establish a spiritual void. It is an
unnatural and forced interpretation of the philosophy of the Brahma sutra and
has obtained wide currency in this country, being recognized by many
foreign scholars as the representative philosophy of Hindu orthodoxy. It is
less prevalent in the south than in the north of India. Pure monism which in
its present form owes its origin to Sankara, has branched out into many
slightly differing forms. It has already been referred to in another place and will
be considered in its relation to the teaching of Sree Chaitanyadeva in its
proper place.

The system of Baiakaranas. —The Grammarian Panini is the propounder of the
view that by the study of sound in the form of the letters of the alphabet
and words formed of them the knowledge of the object to which they point
is spontaneously realized as the result of such practice. Sound is of two
kinds, eternal and transitory. The eternal sound is directly expressive of its
object. The Grammarians recognize this directly expressive sound as the
Brahman. They hold that by the study of the science of sound by the gradual
subsidence of ignorance the state of emancipation is attained. It is considered as
the easy, royal road among the ways that lead to emancipation (moksha).

The system of the Mimamsakas .—This was made by Maharshi Jaimini. The
Word of the Scripture made by God out of pity for the attainment of a desirable
state for oneself which does not appear to be in any way related to God after it
is realized the suffering of the jiva, is the only authority by following which
the fruit in the form of happiness promised by it is attainable. This
school undertakes to supply the true interpretation and to reconcile
apparently conflicting statements of the Scriptures.

The system of the Naiyayikas. —The view of Gautama, the promulgator of this
system, may be thus put: there are sixteen categories consisting of processes
by which the knowledge of the twelve entities can be obtained. By
constant hearing, contemplation and revision of the knowledge thus gained
the individual soul and the Over-soul become known. This leads to
the disappearance of misery and with it of false knowledge and their
resultant preferences, repugnances and stupefaction, etc. There is then left no
inclination for virtuous or vicious acts. After this, on the termination of the
sufferings by the system of bodies produced by the previously accumulated
activities leading to rebirth, there is final cessation of the twenty-one kinds of
misery due to the six sense organs the six objects of the senses, the six
intellectual faculties and pleasure and pain. This is the attainment of happiness
or mukti. .

The system of the Vaisheshikas. —This system owes its origin to Maharshi Kanad
or Uluka. The summum bonum according to this system is the final cessation
of misery (mukti). This is the result of true knowledge which is obtained by
a critical and careful study of the Scriptures and their constant consideration
and meditation. It is necessary, first of all, to differentiate the soul from the
nonsoul or matter. This school holds that there is definite and eternal
difference between the several permanent entities and also between the objects
and their qualities, although the last two are eternally associated with each other.
It is this peculiarity which gives its name to the system. The atom is the final
limit of matter. The world, etc., made of material atoms, are eternal and any
other worlds not so made are impermanent but eternal. The system closely
resembles that of the Naiyayikas.

Saivas.—According to this, Siva who is ever affectionate to His devotees is held
to be god and the jivas are designated as animals (pashu). God awards the
fruit of actions in accordance with the nature of such acts. All action is followed
by its appropriate effect and is therefore, the cause of such effect. This does
not affect the not affect the freedom of action of god as the supreme lord
and master. God is formless. There are three entities, viz., the lord, the animal
and the bond. Siva is the lord and those who have attained the state of Siva and
the methods whereby this state is attained, e.g., initiation, etc., form the
lordly category. The jiva-soul is the animal. This jiva-soul is different from the
body, is eternal and is capable of taking the initiative. The jiva-soul freed by Siva
from sin is elevated to his proper lordly position and merges with the divinity.

The Pratyabhijnas. —According to this school the jiva-soul is the over-soul. This
is established by the inference that a being who has knowledge and power
of independent action is god; that which has not those powers is non-god,
e.g., house, etc. The soul of jiva possesses the above powers and therefore it is
god. This recognition of the identity of the jiva-soul with god is called
Pratyabhijnas. The acquisition of this knowledge is alone necessary for the
highest realization, viz., that Siva is the divinity.

Nakulish Pashupat Saivas. —Siva is god. Being the ruler of jivas, Siva is also
called Pashupati, jiva being named pashu (animal). God’s will is the only
cause of the world. The summum bonum (mukti) according to this view consists
in the absolute cessation of all misery and the attaimment of the state of the
divinity. Specific acts are prescribed as the method to be followed for
obtaining emancipation. It considers service of god as tantamount to bondage.

Saivas (Rasesvara or Mercurial school). —The summum bonum is the attainment
of the state of the divinity. This is possible only through knowledge of god.

But this knowledge is naturally and easily attainable in this material body if it
is tranquilized by mercury. Siva is god. Mercury is Siva’s own self. The body is
the friend of the soul and can be rendered spiritual and eternal in the above
way. Mercury is called “parada” and “rasesvara” due to its qualities of enabling
the jiva to get across the ocean of this world and being accordingly the
supreme liquid.

All these and many other atheistical views have been prevalent in this country
from most remote times. All these are empirical and try to work up to God, Who
is necessarily conceived as some form of sublimated or discarded matter, by the
powers of the human mind working on the data supplied by the senses. Even in
those cases where there is profession of obedience to the authority of the
revealed Scriptures such admission is merely verbal and the method adopted is
in every instance purely empirical, although help of the Scriptures is frequently
sought in support of special views reached by the empiric process. In spite of the
lip-profession of theism such method has consciously or unconsciously led in
every case to the formulation of materialistic, unspiritual and godless systems.
This, however, did not pass unchallenged. Or, it would be truer to say, that these
views were really propounded in opposition to the theistic school which
embodies the natural religion of the jiva and which has existed both potentially
and in an explicit form from eternity.

It is in fact futile to seek for the origin of the eternal religion in history limited
by space and time. It has always existed. Its continued existence can also
no doubt be established as far back as our limited vision extends. All the
other systems have a historical origin. The theistic (Vaishnava) religion has
no historical origin and no beginning. The other systems have attained
temporary prominence on account of the vigour of their attack on theism
(Vaishnavism). We shall return to this subject again. For the present it would be
sufficient to point out that theism in its true sense, which is identical with
Vaishnavism, possesses the most numerous body of expounders and they have
always been engaged in refuting the fallacies of the empiric schools. In the Iron
Age (Kali Yuga) the Vaishnava religion has had four principal teachers after
whom the four divisions (sampradayas) of the community are named. Those
four founder-Acharyas of the respective sampradayas in the chronological order
of their appearance are,—Sreemad Adi Vishnuswami, Sreemad Nimbarka,
Sreemad Ramanuja and Sreemad Madhva. The Vaishnava Founder Acharyas are
pure revelationists (srauta panthis) as opposed to the schools mentioned above
who are empiricists. They hold devotion to Godhead Whose Nature is
purely spiritual to be the summum bonum. This goal is reached by obeying
the Scriptures by submitting to receive the Word of Godhead from sadhus
who alone understand their true import. This submission must also be complete.

But although the four Vaishnava Founder-Acharyas, who preceded Sree
Chaitanyadeva, and their followers certainly prepared the ground for the general
re-establishment of pure theism their efforts only led their opponents to endless
shifting of position and restatement of their views and this was done with so
much vigour and success that at the time of the advent of Sree Chaitanyadeva the
country had passed almost completely into the hands of the atheists as will
appear from the incomplete list of the principal atheistic schools that were
flourishing in His time which has been put before the reader in the above brief
account. Sree Chaitanyadeva was opposed by all of these and He had to meet
their leaders in learned disputations. The school which was most hostile to Him
was that of the .smartas who do not admit the transcendence of Vishnu and His
devotees but hold Vishnu to be a god of equal status with the other gods and
endowed with specific powers. The smartas are frankly polytheistic and follow
fruitive activities for the reward of material happiness promised by the
Scriptures for their performance. The purely spiritual religion preached by Sree
Chaitanyadeva was, therefore, utterly incomprehensible and repugnant to the
doctrines and practices of the smartas.

Sree Chaitanyadeva also had occasion to engage in controversy with Chand Kazi
who believed in the doctrine of impersonal Godhead, and so
thoroughly convinced him that it is not the teaching of the Koran that he turned
out to be one of His staunchest supporters.

The followers of the Vaishnava Founder-Acharyas had also succumbed to the
seduction of the other schools and Sree Chaitanyadeva had to meet
in controversy the leaders of pseudo-Vaishnava f actions who were in
revolt against the authority of their own Acharyas. He opposed the Ramananda
sect who called themselves the followers of Ramanuja but favoured
salvationism, and the tattvavadins, professing to belong to the Madhva school,
for a similar reason. He did not esteem the views of Ballava Acharya who,
professing to follow Vishnuswami, differed from Sridhar, the commentator of
the Sreemad Bhagavatam, also belonging to the same sampradaya. The
sampradaya founded by Nimbarkacharya has so utterly neglected its original
Acharya that his works and those of his proximate successors appear to be lost.
Sree Chaitanyadeva rescued the teachings of the great Acharyas in the process of
perfecting them and demonstrated the relation of harmony in which their
systems stand to the full Truth. But before we finally plunge into the
consideration of the religion taught and practiced by Sree Chaitanyadeva the
issue will be simplified if we stop for a short time to take a passing glance at the
views of the four great Vaishnava Founder-Acharyas who preceded Sree
Chaitanya and kept the dim lamp of theistic scholarship burning which was to be
merged in the Sunrise of Advent of the Supreme Lord Himself as Teacher of His
Word.

6 History Of Theism

There is a certain class of people who have the temerity to regard the religion
preached by Sree Chaitanyadeva as of recent origin and an original and
new conception. The fact, however, is quite otherwise. It is no other than
Sree Chaitanya Whom all the Scriptures of every Age and country have been
eager to proclaim but have failed to adequately express. The Truth Who is no
other than Sree Chaitanyadeva Himself, is the Same Who manifested Himself in
the heart of Brahma at the beginning of material creation. The Word, Who,
beginning with Brahma, made Himself manifest to a succession of persons, was
gradually confused in many ways by the influence of time. The absolute Truth
made available by Brahma in the form of the Word although He appeared
in subsequent times in the community of the Rishis being handed down by
the process of verbal transmission to the ear from preceptor to disciple has
been variously transformed due to the intrusion, into the process, of the
triple qualities of this material world. At those periods when the perverted
version of the communication manifested to the ear threatens to completely
mask and distort the real Truth that Lord Vishnu the Divine Personality Himself
Who is both Source and the first Link in the chain of the line of preceptorial
succession through whom the Divine Logos manifests Himself as articulated
Sound to the ear, causes the Appearance of Himself in this world in different
Forms in conformity with particular lines of activities appropriate for the
particular requirements of the times. These Plenary Divine Manifestations
constitute the series of the Leela-Avataras of Vishnu.

In this manner Truth manifested Himself successively in different forms in the
seven different lives of Brahma. The first four births of Brahma took
place during the Age of Truth (Satya Yuga), the first of the four Yugas that form
a complete cycle of the Ages. In the first birth of Brahma, which was mental,
the Fenapas learnt the Absolute Truth from Sree Narayana. From Fenapas He
was heard by the Baikhanasas and from them by Chandra. In Brahma’s second
birth, which was ocular, by the grace of Narayana, Brahma and Rudra and,
from Rudra, the Bala-khilyas attained to the Truth. In the third birth of
Brahma, which was oral, from Narayana, Suparna received the super-mental
root-formula (mantram) of the Rig Veda. At the same time the
Bighashasi sampradaya obtained the same from Vayu and from the Bighashasis,
Mahodadhi received the experience of the exclusive spiritual function. In the
fourth auricular birth of Brahma the eternal function (satvata dharma)

was promulgated in the Vedas along with the Aranyakas. At this time from
Brahma, Svarochisha Manu, from him, his son Samkhapada and, from
Samkhapada, Subarnabha Manu, the son of Samkhapada, learnt the eternal
function (satvata dharma). In the Age of Truth the religion was thus spread by
the fourfold manifestation in the form of the mental, ocular, oral and auricular
births of Brahma.

At this time there had not yet begun the promulgation of the varnashrama
dharma of the Vedic Karmakanda which was instituted in the next Age, viz.,
the Treta Yuga. Fenapa; Baikhanasa, Soma, Rudra, Balakhilya, Suparna,

Vayu, Mahodadhi, Svarochisha Manu, Samkhapada, Subarnabha and other
devotees of Hari of this pre-historic age, all belonged to the ‘one-path’ branch
(the Ekayana Sakha) of the Vedic Tree. At that time there being yet no divisions
of the Vedic School the Vedic Rishis are designated as having belonged to the
one-path branch. Fenapa, Baikhanasa, Balakhilya and later the Audumbaras,
in accordance with the four pre-historic divisions, formed a separate branch
of those belonging to the vanaprastha stage even as early as the time when
the varnashrama dharma was established. The varnashrama dharma , a
classification of society into a fourfold division according to the twofold
principle of quality and work, was introduced at the beginning of the Second
Age (Treta) to which also belong three additional births of Brahma. At the
beginning of the Treta Age in the fifth nasatya birth of Brahma from Narayana,
Sanat Kumara received admission into the one-path religion. By Sanat Kumara,
Birona, by Birona, Raibhya, by Raibhya, Kukshi were successively admitted into
the same one-path religion (aikantika dharma). While in the sixth birth of
Brahma from the egg, from Brahma, Barhisat and his elder brother Abikampana,
etc., obtained entry into the one path eternal religion. The chant of the Sama
Veda first appeared in this sixth birth of Brahma. It is in the seventh birth of
Brahma from the lotus that, from Narayana, Brahma, from Brahma, Dakshya,
Aditya, Bibasvan, Manu and Ikshvaku, etc., being established in the Bhagavata
religion, attained to great fame.

The Sree community (sampradaya) sprang from Ratnakara. Ratnakara obtained
the religion from the ancient Bighashasi comnunity and this last again
from Vayu who belonged to the time of the third oral birth of Brahma. The
Brahma and Rudra communities received the mercy of Sree Narayana in the
fourth ocular birth of Brahma. Their successors, the Balakhilyas, maintained the
lines of Brahma and Rudra. Sanat Kumara received the one-path religion from
Sree Narayana in the fifth nasatya (nasal) birth of Brahma.

The activities of the series of the Plenary Divine Manifestations of this world
(Avataras) of the lotus period, are narrated in the Scriptures. The practices of the
different communities of the eternal religion who accepted the ten Appearances
in this world of Vishnu in the Forms of Fish, Tortoise, Boar, Man-Lion, Dwarf,
Rama son of Bhrigu, Rama son of Dasaratha, Baladeva, Buddha and Kalki as
their Objects of worship, are recorded in such works as the Pur anas, the
Mahabharata, etc. Although these books happen to be written in Sanskrit we
notice in them mention of the eternal (satvata) religion of the prehistoric Age in
the form of hints and also in the shape of a certain amount of descriptive matter.
The worshippers of the Divinity in the Forms of His ten Avataras have acquired
the designations of bhakta, (devotee), ‘bhagavata’ (godly) or ‘satvata’ ( eternal).

Wherever there arises the consciousness of transitory, changeable, finite time
and of mundane personality conformably to our worldly judgment there
appear two qualitative manifestations of the Godhead, Who are also classed in
the category of Divinity. Although the transcendental knowledge is always
manifest in the heart of Brahma, among his successors, due to their
sensuous predilections, various temporary experiences have been wrongly
assigned to the category of the eternal Truth. Whence there are to be found in
this world in regard to Godhead a great variety of mutually conflicting views.
We find accordingly at different places the cults of the village-god, of
ghosts, mesmerism, the process of pancha-pakshi, the cult of the followers of
energy, immersed in the enjoyment of the five pleasures making for a
material objective, the creed of the worshippers of the Sun imbued with a
mixture of cognitive and active qualities and the system of the worshippers of
Ganapati, a product of the cognitive in association with benumbing qualities.
These cults setting themselves up as its rivals have been trying by their loud
clamours to disturb the eternal religion. The desire of his successors for other
things than the spiritual service of Godhead by disregarding the method of
service of the Transcendental that had appeared in the mind of Brahma, drove
them into the paths of fmitive work and empiricism of the elevationists and the
liberationists respectively. These temporarily excited mental tendencies are
checked by the power of Rudra who is adored by the (material) negative or
nihilistic quality. The various faces of Brahma, the Avatara in active quality of
the Transcendental Vishnu in this material world, have been imagined,
synthesized and made manifest by persons possessed of corresponding natures
and, up to the time when those active tendencies are not absorbed in the
negative, the worship of qualified Vishnu manifests its potency in this
phenomenal world. As a matter of fact the conceptions of qualified and non-

qualified worship are correlatives in the mundane apprehension.

Sree Chaitanyadeva occupying the seat of the world-Teacher, has uprooted many
kinds of perverse and abstruse speculations of the stubborn race of sophists. The
contemplation of Vishnu in the Age of Truth, the sacrifice for Vishnu in the
following Age (Treta), the ritualistic worship of Vishnu in the third (Dvapara)
Age, and the chanting (kirtana) of the Name of Godhead in the fourth (Kali)

Age, are specially suitable for the bound jiva for the attainment of the Sight of
Godhead and His service. But the eternal Scriptures (satvata shastra) declare
that in the seventh regime of the lotus-born Brahma the desire to establish the
equality of the gods exercising delegated power, with Vishnu will continue to
produce the delusion of the sojourners in the domain of fruitive works for the
space of twenty five hundred years. The belief that the Feet-wash of Vishnu is
only ordinary water will continue up to the five-thousandth year, the belief that
Vishnu is the equal of the other gods of the hierarchy of gods will be accepted as
certain truth by those journeying on the path of misfortune. The spiritual
Scriptures (satvata shastra) say that despite hundreds of defects of Kali,—the
fourth Age, it possesses one supremely redeeming feature, viz., that in this Age
the bound soul (jiva) obtains deliverance from the clutches of worldly judgment
by listening to the chant (kirtana) instituted by Sree Gaursundar. The individual
soul in the Kali Age is freed from the vagaries of conflicting views by the power
of the chant (kirtana) of Krishna to the exclusion of the narrow consideration of
the controversialists of the schools of empiric knowledge and fruitive works. It is
for this reason that the writer of Sree Chaitanya Charitamrita in the very
beginning of that work, in the second chapter, has declared in the form of an
emphatic glorification of the chant, the message of the super-mundane and all-
pervasive mercy of Sree Chaitanyadeva. Those who follow Sree Chaitanyadeva
are alone freed from the clutches of error by the abandonment of all evil
association. Those who are so deluded as not to avail the mercy of Sree
Chaitanya will remain confined to the worldly point of view within the narrow
hole of error by the logic of the frog in the well. They will never obtain the
privilege of being employed in the service of the Super-sensuous.

The following brief review of the historical development of the theistic thought
will further elucidate the Scriptural position outlined above.

The pursuit of the summum bonum is the proper and natural function of the
individual soul (jiva). The co-eternal associated existence of this eternal function
with the soul since his appearance needs must be admitted. This natural function

was at first latent and had the form of the conception of his own identity, with
the Brahman as the manifestation of himself. There was not ,yet any discussion
of the bond of the highest love that united the two by the establishment of
definite difference between the individual soul (jiva) and the Brahman. This
religious doctrine of the intellectual realization of the identity of the individual
soul with the Brahman, continued to prevail for a long time. The Rishis tried to
find out the proper occupation of the soul by formulating from time to time
various methods such as sacrifice (yajna), asceticism (tapasya), ijya, sama,
dama, patience (titiksha), dana, etc. A long period passed in this quest of a
vocation in the domain of works essentially materialistic on abandonment of the
thought, ‘I am the Brahman’ When subsequently the reward attainable in the
domain of fruitive works was judged to be trivial and harmful, the mind of the
Aryas applied itself to the question of liberation (moksha). Sanaka, Sanatana and
several others had altogether ignored the path pointed by desire for sensuous
enjoyment. But Prajapati, Manu and Indra and other devas hoped to please
Godhead by sacrifices (yajna) leading to worldly improvement. In regard to the
fruit of such activities the ideas of heaven and hell were conceived to be final.
The pure essence of the soul and the quest for emancipation and final attainment
of the highest satisfaction, none of these were at all realized. In the Sreemad
Bhagavatam is found an exhaustive discussion of these three subjects and the
conclusions are clearly stated.

The most merciful Sree Ramanujacharya, the disciple of the illustrious
Sathakopa, was the first to bring together the fundamentals of the
Vaishnava thought. Some time before him Sankaracharya by his commentary of
the Vedanta sutra gave such a strong impetus to the pursuit of the
empiric knowledge that the goddess of devotion was taken by surprise and was
checked and remained for a long time hid inside the hearts of her
devotees. Sankaracharya cannot be held to be responsible for this untoward
result. Far from blaming him we should rather regard him as the ideal of a patriot
because there was in that Age a special reason for undertaking such a task for
the indirect service of the Truth. It is well known that a great person bearing
the name of Gautama who was sprung from the Sakva clan of Kapilavastu
five hundred years before Christ instituted such a vigorous movement of
empiric knowledge that in consequence of it the previously established system
of varnashrama dharma was in imminent danger of being wholly obliterated.

The Buddhist religion preached by Gautama became a thorn in the side of the
whole ancient inheritance of the Aryas. Buddhism soon spread beyond the
Punjab, under the patronage of kings such as Kanishka, Huvishka, Vasudeva,

etc., of the Scythian dynasty, into the trans-Himalayan regions of Tibet, Tartary,
China and other countries In another direction the Buddhist religion was
firmly implanted in Burma, Ceylon and many other places by the efforts of
Emperors like Asokavardhana, etc. The ancient holy places (tirthas) of the Aryas
were changed into centres of Buddhism and became almost wholly Buddhistic
in outward appearance. It even appeared possible that all traces of the religion
of the Brahmanas might be destroyed. When this undesirable disturbance
assumed the most dangerous proportions, in the seventh century of the Christian
era, the Brahmanas becoming furiously indignant began a steady and
organized attempt for the destruction of Buddhism. In this crisis Sreemad
Sankaracharya eventually became the leader of the Brahmanas with their
headquarters at Benares.

From the early Christian epoch onwards the vigour and keenness of intellect that
is found in the south of India, is not so much in evidence in other parts of the
country From this time there arose in the southern firmament, like stars of the
first magnitude, such extraordinary personalities as those of Sankara, Sathakopa,
Yamunacharya, Ramanuja, Vishnuswami and Madhvacharya and a host of
eminent scholars. Sankaracharya failing to achieve much success with the help
of his Brahmanized following, having adopted the ten orders of sannyasins
bearing the designations of Giri, Puri, Bharati, etc., winning over the Brahmanas
fond of materialistic activities, by the physical and controversial prowess of
those sannyasins, set about to effect the destruction of the Buddhists. In those
places where he failed to bring over the Buddhists to his side Sankara did not
scruple to obtain even the assistance of the Naga sannyasins for his purpose.
And, finally, by the compilation of the commentary of the Vedanta sutra, by
mixing up therein the doctrine of fruitive works of the Brahmanas with the
principle of empiric knowledge of the Buddhists, he effected the unification of
the views of Brahmanas and Buddhists. After this he changed the names of the
Buddhist shrines and idols and made them conform to the religion of the Vedas.
The Buddhists, partly through fear of violence and partly in view of the partial
retention of their own creed, submitted to the Brahmanas from necessity. Those
Buddhists to whom such a procedure appeared to be hateful fled either to Burma
or Ceylon, carrying with them the relics of Buddha. It was at this time that the
Buddhist pandits made their way to Ceylon from Puri with the tooth-relic of the
Buddha Avatara. In the fifth century A D the Chinese savant Fa Hian visiting
Puri wrote with great joy that in that place Buddhism existed in an unalloyed
form and there was no oppression by the Brahmanas. Subsequently, after the
change noticed above in the seventh century A.D., the next Chinese scholar

Hiuen Tsang wrote from Puri that the tooth of Buddha had been carried to
Ceylon and the holy place had been utterly desecrated by the Brahmanas.

On a consideration of these events the activities of Sankara would appear to be
really wonderful By divesting the country of the nomenclature of Buddhism,
he effected to a certain extent the welfare of India in the national sense in as
much as it prevented the further attenuation of the old society of the Arayas, a
process which had been in progress Especially did he change the mentality of the
Aryas by introducing into Arayan books the controversial method. The
impetus which was thus imported by him enabled the Arvan intellect to
investigate even subjects the consideration of which had been hitherto
unattempted by them. By the force of the controversial current of Sankara, the
flower of devotion, afloat on the stream of the mind of the devotee, was in a state
of flutter. But Ramanujacharya, by the vigour of argumentation imparted by
Sankara and by the grace of God, by composition of a fresh commentary of the
Vedanta sutra, resuscitated the vigour of the Vaishnava thought. Within a short
time Vishnuswami III, Nimbaditya and Madhvaswami, establishing the
Vaishnava view in slightly different forms, also wrote commentaries of the
Brahma sutra in accordance with their respective opinions. All of them after the
manner of Sankaracharya, wrote a commentary on the Geeta, a bhashya of the
thousand Names and a commentary on the Upanishads. From this time the
opinion, viz., that for the recognition of a school it was necessary for it to possess
its own commentaries on the four aforesaid books, established its hold on the
minds of the people. From the above four Vaishnava Acharyas the four current
schools of Vaishnavism, viz.those of Sree, Brahma, Rudra and Sanaka, have had
their historical origin.

Sree Chaitanya appeared at Nabadwip in the fifteenth century of the Christian
era. At first as house-holder and subsequently as sannyasin Sree
Chaitanya elaborated the full knowledge of the two ultimate principles of the
Vaishnava religion. That the real significance of the land of Gauda (Bengal) is
attainable with difficulty even y the devas, admits of no doubt by the testimony
of the Scriptures. Appearing in this chosen land, the Darling of Sachi Devi, the
Most Highly Revered of the Vaishnavas, has given away freely to all the people
the boundless wealth of spiritual Truth, that can be compared with nothing
else. This is well known to all persons. By rare good fortune it has chanced that
we have been born in this unique land. For a long time to come those
Vaishnavas who will appear in this land, will also regard themselves glorified by
such birth as we have obtained.

Sree Chaitanya, with the help of Nityananda and Advaita, encompassed by
Rupa, Sanatana, Jiva, Gopala Bhatta, the two Raghunathas,

Ramananda, Svarupa, Sarbabhauma, etc., has expounded clearly the true
relationship of the individual soul (jiva) with Godhead, has shortened our work
in regard to spiritual method demonstrating the superiority of chanting the name
(Kirtana), and, in regard to the goal of spiritual endeavour, has laid down the
extremely simple end of lasting mellowing quality (rasa) to be met with on the
Path of complete spiritual endeavour (Braja).

The reader will find, if he considers the subject with special care, that the
principle of the summum bonum has been steadily gaining in
clearness, simplicity and consciousness from primitive times on to the present
day in proportion as all impurities, deposited by Age and clime, are being
expelled, and its beauty, waxing in brilliancy, is appearing within the ken of our
direct view. The Highest Object of spiritual endeavour first appeared on the
soil, overgrown with the kusa grass, on the bank of the Sarasvati. Slowly
gathering strength it played out its childish pastimes on the ice-bound settlement
of Badarikasrama. Its adolescence was nursed in the forest land of Nimisha on
the bank of the Gomati. Its youthful activities are observed in the Dravida
country on the beautiful bank of the Kaveri. The maturity is manifested to our
view on the bank of the stream of the Jahnabi, that sanctifies the world, in the
town of Nabadwip.

If we consider the history of the whole world we are confirmed in our view that
the acme in the progressive quest of the summum bonum, has been reached
at Nabadwip. The Supreme Soul is the only Object of the love of the plurality
of separate individual souls (jivas). If the Supreme Soul, Who is the Integer, is
not served with love, He Call never be easy of access to the separate
fractional souls. He is not easy of attainment even if He is constantly meditated
upon by abandonment of all other attachments that bind individual souls to this
world. He is captivated by a mellow quality (rasa) of the appropriate kind, and
by leaving this out He cannot be obtained. This mellow quality (rasa) is of
five specifications, viz., (1) tranquil (santa), (2) as of the servant (dasya),(3) as
of the friend (sakhya), (4) as of parents (batsalya), and (5) as of the wife
or mistress (madhura) . The mellow quality whose specific characteristic
is tranquillity is the one to appear initially by reference to the Brahman, or,
in other words, it is equivalent to the merely continued existence of the
fractional individual soul in the Greater Principle, on the cessation of the
miseries due to the worldly connection. In this state, with the exception of a

slight measure of negative bliss, there is no other freedom. At this stage there has
not yet been established any reciprocal relationship of the spiritual novice with
the Supersoul. The mellow quality characterized by servitude (dasya rasa) is the
next in order of manifestation. It possesses ah the treasures of tranquil
mellowness (santa rasa) and something more. This new factor is affection, i e , a
sense that an object belongs to me (mamata). In this specific quality (rasa) there
is found relationship with Godhead which may be expressed thus, ‘Godhead is
my Master and I am His eternal servant 5 . However excellent a person may be
in himself one does not feel any particular concern for him unless there exists
also a definite personal relationship between him and oneself. Therefore
the mellowness of personal servitude (dasya rasa ) is very much superior to that
of impersonal tranquillity (santa rasa). As servitude (dasya) is superior to the
state of perfect unconcern (santa), so also is friendship (sakhya) very much
superior to servitude (dasya). Because in servitude (dasya) there is a thorn in the
shape of distant reverence. But in friendship (sakhya) there is present a great
jewel in the form of confidential relationship. Can there be any doubt that he is
the greatest among servants who possesses the confidence and is, therefore, as
it were, a friend, of his Master? In the mellowness of friendship (sakhya
rasa) there are present all the values of the mellowness of unconcern and
servitude (santa and dasya rasas). Just as friendship (sakhya) is higher than
servitude (dasya), in like manner parental affection (batsalya) is superior to
friendship (sakhya). This is self-evident. Of ah friends the son is the most liked
and is a source of far greater happiness In the mellowness of parental affection
(batsalya rasa) the constituent values of ah the four mellownesses (rasas) are
combined. Although the mellowness of parental affection (batsalya rasa)
appears to be so superior to all the other mellow qualities (rasas), it appears very
insignificant by the side of the mellowness of the sweetness of amorous love
(madhura rasa) There are many things that have to be kept outside the
relationship of parent and child, but not between husband and wife Therefore, if
the subject is very closely considered, ah the preceding mellownesses (rasas)
will be found to have attained their perfection in that of amorous love, as
between husband and wife (madhura rasa).

If we consider the history of these five distinctive mellow qualities (rasas), it is
clearly perceived that the mellowness of the tranquil state (santa rasa),
first appeared in this world in India. When the soul was not satisfied by
sacrificial rites by means of material objects those who professed the doctrine of
the highest spiritual good, such as Sanaka, Sanatana, Sananda,

Sanatkumara, Narada, Mahadeva, etc., renouncing all attachment for the material

world, experienced the mellowness of tranquillity ( santa rasa ) by being
thereby established in the Super-soul. Long after this the mellowness of
servitorship (dasya rasa) appeared as in Hanuman, the ruler of the Kapis. The
mellow quality of tranquil spiritual servitude (dasya rasa) spreading gradually,
was most beautifully manifested in the south-western part of the continent of
Asia in a great personage, viz., Moses. Uddhaba and Arjuna, who followed the
king of the Kapis by a long interval, attained to the privilege of the mellowness
of tranquil serving spiritual friendship with Godhead (sakhya rasa) and
preached it to the world. By slowly spreading to other countries this mellow
quality of the love of a friend for Godhead touched the heart of a religious
preacher of Arabia, Muhammad The mellowness of parental affection (batsalya
rasa) appeared in India at intervals in different forms. Of this the variety of love
for Godhead, as of a son for his father, but regarded as the most High and
Mighty Ruler of the world (aisvaryagata), spreading beyond India, fully
manifested itself in Jesus, the saviour of the Jews. The mellowness of amorous
love (madhura rasa), on its first appearance, irradiated the region of Braja.

The permeation of the heart of the individual soul under the thraldom
of worldliness, by the mellowness of tranquil, serving, friendly,
affectionate, amorous spiritual devotion to Godhead, is supremely difficult to
attain, because it is confined only to specially elected and perfectly pure souls
(jivas). The Moon of Nabadwip, Darling of Sachi, with His own associates,
promulgated this most subtle of all mellownesses (rasas). The exquisite
sweetness of this relationship with Godhead has not yet spread beyond India.

Not long ago a Western scholar, Newman, realizing this mellowness (rasa) to a
slight extent, gave publicity to it in England by writing a book on the
subject. The nations of Europe and America have not up till now been satiated
with the sweetness of their filial love for Godhead characterized by
reverence, promulgated by Jesus. It is hoped that by the grace of Godhead, and
at no very distant date, they will begin to taste of the wine of the mellowness of
spiritual amour (madhura rasa), with even greater ardour. It will have appeared
that a particular state of the mellow quality (rasa) first of all makes its
appearance in India and spreads from here to the Western countries, generally
after the lapse of a long period. There is, therefore, according to precedent, still a
short period to run before the mellowness of amorous devotion (madhura rasa)
is fully preached to all parts of the world. Just as the Sun rising first of all in
India gradually illuminates all the countries of the West, in like manner
the incomparable rays of the highest good, at intervals making their
first appearance in India, suffuse the West before many days have passed.

7 The Founder-Acharyas

The contributions of Vishnuswami, Nimbaditya, Ramanuja and Madhva, the
Founder-Acharyas of the four Vaishnava communities (sampradayas) of
the present day, to the cause of theism, are so valuable and so necessary to
know for a proper understanding of the theological position of Sree Chaitanya
that we shall close our brief survey of the historical trend of theistic thought with
a short account of the systems of the four great Vaishnava Acharyas
who preceded Sree Chaitanya.

The necessity of sampradaya or organized community, in the domain of religion,
has been explicitly recognized in the Shastras. The words of Sree Vyasadeva in
the Padma Pur ana on this subject are to the effect that the verbal formulae that
deliver from mental hallucinations (mantrams) are never effective except within
the spiritual community; and the same authority goes on to observe that in the
Fourth (Kali) Age there will be for this purpose four theistic (Vaishnava)
communities (sampradayas) founded by their respective Acharyas, by the will of
Godhead. This is not the advocacy of sectarianism. It upholds the principles of
association and continuity in religious life as against anarchism. If rightly
understood it is the procedure that is naturally followed by all persons who are
sincerely minded, prefer the good law to anarchy and association with good
people to egoistic isolation, and are truly catholic, not merely by profession, but
also in their conduct. Those pseudo-liberals who pose as being above any class
or community, are only anarchists in disguise. The truer instinct of mankind has
always been alive to the fundamental necessity of belonging to a good, z’.e., well
regulated, community.

The four communities (sampradayas) of the Iron Age are connected with the
ancient times by their recognition of the ulterior authority of the eternal ancient
teachers, viz, Lakshmi, Brahma, Rudra and the four Sanas (chatuhsanah),
respectively. The four Founder-Acharyas of the Iron Age professed to preach the
views of those original teachers of the religion. Sree Rudra is the source of the
teaching of Sree Vishnuswami; Sanaka, Sanatana, Sananda, Sanat Kumara, that
of Sree Nimbarka Swami, Sree Lakshmidevi that of Sree Ramanuja Swami and
the four-faced Brahma that of Madhva Swami, in the Iron Age. The original pre¬
historic teachers, who are the ultimate source of the four communities, in the
chronological order of their appearance, are (1) Lakshmi, the eternal and
inseparable Consort of Vishnu, (2 Brahma sprung from the navel-lotus of

Garbhodasayi Vishnu, (3) Rudra sprung from the second Purusha, and (4) the
four Sanas who are the sons of Brahma born from the mind. The chronological
order of the Acharyas of the Iron Age is (1) Sree Vishnuswami, (2) Sree
Nimbaditya, (3) Sree Ramanuja, and (4) Sree Madhva.

Sree Vishnuswami

There are three different Vishnuswamis belonging to the same line. The first of
them in order of time is known as Adi Vishnuswami and also as Sarbajna
Muni. He was born in the Pandya country, the southernmost part of ancient
Dravida in the third century B.C. His name, before he accepted sannyasa, was
Devatanu. He was a tridandi sanyasin and re-established the old institution of
tridanda sannyasa in the Iron Age. We find among his immediate followers no
less than seven hundred tridanda sannyasins who were availed by him for
preaching Vaishnavism against Buddhism. Vishnuswami is sometimes
confounded with Sarbjnatma Muni who was an exclusive monist
(kevaladvaitavadin). The system propounded by Adi Vishnuswami or Sarbajna
Muni is known by the name of .suddhadvaita siddhanta., the pure monistic
doctrine, as distinct from exclusive or pseudomonism.

According to Sree Vishnuswami the individual soul (jiva) is a constituent part of
the Substantive Reality (vastu); the power of the vastu is may a; the activity
of the vastu is the world; none of these being separate from the ‘Vast’.

The first point to be noticed in this connection is that Vishnuswami does not
identify the individual soul (jiva) with the Brahman; neither does he conceive
of the individual soul (jiva) as independent of the Brahman. His metaphor to
bring out the relationship between the two, is that of the sparks of a great fire
and the fire from which the sparks issue. Therefore, in the Scriptures the
individual soul (jiva) has been sometimes called the Brahman, being
qualitatively the same; and in other passages the individual soul (jiva) has been
differentiated from the Brahman. In the next place the world being the activity of
the Brahman, is also real and eternal. The origin and dissolution of the world
as found in the Scriptures, mean its temporary disappearance but not
substantive loss. The world is the unchanged transformation of the Brahman, just
as the different ornaments made of gold are unchanged gold. Godhead,
according to Vishnuswami, is the Embodiment of existence, self-consciousness
and bliss in the embrace of the twin powers of ‘ Hladini ’ (that which delights and
is delighted) and ‘Samvit (that which knows and makes known), as distinct

from the bound soul who is, on the other hand, the source of all misery
and enveloped in nescience. In his state of pure monistic consciousness the
soul (jiva) is established in the relationship of servant to Godhead, which is
the natural condition for the soul (jiva) who in the pure state is a fractional part
of the whole, viz., Godhead. Godhead is the Lord of ‘maya’ the soul (jiva)
is subduable by the deluding or limiting energy (maya). Godhead is self¬
manifest and transcendental bliss. The soul (jiva), although also self-manifest by
reason of his being an integral part of the Whole, is located in the plane of
misery, due to his attachment for a second entity besides Godhead. Godhead is
ever free and never submits to any adjunctive modifications. He is possessed
of transcendental qualities, is all-knowing, all-powerful, the Lord of all,
the Regulator of all, the Object of worship of all, the Awarder of the fruit of
all actions, the Abode of all beneficent qualities and substantive
existence, consciousness and bliss.

Sree Vishnuswami following in the footsteps of Sree Rudra, was the worshipper
of Sree Panchashya (Man-lion). He admits the Bodily Form of Godhead made
of the principles of existence, consciousness and bliss, and the eternal
coexistence of worship, worshipper and the worshipped. In his own words
‘the emancipated also, playfully assuming bodily forms, serve the Lord’. The
main authorities recognized by the Vishnuswami community (sampradaya)
are ‘Nrisimha tapani‘Sreemad Bhagavatam’ and ‘Sree Vishnupuranam’ Of the
works of Vishnuswami himself the ‘sarbajna sukta alone is mentioned.

The Vishnuswami school counts very few adherents at the present day.

Sree Vallabhacharya, although he calls himself his follower, differs in
certain respects from the views of Sree Vishnuswami.

Sree Nimbaditya

Sree Nimbaditya is the propounder of bifurcial monism (dvaitadvaitada ). Sree
Nimbarkaditya appeared in the town of Baidurya-pattan (mod. ‘Munger-pattan’
or ‘Mungi-pattaiT) in the Telugu country. He is known variously
as ‘Nimbaditya,’ ‘Nimbarka,’ or ‘Nimbabibhavasu’ and sometimes also as
‘Aruneya,’ ‘Niyamanada,’ and ‘Haripriyacharya,’. His followers are known as
Nimayets and are different from the ‘Nimanandis’ who profess to be followers of
Sree Chaitanyadeva under His appellation of Nimananda,. Sree Nimbaditya was
an ascetic of the triple staff (tridandi sannyasin ); the line of his
preceptorial succession being (1) Sree Narayana, (2) Hamsa, (3) the

Chatuhsanas, viz., Sanaka, etc. and (4) Nimbadityacharya. Sree Nimbaditya’s
commentary of the Bhasya known as the ‘Vedanta parijata-saurabha’ and there
are also several other works written by him.

The system of Nimbarka holds the ‘heard transcendental sound’ ( sruti ) as the
highest natural evidence of the Truth, and also accepts the testimony of
other Shastras when they follow heard sound (sruti). The source of
Nimbaditya’s teaching is the instruction imparted by the four Sanas to Sree
Narada Goswami in the seventh prapathaka of the Chandogyopanishad, which
may be summed up as follows, viz., ‘that the Puranas are the fifth Veda; Vishnu
is the Lord of all, devotion to Godhead in the forms of firm faith (sraddha) and
close addiction ( nishtha ) is glorified; there is nothing equal or superior to the
love for Godhead; the eternal Abode of Godhead is praised; Godhead is
independent of any other thing; the perfectly emancipated are the eternal
servitors of Godhead and are engaged in eternal pastimes in the region of self-
conscious activities in the company of Godhead; Godhead has power of
appearance to and disappearance from our view; the Vaishnavas are eternal and
transcendental; the grace of Godhead is glorified, etc., etc.’

According to Sree Nimbaditya the individual (jiva) soul and the Supreme Soul
are related to each other as integral part and Whole. The soul (jiva) is
different from Godhead, but not separate. The soul (jiva) is both knowledge and
knower, like the Sun which is self-luminous and also makes visible other objects.
As an infinitesimal particle of consciousness the soul (jiva) is subordinate to
Godhead Who is plenary consciousness. The souls (jivas) are infinite in number.
By reason of his smallness he is liable to association with and dissociation
from bodies made by the deluding energy of Godhead (maya). In the bound state
the soul (jiva) is imprisoned in the gross and subtle physical bodies; in the
free state he is dissociated from them. Souls (jivas) are of three distinct kinds,
viz., those that are (1) free, (2) bound yet free, and (3) bound. There are
various gradations of each one of these. The soul (jiva) is freed from the
bondage of the deluding energy (maya) by the grace of Godhead, there being no
other way.

The inanimate objects are two, viz., (1) time, and (2) deluding energy (maya).
Time is either transcendental or material. The former is self-conscious
and eternal, i.e., undivided into past, present and future. The deluding
energy (maya) is the perversion of the self-conscious (chit), or the shadow of the
latter, and possesses the qualities of the shadow. Divinity is free from defect. The

real nature of Godhead is full of infinite beneficience. Godhead as Krishna is
the highest Brahman. Krishna is the source of all beauty and sweetness.

Attended by His Own Power, the Daughter of Brishabhanu, constantly served
by thousands of intimate female friends (sakhis) who are the extended self of the

Daughter of Brishabhanu, Krishna is the Object of the eternal worship of the
individual soul (jiva). He has an eternal and transcendental bodily Form. He
is formless to the material vision but possessed of form to the spiritual eye. He
is independent, all-powerful, Lord of all, possessed of inconceivable power
and eternally worshipped by the gods such as Brahma, Siva, etc. Worship is of
two kinds, viz., (1) tentative devotion during novitiate, and (2) the highest
devotion characterized by love. The latter is aroused by the practice of nine
kinds of devotion as means, consisting of hearing, chanting, etc.

The Nimbarka community is not mentioned in his works by Sree Jiva Gowami.
He is also unnoticed in the Sarbadarsanasamgraha of Sayana Madhava.

From which it is supposed that the current views of the present
Nimbarka community were not extensively known till after the time of the
author of Sarbadarsansamgraha, or even of the six Goswamins. There is,
however, no doubt whatever that Sree Nimbaditya is a very ancient Acharya and
the founder of the satvata dvaitadvaita sampradaya.

Sree Ramanuja

Sree Ramanuja made his appearance in the year 938 of the Saka era in the
village of Sriparambattur or Sree Mahabhutapuri about twenty-six miles to
the west of Madras, in the family of a Dravida Brahmana. His name, before
he became an ascetic of the triple staff (tridandi sannyasin), as
Lakshmana. Lakshmana Desika accepted renunciation (sannyasa) on the bank of
Anantasar at Conjeeveram invoking grace of Sree Yamunacharya. He soon
became the head of the Sree community (sampradaya) , which had its
headquarters at Sree Rangam. He travelled all over India visiting Kashmir,
Benares, Puri, etc., and established the pancharatrika view (the system of
fivefold knowledge) at all the important centers of religion. We do not intend to
enter further into the details of his wonderful career at this place.

Sree Ramanuja is the author of numerous works, the chief of which are Vedanta-
sara, Vedanta-dipa, Vedartha -samgraha, Geeta Bhashya, Sree Bhashya, etc.

In the Ramanuja community every one is required to undergo purification by the
method of the fivefold purificatory process (pancha-samskara). Even a highborn
Brahmana, according to the Ramanujis, who has not gone through the above
purificatory process, is as much an untouchable as the lowest of the Chandalas,
and a Chandala so purified is held to possess the highest sanctity. In the
Ramanuja community Vishnu is exclusively worshipped and the worship of all
other gods is absolutely forbidden. In this community there is also the institution
of renunciation of the triple staff (tridanda sannyasa).

Sree Ramanuja is the propounder of the view which is known as Distinctive
Monotheism (Vishishtadvaitavada). This view is formally
established scripturally in his commentary on the Brahma-sutra known as Sree
Bhashya.

The system of Sree Ramanuja may be set forth as follows: The Nature of the
Supreme Brahman is unitary. Brahman who is without a second is,
however, possessed of quality. The cognitive principle (chit) and the principle
of nescience (achit) are His quality and body. The cognitive principle (chit)
and nescience (achit) are each of them of two kinds according as they happen to
be either gross or subtle. The subtle cognitive (chit) and non-cognitive
principle (achit), in the causal state, are transformed into the gross cognition and
noncognition as effect. Brahman Who is non-bifurcial knowledge being the
sole Cause, both efficient and material, there exist in Him qualities
corresponding to such activities. The qualities must be considered as qualifying
the possessor of them. Therefore, self-consciousness (chit) and unconsciousness
(achit) are the qualities corresponding to the activities of Brahman as the Cause.
The body is dependent on, is enjoyed and regulated by, its possessor and is also
that by which the latter is known. Self-consciousness and unconsciousness
depend upon, are enjoyed and regulated by, non-bifurcial Brahman, and, as
effect, are the manifestations of Brahman as Cause. There is no such difference
in the individual (jiva) soul as deva, man, etc. It is the soul obtaining
enjoyable bodies, as the appropriate result of his own activities, that makes the
effect known in terms of such bodies. Therefore, devas, men, etc., are only
indications of different activities of the soul. The bodies such as those of devas,
men, etc., are thus modifications or qualities of the soul. The relation in which
the body stands to the individual (jiva) soul is also that in which the individual
(jiva) soul stands to the Supreme Soul. In Distinctive Non-dualism three
categories are admitted, viz., (1) the self-conscious principle (chit) which means
the individual (jiva), (2) the non-conscious principle (achit) or matter, and

(3) Godhead (Iswara), the Regulator of spirit (chit) and matter (achit), Who is
the highest Personality of Narayana. This view categorically denies the
following: Absolute dualism (kevala-dvaita-vada), absolute non-dualism
(kevala-advaita-vada) and attributive dualistic non-dualism (vishista-dvaita –
advaita-vada) .

The self-conscious principle (chit) or individual (jiva) soul is infinitesimal (arm)
as opposed to the greatness of Brahman and is an integral part (amsa) of the
Integer (amsi) or Possessor of the part, viz., the Brahman. This littleness of the
individual (jiva) soul is directly and explicitly stated in the Scriptures as
his specific characteristic. It is an integral part of Brahman, just as his body is
an integral part of the individual soul or as His glow is an integral part or
quality of the fire or the Sun; or as the quality is an integral part of the substance.
The individual soul is of three kinds, viz., (1) bound (baddha), (2)
emancipated (mukta), and (3) eternal (nitya). His proper nature is existence and
bliss and he is cognisable to himself.

As regards the non-conscious (achit), according to Ramanuja it is devoid of
cognition and liable to transformation. It is of three kinds, viz., (1) pure,
e.g., objects in Vaikuntha, (2) mixed, i.e., constituted of the triple
mundane qualities, and (3) insubstantial or time.

Sree Narayana is Godhead. He is distinct from the principle of consciousness
(chit) and non-consciousness (achit) as substance from quality. He is the
only cause of the origin, continuance and destruction of the spiritual (chit)
and material (achit) worlds and of cessation of the cycle of births. He is free
from every imperfection, full of infinite beneficent qualities, the soul of all,
the transcendental Brahman, the transcendental Light, the transcendental
Entity, the Supreme Soul, the only Subject of all Scriptures and the Guide of all
hearts. The nature of Godhead is fivefold, ,viz., (1) the ultimate Reality (para
tattva),

(2) the principle of expansion (byuha tattva) for creation,
maintenance, destruction, for protecting the bound jivas and showing His mercy
to worshippers, as Samkarsana, Pradyumna and Aniruddha, (3) the principle
of the origination of any state (bibhava tattva),viz, Avataras like Rama,

Nrisinha, etc., (4) the inner Guide (antaryami tattva) as (a) the Supreme Soul
Who dwells in the hearts of His servants, and as (b) Narayana with Lakshmi
residing in the hearts of enlightened persons, (5) the principle of symbolic

manifestation (archa avatara) as Conglomerate Embodiment (Sree Vigraha),
Name, Form, etc., worshipped by His servants in accordance with their
respective aptitudes. He seems as if ignorant although All-knowing, as if
powerless although Allpowerful, as if needing help although His wish is ever
fully realized, as if needing protection although the Protector, and as if serving
His devotees although their Master.

Devotion is the proper method of worshipping Godhead, is extremely pleasing,
the only thing needful and is of the nature of a particular kind of
knowledge which produces a distaste for every other thing. Godhead is
attainable by the soul imbued with devotion.

Srimat Purnaprajna or Sree Madhvacharya

Srimat Purnaprajna or Madhvacharya made his appearance in this world in the
Saka year 1040 in the sacred tirtha known as the Pajaka Kshetra situated
about eight miles to the south-east of Udupi Kshetra in South Canara. His
name, before he accepted sanyasa, was Vasudeva. Sree Vasudeva came of a
Brahman family, his father’s name being Sree Narayana Bhatta, who bore the
surname of-Madhvageha due to the fact that one of his ancestors, who was an
immigrant from the country of Ahichchhatra, built his dwelling in the middle
part of the village-settlement. His mother’s name was Vedabati or Vedavidya.
Vasudeva accepted renunciation of the ascetic’s staff (danda sanyasa) from
Sree Achyutapreksha, the disciple of Sree Prajnatirtha, in the line of
Garudabahan, without obtaining the previous permission of his parents, at the
age of eleven, and received the designation of ‘Anandatirtha’, or its equivalent
‘Madhva’. Sree Achyutapreksha at that time happened to be in charge of the
shrine of Sree Ananteswara, situated in the neighbouring village of
Rajatapeethapura. The order of spiritual preceptorial succession, according to the
Madhvas of Rajatapeethapura, of Madhvacharya, is as follows: (1) Sree
Narayana as Hansa, (2) Four-faced Brahma, (3) Chatuhsanah, (4) Durvasa, (5)
Pasatirtha Yati, (6) Satyaprajna, (7) Prajnatirtha, (8) Achyutapreksha, and (9)
Madhva. It is not our purpose in this place to enter into the details of his career
which was long and eventful. Sreemad Madhva was the worshipper of Boy
Krishna, whose holy Form, miraculously rescued from a sinking boat, was
solemnly installed by him at Sree Udupi Kshetra and still receives worship from
the sannyasins, his successors in the disciplic line. Sree Madhvacharya had a
most powerful physique. He journeyed twice to Sree Badarika and visited all the

principal tirthas of India where he preached his doctrines and engaged in
successful disputations with the leading scholars of the rival schools. Sree
Madhvacharya disappeared from this world in the 79 th year of his advent.

Sree Madhvacharya wrote numerous works and established many Maths with
organized service and worship for the purpose of spreading his bifurcial
theistic view. As many as thirty- eight separate works, all in Sanskrit, from his
pen, are still extant. The literature thus brilliantly inaugurated swelled to
immense proportions by subsequent additions of many valuable works by his
successors.

The teaching of Sree Madhvacharya is found summarized in a short verse which
is regarded by the members of the school as giving a correct view of his
position and may be rendered thus: “Divine Vishnu is the Highest of all. The
world is true. Between Godhead, jiva and matter there exists fivefold eternal
reciprocal difference. The jivas (individual souls) are the servants of Sree Hari.
There exists gradation of fitness among jivas. The manifestation of the function
in conformity with the proper nature of the jiva is emancipation (mukti).

The practice of the realized function conformably with the soul’s own proper
nature is pure, unalloyed or causeless devotion. Sound, inference and direct
perception constitute the triple evidence. Sree Hari is the only Object Who is
knowable by the whole body of the Scriptures; or, in other words, realization of
Godhead is possible only by following the path of the heard revealed sound
(srud). ” The whole of this position has been accepted specifically by Sripad
Baladeva Vidyabhusana in his ‘Prameya Ratnavali\ This definitely establishes
the descent of Sree Gaudiya Sampradaya, that follows Sree Krishna Chaitanya,
from the Madhva school and justifies its descriptive title Madhva-Gaudiya (or
Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya) Sampradaya, current among the devotees.

According to Sree Madhvacharya, as has already been stated, Sree Vishnu is the
Highest Entity. Reality is of two kinds, viz., (1) self-regulated and
(2) subordinate. Vishnu is the one perfectly self-regulated Entity. He is the
Abode of infinite, free-from defect, beneficent, qualities. He is all-powerful,
autocrat, the Regulator of the animate and inanimate worlds, from the tip of
finger-nail to the top of hair the holy embodied Form of existence, intelligence
and bliss, cognizant and delighting in His own real nature and without any
subjective heterogeneity. There is no distinction between His body and Himself
as the possessor of body. There is absolute identity between His Body, Quality,
Action and Name. That is to say, there is no dividing line between His Name,

Form, Quality and Activity (Leela). He is Eternal, the Regulator of all, the Lord
of all, Iswara (Ruler) of even Brahma, Mahesa and Lakshmi and for this reason
He is the Highest Godhead, i.e., God of all the gods. He is in every Age and
country the holy embodied Form of the Possessor of all pure energy. Those
persons who notice any distinction or distinction and non-distinction in the
Name, Form, Quality and Activity of the Avataras viz., Fish, Tortoise, etc.,
certainly enter the realm of gross ignorance (tamas). There is no particle of
absence of self-consciousness in Sree Hari. His holy Form possesses hand, foot,
mouth, belly, etc., all those being of the nature of pure bliss. From Him proceed
always creation, stability, destruction, the course of the souls, knowledge,
bondage, emancipation, etc. Divine Vishnu exists eternally as the Archetype of
all individual souls who are His differentiated parts. In other words, in the
realm full of the pastimes of the pure intelligence, an endless series of
differentiated souls from Brahma to the lowest insect endowed with the
embodied forms of the principles of existence, cognition and bliss are eternally
existent. They are the unqualified counterparts of the corresponding Forms of
Vishnu Who, in His eternal and various Forms, is their Archetype. The
individual souls in Vaikuntha are the substantive, unqualified reflections of the
corresponding Divine Forms. Individual souls are differentiated from Godhead.
The soul is an embodiment of the principles of cognition and bliss in a small
measure, which principles exist in their fullest measure in the Person of
Godhead. The material bodies of the bound souls do not correspond to their
original pure spiritual forms, and, therefore, from the nature of the physical
forms of the bound souls the nature of their original forms cannot be inferred.
Sree Hari has two kinds of constituent parts (amsas) viz., (1) differentiated
counterparts, e.g., individual souls (jivas) in Vaikuntha, and (2) undifferentiated
parts of Himself, viz., the Divine manifestations (Avataras), e.g., in the divine
Forms of the Fish, Tortoise, etc. In His pastimes Divine Vishnu manifests
Himself in a fourfold Form, viz., Vasudeva, Samkarsana, Pradyumna and
Aniruddha, for the purpose of such activities as creation, etc. In the Form of
Pradyumna He creates the world, in the Form of Aniruddha maintains, and in the
Form of Samkarsana, destroys it. In the Form of Vasudeva He delivers souls.

The functions of creation and destruction are carried out by Divine Vishnu by
means of gods exercising delegated power, or by the highest grade of souls
exercising similar power. Vishnu as Pradyumna in this manner endows Brahma
with the creative power and as Samkarsana confers on Rudra the power of
destruction. He himself as Aniruddha exercises the power of maintenance, and
as Vasudeva confers deliverance. Divine Vishnu from time to time appears in
this world as Avataras in the Forms of Fish, Tortoise, etc. In the twenty-four

Forms as Keshava, etc., and Vasudeva, etc., He is the Regulator of the gods who
represent the twenty-four principles of the universe, and in the five Forms as
Vasudeva, Samkarsana, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, and Narayana, He governs the
five encasements. He regulates the four states of differentiated souls, viz., (1)
waking, (2) dreaming, (3) sleeping, (4) unbound, in the four Forms of Visva,
Taijas, Prajna and Turiya.. As the Soul and the Soul of souls He is the Regulator
of the gross and spiritual bodies, corresponding to the real nature of the souls
and, remaining manifest in all the limbs of souls as Ananta, He rules over them.
He is the Source Who imparts their initiative to the gods representing the
principles of the universe, and to the different senses. He is not responsible for
the meritorious and sinful acts of jivas to which He employs them according
to their fitness and in exercise of their freedom of will. Although He appears in
the world in the various Forms of Fish, Tortoise, Man, etc., His birth and
activities or bodies are not phenomenal, notwithstanding their material
appearance to the vision of bound jivas. His Avatara are of two kinds, viz., (1)
Embodiments of knowledge, and (2) Embodiments of power. Sree Krishna is the
Appearance (Avatara) of Divine cognition and power in conjunction. In such
Divine Appearances as those of Dhanvantari, etc., Krishna’s power of showing
mercy to His devotees alone is manifest. Sree Vaikuntha is the eternal Divine
Abode of Vishnu. At the beginning of creation the twin Divine Abodes, viz., the
White Island (Sveta-dvipa) and the Divine Seat in the form of Sree
Ananta (Anantasana), appear in this world. Sree Lakshmi is the beloved Divine
Consort of Vishnu. She accompanies Her Lord to this world in His Appearances
and is associated with Him in various Forms with the infinite reciprocal Forms
of her Lord. The different names of Sree Lakshmi are: Sree, Bhu, Durga, Maya,
Jaya, Kriti, Santi, Ambhrani, Sita, Dakshina, Jayanti, etc., each having
distinctive functions. Vishnu creates the material universe at the beginning of
every cycle (kalpa) using the eternal inanimate force, that has no beginning, as
the material cause. This world is neither non-existent, nor false, nor
‘momentary’. The different objects are limited in duration as regards their
existence in their particular forms, but are eternal as regards their constituent
principle.

There is categorical difference (1) between the individual soul (jiva) and
Godhead, (2) between one individual (jiva) and another, (3) between matter and
Godhead, (4) between individual soul (jiva) and matter and (5) between one
form of matter and another form. Sree Madhvacharya accepts this
fivefold difference as real.

Individual souls (jivas) are divided into three classes, according as their original
nature is made of either (1) intelligence and bliss, or (2) of a mixture
of intelligence and joy and misery of ignorance, or (3) of unmixed misery
and ignorance. Individual souls (jivas) are provided with physical and
mental bodies in accordance with their actions of the previous cycle (kalpa), at
the beginning of material creation. Individual souls (jivas) are infinite in
number. One’s proper nature or the capacity of attaining to it, is eternal and
belongs eternally to all individual souls. It is the primal cause of all efforts of
all individual souls. Action (karma), although destructible, is eternal in
the continuity of its flow or sequence. Previously performed activity
(karma), which is without a beginning, is the second cause. There is a third
cause in the shape of the effort at the time of the performance of the act. All
these are subject to Vishnu, Lord of the material energy (maya). In other words
Godhead awards the worldly course of individual souls by means of these three
causes, but they have no power over Him as He is the Lord of material Energy
(Maya). Liberation (mukti) is the realization of their own proper natures by
persons endowed with the luminous, self-expressive (sattvic) quality, on the
dissolution of the symbolic material body, by the practice of devotion. It is not
something adventitious but only the continued establishment of the individual
soul in his own proper nature. The eternal material cases, super-imposed on the
real or spiritual nature of the soul, are two in number, viz., (1) the case forged by
the soul and (2) the envelope bestowed by the material energy of Godhead
(Maya). When Godhead is favourably disposed He destroys completely the
coating of nescience caused by the soul and removes the screen of the material
energy (maya) which is a gift of the Divinity. Thereupon the soul is enabled to
see with his spiritual eye the Supreme Person dwelling in his own heart. The
devotion that is aroused after the beatific vision is the highest or unalloyed,
being devoid of all foreign impulses in the shape of physical activity (karma),
etc. It is only by devotion that the favour of Godhead is attained. This leads to
liberation (mukti), being the attainment of the Feet of Vishnu. This is followed
by devotion in her real, proper form which is not the means but the goal.

The initial stage in the process, is listening with faith to the words of
Scriptures glorifying the greatness of Godhead, from the lips of devotees
(sadhus).

Sree Madhvacharya admits the authority of the triple evidence of (1) direct
perception, (2) inference, and (3) revelation (agama). The last is sub-divided into
(1) those Scriptures that are not made by any person, and (2) those so made. To
the first of these groups belong the Vedas such as Rik, etc., Upanishad, the

formulae that deliver from mental function (mantram), Brahmanas,
the concluding portion of the Veda (parisista), etc. To the second group
are assigned History- (Itihasa), supplementary accounts (Purana),
fivefold knowledge ( pancha-ratra), etc. The Puranas, etc., help in understanding
the real significance of the Vedas. The Puranas are of three kinds, viz., (1)
Sattvika, (2) Rajasika, and (3) Tamasika. The Sattvika Puranas, such as
Sreemad Bhagavatam, etc., are alone admissible as evidence of the Truth. If any
portions of the Rajasa Puranas are in conformity with the statements of the
Sattvika

Puranas those may also be accepted as evidence. Those parts of the Sattvika
Puranas that express ideas contrary to the sattvika view, were intended
for deluding the atheists (daityas), and should not be accepted by
righteous persons. The Tamasa Puranas were concocted for deluding evil-
minded persons (daityas). All Puranas, in so far as they support the sattvic view,
are admissible as evidence. The following views of Sree Madhvacharya are also
interesting. The servant of Vishnu (Vaishnava), the All-pervasive Lord, is the
highest of all animate beings Qivas). The worship of Vishnu alone is to be
performed. All worship of other gods is forbidden. Everything is gained by
uttering the Name of Hari. The Vaishnava, even if he be sprung from a Chandala
family, is the revered of all. Vaishnavas are to be served with zeal and no offense
must be permitted against them. The Brahmana is recognized by
straightforwardness, the Sudra by duplicity of conduct.

Sree Chaitanya is the disciplic successor of Sree Madhvacharya and ultimately
of Sree Brahma, the original Founder after whom the community
(sampradaya) is named as the Brahma Sampradaya. The order of spiritual
succession (amnaya) up to the present time from Sree Brahma, as preserved in
the Brahma Gaudiya Sampradaya, is as follows: (1) Sree Krishna, (2) Brahma,
(3) Narada, (4) Vyasa, (5) Madhwa, (6) Padmanabha, (7) Nrihari, (8) Madhava,
(9) Akshobhya, (10) Jayatirtha, (11) Jnanasindhu, (12) Dayanidhi, (13)
Vidyanidhi, (14) Rajendra, (1 5) Jayadharma, (16) Purushottama, (17)
Vyasatirtha, (18) Lakshmipati, (19) Madhavendra Puri, (20) Iswara
(Advaita, Nityananda), (21) Sree Chaitanya, (22) (Swarupa, Sanatana) Rupa,

(23) (Jiva) Raghunatha, (24) Krishnadasa, (25) Narottama, (26) Viswanatha,

(27) (Baladeva) Jagannatha, (28) (Bhaktivinode) Gaurakishore, (29)

Sree Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Sree Barshabhanavidayitadas. All these
are paramahansas and Sree Chaitanya’s undifferentiated servitors. The writer
is devoid of all aptitude for service and endeavours to have his mind humbly

fixed on the lotus feet of Sree Guru Sree Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur, as
the unworthy object of his causeless mercy and of his associated counterparts.

The views of the four Founder-Acharyas of the respective Vaishnava
communities (sampradayas) briefly noticed above, stand in such close
and organic relation to the teaching of Sree Chaitanya and to one another that
their relationship will be best brought out in course of the narrative and at
the proper place, in the light of the philosophy of Sree Chaitanya which, as I
have already noticed, reconciles, harmonizes and perfects them. For the present
it will be sufficient for our purpose to notice in regard to these four schools
that the system of Sree Chaitanya, although it is identical with none of them,
either wholly or partially admits the special excellence of certain features of
each. Thus, for example, Sree Chaitanya accepts more or less the eternal
specific Form of the Divinity as Embodiment of all-existence, all-knowledge and
allbliss sachchidananda nitya Bigraha) of Madhva, the postulations of
Ramanuja regarding Divine Power, the principle of unalloyed non-dualism and
of Godhead as The All of His Own’ and the eternal dualistic-monotheism
of Nimbarka which last has been perfected by Sree Chaitanya into the
truly scientific Truth of the Doctrine of inconceivable simultaneous distinction
and non difference.

The act of Sree Chaitanya in preferring the Brahma community (sampradaya) by
His entry into it as Disciple, to which Sree Madhvacharya also belongs, to the
other Vaishnava schools, is explained by the fact that the doctrine of unalloyed
differentialism propounded by Sree Madhvacharya which makes the mutual
difference, as between, Godhead, individual soul (jiva) and the material world,
definite and permanent and also recognizes their eternal separate existence,
keeps all individual souls (jiva) most clearly and frankly at a great distance from
the fell disease of absolute monism which is the opposite pole, being the
empirical denial of the essence of all theistic thought passing itself off as theism
to the insidious seductions of which most worldly people are so easily liable to
succumb. We shall return to this important subject in its proper place.

It is the empiricists who are responsible for the origination of the current notion
that theism is a product of a particular stage of material civilization in
its progressive onward march. It will be our purpose to prove in the next
chapter that such a view is opposed to all historical experience. It is no doubt
true that the revelationists do not admit the applicability of the theory of
evolution in its present form to spiritual subjects as it does not recognize the

existence of any other entity except matter and mind. The history of spiritual
evolution is connected with the progress of material civilization correspondingly
and negatively, and not causally, the latter only serving to bring out that aspect
of the former which happens to be the most intelligible to itself at the stage.

This difference is wholly overlooked by materialistic evolutionists and no less by
the so-called critical school of historians who have essayed to treat of
spiritual events. The transcendental aspect of theism is the oldest fact known to
history and, philosophically speaking, is incapable of being evolved out of
the empirical consciousness. The abandonment of no historical principle worth
the name, is involved in the recognition of this fact as a fundamental and
axiomatic truth even on the evidence, although necessarily negative in character,
of our empirical experience as will appear from an impartial consideration of
the historical facts contained in the next chapter.

8 Historical Vaishnavism

The Scope of History does not extend to the transcendental for the simple reason
that History deals exclusively with the phenomena of this world. The historical
view of any Divine event is, under the circumstances, only that of the deluded
soul under the thralldom of the material Energy. It is not its business to deal with
anything that is outside the ordinary sensuous experience of men in general.
Therefore, we cannot expect modern historians, who are limited to the above
view of their function, to sympathize with, or even to consider seriously, the
subject of this work as one that belongs properly to their particular branch of
knowledge. But in spite of this purely secular attitude of modern historians they
have been unable to rule religion altogether out of their subject. There have been
empiric historians who have, in the spirit of specialists, without discarding the
secular outlook which it is really impossible for them to do without denying their
avowed function as investigators of a branch of empiric knowledge, attempted to
isolate and treat ‘exclusively’ of religious history. While professing all due
respect for their methods, without ignoring their necessary limitations, we
propose to employ their method, divested of unnecessary and hostile narrowness,
in this chapter, for the purpose of proving our proposition that the worship of
Vishnu as transcendental Godhead has been prevalent from time immemorial.

It is of course not possible to treat exhaustively in the course of a short chapter a
subject that is both large and, by its nature, controversial. That effort must
be reserved for a separate work. I shall be content in this chapter with supplying
a rough sketch of the account of the worship of Vishnu as it has prevailed
from the earliest times, on the evidence supplied by the religious books directly,
by the course of the evolution of ritual and the activities of
outstanding personalities.

The Rig-Veda is regarded on all hands as being the oldest of the existing books.
The worship of Vishnu is found mentioned in the very first mantrams of
this work, which contain a reference to the Vamana (Dwarf) Avatara of Vishnu.
The beginning of the compilation of the Rik mantrams may accordingly
be considered as at least subsequent to the Vamana Avatara. The subject of the
ten Avataras of Vishnu will be considered from another point of view in the
next chapter. The ten Avataras are mentioned everywhere in the
following chronological order, viz, (1) Matsya (Fish), (2) Kurma (Tortoise), (3)
Varaha (Boar), (4) Nrisimha (Man-Lion), (5) Vamana (Dwarf), (6) Parasu-Rama,

(7) Rama, (8) Balarama, (9) Buddha, and (10) Kalki. When the Rig-Veda was
being compiled the first five Avataras of Vishnu had already taken place.

Objection may be taken to the above on the ground that there is no mention of
the other Avataras in the Rig-Veda, which are mentioned only in the
Puranas which are subsequent to the Vedic period.

The Puranas assumed their present form long after the compilation of the Rig-
Veda. But the original Purannas were written in very old Brahmi which has
survived in the language of the mantrams that have been preserved in the
Vedas while the original books themselves have disappeared completely. The
present Puranas which are in the Sanskrit language were written later and
replaced the older works from which much of their accounts was derived. Many
of the events recorded in the Puranas occurred in the pre-Vedic Age. This is
well known to the critical historians and the subject has been treated with ability
by an English scholar Pargiter, in his recent work ‘The ancient Indian
historical tradition’.

There is another striking point of difference between the Vedas and the Puranas.
The Vedas do not contain really much matter that is of the nature of the
supernatural. They refer to Natural phenomena and display an almost exclusive
attachment to mundane advantages in their prayers to the various gods, who are
regarded as presiding over the different forces of physical Nature. This
naturalistic or materialistic character of the Vedic religion has been noticed by all
Vedic scholars. The singular absence of the really supernatural factor in the
oldest existing religious book of the world has not received sufficient critical
attention. The Puranas are full of the supernatural. To the so-called critical
historian this has always appeared as the special disqualification of the Puranas
as a source for sober history. But this feature is capable of a very different and
far more rational interpretation.

I have already mentioned that the worship of Vishnu occurs in the Vedas along
with that of the other gods. If we direct our close attention to the character of the
hymns of the Rig-Veda we would notice a great difference between the hymns
addressed to Vishnu and those addressed to the other gods. All the hymns,
without a single exception, that are addressed to the other gods, are full of purely
mundane expectations and references. All the hymns, without a single exception,
addressed to Vishnu are absolutely free from all mundane reference. The
worship of Vishnu is absolutely pure. Vishnu alone is Infinite, all the other gods

are limited. Vishnu is also a personal God, as the other gods. The finite gods are
approachable by their worshippers by limited references. But Vishnu
is recognized as unapproachable by mundane reference.

As Vishnu was not available by esoteric efforts, this led to the formulation of the
worship of the other gods. Vishnu was never a god of Nature. The other gods
were gods of Nature. These formed, as it were, the esoteric faces of Vishnu and
were regarded by their worshippers as independent of Vishnu. From the earliest
times the worship of these gods had existed alongside the worship of Vishnu.

The Vedic religion viewed in this light will appear to have been of the nature of a
later reaction against the older pure worship of Vishnu. It is, in fact, the
first movement of the anti theistic thought, of which we possess any written
record.

This establishes the identity of Vishnu, and the worship of Vishnu, of the Rig-
Veda with the Vaishnavism of the Puranas and of the present Age. This fact has
been most clearly established by the Vaishnava Acharyas, within the
narrower historical period, from the time of Adi Vishnuswami onwards.

An attempt was made in the subsequent period to mix up the pure worship of
Krishna with the other worships. This attempt was exposed by the
Vaishnava acharyas who helped to restore from time to time the pure eternal
religion.

Historically speaking, therefore, the anti-Vaishnavite thought is almost as old as
the Vaishnavite, but not quite so old.

The Vedic religion, which, in its fruitive aspect, degenerated into ceremonialism
and aimed solely at trivial worldly advantages, led to a schism in the ranks of the
anti-theists marked by the rise of Buddhism. Gautama Buddha belonged to the
sixth century B.C. Buddha is directly anti-Vedic and himself belonged to the
Vaishnavite school. But his teaching was misunderstood by his atheistical
followers who severed all connection with the chain of the Avataras of Vishnu to
which their Founder had belonged. This explains the philosophical affinity of
extant atheistical Buddhism with the polytheism of the Vedas as expounded by
Sankara, in spite of the traditionally supposed opposition of Buddha to the
Vedas.

The major portion of the Vedas, therefore, constituting what is known

technically as the Karma Kandiya part (i.e. that portion which is devoted
to fruitive activities), is polytheistic or, more truly, anti-theistic. But its ritual
was not exclusively its own. The Yajna. or sacrifice was originally a form
of Vaishnavite worship, but it was subsequently adopted as the basis of the anti-
theistic worship and in that form elaborated into its later complex forms. But the
Yajna itself was not the oldest form of the Vishnuvite worship. The original form
of the Vishnuvite worship was dhyana (i.e. meditation corresponding to solitary
rationalistic worship the term means that mode which is established through
argument). This mode of worship is represented in its pure form by Astabakra. It
became mixed up with mundane references in the later Hatha Yoga. But at first it
was not so. It is the form of worship that corresponds to the inactive or the
meditative temper. This was the earliest theistic form of worship. The Yajna,
‘sacrifice’ was the next stage and represents the active temper. The institution of
yajna developed into that of archana or ritualistic worship. The sankirtana
propounded by Sree Chaitanya replaces archana as the final form of Vishnuvite
worship. This order of development is in accordance with the shloka of the
Sreemad Bhagavatam (Xll-3-52, What is obtained in the Satya Age by means of
dhyana, in the Treta Age by yajna, in Dvapara by archana, may be gained in the
Kali Age by chanting or kirtana of Hari.

The necessity for the preservation of the older Puranas was probably less
imperatively felt after the composition of the Mahabharata in which
were incorporated their principal contents in a condensed form. The present
Puranas derived their accounts mainly from the Mahabharata, with later
embellishments and interpolations. The Mahabharata and the Puranas thus
contain the oldest historical tradition of India which is not in conformity with the
extant portion of the Vedas either as regards their narrative or their religious
tenets. A group of Puranas is specially devoted to the history and doctrines of
Vaishnavism, which also appears more or less in all the Puranas. In this history
is found the supernatural account of the numerous mundane Appearances
(Avataras) of Vishnu.

We have already stated that the hymns of the Rig-Veda that are addressed to

Vishnu, contain no mundane reference. Vishnu is considered as being

outside physical Nature. In the hymns He is also spoken of as the Infinite and the

Divinity in His fullness and perfection. As He happens to be Infinite He is also

to be worshipped not by any limited reference but infinitely or by the fullness of

His worshippers. But although Vishnu is thus believed to have been

situated beyond this universe, His occasional ‘descent’ or Avatara into this nether

world, was also known to the Rishis of the Rig-Veda. The fifth of the well-
known ten Avataras of Vishnu, is actually mentioned in several passages of the
Rig-Veda. The Vamana Avatara of Vishnu appears to be nearest to the Age of the
Rig-Veda and might have preceded its compilation by an interval of time which
was sufficiently short to allow its impression to persist in the memory of those
who were not very keen regarding His worship. Vamana is the last Avatara of
Vishnu in the Satya Age.

The fact that the accounts of these Avataras of Vishnu that are found in the
Pur anas, happen to be supernatural need not prejudice us against
their authenticity. Such a procedure will lead us to taboo the Bible and the
Koran and Sree Chaitanya Charitamrita and to court the misfortune of leaving
out of the consideration of history the substance of religion or to misstate it
as unhistorical, thereby condemning the subject of History itself to the class
of purely atheistical studies, and, therefore, fit to be shunned as tainted
by partisan bias against Godhead or even as a snare, by all theistically
disposed persons. History would indeed be incomplete, unwholesome and
meaningless if it left out the all-important subject and stunt itself to the purely
mundane aspect of our experience, under the untenable, mischievous and
atheistical plea of scientific necessity.

But the mundane and the spiritual should of course be kept rigorously separate,
as they really are so by their nature. Mundane matters should certainly
be represented as mundane. They should not be allowed to pass in the name of
the spiritual. This is the eternal line of demarcation that separates the material
from the spiritual, i.e., the temporary and the untrue from the eternal and
the absolutely True. If the office of the historian be to investigate into the
Real Truth he cannot possibly find Him if he rigorously confines himself to
the manipulation of untruth for his own particular satisfaction. By adopting such
a procedure he will fail in his duty towards his subject, towards himself
and others. Therefore, the very first thing which he ought to do is to abandon
once for all the so-called critical, or as it too often means, the sneering and
worldly, attitude towards the supernatural for the utterly foolish reason that it
does not obey those narrow canons gratuitously set up by himself and which
are inapplicable to the Truth by being willfully based on the principles of
limited space and time and an insatiable desire for the attainment of
worldly advantages.

If this reasonable attitude of our natural partiality for the Real Truth, is adopted,

our eyes would open of themselves and begin to distinguish between the grain
and the chaff in the treatment of the history of the world. When the Vaishnava
Acharyas declare that the only way, in which the individual soul engrossed in the
materialistic outlook (bound jiva), can get rid of his ignorance of the Real Truth
Who alone matters, is the constant perusal, listening to and contemplation of the
supernatural Activities of the Descents (Avataras) of the Divinity, with faith and
reverence, they do not refer by these terms to the erroneous concoctions of the
human imagination but to the only history of the Divinity that is alone true in the
judgment of those who are acquainted with it, both by realization in their life and
by the study of the history of the truth. The objection that what is supernatural
cannot exist at all under the conditions of time and space and, are, therefore,
unreal and fictitious, is also contradicted by the actual experience of mankind
who have, in the teeth of such objections, always believed in such happenings
for the sound reason that nothing should be impossible with Godhead.

Once the force of the above argument is really admitted we are immediately
relieved of the illogical bias that leads us to declare that history does not
prove that the supernatural had ever happened at all. We should rather say that
the supernatural never appeared as such to the blinded vision of unbelievers
who have always formed the majority, as they do now, in this godless world.

But such was the inexplicable force of those very, supernatural events that
their reality was admitted by the best, i.e., by unworldly and pure minds of all
Ages, and, on their authority, they have continued to be believed generally,
although crudely, by all overwhelming majority of the peoples of all subsequent
Ages.

Mahabharata — The prejudice of the critical school is due to its failure to
distinguish between the supernatural and the unnatural or anti natural. This has
led to the adumbration of the doctrine of miracles. The Divine law is
never broken and is sufficiently capacious to accommodate within itself with
perfect consistency both the natural and the supernatural. Those who suppose
that they can detect a breach of the Law on the part of Godhead for the purpose
of convincing (?) unbelievers, are sadly deluded, indeed. The
supernatural happens to be supernatural because it is above or beyond the natural
or limited. Anything that is limited, whether it is called a ‘miracle’ or by any
other name, cannot be anything but limited. And for this reason the supernatural
lies beyond our present limited understanding. The Avataras of Vishnu belong
to the category of the supernatural and cannot be perceived by any of the
senses or be apprehended by the materialized understanding if such Avatara

or Vishnu’s descent into the finite world takes place even before our very eyes
and in these days of the noon-day light (or darkness?) of almost
unqualified empiricism.

It is not the paucity of materials, which exist and have existed in abundance from
the remotest antiquity stored up in the pages of the innumerable Scriptures, that
is the difficulty of the historian of theism. The difficulty is to convince the
sophisticated reader regarding its proper place in History.

Before the advent of Buddha the Vaishnavite or theistic thought had already been
recorded in a vast literature. The older Pur anas still existed and the Mahabharata
had been recently compiled. The Vedas in their Samhita portion could not avoid
all reference to it and the Upanishads are altogether theistic, containing, as they
do, the rich harvest of the realizations of the Age of contemplation. The
Vaishnavite thought maintains its distinctive character in the sutra period and the
Grihya and Sautra sutras are full of Puranic matter. These together with the
Tapanis and the Vedangas, which had their theistic group of works, formed the
source from which the Vaishnava Acharyas have drawn their materials from the
third century B.C. onwards within the comparatively recent period of recorded
History.

The present classical Sanskrit language came into use about four thousand years
ago. It rendered obsolete the older works and replaced them by books written in
the new language.

Anti-Vishnuvite thought is as old as the beginning of history. The Avataras of
Vishnu are declared to have been due to the prevalence of atheism. The portions
of the Vedas devoted to the cult of fruitive works, as we have already observed,
belong to the anti-Vishnuvite school under the garb of friendly coexistence. This
is an ordinary and very old rule. On the side of philosophy we find a continuous
development of atheism which runs parallel to the Vishnuvite thought and
culminates in the atheistical schools of the subsequent period under the garb of
Scriptural sanction. This mixing up of theism with atheism in the Scriptures
themselves, is quite natural and is due to the cunning of a group of intellectual
atheists.

But within the atheistic camp this caution was not observed by all. Buddha was

opposed to the fruitive yajnas of the Vedas and was Himself a

leading Vishnuvite having been recognized as the ninth ,Avatara of Vishnu by

the theistic school. But his pseudo-followers, misunderstanding the anti-
Vedic attitude of their Master and by abusing the method of abstruse
discussion which He had employed against the sophists, drifted into nihilism
which was by that time a recognized body of opinion handed down by a regular
chain of former teachers. The active impulse which had produced the yajna form
of worship was restated by Buddha to counteract its abuse at the hands of
the fruitive school of the Vedists, so as to include ethical conduct. But
Buddha’s followers separated ethics from its theistic purpose and applied it in its
purely mundane form to the attainment of a negative spiritual result.

This misunderstanding the active principle underlying the method of
worshipping Godhead by yajnas practiced by the early theists, by those who
professed to follow Buddha, was fraught with far-reaching consequences to
humanity from the effects of which the modern world is still grievously
suffering.

Just as the intellectual distortion of the principle underlying yajna led to the
atheistical ethics of the pseudo-Buddhists, a somewhat similar distortion of
the principle underlying Vishnuvite archana led to the development of the cult
of the Jains.

The archana as the method of Divine worship was elaborated in the Agama
consisting of its twenty-four Samhitas. The Vedas are in old Sanskrit and
were for that reason called the Nigama. The Agama was so named as having
been written in the then new language to distinguish it from the Nigama.

The Vishnuvite Agama bears the name of Pancharatra . The Pancharatra
contains the rules for the regulation of the spiritual life of the Vaishnavas. These
are the sattvika Tantras. There are also rajasa and tamasa Tantras.

The term Pancharatra means that which contains knowledge about the five
subjects, viz., tapa, pundra, nama, mantram and worship. It is the sattvata
or Vishnuvite Tantra. The term Tantra, which means that which elaborates,
is ordinarily applied to the rajasa and tamasa Tantras. The Pancharatra
instructs regarding the application of those theistic principles which are declared
in the spiritual portion of the Vedas, illustrated concretely in the narratives of
the Puranas and collated in the Sutras.

All those are the extensions of the real Veda. If the Veda is conceived as a person
the Upanishads may be regarded as his intellect and the Vedangas as
his different organs for the performance of his function (karmanga). The

Vedangas are six in number, viz, (1) Siksha, i.e, intonation, (2) Kalpa, i.e.,
procedure, (3) Nirukta, i.e, dictionary, (4) Vyakarana, i.e., the science of sound,
(5) Jyotisha, i.e, astronomy including astrology dealing with space, time and
direction, and (6) Chhandas. These furnished the starting point of the various
physical sciences of the subsequent rationalistic Age in which there was a great
advance in practical facilities of all kinds.

The aphoristic literature which took upon itself the collation of the Vedangas, led
to the Grihya and Srauta sutras, the forerunners of the Pancharatra or
the Tantra literature.

The Dharmashastras or Smritis belong to a later period. The twenty
Dharmashastras which are also divided into the sattvika, rajasa and tamasa,
are concerned with the regulation of the whole life of individuals. The
sattvika smritis, viz. , those of Vashista, Harita, Vyasa, Parasara, Bharadvaja,
Kasyapa, are categorically distinguished from the rest. The clue to this
distinction is furnished by such old shlokas as state definitely the principle that
the king possessed the authority to frame laws for the regulation of the secular
affairs of the people but had no power over the Brahmanas and the Vaishnavas.
“Sarvatra skhitadesah sapta-dwipaikadandadhrik Anyatra brahmana
kuladanyatra chytagotratah (Bk. 4XXI.12.) The rajasa and tamasa
Dharmashastras were made by royal authority and are of a miscellaneous and
secular character. They had no jurisdiction over the intellectual communities.

The Dharmashastras do not belong to the class of revealed literature. The
Pancharatras bear the names of persons to whom they were spoken by Narayana
and are in the form of conversations between Siva and Parvati.

The Pancharatra s are thus an authoritative expansion and supplement of the
Veda (Truth or Absolute knowledge ) in the same way as the Puranas. There
are very early statements in the body of the technical Vedic literature itself to
the effect that the Puranas are an integral part of the revealed literature.

Those passages have been pointed out by the later Vishnuvite Acharyas. It
is specifically stated in the Mahabharata and by Manu that the Veda should
be supplemented by the ‘Itihasa ’ (History) and the ‘Purana ’. Because the Veda
is supplemented by the Purana, therefore the latter is called ‘Purana ’.

The Madhyandin Smriti classes ‘Itihasa’, and ‘Purana’, with the Vedic
Samhitas, as forming the body of the revealed literature.

The principal sattvata, i.e., theistic or Vishnuvite, Pancharatra or Tantric, works

are the Hayasirsha, Prahlada and, especially, Narada, Pancharatra. The names
of the six sattvata Puranas are Vishnu, Narada, Bhagavata, Garuda, Padma
and Varaha. The six rajasa Puranas are named Brahmanda,

Brahmavaivarta, Markandeya, Bhabishyat, Vamana and Brahma. The tamasa
Puranas are Matsya, Kurma, Linga, Siva, Skanda and Agni. The sattvika
Puranas are stated to confer emancipation, the rajasa lead to paradise, and the
tamas to hell. This principle holds in regard to the Tantras. The distinction
between sattvika, rajasika and tamasika shastras is also defined in another way.
The sattvika shastras are those that establish that Godhead is full of all the
Qualities and is the Highest of all. Those shastras that declare the superiority of
Brahma, Agni and Saraswati, are rajasika. Those that state the superiority of
Siva and recommend the Sivalingam as object of worship, are tamasika Tantras.
Sattvika persons worship Vishnu, rajasika persons Brahma and the tamasika
worship Rudra (vide Padma and Garuda Puranas). The superiority of the sattvika
Purana. is nowhere explicitly challenged.

The position we have reached so far may be summarized as follows. Godhead is
the Divine Person who is supernatural, supersensuous and situated beyond
the utmost limits of empiric knowledge. Knowledge is of two kinds, viz., (1)
para, i.e, transcendental or absolute, and (2) apara, that is, non-final. Rik,
Saman, Yajus, Atharva and Siksha, Kalpa, Vyakarana, Nirukta, Chhandas and
Jyotisha, etc., and all those branches of knowledge that follow these, belong to
the category of the apara-Vidya. But Godhead is never accessible to this
limiting knowledge which is subject to modification by time. The shastras in
which the Unchangeable and Absolute Entity is the subject-matter of
investigation, belong to the category of ‘para-Vidya’. The sattvata shastras
belong to this class.

Thus theistic knowledge is found to be present, only to a very slight extent, in
the extant Vedic Samhitas and their adjective literature. The originals of
those parts of the Vedic works from which the sattvata Puranas once derived
their theistic accounts have almost wholly disappeared in course of time,
having become obsolete, probably on account of the Sanskritization of those
works in the form of the present Purana Therefore, the present Puranas,
although they happen to he in modern garb, preserve the theistic tradition, the
Vedic or old linguistic sources of which are for some reason or other not
available to us at present. But the narratives contained in these Puranas belong
to a period that is also anterior to the period of the compilation of the Rik
Samhita by an immense interval of time Among the Sutra works we are

fortunate in possessing a few that are theistic, viz. those made by Sandilya,
Bharadwaja and several other Rishis. The Bhikshu Sutra and Karmandi
Parasariya Sutra were written long before the V^asa Sutra. The bhakti sutras
became current at the time of the composition of the present sattvata
Pancharatra works. The sattvata sutras are composed in a way that is different
from that of the rajasika and tamasika Tantras. The lines of thought designated
as Bhagavata, Vaishnava, Naishkarma, Baikhanasa, Pancharatrika, etc., were
prevalent in the pre-Vedic period. Thereafter, when the theistic thought suffered
a partial eclipse by the preponderance of philosophical schools that were
addicted to materialistic methods, the old theistic tradition was revived in the
form of the present Puranas.

The atheistic rationalism which subsequently culminated in historical Buddhism,
was already in existence as early as the period of the Nrisingha and Vamana
Avataras. Henotheism and pantheism of the Vedic and cognate schools present
the poly-theistic or positive aspect of this line of thought which is negatively
represented by historical Buddhism and Jainism and later in a marked form, by
Sankara who recognized and clearly brought out the philosophical affinity
between the two branches of the same line of thought and thus re-established
friendly relationship between the two groups

This atheistical pseudo-rationalism in its palmy days also coincided with the
period of the triumphs of the Indian intellect in the different fields of
empiric knowledge. This would not appear to be very- wonderful if we consider
the present state of affairs in Europe. The Protestant movement degenerated
into commercialism and the almost exclusive pursuit of material well-being
which has given its secular tone to present western society. Great material
prosperity is not a necessary indication of progress in spiritual science. Devotion
to material facilities may be rewarded by success which, if it be not controlled
by a clear spiritual purpose, may be of the nature of a nemesis to confirm
the successful person and community in their unspiritual course The salutary
aim should be not merely to juxtapose the two but to subordinate the material
to the spiritual. This has never yet been practically possible in the world.

Indian thought may be the subject of study in both its theistic and atheistic
aspects under which latter is included, unfortunately, its secular systems.

Those who lament that the absence of material prosperity of India today is due to
its exclusive spiritual pre-occupation, may do well to take note of this. The
theistic thought proper cannot be subordinate to the aim of material

improvement. The two do not equate at all, being on different planes. A
community that adopts the theistic course will be purified in its morals,
improved in unity, and direct all its energies to those activities that are conducive
to spiritual progress. It will be contented and orderly in all its parts in as much as
it will have a common objective which is situated outside the limits of all
clashing, temporary interests. There should be no limited, conflicting interests in
a community regulated by the higher principle. Such a society will possess all
the requisites of spiritual well-being which will prevent it from being disturbed
by the operation of any unbridled disruptive ambitions of its constituent units.
The nature of the ideal of one universal community will become clearer as
the spiritual position itself clarifies in course of this narrative. It is,
however, necessary to guard against possible misconception at the outset in view
of current and deep-seated prejudices against religion for purely worldly reasons.

The political greatness of Magadha belongs to the Age of the progress of Indian
empiric knowledge. The Puranas lament the final corruption of politics in
the hands of the ‘upstart’ kings of Magadha who favoured the
indiscriminate subordination of the spiritual to the secular authority in defiance
of the methods of the theistic periods. Under the kings of the dynasties of
Magadha Buddhism became the official and the predominant religion of India.
But India progressed materially. Secular progress also characterized Indian
society under the Gupta Emperors who belonged officially to the henotheistic
cult of panchopasana or the worship of five principal gods, viz., Sakti, the
Sun, Ganapati, Siva and Vishnu.

This worship of five gods ( panchopasana) is the religion of the large majority of
the ‘Hindus’ of the present day and requires a few words of comment as
regards its origin and character and its place in the general scheme of
religious evolution.

This worship by the fivefold orthodox Hindu community, corresponding to the
five gods, viz., the Saktas, Sauras, Ganapatyas, Saivas, and
henotheistic (panchopasaka) Vaishnavas, has prevailed in India from the
remotest antiquity.

The tendencies of the human mind are of two kinds, viz., (1) those that are
directed towards material objects, and (2) those that are turned towards
the highest good. From the first of these issue such activities as those
undertaken for the nourishment of the body, the building of a home, marriage,

production of offspring, the pursuit of different secular studies, the earning of
wealth, physical sciences, arts, government and the accumulation of merit by
good deeds, etc., etc. Many of these worldly activities of men are identical with
those of the lower animals; but the purposive utilitarian efforts of man are
superior to similar instinctive endeavours of the lower animals. But men, even
although they may carry on all efforts and acts conducive to worldly advantage,
are considered to be only two-legged animals unless they make an attempt to
place themselves under the guidance of their spiritual nature. The function of
the pure soul is the natural religion of all animate beings. In the natural state
the function that is proper to the soul is fully manifest. In the bound state
this natural function, or religion, is reduced to the form of ‘quest’ after the
highest good. The worldly activities already mentioned attain their fulfillment
only if they are performed in subordination to the spiritual purpose; otherwise
they fail to establish the highest position of man. Therefore, the first appearance
of the effort for the highest good, differentiating itself from the exclusive
pursuit of worldly interests, may be termed as a slight turning toward Godhead.
From this stage to the highest spiritual state there is all infinity of gradations.

The Sakta religion is the name of the search of Godhead in the material world. In
this religion material Nature is observed to be recognized as the
supreme Regulatrix of the world. The customs and practices that are enjoined in
the Sakta religion (dharma) are suitable for the stage of slight Godwardness.

In reward to worldly people who have not yet begun to inquire after the
highest good the customs recommended by the Sakta dharma may prove
attractive and help to bring them over to the principle of the summum bonum.

The religion that worships material energy is, indeed, the first spiritual effort of
the bound soul and is extremely beneficial for people situated at that stage.

When the Godward tendency has acquired strength, in the second stage of
advance, the superiority and efficacy of heat among material objects
being noticed, the Sun as the source of all heat is accepted as the object of
worship. This leads to the origin of the Saura cult. Subsequently, when even heat
also comes to be regarded as material and lifeless, the principle of animation
is recognized as superior to it and gives rise to the worship of Ganapati,
who represents the principle of animality. This is the third stage. In the fourth
stage, the pure human consciousness comes to be worshipped as Siva and gives
rise to the Saiva creed. In the fifth stage appears the Vaishnava religion or the
worship of the Supreme Soul as different from the fractional soul of the
individual.

The religion that seeks the highest good is naturally divided into the above five
grades. Therefore, in all countries these five religions have been prevalent in
the different periods under different names. If we consider all the different
religions that are current in this and other countries they can be put under one or
other of the above classes. The Christian and Muhammedan bear a strong
affinity to the Vaishnava religion of the henotheistic (panchopasaka) school.
Buddhism and Jainism are similar to the Saiva cult. This is the scientific
explanation of the differences between the different religions. Those who regard
their own particular religion as the only true religion and stigmatize other
religions as irreligion or pseudo-religion, are disabled by such prejudices from
ascertaining the real Truth. As a matter of fact, having regard to the different
stages, the respective religions should be considered as really different. But the
religion that is natural to the soul is only one. In the graded condition of
humanity it is not the duty of those who look to the essence of the matter to
ignore this inevitable gradation of religion. In undertaking this discussion of the
natural religion of the proper self of all animate beings we have no desire
of withholding regard that is due to the respective grades of the different
religions, in their natural and scientific order of precedence.

The eternal (sattvata) theistic function (Vaishnava dharma) is the only religion
(dharma) that is proper to the soul; or, in other words, it is the eternal religion of
all animation. But the Vaishnava religion that is found to exist in the community
which professes illusionism (mayavada) is only a caricature of the religion of the
pure soul. The so-called Vaishnava religion of the henotheistic (panchopasaka)
school when it becomes free from mundane references, that is to say, from
illusionism (mayavada), thereby attains to the nature of the eternal function
(sattvata dharma). The distinction due to Dualism, Dualistic-Dualistic-non-
Dualism, Absolute Monism and Distinctive Monism, professed respectively by
the four theistic schools of the pure Vaishnavas, are merely indicative of
the diversified character of the Vaishnava thought itself. This difference of
school (sampradaya) is not due to any real difference of principle, Mayavada is
the one creed which is really opposed to the principle of devotion.

Those Vaishnavas who profess Mayavada are not theistic Vaishnavas at all.

The religious systems educed out of the perception of physical Nature, always
fortified themselves by reference to old precedents and the Veda or the
revealed Word. The philosophical systems which assumed their regular form in
the sutra period, elaborated in the commentaries, furnished them with ready¬
made arguments, justifying their particular methods of worship and doctrine.

All these were interconnected by their unity of outlook which was mundane
and with the fruitive works and the gods and goddesses of the
karmakandiya portions of the Veda and of the Tantras that were not spiritual.
This is the tangled web of the current religious (?) life of India. It possesses an
external appearance of being based upon the general body of the Scriptures of
this country although showing a variety of faces that are by no means
easily reconcilable with one another. Any systematic friendly treatment of
current Hinduism is the despair alike of historians and philosophers. But in spite
of their absurdities, their materialism which is often frankly explicit and
their want of internal homogeneity, they have always impressed both outside
and inside critics as presenting only the exterior or the covering matter that
hides the sterling truth lying buried underneath. There are real grounds for
such suspicion.

We have dealt elsewhere with the non-theistical philosophical systems which
arose during the sutra period or the beginning of the rationalistic Age and
also with the Buddhistic and Jain systems. The philosophy of theism was
collated in the Brahmana sutra, known also as the Vedanta sutra. The Brahmana
sutra produced its commentators through the agencies of both the theistic and
non-theistic schools. The most famous, and one of the earliest extant,
commentary belonging to the latter class, is that of Sankaracharya in which he
expounds the Vedanta sutra with wonderful dialectic skill to prove the exclusive
monistic view. Armed with this, Sankara, by appealing to the Authority of
revealed theism, succeeded in patching up an apparent reconciliation among all
the warring non theistic creeds by throwing over them the deceptive coating
of Illusionism and winning over even the followers of Buddhism, who had
till then been openly hostile to the Vedic tradition, within its roomy fold.
Although the other rival philosophical systems were not altogether driven out of
the field and even continued to inspire the various non-theistic creeds, the
superior logic of the system of Sankara secured more or less the approval of all
non-theistic cults, especially as it tolerated and supported the practices of all of
them, differing apparently only in regard to their methods in pursuance of
the common end to be attained by those methods.

The effective and uncompromising opponent of Sankara was the Vishnuvite
thought itself which could not be stamped out by Sankara. The commentaries of
Sankara were refuted by Sree Ramanuja and Madhvacharya who re-stated
the theistic position by carefully exposing the errors of Sankara and laying bare
his real object, which was different from his profession. Under the guise of

loyalty to the revealed Word (sruti) Sankara proved even a greater enemy, on
account of his profession of loyalty, of the theistic thought which was the
real philosophy of the revealed Word, than even its open foes.

The Vishnuvite thought had been vigorously reinforced by the compilation of the
two great epics, viz., the Mahabharata a and the Ramayana which in
their present forms contain a good deal of interpolated matter. The process
which was in progress, of rewriting in the new Sanskrit language the contents of
the older original books, furnished the opportunity, which was not missed by
the opponents of the theistic thought, of consciously, or unconsciously
importing into the Vishnuvite Narrative of the Epics a good deal of the thoughts
and ideas of the other creeds. The Mahabharata was at once recognized by the
Vishnuvite teacher as the text-book of their religion. The significance of the
Teachings and Activities of Sree Krishna was, however, most fully and clearly
brought out in Sreemad Bhagavat Purana which devoted itself exclusively to the
task of finally separating the grain from the chaff and presenting the history of
theism in its unadulterated and highest form of perfection embodied in the
Teachings and Activities of Sree Krishna. Sreemad Bhagavatam is the gathering
up and the final and complete statement of the theistic position successively
revealed in course of the Ages.

There is a class of thinkers, who without belonging to the school of successively
heard transcendental sound, affect to value a religion in proportion to the
antiquity of its origin. Revelation, according to such people, even if it were
admitted as a true fact, by way of argument, could have taken place only in very
remote times or at the very beginning of creation, and is, therefore, necessarily
enshrined in the oldest (?) of all the extant Scripture, viz, the Rik Samhita. On
this ground they are not disposed to regard as belonging to the class of revealed
Scriptures any works that in their estimation appear to belong to an Age later
than the Vedic. This view is directly opposed to such statements as that the Rik
Veda itself is outside ‘Brahma Vidya ’ or ‘para Vidya the knowledge of the
Absolute. We have tried to explain the significance of such and similar
statements that refuse to let the Brahman as transcendental Sound to be labeled,
catalogued and finally closed in the manner that the physical scientist would like
to do according to his limited notions that refer exclusively to the finite objects
of this world. The ‘Word of God 5 is not anything that is capable of being limited
by space and time. That is also the reason why we are told that it is not possible
for us to have any idea of Him except by the process of revelation. That which is
unrelated to this world cannot be known by any kind of mundane reference,

gross or subtle, physical or mental. Such prejudices, which the impartial voice of
logic emphatically condemns, should be completely eradicated if we really want
to acquire the spiritual perspective proper.

The Puranas, in their spiritual significance, are eternal. They are accordingly
spoken of as appearing and disappearing, in accordance with the strict logic
of unadulterated theism. The Age or country or person to which they choose
to appear, does not in the least affect their eternal character. They are neither
old nor new but eternal, i.e., situated beyond the scope of past, present and
future. Unless this is remembered no one need pretend that he really
accepts, tentatively or even for the sake of argument, the logical implications of
theism. The esoteric side which alone is present to the view of limited minds
represents the misleading view of the Absolute. This esoteric vision requires to
be temporarily discarded in order to be able to loyally follow a theistic
narrative that is derived from unimpeachable sources and for that reason alone
entitled to such hearing from every one of us, for our own benefit.

In the light of the above observations it is possible to understand the meaning of
those passages of the Scriptures that try to define the position of
Sreemad Bhagavatam It is the only uncontaminated source of the revealed
religion in its purity and completeness, available to us. Sreemad Bhagavatam is
the explanation of the Brahma sutra; it settles the significance of the
Mahabharata; it is of the nature of the commentary of the formula for delivering
from worldliness (gayatri), the transcendental Sound Who is, as it were, the
germ of all knowledge regarding the Absolute; and is the fulfillment of all
the statements of the Vedas. The substance of all the philosophy of the Vedas
is called Sreemad Bhagavatam. Suka churned the butter from the curd of the
four Vedas and Parikshit ate of the same. After Sree Krishna returned to His
own Abode the Sun in the shape of this Purana has arisen of late for
the enlightenment of the blinded souls of this Age of discord’ The position of
the Sreemad Bhagavatam as being the premier among the sattvata Puranas
is attested by various passages in the different Puranas.

The historian who maybe obsessed by his partiality for antiquity, being so
wedded to the cult of time and space as to be unable to live in the
pure atmosphere that is free from those dark vapours of this mundane world,
should do well to take the help of those philosophers who possess a longer vision
than his and who may warn him against riding an old error too hard as it is
bound to expire in the process, if, indeed, it be his purpose to preserve it for

the particular benefit of nobody.

This is so as regards the so-called historical position of Sreemad Bhagavatam.
The nature of the actual contents of this unique work cannot be indicated in
a few words. By the side of the revealed Word the Avataras of Vishnu constitute
a Source of transcendental knowledge forming the truly historical
manifestation of the Word of God. The Word of Godhead tells us about
Godhead, His Activities, Qualities, Abode and Servitors. The Avataras are the
descent of these into this world in a shape that is visible to all of us in the forms
of apparent mundane occurrences, by reason of the mundane nature of our
present vision. The revealed Word is explained and corroborated by the narrative
of the deeds of the Avataras. If the gayatri is comparable to the first appearance
of the bud, Sreemad Bhagavatam is like the full-blown flower, being the inspired
narrative of the successive Avataras of Vishnu, culminating in the advent of Sree
Krishna Himself, into this world.

Sree Krishna Chaitanya’s career and teaching offers the illustration of the
Vaishnava religion in its highest development. The sankirtana of
Krishna propounded by Sree Chaitanya is the highest form of worship of this
religion, being equivalent to the loving service of Sree Krishna, as practiced by
the milkmaids of Braja, the form itself being the method as well as the object of
this transcendental worship. The nature of these will be explained in course of
the narrative.

But we would avail of this opportunity to ask the reader not to accept the current
practices of the pseudo-followers of Sree Chaitanya in Bengal and elsewhere as
the religion taught by Sree Chaitanya. We would also request him to forget what
is offered in the pages of certain modern writers as the so-called history of the
movement. Both are concoctions of the imaginations of people who are
themselves utterly ignorant of the transcendental nature of the spiritual function.
Such travesty of the Truth as is offered by the pseudo-Vaishnavas and empiric
writers, is the necessary consequence of attempting to practice and explain the
religion by worldly people, in as much as its nature cannot be understood by the
limited intelligence of persons leading a worldly life who may give themselves
out to be the followers of Sree Chaitanya or who may be betrayed by their self-
sufficiency born of utter ignorance to undertake to write its history. We may
quote again the dictum of Sree Chaitanya, which is so apposite in this
connection, viz. ‘no one is fit to teach the religion who does not practice it
himself.’

The psilanthropic (prakrita sahajia) cult passing under the name of
Vaishnavism, is allied to the practices of those who follow the teaching of
the tamasika Tantras. This class of Tantras, which had their zealous followers in
the tracts of Chittagong (ChattogRama), led in those parts to the practice
of revolting sexual excesses in the name of religion, and from there the
contagion was carried to different parts of the country which also had their own
tamasika Tantrikas by whom they were welcomed. This feature of decadent
Buddhism is quite well known. The natural transcendental function (aprakrita
sahaja dharma) that finds expression in the genuine poems of Chandidas
and Vidyapati, which were approved by Sree Chaitanya, belongs to the category
of unalloyed devotion to Godhead. But those songs that now pass under
the names of Vidyapati and Chandidas have suffered interpolation and alteration
in the hands of the sensualists of former and present generations. The
sensual feature is altogether absent from the practices recommended by Sree
Chaitanya both by His own conduct as well as by His teachings. But many
pseudo-sects that profess at the present day to be the followers of Sree Chaitanya
try to pass off the sensual cult as the religion of pure love for Godhead taught by
Sree Chaitanyadeva. The congregational chanting (sankirtana) as performed by
these pseudo-Vaishnavas is nothing but a musical dissipation that falls in with
their other taste for unbridled sexuality. It will appear in its due place in
this narrative that the congregational chanting (sankirtana) propounded by
Sree Krishna-Chaitanya is something that is altogether different, both as regards
its method and object, from what now ordinarily passes under its name. In
the concluding chapter of this work we will return to the details of the history
and shall try to supply the reader with the real account of the development
of pseudo-sankirtana among the sensualists. The process of misrepresenting
the pure Vishnuvite religion by pseudo-followers and opponents in the
various forms of pseudo-Vaishnavism and non-Vaishnavism, which operated
with such signal consequences in the past, have not been less active during the
four centuries that have elapsed since the disappearance of Sree Chaitanya,
to obscure and misrepresent the religion of pure love for Godhead, taught
and practiced by Him.

The history of India, written too exclusively by ethnologist and archaeologists,
has left out of account the factor that really matters, viz., the substance of
its spiritual culture which possesses a continuous and recoverable history.

Much work for the elucidation of the religious history of India has been done
by foreign empiric scholars whose judgment cannot, however, be relied upon
in essential matters which are doubly opposed to their experience and local

mode of life. The ‘Orion’ of Balgangadhar Tilak made a nearer approach to the
true method. But Tilak was swept off his legs by his association with
physical efforts, to the detriment of his intellectual and theological speculations.
Those who are sincerely anxious to work in the field of spiritual culture must
first of all get rid of all lesser considerations than the Absolute Truth, both in
their intellectual and worldly lives, as ‘he alone is fit to be a teacher of the
religion who also practices the same’.

The History of India of the pre-Christian period is still enveloped in the darkness
of obscurity. But from the mediaeval period we are on firmer ground. There is no
lack of materials from firsthand informants in writing the life of Sree Chaitanya.

I shall conclude this chapter with a few words of observation on the system of
caste. Sree Chaitanya is wrongly supposed to have been an opponent of
the caste-system. As a matter of fact Sree Chaitanya kept strictly aloof from
secular society and politics. He never encouraged social rupture in any form.
Spiritual society, according to Sree Chaitanya, is only camp-life. Theists alone
are in a position to live such a life. Sree Chaitanya called into Himself
particular individuals from all ranks of the then existing society. He formed the
spiritual association of such individuals. His householder-followers did not bring
over the members of their households, nor their relatives, into the religion. It is
not a hereditary community that can be formed on the spiritual basis. It was
also, therefore, a proselytizing religion in its external appearance. Several of
its leading Acharyas came from the lowest ranks of the orthodox society or
even from outside. Thakur Haridas was a Muhammedan by birth.

The subject of ‘varna’ hinges on the answer to the question “Who is
Brahmana ?” There are numerous passages in the Scripture which contain a clear
answer to the question. There is a long discussion on this point in
the Vajrasuchikopanishad which, after rejecting for different reasons answers
that identify the Brahmana with (1) the individual soul himself, the physical
body, (3) the species, (4) the cognitive principle, (5) the principle of activity,
arrives at the conclusion that the Brahmana is the possessor of certain qualities.
‘He knows the real nature of the self and by reason of such knowledge
remains always free from any defects due to greed, anger, etc., is possessed
of equanimity and self-control, is uninfluenced by caprices, malice, thirst,
desire or infatuation, with mind unaffected by arrogance, egotism, etc. This is
the purpose of the Sruti, Smriti, Itihasa and the Puranas. No other view
of Brahmanaism tenable, In the Chanddogya Upanishad we have the

following, “Gautama said,, ‘Fairlooking one, to which lineage (gotra) do you
belong? 5 ” He answered, “I do not know to which gotra I belong. I asked my-
mother. she said to me, ‘In my youth in course of ministering to many persons,
as their servant, I begot you as my son. I do not really know to which gotra you
belong. My name is Jabala. Your name is Satyakama. 5 1 am thus Satyakama
Jabala. 55 To this Gautama replied, ‘Child, the truth which you have spoken
cannot be given out by any one who is not a Brahmana . Therefore, are you
Brahmana. I accept you, good-looking one; collect the requisites for the
performance of the formal rites of the occasion. I will admit you as pupil for the
study of the Scriptures. (I will invest you with the sacrificial thread of a
Brahmana.) Do not fall away from the truth. 5 This attitude of Gautama is thus
described in the Saman Samhita, ‘In a Brahmana straightforward sincerity and in
a Sudra crookedness respectively, are to be found. Haridrumata Gautama by
considering this difference of quality bestowed on Satyakama the right of the
Brahmana to study the Scriptures (upanayana), or purification by the gayatri.’ “
‘We do not know whether we are Brahmanas or non-Brahmana s, 5 this doubt
arose in the minds of the truth-loving Rishis 55 (text of the Sruti quoted by
Nilakantha). In the Geeta Sree Krishna says, “I have created the four varnas in
accordance with difference in the qualities and works of different persons.
Although I am the Lord, know Me as not the Creator of those institutions. 55 That
is to say, the institutions of ‘varnd and ‘ashramd are created by the deluding
energy of Godhead Who in His proper Nature is indifferent to them. In the
Puranas and Mahabharata there are long lists of persons who acquired the status
of Brahmana s although they were not born in Brahmana families. The principle
Underlying the institution is stated most clearly in a shloka of the. Mahabharata
(Anusasana parva, 143—50, 51) which may be rendered thus, ‘Birth,
purificatory ceremony, the study of the Vedas or descent,—none of these is the
cause of the status of the twiceborn; one’s disposition is the only cause. If a
Sudra is found to possess the proper disposition, he attains to the condition of
the Brahmana ., This britta-Brahmanata, or Brahmana hood by disposition, is
the real principle underlying the division into varnas, and is attested by
numerous passages that are to be found in all the Scriptures. While there is not a
single passage which declares that Brahmana hood is due to birth alone, there
are other passages which declare the inevitable loss of the status of a Brahmana
and lapse into that of a Sudra with deterioration of disposition.

In the case of the Brahmana there are three births. The first of these is the
seminal birth on coming out of the womb of the mother. After the
upanayana (bringing of the boy to the preceptor, i.e, entrance into pupilage for

Vedic studies) the second birth takes place; and, thereafter, on the attainment
of initiation into the sacrifice, the third birth occurs (Manu, 2/260). Thus there
are three kinds of birth, viz., (1) seminal (shaukra), (2) through gayatri
(savitrya), and (3) through initiation (daikshya). This is expressed by the word
tribrit which means these three kinds of birth. If a person, born in a Brahmana
family, remaining ignorant of the Veda, or the Truth regarding the Divinity,
manifest extreme arrogance on the strength of his possession of the sacrificial
thread, by right of seminal birth, for such sin that Brahmana is designated by the
name of ‘animal’ (pashu) (Atri Sarnhita, shloka 372). According to Manu, 2/168,
the twice-born who, without devoting himself to the study of the Vedas,
applies himself to other matters, becomes thereby a Sudra even during his
lifetime with his whole family. The Padma Purana defines the term Brahmana
bruva (pseudo -Brahmana). “The Brahmana who after undergoing purification
(?) by the tenfold samskara does not perform either the eternal (nitya) or
adventitious (naiimittika) functions, is called a ‘Brahmana-bruva\ That twice-
born person who having undergone niyama, brata and all the samskaras does not
yet perform any of the duties enjoined by the Vedas, is a Brahmana -bruva
(pseudo -Brahmana ). If a person, who has obtained purification (samskara) and
the sacrificial thread, neglects the regular performance of duties that are
enjoined and does not study the Vedas, he is to be considered a Brahmana-bruva
(pseudo -Brahmana). He who does not himself study the highest Veda-shastras
nor teaches them to disciples, although such a person may happen to possess
the tenfold samskara (purification), is nevertheless a Brahmana bruva (pseudo-
Brahmana ).” This is confirmed by Kulluka Bhatta in his remarks on Manu, 785,
“the person born of a Brahmana family who, although devoid of
the performance of the duties proper for a Brahmana , passes himself off as
a Brahmana, is designated by the term ‘Brahmana-bruvd (pseudo-Brahmana
),” etc., etc.

The position is thus summed up in a shloka of the Sreemad Bhagavatam (7-
1135), ‘by- those signs that have been enumerated, which indicate the respective
varnas of men, the varna of a person is to be settled.’ This is corroborated
by Mahabharata, Sand parva, 189-8. The varna institution as found in
the Scriptures is an individualistic classification of man according to
disposition. The necessity for such institution is thus stated, ‘Divine Vishnu is
worshipped by a person who practices the functions ( dharma ) enjoined by the
institutions of varna and asrama. There is no other way of pleasing Him than by
such activities as are enjoined by the institutions of varna and asrama. In the
Satya Yuga there was only one varna. The division into four varnas was made in

the Treta Age. In the Kali Age cannibals (rakshasas) are born in the
Brahmana families for troubling those whose tenfold purification (samskara),
pursuit of Vedic studies, etc., have lost their vitality.’ Accordingly ‘as in the Kali
Age Brahmana s by seminal birth do not possess any purity and are like the
Sudras they are not purified by following the Vedic path. They are purified by
the pancharatric method alone’. ‘Because just as by some particular
chemical process the bell-metal is transformed into gold in the same way by the
sattvata Tantric diksha (elaborated spiritual initiation) every one is enabled to
acquire the nature of a Bipra .’ The words of Digdarsini, quoted by Sree
Sanatana Goswami, declare that the status of a twice-born belongs to all men
after initiation.

Initiation (diksha) is of two kinds, viz., (1) Vedic, and (2) in conformity with the
Vedas. Of these the second is again of two kinds, viz., (1) Pauranic, or
(2) Pancharatric. The difference between them consists in this that the
Vedic diksha is the initiation of the duly purified twice-born considered as a
fit person for receiving spiritual enlightenment. The Pauranic diksha is
initiation of an unfit person on the assumption of fitness. The Pancharatric
diksha is the initiation of an unfit person with the object of ensuring his fitness.
Of these the Vedic initiation is ruled out as inadmissible in the Kali Age. Sree
Haribhaktivilas gives the preference to the Pancharatric (tantric) diksha over
the Pauranic. The diksha of Sudras formulated by the smtartas, who belong to
the creed of the panchoasakas and who favour exclusively the principle of
seminal descent, is not entitled to be called diksha in any sense. At the time of
Sree Chaitanya the Pancharatric diksha alone was in use as the Panchopasaka
(i.e , atheistic) smartas had not been able to obtain such a great influence over
society by that period as they have now. The subsequent disuse of the
Pancharatric diksha by the so-called Vaishnava Acharyas of a later day who
were under the thumb of the smartas, will be described in due course.

Diksha is so called by savants well versed in the knowledge of the Divinity
because it confers the spiritual knowledge (i.e., the knowledge of
one’s relationship with Godhead) and destroys sinfulness with its root-cause.’
The upanayana corresponds to matriculation or admission into the path of the
true knowedge. the diksha corresponds to graduation, i.e., the actual attainment
of the enlightened state, or, according to the Pancharatric method, its
actual attainment in the future if the conditions enjoined by the process are
fulfilled. One becomes a Brahmana on the attainment of such knowledge. It is
this spiritual status that is referred to in such passages as in Brihad., 3-9-10,

‘Gargi, he who having known the Divine Truth thereafter leaves this world is
alone a Brahmana/ and Brihad., 4-4-21, ‘the intelligent Brahmana having learnt
about the Brahman from the Scriptures will endeavour to cultivate love for
Him,. Thereupon he is called Vaishnava, as being related to Vishnu. The
Vaishnava is thus higher than all the varnas. The condition of the Brahmana is
included in and surpassed by that of the Vaishnava.

Britta-Brahmana ta (the status of the Brahmana by disposition) is the condition
precedent to the attainment of the higher status of the Vaishnava or servant
of Vishnu, in accordance with the teaching of the Scriptures. The status of
a Brahmana resting on seminal birth alone is nowhere mentioned in
the Scriptures. One of the very first steps that is required for the re-establishment
of the spiritual (daiva) varnasrama institution is to make britta-Brahmana ta
the legal institution in order to ensure its practical recognition as the
genuine Scriptural institution by all communities and the re-establishment of
this proper gradation in the Vaishnava communities (sampradayas). The form
of britta-Brahmana ta is prevalent in the Ramanandi community. It is the basis
of the arrangement laid down in the Satkriyasaradipika.

The Brahmo movement, which at one time applied itself to the reform of religion
in Bengal, has now become almost a purely social movement and has cut itself
completely away from the revealed Scriptures. Its founder Raja Rammohan Roy
became latterly inclined towards mundane facilities. It is such worldly
considerations that also lie at the root of the subsequent split in the Brahmo
community. The intellectual vigour which at one time distinguished the
community has practically left it and gone over to the Theosophists who
are careful not to commit themselves in spiritual matters to anything definite.

The position of the Theosophists is the intellectual counterpart of the social ideal
of the Brahmos to which the latter attach supreme importance. The Brahmos
want to do away with caste, as it stands in the way of mundane facilities.

But organized society is in every sense better than indiscriminate individualism.

The Brahmo program offers only the individualistic in place of the communal.
All mundane systems have their special defects. No real progress towards
the spiritual state is possible by the adoption of such a course. What is needed
is not to ignore the spiritual, and substitute in its place the material and
worldly, but to acknowledge the spiritual and try sincerely to follow its lead in
arranging our temporary affairs of this world.

The one method of attaining to the spiritual is by listening to the history of
Godhead Who frequently comes down into this world in order, by His
activities made visible to this world, to afford the bound jivas the opportunity of
having the transcendental in the very- midst of the mundane. Such history
is necessarily unintelligible to the bound jiva and, therefore, it has to be
listened to from the lips of sadhus who can alone understand and properly
expound it. By listening constantly to the narrative of the transcendental
pastimes of the Divinity recorded in the Scriptures from the lips of sadhus who
themselves live the spiritual life bound jivas are enabled gradually to attain to
the consciousness of their real spiritual nature.

In the next chapter we intend accordingly to present the reader with a brief
explanatory account of the Descents (Avataras) of Godhead. After one’s spiritual
nature is freed from the delusions of this material world he is in a position to
understand what the service of Godhead really means. The life of Sree Krishna
Chaitanya Who is the living Embodiment of the very highest form of service,
cannot be really intelligible to bound jivas unless they are prepared to undergo
spiritual novitiate at the feet of real devotees in the manner prescribed by the
Word of Godhead and exemplified in all its stages, from its first beginning to the
highest development, in the life of Sree Krishna Chaitanya. This is the truth of
the life of Sree Chaitanya. It is indispensable to the bound jiva to be properly
acquainted with it if he is disposed to attain to and continue in the state of the
pure service of Godhead. The one thing needful for us all is, therefore, to listen
to the Divine history from the lips of sadhus, to chant the same and to act in
strict conformity with its teaching after the manner taught by and exemplified in
the life of Sree Krishna Chaitanya.

9 History Of Divine Descents (Avataras)

This term ‘Avatara, means ‘coming down’ of the Divinity, Whose Nature is
purely spiritual, into this material world, retaining fully. His own transcendental
Nature. Therefore, the English word ‘Incarnation,’ which means putting on of
the material coil, is wholly inapplicable to the process. When Godhead actually
chooses to come down into this world He appears to the view of bound jivas as
an animate being possessed of a physical body not essentially different from that
of other bound jivas. But Godhead although He appears to them to belong to this
world, does not really belong to this world at all. The deluding Energy of
Godhead, who is instrumental in the creation of this world of limitations as the
dwelling-place of individual souls that are averse to Godhead and who stunts
their vision, has no power over Godhead Himself. Godhead is the Lord of the
deluding Energy who is different from His spiritual Power. The deluding Energy
herself is subordinate to God’s own spiritual Power. The Form and everything
pertaining to the personality of Godhead, belong eternally to the category of the
spirit and are located above and beyond the jurisdiction of His illusory power.
But in spite of the existence of eternal demarcation between Him and the realm
of His deluding power, Godhead chooses to come down occasionally into the
realm of physical Nature in the plenitude of His spiritual Power with all His
eternal Paraphernalia and becomes actually visible to bound jivas in whose sight
He seems to appear not as spirit, because the spiritual essence transcends their
power of vision, but in the likeness of a mundane phenomenon. The eternal
servitors of Godhead who also appear in this world in His company, may alone
have the sight of Him and His Activities as They really are. These manifestations
of the Absolute, as Absolute, in the domain of this relative existence, are
designated by the term Avatara,.

In the Geeta Sree Krishna says to Arjuna that He comes down repeatedly into
this world and in this respect resembles the bound jiva who is caught in the cycle
of physical birth and rebirth. But there is a very great difference between the two
processes. Sree Krishna is the Lord of all, has no physical birth and as regards
His proper Nature He is absolutely unchangeable. He appears in this world
through the medium of His spiritual Power. But the jivas are born in this world
being endowed with physical bodies for the purpose by the power of
the deluding Energy (maya sakti) as the result of their active aversion to
Godhead. The Appearance of Godhead in this world in various forms, such as
those of gods, reptiles, etc., is brought about by His Own Will. When He chooses

to come down into this world His pure spiritual Body does not become
enveloped in a double encasement of matter in the gross and subtle forms as in
the case of the bound jiva. Godhead is simply pleased to make manifest in this
world His own eternal spiritual Body that exists eternally in the Absolute Realm
of Vaikuntha. If this appears incomprehensible to the limited reason of the
bound jiva it is so for the reason that the Power of the Divinity is inconceivable
and above all controversy. Therefore, the real nature of the Activities of
Godhead are not at all ascertainable by the reason of the jiva. What the jiva
can understand, if he chooses not to be perversely inclined, is that Godhead,

Who is possessed of inconceivable Power, never becomes subject to the laws
of physical Nature. The deluding power by which the bound jiva is controlled
is also Divine. But the Divine power that belongs to Godhead is
nevertheless always spiritual and is categorically different from material Energy.
The Power of Godhead is one. As spiritual Power alone She is eligible to
directly serve Godhead. As material Energy She has no access to the presence of
Her Lord. The material Energy is subordinate to the spiritual Power, as shadow
is subordinate to substance or as darkness to light. It is the function of the
nonsubstantial deluding material energy to provide souls that are averse
to Godhead with a shadowy world for their deluded existence.

The only law that governs the Descent (Avatara) of Godhead into this world is
the Divine Will. Godhead appears in this world when He wills. He chooses to
appear in this world whenever there is any unbearable decline of religion leading
to the prevalence of irreligion. The laws that govern the course of this material
world, as they proceed from the Will of Godhead, are irresistible. But in course
of time when for some undefinable reason those laws suffer a change for the
worse, due to defects bred by time, irreligion waxes strong. No one except
Godhead Himself is able to set right those defects.

Therefore, appearing in this world with His spiritual paraphernalia, the Supreme
Lord puts down all such abnormal deterioration in religion.

Godhead manifests Himself in a twofold way. The creation of the spiritual and
non-spiritual worlds and the regulation of them by inviolable laws, is one of
these. The Activities of Godhead, as distinct from His creations, in these created
worlds, constitute the second kind of His manifestations. Individual souls (jivas)
are associates of the activities of Godhead. The successive manifestations of
Godhead that appear to the view of the jiva in the material world, correspond
respectively to those states that he happens to be in as the result of his meddling

with matter, such activity itself being due to his falling away from his own
proper spiritual nature by the prevalence of his desire for selfish enjoyment. His
Infinite Kindness towards the fallen soul, is the only cause of the manifestations
of Godhead in this world. These manifestations are called Divine Descents
(Avataras). From the stage that is anterior to the appearance of the spine in
organisms to the appearance of the fully-developed man several great Rishis
have recorded their observation of eight successive Descents of the Divinity,
others have noticed eighteen, and a third group have observed twenty-four,
Divine Avataras. The well-known view of the Ten Avataras is the one that is
held by most Rishis who were versed in Divine science. Those Rishis postulate
ten particular states through which the soul passes successively from the
beginning to the end of each stage of his bondage. These are indicated by (1)
absence of the spinal column, (2) appearance of the circular spine, (3) the
elongated spine, (4) the vertical spine or the man-animal state, (5) the man of
dwarfish stature, (6) man in the savage state, (7) civilized man, (8) intellectual
man, (9) ultra-intellectual state, and (10) complete destruction of the unspiritual
state. In accordance with these successively appearing historical states in the
evolution of the bound state of the jiva, the ten Avataras, viz., Fish, Tortoise,
Boar, Man-Lion, Dwarf, Parasu Rama, Rama, Balarama, Buddha and Kalki are
observed as the corresponding Forms of the Divine Appearance. The narrative of
Their Supernatural Activities is recorded in the Puranas and specially in
Sreemad Bhagavatam. Those specialists of the science of devotion, who have
understood the nature of these Divine manifestations by means of intensive
concentrated investigation, have, by the grace of Sree Krishna Chaitanya, been
enabled to realize the Truth regarding Krishna and specially the unique
exquisiteness of His Braja-pastimes. ‘Of all the pastimes of Krishna His human
activities are the highest and His proper nature and His proper Form is the
Human.’

The Descent of Divine Spiritual Power into the realm of the material energy, or,
in other words, the manifestation of Godhead’s own spiritual Power in
the apparent form of the manifestation of material Energy, is known as
Divine Descent (Avatara). By means of such Descent the association of the
novice, on the path of spiritual life in this world, with the realm of the spirit, is
effected and such association is the only way by which the person practicing
spiritual endeavour (sadhaka) is enabled to attain spiritual realization.

It will be observed that the account of the ten Avataras that correspond to the
respective stages of the human mind in the course of the development of

its spiritual consciousness, has been explained by means of terms that
have recently been employed in the domain of physical science in connection
with the evolution of the human physique from the first beginning of animal life
in the amoebae. From this apparent analogy the modern reader may scent, in
the explanation recorded in the Scriptures, an unacknowledged and
crude misapplication, to an irrelevant subject, of the truly scientific theory of
the evolution of the physical form of animal life. Or, if he is at all inclined
to recognize the priority of the Scriptures, he may be also led by a
foregone conclusion to suppose that the Myth of the, Avataras might be
connected with those periods that correspond to the respective stages in the
evolution of the animal form, and are of value as a piece of antiquarian curiosity
as a vague anticipation of the modern theory, that might have served its purpose
in the past. Or, again, the doctrine of the tenfold Descent may lead the reader
to suppose that it refers in some way to the progress of material
civilization culminating in the elimination of all unspiritual elements in an ideal
future ensured by the progress of physical scientific knowledge.

In reply to such speculations we refer to the principles that have already been
discussed at some length, viz., that the Descents (Avataras) of Vishnu are neither
physical phenomena nor have They any reference to the progress of material
civilization. But although the spiritual is eternally and categorically different
from the material it can be described to those who are totally unacquainted with
its nature only by analogy with, and by means of terms that actually-refer
exclusively to, the mundane. This analogy is however not wholly inapplicable
only if it be clearly and constantly remembered as an analogy and not as the
spiritual entity itself that is analogically described. The individual soul in the
bound state has to pass through forms of deluded existence that correspond
analogically to the physical bodies with which he is successively endowed for
the purpose. Those forms themselves are, however, material, and signify a
progressive development of the functions of the incipient principle of the
adventitious life of the false-ego of the bound jiva There is a regular chain of
physical and mental progress (?) on the mundane plane for the bound jiva. This
progress, however, derives what deceptive appearance of reality it seems
to possess, from its being really the perverted reflection of the Absolute. But in
as much as it happens to be a deluding reflection of the Reality it reproduces in
an unwholesome and distorted form the features of its corresponding
spiritual condition, which latter is the subject-matter of the history of the ten
.Avataras. Godhead exists in all the forms in the realm of the Absolute that are
reproduced in the distorted material phenomena of this universe. In the region of

the Absolute there really exist eternally all varieties of jivas; and Godhead
Himself is there eternally manifest in all those Forms. The adventitious physical
form of the jiva in this world is material and limited ; but the corresponding
spiritual forms of the transcendental world, are eternal, unlimited, self-conscious
and free from all defects. The varieties of the forms of this world owe their
relative existence, being related as shadow to substance or as darkness to light,
to the real entities of the transcendental plane. The ordinary fish of the
transcendental plane is not merely superior to the Darwins of this world but His
nature is realizable by a process that is only obscured by those very notions with
which the physical form of the fish has been endowed by the mental speculations
of the Darwinian science, however applicable these speculations may appear to
us to be in respect of the evolution of the principle of life of this world. Man
as fully evolved animal in the Darwinian sense, is too perverted a creature to
be reclaimable by the Form of Vishnu as Fish and hence the necessity
of progressively fuller manifestation of the Divinity for curing the evils of
a progressively retrograding world.

These Descents, or manifestations of the Divinity in this world, take place in all
Ages in accordance with the spiritual aptitude of the particular forms of material
animation to whom They choose to appear. India has been the chosen land where
in all the Ages the Descents (Avataras) of the Divinity have taken place. Indians
have been fitted by the Will of Godhead, by their spiritual varnasrama
institution to deserve this special favour.

Sree Krishna is the Own Self of the Absolute Reality, Godhead Himself. If
Godhead simultaneously manifests Himself in many places and if
those manifested Forms happen to be equal to their source in respect of
their Qualities, Activities, etc., those Forms are designated as prakasha
(manifest) murtis (Forms) of Godhead. There is usually no qualitative difference
as between these manifest Forms and the Form That is their Source. As
for example, on the occasion of His marriage Sree Krishna at one and the
same time married, in qualitatively same but numerically different manifest
forms, sixteen thousand consorts ; and, on the occasion of the Rasa-pastime,

He appeared simultaneously in the company of every one of the gopees as
His partner in the dance. On the Rasa Site of Braja the manifest Forms of the
fullest Source-Form made their appearance and in the city of Dwaraka, on
the occasion of His marriage with His Consorts, the Forms that
manifested themselves were Those identical with the full Source-Form. No
difference was observed to exist between those manifest Forms and the Source-

Form. But we also hear of particular Forms of direct manifestation for special
purposes and in those manifestations there are also observed differences as
regards the Form. As for instance, in the Son of Devaki we find the four-armed
Form. In this instance in spite of this difference in the Form the principle of
direct manifestation is admitted. This also holds true in other similar instances.
All these are Prakasa-Murtis of Sree Krishna or Godhead Himself.

Next to the above are Tadekatmarupas. These are Divine Forms that are
essentially identical with that of Godhead Himself. These may accordingly
be called Forms that are included in the nucleus of the Divine Form but are
slightly different as regards Their figures from Godhead’s Own Form. These
constituent Forms are of two kinds according as They happen to be either (1)
Forms for expanded Activity (bilasa), or (2) constituent fractional Forms
(svangsa). Of These He Who possesses powers that are nearly equal to those of
Godhead Himself, is called Form for extended Activity (bilasa), e.g., Sree
Baladeva and Sree Vaikuntha-Narayana. He Whose powers are less than those
of the form for extended Activity, is called the constituent fractional Form of the
Divinity, e.g., the Forms of Fish, Tortoise, etc.

Next comes the manifestation of Divine Descent in the form of inspiration. He is
called Divinely inspired into whom any one of the powers of the Divinity
is transfused. Such inspiration occurs only in the case of the highest
individual souls (jivas) . Divine inspiration is of two kinds according as the
inspiration proceeds from Godhead Himself or from the Power of Godhead. The
individual soul (jiva) who is inspired by Godhead regards himself as the
Divinity. He who is inspired by Divine Power considers himself as the servant of
Godhead. Vyasadeva and Rishabhadeva, etc., are inspired Avataras.

Next come those Avataras who are mainly of three kinds, viz., (1) Purushavatara,
i.e, Descent of Godhead as Master, (2) Gunavatara, i.e., Descent of Godhead as
the Manifestation of any Divine Quality, and (3) Leelavatara, i.e., Descent for
the manifestation of Transcendental Activities. Of these the Avatara of Godhead
in exercise of His Supremacy is of three kinds, viz., (1) the Person who watches
and guides the inmost purpose of primordial physical Nature, creates the
material principle itself and reposes in the liquid of the Causal Ocean without
directly interfering in any phenomenal occurrences. Samkarsana and Maha-
Vishnu are other Names of this first of the Purushavataras. He is a constituent
Plenary Subjective Portion of Samkarsana Who is the second of the constituent
enveloping Forms of Sree Narayana, Lord of Vaikuntha. (2) The second

Purushavatara controls from within the aggregate universe in its subtle stage, is
the Creator of Brahma and reposes in the spiritual liquid in the womb of physical
Nature. He is subjective plenary Portion of Pradyumna, the third constituent
enveloping Form of the Lord of Vaikuntha. (3) The third Purusha guides the
material universe in its constituent parts, that is to say, is the Controller from
inside of individual jivas, as the Supreme Soul and reposes in the Ocean of Milk.
He is the Plenary Subjective Portion of Aniruddha, the fourth of the constituent
enveloping Forms of Sree Narayana.

There are three Gunavataras, viz., Vishnu, Brahma and Siva. The third of the
purushas mentioned above is the same as Vishnu Who is the Maintainer of
this world by exercise of the quality of cognitive manifestation ( sattva ).

Brahma, sprung from the navel-lotus of Vishnu, is the creator by means of the
active (rajas) quality and is only another aspect of Vishnu. In certain Kalpas
(i.e., regime of Brahma) jivas, as the result of their previous performance of
pious deeds that make them fit for such distinction, may hold the high office
of Brahma, the creator. Brahma of this type, by reason of the fact that the
Divine Power is infused into a jiva, is also called inspired Descent (Avatara).
Such a Brahma should not be regarded as the equal of Vishnu. In those Kelps in
which, due to the absence of jivas of requisite fitness, Vishnu Himself plays the
role of Brahma, it is only then that Brahma should be viewed as the equal of
Vishnu. This principle holds in the case of all the gods who exercise any
authority over Nature, such as Indra, etc. They are sometimes jivas, possessed of
special fitness, invested with the Divine power, and sometimes they are
Vishnu Himself. From the lowest to the highest region of the universe the
aggregate of all material objects forms the gross body of Brahma. This also is
called Brahma. The second Purusha who guides the inner workings of this
aggregate is their Lord or Isvara. Siva is the destroyer by means of the tamas
(stupefying) quality. Brahma, who is sprung from the navel-lotus Vishnu, effects
the destruction of the world by assuming the form of Siva. In certain Kalpas
pious jivas also hold the office of Siva, the destroyer. In certain Kalpas again
Vishnu Himself performs the act of destruction in the Form of Siva. These
destroyers are all called Gunavataras. But He Who exists in the realm of Siva
(Sivaloka) inside Vaikuntha as Sadasiva, is not Gunavatara. He is devoid of
worldly qualities and, like Narayana, is a Manifestation, constituent Form, or
Plenary Subjective Portion of Sree Krishna Himself. Sadasiva stands to Siva in
the relation of the whole to the derivative portion, is higher than Brahma and is
equal to Vishnu. He is differentiated from jiva by the fact that the latter is
engrossed in worldly qualities.

Next in order are the Leelavataras. These are twenty-five, viz., Chatuhsana,
Narada, Varaha, Matsya, Yajna, Nara-Narayana, Kapila, Datta,

Hayasirsha, Hamsa, Prisni-garbha, Rishabha, Prithu, Nrisingha, Kurma,
Dhanwantari, Mohini, Vamana, Parasurama, Raghunatha, Vyasa, Balabhadra,
Krishna, Buddha and Kalki. These appear in every successive Kalpa.

The Manvantaravataras are all of them also Leelavataras but are so called as
they rule over their respective manvantaras, i.e, intervals between
the appearance of one Manu and his next successor. There are fourteen
such Avataras, e.g., Yajna, Bibhu, Satyasena, Habi, Vaikuntha, Ajita,

Vamana, Sarbabhauma, Rishabha, Bisvaksena, Dharmasetu, Sudama,

Yogeswara, and Brihadbhanu.

The Manvantaravatara becomes the Yugavatara in a particular Yuga (constituent
Age) of his Manvantara for the promulgation of particular forms of
worship. There are four Yugavataras corresponding to the four Yugas. The
Avatara of Satya Yuga is white, of Treta red, of Dvapara green, and of Kali
usually, dark colour. In the Kali Yuga there is also mentioned, rarely, a yellow
Yugavatara. Of these Yugavataras some are inspired, some are prabhava
(master), some baibhava (expansion) and some parabastha. Among these He
Who possesses the full power of the Divinity is parabastha. In baibhava the
power is less than in parabastha and in prabhava the power is less than in
baibhava. In abesha or inspired ,Avatara there is manifestation of only a single
potency. Chatuhsana, Narada and Prithu, etc., are inspired Avataras. Matsya
(Fish), Kurma (Tortoise), Narayana, Varaha (Boar), Hayasirsha (Horse-headed),
Prisnigarbha, Balabhadra, Yajna, etc., are baibhava, and Nrisingha (Man-Lion),
Ramachandra and Sree Krishna are parabastha, in the inverse order of
superiority. Of These again Sree Krishna is Godhead Himself. There is no one
greater than He. Sree Krishna has four Abodes, viz., Braja, Madhupur, Dwaraka
and Goloka, each superior to the next in the order of enumeration. Sree Krishna
is Fullest, sporting in Braja with His own and with Baladeva. The same Krishna
is Fuller in Mathura and Full in Dwaraka with His family and with Pradyumna
and Aniruddha. In Goloka although Sree Krishna is conceived as Full, His
Goloka Activities being the same as those of Brindabana, belong to the same
category as the Fullest. In these Abodes (dhamas), on account of the difference
of the degree of predominance of the mellow quality there is corresponding
difference in the extent of the abeyance of the intensity of Divine Power as
controlling Force. That is to say in proportion to the prevalence of mellowness
there is corresponding obscuration of Power as compelling Force. In the nether

worlds, due to lesser degree of mellowness, the aspect of Authority becomes
more and more manifest.

Prithivi is the first envelope of the universe constituted of the fourteen worlds
beginning with Patala at one end and extending to Satyaloka on the other.

This Prithivi as cause is the ingredient and support of the phenomenal universe
as effect. The phenomenal universe is successively encased by the six
outer envelopes of water, heat, air, sky, the ego and mahat. Outside these seven
the eighth case is Nature (prakriti). This last is full of profound darkness and is
the support of the whole universe. Time in the form of the power of activity of
the Divinity is, in turn, the support of Nature. Time is upheld by the Will
of Godhead. Beyond this is the stream of the Biraja so named from the fact that
its water washes off all mundane qualities. This stream is situated between the
chit (spiritual) and the achit (material) worlds. The Ocean of Cause
(karanarnava) is the alternative name of Biraja. In the liquid causal current of
the Biraja billions of worlds adorn the cavities of hair of Maha-Vishnu. Biraja is
like the moat of Maha-Vaikuntha and the boundary of the luminous region of
Brahman which forms the outer limit of Sree Vaikuntha. Sree Golokadhama is in
the upper region of Sree Vaikuntha. The holy realm of Goloka is located in
the centre of all mundane and spiritual manifestations of the Divine Power.

In Goloka Sree Krishna abides with all His Family as Lord of Goloka, acting as
a god. Dwaraka, Mathura and Braja are the successive inner tracts of Goloka.

In the Abodes of Krishna bearing the names of Dwaraka, Mathura and
Brindabana there is progressive increase in the proportion of mellowness due to
the increasing preponderance of human activity. This leela is of two
kinds according as it happens to be, (1) manifest, or (2) non-manifest. The
nonmanifest leela is the name of that eternal pastime in which Krishna
engages simultaneously as Boy, Adolescent and approaching Youth, in the
company of His own mother, father, servants, friends, sweethearts, etc., in the
infinite manifestation unperceivable by this world. The successive leelas as
Boy, Adolescent and dawning Youth that He performs in the company of His kin
and entourage in this world, in course of one and the same manifestation, are
called His manifest leela. The manifest leela visible to this world has as its sole
object the free bestowal of His mercy on the jivas. It is eternal. No sooner does it
end in one universe than it rises in another like the rays of the sun lighting up
the successive points of the zodiac in its progress; so that the manifest leela
is always enacted simultaneously in different worlds but in its due order
of successive appearance. All the manifest leeas of Sree Krishna in their
perennial flow, are eternal and are all existence, all-consciousness and all-bliss,

with the exception of the mausala leela and the leela of the abduction of His
consorts, which are illusory and intended to mask the eternal nature of the series
of His transcendental pastimes.

The devotees appear next in the order of Descent. The Vaishnavas, as
Markandeya, Ambarish, Vasu, Vyasa, Bivishana, Pundarik, Bali,

Sambhu, Prahlada, Bidur, Uddhaba, Daliya Parasara, Bhishma, Narada, etc., are
the devotees of Godhead. It is our duty to serve all these devotees in the same
way as we serve Sree Hari. Otherwise offense is committed. Among the
devotees the order of superiority is as follows: Prahlada; the Pandavas who are
superior to Prahlada; the Yadavas of whom Uddhava is superior to the rest; the
Braja-devis superior to Uddhava; Sree Radhika is the highest among the damsels
of Braja.

The four Yugas, viz., Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali are called divya-yugas. A
thousand four-yugas form one kalpa. There are fourteen manvantaras in
each kalpa. One day of Brahma is equivalent to one kalpa. The pralaya or
complete absorption that takes place at the end of every kalpa is known as the
night of Brahma. This is the daily pralaya. Thirty kalpas make one month of
Brahma, twelve months of Brahma make one year; and fifty years of Brahma
make one parardha. The duration of the life of Brahma is that of two parardhas.
At the end of the period of two parardhas there is dissolution of phenomenal
Nature and the attainment of the highest state by Brahma. Thereupon the
phenomenal world is re-absorbed into the primordial principle (prakrid). The
first of the series of the thirty Kalpas bears the name of Sveta Varaha or Brahma
Kalpa and the last of the series as Pitri or Padma Kalpa. Thousands of the series
of Kalpas from Brahma to Padma have passed away thousands of times.

Theism has a long history which may be summed up in one word as the Descent
of Godhead into this mundane world. Such Descent accomplishes two Divine
Purposes, viz., (1) it is intended to gladden those devotees who may happen to be
at the time in this world, and (2) to destroy Godhead’s opponents who oppress
His devotees and obstruct their devotional activities. These opponents of
Godhead are also deputed by Godhead Himself to serve Him by the method of
opposition. There is and can be no real independent rival of Godhead, such as a
so-called Satan, to be the captain-general of the sinners.

The asuras, who disturb the devotees and are in consequence destroyed by
Vishnu, appear to sinful jivas to undergo chastisement that they deserve

by reason of their un-godliness. But those who are privileged to be chastised
by Godhead are no sinners. Such chastisement is the appropriate reward of
their real service of Godhead, although of an indirect nature. They are servitors
of Godhead who appear in the world being deputed by Him for serving Him,
in that way. By their opposition they serve to bring out most brilliantly the
glory of Godhead. Ordinary jivas are not to follow their example; and, if they do
so, they are not so easily delivered by direct Divine intervention. The fallen
jivas are only delivered when their aversion to Godhead is eliminated. Their
aversion to Godhead is due to ignorance of their own proper nature as eternal
servants of Godhead. The Descent of Godhead into this world serves also to
destroy the root of this ignorance of fallen jivas. This is His causeless mercy
towards willful offenders. But all this is still only His secondary purpose. The
main purpose of Divine Descent is to make the devotees happy. The secondary
purposes are accomplished periodically by the various secondary Avataras who
are endowed with the requisite measure of the Divine Power for that purpose.
But the main purpose, viz., that of making His devotees happy, is effected only
by the Descent of Godhead Himself. Sree Baladeva is the ultimate Source of all
the secondary Avataras. He may be regarded as occupying the position of
Viceroy for the performance of all official work of the Sovereign. Sree Baladeva
destroys the asuras and protects the devotees and re-establishes the rule
of righteousness.

Krishna Himself comes into this world in the Sveta Varaha Kalpa (the cycle of
the White Boar) of the Vaivasvata manvantara of the twenty-eighth aggregate
of four-Yugas, appearing as Son of Yasoda, in His own eternal human Form in
His fullest charm and power. The Son of Yasoda, is Godhead Himself, in
His private, domestic, informal role, enjoying Himself unreservedly in the
company of His own most beloved ones.

The process of the Advent of Sree Krishna is thus described in the Scriptures.

As the different gods prepare to descend into this world through the medium of
the series of their respective subjective portions (amsas), the heavenly
plenary portions of Vasudeva, etc., such as Kasyapa, etc., merging with their
original sources (amsis), viz., Vasudeva, etc., who belong to the eternal Divine
Leela, appear in Mathura as Sura, etc. The Highest Personality of the Divine
Leela, viz., Sree Krishna, Whose manifest Form is Sree Narayana, Lord of
Maha-Lakshmi, desiring to appear in Mathura, causes, first of all, the
manifestation of His constituent Form, Samkarsana. Thereupon the Lord, having

decided to make visible two other Forms that are Plenary Facsimiles of Himself
and Who bear the Names of Pradyumna and Aniruddha, manifests Himself in
the heart of Anakadundubhi. After this, in response to the prayer of the gods for
the purpose of relieving the hard-pressed mundane world, towards the close of
the Dvapara Age of the twenty-eighth aggregate of four- Yugas of the
Vaivasvata manvantara, Aniruddha, the Same Who lies in Kshiroda, merging
with the Form of Sree Krishna in the heart of Vasudeva, becomes manifest in the
heart of Devaki moving thither from the heart of Anakadundubhi. Being
nourished in the heart of Devaki by the nectar of loving bliss in the form of
motherly affection, Sree Krishna, like the waxing Moon, manifests the
gradual development of His Form in the heart of Devaki. Thereafter in the great
night of the eighth day of the dark fortnight of the month of Bhadra Sree
Krishna, disappearing from the heart of Devaki, appears in her couch in the
lying-in chamber in the prison of Kamsa. The mother and the other people think
that the Baby is born by the ordinary worldly process with the greatest ease.

Thereupon Vasudeva entering the apartment of Yasoda in the Great Forest and
leaving there his own Son Sree Krishna and taking away the daughter of Yasoda,
hurries back to his prison. Some ancient Bhagavatas also hold that the first of
Sree Krishna’s own Facsimiles, Who bears the Name of Vasudeva, appears in the
apartment of Vasudeva and that in Gokula Sree Krishna, the Highest Personality
of the Divine Leela, makes His Appearance in company of Yoga-maya. But
Vasudeva sees only a daughter in the lying-in chamber of Yasoda. On
Vasudeva’s return to Mathura with Yasoda’s baby-daughter Vasudeva merges
into Sree Krishna. This is corroborated by such statements as the following,
“Krishna born in the Yadava family is different.” “He Who is full Divinity is
higher than He, that is to say, is His original Source.” “Divinity in His Plenitude,
or Godhead Himself, never leaves Brindabana, nor goes elsewhere.” “He is
always two-armed and is never four-armed.” “He always sports in Brindabana in
the company of only one of the Gopees.” In the Padma Purana it is stated that
the cowherds of Brindabana, such as Nanda, etc., with all families and birds,
beasts, deer, etc., all of them, by the grace of Vasudeva assuming the heavenly
form and mounted in chariots, attained the region of the highest Vaikuntha. This
is explained as follows. Those constituent parts of the Lord of Braja, etc., viz.,
Drona, etc., who had come down into this world, were sent by Sree Krishna to
Vaikuntha. But Sree Krishna is always sporting in Brindabana in the company of
His most beloved devotees, viz., the denizens of Braja.

The subject of the Avataras of Vishnu is vast and intricate and we have

attempted merely to touch its outermost fringe in the above short account.

But before we leave the subject it will be useful to deal briefly with a few of
the controversial issues that are ordinarily associated with this subject.

A distinction has been made between different, Avataras of Vishnu on the basis
of partial and complete manifestation, and the partial manifestations have
also been graded one under another in different groups, so that we have also part
of a part, and so on. These distinctions do not mean that Godhead is a
divisible entity. In fact in all these manifestations it is the indivisible and
undivided Divinity Who appears. The difference is due either to the degree
of manifestation or the greater or lesser presentation or reservation of
any particular face or faces of the Divinity. Godhead is One but His powers
are many and various and He can exercise all those powers in the way that He
likes. This distinction between the Will of Godhead and the Power of
Godhead, should be clearly grasped. The Will of Godhead constitutes His
distinctive and specific personality. It is not delegated. But the Power Who is
subordinate to the Will, is capable of delegation by the Will of Godhead.
Godhead alone possesses an absolutely independent Will to Whom everything is
subordinate. The wills with which other beings are endowed, are more or less
limited in their effectiveness; that is to say, they are controlled, as regards their
effective exercise in the shape of exerting power, by the Will of Godhead. The
freedom of will of the jiva does not mean that the jiva can actually act as he
likes, but that he is free to like or not like to act. The jiva has freedom to choose
his course of action but such choice can result in effective action only by the
Will of Godhead. The tendency is free but its issue is strictly controlled. There is
no such gap between the Will and the Power to act, in Godhead. In Him alone
the two are identical but yet not the same. The Power of Godhead is capable
of delegation but the Will is not. Therefore it is the Will that constitutes
the specific character of Divinity.

The Divine Power is manifold although she is one in essence being the
expression of the one and indivisible Divine Will. The gradation, that is
noticed in the case of the different,Avataras, is in respect of distinction of
power. Godhead chooses to manifest His powers partially or fully, directly
or indirectly. This is what is meant by the gradation of the Avataras of Vishnu.
The partial manifestation is regarded as the plenary subjective portion, or amsa,
of His proximate whole to Whom He is immediately integrated.

The relation between will and power is this that the latter always acts under the

direction of the former. Power does not regulate herself. Will is the
active principle of Whom power is the actively obedient associate. Power has
no initiative of her own. But Will is not effective unless He is associated
with power. Such dissociation is never possible in the Absolute in Whom the two
are eternally associated and in this sense they may be regarded as being only
complementary aspects of one and the same entity. Godhead’s Power is,
therefore, not external or separable from Godhead Himself although she
is always subordinate to His will.

Godhead is the Possessor of infinite powers. Of these, according to the
Scriptures, three only are realizable by the jiva viz., (1) the chit
(cognitive energy), (2) jiva (differentiated souls), and (3) maya (limiting energy)
There are also three functions that belong to each one of these three powers, viz.,
(1) sandhini (uniting), (2) sambit (enlightening), and (3) hladini
(harmonising). These three functions are eternally operative in their pure and
unmodifiable fullness in chit power. In differentiated souls they are also manifest
but in an infinitesimally small measure. In maya the presence of only their dim
reflection in a perverted form, is noticeable. To the individual soul the functions
of the limiting energy are unwholesome. The functions of the individual soul
himself, due to littleness of power, are inadequate although salutary. The jiva
cannot attain perfect happiness except in conjunction with the Hladini Function
of the Power of Enlightenment. This conjunction is possible only through the
mercy of Krishna and His devotees.

The coming down of the Absolute into this limited world, effects the deliverance
of fallen jivas by bringing about this conjunction between the bound-jiva and the
higher world. The difference of degree in the manifestation of the Divine Power
represented by the different Avataras, is in accordance with the spiritual
condition of the jzva at the time of such manifestation. The manifestation by way
of Descent attains its perfection in Krishna. The other, Avataras dispel the
ignorance of the fallen jiva and arouse in him, in varying degrees, the desire to
worship Godhead with awe and reverence. Krishna, Who is the Source of all the
Avataras, reserves to Himself the right of bestowing love for Godhead. This
constitutes the supreme excellence of the Activities of Krishna when They
appear in this world. In no Avatara, except in a small measure in those of
Nrisingha and Ramachandra, is to be found the extreme deliciousness of the
relationship of jiva with Godhead characterized by confidence and intimacy, that
attains to freedom from all restraint in the case of the Braja-gopees, that is to be
found in the Krishna Leela. Therefore, the mercy of Godhead reaches its climax

in Krishna Who appears before the bound-jiva in the most intimate relationship,
free from all reservation. The mercy of Krishna, in as much as He happens to be
Godhead Himself, is thus superior to that of all other avataras. This fact is at the
root of the broad differences that constitute the dividing line between the various
religions. Such difference is due to the degree of intimacy of relationship that it
offers between the jiva and Godhead.

But the mercy of Godhead, which is so continuously, copiously and causelessly
manifested, cannot be realized by the bound jiva due to his ignorance of its
real nature. Sree Chaitanya came into this world to supply the knowledge of
our natural relationship with Godhead which alone can enable us to realize
the greatness of Divine mercy. Sree Chaitanya taught us that the highest service
of Godhead, viz., that of unreserved loving devotion embodied in the Braja-
devis, is spontaneously attainable to all of us as soon as we fully realize our
true relationship with Godhead. That relationship may be briefly described as
that of serving Sree Krishna under the lead of the Hladini Function of the
Divine Power. This is not an abstraction of the human brain. On the highest
spiritual plane such service is realized as a part and parcel of the amorous
pastimes of the damsels of Braja under the lead of Sree Radhika with the
youthful son of the Lord of Braja. This is the highest significance of Krishna
Leela and is exemplified in the Career and Teaching of Sree Chaitanya.

With these insufficient preliminary observations of a general character towards
the elucidation of a number of current misconceptions on the subject of Religion,
I shall venture to proceed to narrate the Transcendental Career of the Supreme
Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya in course of the following chapters.

The Narrative seeks to present the Absolute as He is in His Supreme
Magnaminity. The Career of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya is identical with the
Divine Personality in the Form of His Own Loving Service. It is not possible
for individual souls, who are detached infinitesimal particles of the
Marginal Potency of the Divinity, to realize the Nature of the Loving Service of
the Divinity by His Own Integrated Power and his own proper function within
the same, except by the Eternal Support of Divine Love Himself. The
Magnanimous Activity of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya is identical with His Co¬
ordinate Absolute Activity as the Amorous Lover of Sree Radhika in Sree
Brindavana. The individual soul has, therefore, no access to the Realm of the
Amorous Pastimes of Sree Sree Radha-Govinda except by the realization of this
identity of relationship between the Two distinct Leelas.

Nota De Edicion

“The existing English works although they sometimes profess to be historical in
reality offer a superficial, extremely crude and misleading view of the
subject. They confine themselves almost exclusively to the esoteric issues. This
at least is not the method of the source-books, but a departure from the bona
fide position of the theme itself. The historical method proper should aim
at presenting the religion as it is really found in the genuine original sources
and in the spirit of its first propounders. But many of these writers, due to
their empirical training, have failed to observe this essential canon of
historical judgment. Moreover these writers generally happen to be very poorly
equipped in respect of their knowledge of the vast body of Scriptures to which
the teachings of Sree Chaitanya stand in the closest relationship; and, even if any
of them happen to possess a general acquaintance with the texts of
these Scriptures, they fail to take a scientific view of the subject due to lack
of spiritual insight.”

“The prominent defects that mar the value of these works are the purely empiric
point of view of their authors, their want of spiritual knowledge of the Scriptures
and their lack of critical caution in the choice and use of authorities.”

“.The empiric method is unsuitable for the treatment of a spiritual subject.

The vision of the empiricist is confined to things of this world. The Vaishnava
authors on whose narratives we have to base our account of Sree
Chaitanya, were not empiricists. The subject of which they have left us the
account, is the Absolute, as distinct from the empiric, Truth that comes down to
them in the chain of disciplic succession from Godhead Himself. They acquired
this esoteric vision, when they prove to be true, by the methods of loyal
submission and sincere service at the feet of spiritual preceptors as enjoined by
the Scriptures on all those who desire to obtain spiritual enlightenment. They are
never tired of repeating that the Absolute Truth, inherent in a bona fide soul,
who expresses himself in their books’ is not derived from any experience of
this world and is not intelligible to those whose vision is obscured by
knowledge derived from the experience of this world.”

“The Absolute Truth is transcendental and, therefore, no human being can attain
to Him by his sensuous efforts, i.e., by the ascending process, as all phenomena

that are exposed to the faulty, limited senses are, by this virtue, non-
transcendental. The Absolute Truth is eternally existent but is not realizable by
men so long as they are not relieved of the aptitude, of their defective vision.

The Absolute Truth is to be received, undoubtedly in the spirit of honest inquiry,
from those wise men who bear no reference to the world of their sensuous
gratification.”

“Very few of the existing English works on Sree Chaitanya satisfy these essential
conditions of theistic authorship that are so strongly insisted upon by these
devotional writers without which such description carries no useful purpose. On
the contrary, these later writers are apt to offer their own views, derived from
their empiric association, regarding the subject-matter of the original works, in a
manner that leaves on the mind of the reader the impression that they are more
anxious to point out the crudities and errors of these old authors than exhibit
their views in a scientific and impartial manner. This is certainly neither history
nor religion but only an uncalled-for and useless distortion of both.”

“The object of writing this book is to place before the English-knowing readers a
strictly accurate theistic account, of Sree Chaitanya, Who teaches the Absolute
Truth that has been handed down through the Ages by an unbroken succession of
unbiased spiritual preceptors. This narrative is broad-based on all the
authoritative sources and seeks to fully present the esoteric side as explaining the
esoteric in pursuance of the method of all really enlightened writers on spiritual
subjects.”

“…The Deeds of Sree Chaitanya, the Subject of the present work, are the living
Embodiment of the teaching of Srimad Bhagawatam. The Deeds and
Teachings of Sree Chaitanya stand alone as history of the service of the Supreme
Lord in the form of the deepest and perfectly unreserved intimacy.

The privilege of this form of service, the hidden truth of all Scriptures, was never
before given to the fallen jiva. In the words of Sree Rupa Goswami Prabhu, the
authority on the esoteric significance of the Deeds of Sree Chaitanya, “God
Himself with the beautiful golden complexion out of mercy appeared in this
world in this most degenerate Age to confer the grace of devotion to Himself, of
the superior order that had not been given to this world before. Even the Geet a
which teaches the service of Godhead with singleminded devotion and in the
spirit of complete self-surrender, does not tell us much about the actual, concrete
form of the highest service. The Srimad Bhagawatam describes all different

kinds of service in the concrete form and establishes the supreme excellence of
that which was practised by the transcendental milk-maids of Braja. Sree
Chaitanya is the living Embodiment of this highest and most intimate form of
the service of the Divinity.”

“The Brindabana pastimes of Sree Krishna, which have been given the place of
honour in the greatest devotional work of the whole world, are of all forms
of Divine service the one that is also liable to be most grossly misunderstood.
The subject will be treated in greater detail in its proper place in the body of
this work. It will suffice for our purpose here to state that Sree Chaitanya
made clearly manifest by His Deeds and Teachings what this form of service
really means. His Deeds are in fact the Brahmasutra, Geet a and the
Srimad Bhagawatam displayed to our view in the living form. He is the living
Vedanta. Other Avatars and prophets have taught the reverential worship of the
Supreme Lord. Sree Chaitanya proved by His Deeds that the highest form of
service is to be found in the Srimad Bhagawatam, that its inner meaning had not
been properly understood up to His time by anybody and that it offers what all
the Scriptures have been endeavouring from eternity unsuccessfully to express.

Sree Chaitanya’s own career is the concrete living expression of this highest
form of the service of the Lord.”

“…The materials for the present work have been drawn from— (1) the
Sikshastakam of Sree Chaitanya which gives the summary of His teachings
in His own words; (2 and 3) the Karchas (memoirs) of Sree Murari Gupta and
of Sree Swarup Damodar (the latter as embodied in his works by Sree
Raghunath Das Goswamin, Sree Swarup Damodar’s closest associate); (4)
Prema Vivarta of Sree Jagadananda; (5) Sree-Krishna-Chaitanya-Chandrodaya-
Nataka of Kavi Karnapur; (6) Sree-Chaitanya-Charitamahakavya of Sree
Chaitanya Das, the elder brother of Kavi Karnapur; (7) the works of Sree
Prabodhananda Saraswati; (8) the Bhajanamrita of Sree Narahari Sarkar Thakur;
(9) the numerous works left by five of the famous six Goswamins; (10)

Sree Brind bandas Thakur’s Sree-Chaitanya-Bhagawat; (1) Sree
Lochandas’s Chaitanya-Mangal; (12) Sree Krishnadas Kaviraj’s Sree-
Chaitanya-Charitamrita and lastly (13) the works of those later writers who
have strictly followed the above authors. Most of these works are in Sanskrit,
some of them in Bengali.

“Sree Chaitanya has not left any books written by Himself. A few shlokas

composed by Him are quoted in the works of His associates, the chief of
them being the Siksh astakam which gives in eight stanzas a summary of
his teachings.” “…Sree Brindabandas Thakur was the recipient of the favour of
Sree Nityananda, the associated facsimile, so to say, of Sree Chaitanya. His
mother Sree Narayani was the niece of Sribash Pandit, the foremost of those
Vaishnava householders who were the direct followers of Sree Chaitanya. Sree
Lochandas got the materials of his work partly from Narahari Sarkar Thakur, one
of Sree Chaitanya’s close associates and by his devotional impressions. Sree
Krishnadas Goswamin got his information as has already been mentioned from
his preceptor Sree Raghun athd as, one of the six Goswamins.” “Most of the
works of the authors named above are still extant and they are the authorities for
all subsequent writers. The chief of these later authors whose works have been
consulted in the compilation of the present account are, (1) Sree Narottamdas
Thakur who was the disciple of Sree Lokanath Goswamin, one of the closest
associates of Sree Chaitanya, (2) Sree Viswanath Chakravarty belonging to the
line of disciples of Sree Narottamdas Thakur, (3) Sree Baladev Vidyabhusan the
first Gaudiya commentator of the Brahmasutra, (4) Sree Narahari Chakravarty
in the line of disciplic descent from Sree Viswan ath Thakur, (5) Sree
Bhaktivinode Thakur, the sincere guardian of the true Vaishnavas of the present
day, and (6) my Sree Gurudeva, His Divine Grace Paramahansa
Paribrajakacharya Sree Sreemat Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj
whose mercy is my only hope of attaining the service of Godhead.”

“It will be seen from the above that there is no lack of materials of the most
reliable character available to the historian of the Career and Teachings of
Sree Chaitanya. It is, therefore, rather strange that the personality of Sree
Chaitanya has been misunderstood and misrepresented by a certain class of
writers. The neglect of the original sources was one cause of this. A constructive
motive was supplied by the animosity of sectarians and the greed of worldly
interests of pseudo-followers.”

“It was the life-work of Thakur Bhaktivinode to re-discover the true history of
Sree Chaitanya and make the same available to the present generation.

The magnitude of this service to his country, to humanity and to all animate
beings time alone will show. The eternal religion taught and practiced by
Sree Chaitanya have been made intelligible to the modern reader by the labours
of Thakur Bhaktivinode. It is bound to re-act most powerfully on all
existing religious convictions of the world and make possible the establishment
of universal spiritual harmony of which the whole world stands so much in

need. Most of the works of Thakur Bhaktivinode were, however, written in
Bengali and Sanskrit. The present work is a slight attempt to present in the
English language an outline of the Life and Teachings of Sree Chaitanya made
known by Thakur Bhaktivinode, the pioneer of the movement of pure devotion
in the present Age, which aims at restablishing in practice the eternal religion of
all animate beings revealed in the Scriptures and taught and practiced by
Sree Chaitanya. The activities of my most revered Preceptor are well known to
the world. His Divine Grace is commissioned by Godhead to spread the
Teaching of Sree Chaitanya to every village of the world and re-establish the
spiritual society. This was foretold by Thakur Bhaktivinode.”

Gaura Hari Bol!

Visuddha Sattva dasanudasa

Volume II

Auspicatory Observance

I make my prostrated obeisance to Sree Guru in the two forms of the Guide who
imparts enlightenment and those who teach the function of Divine service to
prevent lapse into the conditioned state by ensuring progressive advance on the
path of devotion. Obeisance to the Devotees of the Lord, to the Supreme Lord
Himself, to those eternal Forms in which the Lord manifests His Appearances
(Avataras) on this mundane plane, to His different Manifestations and His
Powers! I bow to the Name Krishna Chaitanya Who is Krishna Himself and all
the Divine Categories. Obeisance to Sree Krishna-Chaitanya with
Lord Nityananda Who are like the Sun and the Moon risen in conjunction on
the Eastern Hill of Gauda ! Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya manifested
His Appearance in this world in order to give away by His causeless mercy
the highest loving service of Himself that had never been bestowed on
the conditioned souls of this world prior to His Appearance. May Lord Sree
Krishna-Chaitanya, resplendent with the concentrated hue of beauteous shining
gold, manifest Himself in the inmost chamber of the hearts of all persons!

Submission to Sree Hari, Sree Guru and the Vaishnavas is the only condition of
attaining to loving devotion to the Feet of Sree Krishna and His devotees.

The fulfillment of this condition assures the success of the undertaking by
enabling all persons who listen to the Narrative of the Deeds of Sree Krishna-
Chaitanya to obtain His mercy in the shape of the highest quality of devotion to
the Feet of Sree Radha-Krishna.

Sree Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami in the opening verses of his work on the
Deeds of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya has mercifully explained in some detail,
for our benefit, the nature, purpose and necessity of the auspicatory observance
as a preliminary for the success of all spiritual undertakings. I can do no
better than follow in his footsteps by attempting to explain the significance of
the form of the auspicatory observance.

The auspicatory observance consists of three parts, viz, (1) the postulation of the
subject-matter, (2) benedictory purpose, and (3) offering of
submissive obeisance.

The subject-matter of the present work is Sree Krishna Chaitanya.

Sree Krishna-Chaitanya is identical with Sree Krishna. He is the Final and
Absolute Reality. He is Isvara, the Gurus, the Devotees, the Divine
Appearances and the Divine Powers. These are the distinctive Divine Identities.
The undifferentiated Brahman of the Upanishads is the glow of His Person.

The Oversoul, Who indwells and regulates every entity, is His Portion.
Bhagawan, Who is full of all Supremacy, all Power, all Glory, all Beauty, all
Knowledge and

Freedom from every mundane Desire, is Sree Chaitanya. There is no higher
Entity than Chaitanya and Sree Krishna.

The Deeds of the Supreme Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya are narrated in this
work. His Deeds were made manifest to the view of the people of this world that
all conditioned souls may be enabled thereby to attain to the realization of loving
devotion to the Feet of Sree Sree Radha-Govinda, which constitutes the highest
platform of the service of the Divinity and the knowledge of which had not been
divulged to any soul of this world by any former Dispensation. All this will flash
to the hearts of all persons who really seek for the Truth, by the causeless mercy
of the Son of Sree Sachi Devi wearing the yellow colour of shining gold.

The Deeds of Sree Chaitanya are grounded in His Divinity!-. The Activity of the
Hlhadini Potency born of the reciprocal Love of Sree Sree Radha Krishna,

Who constitute One Personality, brings about differentiation of Divine Body
as Couple. The Two Bodies of the Divine Couple re-unite as Chaitanya.

The united Form is Krishna’s Own self clothed with the glow of the Beauty of
Sree Radhika.

The secondary Purpose of the Appearance of Sree Krishna Chaitanya in this
world found in the Scriptures is what has been stated above, viz., the bestowal of
loving devotion to all conditioned souls. But there was another Purpose which is
the main cause of His Appearance. It is not explicitly mentioned in
the Scriptures but is recognizable as their hidden Import.

The main Purpose of the Appearance of the Supreme Lord Sree Krishna-
Chaitanya is connected with His distinctive Nature that has been indicated.
Krishna is anxious to learn how His Divine Counter-Whole, Sree
Radhika, realizes His Own Sweetness and Beauty. In order to have this
experience Sree Krishna clothes Himself with the mood of Sree Radhika and
appears in the Form of an Eternal Union with Her, alongside of and identical

with the coupled Form.

This is the inner hidden significance of the Deeds of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya.
This distinguishes the Leela of Sree Chaitanya from that of Sree Krishna.

Sree Nityananda and Sree Advaita are inseparably associated with the
Appearance of Sree Chaitanya in this world. It is not possible to realize
the nature of the Deeds of Sree Chaitanya without the knowledge of
the Personalities of Sree Nityananda and Sree Advaita.

Through Nityananda and Advaita the connection of Sree Krishna with the
mundane world is established and maintained. This brings us to the question
of the transcendental cosmology of the Scriptures. There is a gradation of
spheres one above another up to Goloka, the Abode of Sree Krishna. In Goloka
are found Baladeva, Pradyumna and Aniruddha, the “Other Selves” of
Krishna. Nityananda is identical with Baladeva in Goloka.

Below Goloka, in the realm of the Absolute, is Vaikuntha. In Goloka Balarama
or Baladeva is the serving Self of Krishna (Bilas-bigraha). Baladeva is Krishna
in the role of serving His Own Self in various capacities. Vaikuntha is the realm
of the exclusive Activities of Baladeva. In Vaikuntha, accordingly, the
fourfold expansion of Sree Narayana, the Lord of Vaikuntha, the manifestation
of Baladeva corresponds to the “Other Selves” of Krishna in Goloka with
the difference that in Vaikuntha the “expansion” (byuha.) is of the “Other Self”
of Krishna or Baladeva Who is delegated the power of expressing his service
of Sree Krishna in a realm of his own where His plenary Manifestation,

Sree Narayana, is served by the method of reverence. Baladeva and his realm
of Vaikuntha express and serve the Majesty of Sree Krishna. The conception of
the service of Sree Baladeva, the Majestic Other Self of Krishna, is the highest
that is reached by the help of such imperfect Revelation as is not wholly
unacceptable to the empiric instinct, although the practice of this pure form of
the reverential service is also very rare in this world. All the revealed Scriptures,
with the single exception of the Bhagawatum, are to a more or less extent the
text-books of reverential worship. The reverential service of Godhead in its
genuine form is wholly free from any mundane grossness, although there is in it
a comparative reference of eligibility. The ordinary degenerate practices of
the revealed religions are a caricature of the real function which cannot be
realized till the soul is released from the fetters of Nescience.

In Vaikuntha there exist positive transcendental activities resulting from the
relationships of servants and Master between the individual souls and
Godhead. But Godhead is there present in His Majesty and not in His Beauty
and Sweetness except in the sense that is compatible with the predominance of
His Majesty. The ideal of Heaven and Paradise of the Elevationist religions is
a misrepresentation of Vaikuntha in terms of mundane felicity. Vaikuntha
is, however, the goal that is dear to ordinary theistically inclined persons
with pure morals. It is substantially inconceivable but is not apparently opposed
to the ordinary aspirations and functions of this world, at the first sight.

Next below Vaikuntha is the realm of the Brahman in which there is no specific
spiritual activity neither any form of worldly existence but which is full of a light
which has the negative quality of dispelling all worldly ignorance
without having power to disclose the specific nature of the transcendental realm.
This is the realm of the Brahman of the Upanishads, which has been the source
and support, as manipulated by Sree Sankaracharya, of the empiric worship
current in this country that denies the existence of Godhead and substitutes in
place of the religion of His service one aiming at complete spiritual annihilation
by the process of merging the individual soul in the Divinity. As a matter of fact
the realm of the Brahman of the Upanishads is not a habitable region at all but
a sphere of light which has to be got across to reach the realm from where
it proceeds and with which alone the emancipated soul can have anything
really to do.

The realm of the Brahman is the outer limit of the Absolute world. Between this
outer uninhabited zone of the spiritual realm and the highest sphere of
this mundane world there flows the stream of the Biraja whose water is the
causal essence in the nascent form of liquid. This liquid is pure from all
mundane quality. A person who bathes in the river prior to entry into the realm
of the Brahman is freed from all mundane aptitudes.

It is in this stream that there appears the Purusha, Who is the derivative of
Balarama, being a secondary plenary Form of the Divinity. There are
three Purushas in the successive order of such secondary derivative
manifestation, viz, (1) He, Who lies in the Ocean of the causal water of the
Biraja, (2) He Who lies in the-water of the Ocean of Milk, and (3) He Who lies
in the Ocean of the fluid of the Womb of the worlds. It is these Purushas, the
secondary extended Selves of Baladeva, each being the proximate source of the
One next following Him, Who are the Creators and Regulators of the mundane

world without being themselves any constituent part, or whole, of the same.

The first of these three Purushas wills the creation of the world and wills to
make use of the deluding Potency for the purpose. In respect of the process
of material creation He occupies the position that the potter occupies in
the making of pots of clay. The potter’s wheel, clay and appliances attain
their effective existence by another potency of the same Purusha. It is, therefore,
the first of the series of the Purushas Who is the source of both the efficient as
well as material cause of creation. But in neither capacity He Himself belongs to
this world. He does all this work from outside the plane of the limiting
energy. Brahma and Siva are connected with the material energy by
actual incorporation with her. While Vishnu (the Purusha), although exercising
His function with reference to the material world, is situated wholly beyond
all touch with, the material energy. The Purushas bear the Name of Vishu
by reason of this transcendental pervading relationship with the mundane world.

As transcendence, in the form of both cause and material of the mundane
creation, belongs to the first Purusha, the second Purusha is charged by Him with
the function of the collective regulation of the created entities. The third Purusha
performs the same function from inside each separate created entity.

These two, therefore, are the sources of those spiritual functions that bear some
analogy to the imperfect empiric notions, enunciated hy Kant and
other philosophers of the idealist schools of the West, conveyed by the ill-
defined terms, Immanence and Transcendence. These terms of the empiric
vocabulary refer to aspects of limited phenomena but the immanence and
transcendence of the third and second Purusha Avataras of Vishnu are not a
continuum of the material shelf which is called phenomenon. There.is always the
categorical difference of plane between the phenomena and the spiritual
transcendent and immanent functions of Vishnu that have a reference to them by
way of being their spiritual source.

The functions of Brahma and Siva are those of creation and destruction. These
two great personages belong to this phenomenal world and are in charge of
its temporal regulation in a semi-conscious manner. The semi-conscious nature
of the ruling functions of Brahma and Siva makes them the prototypes of
the conditioned soul. They are the ideals of personality conceivable by the mind
of man, possessed of the super-human powers of creation and destruction of
all phenomena. The nature of this power itself is not intelligible to its

wielders although they knou that they are really endowed with the same by
some unknown superior agency in an unknown manner. There are other
“powers” of this class who wield similar but lesser powers over the phenomenal
world than Brahma and Siva. These super-human beings possessed of specific
powers over physical nature in different measures, are the highest order of souls
in the conditioned state.

The Will of Vishnu in the Forms of the three Purushas is ultimately derived from
Nityananda. The source of the material cause of creation is also Vishnu in the
Form of the first Purusha or Maha-Vishnu in whom the Material cause
and creating Will of the Divinity by reference to this mundane world
are incorporated and reconciled.

The word ‘Advaita’ means ‘non-duality’. Matter and Will are not categorically
different from one another at their source. Neither are they, as regards
their source, different from Godhead. But matter as it appears to the
conditioned soul as well as the operative will of Godhead as viewed by the same
agency, appear to be altogether dissociated from and incompatible with the
spiritual essence which is the Nature proper of the Divinity. The solution of
this difficulty that besets all speculative inquiry is to be sought in the
actual knowledge of the substantive Reality in His graduated Manifestations and
not in the hypotheses of inevitable ignorance of fundamental conditions.

The Appearance of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya so far as the Event has a reference to
the deliverance of conditioned souls, was effected by the agencies of Nityananda
and Advaita. The functions of Nityananda and Advaita should, however, be
neither over-estimated nor underestimated as regards Their respective bearings
on the Deeds of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya. Those functions are of primary
importance, to the conditioned soul who, however, need not, therefore, remain
confined to the contemplation of these plenary Manifestations of the Divinity.
Neither need the conditioned soul suppose himself to be above all help from
Advaita and Nityananda either at the initial or the advanced stages of spiritual
endeavour and realisation.

The Real Purpose of the Appearance of Sree KrishnaChaitanva is not the
deliverance of the conditioned souls. The Real Purpose is one that
exclusively concerns the Divinity as He is. It is that which was meant when we
observed above that the Deeds of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya, as Those of Sree
Krishna, are grounded in His Divinity. The Knowledge of those Deeds is

identical with the Deeds Themselves. It is for this reason that it is necessary to
approach this Narrative with the reverence and confidence that is due to the
Person of Godhead Himself. Such reverence and confidence are also necessarily
complete. There must be no reservation. The least reservation will lead the
hearer or reader of this Narrative to a certain face of the limited energy and not
even to the level of the Purusha Avataras Who are related to this world without
being of it.

But the mercy of Sree Krishna:Chaitanya enables all conditioned souls to pass
through an these graded stages of spiritual progress, by appearing to us in
the form of this Divine Narrative of His Deeds. This Narrative has been
made available by the mercy of Sree Advaita and Sree Nityananda Who are the
eternal Divine Intermediaries between ourselves and the Supreme Lord.

The function of making our prostrated obeisance to Hari, Guru and the
Vaishnavas is not an idle or symbolic ceremony. It is exercise of the function
of devotion to Godhead made possible by the causeless grace of Sree Advaita
who is the source of the material as well as the sanction of all spiritual, functions
of us, conditioned souls, under all circumstances. Obeisance to Sree Advaita
is obeisance to the Vaishnavas. Obeisance to Nityananda is obeisance to
Sree Guru. Obeisance to Sree Krishna-Chaitanva is obeisance to Godhead
Himself as He is. Obeisance to Sree Krishna-Chaitanya is obeisance both to Sree
Krishna and His Divine Counter-Whole Sree Radhika in One.

The relationship of Sree Radhika to Sree Krishna must not be confounded with
the mundane sexual relationship between male and female of this world.

The service of Sree Radhika is not an amorous function in the disruptive
specific unwholesome sense of the analogous mundane activity. That
supposition, which is due to the mundane import of the term used in describing
the Divine Function, may lead the ignorant critic to presume to find the defects
of the mundane passion in even the Divine Activity as He is, i.e., in His Fullest
and Most Perfect Manifestation. It is, therefore, necessary to implore our readers
not to approach the study of this Narrative in such unnecessarily irreverent
and superficial temper which will necessarily prevent his regarding the subject
from the only genuine point of view, viz., that of the Scriptures. It is only by
loyally following the method of submitting to look at the subject unreservedly
from the point of view of the Narrative itself that it will be possible for the
impartial reader, after he has gone through his self-imposed task with the
patience that is due to the right understanding of a subject which is likely to be

radically different, at any rate to many of our European readers, from most
current standards in its outlook on and valuation of the activities of this world,
to attempt to form a comparative estimate of the view of the Absolute that
is presented to him in the following pages.

Vaishnavism stands alone among the revealed Religions of the world in
providing a specific account of the Name, Form, Qualities, Activities and
the individual personalities of the Servitors of Godhead Himself. The silence of
the other Religions on this subject should not be misunderstood as implying
the non-existence of any or all specification in the Absolute. There is also
no rational ground for supposing that Godhead is unwilling or unable to
disclose His Own Specific Self and Divine Paraphernalia to the serving impulse
of pure souls.

All Glory to Sree Guru and Gauranga SREE KRISHNA-CHAITANYA

Chapter 1 Country and Society

The historical significance of the term Gauda, the name that is borne by the
country of Sree Chaitanya’s Nativity is obscure. It occurs in the works of
the famous Grammarian Panini as the name of a well-known city ‘of the East’.
The geographical location of the regions bearing the name, referred to in
ancient literature, presents a bewildering variety, being applied to tracts and
towns scattered in all directions and attaining an extent that is sometimes
equivalent to the greater part of Northern India. It supplies the designation to a
wide division of the Brahmanas, a well known style of the Sanskrit rhetoricians
and a technical term, connected with the metal ‘silver’, to the industrialists, of
Old India. The name of the spiritual preceptor of Sree Sankaracharya is
Gaudapada, While Sreeman Madhvacharya, an inhabitant of the extreme south
of the country, bears the interesting name of “Gaudapurnananda”. No
theory regarding the historical origin or application of the word is yet
forthcoming that offers any satisfactory clue to the copious use of the word by
the ancients in such diverse connections.

There is evidence to prove that there were similar grades in the geographical
denotation of the word ‘Gauda’ also at the period of the Advent of
Sree Chaitanya. It was then applied to (1) the country under the rule of
the Muhammedan King of Bengal, (2) to his Capital situated in the modern
district of Malda, (3) to the tract adjoining the old town of Nabadwip to which
the Capital of the country had been transferred from Gauda in Malda
by Lakshmana Sena, the last independent Hindu King of Bengal; (4) while
the compound ‘pancha-Gauda ‘the five Gaudas’ meant practically the whole
of Northern India and, specifically, (5) the five countries of Kurukshetra,
Kanauj, Utkal, Mithila and Gauda (Bengal), (6) the Brahmana residents of
which regions were also designated as ‘pancha-Gaudd The terms ‘Gauda’ and
‘Gauda-mandald (Circle of Gauda) used by the associates and followers of
Sree Chaitanyadeva, as a designation of themselves and their country, mean
the greater part of the modern province of Bengal with old Nabadwip ‘the city
of the Nine Islands,’ as centre; and for the purpose of this Narrative we
shall accordingly accept this external regional denotation of the word, without
losing sight of its true spiritual import.

But it is well at the very outset to remind our readers of the historical fact that
neither the Land nor the Activities of Sree Chaitanya are regarded by the authors
of the works that form the original sources of this account, as historical,
geographical, or any other entities in the mundane sense. The Gaudamandala, or
Circle of Gauda is to them the spiritual realm of the Appearance of the Supreme
Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya and. His eternally associated devotees. The
spiritual significance of their attitude may be thus indicated. Godhead is All-
powerful. There is a transcendental world in which He dwells with His Own.

The only business of all inhabitants of that world is to serve Godhead directly.
That world is the spiritual world. It is free from all limitations and defects of this
mundane world. When Godhead chooses to come down into this world, He
never does so only by Himself. Just as a high and mighty Sovereign of this
mundane world, when he chooses to favour a remote part of his dominions with
his Royal visit, goes there with his attendants and other paraphernalia of
sovereignty, in like manner Godhead also descends into this world with His
Own, His Servitors, all His Divine Paraphernalia, and His Eternal Spiritual
Realm. It is not possible for any earthly sovereign, even if he is so minded, to
move out with all the circumstances and pomp of his Royal Magnificence, for
sheer want of power and for other obvious reasons. But Godhead is not troubled
by such difficulties. He is here in this world with His realm and complete
followings and is present at one and the same time in His fully manifest realm of
the spiritual world. That is to say, Divinity and His Realm without being
duplicated, is capable of revealing Himself according to the serving aptitude of
mundane beholders.

It is this which happens when the Supreme Lord manifests His Auspicious
Appearance in this world. The realm of Gauda in which Sree Krishna-
Chaitanya appears with His kindred, associates and eternal devotees, is not the
mundane region that is visible to the eyes of conditioned souls. The Spiritual
Circle of Gauda that appears to bound jivas in the figure of a definite tract of
land of this physical world, is, in reality, in its own manifest nature, no other than
the ” White Island” (Svetadveepa) of the Scriptures, the eternal realm of the
Divinity in His Own Most Beneficent Form. This principle of spiritual identity
of periodic manifestation also applies to other parts of the sacred land of
Bharata (India). This sacredness of the land is not a figment of the human
imagination nor due to any association of any mundane country with the
Appearances of the Divinity by way of fortuitous concurrences. The Holy Realm
of Godhead, in all its infinite vastness and diversity, appears also in this world
being identical with spiritual Bharata (India) as its centre. But spiritual Bharata

is not always manifest to the view of fettered souls. When the Divinity chooses
to come down into this world, the spiritual realm is also unveiled to the
unobstructed gaze of mortals. ‘But unbelievers do not see what is then really
opened to their view, just as the owl does not see the light of the Sun when he
shines in all his midday splendour.’

It would not also be in strict conformity with historical judgment to regard the
view just sketched as an exaggeration of patriotic partiality for the land of
one’s mundane birth. The Vaishnava point of view is that everything of this
world is to be used in the service of Godhead, and it is only by such use of the
most beautiful and valued things of this world that man is enabled to earn
the position of the highest distinction that is open to him on this condition.

This level of view regarding human life and this world, which marks the
highest achievement of human civilization, has, of all countries of the world,
been most nearly realized by the spiritual community of Vaishnavas in India.
Indeed, Godhead Himself comes into this world only for the sake of the
Vaisnavas who follow faithfully His highest teaching by desiring, instead of
piety (dharma), wealth, sensuous pleasure, relief from worldly misery, etc.,
which are universally coveted by all mortals, only the unconditional service of
the Divinity. In all parts of the world less spiritual people have always
been engaged in a perpetual strife for the fulfillment of their mundane
aspirations. Godhead has sometimes sent His agents to teach the peoples of other
countries the transitory and miserable end of all worldly pursuits and thereby
win them to desire for liberation and moral living. But such mere improvement
of the procedure of earthly pursuits effected thereby, the summum bonum, in the
shape of the unalloyed spiritual service of the Supreme Lord, is never attained.
The quasi spiritual ideals help at best to establish a certain apparently moral
order amidst the unrestrained pursuit of sensuous activities.

These facts offer the undisputed evidence that is historically available to all of
us, which establishes the spiritual superiority of the theistic civilization in
India and its premier claim to the Mercy of the Divinity by the sole right of
His unalloyed service. The patriotic or any other worldly sentiment, has no place
in such views.

As India is thus the most sacred country of the world, the land of Gauda is the
most sacred of all parts of India. This is so because it corresponds
to ‘ Svetadveep’ wherein the Divinity abides eternally as Embodiment of
Perfect Magnanimity. The land Braja, full of the most exquisite bliss, is the

realm of the most delicious Rasa A l Amorous dance of Krishna in the circle of
the spiritual milkmaids.

1 pastimes of Youthful Krishna Who is identical with Sree Chaitanya. The land
of Gauda is most liberal, as it is only here that Godhead manifests the of
bestowing on all the unalloyed love for Himself which alone confers on
the emancipated jiva^ A 3 the right of entry into the happy realm of Braja and
join there in the eternal pastimes of Sree Sree Radha-Govinda. Therefore, for
the same reason which makes the Svetadveepa in Sree Brindavana
more magnanimous, the land of Gauda is more liberal than the enchanting realm
of Braja overflowing with every bliss. There is also a corresponding mellowness
in the subdued charms, reminiscent of the chastened mood of faithful
lovers temporarily parted, of this land of Gauda, which can be utilised by any
one who cares to enter its wide portals ever open to receive, with the
unspeakable welcome of Divine love in its most unreserved and indiscriminate
generosity, all those who want to receive the summum bonum free gift from the
Hands of Godhead Himself .

The reader will now be in a position to understand why, the Vaishnava authors
expatiate on the minutest features of the holy Circle of Gauda with such
intense devotional fervour and why we can perfectly rely on any information of
a historical or geographical nature, that they may have cared to record, as
being free from all sectarian bias in its ordinary narrow worldly sense; as the
genuine Vaishnava authors have nothing to do that is worldly either in their life
or in their faith for which alone they live Most of these Acharayas lived
by themselves a secluded life far from home and family on scanty alms
procured by short rounds of day-to-day begging or given unsolicited by well
wishers, and in the humblest styles conceivable even in India. Many of the
them discarded inherited worldly affluence for greater convenience of
devoting themselves to the practice of the religion which forms the subject of
this work and for recording and expounding its principles for the benefit of all
animate beings. Such is the spiritual Circle of Gauda and all truly pure souls are
the denizens of the Eternal Realm of the Divinity.

The remains of old Nabadwip, the city of the ‘Nine Islands’ are situated at the

junction of the Bhagirathi and Jalangi rivers bout sixty-five miles

above Calcutta. The present town of Nabadwip one of the ‘Nine Islands’ of old

Nabadwip. The name Nabadwip at the time of Sree Chaitanya was applied to the

actual conglomerate of nine separate islands cut up by the channels of
the Bhagirathi, which had their different individual designations also. The
main part of the old city was situated on the eastern bank of the Bhagirathi
which split up Nabadwip into two groups of ‘Islands’ of which four
bearing respectively the names of Antardwip, Simantadwip, Godrumadwip
and Madhyadwip were to the east, and the remaining five, viz. , Koladwip
(modern town of Nadia), Rtudwip, Jahnudwip, Modadrumadwip and Rudradwip
were located to the west, of the main channel of the Bhagirathi. These details
are given clearly in several of the old books and they are supplemented by bits
of topographical notices of old Nabadwip that have been recorded by later
writers who treated the subject in pursuance of the traditional description.

Antardwip, as its name implies, was the central ‘island’, or the heart of the old
town. Sree Mayapur, the quarter of Nabadwip which contained the house of Sree
Jagannatha Misra, the father of Sree Chaitanya, was located in the centre
of, Antardwip. Accordingly, the old chroniclers, in describing Nabadwip,
always compare it to a full-blown lotus afloat on the stream of the Bhagirathi.
The eight islands surrounding Antardwip, which is the core of the Lotus,
are described as forming its eight extended petals. Holy Mayapur, with
the Yogapeetha or the House of God, is described as the central part of the core.
The House of God thus forms the central point of an immense circle of which
the circumference is stated to be thirty-two miles. This is the Circle of the
Nine Islands. The Circle of Gauda is stated these writers to be 168 miles
in circumference.

The Vaishnava authors are tireless in reminding their readers that these place
appearing to mortal eyes as the divisions of an ordinary tract of land of
this earth, must never be regarded as the real Nabadwip and Should not
be reverenced as such. Such reverence would constitute an offense against
the Abode of the Divinity which is transcendental. They lend no countenance
to the practice, so prevalent in all parts of the world, of putting the seal and
label of mundane history, and geography on spiritual sites and occurrences,
a practice that has been the parent of much misery and of the worst
superstitions that abound in all the ancient creeds. The Divine cannot be pinned
down to any place, time or event of this world. There cannot be a greater offense
against Godhead than to suppose that His Body or anything pertaining to Him
can at all be of the nature of the things of this world.

So ‘Nabaddwip’ of Vaishnavas is not a geographical town bearing the name

situated in the geographical country known to the historians and geographers of
this world under the name of Gauda. Such a place is not only not Nabadwip but
if it is ever considered as real Nabadwip, the latter refuses to manifest her proper
form to the view of an offender who chooses to think in this unspiritual way.

Real or spiritual Navadwip, real or spiritual Sree Mayapur and real Yogapeetha,
are open only to the view of the Vaishnavas, or uneclipsed serving souls, and
whatever they say about the Divine Realm is also, therefore, necessarily true.
What other people designate as Nabadwip or Sree Mayapur or the Circle of
Gauda or Bharatavarsha, in as much as it happens to be the mundane view, is
entitled to no hearing from a Vaishnava and the very notion that the realm of the
Divinity can possibly be any other than spiritual should be most carefully
discarded once for all by those who want to understand what the Vaishnavas
have really to say.

The reader, who complains that such a procedure will block the way of impartial
scientific enquiry, would not also be quite reasonable; because it is he who,
under this unscientific pretext, really, wants to block the way of the only true
inquiry. What the Vaishnava wants the empiric scientist to admit is that
he should allow the devotee to deliver the tidings of the Spiritual Realm and not
to insist on identifying the geography and history of this world with
the Geography and History of the Spiritual Realm. The empiricist is also
not entitled to exclude spiritual Geography and History from the account of
the spiritual events if his purpose really be to represent a thing, as it actually is,
by available evidence and not as he thinks it ought to be. The two categories
are quite distinct from one another; and it would be fair to the spiritual subject
to admit unreservedly its transcendental nature, not merely in theory but
in practice as well.

If the career of Sree Chaitanya is written in accordance with the rules laid down
by empiric biographers, the narrative would be worse than a parody: it would be
a blasphemy. Such a performance is not the purpose of the writer. His object is to
faithfully record the events as he finds them in the original sources, offering no
opinion of his own except only such as help the elucidation of the subject in its
spiritual sense which is foreign to ordinary mundane experience. This method
leads to frequent digressions to caution both the writer as well as the readers at
every step not to misunderstand the subject. These digressions, which are offered
as the real explanation of the subject, have been gathered from the monumental
works of the Acharyas, who quote text and verse of the Scriptures to prove by
scriptural evidence the absolute truth of every word they write and take no credit

for originality, and in conformity with the personal experience of the
transcendental teaching and activities the writer’s most revered Gurudeva and
his associates.

The geographical site of the Yogapeetha, the Abode of Godhead, passed out of
the memory of most people due to the misfortune reflected by tradition of havoc
wrought by the shiftings of the course of the Bhagirathi. The religion taught By
Sree Chaitanya was not properly grasped by posterity and suffered from
misrepresentation in the hands of pseudo-teachers who soon abounded
at Nabadwip and in other parts of the country. There have, indeed, been a
small number of persons forming the inner following of the Acharyas, in all
these generations, who have kept up the real tradition. But these have failed to
win, for the purely spiritual religion up till now, any appreciable measure of
general The pseudo-Vaishnavas themselves also divided into an increasing
number of hostile groups, each of which followed a novel inspiration, some of
them taking to grossly immoral practices which they were not ashamed to give
out as the religion taught by Sree Chaitanya. The history of these tragic
occurrence will be told in the concluding chapters of this narrative. The
preponderance of the pseudo-forms of the religion has, however, secured their
deserved banishment from the society of the cultured classes, and in
consequence of this, the real tradition itself has tended to fall into utter neglect
and is regarded with mistrust even by the orthodox Hindu society at the
instigation of the Smarta priests.

The pseudo-cults, that usurped the name of the religion of love, were invaded by
all those evils of the older atheistical creeds which Sree Chaitanya wishes to put
down. The descendants of the old associates and followers of Sree Chaitanya set
themselves up as hereditary teachers of the pseudo-religion which proved to
them the means of eking out a miserable livelihood by exploitation of the
credulity of the lowest classes and the most immoral sections of the people. The
reader may for the present accept this as a moderate statement of the evils that
have made us forget the teaching of Sree Chaitanya, in order to be able to
understand why His Religion in course of time ceased to prevail in the upper
ranks of society and was allowed to be substituted by wretched counterfeits to
suit the whims and wickedness of designing quacks and knaves who earned their
living by pandering to the worst vices of the dregs of society claiming exemption
from even the ordinary salutary checks of communities obeying the rules of the
old civilization of the country.

It is this which has made the identification of the old geographical sites a matter
of hostile interest to the professional Goswamis even of this day and
their misguided followers. When the old town was being deserted the shrines
and the holy Forms (Vigrahas) were taken by their migrating proprietors to the
new sites. And, as the cultured society took little interest in the matter, the old
sites quickly passed out of the memory of the nation. But with the revival of
interest in the religion of Sree Chaitanya among the cultured classes within the
last fifty years or so, there also arose a natural desire to find out the old sites
connected with Sree Chaitanya.

Neither has it been really difficult to discover them with the help of the old
books. The actual site of the home of Sree Jagannath Misra which had
escaped the general havoc wrought by the Bhagirathi, has been settled on the
testimony of Vaishnava authors supplemented by the help of the actual
knowledge of the most revered Vaishnava saints. The process by which the old
sites have been identified is the same as that by which at the time of Sree
Chaitanya the holy sites of Sree Brindavan were identified and made known. For
the proper identification of a spiritual site the testimony of the pure Vaishnavas
is, spiritually speaking, the one thing needful, as they alone are privileged
to recognize the site. Geographical and historical considerations by themselves
are extraneous and can only be ancillary to the spiritual method.

Sree Mayapurdham, so identified, is situated geographically to the east of the
river Bhagirathi, nearly opposite the present town of Nadia which is located
on the western bank of the river identifiable with old Koladwip one of the
“Nine Islands” forming old Nabadwip.

The name Antardwip, changed into Atopur (vide Bhakti Ratnakar), persists to
the present day and includes Sree Mayapur which still maintains its name
unchanged. The river has constantly shifted its course, up to quite recent times.
The oldest maps enable us to follow the changes only as far back as 1763 A.D.
We have to rely exclusively on the testimony of the old writers for avoiding
mistaken identification that is being attempted by interested parties by availing
the shiftings of the location of the places during the two hundred and seventy six
years that elapsed between the Appearance of Sree Chaitanya and the
publication of Major Rennel’s Atlas. But tradition had always pointed to those
deserted parts as the site of the old city. Of this fact we possess reliable and
continuous testimony.

The method, that appears to us on the whole to be best for the purpose of
describing the place, is to follow the old writers, taking help of such light as is
afforded by recent investigations for the purpose of understanding
their statements. It is not our purpose to enter at this place into the details of
any recent evidence for which the reader is referred to the investigations of
Thakur Bhaktivinode which have been summarized in different publications and
which have formed the basis of subsequent inquiries regarding the real position
of the old sites.

Sree Mayapur which has escaped the widespread destruction that was apparently
caused by sudden changes of the course of he Bhagirathi from a very early
period is distinguishable from the adjoining lower alluvial plain by its elevation
and older soil of adhesive clay. A modern village occupying a part of the site of
Mayapur is inhabited by a number of Muhammedan families who began to settle
on this old site, which appears in course of time to have been totally deserted,
from the year 1785. This is traceable

The actual site of the Yogapeetha, the Home of Sree Jagannatha Misra, was
identified by the famous saint Chaitanyadas Babaji about eighty years ago
It appears that the actual site was known as such to the few Vaishnavas who
cared to he informed about it and had also been visited by them for their
devotional purposes. The place was noted by the inhabitants of adjoining
villages for alleged peculiarities. They maintain to this day that the place used to
be always overgrown with sacred tulasi, for which reason people had
instinctively desisted from any act of defilement or occupation for the purpose of
erecting any private dwelling. This reverence towards the site which is displayed
by the Muhammedan residents in occupation of the adjoining plots, indeed, point
to a definite conclusion. The row of high mounds, that are now crowned by
a number of substantial buildings erected by the piety of Vaishnavas since the
rediscovery of the old sites, had never before been occupied by the villagers
on their own account who had always regarded with a sort of sacred awe
those sites which were collectively known as the ‘Vaisnava settlement (Vairagi
danga).

There are many current stories of miraculous occurrences connected with the
sites. But the most startling miracle of all is the fact that the persistent local tales
are now found to be confirmed in their details by the topographical description
of. the old writers. For example, we read in the Bhakti Ratnakar that the court¬
yard of Sribas Pandit, where Sree Chaitanya inaugurated His own distinctive

form of worship viz., the congregational Kirtan of Hari and where, in the early
days of His Preaching, Sree Chaitanya used to chant daily the Kirtan all through
the nights in the company of His close associates, was situated one hundred
dhanus (two hundred yards) to the north of the ‘House of God’. A plot of land,
adjoining the site of the House of Jagannath Misra, finally and definitely
identified by Sree Jagannath Das Babaji and easily recognizable by the evidence
of local tradition, still bears the name of ‘khola bhangar danga,’ i.e., the mound
where the ‘khol i.e. mridanga was broken, which event, according to Sree
Chaitanya Bhagavata, the biography of Sree Chaitanya by a contemporary, took
place in a locality close to the ‘yard of Sribas’. The site is found to
have continued to bear this name from the time when the ‘khol’ of the
offending townsman, who persisted in playing on the mridanga for
accompanying the chant, was broken by Chand Kazi for arresting the further
progress of the movement, as described in that work.

The tomb of Chand Kazi himself, who afterwards turned into a staunch
supporter of Sree Chaitanya, still exists at a place, the situation of
which perfectly, tallies with the topography of the books. It has, therefore,
been possible on the testimony of such excellent corroborative evidence to
identify many of the old sites and even the actual location of the houses of
the prominent persons connected with the Activities of Sree Chaitanya in
old Nabadwip.

Antardwip which formed the heart of the old straggling city was situated at the
time of Sree Chaitanya on the eastern bank of the Bhagirathi whose current then
flowed under the city. The old bank of the river is identifiable with the help of
the old topography. The following old sites have been traced up until now in the
above manner—(1) The House of God (Bhagavadgriham), i.e, the Yogapeetha or
House of Sree Jagannath Misra, father of Sree Chaitanya; (2) the house of
Sreebas Pandit in whose ‘yard’ the Kirtana was first regularly sung in company;
(3) the house of Sree Advaitacharya, the meeting-place of the Vaishnavas in the
early days of the movement; (4) the house of Sree Chandrasekhar Acharya in
which Sree Chaitanya acted the part of Sree Rukmini in a dramatic performance
staged by His associates; (5) the tomb of Chand Kazi which is shaded by a
marvelous champaka tree reputed to be over four hundred years old; (6) the old
bank of the Bhagirathi marked by its four prominent bathing ghats, viz., ( a) the
ghat of old Siva, ( b ) Gauranga’s own ghat, (c) Madhai’s ghat, and (d) Barakona
ghat, all of which possess famous associations; (7) the shrines of old Siva and of
praura Maya. All these, with the exception of (5) belong to the village that still

bears the name of Mayapur.

Close to the tomb of Chand Kazi is the site of Sridhar’s house. The house of

Chandrasekhar is situated on ‘Ballal’s Tank’ which bears the name of the famous

independent Hindu king of Bengal, whose successor Lakshmana

Sena permanently removed the capital from Gauda near Malda to the old town

of Nabadwip. ‘The Mound ofBallaV situate within a short distance of

Sree Chaitanya Math is regarded locally as marking the site of the palace of the

Sena kings which was shunned by all persons after its desecration by the

first Muhammedan conquerors of Bengal. The residence of Sree

Nilambar Chakravarti, father of Sree Chaitanya’s mother Sree Sachi Devi, was

in the quarter of the town where the Kazi lived, which is the same as

present Bamanpukur (identical with Belpukur of the chroniclers).

We shall, therefore, follow the order of the sites that was observed by pious
devotees who performed the circumambulation of the holy Nabadwipdham
as described by the old writers, in offering a brief account of the surroundings
of Sree Mayapur that are associated with the early career of Sree Chaitanya.

Antardwip (literally, the central island), within which Sree Mayapur is situated,
forms the first of the ‘Nine Islands’ and the starting point of
the circumambulators. The more famous of the recognizable old sites of
Antardwip (Atopur) have already been noticed above.

Simantadwip is the next ‘Island’ that is reached by the pilgrim. Its present name
is Simulia situated to the north of Sree Mayapur. Sardanga close to
Simulia contains an old shrine of Sree Jagannathadeva. Sondanga,
Villvapushkarini, the tract known as megharchar, etc., lie close together. The
house of Sachi Devi’s father, as already stated, was situated near Belpukur.

The third of the ‘Islands’ is Godrumadwip (modern Gadigachha) to the south and
east of Sree Mayapur. Close to it is Suvarna-bihar with very ancient associations.
Other old places of this locality are Harihara-kshetra, which contains the mounds
Surya, Brahma, Indra and other gods, and . Devapalli with an old temple of Sree
Nrisingha. This ‘Island’ contains the bhajan kutir (cottage of devotional practice)
and samadhi (resting place) of Thakur Bhaktivinode.

The fourth ‘Island’ is Madhyadwip (Majida) situated to the south of Sree

Mayapur. It contains the Mounds of the Seven Rishis, a channel bearing the name

of Gomati, the adjoining wooded tract being known as Naimisharanya,

Sree Brahmanpuskaras (Baman-paukhera), Uchchahatta ( Hatdanga ) and other
sites of pious association.

The fifth of the ‘Islands’ is Koladwip (the modern town of Nadia) to the west-
south-west of .Sree Mayapur. At the time of Sree Chaitanya Koladwip or Kulia
was separated from Nadia, the Home of Sree Chaitanya, only by the
intervening main channel of the Bhagirathi. It is called ‘the place of expiation’ in
reference to the incidents connected with Gopal-Chapal and Devananda Pandit,
whose offenses were forgiven by Sree Chaitanya at Kulia. it is sometimes
designated as ‘the high bank of Kulia,’ and is connected by old writers with very
ancient events. Close to it is Samudragarh.

The sixth ‘Island’ is Rtudwip south-west of Koladwip. In it is situated the village
of Champahati which was formerly a grove of champaka trees. The old shrine
of Sree Gaur-Gadadhar erected by Dvija Baninath, one of the principal
associates of Sree Chaitanya, still exists at Champahati. It was also the residence
of the famous poet Jayadeva of the time of King Lakshmana Sena.

The seventh ‘Island’ was anciently called Jahnudwip (modern Jahnnagar) to the
north of Rutdwip. Close to it is Vidyanagar where the Academy of the
famous Vasudeva Sarbahhauma was situated .

Modadrumadwip is the eighth ‘Island’ to the north of Jahnudwip. Here is the
village of Mamgachhi, the birth-place of Thakur Brindabandas, author of
Sree Chaitanya-Bhagavat, the contemporary, systematic account of the career of
Sree Chaitanya written in Bengali verse. At Mamgachhi was located the
paternal residence of Sree Malini Devi, spouse of Sribas Pandit. Close to the
birthsite of Thakur Brindabandas is the shrine of Sree Madan Gopala installed by
Sree Vasudeva Datta Thakur, brother of Sree Mukunda Datta Thakur of
Chattagram, the close associate of Sree Chaitanya. This shrine contains also the
holy Form (Vigraha) installed by Saranga Murari Thakur, the associate of Sree
Chaitanya.

The ninth ‘Island’ is Rudradwip north-east of .Modadrumadwip.

These ‘Nine Islands’ constitute the Circle of Sridham Nabadwip the
circumference of which is given as thirty-two miles.

Sree Mayapur and the adjoining places are at the present day, in their outward

appearance, very different from the old town of Nabadwip at the time of
Sree Chaitanya. The present town of Nadia, which is not a very- beautiful
place except its shrines, is now the only part of the ‘City of the Nine Islands’ that
bears anything approaching an urban appearance, judged even by the
modest standard of a Bengal town. The other parts are almost purely rural and
are mostly overgrown with jungle. The numerous small channels of the
Bhagirathi, which abound about this point, impart a charming openness to the
landscape and salubrious freshness to the soft rural breezes that love to haunt the
silent places of practices of the only absolute pure faith. The main stream of
the sacred Bhagirathi, which is here swelled to noble proportion by the tribute
of the great body of sweet and pure water that is poured into it just below
Sree Mayapur by the Jalangi, forms now, as it did also at the time of Sree
Chaitanya, the central feature of the countryside. But the main current of the
Bhagirathi in old time flowed past the landing places of the old populous city.
The riverside of the old city is partly traceable. The bank was washed away
probably by a sudden shifting of the course of the river due to a great earthquake
that fearfully damaged the place in 1515 A.D. shortly after Sree Chaitanya
had renounced home and family

But the splendours of the old city lingered long in the memory of the inhabitants.
Thakur Brindabandas who wrote his Divine Narrative, Sree Chaitanya
Bhagavat, not long after the disappearance of the Supreme Lord, gives the
following description of the old town to his contemporaries who could also
confirm his eulogies. “There was not another town in the world”, says Thakur
Brindabandas, “like Nabadwip where Sree Chaitanya was born.

The divine architect must have known beforehand His impending Advent and
had accordingly lavished with a prodigal hand all his bounty to make of

Nabadwip the ideal place that it was. Who could describe the opulence of
Nabadwip? Every single bathing-ghat was thronged by a hundred
thousand bathers. Each caste resident in Nabadwip had lakhs of members of
every age.

All the people were highly skilled in their respective occupations by the grace of
the goddess of learning. All of them boasted of being masters in their line and
mere boys contended with the Brahmana teachers in scholastic disputations.
People from various countries flocked to Nabadwip. One could obtain the real
taste of learning only by studying at Nabadwip. The great fame of its learning

drew coundess students who were taught by an incredibly large number of the
most erudite teachers. This atmosphere of learning was also one of great
happiness by the kind glance of the goddess of wealth.

But the spiritual condition of the town, in which we are specially interested, was
not encouraging. This is what the same competent observer has to say on the
subject. “The people were blessed with the choicest favours of the goddesses of
learning and wealth. In these respects they had attained the sunmit of their
desire. There was only one drawback. The time of all people was wholly wasted
in the enjoyments of secular pursuits. The world was destitute of devotion for
Krishna and Rama (Baladeva). At this earliest stage of the Iron Age there came
to prevail prematurely those worst practices that have been predicted by the
Scriptures about the far-off future of this Age of Evil. The people sat up whole
nights at the songs of Mangalchandi (goddess of worldly blessing). This was the
only practice of religion known to the people. There were a few who in their
vanity worshipped the goddess Bishahari (healer of poison). Some lavished
immense wealth on the making of grand idols. Wealth was squandered on the
marriages of sons and daughters. The time of the people was passed in such
vanities. The great Chakravartis and Bhattacharyas were wholly unaware of the
significance of the great Shastras. By their teaching of the Scriptures they earned
for themselves and their hearers only entanglement in the toils spread by the
pitiless hand of Death. They never expounded the Divine Dispensation of the
Age in the shape of the kirtana of Krishna. They spoke only of faults, and never
of the good qualities, of anyone. There was a great number of arrogant recluses
and ascetics whose mouths never uttered such a sound as the Names of Hari.
Those persons, who were most reputed for their piety, used to utter the Names of
Govinda and Pundarikaksha only at their baths. Even those who professed to
teach the Geeta and the Bhagavatam, never employed their tongues to the task of
explaining the principles of devotion to Godhead. No one could be persuaded
even by entreaty to take the Name of Krishna. Every one harped ad nauseum on
the merits of learning and social rank. ’

There was one notable exception to the above rule. ‘Sree Advaita Acharya who
lived at Nadia was most highly respected for his unrivaled learning, his
high birth and honoured position in society. He was an eminent professor of
the Scriptures and excelled in expounding the true spiritual practice and
principle. He was equal to the great Sankara (Siva) himself in expounding the
subject of devotion to Krishna. He was equally well versed in all branches of
the Scriptures; and, in teaching them, he was always careful to explain

that devotion to the Feet of Krishna was the essence of all the Scriptures. He
was always engaged in worshipping Krishna with the greatest ardour, in
the simplest and purest manner, by the offering of sprays of the holy tulasi,
dearly loved of Krishna, steeped in the sacred water of the Ganges. He often
gave vent to deep ejaculations of sorrow , resembling the rumbling of thunder
and impregnated with the fiery energy of Krishna, which, passing beyond the
limits of this universe, reverberated in the Holy Realm of Vaikuntha.

Sree Advaita Acharya was the leader of a small band of sincere devotees who
were at this time settled in Nabadwip. These Vaishnavas were opposed
by atheists, specially on account of their practice of frequently uttering the
Name of Hari with a loud voice. This practice together with their theistic views
was sufficient to mark them out as the legitimate objects of their invectives
and ridicule, from which they could not be effectively shielded even by the
great influence of Sree Advaita Acharya himself who was regarded with respect
and awe all over Nadia.

The reason for such hostility were many: the foremost being that the Vaishnavas
eschewed all worldly pleasures and enjoyments, which was regarded as a
deprecation of the life of epicurean ease that was fashionable in all ranks of the
then society. There was no want of aggressive epicureans in that Age also who
openly condemned all pretensions to a life that was in every way above
animality. They wrote scurrilous ballads against the Vaishnavas and sang them in
the streets. The ascetic, the chaste woman, no less than others,’ so ran these
effusions, ‘will go the way of all the flesh. He alone can be said to have done
good deeds in his previous birth who rides the dola and the horse and is preceded
and followed by scores of running footmen. Much as your Holiness cries in the
mood of devotion, yet it does not cancel your Holiness’s sorrows of poverty.

Your Holiness never ceases to call upon the Name of Hari with a very loud
voice. It may surely anger the Lord to be addressed by shouts.’ The frank realism
of these fifteenth century Bengali followers of Charvaka cannot be outdone by
their most up-to-date successors of the present day. This was almost the general
attitude of the citizens of a profligate town devoid of all taste for anything higher
than bodily enjoyments of a refined character engendered by their engrossing
secular studies and urban pursuits.

There was another class of objectors who also ridiculed the mode of kirtana with
a loud voice. The ground for their objection was, however, different from that of
the refined epicureans. ‘I myself,’ such were the ideas of these people,

‘am the Brahman Who is devoid of all the qualities. Why then do they make any
such distinction as that between servant and Master?’ These men were the
worst enemies of the Vaishnavas. There were also many persons who looked
upon the Vaishnavas as designing worldly people who took to begging to earn
their livelihood by that easy method, for sheer idleness.

We frequently hear the complaint that religion suffers degradation by scarcity of
people who really lead the religious life. It is supposed that if religion is
freed from the clutches of these people who have so long monopolized it for
their profit and pleasure and have degraded it by their foul lives, people in
general would voluntarily follow the lead of truly devout persons. If only the
preachers of religion, say these open atheists, lead truly spiritual lives
themselves, their example would prove irresistible in winning everybody to
spiritual living. But the opposite of this is what almost invariably happens in this
world. The sincere devotees are always ridiculed and persecuted by the people.
This is also exactly as was likely in the circumstances. Those who are steeped
in worldliness have a spontaneous dislike for persons who openly
profess principles and follow a mode of life that are in essential contradiction to
theirs. The conduct of the devotees is always regarded by worldly people, who
have no inclination for listening to the unpalatable truth, as both foolish
and mischievous. Therefore, instead of following the example of such persons
the worldlings always look upon the pure souls as enemies of every
useful institution and set themselves in vindictive opposition to their activities.
To what ferocious persecution the bona fide Vaishnavas have been subjected at
the hands of their opponents from time to time, is not sufficiently well
known, although it forms the most pathetic and the most shameful chapter of
the history of India. Sree Chaitanya says, “It is our only duty always to chant
the kirtana of Hari with humility greater than that of the blade of grass,
with greater endurance than that of the tree, giving all due honour to others
without desiring any honour for ourselves.” But nothing can make amends, in
the eyes of worldly people, for the crime of chanting the Name of Hari or
proclaiming the unvarnished Truth in and out of season and at all time with
body, mind and speech as required by the teaching of all the Scripture embodied
in the institution of the whole-time kirtana of the Absolute.

We have already described in a preceding chapter the state of religious opinion
in the country of the time of Sree Chaitanya. There was no lack of
unspiritual doctrines and practices upheld by ancient philosophical systems most
of which were mere apologies, or even justifications, of the ordinary ungodly

practices of the misguided jivas of this world. The system that was in most
vogue among the Pandits of Nabadwip at this period and has been fashionable
ever since, is the atheistical system of Nabya Nyaya. The other atheistical
systems of philosophy were also assiduously taught in the schools of Nabadwip.
We learn that scholars even from Mithila (Tirhoot) came to Nabadwip to study
the New Logic. Sannyasins and learned Professors from Benares and all parts of
North India came to Nabadwip for the study of Vedanta. We also read of
students coming to Nabadwip even from distant Kanchi and the southernmost
part of the country.

These materialistic studies had acquired such preponderance at that period that
scholarship and ungodliness came to be regarded as necessarily identical.

The masses sang the songs of Mangalchandi and considered the endeavour
for increasing the means of worldly enjoyment as the ideal of religion.

The common people, and especially the wealthy trading communities,
performed with great eclat the worship of Mangalchandi and, by subsidizing the
Brahmana Pandits with liberal pecuniary gifts, were enabled to buy their
subservient approval of those unscriptural practices. Much money was
recklessly squandered on the short-lived idols and no less on the exhibition of
pantomime dolls, which was an invariable and costly item of expense on all
festive occasions. There were very few permanent Holy Vigrahas in Bengal at
that time. The worship of the permanent Holy Vigraha became a tradition in
Bengal only subsequent to the Advent of Sree Chaitanya and as the effect of His
Teachings. Temporary images were the only objects of worship. Those images
were immersed in water after the festivity in their honour was concluded, on
the wrong assumption that the Form of Godhead is a material and
temporary entity.

This posture of affairs filled the devotees with grief and despair. No one served
Godhead, no one ever talked about Him, or took His Holy Name, or could
be persuaded to listen to any discourse about Him. This was the blighted
waste glutted with every form of luxury aggravated by the strenuous pursuit
of worldly knowledge, which evoked the tenderest solicitude, of that small
band of pure souls and impelled them to adopt every method that could be
devised for rousing the deluded people to a sense of their eternal duty and
thereby saving them from their impending terrible doom. But all their efforts for
the amelioration of the spiritual condition of the people were misunderstood
and responded to by the bitterest invectives, ridicule and cruel persecution!

Yet those servants of Godhead did not lose their faith nor relax their

efforts, although their very food did not taste in their mouths at the sight of
the miseries of their kindred. The Bhagavatas applied themselves to their
devotions in the forms of the worship of Krishna, discourse about Krishna, and
bathing in the holy stream of the Ganges. And all of them incessantly blessed the
world, ‘May Krishna soon bestow His mercy on all!’

Chapter 2 Family and Elders

The Advent of Sree Chaitanya was preceded by the appearance of a numerous
body of pure devotees in different parts of the country who joined Him
at Nabadwip in due course and became incorporated in His Activities. This
galaxy of the stars of the first magnitude occupies the foreground of the picture
that it is our purpose to offer. Sree Chaitanya is unintelligible without
intimate knowledge of the doings of His associates. He is expressed in the
only intelligible form in the lives of His associates. He is expressed in the
only intelligible form in the lives of His bona fide devotees. These devotees were
not so many imitators of Sree Chaitanya. Each of them has a great, living,
individual personality; each serves Sree Chaitanya in his own way and helps
to demonstrate the quality of unbounded catholicity and endless variety
of manifestation in individual personalities of our only eternal function.

The conduct of these devotees is even more instructive than the
Transcendental Activities of Sree Chaitanya Himself Whom it was the function
of these great souls to express by serving the Absolute Truth identical with the
Personality of Sree Chaitanya under every form of circumstance and every
manner of disposition, by the method of incorporated, subordinate service.

The Vaishnava authors always offer the esoteric view of those events. When
Godhead Himself comes down into this world, He does not come un-attended by
His eternal associates and Divine paraphernalia. They accompany Him to this
world. The transcendental realm of the ‘White Island’ is the Eternal
Divine Abode of Sree Chaitanya Who is identical with Sree Krishna and
presents the Divinity’s Own Benevolent Nature dominating over all other Divine
Qualities.

The Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya dwells in the White Island, as does
Krishnachandra in Braja, with all His elders, kindred, associates and
complete entourage. When Sree Chaitanya deigns to come down into this world,
He comes in His Fullness, with all His elders, associates, servitors and realm.

His advent is, therefore, preceded by the appearance of His elders. All these are
a part and parcel of Himself and are in fact the extension of His own Divine Self.

It is by their reciprocal means that the Lord manifests His own Full Personality.
What the Lord is in His supermanifest Nature cannot and need not be known to
any one except Himself. Others need know the Lord only to the fullest

extent and in the fullest manner in which He chooses to manifest Himself to
them individually. By the manifestation of Godhead to the individual soul, the
later is fully satisfied and, as a matter of fact, such an individual does not desire,
nor does he think it necessary to know anything more, not merely for the
time being but for all time.

The jiva to whom Godhead reveals Himself sees the same Divine manifestation
everywhere and always, in His infinity of aspects. His cherished Divinity is
to him verily an endless Ocean of perfect and exquisite bliss, free from
every species of unwholesomeness, imperatively requiring his perennial
loving service by His perpetual manifestations. The appearance of the Lord is for
the purpose of making His devotees happy by affording them the Sight of
Himself. The establishment of religion and the destruction of demons who
appear as the enemies of Godhead do not require the Personal Appearance of
Supreme Godhead Sree Krishna Himself. These functions can be, and as a
matter of fact are ordinarily, performed by the Vishnu Avataras, or sometimes
even by the favoured among the pure jivas, by His command. The establishment
of the samkirtana of Krishna, which is the Divine Dispensation of this Kali Age,
is effected by the Avatara for the Age, and it would not be necessary for
Godhead to come down into this world for this purpose alone.

But there is a function which cannot be delegated, viz., that of pleasing the
devotees. Love for Himself can neither be conferred nor be satisfied by
anything short of Himself. It was for the purpose of bestowing, on fallen jivas,
love for Himself in the perfect form that is found only in Goloka, that Sree
Krishna, wearing the devotional mood and grace of Sree Radhika, appeared in
this world in His Eternal Identical Form of Sree Krishna Chaitanya, with all His
associates, elders and servitors eternally manifest in the ‘White Island’, the
realm of Krishna’s boundless and causeless Mercy.

In Braja Sree Radhika sets the model for the highest service of Krishna. In the
‘White Island’ it is Sree Krishna Himself who performs the function of
teaching all individual souls how Sree Radhika serves Sree Krishna in Braja, by
putting on Sree Radhika ‘s grace and devotion in order to enable Himself to
serve Sree Krishna after the manner of Sree Radhika in Her highest Mood, viz.,
during Her separation from Sree Krishna. The service that is rendered by Sree
Radhika manifests itself in this world in Braja at the close of the Dvapara Age.
But in its direct manifestation it is not at all understood by mortals. It is only the
Lord Himself Who can bestow this perfect loving devotion to Himself even on

souls that are averse to Him on principle and thereby enable them to realize the
true meaning of such pure devotion.

This explanation of the real purpose of the advent of Sree Chaitanya is fully
corroborated by the Scriptures and by the Activities of Sree Chaitanya
Himself. When godhead Himself appears in this world, all His secondary
Manifestations automatically merge in Him. It was in this wise that there were
born among men, by the command of Godhead, in advance of His own
Appearance, the kindreds, associates and servitors of the Lord.

Sree Ananta, Siva, Brahma, the Rishis and all the relations and associates of
every divine Avatar a were born and their prototypes, some of them appeared
in Nabadwip, some inChattagram, Srihatta, some were born in Rahr, in Odra,
and the West, the devotees descending into this world from their
transcendental realm appeared in various places, and, coming up subsequently to
Nabadwip, were there joined together around the Person of the Lord. All the
Vaishnavas were born in Nabadwip, except a few who appeared elsewhere.

The Elders who were first to appear were Sree Sachi, Sree Jagannath, Sree
Madhabendra Puri, Sree Keshava Bharati, Sree Isvara Puri, Sree
Advaita Acharya, Sree Pundarik Vidyanidhi, Sree Thakur Haridas, Sree Upendra
Misra, father of Sree Jagannath Misra, with his seven sons, Sree Nilambar
Chakravarti, father of Sree Sachi Devi, Sree Sree Prabhu Nityananda, Sree
Gangadas Pandit, Sree Murari Gupta, Sree Mukunda and others.

Our records show that a certain Brahmana of Western India, bearing the name of
Sree Madhukar Misra, a devotee of Sree Sree Narayana, for some
unknown reason, came to Sylhet and settled there. Sree Upendra Misra was the
second son of Sree Madhukar Misra. Sree Upendra Misra was a Vaishnava, a
great scholar, wealthy and possessed of an abundance of good qualities. Sree
Upendra Misra was the father of seven sons,—(1) Kamsari, (2) Paramananda,

(3) Jagannath, (4) Sarbeswar, (5) Padmanabh, (6) Janardan, and (7)

Trilokanath. Sree Jagannath Misra, one of the seven sons of Sree Upendra Misra,
migrated from Sylhet to Nabadwip, the emporium of all learning of the Age. The
title of Sree Jagannath Misra, earned by his shastric scholarship, was Purandara.

At Nabadwip Sree Purandara Misra espoused Sree Sachi Devi, the eldest
daughter of Sree Nilambar Chakravarti. With the intention of dwelling in
the neighbourhood of the sacred stream of the Bhagirathi, that has issued from

the Feet of Vishnu, in the company of high-born Sree Sachi Devi, who was
the embodiment of devotion to Vishnu, pure-hearted magnanimous
Purandara Misra settled in Sree Mayapur in the central ‘Island’ of the City of
Nine Islands. Sree Chandrasekhar Acharya was the maternal uncle(mother’s
sister’s husband) of Sree Chaitanya. Sree Murari Gupta, the author of Sree
Chaitanya Charit, belonging to a Vaidya family of Sylhet, had migrated to
Nabadwip. He was senior in years to Sree Chaitanya. Sree Pundarik Vidyanidhi,
also known as ‘Premanidhi, and ‘Acharyanidhi,, had his paternal home in the
village of Mekhala about fourteen miles to the north of the town of Chittagong,
where his sacred ‘seat’ still exists. His partner’s name was Ratnavati. His father
was Vaneswar (or Suklambar) Bhatta and his mother’s name was Ganga Devi.

He was the disciple of Sree Madhabendra Puri and was himself accepted as
his Guru by Sree Gadadhar Pandit Goswami. Sree Chaitanya called
Pundarik Vidyanidhi ‘father’ and bestowed on him the name of ‘Premanidhi’
indicative of servitorship of Godhead. Sribas and his younger brother Sree Rama
left their home at Sree Mayapur and removed to Kumarhatta after Sree
Chaitanya’s renunciation of the world.

Sree Nityananda Prabhu, the Associated Facsimile of Sree Chaitanya, made His
appearance in the village of Ekchakra in the country of Rahr, not far
from Mollarpur station of the E.I. Railway, within the modern district of
Birbhum. Hadai Pandit or Hadai Ojha, the father of Nityananda, was a good
Brahmana from Mithila, resembling Vasudeva in the immaculate purity of his
nature. The name of the wife of Hadai Pandit was Padmavati. Nityananda made
His appearance in this world on the tithi which is ever hallowed by His birth,
that corresponds to the thirteenth day of the bright fortnight of the month of
Magh. As a child, Nityananda startled all the neighbours by being constantly
occupied in the company of His associates in rehearsing the events of the
Avataras of Vishnu. The details of these childish pastime have been reverentially
preserved. Their nature may be briefly indicated.

He made His playmates form themselves into the assembly of gods. One of the
boys, representing the Earth, having complained to it of her
unbearable sufferings under the crushing weight of iniquities, those children who
acted as members of the assembly of gods repaired to the bank of the adjoining
river and there prayed to the Lord Who rests in the Ocean of Milk. One of the
boys, hid behind the tree, gives this reply of Godhead to their prayer, ‘I will soon
be born in the Home of Vasudeva at Mathura’. Sometimes personating the
Divine Avatara of the Dwarf, Nityananda affected to deliver Bali. On another

occasion He would fall into a swoon acting the part of Lakshmana in the Leela
of Godhead’s Avatara as Sree Ramachandra hit by the powerful dart of
Indrajit. Then one of the boys, acting the part of Hanuman, hastened to procure
the required curative herb from the Gandhamadana Mount and by that
means effected His recovery. Such pastimes of the little Boy amazed all
beholders who could not account for this extraordinary conduct of the little
Child. Twelve years were passed in these pleasant activities under the roof of His
parents.

Nityananda set out on His long travel to all places of pilgrimage at the age of
twelve. The incident that immediately led to this long pilgrimage is thus
stated. A certain sannyasin became a chance-guest at the house of Hadai Pandit.
He begged of Hadai Pandit to give Nityananda to him; and, in order not
to transgress against the rule laid down by the Shastras, Hadai Pandit
found himself obliged, against his own wish, to hand to the sannyasin the
Darling of his heart Who was much more to him than even his own life. The
grief of the parents, in being thus parted for good from their Child of twelve,
knew no bounds. The nature of the renunciation of the world for the sake of
Godhead must on no account be confounded with renunciation for any other
purpose, which latter is an unpardonable and clear dereliction of one’s duty.

The renunciation exhibited by Godhead and His devotees redounds to the good
of the whole world, and, most of all, of those very persons who appear, to
the superficial observer, to be the greatest sufferers by their abandonment.

Lord Nityananda, after thus leaving His parental home, traveled to all the tirthas.
in company of the sannyasin, till the twentieth year of His age. The places He
thus visited include Bakreswar, Vaidyanath, Gaya, Kasi, Prayag, Mathura,
Brindabana, Hastinapur, Dwaraka, Siddhapura, Matsyatirtha, Siva-Kanchi,
Vishnu-Kanchi, Kurukshetra, Bindu Sarobar, Pravaasa, Sudarsantirtha, Tritakup,
Vishala, Brahmatirtha, Chakratirtha, Prati-Srota, Naimisharanya, Ayodhya,
Sringaharpur, Kausiki, Pulastasrama, Gomati, Gandaki, Mahendra-giri,

Haridwar, Godavari, Benvatirtha, Sree Parbata, Sree Ranganatha, Hari-kshetra,
Rishabha-Parbata, Kritamala, Madura, Tamraparni, Malay-
aparbata, Badarikasrama, Gokarna, Surparaka, Kanyakanagara, Nirbindha and
all the countless holy sites. He journeyed to all those places in order to sanctify
them by His visit.

At the conclusion of this long pilgrimage Nityananda enacted the Leela of
obtaining the only reward of pilgrimage in the shape of attainment of

the privilege of the companionship of the true devotee, in as much as He
now Joined Sree Madhabendra Puri, ‘the first shoot of the Purpose Tree of
Loving Devotion ’ from whom He accepted His initiation into spiritual life (or,
according to some, He accepted His initiation from Sree Lakshmipati, the Guru
of Sree Madhabendra Puri). The meeting with His Guru is thus described by
Sree Ghanasyam Thakur, the writer of Bhakti Ratnakar: ‘Lakshmipati, so
famous in the school of Madhya, the owner of all good qualities, most dear to
the Lord of Sree Lakshmi Devi, partook of his meal obtained by begging,
interspersed with Krishna-talk, at the house of that Brahmana. Nityananda in the
Form of BalaRama showed Himself to Lakshmipati under the guise of a dream:
‘A certain Brahmana boy has come to this village in the garb of a super-ascetic;
He will be your disciple; make Him your disciple by means of this mantram,
and He spoke the mantram into his ear.’ Nityananda on meeting him repeatedly
said to the sanyasin: ‘Do thou deliver Me by initiation by the mantram. ’

After initiation Nityananda was given the Brahmachari’s name of ‘Svarup’ and
has accordingly been sometimes called ‘Nityananda-Svarup 5 both by
Sree Brindabandas Thakur as well as by Srila Kaviraj Goswami. Sree
Nityananda subsequently made His way to Nabadwip where He joined Sree
Chaitanya.

Thakur Haridas made his appearance in this world in about the year 1451 A.D.
(1372 Sh.), thirty-five years before the Advent of Sree Chaitanya, in the
village of Budhan in the district of Jessore. He came of a Muhammedan family
and in some manner, of which we do not possess any trustworthy record,
obtained very early in life the mercy of a Vaishnava who initiated him into the
religion of all souls. He, thereupon, left his parent’s house and his kin, and came
to Benapole where he made a small hut and lived therein. His method of
worship consisted in repeating, constantly and with a loud voice, the holy maha-
mantram of the sixteen Names of Godhead. He recited the maha-mantram
three lakhs of times every day. For this purpose he cut himself off completely
from every form of worldly association. It was not long, however, before his
practice found a malicious opponent in a local landholder of a most villainous
character, of the name of Ramachandra Khan. Ramachandra Khan was as foolish
as he was wicked and was incited to adopt the infamous method, described
below, by the representations of a fanatical section of the Hindu residents of the
locality who felt themselves scandalized by a Muhammedan presuming to adopt
their language in taking the name of Godhead in the manner that could pierce
even the ear-holes of such a great personage as Ramachandra Khan ! !

Ramachandra Khan did not believe that a person in the full bloom of early youth
could have really no attachment for woman. He accordingly deputed a shameless
harlot of great beauty, whom he subsidised for the purpose, to employ her
seductive arts to compass the ruin of the young devotee.

This abandoned woman continued to offer herself regularly at the solitary hut of
devotion of Thakur Haridas for three successive nights. She was kept waiting for
the whole night by Thakur Haridas by the assurance that he would attend to her
request after the utterance of the quota of the Names that he was
under obligation to take daily, was completed. Towards the close of the third
night that harlot, whose mind had been completely changed by listening to the
Holy Name of Godhead from the lips of the great saint who was so
completely unmindful of those irresistible charms of a young woman that are the
cause of ruin of so many so-called Rishis of all ages and conditions, fell
prostrate at the feet of Thakur Haridas and, with a contrite and chastened heart,
implored him to enable her to worship Godhead in the pure manner that he
himself did. The woman opened her heart frankly to Thakur Haridas and told
him all about the infernal conspiracy and also of her own past life which had
been utterly sinful. Haridas said to her that she was fit to take the Holy Name of
Godhead, and he accordingly initiated her into the life of the pure service of
Krishna. Haridas then advised her to give away all her treasure to the pious
Brahmanas and devote herself to the worship of Krishna by constantly uttering
His Name living apart from all other people in the solitary hut which he had built
for his own worship. Thereupon, bestowing his own hut on that woman, Thakur
Haridas left Benapole for good. That harlot became thenceforward a most
renowned devotee of Krishna.

From Benapole Thakur Haridas proceeded to Chandpur eastward of Saptagrama,
the residence of the father of the future Raghunathdas Goswami who was at this
time a little boy. The name of Raghunath’s father was Gobardhan Mazumdar.
Hiranya was the elder brother of Gobardhan. They were employed under Sultan
Hussain Shah to collect the revenues of Saptagrama, which totaled twenty lakhs
of rupees of which twelve had to be remitted to the Royal Treasury, the
collectors being entitled to retain for themselves the balance of eight lakhs. They
were consequently among the richest persons of that time. Thakur Haridas put
up with Balaram Acharya of Chandpur who was the priest of Hiranya and
Gobardhan. The boy Raghunath Das frequently visited Thakur Haridas. This was
the cause of his obtaining the mercy of Sree Chaitanya later on.

At the request of Balaram Acharya, Thakur Haridas once presented himself at
the gathering of Brahmanas in the halls of Hiranya and Gobardhan who
were patrons of Brahmanas and pious persons. The Thakur was well received by
both brothers. Presently, evidently in view of the practice of the Thakur,
the assembly began to praise the taking of the Holy Name, some maintaining
that the Name destroys sin, others contending that the Name confers
deliverance from the bondage of the world. Thakur Haridas said that those
secondary results are effected by the dim reflection of the Name. The effect of
the Name Himself is to arouse love to the Feet of Krishna. Emancipation is the
trivial effect of the dim reflection of the Name.

A Brahmana by the name of Gopal Chakravarti, who was employed by Hiranya
Mazumdar in connection with the remittance of revenues to Gauda and
who happened to be present, felt greatly chagrined to hear these statements
of Thakur Haridas and asked the assembly not to be led away by the
ridiculous effusions of an impostor, acting the part of a sadhu to deceive ignorant
people, by endorsing the view that emancipation, which is not attainable in
crores of births on the path of knowledge of the Brahman, is gained by the mere
dim glow of the Name. This, he said, was impossible and intolerable.

When Thakur Haridas, with great calmness, quoted the Scriptures to show that
emancipation, resulting from the dim glow of the Name, is trivial and is
not accepted by devotees even when it becomes available to them, the
Brahmana’s anger was so much inflamed by this exhibition of firmness that he
shouted to Thakur Haridas that if he failed to prove from the Scriptures that
emancipation results from the dim glow of the Name, was he prepared to have
his nose cut off? The Thakur intimated his readiness to submit to the bet
proposed, whereupon all the assembled people and especially Balaram Acharya
strongly condemned the outrageous conduct of Gopal, and all of them,
including Hiranya and Gobardhan, begged the forgiveness of the Thakur for the
insult that had been openly offered to him in their presence. Thakur Haridas
observed that Gopal’s anger was due to his ignorance of the Scriptures and he
was, therefore, not to blame; and saying this, he left the place, resuming the
loud chant of the Name of Krishna. It is recorded that for this offense
Gopal Chakravarti was afflicted with the worst form of leprosy in the course of
three days and his nose fell off in consequence, and that although the Thakur
so readily forgave him, his offense was not pardoned by Godhead.

From Chandpur Thakur Haridas made his way to Santipur and presented himself

at the house of Sree Advaita Acharya. The latter was very much encouraged by
the appearance of Haridas and provided him with a suitable place for his
devotional practices by finding out a cave in a retired part of the bank of the
Ganges.

Thakur Haridas lived in this cell and had his daily meal at the house of Advaita
with whom he could talk about Krishna. Haridas expressed his fear that
the conduct of Advaita in feeding him daily with the most unreserved
hospitality might bring social troubles to him, he being a Muhammedan by birth.
Sree Advaita Acharya, in answer to this, formally offered to Thakur Haridas the
meal cooked for the occasion of the anniversary of the sradha ceremony of
his departed father, that had to be given to the Brahmanas according to
custom, with the remark that ‘by feeding you, crores of Brahmanas are truly
fed’.

It is said that the Thakur Haridas was tempted a second time by a woman while
he was staying at the cave at Santipur, and that this time the woman was no
less than Maya herself, the deluding power of Godhead, whose solicitation,
which no jiva, from Brahma downwards, can resist, produced on Haridas the
only effect of increasing still further his ardent devotion to the Feet of
Krishna. Mayadevi sought and obtained the gift of the Name of Krishna from
Thakur Haridas in lieu of her effort to test the sincerity of the devotion of
Haridas.

From Santipur Thakur Haridas made his way to the village of Fulia which was
the residence of a strong community of Brahmanas. Fulia is situated three miles
to the east of Santipur. Thakur Haridas lived here in a cell on the bank of the
Bhagirathi as at Santipur and chanted aloud the maha-mantram of
sixteen Names of godhead three lakhs of times every day. The Muhammedans
who lived in the neighbourhood were incited by the Brahmanas of Fulia
to complain to the Kazi about the behaviour of Haridas, which, they pointed
out, was bound to produce a most undesirable effect on the prestige of
the Muhammedan community and religion.

The Kazi took this seriously and had Haridas brought to the presence of the
Governor for trial. He was at first treated with great respect and allowed to
visit the prison as he desired to converse with the prisoners. The prisoners, who
did not expect in their midst a saint who was treated with respect by the
keepers, thought he might obtain their release from captivity. They accordingly

pressed round him and begged him to intercede with the Governor for their
liberation. The Thakur in reply congratulated them on their captivity and wished
that their state of bondage might be prolonged. This filled the prisoners with
dismay. Haridas hastened to remove their mistake by explaining what he meant.
He said that they were forcibly kept away from the pursuit of worldly objects in
their state of captivity. This gave them a respite for the worship of Godhead.
Because Godhead cannot be worshipped when one’s mind is engrossed in the
affairs of this world. They should avail themselves of this opportunity, so
mercifully placed in their way, of turning their thoughts to Godhead; so that,
having acquired the taste for such life, even after they were set free, they
might continue to serve Godhead in the midst of the various temptations of the
world. He did not really desire the prolongation of their state of captivity in
the ordinary sense.

When Thakur Haridas was produced before the Governor for his trial, he was
offered a good seat in the court and the Governor pleaded, with
every appearance of sincere good will, that he should revert to his own society,
its customs and religion. Thakur Haridas replied: ‘A man follows the path
that appears to him to be the best. This is the dispensation of Providence.

Under this law a man born in a high Brahmana family sometimes embraces
the Muhammedan religion. And although he was born in a Muhammedan
family, God has been merciful to him and has shown him the path of the highest
good. This path he intends to follow. If such conduct appears to the Governor to
be deserving of punishment, he is prepared to undergo any consequences that
it may involve.’

The Governor then began to revile Vishnu and threatened to punish Thakur
Haridas with severe whipping till he would be forced to give up the
heinous course. Thakur Haridas simply replied: ‘Even if he is actually cut to
pieces he would never for a moment cease to utter the Name of Hari with his
mouth.’

The Governor, at the instance of the Kazi, now carried out his threat by ordering
Thakur Haridas to be whipped in twenty-two market-places of amua Mulk. This
barbarous order was duly executed. When Thakur Haridas appeared to be dead,
the ruffians who had been employed to cudgel him, tried to throw his body into
the Ganges. It is said that they failed to lift the body with all their efforts. This
frightened the Governor and his aiders and abettors in this horrible sin.

The Governor now spoke kind words to Haridas. He was convinced that Haridas
was a real Pir (holy man) and not a cheat as he had taken him to be. He was
sorry for what he had done and even begged his forgiveness. He then ordered his
men to liberate Haridas and assured him of immunity from all further
molestation on his part, desiring him to do as he liked. Thakur Haridas returned
to his cell at Fulia, undaunted by this terrible proof of the
implacable vindictiveness of his opponents.

On another day a snake-charmer was giving a display of his art at the house of a
wealthy resident of Fulia to the accompaniment of dance and music.

Thakur Haridas happened to arrive on the spot and taking his stand on one
side watched the performance which was a representation of a Feat of Sree
Krishna, viz., the quelling of the serpent Kaliya.

Overpowered by the associations awakened in him by the sacred theme, Thakur
Haridas fainted away, and, when he was helped to regain his
consciousness, himself joined in the dance, exhibiting all the external signs of
the eight satvika perturbations. The snake-charmer stopped his performance,
and, with palms joined in the attitude of reverence standing motionless on one
side, gazed with awe on the devotional activities of Thakur. This mood of
Haridas was, however, soon over; and, after he had stopped, the snake-charmer
resumed his musical performance. Those present were so moved by the
occurrence that they devoutly took the dust of the feet of Thakur.

A Brahmana, who happened to be in the crowd and had watched the whole
affair, thought of acquiring a cheap reputation for sanctity by imitating
the satvika perturbations of Haridas that he had witnessed. He accordingly
affected to swoon away and forthwith began to sing, dance, laugh and shiver,
in imitation of Thakur Haridas.

The snake-charmer now behaved in a most strange manner. He, who had been so
quiet and respectful towards Thakur Haridas, suddenly fell upon the unlucky
Brahmana with great fury and began to belabor him, with a cudgel that he
snatched from one of his men, in a most merciless fashion. That
Brahmana, unable to bear the severe thrashing, took to his heels in a very short
time. On being asked by the spectators the reason of his strange and violent
conduct towards the Brahmana, the snake-charmer replied that he had beat
the Brahmana, because by his hypocritical exhibitions he was trying to bring
into contempt the conduct of the revered Thakur Haridas.

Another Brahmana of Fulia opposed the practice of chanting loudly the Name of
Hari by Haridas on the ground that it was against the Scriptures. He denied that
Haridas, who was born of a Muhammedan family, had any right to dabble in the
philosophy and religion of the Hindus; that this very fact of a Muhammedan
posing as a teacher of the Scriptures of the Hindus, portended the appearance,
long before its appointed time, of the worst period of the Age of evil. This
impostor has the effrontery of procuring the best food by begging from door to
door, presuming to teach the Shastras to respectable people! If his explanation
regarding chanting of the Name of Hari with a loud voice, is not found in the
Scriptures, his nose ought to be cut off., Accosted by the infuriated Brahmana in
the above fashion Thakur Haridas with a smile left the place to chant loudly the
Name of Hari. That Brahmana also met with the condign punishment of his
offense by being smitten with the small-pox in the course of a few days, that cost
him his nose.

Thakur Haridas now made his way to Nabadwip and there joined the
congregation of the small group of Vaishnavas that was gradually forming round
the figures of Sree Advaita acharya, who had settled there as a teacher with his
own Academy (tol) and Sribas Pandit who lived close to the Academy of Sree
Advaita Acharya. At this time Thakur Haridas constantly traveled to different
parts of the country with the object of preaching the kirtana of Hari to the
people. Shortly after his arrival at Nabadwip, he joined Sree Chaitanya as one of
His most devoted associates.

Sree Advaita Acharya, who was the acknowledged leader of the small Vaishnava
community of Nabadwip at the time of the Appearance of Sree Chaitanya, was
a person of vast erudition, possessed of great wealth and occupied a position
of the highest respect in the society of Nabadwip. He appears to have
been originally a native of the village of Nabagram in some as yet unidentified
part of Bengal. He subsequently settled at Santipur, whither he had come in
course of a pilgrimage that he had undertaken after the departure of his parents
from this world. At Santipur he married Sree Sita Devi. Sree Advaita Acharya
met Thakur Haridas for the first time at Santipur where he offered him the meal
on the occasion of the annual funeral ceremony of his departed father, instead
of giving the same to the Brahmanas by seminal birth as is the custom of
the smartas.

Advaita built a small house at Nabadwip where he set up his Academy (tol) in
which he taught different branches of the Shastras. Advaita Acharya

soon acquired the reputation of being one of the most eminent Professors
of Nabadwip who upheld in all his teachings the pre-eminence of the principle
of unalloyed devotion to Krishna, which he conclusively established by
the evidence of the whole body of the Scriptures. This marked him out from
among the host of the other Brahmanas who also taught the Scriptures at
Nabadwip.

Sree Advaita Acharya, in conformity with his teaching, was a devout worshipper
of Krishna. He did not perform his worship with the elaborate ceremonials that
characterized its development in the Dvapara Age. He worshipped Krishna with
the offerings of the spray of tulasi, most beloved of Krishna, and the sacred
water of the Ganges which issued from His Feet. This simplicity of worship a
concomitant of the philosophy of pure, transcendental devotion which he
expounded in his Academy. He wanted to keep the pure devotion to Krishna
distinct from the lifeless rituals of the elevationists and liberationists. Advaita
worshipped Krishna with the pure devotion of unclouded cognition and with the
specific purpose of moving Krishna to come down into the world to re-establish
the Eternal Religion. The Advent of Sree Chaitanya is attributed by all His
devotees to the sincere and ardent invocations of Sree Advaita Acharya. That
Advaita Acharya’s prayers and worship brought about the appearance of the
Supreme Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya in this world, has been repeatedly
declared by Sree Chaitanya Himself.

The Academy of Sree Advaita Acharya was the regular meeting place of all the
Vaishnavas of whom the foremost was Sribas Pandit who lived close to
Advaita, not far from the House of Sree Jagannatha Misra.

Sree Advaita Acharya belonged to the community of Sree MadhvAcharya which
is one of the four authorized Vaishnava communities. He was the disciple of
the famous Madhabendra Puri, the spiritual preceptor of Sree Nityananda,

Sree Iswara Puri and several other elders of Sree Chaitanya.

Madhabendra Puri is regarded by the most illustrious followers of Sree
Chaitanya as ‘the first tender shoot of the mighty Tree of Transcendental
Love represented by Sree Chaitanya Himself in its full growth’. There is to be
found no trace of the amorous love for Krishna in the School of Madhva prior
to Madhabendra Puri. The disciplic succession of the followers of Sree
Chaitanya, through Madhabendra Puri, is to be found in Sree Gauraganoddesa,
Sree Prameyaratnavali, the works of Sree Gopalguru Goswami, and also in

the Bhaktiratnakar. The line of succession is as follows:

KRSHNA

Brahma

Narada

Vyasa

Suka Madhva

Padmanabha Nrihari Madhaba

Akshobhya

Jaya Teertha

Jnanasindhu

Dayanidhi

Vidyanidhi

Rajendra

Jayadharma

Purusottama

Brahmanya

Vyasa Teertha

Lakshmipati

Madhabendra Puri

Nityananda Iswara Puri Advaita

SREE CHAITANYA

We reserve the detailed discussion of the esoteric implication of the spiritual
disciplic succession for a future chapter in connection with the doctrine of
Sree Chaitanya.

The following particulars regarding Sree Madhabendra Puri are found in Sree
Chaitanyacharitamrita. He went, unattended by any other person, to
Sree Brindavana. on his arrival there, as he was seated under a tree on the bank
of the pool (kunda) of Govinda, Sree Krishna appeared to Madhabendra as a
cowboy under the guise of offering him milk for appeasing his hunger. Led by
a dream Madhabendra then installed the Divine Form of Gopala on
the Gobardhana Mount. His sojourn to Puri to fetch camphor and sandal
for Gopala and the episode of Kshira-chora Gopinath will be described later.

At Mathura, Madhabendra Puri accepted the alms of cooked food from a
Sanoria Brahmana, whose touched water is not accepted by high class Smartas,
in violation of the smarta practice which errs by applying caste rules to the
devotee of Godhead and its notions of ceremonial cleanliness to food accepted
by Krishna (maha-prasad).

Madhabendra Puri rebuked Ramachandra Puri for his disrespect to himself, his
spiritual preceptor, and blessed Iswara Puri for his whole-hearted devotion to his
preceptor by expressing the hope that he might attain to love for Krishna. Sree
Madhabendra Puri’s utterance at his disappearance is cherished by all
pure devotees. ‘ It runs thus: ‘Thou Lord, Who art ever melted to kindness
towards the humble, when wilt Thou, O Lord of Mathura, be seen by me? My
heart, Dearest, sad for not beholding Thee, grows delirious. Oh! What shall I
do now?’

Sree Iswara Puri came of a Brahmana family belonging to the village of
Kumarahatta (near Halishahar Station of the E. B. Railway) and was the
most beloved disciple of Sree Madhabendra Puri. Sree Madhabendra Puri,
being satisfied with his devotion, blessed him saying, ‘May you attain loving
devotion for Krishna.’ Sree Chaitanya did him the favour of receiving initiation
in the ten-lettered mantra from him at Gaya. Govinda and Kashiswara
Brahmachari, disciples of Sree Iswara Puri, joined Sree Chaitanya at Puri on
the disappearance of Sree Iswara Puri.

The attitude, which the reader is expected to take up towards the associates of
Sree Chaitanya, is put tersely in the opening verse of

Sree Chaitanyacharitamrita. “Sree Krishna-Chaitanya is Godhead Himself as

is indicated by His Name Who means the Self-conscious Principle,

Krishna. Godhead sports in six Divine Forms, viz., as (1) Krishna, (2) the
Two Preceptors, (3) the Devotees, (4) the Avataras (5) the Manifestations, and
(6) the Powers. In other words, the Spiritual Preceptors are Chaitanyadeva;
the devotees such as Sribas, etc., are also Chaitanyadeva; the Avataras
are Chaitanyadeva; and the Powers are also Chaitanyadeva Who is
himself Krishna’s Own Cognitive Self, the Subjective Divine Personality Whose
Essence is Pure Cognition. We shall discuss these truths in greater detail in
the succeeding chapters.

I have tried briefly to put before the reader some of those considerations the
substantive truth of which has to be realized by the disciple in order to be fit
for studying profitably the holy narrative of the career of Sree Chaitanya.

I cannot do better than conclude this chapter with the cautious words of Thakur
Brindabandas, ‘Know for certain that the Activities of Chaitanyachandra, by
listening to which the heart is purified, manifest themselves only by the grace of
the devotees of Godhead. Who can know the Deeds of Chaitanya that are the
hidden secret of the Vedas I write only what I have heard from the lips of the
devotees. I make my obeisance at the feet of all the Vaishnavas. May there be no
offense committed by me by such an attempt.’

Chapter 3 Birth and Infancy

Why Krishna comes into this world is known only to Himself. The invocation of
the Lord by Sree Advaita Acharya is stated by devotees as the cause of
the Advent of Sree Chaitanya. The spiritual Academy of Advaita was the
gathering-place of all the Vaishnavas of Nabadwip. There they met daily and
spent a greater part of their time in holy discourses about Krishna. They were
regarded as a peculiar group whose ways and words appeared alike singular
and distasteful to the people in the midst of whom they found themselves placed
by Providence. This small group of devotees felt keenly for the miseries that
their worldly-minded brethren brought upon themselves by their attachment
to interests other than Krishna. They tried to instruct them about Krishna.

But this only served to increase all the more their aversion to Krishna and
His devotees.

It was this apparently hopeless state of affairs that led Advaita to the conclusion
that the universal and stubborn godlessness that prevailed everywhere could only
be relieved by Krishnachandra Himself. Advaita believed in the efficacy
of prayer that is offered by one who knows nothing except Godhead. He
believed that the intolerable anguish, of those sincere devotees who daily
gathered under his roof, caused by the extreme misery of the worldly people due
to their bitter aversion to Krishna, must appeal to the Lord and have power to
draw Him in no long time from His Eternal Seat of Goloka into this world, for
the consolation of His own beloved ones. Advaita, who was well versed in
the Scriptures, noticed all these favourable indications. He was so convinced of
the impending Appearance of Krishna that in his prayers he began to call upon
Him most ardently night and day to save the world by His speedy Appearance.

That Advaita felt sure about the Appearance of Sree Krishna and worshipped
Him for this specific purpose with tulasi and the holy water of the
Ganges, which are most acceptable to Krishna, With the single-hearted desire for
His Appearance, was known to all the Vaishnavas. He, in fact, actually assured
them most clearly and emphatically about the expected Advent of Krishna into
their midst within a short time. I have stated already that Sree Chaitanya Himself
repeatedly declared that His Advent was solely due to the whole-hearted prayers
of Advaita.

The Advent of Sree Chaitanya in the particular Kali Age that follows the

Appearance of Sree Krishna at the close of Dvapara, is also hinted by
the Scriptures. In the Mahabharata it is declared that Krishna appears in the
Kali Age as a Brahmana with a. yellow complexion to promulgate the yajna in
the form of congregational Chanting of the kirtana of Hari. The
Bhagavatam contains the same statement and adds that Krishna appears in the
above manner in the Kali Age with all His kin, associates, consorts and
servitors. Krishna Himself appears towards the end of the Dvapara Age of the
Vaivasvata Manvantara of the twenty-eighth aggregate of four- Yugas of the
Kalpa of the White Boar. He appears as a Brahmana with the yellow complexion
in the particular Kali Age following His Appearance in the Dvapara. In the
Dvapara Krishna appears as Godhead served by His consorts, kindred and
servitors. In the Kali Age Sree Krishna-Chaitanya appears as the Best of
devotees in company of the congregation of devotees, viz., His own beloved
ones in order to teach by His own example how Krishna, i.e, He Himself, is to be
served. This is the main cause of the Advent of Sree Chaitanya. The prayer of
Advaita and the suffering of the devotees are the secondary cause. Unless this
real cause of His Appearance is properly grasped, the most characteristic
Activities of Sree Chaitanya can never be rightly understood.

The Appearance of Sree Chaitanya came about in the following way. In
Nabadwip there dwelt a most generous and pure hearted Brahmana devoted
to the zealous performance of all religious duties, resembling in his
immaculate piety Vasudeva, the father of Sree Krishna. The name of this ideal
Brahmana was Sree Jagannath Misra. we have stated his ancestry in another
place. His revered consort’s name was Sree Sachi Devi. Sree Sachi Devi was the
most loyal of matrons, the very embodiment of the pure devotion to Vishnu and
mother of the whole world. Eight daughters were born to Sachi Devi one after
another; all of them leaving this world in their infancy. The ninth issue was a son
whom his parents obtained in response to their prayer to Vishnu for a male
offspring. The name of this boy was Bisvarupa, the elder brother of Sree
Chaitanya.

Sree Krishna entered the persons of Sachi and Jagannath Misra towards the end
of the month of Magh in the Saka Year fourteen hundred and six (January, 1485
A.D.). The mouths of Sree Ananta uttered paeans of triumph that were heard by
Sachi and Jagannath, as in a dream. Jagannath Misra thereupon said to Sachi, T
had a dream that a realm of light entered my heart and from my heart it passed
into yours. It seems some great personage is about to be born., There were other
indications. Misra felt a difference everywhere. His body and the house appeared

shining like a place dwelt by Lakshmi, the Goddess of every well-being. All
people showed him honour at all places. Money, clothing, rice, etc., poured
unsolicited into his house. Sachi noticed heavenly figures in the sky that
appeared in the attitude of prayer to herself; but no one else observed them. Sree
Jagannath Misra and Sree Sachi Devi felt transported with inexpressible delight
and applying themselves with a mind restrained from all other pursuits and with
special ardour to the worship of Sree Shalagrama, awaited the impending
Advent of the Lord. Thirteen months were passed in this state of expectant
suspense.

Sree Krishna-Chaitanya made His auspicious Appearance in this world on the
23rd day. of Falgun of the Saka Year 1407, which corresponds to the 18th
of February of 1486 A. D. He was born in the evening just with the rising of
the full-moon, which was then in eclipse, in the midst of the loud chant of the
Name of Hari by the people of Nadia, as is the custom on the occasion of an
eclipse. Nature joined with man and the gods to pay homage to the Moon
of Nadia risen on the Eastern Hills. The spotted lunar disc hid its face in
shame, under the guise of eclipse, on the Appearance of the Perfect Moon
absolutely free from all spots. On that blessed Moment of Nativity of the
exquisitely beautiful Baby were shed in unstinted profusion all the most
auspicious influences of all the favouring constellations, that blended together to
greet the Advent of the Lord. Strange forms were observed to crowd into the
yard of Sachi, lying prostrate on the bare earth in the act of adoration, waving
the whisk, holding aloft the umbrella, singing, dancing and beating the drum
or playing on the flute, in an ecstasy of unbounded joy.

That very Moment Advaita suddenly leaped with delight in home and danced
with joy arm-in-arm with Thakur Haridas to the blissful surprise of on¬
lookers. All the devotees had the same experience. The tide of joy that swept and
eddied over all Nadia and threw the very birds and beasts and all dumb Nature
into a delirium of ecstatic joy, the pens of Thakur Brindabandas and Kaviraj
Goswami are alone privileged to describe. The brush of no earthly or celestial
painter can do justice to the delicate assemblage of colour, warmth, holy
perfume, the volume of delirious joy, free from the least suggestion of grossness,
that manifested themselves at the Birth of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya and have
ever clung to the Holy Eve of His Advent most highly cherished by all pure
devotees who declare the worship of the day of the Lord’s Advent to have power
to kindle love for Krishna.

The Birth of the Baby drew a long train of visitors, male and female, who
hastened to have a view of the Divine Child and make suitable offerings.

Gods and goddesses, assuming the forms of men and women, mixing with the
crowd, made their way to the home of Jagannath Misra, in order to obtain a sight
of the Baby and greet the Feet of Sree Gaurasundar, dancers, singers,
musicians, promulgators of auspicious tidings, flocked thither to swell the joy of
the Festive Occasion.

Sree Chandrasekhar Acharya and Sribas Pandit duly performed the
purificatory

Birth Rites of the Son of Jagannath Misra. Sree Purandar Misra made suitable
gifts to all those who brought presents for his Boy on this auspicious
occasion. Sree Sita Thakurani, the consort of Advaita Acharya, made her way to
Sree Mayapur from her residence at Santipur to see the Prince of Boys. Sree
Malini Devi, pure-hearted consort of Sribas Pandit, accompanied Sita Thakurani
with various presents and afforded her eyes the opportunity, that they longed for
like the bird chakora, of feasting on the nectar flowing from the moonlike Face
of the Transcendental Baby. Misra distributed whatever he had, with an
open hand, to the Brahmanas, having first offered the same to Godhead. He
kept back nothing of the rich variety of presents for himself. Sree
Nilambar Chakravarti, father of Sachi Devi, taking Misra aside, informed him in
a whisper that the signs on the Person of the Child prognosticated a very
great Transcendental Personage Who would deliver the world.

The Birth of Sree Chaitanya, of which we have culled the above account from
the narratives of His associates, was never regarded by them as anything like the
ordinary occurrence of this world with which all of us are so familiar. The raison
d’etre of their attitude is thus put by Thakur Brindabandas in a passage of the
Nativity Hymn sung by the gods on the occasion: ‘He, Who is All-Will Who can
destroy the whole world at His Will, could certainly also therefore
destroy Kamsa, Ravana and other enemies of Godhead instantaneously, and by
His mere fiat. But although He could do so, He killed Ravana by, being
Himself born in the Home of Dasaratha and slew Kamsa by, being Himself born
as the Son of Vasudeva; because He is ever full of All-joyous Activities.

‘The realm of Nabadwip where Krishna makes His Appearance is no mundane
region.’ The transcendental realm of Sree Krishna is identical with the power
of Godhead known as Neela or Leela and is an object of worship of His

devotees. The Yoga peetha, i.e., the Abode of Sachi-Jagannath, situate in the
center of Sree Mayapur, is the Plane of the Appearance of the Lord and is
identical with Brindavana or the mind of the devotee constituted of the pure
cognitive essence. Sree Nabadwip is replete with the ninefold devotion, being of
the nature of the heart of those pure devotees who have found the Refuge of
the Lotus-Feet of Sree Gurudeva. Such is the language of realization that is used
by the devotees in regard to Nabadwip, which is necessarily unintelligible by,
the method of delusive mundane analogies. But we need not, therefore, reject
the testimony of those whom we have accepted as our authorities, not on
the ground that it is untrustworthy or dishonest but for the irrelevant reason that
it is not perfectly intelligible to those who are destitute of pure devotion to
the Holy Feet of Godhead. This would be against all principles of impartial
history and, as regards the theistic account, will result in the retention of the
chaff by elimination of the grain under the untenable plea of our own ignorance.

We have merely referred to certain spiritual values to prevent misconception of
the Great Event that we are describing. Those values will be fully discussed later
on when we arrive at the proper point of the narrative. But there are
other considerations that it is necessary to place before the reader in order to
enable him to follow the development of the narrative itself.

Godhead and His devotees appear in this world by the operation of the
transcendental positive Power of the Divinity that directly attends on His Person.
Individual souls (jivas) are born by the operation of the deluding stupefying
power of Godhead that can never abide in the Presence of the Divinity. The
material cases enveloping individual souls (jivas) are the creation of the deluding
power and such envelopment is the misfortune that overtakes them in
consequence of the deliberate practice of aversion to Godhead. The worldly
birth, through the medium of material bodies, belongs to the category of material
phenomena, being brought about by the operation of the Deluding Energy as the
result of the soul’s desire for worldly enjoyment.

The Appearance of Godhead and His devotees in this world is not the
consequence of the practice of any previous aversion to Godhead either by
wish or activity, nor due to the operation of the Deluding Power. Godhead and
His devotees appear in this world their own will through the medium of
the Transcendental Power. The Nature of Godhead and His devotees is such that
it simultaneously enlightens and deludes conditioned souls to whom
They appear. They reveal their transcendence to those conditioned souls

who sincerely want to serve the Lord and at one and the same time appear to
those who are averse to His service, as deluding phenomena of this world. The
Birth of Godhead, the Realm of Godhead, the devotees of Godhead, thus remain,
in their proper transcendental nature, ever inaccessible to the
deluded understanding of all irreverent persons. This may not be tasty to
arrogant godless intellectualism, but is nevertheless the only position that is
perfectly reasonable and logical to the understanding that is not prepared
to hypocritically disown its consciousness of its present limitations and
the consequent imperative necessity of welcoming the entry of the Truth,
however opposed the Truth may seem at first sight to all its most deeply
cherished prejudices.

Those, therefore, who are prepared to maintain that the Birth of Sree Chaitanya
is an ordinary affair of this world, start deliberately on the wrong track
and should not blame anybody but themselves if they find the narrative
not perfectly amenable to those rules of probability which are derived from
their worldly experience. Sree Chaitanya’s Birth appeared, for this very reason at
the time of its occurrence, as an ordinary event of this world to His
contemporaries with the exception of the comparatively small group of His
devotees. It is not the untrue experience of the atheists which the reader of these
pages is offered as The history of theism ’. Neither is he asked to deny the
existence of the experience of the atheists. But he is asked not to accept their
experience as theistic or true nor to confound Godhead with the fallen souls of
this world.

The Birth of Sree Chaitanya was brought about by the operation of the
Transcendental Power of Godhead who is categorically different from
His material Energy. Sree Jagannath Misra and Sree Sachi Devi who is
not metaphorically but really the mother of the whole world, are the eternal
Parents of Godhead. Their minds and bodies are constituted of the principle of
pure cognition which is categorically different from the constituent principle of
the body and mind of ordinary mortals. ‘Vasudeva’ is the Scriptural term to
denote this pure cognitive essence. Vasudeva, Son of Vasudeva, manifests
Himself only in Vasudeva, or the pure consciousness, for playing His Pastimes.
The relationship between Sree Jagannath Misra and Sree Sachi Devi or the
seeming pregnancy of the latter, does not belong to the category of the sensual
affairs of men and women who are given to the pleasures of the flesh. The
real significance of the Conception of the Lord by Sree Sachi Devi and of
its transcendental purity will appear to the mind, only if it is in a position

to realize the eternal difference between the spiritual and the material.

The account of the devotees will then be truly understood and it cannot
be understood in any other way even by the greatest intellectual giants of
this world.

The process of the Transcendental Birth of Godhead is thus described in
Sreemad Bhagavatam. Thereafter the Portion of the Changeless transmitted
by Sree Vasudeva was conceived by Devaki of pure cognitive essence. Just as
the quarter of the East conceives the image of the moon, Sree Devaki
also conceived in the same manner Sree Hari, the Supreme Soul of all souls, by
her non-mundane mind.’ This process is not confined to only Vasudeva
and Devaki. It is the same also in the case of the devotees. Before
Godhead manifests Himself to the devotee in the visible Form, a long period
passes during which He is manifest internally in his pure consciousness.
Thereafter as the quarter of the East holds the disc of the moon, Devaki of pure
cognition by the process of initiation in Krishna by Surasena (Vasudeva)
received in her transcendentaly pure heart Sree Achyuta, the Embodiment of the
universal wellbeing, the Supreme Soul of all souls.’ From these statements of the
Bhagavatam it would appear that Sree Krishna first appeared in the heart of
Anakadundubhi and from there appeared in the heart of Sree Devaki. The entry
into the womb of Sree Devaki alluded to in the Nativity Hymn of the
Bhagavatam is not different from the above.

Godhead and His devotees are not born by the operation of the material Energy
by means of the seminal fluid and blood, etc. The greatest of all offenses that
it is possible to commit against the Divinity is to suppose that His Body
is material like that of the bound jzva. Godhead and His devotees have no
material bodies and are not born by the operation of any material conditions.

The Appearance of Sree Chaitanya and His devotees is free from any touch of
the material principle. This is the realization of all the devotees in accordance
with the declaration of the Scriptures. Theistic history, although it
certainly transcends and explains does not ignore this phenomenal world; and
those, who object to the transcendental on the ground that it is not conformable
by the worldly experience of men, do not thereby disprove either the reality or
the necessity of such history.

The successive disappearances of eight daughters, followed by the appearance of
Viswarup and Sree Chaitanya, the two Sons, of Sree Sachi Devi, are
explained on the analogy of the case of Sree Devaki recorded in the Bhagavatam

as symbolizing the esoteric fact that the Appearance of Sree Krishna is preceded
by that of Samkarsana, the Pure Cognitive Principle who manifests Himself on
the subsidence of the eightfold envelope of physical Nature, viz., the eight
pseudoegoistic principles, that bars the access of the bound jiva to the
transcendental.

The necessity of the closest consideration of the difference between the spiritual
and material can alone enable one to reconcile the apparently
contradictory statements regarding the Absolute that are a subject of standing
complaint to all who, for extraneous reasons, do not seek the explanation in the
Scriptures themselves. The Lord says: T exist eternally; nothing existed before
Me, neither the non-existent nor the existent and nothing exists to the end and
beyond the end except Myself. Therefore, those foolish persons, who think
slightingly of My Human Form, do so through ignorance of My real Nature Who
transcends everything of this world. They think that I am like themselves subject
to the laws that have been made by Myself. They cannot understand that I exist
in absolute independence of all rules which only serve to manifest Myself;
and that I am the Supreme Lord of everything including all rules and
conditions. Therefore, I can make My real Form visible to mortal eyes without
ceasing to be the Master of this world and without submitting to any laws of
physical Nature, and may at the same time delude all those who are averse to Me
by appearing to them as an ordinary human being, subject, like themselves, to
the operation of the laws of this universe. Know that this is the specific privilege
reserved for Godhead, and herein lies the proof of His Supremacy, that He
remains unaffected by the qualities of physical Nature even when He appears to
be situated within its sphere.’ Godhead has a specific Personality of His own,
but He is subject to no limitations. In Him all opposite qualities meet and
are reconciled losing all their apparent grossness. But He also chooses to appear
as an abstract principle to the idealist and as capable of grossness to
the materialist, who are thus punished for trying to make the Absolute submit
to their deluded speculations.

Sree Chaitanya appeared in this world on the full-moon eve of the month of
Falgun, that most glorious eve of spring, which is reverentially consecrated
to the Swinging Festival of Sree Krishna, like unto the spotless Moon risen on
the Eastern Hills of Gau_adesha, the lunar disc itself having just then undergone
a total eclipse. His Advent was greeted by an outburst of the universal chant
of the Name Hari by all people of Nadia. In the midst of this
unconscious jubilation, the Baby came out of the mother’s womb and began at

once to smile. Sachi and Jagannath were transformed into the very image of joy
on beholding the beautiful Face of their Son. The ladies in attendance got
perplexed and did not know what to do and accordingly began, for no reason, to
shout ‘Jais’ (jubilations).

The glad tidings quickly brought together all the relations and friends who dwelt
in the neighbourhood. We have already related the communication of Sree
Nilambar Chakravarti, father of Sachi Devi, to Misra regarding the marvellous
signs that he noticed on the Person of the new-born Babe. Nilambar Chakravarti
was a very great astrologer. After considering the positions of the planets and the
constellations at the Birth of the Child, he declared that the Boy would be far
greater than a ‘King’, greater than Brihaspati, the celestial sage, in learning and
would without effort come to possess all good qualities. Presently there arrived
by accident a certain Brahmana, also an astrologer, who applied himself to the
casting of the horoscope of the Newborn. That Brahmana declared as the result
of his calculations that the Boy is no other than Narayana Himself. ‘He will re¬
establish the Religion. He will be the extraordinary Preacher of the Religion. He
will deliver the whole world. All persons will obtain from Him what is
constantly coveted by the greatest devotees, such as Brahma, Siva, Suka, etc. At
the sight of Him all the people of the world will be melted to pity for all jivas,
become indifferent to pain and pleasure alike, and attain to love for Him the
Embodiment of love for Krishna. Not to speak of others, even the Yavanas, who
are declared enemies of Vishnu, will worship the Feet of this Child. All the
countless worlds will sing His praise. All people, from the Brahmanas
downwards, will do obeisance to Him. His Form is the very

Embodiment of the religion of the greatest devotees, the Embodiment of
patience and of respect for the gods, Brahmanas, preceptors and parents. Just
as Vishnu appearing in this world persuades all jivas to religion, exactly same
will be all the Doings of this Child. How fortunate indeed am I to be called
to calculate such a horoscope! His name will be Sree Vishwambhar.’

The astrologer purposely omitted to mention the Renunciation of Sree
Chaitanya, lest it would mar the unmixed happiness of the occasion.

Misra was so greatly moved by these statements that he first of all thought of
offering a suitable reward to the astrologer; but, presently- remembering
the extreme poverty of himself, grasped the feet of the Brahmana and burst
into tears, unable any longer to contain his joy. That Brahmana also wept,
clasping the feet of Sree Jagannath Misra. All the people caught the impulse and

joyously shouted the Name of Hari. The friends and well-wishers of Misra, on
hearing of the nature of the Divine Horoscope, joined in this loud demonstration
of joy.

It may interest the reader to be reminded of the fact that the great astrologer
Garga who calculated the horoscope of Sree Krishna is described in
the Bhagavatam as a Brahmana skilled in the transcendental science. The
Name Viswambhara is applied to Vishnu in the Atharva-Veda Samhita (2-3-4-5)
and means ‘One Who holds or nourishes the world’.

Sachi noticed female figures, who were divinely beautiful, who smilingly put
blades of the durba with grains of unhusked rice on the Head of the Infant
and uttered the benedictory formula, ‘Live Thou for ever’, and who took the dust
of her feet on their heads as they departed. Sachi was dumb with joy and
could not even ask the names of those new-comers. These performances
were accompanied by the customary song, dance and music of the
professional musicians on such occasions.

The Baby had to remain for a full moth in the lying-in chamber according to
custom. The small hut, that was made for the occasion for the
temporary accommodation of the mother and the Child, was watched night and
day by all kinsfolk. This was due to two reasons. The Boy cried incessantly and
kept quiet only just as long as He heard the Name of Hari uttered in a loud voice.
This was soon grasped by all, who chanted aloud the Name of Hari, as soon as
the Child began to cry, as the only means of pacifying Him. There was another
reason for constant vigilance. There was an unaccountable fear, which was
shared by all persons, that the life of the Baby was in danger from goblins and
thieves. They accordingly often recited the customary invocations to Vishnu and
Devi for the protection of the Child. The Name of Nrisimha was often similarly
taken. Mantrams were used to render all sides of the hut secure against evil
influences. But notwithstanding all these precautions, there were frequent alarms
caused by supposed detection of the egress of thieves and goblins who often
made their way into the house unperceived even by such a large body of devoted
watchers. It was, in fact, the gods who played all these pranks for a sight of the
Baby and lingered to amuse on the causeless anxiety of all persons on the Baby’s
account.

At the end of the period of confinement all the ladies accompanied Sree Sachi
Devi for her bath in the Bhagirathi. After bathing in the river and

having worshipped the Ganges, they made their way to the grove of the goddess
‘Sashi accompanied by singers and musicians. On their return to the house,

Sachi honoured every one of the party by presents of fried rice, plantain,
oil, vermillion, areca-nut and betel. Thereupon the ladies went back to their
homes after greeting the feet of the mother.

Orthodox smarta Hindus are likely to read in the above account an apparent
justification of their customary practices as being confirmed, by having
been duly observed by Sree Jagannath Misra and Sree Sachi Devi whose minds
are free from all impurities and errors. Those, on the other hand, who look
upon such local Hindu practices as being due to ignorance of the
Shastras, superstition or historical circumstances, will also naturally experience
a certain measure of the qualms of an outraged conscience if they have to
prepare to swallow these descriptions, with the best of grace that they can call to
their help, through sheer good-will for an otherwise untenable cause. Historians
will feel scandalized by this attempt to chronicle the unnecessary details of
such petty domestic matters that are perfectly known to everybody. Those, who
look for the account of the Absolute as a philosophical realization, will regard it
as puerile sentimentalism. Those, who believe in the Personal God but expect
a narrative in keeping with the supreme dignity of the Subject, may also
be disposed to scratch their heads. And the atheists will pooh pooh what they
will at once recognize as a brazen, ridiculous, insipid, and silly attempt of
passing off the minutiae of Bengali superstitious usages upon credulous
religionists in the name of the latest Divine Dispensation, etc., etc.

But the reader, who has followed the narrative so far, need not be told that events
that happen in this world are divisible into two groups that are quite distinct from
one another, viz., (1) those events that take place on the physical plane, and (2)
those that occurring on the spiritual manifest Themselves also on the mundane
plane. The Birth of Godhead in this world is an Event that belongs to the second
group. It appears like an event belonging to the first group, to all bound jivas for
the reason that they try to see Godhead by their own right, whereas the Absolute
never submits to the inspection of the limited. To such people accordingly even
the Transcendental Activities of Godhead appear as limited occurrences capable
of being accurately graded in an order of importance ( ?).

But Krishna is declared by the Scriptures to be identical with the Absolute Truth
Whose Activities admit of no such offensive classifications. Good and bad, great
and small, are notions that only belong to the realm of the relative, limited,

divisible and fragmentary knowledge. The Reality is Only One, in spite of the
fact that only a perverted view of Him happens to be the sole,
undoubted birthright of all conditioned souls. No event is really good or bad,
small or great. All events are of infinite dimensions and instinct with the
cognitive potency. They appear to be limited, inert, cramped and possessed
of unwholesome qualities to those jivas whose own natures seem to their
deluded judgment to be limited, inert, cramped and gross for the time being. The
vision of the devotee is free from all defects, and when they describe to us what
they see, we, conditioned souls, pretend to feel in duty bound to disagree with
them on the strength of our own unreliable but actual experience of those very
same events.

No petty domestic event of this world, meaning what appears as such to the
vision of bound jivas, can have even its so-called limited existence, unless
it belongs to the realm of Vaikuntha where it can be also neither petty nor
great in the material sense. The domestic events, connected with Godhead
Himself (and His own) when He chooses to appear in this world, possess this
additional peculiarity that they are really free from all grossness even from the
point of view of the bound jiva, if he does not deliberately shut his eyes and ears
and refuse to see and hear. That is to say, if he only really begins to see and
hear with an unbiased mind, he at once realizes this truth for himself. This
process is known as the descent of the transcendental into this world. The birth
and activities of conditioned souls (/z’vas) do not possess the transcendental
quality. Their bodies and minds are of this world and their activities are
only insubstantial mimicries of the Reality. This mimicry is not Absolute but
relative reality, being the result of the operation of the deluding power of
Godhead. Its existence is not denied, nor its nature which is, however,
categorically different from that of the spiritual. Its essence is comparable to that
of the reflected image of the actual form of an object. By no manner of
inspection of the image a knowledge of the nature and qualities of the actual
substance can be obtained. But when the actual substance presents itself to our
inspection, we can easily get the true knowledge of it, if only we do not
perversely choose to regard it as image on the strength of deceptive analogical
arguments supplied by our exclusive experience of a world of reflected images.

The paternal affection of Sree Jagannath Misra and Sree Sachi Devi for Sree
Gaursundar is also likewise different from the apparently similar affection
of mundane parents for their mundane child. In the former case, the Parents,

Son and Affection are real and free from all worldly grossness, while the latter is

a perverted mimicry of the same event reflected on the screen of the
physical plane. But this qualitative difference between the two cannot be grasped
by those who have not the patience to give an unbiased hearing to the words of
the devotees describing the Reality Who alone possesses an unclouded vision,
even though they may appear to hasty, prejudiced or superficial observers to be
in no way unlike ordinary bound jivas. The devotees alone can teach us the
real meaning of the Scriptures, and our duty, as will appear from what has been
said already, consists in listening to their words with faith in order to be able
to understand what they have got to deliver.

The affection of Sree Jagannath Misra and Sree Sachi Devi for their Divine Son,
being the Substantive Reality deserves to be considered by all bound jivas
from every angle of vision with the object not of ignoring but of understanding
its transcendental nature.

Sree Jagannath Misra and Sree Sachi Devi, by reason of their perfect purity of
heart, when they desired to have a Son born to them, could only mean to
serve Godhead thereby. This exclusive and real reference to Him in every act
is innate in the only function of the pure cognitive principle. A really pure heart
is not satisfied with the mundane relationship, neither does it want to lose
the faculty for contracting all relationship. It wants to realize all relationships
in their true forms. This is its very nature who finds himself thwarted at every
step in the conditioned state by undesirable factors. The ascetic’s heart is not
really pure, if it stands merely for the negation of all attachments for the reason
that they happen to be always of a mixed character in this world. Such a view
errs by seeking the ease of its deluded self by the self-contradictory process
of suicide. This is the strange aspiration of all negativist thinkers. Those,
whose hearts are somewhat purer, try to adjust themselves to existing conditions
to the best of their power. They also err in as much as they vainly try to deal with
the shadow by. gratuitously assuming it to be the substance. This wild goose-
chase goes in our Shastras under the name offruitive work (Karma). Those,
whose hearts are purest, begin to see the impossibility and unwholesomeness of
the task that is attempted by fruitive workers and the suicidal policy of
nihilistic thinkers and ascetics. It is at this stage that the Reality manifests
Himself of His own accord to the absolutely pure vision. And as soon as such
favoured persons have thus a vision of the Truth, they want to communicate the
tidings of Him to their suffering brethren; but they soon find that the hearts of
the latter are not sufficiently pure either to grasp or even tolerate the real Truth
Whom they also profess with their lips to be willing to serve. Such perverse

people can hardly be expected to understand the nature of the longing for a Son
of Sree Jagannath Misra and Sree Sachi Devi, nor the reason of their causeless
and holy joy on beholding the beautiful Face of New-born Gaursundar.

Of course neither Sree Jagannath Misra nor Sree Sachi Devi was aware that their
Son was Sree Krishna Himself. They simply looked upon Sree Gaursundar
as their Son Whom it was their duty and pleasure to serve in every way. This
is also the highest form of the spiritual service. The Lord can be served in
all circumstances and under every form. He is served as a Son, because a
perfectly pure heart serves nothing except the Lord, but also does so
unconsciously by reason of the very perfection of his serving disposition. Those,
who want to serve Sree Krishna as their Son in a conscious way, are not
altogether free from the idea of reverence due to Godhead! They will fail to
practice the unmixed parental affection for the Lord, if they are at all conscious
of His Divinity. In such a case they will revere and love Him. Such parental
affection does not perfectly please Godhead, the Son. He wants to be served with
the perfect impulse of unmixed parental love which is absolutely free from
any considerations that stand in the way of loving by a spontaneous impulse.

In such hearts the Lord Himself appears as the Son Who is also entirely
dependent on His parents for His safety and nourishment.

It will appear, therefore, that the only condition of the service of the Lord is a
perfectly pure heart. No opposition to form is admissible. Therefore, those
who look only to the form, may suppose that the customs of Bengal or India
should be adopted, if the Lord is to be properly served. This is the national or
smarta point of view.

The perfectly pure heart is neither wedded, nor opposed, to the form of the
mundane customs of any Age or country. What he wants to do is to serve
the Lord. Any real method is legitimate that actually enables him to do this
one thing needful. If he appears thereby to put himself even under
specific restraints, he does so for all the greater facility of such unconditional
service. Why the devotee behaves in a particular way is known only to himself
and to Krishna. It is not something external and capable of external regulation
or explanation. It is perfectly free. It cannot be squeezed into the four corners of
a social or a tentative religious code. Whatever the devotee does is right
and proper by reason of his exclusive devotion to Sree Krishna. Sree
Jagannath Misra and Sree Sachi Devi really belong to this superior plane. Their
conduct should not be supposed to come under any class of activities capable of

being regulated by a conventional and rigid code of rules. Rules are intended for
those who are disinclined to serve, i.e., for restraining those who are disposed
to worldliness, for the purpose, if possible, of preventing a conduct that
is incompatible with real freedom. But the rules themselves are not identical
with freedom. The strict observance of any rules cannot produce the purity of
heart that is necessarily free. Therefore, one must not allow himself to be
unduly obsessed by these rules, when one has to consider the transcendental
conduct of the real devotee. We should rather try to understand the limits of the
rules from the conduct of the devotee. It is only ,the underlying principle of
devotion to Godhead that can impart any value to such rules.

The worship of the Ganges and of the goddess ‘Sasthi’ by Sree Sachi Devi are
such concrete processes. In her case they were rendered of universal significance
fit for the service of the Lord by reason of her devotion to Sree Gaursundar. This
led the Lord Himself to directly accept any service, whatever its form, that was
rendered by her pure heart. Whatever method is adopted for the service of the
Lord forthwith loses its mundane character by reason of its being so employed
and becomes spiritual on being accepted by Krishna. All those, who watched the
Baby and recited invocatory verses calling upon Devi and Nrisimha for the
protection of the Baby, also served the Lord in the perfect manner, because they
served Him spontaneously. Whenever any efforts are directed towards the
Divinity without reservation, they automatically lose all their unwholesomeness
for the reason that God is pleased to accept our wholehearted service. This
causeless Divine mercy towards all souls prompted the Appearance of Sree
Gaursundar in this world.

It will thus appear that any and all exercise of the senses, when it is really
directed towards the Lord of our senses, is perfect, while apparently the
same activity, when it is practiced towards any other object, is not only not
perfect but is positively harmful being obstructive of the possibility of
attainment of the natural function. In the language of the Vaishnavas, “Serving
Sree Krishna with all our spiritual senses, is dove’; while similarly serving any
other object is ‘lust’.” Or to put it in another way, The desire to gratify, the
senses of Krishna is love, while the wish to satisfy one’s own senses is lust. The
proposition is liable to be misunderstood and, as a matter of fact, has actually
been misunderstood, in different ways. The philanthropists have supposed that it
is mundane relationship with Krishna that is recommended. But as Krishna is not
available in a bodily form in this world, they accordingly want to devise a
method of serving themselves by personating Krishna and the milk-maids, or

trying to imagine that they are spiritually occupied in every act of their gross
sensuality. They choose to think gratuitously that Krishna is a being of this world
like themselves. There is another class of philanthropists who proceed in
the negative way, being repelled by the debaucheries of the first group.

These suppose that it is a sin to believe that the Absolute can at all be served in
a concrete manner. The Absolute is accordingly supposed to be capable of
being served only on the mental plane by the homage of thought.

These philanthropists keep their life in its concrete acts strictly separate from
the Absolute reserving it for the gratification of their own sensuous
desires excusing themselves by imagining that this is unavoidable as long as
they continue in the state of mundane existence. They supplement their disregard
of the virtuous activities of this life by an endeavour to rise above them (?)
by meditation (?) on the Activities (?) of Krishna, or by fictitious avoidance of
all thinking.

In these ways the people of this world delude themselves by the pernicious
practice of actual debauchery or by hypocritical and impracticable
abstention into supposing that their method is higher than that of professed
sensualists.

But in both cases the root of the error is the same, viz., the belief that Krishna,
when He chooses to appear to us in the Human Form, puts on a body of
flesh like ourselves and that, therefore, those, who served Him at the time of
His Appearance in different ways as servants, friends, parents, sweet¬
hearts, practiced activities that are in no way different from those with which
we ourselves are so familiar in this world and from the grossness of which we
have no desire of seeking to escape. The one class directly swallows the mud,
the other group pretends to live on nectar while actually deriving their
sustenance from the same polluted source but with great labour and through a
longer pipe. None of them suspect that it is the mud, nor that it is capable of
being transformed into nectar by the real Touch of the Divinity, or, in other
words, that there is a third alternative to enjoyment and hypocritical show
of abstention which has the form of spiritual service that transcends both
and reconciles those opposites on a higher plane. What is really necessary is not
to wrangle over the sharing of the mud, but to be lifted out of such necessity
for feasting on the manna. The idealist’s position is a mere travesty by which
the love of gross matter is attempted to be disguised from the observation of
dull persons. But it only mocks the thirsty soul by the offer of the masked bowl
of the dregs of the noxious preparation, in place of the ostentatiously filled cup

of poison, to the thirsty soul who has need of only the life-giving drink.

Chapter 4 Infancy and Boyhood

But although Sree Gaursundar submitted to be served by the unconscious perfect
love of Braja by His parents, relatives, friends and servants, His Divinity was
manifested in every Act of His Infancy, unnoticed by anyone. This is the hidden
Leela. of Sree Chaitanya. He can never be really known except through His
Grace which is available to all jivas who sincerely seek to obtain it.

The Baby continued to keep everybody occupied by His peculiar Ways. The
most noticeable of these was that He would begin to cry if He did not hear
the loud chant of the Name of Hari. So He was always surrounded by a group
of ladies who sang constantly the kirtan in order to keep Him in countenance.
The moment they would begin to perform kirtan, the Boy showed every mode
of delight and would laugh in the most enchanting manner. They clapped
their hands, sang and considered themselves amply repaid by His Sweet Smiles.
This was noticed and advertised by everybody as a most extraordinary
circumstance. The conduct of the Baby and the devoted attachment of the ladies,
who were so loath to leave His Presence form a most striking episode on which
all narratives of His Infancy love to dwell with great tenderness.

The Lord used always to lie on His Back surrounded by the ladies, except while
He slept. One day Sachi was brought to the room, where the Baby slept, by
His waking cry. As she entered the apartment, she was surprised to find the floor
of the room littered with all different substances. Oil, ghee, milk, curd, pulse,
etc., with broken earthen pots, were all jumbled together in every part of the
room. Sachi Devi chanted the Name of Hari in order to pacify the Baby of barely
four months, who lay crying in His little bed. She noticed the presence of no
other person in the room. Other members of the family presently came to the
spot, but no one could discover any trace of an intruder. Some opined that a
demon must have found his way into the room but failed to do any harm to the
Child by reason of His protective amulet. His failure to harm the Baby had made
him angry and commit all the mischief before he fled back to his place.

Jagannath Misra on beholding the scene of havoc said nothing, regarding it as an
act of the gods. The parents thought in this wise in their joy that no harm had
befallen the Baby.

There was some funny incident or other like this every day, to afford an
opportunity of service to the parents and others. Their service must not

be supposed to be on a level with the activities of worldly people who are
always very much attached to their own children. The affection of worldly
people for their children, is purely an attachment of the flesh for the flesh that
serves to gratify their sensuous instincts. Such affection only rivets the chain of
bondage to the thing of this world, all of which are the contrivances of the
deluding Energy or non-God. It was not so in this case. The paternal affection,
that serves Godhead, is not only altogether different from the apparently
similar worldly sentiment, but, on the contrary, is so much opposed in its nature
to the latter that the two cannot co-exist in the same heart. One who loves his
worldly son, as son, can never realize the nature of the affection of Sree Sachi
Devi and Sree Jagannath Misra for Sree Gaursundar, because the worldly
passion itself stands in the way of such realization.

The time passed in such pastimes till at last the day of naming the Baby made its
appearance. For this purpose there assembled a number of friends versed in the
Scriptures, chief of whom was Sree Nilambar Chakravarti. There was also
a corresponding gathering of the matrons. The latter declared that the
Baby should be called ‘Nimai’ after the ‘Neem’ tree, for the reason that the bitter
taste characteristic of the said tree would repel the god of death who had taken
away so many children of His parents, and would also serve to scare away
ghosts, demons and other evil spirits. The learned headed by Nilambar
Chakravarti agreed to accept the Name ‘Nimai’ as a secondary one, and
proposed ‘Viswambhar’ as the primary Name of the Baby. The reason given for
their choice of this Name was that the fear of famine, which had threatened
the whole country, had been dissipated by the Birth of the Child, which
had brought in its train copious showers of rain after a prolonged drought. As
the Birth of the Child had saved the world from famine, the Name Viswambhar
was appropriate for Him as it means ‘One Who maintains the world’. Another
reason for the selection of the Name was that in His horoscope the Boy was
described as ‘the Source-light ’ which meant that ‘all other lights (of the family)
were derived from this One’. The ceremony was performed at an auspicious
moment Amidst the holy chant of the Name of Hari, the sound of conches and
bells, by men and gods, while the Brahmanas read the Geeta and the
Bhagavatam.

Naming a baby is one of the ten purificatory rites that are enjoined by the
Shastras and are performed by the smartas to free a new-born child from sin due
to the impurities of seminal birth from the mother’s womb. The sin as well as its
expiatory rite, as contemplated by the smartas, are conceived in terms

of material well-being. There is no question in it of the soul, or
spiritual consideration. The birth of a bound jiva is no doubt a material
circumstance and the smarta rites are also admittedly a material device to ward
off certain worldly results of such birth. The material world being the limit of the
smarta outlook, a smarta family adheres to those ceremonies in the hope of
the mundane reward promised by the sections of the Scriptures that treat of
fruitive works and ceremonies. But a Vaishnava has nothing to do with any so-
called mundane well-being that has no connection with the soul. Moreover
Sree Gaursundar’s Birth, or the birth of any devotee of Godhead, as we have
seen already, is never to be considered, for very good reasons, as a temporal
affair at all. What, therefore, it may be asked, is the significance of the parents of
Sree Gaursundar following the smarta practice that has led the Vaishnava
narrators of the Career of Sree Chaitanya to write of it as a praise-worthy
performance?

We have already considered a similar objection in connection with the worship
of the goddess Sasthi by Sree Sachi Devi. The Vaishnavas regard the
presiding deities of this mundane world as servants of Krishna and honour them
as such. They do not regard them as independent divinities. They never worship
these gods for securing any worldly advantages which are bestowed by them
in accordance with the Will of Godhead. The Vaishnavas hold that those gods
are not fully- pleased if they are worshipped for worldly favours; and, as
servants of Godhead, they are also not entitled to be worshipped on their own
account. They are fully and truly served by the worship of Godhead, and,
therefore, the Vaishnavas worship only Vishnu. The worship of the goddess
Sasthi, who is protectress of new-born babies, in the case of Sree Sachi Devi, did
not, however, degenerate into poly theism or atheism for the reason that it
happened to be performed for the sake of God Himself. Any act that possesses
this characteristic is essentially spiritual. The conduct of Sachi cannot,
therefore, serve as a precedent to justify the similar materialistic smarta practices
which have nothing to do with Godhead.

The above argument applies to the performance by Sachi of all other Shastric

rites also. Those acts being performed for the sake of Godhead Himself

are thereby converted into spiritual service of Godhead. Instead of being a cause

of further bondage, which is the desired result of the smarta practices,

the apparently similar activities of Sree Jagannath Misra and Sree Sachi Devi

add new variety of exquisiteness to the service of Godhead, in the shape of

parental affection.

The Name Viswambhar should not also be supposed to be on a level with the
ordinary names that are bestowed on babies on this occasion by the
smarta priests. The reason for the choice of the Name, as given out by Sree
Nilambar Chakravarti, the great astrologer of Nabadwip of his day, has been
already reproduced. That statement deliberately conceals, under metaphorical
garb, the Truth that revealed Himself clearly to him. The Name ‘Viswambhar’ is
a well-known Shastric Name of the Divinity. The Name refers specifically to the
Acts of two Avataras of Vishnu, vis., the Varaha ( Boar ) and the Hayagriba (
Horseheaded ). The Former lifted with His Tusk the world submerged by the
Deluge, while the Latter rescued the Vedas when they were on the point of
being suppressed by materialistic learning. Anyone with a slight acquaintance
with the Scriptures would, in thinking of Godhead, connect these events with
the Name ‘Viswambhar’. The Name ‘Nimai’, intended to scare away
premature death and all fear, is also perfectly applicable to Godhead. But this is
not all. Gargacharya, who calculated the Name of Sree Krishna, is described in
the Bhagavatam as being the greatest of those who know the Brahman and
was selected for this reason by King Nanda to choose the Name of his New¬
born Son. In fact no one who has not access to the spiritual realm, can know
the Name of the Divinity.

The Holy Name of Godhead is eternal and is identical with Godhead Himself. In
the case of Godhead there is no difference between Name, Form, Quality,

Acts and Associates, as we find on the finite plane in the case of conditioned
souls. The eternal Name of God, who manifested Himself to the pure
consciousness of Sree Gargacharya, made Himself known to the people of this
world under the guise of the ceremony of Naming the Divine Baby, for the
highest benefit of the conditioned souls. The Names Visambhar and Nimai
similarly made Themselves known through Sree Nilambar Chakravarti and the
pure-hearted matrons, not to cleanse the so-called impurities of birth of the
material body of a new-born child which is the object of the smarta ceremony,
but in order to bless the whole world by making it possible for all conditioned
souls to take the Holy Names of Godhead, identical with Godhead Himself and
having the specific power, if taken without offense, i.e., with the object of
realizing one’s eternally loving relationship with God, to deliver all fallen jivas
from the bondage of this world.

Sree Gargacharya disclosed the Names Rama and Krishna, the most cherished
Treasures of his heart that was eternally illuminated with Their Divine Radiance,
confidentially to a few devotees only, lest They came to the ears of atheists like

Kamsa who might be betrayed into the offense of confounding Them with
ordinary appellations of things of this world. The shloka of the Bhagavata
embodying the statement of Garga on this subject, also contains one of the few
direct explicit references to the Appearance of Krishna in the Kali Age. The
shloka may be quoted at this place: ‘This Son of yours, O Nanda, assumes
different Colours in the different Ages. His Colour is White in the Satya Age,
Red in the Treta, and Gaura, i.e., Yellow tinctured with Red, in the Kali Age. His
Colour in this present Age (Dvapara) is Black as you see . 5

On the occasion of naming a baby there is an old custom of putting to the
newborn child a variety of articles to induce him to choose any of them, in order
to ascertain the natural bent of the infant. In pursuance of this time-
honoured custom a number of objects were held out to Nimai, such as unhusked
rice, books, fried rice, cowrie, gold, silver, etc. Sree Jagannath Misra then
called upon the Child to choose whichever of them He liked. Nimai clasped
the Bhagavatam tightly to His Bosom. Some said that it was a very good augury
and prognosticated that the Child would be a great Pandit. Others said He would
be a Vaishnava and would easily understand the meaning of the Scriptures.

The preference shown for the Bhagavatam by Nimai may be explained as
meaning that the acquisition of the riches of this world and even the maintenance
of the body should not be valued for their own sake and that the unalloyed
service of the Lord, which is expounded in the Bhagavata, is the one thing
needful and includes all the rest.

This old custom may be interpreted as supplying a clue to another matter of
importance. Why was it necessary for the father, the natural guardian of
the infant, to try to ascertain the tendency of his new-born Child? If the boy
had chosen gold and silver, or fried rice, what inference would be drawn?

Would such inference have any effect on the future of the Boy? If the son of
a Brahmana is supposed to possess the nature of a Brahmana by reason of
seminal birth, why should he be again subjected to a further test based on a
different principle? How was the varna (disposition) of a Brahmana really
settled in very old times? In the case of Nimai it was comparatively easy by the
above test to arrive at a favourable conclusion. The Bhagavatam has been
declared to be the exposition of the holy Gayatri, the mantram, the knowledge of
which is essential for the Brahmana. The choice of the Bhagavatam by Nimai,
therefore, clearly would mark Him out as possessing the natural disposition of
a Brahmana.

If seminal birth had been sufficient by itself to confer the varna of a Brahmana,
there would have been no meaning of the ceremony of spiritual purification
by Gayatri; nor would the latter process be significantly styled the second birth.
The texts support the view that the varna of a Brahmana has to be fixed by
natural disposition. There is also no text that attaches exclusive value to the
seminal birth for the ascertainment of natural disposition. There are also many
actual cases of the condition (varna) of a Brahmana having been acquired by
persons who were not born in Brahmana families. Conversely we find that all the
sons of a Brahmana did not necessarily become Brahmanas in every case. The
varna of the one hundred sons of Rshabha Deva was settled by their
respective dispositions. Some of them were found to be Kshatriyas, some were
recognized as Brahmanas, while many were declared to be Vaishyas. The status
of each was settled by the Father Who is Avatara of the Divinity. The bad effects
and futility of trying to fix the spiritual status (varna) of a Brahmana by birth
alone are most vividly brought out in the career of Prahlada on whom his
father Hiranyakashipu tried forcibly to impose his own creed and occupation
with the help of ‘hereditary 5 preceptors.

The effects of heredity and education in forming one’s disposition are
overvalued by those who try to deduce everything from them. Heredity itself is a
complex matter and runs backward in an endless ramification of
ancestry through father and mother. No empiric pronouncement on the basis of
heredity can be made, unless the nature of the whole of these two series is
definitely known. Education, in so far as it tries to artificially widen our
worldly experience, is also most uncertain in its operation on disposition.

Seminal birth has been considered by the most ambitious of its modern empiric
protagonists as decisive in settling one’s physical and mental disposition that are
closely interconnected. In our old Scriptures seminal birth as well as secular and
even empiric knowledge of the Scriptures are categorically differentiated from
the Gayatri birth and the transcendental knowledge respectively. The latter
is nowhere declared as capable of being derived, or even helped in any way,
by the former. The natural disposition of a Brahmana, that is conferred by
the purificatory ceremony of the Gayatri mantram, and the
transcendental knowledge, that is the result of initiation by the spiritual
preceptor, refer to the soul and have nothing to do with the secondary enveloping
disposition that manifests itself, when the soul is engrossed in, z’.e., incompatibly
associated with, matter. Brahmanahood, according to the Mahabharatam, means
the condition of a person possessing the disposition that seeks to realize the
nature of the soul and accordingly the status of a Brahmana should be conferred

only on those persons in whom such disposition manifests itself, and by no
other consideration.

The spiritual status of the Brahmana cannot be tested and settled By any one
who does not himself possess the realized Brahmana disposition, that is to
say, by no one except the spiritual preceptor. The purificatory rite is
the authoritative recognition by the Guru of the possession of such disposition
by the disciple. The recognition by the Guru also serves to bring into play
the spiritual disposition. By mechanically mimicking the external rite,
only confusion is caused, as it has been caused in the past, and is being still
caused, by the unprincipled ambitions of men who are inordinately proud of
their high lineage and worldly qualities. Unless the superior status corresponds
to the internal disposition there can be no proper subordination of the worldly to
the spiritual interest which is sought to be effected by the
varnashrama organization under the lead of the Brahmanas. This settlement of
the status (varna) of a person was made soon after the birth of a child with the
help of competent persons in order to provide specific training suited to the
particular nature of the new-born child, for inclining him towards the spiritual
life from the very beginning of his worldly sojourn. This may sound far too
advanced an arrangement to be achieved in such remote antiquity which modern
history teaches us, on no conclusive evidence, to regard as having been
universally utterly backward and benighted. Spiritual enlightenment is an eternal
affair and has always possessed the inclination as well as capacity of organizing
the spiritual community in its minutest details for helping the realization of
the theistic ideal. The weakness, that is nowadays noticeable in the
historical organization of caste which is regarded as the residual legatee of
the varnashrama organization, is due to atheistical preponderance. As the
spiritual life slackened its manifestation in this world, the varnashrama
organization was increasingly neglected and was replaced by the meaningless,
cumbrous and effete cast system. The pseudo-spiritual organization, viz., caste,
failed to withstand the persevering onslaughts of organized materialism by
means of its proper agents in the shape of the utterly barbarous tribes possessing
no spiritual tradition, that dwelt beyond the Indian borderland, who
banded together for the purpose of overthrowing a decayed spiritual society.

The morale of the Indian people had been completely undermined by the rise of
the pseudo-religious systems and practices and by the atheistic speculations of
the philosophers, that have already been noticed briefly in a previous chapter.

After India had been subjugated by the brute force of these foreign invaders,

attempts were made from time to time by the Vaishnava Acharyas to revive
the theistic life in this country, against very great odds, in which they were
not, however, permanently successful. This theistic reaction reached its
culmination in the Activities of Sree Chaitanya Who propounded the
comprehensive system, that provides the true remedy for all the ills of the world,
resting on the broad base of the whole body of the spiritual Scriptures. The
world is, however, not yet prepared to accept His Teaching in its entirety,
although the leading scholars of all the centres of culture in India of His day
were decisively vanquished in a series of open controversies. A great literature
embodying the true scriptural doctrines was produced and the rejuvenated
worship of Godhead was organized and provided with a considerable number
of establishments in the form of the noblest shrines. The world was
externally shaken by the mighty impulse, but failed to recover from its inner
stupor and continued to drift aimlessly under the pilotage of professors of open
and concealed atheism who quickly recovered their lead and even exploited
the elaborate form of the caste organization that professes to represent
the varnashrama institution of the Scriptures, for the propagation of atheism.
After the arrival of the Europeans, through the agencies of the newly-
established secular universities and an organized industrial and commercial
system, the people have been further inoculated with the secular outlook of
materialistic civilization of a most thorough-going type. This new outlook is
unhesitatingly distrustful of existing social and religious systems of the country
and is desirous of real reform but is far too materialistic in itself not to hesitate
to welcome the Teaching of Sree Chaitanya, which is based on the Scriptures
and which favours the rejuvenation of the theistic varnashrama organization
of society.

This digression, if such it may perchance appear to be to the patient reader, from
the regular track of our narrative, is necessary in order to prevent misconceptions
regarding the Activities of the Infant Chaitanya which are quoted by His pseudo¬
followers of the present day in justification of their adoption of the current
atheistical practices of the smarta caste organization. The associates of Sree
Chaitanya, however, arrived at a very different conclusion, that has been stated
above, from the Acts of the Lord Himself as the Supreme Teacher by His Own
Conduct.

Nimai retained His habit of indulging in frequent fits of crying and would not be
consoled by any of the methods that are usually effective in the case of ordinary
children. He did not cry for having anything of this world. He used to cry in

order to make those around Him chant constantly the Name of Hari. Nimai
would laugh and dance in the mother’s lap at the sound of the kirtan of Hari with
such extraordinary Grace of Expression and Movement of His Limbs that those,
who chanted the Name of Hari to please Him, did so for their own pleasure.
Those who are obstinately incredulous about the authenticity of the facts of
religious history, need not reject these on the plea of want of contemporary
evidence. They were faithfully put into writing by the eternal companions of
Sree Chaitanya and none of the numerous enemies and opponents of Sree
Chaitanya of that or subsequent Age ever thought of contradicting them on the
ground that they were the concoctions of the imagination which should be
impossible in the case of a series of great writers, unless they deliberately
conspired for stating and accepting as facts the products of their mesmerized
imaginations.

Neither can we altogether admire the judgment of those secular historians who
may be disposed to regard them as trivial and the explanations of them
offered by the associates and followers of Sree Chaitanya, as laboured after¬
thoughts.

To the candid reader the least of these so-called trifles and laboured
afterthoughts may perchance possess more value for the real weal and woe of
mankind in a proportion that is inversely proportional to the
cumulative blighting influence of all the empirical accounts that have ever been
written of the authentic deeds of the mighty heroes of this world.

Godhead, when He chooses to sport as Infant, is more fully Divine than when He
plays the open role of the Supreme Ruler by His Omnipotence of all
these countless worlds. His Activities in either case are, however,
alike incomprehensible to the perverted understanding of the conditioned soul
who is averse to His service. No Tittle of such Activities has also the least
chance of suffering any exaggeration by any amount of our poor and misdirected
human praise that may be wrongly lavished upon it. The praise of them that
is practiced by the devotees is the only method of enabling us to realize their
most wonderful and exclusive fitness for all true praise. This is the kirtan of
Krishna and it was this Truth Whom Infant Nimai constantly tried to impress on
His attendants through their realized experience of Him, by making them
sing constantly the kirtan of Hari without offense, i.e., in order to please the
Lord Himself. This is the central subject of the Teaching of Sree Gaursundar,
and its importance and early manifestation have accordingly been noted with

reverent admiration by those who had been enabled by the Grace of Sree
Chaitanya to realize the Highest Truth to Whose service the jiva can aspire to
attain by the loving service of the Truth Himself.

Lord Visvambhar now exhibited the Pastime of moving about on His Knees in
the yard of Sachi. He sped about on His Knees with the most enchanting
art, while the tiny bells on His Waistband made a most delicious music. He
roved over the yard most fearlessly and grasped at everything that He saw,
whether it was the fire or the venomous serpent.

One day while thus roaming the yard, Nimai actually caught hold of a huge
serpent that had found its way into the house. At the touch of the Child’s
Hand, the brute immediately coiled up. Viswambhar then quietly laid Himself
down on the soft cushion of its coils. The sight of this sent a thrill of horror into
the hearts of all who beheld it. In their utter dismay and helplessness they
called upon Garuda to save the Child. The parents with many others set up a wail
of great agony. Nimai laughed as He lay couched on the coils of the monster.

The lamentations of the onlookers at last induced the serpent to move off of its
own accord. The Son of Sree Sachi pursued the retreating brute with the intent
of catching it again. They dashed at the Child and brought Him away and
pressed Him tightly to their bosoms. All the ladies blessed the Child saying,

‘May Thou live for ever’. Some tied protective amulets, some recited texts of
benediction, while some fetched the Feet-wash of Vishnu and sprinkled His body
therewith. Some said that the Boy was born a second time. Some said that the
serpent happened to be of the particular species that did no harm, which was the
reason why His life was saved. Gaursundar only went on laughing and
frequently essayed to make after the track of the serpent and was as often
anxiously brought back by all the people.

The relation of all fearful objects to the Lord is the exact opposite of their
relation to the jiva: Godhead is the Source of all fear. He is fear
Himself. Mahakala, the Destroyer of all things, is afraid of Him. Those who love
the Lord are not, therefore, afraid of anything. Those, who do not trust the Lord
and think that the various dreadful objects are not afraid of Him, are
necessarily afraid of them. All such fear is condemnable for the reason that it has
no reference to Godhead and is, therefore, due to the anxiety for one’s
worldly safety. This looking away from Godhead to one’s false self is the cause
of all fear and is the reason why such fear is also sordid. The fear of Sachi and
Jagannath and of the assembled people for the safety of Nimai does not belong

to the category of such sordid fear and is, therefore, an event that deserves to
be recorded and was also exhibited by them, by the beneficent contrivance of
the Spiritual Power of the Lord, to teach the proper use of the instinct of fear to
all ungodly conditioned souls.

Besides providing the opportunity of service to those devotees who did not
know, by the force of the beneficent spiritual Power, that He was
Godhead Himself, Sree Gaursundar also contrived to receive by this method the
perfect homage of the most highly beloved of His fully conscious
transcendental servitors whom He wanted to specially favour. Fire and the
serpent, that were the causes of the consternation of friends and relatives, were
respectively the god who identifies himself with the element of fire and Sree
Ananta Deva Who is the Plenary Form of Sree Samkarsana and Who serves as
the Couch of the Supreme Lord. Sree Gaursundar chose to receive their service
for the purpose of His Pastime on this occasion. The pervert yogi only deludes
the people by his display of seeming immunity from mundane fire and serpent in
juggling imitation of these Acts of the Lord. Their exhibitions tempt other
atheistical people like themselves to follow the method of the astanga yoga for
the profane attainment of powers of apparent mastery over Nature. There are
also people who are disposed to class Sree Chaitanya and His devotees with
these pseudoyogis and explain also Their Performances by the possession of
improper yogic powers. But as a matter of fact the display of the pseudo-yogic
power is no part of the function of the pure soul taught and practiced by Sree
Chaitanya and His associates. The power which the pervert yogi imagines as
belonging to himself being acquired by his own meritorious endeavours, is a
penal delusion which is as condemnable as the attempt of acquiring any other
form of worldly power. It happens to possess the appearance of a superhuman
entity in degree and measure, but is, as a matter of fact, only a still more
objectionable form of selfish material enjoyment and only a potent means of
self-deception or godlessness. For this reason, those, who try to understand the
Doings of Sree Gaursundar and His devotees from the point of view of the
astanga yoga, obtain, as the due punishment of their selfish labours, a further
increase of aversion to Godhead.

Chapter 5 Boyhood

And now the Son of Sree Sachi Devi began to toddle on His tender legs. These
pedestrian performances with uncertain steps were confined to the yard of
Sree Sachi. The Child constantly moved about in the yard. Every limb of the
Boy was most exquisitely beautiful. His Face was the envy of the Moon. His
Head was beautifully rounded. A profusion of fine curls gracefully clustered
round the Forehead. His Eyes were remarkably wide, resembling the petals of
the lotus-flower. These reminded one of the Appearance of Boy-Krishna His
long Hands hang down to the Knees. The Tips were crimson. His Bosom was
wide and possessed of every auspicious feature. The whole Form of Gaura had a
most pleasing yellowish tint that matched Him to perfection. His Fingers, Hands
and Feet were particularly beautiful. While the Ford tripped about in the
haphazard fashion of children, the mother used to get alarmed, as it seemed to
her that blood came out of the delicate Feet of the Boy as They pressed lightly
on the ground.

The parents were unspeakably happy. They felt and whispered to each other that
a great Personage was born in the family, which ensured deliverance
of themselves and the family from the bondage of this world. These high hopes
of the parents were confirmed by the peculiarity that the Child fell to crying if
He did not hear the sound of the Name of Hari. He was the very Embodiment
of Joy, whenever the Name of Hari was chanted to Him by clap of hand,
and would express His gladness by unceasing laughter and dancing as long as
the Name of Hari continued to be sung. This circumstance drew all the ladies of
the neighbourhood into the house from early dawn, who formed themselves into
a merry ring round Gaursundar and performed the samkirtan with clap of
hand. The attentive Boy danced, rolled on the ground gray with dust, and,
climbing into the lap of mother, burst into merry peals of laughter. He danced
with such charming poses of the limbs that it filled all the onlookers with
inexpressible delight. The Ford in this artless manner of childhood made all of
them perform the kirtan of Hari: but they did not understand it.

As the Boy grew up He began to manifest great restlessness of disposition and
constantly sped in and out of the house. He would frequently leave the
house unattended and would beg from the passers-by fried rice, plantain,
sweetmeats, and, in fact, whatever eatables they happened to be carrying. The
extraordinary Beauty of the Boy softened everybody towards Him, and perfect

strangers gave Him, as soon as they saw Him, whatever He asked. No sooner did
He obtain any gift than He ran into the house with the greatest joy and gave it to
those ladies who chanted the Name of Hari. Such precocity of the Child made
all persons laugh with great delight, and they would continue to chant the
Name of Hari with clap of hand. The Lord often left the house in this manner at
all hours of the day and even in the evenings.

That the Holy Name of Godhead should be sung constantly, to the exclusion of
every other activity, is a proposition that is repeatedly enjoined by the Scriptures,
although it may appear at first sight to be impracticable. The mercenary preacher
accepts a pecuniary remuneration for his exertions in delivering the Word of God
on the ground that he must have something to live upon. How can the Name of
Godhead be taken night and day without exposing oneself to sure starvation?

The physical needs of the body compel every mortal to devote a part of his time
to activities of this world. It may be urged with apparent reasonableness that the
worldly activity for earning a livelihood is imperative and cannot be neglected
by anybody in this world, whether he is a prince or a peasant, an atheist or a
preacher of the Word of God. Therefore, the declaration of the Scriptures, that
the chanting of the Name of Godhead at all time is the only function of every
soul, requires to be liberally interpreted in its application to the people of this
world. The impracticability is perfectly clear and simple and can be understood
even by a child. It is not possible that this obvious difficulty should have been
overlooked and overruled by the numerous Scriptural declarations, unless for a
very good reason. That reason is also quite plain and may be briefly stated as
follows. Godhead Himself has the Power and the Will to provide for the
maintenance of those who devote themselves wholeheartedly, night and day, to
the performance of the kirtan of Himself. Wherefore, it is expressly forbidden in
the Scriptures to sell the Word of God in exchange for anything. If a person, who
sets up as a preacher of the Word of God, makes of it a trade for the maintenance
of himself and his family, for lacking the necessary faith in the promise of
Godhead that he need not think for his own maintenance, he thereby commits an
act of disobedience against Godhead and by reason of such sinfulness becomes
unfit to receive or still less convey to others the Holy Word of the Lord.

Sree Chaitanya taught that the Name of Godhead should be taken at all time with
patience and humility. The patience consists in practicing perfect reliance on the
Word of God. The humility consists in giving up all thought of selfish enjoyment
and accepting the desire to please and obey Godhead as the only object of one’s
serving activity. These considerations supply the real explanation of the

otherwise mysterious Behaviour of the Divine Child. Godhead Himself procures
the necessaries for the maintenance of every one who devotes himself to the
chanting of the Name of God,—declare the Scriptures. The level of conduct of
all preachers should come up to this cardinal fact of spiritual practice, if they
expect to make their hearers believe, or make themselves believe, in the Truth of
the Scriptures. Dancing and singing are forbidden to the Brahmanas, i.e., to
those who know Godhead, except to serve the pleasure of Godhead and His
devotees. The Brahmanas alone, who abstain from singing and dancing for any
worldly purpose, are not only fit, but it is their duty to dance and sing the kirtan
of Hari for pleasing Godhead and His devotees.

Nimai now set Himself to carrying out in a systematic manner a series of
reckless depredations in the households of the friends of the family who
resided in the neighbourhood. He took to thieving and it was His daily pastime
to steal something or other. He would stealthily drink the milk of one household,
eat the cooked rice of another without notice, or, if He could obtain nothing to
eat, He would break the earthen cooking pots, of a third home. He would poke
the babies put to sleep and make them cry, beating a hasty retreat the moment
He was detected. If anybody chanced to catch Him at His tricks, He would fall
at his feet and express repentance. ‘Let Me go this time. I won’t come again. I
give My Word to you that I won’t steal again., Every one was astonished at
such precocity of the little Child. No one was ever angered by these freaks; on
the contrary, they all loved Him. Nay, they loved Him far more tenderly than
they loved their own children. He stole away every faculty of the heart at the
very first sight. The Divine Child took His pleasure in such extreme
naughtinesses.

The Favour of God bears no resemblance to the favour that is expected from or
conferred by worldly persons. We desire, by everything we do, only
the gratification of our own senses in a gross or subtle form. When, therefore,
we want to favour anybody, we naturally suppose that the only means of doing
this is by providing him with the means of his sensuous gratification. ‘All the
ills that flesh is heir to, are traceable to this inveterate self-indulging principle
of our conditioned nature. The elaborate social machinery, with its so-
called ethical codes, has been devised for the express purpose of augmenting
each man’s average share of worldly enjoyment.

But we are all of us more or less conscious of the wild-goose chase character of
the pursuit of all worldly enjoyments. The causes of disappointment are many.

Our hopes are never fully realized. The bliss, that we promise ourselves,
invariably palls on its seeming attainment. We are perpetually oppressed with the
sense of some besetting evil that poisons everything we desire to taste in the very
act of tasting. We may be temporarily dazzled by worldly performances; but the
inevitable dross is sure to discover itself in the long run in the most promising
deeds of our lives. There is always this skeleton in the cupboard. The tragedies
and comedies of worldly life alike repel us in the end by their grossness and
triviality. Those, who consider it heroic to put a good face on the inevitable,
thereby only display their disinclination to honestly tackle the issue that
confronts them all the same, The attitude of patience for the inevitable, which
appeals so strongly to the so-called practical temperament, is tantamount to an
avoidance to think on the solution a besetting problem under the tacit plea that
one’s duty is done by simply shutting one’s eye to the inexplicable side of one’s
conduct.

But it is only a display of thoughtless egotism that imagines the presence of
adverse circumstances and their abundance in this world for which the person
himself is not in any way responsible. This attitude is both dishonest and
shallow. It means only that one should consider it his duty to move heaven and
earth for securing his own enjoyment and, after having secured a fair share of it,
when he finds that it does not answer his purpose, must still go on advocating
The wisdom of such course and shut his eyes to the real worthlessness of such
policy. This attitude is possible only when a person is too much enamoured of
the sensuous life despite its utterly disappointing quality. The faculties of the
mind of such a person are viciously attracted towards hollow worldly
advantages. He is so completely engrossed in his contemplation that he has
neither time nor inclination to look to the other side.

To such people the conduct of the Boy Nimai would appear to be not at all
different from that of ordinary naughty children who often turn into moral men
and women on attaining the age of discretion and whose childish
vices, therefore, are a mere result of the exuberance of their animal spirit and
should not be put in the same category with the objectionable vices of grown¬
up people. Even this sort of moral condonation of childish vices
seems unnecessary to a school of thinkers who are disposed to give every child a
long rope in order to enable him to develop freely all sides of his nature.
According to this school, a virile and aggressive personality in the worldly sense
is better than a regulated and cramped one. The conduct of Gaursundar and His
parents may, therefore, meet with the worldly approval of people of this stamp.

But the attitude that the associates of Sree Gaursundar want us to realize in
regard to these Activities of the Lord is different from what are recommended by
both the above views. The depredations that are committed against our worldly
‘possessions’ by Godhead are of the nature of His Special Favour. This becomes
self-evident, as soon as they are understood as proceeding directly from the Will
of the Lord. In the cases we are considering just now, this latter condition was
supplied automatically by the fact that the mischievous Acts of the Child were
actually liked by those persons against whom they were committed by the Lord
Himself and were liked because of their connection with the Lord. If we love a
frail mortal child, the imperfections of the object of our passion prevent the
sentiment from acquiring the permanence that is its due and without which its
full requirement is not satisfied. Hence the love of average worldly people for
their children is unsure and shallow and cannot, by the very nature of its
imperfection, extend to other children or even to all acts of one’s own child. If
one sets himself deliberately to love all little children without reservation, he
will be rightly charged with trying to do something that is unnatural and
fictitious. Such affection has no real basis to stand upon. We want to love our
children from a natural impulse which is baulked of its satisfaction by the
unworthiness of the object to which it is directed. There was no cause of any
such disappointment in the case of their love for Sree Gaursundar, as He is,
indeed, Godhead Himself. Hence, says the Bhagavatam, ‘all the faculties really
succeed in obtaining what they seek only when they are directed towards
Godhead.’ This overwhelming attractiveness also supplies an indirect proof of
the Perfect Personality of the Supreme Lord.

An incident, of these Infant days is thus recorded by Krishnadas Kaviraj
Goswami. One day Sachi brought a vessel full of fried rice and sweetmeats
and gave it to Nimai, asking Him to sit down and eat the same. Sachi then left
Him to attend to household work. The Boy, however, began to eat raw earth
by avoiding any notice. Sachi, however, perceived this and came running to
the Child with expostulations of disapproval, snatched the earth from the Boy
and asked Him why He preferred it to the other eatables. The Child burst into
tears. ‘Why are you angry?’ He said, ‘How am I to blame? It is you who gave
Me the earth to eat. Fried rice, sweetmeats, cooked rice, etc., are all
transformations of earth. This, which I am eating, is earth; those are also earth.
Why do you consider them to be different? This body is of earth; its food is also
earth. Consider this well. I am helpless, if you blame without reflection.’ Sachi
was very much surprised in her heart at such reply. ‘Who taught you,’ she said,
‘to eat earth by the barren policy of intellectualists ? The body is nourished only

by eating cooked rice which is a transformation of earth. If raw earth is
eaten, disease is produced and the body is destroyed thereby. We fetch water in
a pitcher which is a transformation of earth. If we put water on a lump of clay,
it soaks and dries up., The Child said, ‘Why did you not tell Me this before?

I shall no more eat earth now that I know. When I feel hungry, I shall suck
your breast? And, saying this, the Boy smiled and climbed to the lap of mother
and began to suck. These revelations of Supreme Power were constant and
various. They were secured against recognition by the display of childishness
that followed and served to blind everybody’s judgment.

Sree Sachi Devi did not evidently belong to the school of empiric abstractionists
who deny Godhead the power of real manifestation and real creation,
regarding the latter as temporary, unwholesome and illusive and, therefore,
impossible of being in any way related to perfect Godhead. Sachi Devi, on the
contrary, believed in the relationship of simultaneous unity and diversity of
Power with Possessor of Power and was not prepared to ignore qualitative
differences that really exist between the fried rice and raw earth, after the
manner of the Buddhists or believers in the Undifferentiated Abstract Negation
as Brahman. Child Nimai was more easily converted to the, creed of His mother
by her effective protest than falls to the lot of the average Mayavadin.

One day as the Child was roaming in the town as usual by Himself and with
ornaments on all parts of His Body, He attracted the attention of two thieves who
thought on a plan of robbing His ornaments. Accordingly, one of them with
sweet words took up the Lord into his arms, saying that they had been searching
for Him and would take Him home. The Lord at once consented to their proposal
and was carried on their shoulders a long distance through intricate lanes
towards the place where the nefarious deed was to be perpetrated with safety and
secrecy. Those thieves endeavoured all this time to keep Nimai in humour by
sweet words and the offer of prospective sweetmeats. While the Lord was being
thus hurried off to their rendezvous, the members of His family missed Him and
began to search in all directions, but could find the Boy nowhere. A great fear
gradually took possession of their minds. Meanwhile the thieves had been led by
the Deluding Power of Vishnu into taking the road to the Home of Jagannath
Misra, under the impression that it led to their own place and, on their arrival at
Misra’s house, felt quite sure that they had successfully reached their destination.

They accordingly made the Boy descend from their shoulders just where
Jagannath Misra and the friends and relations of the family were sitting in

silent grief, apprehending a great calamity. Nimai at once ran into the arms of
His father and all present shouted ‘Hari, Hari’ in the joy of a great relief, as if
Life Himself was restored to their bodies. The thieves looked foolish and
perplexed and were very much frightened when they found out that it was not
their own place. Thereupon availing of the confusion caused by the arrival of
Nimai they made good their escape.

They did not stop till they felt that they were out of the reach of any possible
pursuers. They were amazed by the nature of their adventure and thought
that they had been under the spell of a black magician and had been saved only
by the grace of goddess Chandi whom they worshipped. They hugged each
other in a close embrace in their ecstasy of joy at their Providential escape. As
a matter of fact, it was also no ordinary good luck that had provided them
an opportunity of carrying Nimai on their shoulders.

Here, at the house of Jagannath Misra, after the first outburst of joy had
subsided, they began to look about for the person who had brought Nimai home
with the object of rewarding him by the present of a head-dress. This was a piece
of cloth which they wanted to tie round his head with their own hands. But
although it transpired that two men had actually brought the Child on
their shoulders, no one came forward to claim the reward. Nimai was questioned
and declared that He had gone to the bank of the Bhagirathi and had been
brought on the shoulders of two strangers by paths that were unknown to Him.
The people arrived at the conclusion that it was an instance of what the
Scriptures declare, viz., that children, old men and those who have nobody to
look after them, are protected by the gods in the shape of luck. Thus thought
they in their ignorance, unable to realize the significance of the occurrence by
reason of the sportive intervention of the Power of Vishnu. Those, concludes
Thakur Brindabandas, who listen to this story, which is one of the hidden
narratives of the Scriptures, attain to firm devotion to the Feet of Sree Chaitanya.

Vishnu’s Power possesses at one and the same time a double face. One of these
confers the knowledge of the Divinity on one disposed to serve, the
other obscures the spiritual vision and makes the jiva, who is averse to the
service of Godhead, hanker for sensuous enjoyment. The jiva falls into the
clutches of the latter, also called Maya if he makes the attempt to understand the
Divinity by the resources of his own paltry intellect. In this instance the thieves
were prevented by the Spiritual Energy to act in the wrong way, in spite of their
bad intentions. The members of the family of Jagannath Misra were also

prevented by the Spiritual Power, who supplies the conjunction of events
forming the Leela of Godhead, from realizing the whole truth of the incident.

The jiva possesses freedom of will but is lacking in the power of taking the
effective initiative which belongs exclusively to Godhead. The jivas are made
conscious of the Purpose of Godhead in what they are enabled to do, just in
the proportion that is necessary for the Divine Purpose. Those, who rely on
their own judgment for finding out the Divine Purpose, without desiring to
receive the knowledge of it from Himself, are guided by the Deluding Energy
into wrong conclusions; but they are not themselves aware that their
conclusions are wrong.

This is, however, really opaque delusion. Those, who submit to receive their
enlightenment from Godhead, are not thus deprived of the service of
Godhead by the Deluding Power. In this instance it is not the Deluding Energy
but the preventing Spiritual Power that relieved the thieves from their
thievish propensity and sowed the seed for future service of the Divinity. Herein
the thieves were really most fortunate. It could not be otherwise, as
Godhead Himself is directly concerned. When thieves steal the property of
worldly people, they are under the deluding Power who punishes those who
desire to serve themselves instead of God by helping them to gain their object in
the shape of the attainment of their selfish enjoyment. But stealth, which
is contrived by the Spiritual Power to be directed apparently against God
Himself for enhancing the charm of the Divine Leela, produces the best results
in spite of the apparently evil intention of the person who attempts to rob Him, if
the thief is not really anxious to go consciously against Godhead. In the case
even of demon Ravana, who apparently succeeded in robbing Sita Devi, the
illusion of his apparent success operated for his benefit by his death at the Hands
of Godhead Himself.

From these instances we should be careful, however, not to draw the wrong
conclusion and suppose that Godhead is apt to reward those who cherish
evil intentions towards Himself for such offensive conduct. God rewards
everybody impartially and fully. But the reward takes different forms according
to the different antecedents of the recipients. In the case of the thieves, the
stealth of God’s property was prevented; but of this they were not conscious and
God was also served unconsciously by allowing Himself to be carried on their
shoulders to His Own Home. In the case of Ravana, he was deluded by the
Spiritual Power into the belief that he was successful in stealing Sita. He,
however, stole only the delusive form of Sita. This proved a means of correction

for Ravana, although he had planned his offense against good advice. He was
punished by the Spiritual Power by the slaughter of himself with all his kindred
and followers. Ravana was well aware that he was going against Godhead. He
was more fortunate than the two thieves, because he was enabled to realize that
he was punished for his offense and also the utter wickedness of opposing
the Divine Will. The Power of Godhead is really One but acts consistently
in opposite ways, accordingly as He is served or opposed. Her external face,
which alone is open to the view of those who are opposed to Godhead, seems to
be terrible and incalculable as long as they continue to be averse to God.

Her benign face is seen only by those who are disposed to serve Godhead.

The delusion of Jagannath Misra and his kindred and friends was
absolutely wholesome, being of the nature of the benign operation of the
Spiritual Power of Godhead in furtherance of the joy of His Divine Activities.

One day Jagannath Misra called to his Son and asked Him to fetch his book from
the inner apartment. As the Boy entered the room running, Misra and Sachi
distinctly heard exquisitely sweet sounds as of jingling of bells of anklets that
were produced by the quick movements of the Child. Presently Nimai came out
with the required book and, making it over to His father, ran off for play. The
parents were very much perplexed. There were no jingling anklets on the Feet of
their Boy. Whence could the sound come? Their astonishment was changed to
conviction as they went into the room. There they found, all over the room,
prints of Feet marked with the signs of the banner, the bolt and the goad. They at
once recognized the Foot-prints of Vishnu, and both of them instinctively
exclaimed that there would be no more birth for them as they had a sight of those
well-known Wonderful Divine Feet never seen by them before. They
reverentially bowed to the foot-prints of Godhead. Misra naturally
enough concluded that it was the act of Damodar Sila, i.e., the Salagram Sila
who was the tutelary? Deity of the family and was regularly worshipped in the
home. He thought that Gopala (Cow-boy Krishna) Who dwelt in the Salagram
Sila walked about in the room, and the prints were of the Feet of Gopala.

Misra decided to undertake personally the worship of Damodar Sila from that
day and asked Sachi Devi to cook rice boiled in sweet milk mixed with ghee as a
special offering to Damodar Sila next morning. Misra with his own hands bathed
the Salagram Sila with the five holy products of the cow and, in the company
of his pious consort, reverentially worshipped the Deity of the family. The
Lord laughed in His mind at the conduct of His parents.

Thereafter occurred a most wonderful event. A pilgrim Brahmana, who had done

many pious deeds in his previous lives, was wont to wander all over the country
in quest of Krishna. He worshipped the six-letter mantram of Gopala (Cow-boy
Krishna) and ate nothing except such food as had already been offered to
Gopala. By good fortune it so chanced that he arrived at the Lord’s House in
course of his wanderings. The pilgrim Brahmana wore, as his cherished
ornaments, the Holy Forms of Gopala and the Salagram Sila suspended from his
neck. The whole person of the pilgrim was aglow with the spiritual radiance of
the ideal Brahmana which can never be properly described in words. The mouth
of the Brahmana constantly recited the Name of Krishna. His eyes were listless
by the influence of the sweet quality of Govinda That possessed his heart. At the
sight of the newly-arrived stranger-guest, Jagannath Misra, struck by the visible
force of his personality, rising from his seat with respect, made obeisance to him.
Misra then welcomed his guest with all due formality. He himself washed the
feet of his guest and offered him his best seat. After the pilgrim was refreshed
and properly seated, the good Misra inquired the place of his residence. To this
the Brahmana replied that he was a recluse and wandered about through sheer
restlessness of mind. Misra, bowing low, observed that the wanderings of such
as he testified to the good fortune of the world which good fortune belonged to
him that day, and, if commanded, he would make the necessary arrangements for
his cooking of the meal for Krishna.

The Brahmana, signifying his assent to the proposal of Misra, the latter with
great pleasure proceeded to make all necessary preparations. He made ready
the place of cooking by cleansing it with great care and brought thither all
the articles required for cooking. The Brahmana, having cooked the meal with
great satisfaction, sat down to make its offering to Krishna.

No sooner did the Brahmana engage in the meditation of Krishna, than Sree
Gaursundar appeared before him. The Body of the Child was full of dust
and perfectly nude. His beautiful Eyes, Hands, and Feet were red. Smilingly He
took up the food offered by the Brahmana with His beautiful Hand and, in the
view of the worthy Brahmana, ate a mouthful. The fortunate Bipra shrieked in
an agony of grief: That restless Boy has stolen my cooked rice.’ His cry
quickly brought Jagannath Misra to the spot who found Sree Gaursundar in the
very Act of eating the cooked rice with a smiling Countenance.

Misra was greatly enraged and ran to administer his Son a sound thrashing. The
pilgrim Brahmana got up in great fear and caught hold of the hand of Misra.

He said that the Child had no knowledge of right and wrong. A wise man

should never hurt such a one. He accordingly importuned Misra to do no
violence to the Boy. Misra was very much dejected. The Brahmana said that
there was no cause for grief; Godhead alone knows what is to happen on any
day. ‘I would dine on any fruits, roots or such other food that may be in the
house. Be pleased to give the same to me.’ But Misra would not hear. ‘If you
indeed regard me as your servant’, he said, ‘be pleased to cook the meal once
again. Allow me to make ready the place. I have got everything necessary for
your cooking in the house. I shall, indeed, be very glad, if you cook once more.’
Other relatives and well-wishers of Misra joined in the entreaty. The importunity
of so many persons had its effect and induced the pilgrim to agree to cook again.

This time, in order to keep the Child out of harm’s way, Sachi Devi took Him to
a neighbour’s house. The ladies did not forego such an excellent opportunity
of reading a good lesson to the Child. ‘Well, Nimai’, they said, ‘You are so
foolish that you ate the rice that was cooked by a stranger. You will be an outcast
for this. What will you do now?’ The Boy laughed and made this strange answer,
‘I am a cow-boy. I eat the rice cooked by Brahmanas at all time.’ He looked
at them with an arch smile. The reply had its effect. They all burst into
uproarious laughter and pressed the Child to their bosom. The Benign Spiritual
Power of God prevented them from understanding the actual meaning of His
words.

That pilgrim Brahmana after cooking a second time sat down to make the
offering to Krishna. He meditated on the Cow-boy Nimai again appeared
before the pilgrim, having eluded the vigilance of all watchers, and ate a handful
of the cooked rice which was duly perceived only by the Brahmana who at
once shouted out with grief. This gave the alarm to Misra who detected the Boy
as He ran away after eating the rice. Misra took up a stick and gave chase. But
the Boy took refuge inside one of the rooms in great fear. Misra was not to
be pacified by the entreaties of anybody. The pilgrim Brahmana himself
again interposed. ‘Krishna’, he said, ‘has not allotted cooked rice for me to-day.
This is the real truth, I tell you. The Boy is not to blame at all.’ This did not allay
the poignant grief of Misra who remained silent and thoughtful.

At this point Viswarup appeared on the scene. The beauty of His person was
only equaled by His knowledge of all the Scriptures and His
unbounded devotion to Krishna. The very sight of Viswarup was a revelation to
the pilgrim who regarded His appearance with great attention and frequently
looked at Him with unconcealed admiration. He inquired His parentage and

warmly congratulated Misra on the possession of such a son.

Viswarup made obeisance to the Brahmana. His words were extraordinarily
sweet. He said that it was, indeed, very great good fortune that had brought
a person who finds all his delight in his own soul as guest to their house.

There could be no greater calamity than if this guest had to fast in the house
against His will. He felt it a great grief, although He was very glad by seeing
him. The Brahmana said that he lived in the forest and was habituated to a diet
of roots and fruits. He felt amply rewarded by having the sight of Viswrarup. He
would take any article of food that had been offered to Krishna. Viswarup said
that a person like the pilgrim Brahmana naturally cared only for the happiness
of others, in preference to his own. Viswarup was, therefore, emboldened to
make the request that he would be pleased to cook a third time. The Brahmana
said that the Will of Krishna in the matter was supreme and it had been very
clearly declared. It was also almost midnight. He had already cooked twice. As it
was not clearly the Will of Krishna that he should eat cooked rice that day,
he entreated to be excused any further useless exertion and would accept
fruits and roots as his repast for that night.

But Viswarup fell at the feet of the Brahmana and repeated the entreaty of
Himself and of the whole family that he would cook once again for the sake
of Krishna. The pilgrim had been thoroughly bewitched by the Beauty and
Grace of Viswarup. He willingly consented to cook a third time amidst the
shouts of ‘Hari, Hari’ that were raised by all present. The place was quickly
cleansed and everything was made ready for his cooking.

This time very special care was taken to prevent further mischief by Nimai. He
had already hidden Himself inside one of the rooms. On the advice of
those present, Misra had the door of the room securely bound from outside.

Misra himself guarded the entrance of the room. The ladies at last announced
that there was no further cause for anxiety, as the Child had fallen asleep. But
they did not relax their vigilance.

At last the cooking of the Brahmana was finished, and, having arranged the
meal, that Brahmana of excellent deeds, offered the same to Krishna
in meditation. All the people had by this time fallen into a deep slumber. The
Son of Sachi Devi again appeared on the spot where the Brahmana was making
his offering of food to Gopala. On catching sight of the Boy the Brahmana made
a great noise, but no one heard his cries. The Lord said, ‘Bipra! You are

so generous! You ask Me to come. Is it My fault ? Repeating My mantram you
call upon Me. Finding it impossible to stay away, I have thus come to you.

You always long for My Sight. Wherefore, I show Myself to you.’

The Brahmana forthwith had a vision of the Wonderful Divine Form. The Figure
had eight Arms which held the Conch, Disc, Club and the Lotus. There was
butter in one of His Hands, which He ate with another. And the Lord played on
the Murali (flute) with the other two Hands. A garland of jewels and the Gem
Kaustuva adorned His Breast which was marked with footprints of Bhrigu. The
Brahmana saw that precious ornaments decorated all parts of His Body. The tail
of the peacock, set in the fresh twigs of gunja, adorned His Head. His red Lips
added to the Beauty of His moonlike Face. He moved His Lotus Eyes smiling.
The Vaijayanti Garland waved to and fro as also the Makara pendent hanging
from His Ears. The charming Anklet (Nupura) of jewels adorned the Lotus Feet
of the Lord. Darkness was flung back afar by the sheen of His gemlike Toe-nails.
On the self-same spot the Brahmana also saw the wonderful Kadamba tree in
Brindabana, alive with the sounds of birds. He saw the cowherds and milkmaids
and cows on all sides. He had direct vision of everything on which he was wont
to meditate. That :Brahmana of pious deeds swooned away with excess of joy on
beholding splendours never seen before.

Sree Gaursundar touched the body of the Brahmana with His Hand. The Touch
of Divine Hand restored external consciousness to the Brahmana. He
was rendered passive by joy, and no words came out of his mouth. He
swooned away and fell on the ground repeatedly, but, recovering quickly, stood
up as often as he fell. No part of his body could be composed by reason of
shivering, sweat, horripilation; and tears from his eyes flowed in a stream like
the sacred current of the Ganges. Presently the Brahmana clasped the Feet of the
Lord and began to cry with a loud voice.

On beholding the restlessness of the Brahmana, Sree Gaursundar smiled as He
spoke to him briefly. The Lord said that The Brahmana is His servant in
every birth and always thinks of having the Sight of Him. Therefore He had
shown him His Form. He had formerly shown His same Form to the Brahmana
in the home of Nanda, in another birth. The Brahmana had forgot it. On that
previous occasion also when Sree Gauranga had been born in the village of
the cowherds, the same Brahmana, pursuing his pilgrim-journeys as now,
had accidentally become the guest in the home of Nanda, and the Lord then
showed him the same Form by stealthily eating his cooked food while in the act

of offering it to Krishna. Those, who are His servants like the Brahmana,
are privileged to have the Sight of His Divine Form. He then told the Brahmana
not to divulge those secrets to any one as long as He remained Manifest in
this world. He also told the Brahmana that His Advent takes place at the
beginning of the congregational chanting (samkirtan) and that He will spread
the samkirtan to all countries. He will give away to every household the Holy
Love which is coveted by the gods including Brahma. The Brahmana will live to
see many of those Activities.’ With these words and assuring the Brahmana not
to have any fears, the Lord returned to His own apartment, and there lay in
His little bed as before, in the likeness of a child. By reason of deep slumber no
one could know anything.

The Brahmana was filled with supreme bliss on beholding the wonderful Divine
manifestation. He besmeared his body with the cooked rice, cried as he
ate, danced, sang, laughed and roared with delight. He repeatedly ejaculated
‘jais’ to the Boy-Krishna (Gopala). The noise made by the Brahmana at last
woke ;up everybody, when he restrained himself and finished his meal by the
customary performance (achaman).

The first impulse of the Brahmana was to make a clean breast of everything to
all the people, so that they might be delivered by recognizing the Lord
Whom they all believed to be but a mere mortal child. But he desisted from
this rashness on remembering his promise made to the Lord not to
divulge anything. This fortunate Brahmana thereupon took up his permanent
abode in Nabadwip and daily visited his cherished Divinity at the home of
Jagannath Misra on the conclusion of his day’s begging.

The Beatific vision is different from ordinary seeing. The Brahmana thought that
if only he proclaimed what he had actually seen to all the people, they would
implicitly believe in his words and be saved by knowing the Infant Son of
Jagannath Misra as the Lord of the world. This had been forbidden by
Sree Gaursundar Himself in anticipation. Why did He forbid such disclosure ?
The Lord had Himself told the Brahmana that His servants alone are privileged
to have the Sight of the Divine Form. Those who are not the servants of
Krishna do not see Him. Knowing Him is identical with seeing Him. Those that
are not willing to serve Krishna see only a mortal child in the Son of Jagannath
Misra. This hallucination can be removed only by the Lord Himself, because it is
His Power that obscures their vision. Unless He allows them to see, they cannot
see or know Him as He really is. But the Lord is not unkind to them. He is full

of mercy for even those who do not want to serve Him. He does not show
Himself to them, lest they are forced to serve Him through fear. He wants their
willing service which alone can satisfy also themselves, because that is the
really natural relationship between Krishna and jivas.

This freedom of will conferred by Krishna on jivas, which, Therefore, forms a
part and parcel of their nature, is allowed free scope by the Lord in order
to enable jivas to attain the eternal, natural function of their souls by the
process of free rational choice. He does not compel their choice to serve even
Himself, against their freedom of will. But the jiva cannot sit idly. He must
always serve to exist at all. Those, who do not like to serve Krishna, have to be
made to serve their own deluded fancies. They hope to be able to avoid the
service of Krishna by following their own selfish inclinations. Krishna freely
allows them to make this experiment by providing the means for the seeming
realization of their desire.

His Deluding Energy creates this world for the purpose by His Will. Those jivas,
who are averse to serve Krishna, find this world to contain more than an endless
abundance of what they can conceivably want in such circumstance, viz., all
varieties of means of their own selfish enjoyment. In the process of undergoing
such enjoyment, they have nothing to do with Krishna as the only Master to be
served. They are thus offered, in fulfillment of their own choice, the vision of
that Potency of Krishna whose apparent function is to minister to their selfish
pleasures. This is the deluding manifestation or non-Krishna which can alone be
available to those who want to lord it over the Divinity.

The Potency of Krishna, who thus appears to serve the erring fancies of disloyal
souls, is the Deluding Power or Maya. When Krishna Himself comes down
in His own proper Form into this world which is built for the above penal
purpose by His Deluding Power, those jz’vas, who happen to be undergoing
corrective enjoyment in this lower region, naturally take Him to be an object of
this world like the other mundane entities that they know, which are of value to
them solely because they minister to their trivial selfish enjoyment. All so-
called service, that is so loudly advertised in this world, is only a method of
procuring the good, i.e, enjoyable things of this world for oneself and other
ungodly persons, for pleasing oneself. There is no place for the service of
Krishna in the scheme of the selfish people of this world. The service of Krishna,
the only Master, is not desired at all in this world. We want to be ourselves
masters of everything including Krishna Himself if possible. Our lip-homage to

Krishna is only a piece of pious hypocrisy. God does not perpetrate the anomaly
of offering us a Master, Who can be no other than Himself, when we want to
be served. This aversion is not due to ignorance, but is an innate disposition
which is the result of the abuse of our freedom of will. It is only when the will of
the jiva chooses to serve the Truth, i.e., Krishna, that Krishna shows His Form
to him in order to receive his offered service.

The Vision Beatific is, therefore, possible only for those who have attained the
highest rung of the ladder of spiritual endeavour towards the
unadulterated service of the Divinity. There are hypocritical visions of so-called
Divinity which are an ordinary device of the pseudo-yogis for deluding those
worldly people who desire to see ( ?) Krishna for the gratification of their senses.

These pseudo-visions and miracles are by no means any infringement of the law
of physical Nature. They come under the law of physical Nature or
Deluding Energy as much as the ordinary events of mundane life. They are
events of the mental plane. These mental powers can be obtained by the
processes of pseudoyoga and are coveted by persons who are inordinately
anxious to extend their scope of selfish enjoyment. These bad people naturally
fall a victim to the pervert yogis who lead them to deeper depths of perdition by
producing in their minds such impious hallucinations of mastery over the
Divinity. Krishna has His Eternal Divine Form. But His Form is not like those
images of God that are set up in the shrines of worldlings for the gratification of
fallen jivas. The True Form of Krishna is All-pure and Spiritual and can, by His
Nature, be seen only by those who are themselves free from all worldly taint.
This caution of the Scriptures should serve as a much-needed warning to all
educated and highborn people who are specially liable to accept the assurances
of pseudo-yogis and pseudo-sadhus to be enabled to obtain the Sight ( ?) of the
Divinity even in their sinful state.

The process of spiritual progress has its strict gradations which bear a close
analogy to those of mental progress. The really moral state is the
natural condition of the jiva. An immoral or non-moral person is far worse than
a brute. This moral condition is the highest ideal of his position conceivable
by man as attainable by his empiric thinking and activities based thereon.

The spiritual, indeed, transcends the ideal moral, but not in The sense that
it transgresses against the so-called moral law, because by such transgression
man is only degraded to the condition which is worse than even that of the
bmte. The spiritual life enables us to realize the moral as a secondary result.

The spiritual fulfills the moral ideal by transcending it.

Morality can neither be understood nor perfected in practice by. the empiric
efforts of man. Its ideal is attainment of perfect purity (?) of body and
mind. This ideal, the Scriptures tell us, can be automatically attained, only if it
is made a secondary, and not the primary, object of life, as it happens to be
the case with all really immoral people. The perfection of morality is realized as
a secondary consequence of serving Krishna and not as a reward of
endeavours for the satisfaction of our senses in our temporary worldly sojourn.

Those who serve Krishna are alone necessarily and perfectly moral or free from
the evils of the flesh. Those, who are not perfectly moral in this real sense,
are not spiritual at all and have no right of entry into Sree Brindavana
the Transcendental Abode of the Divinity. But the Deluding Power of God
misleads immoral people, through the agency of immoral yogis by showing them
a false form resembling that of Godhead, as a means of punishing them for
such impious desire of making God an object of the gratification of their senses.

This punishment is a real mercy to such people and is intended to cure them of
their rank atheism. It is, therefore, necessary to confront one’s so-called spiritual
experiences with the authority of the Scriptures and the corroboration of real
sadhus who do not desire to aggrandize themselves at our expense before they
are admitted by our serving disposition as genuine. The unambiguous advice on
such matters is obtainable only from Sreemad Bhagavatam and in the only
intelligible form from the career of Sree Chaitanya as described by
His associates, Who is the Living Embodiment of the Eternal Religion described
in the Bhagavatam. The other Scriptures avoid the concrete presentation of
the Truth, lest He be condemned or disbelieved by those who are
deliberately averse to Him.

The rationale of theism is furnished by the Vaishnava philosophy, which is
unique in the world, in its positive aspect. The associates and loyal followers
of Sree Chaitanya have left an ample exposition of the philosophy of the
religion of the Bhagavata in the clearest possible language. But even so it is
suicidal to attempt to understand the highest spiritual principles without
availing ourselves of the aid that has been so mercifully placed within our reach
by Godhead Himself. The attitude of neglect of the transcendental subject is
often due to ignorance, prejudice and irreverence. The two former obstacles can
be overcome only by one’s own endeavours; but the last is incurable except

by Grace. There cannot well be a greater hypocrite than one who professes
the desire of seeing Krishna but has no absolute regard for those perfectly
loyal souls who admit no other legitimate function except the service of
Godhead. It is for this sufficient reason that Godhead Himself has ordained that
by submitting to His devotees, not once nor twice but constantly and
eternally with body, mind and speech, that any one can have real access to His
Presence. It is, however, this very dictum of the Scriptures, intended for
ensuring devotion to Godhead, that is exploited by the knaves and atheists under
the external garb of sadhus for passing off the different forms of pseudo-service
on willing worldly people for the gratification of their diabolical
atheistical purposes which are destructive of even ordinary morality.

Chapter 6 Growing Boy

The Lord occupied Himself with these Juvenile Pastimes after the manner of
Gopala (Cow-Boy Krishna). Meanwhile the proper time for the performance
of the ceremony of making the Boy begin His studies, having arrived,

Jagannath Misra chose an auspicious day and moment for ‘putting the writing-
chalk into the Hands of his Boy to initiate Him into the art of reading, writing
and arithmetic. This is one of the ten purificatory ceremonies enjoined by the
Scriptures as necessary to be observed by the Brahmanas.

Some time after the ceremony, all friends of the family gathered together to
perform the next purificatory rites, viz., perforation of the ears and tonsure.

The perforation of the ears is to make possible hearing of the Word of Godhead
or the attainment of the fitness of listening to words regarding the highest good,
as distinct from ordinary non-spiritual utterances. The making of the tuft known
as The tongue of fire’ in the Vedas or subsequently as Teaching of
Sree Chaitanya’ (Sree Chaitanya siksha), is another of the ten lustrations.

Mayavadins (illusionist-Monists), who believe in non-activity, admit the value of
the tuft only in the sphere of work which is illusory and, accordingly, in the long
run, shave off the tuft on renouncing all activity. But the Vedic
theistic renunciation of the triple staff (tridanda) does not dispense with the tuft
which, in this case, is emblematic of progress in the sphere of the service of
Godhead, even in the stage of sannyasa.

Sree Chaitanya read all the letters of the Alphabet at the first sight, to the
amazement of everybody. He finished all the compound-letters in two or three
days and began to write constantly the series of the Names of Krishna. He wrote
and read aloud, night and day, with the greatest ardour, the Holy Names of
Rama, Krishna, Murari, Mukunda, Vanamali, etc. The fortunate people of Nadia
actually saw the Lord of Vaikuntha reading in the company of their children. The
sweetness with which the Lord articulates the letters has power to steal the hearts
of all jiuas, if they have only a chance of listening to Him.

Sree Gaursundar engaged in diverse kinds of strange frolics, and His demands
were always most difficult to satisfy. He would ask to have the bird which
flew across the sky and the moon and stars of the firmament, and would

cry violently, rolling in the dust and dashing His hands and legs against
the ground, if His wishes were not fulfilled. All present would take Him up
into their arms to console Him, but Viswambhar always proved intractable and
went on crying, ‘I must have it’. There was only one sovereign remedy to stop
Him. He was hushed the moment He heard the Name of Hari. All of them
recited aloud the Name of Hari by clap of hand. This at once quieted the Child
Who forgot all His turbulence. They chanted the Name of Hari to please the Boy
and the home of Jagannath was turned into the realm of Vaikuntha.

It is necessary to guard against a possible error. That which is not the Abode of
Godhead should not be supposed to be convertible into the same by chanting the
Name of Hari. Such speculation, theologically dubbed as
‘transubstantiation’ applies only to mental and physical phenomena. The non¬
spiritual is never turned into the spiritual. Godhead dwells eternally in the pure
spiritual essence which is the manifestation of His Spiritual Power, eternally
distinct from the play of His Deluding Energy. The home of Jagannath Misra, in
which the Lord appears, is never within the jurisdiction of the Deluding Power
of Godhead.

One day Nimai began to cry violently. The Child was not quieted even by the
chant of the Name of Hari, but kept on crying. After even, method of
consoling the Boy had failed, they implored Him to tell them the cause of His
grief, promising to procure whatever He desired. The Lord replied that He was
very ill and lacked the strength to move or be quiet. If they really wanted to save
His life, they must hasten; to the house of two Brahmanas, Jagadish Pandit
and Hiranya Pandit. Those two had prepared a great variety of offerings for
Vishnu on that day, which was the ekadasi tithi or the Lord’s Day. If they could
get from them all those offerings and give them to Him, He would be cured of
His ailment by feeding on those things.

The mother was shocked to hear, thinking it was opposed to custom and the
Scriptures for any one to desire to eat offerings intended for Vishnu and that also
on the ekadasi day. But the others only burst into merry laughter at these words
of the Child and assured Him that they would send for the offerings immediately,
so He need have no anxiety on that account any more.

Jagannath Misra himself went down to the house of those two Brahmanas who
happened to be his most intimate friends. He told them what the Boy
so imperatively wanted. Those two Brahmanas were struck with a sudden

wonder on hearing the strange proposal. They thought within themselves, This
is most wonderful for a little Boy. How could He know at all that this is the Day
of Sree Hari? How could He know that we have prepared to-day a great variety
of offerings? This makes it perfectly clear to us that Gopala (Cow-boy
Krishna) Himself dwells in the Figure of this beautiful Boy. Narayana Himself
sports in the Frame of this Child. May be it is He Who makes Him say these
words from His seat in the heart of the Child. Thinking in this way those two
Brahmanas were filled with supreme joy, and at once with the greatest pleasure
they-brought out all their offerings intended for Vishnu and themselves
conveyed them to the Home of Jagannath Misra. They offered them with the
greatest delight to Nimai and pressed Him to eat everything, giving out that all
their preparations were at last really offered to Krishna Himself. The Lord was
very much pleased on receiving the offerings and tasted a little of everything.

His distemper was completely healed. He became as naughty and restless as
ever, scattering the eatables in all directions and throwing bits of them at those
who stood in a circle round Him and chanted the Name of Hari as He danced in
the midst of the samkirtan of Himself

It is the custom of the Vaishnavas not to eat anything on the day of ekadasi.. This
does not apply to the Lord Himself to Whom accordingly the usual offerings of
food are made on the ekadasi day also. Those Brahmanas must have offered the
food to Nimai in the firm belief that the Boy was no other than Krishna for
Whom the offerings had been prepared. Such instinctive good sense, observes
Thakur Brindabandas in this connection, is only possible to one who obtains the
special mercy of Krishna. Devotion to the Lord does not make her appearance in
the heart as long as the worldly egotistic attitude persists. One, who gives up all
reliance upon his own powers and humbly seeks enlightenment from Krishna
Himself, or, in other words, becomes His willing servant, obtains the mercy of
Krishna in the shape of devotion to the Feet of the Lord. To the worldly egotist
all this is utterly incomprehensible. The sudden resolve of the Brahmanas to
offer the eatables to Nimai, instinctively believing Him to be Vishnu Himself for
Whom they had been prepared, is a circumstance which cannot be properly
grasped by any one except the servants of Krishna. The reader may be reminded
of the fact already noted that when the Lord appears in this world, He comes
down with His eternal Associates, Servitors and Paraphernalia. This Descent of
the Lord serves His merciful purpose of bringing the Divine realm within the
vision of fallen souls thereby affording them the opportunity of serving Himself.
The narrative of such Activities preserved in the language of this world
continues to provide the same opportunity for all succeeding generations. But the

Abode, Associates, Servitors, Paraphernalia, Narratives, although They appear to
us like the things of this earth, are really spiritual entities, being of the Divine
Essence. The Lord ever sports with His Own. He is ever manifest in the pure
spiritual essence and all His Activities take place on the plane of the pure soul.
His Activities manifesting Themselves in this world also possess the same
spiritual nature.

The Lord in His Real, positive or Spiritual Nature is knowable and servable
by pure souls alone.

This material world is the shadow of the spiritual world. If the soul seeks the
Lord in this world, he is perpetually deluded and is forced to arrive at
the conclusion sooner or later, if he is really sincere in his quest of the Truth,
that He is not to be found in this world. Less sincere people think that they can
find Him in this world. But when the Lord actually appears in this world,
these insincere people either ignore Him, thinking that He is an ordinary mortal,
or, even if they are told of His Divinity, miss the real view of Him believing Him
to be Godhead in the guise of mortal and subject to the imperfections of the
flesh, as by such process of ‘incarnation’ alone He is wrongly imagined to be
able to make Himself visible to the fettered souls.

The first is the frankly sceptical attitude that ignores altogether all possibility of
spiritual existence. The second is no less fatal. It supposes that Godhead may
be subject to the bondage of Maya, that Godhead may appear in this world as
an actually sinful person and may engage in all worldly activities in the same
way as we do. That such sinful activities of Godhead are not sinful, that it is the
duty of fallen souls to submit to these sinful pastimes of the Lord in his human
form; and that by such submission alone they can attain to the highest object of
life. This is philanthropism, or the doctrine of prakrita sahajia sects, which
is responsible, in some form or other, for all the corruptions of all
current spurious creeds that profess to be theistic.

The true view is that the Lord, even when He chooses to be visible to the mortal
eye, is nothing less than the Lord in His Lullness, because He is always
Allpowerful, always All-pure, always All-knowledge. Those alone can join in
His Activities who share His Nature Who is Spiritual and incapable-of
corruption. That is to say, no sinful person can really see, understand or
participate in His Activities. The soul that is averse to Godhead, if by dint of the
awakened sincerity of his nature he is convinced that no connection with the

Lord can be established so long as the sinful condition itself persists, is enabled
to obtain deliverance from the bondage of this world by witnessing with faith,
by studying with faith and by listening with faith to the Narratives of
these Activities from the lips of the servants of the Lord, by serving with faith
those from whom he receives the tidings, the Lord,. His Associates and servitors,
His Abode, the Narrative of His Activities, although they choose to be visible in
this world from time to time, have nothing in common with anything of this
world and are incapable of receiving the least stain of worldliness by their
descent into this world.

Those who think otherwise are utterly misguided and are profane atheists, as
they imagine that the Lord is only a created being like their false selves
and possessing a similar liability to mundane defects and merits. But the
Scriptures say that there is no greater slander of the All-pervasive (Vishnu) than
to affect to believe that the Body of Vishnu is material. If this point is properly
understood, there would be no chance of impostors, full of ah the worst vices of
humanity, setting up as ‘Incarnations’ ( ?) of Godhead and by their sinful
activities and spurious performances bringing about the terrible ruin of
themselves and their unfortunate Victims.

Lord Vishwambhar continued to be exceedingly restless and wayward. He
became the leader of ah the turbulent Brahmana boys of the neighbourhood.

He and His company were constantly after some mischief or other and engaged
in a campaign of regular raids on different places. No one could check
His turbulence. He would cut jokes at other children, whenever He chanced
to meet them. They would also retort, till the affair developed into a regular
fray. The boys of the Lord’s party were always victorious in these quarrels by
reason of the superior strength of the Lord, and their opponents found
themselves compelled to retire discomfited. At this period Sree Gaursundar had
the most charming Appearance. He was always gray with dust and His Body
was beautifully adorned with points of writing ink.

After study was over at midday, Sree Gaursundar, in the company of all the
children, went daily for His bath in the Ganges. As soon as He got into the water,
He engaged in merry sports in the water with the children who splashed water at
one another. Nabadwip was a most opulent city, and the number of bathers at
each bathing-place baffled ah calculation. They included very staid persons,
respectable and grave fathers of families, and revered sannyasins, as well as a
very large number of urchins. The Lord, sporting in the company of the children,

soon attracted the attention of everybody by the extraordinary Beauty of His
Person and by His turbulence. As the Lord played with the children, the shower
of water from His Feet drenched all bathers. He paid no attention to the
expostulations of the aggrieved parties and moved about so quickly from place
to place that no one could catch hold of Him. In this manner the Lord made
everybody bathe over and over again. He would touch some of the bathers and
even spouted the water by His Mouth at them!

The Brahmanas, who were also treated in this unorthodox fashion, unable to
catch hold of the turbulent Boy, at last went to Jagannath Misra and laid
before him their grievances. Tt was impossible for any one to bathe in the
proper manner in the Ganges. Sree Gaursundar disturbed one’s meditations by
the summary method of deliberately dashing the water at him or by spouting
water at a person in the act of meditation for the avowed reason that it was
unnecessary to meditate any more, as one could actually see Him on Whom he
meditated, by simply opening his eyes, standing before Him; He Himself
being Narayana manifest in the Kali Age.’

The Boy, it was alleged, stole one’s phallic symbol of Siva and decamped with
the upper cloth of another. He occupied the seat prepared for Vishnu, ate all the
offerings and put on His own person the flowers, etc., while the owner of them
was engaged in his bath preparatory to worship, and ran away before He could
be prevented, and would retort, into the bargain, That one need not feel sorry at
all as He Himself, for Whom the offering is meant, has eaten the
same.’ Thereafter, coming forward unobserved by diving under the water, He
would drag away a bather by the legs, as he was engaged in performing his
sandhya standing up in the water. The flower-basket and loin-cloth of another
were always missing. The Geeta of one bather was stolen. He had made the
baby-boy of another cry by putting water into the ears of the child. He had
climbed one’s back to his shoulder and from there jumped back into the water,
crying T am Mahesha’. He Himself worshipped Vishnu by occupying the seat
arranged for worship by another; after having first eaten the intended offering.

He threw sand at one’s body, after one had finished his bath, and had for the
purpose all the naughty boys at His heels. He put the cloths of all male persons
in the place of those of females and vice versa, to the utter shame of all who put
on the wrong cloths. This was done every day. He did not get out of the water for
half the day. Was it not likely that He might fall ill?

These Brahmanas were not the only complainants. The girls had serious

grievances which they duly laid before Sachi Devi. He stole their cloths,
abused them and got up a quarrel if they protested. He forcibly took away all
the flowers and fruits brought by them for performing their vowed worships
(brata) and scattered them in all directions.

As, after bathing in the Ganges, the girls began to worship the gods, Nimai
would appear on the spot with the other children and took His seat in the
midst of the girls. He asked the maidens to worship Him and told them that He
would give them the boon they desired, that Ganga and Durga are His maid¬
servants and Mahesha is also only His servant. With His own hands He put the
sandal-paste on His Own Person, wore the garlands of flowers, snatched the
intended offerings from the girls and ate them. The girls were very indignant and
said that ‘He was their brother by the relationship of the village. It was not
proper for them to say all this against Him. But He should also not take away
their articles for the worship of the gods and should not be boisterous in
His behaviour.’ To this He would only say, ‘I give the boon to all of you.

The husbands of you all will be most beautiful, learned, adept, youthful
and possessing an abundance of grain and other riches. Every one of you will
have seven sons a-piece, all of whom will live for ever and be of an
excellent understanding.’ The girls were much pleased at heart on hearing about
the boon, although externally they took up the scolding attitude by the display
of false anger. Some of the girls ran away with their offerings. Nimai,
however, called out to them and angrily told them that if they proved miserly,
and did not give Him their offerings, they would have old husbands with four co¬
wives. They were extremely frightened on hearing this, lest He might possess
some supernatural art or be possessed by any deity. They accordingly brought
their offerings back to Him. The Lord ate those offerings and then gave them
the boon which they desired. He threw sand at their bodies, after they had
finished their bath, and this was done by Him at the head of all the naughty
children. Coming up unobserved He shouted into one’s ear with a loud voice. He
spouted water With His Mouth at one’s face. He stuck the prickly seeds of okhra
into the hair of a third. He wanted to marry some. He did this every day, as if He
was the Son of the King. Nimai, they alleged, acted exactly as the Son of Nanda
in old times. If he was not checked, they would be compelled some day to
tell their parents, and then there would be serious trouble.

On hearing all this the mother of the Lord smiled and, taking all of them on her
lap, spoke kindly to them: ‘Let Nimai come Home to-day. I will tie up His Hands
and Leet and punish Him, so that He may not again cause any trouble to you.’

Then the girls, after taking the dust of Sachi’s feet on their heads, made their
way once more to the Ganges for their bath.

But, as a matter of fact, all concerned were exceedingly pleased in their minds,
however wayward might be the conduct of the Lord towards them, by the
force of the actual benefit dispensed. They came to Misra to acquaint him with
those occurrences, only for the fun of it. Misra, however, took their
complaints seriously and spoke threateningly and with anger: ‘He constantly
behaves in this way to all persons and has made it impossible for any one to
bathe in the Ganges in a satisfactory manner. I must immediately go there myself
and give Him a good thrashing that He may never do this again. If all of you try,
you will not prevent me from punishing Him.

Gauranga, the Lord of all beings, was aware of all this. He knew it all, as soon as
Misra was on his way to the Ganges with an angry mind. He was then playing
with other children, easily recognizable among them all by His extraordinary,
Beauty. The girls were the first to inform Him. The said, ‘Be careful,
Vishwambhar, Misra will be coming just now, fly at once.’ As the Lord, taking
all the children with Him, ran to catch hold of them, those Brahmana maidens
scattered in a fright.

The Lord now instructed all His companions to tell Misra that his Son had not
come to bathe at all. He had gone home from school by the other road.

They were waiting for His coming for His bath. After coaching the boys in
this manner, the Lord returned home by another path. The good Misra
now appeared at the bathing-place of the Ganges. On reaching the spot Misra
eagerly looked about in all directions but could not find his Son in the mist of
the children, Misra asked them about the whereabouts of Vishwambhar.

The children readily replied, ‘He has not come to bathe to-day. He went home
by the other road after school. We are all waiting here for Him.’ Misra, with
stick in hand, peered in all directions and stormed and threatened, being unable
to find his Boy. Those Brahmanas, who had complained to him for fun, now
came forward and informed him that Vishwambhar had fled home for fear; and
they entreated Misra to return home but not say any unkind words to the
Boy, telling him that they themselves would catch and take the Boy to him, if
He again did any mischief. ‘What we had told you, was said in fun. There is no
one in the three worlds who is more fortunate than yourself. What can
hunger, thirst or sorrow do to him in whose home there happens to be such a
Child?

You alone have truly served the Feet of the Lord. Most fortunate, indeed, is he
who has such a Son. If Vishwambhar commits crores of mischief, hold Him
fast to your bosom/ Misra said, That Child is the Son of you all. Swear by me
that you will never be offended with Him.’ And then Misra embraced them all
and came back home.

Lord Vishwambhar had gone home by another path, with the beautiful books in
His Hands, looking like a second Moon. Points of writing-ink adorned all
parts of His Body, as if the champaka flower was besieged on all sides by the
black bees. The Lord began to call loudly on His mother asking for oil to rub
His Body for going to the Ganges for His bath. The voice of her Son gladdened
the heart of Sachi. She could not discover any sign of bath on His Person. She
gave Him oil and began to muse. T do not understand what those girls and
the Brahmanas said just now. His Body is still spotted with the marks of ink and
He has the same books and the same cloth!’ Presently, Misra also returned
home. Vishwambhar ran into the arms of Misra as soon as He caught sight of
him. By that embrace Misra lost all faculty of his external activity, having been
filled with happiness at the very sight of his Boy. Misra also noticed that His
Son’s whole body was full of dust and was astonished on finding no sign of
bath. Misra said, ‘Viswambhar, is this Your good sense? Why don’t You allow
the people to bathe? Why do You steal the offerings for the worship of Vishnu?
Are You not afraid even of Vishnu?, The Lord said, ‘I have not gone for my bath
today. My companions have gone there before Me. They misbehave to all
the people. People blame Me even when I am not really there. If they thus
slander Me when I am absent, I say truly that I will really treat them ill.’ With
these words the Lord ran away laughing to the side of the Ganges to bathe
and rejoined those children. As soon as they saw Vishwambhar in their midst,
all the children embraced Him and burst into uproarious laughter on hearing
of His ruse. They all praised His cleverness and congratulated Him on His
narrow escape and resumed their pastimes in the water.

Here at home Sachi and Jagannath cogitated over the affair. ‘What all those
people said cannot be false. Why then was there no sign of bath on His
Person? The same dusty Body, the same Dress, Books, Cloth and Hair !’ ‘Is it
possible

Vishwambhar is no mortal? Has Krishna Himself been born as our Son by His
own Power, or some transcendental person?’ While they were thinking in
this manner, the Crest-jewel of all the twice-born made His Appearance.

Their deliberations were ended by joy at the sight of their Son. Both were filled
with instinctive gladness and all suspicions, were laid at rest, Half the day, while
the Lord was away for His study, seemed to those two as a couple of Ages. In
this manner played the Lord of Vaikuntha and by His Own Contrivance not a
single person was able to recognize Him.

Those, who put up with the almost intolerable turbulences of this strikingly
beautiful Urchin, certainly possessed a more than ordinary share of patience and
of the truly aesthetic and tender sentiment. A naughty boy is most liked, if his
naughtiness is purely juvenile and the outcome of an abundance of the
pure childish energy. It is in this sense that the extraordinary events of the-
Childhood of Sree Gaursundar have been affected to be regarded by His
empiric admirers.

But the point of view of the associates and narrators of the Transcendental Deeds
of the Lord is altogether different and it is their point of view which will give us
the attitude of those who were taught the true relation between the religion and
His own illustrative Conduct by Sree Chaitanya Himself; and they had also the
opportunity of realizing the Absolute Truth of those statements by their actual
experience. The sum and substance of their attitude is that these pranks of the
Childhood of Sree Gaursundar, Who was by far the most turbulent of all the
naughty children who then abounded at Nabadwip, were not only tolerated but
they made all those, who were the victims of His turbulence, have an
extraordinary affection for the Child Whom a few fortunate persons also
regarded as Transcendental. It is on this historical fact that a momentous
generalization in regard to these Activities has been made to rest, viz., that when
Godhead Himself appears in this world, He comes here with His Divine
Associates and Abode and These alone are the directly incorporated helpers of
His Leela in this world.

All those persons, who had anything to do with the Activities of Sree
Gaursundar, are the, eternal associates and servants of the Lord who came
into this world for the purpose of participating in His Activities. But they
themselves did not know this fully, as such knowledge would take away the
possibility of those Activities. So their knowledge was to that extent modified by
the Spiritual Power of Godhead. This apparent obscuration of knowledge, that is
thus found in His devotees serves to augment the joy of His Pastimes and is
totally different from the effect of the operation of the Deluding Power that shuts
out the view of the Divinity from fallen souls of this world by the screen of the

material world.

The philanthropists do not understand this vital difference between the
apparently similar functions of the two distinct powers and confound
the spiritual with the worldly. The result of such ignorance is also most
deplorable. A large number of rascals have in all Ages set up as ‘Incarnations’
(the term is theirs) of the Divinity and have imitated the activities, the real
Avatars narrated in the Scriptures. The unbelievable boldness and shamelessness
of these ‘Incarnations’ have captured the credulity of even sensuously disposed
cultured people who have fallen easy victims to their own immoral designs.
These events in their turn have re-acted on the beliefs of the more moral sections
and have unfortunately enough served to shake their belief in spiritual claims of
any kind.

This is the psychology of the sceptics and impersonalists whose condition is not
otherwise different from their deluded immoral brethren who are actually misled
to accept the worst forms of vice as the means of attaining the promised spiritual
condition. Both these deluded groups remain necessarily confined to worldly
activities which are, by their very nature, offensive to Godhead, the one through
undue credulity and the other through undue incredulity, regarding one’s
imperative spiritual duty.

True belief in Godhead is spontaneous and, in its natural form, is very rare in this
world. Those who really believe in God are thereby freed from all worldliness.
The conduct of perfectly pure souls cannot be understood, so long as we remain
in the condition that is dominated by the sensuous outlook. The only way of
getting out of the sad plight is to gradually acquire faith in spiritual existence by
listening to the accounts of the Transcendental Activities of the Lord in His
different Avataras from the lips of true sadhus who alone can prevent us from
falling into the errors of the misguided philanthropists (prakrita sahajiyas) on
the one hand and sceptics and atheists on the other, the plight that would befall
us if we try to understand those accounts in the light (which is really obscuring)
of our sensuous understanding.

The Boy continued to be a source of trouble to all the neighbours. They
complained to Sachi that the Boy stole their things and beat their little
children. On hearing this Sachi scolded Nimai and ordered Him to remain
always at home and never to go to anyone’s house. This so much angered the
Lord that He forthwith ran into the house and smashed all the earthen pots that

He found there. Then Sachi took Him into her arms and He was pleased and felt
ashamed for His naughtiness. One day He struck Sachi gently with His Hands
and wept when she fainted away being so struck. The women who nursed Sachi
said that if He could get green coconuts, His mother would recover. The
Lord immediately went out of the house and returned with two green coconuts.
This feat astonished everybody, as the green coconut was a rare fruit at
Sree Mayapur and almost impossible to procure at that time of the year.

One day as Sachi lay in her couch with her Son, she beheld that the house was
filled with celestial beings. Sachi asked Nimai to call His father. As He
was leaving the room to fetch His father, the tinkling sound of anklet
(nupura) distinctly proceeded from His Feet. Misra told Sachi that he actually
heard the sound of nupura coming from the bare Feet of the Child. Sachi said
that she had a most strange experience. She had beheld that the courtyard of the
house was thronged by a great crowd of celestial beings. She did not understand
the noise that they made, but could infer that they must have been chanting
hymns of praise to some One. Misra said that there was no cause for anxiety,
whatever happened. He only desired the welfare of Vishwambhar.

Another day, on noticing the wayward nature of the Boy, Misra scolded Him
very severely and tried to instill in Him the principles of orderliness enjoined by
Religion, that night Misra had a dream in which he beheld that a Brahmana came
to him and told him with an angry voice that he did not know at all the real truth
regarding his Son, and it was owing to his ignorance that he scolded and
punished Him under the impression that He was, indeed, his son and protigi.
Whereupon Misra said that whatever the Child might be in Himself, even if he
were a god, a self realized soul (siddha), a contemplative sage (muni), or
howsoever great a personage, He was still only his own Boy to him. It was the
specific duty of a father to teach and maintain his son. If he did not tell
Him about it, how would the Boy know the meaning of Religion? The Brahmana
said that if the Child was perfect in all knowledge by the grace of Godhead
Himself and possessed spontaneous Omniscience, then his teaching must be
perfectly useless. Whereupon Misra said that it was still the duty of the father to
teach his Son, even if He happened to be Narayana Himself. They discoursed in
this way, Misra ignoring all other considerations in trying to uphold the point
of view of the parent. That Brahmana was at last satisfied and took his leave
of Misra with great pleasure. Misra told all his friends about his dream and all
of them were very much surprised to hear of it.

Chapter 7 Growing Boy (Continued)

Sree Gaursundar pursued His studies at the Academy of Gangadas Pandit with
great zeal. He soon acquired a great proficiency in the sutra, panji and tika
of Vyakarana. One day the Lord, making obeisance to the feet of His
mother, begged for a boon from her. Having made mother promise to give
Him whatever boon He desired, the Lord said that she was to promise that
she would not eat cooked grain (annam) on the Lord’s Day (ekadasi). Sachi
agreed to follow His advice, and from that day, observed the ekadasi fast.

In this manner Sree Gaursundar continued to manifest Himself in various ways
under the guise of childhood pastimes. He was extremely turbulent and
restless and paid no heed to the expostulations of His mother who tried to teach
Him to be quiet. The warnings and entreaties of His mother seemed only to
increase His waywardness. He used to break whatever article of the house He
could lay His hands on. The parents, for fear of further mischief, gave up all
attempt to oppose Him, to the great joy of the Child, Who was thereby afforded
an opportunity of unrestrained play. Nimai soon ceased to be afraid of all
persons, including His parents. The only person, whom He still feared, was His
elder brother, Viswarup, Whose very sight made Him exceedingly meek.

Viswarup had no attachment for the things of this world even from His birth. He
devoted all His time to discourses about Krishna. He served Krishna with the
ear, mouth, mind and all senses, and served only Krishna at all time. Viswarup
was struck by the habits of His younger Brother, which were altogether different
from those of ordinary children. He realized the conduct of Nimai as identical
with that of Boy-Krishna. He was aware of the Transcendental Divine Nature of
the Boy in Whose Form He could detect the Presence of sportive Krishna.
Viswarup was, however, careful not to divulge His knowledge regarding His
Brother to any one else. He was in fact always intent on His own devotions, was
constantly in the company of the Vaishnavas and was wholly occupied with the
joy of Krishna-talk, Krishna-devotion and Krishna-worship.

This aloofness of Viswarup from the world increased apace by the re-action of
His godless surroundings. The people of Nadia of that time, as has already
been noted, were inordinately and exclusively given to the pursuit of worldly
objects. This was the condition not merely of the vulgar, illiterate mass, but also
of the most highly educated people. The acknowledged headquarters of all

learning of the country of that Age was absolutely devoid of love for God. The
teachers of the Bhagavatam themselves were no exception to the rule. These also
neither understood, practiced, nor explained the principles of devotion to
Godhead and were equally mad after wives, wealth and fame. It was this godless
atmosphere of the emporium of learning, abounding in luxuries of all kinds, that
appeared to Viswarup to be so stifling and unbearable that He at last made up
His mind to leave the place for good, to avoid the sight of such people.

Meanwhile He scrupulously avoided all association with the ungodly. He used to
bathe in the Ganges very early in the morning and proceeded immediately to the
gathering of the Vaishnavas at the house of Advaita. There He explained all the
Shastras showing how all Scriptures proclaimed the supreme excellence
of devotion to Krishna. His explanations gave so much pleasure to Advaita that
he often broke off abruptly in the midst of his worship with thundering shouts
of joy and would clasp Viswarup to his bosom amid the joyous chants of
the Name of Hari by all assembled devotees moved to raptures by the
edifying spectacle. The devotees, assembled at Advaita’s house, spent their time
in the greatest happiness and no one was minded to return to his home or leave
the company of Viswarup. Neither would Viswarup ever come home from
His companions.

After cooking his meal, Sachi Devi would ask Vishwambhar to fetch His brother
from the gathering at Advaita’s. The Lord appeared before the assembly in the
midst of Krishna-talk of those devotees. Pleased with their discourse regarding
Himself, the Lord would bend His auspicious glance on His devotees as He
asked His brother to come home for His meal. He then took hold of His brother’s
cloth and led Him away from the place.

On every such occasion the devotees felt the wonderful attraction of the Child.
They remained silent, abstaining even from Krishna-talk, all the time the
Boy was in their midst. They noticed, with rapt attention, every detail of
the beautiful Limbs of the nude Child and every motion of His Body, and
drank with the greatest joy His luscious Accents. And, after Vishwambhar had
left the place, the great Advaita told them one day that he was unable to
understand Who that Boy really was. Advaita had realized that He was no
ordinary Child.

The subject has been treated in a remarkable dialogue between Sree Suka and
King Parikshit in the Bhagavatam. When this very Gaurchandra, says

Thakur Brindabandas, was born in the settlement of the cowherds as Sree
Krishna, all the cowherds loved Him from His birth more tenderly than they
loved even their own sons. They did not know that Krishna was Godhead
Himself, yet they naturally loved Him more than their own sons.

King Parikshit desired Sree Sukadeva to explain how this was possible, as it was
opposed to all experience of this world. Sree Suka said that there is
nothing dearer to our souls than the great Soul of all souls. The Son of Sree
Nanda is the Supreme Soul. Therefore, the milkmaids of Braja had greater love
for Krishna, as He is the Supreme Soul himself. But this also holds true only in
the case of the devotees; as otherwise, all the world would have loved Krishna.
Kamsa and other atheists (asuras) bore malice against Krishna, although Krishna
is also the Soul of their souls, by the effect of offenses against Him previously
committed by them. Sugar is naturally sweet. But there are some who find its
taste bitter by reason of the defect of their own tongues. The fault is of the
tongue, not of sugar. Therefore, says Thakur Brindabandas, although Lord
Chaitanya is really All-sweet and was visible to everybody in this very town of
Nabadwip yet was He unrecognized by any one except the devotees. The Lord
ever fascinates the minds of His Own devotees in every manner. This mystery is
incomprehensible to the atheists.

Viswarup would go home only in name and was never attached to it. While
visiting home He would spend all His time there inside the chamber of
worship of Vishnu. This behaviour led His parents to bethink themselves of
His marriage. Viswarup thereupon carried out His cherished resolve of quitting
the world. The foremost of the Vaishnavas thus became a sannyasin soon after
this and left home in quest of the Infinite. As sannyasin Viswarup was known by
the appellation of Sree Sankararanya.

These events raise a number of important issues. It is necessary to notice one of
them at this place. The fascination that the Divinity exercises over the minds
of His devotees, should not be confounded with the clouding of the faculty
of judgment produced by an excess of worldly joy or sorrow. The exclusive
mood of the devotees at the Sight of Sree Gaursundar and the similar moods of
Suka and Narada are not to be put into the same category with the outwardly
similar exhibitions of ultra-sentimentalism exhibited by the worldlings. The
latter is recognized, under the name of moha, by all the Shastras, as one of the
six evil passions (ripus) being classed with anger, lust, etc., that have to be
carefully got rid of by all persons who are sincerely desirous of spiritual living.

The former is the natural impulse of the pure individual soul who always
experiences this spontaneous attraction for the Absolute. The genuine spiritual
attraction is not a dry, abstract process; neither does it bear any affinity to the
sensuous impulse, to which our body and mind are so wrongly subject, that is
exercised by the prospects of worldly enjoyment. Those who have been enabled
by their love for the Absolute to overcome the sensuous attraction exercised by
the material universe, are thereby enabled to experience the far greater attraction
of the service for Krishna. The great Love of Krishna for His servants cannot
be consciously realized in the conditioned state. That love for Krishna, which
is possible of realization in the fettered state in this world, is somewhat
analogous to the attraction that is experienced by the cows, the cane, the flute,
etc., for the Lord, in the realm of Braja.

Sree Sankararanya after acceptance of sannyas journeyed to various parts and
exhibited the state of realized exclusiveness in the Lord (samadhi)
at Pandurangpur or Pandharpur (in the Sholapur District of the
Bombay Presidency).

Sachi and Jagannath were most profoundly affected by the sannyas of Viswarup.
Sree Gaursundar exhibited the Leela of fainting away at separation from
His Brother (devotee). All the people of Nadia, high and low, whoever heard of
the sannyas of Viswarup, were filled with a great grief. The home of
Jagannath Misra was turned into the abode of mourning. Jagannath and Sachi
cried constantly on the name of Viswarup. The friends and relatives of Misra
tried their best to compose him. Some of their arguments bear to be repeated
here.

‘Be quiet, Misra,’ said they, ‘that great Son has earned the deliverance of all His
kindred. If a single member of a family accept sannyas three crores
of generations of that family thereby attain to the happy realm of Vaikuntha.
Your beloved Son has performed a great meritorious deed. All His learning has
at last been crowned with its supreme success. Rejoice greatly at this. All your
sorrows will be removed by this other Son of yours. Vishwambhar will be the
Support of the family. What are crores of sons to him whose Son is He ?’ Misra
was inconsolable. He did not feel certain that the other Son will also stay in
the family. He could not forget the many good qualities of Viswarup. By
slow degrees, however, the worthy Misra picked up patience and regained
the equilibrium of his faculties. He was helped in this by his enlightened faith
in Krishna. ‘Krishna gave me the Child and has now taken Him away. The Will

of Krishna should certainly prevail. The soul of the jiva has no tittle of power of
his own. I, therefore, surrender myself, my body and senses, to Thee,

O Krishna.’

The devotees experienced a clinging sorrow in the midst of their joy, when they
learnt of the sannyas of Viswarup. ‘Krishna , 5 thought they, ‘has robbed us of
the only place where we might hear the talk about Him. We also will no longer
stay among these people but will go into the forest where we shall not have to
see the faces of these sinful persons. It is impossible to bear longer the torment
of the blasphemies of these atheists. All people are constantly pursuing the
evil course. We cannot convince them of their error. If we tell them of it, they
only receive the statement with ridicule, saying that we are not happier than they
in any way by worshipping Krishna. What is the use associating with such
people ?’

The griefs of neither Jagannath Misra nor of those devotees, are of the nature of
the sorrows that overtake all worldly people at the curtailment of any possibility
of their selfish enjoyment. Jagannath Misra realized the tme significance of the
sonnies of Viswarup. His lamentations, properly understood, are really an
expression of his appreciation of the transcendental nature of the Son who had
left him for good. This realization accordingly also effected the sannyas of
Jagannath Misra himself. The language of his friends echoes the attitude of the
devotees. The devotees, however, fully sympathized with the keen sorrow of
Viswarup at sight of the utter godlessness of the people, and appreciated the
quality of Viswarup’s exclusive devotion to Krishna.

The tears of the devotees are always different from those shed by worldly
people. The weeping of the devotees is the expression of their
absorbing devotion to Krishna. The tears of worldly people are caused by their
aversion to Krishna. Worldly people always think of their own personal joys and
sorrows. Outwardly the exhibitions of both seem to be identical to those who are
not conscious of their categorical difference; and self-deception in this form
is unfortunately by no means rare as is proven by the sickening,
neurotic performances of hypocritical philanthropists.

Sree Advaita Acharya consoled the assembled devotees. He declared that ‘they
would assuredly obtain the highest bliss,—he, indeed, on his part felt
perfectly sure about it. He experienced a great joy in his mind. It seemed to him
that Krishna-Chandra Himself had appeared in the world.’ He asked them all to

sing Krishna with the utmost delight. He assured them that they would see
Krishna at that very place within a short time. ‘Krishna will display His joyous
Activities in the company of yourselves. Advaita (referring to himself) is a pure
servant of Krishna, only if this prove true. This servant of you all will gain such
Divine favour that seldom falls to the lot of even Suka or Prahlada.’ These
nectarine words of Advaita filled the devotees with great joy and restored
cheerfulness to all the faculties of their minds. In their joy they shouted the
Name of Hari with a thundering voice. This reached the ears of Sree Gaursundar
Who was then playing with the children. He entered Advaita’s Academy on
hearing the sound of Hari. ‘What brings Thee here, Darling?’ asked the devotees.
The Lord said, ‘Why did you ask Me to come?’ With these words the Lord sped
into the midst of the children. No one could understand those, by the contrivance
of His Divine Power.

It is the privilege of the pure devotee to have the Sight of Krishna being served
by His devotees. Sree Advaita was right in maintaining this view.

The empiricists blunder hopelessly, when they arrive at the conclusion, by
the process of induction from their sensuous experience, that Godhead is devoid
of Distinct Personality and Activities. By trying to know Godhead by the
limited faculties of the human mind, the speculative philosophers, when they
care at all to take up the positive attitude, arrive at an abstract conception of
Godhead (Brahman) as the antithesis of this limited and imperfect phenomenal
world. This is the utmost limit—the ultima Thule — of the ascending ( ?) effort
of the human mind from the data of sense-experience. This consummation is
perfectly logical. The human mind can conceive of nothing that is not limited.

It, therefore, tries to arrive at the Absolute, simply by destroying the
positive content of empiric thought. But this is neither here nor there. The
revelationists realize the Absolute, not in this abstract form of the mundane, but
as He really is. They find Him as the Living Reality and not an abstraction of the
erring mind. They are enabled to receive the knowledge of the Absolute by
the resuscitation of the dormant serving faculty of the soul by the Grace of
the Absolute Himself. The Absolute descends into this limited world in order
to reveal Himself to the redeemed soul of man. When He does so, He is
recognized as the Absolute by His pure devotees who are eternally and
divinely enlightened. Advaita, the purest of devotees, was the first among the
assembled Vaishnavas to realize the Descent of Krishna into the world, he
also simultaneously realized that those assembled Vaishnavas were the servants
of Krishna, who had appeared in the mundane world preparatory to the Advent
of the Lord Himself. Thus the Whole Truth flashed on the spiritual

consciousness of Advaita and he realized in it the special mercy of Godhead
towards Himself in response to his single-hearted devotion.

The Lord became a little quieter from the time when Viswarup renounced the
family. He was now found constantly at the side of His parents evidently for
the reason that they might thereby forget their sorrow. He was also less devoted
to play than before and gave more attention to His study. He did not leave
His books even for a moment. His cleverness was wonderful. He puzzled all
persons over every sutra by reading it only once. This became quickly known to
all the people who were lavish in their praise of the excellent judgment of the
Child and carried the glad tidings to Jagannath Misra. ‘You are, indeed,
most fortunate in having such a Son. There is not another child in all the
three worlds who is possessed of His good sense. He will surpass Brhaspati
himself in learning. He can explain whatever He hears. But no one can explain
His puzzles.’

Sachi was very much delighted on hearing these praises of the good qualities of
her Son. But Misra was greatly dejected. He now opened his mind to Sachi.

‘The Boy would not remain in the family. The same thing would happen in His
case as in that of Viswarup. It was by studying the Shastras in this manner
that Viswarup became aware that the world was not true at all, and it was not
worth one’s while to live in it for a single moment. It was the knowledge of
the transitory nature of the world that made Viswarup quit it. If this Boy came
to learn the real meaning of the Shastras, He also would give up all
worldly pleasures. But this Son of ours is the Life of us both. If we do not see
Him, Both of us will surely die. Therefore, He must have nothing to do with
study. Let our Nimai only stay in the family. We do not mind if He is illiterate.’

Sachi at first demurred to the proposal. ‘If He does not read anything, how will
He earn His living? Will also any one give Him his daughter in
marriage?’ Jagannath Misra told Sachi that she ought to know better, as she was
the daughter of a Brahmana. ‘Krishna is the only Slayer, Master and Protector
of everybody. The Lord of the world is the sole Maintainer of the world. Who
had told her that it was learning that maintained anybody. One will surely have
the girl whom Krishna assigns to him, whether he be a scholar or a fool.

Family, learning, etc., are only apparent helps. It is Krishna Who maintains
everyone. Krishna is the strength of all. He himself has all along been starving,
although he is a good scholar; while the door-steps of the most illiterate persons
are thronged with hosts of begging savants. A life that is free from want, and

death with ease, can never be the lot of a person who does not worship the Feet
of Govinda. These blessings are obtained by worshipping Krishna, and not
by learning. There can be no end of one’s sorrows save by the mercy of
Krishna. The possession of learning, high lineage and great riches does not make
any difference. Krishna sometimes afflicts, with some virulent disease, a
person whose house is full of all enjoyable things and makes it impossible for
him to enjoy any of those things. Such a person is even more miserable than one
who has not the wherewithal to procure those luxuries. Know this as certain
that nothing of this world is of any avail. What is commanded by Krishna,
alone comes to pass. Therefore, you need have no anxiety for your Child. I
say Krishna will maintain the Boy. I will not allow any sorrow to touch Him,
as long as there is life left in my body. Krishna is the Protector of all of us. There
is no anxiety for One Who is the Son of a loyal matron like yourself. I tell you
He must not read any more. Let my Son only stay with the family and be a
fool.’ The worthy Misra called his Son and told Him on his oath ‘that He must
not read from that day. He assured his Son that he would supply all His wants.
All He had to do from now was to live at home in every comfort.’ Without
stopping for a reply Misra hastily left the place to attend to other works.

Nimai was sorry at heart at this abrupt stoppage of the pleasures of study; but, in
obedience to His father’s command, He at once discontinued His studies.

His waywardness, however, now increased more and more. It now passed
all bounds. He did indiscriminate damage to property both in the house
and elsewhere. He took particular delight in smashing everything that came in
His way. Some days He stayed away whole nights amusing Himself in all kinds
of play with the children.

Two boys hid themselves under a piece of blanket and went about as a bull. In
this fashion He and a companion broke up during the night the plantain grove of
a household that He had marked out for the raid in the day-time. The inmates of
the house lamented their damage under the impression that it was the doing of a
bull. The Lord with the children bolted, as soon as people of the house were
astir. He would bind fast the door of a house from the outside, preventing the
members from attending to calls of nature. As they began to shout in a great
perplexity, demanding to know who had done the deed, and tried to find out the
mischief monger, the Lord decamped with His followers. The Lord was
occupied in this manner night and day in the company of the children. But Misra
did not utter a single word, despite all this.

One day while Misra had been called away from the house on some business, the
Lord, indignant at being kept out of His studies, sat on a pile of refuse earthen
pots that had been cast away after being used by the family in cooking offerings
for Vishnu. The soot from the sides of the pots blackened the whole Body of the
Boy as He sat there laughing. The children of the neighbourhood were not slow
in conveying the tidings to Sachi Devi. ‘Nimai’ they said, ‘is sitting on the refuse
cooking-pots.’ The mother was most disagreeably surprised on receiving this
news, as she hastened to the spot and found the report true. She importuned her
Son to come down from His unclean seat, telling Him that He ought to have
known at His age that it was necessary to bathe if one touched a refuse cooking-
pot. The Lord at first said that He could not be expected to possess the
knowledge, as He was debarred from all study. All places were the same to Him.
He possessed no knowledge of good and evil. His knowledge was always one
and the same. And when the mother repeated her remarks that He could by no
means be considered clean as He sat in a dirty place, the Lord plainly told the
truth to His mother.

‘Mother,’ said He in the manner of a child, ‘you are no better than an infant to
speak so thoughtlessly. I never stay in any unclean place. The spot where I am, is
full of all holinesses. All holy tirthas, the Ganges and the rest, abide there.

My cleanliness or uncleanliness is purely a matter of the deluded
imagination. Ponder this well. Can there be any sin in the Creator? Even if a
thing happens to be impure according to the opinion of men or of the Veda, can
such impurity exist when it is touched by Myself? As to these pots, there has
been no cause of any uncleanliness in them, as you yourself used them for
cooking the offering for Vishnu. The vessel used in cooking offerings for Vishnu
is never made unclean thereby. On the contrary, the touch of pots so used
sanctifies all places. For all these reasons I am not staying in any bad place. The
purity of all things is due to My touch.’

The Lord laughed in the mood of a child as He spoke these words. No one
understood their real meaning by the force of the beneficent Power of the
Lord. These words of the Child only amused and made them laugh. Thereupon
Sachi asked Him to come down to bathe. But the Boy refused to descend from
His seat, although Sachi urged Him to make haste lest father might come to
know.

‘I will never come down,’ said the Lord, ‘if you do not allow Me to read.

The people, who had collected to the spot, now took the side of the Lord. They
found fault with the mother for having stopped the studies of the Child.

‘All people are most careful to make their children learn to read and write. It is
a rare good fortune when a child himself wants to read. There could be no
greater enemy than a person who had advised her to stop the studies of the Boy
in order to keep Him at home and make a dunce of Him. The Child was not at
all to blame in this matter.’ They also implored Nimai to come down, telling
Him to go on doing all sorts of mischiefs if He was not allowed to read from
that very day.

The Boy, however, still lingered where He was and went on laughing from His
seat on the top of the pile of the refuse cooking pots. Those who saw it
were fascinated, and the joy of those persons of good deeds knew no bounds.
Till at last the mother herself went up to the Child and fetched Him with her
own hands. The Lord now came away, laughing all the time, like a blue
opal shooting its sparkling light in all directions. Thus did the Lord speak out
the truth in the mood of Dattatreya; but no one understood it by the
interposition of the Power of Vishnu.

Virtuous Sachi, now helping her Son to descend from the pile, made Him bathe
in order to be cleansed. Misra then made his appearance. Sachi told
Misra everything. ‘The Child is grieved at heart by not being allowed to read.’
All present pressed Misra to lift the ban. ‘He is wise and liberal and should be
better advised. What Krishna-Chandra wills, is sure to come to pass. He
should, therefore, allow the Boy to read and you need have no anxiety on His
account. The Boy Himself is very willing to read. So Misra should forthwith
invest the Child with the sacrificial thread on an auspicious day and in a fitting
manner.’ Misra agreed to their proposal.

The acts of the Child were super-human and astonished everybody. But no one
understood their real significance. Occasionally some, who happened to
be exceptionally fortunate, told Misra not to regard his Son as mortal child
and had advised him to cherish the Boy with the greatest care and affection.
The Lord thus passed the days unrecognized and played in the yard of Sachi
after the resumption of His studies which He did with the greatest delight
by command of His father. The diverse restrictions that have been put
upon worldly activities by the religious codes (smrtis) cannot be understood, if
they are regarded as intended for the promotion of worldly enjoyment. Those,
who uphold the rules, as rules, have found it necessary to secure their

observance by promises of enjoyment and threats of misery. This method has
been a failure, because it did not take a long time for worldly people to find out
that those promises and treats were not really to be fulfilled. Neither did they
attract the really intelligent class of people, as they promised only worldly
rewards which naturally appeared to such persons to be out of place in religion.
This is the plight of canon-ridden (smarta) ‘Hinduism’. The rules themselves
have accordingly lost the effective support of all classes.

It does not follow, therefore, that the mode of life enjoined by the Shastras is
defective. That mode, if rightly understood, is necessary to be followed for
our eternal welfare. The conduct enjoined by the Shastras forms Divinely
ordained system for all those who desire to qualify for a spiritual life, that is to
say, are prepared to subordinate their apparent temporary, to the real, permanent
and eternal interests. Such a desire is possible only in man and constitutes
the special privilege and glory of human life.

Material enjoyment does not satisfy man, as it does other animals. The quest of
the spiritual is the distinctive, imperative necessity of man. He wants to
know why he is here at all. Those, who think that it is the principal duty of man
to improve the conditions of his present worldly existence, try to find out the
best way of promoting the scope and quality of mundane activities. The smartas
also belong to this class. To this category belong, directly or indirectly, most
people of this world. There is, however, a class of people who think that it is
our principal, nay- only, duty to serve the Absolute, irrespective of
apparent worldly loss and gain which are transitory and unreal. The Shastras
are accepted for their constant guidance only by this class of people. The
smartas only pretend to agree with this class regarding their acceptance of the
shastric method. The smartas, however, really want to serve the false ego, which
craves for the transitory enjoyment of this world, by the rules of the
Scriptures followed by, the former who serve the true ego by dint of their
natural attachment to the Absolute. The method of the, smartas is, therefore,
rightly condemned by even consistent worldly people, as being both irrational
and ineffective and, in no less unambiguous language, by those who really want
to walk in the path of the soul.

The restrictive rules of the Shastras are intended for curtailing the opportunity
and scope of worldly enjoyment. This is their negative aspect. But these
rules really impose obligations of a positive nature. The object of the rules is to
direct the mind towards Godhead. These rules are not numerous nor

unintelligible. There are, however, rules of various grades. These Scriptural
dogmas differ from ordinary rules of worldly conduct by their possession of a
much more advanced and consistent philosophical nature. In the hands of the
smartas these rules have suffered mechanical elaboration and stultification for
being adopted to the worldly purpose.

Cooking for oneself is discouraged by the Shastras. The act of cooking meal, as
every other act, must be performed only for Godhead. For those who do not want
to accept this view, the way is prepared by a number of restrictive observances in
regard to cooking done for the appeasement of hunger. These restrictive rules are
necessarily superfluous, or rather fulfilled, if cooking is actually done only for
Godhead. If we search for the spiritual principle, it is not difficult to understand
the rules, although it is not possible for a worldly-minded person to follow them
consistently, unless he is really prepared to subordinate the worldly out-look to
the spiritual requirement.

The ideas of purity and impurity, as applied by the mechanical smartas to lifeless
objects, are ridiculous. It is a product of eclipsed cognitive existence due to
aversion to Godhead. An object or an act is impure by reference to the attitude
towards it of the conscious entity who is responsible for its performance.
According to the Shastras, everything is pure which is used in the service of the
Absolute by reason of the fully conscious use by the performer of it. An object,
which according to the eclipsed point of view appears to be objectionable, is
necessarily rendered wholesome, i.e., is purified by being consciously used in
the service of Godhead Whereas the cleanest or most wholesome objects from
the worldly standpoint may become necessarily dirty by their unspiritual use The
reference to Godhead is the only cause of purity in its rational sense. The
reference of any object to the false ego is the only cause of its impurity. All the
Scriptures bear unanimous testimony to the truth of this conclusion.

The Lord, the Moon of the home of Sachi-Jagannath, thus enjoyed His
childhood sports, infinitely more diverse than are found in this world, of
which an infinitesimally small part will be hereafter made known to the world,
by way of revelation, by the Acharyak These are the words of Sree
Brindavandas Thakur. The words of the Veda reach only the ears of the most
fortunate persons. The rest of the world must submit to receive the knowledge
from those few. These sports of Sree Saursundar were witnessed by all the
people.

Yet no one recognized the Lord. They all took Him to be a mere human child.
Similar is the case as regards the words of the Veda. Most people do not
really hear them, although they are available for being heard by all.

While Sree Gaurchandra was occupied with these pastimes of childhood,
apparently oblivious of everything else, the time for His investiture with
the sacrificial thread drew nigh. The friends and relatives of the family, duly
invited by Misra, met together in the house of Jagannath. The different
functions connected with the ceremony were distributed among them, each
taking up the part that suited him best. There was great rejoicing. The ladies sang
of the Excellent Qualities of Krishna amidst frequent exclamations of ‘jai,.

The dancers kept pace with those who played on the mrdanga, the sanai and
the banshi. Brahmanas read the Veda and minstrels recited eulogies. Thus
joy assumed a visible form in the home of Sachi. All auspicious
planetary conjunctions hastened to serve the occasion. In this manner did
Sree Gaursundar put on the holy thread of sacrifice.

As the beautiful thread adorned the Divine Form, it seemed as if Sree Shesha
himself encompassed the Lord in the guise of the slender line. The
identical Leela of the Lord, that He performed in His Appearance as Vamana
(Dwarf ), was thus reenacted. Sree Gaursundar manifested the Leela of Sree
Vamana to the delight of all beholders. All saw the fiery radiance of the
Brahmana and no longer thought Him mortal.

As is the practice on such occasions, the Lord, with the Brahmachari’s staff in
His hand and the wallet for receiving alms across His shoulders, went on a-
begging tour to the doors of all His devotees. The ladies of every household put
as much alms into the wallet of the Lord as their resources enabled them to do,
with the utmost satisfaction and with a smiling countenance. The consorts of
Brahma and Rudra and the helpmates of all the contemplative sages (munis),
assuming the forms of Brahmana matrons, availed themselves of this
opportunity of beholding the Divine Form of Sree Vamana, and all of them
laughingly poured their alms into the wallet of the Lord. The Lord enacted this
Leela of amana for the deliverance of all persons.

There is a controversy among worldly sections in regard to the question of the
attitude of Sree Chaitanya towards the caste system. The Lord Himself was
born in a Brahmana family and went through all the purificatory ceremonies that
are enjoined by the Shastras for the observance of Brahmanas. Are we to

suppose from this that the fact is to be interpreted as favouring the retention of
the present caste-distinctions ? It has also been pointed out by the
controversialists that as a sannyasin Sree Chaitanya resorted to the houses of
Brahmanas to beg for His meals. This was apparently the rule, though there were
also notable exceptions.

Why did Sree Gaursundar assume the sacrificial thread ? Why was He born in a
Brahmana family? The answer of course is not very difficult to find. What is
the harm? The Lord is free to do as He likes. It will be a mistake to suppose that
He can be subject to any limitation whatever. The contention, that He should
have proved the futility of castes and ceremonials by, being born outside caste
and refusing all ceremonial, is itself an attempt, of its kind, to limit the
unlimited. He was not against caste, nor in favour of it. He was above the caste.
The hereditary Brahmana caste is, however, very different from the scriptural
varna of Brahmanas who know the Brahman, i.e., the greatness of Godhead.

The knowledge of the greatness of Godhead is the necessary pre-requisite
for attaining to the service of God. Any one who possesses this
preliminary knowledge is alone a Brahmana by varna. The knowledge of the
Brahman is not the effect of seminal birth. A person born in a Brahmana family
is born again, i.e., becomes a dvija, by the ceremony of investiture with the holy
thread. He ceases to be a seminal-born by his formal accepted submission to
receive spiritual enlightenment from the spiritual Guide. There are two
successive enlightening ceremonies. By the first of these ceremonies, which is
called the upanayana, the seminal-born obtains the right of listening to the
words of the Veda from the good preceptor; by the subsequent ceremony of
initiation ( diksha ), he obtains the positive knowledge of the transcendental.

These are the two successive stages thorough which every disloyal soul has to
pass, on the way to the spiritual service of Godhead. These processes
have nothing to do with the hereditary caste or lifeless ceremonial that is sought
to be monopolized by any hereditary caste.

But Sree Gaursundar does not merely uphold the non-seminal scriptural
Brahmana ideal and practice in going through the upanayana ceremony. He
was re-enacting the Activities of Vamana, that possess a very much
higher significance. Vamana begs for alms from His devotees. Godhead is the
Absolute Proprietor of everything. What alms can He beg and what alms can
also a soul offer to Him? This is the real point at issue in the Vamana Avatara.
Sree Vamana begged from King Bali (Sacrifice) for that measure of space which

is covered by His Three Strides. He encompassed the gross world with one
Stride and the subtle material world by the second Stride. The surrender
of everything, physical and mental is not enough to satisfy the Lord Who
also begs for the surrender of the soul of the jiva who is located in the third
region, viz., Vaikuntha which transcends both e gross and the subtle material
worlds.

This Leela of the Divine Dwarf was re-enacted by Sree Gaursundar for the
deliverance of all souls. In other words, the individual soul can be
delivered from ignorance regarding himself only by the constant practice of this
supreme sacrifice. Godhead chose to be born in a Brahmana family in the Kali
Age, not to prove that the seminal Brahmana caste is superior to the other
seminal castes; neither for the purpose of establishing the superior excellence of
seminal birth in a Brahmana family. Sree Krishna had already been born in the
family of a cowherd.

By the express testimony of the Shastras, the pseudo-Brahmanas of this Kali
Age are the worst of all classes of the people. Sree Gaursundar appeared in
a Brahmana family, in fulfillment of the words of the Scriptures, for showing
His mercy to the degraded Brahmanas. As Sanyasin Sree Chaitanya was a
strict observer of the Shastric rules that impose various restrictions on a
person belonging to that order, in order to set an example to the degenerate
sannyasins of the Kali Age. Such conduct does not mean that a sannyasin is,
spiritually speaking, superior to a householder, but that both should really follow
the Word of God, if they want at all to serve Him which alone matters. It would
be a blunder to suppose that there could be any excellence in any institution if
it ceases to serve God, or that any institution which serves the Lord can
be inferior to any other, or that any mundane class difference can apply to
the servants of the Lord. Those, who are unduly attached to the vanities of
seminal birth or the externals of ceremonials and institutions, are ever
condemned to the delusion that their ungodly worldly preferences are endorsed
by God Himself. It is not possible to be completely free from the influence of
such worldly predilections except by the Causeless Grace of Sree
Gaursundar Manifested in His Activities.

The Shastras fix the eighth year from birth as the proper age for investiture with
the sacrificial thread. Such investiture admits one to the right of studying
the Word of God under the spiritual preceptor. The Lord was now eligible to
study under the spiritual preceptor in the company of other students. He threw

out a hint that He would like to study under the great Grammarian Gangadas
Pandit.

Sree Jagannath Misra accordingly took his Boy to the Chatuspathi (Academy) of
Sree Gangadas Pandit who received him with the greatest respect.

Misra communicated to him his intention of placing in his hands the education
of his Boy. Gangadas most gladly accepted his new Pupil.

Gangadas always treated Nimai with special consideration. The extraordinary
Capacity of the Child soon manifested itself. Nimai fully understood
whatever His teacher explained only once. He practiced to refute all the
explanations of His teacher in order to re-establish them more firmly. The
number of students, who attended Gangadas Pandit’s classes, was very large. But
there was no one who had the ability to find fault with the explanations of
Nimai. On the contrary Nimai gave constant trouble to all His fellow-students by
His puzzling questions. He did not spare even the senior students such as Sree
Murari Gupta, Sree Kamalakanta, Krishnananda and their associates. They,
however, took this favourably, as they regarded the Child with special affection.
Gangadas Pandit was most highly gratified on noticing the wonderful
intelligence of his new Pupil and accorded Him the honour of the highest
position among all his students.

The Lord went with the boys to bathe in the Ganges at noon after study. To these
bathing-places of the Ganges all the students of Nabadwip flocked for their daily
bath at midday. The number of students who studied at Nabadwip baffled all
calculation. Every single professor taught thousands of students. The pupils of
the different teachers quarreled incessantly among themselves. The Lord was on
the threshold of budding youth—a period that is naturally full of strange
excitement. He disputed freely with all the students. These quarrels of the
students possessed certain invariably common features. The ordinary forms of
attack were these: ‘Your teacher has no brains’; and ‘Look here; he is the
only real teacher whose pupil am I’. In this manner, from small beginnings,
the pastime soon came to a free fight in right earnest, in which much water
was splashed; then sand was thrown; and finally they began to beat one
another using clay as the favourite missile. Some were taken in custody by the
police on the spot, in the name of the King. Some escaped the royal officers
across the Ganges after thrashing their adversaries. These performances acquired
such violence and dimension that the entire stream of the Ganges was converted
by them into a thick mixture of sand and clay. Women who came to fetch

water were debarred from filling their pitchers, and Brahmanas and honest
citizens from their legitimate baths. Lord Vishwambhar was the most turbulent
of all.

He made a systematic tour of all the bathing-places of the Ganges in this fashion.
There was no dearth of scholars at any of the bathing-places (ghats). The Lord
quarreled with them at every place. Swimming down with the current, the Lord
visited all the bathing-places stopping to sport at each of them for some time.

The senior boys were at last fain to ask Him why He was so extraordinarily
quarrelsome. ‘Let the youngsters,’ they said, ‘ask instead questions for
testing one another’s knowledge. Only then it could be really known who
possessed the correct information of his britti, panji and tika., The Lord
welcomed their suggestion and invited all the urchins to put to Himself whatever
questions they liked. One of the students protested saying that He ought not to be
too boastful. The Lord only repeated His challenge to be asked any questions.
The irate scholar forthwith demanded that the Lord would then and there
expound all the formulae of verbal root. The Lord, desiring them to listen
attentively, at once explained all the sutras in the correct manner. All the
students praised His exposition. The Lord said that He would, however, refute all
that He had said to them just then, challenging them to defend the very
expositions which they had approved. They were struck dumb with astonishment
on recognizing that the refutation was also flawless. He told them that He would
re-establish the previous expositions and fully satisfied ever one by His
explanations to that effect.

The senior students were so highly pleased that they enthusiastically clasped
Him to their bosoms. Then the boys took leave of Him for that day with
the challenge that He should come prepared to answer their questions again
the next day. The Lord of Vaikuntha indulged in these delightful sports in
the stream of the Jahnavi tasting unceasingly the pleasures of learning. It
seemed that the all-knowing Brhaspati with ah his disciples, indeed, appeared
in Nabadwip for participating in these sports. Jahnavi’s heart’s desire was
thus fulfilled at last. She had envied the superior fortune of her sister Sree
Yamuna, in whose water Krishnachandra had sported in the Dvapara Age.

Sree Gaursundar is verily the Purpose-tree that fulfills ah desires. He
sported incessantly in her pure current.

On His return home from these sportive performances in the sacred stream of the

Ganges, the Lord, the ideal Brahmacharin, duly worshipped Vishnu and, having
offered water to holy tulasi, beloved of Vishnu, sat down to His meal. As soon as
meal was finished, the Lord retired to a secluded part of the house with His
books. He made His own tippani (annotations) of the sutras of Kalapa Vyakarana
and forgot everything else by the sweet taste of books.

Misra noted this exemplary conduct of his Son and was filled with the highest
happiness. He knew nothing but joy night and day. Every day he derived
fresh and inexhaustible delight by looking on the Face of his Child. The joy of
Misra cannot be expressed in words. He drank in the Beauty of his Son with
such ardour that he all but merged in the Body of his Boy with his own frame
and all individuality, the consummation so vainly wished by the pseudo-
liberationists.

But as a matter of fact, the joys of merging in the Divinity or of any other form
of liberation are as nothing to the bliss of Jagannath Misra who had no
occasion to think of those coveted trivialities. The Lord of all the worlds is the
Son of Jagannath Misra. The eternal father of the Lord is the revered of all the
devotees of the Supreme Lord.

Misra experienced all the anxieties of this absorbing and exclusive love for his
Boy. The marvellous Beauty of every Limb of Sree Gaursundar, surpassing
the loveliness of the god of love himself, filled Misra with constant anxiety, lest
his Son attracted the malignant attention of the witches and evil spirits. This
fear drove Misra to quit all his claims on the Boy and make a complete surrender
of Him to Krishna. Gaursundar laughed as He overheard the outpourings
of Misra’s prayers. ‘Krishna,’ prayed Misra, ‘Thou are the Protector of all. Deign
to cast Thy most auspicious Glance even on my Son. Danger never comes to
the threshold of the person who remembers Thy Lotus Feet. Witches, ghosts
and bodyless evil spirits haunt those places of sin that are void of the
remembrance of Thee. Evil spirits carry their sinister influence to all places
where selfish activities and fruitive sacrifices are performed in lieu instead of
listening to the account of the Doings of Godhead which destroys the power of
all evil-doers. Lord, I am Thy servant. May Thou protect all that belongs to me,
as they are Thine. May no evil nor danger ever come near my Soul.’ This was
the constant prayer of Sree Jagannath Misra. With both hands lifted in prayer he
always supplicated Krishna for this only boon.

One day Misra had a most wonderful dream which filled him with the utmost

grief in the midst of all this happiness. Rising up in great anxiety
Misra prostrated himself in obeisance, reciting the prayer, ‘Govinda, may my
Nimai stay in my house. This is the only boon I pray from Thee, O Krishna, that
my Nimai may be a householder and stay in the family.’ Sachi noticed this
and being greatly surprised asked Misra the cause of his prayer offered to
Krishna with such sudden anguish. Misra narrated to her the story of his vision.

‘I have had a dream,’ said Misra, ‘as if Nimai had shaved His Head. I cannot
describe His marvellous attire of sannyasin. He laughed, danced and wept,
uttering continuously the Name of Krishna. Advaita Acharya and other
devotees, forming a circle round Nimai, chanted the kirtan. Sometimes Nimai
seated Himself on the throne of Vishnu and, holding up His Feet, put Them on
the heads of all. Four-faced, five-faced, thousand-faced forms sang Victory to
the Son of Sree Sachi. All recited hymns of praise to Him from every side with
the greatest joy. I was dumb with fear at what I beheld. Then I saw that Nimai
went along on His way dancing, through each and every town, taking with
Him crores of people. Lakhs of crores of people ran after Nimai and sang the
Name of Hari, Whose sound rang through the universe. I could hear on all sides
only the praises of Nimai Who journeyed to Puri in the company of all those
devotees. It is this most strange dream that has made me so anxious, lest the Boy
leave the family through lack of attachment for things of this world.’ Sachi Devi
did not think that there was any real ground for anxiety, notwithstanding the
dream, as ‘the Boy was so completely engrossed in His books that the taste of
learning had verily become the whole of His duty.’ The father and mother of the
Lord were of a disposition that was utterly unselfish. They had between them
many a discussion on the subject by reason of their exclusive love for their Son.

In this manner Misra passed his days for some time longer and, thereafter, he
withdrew his eternally pure form from the view of this world. The Lord
wept much at the departure of Misra, like Sree Ramachandra on the
disappearance of Dasaratha. The attraction of Sree Gaursundar is irresistible.

The life of His mother was preserved thereby. It is a most affecting topic, and
Thakur Brindavandas, our authority, stops abruptly, and confesses his inability to
linger on the pathetic subject.

The only point that remains to be noticed in this connection is the statement that
the form of Sree Jagannath Misra is described as eternally pure and also that he
withdrew himself from the view of the people of this world and did not die. In
fact, the soul is also our only real body. The physical case is a
temporary accretion as a corrective contrivance for curing our godlessness. But

Sree Jagannath Misra, the father of Sree Gaursundar, is eternally pure plenary
Divine Essence and has no physical body as there can be no godlessness in his
case. What seemed to godless people as his physical body was really his eternal
allholy spiritual form. The Father of Godhead, who is ever identical with
his body, manifested himself in this world of matter, in obedience to the will
of Godhead and for the purpose of participating in the Divine Activities when
the Latter appear in this world. He remained visible in this world as long as his
part was being played. He ceased to be visible after this function was fulfilled.
His manifestation in this world was brought about by the Spiritual Power
of Godhead and was a wholly spiritual affair, unlike the birth of sinful jivas,
which is brought about by the deluding Power of God and is really transitory
and insubstantial. Those, who suppose that there is no difference between
this mortal body and the apparently similar bodies of the eternal devotees
of Godhead when they manifest their appearance in this world, ignore thereby
the eternal and categorical distinction between matter and spirit. To the
material eye of the conditioned soul the body of a Vaishnava, when by the Grace
of Godhead he becomes visible to him, may appear to be material, just as to
a jaundiced eye everything seems to be yellow. The defective vision of the
sinner is, however, solely responsible for this delusion. The deluded soul is
not privileged to have the sight of the real form of the Vaishnava. The birth,
death and activities of the Vaishnava, although they have an external
resemblance to those of conditioned souls, are categorically different from the
latter. It is only the spiritual eye, the eve of the pure soul, which can actually see
this difference.

The Sorrow of Sree Gaursundar at the disappearance of Misra was not also a
delusion. It would, however, be a profane delusion, if we suppose that He
felt sorry for the death of His father, like ordinary people of this world. To
Him Jagannath Misra can never die. Nor can Misra ever disappear from the
View of his Son.

Therefore, neither of these can be the cause of the Sorrow of Sree Gaursundar.
Sree Jagannath Misra’s anxiety on account of his Son, lest He became
a sannyasin, and Sree Gaursundar’s Sorrow at the apparent disappearance of
Sree Jagannath Misra, are instances of Divine Activities which are absolutely
free from all taint of unwholesomeness, unlike the apparently similar activities
of fettered souls which are altogether unwholesome. There is separation, pang
of separation and anxiety at the prospect of separation, also in the
Transcendental Realm of the Spirit. The conditions for this are supplied there by

the Spiritual Power of the Divinity and are, therefore, also spiritual, that is,
absolutely free from all unwholesomeness. This is inconceivable to the fallen
jivas but is the only Reality obscured to the view of the latter by the joys and
sorrows of the physical body and the materialized mind. In the realm of the
Absolute, there is no break of existence but only the semblance of it, in order to
heighten, diversify and enrich the positive joy of eternal existence. In regard to
the things of this world the case is otherwise, and it is the greatest of mercies that
this is so. Had it been otherwise, it would have only perpetuated the
barren experience of mundane activities which are the trivial and
unacceptable distortions of the facts of the eternal existence. The Absolute exists
by Himself. This physical world has not only a relative but also superfluous,
unwholesome and altogether subordinate existence. It is so, because everything
is real in Godhead, although it is often both unnecessary and impossible for
the individual soul to understand it, except in so far as it is actually divulged to
his serving disposition by the mercy of the Supreme Lord.

Chapter 8 Early Youth and Student Life

The Lord still chose to remain self-concealed, passing His days mostly in the
company of His mother. Sree Sachi Devi, in lieu of His father, now
devoted herself exclusively to the service of the Boy. If she did not see her Son
for the fraction of an hour, the power of sight left her eyes, and she would lose
all selfconsciousness. The Lord also displayed constantly His love for His
mother and consoled her with encouraging words. He bade her have no anxieties
since He Himself belonged to her, and as He would supply all her wants and
fetch for her, with ease, things that were obtainable with great difficulty by
Brahma and Siva. As she gazed on the beautiful Face of the Child, Sachi Devi
lost the memory of her bodily existence, not to speak of her sorrows. The Lord
Himself, by the mere remembrance of Whom all wants are fulfilled, was ever
present to her in the form of her own Son. How could, therefore, any bodily
sorrows persist in her? The Lord made His mother the very soul of joy.

There is no desire for selfish enjoyment in the realm of the Absolute
(Vaikuntha). The servants of Godhead, who are the denizens of that
Happy Realm, being always in the Presence of the Lord by reason of their
entire dependence on Him, are altogether forgetful of their own selves.

The inhabitants of this mundane world, due to their forgetfulness of Krishna,
put their reliance on their own bodies, and are accordingly liable to cherish
all those concerns that minister to its transitory pleasures. It is in this manner
that fallen jivas by their own contrivance become subjected to the various
miseries of this mundane world. There was no room for selfish grief in the pure
heart of Sachi which was wholly occupied with love for Godhead. The eternal
spiritual impulse of maternal affection for the Divine Child alone possesses the
quality of causing complete forgetfulness of one’s own body. A worldly mother
loves her son for her own selfish pleasure. This is also the case with the so-called
love of a mundane wife for her husband. All such pretended attachments are
impure by reason of their intrinsic selfishness which completely captures the
mind the moment it is turned towards the objects of this world.

The Lord Godhead, King of Vaikuntha, thus passed His days in Nabadwip in the
form of a Brahmana Boy, in the Ecstatic Bliss of enjoying the moods of His own
mind known only to Himself. In the home at Nabadwip the uttermost poverty
prevailed. The Lord’s commands were ever worthy of the Lord Paramount of the
highest gods. He did not care to know whether there was anything in the house.

If whatever He demanded was not instantly supplied, it produced the most
terrible consequences. He would immediately smash up everything, the house,
doors and windows; and, in fact, nothing escaped the fury of His Anger. He was
absolutely heedless of the damage done by Himself to His own property. But
despite all mischief that was thus done continuously, Sachi Devi was always
assiduous in supplying, with all care, whatever He asked for, by reason of her
unmixed affection for her Son.

On a certain day as the Lord was about to go out for His bath in the Ganges, He
asked His mother for oil and ‘myrobalan’ and also for choice garlands of
flowers and odoriferous sandal paste, as He wished to worship the holy Ganges
with the said offerings after His bath. The mother implored Him to wait for a
very short time to enable her to procure the garlands. No sooner did
Sree Gaursundar catch her words that she was to bring the garlands from
elsewhere, He became terrible as Rudra, the God of Destruction, in His sudden
anger.

With the words, ‘Would you then, indeed, go out for the garlands now?’ He
entered His apartment raging furiously. Then first of all He vented His wrath
on the earthen pots, in which the holy water from the Ganges was stored,
and broke all of them. By the stroke of a big stick, He next broke deliberately
all those pots which contained oil, ghee and salt. He then smashed all the pots,
big and small, that happened to be in the room. Oil, ghee, milk, rice, cotton,
paddy, salt, cakes of pulse, mudga, were mixed up together on the floor of the
room.

He then snatched away all the nets of rope for hanging up articles and tore them
to shreds. All clothing that He found in the house shared the same fate. When
there remained no article to break, the Lord’s anger turned against the house
itself. He plied the big stick with both Hands on the house, no one venturing to
utter a word of protest. Having smashed the doors and windows, He turned to the
trees and treated them in the same fashion. In that mad fit of anger there was no
disposition to forgive. When there remained no article to break, His stick
showered blows on the very earth itself.

All this while Sachi remained in a state of great fear, almost hiding herself
behind a remote corner of the house. The Lord, the Establisher of
religion Himself the Eternal Religion, did not lift His Hands against His
mother. Although He was still fully disposed to manifest the fury of His wrath

which knew no bounds, yet He did not go against His mother, nor try to hurt
her. Having smashed all things, the Lord came out into the yard and rolled on
the bare ground with an angry mind. His golden Body became enveloped in
sand and was, it is hardly meet to divulge, a wondrous, beautiful Sight.

After thus rolling frantically on the ground for some time, the Lord became
motionless. As he lay in this quiet posture, the Lord glanced at the Power
that lulls Him to slumber ( Yoga-maya) and the Lord of Vaikuntha did enjoy
His Sleep on the bosom of the Earth. The Lord, Whose resting-place is the All-
Holy Form of Sree Ananta Deva, Whose Lotus Feet are ever tended by Lakshmi
Herself, the Object of quest of the four Vedas, slept in this fashion in the yard
of Sachi ! The Ford, in the vesicle of Whose hair there lies afloat an infinitude
of worlds, Whose servants have power to create, maintain and destroy,

Whose Qualities Brahma, Siva and their peers sing with rapture, the Self-same
Supreme Lord Himself thus reposed in a deep slumber in the yard of Sachi! The
Supreme Lord slept on in the Bliss of His Own Consciousness. The Sight made
the gods laugh and cry.

After some time had passed, Sree Sachi Devi, having procured the garlands and
made ready all requisites for the worship of the Ganges, laying her hand
softly on the Body of her Son, tried to awaken Him by- gently wiping the dust
from His Person. ‘Wake up, my Darling,, said she, ‘see, here are the garlands;
take them for worshipping the Ganges even as Thou likest. It is well and good
that Thou hast smashed all things of the house. Let it take away Thy
Sorrows., Roused by these words of His mother, Sree Gaursundar, feeling
ashamed at heart, set off for His bath without more ado.

After the Lord had left, Sachi made all the rooms clean and prepared to cook His
meal. Sachi did not feel the least sorrow in her mind, although the
Lord habitually did such intolerable mischief. Sachi put up with all the
waywardness of Sree Gaursundar in the same manner that Sree Yasoda bore the
restless turn for mischief of Sree Krishna in the cowherd settlement. I have no
power to record all the wayward acts of the Lord. But Sachi bore up with all
those with unruffled patience of body, speech and mind, like mother earth
herself.

The playful Lord returned home after bath and, having worshipped Vishnu and
offered water to tulasi, beloved of Vishnu, sat down to His meal. After meal
the Lord appeared to be satisfied. He then performed achaman and began

chewing betel. His mother then spoke gently. Tor what purpose, Darling, didst
Thou do all this damage ? The house, doors, windows, all articles of the
household are Thine. All the loss is Thine. It does not affect me. Even now Thou
wilt be going off for Thy study. There is nothing in the house wherewith to buy
anything. What wilt Thou eat tomorrow?’ Hearing these words of the mother the
Lord laughed. ‘Krishna,’ said He, ‘nourishes; He will maintain.’ With this the
Lord of the goddess of learning, book in hand, strolled off to His studies.

A certain interval of time was passed in the joy of study, after which the Lord
came to the bank of the Ganges in the evening. Having stayed there awhile,
the Lord returned home. He then called His mother and taking her aside gave
her two tolas of pure gold. ‘Mother,’ said He, ‘Krishna has given this stuff.

By changing it, meet all necessary expenses.’ He then retired to bed.

Sachi was filled with great astonishment. ‘Whence could He procure this gold
He had been doing it pretty frequently of late.

In fact whenever there was any want of money, He obtained gold in this manner.
Was it likely to bode any danger ? Did He borrow or know some magical art?
Whence, how, whose gold was thus brought?, These anxieties troubled the mind
of Sachi which was untainted with greed in any form, being perfectly generous.
She was also afraid of getting a change for such gold time and again. She always
instructed the person; whom she entrusted the changing of it, to do so after he
had shown it to a sufficient number of discreet people.

Such conduct in any other boy, as old as Sree Gaursundar, if allowed free scope
by his doting mother, would hardly appeal to the judgment of many persons
as auguring any good for the future of the child. They would, at any rate, fail
to find any decent apology for such excessive and unbounded material
leniency. An unruly child is required to be handled, indeed, with tact but also
with real firmness if he is to be prevented from getting out of hand. The conduct
of Sree Sachi Devi and of Sree Yasoda does not fulfill this ideal of motherhood.
Many a child, with an abundance of the animal spirit, have been altogether
spoiled by the doting policy of unrestrained motherly indulgence. It should be
very difficult, nay almost impossible, for dutiful worldly mothers to appreciate
the maternal conduct of Sree Sachi Devi.

Vaishnavism has been charged with the attempt to idolize sentimentalism of the
most exaggerated type. Even if for the sake of argument sentimentalism

be allowed to possess any outstanding value, it should still be necessary to keep
it within natural bounds. The Vaishnava is apparently supposed to know no
such limits. He seems to be ready to make a display of his feelings and to evince
a great pleasure in carrying his heart on his sleeves. The practical and
cognitive sides of one’s nature do not thus appear to receive their due
recognition in the conduct that is extolled by the Vaishnavas as ideal, which
displays an apparently sickening exuberance of the most effusive
sentimentalism. This is doubly inexplicable as coming from persons who
deprecate all sensuousness.

I think it would not be fair to my readers if I do not avail myself of the first
opportunity of trying to clear up misapprehensions that are apt to be entertained
even by unprejudiced persons in reward to this feature of Vaishnavism.

Most worldly people identify, religion with morality. Ordinary morality aims at
serving the jiva by ensuring for his mundane body and mind an ever-
increasing fund of sensuous enjoyment. A child is subjected to rules of discipline
in order to aid the realization of the above object. Waywardness has to be
checked, lest it becomes a habit which may stand in the way of the worldly well¬
being of the child when he grows up. Morality would not be valued and is
ignored on principle, whenever it is actually opposed to the worldly interest. The
instinct which seems to claim for it an absolute value, is apt to be stifled by the
voice of the worldly reason, which secures its victory by pointing to the
uncertain, transitory enjoyable consequences of any absolute rule of practice.

There are also those who have tried to prove that the moral instinct itself is the
product of those untoward material circumstances which it is set up to
correct. The Absolute is thus altogether ruled out, and the purely temporary
object is substituted in His place, a procedure which has given to the empiric
science of ethical conduct its so-called ‘practical’ and definitely worldly
character. The rule of expediency has been openly adopted as the final principle
of rational human conduct, the object being the amelioration of worldly wants
and the consequent extension of worldly happiness. It is taken for granted that
there is nothing beyond our present pleasures of this world that need be
considered as really valuable. This scheme undoubtedly possesses the qualities
of clearness and apparent feasibility. It is admittedly incomplete, as it professes
to be ignorant of many things. But if it be identified with religion, it
becomes necessary to suppose that there is a dead void beyond the activities of
this world, as they, are practiced by the majority of us. This would be

inconsistent with the ideal ordinarily professed to be cherished by the empiric
moralists.

But it may be urged that, even if morality is not wholly identifiable with religion,
it should not, therefore, be also ignored by the latter. If it be pleaded that
morality, in the above sense, forms an integral part of religion, this would also be
illogical. Such proposition really begs the question to be proved. The whole
scheme of morality is based on a definite and unwarrantably narrow view of life.
Is it logical to insist that such narrowness should be allowed to remain intact
even after the view of life has been infinitely widened. All we can insist on is
that morality must be incorporated in Religion in so far as its retention may not
defeat the purpose of Religion. We cannot insist that it must not be enlarged,
while admitting that expansion is not mere destruction or involving the loss of
any wholesome interest.

It is not asserted that no evil consequences, in the worldly sense, can result from
the licensed extreme waywardness of an earthly child due to fond indulgence
shown to such a Child by a doting earthly mother. A man of this world will be
punished, if he breaks any law of this world. One, who is in quest of worldly
pleasures, will not gain ( ?) them by neglecting to follow the course apparently
laid down by God Himself for their attainment. A wayward child, who merely
refuses to submit to the laws of physical Nature, will incur and deserve the
punishment that is attached to such conduct by such law. On the other hand, one
who does not desire to enjoy material pleasures is also punished as he chooses to
go against the laws of Nature. It is not possible for any possessor of the physical
body and limited mind to be immune from the operation of the laws of physical
Nature.

But Sree Gaursundar and Sree Sachi Devi, although they may appear to us to be
like the people of this world, really belong to the transcendental sphere. They act
in accordance with the innate freedom of that higher realm. It would be unwise,
therefore, for us, while we are situated in this world, to try to imitate their
conduct or to condemn it for the mere reason that it does not correspond to the
ideal of mortals. They are beings of another world, endowed with other and
higher natures, who have chosen to appear in our midst, independently of the
laws of this world. Therefore, what we have to do is to try to learn about that
other world from what they say and do. That would be the proper and logical
attitude on our part. We must by no means try to imitate them. We shall be
punished by the laws of this world, if we try to do so.

In that transcendental world waywardness need not be checked, as no evil
consequences are produced, everything being perfectly pure and harmonical and
incapable of being curtailed by hostile conflict with anything else. Our souls in
their normal state are the denizens of that happy realm. We have been hurled into
this nether world by our disinclination to avail ourselves the freedom of that
world. We can regain our natural state of purity and unalloyed bliss, if only we
agree to accept the Higher Law. Godhead and His beloved ones come down into
this world to remind us of our true native land and enlighten us regarding the
cause of our exile therefrom. The words of the people of the Spiritual Realm are
identical with their conduct. Both mean the same thing. Godhead and His
beloved ones come down into this world to tell fallen jivas the tidings of
Vaikuntha and, lest they misunderstand their words by supposing them to refer to
the things and conditions of this world, Godhead makes All His Activities of
Vaikuntha visible to mortal eyes. Even a mortal can see them with the eye of
faith, that is to say., if he is disposed to love and obey Godhead which is the only
law of the Spiritual Realm, on the contrary, if we seek to please ourselves, those
very visible Divine Activities represent only their deluding, i.e., seemingly
worldly, face to us.

Common misapprehensions in regard to Vaishnavism owe their origin mainly to
that natural aversion to Godhead which is the sedulously cultivated
second nature of all fallen jivas, and partly to the misleading activities of the
pseudo-Vaishnavas who, in the state of sin, imitate, without caring to understand
its real significance, the external conduct of the true devotees of Godhead.

The conduct of the true devotees of Krishna is always perfect and combines in
itself, without necessitating the least curtailment, the principles of knowing,
willing and feeling in the fullest harmonious measure. To us who are wholly
sensuous, the Perfectly Pure Activities of God necessarily appear as being also
wholly sensuous. They are, however, absolutely pure and without any mundane
defect. But this can be fully realized only by the soul who is himself free from
all earthly taint. The Activities of Godhead and His devotees rebound to
our lasting good, if they are approached with a serving disposition as
manifestations of the Divinity by the method of listening to the account of them
from the lips of the true devotees of Godhead. By this method and this method
alone we, fallen jivas, may be enabled to understand their real meaning and
thereby learn to obey Krishna. If they are approached for any other purpose, they
only show their deluding face to us. The pseudo-Vaishnavas are as much more
deluded than even those who are openly and frankly skeptical. Both are equally
attached to the pleasures of this world; but the former further try to extend the

scope of their sensuous enjoying propensities also towards spiritual matters.
They seek to procure sensuous pleasure by aping deliberately the performances
of the sadhus with fatal consequences both for themselves and their followers.
The skeptics are right in holding the pseudo-religionists to be worse
than themselves; but they certainly carry their aversion to undue lengths
by supposing that the true worship of Godhead, described in the Scriptures,
is itself non-existent or harmful. This is the real punishment of Such
worldly skepticism.

The Supreme Lord, Who could have easily disarmed the opposition of all the
people, even the most skeptical, by the display of His Divine powers, chose
to remain in obscurity, and went on with His Pastimes, in this manner
at Nabadwip. At this period He never left off His books for a single moment.

He was most assiduous in His studies in the company of the other students
among whom He could be easily distinguished by His extraordinarily
beautiful Appearance. He looked as if the god of love himself had become
manifest on this earth. His Appearance of this period is thus described by
Thakur Brindavandas: ‘The beautiful tilaka mark, pointing in an upward
direction, adorned His Forehead. The profusion of curly hair that graced His
Head captivated the minds of all beholders. The sacrificial thread was
placed gracefully across His Shoulder. He was the Living Form of the fiery
Brahmana spirit. His cheerful and beautiful Face was always covered with
smiles. His Teeth were perfectly pure. The pair of His lotus Eyes were
inexpressibly wonderful. His Cloth, worn with a triple kachcha, was a thing of
most marvellous beauty. Whoever beheld Him gazed on His Beauty and found
it impossible to take away their eyes from Him. There was no one who did
not pay Him the tribute of his unstinted praise.’

The wonderful manner of His expositions filled His teacher with unbounded joy.
His teacher, leading Him by his own hands, made Him occupy the highest seat
among all his pupils. The teacher said, “My Dear, read attentively. I strongly
declare that Thou shalt be the Greatest of Teachers.” The Lord replied, “Is the
position of the Greatest of Teachers difficult to be attained by One Who has your
blessing”

No student could answer the questions of the Lord. He Himself settled the
interpretation of the sutras and then refuted His own explanations. And when no
one was able to establish the right meaning, the Lord explained the text in the
proper manner. The Lord had no other thoughts except the Shastras, whether at

His bath, at His meal or in His walks.

The Lord thus came to be looked up to as almost their Teacher by the pupils of
Pandit Gangadas. Early in the morning, after performing the sandhya
ceremony, the Lord went out to study in the company of all His students. He
then took His seat at the assembly-hall of Gangadas Pandit and was constantly
engaged in polemical discussions in opposing or supporting propositions that
might be advanced. The Lord always deprecated those students who did not
avail themselves of His Teaching, mercilessly using every opportunity to expose
their ignorance. After study with Pandit Gangadas the Lord expounded the texts
to the pupils. The leading students, each with his group of junior followers,
sat round the Lord in different rows, all with the solitary exception of Murari

Gupta who alone refused to be coached by the Lord, for which reason the Lord
was never tired of exposing his defects.

While explaining lessons to the students, the Lord sat in the centre wearing his
cloth in the style of Yogapatta and in the posture of the seated
warrior (beerasana). The upward tilaka mark of sandal-paste adorned His
Lorehead.

The glow of the rows of His charming Teeth put to shame the lustre of pearls.
The Lord was in His sixteenth year in the bloom of budding youth. His
beauty enchanted the god of love himself. He displayed a scholarship that was
deemed superior to that of the celestial sage. He ridiculed all who did not study
under Him. He was very proud of His learning and would challenge everybody
to refute His conclusions. He often declared that those, who did not know how
to combine two words by the process of sandhi (compounding), dared to set up
as expounders of the texts in order to console themselves with the idle vanity
that they could really understand the books by their unaided intelligence.

Many persons unfortunately turned out fools by reason of such vanity
which prevented them from learning from their betters.

This was intended for Murari Gupta who would remain silent and obdurate even
under this severe castigation. But the Lord always loved to poke His servant
whose sight filled Him with joy. The Lord would ask Murari, who belonged to
the vaidya caste, to betake himself to his legitimate trade of healing sick persons,
by giving up study: ‘The Vyakarana Shastra was difficult in the extreme. There
was no prescription in it for phlegm, bile or indigestion, what will you

understand of it by your assiduous cogitations ? Better go back home and treat
your patients.’

Murari, though of a fighting temperament was prevented from being angry by
looking at Vishwambhar, and only replied, “What a great personage ! You
poke everybody and brag a good deal. You are author of sutra, britd, panji, tika,
etc. But did You ever fail to get a reply to Your questions from me? Without
asking any questions You say, ‘What dost thou know?, You are Brahmana and
worthy of my reverence. What can I say?” The Lord said, ‘Explain then what
you have read to-day.’ As Gupta began to construe, the Lord began to refute.
Gupta explained in one sense, the Lord expounded in another. The Master and
the servant were equally matched and neither could score a decisive victory.

Gupta was most profoundly learned by the power of the Lord. The Lord was
delighted by hearing his explanations. Being pleased, the Lord touched his
body with His Lotus Hand and forthwith the whole frame of Murari was thrilled
with joy. The thought flashed in the heart of Murari Gupta, ‘This Person is never
a man of this earth. Such scholarship is also impossible in man. By the Touch
of His Hand one’s body becomes full of transcendental bliss. There is
no humiliation to study under Him. In the whole of Nabadwip there is not
another who possesses such excellent understanding.’ The worthy Gupta being
highly pleased said, ‘I say, Vishwambhar, I agree to study under Thee.’ Godhead
and His devotee ever engage in such blissful Pastimes. They went off to bathe in
the Ganges after this learned encounter, in the company of all the
students. Godhead Himself tasted the delights of study in this manner, as
Student.

These details have been handed down by the associates of Sree Chaitanya,
regarding His Student Career. Study divorced from religion is not
only considered now-a-days to be useful, but also as a necessity. Religion,
which appeals to ‘authority,’ is supposed to be the antipode of that ‘freedom
of thought’ which is considered necessary for really successful pursuit
of knowledge. Knowledge is never pursued for its own sake. In
gathering knowledge we suppose to make use of a faculty which the Great God
has mercifully bestowed upon us for our physical and mental improvement.

This may also be supposed to be corroborated by the conduct of Nimai as
Student.

He also devoted Himself whole-heartedly to the acquisition of secular

knowledge, e.g., Grammar, which is the science of language. He rebelled
against His parents, when He was a mere Child, when they stopped His secular
studies. He was the terror of all the students for His acumen in purely
secular controversy. Does all this look like tame submission on His Own Part
to authority by relegation of freedom of thought? It is true He led the life of
the ideal Brahmacharin and daily worshipped Vishnu and honoured the tulasi
and mahaprasada. But those did not prevent Him from the undiluted pursuit
of purely secular studies. His method as well as object as student may thus
appear to be identical in practice with those of modern pedagogics.

Why did He find fault with everybody and specially the teachers ? He boasted
that no one could meet His objections, nor refute His interpretation. The evident
implication is that according to Him all those teachers were wandering in a maze
of errors. Even as Student He wanted all persons, including the Professors
themselves, to learn from Him, and not to depend on themselves. We have the
recorded testimony of the Vaishnavas of that period that the learned Professors
were no less deeply engrossed than others in the pursuit of worldly objects. This
plan was also carried into their Academies in which, in place of the pursuit of
Truth, was substituted the dissociated study of different secular subjects, such
anarchy being mistaken for real freedom. The result was the absolute want of all
real scholarship and the utter disregard of the only proper object of all studies.
The conclusions of such spurious scholarship only confirmed the reign of
ignorance. Nimai had no respect at all for this system or its products.

European psychologists have tried to establish the rationale of the exclusive
pursuit of isolated branches of knowledge, by their denial of the very
existence of a soul who is located beyond the jurisdiction of the mind. They
make the limited mind identical with the soul. They want to add to the
defective equipments of the mind. This they call spiritual effort, as in their
opinion the mind is identical with the soul. The mind, thus furnished with
knowledge, is regarded as being thereby rendered more capable of successfully
performing the various duties of this life. One’s duties are also supposed to be
properly performed, if the worldly consequences of one’s acts are duly
considered and provided for, the object again being to obtain the maximum
pleasant results in the worldly sense. The mind, which lives, moves and has its
being in this World, is to be enabled to do all this in such manner that it may not
only fall foul of the laws of Nature, but may avail itself of them for overcoming
the unpleasant possibilities represented by those very laws. The policy
may properly be described as the application of the principle of ‘divide and rule,

to Nature. This mastery over, or enjoyment of, physical Nature, according
to fashionable Philosophy, is the goal of spiritual progress.

The Pandits of Nabadwip of the time of Sree Chaitanya were famous for their
learning and also for their aversion to Krishna. They had no idea of
obeying ‘authority,’ that is to say, of serving anybody excepting themselves. The
means, whereby this result was to be achieved, might have been more defective
than now-a-days, as was to be expected in that comparatively backward Age.

Their exclusive pursuit of Grammar, Logic and such ‘abstract’ subjects was the
cause of their lack of worldly ‘prosperity,’ as was also the case in other
countries in the mediaeval period. The pursuit of scientific knowledge by the
methods of observation and induction has ensured the wonderful material
progress of the present day. The agreement between empiric method and object,
which was then lacking, has been effected with greater success by the ‘free’
efforts of the human mind during the last four centuries. Might not Sree
Chaitanya’s objection to the comparatively barren pursuits of the Pandits of His
day have been due to His perception of this defeat in the systems of the studies
of His time ?

Let us take a hypothetical case. Let us suppose that we possessed a vision that
enabled us to find out the details of the operation of all the laws of Nature.

What use would we then make of this knowledge? Would we try to submit to
those laws or control them by making them oppose one another? Why should we
consider it our duty to be able to do either? In what way does it profit us ?

It would be excellent amusement to be able to manipulate Nature in the way
we like. But why do we at all desire to do it? Would we be really satisfied by
the temporary seeming possession of this power ? It would not enable us
to eliminate our bodily and mental sufferings. It would only modify them.

But such modification, in itself, would also be an equally intolerable suffering, if
we are thereby doomed to live perpetually under limiting conditions of that sort.

So we arrive at no satisfying goal of our efforts by the method of merely
modifying the opportunities of material enjoyment, mental or physical, which is
the professed and exclusive object of the empiric scientists.

Did Sree Chaitanya only want us to follow this so-called advanced scientific
method and object? Did He want us to be more engrossed in material

pursuits? The Pandits of that time had made great progress in the sciences of
abstract Logic and Grammar. It would be difficult even at the present day to
suggest any considerable improvement of the knowledge they then possessed of
those subjects. Modern science has put its seal of approval on the
abstruse speculations, in those fields, of the ancients although it has
supplemented them by the methods of more careful observation of phenomena
on which all empiric knowledge is supposed to be based.

The science of Indian Grammar is apparently one of the greatest triumphs of
inductive generalization from observed phenomena. Sree Chaitanya seems
to have objected neither to the empiric method nor to the subject of
investigation. His objection applied to the interpretation. Interpretation means
the establishment of the connection of a subject with the self. The
interpretations of Nimai were true. The interpretations of everybody else were
fallacious. In the absence of the right interpretation, all so-called knowledge
remains external to the self and is liable to be used in a way that is harmful to the
self. The right interpretation of phenomena can be known by the mercy of
Godhead and learnt only by submission to Him. Without this allegiance to the
Supreme Lord, all so-called knowledge becomes only a dangerous delusion,
although we, in the unsubmissive state, are not properly aware of this. We shall
presently learn more regarding this matter, when we consider the Activities of
Nimai as Professor of the Real Science of Grammar.

Chapter 9 Professor Life and Marriage

Nimai now set up His own Academy in the Hall (mandap) of the family temple
of the goddess Chandi which formed part of the frontal division of the residence
of Mukunda-Sanjaya, a person of great good fortune and an opulent citizen of
Nabadwip. The whole family of Mukunda-Sanjaya was devoted to the Lord. The
spacious Chandi-Mandap accommodated a very large number of students. The
Lord organised the body of His students into a school and taught them at this
place. Thus was formed the Academy under Sree Gauranga as Professor for the
pursuit of learning.

The variety of Nimai Pandit’s interpretations and refutations knew no limit. In
these erudite performances the Professors of Nabadwip were a standing subject
of His regrets. He used to say that in the Iron Age those, who were ignorant of
the elementary process of joining together two syllables (sandhi), which forms
the opening chapter of the science of language, passed themselves off as
Professors of the Shastras. “I challenge them to expose My mal-interpretations. I
would admit they deserve their high-sounding designations of ‘Bhatta’ and
‘Misra,’ if they can point out any flaws in my interpretations” The learned
performances of all the Professors were declared to be ‘only tissues of elaborate
falsehoods which prevented them from realising the necessity of learning about
the Truth by submission to Feet of Truth Himself. If those learned men had
possessed the requisite degree of sincerity and clearness of thinking, they would
have been inquisitive to know what He had to tell them.’ But they were perfectly
content with their ephemeral and misleading speculations and did not feel the
least inclination even to give a hearing to their Challenger.

So it is not the manipulation of so-called material advantages by the pursuit of
the different branches of empiric study that can rescue empiric learning from the
charge of mischievous worthlessness. The relation of empiric learning itself to
the Truth and to oneself must be grasped, if it is to be of any real use to a person.
The absence of this knowledge vitiated the whole thing ab initio. It is owing to
this fundamental defect that such studies only added to the delusions of
obstinately ignorant persons. If those studies had been conceived and carried out
in the proper spirit, they would have certainly led them to the Truth. But the real
object and method of study are hidden from the view of deliberately ignorant
persons and the knowledge of them can be had only from those who know about
Him by unconditional submission at His Holy Feet. The Professors of Nabadwip

did not know this, and their interminable labours accordingly only served to
multiply their delusions and falsehoods which led their pupils and themselves
farther away from the Truth Who is admittedly the Only Goal of all learning.

Sree Sachi Devi now bethought of finding a suitable bride for her youthful Son.
There lived at Nabadwip a most worthy Brahmana of the name of Sree Ballabha
acharya who managed his household in the spirit of King Janaka of yore. He had
a daughter whose name was Lakshmi and who was the same as Sree Lakshmi
Devi of Vaikuntha. The Brahmana constantly thought of a suitable Husband for
his daughter. Lakshmi was well-known to Sree Sachi Devi and Nimai Himself.

Kaviraj Goswami has recorded the following incident of the Boyhood of Nimai
in his work Sree Chaitanya-charitamrta. In His Boyhood Nimai was
extremely turbulent and a source of trouble to everybody. He took particular
delight in teasing the people while they were in the act of bathing in the Ganges.
The details of these occurrences, as described by Thakur Brindavandas, have
already been reproduced. Nimai, as we saw, did not spare even the girls from
His turbulent attentions. One day as the daughter of Ballabha acharya
was preparing to worship the gods after her bath in the Ganges, the Lord saw
her and felt an inclination to make her acquaintance. Lakshmi also was delighted
to see the Lord. The love between Lakshmi and the Supreme Lord is eternal.

It now manifested itself under the guise of childish behaviour. They
expressed Their mutual joy under pretence of worshipping the gods. The Lord
said to her, ‘Worship Me. I am the Great Lord (Maheshwara). By worshipping
Me you will get such Husband as you wish to have.’ Lakshmi accordingly placed
on His Body flowers sprinkled with the sandal-paste and did reverence by
putting on Him garlands made of the mallika flower. The Lord began to laugh
on receiving her devotion and accepted the desire of her heart by reciting
the shloka of the Bhagavatam spoken by Sree Krishna to the milkmaids,

‘Loyal maidens, I have become aware of the meaning of your worship which
has. indeed, given Me very great pleasure. Your hopes are worthy of fulfilment.’

The Lord also wished to perform the duties enjoined by the Shastras on a
householder, as He was now settled in the household life. The spiritual duties of
a householder cannot be discharged properly without co-operation of a helping
female partner. The Lord accordingly conceived the desire of entering the state
of matrimony. In the words of the Smriti, ‘the house itself is not called the
household. The mistress is the real household. Being united to her by marriage a
person attains the four coveted objects of life, viz., the proper performance of his

duties, necessaries, objects of desire and liberation.’

While He was in this mood, the Lord accidentally came across the daughter of
Ballabha acharya on her way to the Ganges. He was then returning home
from His studies. The sight kindled, in the hearts of both, the love that
already existed there in its perfection. The Lord smiled as He met His Own
Lakshmi. Sree Lakshmi Devi also greeted in her mind the Twin Lotus Feet of the
Lord before They went back to their respective homes. ‘Who, asks
Thakur Brindavandas, ‘can understand the Pastimes of Sree Gaursundar ?’

The institution of marriage, as every other institution, misses its proper object if
it does not serve the Supreme Lord. The prospect of carnal enjoyment, which the
institution seems, to the ungodly, to offer, is the snare that requires to be most
carefully avoided. The Union of Lakshmi and Narayana is the Source of
ali manifest and non-manifest existence. Sree Narayana is the only Lord of
all created things. He creates through the medium of Sree Lakshmi Devi.

This eternal Marriage of Sree Lakshmi Narayana is hidden from the view of
mortals by the shadow of the desire for carnal enjoyment falling across their
vision.

The Shastric institution of marriage is intended to reclaim bound jivas from the
deadly slough of carnality. If they follow the life enjoined by the Shastras for the
married state, they will thereby be enabled to progress towards freedom from the
fascination of carnality. The bound jiva, misled by his sensuous hankering and
preferring his own selfish enjoyment to the constant and eternal service of his
Lord, is, of course, free to speculate about the advantages and disadvantages of
the institution of marriage from the purely secular point of view. But such
speculative attitude, however carefully one may try to guard oneself against the
natural and inevitable consequences of carnality, will only forge a stronger chain
to bind him to an unnatural and miserable existence.

The external gloss supplied by godless speculation only aggravates the real
mischief by hiding the unspirituality of all empiric conceptions of one’s
duty. The Greek opinion that the gods are opposed to the happiness of man
through malice is true in this sense. The gods always try to prevent the
sensuous happiness of man. This is most beneficial in its possible results for
humanity. The so-called happiness for which man hankers is but gilded misery,
because the soul in the conditioned state understands and cares only for the
things of this world. This is the disease to which all people of this world are

subject. This malady is increased if the cause of it is strengthened. By increased
hankering for new opportunities of material enjoyment, the cause of the malady
is not likely to be removed.

The quest of happiness itself is not unnatural. But if we want to be happy, we
must first of all try to understand what can make us truly happy. Desire
for sensuous enjoyment is the cause of unhappiness. Abstinence from
such enjoyment also will not do, as it leads to a worse form of misery. Desire to
serve the Lord for the sake of service can alone make us happy. Every activity
can give us happiness to the extent that it is really service of Godhead, or, in
other words, to the extent that it tends to absolute subimission to Him.

The marriage of Lakshmi and Narayana does not belong to the category of the
carnal marriage of sensuous jivas The marriage of the fettered jivas
becomes successful, according to the Shastras, only if it succeeds in reclaiming
them from the bondage of carnality. When this result is actually produced
by faithfully following the injunctions of the Shastras, there should
necessarily remain no carnal desire in such persons and, therefore, no further
sensuous necessity of such bodily union. This is, however, only the negative
result. By the elimination of carnality one also gets rid of the delusion that the
soul can be either male or female, or have any sex in the worldly sense. No
individual soul can be an object of reciprocal enjoyment of another individual
soul, either as male or as female. Spiritual love for Godheasd is the sole Enjoyer
and the jiva is the object of His exclusive enjoyment. Godhead is the only Lover,
the jiva belongs to the category of His beloved. Godhead is the Possessor of
power, the jiva is a particle of His obeying power.

The jiva, as an inintegfrated particle of Krishna’s power, can be truly cognisant
of Krishna as the sole Proprietor of himself. But the jiva is not the direct plenary
Power of Krishna, but a detached particle of His Plenary Power. The Integrated
Plenary Power of Krishna is eternally and unswervingly obedient to Krishna and
never loses sight of Him. The jiva can be cognisant of Krishna only, if he
submits to function in the line of the direct Power under the latter’sdirection.
subordination to the direct Power of Krishna, in the case of the jiva, is the same
as subordination to Krishna Himself Who is not directly cognisable by him. Sree
Lakshmi devi is the Plenary Power of Krishna. Through her Krishna manifests
Himself to His dissocxiated particles of His Power. The jiva may become a
conscious partner in this process, if he subordinates his freedom of will, a gift of
the Divinity, to the direction of the Will of Krishna, manifested for his guidance

through Sree Ladshmi Devi. Sree Lakshmi devi is the consort of Sree Narayana,
and the jiva, in his proper nature, is the eternal servitor of sree Narayana, under
Sree Lakshmi devi as a detached particle of Her Essence. This cannot be realised
by the bound jiva til he wakes to his true nature and is thereby freed from all
taint of mundane sensuous hankerings.

The marriage of Godhead, as every other Act of His, is identical with Godhead
and as such is an object of our worship. The instinct of sexuality, that is so strong
in all fallen jivas, is the peverted reflection of the highest function of his real
nature which seeks eternally to subordinate herself to Godhead through serving
love. This spiritual impllse of serving love appears in bound jivas in
the unwholesome perverted form of lust seeking for its own gratification. This
is, indeed, the worst of all the perversions appearing in this world and also the
one that is the most difficult to get rid of. Man and woman in this world
understand well enough the process of exploiting one another’s liust for the
reciprocal gatification of their senses. They choose to think gratuitously that, as
God Himself has endowed them with the sexual impulse, it must, therefore, be
also His intention that it is their duty to avail of the opportunity so
mercifully provided. Moderate and well-considered sexuality thus comes to be
wrongly regarded as a part and parcel of our proper nature and the institution
of marriage for the carnal purpose is looked upon as providing the convenient
and proper conditions for the exercise of this lefitimate God-given impulse.

The idea of a human being without any sexual weakness hence comes to
be regarded with the greatest suspicion, being considered as either an
impossibility or an abnormality.

But as a matter of fact carnal sexuality is not any impulse of our higher nature, It
is a hankering for material enjoyment which can, by its nature, only
gratifyor disgust the material body and mind which have no substantive kinship
with the soul. The corresponding pure spiritual impulse is completely free from
the desire of any selfish enjoyment. Our soul possesses spiritual senses
which abstain from seeking their own gratification by a spontaneous tendency.
They want to provide, and not to intercept for themselves, all enjoyments for
the Divinity. This service on the spiritual plane has no grossness or impurity
which we, from our experience of the corresponding material process, associate
with the object of carnal marriage.

The marriage of individual souls with Godhead is the establishment of
unreserved spiritual reciprocal communion with the Divinity which

is confusedly reflected in an unwholesome and inverted form in the
sexual impulse of this world. The realisation of the most intimate
spiritual communion is the fulfilment of the same spiritual impulse. The pursuit
of sexual gratification of oneself is the obstacle in the way of such realisation
and is, in fact; the greatest punishment that is suffered by the jiva by reason of
his desire for enjoyment.

God does not accept the carnal sentiment, which is the worst form of aversion to
Godhead, an act of personal disloyalty to the sole Enjoyer of all the
spiritual senses of the jiva whose highest function consists in serving the Lord
with all his spiritual senses. This spiritual service is available to the jiua, only if
he happens to be in the state of perfect subordination to Godhead under
the unconditional direction of Sree Lakshmi Devi, the Plenary Power Who is
the Eternal Consort of the Lord. Sree Narayana communes directly with
Sree Lakshmi Devi and the latter carries out the Divine Will in an infinity of
ways. The jiva is enabled to commune with Godhead as a particle of the
gratuitous extension of the Divine process by submitting to be a humble agent of
Sree Lakshmi Devi Who is entitled to impart to him, for the purpose, a particle
of the pure impulse by which She ever serves Her sole Lord. This is the
most intimate reciprocal communion, or spiritual marriage, of the jiva with
the Divinity. Those, who cherish the marriage of Lakshmi and Narayana, are
by such devotion freed from the fell delusion of carnal sexuality on the
attainment of the reciprocal spiritual communion with Divinity, which is the very
highest form of service for the jiva. The fallen jiva is prepared to admit, at any
rate in practice, the inexorable penal laws of physical Nature, but, with
strange perversity, is viciously disposed to oppose as irrational the existence of
the far more inexorable code of love that regulates the affairs of the spiritual
world.

But the Authority of Godhead is no less Absolute in the realm of spirit than it is
in this prison-house of the physical world. The scientists try to
understand, without questioning their rationale, the absolute potency, or
authority, of the laws of this material universe. It is necessary to carry the same
rational attitude into all enquiries regarding the spiritual world where, however,
the laws of this physical world cannot prevail. The scientific spiritual method for
attaining to the knowledge of the spiritual world, should, therefore, by strict
analogy, also possess the following order of development, viz., (1) actual
perception of the spiritual world, (2) gathering of spiritual experience, (3)
analysis of such experience, (4) acquisition of right conduct by assimilated

knowledge. As the spiritual realm happens to be wholly unknown to us, we must
be disposed to take the help of the experience of those who have access to it, if
we hope to have even the initial working knowledge of its conditions during this
short span of human life. All this is in strict analogy with the method of
empiric science.

On the very day that Sree Gaursundar met Lakshmi Devi, a Brahmana
matchmaker (match-making by the way was then an honoured offce as it should
be) who bore the name of Banamali acharya, providentially made his
appearance before Sachi Devi. The Brahmana, after making his obeisance to
mother Sachi, accepted a seat which was cordially offered by her. Thereafter
Banamali acharya broached his proposal: ‘It was high time for her to think about
the Marriage of her Son. Sree Ballabha acharya, who also lived at Nabadwip,
offered an unexceptionable connection as regards family, character and piety of
life. His Daughter was the goddess Lakshmi Herself by the fame of Her beauty
and disposition. Sachi Devi might accept this connection if she deemed it
desirable.’ Mother Sachi replied, ‘My Son is a fatherless Boy. Let Him live and
study. I am not thinking of any other thing just now.’ The Brahmana felt
utterly discouraged by this dry rejoinder and left with a heavy heart.

Banamali Acharya fell in with the Lord on His way back from His Academy,
Who embraced him by way of merriment. The Lord asked where he had
been. The Brahmana said he had been to His mother to propose His Marriage.

He could not understand why she did not take it at all seriously. On hearing of
this the Lord became silent. He took His leave of him with a smile and
returned home. He laughingly asked His mother why she had not received the
acharya in a gracious manner. Sachi was delighted on catching the hint from her
Son and sent for the Brahmana on the day following. She then said to him,

‘Settle as expeditiously as possible the affair that you mentioned yesterday.You
have my full consent.’

Thereupon, taking the dust of the feet of Sachi, the Brahmana immediately set
out for the home of Ballabha acharya. When Banamali Ghatak presented himself
before Ballabha acharya the latter received him with great respect. Having
accepted a seat duly offered by Ballabha acharya, Banamali proceeded to ask
him forthwith to fix an auspicious day for the marriage of his Daughter.

‘The Son of Purandar Misra, by Name Bishwambhar, most learned and
possessed of all good qualities, was the only eligible Bridegroom for

his daughter.’ That was also the proposal which Banamali had to make to him.

He accordingly advises Ballabha Acharya to accept the same, provided, of
course, it really commended itself to him.

Ballabha acharya was filled with the greatest joy on receiving the proposal. He
said that such a Son-in-law was to be had only by sheer good fortune. ‘If Krishna
is gracious to me or the goddesses Lakshmi and Gauri are pleased towards my
daughter, only then, and not otherwise, I shall deserve to have such Son-in-law.
Be pleased to put forth your best endeavour by all means to settle this affair with
the least possible delay. But there is one point which I feel ashamed to mention. I
am poor. I am unable to afford any dowry. It is only my daughter whom I shall
give away and five myrobalans as her dowry. This is my request to you. You are
to obtain their assent to this.’ On hearing these words of Ballabha acharya, the
Ghatak felt a deep joy at the success of his mission and, coming back to Sachi,
delivered to her the happy news and asked her to fix an auspicious day for the
ceremony. All friends of the family were filled with gladness on hearing the
happy tidings and applied themselves assiduously to make every preparation for
the due solemnization of the Nuptials of Sree Lakshmi and Sree Narayana.

The preliminary (adhibas) ceremony was duly performed on an auspicious day,
to the accompaniment of dance, song and a great variety of music.

The Brahmanas recited the Veda on all sides. Nimai took His seat in the centre
of the gathering. The friends and Brahmanas performed this ceremony of
betrothal by making offerings of perfumes and garlands to the Lord. The
Brahmanas were specially pleased, being treated to excellent perfumes, sandal-
paste, betel and garlands. Ballabha acharya came over to the home of Sachi and,
having duly performed the same rite, returned with a joyous heart to his
residence.

Rising early next morning the Lord bathed, gave away alms and honoured the
Manes with due worship. There was n great jubilation of dance, song and music.
On all sides there arose a mighty tumult, amidst shouts of ‘give and take.’ There
was a multitudinous gathering of loyal matrons, well-wishers, friends
Brahmanas and good people. Mother Sachi joyfully offered to the ladies, who
were present, fried rice, plantain, vermilion, betel and oil. The gods and their
consorts assuming human forms merrily assembled to witness the Marriage of
the Lord. Ballabha acharya also performed the worship of the gods and departed
ancestors in the customary manner.

At the hour of twilight, in an auspicious moment, the Lord set out in marriage
procession to the house of Ballabha Misra. No sooner did the Lord arrive at
the residence of Misra, the minds of Misra and all his family were filled with
a boundless joy. Misra with due respect and a glad heart helped his Son-in-law
to the Bridegroom’s Seat. He then brought out his daughter Lakshmi, decked in
all Her ornaments, to the Presence of the Lord. The people began to shout
the Name of Hari. They lifted Lakshmi Devi from the ground and carried Her
on their shoulders through the function of perambulating the Lord seven
times. Then, after making Her obeisance to Him, Lakshmi stood before the Lord
with the palms of Her hands joined in the attitude of supplication. Then the
Two threw flowers at Each Other, and Both Lakshmi and Narayana were very
much pleased. Lakshmi then placed a beautiful garland at the Feet of the Lord
and, making obeisance, made the formal surrender of Herself. The crowd
thereupon raised a paean of triumph on all sides, singing with many voices he
Name of Hari so that no other sound could be heard. The holy rite of beholding
Each Other’s Face was next performed in the same manner. Then the Lord
was seated with Lakshmi on His Left Side. The Lord was in the first bloom of
youth, surpassing the god of love in beauty, by Whose Side Lakshmi now took
Her seat. The beauty and joy that manifested themselves in the house of Misra
no one has power to describe.

Thereafter Ballabha sat down to the function of giving away his Daughter. It
seemed as if Bhismaka himself had re-appeared in this world. After robing
the Body of the Lord with rich clothing, garlands and sandal-paste, the best
of Brahmanas washed His Lotus Feet, by Whose adoration Brahma, his
prime ancestor, had been enabled to create the world. He then bestowed his
Daughter in Marriage in due form. The Brahmana was immersed in the sea of
bliss. It was now the turn of the matrons who duly performed the customary rites
of the family.

The Lord passed the night in the house of Ballabha acharya. On the following
day He set out for His own home in the company of Lakshmi. All the
people rushed out to have a Sight of the Lord as He was taken home on the
shoulders of men, in a dola, with Lakshmi seated by His Side. Lakshmi and
Narayana were both richly decorated with perfumes, garlands, ornaments,
crowns, sandal-paste and collyrium. All the people praised Them, as they caught
a glimpse of the Divine Pair. The ladies were specially affected by the Sight.
That fortunate Maiden must have long worshipped Hara and Gauri with Her
heart’s best devotion. Could such Husband be obtained by a girl except

through extraordinary good luck? Some said that the Bridegroom and Bride
seemed to be Hara and Gauri themselves. Some said, They were Indra and
Sachi, or Rati and Madana.’ Some said, They were Lakshmi and Narayana.’ A
group of ladies declared them to be ‘ Seeta and Rama, shining with
incomparable Beauty, seated together on the dola.’ Thus said all those ladies.
They beheld Lakshmi and Narayana with an auspicious intent. In this manner the
Lord returned Home at night-fall with the tumult of dance song and music.

Then Sachi Devi accompanied by the Brahmana matrons, with great joy, led her
Daughter-in-law into the house. She satisfied all the Brahmanas and the
dancers and musicians by lavish gifts of money, clothing and sweet words. We
have it on the authority of Thakur Brindavandas that those who listen to this
holy narrative of the Lord’s Marriage are completely freed from the bondage of
this world.

As Sree Lakshmi Devi took Her place by the Side of the Lord, The Home of
Sachi glowed with a transcendent radiance. Sachi noticed, always both
inside and outside the house, a wonderful flaming brilliance which could
not, however, be definitely located. ‘She sometimes saw a blazing tongue of fire
by the side of her Son; but as she turned to see again, it had vanished.

She experienced off and on the fragrance of the lotus flower. Her
amazement reached its climax and made her thoughtful. Mother Sachi mused, ‘I
understand the cause of it. Lakshmi abides in this Maiden. For this reason I
perceive the Light and the Fragrance of the Lotus. There is now also no pinch of
the poverty of the bygone days. Ever since this Lakshmi, my Daughter-in-law,
came into the house, wealth in every form has been pouring in from all sides in a
most unaccountable manner.’ Mother Sachi often spoke in this strain. The Lord
still chose to remain unmanifest. No one can understand the Will of God or how
He sports at any time. When God does not make Himself known even
Lakshmi Herself cannot know. This is testified by all the Scriptures, by the
Vedas and: the Puranas, that he alone can know the Supreme Lord whom He
Himself favours.

I have retained the actual words of Thakur Brindavandas in describing the
Marriage of Sree Gaursundar with Sree Lakshmi Devi. The Activities of
Sree Chaitanya are not like those of mortal men. They were manifested in this
world for the purpose of healing the disease of mortality by Their contemplation.

Most fallen souls, who are denizens of this world, like nothing better than

marrying and giving in marriage. It may be supposed that the detailed
narrative of the Marriage of Sree Chaitanya has been recorded by His devotee to
serve as a model to be followed by the fallen jivas and as sanctioning the
institution of marriage itself for ensuring spiritual progress. Such a conclusion
would also be most acceptable to those who are disposed to find a religious
sanction for carnality.

But the associates of Sree Chaitanya have cautioned us in unmistakable terms
against initiation of the conduct of Sree Chaitanya. The Marriage of
Sree Chaitanya is not a carnal affair. It is not to be understood as the glorification
of the mundane institution of marriage. If Sree Chaitanya is regarded as a
mortal, His Marriage will naturally be considered as :an affair like that of man
and woman of this world. Those who choose to think in this way are of course
free to follow the dictate of their empiric judgment. Only the associates and
true followers of Sree Chaitanya, who have recorded the true meaning of the
Events of His Career for the benefit of humanity and who have acquired the
eligibility to be heard, by fully acting up to their professions, require us to
forget tenttively the stubborn insinuations of our worldly experience which is
bound to fail utterly to give us the knowledge of the reality of which we stand in
such urgent need.

The details of the Marriage of Sree Gaursundar should be listened to from the
lips of sadhus, i.e., of those who are wholly devoted to the exclusive service
of Godhead. God is the sole Proprietor of our senses. When our senses
are directed Godward, they lose their grossness engendered by their
wrong employment on subjects of this world. If the spiritual instinct,
corresponding to sexuality, could be directed towards Godhead, it would be
realised as the spiritual impulse of love. So long as it deliberately courts its
stultification by directing itself to non-God for support, it finds itself stranded on
this unwholesome mundane plane. Lust is the perversion of love into a
loathsome mundane entity due to Its adulterous and perverted application
amounting to a suicidal crime against its own nature. In other words, when the
faculty of amorous love is exercised by the soul, who is free from all mundane
hankering towards the All-holy, it is love. Once this change of direction is
really established, the substantive existence of the spiritual function
corresponding to lust is realised on the automatic elimination of all mundane
unwholesomeness. The spiritual function possesses perfectly wholesome nature
and permanent substantive existence. The corresponding mundane function is
devoid of both these essential characteristics. This is altogether inconceivable to

the materialised mind.

The perception of the associated correlatives of inferiority and superiority,
grossness and wholesomeness, evil and good, smallness and greatness etc. is
the inevitable concomitant of our gross sensuous experience. God reserves the
right of appearing to any and every entity as He pleases. And as soon as He
chooses to favour an entity by His acceptance of his service, he is instantly freed
from all grossness by such acceptance. The marriage-rite of a Bengali Brahmana
has nothing inherently spiritual in it. But it is nevertheless an Eternal Activity
for God to accept these rites and all rites, and by such Acceptance they
are necessarily freed from all grossness and imperfection. Those, who do not
want to enter fully into this real meaning of the Activities of the Divinity when
They become visible in this world, earn only damnation by their mis-reading of
the Scriptures.

The marriage-rite of a Bengali pseudo-Brahlnana is categorically different from
that of Sree Chaitanya for the reasons suggested above. The former produces and
aggravates the malady of carnality. Such a result cannot be avoided by merely
choosing to imagine that the sensuous affair is sanctioned by the Divine;

because the Divine Marriage is located wholly above the plane of the
conditioned soul. The sight or contemplation of the Divine Event re-acts on
the conditioned soul, if he does not oppose the process by the persistent abuse
of his freedom of will in the matter of sexuality. The result of such re-action
is spiritually beneficial. The nonspiritual, even in the case of the votary
of intangible abstractions, can only re-act on the non-spiritual and complicate
the non-spiritual condition. The actual Existence and redeeming Potency of
the Divinity is unconsciously, but none the less decisively, denied by the
idealist whose vision is completely deluded by the subtler potency of matter by
reason of such attitude. Gaursundar is Godhead Himself. The contemplation of
His Marriage-Rite, in its minutest details with an enlightened serving faith
elicited by the instructions of the good preceptor, is bound to re-act on the
fettered soul and free him from the bondage of carnality.

We are servants of Krishna. We are not masters of anything. Sree Lakshmi Devi
is the Eternal Consort of Sree Gaursundar and serves Him as Consort.

Sree Gaursundar is the Lord of Sree Lakshmi Devi. The jiva cannot be the Lord

of any entity. The marriage institution of this world establishes a

mundane connection between two material bodies inside which two offending

jivas are imprisoned. Having lost all consciousness of his real, i.e., spiritual
nature, the bound jiva, supposing his physical body to be identical with himself,
falls under the power of the physical senses and considers himself as an enjoyer
of sensuous pleasure accruing from such reciprocation of bodily and
mental activities. The sexual relationship in the flesh is the perverted caricature
by material symbols of the state of intimate spiritual communion of the
individual soul with God in his pure natural state. The institution of marriage is
sinful if the jiva regards it as a means of his sensuous gratification, as such
amorous activities necessarily tend to prolong the bondage of matter and
consequent forgetfulness of Godhead. The bodily marriage is harmful and
unnatural. In the conditioned state it may not be always possible to avoid the
married state in a natural way. But it is always possible even for a married
couple to honestly try to steer clear of carnality. They are enabled to do this if
they learn the nature of the real connubial connection, which is possible only in
the Supreme Lord, from the lips of sadhus. Being thus enlightened by the mercy
of sadhus, one is enabled to realise the true meaning of Shastric provisions in
regard to marriage that are intended to unite individual souls to God by the
gradual but complete elimination of all carnal desire. Sometimes also a self-
realised soul (sadhu) may adopt the married state in order to serve God by
setting an example to fallen jivas embodying the shastric ideal of the married
state. But nothing is gained by lifeless imitation of the external conduct of such a
person. It is necessary first of all to seek for true enlightenment at the feet of the
guileless and sincere servants of the Lord. To the understanding, enlightened by
the causeless mercy of sadhus, the real significance of the sacrament of marriage
discloses itself. Conditioned souls have no right of entry into the spiritual realm
until and unless they are enabled to realise the necessity of submitting to the
purgatorial process of the cleansing of all worldly dirt by the unconditional
service of the true devotees of Godhead.

The ladies of the neighbourhood gave vent to their opinion that the Bride and
Bridegroom were no other than Lakshmi and Narayana; or, in other words, They
were regarded as Godhead and His Eternal Consort. This was also
fully applicable to the case. But we should be on our guard against the
utterly profane carnal sentimentalism that proposes to regard every newly
married pair as resembling Lakshmi and Narayana, or, for the matter of that,
which proposes to regard any jiva as the husband or wife of another by his
spiritual nature. The mundane relation of husband and wife is of the flesh, being
the grossly perverted eternal relation that unites mediately the individual soul, in
his state of grace, with the Fountain head of All-existence through his

willing, unconditional submission to the guidance of the pleanary Power. It is
sheer folly to confound the one with the other.

Similarly those are also equally deluded who choose to regard the issue born of
such bodily union as being on a level with Divine Gopala. Such people affect
to be innocently unconscious of the eternal difference that separates this
nether world, its concerns and the conditioned souls from the Divinity and His
Own. The jiva commits a great offence against Godhead when he marries
another jiva for the practice of carnality, and a sacrilege when he chooses to
regard such bodily union as Divinely ordained. The soul of the jiva can be
neither wife nor husband in the worldly sense. He has nothing to do with this
world. The flesh and all its concerns are the snare which entraps the soul who is
disinclined to serve Godhead and seeks, in lieu of the spiritual and absolutely
pure service of the Lord, his own selfish enjoyment. So long as the desire for
such enjoyment retains possession of the mind of the jiva, he is apt to turn a deaf
ear to the Word of God always warning him from without and within against
the seductions of the flesh. To such a person the world appears to be a place
of legitimate sensuous enjoyment. When such a person also sets up as a
preacher of the Word of God, he is bound to mis-interpret the Scriptures in order
to make them tally with his own sensuous outlook and often carries this
misinterpretation to such lengths that he feels no scruple in representing
his sensual activities as being indentical with the service of God on the ground
that they are also applauded by all other sinners. It is these pseudo-preachers
who also declare the consummation of carnal marriage between one jiva .
and another as identical with the institution sanctioned by the Scriptures. Let
us beware of these pseudo-preachers who are infinitely worse than even
the proverbial wolves in sheep’s clothing. One should on principle refuse to
be instructed in the Word of God by a worldling who deceives himself and
others by putting on the holy garb of a servant of God, and should avoid the
society of such a person as that of an open enemy of Godhead. Toleration of
such persons is the worst cruelty to oneself as well as to the person himself,
being an offence at the Feet of the Lord and against the express teaching of all
Scriptures. These hypocritical teachers of the religion are worse than even the
rankest of atheists by profession.

Chapter 10 Professor Life (Contd.)

The figure of Sree Gaursundar as professor (adhyapaka) has been described in
some detail by Thakur Brindavandas. He was constantly surrounded by a host of
admiring pupils. He was extremely proud of His learning and took a particular
pleasure in ridiculing and exposing the ignorance of everybody. He cared for
nothing except His books. He had an extraordinarily Beautiful Appearance and
was in the bloom of His Youth. Grace and Beauty marked His every Limb. His
Hands reached down to the Knee. His wide Eyes resembled the petals of the
lotus flower. His Lips were always tinged by betel. He wore the most handsome
clothing.

This beautiful, young, arrogant Scholar’s teaching was also unique in character.
No savant of the then greatest centre of learning of India presumed to understand
it really. The quondam teacher of Sree Gaursundar, fortunate Gangadas Pandit,
was the only exception. The Lord opened out the store of His Learning freely to
His old teacher. Worldly-minded people praised the Scholar and said that the
parents of such a Son were the possessors of the richest of all treasures. To the
woman-kind this insolent Scholar appeared in the likeness of the god of love
himself. To the atheists He was terrible as Death. To the Pandits He was like a
second Brihaspati by His wonderful learning. Different persons viewed Him in a
different light in accordance with their particular standards of the highest worth.

But there was one group of people who did not share this general admiration of
the particularly well-dressed Teacher. This was the community of the
Vaishnavas. They were utterly disappointed to find no trace of inclination for
Krishna in this fascinating Youth Whose great learning, they knew well, would
be of no avail to save Him from the clutches of ignorance and death. They did
not hesitate to speak out to His Face, ‘Why dost Thou waste Thy time in the
delusions of learning ?’ The Lord laughed as He listened to the words of His
servants and replied, ‘I am fortunate in that you take the trouble to teach it to
Me.’

There was at this time a considerable community of Vaishnavas resident in
Nabadwip, as the place offered special facilities for study and the prospect
of living close to the holy Ganges. Among them was a large body of devotees
from Chattagram (Chittagong). In the afternoon the Vaishnavas assembled in
the Academy of Sree Advaita Acharya. They met there regularly to discourse

about Krishna. It was a gathering of persons, all of whom were from their birth
without the least attachment for the things of this world. In fact they were not of
this world at all. They had been born in different parts of the country and were
brought together at Nabadwip by the Will of Godhead.

Mukunda sang the kirtana of Hari to this assembly of the pure devotees. All the
Vaishnavas were pleased with Mukunda whose song had the quality of
melting their hearts. The joy of the assembled devotees, as Mukunda would
begin to sing, became so intense that it expressed itself in strange ways. Some
wept. Some laughed. Some began to dance. Some rolled on the ground, forgetful
of their apparel. Some donned their cloth tightly and shouted challenge
of defiance. Some ran up to Mukunda and clasped his feet. So wonderful
indeed, was the effect on those Vaishnavas of the Kirtana of Krishna sang by
Mukunda. His song produced the highest bliss and made the Vaishnavas forget
all cause of grief.

The Lord was specially pleased with Mukunda, in His heart, for this reason. He
would tease Mukunda whenever He chanced to meet him, by asking him to solve
logical riddles. This led to prolonged controversies. Mukunda was well-versed in
the science of Logic and made use of every form of argument in holding his
ground against the onslaughts of Sree Gaursundar. But he was always beaten in
the long run. Nimai put these riddles also to Sribas Pandit and other devotees.
They were very much afraid of His puzzles and always scattered at His
Approach. The devotees had no taste for any discourse except
regarding Krishna, and Nimai never proposed anything except riddles of dry
logic. No one could solve His puzzles and He mercilessly exposed all who broke
down.

One day as the Lord was passing along the highway in the company of His
pupils with every manifestation of the vanity of a pedantic scholar,

Mukunda, who was going to the Ganges for his bath, saw the Lord from a
distance and immediately took to his heels, Noticing this the Lord said to His
servant Govinda, ‘Why did the rascal bolt on seeing Me? 5 Govinda did not
understand the reason of Mukunda’s conduct. He suggested that he might have
had some business of his own. The Lord said that the real reason was his belief
that a Vaishnava should never greet a person who is averse to Godhead. Then
the Lord spoke in the hearing of all, ‘Let him keep aloof for the present I will
see how long he will avoid Me in this manner. I will become such a good
Vaishnava that even Siva and Brahma will dance attendance at My doorsteps.

Those very people, who now flee at My Approach, will then sing My praise/ He
said this to His students laughingly as He was returning home in their company.

It was, indeed, a most distressing period for the devotees of Nabadwip. The
whole of Nadia was mad with the taste of riches and sons. The people
launched into invectives as soon as they heard of kirtana. They, indeed, said
openly that it was only a device for filling the belly. They were specially wroth
against Sribas and his three brothers.

The arguments they used against the Vaishnavas have been preserved by Thakur
Brindavandas. ‘Was there any justification in dancing in their saucy
and unmannerly way, giving up the method of intellectual communion ?’ T
myself have read the Bhagavata many times over, but I do not find in it any
method of dancing and crying/ ‘I cannot get any sleep after dinner on account of
Sribas and his brothers. Is it not pious enough if one calls upon Krishna with
a subdued voice? Is there any unavoidable necessity of dancing, singing
and shouting?’ This was the universal attitude of all non-Vaishnavas. They
talked and jeered in this manner whenever they met the Vaishnavas.

When the devotees used to feel very much depressed at such treatment by the
people, Sree Advaita Acharya would repeat His assurance that He would
destroy all those atheists, as Sree Krishna would be with them in a very short
time in the town of Nabadwip itself. The words of Advaita dispelled all their
sorrows and the Vaishnavas kept up the blessed Kirtana of Krishna with the
greatest joy. Such was the state of affairs at Nabadwip when Lord Vishwambhar
was deeply occupied with His secular studies.

So the Lord Himself, the Teacher of the whole world, by His Conduct as well as
Instruction, was apparently pursuing a mode of life which was indistinguishable
from that of the average worldly people. Would we be justified in blaming the
pseudo-teachers of the Vaishnava religion of these days who, professing to
follow the example of Sree Gaursundar, lead a life of luxurious ease with their
wives and children ? If Sree Gaursundar chewed betel should they not also do
the same as in duty bound? If Professor Nimai dressed faultlessly, poked fun at
the Vaishnavas and devoted Himself exclusively to secular studies, why should
such innocent amenities of a householder’s life be forbidden to His followers?

The questions no doubt suggest their own answer. In the case of Sree Gaursundar
all this was absolutely proper. To the true devotee of Godhead every thing is

handy and fit, as he knows their use for the service of Godhead. The eternal
conduct of the devotee derives its value for worldly observers from this internal
quality. If a woman is really chaste, she can do nothing that is improper. If she is
really unchaste, she can do nothing that is proper, not even by mimicking the
external conduct of any chaste lady. Such mimicry is in no way different from
unchastity and is often the more dangerous form of wickedness. A thing can be
but itself. External conduct is always deceptive, being external. By imitating the
external Conduct of Sree Gaursundar that was visible to mundane observers at
any period of His Activities, nothing but the direst offense is reaped. The
Relation of the Lord to His Consort, to His pupils, to His devotees is
misunderstood if we choose to misunderstand them by refusing to listen to those
who are acquainted with the real Nature of Nimai. Even the Vaishnavas
confessed, when they came to know Him later as He really is, that they also had
once utterly misunderstood Him and His Activities, before He Himself
manifested the real nature of them in their more explicit form to their higher
consciousness.

The full view regarding the activities of Sree Gaursundar is attainable only if
they are regarded as the Pastimes of Godhead Himself. Sree Gaursundar
is identical with Sree Krishna. Those, who ignore this by misunderstanding
His Role as Devotee, necessarily fail to obtain the adequate view of His Doings.
The want of this knowledge apparently led even the Vaishnavas themselves
to deprecations of the external conduct of Sree Gaursundar at this period.

They wished that He should become a devotee like themselves. This is the
Natural desire of all pure Vaishnavas in regard to non-Vaishnavas. The pursuit
of secular studies in which Sree Gaursundar was wholly absorbed and
the employment of His controversial powers on subjects other than Krishna
were, therefore, condemned by those pure devotees as the abuse of His
intellectual powers. It is instructive to find that those Vaishnavas were not under
the delusion, which is so much cherished by the pseudo-Vaishnavas of these
days, that the Conduct of Nimai was that of the model servant of Godhead.

They were right so far. They apparently erred in supposing that Sree Gaursundar
was a Vaishnava and not Vishnu Himself. But subsequently also, when they
knew the Lord by His grace, they did not, therefore, try to imitate the Conduct of
Sree Gaursundar.

Secular studies and pursuits in their purely worldly sense are not only
unnecessary but are positively harmful to the jiva in the state of bondage.

The object and method of all non-spiritual activities is to be enabled thereby

to acquire extended opportunities of selfish, material enjoyment, a
desideratum which is foreign to the nature of the jiva in the State of Grace. Any
act which is undertaken for securing one’s own enjoyment ceases to have any
reference to the service of the Lord Who is the Absolute Master, Proprietor and
of everything. The pursuit of the knowledge of the things of this world
with reference to ourselves as enjoyers of them is not the function of the pure
soul. By all knowledge Godhead alone is properly served. The pursuit of
secular knowledge is productive of spiritual well-being if it possesses this
exclusive reference to Godhead both as regards its object and method.

The acceptance of this true principle does not destroy any value, it only removes
our ignorance and fulfills the only real object of all knowledge. God certainly
indwells all knowledge, but inaccessibly to the conditioned soul. As soon as the
conditioned soul is enabled to realize His Presence in all learning, his object and
method of pursuing knowledge ceases to be secular and harmful. Sree
Gaursundar was within His Rights in accepting the service of the goddesses of
secular learning and of physical Nature, because He is their Lord and Proprietor.
There could be no absence of Reference in the Reference Himself. But because
Sree Gaursundar was pleased to exhibit the Leela of pursuing secular knowledge
for its own sake, those who are aware of His Divinity should not, with an
inexcusable perversity of judgment, jump to the conclusion that His Conduct
was intended to justify the apparently similar procedure of any jivas, if they
happen to cherish the unnatural desire of becoming the masters or slaves of
Material Nature. God is always the Master even when He chooses to manifest
His Divine Form in this unspiritual world. Even when the Lord seems, to the
perverted judgment of fallen jivas, to be subject, like themselves, to the laws of
physical Nature, He remains her Master none the less.

Even the devotees themselves failed to understand the Doings of the Lord at this
period, although His conduct was appreciated by worldly people who supposed,
in their disloyal delusion, that it resembled their own. This latter kind of
appreciation was an unconscious offense against the Lord, while the depreciation
of His Conduct by the devotees was not an offense, although it was an error, into
which they fell by the Will of Godhead Himself, for the furtherance of His
Pastimes.

Worldly people misunderstood the Conduct of both Sree Gaursundar and His
devotees. They admired Sree Gaursundar for His great Qualities, for the
Beauty of His Person and for His great Learning. They desired those things

for themselves and could, therefore, appreciate them by the method of envy.

The bound jiva wants to enjoy, to rule, to possess beauty and learning for
increasing his supposed power and scope of selfish enjoyment. Sree Gaursundar
had all what they so wrongly desire. The worldly people regarded Him as the
most successful of worldlings. They disliked the devotees, because they did
not approve of their lack of worldliness. The mode of life of the devotees
seemed in the eyes of those worldly people to be not merely bad, but ridiculous.
It is not possible for worldly people to understand the ways of pure devotees ; it
is still less possible for them to understand the Ways of God Himself.

If we want to follow Sree Gaursundar we should in the first place have to know
our real relationship to Him. In proportion as this knowledge of our relationship
with Godhead is realized, we are in a position to understand His Ways. When
Sree Gaursundar took to secular study, apparently for its own sake, His Purpose
was to be merciful to the goddess of secular learning inside whose heart He ever
dwells in the Form that is incomprehensible to the conditioned jiva; and,
secondarily, to establish the principle, for the benefit of the fallen jivas, that they
should neither thoughtlessly imitate nor condemn the conduct of the pure
devotee, nor suppose that he is ever liable to error by reason of his youth, or
apparent ignorance of the concerns of this world, or even apparent devotion to
them. The efforts of the servants of God are not governed by the instinct of so-
called self-preservation, or for adjustment to the phenomenal environment,
which is apt to dominance the activities of fallen jivas. The devotees never do
anything except under the pure impulse of serving Krishna. It is not altogether
impossible for us, even while we continue in the sinful state, to admit this.

Regarding Sree Mukunda Datta, we have the hint in Sree Chaitanya Charitamrita
that ‘Lord Chaitanya Himself dances in the kirtana of Mukunda. 5 Mukunda
made his appearance in Chittagong. In Gauraganoddesadipika he is identified
with Madhukantha, the singer of Braja. We have seen already that Mukunda
Datta was a fellow student of Sree Chaitanya in the Academy of Sree Gangadas
Pandit. Mukunda was a most brilliant scholar and Chaitanya found great delight:
in putting to him the most difficult riddles of Logic. Mukunda read the
Bhagavatam to Sree Chaitanya after the Latter’s return from Gaya. When Sree
Chaitanya danced in the yard of Sribas Pandit, Mukunda sang the kirtana. He
accompanied Sree Chaitanya to Katwa on the occasion of His Acceptance of
Renunciation (sannyas), and subsequently followed Him to Puri. He used to
come every year to Puri from Bengal to visit the Lord, in the company of His
other devotees.

The godless people of that time objected to the kirtana on the ground that
dancing and singing with a loud voice are not the method of
worship recommended by the Bhagavatam. This is true in regard to the
insincere performances of the pseudo Vaishnavas. But the Bhagavatam
frequently mentions the manifestation of genuine spiritual perturbations in the
forms of laughter, weeping, dancing, singing, etc., in an unaccountable form in
the true devotees of Krishna. The people were angered by the loud kirtana of
Sribas and his brothers for the ostensible reason that it stood in the way of their
sleep, etc.

Those, who profess to be seekers of worldly merit (punya) for its enjoyable
rewards, naturally misunderstand the efforts of pure devotees who
practice devotion to Godhead, for benefiting all persons by inclining them to the
service of Godhead which is obstructed by their hankerings after worldly
enjoyment. But those godless people supposed, in their ignorance, that the
dancing and singing of the Vaishnavas, which are performed because they are
pleasing to Krishna, are a crude and inferior form of worship of which the
lonely individualistic method was regarded as the highest. .This insolence
of judgment, which is the necessary and invariable concomitant of simulation
of worship by conditioned souls, proved its own terrible punishment
and effectively prevented those scoffers from listening to the unalloyed kirtana
of Hari that was nightly performed within the reach of their hearing, for
the benefit of all, by Sribas Pandit and his brothers, in the teeth of the
violent, uncalled-for, suicidal opposition of all those self-complaisant worldly
egotists.

While Nimai was thus wholly immersed in the pleasures of study, Sree Isvara
Puri came to Nabadwip and presented himself at the house of Advaita. He
was clad in the garb of an ascetic (sannyasin) of one staff; and so no one
suspected him to be a Vaishnava. But Advaita noticed the glow of his
extraordinary spiritual energy and recognized him as a theistic (Vaishnava)
sannyasin. No sooner did Mukunda begin a song about Krishna in the gathering
of the Vaishnavas at Advaita’s, the ocean of natural love for Krishna in the pure
heart of Puri was deeply stirred. Presently all the Vaishnavas came to learn that
the sannyasin, who loved Krishna so deeply, was no other than Sree Isvara Puri,
the loved disciple of Sree Madhabendra Puri.

One day as Sree Gaursundar was returning home after teaching, He accidentally
met Sree Iswara Puri on His way and did obeisance to him, as is the duty

of every householder towards a sannyasin. Sree Isvara Puri was struck by
the wonderfully beautiful appearance of Sree Gauranga and enquired Who He
was and what subject He taught. Nimai with due deference answered the
questions of Sree Isvara Puri, and, with great respect and cordiality, invited him
to accompany. Him to His House and accept the alms of his day’s meal there.

Sachi Devi cooked the offering for Krishna and gave it in alms to Sree Isvara
Puri. After the meal Sree Isvara Puri engaged with Nimai Pandit in
discourse regarding Krishna and in course of the talk manifested his
overwhelming love for Krishna. Sree Isvara Puri spent several months at
Nabadwip at the house of Sree Gopinath acharya, sister’s husband (the famous
Sarbabhauma Bhattacharchaya of Vidyanagar). Nimai Pandit went to Vidyanagar
in the evenings to pay His respects to Sree Isvara Puri at the conclusion of His
day’s teaching. Sree Isvara Puri was charmed with the love for Krishna of
Sree Gadadhar Pandit who was spontaneously unattached to the world from
infancy. Moved by feeling of affection Sree Iswara Puri undertook to read to
Gadadhar his own work, ‘Sree Krishnaleelamritam’.

One day Sree Isvara Puri asked Nimai Pandit to correct any, mistakes that He
might detect in his book, promising to adopt any alterations that He
might suggest. The Lord replied, ‘that as the book contained the account of
the Doings of Krishna and had been written by a pure devotee like Sree Isvara
Puri, any person, who presumed to detect any fault in it, would certainly commit
a grave offense against Godhead. Whatever the external quality of the verses of
a devotee might seem to be, Krishna is fully pleased thereby. There was no
doubt about it. Any grammatical or other defects that may happen to be present
in the language of the devotee are over-looked by Krishna Who is ever subdued
by the homage of the heart and accepts nothing but pure love for Himself. If any
one found fault with the language of a devotee, it only proved that the critic
was devoid of the Grace of Krishna. There did not exist the person who would
dare to find fault with the language used by a pure devotee like Puripada to
convey the tidings of Krishna.’

But Sree Isvara Puri continued to press his request that Nimai Pandit might point
out the defects of his book. In this manner Isvara Puri spent hours in discussing
daily a variety of topics with Nimai. One day after listening to a certain shloka,
composed by Sree Isvara Puri, Nimai Pandit said to him, by way of fun, that the
verb in the said verse should have the form of parasmaipada and not of
atmanepada. Thereafter, when Nimai Pandit next made His Appearance another

day, Sree Isvara Puri told Him that he had been able to find out the grammatical
authority in favour of his conjugation of the verb as atmanepada. The Lord also,
in order to enhance the greatness of His devotee, refrained from finding fault
with this conclusion. Having passed some time in the pleasures of these learned
pastimes in the company of Nimai, Sree Isvara Puri started again on his
wanderings in order to sanctify the tirthas, all over India, by his visit.

The above account of Sree Chaitanya’s first meeting with His Guru is
reproduced verbatim from Sree Chaitanya Bhagavata. Sree Isvara Puri made
his appearance in a Brahmana family of Kumarhatta ( Halishahar, on the E. B.
Ry.)

He was the most beloved disciple of Sree Madhabendra Puri. In Chaitanya-
Charitamrita it is narrated (Antya, VIII, 26-29) how Sree Isvara Puri obtained
the mercy of his Gurudeva, by his loyal service, who bestowed on his
worthy disciple his own love for Krishna. The unique love of Sree Isvara Puri
for Krishna, which was aroused in him in this manner, never left him.

Sree Isvara Puri wore the garb of a sannyasin of one staff (the staff being the
symbol of self-discipline). The assumption of the single staff is the practice
of those sarmyasins who follow the path of knowledge to obtain the reward of
the six-fold endeavours, viz., sama (equanimity), dama (self-control),
tidksha (endurance), etc., by the study of the Vedanta and the other Scriptures.
Those who follow the path offruitive works, on attainment of the stage ofyati,
take to the triple-staff sannyas and wander about companionless in all directions.
The Vaishnava Sannyasins, discarding alike the desire for worldly enjoyment as
well as renunciation of such enjoyment, engage in the exclusive service of Hari.
In them, therefore, the twin renunciation of worldly enjoyment and
renunciation of such renunciation, are simultaneously present. Their position is
thus defined in Srimad Bhagavatam, ‘I shall cross the otherwise impassable
ocean of ignorance by serving the Feet of Godhead by practicing devotion to
the Supreme Soul in the footsteps of the great sages (rishis) of old’.

The rasa (i.e. mellowing quality) of devotion to Krishna, in which Sree Isvara
Puri was established by the mercy of Sree Madhabendra, transcends all
other rasas (mellownesses) by its supreme excellence and complete perfection.
The transcendental rasas may have the forms of (1) Brahman bliss, i.e., the
bliss of realizing the transcendent greatness of Godhead, (2) the bliss of
serving Godhead as a Person Who is Supreme Ruler of the material and

spiritual worlds, and (3) the highest bliss of serving Godhead as Recipient of
causeless loving devotion. The Object of worship, pointed to by the above three
methods of spiritual service, has been called in the Scriptures the Brahman,

Sree Narayana and Sree Krishna respectively. All these rasas (mellownesses)
are located beyond the zone of operation of the triple qualities that permeate
this material world which find their way even to Kailasa, the abode of Siva.

The worthlessness of the worldly rasas (tasty liquid) is due to the existence of
plurality of the objects of worship. In the spiritual realm, in Vishnu Who is Full,
Indivisible, Pure Cognition, there is no possibility of such defects. In Krishna
this spiritual service attains its highest fulfillment. Sree Isvara Puri was loved by
Krishna for his attachment to Sree Guru the best-beloved of Krishna. The author
of Sree Chaitanya Bhagavata says, ‘that being most dearly loved by Krishna
Sree Isvara Puri was necessarily kind to all jivas without distinction. Such
universal kindness is never possible in those who do not serve Krishna. 5

The unwillingness of Sree Gaursundar to comply with the express request of
Sree Isvara Puri to correct the defects of his book is not a display of
insincere civility (which passes in the name of humility in this world). Krishna
makes no difference between the highly skilled linguist and one who is ignorant
of the alphabet. Krishna is ever more kind to him who possesses the
greater inclination of service. Krishna, Who knows the inmost thoughts of our
hearts, is never guilty of mistaken partiality. Pedantic scholars devoid of love
for Krishna only prove their own real ignorance by trying to find defect in
the language of devotees. The ignorance of such scholars is exposed at every
step by the mercy of the Lord of the goddess of learning in order to wean them
from their suicidal hostility to the devotees of Krishna. This also serves to keep
their scholars, pride low. All such vanity is the outcome of ignorance of Krishna

Who is the Truth Absolute. All sinfulness and unwholesomeness is due to
ignorance of the Real Truth, in an aggravated form under the guise of
pseudoscholarship.

As Professor the Lord was wholly occupied with His studies, teaching and
learned disputations. It was specially His practice to test the knowledge of all the
teachers without exception. No Professor of Nabadwip ever came victoriously
through his searching tests. No one was ever able to give a satisfactory answer to
the questions put by Him. Although Nimai Pandit taught only Vyakarana, which
is a comparatively elementary subject. He showed very little deference to the

most erudite Professors of that celebrated emporium of learning. He often passed
with a triumphant bearing through all quarters of the town in the company of His
students displaying the aggressive nonchalance of the perfectly self-conceited
scholiast.

One day, as Nimai Pandit was thus parading the town with His students, He met
Mukunda on His way, quite by accident. The Lord took him by the hand and said
‘Why do you bolt at the very sight of Me? I won’t allow you to escape this time
without being enlightened by you.’ Mukunda thought within himself I must beat
Him to-day. His special and only forte is Vyakarana. I shall silence Him by
asking questions about Rhetoric that He may never again dare to be insolent to
me’. Accordingly Mukunda began by deprecating Vyakarana as the Shastra fit
only for children. ‘Let us discourse instead about Rhetoric ’. The Lord said
Mukunda might select any subject he liked. Mukunda thereupon began to quote
the most difficult passages from the whole range of poetical literature and asked
Him to explain their rhetorical qualities.

Sree Gaursundar impeached every metaphor and simile and all the rhetorical
figures that were employed by those poets, and laid bare their defects in
their minutest details. Mukunda was unable to justify his own select pieces
against the penetrating criticisms of the Lord. The Lord then said laughingly,

‘Go home to-day. Look up your books with more care. I shall again examine you
tomorrow. You should come early.’ Mukunda took the dust of the Feet of
the Lord and departed. He was amazed and began to reflect, Is such
learning possible in a mortal ? There is no Shastra of which He is not perfect
Master.

Gifted with such extraordinary genius, had He been only a devotee of Krishna, I
would never leave His company even for the space of the fraction of a moment
!’

Another day in course of His peripatetic wanderings the Lord of Vaikuntha fell
in with Gadadhar. The Lord laughingly caught him by both hands and would not
quit His hold of him. ‘You study Nyaya. Tell me something about it’. Gadadhar
replied, ‘Ask any question’. The Lord said, ‘Tell Me the characteristics of
liberation (mukti)\ Gadadhar explained it in accordance with the Nyaya Shastra.
The Lord said that the subject was not really explained. The position which
Gadadhar took up was that of the Nyaya Shastra according to which liberation
(mukti) ensues on the cessation or destruction of the extreme miseries.’ The Lord

of the goddess of learning found fault with the proposition in many ways. There
is no disputant who can hold his ground against Godhead. As a matter of fact,
there was not a single person in the whole of Nabadwip who could come up to
the level of Nimai Pandit in learned disputations. Gadadhar now thought of
saving his face by flight. The Lord said ‘Gadadhar go home today. I have more
to learn from you. So do not fail to turn up early to-morrow 5 . Gadadhar made his
obeisance and went off.

The Lord roamed through every part of the town in this manner. He was soon
recognized by all persons as a most profound scholar. All people showed
Him the highest respect whenever they chanced to meet Him. In the afternoon
the Lord proceeded to the side of the Ganges with all His students and sat on
the bank with demonstrative joy. The Beauty of the Person of the Lord, Who
is served by Sree Lakshmi Devi Herself, is unique in all the three worlds
and inspired love in every beholder. The Son of Sachi sat there in the midst of
His disciples and expounded the Shastras. The Vaishnavas also gathered to the
side of the Ganges in the evening and from a distance listened to the
learned dissertations of the Lord. They experienced a mixed feeling of delight
and sorrow as they thought within themselves that Nimai Pandit was,
indeed, Possessor of Learning and Beauty in an extraordinary measure. ‘But if
Krishna is not served thereby those qualifications are of no use whatever 5 . They
also confided to one another the fact that they were in the habit of fleeing the
very sight of Him for fear of His puzzling hoaxes. Some complained that He also
did not allow them to escape so easily, often holding them up with the
peremptory authority of a customs-officer. A few admitted that the Brahmana
was possessed of superhuman powers and even suspected that it is a great
personage (mahapurusha) who had appeared in the world as Nimai Pandit.

Although the Lord was constantly occupied in putting His puzzles to them, still
the Sight of Him somehow always made those Vaishnavas feel very happy.

They all realized that such learning was not to be found in man. But this
discovery also added to their poignant grief that He did not serve Krishna. They
implored one another to bless Him that He might thereby attain to love for
Krishna. All the Vaishnavas would prostrate themselves to the Supreme Lord on
the bank of the Ganges and all of them blessed Him, ‘May it be Thy pleasure, O
Krishna, that the Son of Jagannath be maddened by love for Thee, giving up
every other pleasure. May He constantly serve Thee with loving devotion.
Vouchsafe to us, O Krishna, Him as our companion. 5 The Lord, who knows the
inmost thoughts of the heart, was aware of these wishes of the Vaishnavas. He

made obeisance to them whenever He chanced to meet Sribas and any of the
devotees. The Lord received the blessings of the devotees with His Head bent in
submission. ‘By the blessings of the Divinity’, say the Scriptures, ‘love for
Krishna is aroused’.

Some of them spoke to Him plainly, ‘Why do You waste Your time in the
delusions of learning?, Some said ‘Look here, Nimai Pandit; what does it
profit to be learned? Make haste to serve Krishna. Why do people read—It is
surely for the purpose of learning devotion to Krishna? If that is missed what is
the good of learning?’ The Lord smiled and answered, ‘It is a great good fortune
for Me that such as you teach Me to regard devotion to Krishna as essential.

It seems to My mind that One, Whose welfare is sought by such as you,
is, indeed, most fortunate. I have a mind, after teaching My pupils for a little
time longer to betake Myself to good Vaishnavas’. Thus saying the Lord, Who
found Himself in the midst of His servants, would begin to laugh. No one
could recognize Him by the force of His Own Power. By such ways did the
Lord captivate the minds of all persons. There was no one who did not long for
the Sight of Him.

The Lord’s leisure was spent in these learned sessions by the side of the Ganges
and wanderings through the different quarters of the town. The citizens
greeted the Feet of the Lord with the greatest affection no sooner they caught
Sight of Him. The ladies said, ‘He is the god of love manifest. May woman be
blessed by obtaining this Treasure at her every successive birth ! ’ The learned
regarded Him as the equal of the celestial sage Brihaspati; and the oldest of them
made their obeisance to His Lotus Feet. To the yogis, He appeared to possess
the realized body. The wicked viewed Him with terror, as the very Form of
Death. If the Lord greeted a person only once he was thereby reduced to the
condition of His prisoner and wore round his neck the collar of His love. Despite
all the outspoken boastings of learning in which the Lord constantly indulged in
the hearing of everybody, He was devotedly loved by all the people. Even
the Yavanas displayed a great liking for the Lord Who is by nature
mercifully disposed to all without exception.

The Lord held His Academy in the suite of rooms that led into the residence of
the fortunate Mukunda-Sanjaya. The Son of Sree Sachi Devi engaged there
in defending and opposing different interpretations and in refuting, justifying
and expounding in endless ways, the texts of the sutras. The fortunate Sanjaya-
Mukunda with all his family and dependents felt themselves borne aloft on

the high tide of a perennial joy, the cause of which they could not understand.

After the day’s triumphs of learning the Lord returned home in the evening. Thus
did the Ruler of Vaikuntha choose to divert Himself with the exquisite pastimes
of learning.

These accounts from the pen of Thakur Brindavandas leave on the mind a most
vivid impression of the realities of the Professor life of Sree Chaitanya. He
was evidently the universal Favourite of both Hindus and Mussalmans alike
and was feared by all the impious scholars and evil-doers of every description.

He was to all appearance the ideal Householder Teacher absorbed in His
studies and teaching, which were of a wholly secular character. He was also a
most formidable controversialist and had a wonderful faculty of detecting
and exposing weak points in the views of the leading scholars of the
famous University-town. The Beauty of His Person ravished every beholder. He
showed the highest respect to the community of the Vaishnavas although
they happened to be the objects of persecution and ridicule by all classes of
the people. But He showed very little disposition to listen to their
discourses regarding Krishna. On the contrary, His genuine reverence for them
did not prevent Him from putting even to them His puzzling riddles of Logic,
the activity that He seemed to like best of all. So the Vaishnavas, although they
had a genuine liking for Him, were grieved by His engrossing devotion to
trivial secular studies and apparently utter indifference to Krishna. But
they nevertheless prayed to Krishna to bestow on Him the fullest measure of
love for Him that He might be a real Companion to them.

Chapter 11 Unrecognised Direct Manifestation

From the point that we reached in the previous Chapter begin, with a staggering
suddenness, the overwhelming series of direct Manifestations which are also at
first necessarily unrecognized. The beginning of this change is thus described by
Thakur Sree Brindavandas. On a certain day the Lord under pretense of nervous
break-down manifested all the perturbations of loving devotion. All on a sudden
he began to utter words that are not of this world, rolled on the ground, laughed
and smashed the house. He spoke with a deep, loud voice, girded up His loins
and beat all persons whom He chanced to find about Him. His whole Body
repeatedly attained the state of suspended animation and these fits of
exclusiveness were so peculiar that they filled all beholders with terror. The
friends came soon to learn the tidings of His supposed indisposition and turned
up in a body. They busied themselves with devising the proper treatment of His
mental derangement for so it appeared to them to be. Buddhimanta Khan and
Mukunda-Sanjaya came to the House of the Lord with all members of their
families. They applied to His Head medicinal oils, technically known as Vishnu
and Narayana oils. Everyone offered the kind of help that suggested itself to him.
But the Lord does everything by His own uncontrolled Will. How could He be
cured by any external aid?

The Lord shivered in every Limb and gesticulated violently. His loud
exclamations terrified everybody. The Lord said: T am the Lord of all the
worlds; I uphold the world, whence My name is Vishwambhar. I am He, but no
one knows Me? With these words He begins to run at all the people to get hold
of them. In this manner The Lord did disclose His own Lordly Nature under
the guise of nervous malady. Yet no one understood, being prevented by
His Power. Some held that He was possessed by a demon. Others opined that it
was the doing of witches. Some expressed the view that it was undoubtedly a
case of madness as He manifested the symptom of talking incessantly. By
these indications they failed to understand His real Nature, being thus deluded
by the Power of the Lord. They applied various curative oils to His Head and
kept His Body immersed in oil in a large vat. The Lord laughed without restraint
as He lay afloat in oil, which gave all persons the impression that He had a
very serious attack of the worst type of the disease.

Having by His Will sported for a while in this manner, the Lord regained His
normal health by giving up the show of nervous malady. At this sudden recovery

all people rent the sky with loud acclamations of the Name of Hari. In their joy,
they made lavish gifts of clothing in such huge quantities that it baffles all
calculation. All the people were gladdened by the tidings of the Lord’s recovery.
All said, ‘May the great Pandit live for ever!’ ‘The Lord of Vaikuntha,’ observes
Thakur Brindavandas, ‘made merry in this manner. Who has power to know Him
if He does not make Himself known?’

These manifestations of spiritual perturbations described by Thakur
Brindavandas in the above passage, are liable to be misunderstood. They
were manifested by Sree Gaursundar under the form of the symptoms of
nervous malady. Those who want to understand everything in terms of
ordinary mundane experience and are not prepared to admit the existence, or
possibility of existence, of the super-mundane, naturally reject the clear
testimony of the Vaishnava writers to the effect that the spiritual perturbations
are not physical phenomena at all even though they necessarily appear as such to
the clouded vision and understanding of all mortals.

The principle has already been discussed elsewhere. It applies to the whole range
of spiritual manifestations. The Name Krishna, the Remains of the food tasted by
Krishna, the Objects used in the worship of Krishna—such as buildings, utensils,
etc., the body and mind of the person who worships Krishna, are, every one of
them, spiritual entities, the consensus of opinion of all empiricists to the contrary
notwithstanding. It is a difference of view which separates those, who admit the
existence of the eternal and unbridgeable gulf that divides the spiritual from the
material, from those who consciously or unconsciously, hold that the two are
identical. The latter form the large and influential body of the anti-
transcendentalists and philanthrophists.

But the real transcendentalists possess an intelligible and consistent theistic
philosophy. They believe in the actual substantive existence of the
super mundane plane which never submits to the inspection of the material
senses. The spiritual manifestations belong to the transcendental plane. They
have to be carefully distinguished on the one hand from all worldly phenomena
and on the other from dishonest or misguided exhibitions of the pseudo-
transcendentalist. Everyone is free to believe or not believe a thing or
a proposition. But no clear thinker would claim the right of misrepresenting,
or deliberately misunderstanding, a proposition or an occurrence. The
materialists and pseudo transcendentalists have deliberately misunderstood and
mis-stated the accounts of the Spiritual Scriptures. This is not honest blunder.

It was this possibility, nay the certainty of deliberate misunderstanding on the
part of all disbelievers and pseudo-believers, that led Sree Gaursundar to
devise this method, for saving them from the offense of blasphemy, of disguising
the satvika manifestations of spiritual love under the form of the symptoms of
a disease with which they have the closest external similarity. The opinion
of those, who hold the view that the so-called satvika manifestations are
also themselves due to the diseased condition of the brain, does not carry any
more weight than deliberate misrepresentations. No physician can understand
the real cause of the appearance or cessation of the phenomenon known as
disease. But it is unfortunately only a small number of doctors who suspect and
allow for this great insufficiency of the grounds of their knowledge in opining
about bodily manifestations of any kind. Medical science is no less subject to
the fundamental limitations of sensuous empiricism than its sister sciences.

No science in the modern sense of the term would deserve a serious hearing
unless it either helped the codification or widening of our stock of worldly
experience.

Considered from this point of view the science of medicine has no jurisdiction
over spiritual manifestations, and this ought to be more clearly recognized acted
upon and proclaimed by the leading scientists of to-day than they are always
accustomed to do. They are, of course, free to criticize the methods
and experiences of the Absolutists. It is only when they are really unable
to understand spiritual matters after proper endeavor that such criticism has
its real use in exposing the vagaries or opposition of insincere persons and
thereby preventing mischief from that quarter. But let them not forget their
legitimate function by themselves setting up as spiritualists and attempting in
that unscientific manner to manufacture theories of the Absolute on the basis of
any worldly stuff and thereby prove one more nuisance and obstruction in the
way of the honest inquiry of the Transcendental. Those who willfully offend
against reason are rightly punished by the perpetuation of their ignorance, for
which they have to thank only themselves. The satvika perturbations due to love
for Krishna, are objects of longing to devotees of the very highest order who
are absolutely free from all ignorance and all taint of self-seeking. This
is necessarily unintelligible to those who have not thought it worth their while
to cross the threshold of spiritual life. Their self-sufficient attitude towards
the problems of the eternal duties, is only a proof of their utter slavery to
the illusory power of Vishnu, the goddess Maya, who is ever usefully engaged
in deluding the race of the hypocrites of all shades.

The utterances and activities of the servants of Vishnu are a perpetual enigma to
the shrewdest atheists. No efforts of their perverted intellect can find out their
real significance. The words uttered by the Vaishnava are transcendental, as are
all activities. They are perfectly incomprehensible to conceited sinners who have
been assigned this material world as the place of their abode as the expidatory?
punishment of such perversity. The deluding power of Vishnu is ever engaged in
guarding the portals of the transcendental realm against the impious assaults of
all builders of the Babel. The realisation of this truth alone enables us to attain
that perfect humility of the spirit to which the gates of the eternal realm of
Vishnu are ever likely to open of themselves. The humility that is current in this
world is the perverted reflection of the substantive spiritual quality and is all the
more heinous because such disguised form of self-conceit constitutes the
deliberate misrepresentation of true humility. External roughness or smoothness
of conduct is no criterion of the real humility. The really humble conduct of the
self-less devotee of Vishnu may seem as rudeness, conceit and even arrogance to
the pretended view of the deliberate hypocrite. There is no help for a person who
chooses to willfully misunderstand. Such persons have been aptly compared to
the owl whose eyes are denied only the sight of the glorious Sun.

To many impartial critics who are fully conscious of the vagaries of our present
intellect in its pretended efforts to approach the Absolute and who are, therefore,
prepared to reserve their judgment on a subject so alien to their whole
experience the conduct of Sree Gaursundar, on this particular occasion, may still
seem to be open to the charge of apparent inconsistency. They may properly
enough ask whether Sree Gaursundar wanted to be regarded as the devotee of
Krishna, or as Krishna Himself. If He wished to teach the people of this world
the highest and only service of the Absolute Person by His own practice, how
could the Manifestation of His real Nature as Recipient of worship be consistent
with such purpose?

This criticism overlooks the fact that there is a very close approximation to the
Divinity in the highest stage of devotion when the devotee is apt to be persuaded
that He is Krishna Himself and in that mood sets himself to imitating the
Activities of Krishna. This is to be carefully distinguished from the erroneous
conclusion of the professors of the cult of the undifferentiated Brahman that the
fulfillment of worship, which they regard as only a probationary stage, is
attained by complete merging with the Object of worship Who is conceived as
being absolutely devoid of form and activity of any kind.

In the case of the true devotee the worship is not a make-believe, temporary
expedient as it is in the case of the other. If the service which we offer to Krishna
is supposed to be due to certain changing circumstances it at once loses the
character of sincerity and truth. The Vaishnava knows Himself to be the eternal
servant of the Lord. He does not think it possible or desirable to merge in
Krishna and thereby cease to be His servant. This is the ambition of those
hypocrites who, while pretending to be the servants of a god whom they cannot
or do not purposely attempt to define, really cherish in the back-ground of their
disloyal minds the design of being some day freed from the irksome necessity of
such service as the reward (?) of their insincerity! To them, therefore, the end is
necessarily different from the means.

By the adoption, for the time being, of a particular method, which is to be
discarded on the attainment of the object of such endeavor, the Absolute cannot
be realized. The relative can never lead, not even as a means, to the Absolute. It
involves the fallacy of the major premise. The major premise in this case is too
narrow and the middle term is undistributed. Untruth cannot lead to the Truth.

By means of the Truth alone the Truth can be realized. As we do not possess the
knowledge of the Truth and have no chance of ever knowing Him with the help
of our present limited faculties we are either doomed to the state of eternal
ignorance or liable to be enlightened from above by grace. There is no other
alternative. The Vaishnava; therefore, accepts the latter alternative for attaining
to the knowledge of the Truth. The abstract monist holds consistently neither to
the one nor to the other. He does not believe fully either in his own ability, or in
revelation. He has, therefore, no locus standi and necessarily tumbles headlong
into the depths of Uncertainty which he calls God or Brahman in order to delude
himself and his followers with the hope, which, despite all perversity, his and
their natures instinctively demand, that they are for a time being as a sort of
servants of the Absolute. When the true devotee exhibits the moods and
activities of his Master he does so as a loyal servant rendered completely
oblivious of his own separate existence and interests, by the contemplation of his
Beloved. But he knows, specially at such moments more fully than ever, that he
himself is not the Master. The conduct of the monist in his so-called realized
state (siddhi) bears no resemblance to the activities of the devotee engrossed by
the thoughts of his Master who, due to his consequent forgetfulness of his own
self, thus enacts the Master’s part. But the monist ceases to function on merging
with the Absolute ( ?).

In the case of Sree Chaitanya He is sometimes found to be declaring Himself to

be Krishna. Those who want to misunderstand will say that He was guilty
of inconsistency of conduct because He could have easily avoided any
suspicions being aroused regarding the sincerity of His own conduct by
abstaining from such explicit declarations of His possession of the Master’s
Nature. But at the same time we must remember that He was not merely
simulating but actually personating the devotee. This is incomprehensible to us.
But it happens to be the fact, as testified to by the author of Sree-Chaitanya-
Charitamrita in the opening verses of his work dealing with the object of the
Lord’s Appearance in this world. The real object, says Sree Krishnadas Kaviraj,
was to taste His own sweetness by clothing Himself with the disposition and
beauty of Sree Radhika. All other work could have been, and was as a matter of
fact actually performed by the secondary Avataras. The Lord’s own special
Purpose in appearing in the world, which cannot be realized by any except
Himself, was to experience the love of Sree Radhika for Himself. He, therefore,
could not be recognized by those who were not His innermost devotees.

It is true that He was recognized as Krishna by His followers from whom He did
not hide His real Nature. This was necessary for the purpose of the Leela and the
possession of such knowledge by His devotees served to enhance the charm of
their service and also to regulate their conduct. Therefore, these
direct manifestations possess a double face like Sree Chaitanya Himself. Those
who choose to ignore the face of the devotee, will miss the real significance of
His Conduct and Teaching, no less than those who disregard the Divine face. All
so-called partial truth is a deluding empiric conception and has no place
in spiritual experience. In the absolute realm there is diversity, without
mpturous dividing lines.

In order to be able to understand the activities of the devotees of the Absolute
Person Vishnu it is necessary to remember that enlightenment from above is the
indispensable essential precondition. It is futile to attempt to know Him
by means of our present limited understanding. Hence the necessity of
having recourse to the spiritual preceptor and spiritual initiation. Initiation
(diksha) consists in complete submission to the Absolute, which is equivalent to
loyal and sincere submission to the guidance of the spiritual Preceptor,
such submission being identical with obedience to the Word of Krishna as
revealed in the satvata Shastras of which the spiritual Preceptor is both the only
bona fide exponent and follower, the indispensable requisites for spiritual
preceptorship.

The act of the disciple in submitting to the Preceptor, is not to be confounded
with the renunciation of the right of private judgment or subordinating one’s own
judgment to another’s. Both Preceptor and disciple are under obligation to obey
only the spiritual Scriptures. It is a matter of willing admission of
superior progress on the path of the Eternal, and not a question of enforced
servitude. Both preceptor and disciple are free and sincere enquirers of the
Absolute by the method of unconditional submission to the Absolute. Both
realize the necessity and the rationale of such submission. Both know that the
only real freedom consists in absolute submission to the Truth. All these
conditions are scrupulously observed in their mutual relationship by the bona
fide Preceptor and disciple. The effect of such practical submission to the
Absolute is freedom from the limitations of the materialized senses. No sooner is
this act of complete self-surrender to the spiritual Preceptor made then the
devotee is accepted by Krishna as His own. The body, senses and mind of such a
person are surcharged with the spiritual essence by the Grace of Krishna. And
the initiated thereby becomes eligible for eternally serving the Feet of Krishna
by the purified body, senses and mind.

The service of the Absolute is possible only on the plane of the Absolute and in
the spiritual body by means of the spiritual senses. The soul of jiva
possesses body, senses and mind. Krishna has also His own Divine Form, Senses
and Mind. The soul of the jiva is constituted to serve Krishna with his
spiritual body, mind and senses. The activities of the jiva in this world, in the
fallen state, is a perverted deluded caricature of his true and eternal function.

The body, mind and senses of the devotee appear to conditioned souls to be
similar to their adventitious material body, senses and mind. But this is not really
the case. It is the effect of delusion. The satvika perturbations which are
possible only in the spiritual body, appear to the materialized vision of sinful
jivas as possessing the character of physical manifestations. Such conclusion is
equally deluded. Those who do not admit the necessity of submission to
Krishna, cannot necessarily understand what the practice of such submission
implies.

The act of submission is the key to the spiritual realm. The denial of this is
tantamount to ignorance. The refusal to submit to the Truth is the
logical equivalent of the slavery of untmth by means of the deluding physical
senses. The atheists are the only ignorant and unfree persons by their refusal to
follow the guidance of their reason.

Sree Gaursundar talked much while He was exhibiting the Leela of Direct
Manifestation under the guise of nervous distemper. This confirmed
the suspicions of those who were looking out for the symptoms of disease.

The words uttered by the devotee are transcendental sounds that have the power
of producing spiritual enlightenment by freeing from worldliness, if
the unprejudiced ear is turned to them. The Transcendental Lord is served as
the Transcendental Sounds. Those who admit the spiritual nature of the devotees
of Krishna know that they are constantly engaged in the service of Krishna on
the plane of the Absolute. The utterance of too much earthly sound is no doubt
a sign of aggravated worldliness and is the malady of madness to which we
are sometimes subjected by the mercy of Krishna so that we may be
reminded thereby of the insubstantial and transitory nature of our most highly
valued worldly possessions. One suffering from the aggravated disease of
worldliness is not healed by the application of medicines which are supplied by
physical Nature for the restoration of the worldly delusion. Such malady,
treatment and cure all belong to the realm of delusions. They only serve to keep
up the deluded idea of the wholesome nature of this world and its concerns for
the correctness of atheists by such bitter experience. The delusion of those who
put their trust in the delusion of the earthly physicians, who have a very
high opinion of themselves, their science and its utility, is augmented by the
practice of such trust.

The maladies of both worldly patients and worldly doctors can be healed only if
they learn to distinguish between the symptoms of real disease, the
punishment of sin, and the similar spiritual manifestations of devotees who are
absolutely free from all taint of worldliness, which are the only cure of all
diseases. But the ill-fated have not the leisure, so wholly engrossed they choose
to be in their worldly concerns and self-gratulations, to exercise their
unprejudiced reason on the subject of their disease of the worldly sojourn. They
are so absolutely persuaded of their own rectitude that they employ their wits in
disproving the claims, to any real goodness, of those very persons who
endeavour to cure them of their worldly disease by affording them the
opportunity of listening to those redeeming sounds that bring the tidings of the
Absolute to all benighted souls. They mistake, as the symptoms of an unsound
mind with which unfortunately they are only too familiar, words and utterances
that are the only medicine of their diseased souls. This infatuity is the corrective
punishment of their unwarrantable self-complacency. Krishna’s Deluding Power
is ever seeking the holes in the coats of everyone of us in order to disturb us in
the most sensitive parts and thereby to cure us of the disease of such fatuous

reliance on the resources of our deluded, limited understanding. He, therefore,
sends His own beloved ones, in the guise of patients, to the doctors of this world
for delivering such of them as keep their ears open to the voice of Krishna
spoken through the mouths of His devotees. But the other sort seeing, sees not,
and misses their only opportunity, as further corrective punishment for their
gross, deliberate worldliness. This is the fate of those worldly-wise people who
consider the Unrestrained Talk of Sree Gaursundar as a conclusive proof of His
madness.

Of course it is possible, not inevitable for a time even after initiation, for a
person to exhibit the state of suffering from the actual effects of
sensuous activities that he had indulged in before his initiation. This does not
come amiss to the bona fide probationer who never wants to get rid of his
merited sufferings in lieu of his intention to serve. Such suffering causes the
genuine probationer no pain but, on the contrary, is to him a source of
unalloyed spiritual bliss as providing greater opportunities of service. To the
uninitiated the sight of apparent suffering of the devotee presents a double face,
viz., of those patient sufferings and merited punishment, both of which are untrue
and are a trick of the Deluding Power to prevent the obstinate impious from
serving the devotee as devotee. The doctor who may be called by the devotee to
treat him is afforded the opportunity of rendering unconscious service to
the Vaishnava and will obtain his reward in the shape of a lessening of
his worldliness, if he is careful not to allow his mind to cherish any
prejudice against the bona fide of the real devotee merely from the fact that he
might have been guilty of worldly conduct in his past life. This total absence of
all irrational prejudice is possible only in a person who is sincerely conscious
of his own imperfections.

A doctor who treats a real sadhu without prejudice thereby unconsciously serves
Krishna Himself and obtains as his reward freedom, from all ignorance by the
mercy of the sadhu who is pleased to manifest to him his real spiritual nature by
the will of Krishna. As soon as one obtains the real sight of the Vaishnava he
instantly awakes from the deep waking slumber of ignorance to which he was
being lulled by the deluding tricks of Maya. No amount of any so-called
unprejudiced service rendered to a non-Vaishnava can lead to such a result. On
the contrary if a non-Vaishnava is too zealously served his so-called benefactor
(?) is liable to be punished by an increase of his delusion as he would thereby
only develop the vanity of false humanity which makes him overlook the
distinction between the Vaishnava and the non-Vaishnava as recipients of our

service. Such a person can hardly be expected to be ever able, unless after he is
really cured of his fondness for non-Vaishnavas, to grasp the real significance of
the eternal distinction between the spiritual and the material, or to realize the
truth that his soul has no affinity whatever with the objects and aspirations of
this world.

The apparent defects of a bona fide Vaishnava have been aptly compared to the
mud and froth that are sometimes found in the holy water of the Ganges.

These in no way affect the eternal and unchangeable purity of the sacred stream
that issues from the Holy Feet of the Supreme Lord. On the contrary even such
mud and froth themselves imbiblie, by contact with the chastening water of
the Ganges, the quality of delivering all really unclean persons from the
sticking dirt of worldliness. It requires a really impartial and supremely
patient judgment to be able to enter into this spirit of the philosophy of theism.
Sree Gaursundar’s teachings are a sealed book to the crooked and captious, but
are easily understood by the really candid. Worldly merit or demerit is of no
help in this matter. Sincerity of the soul is ~e one thing needful. Insincerity is
the concomitant of worldliness which is the cause of all our self-made
ignorance and misery.

But some may still raise the objection that Sree Gaursundar could have done
even greater good and obtained a better hearing for His teachings if He
had exhibited no such symptoms even of apparent madness. Of course the
Supreme Lord is free to do whatever He likes and there can be no defect in what
He Wills or Does. Gaursundar was, in this instance, exhibiting the Leela of the
ideal devotee. The necessity for such performance lay in the fact that the
deliverance of all fettered souls is absolutely dependent on the realization of
the transcendental nature of the devotee of God. Such realization can
alone enlighten him regarding the spiritual nature of His own proper self. The
object of Sree Gaursundar was to remove all misconceptions that stand in the
way of such realization.

One of the commonest fallacies of this wide world is that religion is only one
specific department of human activities out of many; or, in other words that it is
possible to serve both God and Mammon at the same time, or at any rate
in recurring succession. This idea, it would not be an exaggeration to observe,
has been allowed by culpable negligence on the part of writers to pervade
all literature of modern times. Religion is pedantically differentiated from
politics, from morality, from aesthetics and from worldly activities of all sorts,

not so much for the purpose of emphasizing the eternal distinction between
the spiritual and the material but with the sinister motive of restricting the scope
of religious activity itself within defined worldly bounds. If this fallacy, which
is so widely disseminated, once finds a real lodgment in the brain, one can
never realize the nature of the spiritual service of God, nor understand that it
is possible to practice the same even while we are placed in this world
without doing harm to anybody. I may notice in passing that the practice of so-
called religious toleration, which is so much affected by a particular stamp of
thinkers, is also based upon the above fallacy, viz., that it is possible without any
real danger to anyone to keep religion out of the other affairs of life. One, who
prays regularly to God in the evening and morning and thinks that thereby
his obligations to Godhead are at least partially fulfilled, utterly misunderstands
the nature of his duty as the exclusive servant of the Lord. The obligation to
serve Krishna is a self-imposed principle which knows no limits. Krishna can
and ought to be served in all circumstances by each and every person of this
world. One who really serves Him does so in his every act and thought. The
devotee serves Krishna at all times both when he wakes and when he seems to
sleep. Every act of the devotee under every circumstance is an act of service.

One who fails to understand this fundamental principle of spiritual existence,
cannot recognize the devotee of God and is doomed to sin and worldliness for
this reason, notwithstanding all his exertions resembling the external conduct of
the real sadhus.

The devotee of Krishna serves Him under all circumstances and he does nothing
else. He neither eats nor sleeps but only serves. When He exhibits the activity of
apparent eating and sleeping he does so for our benefit in order to show us how
ever we, for whom eating and sleeping are necessary, can get rid of this false
existence with its whole round of so-called interminable duties and obligations,
if we only obey the Word of God manifested in the holy Scriptures and
explained by the discourse and practice, of the eternal servants of Krishna who,
by His command, make themselves visible to our mortal senses and who live and
move in our midst for the fulfillment of the beneficial Purpose of the Supreme
Lord in regard to ourselves. Such is the real nature of the true servants of
Krishna. The Vaishnava tells us that the soul of every entity has the capacity of
serving Krishna however circumstanced he may appear to be. The souls of the
stone, the tree, the baby in the womb, the lunatic, the dying and the dead, are all
equally eligible in this matter. Because no circumstance of this deluding world,
however formidable or adverse it may seem to be to our eclipsed cognition, can
offer any real obstruction to the spiritual service of the Lord. It is the truth of this

proposition that the devotees are engaged in establishing for the benefit of the
unbelievers of this world, by all their teaching and practice.

It would be a great blunder, therefore, to suppose that any evil can befall the
servants of Krishna, here or elsewhere. The devotee is put by Krishna in
all possible situations in order to train up the judgment of those who profess
to believe in them It is only when a person’s budding faith survives this
purgatorial ordeal that he is in a position to understand the teaching of the
Vaishnava which is identical with his conduct. Conversely the hypocrites are
prevented from committing the offense of the pretense of serving the devotee by
such constant searching of their weakest points. These exhibitions serve the
doubly beneficial purpose of enhancing the faith of all sincere seekers of the
Truth and keeping at a distance all those who have no inclination to serve
Krishna but only themselves.

In this world we cannot really serve Krishna; we can only serve those servants of
the Lord who are mercifully sent by Him into our midst to deliver us from the
state of sin and ignorance. Krishna cannot be served by the sinful and
the ignorant. Those who think that it is possible to serve Krishna with
the resources of our limited understandings or by the physical bodies,
confound the transcendental service of Krishna which passes the understanding
of man with the corresponding atheistical performances. To complete this
delusion they are also firmly persuaded by reason of their cultivated aversion to
Krishna that whatever any individual sinner may choose to fancy as the Truth
contains an element of truth. What they really want is that Truth must serve them
and not they the Truth. They want to be the masters and not the servants
of Krishna. But these irrational, hypocritical, self-seeking, misguided atheists
are prevented, by their perversity due to such senseless prostitution of
their freedom of will, from having the Sight of Krishna or His devotees.

Those who fail to realize the fatal nature of the offense committed against the
Vaishnavas, are unfit to serve the devotees of Krishna although by such
service alone conditioned souls can be delivered from the consequences of their
willful transgressions. It is an offense against the Vaishnavas to suppose that a
bona fide Vaishnava does anything else than the service of Krishna which
is absolutely free from the least taint of worldliness. It is also an offense
against the Vaishnavas to serve or associate with a non-Vaishnava, or to suppose
that a sinner while in the state of sin is a Vaishnava. Until we are freed from
these impious errors we cannot be said to desire the mercy of the true devotees

of the Lord. The transcendental activities and teachings of Sree Gaursundar as
expounded and practiced by His associates and the followers of His
associates, can alone save us from these errors to which an Age given to
superficial controversies, like the present, has an abnormal besetting tendency
to subscribe.

The real significance of these Pastimes of the Lord, although they happened to
be perfectly explicit, were not apparently permitted to be understood even by the
devotees in order to impress upon worldlings the truth that no one is able to
know Him until and unless He enables one to know.

The tidings of the recovery of Sree Gaursundar filled everyone with joy. The
Vaishnavas specially availed of this opportunity of impressing upon Him
the necessity of serving the Feet of Sree Krishna by arguing the reason that there
is no certainty of life or sanity. Sree Chaitanya was naturally partial to
the Vaishnavas. Their exhortations made Him smile as He stopped to do
obeisance to them all on His way in the company of His innumerable pupils.

Sree Chaitanya then resumed His duties as teacher. He taught His pupils inside
the Chandimandap of the house of Mukunda-Sanjaya. While the Lord was
thus engaged in expounding the texts to His pupils perfumed medicated oil
was applied to His Head by some exceptionally fortunate persons of many
good deeds. Sree Chaitanya took His seat in the middle of the room and
was surrounded by His pupils who sat in a circle round their Teacher.

That gathering is without a parallel in the annals of the world. Sree
Brindavandas Thakur ransacked the Scriptures for a parallel instance for the
purpose of comparison. At Badarikasrama Sree Narayana teaches Sanaka and
other Rishis sitting round Him in a circle. The Act of Sree Gaursundar resembled
this Leela of Sree Narayana Himself. The comparison holds good for the reason
that the Darling of Sachi is the Same as Sree Narayana who dwells at
Badarikasrama. It was, therefore, the very same Pastime of Badarikasrama that
Sree Chaitanya was thus enacting in the company of His disciples at Nabadwip.

At the conclusion of His teaching by mid-day Sree Gaursundar would go out
with His pupils to the Ganges for His Bath. After sporting for a time in the
holy water of the Ganges He returned home and worshipped Vishnu. Offering
water and circumambulating Sree Tulasi He sat to His meal by uttering
repeatedly the Name of Hari. Sree Lakshmi Devi served the Food and the Lord
of Vaikuntha ate the same. The pious mother was privileged to have the full view

of this Sight. After meal He used to chew betel and then retired for rest. Sree
Lakshmi Devi tended His Feet as the Lord laid Himself down in His Bed. The
Lord then bent His Auspicious Glance on the goddess who serves in the office of
Sleep of the Supreme Lord. Having rested for a while Sree Gaursundar used to
go out of the house a second time with His books.

Chapter 12 In the Sreets of Nabadwip

Sree Gaursundar as Professor chose the afternoons for visiting the citizens of
Nabadwip in the company of His pupils. He graciously accosted all the
people; and everyone entertained feelings of the deepest regard for the Lord.

This respectful attitude towards Him, which was universal, was a matter of
instinct, as at this period no one was aware of the Divinity of the Lord. The
Lord frequented all the streets of the city affording the people an opportunity
of beholding Him Who is inaccessible even to the gods.

The Lord now behaved with the same absence of reserve on these visits to the
citizens as we noticed on the occasion of His nervous malady. In this case also
no one was able to recognize Him although He stood fully manifest to
all seeming. Thakur Brindavandas has handed down the following particulars
of these activities.

On one of these occasions Sree Gaursundar presented Himself at the door of a
weaver’s home. The weaver at once made obeisance to Him with the greatest
respect. The Lord asked Him to bring out his best cloth, which the weaver did at
once. The Lord asked what price he expected for his cloth. The weaver replied
that he would accept whatever was offered. After the bargain had been settled
the Lord said He had no money with Him. The weaver replied that it was not
necessary for Him to pay immediately. He might take the cloth, wear it and pay
in ten days or a fortnight or by installments, according to His convenience. The
Lord bestowed His auspicious Glance on that weaver as He left the place.

The Lord then entered the quarter of the town which was occupied by the
milkmen. He took His Seat at the door-way of the home of one of the
cowherds. The Lord, by the privilege of a Brahmana commanded him jocosely
in an imperious tone to bring out his milk and curds, saying that He would
favour him that day by accepting the best of the gifts that his household could
provide. The cowherds beheld it was the God of love Himself Who thus asked
for their gift. With great respect they offered their best seat to Him. The Lord
continued to talk in a jocose vein to the cowherds. They addressed Him as their
‘maternal uncle’. Some asked Him to eat their cooked food in their Company. A
certain milkman took Him to his home on his shoulders. A few remarked that He
had once eaten all the cooked food that was in their houses and He might
probably recollect it. Saraswati, the Goddess of speech, spoke truly, but the

milkmen themselves did not know. The Lord laughed at these words of the
cowherds. All the milkmen now brought out their milk, ghee, curds, sar and
excellent butter and gladly gave to the Lord. The Lord expressed His satisfaction
at such friendly conduct of the cowherds.

He then went forward and entered the home of a dealer in perfumes (gandha –
vanika). The trader made his bow at the Feet of the Lord with great respect.

The Lord asked him to bring out his best perfumes. As he did so the Lord
inquired their price. The trader replied that the price must be already known
to Him and that it would be hardly proper to demand any price from Him.

That trader then begged to be allowed to apply the perfumes to His Body and
to return home for that day. If enough of fragrance persisted till next day and
did not cease after bath, then He might pay any price that He liked. With
these words the trader, with his own hand, put his perfumes all over the Holy
Form of the Lord in a rapture of joy that was perfectly unaccountable. ‘The
Supreme Lord’, observes Thakur Brindavandas, ‘abiding in the heart of all
beings, ever attracts their minds unto Himself. Who is not bewitched by the
Sight of His Beauty?’

The Lord next made His way to the home of a garland-maker. The garland-
maker was smitten with the extraordinary Beauty of the Lord and did obeisance
to Him after offering a seat with great respect. The Lord asked Him to give good
garlands and told him that He had no money with Him. The garland-maker
noticing that He had the appearance of one who had actually realized Godhead
said that He might not pay. With these words the garland-maker placed his
garlands on the Divine Form of the Lord. This made Sree Gaursundar and all His
pupils laugh. The Lord bestowing His auspicious Glance on that garland-maker,
made his way to the home of a betel-seller.

The betel-seller was taken by surprise on seeing the Lord Himself crossing the
threshold of His humble abode. In his delight the betel-seller, of his own accord,
offered Him his betels which made the Lord laugh. The Lord asked why he was
offering the betel made up with betel-nut without demanding any price. The
betel-seller made reply that it was due to a spontaneous impulse of his mind. The
Lord began to chew the prepared betel that had been offered. The betel-seller
then presented the Lord with betel-leaf, camphor and other spices of excellent
quality used in making up the betel, desiring Him with great reverence, to accept
it and would not take any price. Sree Gaursundar favoured that betel-seller in

this fashion.

The Lord visited the residence of a dealer in conches who made Him, obeisance
with great reverence on beholding Him. The Lord asked for good
conches declaring that as He had no money with Him He did not know how He
could buy them. The conch dealer, at once gave the Lord his best conches with
the remark that He might pay at His leisure and consider Himself under
no obligation to pay The Lord was very much pleased by hearing these words
of the conch-dealer and bestowed on him the favour of His auspicious Glance.

In this manner the Lord visited regularly the houses of all the towns-people of
Nabadwip.

The Lord next made His way to the house of a diviner who could predict
everything. The Lord told him that as he was reputed to be a very
competent person He had come to him to inquire about information regarding
Himself as to what He was in His former births. ‘Right’ said the diviner. But on
applying himself as a preliminary to repeating mentally the mantram of Gopala
that diviner of excellent deeds at once beheld the Divine Form with the bluish
hue, Four-Armed, holding the Conch, Disc, Club and Lotus, His Breast
adorned with the jewel Kaustuva and the sign of Srivatsa. He saw the Lord in the
prison-chamber at the dead of night with His parents in front of Him in the act
of adoration. Presently he had a vision that the father, taking up his new-born
Boy in his arms, put Him away that very night in the cowherd settlement. He
saw again the Nude, Beautiful, two-Armed Child, with the belt of jingling bells
on His Waist, tasting the butter with both Hands. The diviner in fact saw all
those Signs that belong to his own cherished Divinity on Whom he mediated at
all time He beheld once again the divine form, with the Flute touching His Lips,
in the triple-bent attitude, surrounded by the milk-maids,
discoursing instrumental and vocal music. On beholding this extraordinary
vision the diviner opened his eyes in wonder and fixing his gaze on Gauranga
went on repeating his recitals. He then supplicated the Deity of his cherished
worship in these words, ‘Listen, O Gopala, divine Boy! Do Thou show me
quickly who this Brahmana was in His former Births.’

Thereupon, the diviner had a vision of the Lord, Bow in Hand, of grass-green
Hue, seated in the Attitude of the warrior. He saw Him again in the midst of
the Cataclysm of complete destruction in the form of the wonderful Boar
Whose Tusk was holding aloft this world. He saw Him once more Appearing as

the Man-lion, of most fierce Aspect, infinitely Tender to His devotee. He saw
Him again in the Act of deluding the sacrificing King Bali, in the Form of the
Dwarf.

Then He beheld Him in the form of the Fish in the waters of the Deluge, playing
merrily in the Flood. That diviner of excellent deeds saw the Lord once again in
the Form of the maddened Holder of the Plough, with the Club in His Hand. The
diviner saw the shining Form of Jagannath with Subhadra in the middle and
Balarama on His right. The diviner had a vision in is manner of the true Nature
of the Lord, but yet he understood nothing. ‘Such’, says Thakur Brindavandas,

‘is the force of the deluding power of the Lord.’

The diviner was very much astonished and thought within himself that the
Brahmana must be a great sorcerer or He might be some god who had perchance
appeared to him in a frolic in the guise of a Brahmana in order to delude him. He
also duly noticed the indications of the super-human fiery glow irradiating the
body of the Brahmana and was perplexed thinking that he was being befooled
for pretending to know everything. While the diviner was busy with these
thoughts the Lord said laughing: ‘Who am I? What do you see? tell me
everything without reserve.” The diviner said, “Be pleased to leave me alone for
the present. Let me repeat my mantram with a clear mind. I shall tell You in the
afternoon.’ ‘Very gook,” said the Lord as He went off on His way laughing.

The Lord now presented Himself at the home of His beloved Sridhar. The Lord
often visited Sridhar at his house on various excuses and never left him
without exchanging jokes with him for a short time. On seeing the Lord Sridhar
at once approached Him with great respect and made Him take a seat. Sridhar
was naturally of a most gentle disposition. The Lord’s behaviour was that of a
most restless and arrogant person, thereupon the following dialogue ensued
between Sree Gaursundar and Sridhar.

The Lord asked, ‘Sridhar, you take the Name of Hari constantly. Why do you yet
suffer such great privations? Tell Me how it is that you suffer from want of food
and clothing by serving the Lord of the Goddess of wealth?’ Sridhar replied, ‘but
I do not actually starve and I also put on clothing of some sort, be it long or
short’, the Lord went on, ‘I notice your cloth is patched at a dozen places and
there is no straw to the thatch of your hut. Is there the person in the town who is
stinted for food and clothing by worshipping Chandi and Bishahari ?’ Sridhar
said, ‘Bipra, Thou hast said well. But yet the time of all persons passes all the

same. The king lives in a palace of gems and eats and dresses most sumptuously;
the birds inhabit the tree-top. Nevertheless the time of both passes away all the
same. They enjoy the fruits of their respectively acts awarded by the Will of
Isvara.’

The Lord said, ‘You have immense wealth. You dine on it most sumptuously in
secret, when will that day be when I shall make your secret known
to everybody? then shall I see how you can deceive the people so!’ said
Sridhar, ‘Pandit’ it is better for you to return home. It is not meet for us to
quarrel with each other., The Lord said, ‘I am not going to let you off in this
fashion. Tell me at once what you are going to give Me., Sridhar replied, ‘I live
by selling the bark of the plantain tree. You better say what at all I can give your
Reverence.’ The Lord said, ‘I am not just now going to take the buried treasures
that you possess. I shall have it later. For the present give me gratis plantain,
radishes and the soft core of the plantain tree. I shall not trouble you if you do
so.’ Sridhar thought within himself, ‘The Brahmana is so very arrogant. He
is certainly: going to thrash me one of these days. And even if He hurts me
what can I do to a Brahmana? Neither can I afford to give Him daily without
being paid. Still what a Brahmana takes even by force or guile is surely my
good fortune, and I shall, therefore, give Him everyday., After meditating in
this manner Sridhar said, ‘Listen, Your Reverence You need not pay anything. I
shall willingly give you core, plantain, radishes and bark. So be pleased not
to quarrel with me any more., The Lord said, ‘This is well and good. There will
be no more quarrel from now if only you always give Me good core, plantain
and radishes.’

The Lord dined everyday off the plantain-bark of Sridhar. The core, plantain and
radishes of Sridhar were the most relished dishes at His Daily Meal. The Lord
ate the gourd, that grew on the plant trained on Sridhar’s thatch, cooked in milk
and pepper. The Lord now asked, ‘Sridhar, what do you think I am? I shall go
home as soon as you tell Me only this.’ Sridhar said, ‘You are a Brahmana, a part
and parcel of Vishnu Himself., The Lord replied, ‘You do not know. I come of a
family of milkmen. But you see Me as the Son of a Brahmana.

I, however, know Myself to be a milk-man.’ Sridhar laughed on hearing the
Words of the Lord and did not recognize his own cherished Deity by the force of
His Deluding Power. Said the Lord, ‘Sridhar, I will tell you the Truth. All
the greatness of your Ganges is due to Myself.’ Sridhar protested, ‘Well,

Nimai Pandit, art Thou not afraid even of the Ganges? Man grows sober

with advancing years. But Your restlessness is increasing with double speed’.
After indulging in such merry repertoire with Sridhar Lord Gauranga-Hari
returned to His own Home.

The above episodes may seem to represent the Lord in the character of a begging
Brahmana who is out among the hard-worked artisans and poor people to
squeeze from them the best that their poverty can yield, there are two subjects in
this picture, viz., the conduct of the Lord and of the humble folk, both of which
deserve our careful consideration.

Sree Gaursundar did not accept the gifts of the poor for any charitable purpose
but frankly for His Own Personal Use. He does not appear to have
rendered them any service in return; those people did not expect nor wish for any
return. Neither did they apparently give their things with the idea that they were
giving them to a needy beggar, they gave from a feeling of reverence and not
on account of His individual qualities of which they had not always a
very decidedly all-round favourable opinion, even Sridhar admitted to himself
that the Brahmana was unduly arrogant, the soothsayer, who to many
persons would seem to have been the most favoured of all, took Him to be a
Person versed in the Black Art Who was trying to befool him. so all these people
gave away their best things to this arrogant brahmana in conformity with
a customary practice and not for the reason that Sree Gaursundar possessed
any outstanding merit or worth of His Own. Sridhar even complains that
the Brahmana was not above using both force as well as dissimulation to obtain
the lion’s share of his scanty wares. Sree Gaursundar may, thus appear to
be evidently exploiting the credulity of ordinary superstitious, ignorant, masses
for His own personal profit and thereby countenancing the objectionable
practices of those degenerate Brahmanas who go about begging for their
livelihood.

Why did those poor people give Him their best things? Let Sridhar speak for the
rest. Sridhar said he did not covet the wealth of kings. He thought that the time
of himself was passing in exactly the same way as that of kings and he did not
hold Godhead responsible for making any inequitable difference between a king
and himself as in his opinion there was really no difference. But neither was
Sridhar a cynic. He was aware that the things of this world were capable of being
rightly used in the service of Vishnu; and that no depth of poverty was an excuse
for the neglect of this paramount duty, giving to the Brahmana was in his
opinion, identical with giving to Vishnu ‘because Vishnu was represented in this

world by the Brahmana for accepting such service through His devotees. True,
the Brahmana in question, viz., Sree Gaursundar, appeared to him to be very
arrogant and dissembling. But he himself was also not prepared to give willingly
anything to the Brahmana on the worthless plea of his utter poverty; and,
therefore, the only alternative was to suffer his things to be taken by force or
fraud by the Brahmana who did him the favour of accepting his things in
this boisterous fashion’. This is the inside of the heart of Sridhar. This was the
faith of all those humble people.

But can we really serve Godhead by offering Him the things of this world . Sree
Gaursundar says we can. If we regard Godhead and the objects offered
to Godhead as categories of this world the process is objectionable involving
the degradation of worship. Godhead is not a receiver of any earthly objects.

But we have also nothing to offer Him except these very earthly objects, because
we ourselves are of this Earth at present. Sree Gaursundar says that we are
not earthly; but if we attain our natural, super-mundane, state we are in a
position to realize that the objects of this Earth have also a spiritual relationship
to ourselves. This spiritual side of the things of this world does not manifest
itself to us as long as we continue to regard them as being meant for gratifying
our hankering for worldly enjoyment. Such attitude is the sign as well as cause
of our real ignorance of our true self.

There is such a thing as the soul, apart from limited and temporary entities of all
gross and subtle types. This soul is our proper self. The vision of our souls is for
the present clouded by the exclusive contemplation of alien objects which we are
apt to consider as having affinity with ourselves. The soul in the sinful state
values only such use of things as can afford him pleasure in some form or other.
He constantly strives to multiply the opportunity and scope of such enjoyment.
This vision is, however, the clouded vision. It was not Sridhar’s vision. Sridhar
realized that the enjoyment of the things of this world could not really satisfy his
soul. The things of this world are meant not to be enjoyed but to be used in some
other way. They are to be offered unconditionally to One for Whose Sole
enjoyment they are meant. And Who is that One Person ? He cannot be any
sinful creature. He is no mortal, but Godhead Himself. The Brahmana is part and
parcel of Vishnu. Vishnu also appears in this gross world for enjoying the things
of this world. Sridhar believed that He does so for the benefit of sinners, that
Vishnu appears in the form of Brahmanas who are free from all sin. A Brahmana
knows the proper use of the things of this world. He does not seek his own
enjoyment but serves Godhead therewith. It is because he possesses this

knowledge that he is a Brahmana. If anything is given willingly or unwillingly to
a Brahmana it is offered to Godhead and is sure to reach Him through the
Brahmana. The things of this world in this relationship to Sree Gaursundar also
appeared to Sridhar in this light. This was so because Sridhar’s soul was in his
natural state who could realize that he has no affinity with the things of this
world as a means of his worldly enjoyment.

Sridhar’s philosophy might seem to make no provision for the material
prosperity of the world. It may also seem to be akin to blind faith. The
last objection has been answered in the preceding paragraph. The so-called
clearsightedness of the conditioned souls is their real blindness. Our faith in
the value of the things of this world as objects of our enjoyment, is the real
blind faith. Sridhar’s faith is not blinded by this essentially- irrational partiality
in favour of worldliness the utter-worthlessness of which must be patent to all as
a fact of even one’s daily and hourly experience. Sridhar’s philosophy does
not, indeed, trouble about the progress of this world which it attributes to the
Direct Action of Godhead awarding the material fruits of the sinful endeavours
of conditioned souls who alone happen to be the denizens of this mundane
world. He regards so-called worldly prosperity more as a snare than a help. But
he is careful not to ignore, for this reason, the very existence of this world.

The world is not an illusion.

So long as we are placed in this world we cannot but have to do with things
mundane. Our duty, while we are so placed, must however, be to use all kinds of
material facility for the service of Vishnu Who has no wants of His Own
but Who condescends to condescends to receive our offerings in order to enable
us to live, also under these adverse circumstances, a life of service. The service
of Vishnu is the only true and eternal religion. It’s truth can be recognized by our
clouded understanding during those lucid intervals when we are impelled by
the experience of worldliness to be impartial seekers of a really
wholesome function. There are sinless people who are not subject to the
domination of the enjoyable side of phenomena to whom all things of this world
disclose their spiritual forms who teach us to serve Vishnu with their help. The
condition that is ensured by such service is the only true progress and one that,
instead of augmenting our blindness, serves to clear up our blinded vision.

But we may still be disposed to ask certain questions, ‘Will the offering of our
best things to unworthy and beggarly Brahmanas, who claim them as a matter of
right for the purpose of gratifying their worldly appetites, also conduce to such a

result?’ It is not necessary to discriminate between a real Brahmana and a real
non-Brahmana? And who, indeed, is a real Brahmana? Did Sridhar or the other
poor people really know that Sree Gaursundar was Vishnu Himself? Evidently
they did not bother. Is such blind devotion to caste Brahmanas recommended as
a reliable and wholesome principle by the above episodes? Neither did Sridhar
nor any of the other townsmen, who were so liberal to Sree Gaursundar,
entertain any suspicions regarding the worth of Sree Gaursundar as recipient of
their gifts. They did not venture to gauge the worth of a Brahmana by the
measure of their clouded understanding. In this view their conduct was not the
denial but the perfection, of the truly rational attitude. They waited to be
enlightened, without muddling. This excellence of judgment was the natural
concomitant of their own unworldly life which is an indispensable preparatory
for the spiritual. They will thereby soon learn about the real Truth and be saved
from the degrading effects of indiscriminate, worldly charity to beggars for a
worldly purpose. It is the only duty of all true Brahmanas to enlighten everyone
who really wants to be enlightened. Unworldly conduct in every relationship of
life is the only proof of the possession of such desire. This mode of imparting
enlightenment is the eternal Dispensation of Providence and it never fails to
operate with unerring beneficence in ah cases. Those who are charitable to
Brahmanas from any worldly motive never have the sight of a real Brahmana
who possesses the knowledge of Godhead.

But it may be argued that Sree Gaursundar was encouraging the trade of a betel-
maker by accepting his service. Is not the trade of a betel-seller altogether
harmful? Will such encouragement not be misunderstood as approval of
a practice which is condemned by the Srimad Bhagavatam Srimad
Bhagavatam warns us against sensuous enjoyment of the objects of this world
and proceeds to enumerate categorically certain forms of sensuous enjoyment
that are to be avoided by all means. It says no doubt that no rules are applicable
to those who really serve Krishna. Srimad Bhagavatam does not mean that the
bona fide servants of Krishna are privileged to indulge in sensuous conduct.
What it means is that Krishna is served by the senses of those who are
perfectly unmindful of their own enjoyment. We are not required to give up
anything we are required to learn the only proper method of using everything.
Till we understand this true method we should agree to be taught, by desisting
from the wrong method which would otherwise prevent us from knowing truly
by the only effective method, viz ., that of actual personal experience.

Sree Gaursundar did not declare a crusade against the externality of conduct of

any kind. All activities are a part and parcel of the eternal scheme of the universe
and can and need never be abolished. Sree Gaursundar desired that we should
acquire the right vision which enables us to employ all things of this world in the
service of Krishna, without interfering with the external appearance which is the
eternal perverted concomitant reflection of the real shutting from us the true
view of the Reality. But the perverted reflection can no more be abolished than
the reality. Both exist for ever in their respective reciprocal relationship. It is not
they but our attitude to them that requires to be adjusted. Gaursundar declares
that the smarta view, i.e., the ordinary view of so-called orthodox Hindus, which
regards a thing of this world as pure or impure by its worldly reference, is
opposed to the teaching of the spiritual Scriptures. Nothing can be impure except
the attitude of the observer. To the pure vision everything is necessarily pure.
According to the Bhagavatam the paramahansas are above all those rules that
are meant for the guidance of conditioned souls. This leniency to them means
neither undue partiality nor indiscriminate license. The Scriptures provide for the
strictest guidance of all dissociable souls by the eternally free sadhus who alone
can understand the real spirit of those regulations and can, therefore, apply them
in the proper way. This is so because they themselves always spontaneously
follow the spirit that is negatively represented by those regulations. The real
devotees are privileged to know that for no one there is any such thing as
impurity in the sphere of spiritual service. Those who, being themselves averse
to Godhead, set up as teachers of the Bhagavatam, delude themselves as well as
their pupils by their false teachings.

The eternally free state is not a figment of the atheist’s imagination. It is, on the
contrary, the most decisive proof of one’s utter ignorance of the state of
the devotee to suppose that the true nature of such state can be realized by
the imagination of one who does not serve God. It is tantamount to
confounding the shadow with the substance, darkness with light; because such
knowledge is real ignorance and such imaginary purity is the most insidious
form of aversion to Godhead. Such deluded people bring upon themselves the
richly deserved punishment that is due to their hopeless pursuit of the shadow
under the willfully mistaken plea that it is the substance. The identification of the
unreal with the real, of the wrong idea with the object, is the consciously
perpetrated great error of all empiric speculations regarding the Reality. It is
equivalent to conscious or unconscious denial of all reality on the dishonest plea
that the Reality is incomprehensible to our present limited understanding. On
this misapplied plea are we justified in deliberately choosing to be content with
an imaginary ‘moral, order and call it also ‘real, on the testimony of a

gratuitously assumed universal instinct of the race? In other words are we to
recognize the failure of our pervert reason to know the Reality by stifling the
faculty of reason itself? Sree Gaursundar warns us against such useless act of
suicide and declares that the Reality really exists and can also be really known to
us despite the self-created insufficiency of our present understanding; and that it
is, therefore, our first and only duty to try to realise the Truth by adopting a
life which is really free from all taint of duplicity. That this is also the only
truly rational course and one whose success is a foregone conclusion.

On His return home after accosting Sridhar in the manner described above, Sree
Gaursundar seated Himself at the door of the room that was consecrated to the
worship of Vishnu The students, who had been in attendance, departed to their
respective homes. As He caught sight of the rising full moon the Lord’s heart
was filled with loving recollections of the Moon of Brindavana. He thereupon
began to discourse strains of the Flute, Whose sweetness was never experienced
in this world. But no one could catch it except the mother.

On hearing the note of the Flute that bewitches the triple universe, the mother
fainted on the spot by complete immersion in the ocean of bliss.

Presently recovering her external consciousness, having compassed her mind,
she listened to the unprecedented melody of the Divine Flute. She perceived
the sound to proceed from the direction where Gaurangasundar was seated
Having this wonderful aural experience the mother came out of the room and
found her Son still sitting at Vishnu’s doorstep. She could no longer hear the
strains of the Flute but beheld the Disc of the Moon in the Bosom of her Son.

She saw distinctly the Sphere of the Moon inside the Breast of her Son and
looked about her in amazement.

Returning to her room the mother began to think about the reason, but could not
arrive at any solution. Such was the high fortune of mother Sachi who constantly
beheld such never-ending Divine Manifestations. One day during the night
mother Sachi heard hundreds of people singing and playing on musical
instruments. She heard various musical sounds made by the mouth, the sound as
of a dance, the tread of feet as if a vast Rasa Pastime was in progress. One day
she found that all the house, the rooms, doors and windows, were made
exclusively of light. Another day she had a sight of celestial nymphs, beautiful
as Lakshmi Herself, their hands adorned with the shining lotus flower.

One day she had a vision of shining gods and, after just catching sight of them,

could not see them again. All these visions are nothing at all impossible in
the case of the Mother Whom the Veda declares to be the very Form of Devotion
to Vishnu. Even those, on whom the Mother casts Her auspicious glance but
once, are thereby endowed with the eligibility of beholding those manifestations.

Thus did Sree Gaursundar, Wearer of the Garland of Wild Flowers, abide in His
Own Eternal Joy, in concealment; such being His Pleasure, although the
Lord was manifesting Himself in all these various ways yet He could not
be recognized even by any of His Own servants.

The Mothers of Sree Krishna serve the Lord as embodiments of the principle of
pure reverential devotion like that of Devaki and Prisni, or by unmixed maternal
affection like Yasoda and Sachi. The Mothers are not denied the transcendental
un-alloyed service of Krishna although they are His superiors by relationship
and are regarded as such by Krishna. It is the special privilege of the servants of
Krishna to behold the manifestations of His Divine Power and Majesty. Sree
Sachi Devi serves the Lord with greater devotion than His other servants. She
loves Sree Gaursundar as her Son standing in constant need of her protecting
affection. This is different from the purely reverential attitude of service. In this
world parental affection precludes all element of the principle of service as
practiced by an inferior. Even when the mother nurses her own child she cannot
be supposed, without a jarring violation of all sense of propriety and truth, to be
guided by a feeling of reverence for her own offspring. The two sentiments, as
they are conceived in this world, are different and incompatible. In the Mothers
of Krishna maternal affection perfects and incorporates, instead of excluding, the
element of loyal servitude. There is no loss of any principle but only the growing
excellence, by additional elements, of the one indivisible basic function which,
inconceivably to us, gathers up all minute and nice distinctions that are found
pervertedly reflected in the exclusive grades of mundane relationships.

The most noticeable Feature of the Activities of Sree Gaursundar at this period,
is Arrogance. He chose to carry the Pastime of His Arrogance to such
lengths that there was at that time in the whole of Nabadwip no person who
could beat Him in this respect. Commenting on this Thakur Brindavandas is led
to observe that it is the peculiar and inalienable Characteristic of Krishna that He
has no equal in whatever role He chooses to play and Sree Brindavandas
Thakur proceeds to recapitulate the most notable instances of His Excesses.
When the Lord chooses to indulge in the Pastime of fighting He excels all in the
most perfect use of the weapons of warfare. When He wishes to indulge in

amorous sports He effects the conquest of myriads of His sweethearts. When He
desires to enjoy the pleasures of riches the homes of His servants are filled with
the most profuse abundance of all precious jewels. When, at a subsequent
period, this very Arrogant Gaursundar renounced the world and turned a
Sarmyasin, a particle of His Renunciation was vainly to be looked for in all this
triple universe. The truth of this Fact, says Thakur Brindavandas, writing of
Events that were still fresh in the minds of all the people, is patent to all.

The Renunciation of Sree Gaursundar is never possible in any other person.

Those who represent Sree Gaursundar as engaged in amorous pastimes with His
mistresses in the manner of His Activities of Dvapara Leela, commit
an unpardonable offense against the canons of historical as well as
spiritual propriety. It is directly opposed to the testimony of Sree Brindavandas
Thakur who says clearly that at this period when Sree Gaursundar was exhibiting
the Leela of a house-holder at Nabadwip He was, indeed, a most restless
and mischievous Person Who was full of arrogance, but with one most
significant reservation, viz., He altogether abstained then and throughout His
Career from the society or discourse of women for indulgence in amorous
pastimes as Enjoyer. He exhibited all along the role of the ideal servant of
Krishna who is exclusively devoted to his Lord and absolutely free from any
hankering for enjoyment on His Own Account.

Certain sections of Sree Chaitanya’s professed followers, actuated by their
worldly propensity, do not hesitate even from casting the aspersion of adulterous
conduct on the perfectly abstemious Character of Sree Gaursundar. This willful
and gross misrepresentation of a historical fact only shows the depths of the utter
degradation to which the human nature is liable to fall by its efforts to
comprehend the Doings of the Divinity under the dictates of its irrepressible
hankering for sensuous enjoyment. It is for this reason that the contemplation of
the conduct of the devotees of Krishna has been extolled by the Scriptures as
being of greater help to souls striving for spiritual amelioration than even the
Doings of the Lord Himself; because the Latter are liable to be wholly
misunderstood by those who do not properly realize the supreme necessity of
being instructed therein by the transcendental preceptor who leads the perfectly
unworldly life and who is thereby enabled to have the right understanding of the
Divine Activities of Sree Krishna Who is altogether unintelligible even to the
candid worldly mind that pretends to seek for the real Truth. By such willful
distortion of the Leela of Sree Gaursundar these insincere and thoughtless people
only prevent themselves and others who are minded like themselves from

realizing the true nature of the genuine devotee whom it was the object of Sree
Gaursundar to make known to us by His Own Divine Conduct and Teaching.
Unless and until we learn to follow the Teaching of Sree Gaursundar we can
never realize the true Nature of the Activities of the Lord in His Avatara. in the
different Ages by reference to their Source.

For the same reason a conditioned soul must never try to ape the transcendental
conduct of the servants of Krishna; because the activities of the unalloyed
devotees cannot be understood except by their mercy, that is to say except by
unconditional submission with body, mind and speech to the servant of the
Absolute. It is not enough to have listened to the words of the devotee without
submitting to be fully guided in our every act. On the transcendental plane there
is no difference between idea and word and object denoted by them. This has to
be realized not by persisting to differentiate between them while undergoing
discipleship under a sadhu, but by submitting to realize them as an indivisible
whole in our practice as well. So long as we actually retain an idea of our present
disloyal conviction that they are separate from one another and that the Absolute
Truth can be realized by merely exercising our intellect in the same way in
which we find out the so-called truths of our worldly experience, we are doomed
to deceive both ourselves and others by willfully and profanely confounding,
against the imperative dictates of our own unalloyed reason, the material with
the spiritual. Or, one may fall into deception of the opposite kind and ape the
external conduct of a sadhu without caring to listen, with sufficient attention and
with a serving disposition, to his words regarding Krishna. This will make one’s
conduct a mechanical performance and also prevent the due realization of the
momentous fact that on the plane of the Absolute there is no such thing as
unintelligibility, i.e., absence of the fullest cognition. Every act of the servant of
Krishna is instinct with all real cognitive significance, not in the imagined,
figurative, or transferred but undivided absolute sense. The words of the sadhu
have to be lived if one is sincerely willing to realize their true significance.

Hence there arises the necessity of complete submission to the bona fide spiritual
guide at all stages of spiritual endeavour.

The Doings of Krishna are not cognisable even to His Own servants unless He is
pleased to let them know The activities of Sree Gaursundar, although He exhibits
the Leela of the devotee, are not intelligible to any person except by means of
His special Grace vouchsafed through His servants. The Arrogance of Nimai
Pandit deceived everybody in regard to His Real Nature. He appeared even to
the Vaishnavas as an atheistical pedant whose only ambition was to acquire the

reputation of the greatest scholar of His time. They confounded Him with those
really egotistic pedants who abounded in Nabadwip and who were the worst
enemies of the true religion inasmuch as in their role of teachers of the Religion
they supported their impieties by the authority of the Holy Scriptures. They are
the Putanas who abound in a controversial Age and it was necessary to stop their
mouths if the Religion as not to be stifled at its birth. It is the Nature of Krishna
to deal with everybody at his own weapons. He is the Servant of His servants
and the Terror of His enemies.

The Ideal Devotee of Krishna, Sree Gaursundar possessed by right of His
Devotion all these Qualities of Krishna Himself. He was dealing with
the atheistical teachers of religion on their own plane where alone, indeed,
they could be met, although they did not deserve such aggressive mercy. But
the Lord Himself must not, therefore, be supposed as belonging to their plane.

By this conduct Sree Gaursundar was trying to help them in the only way
that would be intelligible to them, viz., by proving the insufficiency of
their polemics and thereby making it clear that they could not understand the
real meaning of the Scriptures.

The Pride and Arrogance of the Lord humbled even those proud and arrogant
atheists who had grown hoary, in the practice of sophistry and were too bad to be
reformed in any less violent way. This is the case of all empiricists, more or less,
of this day or that. They really understand nothing, but always act as they know
everything. They only submit to the sophist who is a greater juggler
than themselves. Such polemical defeat serves to confirm them more strongly in
the wisdom of their suicidal course. But if the art of the juggler is used not
to confirm but rescue the juggler from his favourite self-deception such
remedial jugglery is thereby raised to the level of the service of Krishna Who
wishes to rescue all perverse souls by their own co-operating free choice.

Sree Gaursundar set the example of such service in His Leela as ideal House¬
holder and Teacher. It is the duty of all scholars and teachers, if they want to be
saved from self-deception and to prevent others from being deceived by their
pedantic untruths, to accept unreservedly the service of the Absolute Truth as the
only goal of their endeavours, and, when they find Him, to assert Him against
all who parade such untruths as the medicine authorized by the scriptures of
all the ills of our mortal estate. If this ideal of teachership were adopted it
would really cure all distempers that the flesh is heir to, which can be healed by
no other method.

The distinctive feature of the Teaching of Sree Gaursundar is Causeless and
Unbounded Mercy to all souls. The very Fullness of His Mercy stands in
the way of the realization of its nature and specially by those pedantic
worldlings who are proud of their own mis-supposed worth and are thereby led
to prescribe their nostrums for the undoing of their unfortunate admirers.

Those who mechanically follow the dictums of Vaishnavism or Revealed
Religion, i.e., all Pharisees also necessarily fail to understand the supreme Mercy
of Sree Gaursundar. Sree Gaursundar sets no value on conduct that is not
inspired by unalloyed love for the Absolute. He teaches the function that breaks
through all rules and conventions for the purpose of acting up to the
Fountainhead of all rules and conventions. He sets His Face against all forms of
self-complacency that is unduly vain of its laurels. The pure soul knows no
inferior and has no taste for pedantic sophistry for procuring any worldly laurels.
He strives under all circumstances, to realize the unconditional service of the
Absolute. He has no selfish inclination and no suspicion that anything may not
benefit himself. He knows spontaneously by his open-hearted experience of the
Reality that to serve the Absolute in all manner and under all circumstances, is
the only proper function. The service of the Absolute is capable of being realized
and equally liable to be missed, under every form. Those who fix their attention
on the external form, can never understand the behaviour of the real servants
of the Absolute. No Pharisee can understand why Godhead sends the
pouring showers of His Mercy on the just and the unjust. In this case the Nature
of the Source from Whom the conduct proceeds, spiritualizes the whole act.
Those who confound spirit with matter, the Absolute with the relative,
cannot understand, due to want of candour, how that which is apparently
opposed to their experience of this world, can be necessarily, True on the plane
of the Absolute. But their stupidity happily does not abolish the Truth Himself.
The arrogance of the Pharisee misjudges the quality of the Magnanimous
Arrogance of Sree Gaursundar. This is the wholly deserved punishment of the
hypocrite. It is the only method by which even the Pharisee is saved and those
who are needlessly vain of their worldly virtues, are enlightened regarding their
real function towards others.

It is the Nature of Krishna to excel every entity in whatever He does, with a
single exception. Krishna is always excelled by His devotee. One day the
Lord happened to be passing along the public streets in the company of a number
of His students who crowded on all sides of Him. The Lord was as richly
dressed as a king. He was clad in a yellow robe, like Krishna. His Lips were
dyed with the betel and His Holy Face had the splendour of a million Moons. All

the people were praising Him. They said, ‘He is verily the God of Love
Himself Who has put on His Visible Body.’ On His Forehead shone the tilaka
mark pointing upwards. His Beautiful Hands held His books. The Glance of His
Lotus Eyes dispelled all sorrow. The Lord was coming along merrily, swinging
His Arms, in the company of His students who were naturally of a most
restless disposition. Sribas Pandit, fell in with Him on the way quite by accident
and burst into laughter as he caught sight of the Lord. Nimai Pandit made
obeisance to Sribas. The generous Sribas blessed Him by way of response
saying, ‘Live Thou for ever.’ Sribas then laughingly asked, ‘Whither goest Thou,
Crest-jewel of the Arrogant? Why waste Thy. time in these vanities foregoing to
serve Krishna? Why dost Thou teach Thy students so, night and day without
respite? Why do people read at all? Is it not to learn devotion to Krishna? If that
is not gained what does such learning avail? For this reason be well-advised not
pass all Thy time in such vanity. Thou hast studied till now. It is high time for
Thee to serve Krishna without delay? The Lord replied smiling, ‘Be assured,
revered Pandit, what you say will certainly come to pass by your grace? Saying
this the Lord proceeded smiling to the bank of the Ganges and there re-joined the
body of His pupils.

Sribas Pandit, a Brahmana advanced in years, was accustomed to treat Sree
Gaursundar in the manner of a superior and well wisher who regarded his junior
as an object of his affectionate concern. Regarded from the point of view of
reverential service such conduct towards Godhead must appear as improper. The
same kind of objection would apply equally to Sandipani Muni, teacher
of Krishna, to Garga Muni who was family-priest of the chief of Braja and, in
Gaur-Leela, to Brahmananda Puri, co-disciple of Sree Isvara Puri. It is, however,
a comparatively poor conception of our relationship with Krishna to suppose
that it should be confined to distant reverence for the High and Mighty Godhead.

The idea of the Absolute involved in the forms of reverential worship, is
somewhat analogous to our conduct in this world where the sentiment
of reverence precludes all really familiar intimacy. If a person who is situated
on the plane of this world affects to conduct himself towards Krishna as
towards his Chum or Junior he certainly perpetrates the grossest impropriety.

The philanthropists (prakrita sahajiyas) pretend to think that it is possible to
adopt the attitude of confidential intimacy found in this world towards Sree
Krishna while we are in the sinful state in imaginary imitation of the similar
feasible relationships of the absolute world without committing the
grossest profanation. At the same time it would be no less untrue to suppose that

the method of distant reverence itself is, therefore, the only or proper kind
of service of the Divinity.

The method of distant reverence is based on an incomplete view of the Absolute
and does not therefore, belong to the highest plane. It is shy and diffident. It is
also indicative of a certain reserve of love. Reverential service is of course not to
be confounded with any form of hypocritical philanthropism.

It is wholly free from all error of judgment and is bound to develop by directing
its closer attention to its immature service of the Absolute. Contented reverential
service, nevertheless, resembles that of the overjoyed traveler who builds his
halfway house and prepares to settle down in it permanently under the
impression that he has reached the goal. It is not easy to persuade such a traveler
to resume his forward journey, especially if he has already built a solid structure
and is supported by a strong body of admirers and colleagues of real purity of
purpose. This is the form of service that is attainable in the Majestic Realm of
Vaikuntha which supplies the ideal of the current religions. The latter are,
however, really a veiled form of quasi-worldliness and often tantamounts to a
religious refusal to seek the fullest service of the Absolute. Reverential worship
especially in its degenerate forms, has proved the determined foe of all impartial
and thorough inquiry in the domain of religion, no less effective than the pseudo
authoritative methods that were once prevalent in the sphere of worldly
knowledge. This unnatural form of worldliness aping the real service
of Vaikuntha has been accepted as the only legitimate form of religion by
all worldly persons who have been prepared to justify their practices by a sort
of ridiculous assumption that religion is necessarily opposed to science, i.e., to
the principle of free inquiry. But neither need the defects of the current forms
of religious orthodoxy lead any but a deliberately foolish or wicked person to
the serious conclusion that there is no such thing as the Absolute Truth
Whose Admitted existence is certainly the only real obstacle in the way of
all irresponsible free thinking so much affected by empiricists.

Chapter 13 The Ideal Householder

Professor Nimai used to stroll in the streets of the city in the company of His
pupils. Men of the highest rank stepped down from their conveyances to accost
Him as they came across Him on His way and made obeisance to His Feet with
all humility. All persons felt an instinctive awe on meeting the Lord. There was
none in the whole of Nabadwip who did not now unreservedly admit His pre¬
eminence as a scholar. Whenever a citizen performed any religious function he
made it a point, as was the custom of the times, to send offerings of food and
clothing to the House of the Lord.

Householder Nimai Pandit was most open-handed in spending money. With
Lordly Magnanimity He gave to the needy and the distressed unceasingly and
without stint. Gaur-Hari thus gave away rice, clothing and money to the poor
most generously whenever He chanced to meet them. There was a constant
arrival of chance-guests at the House of the Lord. The Lord gave to all in the
measure due to each. Sometimes a dozen or score of sannyasins would turn up
all on a sudden. The Lord would joyfully invite them all to His House sending
word to His mother for immediately providing the alms of cooked food for a
score of sannyasins His mother was sometimes put to great perplexity for want
of sufficient eatables in the House for meeting these peremptory demands or her
Son. But such anxiety was always relieved by the automatic arrival of
all requisites from unknown quarters.

Lakshmi Devi would then cook the food most gladly and with special care. The
Lord Personally watched Her cooking and Personally attended to the feeding
of the sannyasins, never relaxing His attentions till their actual departure.

He spared no pains to please His guests. The merciful Lord welcomed every
chance-guest in this hospitable manner. The Supreme Lord taught all
householders, by. His Own Example, their most distinctive function. ‘The
principal duty of every householder,’ said the Lord, ‘is to serve all his chance-
guests. I call that person even worse than birds and beasts who, being a
householder, does not serve his chance-guests. If one happens to be destitute of
every necessary by reason of ill-luck due to his previous bad deeds, he should
still gladly spread for the chance-guest some straw as a seat, and offer him water
and resting ground. No good man can be without these. Let such a person speak
out truly and let him express his regret for not being able to do more. Such loyal
conduct would save him from the terrible offense of inhospitality. If one serves

sincerely and with a glad heart according to his means his proper duty to his
chance-guest is thereby duly performed., Thus taught Sree Gaursundar and His
Own Conduct bears out His Teaching.

Thakur Brindabandas, commenting on the above, observes that those chance-
guests to whom Lakshmi and Narayana made the gift of their food,
were certainly most fortunate. Even Brahma himself and his following always
pin their hopes of deliverance on food from the Hands of the Lord Himself.

This supremely coveted food was obtained by any and every chance comer. It
was truly most wonderful! There are those who opine otherwise. These
maintain that no lesser beings are ever in any way eligible to be recipients of
such food; and the Brahma, Siva, Suka, Vyasa, Narada, and the head of all the
gods, all the self-realized souls and all eternally free souls came thither in the
forms of mendicants, apprised of the Appearance of Lakshmi and Narayana
at Nabadwip. Otherwise who else have power to be there? Who else but
Brahma and those who are on a level with him, can ever be fit to obtain that
food? Others, however, hold that the Descent of the Lord into this world was for
the Purpose of delivering all the miserable. The Lord ever relieves the distressed
in every way. Brahma and the other gods are His own limbs, and the limbs
of those limbs. They are ever and in every way the associates of the Lord.

But there is His Own special promise regarding this particular Appearance, ‘I
will give alljivas what is attainable with difficulty by Brahma and his peers? It
is for this reason that the Lord offered His food at His own House to all
the distressed.

Charity to the poor and unstinted hospitality to all chance guests are
recommended by the Scriptures as the principle duty of all householders.

The Varnashrama system permits a person to marry, set up as a householder

and pursue an honest trade or profession for earning his livelihood. But

no householder must cook any food for his own consumption. He must

always cook only for the Lord. Neither should he amass wealth for the livelihood

of himself and his family. He may accumulate wealth in order to relieve

the distressed and for performing the duty of unstinted hospitality to all chance-

guests.

Miserliness is unreservedly condemned. A Brahmana, i.e., one who sincerely
professes to lead a regulated spiritual life, is distinguished by this quality
of liberality in the spending of his wealth. He must be perfectly open-handed. It
is his nature and also his duty, to employ his wealth for relieving distress. It is

his duty to give liberally food, clothing and money. It is also his duty to serve
and accumulate a certain amount of wealth for this purpose. It is his duty to
give with an easy mind. There is no higher duty for a householder than this.

This is clearly opposed to the ideal of the worldly economists who favour the
method of niggardly ‘doles, for relieving ( ?) distress. Indiscriminate or
lavish charity is considered by the Economists as harmful both to the giver and
the recipient of such charity. The recipient of indiscriminate charity is supposed
to be encouraged thereby to lead the idle life of a parasite. The giver of
such charity is accordingly supposed to be a conscious or an unconscious abettor
of unprincipled idleness. It is, therefore, supposed to be the duty of a
householder not to countenance any form of begging. That form of charity alone
is permitted by the Economists which is exercised for helping people to lead
an industrious life. This discrimination is strongly inculcated by all
modern Economists. But Sree Chaitanya makes no reservation in regard to
hospitality to chance-guests.

As a matter of fact the charitable disposition itself assorts ill with the principle of
discrimination. Is a professional beggar really a great nuisance as he is ordinarily
supposed to be by the Economists? He is the inevitable product of the practice
recommended by the uncharitable Economist. He is the natural and salutary (?)
check on the social triumph of undiluted industrialism. Would the world be an
ideal place if it be inhabited solely by uncharitable, rich misers? Is not
miserliness after all quite definitely and logically traceable to the same selfish
instinct that produces the professional beggar at the other end? Those who
discourage indiscriminate charity indirectly encourage miserliness by
their deprecation of the vice of improvidence. The economic view cannot be
free from this grave defect.

The real danger of all those who live to eat, is due to their besetting desire for the
cultivation of undiluted selfishness. This latter is the root-cause of all economic
and other troubles of this world. It is, therefore, necessary to insist that the
householder must give up the ideal of calculated selfishness if he is to be really
at peace with himself and the world. The miser need not suppose that he is a
better man than the beggar. Both of them are in equal danger of becoming selfish
by, the avoidance of their duty by one another. The householder can be cured of
his selfishness not by so-called discriminate or no charity, but only by true
magnanimity.

Those who advocate saving in order to increase the capital of a country only
extend the application of the principle of exclusive selfishness to the sphere of
national economy with its corresponding disastrous result. A nation which lives
only to eat, is no better than the uncharitable householder whose case has been
considered above. The bubble of the fashionable capitalistic theory will be
pricked, and is in course of being pricked, by the rival principle of unselfish
brotherly co-operation, for multiplying the so-called necessaries and luxuries, for
a higher purpose than that of selfish enjoyment by the nation or the individual.
That higher purpose is unreserved service of Godhead, which, however, cannot
be understood by those who are too exclusively absorbed in the pursuit of the
alternative lines of the selfish ideal.

But it may be urged that the ideal of unselfish living sketched above, has also its
danger. An unselfish individual and nation are liable to be exploited by
the selfish. This is no doubt true. But is it really harmful to any party?

The ,varnashrama system was never properly followed in this country. It is
bound to be recognized as the best social arrangement possible in this world, and
as the only one that offers the least opposition to the goal of spiritual living.

The special hospitality shown by Sree Gaursundar to sannyasins points to a
spiritual duty on the part of the householder who aims at the attainment of a
higher than the merely economic plane of living. By the practice of open-door
hospitality alone the householder is brought into proper touch with those who
keep up the ideal of spiritual service of the Lord in the form that is least likely to
be misunderstood by the economic householder.

The institution of asceticism (sannyasa) is the distinguishing feature of the
varnashrama system. It is the fourth stage in the life of a person belonging to the
system; the other three being Brahmacharya (period of spiritual
training), Garhastya (householder life) and Vanaprastha (period of retirement
from domestic life). The Yati or sannyasin does not cook for himself. He may
accept food cooked by the twice-born, who, being worshippers of Vishnu, cook
only for the Lord. No articles of food may be offered to Vishnu that may cause
pain to any sentient being or stimulate animal passion. Hence there should be
no objection on the part of sannyasins to accept food cooked by
Brahmana householders.

But no sannyasin may settle down at any place other than the Abode of the Lord.
A sannyasin must continuously move from place to place for the benefit of those

who lead a stationary life. A sannyasin has no other purpose than to serve the
Pleasure of Vishnu. He is the Guru or spiritual Guide of all persons belonging to
the other three stages. It is the duty of every householder to hospitably receive
him with the greatest honor. It is the duty of the householder to offer his best
hospitality to the sannyasin who is always a chance-guest. It is also his duty to
receive the sannyasins with the greatest honour that is due to the order of the
spiritual teachers of society.

The sannyasin is the chance-guest whom Sree Gaursundar specifically teaches
all householders as in duty bound to honour, according to the varnashrama
system no person is to be permitted to live for himself. The professional beggars
are no exception to this rule. But neither the professional beggar nor the self-
centered householder is a fit member of the society that is organized for serving
the spiritual end although they are tolerated and given the chance of
improvement by the generous provision of the system. The loyal members of the
system never live unto themselves and are therefore, neither selfish householders
nor professional beggars; although all householders are required by the system to
tolerate and cherish even disloyal persons for the purpose of mutual
improvement.

The professional beggar and miserly householder necessarily claim the lion’s
share of hospitality of every loyal household in a society in which they happen to
form the majority of members. It is not laid down in the Shastras that there is
any obligatory duty of hospitality toward those guests who insist on staying at a
place for more than a single day at a time. From this provision it appears that the
obligatory duty of householders towards chance-guests really refers to the
sannyasins. The poor and the distressed are also mentioned in the Shastras as
objects of charity. But it is carefully laid down that charitable gifts to such
persons would benefit the giver and the receiver in the worldly sense only. But
the hospitality to the chance-guest is recommended on the ground that
it produces spiritual benefit to the householder without the necessity of
his having to try to find out sadhus by undertaking journeys that are also
enjoined to holy places where only the sadhus are to be ordinarily met with.
Every householder was provided by means of such organized hospitality with
the opportunity of spiritual communion with the sadhus coming to his door
by serving them for his own benefit. In this duty all members of his family
could also participate and be benefited thereby. It is not merely social benefit
which would be secured by this practice, but an inclination for the spiritual
service of the Lord without which no so-called social good is worth a brass

farthing.

The institution of sannyasins is, of course, also liable to degenerate. Those
sannyasin who do not serve the Lord are even worse than mere professional
beggars. There has been an enormous increase of both species of beggars, as is
to be expected in this world. But those professional beggars who pass
themselves off as sannyasins in order to exploit the religious homage of the good
householders, are also liable to be benefited by having to conform to the rules of
the order which require every sannyasin to keep aloof from all association with
the other sex and strictly discourage all accumulation of wealth, fixity of
habitation and luxurious living. Those professional beggars with the garb of
sannyasins who observe none of these rules, should be regarded as mere
scoundrels who must not certainly be honoured as the spiritual teachers of the
community. But it should be possible for every householder, with a clear
realization of the true principles of the varnashrama system, to practice unstinted
charity and good will towards all persons in the measure that is due to each. But
the claim of pseudo-sannyasins, to be the authorized spiritual teachers of the
community, should not also be seriously entertained on any Shastric principle.
They may be sent away with kind words and outward respect due to their garb
and may be given the bare necessaries of life of which they may actually stand in
need.

There is, however, another and a higher aspect of the matter. Sree Gaursundar
was playing the part of a devotee in the position of a householder. Those who
were the recipients of the favour of His hospitality were undoubtedly most
fortunate. Who then could be those who are really worthy of such high fortune.
Do Brahma and other great beings on a level with Brahma stand in need of such
favour ? Even they, say the Scriptures, fail to attain the supreme mercy of such
favour. Judged by the test of eligibility, however, they ought to have a
preferential claim to such favour. So it is maintained by those who take this view
that the Householder Leela of the Supreme Lord, acting the part of the ideal
devotee, was intended for favouring Brahma and other great personages, who
availed the opportunity by presenting themselves in the garb of chance-guests
and beggars in distress.

Food, clothing, rice, a seat, anything offered by the Lord has power to benefit
everyone in the fullest measure. Brahma and other great beings are
no exceptions to the rule. There call be no true greatness save by the Favour of
the Lord. One who attains such greatness by Divine Grace is enabled to

realize more and more the infinite mercy involved in the eternal necessity of
having to be the recipients of the Divine Favour. Unless the Lord is pleased by
one’s activity it has no value whatsoever. Its contribution to the Pleasure of the
Lord constitutes the sole and supreme value of all activity for the lowest of jivas,
as for the highest. Those who want to serve the Lord without desiring to
be favoured, have a very poor idea of spiritual service. It is by all means the
only natural function of the soul to desire the Divine Favour in every way. It
is unnatural for the soul to desire any favour from any other quarter. Those
who have no hankering for the Divine Favour, can have no experience of His
Real Nature. This fatal stupor is curable only by the Causeless Mercy of the
Lord which is apparently unnecessarily and indiscriminately, showered on all.
Those jivas who fail to be reclaimed by the Divine Favour, have equal reason to
be grateful to the Supreme Lord Who mercifully permits the fullest liberty
of choice to all souls even against His own perfectly beneficent Dispensation.

It was, therefore, no departure from the principle of absolute causelessness of the
manifestation of Divine Mercy, but really the most brilliant fulfillment, that is
noticeable in the Activities of the Supreme Lord as Householder, in bestowing,
His Favour, coveted by Brahma, Siva, and all highest
personages, indiscriminately on all. This Conduct of the Supreme Lord also
places before us, in true amplitude, the incalculable range of the beneficence of
the activities of the bona fide Vaishnava householder. The Lord’s purpose was to
vindicate the function of His devotee. The favour of His devotee is superior in
the quality of graciousness even to that of the Lord Himself. The devotee is
eternally engaged in doing good, of which the recipients are unconscious, to
those fallen souls who are deliberately opposed to the willing service of the
Lord. This unsolicited favour from His devotee is the sole unknown cause of
eligibility for the conscious and willing service of the Lord that is slowly
manifested in all conditioned souls who are thus favoured. Rice, clothing and
money which conditioned souls readily accept from the Vaishnava householder
under the merciful pressure of destitution or even from the desire to beg by
assuming the garb of a spiritual mendicant, possess the power of healing our
aversion to the Lord that is equal to that of the direct Mercy vouchsafed by the
Lord Himself to conscious and grateful recipients.

Everything possessed by a Vaishnava householder belongs wholly- to the Lord
in the special sense that the devotee is fully conscious of the sole proprietorship
of the Lord and is also eligible to act up to his conviction. His charity is,
therefore, to be distinguished from that of one who usurps a thing by the right of

pseudo-proprietorship. Whatever is therefore, accepted, given away or retained
by the true devotee, is done on behalf of the Lord and, therefore, possesses the
spiritual quality, imparted to an object due to its spiritual dedication to the
service of the Lord, viz., that of delivering those concerned in the same from the
bondage of this world. The food that is offered by the devotee to the Lord is
called maha prasadam after acceptance by the Lord.

Those who accept maha prasadam thereby consciously or unconsciously
progress towards the activity of spiritual service. The remainder of the
maha prasadam, after being honoured by the devotee, is termed-
maha,prasadam, who possesses even greater efficacy than the prasadam as he
produces faith in the spiritual nature of the devotee. All this is implied in the
Hospitable Activities of the Lord acting the part of a Vaishnava householder.

If any trace of doubt is still left in the minds as regards the necessity of a
Vaishnava householder serving Vaishnava sarmyasins arriving at his house
as chance-guests, it may be observed that the Vaishnava householder does
not aspire to favour, help or benefit any body but serves all persons with whom
he has any dealings. One who fancies himself to be a Vaishnava is a hypocrite.
The Vaishnava is really and fully aware of his inferiority to every other entity; all
of whom are viewed by him as objects engaged in the service of the Lord who
are to be honoured as properties and servants of his Master. The devotee alone
is, therefore, fully eligible for consciously serving the Vaishnava sarmyasins
and understands the real value of their mercy in visiting unsolicited the homes
of householders under the Direction of the Lord, in order to afford them
an opportunity of serving the Lord in the best manner by showing hospitality
to themselves. This function of hospitality is capable of being fully
discharged only by the Vaishnava-householder who is in a position to understand
its necessity and high value for all concerned.

From the point of view of the householder the spiritual value of the obligatory
duty of hospitality to all chance-guests consists in its being the necessary
supplement of the begging and peripatetic guiding function of the sannyasins.
The value of such hospitality increases in proportion as its significance is
realized and embodied in the act. The external activity is liable to be abused by
the misconception of its real nature. But the abrogation of the duty which is so
emphatically and clearly enjoined by the Shastras on all householders involves
the fatal danger of breeding disbelief in the spiritual principle. One, who is really
anxious to find out the duty of a householder, should be careful to avoid the

mistakes of supposing it to be a merely mechanical activity on the one hand or as
the product of designing hypocrisy or ignorant simplicity on the other. The
householder should exercise his hospitality discriminately and must always pay
due attention to the spiritual import. The modern institutions of public
almshouses, hospitals and other charitable organizations err by trying to remove
only the worldly miseries and wants of those whom they desire to serve. The
husk is ostentatiously dangled before the greedy imaginations of self-deluded
souls who are deliberately disposed to prefer it to the grain which tastes bitter to
their diseased palates. These institutions, if they are to do the maximum good to
mankind, should change their principles of management and objective by
subordinating unconditionally the worldly point of view to the spiritual. The
present discriminating worldly charity which they dispense, should give place
to indiscriminate spiritual charity. This applies equally to individual
householders who make a show of benefitting the needy and the destitute and
other chance guests by practicing covert arrogance in the name of serving
hospitality. To the purely worldly understanding, the product and the punishment
of egotistic vanity which is the proper negation of the principle of spiritual
service, these considerations are unfortunately apt to seem visionary and
unpractical. Those who deliberately choose to regard the perverted reflection as
being itself the substance of which it really happens to be the shadow, have no
other alternative but to continue to behave perversely.

Lakshmi Devi cooked the meals of the family by. Herself, unassisted, and yet
experienced the greatest happiness in the performance of this duty.

Most fortunate mother Sachi, watching this Behaviour of Lakshmi, felt a great
and hourly increase of her gladness. From early dawn Lakshmi performed all the
duties of the household alone by Herself. This was Her Nature, or Religion. She
drew the circles of the svastika in the shrine for Godhead and the figures of the
Conch and the Disc with great care. She made every preparation for the worship
of the Lord by perfumes, flowers, incense, lighted lamp and well-scented water.
She constantly served the tulasi and applied Her Mind, with even greater
assiduity, to the service of Sachi Devi.

By observing this Conduct of Lakshmi Sree Gaursundar did not say anything
openly but felt glad at Heart. On some days, taking into Her Arms the Feet of the
Lord, Lakshmi Devi would continue to tend Them for a while. Once Sachi had a
most wonderful vision. She saw a most brilliant massive tongue of fire burning
under the Feet of her Son. On some days mother Sachi scented a great perfume

of the lotus flower everywhere about the rooms, doors and windows, that also
never ceased. Thus at Nabadwip abode Lakshmi and Narayana hiding
Themselves and so no one could know. Then, after sometime had passed in this
manner, the Lord, Who is ever full of every wish, had a desire of beholding the
country of East Bengal. The Lord thereupon spoke to His mother to the effect
that He intended to go out of Home for a few days. Sree Gaursundar said to
Lakshmi to serve the mother unceasingly. Thereafter the Lord, taking with Him a
few favored students, started for East Bengal, with great Pleasure.

In the above paragraph I have tried to reproduce the words of Sree Brindabandas
Thakur. They afford a glimpse into the ideal of the relationship of the loyal wife
to her God-fearing husband in this world. Sree Lakshmi Devi is the ideal servant
of Her Husband’s Household. There is no one else to assist her. Mother Sachi as
well as Sree Gaursundar are recipients of Her help. She occupies the
unconditional subordinate position. There is no question of equality of status or
function. Her duties lie within the household and are not shared by Her Husband
or mother-in-law. Her principal work is to make careful arrangements for the
worship of Vishnu, decorate His shrine by drawing the figures that are
emblematic of the Powers of the Lord, tend the tulasi and attend constantly on
Sachi Devi. She cooks and serves the meals offered by the family to Godhead.
She tends the Feet of Sree Gaursundar. She works from early dawn till late at
night. She does all this with a perfectly loyal and glad heart.

This is no doubt wholly opposed to worldly ideas regarding the proper position
of the wife in the household of her husband. It appeals to neither the
mundane intellect nor to the mundane connubial sentiment. The life seems to be
too mechanical, too narrow and too much subordinated. It does not at all
provide for the bodily and mental comforts of the wife. It severely curtails the
sphere of her activities to the inside of the house of her husband. There is no
variety of work, no provision for leisure or other recreation. There is strangely
enough little reference to the sexual conjugal love. It may not be unnaturally
supposed-that all this may be convenient from the point of view of the elders but
are not likely to be relished either by the husband or, least of all, by the over
worked wife herself who is crushed by a system of sheer, joyless, purposeless
slavery which can only make her gradually lose even the energy of making any
piteous protests. The mother-in-law is the standing dread of a worldly wife
who considers it physically impossible to please superimposed elderly mistress
at her elbow whose tastes are bound to differ radically from hers.

The difference between willing rational service and slavery is real and need not
be overlooked. If one submits to another from a sense of duty and in
pursuance of a rational object such submission becomes necessarily
differentiated from slavery. The quantity or nature of the work that may be
performed is no proof of its slavish character. What should be the proper object
of every household? The atheistic conception seems to be that the household is
the product of the sensuous outlook and its object is to satisfy our mundane
cravings in an effective manner. Work and leisure according to such view, should
be so arranged that no undue excess of either may produce harmful bodily or
mental discomfort. Liberty of choice in the selection of work and the method of
its performance is regarded as the keystone of the arch of social and
domestic felicity; although the danger of anarchy in both domestic and
social government is also admitted. The two objectives of the household system
of this democratic Age of equality are maximum personal liberty and
maximum personal comfort of every inmate. The outlook is of course worldly.
Those who are disposed to defend the system of purdah and subordination of the
wife to her husband, do so because they believe that the worldly ends are likely
to be better served by the adoption of those methods.

As a matter of fact inequality in work, temperament and ability are hard facts of
our everyday experience, that cannot be abolished by simply overlooking
their existence from a conviction of the sheer impossibility of harmonizing all
discordant differences. If the object of the household institution be to secure the
maximum possible worldly enjoyment for every member, it is not possible to
devise any arrangement by which this is really attainable. The full cup
of domestic happiness is liable to be dashed in an instant by a solitary whisper
and the mischief cannot be healed by the shibboleths of liberty and equality, or
by the elaborate cunning of a complicated worldliness. The worldly end in itself
is the Tantalu’s Cup and it gives its deluding character to all the details of
the system. It is the worldly end which really destroys the peace of the
household and is bound to prevent the attainment of any really satisfactory
result.

The sole object of the household institution should be to serve the Supreme Lord
if it is the purpose to produce real peace and harmony, possible only by spiritual
association. Neither the wife nor any other member should aim at personal
comfort, nor should be encouraged to do so. But it is not possible to instill into
any individual member the principle of unselfishness unless the same forms also
the accepted principle of all members of the household, the service of the

Supreme Lord alone can impress upon all unselfish persons, the necessity and
desirability of its adoption as the only unconditional common function of all
members of every household.

The Supreme Lord can be served only if He happens to be a person essentially
like overselves if He condecends to receive our service. But it does not
remove all difficulties, although it establishes the reality, of the serving function.

If the service of the Lord resembles the so-called service that is ordinarily
offered to a human being the difficulties connected with the latter will recur
in the proposed function. A human being normally desires the satisfaction of
his personal needs and is prepared to do willingly what promises such
satisfaction. The only difficulty in this case is that he does not know what can
actually satisfy him. He is constantly in search of such satisfaction by the
adoption of the available defective methods, due to his natural want of judgment
and capacity. It is for this reason that he is doomed to suffer from
perpetual dissatisfaction. Moreover, there is no reasonable guarantee that the
methods adopted by him, for the unattainable ideal of complete personal
satisfaction of Himself as a human being, will be, in every case, promotive of the
similar satisfaction of those whose services he must require for his purpose.

This uncertaintv in regard to both is reflected in the modern democratic cry
of liberty and equality, showing that those interests have not been served by
the unchecked pursuit of selfish happiness by each individual human
being, however high the individualistic ideal may be regarded to be in the
abstract. But the proposed democratic method has also its own defects. It quite
unnaturally ignores all real differences of capacity, taste and character of the
individuals. No lasting habitable structure can be expected to be built on
radically unnatural and fallacious assumptions. The attempt is bound to produce
fresh causes of discord and disappointment.

The common service of the Supreme Lord should be acceptable if it be really
free from the above defects and thus ensure the attainment of the
maximum satisfaction of the individual and the community. Vishnu is the Only
Person Whose Plans for His Own Personal Satisfaction are ever productive of
a perennial variety of conditions of the highest and lasting general and
individual satisfactions of all jivas. The Pians of Vishnu benefit everybody, even
those who wilfully abstain from receiving the benefit from a deliberate
misunderstanding of the Nature of the Divine Personality. The atheists are
mistaken in being afraid of losing their independence of action if they have to

unconditionally obey the Lord. If they have no rational objection to
unconditionally obeying their own real nature they can have none to obeying the
Lord. By obeying the Lord all souls are enabled to attain the complete natural
function of their own proper selves. By disobeying Him the soul ceases to find
either himself or his function. This is proved indirectly by the futility of every
effort to institute the perfect household by the misguided soul’s own independent
effort, by ignoring his natural relationship to his Lord. The service of the Lord is
the source of all knowledge, all existence and all satisfaction of all souls. If we
do not submit to serve Him we naturally grope in utter darkness by mistaking
darkness for light. The object of every endeavour of every soul should be to seek
for the Divine Guidance if he really wants to attain his complete normal
existence. The service of the Lord should, therefore, be the only legitimate
object of all household and social institutions.

In the Household of Sree Gaursundar every function was performed for pleasing
the Supreme Lord. The practice of conjugal love is one of the most coveted
objects of worldly life. It is also liable to degenerate into an abnormality due to
the sensual nature of depraved man who is impelled by lust to deceive, himself
in regard to his sexual responsibilities. Marriage is a failure if it be regarded as a
means of satisfying one’s carnal appetites. The wedded husband and wife should
not be less free from the offense of sexuality than the bachelor. They marry with
the object of attaining perfect immunity from carnality by adopting the regulated
conjugal life that leads to this spiritual result. Such conduct for such purpose is
practiced in the service of the Supreme Lord. But this natural function can also
be neither learnt nor practiced except under spiritual guidance. The unassisted
mentality of tiny individual souls does not enable them to realize their own
supreme good. The rationality of the reason of man can itself be realized only by
being rationalized by the All-knowledge and by consciously sharing in serving
His Cosmic Plan. It is only in this way that one can escape the tyranny of his
own native littleness.

Religion is not a departmental affair, nor the special business of any particular
set of people. It is the practice of the service of the Truth in all affairs. But
the Truth cannot be fully served by the limited cognition of the conditioned
soul. The Truth in His Proper Nature is always Full and Immutable and is
known only to the Supreme Soul Who has also the power to Communicate
Himself to the multitude of individual souls. The Truth cannot be known if one
acts in opposition to the source of rationality.

Conduct which is irrational is also improper and unnatural for a rational being.
There can be no other test of impropriety. All conduct, therefore, ceases to
be rational as soon as it neglects to receive inspiration from the Source of
all knowledge. No act can be irrational or undesirable that is done in
conscious obedience to the Will of the Absolute. The domestic duties of the loyal
wife cease to be drudgery and slavishness if they are performed in conformity
with the Wishes of the Supreme Lord. The leisure, liberty and comforts of
the worldly wife are the means of confirming her taste for dissipations that
are bound to react in a most mischievous manner on her real self and on the
souls of her aiders and abettors.

The service of the Lord, Who is perfectly free from all defects, is the only
natural function of the pure cognitive essence of the free soul. In every work that
a truly rational being undertakes there can be only one object, viz., to realize and
carry out the Wishes of Godhead. The Conduct of Sree Lakshmi Devi belongs to
the plane of the unconditional loving service of the Lord. The unity and concord
of the household are fully secured by the willing and indefatigable exertions of
the loyal God-fearing wife, and, at the same time, the only function of a
perfectly rational existence in the form of the practice of loving devotion of
Godhead is realized for herself by the service of those who thus employ her in
their service of Godhead. If Sachi Devi had any desire for selfish enjoyment she
would have failed to have such high regard for her Daughter-in-law. She
accepted the services rendered to her by Sree Lakshmi Devi in the spirit in which
they were rendered, viz., in order to honour her Divine Husband’s mother who
possessed the spontaneous absorbing serving affection for her Divine Son. Sree
Lakshmi Devi loved her Husband on the plane that is absolutely free from all
mundane passions attainable to one who is wholly dedicated to the service of the
Lord. The Lord responded to Her serving love by pursuing the Role of the ideal
Devotee Who serves Krishna with all his faculties. But at the bottom of it all lay
Her actual relationship with the Divine Personality, the fulfillment of Whose
Wishes tantamounts to the successful performance of one’s whole duty.

The work of a menial is looked down upon, but it can never be banished from
this world. It is similarly easy enough to sneer at the loyal wife who sets
herself with perfect satisfaction to the exclusive performance of ordinary
domestic duties. But the food cooked by Sree Lakshmi Devi is accepted by the
Lord and benefits all who partake of the remains of the Lord’s Meal. The rich
food cooked by atheists may minister to the pleasures of the palate of an
Epicurean, but is never the Great Grace (maha prasadam) of the Lord that the

other is. The humblest work that is performed for the Lord has the greatest
potency and more than fully satisfies the utmost needs of all the faculties of our
souls, because it is most fully free and rational. This makes spiritual conduct
eternally different from the worldly and absolutely unintelligible to all
worldlings.

The personal subordination of the wife to the good husband makes her the
mistress of the household in the sense that she is thereby enabled to have
the right of serving every member in the way that is in keeping with the
spiritual purpose. If she aspires to be the mistress in the sense of being allowed
the right to lord it over the household, her position from the spiritual point of
view would be worse than useless, inasmuch as she would altogether cease to
render any service to the Lord. On the spiritual plane the only admissible
position for the soul is that of the servant of servants. In such case, however,
neither the wife nor the husband is really servant or master of one another. Both
are servants and servants of the servants of their common and only Lord.

Any difference in the nature of their respective forms of service does not affect
their natural status of exclusive servants of the Lord. Failure of duty towards
the Lord would result if either party misunderstands his or her real status
as servant of the Lord. Those who suppose that any authority can be exercised
by any of us by the right of selfish enjoyment (the worldly sense of
mastership), are thereby led to quarrel about precedence and status. In the
spiritual institution of the household precedence is accorded to the female over
the male in the service of the servant of the Lord. The wife is truly honoured
above all other members in this way. This is the Divine Dispensation and is
intended to curb the vanity of mastership and mistressship that are inborn to
the conditioned state which is disposed to exploit the difference of sex for
selfish enjoyment. There would thus be no difficulty if we regard the
arrangement enjoined by the Shastras from the point of view of our mutual
service to our common and only Master.

The personal service which was rendered by Sree Lakshmi Devi to Her Husband
may be objected to by those females who are unduly addicted to sensuous
enjoyment under the impression that it is the goal of all human endeavour. Such
persons may be disposed to think that the life led by Sree Lakshmi Devi was too
formal or too respectful or wanting in the qualities of sympathy and affection.
But everyone will easily perceive the exquisite propriety of Her Conduct as
being in perfect conformity with the requirements of the very highest spiritual
service.

This brings us to an important issue. The relationship of sensuous enjoyment is
wholly forbidden to the conditioned soul although it alone necessarily appears to
him or her as the one thing needful. In place of such relationship, which prevails
in this world, and which is the root cause of all troubles of conditioned souls, is
to be substituted the relationship of common service of the Supreme Lord by the
employment of the senses not for the gratification of one another but for the sole
satisfaction of their only legitimate Enjoyer. This institution of marriage is
intended to lead to the realization of this relationship of spiritual service in the
matter of sexual conduct. This is realized by honestly following the injunctions
of the Shastras against the natural dictates of our worldly inclination. Enjoyment
is the right reserved for the Supreme Lord, because He alone is the only Master.
He alone possesses real authority over all persons and its exercise also does not,
for this reason, involve any untoward consequences. The true rational order of
spiritual cosmos is set at naught by the unnatural proprietary ambitions of
conditioned souls, who are by their spiritual nature, servants of every spiritual
entity and can never be the Lords of any entity because every entity including
themselves, is the exclusive servant of the Supreme Lord.

The failure to realize the spiritual import of the Conduct of Sree Lakshmi Devi is
responsible for the sexual excesses that are sometimes practiced under the garb
of following loyally the conduct of Sree Gaursundar as Householder.

Sree Gaursundar was pleased with the Conduct of Sree Lakshmi Devi because it
was in accordance with His Own Purpose and showed His Pleasure by
commanding Her to serve Sree Sachi Devi during His sojourn in East Bengal.
Sree Gaursundar did not reward the loyal service of Sree Lakshmi Devi by
relaxing His strictly regulated Conduct towards Her, but by giving Her
further opportunities of service of a higher order. The service of the servant of
the Lord is higher than the direct service of the Lord Himself. Whenever the
Supreme Lord is-pleased with the devoted service of a soul He shows His
appreciation of such devotion by conferring on him the higher privilege of
serving His servants. The mother of Sree Gaursundar serves the Lord, by the
practice of parental affection. Sree Lakshmi Devi and Sree Tulasi Devi also
serve the Lord by their respective aptitudes as consort and maid. Sree Lakshmi
Devi also served Sree Tulasi. She now gave Her whole service to Sree Sachi
Devi. It was no disrespect to Sree Tulasi Devi on the part of Sree Lakshmi Devi
to prefer the service of Sree Sachi Devi to that of Sree Tulasi, inasmuch as Sree
Tulasi occupies a position of inferiority to the Mother of Godhead in the scale of
reverence. As a matter of fact, however, the apparent indifference shown to the
service of Sree Tulasi by Sree Lakshmi Devi in comparison with her reverential

and constant attendance on Sree Sachi Devi, was the better way of serving also
Sree Tulasi.

The Activities of Sree Gaursundar are, however, not fully grasped in all their
surpassing excellence unless we remember the cardinal fact that He is
actually the Supreme Lord Himself. Sree Lakshmi Devi is the Eternal Consort of
the Supreme Lord. The inexpressible Mercy of these Activities of the Divine
Pair consists in this; that They play the roles of jiva souls, endeavouring to
practice the exclusive service of the Lord in this world. The Lord does not
appear in His Role of Enjoyer, lest He be misunderstood. But we are so grossly
addicted to sensuous enjoyment that there Are not wanting persons among us
who have not scrupled to seek to detect the presence of mundane sensuous
propensity even in this wonderfully transparent and unambiguous Behaviour of
Sree Gaurundar towards Sree Lakshmi Devi.

Sree Thakur Brindabandas dwells lovingly on the incidents of the sojourn of the
Lord in Eastern Bengal in the company of His students. The Lord progressed
in His journey to East Bengal by slow stages. No one, who had the good fortune
of witnessing the Lord on His journey could take away his eyes from Him.

Females on catching Sight of the Lord expressed the opinion that it is really
worth while for the Mother Whose Son is He to have been born at all. Let
us therefore, do humble obeisance to the Feet of His Mother. That Maiden
who has obtained such Husband, is also most fortunate. That excellent Lady
has obtained the highest goal of Her womanly birth., Thus praised repeatedly
and without stint every male and female who chanced to meet the Lord on
His journey. The Sight of the Lord, Whom gods aspire to behold, was available
to all persons.

In this manner, moving slowly forward, Sree Gaursundar reached the bank of the
Padmavati, in course of several days, journey. The Padmavati possesses
the charming beauty of her mighty waves and excellent banks which look as
if planted with orchards. As the Lord caught sight of Padmavati He
sportively plunged into her water with His followers. From that day, sings
Thakur Brindabandas, fortunate Padmavati acquired the efficacy to sanctify all
the world.

The river Padmavati is a most beautiful sight. Her waves, banks and strong
current are most captivating. The Lord beheld the Padmavati, to her great

good fortune, with the greatest Pleasure, and took up His residence on her bank.
The Padmavati thus obtained the same high favour which had fallen to the lot of
the Daughter of Janhu (the Bhagirathi). The Lord with His followers bathed
daily in the water of the Padmavati and sported with the greatest ardour in her
stream, just in the same way as He had done in the Ganges.

Gaurchandra stayed for sometime in the country of Vanga. It is for this reason
that East Bengal is a blessed land to this day. The Lord abode on the bank of
the Padmavati. All the people were very much gladdened by the happy tidings
of His Appearance in their midst. The tidings quickly spread in all directions
that the Greatest of Professors, Nimai Pandit, had arrived in the country. All
those worthy Brahmanas, who were really fortunate, soon presented
themselves before the Lord with appropriate offerings for the teacher for
admission to the high privilege of His Teaching. As they, presented themselves
before the Lord they made their humble obeisance and supplicated for His
favour with great humility to the effect that it is by our great good fortune that it
has come to happen that Thou hast appeared in this country. The selfsame Person
to Whom we are wont to resort for our studies carrying with us our treasure and
family to distant Nabadwip, that rare Treasure Himself, has been brought Bodily
to our own door by the Mercy of Godhead. Thou art the visible Incarnation
of Brihaspati himself. There is no other Professor who is like Thee. Even
the parallel of Brihaspati is not worthy of Thee. Thou seemst to be an
Integral Portion of Godhead Himself, as no one except the Divinity can ever
possess such scholarship and may attract so irresistibly the mind and treasure of
all of us. We pray to Thee for the gift of a little learning to all of us. May we
humbly submit, Best of the Twice-born, that all of us do study and teach by the
help of

Thy annotations and have thereby received already the indirect benefit of Thy
most valuable instructions. May Thou be pleased to make us also Thy
direct disciples that Thy Fame may pervade the whole world.’ The Lord
encouraged them by His Smile and for a period, condescended to enact His
Pastimes of Teacher in the country of East Bengal. ‘By the force of this most
fortunate event, writes Thakur Brindabandas, ‘even to this day, all over the
country of Bengal, males and females perform the congregational kirtan
instituted by Sree Chaitanya.’

The place, where Sree Gaursundar took up His residence during His stay in
Eastern Bengal, is not mentioned in any of the available records. Some

maintain that it is the village of Magdoba in the district of Faridpur. It is
necessary to note that the practice of the congregational kirtan initiated by Sree
Chaitanya, in which both males and females took a part, was found to be already
well established in different parts of East Bengal shortly after the Disappearance
of Lord Chaitanya when Thakur Brindavandas wrote his immortal work.

Thakur Brindavandas’s account gives us the further interesting information that
Nimai Pandit was the Author of a gloss on the Kalapa Vyakarana which
was extensively used in the tols of Eastern Bengal. But we have not yet come
across any copy of the gloss if, indeed, one was ever actually penned by
Sree Chaitanya.

This puts it beyond all doubt that the Fame of Nimai Pandit as Professor is far
from being a myth concocted by His Ignorant followers. The fact that
the country of East Bengal with its great river was actually sanctified by the visit
of the Supreme Lord, although the spiritual contention may not be
really acceptable to the atheistical understanding, is the really momentous
feature of the whole episode. There cannot be a greater fortune for a country
than the Personal Presence of the Lord on its soil. The result is spiritual and
eternal but is impossible to trace in a form that appeals to the heart of persons
immersed in secular affairs. There may come a time when it will be possible to
write the inner history of the wonderful vicissitudes of conditioned souls during
their sojourn in this world from before the beginning of Time. The peripatetic
Tour of Nimai Pandit in East Bengal will appear in the true perspective in such
a Narrative as fraught with consequences that are not measurable in terms of
any mundane value. It is necessary for the purpose of the present account to hint
at the associated result. The land trod by the Lotus Feet of Sree
Chaitanya becomes the Hallowed Tirtha which it is the bounden duty of all
Vaishnavas to visit. The country which is cherished by the Vaishnavas is
afforded the only chance of attaining to the pure service of the Lord.

The Lord was seen, as He really is, by many fortunate inhabitants of East
Bengal, both male and female. The female realized Him as the ideal Son
and Husband. In the literature of the sect which calls itself ‘Gaur-nagaris’ the
fact, so clearly stated by Sree Brindavandas Thakur, has been willfully distorted
in order to suit their theory that Nimai Pandit excited the passion
of unconventional amour in all female beholders. But Nimai Pandit was the
Ideal Husband and Son and the Teacher by His Own Personal Example of the
spiritual necessity of absolute abstinence from sexuality. The Supreme Lord in
His Pastimes as Sree Chaitanya does not appear in His Roll of Enjoyer

and Proprietor of all things. Sree Chaitanya is not Sree Krishna as Lover of
others, but Sree Krishna as loving Himself. The two roles are wholly different
and cannot be confounded with one another. One who loves the Lord has no
desire for his own enjoyment; whereas the Lord Himself possesses an infinite
desire for every form of enjoyment. The insatiable desire for enjoyment of the
Lord provides the perennial opportunity of His service to all pure souls. It was
the object of Sree Chaitanya to show by His Own Conduct how this service is to
be performed by the pure souls. For the conditioned soul accordingly the Leela
of Sree Chaitanya is unambiguously wholesome as affording him the chance
of learning the service of the Supreme Lord by His Own Guidance and Example.
It is, therefore, necessary to be on one’s guard against any willful distortion of
the nature of these Supremely Magnanimous Activities of the Lord. They are
not identical with, but correspondent to, the Dvapara Leela of Sree Krishna.

The necessity of this caution will appear from a consideration of the following
facts recorded by Thakur Brindavandas to warn us against the fatal
consequences of misrepresenting the Teachings of Sree Chaitanya from worldly
motives.

It is, of course, not possible for any except the specially fortunate to understand
the Transcendental Activities of the Divinity. It is no undue disparagement of the
nature of the conditioned soul to declare that he has no chance of understanding
the Ways of Providence by his own puny effort. That, which becomes intelligible
to the reason of man by its assertive exertions, is necessarily limited. We are
fatally disposed to be complacently content with such knowledge (?) as comes to
us in the shape of our so-called acquisitions.

But they are not the Whole Truth. That which is limited, that is to say exceeded
or contained by. the limited reason of man, is rejected by his soul as unnecessary
and worthless, the moment its limited character is clearly demonstrated. So there
is a constitutional spiritual hankering for the limitless in our proper selves. This
hankering also imperatively demands complete satisfaction. Such satisfaction is
declared by all the scriptures to be realizable by the method of submissive
acceptance of the grace of the transcendental teacher. We feel no hesitation to
submit to the teacher (?) of the limited and are also proud to be the slaves of the
laws of Nature. But when it is proposed that we should submit to the Unlimited
or, in other words, be really free, we vehemently object to the process on the
ground that we are likely to lose our birth-right of freedom by being deprived of
the slavery of Physical Nature. It is this disloyal irrationality that is the only
stumbling block in our way and which prevents us, more effectively than we are

ever sincerely prepared to admit, from having any access to the actual realm of
the Absolute. There are very few persons, indeed, who are not too obsessed by
such misconceptions not to misunderstand the logic of the argument set forth
above; and fewer persons still who are prepared to act up to it in practice.

The people of East Bengal, enlightened by the mercy of Sree Gaursundar,
adopted the method of congregational chanting of the Name of Hari as the
true universal method of worshipping Godhead. But no sooner did they accept
the form of the pure religion than they were victimized by a regular succession
of pseudo-saviours. Even by the time of Thakur Brindavandas there had
already arisen quite a large number of these pretenders to savourship and they
had actually done a good deal of positive harm. One of these degraded wretches
in order to gain his livelihood passed himself off as Raghunath, the Avatara of
Vishnu. Another sinner persuaded the people to sing him as Narayana by giving
up the congregational chant of Krishna established by Sree Gaursundar.

Commenting on the doings of these profane hoary rascals Thakur Brindavandas
notes the height of absurdity of people, who are so entirely at the mercy
of Physical Nature that she makes them change their point of view three times
in course of every day, being able to induce any one to mistake such ROGUES
as themselves as the Supreme Lord. There was one of these devils, a pseudo-
Brahmana, in the country of Rarh, who wore the mask of a Brahmana but
was really a savage cannibal. This particular rascal had the audacity of making
the people call him ‘Gopala’ (the Divine Cow-Boy Krishna); for which reason
he was nick-named the ‘Shiald (fox) by the people.

Thakur Bindabandas uses very strong language, indeed, in his open
condemnation of the practices of both these pretenders to saviourship and
their deluded followers. He is specially grieved for the latter, declaring that
the wretch who accepts any person as Godhead in lieu of Sree Chaitanya, is
the worse criminal of the two. He then solemnly exhorts all persons To accept
as true the facts that Gauranga Sree Hari is the Lord of the infinity of worlds,
that all bondage wears off by the mere recollection of His Name, that one
triumphs over all adverse circumstances if he but recollects even His servants.
The Praises of the Lord are sung by the whole world. It is imperatively necessary
to serve the Feet of the Lord after the manner of Himself, by discarding the
wrong path.’

The danger from pseudo-saviours is twofold. They (1) induce the people to give

up the worship of the Lord and (2) make their victims serve their own
vile selves. The method that was adopted for gaining these ends was
outwardly similar to that of Sree Chaitanyadeva. Thy also prescribed the
congregational chanting of the name of Godhead meaning themselves. ‘Sree
Chaitanya is Godhead Himself. There is no impropriety in chanting His Name.
There would be the most fatal dereliction of one’s duty if one disbelieves the
Divinity of Sree Chaitanya. The only duty of all His followers is to proclaim this
Truth to all the world in the clearest possible manner so that no one may suffer
by missing the excellent opportunity of serving the Supreme Lord in the only
feasible way in this controversial Age which is devoid of natural faith. Those
people who do not believe in the Divinity of Sree Chaitanya, are alone
unfortunate, as they are prevented from adopting the only method of attaining
the transcendental service of Godhead. This is the sad lot of the Sceptics. There
is, however, a lot that is even worse than that of the Sceptics, viz., that which
befalls the disloyal over-credulous. They allow themselves to be misled by the
sufficiently transparent artifices of audacious rascals who know very well how to
exploit their weakness. The true course lies midway between these extremes.

The conduct and speech of the followers of Sree Chaitanya are, indeed, liable to
be misunderstood by the hypocrites and their victims, in opposite ways.

The atheistic credulous are apt to be misled by rascals who pass themselves off
as Godhead for their utter want of faith in Sree Chaitanya. The faith in
Sree Chaitanya is to be attained by avoiding the defects of disloyal credulity on
the one hand and of scoffing incredulity on the other. It is, therefore, necessary
to be cautiously but fully open to real enlightenment. But the case of
those unfortunate people who are over-credulous on principle is the most
deplorable of all, inasmuch as they are sure to fall into the clutches of those
hypocritical rascals whose business it is to lead all those, who deliberately seek
the untruth, still further away from the Truth. The only way of avoiding this
danger is not to court it by neglecting the proper exercise of one’s natural sense
of right and wrong and by not following in all sincerity what really appears to be
the right path even to our present imperfect judgment. The only right conduct,
which also should spontaneously suggest itself to all persons so
conducting themselves, is the cultivation of exclusive association with those who
actually lead the spiritual life by avoidance of all unspiritual company. By such
conduct the innate tendency for the service of the Truth is strengthened and the
chance of benefiting by the instructions of the bona fide sadhus, who come to
every seeker of their own accord, is decisively increased.

But it is not till one has the opportunity of the right kind of personal association

with sadhus that he has any substantive chance of spiritual enlightenment, i.e, of
realizing his natural faith in the Actiue Existence of Personal Godhead. One who
seeks to undergo the necessary training for being fitted for the spiritual service of
the Supreme Lord, can obtain real and effective help in this Age from no one
else except Sree Chaitanya. But it is reserved only for those who are sincere
seekers of the Absolute Truth to realize this. One may be very dull or very
intelligent, as the world goes. Such dullness and cleverness will equally help or
retard one’s progress on the spiritual path according as he is sincerely disposed
to serve. The theory of good conduct is related to substantive good conduct
itself, as shadow to substance. The substance necessarily includes the shadow,
but not vice versa. Right conduct is the practice of substantive sincerity. Those
who are disposed to under value actual conduct regarding it as external are liable
to overlook this all-important consideration. External conduct can alone feed the
inner enlightenment by the process of concrete actual growing experience of the
reality. The experience of the service of the Lord resulting from conduct
possesses far greater enlightening power than the experience of worldly affairs,
inasmuch as on the spiritual plane conduct and theory are really identical. A dull
person who sincerely acts under the direction of a sadhu, attains the spiritual
vision in much the same time that is taken by an intelligent person who is
equally sincere. Worldly dullness does not stand in the way of obtaining the
service of the Godhead, provided there is no deliberate insincerity. The dull
person is never made intelligent in the worldly sense by his spiritual
enlightenment. He still appears to be very dull to worldly people who are devoid
of all true intelligence and incapable of understanding the perfectly cognizant
spiritual conduct of the bona -fide servant of the Lord.

That, which appears to be wrong or right to the stultified conscience of the
conditioned soul, is undoubtedly true for the time being, although the hollow and
ephemeral nature of empiric ethical conduct must be patent to everyone who
feels the slightest inclination for the ethical principle. Spiritual conduct is not
mechanically attained either by practising or by discarding the empiric ethical
conduct. In the conditioned state, ethical conduct with the necessary safeguards
should be undoubtedly obligatory and one, who may be wantonly disposed to
disregard the rules of morality, should be regarded as a real menace not only to
social but also to spiritual well-being, and such conduct should be punished by
all means. This will also automatically prevent the exploitation of the unthinking
masses by the otherwise formidable gang of the pseudoreligionists. It is
absolutely necessary to try resolutely to avoid this last-mentioned danger. But
one should at the same time be careful not to fall into the blunder of supposing

that empiric morality is the absolute principle or that social or domestic well¬
being is the summum bonum of human life. If the standpoint from which the
moralist regards life be incapable of affording us a view of the Truth, in spite of
any passing conveniences that may seem to result from its adoption, it should be
the bounden duty of the human reason to seek for further enlightenment. Such an
attempt may, indeed, show our want of absolute faith in the conclusions of
empiric morality. But it is not antagonistic to the empiric moral principle. On the
contrary it marks the stage of distinct ethical progress emhodying as it does the
conviction that speculative morality does not take us far enough towards the
attainment of the goal vaguely proposed by such morality.

Spiritual conduct, indeed, must not be imagined as identical with the empiric
moral conduct, nor as its derivative. By the cultivation of so-called moral
living the spiritual life is not positively realizable. Moral life is the imaginary
Ultima Thule of the advocates of so-called worldly well-being. The vision of the
empiric moralists cannot pass the bounding line of the horizon of this world.

The principles of empiric morality have a limited and temporary value. They
are rehabilitated, not supplemented by the laws of spiritual living. One, who
is truly anxious for spiritual enlightenment must, therefore, be prepared also for
a thorough re-adjustment of his moral conduct both as regards its
external manifestation and internal attitude. This change will not coincide with
the requirements of the really irrational form of living striven for by the
worldly minded ethical person and may even be found fault with by those who
are thoughtless enough to imagine the correlative worldly principle to be
the obligatory rule of human conduct. Such opposition is beside the point and
has always to be reckoned with by all sincere seekers of the service of the
Absolute Truth. It has its value for the negative well-being of the world in
forcing the spiritual novice to explain his purpose to his opponents in an
intelligible form thus helping the diffusion of the knowledge of the Truth and
preventing hasty adoption of untruth that is found to parade in the garb of truth
in this world.

But one may also commit the no less fatal blunder of waiting too long to
embrace the Truth when He actually presents Himself by pretending to
be cautious. If this is hypocrisy or idleness, as is often the case such a
procedure will not help one progress towards the Truth. It is necessary to be
sincerely prepared to firmly discard all untruth and to accept actively the Truth at
all time in proportion to our real convictions. One who does not do so, is still
the unreclaimed egotist who has not yet to acquire the salutary ambition

for seeking to become an humble and active servant of the Absolute Truth.

A seeker of the active service of the Truth should also be prepared to commit
an infinity of mistakes in his honest endeavour to find Him. Indifference
and idleness are the masked-forms of hostility to the principle of spiritual
service and have to be most carefully avoided by all who are truly desirous of
attaining the service of the Truth.

The Lord stayed for two months in East Bengal moving about in different
directions always taking a particular interest in visiting the river
Padmavati. There was a great resuscitation of sound erudition by His scholastic
exertions. Hundreds of persons returned to their homes gaining their diploma by
a brief course of study under the Lord;—such is the wonderful Power of
Sree Chaitanya. The whole of East Bengal rushed to the Feet of Nimai Pandit for
the acquisition of learning. Thousands of persons in this manner became
the disciples of the Lord; and it is impossible to ascertain the number of those
who obtained the blessing of His Teaching.

Meanwhile at Nabadwip Lakshmi Devi was very much distressed in Her heart
by separation from Her Lord. She did not divulge Her condition to any one.

She constantly served the mother. She tasted no food since the departure of
the Lord but only made a show of accepting food as a mere formality. She
was stricken at heart with the deepest grief by separation from Her Lord. She
wept all through the nights by Herself. Sree Lakshmi Devi got no respite from
Her great anxiety even for a moment. She at last felt the separation to be
wholly unbearable and wished to make Her way to the presence of Her
Lord. Thereupon, leaving behind in this world a body resembling Her
Own Transcendental Form, Lakshmi Devi silently betook Herself to the Side of
Her Husband, eluding the notice of everybody. Holding closely to Her heart
the Lotus Feet of the Lord, Lakshmi Devi thus found Her way to the bank of
the holy Ganges, in the state of beatific contemplation.

Thakur Brindavandas has refrained from describing the grief of Sree Sachi Devi
at the Disappearance of Lakshmi, remarking that the cries of the mother
melted even hearts of wood. The neighbors were very much pained by hearing of
the departure of Sree Lakshmi Devi and turned up to do their customary duties
by the departed.

The term used in the Shastras to denote the Consort of Godhead is ‘Shakti which
may be rendered as ‘Power’. Godhead is the Possessor or Lord, of all Powers.

The Power of the Supreme Lord wears a twofold aspect and serves Him in
apparently opposite ways. There is in the first place the spiritual Aspect. This is
the Enlightening Aspect of the Divine Power and it is this Aspect that is directly
obeyed by all bona fide servants of the Lord. There is also the deluding, Material
or Limiting Aspect. This Aspect is of the nature of the Shadow of the Spiritual
Aspect and as such manifests Herself at the opposite pole as the negative and
subordinate form of the Spiritual Aspect. This second Aspect is called in the
Shastras ‘Maya Shakti or the ‘limliting Power ; while the Spiritual Aspect is
called Chit Shakti or Cognitive Power. The two are not really separate, as the
material Aspect is correlative and wholly under the control of the Spiritual
Power. The bona -fide servants of the Supreme Lord are not under the necessity
of obeying His Material or Limiting Power. Sree Lakshmi Devi is the Plenary
aspect of the Spiritual Power of the Lord.

The relation of the Spiritual Power to the Supreme Lord, Who bears the Name of
Sree Krishna, is one of indivisibility. Sree Krishna as the Lord of His
‘Chit Shakti’ is the Possessor and Controller of Power by means of the Divine
Will, while Sree Lakshmi Devi, the Spiritual Power of the Lord is the Executrix
of the Divine Will. Between the Divine Will and the Agency of His execution
there is no difference of category, the One automatically and fully implying the
Other. Sree Lakshmi Devi is the Plenary Power of Sree Krishna, representing the
Will of Her Lord and carrying out the Same in regard to the secondary powers.
Maya or the Material Power, is the Negative, Deluding Face of the Spiritual
Power for the performance of a subordinate function that is secondary of
correcting the paltry perversity of dissociated souls and for this reason being
necessarily superfluous in the Spiritual Realm. The Material Power is
comparable in Her action to the operation of a piece of cloud on the broad
bosom of the spotless sky preventing the conditioned souls of this phenomenal
world from obtaining a view of the Great Sun Sree Krishna. The cloud devised
by Maya is a very very small part of the Cosmic arrangement, serving the
Spiritual Power in a negative capacity for the sustenance of disloyal souls and
correcting their perversity by providing the congenial scope for its indulgence.
Maya has to employ deception in order to correct without resorting to any
violence, the perversity of the dissociated soul due to the abuse of his freedom to
choose his own course. But this necessity to deceive has no place in the
economy of the Spiritual Universe.

We are in this place concerned with the question of the intervention of the
Spiritual Power in the benighted sphere under the penal jurisdiction of

Maya. This is the Descent (Avatara) of Sree Krishna into this world For this
Purpose the Lord employs the smallest fraction of His Spiritual Power, Or sends
down Those Infinity of Plenary Divine Forms of His Own Who serve in diverse
ways the Various Purposes of His Endless Activities, or He Himself comes down
into this world. Sree Lakshmi Devi, the Eternal Consort of the Lord executes
all these Purposes of the Lord through every degree and variety of Her co¬
ordinate manifestation. She is identical with the Divine Activity.

But the Principle which constitutes the bond between Sree Lakshmi Devi and the
Supreme Lord, is not one of mechanical submission and domination. It is not at
all like the relationship that exists in this phenomenal world between material
power and its deluded possessor or slave. Neither is it the so-called rational
submission which is conceivable by the perverted reason of the conditional soul.
The Principle is expressed in the Shastras by the term ‘prema’ ordinarily
rendered into the English word ‘love\ although the word love, does not possess
the spiritual significance of ‘prema\ ‘Prema’, or ‘spiritual love’, maybe defined
as the principle of conduct that aims exclusively and causelessly at the
gratification of the Spiritual Senses of Krishna. Unspiritual love (karma)
is defined as the principle that aims at the gratification of the material senses
of non-Krishna i.e. of the agent himself.

Divine Personality, as conceived by the conditioned soul, is a profanation. The
worldly notion of personality is radically unwholesome, being made of
material stuff. It is not possible for the conditioned soul to conceive of
personality except in terms of a phy-sical body bound to a sensuous mind
delighting in its inextricable union with the former. This gross conception of
personality also finds its way into the empiric attempt to conceive a Personal
Godhead. The unwillingness on the part of empiricists to recognize the Divine
Personality, is due to their apprehension of the inevitable presence of grossness
in the personal conception itself. They naturally hesitate to extend to the
Supreme Entity who is declared by the Scriptures and the innate senses of all
humanity to be free from the least taint of unwholesomeness the degrading
notion of personality that is conceivable to the reason of the conditioned soul.
But there would be no ground for such hesitation if the Divine Personality were
found to be really such as to make Him not only altogether free from our actual
gross experience of personality of this world, but in perfect keeping with the
highest requirements of our unbiased reason, which Can never be really satisfied
with its hypothetical concoctions, and also with the declarations of the
Scriptures.

The conditioned soul posing as a person is possessed of two conjoined sets of
apparatus called indiscriminately in the English language, by the same word viz.
‘senses \ The internal, cognitive sense-principle operates on the external world
in the conditioned state by an external process of physical perception through the
medium of the physical sense-organs directed and supplemented by the re-action
of the material mind which educes the subtle entities of precepts and concepts
from the gross impressions of external objects supplied initially by the physical
organs. The personality of the conditioned soul is empirically supposed to
consist definitely and concretely of the enveloping material principles and
processes of the mind and the physical sense-organs directed to the objects of
phenomenal Nature and tending to material gratification realizable in terms of
the same by the inner conscious principle which remains otherwise passive. The
unwholesome element of such personality consists in its material sensuousness.
The inner conscious principle, by seeking to establish his affinity with the
objects of phenomenal Nature, is ultimately responsible for the perpetuation of
the super-imposed unwholesome ego thus realized as the individual personality
which is condemned by the spiritual pro-personalists and the empiric
impersonalists alike.

Philanthropism is the result of the unpardonable and sacrilegious attempt to
make an ideal of this pseudo-personality and to thrust it also on the
Divinity Himself. This is not always unaccompanied by a suspicion of the
incongruity of such attempt. But the philanthropists fall into this utterly profane
error by striving to escape by a natural impulse from the suicidal alternative of
the acceptance of the principle of impersonality proposed by the logical school
of Empiricism. But by confounding the mundane for the Divine they prove to
be even worse enemies of theism than the impersonalists.

The tragedy of the profession of the spiritual ?) nature the mundane personality
is due to the incongruous association of soul with matter in the state of bondage.
The conditioned soul deliberately seeks sensuous gratification, which is foreign
to his own spiritual nature, by making the world serve the pleasures of the
senses. The principle on which he is made to set to work in such a process is
supplied by his deluded assumption that he is proprietor, or enjoyer of this
material world. But the role which is thus attempted is one that is foreign to the
real nature of the jiva soul.

This proposed proprietorship means the domination of the infinitesimally little
over the Infinitely Great. Such a process can by its nature be only delusive

and disappointing. If the tiny soul allows himself to be dominated by the
Supreme Soul he suffers from no such self-elected difficulty. The Supreme Soul
can find the employment for the tiny soul that relieves the latter from the
necessity of seeking the impossible unnatural paltry satisfaction of the gross
physical senses. In the perfectly pure rational existence the subordination of the
really little to the really Great is realized as being necessarily natural and
congenial. It is the unnatural domination of the non-rational and the non-Great
that demoralizes the soul in the conditioned state. The only cure of the
aberrations of this frail so-called mundane personality is, therefore, supplied by
the arrangement of the positive spiritual service of the supreme Soul by the little
souls, not mechanically as proposed by the smartas, for the purpose of the
gratification of the physical senses, nor impersonally which tantamounts to self-
destruction but for the infinitely higher purpose of seeking the gratification of
the Spiritual Senses of the Supreme Person Who is the necessarily Absolute
Proprietor of everything.

The Supreme Dominating Person can be served positively and consciously by
reciprocal dominated personalities and only negatively and unconsciously
by impersonal entities. Hence the real reciprocal spiritual personality of his
willing servants, or powers, is proved. The relation of the individual soul to
the Supreme Soul is not identical with, but the reciprocal of the relationship of
the Supreme Soul to the jiva. Sree Lakshmi Devi seeks the gratification of
the Senses of Sree Krishna by an infinite number of complementary
little personalities of various dimensions and specifications acting in
perfect harmony for ministering to the pleasure of the Perfect Senses of Sree
Krishna. The Personality of Sree Lakshmi Devi is not one of enjoyer but of
provider of the Enjoyment of Sree Krishna and She serves only the Pleasure of
Krishna.

This reciprocal function in its twofold aspect, is ‘prema’ or ‘spiritual love’.

So when the Supreme Lord intervenes Personally in the affairs of this mundane
world for the deliverance of conditioned souls, Sree Lakshmi Devi
ever accompanies Him and carries out the Wishes of Her Lord towards the
jiva souls.

This is the real background of the picture drawn by Thakur Brindavandas. But

the role that Sree Lakshmi Devi has to play as the consort of the

ideal householder-devotee during his sojourn, by command of the Lord, in

this material world, is only One Aspect of Her Divine Function as the
Eternal consort of Her Supreme Husband in the Realm of the Absolute. She is
the servant of the Servant of the Lord. She has to minister to the pleasure of
the Supreme Lord under the direction of Himself as Servant in the role
of Householder. She must not, therefore regard Her Husband as identical with
the Supreme Lord in His Nature of Absolute Proprietor. She must not suppose
that Her Husband stands in need of, or has any inclination for, enjoyment of
any kind for Himself. Her Function as the Consort of the Devotee corresponds to
that of Her Husband, Both acting the part of Associated Servants of the Supreme
Lord in Their Roles of Husband and Wife of Each other, in order to teach
the deluded wives and husbands of this world their proper relationship to
one another in conformity with their absolute loyalty to Krishna.

Her pang of separation is, therefore, inexplicable on the supposition that Sree
Lakshmi Devi actually experienced the discomforts of a mortal wife placed in
a similar circumstance; although Her Conduct seems to be due to such
motive. Her Disappearance from this world, which is ascribed to the intensity of
Her Sorrow, also calls for a little explanation to prevent any
gross misunderstanding.

Sree Lakshmi Devi was engaged in tending Sree Sachi Devi by Command of
Sree Gaursundar during His tour of East Bengal. By refusing to take food
and drink and forming the resolution of deliberately starving Herself to death ( ?)
to put an end to Her own grief, She might be supposed to have been
apparently neglecting the duty assigned to Her by Her Husband. To this the
Conduct of Sree Vishnupriya Devi, after Renunciation of the Lord and also
subsequently to His Disappearance from this world, would seem to be a great
contrast.

The duty of a faithful wife whose husband is abroad, as laid down in the
Shastras, is to eschew all comforts for herself and keep her mind
perpetually fixed on her absent husband. By this means she would be enabled to
retain and augment the constancy and intensity of her love for her husband. A
wife may be faithful to her husband either quite causelessly out of pure love, or
from a sense of duty, or for her own selfish happiness. The wife, who loves her
husband causelessly, is supposed to be the ideal wife; while one, who minds her
own advantage in caring for her husband, is rewarded as a hypocrite. But none
of these have any, reference to the service of the Supreme Lord. If the
husband himself be a servant of Vishnu it is only then that the conduct of the

wife, who seeks to assist him in such service, necessarily also attains the level of
service of the Divinity. In this case any love, duty or indifference, shown to the
husband personally , without any conscious realization of his function as servant
of the Lord, would also seem at first sight to fall short of the full service of
Krishna.

This brings us really to the dangerous ground. It is, of course, possible for his
wife to be carnally attached to a Vaishnava husband. If it be so, what will be
the consequence of such attachment? A Vaishnava by his very nature can never
be a participator in the carnality of his wife. There can, therefore, be no chance
of reciprocal carnality in such a case, as the wife would receive no
encouragement to follow her suicidal course. There would then remain the
chance of her own regeneration if her attachment to the Vaishnava husband,
although due to carnal motive, induces her to serve him faithfully through all
apparent neglect on his part. This will tend to establish that real contact between
the two which will he undoubtedly beneficial for both, if the husband continues
true to the Lord. Even if in such a case the wife be not enabled to attain to the
conscious service of the Lord she would unconsciously take a long stride in the
direction of such service. If, therefore, the husband be a true Vaishnava a path is
opened thereby even to a carnally disposed wife to attain to the spiritual
condition by serving him in a friendly way. Any service rendered to a Vaishnava
from any kind of friendly motive, is rewarded by the attainment of the summum
bonum.

On the other hand the only conduct, that is really obstructive of the spiritual
well-being of any person, is that inspired by disinclination to serve
the Vaishnavas or a positive inclination to oppose or vilify them.

The spiritual service of Krishna offers unfettered freedom of choice to
everybody as regards the form in which it is to be rendered. The only thing
needed is absence of conscious aversion to the Lord or to His servants, and
especially the latter. Any aversion shown to the servants of the Lord is fatal for
the same reason that makes any form of friendly attachment to him a means of
assured safety. There is no other way for the deliverance of conditioned souls
except by serving the servants of the Lord, who appear in our midst and who
by command of the Lord graciously accept any and every form of service for
the well-being of all sinners without exception.

Therefore, judged from the point of view of the wife of the ideal house-holder-

devotee the conduct of Sree Lakshmi Devi is self-protected against all adverse
criticism for the reason that it happened to be of the nature of an intense friendly
attachment for the Servant of the Lord. Her Role was, therefore, exactly in
keeping with the Purpose of the Lord Himself and vital for clearing up
most serious misconceptions on the subject of one’s duty by a Vaishnava.

The Departure of Sree Lakshmi Devi to Her Own Realm of Vaikuntha did not in
anyway obstruct the Activities of the Lord. The loyal wife of the most
rabid worldling can desire for no more pleasant exit from this world than
was exhibited by Sree Lakshmi Devi without any of the unwholesome factors
that are necessarily associated with the departure of the sinner.

But as a matter of fact the mode of Disappearance from this world of the
Supreme Lord and His Eternal Consorts, servitors and paraphernalia
is altogether different from the death of a mortal. The art of the
magician furnishes the nearest parallel of the Divine Activity. The magical
performs the feat of dying in his own person to the view of the spectators
without really dying at all. Sree Lakshmi Devi deluded the people into believing
that they witnessed Her death to the detail of cremating her Supposed dead
body, independently of any change to Herself. The creation of an actual physical
body was not necessary as the Eternal Consort of the Lord is the Mistress of
physical Nature and performs all Her Spiritual Acts, even in this world, without
any positive help of the Deluding Material Energy, Who is Her Own
subservient Shadow

But the Grief of Sree Lakshmi Devi, which was the cause of Her Departure, was
not a pretense. The Lord has the Power of making Himself invisible even to Sree
Lakshmi Devi. Herself The Grief of Sree Lakshmi Devi is, however, not like the
grief of conditioned souls who are pained by being deprived of their opportunity
of selfish enjoyment. Sree Lakshmi Devi is the Eternally Inseparable Consort of
the Supreme Lord, but is nevertheless not identical with Him. It is this which
makes possible Their Relationship of Love in Union and Separation. She has
Her Existence in the Divine Lunction of causeless loving service of the Supreme
Lord. She serves the Lord equally both in union and separation. So there is no
decrease of love or bliss but only a change of the form of service when Sree
Lakshmi Devi displays the extreme Grief of Separation from Her Only Lord.

Chapter 14 Tapan Misra: Return from East Bengal

After staying for a while in East Bengal the Lord made up His mind to return
Home. On being apprised of the intention of the Lord the people of those
parts brought various offerings of all their treasure. The presents included
gold, silver, pots for holding water, excellent seats, finely dyed blankets, a
great variety of clothing, etc. All persons gladly made an offering of all the best
things of their households. Lord Gauranga-Sree Hari was pleased to accept
their offerings, bestowing His Merciful Glance on all. Having taken His leave of
all persons Lord Sree Gauranga set out for His Own Home, Many students
from East Bengal followed the Lord to Nabadwip to study under Him there.

The Lord apparently did not think it to be incompatible with the duty of a-house-
holder to accept the presents of the people of East Bengal for imparting them
knowledge of the Shastras. This may be objected to on the ground that
it amounts to nothing less than the selling of knowledge which is forbidden
by the Shastras. There is a distinction between professional teachers of
different branches of secular knowledge and the preacher of the Religion.

The profession of a secular teacher is recommended by the Shastras as
unobjectionable from the worldly point of view and is given preference over
other occupations for earning a livelihood. The Lord does not appear in East
Bengal as Preacher of the Religion. The Shastras forbid selling of religious
teaching.

The preacher of religion must not accept any remuneration for his services as
preacher. If he accepts payment and is dependent on it for his livelihood
he cannot but desire to please his pay-masters and thus fail to maintain
his unconditional adherence to the Truth, which is essential in every bona
fide preacher of the religion. The least concession to any worldly purpose makes
a person, unfit for being a preacher of the Absolute Truth. It is,
therefore, absolutely necessary to keep the whole arrangement for the preaching
of Religion outside the obligations of the social systems devised for the
attainment of purely worldly ends; as any adulteration is bound to be productive
of irreparable mischief for all concerned, there is no harm in any one
accepting presents in return for imparting knowledge of the Shastras to his
students.

These payments also were voluntary and not confined to the students.

It was apparently regarded as the duty of all house-holders to place the best part
of their wealth at the disposal of the secular teachers of the people. This was a
social arrangement for the promotion of secular learning. It had nothing to do
with the preaching of the religion. The people naturally flocked to Nimai Pandit
in order to study Vyakarana as He was reputed to be the greatest scholar of that
day. They had their reward in gaining scholarship of a superior order in a short
time.

There was, however, one notable exception. A most fortunate Brahmana, by
name Tapan Misra, presented himself before the Lord on the eve of His
return from East Bengal, with the intention of obtaining a solution of his
doubts regarding the real nature of the Object and method of spiritual practices.
Tapan Misra was not one of the ordinary type of inquirers who believe it to be
their duty to be curious about everything and therefore also about religion.

The problem, with which Tapan Misra approached the Lord, had been suggested
in course of a long endeavour to find the Truth by the method of
sincerely following out the injunctions of the Shastras. Tapan Misra had already
lost all taste for worldly life. He was in that critical state when the mode of life,
with which he had been familiar, had ceased to interest, but when yet no
satisfactory substitute had been found. Being naturally of a perfectly sincere turn
of mind he had not sat down tightly on his doubts. He had been to all persons
whom he considered likely to be able to help him in solving his doubts. These
doubts were troubling him in spite of the conventional religious life with its
theory and practices which, as the duty of one born in a Brahmana family, he had
duly inherited and which he had been trying sincerely to follow up in life. He
was too genuinely inquisitive to be content without troubling about the real value
of his inherited activities and their necessity for himself as an individual. He
was, therefore, deeply pious in his external conduct but distracted within by
the gravest doubts regarding his own real condition. This is a very
rare combination. Habit is a formidable enemy on the path of progress if it
happens to be unduly enamoured of itself and breeds the inclination to be really
content with a bad thing. The human soul by his constitution is naturally
opposed to anything short of the Absolute Truth. No mechanical dogmatism can
satisfy him. The affairs of this world are carried on by most of us on the basis
of working hypotheses called by the misleading designations of Natural Laws
and Moral Principles. Their proper function is merely to stimulate, without
being able to satisfy, our loyal inclination for the service of Truth. Those who

suppose that it is never possible for us to-attain the Real, Immutable Truth, soon
get reconciled to this ever-shifting hypothetical mode of living which alone
is possible with the help of empiric ethics and the other empiric sciences.

They are not pessimists as regards their own method. They subsist on the hope
of a hypothetical notion called progressive improvement, without really caring
to examine seriously the basis of such hope.

Tapan Misra had ceased to be a contented empiricist. He had also failed to
understand the basis of his own faith in the Scriptures. A careful study of
the Shastras and prolonged performance of Shastric practices had failed to solve
his doubts. He was studious, thoughtful and practical and had also been
trying honestly to live the unworldly life enjoined by the Shastras. As the result
of this he had made the discovery that it was not possible to understand or obey
the Shastras, as their theories and injunctions seemed to contradict one
another and certain principles also seemed wholly impossible to carry out in
practice.

He was too honest to be disposed to ignore or lightly explain away such
discrepancies. In one word he was a seeker of the Absolute Truth and determined
not to serve anything else under the name of the Truth.

In this dilemma Tapan Misra had a wonderful dream. A celestial being appeared
to him in his dream and advised him to proceed to Nimai Pandit Who
would solve all his doubts. The god told him further that Nimai Pandit is no
other than Narayana Himself Who had appeared in this world in His Human
Form for delivering the conditioned souls. The Brahmana was also warned not
to divulge this secret of the Vedas to anyone else as such conduct would
entail trouble for him in all subsequent lives. The Brahmana shed copious tears
on beholding this auspicious dream. Recovering his balance of judgment
he blessed his good fortune and, fixing, his thoughts on the Lord, hastened to
His Presence.

Tapan Misra made his way to the place where the Lord was seated in the midst
of His pupils, and, after making obeisance, stood before Him with the palms
of his hands joined in the attitude of supplication. He then completely laid
open his heart to the Lord, saying that the ordinary duties of life had lost all
their charms for him, and that he was passing his days in a state of intense
suspense, due to failure to understand the proper method and object of spiritual
living.

He had, therefore, come to Him for enlightenment on the subject, being fully
convinced that there was no other way out of the difficulty except through
His Mercy. He hoped to be delivered from the bondage of the world by
His Kindness and prayed that He would overlook his unfitness and
mercifully communicate to him the right method and object of spiritual living.
He desired to learn the Truth from His Own Lips, and to be delivered thereby
from the state of unbearable misery.

The Lord told the Brahmana that he was most fortunate, as there cannot be any
fortune higher than the condition of one who is desirous of serving Krishna with
all his faculties. The service of Godhead is a subject that is most difficult
to understand and is vast beyond all measure. The Supreme Lord Himself
settles the form of His worship for every Age, proclaiming the same for
the information of all. For this purpose He comes down into this mundane
world in each of the four Ages. He returns to his Realm after settling the form of
the Religion that is appropriate for each particular Age. The account of the
Lord’s Appearances in this world is recorded in the Shastras for the information
of everyone. The Lord Krishna Himself says in the Geeta, ‘I appear in this world
in the successive Ages for the purpose of delivering the sadhus, for
eliminating those who are addicted to evil and for fully establishing the
Religion.’. The Bhagavatam says that “Krishna appears in each of the four Ages
with a Different

Complexion. He is White, Red and Yellow respectively in the three other Ages
and is of a Dark Hue in Dwapara. The Colour That Krishna assumes in
the different Ages corresponds to the character of the particular Age. The form
of Religion, laid down by the Lord for the Kali Age, is the congregational chant
of the Holy Name. There are four different forms of the religion to be followed
by the souls in the different Ages. The object of all forms is the same.

This common object is realized in the Krita Age by following the method
of meditation (dhyana) on Vishnu; in the Treta Age by worshipping Him
with sacrifices (makha); in the Dvapara Age by the mode of serving the Holy
Form in the manner of ritualistic worship (archana) and in this Kali Age by
chanting (Kirtan) Hari. The performance (yajna) of the chant of the Holy Name
is, therefore, the only mode of the worship for the Kali Age. One cannot
be delivered in the Iron Age by following any of the other prescribed forms
of worship. The Vedas themselves fail to describe fully the praises due to one
who takes the Holy Name night and day, eating or sleeping. It is necessary to
note carefully that the modes of asceticism (tapas) and sacrifice (yajna) are

forbidden in the Kali Age. Those, who worship Krishna, are most fortunate”.

The Lord advised Tapan Misra to worship Krishna by staying at home, avoiding
whatever was opposed to it positively or negatively, by the method of single-
hearted devotion. Sree Gaursundar also assured Tapan Misra that he would
realize the true nature of the object and mode of worship, and in fact everything,
by means of the congregational chant of the Name of Hari. “The Name of Hari
alone is efficacious. There is absolutely no other course in the Kali Age”. The
Lord told Misra that the Name, or Mahamantra, That should be chanted consists
of sixteen Names and thirty-two letters possessing the potency of the mantra,

“Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare
Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. ”

He assured Misra that he would know the true object as well as method of
spiritual living when by constant practice of chanting the Holy Name the
first tender shoots of spiritual love (prema) would manifest themselves.

Misra made repeated prostrated obeisances at the Feet of the Lord on learning
this Teaching from the Mouth of the Lord Himself. The Misra said that he would
like to remain with the Lord, if so commanded. But the Lord asked him to
proceed to Varanasi (Benares) without delay, promising to meet him there and to
tell him all the principles regarding method and object of spiritual living.

This short Catechism, of the Creed laid down by the Supreme Lord as the only
form of Religion of the present Age, will give the reader a concrete and
definite but not the detailed idea of the form of worship established by Sree
Chaitanya Deva. The principles as well as the practice, that are taught, will
become clearer as we follow the Career of the Lord and His devotees through
each successive chapter. But it is necessary to make a few observations on the
subject without anticipating what is to follow in order to clear uncertain initial
misconceptions that may trouble the reader in regard to the outline that is just
offered.

It is definitely declared that the object of Religion is one but its form varies from
Age to Age. But the form is not evolved by the course of events of this world.
The establishment of the form of worship appropriate for the particular Age is
also a Divine event. This task is performed by the Supreme Lord Who comes
down in this world for the purpose of establishing and proclaiming the form of
the worship to be followed in each Age. This is a most important point. Those,

who object to variety of the form of worship, are in the wrong. The variety of
form is not evolved by the changing circumstances of this world, although it is
of the nature of an adjustment. But the adjustment is not human, nor natural, but
Divine, which is also made by the Lord Himself. By the side of this special form
of worship established and proclaimed by the Lord Himself as the Dispensation
of the Age there may and, as a matter of fact do, actually spring up quite a crop
of the historical forms devised by the blind speculative instinct of the human
mind to find its own independent solution of the problem of the true function of
life. The Divine Dispensation of each Age is fully in accordance with the
teaching of the whole body of the Shastras and is also definitely and clearly
stated therein. This is the really authentic evidence of the Divine Dispensation
for the present Age. This special form, though existing potentially in the record
of the Scriptures, requires to be established and proclaimed by the Lord Himself
to make it actually available for the Age.

The significance of neither the Form nor the object of Divine Dispensations may
be properly grasped by the conditioned soul unless and until he is inclined of his
own accord to seek for the Truth by the method of giving up every other mode
and object of living when and to the extent the Truth actually manifests Himself.
This is the sine qua non, the only pre-requisite, for the spontaneous attainment of
spiritual enlightenment. The points that are to be carefully remembered, are
these: ‘Spiritual Truth is categorically and eternally different from all so-called
empiric truth. Spiritual Truth is Eternal and Absolute by His Nature, whereas
empiric truth is always tentative and changeable. The proper relation of the soul
to Spiritual Truth is, therefore, that of unconditional, perfectly rational,
submission; whereas the soul has no affinity whatsoever with the so-called
empiric truth, which is a material product and towards which the human mind,
mimicking the spiritual activity of the soul, pursues the plan of alternative
adoption and rejection. It is the process which the mind is always disposed to
proclaim as the function of the soul with whom it declares itself to be identical in
order to delude the soul into agreeing to its unnatural domination. The mind is
the agent of Maya for deluding the soul. Spiritual Truth cannot be discovered by
the efforts of the materialized mind. The clear perception of this fact is the
indispensable pre-requisite for experiencing any real desire for the Spiritual
Truth. To such a seeker, say the Shastras, the Truth reveals His Own Form. The
duty of the conditioned soul is, therefore, to disavow all connection with empiric
truth in theory as well as in practice and to wait upon the pleasure of the
Spiritual Truth for all enlightenment. Spiritual Truth, unlike dead material
hypotheses, is a Living Entity possessing the power of the true initiative.

Spiritual Truth is pleased to show Himself to the soul who, on realizing the
inevitable futility of the empiric method of quest, is in search of the right method
and object of the true rational inquiry.’

But a person, who is dissatisfied with the limitations and inconclusiveness of the
method and object of the empiric search for Truth, need not necessarily accept
the alternative of waiting upon the Pleasure of the Divinity, Who is identical
with the Absolute Truth, for enlightenment. He may still continue to depend on
human contrivance. He may believe in magic, He may believe in blind faith ( ?)
He may believe in asceticism or yogic practices based on the principle of the
efficacy of control over the mind promised by physical processes such as
breathing exercises, etc., etc. He may also believe in direct revelation to his heart
without the necessity of any extraneous effort on his part. It is always possible to
secure a number of texts of the Shastras in apparent support of almost any view
that one has already decided to adopt. The dissatisfaction, that leads to such
futile activities, will be of no help in the quest of the Truth.

The instrumentality of the mind and its speculative faculty need not, of course,
be ignored. All, that is necessary, is to continue to use them vigorously, but with
all due allowance for their limitations, in every endeavour for the attainment of
the unalloyed service of the Truth. When the Absolute Truth makes His
Appearance to the human soul the cognitive faculty has to be actively employed
in His service if the Truth is to be realized. But our cognitive faculty must not be
allowed to obstruct or to dominate the Absolute Truth. Our cognitive faculty
must submit to be enlightened, not passively after the manner of stocks and
stones, but by the full exercise of its active receptive function which is natural
and possible for all self-conscious entities. The defect of the empiric method
consists in over-estimating the scope and power of the selfconscious ( ?)
principle in the conditioned soul. The self-conscious principle itself should not
project itself in the material world by willfully disconnecting itself from the
Source of all real self-consciousness. Such wrong relationship with matter is
punished by the increasing curtailment of the scope, of activity of the conscious
principle itself. Relationship of the soul with matter is possible and desirable but
without losing connection with the very Source of selfconsciousness. The
purpose of spiritual endeavour is to revive in an active form the dormant
connection with the Source. But the mind is to be directed to the Source of its
consciousness by the active exercise of all its faculties for the purpose.

The existence of a recognizable and accessible Source of the pure, unobscured

conscious principle is the initial necessity if any theory of the Absolute has to be
translated into practice. This is supplied by the periodic Appearance of
the Supreme Lord in this world. The Shastras are His harbingers. The idea, that
Religion is identical with dogma in the empiric sense, is due to fundamental
misconception of the nature of the function of the soul in his purely
spiritual state. Submission to a half-conviction or unconviction is dogma in the
real sense which is the very life of our ordinary wordly activity in all its forms.
The almost unctuous fear of all dogma, that is so much affected by all
empiricists, should appear to all consistent thinkers to be a piece of brazen
hypocrisy. It is like the inveterate and designing thief warning honest people
against the crime of theft in order to disarm all suspicions regarding the real thief
who is no other than himself. The Shastras alone are not dogmatic, but are
wholly opposed to and free from all taint of irrational empiric dogmas open and
disguised. The Shastras, indeed, expose the futility and inconsistency of
dogmatism to the chagrin of all hypocritical empiric professors and
disseminators of rank dogmatism under the name of rationality. This is the
destructive function of the Shastras. Their constructive function is to supply the
clue to the Absolute Truth.

But the Shastras are not themselves sufficient for the purpose of effecting the
deliverance of conditioned souls, as the latter are on principle disinclined to give
them an unprejudiced, complete and patient hearing. The few, who
are exceptions to this rule, are bound to attain the Tmth if after carefully
studying the Shastras they do not misunderstand, or imperfectly understand, or
fail to act up to, the method laid down in the Shastras, in a perfectly convincing
and cognisable manner, for the quest of the Absolute Truth.

Tapan Misra could understand neither the method nor the object of spiritual
endeavour as laid down in the Shastras. He had been confused by his
own honest endeavour. The methods that he had followed had actually failed,
and he was also aware of this fact, to yield the result promised by the Shastras.

It is, no doubt, impossible to fully understand how the instructions of Nimai
Pandit recorded above could produce in such a critically minded, sincere
soul complete and instantaneous faith in all the Statements of the Lord.

The dogmatic empiricists will object to this on the ground that it is dogmatism
to which he professes to be opposed in theory. But without further wasting
our time on these shameless hypocrites, whose folly has already been
sufficiently exposed, it would be far better to try to understand how Nimai

Pandit Himself was free from all such hypocritical dogmatism.

What Nimai Pandit said is this: “Tapan Misra should constantly repeat the maha
mantra. The maha mantra, consists of sixteen Names and thirty-two letters of
the Alphabet. The maha mantra., although it is technically in the form of Name
and not of mantra, yet possesses all the potency of the mantra.. The Names in
the case of address in their Sanskrit form, constituting the maha mantra., have
the following order: Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare;
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama; Rama, Hare Hare. This maha mantra is to be
constantly recited. There is no condition. The real meaning of the method and
object of spiritual endeavour, laid down in the Shastras, would appear
spontaneously after the process had been followed to the point when the first
tender shoots of spiritual love for the Divinity made their appearance.”

This is a very simple creed which also does not apparently rest on the rational
basis. A string of names is to be uttered continuously. How could this apparently
non-rational advice fully satisfy Tapan Misra?

The whole answer in a nutshell is this. It is so because Tapan Misra submitted to
receive the Truth from the Supreme Lord. The Substantive Truth
is communicated by the Power of Mercy of the Lord. He cannot be reached by
the uphill effort of the empiric mind. It is no doubt true that Sree
Chaitanyadeva subsequently described to this same Tapan Misra in greater detail
this very subject. That Discourse is all-important and will appear in this work in
its proper place. It will suffice for the present to observe that the
process recommended is different from the magical art. The result promised is
the knowledge of the right method and object of spiritual endeavour discussed
in the pages of the vast literature of the Shastras. Magic produces, and promises
to produce, a temporary delusion. Even when magic seems to produce
a comparatively lasting result it is also not spiritual in the rational sense of
the philosophers. The cure of a disease of the seeming increase of the scope
or power of the senses and the mind, in regard to their relation with the objects
of this phenomenal world limited by the conditions of time and space, are
not spiritual results according to any school. Those who are inattentive to
the distinction between the Real Truth and changing hypotheses, between
the spiritual and the material, are likely to confound the maha mantra with
a magical formula. It is necessary to avoid this possible misconception.

All that can be reasonably urged at this stage is that the proposition is stated but

is not supported by any form of argument or elucidation. The answer is that the
discussion is deliberately postponed to enable the Narrative to develop to that
point at which it will be practicable to resume the further consideration of the
subject in this form. Meanwhile the conversation of Nimai Pandit with Tapan
Misra and its effect on the latter may be accepted as a most wonderful event
which actually took place but which does not explain itself.

Of course nothing is impossible with the Lord. The empiric dogmatist is not,
however, satisfied, or profess to be dissatisfied, unless an effort is made
to consider all subjects from the point of view of our limited reason which
is confessedly unfit to find out the Real Truth. Such inconclusive discussions
by the method of begging the question to be proved, also pretend to carry
our knowledge of the subjects so discussed further in the direction of the
Truth. Such discussions undoubtedly serve to direct our attention to all the
superficial and misleading aspects of a subject. We gather much information by
its means, which is of a negative, character and falls within the limited scope
permitted to our present mental faculties. Such knowledge is applicable to
our circumstances of the phenomenal world and enables us to a more or less
extent to obtain the fulfillment of our worldly purposes. This is the principle
of worldly utility. It need neither be belittled nor ignored. It is effective in its
way. But the attainment of a worldly result is no help in the process
of understanding the Absolute i.e., the spiritual or real and abiding nature of
those very phenomena. For that purpose they require to be looked at from the
point of view of the Absolute Truth. The Lord alone can communicate the
spiritual understanding which enables us to know the Absolute Truth. Once we
have been enabled to attain the absolute standpoint we are in a position to
really share in the discourse about the Absolute Truth which is the subject-matter
of the Shastras. The Lord may adopt any method to communicate to us
this spiritual enlightenment. There is nothing surprising in regard to the
Activities of the Lord. But at the same time the Lord does nothing that is not
also perfectly rational in the only true sense. We are, therefore, justified in trying
to find out not the empiric but the absolute rationale of the Lord’s Teachings.

We shall revert to this subject in its proper place.

Tapan Misra was, however, convinced that he had at last found out the Truth of
Whom he was in search. He made repeated prostrated obeisances to the
Lord Who now directed him to proceed to Benares without delay where the
Lord promised to meet him again and impart the knowledge regarding the
detailed principles of the method and Object of worship. The reader is now in a

position to distinguish between the connected processes of the exposition of
the principles of spiritual endeavour and imparting of spiritual enlightenment.

Misra was not advised to repeat the mahamantra mechanically. Such a piece of
advice gratis could not have satisfied a real inquirer like Tapan Misra. He
was satisfied because he was enlightened by the Grace of the Lord as regards
the substantive existence of the subjects of his inquiry. Such causeless
occurrences ordinarily go by the names of miracle and magic. But we should be
careful to remember that the Performances of the Lord are not miraculous in the
sense of being unintelligible nor magical in the sense of being delusive. They
are spiritual that is intelligible to the perfect judgment of the enlightened
soul although wholly incomprehensible to the limited reason of the soul with
a predilection for the bound state. There is, of course, no question of delusion.

Tapan Misra was spiritually enlightened by the Grace of the Lord; or, in other
words, the perfect judgment of the emancipated soul was re-established in
him. He was, therefore, in the position to understand the Reality of the Teaching
of the Lord. The emancipated soul functions in a strictly subordinate
capacity. Such a soul does not try to know anything by his own ascending effort.
He simply waits to be enlightened. This may appear to be like total loss
of initiative. But it is really the attainment of the true initiative. The
enlightened soul is able to distinguish between the results obtainable by the
process of the so-called initiative possible for the intellect that seeks its own
gratification and the corresponding faculty of the free soul willingly seeking the
Gratification of Krishna. The initiative exists in both cases. But the power is
abused in one case and used properly in the other. It is necessary to lead a
healthy life. It is also necessary to understand the principles of the Medical
Science for the purpose of being enabled to preserve one’s health. It is
meaningless to want to understand the principles for any other purpose. It is the
only function of the free soul to serve the Truth. But the Absolute Truth is not a
general formula, still less an abstraction. The Absolute Truth is a Real Person
with Perfect Initiative and Perfect Will. The so called abstract truth, being a
figment of our defective imagination, is really a dead thing which cannot be our
master. The Absolute Truth, because He happens to be the Real Person with Will
of His Own Who is not identical with our wills, can really command and be
really obeyed. The only function of the pure soul is to obey the Highest Person.

It is possible to suppose that we realize the nature of the spiritual service when it
is presented to us in the form of an abstract discussion like the present one. But
the conditioned soul can never realize the nature of spiritual service merely by

the process of such discussion, because he has as yet no substantive experience
of the spiritual existence. The Truth cannot be experienced by the material
senses or the materialized mind. He can only be experienced by the spiritual
senses and the spiritual mind. Tapan Misra found his spiritual senses and his
spiritual mind by the Grace of the Lord. This settled his doubts regarding the
substantive existence, nature, and object of spiritual endeavor. He was, therefore,
no longer in need of the knowledge of the principles of such endeavour. But a
discussion of the principles from the Lips of the Lord Himself was necessary for
the negative enlightenment of unemancipated souls.

The Lord then embraced Tapan Misra. This produced horripilation all over the
frame of the Brahmana due to the manifestation of spiritual ecstatic love
that binds all individual (Jiva ) souls with the Feet of the Lord. The Brahmana,
on receiving the favour of the Embrace of the Lord of Vaikuntha, then
experienced for the first time the real spiritual bliss. At the time of taking his
leave he unbosomed to the Lord the details of his dream. On hearing his story
the Lord observed that it was true as far as it was proper and reasonable; but he
must not tell all this to any other person., The Lord repeated this warning once
more with earnestness. He then stood up smiling on the arrival of the
auspicious moment of His Departure for Home. In this manner Lord Gauranga
Sree-Hari prepared to return Home after glorifying the country of Vanga by His
Presence on her soil. The Lord reached Home in the evening with a great
quantity of valuables in the shape of money and costly objects which He had
brought as presents from East Bengal.

The Lord made prostrated obeisances to the feet of His mother and made over to
her all the treasures that He had brought and immediately proceeded with His
disciples to the Ganges to bathe in the holy stream. The mother, stricken at heart,
without delay busied herself in preparations for cooking His meal with the help
of other members of the family. The Lord, Teacher of all persons by His Own
Example, prostrated Himself in obeisance to the Ganges in many ways. He
sported in the water of the Ganges for a while. The Lord returned Home after
having obtained the sight of the Ganges and bathed in her water. Then after duly
performing the daily worship; Lord Gauranga Sree-Hari sat down to His meal.
The Lord of Vaikuntha, having dined to satisfaction, seated Himself at the
doorstep of Vishnu’s Shrine.

By this time all relatives and friends came to accost Him and sat on. all sides
round the Lord. The Lord, talking to all in a smiling and jocular manner,

told them how pleasantly He had passed His days in East Bengal. Mimicking
the mode of speech of East Bengal the Lord laughingly caricatured the people
of that country. His friends did not say anything about the disappearance of
Sree Lakshmi Devi, being aware that such communication would produce
sadness. After a short stay all the friends took their leave of Him. The Lord sat in
the same position continuing to chew the betel, indulging in light talk,
laughter and jokes.

Sree Sachi Devi was staying away inside the room. She did not come before her
Son. The Lord Himself now went up to His mother and found that
her countenance was overcast with an expression of deep dejection. The
Lord greeted His mother with sweet words. He inquired about the cause of her
grief complaining that on His return from a distant land instead of welcoming
Him with special gladness she had chosen to wear the appearance of mourning
and pressed to know the reason of her sadness. On hearing these words of her
Son the mother burst into tears holding down her face and remained speechless
in her distress. The Lord told her that He understood everything.'” Some evil
must have befallen her daughter-in-law. At this all who were present informed
the Lord that His Spouse had, indeed obtained the mercy of the holy Ganges.

Lord Gauranga Sree-Hari on being told of the departure of Sree Lakshmi Devi,
His Consort, paused for a brief space holding down His Head. As a confession of
grief at separation from His beloved, the Life of all the Vedas remained silent for
a while.

After indulging His Grief in this matter for a brief space, in imitation of the ways
of the people of this world, the Lord repeated with a patient mind this sloka of
the Bhagavatam, ‘Who are, indeed, these husbands, sons, and relatives? Whose
relations are they? It is all due to ignorant delusion?

The Lord continued to speak, ‘Mother, why do you feel sad? How can that which
is pre-ordained be canceled Such is the march of Time. No one belongs to
anybody. It is for this reason that the Vedas declare this world to
be impermanent. The whole world is under the Dominion of the Lord. Who
else can bring about either union or severance? Therefore what has happened
has been by the Will of the Lord. Where is the use of grieving for what is past?

Is there anyone who is more fortunate than that departed person of pious
deeds who has attained the mercy of the Ganges before the Disappearance of
Her Husband? Consoling His mother in this way the Lord turned His Mind to

His other duties in the company of his friends and relatives. On hearing
these words of nectarine sweetness from the Holy Lips of the Lord all persons
were fully relieved of every cause of grief.

We are accustomed to expect something altogether new and strange and wholly
different from everything with which we are now so familiar, on
being spiritually enlightened. This accounts for our contempt for the homely
and familiar events of our present everyday life. We expect to find the life of
saints to be something miraculous and abnormal. This is due to want of clear
thinking that leads us to confound the super-natural with the unnatural. We have
not to travel through all the vastness of space in order to arrive at Vaikuntha. We
fall into this world as soon as our spiritual vision is obscured. The same
Vaikuntha is then reflected in a most unwholesome manner in the mirrors of our
hearts. All that is necessary in order to get rid of the misery of the worldly
bondage, is to cleanse the mirror of the heart to enable Vaikuntha to appear to us
in the undistorted form. This function few of us consider it worth our while to
set about in right earnest. We want to reach Vaikuntha by extending the scope
of our wrong activities. But so long as the heart remains unchanged the
prospect does not undergo any material change. The whole question is this—
‘Are we seriously desirous of knowing the Truth ? Are we prepared for a change
of heart to accomplish this ?

This is hastily supposed to imply the call for the abdication of all functions of
this world. If wife and children have not to be ‘loved,(?) we are
naturally shocked by the requisition. It would be easier to part from them for
good which is happening to soldiers and sailors any day of their lives. But that
does not make them spiritual, as we know from experience. It is the humdrum
duties of the average householder which hang round our necks like the
proverbial millstone and require to be ‘enlivened’ by the relieving process of
separation, heroism, death, calamities or the like. Without these latter life would
be unbearable. The question on the threshold of the spiritual life is not how
to retain, or get rid of, the activities that we already have, in a more effective
or striking manner. Such an attitude involves a forgone conclusion. How can
a temporary thing be retained effectively ? How can an actual thing be got rid
of without mangling ourselves? The runaway as well as the preservative
methods are alike futile and irrational. But they happen to be the only ones that
the resources of our present imagination can suggest for our relief. No
third alternative is at present conceivable to us.

That a person, who is acting exactly like ourselves in this very world and with
whom we ourselves have most intimate relations, should have to be
considered as being altogether different in his outlook and behaviour from
ourselves, is difficult to understand or to admit. All that we may be prepared to
allow is that he is different from us in the same way as any two persons are
different from one another. The esoteric explanation is not of much use either
in understanding or in dealing with any person who is also apparently found
to belong to this world in the ordinary sense. If a person calling himself
or allowing himself to be called a Vaishnava have to be allotted a
privileged position, that does not accord with the requirements of our common
sense, simply on the basis of such esoteric explanations, there would presently
be no necessity for the exercise of common sense at all in any affair of life.

These are the two poles of the empiric attitude. It expects either magic or
wholesale surrender to the so-called common sense. It professes the latter,
as being the more workable of the two. What change, if any, it accordingly asks,
is proposed to be effected in its attitude by the transcendentalists?

Sree Gaursundar goes to East Bengal to earn wealth by teaching the people.

This is quite intelligible and natural from the common sense point of view.

After His return from there He finds that His wife had had a sudden and
untimely end. But He is not upset by the information and calmly consoles
His stricken mother. This is also quite sensible and nothing extraordinary. It
is ordinarily done under similar circumstances by many other persons
whose doings are allowed to pass unnoticed, by the ordinary rules of common
sense. If there be an esoteric meaning behind all this, which was denied by many
of His contemporaries at the time of their occurrence, what difference will it
make in our conduct if we refuse to take any notice of the same? . We would
behave in the same, or sometimes may be in a better way in similar circumstance
by the guidance of our common sense without troubling about any supposed
spiritual implication.

Life in Vaikuntha resembles life in this world, but it does not interest the people
of this world. In Vaikuntha there are far more attractive objects of enjoyment
than we find in this world and in an absolutely and fully accessible form; but no
one there enjoys or discards them. This is opposed to the so-called common
sense of the people of this world. The common sense of this world tells us both

to enjoy and to discard. The common sense of Vaikuntha tells one to do neither.
The Vaishnavas are endowed with the common sense of Vaikuntha The esoteric
explanation is the only real explanation of their conduct which is based on a
different common sense, in the same way as the esoteric explanation is the only
explanation that is ordinarily given of the conduct of the people of this world.

If it is asked, ‘Do the Vaishnavas want to be guided by the common sense of
Vaikuntha, which is claimed to be different from the common sense of
this world, in their dealings with the people o£ this world?’ The reply is both
‘yes’ and ‘no’. They behave towards one another unambiguously and in
accordance with the common sense of Vaikuntha. Towards the people of this
world they behave in accordance with the common sense of this world which is,
however, perfectly amenable to the common sense of Vaikuntha. So there need
not be any quarrel over the matter on the part of the advocates of common sense
in its worldly sense.

The only difficulty is that ordinary common sense, being based on the malicious
selfish desire for sensuous well-being of-oneself, leaves all our problem of
existence really unsolved; nay, it actually aggravates the evil of a perpetual state
of joyless discord. Our common-sense is sound in essence but misguided in
practice by the fell disease of hankering for selfish transitory enjoyment. The
little acts of everyday life would be endowed with the perfection of Vaikuntha if
only a real change of attitude could be brought about. This is wholly beyond the
powers of our mind to conceive, and it is not possible for us to fill in every detail
of the scheme of life led in Vaikuntha by means of our poor, corrupt imagination.

Every activity of Vaikuntha is productive of more really lasting good and
happiness than all the hollow mummeries of the whole range of activities of this
accursed world. Sree Gaursundar apparently led a most ordinary kind of life as
householder. Later he led the ordinary life of a sannyasin. But Both
were actually lived on the plane of Vaikuntha. The Narrative of His Life and
its apparently ordinary common-place events acquaint us with the archetype of
the actual life led by absolutely pure souls in the Realm of Vaikuntha. The
esoteric meaning is the real meaning of such a life. The esoteric meaning of the
worldly life is a contradiction in terms. But all entities of this world are capable
of being used properly if they are employed in the service of the Absolute Truth.
In order to attain that point of view we must try to act up to the common sense
of Vaikuntha.

If we choose to lead a worldly life we can never obtain a glimpse of that
transcendental subject. It is not by ‘digesting’ or ‘lecturing’ on the
Vedanta Philosophy that spiritual enlightenment is attainable. There are
unfortunately many clever exponents of the Vedanta in this country and abroad
who have done no appreciable good either to themselves or to others by their
vanities.

The Life and Teachings of Sree Gaursundar are worth most careful perusal
because They raise at every step the gravest issues discussed in the Vedanta,
in their concrete, living form. All exposition of the Vedanta has to conform to
the Life of Sree Chaitanya before it can be accepted as really True. This is
the relation between the two. In this case we have to do with the Actual
Reality, while in the case of ordinary worldly Pandits we have to deal with the
laboured non-sense of corrupt humbugs who really know nothing of their
subject. The mere mechanical perusal of the Genuine Account of the Life of Sree
Chaitanya is productive of incalculable good, in as much as it presents to us in a
concrete and uncontroversial form the problem of spiritual living. After we have
read the Life of Sree Chaitanya we understand that it is possible for a devotee to
lead the life of Vaikuntha before our very eyes without our being aware of the
same; and, what is more to the point, that it is possible for us also to lead such a
life in this world without really disturbing anybody.

Sree Gaursundar exhibited the Leela of being smitten with grief on receiving the
first intimation of the Departure of His Consort from this world. Sree Sachi Devi
was apparently, very much grieved by the loss of her Daughter-in-law. Grief at
the sad demise of beloved ones is natural and inevitable in the case of the people
of this world. There is also grief in Vaikuntha but there it is a particularly
delicious variety of uninterruptible happiness. The reason of this we gather from
the Words of Sree Gaursundar addressed to His mother to console her. All grief
is due to forgetfulness of the fact that no one is either parent, child, wife or
husband, of any other person. Therefore, there can really be no such thing as
bereavement which is experienced by reason of our ignorance of the Truth.

But are we, therefore, justified in neglecting our ordinary duties towards our dear
and near relatives? This way of stating, the question is misleading. People of this
world are exposed to joys and griefs on account of their friends and relatives.
These joys and griefs are of a transitory and unwholesome nature. Their
transitoriness as well as unwholesomeness are due to a
fundamental misconception of the events which are their cause. After the

misconception is removed we may or may not continue to have any dealings
with our relatives and friends as such. The devotee makes no distinction between
these two states. He may or may not continue his intimate relationship with
friends and relatives. He is guided by the resolve, of doing nothing except the
Bidding of Sree Krishna. If by the Will of Krishna he lives as a householder he is
careful to discharge his ordinary duties towards the members of his family but
without confounding the transitory with the eternal. The transitory cannot be
ignored. But it need not, therefore, be regarded as identical with the permanent
verity. On the contrary the transitory is capable of being turned to the account of
the permanent interest of a person if he makes the former strictly subordinate
and conformable to the requirements of the latter. This will not necessarily
make much appreciable outward difference in the conduct of such a person
towards anybody, except occasionally under the necessity of being loyal to the
spiritual standpoint. But his object and outlook will be nevertheless
necessarily altogether different from theirs and it would be convenient to
preserve an attitude of unsuspected reserve about the real reason of difference,
especially when no useful purpose is likely to be served by its disclosure to
unappreciative people. This is no culpable duplicity as it implies preference for
Truth as against untruth and a more effective desire to serve Him. It is no doubt
possible to live a straight-forward and professed spiritual life even in this world.
But this may not always be effective in inducing worldly people to follow the
Truth. It is one of the most strange things about spiritual life that one who leads
such a life can do good to all by finding a way to associate everybody with
himself in his spiritual activities. The form of this connection will not be the
same in, all cases not because the tastes and capacities of people vary but
because Krishna is

Autocrat. It is not to serve worldly people that a devotee willingly lays himself
under the obligation imposed by the Truth, of humouring their weaknesses
in order to exploit those very weaknesses for the service of the Truth. Those
who are not in the secret are likely to find fault with such apparent lapses from
the ideal (?) of straightforward worldly conduct, Such lapses should also by
no means be imitated by any body. But they constitute the service of the
Lord possible in this world.

Sree Gaursundar and Sree Sachi Devi were however, acting truly in grieving at
the Departure of Sree Lakshmi Devi. They did not grieve like worldly
people. The devotees of the Lord are most intimately tied to one another by
reason of their association in the common service of the Lord. There is no

question of the physical body or the materialized mind in such relationship, nor
any desire for sensuous gratification of themselves. But Sree Krishna can be
served by and through all forms of relationship and distinctive manifestations
which only serve to increase the charm and diversity of spiritual service. The
only thing needful is to avoid self forgetfulness and not to suppose oneself to be
any other than the exclusive servant of Krishna.

Chapter 15 Marriage with Sree Vishnupriya Devi

The Lord continued to indulge in the sweet taste of learning and thereby
prevented any one from understanding His Real Nature. He bathed early in
the morning in the Ganges and, after performing His morning worship, made
His way to the house of Mukunda Sanjaya, the father of Purushottamdas.

After the Lord had taken His Seat in the Chandimandap of Mukunda Sanjaya
His students would turn up one by one. If any of them by chance appeared
without the tilaka mark on his forehead on any day the Lord sent him back home
observing ‘that the forehead of a Brahmana without the tilaka resembles the
charnel ground being proof that he has not performed his worship of that day.,
Thus the Lord took care that all His students strictly followed the injunctions of
the Shastras in all particulars.

The making of the tilaka mark on twelve different limbs of the body is
prescribed by the Shastras as the indispensable duty of every Brahmana.

The tilaka is made with the earth of holy ground sanctified by its association
with the Lord or His devotees. It is to be made in the form of a line pointing
upwards with all aperture running from the base to the top to represent the
Temple of the Lord. The horizontal tilaka which is technically called tripundra,
is forbidden to Brahmanas who are candidates for the study of the Veda.

The tripundra is deprecated as being the mark of a non-Brahmana. The tripundra
is worn by those who claim to be themselves Narayana. The urdhapundra or
the upward tilaka is worn by those who regard themselves as the servants
of Vishnu. No one who is not a Vaishnava can be a true Brahmana. Access to
the Veda is closed to a person who does not recognize the superiority of
the servants of Vishnu. The non-Brahmana do not admit the eternal superiority
of the spiritual preceptor. They are sudras. They paint on their forehead
the tripundra sign symbolizing their identity with Godhead. This is the most
deadly of sins and accordingly it is laid down that if one meets by chance a
Brahmana ( ?) wearing the tripundra mark, he must forthwith bathe with all his
clothes on, in order to be purged of the pollution caused by the unholy sight.

There is really no worship for one who refuses on principle to recognize the
eternal superiority of the Lord. Those who do not worship the Lord are sudras.
On the other hand it is the bounden duty of every Brahmana, who is a servant of
the Lord, to worship Him daily. Unless this is strictly complied with no one must

be admitted to the status of a student of the Vedas. Those, who demur to the
stringency of such regulations on the pleas of liberalism and toleration, suppose
that education freely imparted produce a change of heart even of those who
behave improperly through sheer perversity. It is also assumed that secular
knowledge, which is capable of being irregularly acquired, is necessarily better
than secular ignorance. Nimai Pandit was the Teacher of Vyakarana which forms
the primary course of study that has to be gone through by every student of
secular learning. Nimai Pandit did not admit into His Grammar-class anyone
who had not performed his daily worship of Vishnu and had not painted his
forehead with the mark of the upward tilaka.

Should this be regarded as intolerant? It is no doubt a proposal to ban all
education not based on the true religion professed by a Brahmana. Nimai Pandit
did not say that non-Brahmanas were to be banished or suppressed forcibly.
Atheism has always flourished in this world and is the creed more or less of the
vast majority, nay strictly speaking, of almost all persons, of this world. It is the
paramount duty of every God-fearing man to try his best to help in reducing this
appalling volume of atheism. Secular education happens to be such by reason of
its total dissociation from religion. It is the outcome of the open atheistic
attitude. The pseudo-Vaishnavas are masked atheists and are also advocates and
apologists of spurious liberalism, compromise and willing toleration of all forms
of unspiritual conduct. The highest devotees are tolerant for a different reason.

To the devotee the Truth is the only Object of worship and he does not recognize
any value of any method separated from the Object. According to current
empiric Ethics the method and the object must be severally moral. In other
words the method of the empiric thinker is not identical with the object. Grave
harm is apprehended by empiricists if this vital and salutary difference between
method and object, insisted upon by empiric morality, is ignored. This is one of
the elementary principles of empiric ethics and need not be laboured. This
separation between method and object does not exist in spiritual conduct. For
example toleration is considered by empiric ethics as a good principle by itself.
At any rate they expect that every consideration should be given to it in coming
to any decision in regard to really ethical conduct. If it is necessary to be
intolerant under any circumstances, and such contingence is by no means
impossible nor rare in practice, the necessity itself is regarded by empiric ethics
as an evil which is unavoidable in the present imperfect conditions of this world.
Empiric morality is thus perpetually reduced to the form of unprincipled
compromise between the principles of hypocritical good and necessary evil,
which is regarded as undesirable in theory but unavoidable in practice. Nay it

even recommends as our duty to adopt any compromise, however objectionable,
which may be necessitated by an impartial consideration of the specific
circumstances of each case. But as there is no such necessity for compromise on
the spiritual plane the difficulty does not exist and the method there is always
identical with the object. The apparent intolerance displayed by Sree Gaursundar
towards novices on the spiritual path is not a necessary evil, a departure under
pressure of circumstances from the standard of the absolute good, but the perfect
good itself.

It is necessary to consider this vital point a little more in detail. Why is empiric
ethics under the necessity of viewing the method of an activity as separate
from its object? Because it is not possible, circumstanced as we are at present,
to understand the whole purpose of any person. A practical code of conduct,
the formulation of which is the object of empiric ethics, therefore seeks to
correct our unavoidably imperfect knowledge of the complete, the whole
purpose of another by providing a confessedly imperfect safeguard by attaching
a presumptive value to the external features of an act, attempting to join
method and object in a separable combination to obtain a rule of conduct which
at best possesses only a negative value. In the case of the Absolute Truth
the obstructive circumstances are altogether absent. Absolute knowledge is
perfect knowledge. Conduct issuing from such knowledge has no separable
external features that belong even to the so called ethical conduct of this world.
The conduct proceeding from perfect knowledge possesses the perfection of
its source. This is not all. This perfection is unattainable on the material
plane, whereas it is natural and inevitable on the spiritual plane. On the spiritual
plane the object and method of conduct are alike spiritual. The objects, with
which we have to deal on the spiritual plane, are themselves spiritual, that is to
say, capable of communicating the knowledge of their real nature to us.

This establishes that perfect unity between method-and object which is denoted
by the term identity, if we want to express it by the nearest material analogy.

It is only if we bear in mind this categorical difference between ethical and
spiritual conduct that we would be enabled to avoid the blunder of
judging spiritual conduct by the empiric ethical ( ?) standard. And it should also
be possible for us to understand the perfect validity of the contention that
conduct that is sanctioned by the spiritual test, is the only truly ethical conduct
even as regards also its external appearance. In consequence of this rational
conviction such pseudo-ethical fetishes as the so-called principles of toleration,
chastity, truthfulness, etc., etc., professed to be worshipped by empiric ethics,

cease to impress or frighten and can even be discarded without any chance of
being overtaken by those dire immoral consequences which they are utterly
unable to prevent or modify.

The question of the spiritual value of any external ‘symbol’ has been confidently
decided by empiric thought against the claimant of such value on grounds which
that science is equally at a loss to explain. This point has already been treated in
another part of the present narrative. It will suffice to say here that the regulation
of the connection between the material world and the spiritual, if it is to be at all
properly performed, must be placed wholly under the jurisdiction of the latter.
That the human body is the temple of the Lord may appear to be no more than a
‘symbol’ to the empiricist who really understands by ‘symbol’ as indicating what
is not wholly non-existent. But if the empiricist really cares for his own logic he
should call the wholly abstract as also the symbol of the non-existent and vice
versa. The spiritual is neither concrete nor abstract mundanity. It is quite
different from the concrete and abstract of our mental speculation, both of which
are perverted deluding reflections of the Substantive Truth. The abstract which
the empiricist is pleased to call spiritual for reasons which he cannot explain, is
really only the abstract of the relative and is situated at the furthest distance from
the Absolute Reality. The spiritual is neither the concrete gross matter nor the
abstract speculation about gross matter. This world, although it seems to have
an existence of its own, has really no independent substantive existence.

The impersonal or abstract worship, which the empiricist is so anxious to
provide, is a figment of his perverted imagination and has no substantive
existence even at its source. He is himself only a pseudo-symbolist and his
condemnation of improper symbolization applies really to himself. It is for the
deliverance of such blundering pseudo-symbolists from the clutches of this fatal
form of delusion that the process of worship enjoined by the Shastras have been
laid down by those who are themselves free from such delusion.

The tilaka mark is no doubt a symbol. But it is a symbol of the Reality to Whom
we have no access at present except by means of the real symbol. This symbol
is intended, and authorized, to arouse the consciousness of the Reality in
those who are at present devoid of the same. Those who oppose the symbol on
the ground that it does not correspond, like their own unreal symbols, to
the perverted, deluding shadow of the Truth, are only worshippers of the
changing symbol of untruth. The pseudo-symbolists have, indeed, no objection
to decorate their gross physical bodies with all manner of symbols of this
material world, conceived by them as being the only Reality, an assumption

which effectively prevents all realization of the very existence of the spiritual
symbol.

It is rational to try to demolish this suicidal idolatry by substituting in the place
of the worship of the symbols of this world the real symbol of the
most fundamental fact of the world of the soul, viz., that Godhead in His True
Form does not in-dwell the physical body or the materialized mind, but has
His Eternal Abode in the pure consciousness of the immaculate soul who, in
his natural position, is free from all connection with matter and who is our
only real self.

Forgetfulness of our true self is perpetuated by any arrangement that is based
upon confusion of the physical body and the materialized mind with the soul
or self proper. The decorations naturally coveted by the physical body at
the instance of the renegade mind entangles the soul in the meshes of
worldly wants. The only decoration of the Temple of Godhead is Godhead
Himself. But neither His Temple nor Godhead Himself,

Who dwells therein, are symbols of shadows as the empiricists want us to
believe, but the Reality Himself Who possesses the qualities of self-
conscious, personal and eternal existence which is His perfectly consistent
logical connotation.

Candidates for the knowledge of the Truth must be required to prove their bona
fide before they are admitted into the Academy of the Truth. This is also imitated
by the empiricists in admitting students to institutions of empiric knowledge.
Secular learning, sedulously divorced from spiritual living, is responsible for all
the miseries of this world. He is a bad physician who hopes to cure his patient by
allowing the disease to be aggravated by deliberate and persistent mal-treatment.
It is the duty of the wise physician to act on the less enterprising maxim that the
readiness to prevent is always better than effecting a cure. The uncompromising
intolerance of mal-treatment fully represents the principle of toleration by its
regard for the Absolute Truth. Real toleration may be defined as extreme
partiality for the Truth. Toleration and partiality are equally good when they are
exercised on behalf of the Truth and are utterly condemnable and terribly
mischievous when they are made to serve untruth.

The Lord evinced a very particular pleasure in tearing to pieces and exposing
mercilessly the pedantic defects of everybody.

One of His favourite Pastimes consisted in caricaturing the language of the
people of Sylhet and East Bengal. The infuriated Sylhetese retorted to the
jokes of the Renegade Son of a Sylhetese by emphatically reminding the
irascible Tormentor of His Own Lineage, telling Him that He Himself, both His
parents, in fact every one of His family, belonged to Sylhet. ‘What sense could
there be 5 , they demanded with a natural indignation, ‘on the part of such a
Person to get up a hypocritical condemnation of what also equally concerned
Himself. But the Lord was not to be denied His Pastimes by any manner of
argument to the contrary and His jocular propensity only increased by every
effort to convince Him of its mischievous and self-condemnatory nature. The
Lord, indeed, carried the joke to most unseemly lengths, till at last the angry
Sylhetese, losing all patience, grasped at the skirts of the cloth worn by the Lord
and dragged Him many a day. to the King’s Court to have Him punished by the
law. The friends of the Lord could extricate Him from the clutches of the law on
such occasions only by the greatest, exertions. The Lord was equally
unreasonable towards East Bengal people. He would lie in wait for an
opportunity, and take to His Heels after breaking the Bangali’s begging bowl of
dried gourd.

The Lord, even while He was following the responsible occupation of Teacher,
displayed an irrepressible disposition for every kind of prank, with one and only
one remarkable exception. He kept strictly aloof from all association with, or
talk about, women. The Lord never looked at women, even by a side-
glance. ‘Whence, says Thakur Brindavandas, all eminent persons avoid praising
Lord Gauranga by describing Him as Amorous Lover. Because although every
kind of praise is applicable to the Lord yet the wise sing only what is appropriate
in regard to the Distinctive Nature of the Subject of their praise.’

Against this clear warning, conveyed by Sree Brindavandas Thakur, who is the
only authority universally recognized by the followers of Sree Chaitanya
in regard to the Activities of the Lord during the period of His Householder
Life, there has nevertheless sprung up a definite school which calls itself
the community of the Gaur-Nagaris (i.e., sweet-hearts of Gaur) on the
ostensible ground that Gaursundar is identical with Sree Krishna, and, therefore,
the inner meaning of His Activities, according to this school, must also be the
same as the obvious meaning of the Leela of Sree Krishna. Such a view is
opposed to the Lacts of the Narrative described in this work, as also to the
specific and explicit testimony of Thakur Brindavandas regarding the practice of
the most eminent devotees. The doctrine, therefore, seems to be a concoction of

the brains of persons who allow their sensuous imaginations to carry them off
their legs even in a matter which lies wholly beyond the reach of our material
senses. To such temperaments the Activities of Sree Gaursundar, both as
Householder and Sannyasin, must ever remain utterly unintelligible. The only
course, that is open to them for getting rid of their error, is to practice
unconditional submission at the feet of the transcendental seers and to cherish
absolute faith in the truth of their words. Our ribald imagination has no place in
the Spiritual sphere. The ordinary rules of empiric history strictly subordinate the
function of imagination to reasoning based on dependable evidence. In forming
the true idea of the Personality of Sree Chaitanya it will serve no useful purpose
to ignore alike the method of empiric as well as that of spiritual history. The
latter requires the imagination to be subordinated to Scriptural evidence recorded
by the Acharyas. The Gaur-Nagaris are opposed to the Acharyas. They are
also opposed to the ordinary method of empiric history. For these reasons
they deserve no hearing either from historians or from those persons who follow
the true method laid down in the Shastras. They may be appreciated only by
those who want to turn sacred subjects into a means of their own
sensuous gratification.

It should be enough to remark in this connection that as a Householder Sree
Gaursundar exhibited the Leela of leading the life of the ideal devotee, following
the path of spiritual endeavour according to the rules laid down in the Shastras
and in accordance of their meaning as expounded by the Acharyas. In the latter
half of His Career the Lord put before us the model of the life led by a devotee
who has attained the condition of amorous devotion to the Absolute. In both
cases His example makes it necessary for us to give a wide berth to association
with females as females in the direct or indirect manner.

If it be asked how one is required to conduct himself towards females the answer
that is furnished by the Life of Sree Gaursundar is that carnality in thought and
deed is to be wholly avoided. We have already had an occasion to discuss this
very point in connection with the marriage of Sree Lakshmi Devi with the Lord
and in describing the relationship that existed between Her and Sree Gaursundar
after the wedding.

We must guard ourselves against the error of begging the question by assuming
as an axiomatic truth the opinion that the race requires to be presented
and propagated by cautious and systematic exercise of the sexual power. But this
in itself need not be considered as necessary, or even as harmless when it

is looked at from the absolute point of view. The race may cease to exist in
spite of all our endeavour to preserve it. Where is the guarantee that the human
race will endure for ever? If one protests against such discussion on the ground
that it is profitless for man, such a person may be asked whether he is sure that
he is eternally mortal. In discussing the absolute Truth it is necessary to
avoid dogmatism prompted by the conditions under which we happen to live
at present. Whenever any limit is set to any discussion by means of
empiric dogmatism, it ceases to be applicable to the Absolute. Therefore, it is
necessary not to pre-suppose the conclusion in a discussion of the Absolute.

The race may lose the re-productive power or the Earth itself may be destroyed
by a cosmic disturbance. The Absolute Truth should stand in all
circumstances. Sree Gaursundar shows the method by which the Absolute Truth
can be attained. We may attain to Him if we patiently listen to the story of His
Life from the lips of those who themselves realize His true meaning, viz., from
the Acharyas. There is no other way. The Gaur Nagaris follow their own
unbridled imaginations and pretend to attain to the Absolute Truth by an
intensive admiration for the mundane sexual activity and sexual thought. Such
practice is wholly condemned by the Acharyas. The Acharyas refuse to accept
the argument that the preservation of the human race is the object of human
life. They are thus in a position to consider the value of perfect abstention
from carnality, without prejudice.

Birth, reproduction and death are the natural condition of all living things in this
world. All other worldly functions are derivatives from these. The
question before us is, whether it is our duty to perform these functions in the way
that may appear to us to be most effective. This, as I have already pointed out,
is really begging the question. We should rather ask, if we really want a
solution of the problem, ‘Why are we reduced to the necessity of undergoing
birth, life and death at all’? Once this point has been cleared up we should be
able to understand what we have to do.

The Shastras say that we are not subject to birth, nor death, but possess eternal
life. It is not necessary for us to try to prolong a state of existence which is
not our real life. On the contrary our duty is to get rid of ignorance and to attain
to our true life which according to the Shastras is perfectly free from all
ignorance and unwholesomeness. The eternal life is both real and attainable. It is
not a figment of the deluding imagination. We should try to attain this eternal
and perfect life by all means. It is also our duty to use our present perishable life

for the attainment of the eternal life. The practice of mundane sexual act
and sexual thought is the greatest obstacle in the way of our realization of
the Absolute Truth. This is the teaching of Sree Chaitanya exemplified by His
Own Life. The subject will he positively considered in connection with the
nature of spiritual amour in a subsequent chapter of this work.

Sexual act and sexual association in every form are definitely condemned. This
fact should not be whittled down by explaining the word ‘stri’ as meaning
all forms of worldly enjoyment or worldliness as a whole. The context does
not support this otherwise plausible explanation. Sexuality has been
specifically condemned. The question whether perfect freedom from carnality is
possible in the married state, is beside the point. The sexual inclination may also
be present without actually practicing the physical act. If the inclination itself
is merely destroyed, it is tantamount to self-destruction. The real
spiritual principle, corresponding to carnality, is not condemned. The
present unwholesome perversion of outlook is sought to be remedied. Sex in
the worldly sense is not valued, but at the same time the existence of the
principle in the spirit is admitted. What is asserted is that there should be no
confusion between sex in the material sense and the corresponding spiritual
principle.

The one stands in the way of the realization of the other. The complete
elimination of mundane sexual act and thought is not the cause but the inevitable
result of the attainment of the spiritual sex. The two can never coexist. In the
spiritual the whole outlook is radically changed. It is not, therefore, possible to
understand the nature of the married state of a Vaishnava without taking into
account the whole position. It should be enough for our present purpose to state
that the Vaishnava loves his wife or husband not as husband or wife but as the
spiritual associate of his soul, which precludes the idea of the mundane sex. It Is
not Platonic love, which is a figment of the imagination and has no substantive
existence except by reference to mundane sex. The love, that joins together pure
jiva souls, is not and cannot be carnality. Spiritual amour, in the case of the
highest souls, is capable of being reciprocated only by Krishna Chandra Himself.
The love that forms the bond of union between only the highest souls, is of the
nature of affection that is experienced towards one another by the friendly
confidantes of the Gracious Mistress of the One Amorous Hero. It is the
Mistress’s delight which is absolutely and naturally preferred to one’s own and
for the promotion of which one’s own spiritual inclination for amorous
association with Krishna is wholly discarded not in the spirit of sacrifice but in

the spirit of positive and real exercise of the highest natural instinct. All this falls
flat on those who retain any trace of the taste for mundane sexuality. The
purpose of the institution of marriage is fulfilled by the complete elimination of
sexuality following on the associated pursuit of this spiritual end by the married
couple. They must have no ideal of carnal connection as husband and wife.
When this state has been realized the marriage tie ceases automatically to have
any sexual import. The Vaishnava has no husband or wife except Sree Sree
Radha.-Krishna. This is the necessary disappearance of the apparent on the
appearance of the true self and the complete fulfillment of the spiritual instinct
reflected in a perverted form in the principle of sex.

The doubt, regarding the questionable kind of society that will result from the
carrying out of the idea, troubles us only so long as we continue to confound the
soul with the physical body. The soul is neither born nor does he die. When the
soul realizes his own nature, his prospects are at once and radically changed. He
begins to function on a different plane. The selfish and unwholesome ambition,
that necessitated his incarceration in the house of correction of this world,
naturally disappears on the attainment of other and purer ambitions and a larger
vision. Those things which appear to be vital in this world, e.g., the preservation
of the species by the exertion of the reproductive power, etc., etc., .are rendered
unnecessary in the realm of the spirit, which is the real home of the eternal souls
that are unborn and imperishable.

The Lord continued to teach His pupils in the Chandi-Mandap of Mukunda
Sanjaya. He sat there in the midst of His pupils expounding the Shastras,
while medicinal oil, named after Vishnu, was applied to His Head by some
favoured person, to afford relief to the nervous malady which it was His Pastime
to manifest. He explained the texts in endless ways. The Lord taught His
pupils from early morning till mid-day when He repaired to the Ganges to bathe.
He was engaged till midnight everyday in teaching and helping His students
to prepare their lessons. All those, who studied at the Feet of the Lord,
became Pandits in course of the year by attaining the knowledge of the
principles of the Shastras. This was the daily Life of Sree Chaitanyadeva as
Professor. The Lord relished nothing except the sweet taste of learning.

The view, that Sree Chaitanya was never in a perfectly sound state of mind, has
been put forward by a few persons out of sheer malice and ignorance.

The motive of such unfortunate people is to find, or even invent, a reason
for proving their ignorance. If the brain of an insane Person be capable

of supplying the clue to the Knowledge of the Reality to the sane ignorant
persons of this world the latter need not neglect to be benefited thereby.

Worldly people are never considered to be out of their proper senses by the
Allopaths, Homeopaths, Hakims and Vaidyas of this world, who
pride themselves on the infallibility of their power of diagnosing all kinds of
mental and physical ailments. But if all worldly people are proved to be
irrational and deluded should the Medical Sciences condescend to take serious
notice of such aberration? Disease is one of the ordinary devices of the Deluding
Power of Sree Chaitanya intended by His Mercy to shake the confidence of
worldly people in the certainty and value of the pleasures derivable from the
hallucinative workings of the medically sound (?) mind and body. A medically,
sound mind in a medically sound body is the summum bonnum of the Medical
Sciences. Is it altogether impossible for a sound mind in a sound body, which
can pass the medical test, to be really utterly unsound (?) What else can be the
cause of the impermanence of this particular form of the summum bonnum in the
wise Providence of the All merciful? The Deluding Power tries to cure the
spiritual malady of the conditioned souls by the device of the bodily and mental
diseases which demonstrate conclusively the worthlessness and trivial nature of
the ideal that promises to secure for the possessor of a sound mind in a
sound body, an abundance of the so-called sensuous happiness obtainable in
this world. But the lesson is lost on pedantic medical men whose horizon is
straitly squeezed between the earth and sky of the body and mind utterly
engrossed in the reckless pursuit of worldly enjoyment. But disease can for this
reason neither terrify nor delude the pure soul of the Vaishnava. The nature of
the malady of Sree Chaitanya, if rightly diagnosed on the lines indicated, has
also the power of curing both the physicians and their patients of the
spiritual disease of organized hypocrisy and self-deception willfully nursed by
all worldly people which prevent them from knowing the Tmth by
subjecting them to the mental delusions of the flesh.

The Lord’s Marriage with Sree Vishnupriya Devi took place about this time. A
detailed account of the event has been recorded by Thakur Sree
Brindavandas. Before we enter upon those details it is necessary to dispose of
certain considerations that may naturally arise in our minds in connection with
this particular event. The Marriage of the Lord for a second time seems to
require an imperative explanation. Strict monogamy on the part of both husband
and wife is the highest ideal of marriage, as embodied in the Narrative of Sree
Sree Rama Chandra and Seeta Devi. Conjugal love in the worldly sense also

seems to be best guaranteed by such ideal which makes it the right-reserved of
two particular persons to be the mutual recipients of connubial love. This alone,
it is supposed, can make conjugal love both perfect and pure. According to
this test Nimai Pandit, if He is to be regarded as an ideal Husband of His
First Consort, should have abstained from marrying a second time. He can not
be supposed to have been subject in an abnormal degree to this particular frailty
of the flesh and should have been able to remain constant to His First
Married ‘Love 5 even after Her Departure from this world.

But the nature as well as the object of the Lord’s Marriage are altogether
different from those made on this Earth. The Lord’s Marriage is the only
real marriage. The marriages that take place among the people of this world is
an unwholesome caricature of the Reality. The proper way of putting the
question mooted above would, therefore, be not that the Marriage of the Lord
should conform to the human ideal, but that the human ideal itself may be lived
down by the realization of the substantive Truth, viz., the Marriage of the Lord,
of which it happens to be the distorted, unwholesome reflection. With
the attainment of the Substantive Truth the automatic subsidence of the malady
of the sensual appetite, the basis of the human institution of marriage, needs
must be inevitable.

The Lord’s marriage, which is eternally enacted on the spiritual plane, made its
appearance apparently under the conditions of limited time and space in order to
effect the cure of the disease of sexuality to which the perverse soul is found to
be addicted. Amorous love between male and female, which is cherished as one
of the rarest privileges of man and as the source of his highest, purest and most
exquisite happiness available on this Earth, is not really a blessing at all but on
the contrary may become by its abuse the greatest of all the curses that afflict
those who choose to be the temporary denizens of this world. But it is by no
means possible to get rid of the distemper even if we could be convinced that it
is such a possible evil. The Shastras have recommended marriage in place of
promiscuous and unrestrained sexual relationship in order to provide a salutary
check on sexual indulgence in the only practicable form. This is intelligible. But
it is not perfectly clear while they also direct that the sexual act, which must be
practiced with restraint, should also be performed for pleasing Vishnu, and not
for the gratification of the sensuous appetite itself. The Shastras declare that by
pleasing Vishnu parents as well as their issue will be really benefited by
obtaining lasting immunity from the clutches of mundane lust.

But it is very difficult to understand what the Shastras really mean when they
enjoin the performance of the sexual act of generation to please Vishnu. Are
we to suppose that the sexual act is pure in itself and as such is a fit offering for
the Lord? That it is, therefore, our duty to indulge in sexual activity desired by
God Himself. This does not however, appear to be the proper meaning of
the Shastric injunctions regarding ‘satvika marriage? The object of the Shastras
is to discourage sensuality in any form. The sexual act minus sensuality is
a contradiction in terms. The Shastras do not plainly tell us so, but
they nevertheless clearly leave it to be inferred that the institution of marriage is
for the purpose of getting rid of sensuality.

Why is Vishnu dragged into this sensuous affair at all? But how else also is
sensuousness to be overcome, if it is desirable to get rid of it? By the Touch
of the Lord alone the hold of the flesh on our souls slackens automatically. If
one marries really for pleasing Vishnu, the Lord accepts the offering that is
sincerely made. The acceptance of the Lord helps the realization of the object of
the offering. But when such an offering is made, the person making it should do
so in the right spirit. He is instructed as to the right spirit by the Shastras. If
his prayer is offered really to please the Lord, or, in other words, for the
purpose enjoined by the Shastras which tell us how the Lord is pleased, the Lord
fulfills such prayer by granting its object. The devotee experiences the effect of
his conduct in the simultaneous increase of his peace of conscience, the
increasing realization of the spiritual existence centered in the Lotus Feet of
Vishnu and subsidence of sensuous hankering for the things of this world. It is as
if fire had burnt up all impurities by its introduction into the scavenger’s heap.

Strength and health of body are coveted, among other things for the purpose that
they are necessary for the procreation of strong and healthy children. But is not
this a begging of the question to be proved? If I have myself no use for strength
of body and mind except its blind, mechanical exercise my condition will be
altogether chaotic. Order, specially moral order, is impossible without conscious
subordination to one supreme purpose. There must be some intelligible object to
which all our faculties may be unhesitatingly directed.

That object is the attainment of the Lotus Feet of Vishnu where dwells eternally
all highest activity, knowledge and bliss. Strength and health of body are by their
nature perishable. We do not really know why they come to us and why they
leave us. So we should not be unduly attached to them for their sake. If God
permits us to possess them for a time we should use them solely for attaining the

abiding shelter of the Holy Feet of the Lord.

There is, no doubt, marriage in the Realm of the Absolute. That is the True
Marriage. That Marriage is eternal. There the Lord is the only Lover
and Husband and all souls are the recipients of His Perfect Love. This is
possible only in the Lord and in the spiritual world. If any mortal attempts to
have many wives or mistresses in this world he is warned by the Shastras against
the utter folly and wickedness of such conduct. The self-same Shastras declare
that the Lord is the only Enjoyer of every creature and that Marriage with the
Lord is the summum bonum of the spiritual condition. There is, of course, no
room for any mental or physical activity in such relationship. It is the exercise of
the eternal relationship of the pure souls, in their spiritual non-material state,
with the All-soul.

Conditioned souls, who happen to be under the lure of the flesh, cannot think of
marriage except by reference to mundane sex. But the Shastras enjoin marriage
as a help in realizing the life eternal by spiritual co-operation between husband
and wife, for living down the mundane sensual instinct. They instruct us to
succeed in this by cultivating the effective spiritual desire of pleasing the Lord
by our every act. As the Lord can be served under all circumstances and in every
externally mundane act, why should the sexual act be an exception to the rule? It
should be possible to serve the Lord by the sexual act as by any other form of
apparent worldly activity. But the sexual act that is performed as service of the
Lord cannot, for that very reason, belong to this mundane plane. It becomes
spiritual activity which is absolutely free from all sensuous unwholesomeness. It
is better than any negative process.

Sree Chaitanya enacted the Leela of abstaining from all ordained sexual activity
during the period of His Married Life. On this point Sree Chaitanya
differs wholly from Sree Krishna who apparently begot numberless children and
also cultivated unconventional amorous relationships with the milk-maids
who were not His wedded wives. In Essence, there is of course no
difference between the Two. On the spiritual plane abstinence and enjoyment are
alike wholesome and are really un-opposed to one another. The Conduct of
Sree Chaitanya need not, therefore be regarded as moral or wholesome in
the worldly sense, or as either more or less pure than That of Sree Krishna or
than that of His own married followers. On the spiritual plane there is
no unwholesomeness or objectionable factor. There is only an infinite range of
the most varied excellences and exquisiteness. The Conduct of Sree Chaitanya

as Married House-holder is far above the level of that of every other house¬
holder as setting, in a way that is capable of being grasped by the conditioned
soul, the spiritual ideal for his special benefit and safe-guard him from
radical misconceptions regarding the Nature of the Union of Sree Radhika with
Sree Krishna, the Only. Perfect and Substantive Marriage.

Sree Krishna has really only One sweet-heart, viz., Sree Radhika as Sree
Radhika Herself has no other tie except Her Love for Krishna. The realization of
Sree Krishna by Sree Radhika is the only Absolute Realization of the Absolute.
All other realizations are secondary and derivative but true, and are attainable
only by the Grace of Sree Radhika. The secondary realizations are, however,
both possible and perfect so long as they happen to subserve the Supreme
Purpose of Sree Radhika. The devotees of Sree Chaitanya attain this dependent
perfection of service by following loyally His Teaching as well as Example.
Dissociated from either, all souls descend automatically into the sphere of
sensuous imperfection.

But the Source of all perfect service is Sree Radhika Who is the Counter-whole
of Sree Krishna. Sree Chaitanya personates the Function of Sree
Radhika towards Her Eternal Consort, in order to bestow the Loving service of
Sree Radhika to conditioned souls who have no taste at all for the spiritual
service of the Lord. He is the Ideal Devotee, devoted to His Lord. Such Devotee
admits no relationship with anything except the Lord. So long as Sree
Chaitanya continued to exhibit the Leela of leading the life of a married house¬
holder He showed clearly that it is possible to marry in order to serve the Lord
which is incompatible with the least attachment or love for anybody ,else
except Godhead. He was a dutiful Son, Brother, Husband, Friend, without
being attached in the least to Brother, Husband, Friend or Father in the
worldly sense. Krishna was all along His sole Father, Mother, Brother, wife,
Friend. The devotees were no doubt loved by Sree Chaitanya; as they served
Krishna in the same way that He Himself did. He refused to be led by any of His
devotees and compelled all who desired His Favour to serve only Krishna. This
Quality of Absolute Independence and Aggressive Superiority of His Service of
Krishna raises Him above all His associates and followers. But this Superiority
must not be imitated by any other person. All other persons should serve Sree
Krishna in obedience to Sree Chaitanya; that is to say by submission to Sree
Radhika Who is Krishna Himself and Who cannot be disobeyed by His
devotees. This premier position of Sree Radhika and its rationale has been made
intelligible to souls under the thralldom of Maya by the Career of Sree

Chaitanya. The jiva souls should stand to Sree Radhika in the same relation as
His followers stand to Sree Chaitanya Himself. Sree Krishna is served
independently by Sree Radhika alone, Who employs an infinite army of Her own
servants, i.e., either inseparable or separable portions of Her essence in Her
Service of Krishna.

Before beginning his account of the Marriage of Sree Gaursundar and
Vishnupriya Devi, Thakur Brindavandas takes particular care to mention that the
Supreme Lord, Sree Chaitanya never even listened to the name of a female. This
precautionary remark is followed up by the observation that Sree Gauranga must
on no account be prayed to as the Amorous Lover notwithstanding His identity
with Sree Krishna. This salutary and most important and explicit prohibition has
been too often deliberately ignored by the Gaur Nagaris by deviating
deliberately or through ignorance from the path enjoined by Sree Chaitanya
Himself and His most authentic biographer and associates. This Sect, arguing
from the fact of identity between Sree Chaitanya and Sree Krishna, persists in
regarding Sree Chaitanya as taking delight in amorous dalliances with His
Consorts and Sweethearts at Nabadwip. Under the lead of a corrupt duty these
misguided people have not even scrupled to invent imaginary stories of Sree
Chaitanya’s amorous escapades in order to bring His Activities into line with
Those of Sree Krishna. This is an unpardonable and immoral travesty of
authentic history and an offense at the Holy Feet of Sree Chaitanya and His
associates. In fact there cannot be a greater blunder, nor one that is more
disastrous in its spiritual and moral consequences, than this open attempt to
ignore that very feature of the Career of Sree Chaitanya which constitutes the
most characteristic distinction between His Leela and That of Sree Krishna. The
Activities of Sree Chaitanya are absolutely free from even the appearance of
mundane sexuality.

Let us follow in the footsteps of Thakur Brindavandas in describing the Marriage
of the Lord for a second time, and being armed with this basic principle of His
Career, try to understand a little more definitely the real significance of the
Marriage of Sree Gauranga with Sree Vishnupriya Devi as we proceed with the
narrative itself.

The Narrative is presented by Thakur Brindavandas in the following manner.

The Supreme Lord was wholly absorbed with tasting the sweets of learning
and teaching His students after the Departure of Sree Lakshmi Devi from this
world. But Sachi Devi had no other thought than that of finding a suitable

maiden to marry her Son a second time. She at last arrived at a satisfactory
decision. She had noticed with approbation the conduct of a Young Maiden,
Vishnupriya, the Daughter of a well-known father, Raj pandit Sanatan Misra.
Sachi Devi had frequently met this Girl at the bathing ghat of the Ganges.
Sanatan Misra was a native of Nabadwip. He was of a most merciful disposition.
He was possessed of a frank and generous nature and the. highest faith in
Vishnu. His occupation consisted in doing good to others and showing
hospitality to all chance-guests. He was truthful, self-controlled, born of a high
family. He was well to do and had a large number of dependents.

Sree Vishnupriya Devi, Mother of the world, was the Very Self of Lakshmi Devi,
the Eternal Consort of Sree Narayana. Sachi Devi had conceived a
great affection for the Maiden at the very first sight and regarded Her as worthy
of being the Consort of her Son. Vishnupriya was accustomed from infancy
to bathe in the Ganges twice and even thrice every day and had no other
interest in Her life save devotion to Her father, mother and Vishnu. She daily met
Sachi Devi at the bathing ghat of the Ganges and greeted her feet with great
humility. The mother also blessed Her with the greatest affection, ‘May Krishna
bestow on You the Favour of a Worthy Husband., During her baths in the
Ganges Sree Sachi Devi conceived the desire of joining the Girl to her Son in the
bond of nuptial union. As a matter of fact the very idea had also already occurred
to the Rajpandit and his family, and Sanatan Misra was no less anxious to
bestow his Daughter or Sree Gaursundar.

It so chanced that one day Sachi Devi, having sent for Kasinath Pandit,
requested him to make the formal proposal of the Marriage of his Daughter with
her Son to the Rajpandit and also to arrange the same in a definite manner if he
was agreeable. Kasinath Pandit immediately made his way to the Rajpandit and
after being received with great respect, submitted his proposal. It was to this
effect, ‘I have a proposal to make to you. I would ask you by all means to do
what I am going to propose if you consider it desirable. Give your Daughter to
Viswambhar Pandit. I consider the connection altogether suitable. He is
the proper Husband for your Daughter as this Best of maidens is also in every
way Fit Bride for Him. They suit One Another exactly as Krishna and Rukimni.’

On this the Rajpandit held a hurried consultation with the members of his family
who also pressed upon him the desirability of unhesitating and immediate
acceptance of the proposal. Thereupon the Rajpandit informed Kasinath Pandit
that he had no objection to bestow his Daughter on Viswambhar Pandit. If such a

connection could be settled for his Daughter he would regard it as nothing less
than the reward of the previous good deeds of himself and his whole family.’ He
informed Kasinath Pandit to return to Sachi Devi and inform her of his decision.
He repeated his assurance that he was prepared to carry out his word by all
means. On hearing this Kasinath Pandit with great satisfaction took his leave and
laid his information of what had happened before Sachi Devi. The mother was
delighted on hearing the success of her endeavour and busily set about making
the necessary preparations for the Marriage of her Son.

On learning of the approaching Nuptials of the Lord all His disciples felt the
utmost gladness in their hearts. The great Buddhimanta was the first to offer
his services in this connection. He said that he would bear all the expenses of
the Marriage. Mukunda Sanjaya protested as it would completely shut himself
out. Buddhimanta Khan replied that the Marriage would not be celebrated on
the paltry scale of the wedding of a Brahmana, but on that of a Prince.

The adhibas ceremony (preliminary to Wedding) was celebrated with great iclat
by all friends and followers at the auspicious Moment on the auspicious
Day. Huge canopies were hung up and the grounds were enclosed by rows
of plantain trees on all sides. Pitchers filled with water, lighted lamps, paddy-
grain, milk-curd, twigs of the mango and every other kind of auspicatory articles
were collected on the spot in huge quantities and the whole ground
was beautifully painted with the solution of powdered rice (Rlipana).

All Vaishnavas, Brahmanas and other worthy persons of Nabadwip were invited
to partake, in the afternoon, the betel-nut of the adhibas ceremony ?

Musicians duly turned up as soon as it was afternoon and struck up a delightful
concert; The music was swelled by the sounds of mridanga, sanai, jai-dhak
kartal and other instruments. The ‘bards’ began to recite the praises of the family
and loyal matrons uttered glorificatory ejaculations. The Brahmanas raised the
Vedic chant as the Jewel of the best community of the twice-born made
His Appearance and assumed His Seat in the center of the assembled people.

The Brahmanas, who had congregated, thereupon experienced a great joy in
their minds as they sat in a circle round Sree Gaursundar.

Then they brought out the perfumes, sandal paste, betel, excellent garlands and
distributed among the Brahmanas. They ,placed the garland round the
head, smeared all parts of the body with the sandal-paste and offered a pot-full
of betels, to every single guest. Nadia was but the community of the
Brahmanas. There was no end of Brahmanas at Nadia. It was not possible to

ascertain the number of the Brahmanas as they continued to arrive and depart.
Among them there were also not a few who were extremely greedy and who,
after receiving their presents once, returned in a different dress. Presenting
themselves in the thick of the crowd these greedy Brahmanas carried away
repeatedly sandal, betel-nut and garlands. All were mad with joy. Who could
recognize anybody ? The Lord laughingly gave the command to give away
sandal and garlands three times to every one. By this Command the Lord
condoned the offense of those who, having taken once, persisted to take the
articles over and over again. The Lord loves the Brahmanas. He thought in His
Mind that if a Brahmana was caught in the act of taking more than once he ran
the risk of being chide by some careless ,person. It is however, an offense to take
anything by cunning in matters spiritual. The Lord, therefore, provided against
all these contingencies by ordering all the articles to be given away three times
to every one. All Persons were highly delighted by obtaining them in a triple
measure and no one again took anything by cunning. Garlands, sandal, betel-nut
and betel that were given away in this manner exceeded all limits. The secret
how this was possible no one knew. Let alone what men actually received, that
portion of it, which was dropped on the ground in the act of giving away, would
have sufficed for five ordinary marriages, if the quantity could be available in
the house-hold of any other person. All persons were exceedingly gladdened
in their hearts. All said, All praise to this adhibas ! We have seen millionaires
in this Nabadwip. No one’s ancestor ever performed such a grand
adhibas ceremony. No one gave away so ungrudgingly such excellent sandal,
garlands, betel-nut and betel.

Presently the Rajpandit arrived with a glad heart and with all the requisites for
the adhibas ceremony. He was accompanied by Brahmanas, relations and a
great company of merry musicians, singers and dancers. The Rajpandit joyfully
put the tilaka mark on the Forehead of the Lord in accordance with the
method enjoined by the Vedas. This joyful Event was acclaimed by a great
chorus of the chant of Hari and the singing of hymns of praise. All loyal matrons
also acclaimed the Glorious Event. The greatest rejoicings manifested
themselves in the form of music and song. Having in this manner performed the
adhibas ceremony the prince of Brahmanas, Sanatan, returned home. The
kinsfolk of the Lord also went forth and performed the adhibas ceremony of
Lakshmi at the Latter’s Home in the same way. Both sides also performed with
the greatest zeal every other customary rite.

Chapter 16 Marriage with Sree Vishnupriya Devi (Contd.)

On the auspicious Morn following the adhibas ceremony the Lord bathed in the
Ganges and performed the worship of Vishnu. Thereafter in the company of all
relations and friends He applied Himself to the due performance of nandimukh
and other rites.

There was a great uproar of music, dance and song. Auspicatory shouts of praise
were raised on all sides. Innumerable pots filled with water, paddy-grain, milk-
curd, lighted lamps, twigs of the mango, were placed at the doorways, inside the
rooms and all about the yard. On all sides flags of diverse colours gaily waved in
the breeze. Plantain-trees, to which branches of the mango were tied, were
planted in every direction.

Then the mother was busily occupied in the company of all the matrons with the
due performance of all customary rites. Having first of all worshipped
the Ganges the joyful party proceeded to the site of the goddess Shasthi to
the sound of music. Having worshipped Shasthi the mother and her
entourage visited the homes of all friends and went through the customary
performance at each household. The party returned home after having
accomplished these protracted functions. Sachi Devi made all the ladies heavy
presents of fried rice, plantain, oil, betel and vermilion. By the Will of the Lord
the articles exceeded all measure and Sachi Devi gave away to every one in five
and sevenfold measure. All the ladies literally swam in oil. There was none
whose heart’s desire was not completely fulfilled. There were similar high
rejoicings in Lakshmi’s home under the conduct of Lakshmi’s mother. In a fit of
ecstatic delight the Rajpandit flung away all his resources in these festivities.

After the due performance of all these ceremonies Sree Gaursundar had a respite
which He utilized in making presents of eatables and clothing to all
the Brahmanas, evincing, in the method, the greatest humility. He accorded
the fullest respect to all of them in due proportion of the worth of each.

The Brahmanas then returned to their homes for their meals after blessing the
Lord with the greatest affection.

As the day wore into afternoon all the people applied themselves to the pleasant
function of robing the Lord. This was an elaborate process. The Whole Body of
the Lord was anointed with sandal-paste and other perfumes with well-designed

interspaces. On the Forehead of the Lord a crescent was painted with sandal
inside which was put the charming tilaka mark made of perfume. A wonderful
Crown adorned His Beautiful Head. His Whole Frame was covered with
garlands. Excellent cloth of the finest grain was worn in the triple girdled style
(trikachha). His Beautiful Eyes were painted with collyrium. Paddy-grain, durha
grass and cotton thread were tied to His Wrist. Tender shoots of the plantain with
the mirror were placed in His Hand. A pair of golden pendants hung down from
His Ears. The upper parts of His Arms were bound with dazzling chains of
various precious jewels. Whatever decoration was likely to set forth the Beauty
of each Limb was put in the ,proper part by all the people with the greatest
delight. All persons of both sexes were fascinated by the Sight of the
Appearance of the Lord attired as Bridegroom and in their joy had no thoughts
on their own account.

When the last quarter of the day still lingered all people gave their opinion that it
was time to make the auspicious start so that the Lord might arrive at the house
of the Bride in the hour of twilight, after perambulating the whole of Nabadwip
for the space of one full prahara.

And now Buddhimanta Khan joyfully brought up an excellent litter (dola) which
he had specially made for the occasion. There arose a great tumult of song and
music. The Brahmanas recited the auspicatory texts of the Veda. The bards
began to recite eulogies. Joy assumed a visible form on all sides.

Then, after passing His mother on the right and having bowed with great respect
to the Brahmanas, as Sree Gauranga seated Himself on the dola, there arose all
around Him the triumphal shouts of benedictions. The ladies uttered jais. There
could be heard nothing but auspicious sounds in every direction.

The Lord first of all proceeded to the side of the Ganges. There He saw the
halfmoon just overhead. Thousands of lights now began to burn. There was a
great variety of fire-works. The soldiers of Buddhimanta Khan marched in front
and were followed by his other employees in double file. Behind them marched
the bearers of flags of different colours. Pantomimes and clowns in various
guises followed. Dancers in innumerable groups danced along with the utmost
gaiety. Jai-dhak, beer-dak, mridanga, kahal, pataha, dagarh, conch, flute of
reed, karatal, baranga, horn, instruments with five different melodies, in
countless number, made up the vast concert. The Lord laughed as He noted
with pleasure millions of children dancing along with great merriment in the

midst of the musicians. On beholding that great rejoicing not children only but
all the wise men joined the procession dancing by discarding all shame.

Having arrived on the bank of the Ganges the party of the Bridegroom halted
and performed, for a short while, dance, song and hilarious music. This
was succeeded by incessant raining of flowers. After making obeisance to
the Ganges the party traversed merrily the whole of Nabadwip. On beholding
the equipages of the Marriage that are far above anything mortal, all
people experienced a great ecstasy in their minds. The people said, ‘We have
seen many big marriages. Never did we see such grandeur’. Men and women
of fortunate Nadia in this manner floated on the tide of happiness on
beholding the Lord.

All were happy save only those Brahmanas who had beautiful unmarried
daughters in their homes. Those Brahmanas gave vent to their sorrows. ‘I
could not bestow my daughter on such a Groom ! I have no luck; whence could
it be otherwise?’ Thakur Brindavandas describing the Marriage Festivities of
the Lord, in the words quoted above, makes his obeisance to the feet of
the residents of Nabadwip who possess the power of beholding beatific Sights
like these.

Thus did the Lord merrily journey from one quarter of the town to another of the
whole of Nabadwip. He then came to the residence of Raj pandit just in the hour
of twilight and was received by multitudinous acclamations which mingled with
the tumult raised by the musicians of the parties of Bride and Bridegroom vying
with each another. Rajpandit, advancing with great respect, took the Lord in his
arms from the dola and conveyed Him to His Seat. The Pandit scattered flowers
with his own hands, being perfectly oblivious of his own body by joy on
beholding his Son-in-law.

Then having brought out all the requisites of the ceremonial election of
Bridegroom the Brahmana seated himself to accept the Lord formally as his Son-
in-law. He duly performed this ceremony of election by the offering of water for
washing the Feet, the requisites of worship, water to rinse the Mouth, clothing
and ornaments. Then his spouse appeared with the other ladies and! began to
perform the auspicatory rites according to the approved form. The ladies placed
grains of paddy and blades of the durha grass on the Beautiful Head of the Lord
and waved a lighted lamp, of seven wicks fed by clarified butter, in front of the
Lord. They continued to ejaculate the glorificatory note as they cast at Him fried

rice and shell. Thus did they perform the customary rites.

And now, having decked Her in all Her ornaments, they brought out Sree
Lakshmi Devi, conveying Her on a seat. On this the friends of the Lord
merrily lifted Him up by His seat. Then, according to the custom, having put up
an inner screen round the Lord, the Bride was made to perambulate the
Lord seven times by keeping Him on Her right. After perambulating the Lord
seven times Lakshmi Devi placed Herself in front of Him in the attitude of
obeisance.

Then there was a great throwing of flowers; and the instruments of both parties
put up a great music. On all sides male and female continued to employ
their voices in acclamation. Joy’s own self came down from on high in his
visible form.

Sree Lakshmi Devi, Mother of the world, made the surrender of Herself by
placing the garland of flowers at the Feet of the Lord. Gaursundar, with a
slight Smile, took up the garland and placed it round the Neck of Lakshmi.

Then Lakshmi and Narayana began to throw flowers at Each Other with
great alacrity. Brahma and other gods, remaining invisible, merrily sent showers
of flowers. The partisans of Lakshmi and the Lord now got up a violent
quarrel, on behalf of the Bride and Groom, with minds delirious with joy. The
followers of Lakshmi and those of the Lord seemed to prevail alternately as the
people continued with peals of laughter to inform the Lord. A slight Smile
played on the Beautiful Face of the Lord. On beholding this all people swam in
the current of transcendental bliss.

Thousands of great torches burnt brightly. Nothing could be heard on account of
the tumultuous music. The music and acclamations of the charming rite of
‘ Catching the First Glimpse of Each Other’s Moon-like Faces’ pervaded all
worlds, so great was that mighty uproar. Having thus gaily performed the
ceremony of Srimukchandrika Sree Gaursundar took His Seat in the company of
Sree Lakshmi.

Thereafter Rajpandit also assumed a seat, with his mind overflowing with
delight, for the purpose of making the offering of his Daughter. Having
duly offered water for washing the Feet, the requisites for worship, water
for cleansing the Mouth he uttered the formula of his decision to offer his

Daughter. The pious father of Sree Lakshmi Devi, desiring only the Pleasure of
Vishnu, made over his Daughter into the Hands of the Lord. He then
gave expression to his pent-up joy by giving away as dowry goodly cows, land,
beds, male and female slaves, in great abundance. He then caused Sree Lakshmi
Devi to be seated on the Left Side of the Lord and began to perform the
ceremony of offering libation to fire. After performing all the Scriptural and
customary rites he conducted the Bridegroom and Bride to the inner apartments.
Vaikuntha manifested itself in the house of Raj pandit. At last the Couple sat
down to meal. Lakshmi and Krishna remained joyously together during that
night unto supreme benediction.

Who can express in words the joy that possessed Sanatan Pandit and his whole
family? Sanatan and his family now realized the same high fortune as fell
of yore to the lot of Nagnajit, Janaka, Vishmaka, Jambubanta, as the fulfillment
of his previous devoted service of Vishnu.

At break of day, the Essence of all the worlds performed the remaining social
rites. In the afternoon, as the hour of returning home drew near, there began
a great display of music, song and dance. Loud acclamations rent every
direction. The ladies shouted jais. The Brahmanas recited blessings and read
sloka s from the Veda in keeping with the occasion of starting. Dhak, pataha,
sanai, baranga, karatal, played vociferously, vying with one another.

The Lord, having bowed to the superiors, ascended the dola in the company of
Lakshmi. All the people raised the triumphant shout of the Name of Hari as they
formed in procession and led away the Jewel of the race of the twice-born.

All those persons, who beheld Them as They proceeded on Their way, praised
Them most admiringly and in many diverse ways. The ladies obtaining a
Sight of the Pair said, This Girl is most fortunate. She must have served Kamala
and Parbati during Her many lives? Some of them said, They seem to be Hara
and Gauri themselves? Another lady declared, ‘Methinks they are Kamala and
Sree Hari? There were those who expressed the view that the Couple were
certainly Rati and Kamadeva. To the minds of others They seemed like Indra and
Sachi. Some held that They most resembled Ramachandra and Seeta. Thus said
all

those ladies of excellent deeds. Thakur Brindavandas expressed once more his
appreciation of the high fortune of the male and female inhabitants of Nabadwip

who had power to witness these glories of the Lord. All people over the whole of
Nadia overflowed with happiness by the Auspicious Glance of Lakshmi and
Narayana.

The Marriage Procession moved along with the greatest merriment, with dance,
song and music, amid a continuous shower of flowers. Then in an Auspicious
Moment ushered by every blessing Lakshmi and Narayana merrily arrived at
Their Home. The mother attended by the loyal matrons most gladly welcomed
the Daughter-in-law into the House. As Lakshmi and Narayana entered Their
Apartments and assumed Their Seats a mighty acclamation of Praise filled the
whole universe.

Thakur Brindavandas, with due sense of the nature of the occasion, writes that
the joy that manifested itself is beyond all expression and that no one
can describe that Glory. If the eye but once beholds the Glow of the Person of
the Lord that fortunate person is cleansed of all his sins and repairs to the Realm
of Vaikuntha. All those people had a direct vision of the Marriage of the Lord.

The Lord rightly bears the Appellations of ‘Merciful 5 and ‘Lord of the humble . 5

Then the Lord satisfied all the dancers, bards and beggars, by the gift of
clothing, money and kind words. The Lord with His Own Hands merrily
gave away clothing to all the Brahmanas, relatives, friends and to everyone
severally. The Lord bestowed His Embrace on Buddhimanta Khan whose joy no
words can describe. These Leelas have never any interval. The Veda says of
Their Appearance and Disappearance. Who can even in a hundred years describe
all the Leelas that took place within the space of a single danda? ‘Accepting on
my head , 5 says Thakur Brindavandas, ‘the Command of Nityananda Swarup, I
write the mere summary in pursuance of His mercy . 5 He concludes the account
of the Divine Marriage with the remark that whoever reads or listens to these
Leelas of the supreme Lord, verily enjoys communion with Gauranga Himself.

We have attempted to give above the account of the Marriage of Sree
Gaursundar and Sree Vishnupriya Devi in the words of Thakur
Brindavandas himself in order that the reader may have, as far as possible, the
actual words of the highest authority, the Vyasa, of the Leela of Sree Chaitanya.

It will be our subordinate duty to try to understand this severely compressed
account in the light of the commentators. An attempt on this line has already
been made in a previous chapter in discussing the Marriage of the Lord with

Sree Lakshmi Devi. We shall confine ourselves here to the task of adding a few
remarks to what have already been presented to the reader on the same subject at
that place.

The Lord makes His Appearance in this world with His Paraphernalia. When the
Lord chooses to manifest the Leela of the Devotee He is attended by all
His Consorts Each in Her corresponding appropriate role. Sree Chaitanya has
Two Consorts, appearing successively One at a time. Sree Lakshmi Devi is
that Aspect of the Divine Power Who is termed ‘Sree’ or ‘Beauty’ by the
Scriptures. She represents Spiritual Law, Who is eternally in attendance on Her
Lord. Even when the Lord chooses to appear in this world He is served by the
Higher Law of the Spiritual Realm. This does not require to be masked as it is
not liable to be misunderstood even by bound souls. But as the Divine
Manifestation grows towards maturity the Regulated Service recedes to the
background making way for Spontaneous Devotion. This also has to make room
for the Highest Form, viz., Service in apparent separation.

It is not the purpose at this stage to enter fully into the subject of the Nature of
the Divine Power, and Her various Faces. In Krishna Leela there is no use of any
restraint by the Divinity in His Pastimes. The Realm and Consorts of Godhead
appear in that Leela as They are in Chaitanya Leela They appear in Their
mellower form of Relationship of love for the bound soul. The bound soul is not
banished from the Pastimes of Krishna because Krishna makes no difference
between one soul and another and is always prepared to deal with a person in
accordance with the latter’s disposition and according as service is rendered or
refused. Sree Chaitanya Leela exhibits the indiscriminate Mercy of the Lord to
bound souls. This means that Krishna Leela in the Positive Aspect is not
altogether closed to the bound soul. The latter may even serve Krishna by His
Grace even in this world by the process of service of the highest order.

The point that is to be specially noticed in this connection is the fact that the
bound soul may serve the Lord in exactly the same way as the soul in the state of
Grace. The Lord with all His Consorts, Associates, Realm and Paraphernalia is
always at the door of the bound soul and ever Willing to offer Him His very
Highest Service that is rendered to the Lord in the Divine Realm proper.

The very statement of the above proposition suggests a number of most
reasonable objections. If the Lord is with the bound soul as much as He is
with His eternal devotees why cannot the former always have the sight of Him

and His? The reply is that this is so in order to add a special charm to his
service and one that is coveted by even the purest souls but which is not
available to all of them although it is unsolicitously open to every bound soul.
The very condition, viz., the bound state, helps the most charming realization of
the eternal function. The bound soul cannot see Krishna and His eternal
devotees as They really are. But the bound soul is privileged to realize that
Krishna and His eternal devotees are identical with Sree Chaitanya and His
associates whom he can see and serve with his available faculties if he is only
willing to do so.

But the bound soul can also see Lakshmi Devi and Vishnupriya Devi, Mother
Sachi and Sree Jaggannath Misra, in Their real eternal Forms. This is so because
unless they see at least the pure soul as he really is, they cannot understand the
relationship of separation from the Lord to which they are doomed by the bound
state. This vision is dependent on the fulfillment of the condition of willing
acceptance of its real import. But this inclination is rarely, coveted for the very
reason that the wish is realized without any difficulty. This is so unbelievable !

If one reads this account without complete acceptance of and faith in its
conclusions he will necessarily fail to realize its truth. Hypothetical or
tentative acquiescence in certain assumptions, for the purpose of enjoying the
charms of an artistic conception based on those assumptions, is not sufficient for
a reader of the Chaitanya Bhagavat if one is really anxious to follow the method
of selfdiscipline laid down in the work as the indispensable condition for the
proper realization of the substantive Truth. This faith in the only cognisable
Forms of the Reality is not natural to the bound state and is apparently opposed
to the same. At this point the help and guidance of sadhus or self-realized
souls become an absolute necessity.

The bound soul is ever tending to fly away after the illusive appearances of the
Deluding Energy. He is convinced that he will find in such pursuit, in the
long run, what his perverted nature most ardently desires, viz., boundless
sensuous enjoyment for himself. It is, therefore, almost impossible to expect him
to destroy these seemingly sole objects of his heart’s desire by his own hands.

This is the task that the sadhu has got to perform for him for the benefit of the
bound soul. The sadhu is seconded in his efforts by the spiritual Scriptures but is
opposed by everything else in this world. This is not inexplicable. The
erring soul has to choose between the persuasions of the spiritual

Scriptures supporting the sadhu and the dissuasions of the whole phenomenal
world, on the very threshold of the spiritual life.

The decisive part is, therefore, played by one’s own judgment. It is necessary to
exercise one’s judgment with a due sense of the far-reaching consequences
to oneself that are involved. The Scriptures as well as the sadhus can
only persuade but can never compel the bound soul to accept the course of
selfdiscipline that is absolutely necessary for self-realization.

Sree Lakshmi Devi and Sree Vishnupriya Devi are the Eternal Consorts of the
Supreme Lord and possess the special capacity of appearing with the Lord
for the purpose of being visible in There actual Lorms to the bound souls, in
order to effect their deliverance. When it is further explained that Sree Lakshmi
Devi is described in the Scriptures as the Power Who is identical with ‘Beauty’
or ‘Law’ the reader, who is not sufficiently mindful of the conditions to be
fulfilled for the purpose of realizing the proper nature of the Consorts of
Godhead, may be disposed to suspect that the Truth is being attempted to be
figuratively set forth by a number of cleverly devised allegorical forms and that
it should be sufficient to bear in mind in the abstract the principles involved
without taking the concrete side into serious consideration. The less skeptical
may fall into the opposite inconsistency of attempting to take everything in its
literal worldly sense. Both may unconsciously ignore the function of the sadhus
being absolutely necessary for obtaining access to the Reality.

There are, of course, those who may maintain that if the Reality cannot be
realized without submitting to a sadhu as the condition of enlightenment
how can one be sure that the sadhu and his Scriptures may not also mislead?
They may also quote actual instances of persons who have gone astray, by
admission of the sadhus .themselves, after a course of training with them. The
validity of the objection consists in the fact that the initiative in the form of
choice of course ever lies, and must ever lie, with the individual soul. The sadhu,
if he is not properly served, will remain absolutely unknown to the disciple after
the longest period of apparently strenuous and faithful service. The Truth will
not submit to the dominating efforts of any individual soul, neither does He
accept the compelled service, ( ?) of anyone. The pure soul accepts the
whole responsibility of this position and is accordingly enabled to see the light
by which to walk loyally.

The polemic and disbelieving trifler with Truth alone is ever effectively shut out

from the Realm of the Absolute. The bound soul is accustomed to
submit tentatively to hypothetical courses of instruction and training
under hypothetical teachers of apparent truths. He is also insensibly but
stubbornly disposed to carry the same procedure into the Realm of the Absolute.
It is the function of the sadhu, of his own accord, to warn all erring souls against
these confirmed errors of habit. It is for the individual soul himself to accept or
reject the advice. Those, who have undue faith in the tentative method, resent
the advice which they are naturally disposed to regard as uncalled-for
and mischievous. The tendencies never fully eradicated till one stands face to
face with the Realty. This is the cause of the risk and uncertainty that have to
be faced by the novice, but they are quite inevitable and perfectly in
accordance with the Absolute position itself.

So Sree Lakshmi Devi and Sree Vishnupriya Devi need neither be believed nor
disbelieved as Consorts of the Divinity by any one prior to understanding
the nature of the relationship in which one is required by the conditions of
the case to place himself in order to be enabled to grasp the issue of the
advocates of realizable Absolute Truth. The issue need not be confounded with
any hollow hypotheses of erring mortals. Nor need it be conceded by
one’s condescending oral assent to possess the transcendental nature which
is neither comprehensible by the intellect of the bound soul nor compatible
in practice with any of his worldly interests. For such persons the proper
attitude should be to try to understand the preliminary conditions with the help
of the Narrative and abstain from all ‘opinions’ on the Nature of the Divine
Power Herself till the she has had time to explain what he requires to know
further.

These remarks hold also in the case of the Third Plenary Power that ever
accompanies the Supreme Lord Sree Krishna Chaitanya whenever He chooses to
appear in this world. She bears the name of ‘Neela’ in the Shastras and is
no other than the Abode of Godhead, (Sridhama). The ‘Place’ where the
Lord appears in this world is His own Plenary Power, or Eternal Consort.

This would dispose of the gross and profane speculations of the sensualist
schools regarding the subject of Divine Amour, the relationship that subsists
between the Lord and His Plenary Powers Sree Bhu and Neela Who bear the
names of Lakshmi, Vishnupriya and Nabadwipdhama in the transcendental
vocabulary of the Scriptures Whose Natures are realizable only by the devotees
of Lord Chaitanya.

All this at the first sight cannot but appear to be ‘bizarre’ and unsettling, to all
persons contentedly moving on the plane of three dimensions. Such persons may
even affect to regard the statements as the ‘products’ of a diseased imagination
and their own ‘fool’s paradise’ as the undoubted abode of sanity and wisdom.

But such a view does not remove every difficulty from the path even of those
who choose deliberately to shut their ears to the pleadings of the rational instinct.
The so-called mundane ‘positivists’ want a real standing-ground for their
perverted speculations. Those wise persons cherish the wild faith that by putting
the cart before the horse greater results are to be gained than by the ordinary
method of obeying the voice of humdrum reason and bitter experience.

The names ‘LakshmV, ‘Vishnupriya\ ‘Nabadwip’ are not words denoting
anything limited or worldly. Neither are they mere symbols or conceptions
of any worldly entity. They are the Divine Consorts Themselves.

The Transcendental Nomenclature is inconceivable except by Their Grace
identical with the Mercy of Godhead Himself Who ever acts through His Plenary
Powers in His Dealings with jivas who are dissociated emanations of the Pure
Essence of His Marginal Potency.

As a matter of fact the Activities of the Lord, even when He chooses to Appear
in this world, remain absolutely unintelligible to the conditioned soul as long as
the latter persists in the attitude of refusal to seek the help of the
Plenary Spiritual Power of Godhead for realizing the same. For understanding
the Leela of Sree Gauranga it is necessary to approach the subject by willing,
convinced and active submission to real Sadhus who are the eternal servants of
Sridhama Nabadwip, the Eternal Realm of the Divinity, Who alone can confer
the service of Lakshmi Devi and Vishnupriya Devi Who serve Sree Gaursundar
with Amorous Devotion of the most distinctive delicious types that
are comprehensible to conditioned souls only by Their Grace. This
comprehension is the only proper goal of all individual souls gone astray and is
identical with the service of Sree Sree Radha-Govinda attainable in the
unalloyed spiritual state.

For these reasons we abstain from dealing with this subject more specifically at
this place. The Doings of the Lord as Householder can be understood only in the
light of the practice and teachings of the Lord as a Sannyasin after His apparent
Renunciation of the world. The object of sitting at the Feet of Sree Krishna
Chaitanya, the Practicing Ascetic Teacher of the Absolute Truth, is to be enabled

to understand, through the practice of service taught by Himself by Example and
Precept, the Absolute Truth as He is realizable by souls who appear to His loyal
disciple in the Form of Sree Gaursundar dwelling eternally in Sridham
Nabadwip served with Amorous Devotion by His Consorts Sree

Lakshmi Devi and Sree Vishnupriya Devi by the method of loving separation.
Such realization can alone enable a conditioned soul to attain the highest service
of the Divine Pair Sree Sree Radha-Govinda on the termination of his wrong
connection with the mundane plane.

Chapter 17 Triumphs of Learning

The Lord taught His pupils in all places. His usual resort for the purpose in the
evening was the side of the Ganges. On His arrival there He took His Seat, as at
the Academy, in the midst of His pupils. The Performances of the Lord as
Teacher on the bank of the holy stream remained indelibly impressed on the
memory of all beholders. Sree Brindavandas Thakur searched all the Scriptures
to find an analogy by an event of the triple universe. He rejected the following
suggestions after due consideration of their claims. The analogy of the Moon
surrounded by the stars of Heaven was rejected on the ground that the Moon is
spotted-and. subject to the processes of waxing and waning whereas the Nature
of the Spotless Subject of comparison is Eternally Tull’. Brhaspati, teacher of
the gods, does not furnish a proper analogy in as much as he happens to be a
partisan of the devas, whereas our Lord is the Partisan and Help of all sides.
Cupid god of worldly amour, does not offer the requisites of a proper analog.

The mind in which he makes his appearance is distracted, whereas on the
Appearance of the Lord in one’s mind all other bonds are snapped and the mind
attains the state of supreme purity and satisfaction. In the same way all other
analogies also appeared to be seriously defective. There could be found only one
exception. There is real analogy with the Pastimes of the Son of Sree Nanda,
surrounded by the cowherds, on the banks of the Kalindi (Yamuna). It seemed to
all people as if the Selfsame Krishna Chandra, in the company of those very
cowherds, having put on the Lorm of the twice-born, now re-enacted His
Identical Pastimes on the bank of the Ganges.

All those, who were privileged to have the Sight of the Lord discoursing to His
pupils on the bank of the Ganges, experienced a gladness that baffles
all description. They were no less impressed by the display of His Power,
and everybody secretly opened his mind to others on this subject. Some said,
‘Such Power does not belong to man’. Some declared that the Brahmana was
the Integral Portion of Krishna Himself. Others said that ‘He seemed to be
the Person of the prophecy that a Brahmana will be King in Gau_a, and held
that his conclusion was confirmed by the fact that He had all the Bodily Signs
that prognosticate the King of Kings. Every one made these remarks regarding
the Lord in accordance with one’s own particular bent of mind.

The Lord expounded the Scriptures on the bank of the Ganges, adversely
criticizing the teachers. He exposed the falsity of their interpretations

by establishing their contradictories and, after refuting all different opinions,
reestablished them all. He challenged every one to disputation with Himself
and promised to recognize as a real scholar every one who would fairly meet
Him only once. He denied that any one possessed the power of holding his
ground in controversy against Him even by accepting the very interpretations
that He offered. Thus did the Lord make His Boast and His Bragging Words
destroyed all vanities of every one who listened to them.

There was no end of the pupils of the Lord. They formed themselves into
innumerable groups and pursued their studies at many different places in
the town. Every day ten or twenty Brahmana boys prostrated themselves at
the Feet of the Lord and begged to be allowed to study under Him. They prayed
for His mercy that they might have the good fortune of being enlightened by
Him to the least extent. The Lord laughed at their words observing that what
they said was most excellent. The number of the Lord’s pupils went on
increasing apace every day in this manner.

Thus the Lord held His learned sessions surrounded by His countless pupils by
the side of the Ganges. It was a most edifying Sight that was witnessed by
His fortunate contemporaries.

The whole of Nabadwip was rendered free from all cause of sorrow by the Holy
Influence of the Supreme Lord and all those, who were privileged to witness the
learned Performances of the Lord, were regarded in subsequent years as persons
of rare good fortune the very sight of whom had power to free one from the
bondage of the world. Sree Brindavandas Thakur laments his misfortune for not
having been born at that time, and cherishes the hope that he might retain his
recollection of those Activities of the Lord at every birth and be born as
His servant wherever Sree Chaitanya and Nityananda manifest Their
Divine Activities.

The above, from the pen of His first biographer, who had his information from
Nityananda Himself, un-contradicted by any other writers of that or
subsequent period, proves conclusively, apart from the evidence of His
associates and followers regarding the Substantive Teaching of the Lord, that
Sree Chaitanya enjoyed an extraordinary reputation as Disputant and Exponent
of the Shastras among His contemporaries. Those contemporaries were specially
given to the cultivation of the Science of Polemics which had been perfected at
Nabadwip to a point never rivaled anywhere else either then or since. Lest this

fact fail to be sufficiently grasped by posterity Thakur Brindavandas repeats it
over and over again and in a most definite manner. As for instance he gives
prominence to the fact that the Lord was never chary of denouncing the
interpretations of other Professors, although Nabadwip was at the time full of a
countless host of the most eminent teachers, proverbially jealous of their
scholastic reputation to whose ears the denunciations of the Lord were sure to be
carried in no time.

But no Professor in all the different branches of learning, which were cultivated
with equal zeal at Nabadwip, ever dared to meet the Lord in open controversy on
any issue. Every one was terribly afraid of Him, showed the greatest deference
to His Views and avoided any direct disputation with Him. And if the Lord was
pleased to speak kindly to any one that fortunate person became at once His
most devoted servant. All the people were fully aware of His Extraordinary
Cleverness even from Infancy and all dreaded and obeyed Him. They also knew
that no one had really the power to excel or teach Him anything new. Yet no one
suspected that He was any other than an ordinary mortal.

The language of Thakur Brindavandas, coming from one who, although an
admirer of the Lord and using the poetic diction, and after making
every allowance for so-called oriental hyperbole that is supposed by
unimaginative empiric thinkers of this country and elsewhere to specially
characterize all religious literature, makes it plain that Sree Chaitanya was not a
particularly submissive kind of a person, nor did He seek to serve Godhead in
the current manner, but was certainly not an opponent of rational, or even
empiric inquiry on any subject. He was also at the same time a scoffer of all self-
sufficient superficial pedantry. These qualities were misunderstood by the
orthodox Vaishnavas also, among whom were persons distinguished for their
secular learning as well as piety. This Incomprehensible Nature of the Young
Professor, Who scorned everybody and submitted to none, marked Him out as a
most extraordinary Person and extorted the unwilling admiration of friends and
foes alike. That it was not willing admiration in all cases we shall know from
the sequel. His uncompromising attitude and hostile talk gave deep offense to
the learned pedants, who only waited for the opportunity of indulging their
furious animosity against the dreaded Scholar Whom they could not meet in
honest controversy.

The attitude of the learned circles of Nadia demonstrates the radical defect of
empirical intellectualism which does not at all realize the gravity of

the misfortune of its divorce from the Absolute Truth. Its abstract
idealistic speculations are a sorry refuge from the dangers of the grosser forms
of materialistic positivism. This material world is not an illusion. The idealist,
who affects to look down upon it, is bound to be brought to grief in no time by
the actual force of the very circumstances that he pretends to contemn.

The scientific instinct revolts from the sterile and fictitious triumphs of the
mere idealist. It seeks to satisfy the need of our nature for the substantive Truth
by creating opportunities of expanded materialistic activities in defiance of
barren idealism. Sree Gaursundar, however, did not meet the idealists with the
weapon of grosser materialism. He was content to point out the glaring defects
of their synthesis with the help of empiric logic itself, as they could not fail
to understand such argument. By the very nature of the case it is possible
by means of empiric logic to demolish its own false constructions and
to demonstrate the necessity of a change of method of investigation for
the attainment of the Real Truth.

The difficulty begins after this critical juncture has been reached. Even those,
who are prepared to admit their defect in controversy, do not always realize
the necessity of accepting the conclusions of their victorious enemy. The out
and out sincerity of judgment, that would lead to such acceptance, is very rare
and implies to an attitude of causeless devotion to the Truth for His Own sake.
The pedants of Nabadwip did not care to learn the Truth from Sree
Chaitanyadeva. Neither is this an absolute and immediate drawback for
progressing in empiric knowledge. A person can improve his empiric knowledge
by self-application unassisted by any other person by the study of books. Sree
Gaursundar led His campaign against the futility of this method for attainment of
the knowledge of the Absolute. Such knowledge, He contended, can only be
obtained by submitting to receive it from person who is in possession of it.

The necessity of personal mediation of the teacher for attainment, of the
Knowledge of the Absolute introduces a condition which it is not possible
to establish fully by the method of empiric logic. The necessity of the
acceptance of the principle of personal subordination is also consistently enough
denied by the empiricists in respect of their own achievement. Their
misunderstanding is due to the fact that they cannot realize the identity of the
Teacher of the Absolute with the Message itself. They want to accept the
Message by leaving out the Bearer of the Same. They have evidently less respect
and necessity for the servant than for the Master. Their own logic should be able
to tell them that the Absolute must by His nature be unattainable by any form of

conditional submission. The mundane egoistic reservation is to be completely
discarded if one is to approach the Presence of Sree Krishna. The Bhattacharyas
and Misras of Nabadwip, proud of their learning and fallacious self-sufficiency
failed to understand the necessity and duty of absolute submission to the real
teacher of the Word of God.

They preferred to continue on the path of admitted ignorance and sinfulness.
This course appeared to them to be less intolerable than absolute submission
to the servant of Krishna. Such persons are by temperament doomed to
eternal perdition and the only method that was applicable to their case was that
of merciless castigation in the form of elaborate exposure of their sophistries,
by which method alone they might be prevented from misleading less
wicked foolish people from the path of the pure service of the Lord. The fact,
that the Bhattacharyas and Misras were not redeemed by Sree Gaursundar, has
been used, by dishonest pedants who are not on principle prepared to inquire
with an unbiased mind into the nature of the issue itself that divided the two
parties, as a circumstance that proves the unconvincing nature of the position
taken up by Sree Gaursundar. There cannot well be a grosser form of impiety
under the garb of piety than the unholy assertion that the suffrage of the ignorant
people of this sinful world establishes the claim of the Absolute to our
unconditional allegiance to His Holy Feet. Such perversity of judgment is the
punishment that justly overtakes all insincere natures who, while professing to
seek the Truth, are willfully bent upon amassing the means for the gratification
of their own ignorant vanity. To those abnormal people the uncompromising
attitude of Sree Gaursundar’s advocacy of the Truth appeared to be only an
instance of ignorant arrogance greater than their own. They were so completely
blinded by their insatiable passion for sensuous gratification that they were
unable to distinguish between their own selfish vanity and the Arrogance of
Sree Gaursundar which their own vanity necessitated and which was intended
to break their impious perversity, or at any rate, to lessen the same, or prevent
it from grossly misleading innocent people to the utter ruin of both.

This Attitude of Sree Gaursundar was also in glaring contrast to that of the other
Vaishnavas who did not care to oppose in this drastic manner the pretensions of
those graceless atheists; but it was none the less best calculated to promote-the
real well-being of all those who are disposed to draw a distinction between
arrogance directed to the service of the Absolute and humility practiced with the
same object in favour of the latter, make out difference which does not really
exist. Real humility, that submits

unconditionally to the Absolute, never submits to minister to the pleasures of the
atheists. When those, who are not disposed to submit to the Absolute, pretend to
be humble in their relations with worldly people, they do so for gaining the
reputation of humility. The really humble person has no selfish ambition and is,
therefore, in a position to serve the Truth and nothing but the Truth under all
circumstances. The true and constant servants of the Absolute alone are
privileged to understand how Godhead may be best served by loyal arrogance
and most basely betrayed by self-seeking show of humility. Godhead is never
served by external conduct. Good manners in themselves have no value. They
have their value in and through perfect loyalty to the Truth, which is the one
thing needful. Good manners, practiced by worldly people, are but a snare and a
most insidious form of gross impiety.

The above considerations enable us to understand that no one can know the Lord
unless the Lord makes Himself known to him of His Own accord.

Sree Gaursundar, during all this period while He was engaged in the task
of silencing the proud scholars of the centre of learning of the Age by
exposing their utter ignorance of all subjects, failed to be recognized as the Lord
of all learning alike by pious Vaishnavas and the atheistical teachers of
Nabadwip. But we need not suppose that His Activities were, therefore, less
important or a lesser evidence of His highest beneficent Mercy. The Lord is ever
full of unlimited beneficence; but He reserves the right of manifesting the true
Nature of His Divine Activities only to such persons Whom He chooses to
favour. During all the time that Gaursundar was indulging in these learned
Pastimes not a single person in the whole Nabadwip recognized His Divinity,
although these Performances were most extraordinary even from the point of
view of empiric scholarship. In this connection the following remarkable
incident, which took place at this time deserves our most attentive consideration.

A great scholar of the name of Keshab Bhatta came to Nabadwip. He was a
famous controversialist and had assumed the proud title of ‘Conqueror of
all quarters’ to proclaim His victories over the scholars of all parts and also as
an open challenge to the learned whom he summoned to recognize
his superiority if they did not venture to engage in open discussion through
fear of public exposure of their inferiority. It was the traditional ambition of
the Pandits of this country to seek the proud distinction of being the
recognized superior of all learned persons, or as the Conqueror of all quarters,

(digvijayi). The conditions, that such a claim gave rise to, were that the
vanquished had to put down in writing the fact of their defeat and hand over to

the victor their written confession of inferiority.

Keshab Bhatta, after defeating in controversy the Pandits of other parts of the
country, appeared in Nabadwip, which was then reputed as the greatest center of
learning in India, with the object of compelling the great Pandits of Nabadwip
also to admit his superior scholarship. Keshab Bhatta was fully confident of his
ability to defeat the Pandits of Nabadwip for the reason that he had ordained the
assurance of the goddess of learning herself to the effect that he would never
suffer any defeat in controversy. Keshab Bhatta had discovered that all the
Shastras appeared on the tip of his tongue without any effort on his part by the
grace of the goddess of learning, and the questions, that constantly suggested
themselves to him, were such that no antagonist was ever in a position to offer
any satisfactory reply. His questions alone were sufficient to silence his
adversary, and it never came to a discussion at all. When the fame of Nabadwip
reached his ears he hastened thither in great state, escorted by a numerous
retinue mounted on richly caparisoned horses and elephants, defeating m
controversial encounters all those Pandits who met his challenge on the way. His
arrival at Nabadwip caused a great fear to fall upon the community of the
Pandits who took counsel together apprehending the imminent loss of the
prestige which they enjoyed in the learned world if this ‘Conqueror of all
quarters’ from afar succeeded in carrying off the laurels of victory by defeating
them in their very stronghold. They were unnerved by fear at the prospect of
contending with one whom Saraswati herself had been pleased to grant the boon
of invincibility in controversy. All the leading Bhattacharyas of Nabadwip left
off all work and racked their brains over their impending discomfiture.

On every side the ominous cry was loudly expressed that the occasion had
arrived which was to settle what gift of intellect the Pandits of Nabadwip really
possessed. The students soon carried the tidings to Gauranga. ‘A certain
Conqueror of the quarters (digvijayi), having won the favour of Saraswati, is
touring all places and vanquishing in controversy all Pandits. He has in
his possession the certificates of his victories from all the vanquished. He has
a large following of horses, elephants, litters, attendants. He has recently
arrived in the town and is actually settled in Nabadwip. He wants to engage
in controversy any rival who may offer himself. If no antagonist is prepared
to take up his challenge he demands that every learned association
must forthwith supply him with written confession of their defeat.

On hearing this the Lord laughingly told the truth to His pupils. Listen to Me,

brothers. I am telling you the real truth. The Supreme Lord in no way tolerates
self-conceit. The Lord always takes away whatsoever intoxicates a person to
indulge in excessive vanity. Humility is the constant nature of the fruit-bearing
tree as of a person endowed with all good qualities. Have you not heard of the
fate of all the mightiest Conquerors of old such as Haihai, Nahusha, Bena, Bana,
Naraka, Ravana ? Was there ever any person whose vanity was not brought low?
Godhead never tolerates excessive conceit. For this reason I assure you that all
the pride of his learning will be completely humbled at this very place,.

Having said so, the Lord came on to the bank of the Ganges in the evening with
His disciples and, having touched with reverence the holy water of the Ganges
and made His obeisance to the sacred stream, Divine Gauranga assumed His
Seat in the center of His pupils. The students sat round Him in many different
groups, and a brisk and cheerful discussion went forward regarding many a topic
on dharma and the Shastras. As the Lord was seated in this joyous manner He
thought of a plan of conquering the ‘Conqueror of all quarters’. He did not like
the idea of defeating him in open controversy in a public assembly, as such
defeat would kill outright the Brahmana who was so much puffed up with
inordinate vanity by reason of his victories which had filled him with the notion
that he had no equal in the whole world. Moreover such defeat would also
expose him to the jeers and violence of the populace who would fall upon him
and plunder his belongings. If the Brahmana were vanquished in a private
encounter he would be cured of his vanity without suffering the terrible pain of a
public exposure. While the Lord was maturing His plan ‘the Conqueror of all
quarters’ himself came to the very spot that evening.

What ensued after the arrival of ‘the Conqueror of all quarters,’ has been
graphically described in all its bearings by Thakur Brindavandas. The night was
most beautifully illuminated by the gorgeous splendours of the clear moon of
Bengal. The Bhagirathi wore her most hallowed aspect of indescribable glory.
The Supreme Lord, Whose Beauty captivates the hearts of everything, was
Himself Present with all His disciples. The charming Face of the Lord was
constantly lit up with a Gracious Smile and His Two Beautiful Eyes wore the
Eternal Look of Divine Benediction. His Fine Teeth, set between His Ruddy
Lips, scorned the beauty of pearls. His Whole Frame was most delicately soft
and overflowed with kindness. His Beautiful Head wore a profusion of the most
charming curls of the Finest Hair. His Neck was posed like the Lion’s. His
Shoulders were broad as that of the elephant. His Attire was in keeping with His
Figure. The Holy Form was of the most generous dimensions, with a most

Beautiful Bosom which was encircled by Sree Anantadeva in the Form of the
sacrificial thread. His Fine Forehead was marked with the long beautiful tilaka
pointing upwards. His Exquisite Hands reached to the Knee. The Lord wore His
Cloth in the style of the yoga patta and, being Seated with His Right Foot placed
in the loop of the Left Thigh, was engaged d in expounding the Shastras,
establishing the contraries of all negative and positive conclusions. All His
disciples were seated in many a group, on different sides of Him, and formed a
most picturesque Assembly.

The Conqueror of all quarters’ was much surprised on beholding this wonderful
Sight and thought within himself, Ts This perhaps Nimai Pandit?, and, stopping
unnoticed, gazed on the Beauty of the Lord without taking off his eyes for a long
time. He then inquired of one of the disciples, ‘What is His Name?, and was told
in reply, ‘He is, indeed, the Great Nimai Pandit Himself’. Thereupon, making his
obeisance to the Ganges, ‘the Conqueror’ made his way into the midst of the
Assembly of the Lord. A Slight Smile played round the Lips of the Lord as He
welcomed him with cordiality, inviting him to take his seat.

‘The Conqueror of all quarters’ was of a most fearless disposition. But
nevertheless he experienced a feeling of great awe at the Sight of the Lord.

The Lord, after exchanging a few words with the Brahmana, began to
he inquisitive in His Joyous Mood. He began by observing ‘that the poetic
powers of ‘the Conqueror’ were boundless and there was no subject to which he
could not apply his powers with success. That they would all be delivered from
their sins if he would favour them with a poetic account of the glories of the
holy Ganges.’ On hearing these words of the Lord ‘the Conqueror’
began immediately the praise of the Ganges in verses composed on the spot and
with such facility and in such varied figures that his recitation appeared to
possess the amplitude and dignity of the voice of the clouds. Saraswati herself
was present on the tongue of ‘the Conqueror,’ and, therefore whatever he said
was perfect in every way.

No human being possessed the power of impeaching the same or even
comprehending the full extent of the profound learning that marked
his utterances. All the students of the Lord, who were counted by
thousands, were astonished by listening to the description. ‘Rama, Rama,’ they
ejaculated, ‘It is most wonderful! Can such words come from any mortal?’

The description was most richly laden in every part with all the

rhetorical embellishments conceivable for adorning the human speech, that are

to be found in the whole world, and to such supreme perfection that even
those, who were deeply versed in all branches of the Shastras, found it most
difficult even to follow him. In this fashion ‘the Conqueror’ poke on for the
space of a quarter of the night and did not yet finish.

When ‘the Conqueror’ at last ceased Sree Gaursundar said laughingly ‘that the
real purpose of the words, woven into the verses by him, was not intelligible to
them unless he himself was pleased to explain. He would, therefore, request ‘the
Conqueror, to supply the explanation of his own words which were undoubtedly
perfect in their import.’ These sweet Words of the Lord induced ‘the Conqueror’
to an attempt to explain his own verses. But no sooner did he begin to expound
the Lord began to criticize at every step. The Lord said in effect ‘that the words
that had been employed by ‘the Conqueror’ apparently transgressed against all
the established principles of the Shastras and that it was, therefore, necessary to
know all other special purpose which ‘the Conqueror’ had in view in using
them.’

The great ‘Conqueror of all quarters,’ the pet child of the goddess of learning,
the victor of a hundred controversies, was powerless to offer any
explanation, and all his intelligence seemed to desert him at this crisis. The
Brahmana began to talk at random, but could establish nothing; and Sree
Gauranga was most prompt in pointing out all the defects of his arguments. All
the genius of ‘the Conqueror’ forsook him and he did not understand what he
himself had said. Then the Lord asked Him not to mind it but give them
something fresh. But ‘the Conqueror’ found that he no longer possessed his
former power of impromptu composition.

When ‘the Conqueror of all quarters’ was in the throes of the agony of his
decisive defeat the pupils of the Lord made a gesture of laughter at his
expense. But the Lord forbade all incivility and spoke kindly to the Brahmana.
‘The Conqueror’ had made an exhausting effort by composing those
wonderful verses and was naturally very much fatigued by his exertions. The
night was far advanced. So the controversy might be postponed to the next day.
Let them all part for that night with mutual good-will and ‘the Conqueror, should
return to his lodgings for rest without feeling discouraged,. The Lord was ever
tender to His opponents in His Dealings with them. Those, whom He vanquished
in controversy, did not experience any sorrow. The Lord behaved in the same
way towards all the Professors of Nabadwip. Although. He defeated them all,

He pleased them all by His Conduct after His victory. ‘Let us,’ He would say,

‘Go home to-day and look up our authorities so that we might be in a position
to answer everything correctly tomorrow . 5 The Lord never broke the spirit of
the vanquished. Hence all were pleased with Him. Such were the Pastimes of
the Lord. It was for this reason that every one, of all those Pandits who lived
at Nabadwip, was in his heart of hearts well-disposed towards the Lord.

The Lord made His way home in the company of His disciples. ‘The Conqueror
of all quarters’ felt extremely ashamed at heart. In his distress the Brahmana thus
mused within himself, ‘Saraswati herself gave me this boon. I have met in
controversy all those who were well versed in Nyaya Shankhya, Patanjala,
Mimansa, Vaiseshika and Vedanta philosophies. I found none in the whole world
who could even advance a plausible view in opposition to mine.’ The question of
their ability to defeat me was, therefore, necessarily remote. But such is the
contrivance of Providence that this Brahmana, Who is merely a teacher of
Vyakarana which is a subject for infants, should be able to actually defeat me!
The boon of Saraswati herself would seem to be unsure ! There is good cause for
the greatest anxiety in this. Some offense against the goddess must have been
engendered in myself and due to this the power of my genius has been lessened.

I must find out the cause of it this very day., Thinking thus the Brahmana sat
down to the recitation of the mantra and, having finished the due quota, betook
himself to his bed with a sorrowful heart. In his dream Saraswati appeared
before the Bipra and, casting her merciful glance on the fortunate Brahmana,
began to tell him secrets that are most carefully hidden in the Scriptures.
Saraswati said,, Listen, good Brahmana. I am going to tell you the hidden secret
of the Vedas. If you disclose this to any one your life will assuredly be cut short.
He, at Whose Hands you have suffered defeat, is most assuredly the Lord of the
endless universe. He is, indeed, the Self-same Lord Whose Lotus Feet I ever
serve. I feel ashamed of myself even to appear before Him. My function is to
delude all creatures into the vanities of the false ego. This function has no
admission into the Sphere that is lighted up by the Glance of Vasudeva. It is I
who speak through your tongue. But I have no power in His Divine Presence. It
is not merely my little self who feels so helpless but even the Divine Sheshadeva
Himself, Who expounds the Vedas by His thousand Mouths and is the
Worshipped of Aja, Bhaba and all the great gods, is bewildered in the Presence
of the Supreme Lord Whom you have seen face to face in the Form of the
Brahmana. He is Transcendentally Great, Eternal, Pure, Indivisible, Irredible and
is Present in His Fullness in the hearts of all. From Him proceeds work,
knowledge, learning, all good and evil, the visible and the invisible, in fact
everything which it is not possible for me to fully recount to you. All the

creatures from Brahma downwards who are subject to suffering undergo
tribulation by His Command. All the Avataras, such as the Fish, Tortoise, etc., of
Whom you have heard, are no other than He. It is the Same Lord Who restores
the world in His form of the Boar, the Same Who protects Prahlada in His Form
of Man-lion. He is the Life of Bali in His Form of Vamana Whose Lotus Feet are
the Source of the holy Ganges. It is He Who Appeared in Ayodhya and killed the
wicked Ravana by His Endless Wonderful Activities. Him we call the Son of
Vasudeva and Nanda. He is at present, as the Son of Brahmana, actively engaged
in the Pleasures of learning. Not even the Veda Himself is aware of His
Appearance in the world. One can know Him only if He makes Himself known.
Who has power to know otherwise? All the mantras, that you have recited to me
up till now, are not really fulfilled by yielding as their fruit the status of ‘the
Conqueror of all quarters’. The real fruit of my mantra you have at last obtained
only now , in as much as you have had a Direct Sight of the Lord of the
countless worlds. Bipra, go quickly to His Feet and surrender your body to Him.
Don’t consider these words as an idle dream. I have divulged to you the hidden
knowledge of the Vedas under the influence of the mantra. Saying this the
goddess Saraswati disappeared and the Brahmana woke up from his sleep.

The Brahmana immediately made his way, at early dawn, to the Presence of the
Lord. The Bipra made prostrated obeisances to the Lord Who thereupon lifted
him up into His Arms. The Lord asked, ‘Brother, what is the meaning of this
behaviour?’ The Bipra made reply, ‘Even so is the Merciful Glance of Thy eyes’.
The Lord asked, Being yourself ‘Conqueror of all quarters’ why do you behave
in this way to Me? ‘The Conqueror’ said, ‘Deign to listen, Prince of Brahmanas’
All work is fulfilled by serving Thee. Thou art Narayana in the Form of the
twice-born in the Kali Age. Who has power to recognize Thee? The suspicion
grew in my mind the moment my power of speech deserted me as Thou
questioned. Thou art declared by all the scriptures to be the Breaker of all
worldly vanity. I have truly experienced this undoubted truth. Thou overcame me
three times and yet preserved my reputation. Is this possible Otherwise than by
the Power of the Supreme Lord Himself? Wherefore it is most certain that Thou
art Narayana. In all the learned societies of the world, in Gauda, Trihut, Delhi,
Kasi, Gujrat, Vijayanagar, Kanchipuri, Anga.

Vanga, Tailanga, Odhra and other places, there is no scholar who could even
understand my words, far less find fault with them. I, who am so clever, failed to
establish anything in Thy Presence. Whither did all my wits depart? This Feat of
Thine is not at all wonderful. The goddess of learning herself told me that Thou

art her Lord. Most auspicious, indeed, was the planetary conjunction under
which I let my foot at Nabadwip, that I, so sunk in the deep mire of the world,
have obtained the Sight even of Thyself. Bewitched by the wily entanglements
of ignorant selfish desires I have long wandered astray, utterly deceiving myself.
By good fortune I have now obtained the Sight of Thee. Be pleased to deliver me
by Thy Merciful Glance. It is Thy Nature to do good to all. There is no one
except Thyself Who is the Refuge and Who is Truly Merciful. Be pleased, Great
One, so to instruct me that there may never again arise any evil desire in my
mind.

The ‘Conqueror of all quarters,’ most humbled, praised the Lord in many various
ways, in terms of sincere penitence. On hearing the fervent words of the
Brahmana Sree Gaursundar smiled as He thus Replied, ‘Listen,
illustrious Brahmana. You, on whose tongue Saraswati herself abides, are,
indeed, most fortunate. The use of learning does not lie in conquering all
quarters. That scholarship alone is genuine which serves the Supreme Lord.
Consider this well and attentively. When a person leaves his body his wealth or
any human qualifications never accompany their quondam possessor. It is for
this reason that all who are pure-souled, apply themselves with a firm purpose to
serve the Supreme Lord, discarding every other occupation. Therefore, Bipra,
giving up all evil ways make haste to worship the Feet of Sree Krishna without
delay, and continue to serve Krishna with firm conviction until you are overtaken
by death. Know for certain that the only due fruit of learning is obtained if
one’s mind and work continue to abide thereby at the Lotus Feet of Sree
Krishna. I declare to you the highest advice. Devotion to Vishnu is the one thing
that is true in all these countless worlds’. Having said so, the Supreme Lord
being pleased with the Brahmana, embraced him. Being favoured by the
Embrace of the Lord of Vaikuntha the twice-born was released from all his
worldly fetters. The Lord said, ‘Brahmana, give up all vanity. Betake to the
service of Krishna by being merciful to all beings. Whatever Saraswati might
have told you, never divulge to any one else. By speaking out the Hidden Truth
of the Scriptures the span of life is cut short and such a person verily suffers the
bad consequences of such conduct in the next world.’

The great Brahmana, on receiving the Command of the Lord and after making
many prostrated obeisances to Him and repeatedly doing homage to His
Lotus Feet, departed thence, having thus obtained the highest fulfillment of all
his endeavours. By the Command of the Lord that very instant devotion, want
of attachment to things mundane and the true knowledge manifested

themselves simultaneously in the person of that Brahmana. The vanity of being
‘Conqueror of all quarters’ completely disappeared. The Bipra became humbler
than a blade of grass. After bestowing on fit persons the gift of every earthly
possession that he had, his elephants, horses, conveyances, wealth and all
equipments, that ‘Conqueror of all quarters’ set out on his journey
companionless. Such is the Pastime of Sree Gaursundar. It is the Natural Quality
of His Mercy that a person, who obtains it, betakes himself to the occupation of
begging, giving up the kingly state. In this Kali Age Sree Dabirkhas bore
testimony to the truth of this by preferring the retreat of the forest to a princely
position. Wealth and power, which are coveted by all the world, are discarded by
the servant of Krishna after having been gained. The state of a king and such
other temporal things, are deemed pleasant only just so long as one is ignorant of
the bliss of devotion. Even the pleasure of emancipation from all the miseries of
the world is considered by the devotees of Krishna as trivial, not to speak of
such happiness as accrues from the possession of kingdoms and other coveted
things of this world. Nothing is of any worth except the Kind Glance of the
Supreme Lord; for which reason all the Scriptures proclaim only the service of
the Lord.

Thus did ‘the Conqueror of all quarters’ obtain his final deliverance. Such is the
wonderful Career of Sree Gaursundar. The news of the Lord’s victory over ‘the
Conqueror’ quickly spread to all parts of Nadia. All the people
were overwhelmed with astonishment and instinctively realized ‘that Nimai
Pandit was undoubtedly a Very Great Scholar. They had not yet heard of
another scholar who could have defeated ‘the Conqueror’. They confessed that
Nimai Pandit had every justification for His Pride and it was only now that the
Real Greatness of His Learning was made patent to all. Some said ‘If He had
only read Nyaya He could have easily attained the position of Bhattacharyas’.
Some proposed ‘that all the people should join together and confer on Him the
title of Vadisimha (Lion of controversy).’ These estimates, says
Thakur Brindavandas, show the triumph of His Deluding Power who prevented
the people from recognizing His Divinity, even after they had seen all this.

Thus all over Nadia all the people discoursed about the Achievement of the
Lord. The citizens of Nabadwip are worthy of the homage of everybody
inasmuch as they are privileged to witness these Activities of the Lord. Those,
adds Thakur Brindavandas, who listen to this Narration of the Victory of the
Lord over ‘the Conqueror of all quarters’, never have any further occasion of
suffering defeat in their own case. We reserve the treatment of this remark of
Thakur Brindavandas for the next chapter.

Chapter 18 Significance of Scholastic Triumphs

I have tried to reproduce almost verbatim the account of Sree Thakur
Brindavandas in describing the controversial triumph of Nimai Pandit over
‘the Conqueror, of all quarters’. Technical details of the controversy also have
been handed down to us in the Narrative of the same event in the immortal work
of Sree Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami. The shloka which was condemned by
Sree Gaursundar runs as follows:—

mahatvam gangayah satatamidamavati nitaram yadesa shree-vishnoshcharana
kamalotpattisubkaga dvitiya shree lakshmiriva

suranarairarchyacharana bhabanibharturya shirasi bibhavatyad bhutaguna.

Sree Gaursundar pointed out in detail the defective disposition and use of words
and the incorrectness of rhetorical embellishments used in the shloka, while
admitting specific excellences. He observed that the five principal defects
pointed out by Him were the most prominent ones; but there were also other and
numerous minor defects. He said that the productions of the greatest poets such
as Kalidas, Bhababhuti, Jayadeva, etc., were not also free from all defects; and
so it was not necessary for ‘the Conqueror’ to be discouraged, inasmuch as he
certainly possessed the poetic genius which is so rare.

The power of learning, that ever serves the Supreme Lord, does not mislead any
one; but worldly learning always misleads her votaries. This is not the Age-long
controversy of Theology versus Natural Science; as both of them are equally the
products of the erring reason of man. The issue is the higher one. Is the Absolute
attainable by empiric knowledge ? Nimai Pandit held the view that empiric
knowledge is necessarily defective, i.e., untrue, by the standard of the Absolute.
Instead of helping us to find the Truth empiric knowledge produces a delusive
belief in the sufficiency of itself, and thus acts as an obstacle in the way of the
search of the Truth.

All mental speculation as a matter of fact is non-spiritual by its unavoidable
neglect to make due allowance for inherent limitations. It is never possible
for the reason of man to discover the Absolute Truth by its unavoidably
limited speculative efforts. ‘The Conqueror of all quarters’ was, however, aware
of this. He knew, what ordinary scholars will be hardly prepared to admit, that it
was the goddess of learning who was the cause of his genius. If this were

fully admitted by everybody then all differences, detectable in such
knowledge, would be proved to be fictitious, and be at once seen as due to the
operation of an invisible controlling Power who also produces and keeps up the
idea of human merit as the resultant of human effort. The Conqueror’ was aware
of the conditional nature of his knowledge. But ‘the Conqueror’ himself had
not realized the utter delusiveness of all worldly learning. He accordingly
aspired to the fame of being the acknowledged leading scholar of the world. The
greatest theologians and the greatest scientists are but puppets in the hands of
the goddess of illusion, if either of them suppose that they can know the Truth
by their limited effort.

Sree Jiva Goswami prabhu is not a controversialist of the mundane stamp. His
arguments can never be really grasped by even the greatest Or empiric
thinkers of this world. Sree Jiva Goswami refutes his antagonists by arguments
that are intelligible to empiricists for overthrowing the conclusions of a faulty
system. He however, knew that he was actually the channel of communication of
the one Living Indivisible Knowledge to all impartial understandings in the
Form of the Articulated Transcendental Sound. Sree Jiva Goswami’s sole
ambition was to serve as the unobstructive medium of the Divine
Communication. He is, as a matter of fact, not in the scale of comparison with
the empiric scholars of this world. All comparison between one empiric scholar
and another is mundane and delusive. The futile speculation of one man is by its
nature challengeable by the equally abortive rival speculation of another man.
This opens the way to the vicious cycle of the endless and inconclusive
controversy that passes in the name of theology. All this controversy is untrue
and never takes us an inch in the direction of the Truth. In the picturesque
language of Srimad Bhagavatam it is futile to expect the discovery of the grain
by thrashing the empty chaff. Empiric knowledge has not legs to stand upon. It
rests on unproved and unprovable assumptions. It assumes the principle of
limitation itself as the basis of its search for the Unlimited! Can there be
conceived a greater or more absurd form of self-deception than this?

‘The Conqueror’ was the favoured protigi of the goddess of the delusive empiric
learning. All the empiric sciences accordingly yielded up their whole wealth (?)
of hypothetical truths ( ?) to him, without any acquisitive effort on his part. The
ideal of the empiric quest is the unrealizable wild-goose of the fable. Let
us suppose that it is possible for one to know everything that it is possible
or desirable for one to know and whenever one is in actual need of
such knowledge. Will the possession of such power yield, or produce in such

a person the inclination for, the Absolute Truth? If I could attain every
facility that is conceivable to the human reason as desirable possession without
any effort, would it be the really satisfactory state of existence that it is
conceived to be? This was the actual condition of The Conqueror of all quarters?
But he felt as solitary as Faust himself ‘in his bad eminence’. But there is no
Tempter except one’s own boundless vanity of the hankering for empiric
knowledge. The attempt to shift the responsibility of our sons to the shoulders of
a third party, is most disingenuous since it is so easy to explain our own
responsibility for our sins without the profanity of any such deliberately
dishonest assumptions!

The paltry reason of man, when it takes upon itself to shape its own course, finds
itself reaping the harvest of its deliberate folly. It could foresee well enough the
inevitable consequences of its attempt to dominate the world, if it could only
properly exercise the sense of its responsibility for its acts, which it undoubtedly
possesses. The exercise of the egotistic principle, on the part of a being with
limited faculties of knowledge, is bound to lead to discord and misery. The plea
is sometimes advanced that the miseries of this world are unreal. They do not
really affect those who possess sufficient firmness of disposition. This is the
Stoic’s philosophy. But it is the most fatal form of all delusions. It is hardly
prepared to deny the reality of misery in the case of those who do not possess the
required imaginary firmness of disposition. It finds itself occupied in applauding
the qualities of the unfeeling stone and the hardened criminal. This mechanical
‘unconcern’ is not capable of being recognized even by the limited intellect as
the ideal of human perfection. The miseries of this world are not really ended by
such suicidal policy. It is necessary to seek out the true cause of our miseries
for effecting their real and lasting cure. Empiric science is, at any rate, free
from the killing vice of callousness of the Stoics. Its defect is not that it at
all undertakes to search for the Truth; but that it deliberately undertakes to
do this in the evidently wrong way. The empiric optimist is,
however, nevertheless cousin-german of the empiric pessimist. The forte of both
is an egregious egotism which both of them mistake for the principle of
their coveted individuality and personality and for which they heroically
prepare themselves to take all fictitious risks. This is no doubt rank atheism.
Which is the antagonist against whom all this preparation is directed. There is
no Satan in this world except one’s own avoidable egotistic vanity.

‘The Conqueror of all quarters’ was happily disillusioned and gave up all
worldly ambition to follow the true spiritual path. It is necessary to consider the

means by which such a result was produced, as also the nature of the change
itself. This great change was wrought by the Mercy of Sree Gaursundar. The
goddess of learning directed ‘the Conqueror’ to the Feet of Nimai Pandit. The
same goddess was thus performing a double and apparently
contradictory function. She had herself hitherto produced the delusion from
which she now chose to rescue her victim. For the previous sufferings of ‘the
Conqueror’ the goddess was not to blame at all. She is ever contriving to save
the perverse soul from the consequences of his suicidal folly, without allowing
him to succeed in actually destroying himself. Her function is like that of the
wise mother who deludes her wayward child with toys that have no intrinsic
worth in order to wean the naughty child from the consequences, present and
prospective, of his wantonness. The culpable egotistic sentiment is inherent in
free cognition and is controllable only by the conviction of its possessor that it is
wrong. This is at once the privilege and the danger of the soul of man poised
between the spiritual and mundane worlds. The jiva possesses as his birthright
perfect freedom to abuse his cognitive liberty. The empiric sciences of this
world provide the scope for the abuse of his liberty. The sciences themselves are
not to blame for this. As a matter of fact they are never created by, but are
only communicated to, the mind of man. ‘The Conqueror’ had realized this
truth. Modern scientists, as a rule, do not admit this. Nor do they admit its
corollary that the empiric sciences only serve to conceal the Truth more
effectively. This last fact was also unknown to ‘the Conqueror’. But inasmuch as
he was fortunately immune from the more fatal of the above two defects he
proved to be of a more governable disposition. Mother Saraswathi accordingly
directed him to the Lord Who alone could deliver him from his ignorance. It is
only by the positive Appearance of the Truth that untruth loses its power over us.

The Supreme Lord is the Sole Director of all the power of learning. We want our
so-called acquired learning to serve our own selfish purposes, and not
for serving the purpose of the Lord. But learning refuses to serve any one
except the Lord. When she seems to serve us she only puts on a deceptive
appearance, in order to delude us for our benefit, by the Will of the Lord. This
deception is continued as long as we retain the least inclination to be her master.
As a matter of fact we can never be her master. We serve her even when she
seems to serve us although this is contrived by her with such consummate skill
that we find ample scope for serving her purpose even by our vanity of being
her master. It is our own irrational attitude that is solely responsible for
the deception, that is thus provided by the Mercy of the Supreme Lord for
our redemption.

The goddess of learning ever serves the Supreme Lord and she serves only Him.
This is inconceivable to our limited understanding. We are ever striving to learn
the so-called deluding secrets of Nature. Such striving would be meaningless if
we didn’t expect to be rewarded with success in the shape of the attainment of
material results yielding worldly facilities. The power to be able to compose
impromptu verses is one of such facilities. The verses actually composed by The
Conqueror’ were in praise of the holy Ganges; and such performance might,
therefore, appear to have been of a spiritual nature. But The Conqueror’ was
praising the Ganges only in order to win fame for himself. Every learned activity
of empiric reason necessarily aims at some such definite selfish result. Empiric
learning has its face always and necessarily directed towards the selfish interests
of its ignorant victim.

The so-called disinterested pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, so loudly
advertised by the empiric pedants, is a misnomer as applied to the inductive and
deductive processes of the mental principle professing to engage itself
in unraveling the so-called mysteries of the mundane world. It is not at
all disinterested.. Behind it all lies the insincere conviction that knowledge
will bring power to its possessor. It is the possession and enjoyment of
power over Nature that can be the only logical goal of all worldly learning.

However proud we may be of this learning it is permissible to question the
conclusion that it has any real use for us. Is not the whole affair an example of
repeating a foolish experiment even after its exposure? We are apt to assume that
our knowledge is the cause of the so-called progress of mundane civilization. We
are punished and disillusioned by the ever-present possibility of the wheels of
this worldly civilization irrevocably going back at any moment. If knowledge
has to be kept up to the teaching of experience by the process of its constant
revision, is it not thereby proved to be always really inapplicable to any event? If
what we are pleased, on insufficient grounds, to call the cause of an event, turns
out to be no such thing, can we blame anybody excepting ourselves for
neglecting this foregone conclusion?

The laws of Mathematics, we say, have proved perfectly reliable ever since the
dawn of human civilization, and are accordingly inferred to be absolutely
true; and it is also expected that they will remain true for all time. There are
certain so called fundamental principles which are also supposed to be true. All
this is, on the face of it, self-contradictory. What then is the real value of
this experience ? The whole position is entirely relative to the nature of our

present senses and shares all their defects. The senses do not give us the
correct information. Our unbiased reason tells us that they cannot also give us
the true information, as the temporary have no capacity of apprehending the
Absolute Reality. The knowledge, that our senses yield, is one of the
changing phenomena of this world. It cannot understand itself.

If it were possible to know the Truth would we still have the temporary use of
our empiric knowledge? The Conqueror’, at any rate, gave up once for all
any further acquisitive effort. He must have realized the utter uselessness of
such knowledge. We learn that he lived to write theological works that have
come down to us embodying his reasons for forsaking the empiric quest. So
his activities did not stop altogether. But a race of theological writers and priests
by themselves do not supply the ideal state of worldly existence. The world
is sufficiently bad as it is. But it would be worse by such a change for the
reason that even material civilization is preferable to fanatical barbarism. But are
we absolutely sure that material civilization or material barbarism is producible
by the effort of the will of man? The philosophical answer should be in
the negative.

But if we change the form of the question and ask, Ts the knowledge of the
Absolute Truth attainable by man?’ we at once find the right track.

The Conqueror’ was evidently satisfied that it is possible to know the Truth.

Our responsibility in the matter is very great indeed. If the Truth is knowable
we cannot be excused if we deliberately neglect to find Him. It is said that
the Truth is to be found in the Scriptures. This is denied by the
Upanishads which declare that there are two kinds of learning or knowledge,
viz., (1) the transcendental knowledge, and (2) knowledge that is not so. The
Vedas and all branches of study are classed as the text books of non-
transcendental learning. The transcendental learning is declared to be that by
which the Transcendental Truth is known. The Bhagavatam declares that if a
person, who is thoroughly versed in the Scriptures, be not conversant with
the transcendental, then his efforts in the acquisition and preservation of
such learning have no more value than the labour that is wasted in tending a
dry cow. A distinction is made between the phenomenal and the
transcendental. Learning as such, whether in the form of Theology or otherwise,
is lumped together as non transcendental. The knowledge of the Scriptures is
not differentiated from that of any other branch of study. Neither is
knowledge condemned. It is declared that non-transcendental knowledge is
subordinate to the transcendental and that the possession of the

transcendental knowledge automatically and perfectly settles our relation to
nontranscendental knowledge and teaches us the proper use of
empiric knowledge. We need not be haunted with the impertinent fears of
a conspiracy for the suppression or preservation of material civilization.

The question at issue does not affect our material prospects which are quite
safe in the hands of Providence. But the method to be pursued seriously concerns
the prospects of the individual soul for regaining his natural spiritual condition.

Transcendental Knowledge cannot be acquired by the inductive or deductive
empiric processes. The first step that is to be taken in the direction of
the attainment of such knowledge, is to try to be convinced of the necessity
of submitting to receive Him at the Hands of the Supreme Lord.

Godhead Himself is the Absolute Knowledge. He alone can make Himself
known to us. He is Free in His Choice to make Himself known to us. We also
may or may not want to know Him. We do not really want to know Him so long
as we do not want to serve Him. The Supreme Lord may be known only by
the method of complete submission. Perfect submission is an
indispensable condition of the attainment of such knowledge. The necessity and
nature of complete submission is not conceivable except by the Mercy of the
Lord.

The Lord is spontaneously All-merciful. We come under the Influence of His
Mercy the moment we are at all really inclined to submit to Him.

This inclination is sometimes produced by the shock of utter

worldly humiliation. It was so in the case of ‘the Conqueror’. It came to him as

the consequence of his defeat in controversy by the Lord.

The Mercy of the Supreme Lord often comes in the shape of defeat and
humiliation. No one except the actual recipient of the Divine Favour
can perceive His Appearance. We gather all this from the writings of Keshab
Bhatta himself who was favoured by the Supreme Lord.

The goddess of learning ever serves her Lord. She directs the erring empiric
scholar to the Real Knowledge when he is at all inclined to serve the Truth.

The endless experiments with the finite, that now-a-days absorb all intellectual
efforts of man, are not undertaken for the purpose of finding the Truth. Very few
of those who busy themselves with the acquisition of worldly learning and fewer
still of those who attain fame and success(?) in such pursuit, attain to the

inclination to suspect the utter worthlessness of empiric scholarship in itself.
They seldom seriously put the question to themselves, ‘What shall we do with
this deluding and changing knowledge?’ Most people take it for granted that
empiric knowledge is desirable because it is valued by all people of this world. It
is supposed to increase our chances of happiness ( ?) It is only those, who do not
feel sufficiently satisfied by the prospect, who ask the further question, ‘What is
the value of the proposed happiness itself?’

It is in this last form that the call for the quest of the Absolute makes its first
appearance to the individual consciousness. So long as the lure of
worldly prospects continue to dominate the mind one can hardly be expected to
pay any serious attention to the voice of the higher reason that is always
speaking to everybody from within. It is only when a person actually shapes his
external conduct in conformity with such prompting that he is in a position to
obtain the realized Mercy of the Supreme Lord. Vanity in all its forms stands in
the way of our real conversion to the free spiritual service of the Absolute.

Sree Gaursundar showed His Extraordinary Mercy to ‘the Conqueror of all
quarters’ by defeating him in controversy in such a way that the vanquished was
enabled to realize, for the first time in his life, his own utter helplessness in the
Presence of a mere Boy Who taught nothing higher than vyakarana. This proved
to be an exceptionally favourable spiritual conjunction for ‘the Conqueror’ who
was actually enabled to realize its supreme significance for himself by the grace
of the goddess of learning whom he had worshipped so long for a vain purpose.

It is likely that really great scholars may be in a slightly better position than
others to be able to realize the utter worthlessness of all empiric
scholarly achievements. But it is rarely that this saving truth is rightly grasped
and acted upon by any one in this world of his own accord. The spiritual instinct,
the effective hankering for the unalloyed Tmth, is not the result of any worldly
merit or demerit. But as soon as the first dim reflection of the light of Tmth
begins to irradiate the dark chambers of the mind, it automatically drives out the
desire of all worldly possession. The mind realizes that the Truth has made His
Appearance, not as the result of the intensity of its professed quest for the Truth
of Whom it had no idea previously, but in spite of its bungling activity calculated
to shut Him out altogether.

The process of spiritual enlightenment is not of the nature of the last term of a
continued mathematical series, neither does it result in the destruction of

all previous experience. It should rather be regarded as the fulfillment of
all previous activities. With the Appearance of the Absolute, however, there is
an end of all deficiency, unwholesomeness and ignorance we now know the
Full Truth, and, in this sense, enlightenment is its own fulfillment. It also
disillusionizes. The whole body of the old knowledge is seen to be
utterly insubstantial and positively delusive. The shadow had all along been
mistaken for the substance. The nature of the shadow is truly realizable only
after one’s acquaintance with the substance. There is then no more chance of the
shadow being mistaken for the substance.

It is no doubt a rude shock to be awakened in this manner. ‘The Conqueror’
confessed that the first suspicion that he had of the actual Approach of the Truth,
was caused by his absolute collapse at the very Sight of the Lord. The darkness,
which had been so fondly cherished, was found powerless to oppose the Advent
of the Living Light. The first experience of the transcendental requires to be
carefully distinguished from the invasion of hallucination. The transcendental is
not anything that is opposed to the laws of physical Nature. It is not any thing
abnormal. It is not a monstrosity. It neither confounds nor stupefies, but
enlightens. It does not destroy anything except ignorance. We understand for the
first time the real meaning of all those things with which we had been already
familiar. All this happens without any initiative on one’s part and by the mere
Sight of the Truth Who is no other than the Divine Person Himself.

The goddess of learning told ‘the Conqueror’ that he had at last gained the real
reward of his devotion to her by obtaining the Sight of the Lord. But, as a matter
of fact, Sree Gaursundar was being actually seen by all the people of Nadia, who
failed to experience any such spiritual consequences. There is a difference
between worldly seeing and spiritual seeing. The term ‘seeing’ has to be used to
express the new process in order to make the fact at all intelligible to the
ignorant people of the world: But spiritual seeing is very different from although
certainly analogous to the process of worldly seeing. In the former the Object to
be seer takes the initiative, while in the latter the initiative seems to lie with the
person who sees. That, which we seem to see on our own initiative, is the
shadow. In such seeing we approach only such objects that are bound to show
themselves to us the moment we choose to look at them. The object has no
option but to be seen. Nay, it is bound to submit itself to the inspection of our
senses as soon as we are in a position to choose to inspect. This process
of knowing applies only to matter, limited existence or the shadow.

The substantive Reality is spiritual and possesses the initiative.

Why do we never see the soul of man ? Because we are content with the sight of
the material case which seems readily enough to submit to our
sensuous inspection. The material eye sees, can see, only matter. The soul does
not see matter as substance. He is not under the necessity of curtailing or
distorting his naturally perfect vision. One is no loser if his faculty of vision
ceases to be eclipsable by the interposition of an opaque body. The soul sees,
through all obstacles, the object. He sees the obstacle as the enveloping shadow
of the substance. There is thus no loss of cognitive power by the spiritual
process.

The soul, in his normal state of uneclipsed spiritual condition is privileged to
have the sight of the reality. This privilege he forfeits the moment he begins to
function in this material world. His faculty of vision is eclipsed, as he now sees
through the coloured glasses of the material eyes, which function is on the level
of the plane of this world. But he is no gainer by the change as his knowledge of
his own self is also correspondingly obscured.

The conditioned soul functions in this world by allowing himself to be
personated by a material substance which he is compelled to mistake for himself.
But his adventitious second self is not really his servant, but always behaves as
his master and makes him undergo in proxy the disappointments of his unnatural
identification with its insubstantial existence. It is no privilege or widening of
existence for the substance to be reduced to the serfdom of a shadow.

The All-soul is never subject to any such obscuration. It is only the jiva soul,
who is a detachable particle of the Potency of the All-soul, who is liable
to succumb to His limiting Power. ‘The Conqueror’ had the spiritual vision
of the Lord. The people of Nadia also saw the Lord but with their material
eyes and necessarily as an entity of this world. But ‘the Conqueror’, no sooner
did he see the Lord, then he believed Him to be more than human. In fact
the Lord made Himself known to Him at the very first sight. No one
can recognize the Lord unless He makes Himself known. This applies to
all spiritual entities. They have an unstinted sight of one another in the Lord
so long as they serve the Lord by the boundless measure of the
perennial requirements of such service. The Lord strictly reserves the right
of remaining unrecognized by all till He chooses to make Himself known to any
one out of His own causeless mercy.

As soon as the Lord permitted ‘the Conqueror of all quarters’ to have the real

Sight of Himself all the learning of which he supposed himself to have been the
master, came forward in the living form of the Spiritual Power that ever serves
the Lord, and made Herself known to him as She really is. The goddess of
learning is that Power whereby the Lord makes Himself known to the cognitive
faculty of the jiva. She is part and parcel of the Divinity Himself. But she is not
Herself the Master. She is Power and not Possessor of Power. She is, however,
Power with Personality and Function under the Supreme and Exclusive
Direction of the Divine Will. In this She resembles souls in the state of Grace,
‘the Conqueror’ had been unable to know Her Real Nature as long as he had
been trying to make use of Her for purposes other than the service of the Lord.
But when the Lord was pleased to be merciful to ‘the Conqueror’ the goddess,
by the Will of the Lord, instead of misleading now, made known to ‘the
Conqueror’ the Real Nature of the Lord, which is, indeed, the legitimate function
of all learning, ‘the Conqueror’, who had supposed that he was master of all the
Shastric learning, now discovered that he had misunderstood everything. He
also realized the fact that no one can know the Lord by one’s own
aspiring efforts.

The Goddess directed Her votary to make his unconditional submission to the
Lord without delay. When the Lord asked him why he, ‘the Conqueror of all
quarters’, had chosen to submit to Him, Keshab Bhatta replied that everything is
fulfilled by serving the Lord. The spiritual service of the Lord, resting upon the
principle of complete submission, is the summum bonum This is realized only by
the causeless Mercy of the Lord as conditioned souls are naturally disinclined to
unconditional submission to another’s personality. This was also the stumbling
block in the way of the scholars of Nabadwip. They did not believe in the
Personality of the Lord. But unless the Lord is a Person how is it possible to
serve Him at all? The Lord, of course, is not a person like conditioned souls. The
empiric idea of personality is that of a limited and erring mind joined to a gross
physical body. It is not, therefore, at all surprising that there should be a sincere
and universal repugnance, on the part of empiric thinkers, to admit
such personality in the case of the Supreme Lord. But the Personality of the
Lord and of His servants are neither material nor mental. Therefore the
objection does not apply.

The Goddess of Learning did not also direct ‘the Conqueror’ to submit to an
abstract principle, which would be a fraud. The so-called submission to
an abstract principle is rendered to a variable concoction of one’s own erring
mind. When we pretend to submit to an abstract divinity ( ?) we thereby only

make a show of submitting to our own pedantic fantasies. As a matter of fact we
are disinclined to submit to a real person as such submission appears to us to
be incompatible with a free rational individual existence.

So submission to the Supreme Person is equivalent neither to submission to an
abstraction nor to a conditioned soul. The Personality of the Supreme Lord
is such that by submitting to Him we are delivered from the necessity of
following the indeterminate abstract concoctions of our own sensuous minds and
the similar fancies of others. We have in this world no choice but to submit to
one of these two alternatives and we choose to call the process by the epithets
of liberty (?) and rationalism (?) against the elementary principles of our
own logic. Actual unconditional submission to the Transcendental Personality of
the Supreme Lord is the only cure of this misfortune to which we are
thus necessarily subject in the conditioned state.

Keshab Bhatta admitted that the Personality of the Lord is inconceivable to the
empiric reason and is the Truth of all the Scriptures Those empiric philosophical
systems, which try to establish the Nature of Godhead by the process of
inductive reasoning based on the experience of this world, can really arrive at no
definite conclusion. Keshab Bhatta realized that he had known nothing by his so-
called erudition, and that it was not possible for him to know the Truth except by
the Mercy of the Lord. He also realized that he was now enabled to understand,
against the conclusions of all empiric philosophy, that the Son of Sree Jagannath
Misra is the Supreme Lord, that his own past profession of submission to the
Supreme Lord had been a terrible self-deception, that it was only now that he
was privileged to obtain the chance of really submitting to the Supreme Lord
Himself in the Person of Sree Gaursundar, that such submission was at once the
cause and the result, the indispensable concomitant, of spiritual enlightenment
by the Grace of the Lord.

The episode of the defeat and conversion of The Conqueror’ is the first-recorded
instance of the deliverance of a conditioned soul by the mercy of Sree
Gaursundar. We would, therefore, be well advised if we try to consider carefully
how this Mercy was obtained. The process has been described above in detail by
the grace of Thakur Brindavandas. We have seen that the Mercy of the Lord was
not earned by any worldly merit. It was altogether causeless. We can, therefore,
obtain some sort of the idea of its nature by the careful consideration of this
actual instance. Does such knowledge help us in any way in attaining the
spiritual life? It does so negatively, by destroying current misconceptions on the

subject, if we give the Narrative an impartial hearing and thus prepare our minds
for receiving the Truth when He actually makes His Appearance in the person of
the devotee of the Supreme Lord, who teaches us the Truth by his own conduct.
We can, however, understand the words of the bona fide devotee by the method
of personal submission to him. Sree Gaursundar is the Supreme Lord Himself.
He appeared in this world in the character of His devotee in order to establish the
necessity of submission to the servant of the Lord if one really wants to obtain
spiritual enlightenment. The episode of ‘the Conqueror of all quarters’ will have,
therefore, served its real purpose if it establishes to one’s satisfaction the
necessity of this procedure to be followed even by those who are supposed to be
masters ( ?) of ah the knowledge of this world.

But how is it possible to recognize the transcendental personality of the devotees
of the Lord? This, of course, depends entirely on the Mercy of the Lord Himself,
which can be secured by serving the Goddess of Learning not with the object of
gaining any worldly advantage but for the purpose of receiving spiritual
enlightenment. In the case of ‘the Conqueror’ he had all along been using his
learning to procure reputation and wealth. He was now disillusioned by the
causeless Mercy of Sree Gaursundar. The devotees of the Lord are ever engaged
in endeavoring to reclaim ah conditioned souls from the state of bondage to the
limiting Energy. The bondage is devised by the punitive Power of the Lord, who
is the negative aspect of His Beneficent Power. The devotees of the Lord are the
agents of Positive Beneficence of Divine Power, appearing in this world to
deliver ah bound souls by affording them an opportunity of actual submission to
the agents of the Lord, i.e., to themselves. The bound jiva is seldom inclined to-
submit to any person other than himself. The inclination to submit to a devotee
may be produced by attending carefully to the Narrative of the Activities of Sree
Gaursundar as interpreted by His associates and followers for the benefit of ah
conditioned souls.

It was only after he had submitted to the Feet of the Lord that ‘the Conqueror’
attained the spiritual life. He became a devotee of the Lord. ‘The Conqueror
of all quarters’ was freed from his accumulated ignorance and at last became
really learned by learning the service of the Lord.

Keshab Bhatta belonged originally to the school of Nimbarkacharya and is the
author of ‘Kramadeepika in which work he lays down the principles of the
service of Sree Radha Krishna in conformity with the Teachings of
Sree Gaursundar and the verses of the ‘Dasa-SIoki of Nimbarkacharya. He

was followed by Gangalya Bhatta and other disciples. At a subsequent
period, Keshab Kashmiri, who is not to be confounded with Keshab Bhatta,
and others gave up the path of Sree Gaursundar and established an
independent school. But Sree Sanatana Goswami and Sree Gopala Bhatta
Goswami, in recognition of the fact that Keshab Bhatta was enlightened by
Sree Gaursundar, have collected material for the Vaishnavite canon from
his work, the ‘Krama-deepika referred to above.

As the result of the Mercy of Sree Gaursundar, Keshab Bhatta was enabled, by
the operation of the Spiritual Power of the Divinity, to be
simultaneously endowed with all excellences in the shape of devotion to the
Lord, realization of the Divine Nature, and aversion to anything other than the
Lord. Keshab

Bhatta now became humbler than a blade of grass, discarding for good’ all the
vanities of ‘the Conqueror of all quarters’.

The followers of Sree Gaursundar adopt the conduct that is prescribed by the
Scriptures for the truly enlightened viz., the genuine Brahmanas. They give up
all military, economic, or other worldly ambitions, and, in fact, all hankering for
fame and honour, accepting thereby in their hearts the ideal of the Tridandi
Bhikshu. This conduct should not also be misunderstood. The achievements of
this world also appear in their true .perspective to one only after he realizes his
own spiritual nature. They cease to have any direct attraction for such a person
who gets disentangled from the progress or decay of material civilization. He is
freed from the influence of the hopes and fears of this world. But he is constantly
engaged in serving the Lord by means of those very entities on the
transcendental plane. The attitude is everything and is spiritual. The external
conduct of the devotee is not properly intelligible to worldly people as it is not
directed to any worldly object for any purpose that is intelligible to worldly
people. The conduct of the devotee, however, is neither sentimental nor
visionary, but part and parcel of the Eternal Reality Himself.

Those, who imagine the pursuit of sensuous enjoyment to be the sole object of
life, naturally regard the dedication of learning, health, wealth and
other qualifications for the augmentation of such enjoyment as their legitimate
and successful use. But the insignificance and ephemeral character of the
result achieved is clearly demonstrated by the phenomenon of death. Death
snatches its victim from the scene of his enjoyment and shifts him to an

unknown and unknowable destination. As soon as one is enlightened in regard to
the real nature of his self he is enabled to realize the triviality of his so-called
happiness and possessions of this world. Such a person is privileged to
understand the unwholesomeness of all worldly knowledge and activities as a
help for such enjoyment. One is enabled to realize the self and his proper
relationship with the ephemeral objects of this world by the Mercy of the
Supreme Lord. On the appearance of self-knowledge one automatically
understands the nature of the transcendental service of the Lord as being the only
proper function of the soul.

From this moment he is enabled to be constantly engaged in such service and to
dedicate his learning, health and wealth and every other qualification to
this purpose.

It is not the duty of the soul either to be addicted to the things of this world or to
renounce them altogether, as both courses lead nowhere. The duty of the soul is
to try and find out the everlasting plane and to learn to function on that plane by
giving up the fleeting prospects of the Epicurean and Stoic alike. Such course is
the only one that exactly suits the requirements of the soul. The soul can be
satisfied with nothing less than the immutable reality.

The fact, which the soul in the state of bondage does not realize, is that the
immutable reality is not to be found by the pursuit of fleeting
worldly enjoyment, nor by simply abstaining from such pursuits. There is a
third and the real method viz., that of service of Godhead.

The nature of this service has to be learned from those who are themselves well-
established on the spiritual plane. It can be learned by all persons who are
sincerely desirous of knowing it and are prepared to give a really patient hearing
to the exposition of methods and duties constituting the mode of endeavour for
such enlightenment. This attitude is not possible in one who is not convinced of
the unsatisfactory character of the correlated methods of enjoyment and
renunciation of the things of this world, that are consciously or unconsciously
followed by all conditioned souls including the pseudoreligionists. Only one
who is thoroughly sincere will be disposed to accept the method that is laid
down in the spiritual Scriptures and all that such a method necessarily implies.

When the spiritual plane is actually attained one is in a position to realize for
himself, in a clear and conscious manner, the true nature of the cosmic

and super-cosmic processes and his own place and function in the whole scheme
of the Universe. The realization of this should be possible in this life if one
is prepared loyally to undergo the necessary training. It cannot of course
be equally easy of attainment for all. There are very few persons who are
fully prepared to accept the Truth on His Own terms. On those who are really
so prepared the communication of the Truth acts with wonderful
suddenness, because they really offer no resistance to His Entry into their hearts.
But most of us are not really prepared to welcome the Truth even when we
profess to cherish Him. This is the condition of the average honest person of this
world. It is claimed in these pages that such persons are sure to benefit by
listening patiently to the exposition of the Career of Sree Gaursundar from the
lips of the real devotee.

They will thereby gradually acquire the effective desire for living up to the
Truth. No worldly merit or demerit can either help or retard the process
of spiritual enlightenment. It is situated wholly beyond the range of every form
of worldly conviction and is, indeed, likely to be more easily grasped by
those who are less under the sway of their formed convictions.

Those who have absolute faith in worldliness and perpetual ignorance are
enamoured of the deeds of the heroes of this world. But we have also
the testimony of all teachers of the Religion to the utter hollowness of all
worldly achievements. A child may oppose the reconstruction of a house that
is uninhabitable on the ground that the masons are plotting its destruction. But he
is nevertheless necessarily wrong. Our worldly life requires to be
thoroughly overhauled and reconstructed on a sounder basis. Those who are
unduly attached to the rotten house by reason of either ignorance or malice, need
not be regarded as wise. Empiricists are engaged in the attempt of trying to
live safely and comfortably in the badly built falling house by opposing the
process of imperative reconstruction. They do so partly for the avowed reason
that it will be impossible to retain any measure of rottenness in the edifice after it
has been thoroughly overhauled. They are right no doubt; but they are less alive
to the consequences of their perversity. The policy is sure to bring the
whole house down and crush them to death. There is absolutely no chance of
their being able to live safely and comfortably in the rotten structure at any time.

The deceptive triumphs of material civilization have failed to solve the old
problem of the uncivilized times why everything of this world is fore-doomed to
pass away. Those savages were not content with the conditions of their existence

any more than we are with ours and also mainly for similar reasons. If an
enchantress is pleased to provide us with an endless stock of the most beautiful
things that make their appearance only to pass away, should we suppose that our
requirement has been really fulfilled? It is no less necessary for us than it ever
was for those savages to pause and consider well whether the achievements and
convictions of material prosperity have any real value in the scale of our
absolute requirements. The quest of the Truth is not for those who are content to
remain ignorant by the lure of the dissipating enjoyment of the moment.

The defect is not one of intellect, it extends to all the faculties which also have
their due share in the performance of conscious activity. The self-imposed
sway of empiric knowledge, which supplies no definite answer to our
fundamental questionings, is responsible for all the misfortune of humanity.
Empiric knowledge does not take man an inch towards the Truth. On the
contrary it leads its votaries by an accelerated pace towards sin and death by
its justification of the false ideal of a life of dissipation alternating with that
of barren asceticism, the twin forms of egotistic worldliness. It ever whispers
into the ears of man, that in this present depraved condition he seems also to like
so much, that he need not depend on nor submit to any other authority than
his own, that he is the master of his body and mind and through them of all
things of this world which, he is assured, have been intended solely for
ministering to his corrupt pleasures. These conflicting ideals of empiric
knowledge require to be smashed as the first step in any plan for rescuing fallen
humanity from the fell clutches of the Enchantress. .

This was being done by Sree Gaursundar during the period of His Professor-life
at Nabadwip and also in the subsequent period when He traveled for this
sole purpose all over the country as a Sannyasin. Those who suppose that it
is against principle of humility to oppose the untruth or neglect to vindicate
the Truth, are the emissaries of the Deluding Power. The attitude of humility is
to be practiced by all means because we cannot know the Truth by our
own unaided effort. Empiric knowledge errs by ignoring this basic principle
of spiritual conduct. By, submitting to empiric knowledge not humility
but insolence in its undiluted form is practiced. Those, who are loyal servants
of the Truth, are necessarily opposed to empiricism which is verily
the embodiment of insolent denial of the supremacy of the Truth. Worldly
people practice this masked insolence under the name of humility for
deceiving themselves as well as their victims. But it should be easy to
distinguish between true humility and the counterfeit ware. The uncompromising

assertion of the principle of real humility is to be found in the resolve not to
tolerate any of those countless insincere shifts devised by suicidal worldliness,
under the connivance of empiric knowledge, for ruining humanity by masking
them in the borrowed phraseology of Godliness.

This was admitted by ‘the Conqueror of all quarters’. He was satisfied by being
defeated in controversy by the Lord Himself. This extraordinary result would not
have been produced if he had been worsted by an ordinary mortal. The process
of controversy itself would have been a quite different one. ‘The Conqueror’
realized that his untruth had been confronted by Truth and was, therefore, utterly
powerless to assert itself. He felt that he had been dabbling with words which
might please and amuse but were really mere empty sounds signifying nothing.
This utter hollowness of all so-called worldly knowledge is demonstrated to all
sincere persons by Truth Himself in the form of the words of the devotees of
Truth. On the lips of one who really serves the Absolute it is the Absolute Truth
Himself Who makes His Appearance in the Form of the Divine Transcendental
Sound. Divinity as Sound has Power to convey the knowledge of Himself to a
soul who is prepared to receive Him as Sound against every specious obstructive
argument.

The arrogance of the devotee of the Lord is thus the perfection of true humility.
Those who realize this are freed from the fetters of the Deluding
Energy inasmuch as they are thereby proved to have no interest of their own as
against the Truth. Those, who can be angry with the follower of Truth under
any circumstance, are necessarily under the spell of empiric untruth which
always differentiates the external conduct and the internal motives. But a votary
of Truth is always necessarily above duplicity of this kind. This is realizable
only by those who are themselves also wholly sincere.

Impertinent fears for the future of the world never disturb the devotee of the
Lord nor deflect him from the constant service of the Truth. This detachment
should not be confounded with idleness or indifference to duty. The alertness and
industry of the ‘worldling’ neither help nor retard the march of events of this
world which is wholly controlled by a very much superior Power called in our
shastras ‘Maya’ or the limiting Potency of Godhead acting in perfect obedience
to the Will of the Supreme Lord. The empiricist, in his childish atheistical folly,
chooses to imagine, against the clear impartial testimony of his own rational
faculty, that he is the creator and controller of the forces of Nature. On the basis
of this sacrilegious folly he builds up a science of conduct in keeping with this

basic principle. It is the business of the devotee to strike at the very root of this
folly in order to demolish the flimsy structure which has power to draw to itself
so unaccountably the whole attention of most people of this world. There is
no rational ground for doubting that a structure which is built on Truth is sure to
prove a more suitable arrangement than one which is reared on untruth backed
by insincerity. It is a fatal delusion, indeed, which has led rational beings to the
strange conviction that they can manage to live well without Truth and that it is,
therefore, their duty to oppose the Truth on the plea of possible ( ?) damage to
the existing systems of untruth.

The devotee is sent into this world by the Lord in order to establish spiritual
conduct by demonstrating the unstability of the worldly life, its prospects
and achievements. It is never possible nor rationally, desirable to try to build
our lasting home in this world. They are mistaken who suppose that this life has
to be lived for its own sake. Such people are sure to be surprised by death in
the midst of their preparations for settling down in right earnest. This life is
a preparation for the eternal life and should be lived accordingly. That conduct
is fatal which in any way obstructs or delays the process of
spiritual enlightenment. We should not allow ourselves to be diverted from the
true purpose of this life by the temptations and disappointments provided by
the Deluding Energy of the Lord, which are intended to help the process of
our spiritual training if only they are rightly understood.

Chapter 19 Thakur Haridas, before his meeting with Sree
Gaursundar

It will not be out of place at this stage to introduce the great personality who is
the practising teacher (acharya) of the chanting of the Holy Name, the
special Divine Dispensation for the Age of discord (Kali Yuga), the
establishment of which is one of the Purposes of the Appearance of Sree
Gaursundar in this world. Thakur Haridas is the eternal associate of the Supreme
Lord and appears in the Company of the Lord whenever and wherever the Lord
Himself chooses to make His Appearance. Thakur Haridas plays a different role
in the different Avataras of the Lord. In this Avatara he is the acharya of the
Holy Name.

The Holy Name is both the Method and Object of worship of every pure soul.

In the Kali Age nothing less than the Name Himself can effect the deliverance of
fettered souls. This Teaching of Sree Gaursundar is exemplified by, the life
of Thakur Haridas. In order, therefore, to be able to understand the method
and object of worship that can alone be acceptable to a highly controversial Age
like the present, which is least disposed to take anything on trust, it will
be necessary to follow attentively the events of the life of the acharya.

The fashionable theology at Nabadwip, which was the cultural center of Bengal
at the time of the Appearance of the Lord, was frankly atheistical.

The Philosophical School of the New Logic (Naba Nyaya) may be described as
the attempt of our empiric reason to deny the necessity, as well as practicability
of all worship. The jiva is himself discovered to be both worshipper
and worshipped. Worship itself is supposed to be but a concoction of the jiva’s
own erroneous speculations. The position to which one of the most
highly developed system of the Philosophy of Logic led the people of Nabadwip,
at the time of the Appearance of the Lord, and through them was accepted by
people all over the country was exactly what w as specifically the worst fitted
for understanding the uncompromising pure form of worship which it was the
Will of the Lord to propagate by the life of Thakur Haridas. Whatever name
might be borne by the different system of speculative philosophy they are in
common agreement as regards the logical-necessity of atheism. Even the Gita
and the Bhagavatam were taught at Nabadwip at this period as Scriptures of
atheism. It gives us an idea of the audacity and range of activity of the New

School of Logic of Nabadwip that it could devise interpretations even of the
unambiguous texts of the Bhagavatam itself in favour of their theory of rankest
atheism. It is only to be expected in these circumstances that the Scholarship and
acumen of Bengal should be generously recognized in all parts of the country
and abroad and even by the atheistical Vedantists of Benares, who have always
claimed for themselves the theological leadership of philosophical atheism in
India.

Thakur Haridas made his appearance in the village of Budhan in the District of
Jessore in East Bengal. This has made that part of the country since then a center
of the worship of Godhead by means of the Kirtan. Thakur Haridas was born in
a Muhammedan family. He comes into the light of our definite narrative under
his changed name of Haridas, which means literally The servant of Hari’; Hari
being the Name of Godhead in the Scriptures. So Haridas must have given up his
family and society in some manner that is not definitely known to us, had been
the recipient of the mercy of a Vaishnava and had already made extraordinary
progress on the path of pure devotion, although he was in the first flush of youth
when he is found living as a recluse in the forest of Benapole in his native
District of Jessore. In the depth of the forest he resided in a solitary hut,
worshipped the holy Tulasi, chanted, daily the Holy Name three lacs (3,00,000)
of times night and day and ate food cooked in the homes of Brahmanas, which
he obtained by begging.

The Hindu Chief, who was in charge of the Local Administration of that part of
the country, bore the name of Ramachandra Khan. He was one of the greatest
of atheists and a hater of the servants of Vishnu (lit. the One All-pervading
Lord). Haridas was treated with great reverence by the people. Ramachandra
Khan found this intolerable. He could not rest till he had actually devised a plan
for effecting the humiliation of Thakur Haridas. For this purpose he did
not hesitate to stoop to be basest of devices.

Ramachandra Khan, finding that Haridas was reputed to be absolutely free from
all vices, hit upon a plan of creating in him the vice by exposing which he hoped
to accomplish his ruin. He summoned to his help the most famous harlots and
told them to destroy the chastity of Haridas who was under the vow of
continence as an ascetic. One of the harlots, who was young and possessed great
beauty, undertook to effect his ruin in course of three days. Ramachandra Khan
pressed her to take an armed footman (paik) who was to catch him redhanded
and bring both of them for punishment. But the harlot proposed that she should

at first go by herself and after being with Haridas once take the paik to capture
him on her second visit.

That harlot, having put on her best attire, then presented herself at nightfall at the
solitary cell of Thakur Haridas. After making her obeisance to the Tulasi
she went up to the entrance of the cell and bowing to the Thakur remained
there standing. She then sat down at the door-step, exposing her body to the view
of Haridas, and made confession of her uncontrollable passion for him praying
to be favoured by his intimate society.

Thakur Haridas agreed to fulfill her wish after he had finished chanting the due
number of the Name, bidding her in the meantime to wait and listen to
the Sankirtana of the Name chanted by himself. The harlot on this
assurance remained seated there as Haridas went on with his loud chant of the
Holy Name til break of day. The harlot came away disappointed when it was
morning, and informed Ramachandra Khan that Haridas had promised to enjoy
her society and that the promise would be carried out when she met him next
night.

As the harlot presented herself before Thakur Haridas on the second evening he
expressed his request that as on the previous occasion he could not keep
his promise to her for the reason that he could not complete the chant of the
due number of the Name, he would certainly fulfill her desire after the chanting
of the due number of the Name had been completed, and he accordingly bade
her wait there and listen to the chanting of the Name. The harlot made obeisance
to the Tulasi and the Thakur and sat listening to the chanting of the Holy
Name. But she naturally grew restive as the night was drawing to a close. The
Thakur, noticing her impatience, told her that he had taken the vow of chanting a
crore of the Name in course of the month. He had expected to finish the full
number that night but could not do so although he had chanted ‘Him’ the whole
night. The number would be certainly completed by the next night and then the
vow would be fulfilled and he would be in the position to enjoy her company.
The harlot reported accordingly to Ramachandra Khan.

On the third evening the harlot duly made her appearance and, after making
obeisance to the Tulasi and the Thakur, sat at the entrance of the cell listening to
the chanting of the Holy Name, chanting the Same herself, till the close of that
night. The mind of the harlot was changed by chanting the Holy Name all night
in the company of Thakur Haridas. She now fell prostrate at the Feet of Thakur

Haridas and confessed to him everything regarding the plot of Ramachandra
Khan. She said she had committed endless sin as she was a harlot by trade. She
begged the Thakur to save her, who was so vile, by his mercy.

Haridas Thakur replied that he knew everything about the Khan and would have
left the place three days ago. He had delayed his departure by three days on her
account. The harlot then prayed that he might mercifully instruct her as to how
she was to get rid of the miseries of the worldly life. Thakur Haridas then
tendered her this advice. ‘Give away everything of your household to
the Brahmanas. Come and stay here in this cell, chant constantly the Holy
Name. Worship the Tulasi. You will then obtain the Feet of Krishna in no time 5 .
After saying this and instructing her in the Holy Name the Thakur rose up and
left the place, chanting the Name of Hari.

Then that harlot on obtaining the command of the Guru gave away to the
Brahmanas all the wealth that she had. With shaven head and a single piece
of cloth for wrapping her body she lived in that cell and took the Holy Name
three lakhs of times in course of every night and day. She worshipped the Tulasi,
ate uncooked food by chewing, and often fasted. The senses were controlled
and love of Godhead manifested itself. She became a famous devotee and a
great spiritual teacher; and Vaishnavas of the highest order often came thither
to have a sight of her. The people were astonished by this wonderful behaviour
of the quondam harlot and bowed with reverence whenever they spoke of
the greatness of Haridas.

As the above theme is the subject of the highest importance to the present Age, I
have tried to keep scrupulously to the words of Sree Kaviraj Goswami in
describing this famous event of the life of Thakur Haridas. The chanting of
the Holy Name of Krishna imparted by a pure devotee rescued a youthful
harlot who had tried to seduce the saint at the instigation of a most profligate
atheist. By this process the harlot was not merely rescued from a life of shame
but became a devotee of the Lord fit to lift others to the plane of perfect purity.

The chanting of the Holy Name can, therefore, reclaim the worst of sinners.

The Holy Name has to be heard with reverence from the lips of a pure devotee.
The Holy Name has to be received as a Sacrament from a pure devotee
by complete submission at his feet. The Holy Name so received has to
be constantly chanted by being free from all offense. The Tulasi has to

be worshipped. All earthly possessions and all association with worldly
people, especially in matters of food, clothing and residence, must be disowned.
By this method, in a short time, the highest spiritual state is realizable. That
state consists in serving exclusively the Feet of Krishna. This is the special
Divine Dispensation for this Age of discord announced by the spiritual
Scriptures and promulgated by the Supreme Lord, Sree Krishna-Chaitanya,
through His eternal servant, Thakur Haridas.

The obvious objection to the above, that is likely to suggest itself to those who
are too much addicted to the concerns of this world, is that it does
not sufficiently appeal to the rationalistic imagination. The scheme seems to be
dry and sterile. It also appears to be both meaningless and impracticable.

Every admittedly futile speculation, despite its futility, seems to be more worthy
of the serious consideration of the worldling than any transcendental
proposition. Appearances are decidedly against the acceptance of the teaching of
Thakur Haridas by the average merely intellectual worldling.

In the first place Thakur Haridas seems to ignore wholly the life that is ordinarily
led by people all over the world. The new life, that is proposed, has apparently
no point of contact with the life previously led by the disciple after election. This
is not likely to appeal to those to whom the theory of materialistic evolution has
become as it were the very breath of their nostrils. Ts a real gap or abrupt
revolution possible in the world of life?’ ‘Can there be any such thing as the
absence of proper purpose anywhere on the part of anybody in this fair world?’
Such and similar questions are bound to rush into the brain of all mental
speculationists the moment they are asked to take the Holy Name of Krishna to
the exclusion of every worldly function. The proposal seems to be so puerile and
so queer and so utterly destructive of all that is near and dear to the heart of the
average man!

It is for this reason that the sadhus are on principle opposed to discuss spiritual
subjects with persons who do not really seek the Truth. Those, who think that for
them there is no driving necessity for such quest, are not likely to
follow seriously any elucidation of propositions that have nothing to do with
anything in which they feel really interested. The complete denial of any place to
empiric conclusions, in the life that is proposed for the novice, is a staggering
blow to most people who feel instinctively that they should refuse to listen to
what obviously amounts to nothing short of an incitement to the commission
of suicide.

The spiritual purpose itself cannot, however, be explained away nor whittled
down by means of clever interpretations. The actual doings and saying of Thakur
Haridas stand in the way of those who try to do so. The Thakur literally acted as
he taught. He acted also in accordance with the plainest meaning of his words.

So there can be no ambiguity whatsoever.

The harlot’s condition was not essentially different from that of any other
worldling. The irrepressible desire for complete renunciation of the world, is the
natural and inevitable result of the appearance of any real inclination for
the spiritual life. The awakened worldly mind understands the necessity
of committing mundane suicide in order to be reborn as the immaculate soul
for the purpose of realizing the life eternal. The material mind is not a figment
of the empiric imagination. It is a real envelope and has to be
completely discarded. It will not do to imagine this enveloping darkness as
possessing anything in common with the light. The material mind is like a sheet
of impenetrable darkness that completely shuts out the light of the soul. The
soul is by his nature self-refulgent and has nothing to do with the material
mind which acts as a screen to cut off the light of the soul from the view of
the observer who uses the mind for such purpose. This is fact and not a
hypothesis like the so-called ‘truths’ and ‘facts’ conceived by the material mind
in the vanity of its ignorance. The spiritual realization of the categorical
difference, and relation of utter incompatibility between mind and soul is the
first unique experience on the threshold of the awakened spiritual life.

The harlot was not ‘converted’ by speculative arguments addressed to the mind
but simply by listening to the Name of Hari from the lips of Thakur Haridas and
chanting the Same herself in his company. She had apparently the advantage of
possessing at the very outset a natural regard for Thakur Haridas and for his
advice and also for the holy Tulasi. This was the only antecedent condition of
her redemption. Was it, therefore, blind and traditional faith that actually saved
her in this crisis?

The answer must be in the negative. Those, who are most officiously given to
the cult of blind faith, are not necessarily attracted towards the actual
devotee. The affinity for the true soul is itself a spiritual, that is to say perfectly
self conscious, impulse. It must be most carefully distinguished from the
blind, material impulse which is so common and which, as a matter of fact, is
the worst form of obstacle in the way of the realization of the spiritual life.

The instinctive affinity of the harlot for Haridas is an activity of the soul and as

such is, therefore, perfectly moral, perfectly self-cognizant and categorically
different from sensuous sentimentality that ordinarily passes in this world as
blind, faith. Faith is the instinctive attitude of the soul towards the Truth and can,
therefore, never be blind. It is the blind who in their blindness confound true
faith with the counterfeit ware with which alone they happen to be, unfortunately
for themselves, only too familiar.

Real faith can alone lead one to the presence of the pure soul. The material mind
cannot reach the proximity of a Sadhu. The harlot possessed the spiritual faculty
by which it was possible for her to really approach Thakur Haridas. The Shastras
say that this true instinctive reverence for sadhus is the result of previous
unconscious association with the pure devotees of the Lord.

For the proper unconscious association with sadhu also sensuous sentimentality
is often the chief hindrance. The sensuous sentimentalist seeks the
gratification of his own senses. He, therefore, is least disposed to serve the sadhu
on the account of the latter. It is going against his grain. The sadhus accordingly
keep away from philanthropists as these are not willing to learn to get rid of
their sentimentality. A pseudo-devotee, who parades his false sentimentality,
readily enough obtains the cheap reverence of all worldly persons as his due,
by misunderstanding of the purpose of the Scriptures. Such a person is not
likely to bow to the sadhu, as he really wants to be served himself. Plain
worldly people are likely to be more easily benefited by the process of
unconscious association with the sadhus. Those who bring with them any
previously formed notions regarding the nature of the sadhus, find it difficult to
get rid of those false sentiments which stand in the way of their associating on a
proper footing with the real sadhus. The only natural way of associating with the
devotees of Godhead consists in doing whatever the sadhu wants one to do and
in the way that he advises, without expecting any desirable or undesirable result
to oneself therefrom. The harlot possessed something like this natural faith in
sadhus by reason of her previous unconscious association with the devotees of
Godhead.

The immoral life, that was being actually led by the harlot did not stand in the
way of her redemption. The point is made absolutely clear by the fact that
she went to Thakur Haridas for the purpose of seducing him. This shows also
that her instinctive faith in sadhus was not colored by any conventional
moral sentiments. This was an advantage. Too rigid empiric morality
obstructs spiritual awakening more effectively than even confirmed immorality.

This is due to want of humility and spirit of submission to the sadhu that is sure
to be engendered more or less by the dogmatic professor of conventional
morality. True morality is never possible prior to spiritual awakening. That
which passes as morality in the society of worldlings, is only a hypocritical, and,
therefore, more dangerous form of immorality The moral instinct proper, which
belongs to the soul, must not be confounded with this hypocritical immorality
and its conventions. The harlot was not hampered by the conventions of a
hypocritical morality. She possessed an open mind with a natural liking for the
society of really pure souls, although she herself was actually leading a life that
is condemned by moralists. But as it is not possible for a person to be really
and fully moral before he realizes the nature of his true self, the case of the
harlot, instead of being worse, was in certain respects better than that of
the conventional moralist who is rigidly committed to the casuistical defence of
the unspiritual life that he actually leads.

It is not, of course, intended to undervalue the principle of morality in anyway.
That instinct, in its pure form, as in the case of ever other instinct, belongs to the
soul. The form, in which it passes current in the world, is only the perverted
reflection of the real principle and is not conducive to spiritual life.

Its apparent advantages are strictly confined to this perverted existence.

Whatever tends to reconcile us to the worldly life, stands self condemned for that
very reason. Empiric morality is fully open to this charge of pandering, to the
unspiritual life. As a matter of fact neither conventional morality
nor conventional immorality are praised by the sadhus, as, by themselves,
they stand without any relation to the Truth. As soon as our conduct gets related
to the Truth it assumes its natural state which has nothing to do with either
the conventional moral or immoral principle of this world. To call the
spiritual conduct as merely moral in the ordinary conventional sense of the
world, would, therefore, be wholly misleading. The spiritual conduct is no
doubt perfectly wholesome, being free from all affinity with the unwholesome
things of this world. The so-called ‘moral’ conduct based on worldly experience
owes all its value to its worldly utility. This fact categorically differentiates
spiritual ‘purity’ from worldly morality. There is, of course, no possibility of
immoral conduct on the spiritual plane. In the absence of all possibility of
immorality there is no scope for worldly morality in the realm of the Absolute.
The Kingdom of Godhead accommodates all varieties of conduct by endowing
all of them with perfect wholesomeness. Can such conduct be appropriately
called ‘moral’ in the conventional sense of the term?

For instance the trade of the harlot is in this world generally held to be utterly
immoral. Is it possible for the ‘ethical” mind to conceive of a state of
existence that is infinitely higher than any conceivable worldly moral excellence
?

Those fanatics who, grossly misunderstanding the nature of the subject treated
by the spiritual Scriptures, set up as orthodox and uncompromising ‘believers’ in
the ‘letter’ of the Scriptural texts and try to ‘reform’ the ‘abuses’ of this world by
immoral regulations that are profanely attributed to Godhead Himself on
the strength of such silly and mischievous interpretation, deserve to be put into
the pound in the company of those ‘innocent’ creatures that are mercifully
denied the quality of voicing their ‘notions’ for harming everybody. There
are hypocritical pedants who, affect to hold up their nose at the very sound of
the name of a harlot and forthwith prescribe penitential punishment of the
most atrocious kind for reforming their morals in ‘obedience’ to the injunctions
of the Holy Scriptures. The Devil is also permitted to quote the Scriptures for
his purposes.

Fanatics and hypocrites were in possession of the stage of the tragic drama of
worldly life at the time when Thakur Haridas emerged on the bewildered
vision of those pseudo-religionists and began to supply by his actual conduct the
real explanation of the only purpose of all the Scriptures, by electing the harlot
as the fittest and the very first object of the Divine Grace. He was
naturally opposed by the renegade Brahmana Ramachandra Khan who, in order
to exploit the letter of the Scriptures for the accomplishment of his villainy, gave
it out as his ‘duty’ to put down by all means a Muhammedan who had
the temerity to set up as the expounder of the Shastras of the Hindus!

This brings us to the principle of hereditary caste. The teaching of the Shastras
belongs exclusively to the twice-born. The Shastras themselves lay
down elaborate rules by which to constitute the community of the Brahmanas
who are to be the only teachers of them. This last part of the system had
been allowed to pass out of the memory of the people, and, in its place, had
been substituted by gradual and insidious steps and by general connivance,
the principle of heredity. The hereditary Brahmanas by the strict Shastric test are
no Brahmanas at all. Ramachandra Khan was the champion of this corrupt
system, not for any real regard born of sincere conviction for the merits of the
system itself or from any knowledge of the Shastras, but, as it always happens in
such cases, from malice and insolence.

If Haridas Thakur would practice the function strictly reserved for hereditary
Brahmanas then the whole system of caste based upon the principle of
heredity is challenged at its source. If a Muhammedan can become a Brahmana,
the present social system of the Hindus, which is claimed to be part and parcel
of the Religion, is utterly demolished. This was bound to agitate profoundly
all caste-Hindus.

Nor was this all. The chanting of the Holy Name of Krishna was also practiced
with a loud voice. This was an entirely novel mode of worship to the Hindus
of that time. The new out-caste apostle of the eternal religion, in opposition to
all current rituals and forms of worship, was declaring to admiring Hindus
an apparently new form of worship as the one enjoined by the Shastras

Could all the contemporaneous Hindus be so utterly mistaken that they required
to be imparted ah initio the knowledge of the fundamentals of their own religion
by a Muhammedan, against the teaching of all the hereditary Brahmanas, the
exclusive teachers of the same by the rules of the Shastras themselves?

It is quite easy to imagine the intense consternation and hostility that were
naturally aroused in an Age of casuistical fanaticism by the preaching of
the simple doctrines of the Religion of the Truth. The chanting of the Holy
Name of Godhead is the only sacrament of the true religion prescribed for the
present Age. This simplification is in keeping with the spirit of all the other
sacraments authorized by the Shastras. The other sacraments are not suitable for
this Age which is too much addicted to skeptical argumentation ad nauseam. As
soon as one realizes the true nature of the soul all his activities are thence
forward naturally and necessarily performed on the spiritual plane. The
narrow ceremonial view of the sacrament is due to the imperfect spiritual vision
of the observer. The sacrament may, therefore, differ in the different Ages in
its external appearance, which, is however, the only view that is open to the
notice for whose special benefit it is ordained.

The chanting of the Holy Name is liable to the least objection even as sacrament,
from a casuistical Age. The Mercy of Godhead must be sought willingly, nay
with the keenest hankering that is born of positive liking, for obtaining real touch
with him in order to serve Him by means of the spiritual senses of the pure soul.

The sacrament implies a real mutual personal relationship between the Lord and
His servant. It is definite, concrete and loving, but in the spiritual (not abstract,

notional or concocted i.e., purely mental) sense. The personality, senses and
functions of the soul are not comprehensible to, nor admissible by the mind. The
mental refusal to recognize the substantive existence of the soul, is the greatest
curse of this Age of dogmatic empiricism. This piece of dogmatism must be got
rid of.

The empiric reason is confronted to a fight at its own weapons when it is
summoned to admit the rationale of the worship of Godhead by means of
His Name only. The Name of Godhead must not also be supposed to connote
or denote anything of this world, in no shape, neither as precept nor concept.
This should, in all conscience, more than satisfy the passion for abstraction of
even the Moslem iconoclast.

The next point is that the Name of Godhead must be admitted as true and not as
a mere concoction of the material mind. The Scriptural Name of Godhead is not
a thing of this world. The Scriptural Name is Himself Divine. The
Scriptural Name requires to be served with the tongue by an attitude of
humble supplication for manifesting His Divine Nature to the pure serving,
essence of our soul. Even the most rabid iconoclast need have no cause of
complaint against such service. It is this pure service that was practiced by
Thakur Haridas, which, he maintained, was the only sacrament enjoined by
the Scriptures as suitable for this Age of wrangling sophistry (Kali Yuga.)

The implications of this position will be more fully developed in course of
this Narrative at the proper stages.

As the service of Godhead is the eternal function of the individual soul in the
state of grace, it transcends all mental and physical activities. The
Shastras accordingly reserve the service of Godhead to those who are twice-
born. The terms Brahmana (one who has knowledge of Godhead as the Great)
and Dwija (twice-born) applied to persons who are eligible for the service of
Godhead, refer to the individual soul in the state of grace and not to caste. If
Thakur Haridas be regarded as a Moslem born, it is then the physical body that
is denoted by the Name Thakur Haridas. If Ramachandra Khan claimed to be
a Brahmana on the strength of his seminal birth in a Brahmana( ?) family, he
also supposed his physical body to be Brahmana. The objection of
Ramachandra Khan to Thakur Haridas, on the strength of such foolish
interpretation of the Shastras, was met by Thakur Haridas by pity and
indifference. Ramachandra Khan did not possess the good fortune of the harlot,
whom he made the dupe of his deviltries, to be enabled to listen to the Holy

Name of Godhead from the lips of Thakur Haridas. A Brahmana, who claims to
be such by right of seminal birth, is less fit for spiritual service than even an
open minded harlot.

From Fulia Thakur Haridas moved off to Chandpur. The village of Chandpur
was situated in the present District of Hughly in the neighbourhood of
Tribeni (Saptagram-Tribeni). Balaram and Jadunandan Acharyas, the purohits
(family-priests) of Hiranya and Gobardhan Mazumdars of Tribeni, had their
residence in the village of Chandpur which lay to the east of Tribeni. The
word ‘Mazumdar’ is the equivalent of ‘Majumadar,’ the title of an accountant of
the royal revenues under the Nawabs. Balaram Acharya was the disciple of
Thakur Haridas and regarded himself as his servant. Haridas stayed with
Balaram acharya in the later’s house. Balaram Acharya with great care
made arrangements for the residence of the Thakur in the village. Haridas lived
there in a hut and accepted the alms of food at the house of Balaram Acharya.
The boy Raghunath Das son of Gobardhan, was at this time studying under
Balaram Acharya. Raghunath used to go to Thakur Haridas for a sight of the
saint. Haridas was merciful to the boy. Thakur Haridas’s mercy was the cause of
the subsequent attainment of spiritual enlightenment by Raghunath Das.

The following event occurred while Thakur Haridas was staying at Chandpur.

One day Balaram Acharya, by his humble supplications, induced Thakur Haridas
to repair to a gathering at the house of the Mazumdars. The two brothers stood
up on seeing the Thakur and, falling at his feet, offered him a seat with great
respect. There was present in the assembly a very large number of Pandits,
Brahmanas, and other worthy people. The two brothers Hiranya and Gobardhana
were also very learned persons. All present spoke highly in praise of Thakur
Haridas. This met with the hearty approval of the brothers. It was known to all
that the Thakur recited the Holy Name three lakhs of times daily. The Pandits
accordingly talked about the greatness of the Name as Thakur Haridas assumed
his seat in their midst.

Some of the Pandits said that the cure of all sinfulness automatically results from
uttering the Name of Godhead. Others expressed the view that the individual
soul (jiva) is freed from the miseries of this life by uttering the Name. Haridas
declared that those two were not proper fruits of the chanting of the Name. Love
to the Feet of Krishna is aroused by taking of the Name.

Haridas said that the condition of a person who realizes such love is described in

a sloka of the Bhagavatam (Bhagavatam 2-35). ‘A person, who is habituated to
serve Krishna in the ways enunciated above (viz., hearing, chanting, etc., loses
all control over his mind and, by reason of realizing the quality of love
by chanting the Name of Krishna, experiences an anxious restlessness of the
heart. He loses all consideration for the opinion of the people and laughs,
cries, shouts, sings and dances at intervals. Salvation and destruction of
sinfulness are only attendant results— ‘Just as the rising of the Sun dispels all
darkness, so also no sooner does the Name of Hari manifests Himself than He
forthwith destroys all the sins of the person who utters His Name/

Haridas requested the Pandits present to explain the above A loka. All the Pandits
desired Thakur Haridas to elucidate its meaning to them. Haridas who had
recited the Lloka now said that even before the Sun actually begins to appear
darkness is dispelled by his approaching light and the fear from thieves, ghosts
and demons is also destroyed; and, on his actual appearance, all useful activities
begin to be performed. In like manner sins and other evils are destroyed by the
reflected light of the approaching Sunrise of the full manifestation of the Name;
while, on the actual appearance of the Name, love to the Feet of Krishna is
aroused. Salvation is a trivial result which is effected by the dim reflection cast
by the Name as His Appearance draws nigh. The devotee does not wish to
accept salvation which is at first offered by Krishna. Haridas quoted the two
following Llokas of the Bhagavatam in support of his contention (Bhagavatam
2-42; 5-19-12). ‘If the dying Ajamil could attain to the realm of the Vaikuntha by
calling upon Hari, which happened to be the name of his son, who can estimate
the effect if the Name is chanted with faith?, ‘My own,’ says Krishna, ‘Never
accept the different forms of salvation, e.g., attainment of My realm, attainment
of power and wealth and fame similar to Mine, the privileges of dwelling near
Me, even the favour of becoming one with Myself; all of which privileges I offer
them unreservedly. They covet nothing except My service/

Gopal Chakravarti was a Brahmana who belonged to the household of the
Mazumdars, being employed to carry letters and money to the king. He had to go
up to Gauda and appear before the Padishah himself in connection with
the discharge of his official duties. He used to convey twelve lakhs of
mpees annually to the king. He was, in his early youth, very handsome and a
very good scholar. Gopal lost his patience on hearing that salvation can be
obtained by the dim reflection of the Name. He then spoke in great anger.

“Pandits who are in assembly here,” said Gopal, “All of you have heard the

conclusion announced by one whose trade is to amuse people by dance and song.
Emancipation, which is unattainable by means of knowledge of the Brahman in
crores of births, is held by him to follow automatically the manifestation of the
dimmest reflection of the Name.”

At this point Haridas entreated Gopal not to entertain any doubt on the subject,
as the Shastras themselves declare that liberation from the bondage of the
world results at once from the appearance of the dim reflection of the Name. The
bliss of liberation is utterly trivial in comparison with the happiness of loving
service. It is for this reason that the devotees do not accept liberation The Thakur
then quoted the sloka of Hari Bhaktisudhodaya (H. Bh. S. 14-31). Teacher of
the universe, to me, immersed in the pure ocean of bliss by meeting Thee, the
bliss of the attainment of the knowledge of the Brahman (the Great Nourisher)
appears to be as contemptible as the tiny speck of water filling a whole in the
ground indented by the hoof of cattle.’

The Brahmana now became furious. He shouted out that he would assuredly cut
off his nose if liberation does not result from the dim reflection of the Name. On
hearing the blasphemy the members of the assembly gave vent to their sorrow at
the behaviour of Gopal. Mazumdar reproved him severely. Balaram Acharya
expressed his indignation by remarking that the offender was a fool fit only for
hair-splitting sophistry and was perfectly ignorant of the principle of devotion.
How could he go the length of insulting even Thakur Haridas! He was doomed
to perdition beyond all help.

Haridas rose to leave the place as he heard the words of the Brahmana.
Mazumdar forthwith severed all his official connection with Gopal and with
all the assembled persons fell prostrate at the feet of Thakur Haridas.

Haridas smiled and spoke sweet words. He said, “ None of them had done
anything offensive except that Brahmana The Brahmana was also not to blame.
His addiction to controversial discussion was the cause of his strange
behaviour. The greatness of the Name is not realizable by futile discussion. How
could he, therefore, understand those principles?” He then bade them depart to
their homes in peace, expressing the wish that no one might come to grief by
his connection with himself.

Hiranya das came back to his house after receiving this assurance of pardon and

forbade Gopal to cross his threshold. In course of three days the

offending Brahmana was attacked with virulent leprosy. His very prominent nose

rapidly melted away. The fingers of his hands and feet, rivaling the champaka
buds in their delicacy, all shriveled up and dissolved away by the corrosive force
of the malady. On beholding this all the people were filled with great wonder.
They praised Haridas and made obeisance to Him with reverence.

Sri Krishna Kaviraj Goswami concludes the above account with the pregnant
observation that although Haridas did not feel offended by the conduct of
the Brahmana yet did Godhead award the offender the punishment due to
his transgression. It is the nature of the devotee of Godhead that he ever
pardons the faults of the ignorant. It is Krishna’s Nature that He cannot bear
any calumniation of His devotees even through ignorance.

Haridas was grieved at heart on hearing of the misery of the Brahmana, He
apprised Balaram Acharya of his intention to leave the place and proceed
to Shantipur.

The account is prefaced by Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami with the remark that
the event narrated is most wonderful for the reason that it contains the
clear elucidation, from the lips of the Acharya himself, of the Divine
Dispensation of the present Age. The reader must not forget the point, which is
the center of interest of the whole narrative detailed in this work, viz., that
Thakur Haridas is the Acharya or the practicing teacher, authorized by Godhead
to promulgate the congregational chanting (Sankirtana) of the Holy Name,
which is the mode of worship that alone can demolish the worst form of atheism
in the name of ‘free’ thinking that is unfortunately so prevalent now-a-days all
over the world and which is the terrible but inevitable natural consequence of the
exclusive worship of Mammon by all the resources of mind and body.

The world is gratuitously assumed by a pseudo-rationalism to be the only reality
and the attempt is, therefore, made to ascertain the methods by following which
we can attain the gratification of the senses which function appears to be the
relationship naturally subsisting between ourselves (?) and the world. The senses
are assumed to be an integral and undetachable part of ourselves. The mind is
identified with the senses on the one hand and the soul on the other. The senses
connect the mind, or the soul, by this assumption, with the external world. The
senses are the eyes of the whole system. All pain and pleasure suffered by the
mind are due to the way in which the mind directs the senses in their-relations
with the world. The mind cannot apparently know by intuition, at any rate
ordinarily, all the consequences of any particular mode of employment of the

senses. The mind can, indeed, try to guess about them.

But it can never be quite sure about any occurrence till after actual experience.
This uncertainty is supposed to be reducible to certainty if it could be possible to
know from experience the uniform ‘laws’ that are assumed to govern
all phenomenal occurrences under all circumstances. This hypothesis of
the uniform operation of the ‘laws’ of Nature has been built up by the
accumulated ‘experiences’ of the race. But as the occurrences themselves present
an infinity of complications it has not been possible to attain to anything like
certainty in isolating the single threads of the web in order to be certain of our
hypothesis in every case by being enabled to reproduce an the occurrences of
nature in the Laboratory.

Assuming that the above object of scientific endeavour will be realizable in
practice in the long run, its success should make it possible for us to prolong the
possibility and scope, of sensuous enjoyment ad infinitum. If we fail to
be perfectly ‘happy’ by the complete elimination of ‘pain’ by the
proper employment of the ‘forces’ of Nature in the way that is calculated to
produce such a result under the then known ‘laws of Nature,’ our labours should
still have really no abiding value for ourselves. But has our ‘experience’ up to
the present moment taken us an inch towards the realization of unmixed or
lasting pleasure? Is ‘pleasure’ really different from ‘pain,? Or is it only different
by circumstance? That which is food for the goose is food for the gander, is
not found to be more true than most hypotheses. Variation, which is sought to
be eliminated, is found on close inspection and analysis to be the
indispensable condition of the pleasures itself. We are, therefore, left inevitably
to the present condition of necessary and complete ignorance in order to have
any ‘pleasure’ at all by our dealings with the world by means of our senses.

It is argued that pleasure and pain might themselves be enriched, deepened and
broadened by more experience and that it is worth our while to help this process
in a conscious manner. To this the answer would be that the better and more
detailed realization of our utter ignorance, in the midst of the mockery of a
civilization that is claimed to be based upon knowledge, would be a
self contradiction that is not likely to appeal to the assorting instinct of our
rational nature and is calculated to make our condition no better than it is.
Civilized wickedness and filth are not preferable to any nuisance of the
uncivilized state. Satan, who may be allowed to possess the perfection of
worldly culture, is probably more miserable than the uncivilized Gond. It would

be difficult for the unbiased reason of man to choose between materialistic
savagery and materialistic civilization.

‘Ignorance is misery/ says one of the wisest of proverbs. Increase of ignorance is
not any decrease of misery. Ignorance is supposed to be the state of all
empiric knowledge which is improperly assumed to be alone available to man.
Our very nature is sometimes supposed to be incapable of real enlightenment.
This axiom of pessimism is exploited for advising man to turn a deaf ear to
the Teacher of the Absolute. It is even more disastrously utilized for
condemning the devotees themselves.

It cannot be otherwise. The soul is in this case identified with the mind-cum-
body. Abandonment of the mind, therefore, appears as equivalent to the
abandonment of the soul, or to self immolation. The mind seems to be our
all. Groping in perpetual ignorance appears as our inevitable function
miscalled ‘Search for the Truth/ Empiric enthusiasts imaginatively describe this
process as the ‘eternal quest’. These metaphors and denunciations do not,
however, help us in anyway; but, on the contrary, they only tend to obstruct the
process of the real quest.

Gopal Chakravarti is a typical Brahmana of the pseudo Vedantic School of
Sankara. He has no doubts regarding the goal of the Vedanta. According to
him the attainment of the Knowledge ( ?) of the Brahman, Who possesses
no distinctive function at all that is capable of being defined, is the goal. By
the attainment of the knowledge of the real Nature of the Brahman, the
individual soul is freed from all the miseries of his apparent existence which
only seems to be limited and is, therefore, only supposed to be miserable. As
there is only One Entity, viz., the Brahman, Who is ever ( ?) free from all defects
and all merits, the goal can be no other than complete absorption (?) into the
One. On the attainment of this desirable goal there is no difference between the
devotee, devotion and the Object of devotion. The service ( ?) of the Brahman is
thus only a temporary means to a final end, which means being different from
the end and is, therefore, necessarily terminable with the attainment of the goal.

It is the highest form, of religion to try to realize, by the appropriate methods,
the knowledge of, and absorption into, the undifferentiated Brahman. When
the individual soul becomes one with the Brahman the state of separate
existence and necessity for any kind of distinguishable function terminate
together. According to Gopal Chakravarti and his associates this knowledge of
the Brahman is higher than service and the termination of both ( ?) knowledge

and service is the highest goal. Gopal is quite sure that this is the only teaching
of the Scriptures. It may be observed at this place that Sankara does not
discard the principle of worship, but declares its tentative necessity which is
terminable on self-realization which, according to him, is identical with
complete absorption into the One.

Thakur Haridas distinguishes between devotion, work and knowledge. The soul
in the bound state desires one of two alternative functions. If he is optimistic
he wants greater scope for enjoyment. If he happens to be pessimistic he
hankers for emancipation from the misery of mundane existence.

The latter, viz. , the pessimist, sometimes thinks that real emancipation is
impossible so long as the consciousness of one’s being different or separate from
the One, persists. It is to this extreme school of atheistic Vedantists, advocating
unification with the Brahman, that Gopal Chakravarti, like most cultured people
of his day as well as of this, happened to belong by his empiric predisposition.
According to this school fmitive work leads to empiric knowledge and the latter
to the third position of inexpressible oneness with the Brahman. Devotion or
service is classed under fruitive work, which is assigned a lower position than
empiric knowledge. The process of advance to the goal of complete unification
with the One, according to this school, is devotion (blind faith rendering possible
utilitarian work of a low order) (Bhakti?) leading to work of a higher order
(Karma), which, in its turn, leads up to empiric knowledge of the uselessness of
all knowledge and all activity terminating in perfect absorption into the one
(Brahm-laya) .

Haridas is neither a pessimist nor an optimist. He is an absolutist. He is
convinced that the theory of complete absorption into the One is
logically unsound and opposed to the real teaching of the Scriptures. The
alternatives of enjoyment and abstention from enjoyment exhaust indeed, the
possibilities of function of the mind and body; but they have no application to
the soul which is located beyond the reach of body and mind. The soul is
substantially different from the mind and body. The soul is the substantive reality
while the mind is only his perverted reflection in the mirror of limited existence.
The mind is the material shadow so to say of the soul who is the spiritual
substance. The mind is a material phenomenon galvanized into the appearance of
selfconsciousness by the impulse communicated to it by the deluded soul. Mind
is the shadow of the perverse soul mirrored in matter. This description is, and
can be, but an imperfect and misleading analogy of the relationship that

actually subsists between mind and soul. The shadow of the material substance
is not categorically different from the substance itself, both of them being
material phenomena. The shadow of the soul in this case is, however,
categorically different from the soul, being a material phenomenon pure and
simple. The soul in his spiritual or natural conditional is categorically different
from material phenomenon. The soul is self-consciousness itself. There can be
no such thing as ignorance in the soul. There can be no such thing as genuine
selfconsciousness in the mind which is non-soul. The apparent self-
consciousness of the mind is really a state of complete ignorance which is given
its shape and colour by the qualities of matter, viz., grossness, limitation,
perishability, changeableness, etc. These unwholesome traits are non-existent
and impossible in the soul. The soul is capable of forgetting his real nature
mistaking himself to be a material entity. The soul is not above one possible
weakness, viz., willful rebellion against the Truth. It is a real blunder on the part
of the soul to choose to be a rebel. But the soul is perfectly free to refuse to serve
the Truth, i.e., Godhead. He thereby proves deliberately false to his own
substantive nature, because it is the constituent function of the soul, in his
natural state of perfect spiritual existence, to be the exclusive servant of the
Truth. The soul who rebels against Godhead is punished by his exile to the
phenomenal world and by incarceration in the double material case of mind and
body. The point will be further elucidated later.

Fruitive work and empiric knowledge are functions of the mind and, therefore,
purely material phenomena. By means of such work and knowledge the deluded
soul cannot realize his natural function for the plain reason that they are not his
proper function at all. By means of work and knowledge the Soul only moves in
a vicious circle of material existence which is seemingly conscious but really
one of absolute ignorance. This is the explanation why by means of the
undifferentiated knowledge of the Brahman freedom from the fetters of work
and knowledge of this anomalous existence can be attained by crores of years of
endeavour. This is what Gopal says. The delay is, however, not due to the
complexity of the process, as he supposes it to be. So long as a person continues
to suppose that an impersonal all-pervasive Entity is the goal of knowledge one
is not yet freed from the real ignorance of his spiritual function. This must be so
because Truth is not impersonal.

Neither is Truth a person in the sense in which the mentalists, including Sankara,
apparently want us to understand the term. Spiritual personality is categorically
different from the distorted empiric notion of the same. Until the nature of the

personality of the Truth is properly grasped one continues in the deluded state
which is also the state of limitation (bondage). Therefore Gopal Chakravarti is
right, although he is unaware of it, in holding that the chance of emancipation of
a person who has attained to the notion of Godhead as an impersonal and
inactive, although all pervasive and transcendental, Entity, is very slight. Gopal
does not understand that his ideal person is also necessarily no less deluded than
himself if he supposes his condition to be the goal.

The interpretation of the text relied upon by Gopal Chakravarti, said Thakur
Haridas, is that of a person who does not understand the Nature of the Name by
reason of his having no access to Him. The deluded person is no
longer consciously contradicting himself and is not, therefore, insincere in the
sense of being double tongued. He is certainly to be pitied. Neither can his
conduct be regarded as sincere inasmuch as it is opposed to his real nature of
which he only happens to be ignorant by his own conscious perversity. The
empiric casuist who affects to believe in the impersonal nature of the Truth is
only pushing his conscious perversity of the choice of untruth to its
logical conclusion. If the deliberate error is not ignored his conduct cannot
be regarded as consistent being altogether untrue.

Gopal Chakravarti’s source of error lay deeper than the plane on which he stood
and was, therefore, naturally incomprehensible to him in his condition
of cultured perversity. The Vaishnavas, who alone understand the real cause of
the worldly ailment, alone possess the true spirit of toleration. Thakur
Haridas showed his toleration of the rank atheism of deluded Gopal Chakravarti
by abstaining from disturbing him further. This toleration really means
the withdrawal of his causeless apparently aggressive mercy from a deluded
soul whose opposition to Godhead is likely to be increased by the process. It is
the greatest possible misfortune that can befall a conditioned soul to miss
the special mercy of the Vaishnava by his successful opposition to the Truth.

The apparent intolerance of a Vaishnava is as helpful to a person as his tolerance
of evil. The Vaishnava never co-operates with the offending soul in his
sinful activities. He does not agree to be false to himself and his eternal Master
to please the confirmed apostate. Such sympathetic toleration of evil is a
grave offense against the Truth notwithstanding the significant fact that it alone
is relished by the pantheistic school of the pseudo-Vedantists.

The point reached marks almost the limit of rational discussion towards the
spiritual issue, that is open to the empiricist. He cannot proceed further without

discarding the method of empiricism by giving up completely the process of his
unaided effort. It was not possible for Gopal Chakravarti to retrace his steps by
any other, method. That he was not at all prepared for this is proved by his
offensive conduct towards Thakur Haridas who had, therefore, no other
alternative but to leave him to the mercies of Maya. But the actual goodwill of
Haridas towards the offender bore its fruit in the swift punishment, that could be
intelligible to the sufferer himself, that smote him in the form of leprosy. Gopal
was, thereby, afforded an excellent opportunity of revising his impersonal
doctrine. But he was of course free to avail of it or not.

The Godless attitude is an attitude of absolute confidence in one’s own judgment
and power. The atheist is not at all disposed to submit to another in any
circumstances. He has to be compelled to submit to non-God because he can
consistently submit only to compelling force. Such submission alone
is appreciated in the state of sin and ignorance which is a radically false
position and necessarily entails constant irrational conduct on a really rational
being unnaturally disposed to accept the same through the no less unnatural fear
of punishment. The Holy Name of Godhead is not a thing of this world.

The Name of Godhead is identical with Godhead Himself. The Godhead appears
in this world in the Form of the Name on the lips of His pure devotees.

He appears as the transcendental Sound on the spiritual lips of the soul in the
state of grace.

The Name of Godhead appearing on the lips of a pure devotee as the
Transcendental Sound, is perceptible as such only to the spiritual ear.

These statements are likely to appear absurd and puerile to the

dogmatic impersonalist. Can the soul, he will persist to ask, have lips and ears ?

Can the soul have senses ? But can the empiricist know, even if he has?

The transcendentalists maintain that the soul has an infinity of senses of which
the physical senses, are a perverted reflection. There cannot even be the
shadow of existence of the physical senses if there were no substantive spiritual
senses. But there are also the spiritual senses themselves as distinct from but
not unrelated to their corresponding shadowy reflections in this
phenomenal world. This is involved in the very definition of the Absolute. The
spiritual sense is categorically different from the physical sense. The spiritual
senses are perfect and self-conscious, there being no interval or barrier of time
or space between the sense and its possessor. The spiritual body is indivisible
and perfectly self-conscious in every part and is identical with the owner of

the body. All this is incomprehensible to us although it is perfectly
consistency with the fundamental principles of indivisible substantive existence,
that are also acceptable to the empiricist. The empiricist, although he may
sometimes under pressure of his own logic, seem to agree with the conclusions
of transcendentalism, finds it impossible to adopt them in practice. The
absolute conduct is not possible on the mundane plane to which he finds himself
strictly confined by his own postulates backed by the real Deluding Potency.

If one is merely disposed to regard any sound as transcendental, such wish alone
will not make the sound of his choice to become really transcendental. Similarly
if a person is disposed to regard a transcendental Sound as an occurrence of the
mundane atmosphere such attitude will not also affect the subjective nature of
the transcendental Sound. There is real difference between the transcendental
Sound and mundane sound. The transcendental Sound is identical with the object
denoted by the sound. The mundane sound is separated from the object denoted
by it by the intervals of time and space. To hear the mundane sound of the name
of a Lion is not the same thing as to see the beast. On the spiritual plane the very
word ‘Lion’ is identical with the animal. The animal is fully realizable by and in
the hearing of his name. Whereas the real nature of the mundane animal, denoted
by the mundane sound, ever remains a thing unknown.

The Name of Krishna is identical with Godhead. But the Name of Krishna does
not manifest Himself on mundane lips nor to the mundane ear. The
Name Krishna appears in His Form of the Transcendental Sound on the spiritual
lips of His devotees and is heard by the spiritual ear of the submissive soul by
the Grace of Krishna. The Name Krishna is identical with the Possessor of
the Name. The Name Krishna appears to the listening ear, as He is, only by
degrees. As soon as the dormant soul catches the first faint reflection of His
Light he is at once completely free from the bondage of ignorance and sin. It is
the Name Who comes of His Own accord to our fettered soul. The bound jiva.
has no access to the Presence of Krishna on his own initiative. Krishna’s
Approach is heralded by the harbinger of Light whose first glimmerings on their
appearance put an end to all misconception regarding the categorical difference
between light and darkness.

Unless and until the soul becomes aware of the true nature of spiritual existence
by being so enlightened by the Source of all consciousness, he is sure to mistake
the mind for his real self and the mental function as the only knowledge. If at
this stage he does not willfully shut his eyes but keeps them turned towards the

growing Light he gradually and in due course obtains the sight of the concrete
Source of all light. This is the mode of Appearance of the Holy Name. The sight
of Krishna is alone capable of inspiring love for Krishna. This is the position of
Thakur Haridas as explained by himself to the Pandits who were in assembly at
the house of the Mazumdars.

Thakur Haridas mercifully explains that the different concrete forms of the so-
called ‘liberation’ concocted by the mentalists as their unknowable summum-
bonum are the outcome of the desire for sensuous gratification. If one could live
in the happy realms of Krishna described in the Scriptures, the
empiricist supposes that such a person should be enabled to enjoy more good
things than are available on the Earth if his condition is really worth having. The
same desire for extended opportunities of sensuous enjoyment happens also to
be the real motive behind the formulation of the other ‘forms’ of the
empiricist’s ‘saved’ existence. The grossness of the ideal of liberation is fully
unmasked when one is told that the Salvationist’s ‘final’ form is to become the
equal of Godhead by merging with the Object of his worship?

It is to this unnatural and profane position that the unchecked speculations of the
mentalists are logically bound to lead in the long run. Thakur Haridas ascribes
the grossness of the ideal to the attitude of the empiric thinker, viz. the insatiable
desire for sensuous pleasure.

The desire to enjoy is categorically different from, and wholly incompatible
with, the desire to serve, to love. If one feels a real desire to serve Krishna
he would lose all taste for his own enjoyment. All impurity, unwholesomeness
and misery are fortunately and mercifully ordained by the Lord as the
inevitable consequence of the insatiable desire for selfish enjoyment. But the
soul who turns away from immediate enjoyment by considerations of greater
prospective enjoyment in the sequel, cannot also for that very reason realize the
condition of loving devotion to the Feet of the Lord, however strongly impressed
he may profess to be of the desirability of such a state. He is, no doubt, free to
think that he really desires it; but at the same time he is wholly incapable of
ever attaining to it by such desire. But, says Thakur Haridas, he may
nevertheless attain to love for Krishna by the Chanting of the Holy Name, by the
Grace of the Holy Name Himself. This is the special Dispensation for the Age
which is so irremediably speculative; and there is no other way open to the Age
of attaining to the loving service of Krishna.

Haridas refers to the texts of the Scriptures to prove the truth of his statements.
This is the only proper use of the Shastras. The Shastras bear witness to
the Truth of the realizations of all really pure souls.

There is one other fact which is worthy of our notice. The Pandits of the learned
assembly, headed by Hiranya Mazumdar the master of the house, took the side of
Thakur Haridas. They not only strongly censured the conduct of Gopal
Chakravarti in the open assembly but Hiranya Mazumdar thought it his duty to
renounce all further connection with a Brahmana who could be guilty of an act
of discourtesy to the devotee of Godhead. Nevertheless the Pandits and
Mazumdar himself felt themselves involved in the sin of Gopal Chakravarti by
the unhappy circumstance of their having had to hear most reluctantly
the blasphemous words uttered by Gopal in their presence. For this sin the
only expiation, prescribed by the Shastras, was to seek in all humility the pardon
of Thakur Haridas, not for the offender but for themselves. This is not
mere courtesy but an unavoidable necessity if one really wants to serve the
Truth. Any association, deliberate or accidental, with untruth tends to obscure
our vision of the Truth, Who is, indeed, a very Jealous Master. Those who
are disposed to serve the Truth with causeless, loving devotion, throw to the
winds all considerations of ignorant propriety or ignorant justice and are
never satisfied by serving the Truth by all their senses at all time and in
all circumstances. By the grace of Thakur Haridas this instinct of loving
devotion actually manifested itself in the conduct of those who had listened with
faith to the Absolute Truth from his pure lips.

Sree Raghunath das Goswami was a child at this time. He used to visit the
Thakur in his hut during his stay at Chandpur. The boy was the
fortunate recipient of the mercy of Thakur Haridas. This is considered by
Shree Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami as the real cause of Raghunath Das’s
subsequent unique devotion to the Feet of Sree Chaitanya. The mercy of a sadhu
acts equally on all persons, irrespective of age, sex or condition, all of whom
have an equal chance of being benefited by associating with a real sadhu.

The interests of the soul are not capable of being adversely affected by any
worldly conditions. The boy’s soul has no defect of immaturity any more than
that of an old man the advantage of maturity. Such maturity or immaturity has
no relevancy in one’s associating with a sadhu. The boy’s soul, eventually with
the Soul of the old man, may or may not be disposed to listen to the words of
a Sadhu for the genuine purpose of acting up to the same. It is as necessary for
a child to associate with a sadhu acts for an adult; but in neither case one can

be sure of obtaining the mercy of the sadhu. with whom he may choose-
to associate. The sadhu is kind to one who is really inclined to serve Godhead. It
is the function of a sadhu to foster one’s inclination for the service of the Lord
by means of his conduct and words. The articulated sound is, however, the
sadhu’s unambiguous weapon to fight all ungodliness. It should puzzle the
muddled brain of the whole race of self-conceited empiricists to understand why
and how the sadhu need have no other work except talking about almost
anything to whom he likes. Any person, who is spoken to by a sadhu even for
the tiny space of a second, has every chance of attaining the real object of life
which is unattainable by infinite endeavour by any other method. Nay, it is our
duty to listen to a real sadhu, if we are fortunate enough to meet him, in
preference to all other duties which are not only of secondary importance but a
positive obstruction on the path of the highest and only good.

Chapter 20 Thakur Haridas before his meeting with Sree
Gaursundar (Contd.)

From Chandpur, Thakur Haridas came to the village of Fulia on the Ganges near
Santipur, the home of Sree Advaita Acharyya. Haridas was thereby enabled to
associate with Acharyya Gosain who roared with delight on gaining
the company of Haridas. Haridas, remarks Thakur Brindavandas, floated on
the ocean of the mellow quality (rasa) of Govinda (Cowherd Krishna) by
obtaining the society of Advaita.

The last sentence mentions an important truth. The philanthropic sensualists
(prakrita sahajiyas) affect to believe that Thakur Haridas had no access to the
Amorous Pastimes of Sree Krishna, being exclusively devoted to the chanting of
the Name, this shows ignorance of the real Nature of the Holy Name as well as
of the transcendental amour. It is repeatedly declared by the Shastras that the
Name of Krishna is identical with His Form, Quality, Activity and Servitorship.
The Bhagavatam (11-2-40) bears out the statement of Sree Rupa (Bh. R. Sindhu
P. L.: 3-11) that liking for the chanting of the Name is the conclusive sign of the
first appearance of spiritual amour. Those, who are addicted to sensuous
pleasures, have no liking for the Name of Godhead. Those pseudo-ascetics, who
do not chant the Name of Krishna, are really indifferent to the service of
Godhead. Thakur Haridas could possess such an overpowering inclination for
chanting the Name of Krishna by reason of his real love for the Lord and
consequent real detachment from the pleasures of the world. Thakur Haridas,
who was acquainted with the mellow quality of the Name of Krishna, is the
greatest of teachers as he is alone authorized to admit one to the meaning of the
Shastras treating of spiritual amour. The mellow quality of amorous love for
Krishna is realized as the effect of the chanting of the Name of Krishna by the
method that is free from offense against the Name. The philanthropists are
effectively shut out from all access to the experience of the real nature of the
spiritual quality of amorous love by their offensive taking of the Name of
Krishna. By reason of their excessive addiction to sensuous enjoyment, which is
aggravated by chanting the Name without trying simultaneously to avoid
committing such offense, the philanthropists fall into the most heinous blunder
of supposing that the spiritual amour is identical with gross sensuality. The only
way of getting rid of the lust of the flesh is by chanting the Name of Krishna by
avoiding the ten offenses against the Name.

These particulars should enable the unbiased reader to realize the nature as well
as the cause of the misunderstanding that is commonly entertained by both
liberationists and elevationists in regard to the efficacy of the chanting of the
Holy Name. Those who believe in the superiority of fruitive work and empiric
knowledge, or, in other words, the average men of the world, find it impossible
to sympathize with those philanthropists who teach by their preaching and
practice that the taking of the Name Krishna, without really giving up or
endeavoring to give up the life of worldliness, is the highest and only duty of all
persons. The philanthropists have forfeited the sympathies of all honest well-
wishers by leading a dissipated life of idleness and debauchery which is bound
to result from taking the Name without abstaining from the commission of
offenses against the Name. The philanthropists are opposed to those restrictive
injunctions of the Scriptures that endeavor to put down immorality and
worldliness. They find it convenient to suppose that it is possible to approach the
Presence Divine with a heart deliberately bent upon sinfulness. They are profane
enough, as the result of such habitual commission of offenses, under the guise of
piety, against the Name, to dare attribute even carnal desires to Sree Krishna and
His eternal Consorts against the gravest and clearest warnings of Sree Rupa
Goswami who is admitted by all as the Divinely authorized exponent of the
nature of spiritual amour. We shall return again and again to this all-important
subject as the narrative develops.

The life that was led by Thakur Haridas while he was living in the cave at Fulia,
is described as follows by Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami and it forms the
authoritative refutation of the practices and arguments of the philanthropists.
Haridas kept constantly walking along the bank of the Ganges chanting aloud the
Name ‘Krishna’. Haridas surpassed all ascetics in his aversion to the pleasures of
the world. All praise to his holy mouth which was ever full of the Name of
Krishna. He did not experience a moment’s disinclination to the Name of
Govinda. His appearance underwent a constant and novel transformation under
the influence of the mellow quality of devotion. Sometimes he danced all by
himself. Sometimes he made a sound like that of a maddened lion. There were
times when he cried in grief with a loud voice. Sometimes he would indulge in a
mighty laughter that was haughty and deliberate. At times he shouted forth
ejaculations of sorrow with a deep voice. Sometimes he would lie prostrate in a
swoon. He would sometimes shout forth, in the hearing of the people, sounds
that belonged to another world and would then explain the same in the most
excellent manner. Shedding of tears, horripilation, laughter, swooning, sweating
—the spiritual perturbations that are expressive of devotion to Krishna—

manifested themselves all together in his holy form the moment Thakur Haridas
entered the dance. The flow of the stream of joy was such as to drench all limbs.
Even the worst of atheists (pashandas) experienced a great pleasure on
beholding the same and the wonder of the series of the beauteous horripilation of
which the sight is coveted even by Brahma and Siva. All the Brahmana residents
of Fulia witnessed with rapture those holy manifestations. A deep faith took
possession of the minds of all those people. In this manner Thakur Haridas lived
on at Fulia. After bathing in the Ganges he rambled all over the place, chanting
with a loud voice the Name of Hari.

The activities of the devotees of Godhead are perfectly incomprehensible to the
material mind of man for the simple reason that they do not target anything
of this world. The mind cannot understand super mundane activities. It
supposes that it has a right to be able to understand every occurrence that comes
within the range of its perception. Thakur Haridas appeared to the people of that
time as a man living among men. He appeared to them to possess a physical
body and senses. He was being fed in the ordinary way everyday at
Advaita acharyya’s. He used his senses apparently in the same way as any other
man. He might have probably been supposed to be a good man and as
comparatively indifferent to the comforts of the body. But he did not as a matter
of fact also really neglect anything that is absolutely necessary for the
maintenance of life. There was nothing super-mundane about all this. Would it
be proper to regard such a person on such testimony as a supernatural being?
Even if we choose to consider him as supernatural on such evidence would we
not be led from one mistake to another by such untenable concession to
superstition? Would it not be a still greater folly to try to follow the life and
conduct of such a person and ask others to do the same under such a notion? Is it
feasible to follow with a, clear conscience a person of whose conduct the true
meaning is not at all possible for us to understand?

It would be both possible and useful to accept the mode of life of another person
if by doing so our own existing interests and convictions would have a prospect
of being demonstrably improved instead of being wholly suppressed.

If all persons began all of a sudden to chant the Name of Hari night and day and
to depend on others for the supply of food which is necessary for them for being
able to perform the said function, would not such course tantamount to an idle
and suicidal folly?

The life of the devotee should have no value if it is not capable of helping us to
perform our ordinary duties in a better way. The life must not only be practicable
in itself but a distinctive and intelligible improvement on the one that it is to be
allowed to replace. The life of Thakur Haridas as depicted above seemed to
satisfy neither of these essential conditions.

As a matter of fact we shall see subsequently that Sree Chaitanya was regarded
as an unbalanced sentimentalist by even the leading Vedantist Scholar
of Benares, the recognized head-quarters of Shastric culture of that day and
this. Persons who devote their intellect to the study of the Shastras in a
systematic way, need not thereby be rendered devoid of ordinary common sense.
The absence of common sense is the usual charge that is brought by
utilitarian thinkers against such scholasticism. The empiricists accept without
reservation physical Nature, as it appears to their senses, as the Reality in its
immediately available form to be understood for the purpose of deducing
conduct that is proper for us to adopt in regard to the world. If the knowledge
that is acquired has an evident likelihood of making ourselves unsuccessful in
the struggle for physical existence the utilitarian have no patience for such
knowledge.

The error of Vedantism, or rather of its interpretation by Sree Sankaracharyya,
from the point of view of the utilitarians, consists in this that it does not really
provide for the needs of the life that one and all are under the necessity of
actually leading in this world as the basis of all possible activities. It may not be
possible for the utilitarians to refute the position of Sankara by means of
metaphysical arguments. But it is their contention that the theoretical strength of
Sankara’s position is no refutation of its practical weakness. A Sankarite cannot
himself be in love with the life that he recommends others to live. This is too
grave a defect to be overlooked. It is even necessary to oppose Sankara in the
interest of everybody including his followers. One must be forced to live, and
live efficiently, against every other consideration to the contrary. The arguments
of Sankara consequent,” are appreciated by the

utilitarians but only as a speculative theory of existence that was never intended
to be acted upon in practice. Are we required to have a similar attitude
towards Thakur Haridas also? Are we to suppose that what is perfectly proper
and natural for Thakur Haridas is perfectly improper and unnatural for every
other person? The path of devotion followed by Thakur Haridas is, however,
not merely a beautiful conception of the human brain to be admired from

a distance but which cannot and must not be followed in practice.

Thakur Haridas actually led the life which he tells us is not only practicable but
whose full acceptance is the only thing needful for its own sake.

Love for Krishna is the one thing needful. Amorous love is the highest form of
such love. The realized practice of love for Godhead is the only natural
function of the free soul. It is possible for all souls to attain to it. Whoever
possesses this spiritual love towards Krishna must be offered, as being a most
loyal servant of the Lord, our unconditional homage. It is, however, not possible
for the mind of man in the fallen state to understand the real nature of spiritual
activities. This is the point of departure of the teaching of Thakur Haridas from
that of Sankara, or rather from the current interpretation of the system of
Sankara.

It is, says Thakur Haridas, practicable for a person in the state of sin to attain to
the spiritual plane by the Grace of the Holy Name of Krishna, but he Grace
of the Name can be gained only by serving the Name in the proper manner. It is
at once easy and difficult to understand how the Name is to be served. The
Name is Krishna Himself. He Appears on the tongue of His devotee in the form
of the Transcendental Sound. Listening to the Holy Name from the lips of a
sadhu is the way in which He is to be served. The Name does not Appear on the
tongue of a person who is not a sadhu. A sadhu benefits all by his chanting of
the Name. One must be a sadhu in order to be able to serve Krishna by chanting
the Name for the benefit of all.

The only way in which it is possible for a sinful man to become a sadhu is by
serving the Name by his ear. The Name Appears in the form of
the Transcendental Sound on the tongue of His devotee. This sound is
identical with Godhead, the only object of our worship. The mode of worship of
the Name consists in listening to the Transcendental Sound by means of the
spiritual ear, because the fleshy ear cannot hear the transcendental sound.

The spiritual ear belongs to the soul, but in the case of the conditioned soul it is
in the dormant state. Its function is then delegated to the material ear. But
the soul should like to resume his own function if he likes and he is also likely
to like to do so when he understands that it is necessary in his own interest to
do so. In the state of willful transgression the soul is forgetful of himself and
his natural function. The sadhu (i.e., the pure soul in his natural state)
possesses the power, delegated to him for the purpose by Krishna Himself, of

making the transcendental sound be heard by the forgetful soul. As soon as the
fettered soul hears the transcendental sound the function of his spiritual ear is
reawakened and the enlightened soul is then fit to serve the Name by his
opened spiritual ear by the method of submissive spiritual hearing.

It is, therefore, necessary to submit to hear the Holy Name from the lips of the
sadhu on his own conditions. Till this duty is properly performed we can have no
access to the plane of the activities of the real devotee. Sankara is silent about all
these details which really matter. His so-called followers are as a rule opposed to
all spiritual activity. It is our function to introduce the reader to the nature of the
spiritual activities of the soul in course of this narrative. Our Hero is Sree
Gaursundar, the Supreme Lord Himself. He is at once the only Source and the
only Object of all worship. We have seen that the Divine Master and Lover
appears in Gaursundar in the role of His Own Servant and Mistress to teach us
how to love Him by making the experience available to us by Himself tasting the
Love for Himself.

But up to the point of His career that has yet been reached, the Lord has not set
up openly as teacher of the Religion. Sree Gaursundar, to the eyes of
His contemporaries of this world, was as yet no more than a dutiful and
learned Brahmana householder, assiduous in the performance of all those duties
that ordinarily fall to the lot of a God-fearing Brahmana. There was as yet
nothing unusual or extraordinary about Him. Had His career terminated at this
point He might have been regarded as having confirmed by His conduct the
mode of life led by the Brahmana householders of Nabadwip of that period. We
now know that this was by no means His purpose. But His real purpose had not
yet been divulged to anyone. That purpose was not understood, even when it
was subsequently fully divulged, by most of His contemporaries.

The reason of such misunderstanding is plain. Sree Gaursundar’s Life can be
understood only if we submit to be spiritually enlightened. Thakur Haridas is the
teacher, authorized by Sree Gaursundar Himself, from whom we have to learn
how in this Iron Age we are to receive spiritual enlightenment. The purpose of
Sree Gaursundar is not to teach personally the method that is to be followed in
this Age, by those souls who are in the state of bondage, for attaining the
spiritual life. That function is not directly exercised by Sree Gaursundar or Sree
Krishna. It is the function of Nityananda, but not even his main or direct
function. Nityananda or Baladeva is the second Self of Sree Krishna (or
Gaursundar) and they represent the Supreme Lord in His aspect of the possessor

of all-majesty, all-power and all-grandeur. Baladeva is the Source of all service
of the Divinity in the outer hemisphere of the transcendental world. It is the
indirect function of one of Baladeva’s secondary selves to direct the service of
the Lord in this lower, phenomenal world. This particular secondary self is sty¬
led Maha Vishnu in the Scriptures.

But even Maha Vishnu does not come in direct contact with the material mind or
anything mundane. That function is delegated to Vishnu who is a secondary self
of Maha Vishnu. Vishnu Himself also is located outside this mundane world. All
the secondary selves of the Supreme Lord, issuing ultimately from Sree
Baladeva or Nityananda, are absolutely spiritual in all their Divine activities.

The connection between the two planes, viz., the spiritual and material, is
established by Siva whose nature is most difficult to understand. It is a
mixed one being both Divine and non-Divine. Brahma, the first progenitor of all
the creatures of this phenomenal world, is associated with Siva in carrying out
the will of Vishnu, who is the direct Divine Master of this phenomenal world.

It is the object of both Siva and Brahma, who are the servants of Vishnu, as their
highest function to divert the minds of fettered souls to the service of Vishnu.
Brahma appears in the transcendental Pastimes of Sree Gaursundar in the form
of Thakur Haridas who is delegated the function of promulgating
the Dispensation of the Age, viz., the chanting of the Name of Krishna.

This function which belongs ultimately to Sree Gaursundar, is exercised directly
and fully by Thakur Haridas as his authorized function.

The function thus Divinely Delegated to Thakur Haridas is by no means an
unimportant one. It is, on the other hand, the one thing needful not only for souls
in the state of bondage but for all souls. It is the only function of all souls who of
course vary in their degree of its realization. There is no higher function than
love for Krishna. Thakur Haridas teaches how the conditioned soul may attain to
the love of Krishna in this Age of sophistry by chanting without offense the Holy
Name of Krishna. The life of Thakur Haridas presents us with the career of a
pure soul who practices the chant of the Holy Name of Krishna without offense.
The life of Thakur Haridas at Fulia, described by Thakur Brindavandas in a few
pregnant words, is for this reason one of the most important parts of the present
Narrative in as much as it introduces the reader, if it is rightly understood, to the
true meaning of the other parts.

It will be our endeavor to establish, by the grace of Thakur Haridas, the truth of
the proposition that the method of chanting the Holy Name of Krishna, in
the manner that is free from offense, is the only perfect service of the Lord
having the unique quality of being both the means and the object of all
spiritual endeavor. As means the Name is accessible to the worst of atheists
especially to that stubborn species that belongs to the present Age who are
fortified against the spiritual function by all manner of sophistries. Access to the
Name is closed to none who are prepared to recognize the name of Krishna as
identical with Krishna Himself and not as a mere passing sound of the mundane
atmosphere ; and that the Name does not, therefore, manifest Himself on the
material tongue of the physical body which cannot serve the Divinity. The Name
can be served when He manifests Himself on the spiritual tongue as the
Transcendental Divine Sound. The spiritual service is possible only on the
Appearance of the Name, in the Form of the Sound, on one’s tongue. The Name
first Appears to the listening ear of a person who submits to receive Him as He
Appears on the lips of a sadhu.

The Name of Krishna appearing on the tongue of a sadhu as transcendental
sound is not a figment of the imagination. He is the only reality, being
the absolute person Himself. If the Name is served by the method of
perfect submission under the direction (of a sadhu, by such service love for
Krishna is obtained. By no other method one may be enabled to realize the love
for Krishna. It is for this reason that the Name is the Highest and Only Means. It
is quite in keeping with the conclusions of our unbiased reason that Krishna
in His Own Form can also be the only Means of His highest service.

But against this if it be urged that as the Form, Quality, Activity and Servitorship
of Krishna are also identical with Krishna how may the Name be regarded as the
only means? This is true. But to the soul who happens to be under the thralldom
of matter the Name alone is accessible. The Form, Quality, Activity and
Servitorship, are attainable in the order of enumeration by the method of taking
the Name without offense. This is not against reason because the Holy Name
alone is least liable of being wholly misunderstood by the fettered soul who
submits to receive Him from the lips of a sadhu for the purpose of serving Him
in the manner that is free from offense.

It is for this reason that the question as to what constitutes the act of offense
against the Name, becomes all-important. The philanthropists who confound the
soul with the material mind necessarily imagine that the Name and the sadhus

are also phenomena of this world and, therefore, they are as a matter of course
comprehensible by the material mind. This attitude of virtual refusal to recognize
the Divine Nature of the Holy Name makes the recital of the Name of Krishna
by the philanthropists a meaningless mundane process which bears only an
external resemblance to the service of the Holy Name by the devotee. The
difference is of course not perceptible to the material mind but it is, and must be,
necessarily self-evident to the pure soul who has access to the Substantive
Reality.

It is also for this reason that philanthropists, who profess to be Vaishnavas,
suppose that everyone has a right ab initio of realizing the Form, Quality and
Activity of Krishna and his own distinctive relationship to Him as His servitor.
On this supposition they engage in gross and sensual idolatry under
the persuasion that it is identical with the religion enjoined by the Shastras
and sanctioned by the actual practice of the most eminent devotees. From this
error, if it has already taken a deep root, it is very difficult to extricate the
offending soul. All the gross immoralities that are practiced in the name of
religion in different parts of the world by certain classes of people, who are very
anxious to keep their activities screened from the view of those who do not
belong to their secret brotherhoods, are due to their neglect to chant the Holy
Name of Krishna, heard from the lips of a real sadhu in the manner that is free
from offense and under the direction of sadhus.

The chanting of the Transcendental Name is the only admissible form of religion
to fettered souls as He is not capable of being grossly misrepresented. It is of
course also possible to chant the Name of Krishna in the offensive manner. But
once we are put on our guard against the deliberate commission of such offense
we would naturally be unwilling to honour a person as a real sadhu unless he
fully satisfied, at any rate to our judgment enlightened by the chanting of the
Name, this crucial test of sainthood. The offense against the Name is nothing
short of willful misapprehension. We must not understand that the Name or
hearing or chanting of the Name is a material phenomenon. We must insist on
being fully satisfied that it is not really a material process that is being offered to
us by any person wearing the external garb of a sadhu. We must always refer to
the texts of the Scriptures which uphold the spiritual view in the most
uncompromising manner. Thus fortified it should be possible for a sincere soul
to detect every form of mischievous attempts of the cheats and hypocrites.

A person has to thank only himself for being a victim to pseudo-sadhus. A

person is similarly to blame only himself if he fails to find the real sadhu,
or neglects to seek for him. When once a person attains the condition that
entitles him to sing the Name of Krishna in the manner that is free from offense,
he finds that all his wants have been automatically fulfilled. For example he
is freed from all anxiety on his own personal account. He realizes that he is
not any limited entity and that he is located beyond the jurisdiction of birth,
death and wants. He obtains the vision which is capable of distinguishing
between the real and the apparent. But as those, who either belong to a lower
level of the spiritual plane or do not belong to the spiritual plane at all, have not
his perfect vision, they naturally fail to understand the true bearing of his
activities.

The activities of Thakur Haridas can be properly understood only by perfectly
self-realized souls. All that we may affirm in reward to them at this place, is
that they show an utter forgetfulness of his material surroundings and an
overpowering attachment to the Holy Name of Krishna. We have already seen
that he was absolutely free from sexual weakness and was thoroughly versed in
the principles of the Shastras. The idea regarding the real nature of his
personality will be further elucidated by a careful consideration of the different
aspects of the event that we are just going to describe.

The Kazi or Moslem priest under the employ of the State, who was both priest
and judge and looked after the Moslem religion, soon began to take an interest in
the doings of Thakur Haridas. Being apprised of his antecedents and
present behavior he considered it necessary to bring the matter to the notice of
the local Governor. The Kazi went personally to the Governor and told him
everything about Thakur Haridas concluding with the request that as Thakur
Haridas was guilty of the offense of living as a Hindu, although he is a
Muhammedan born, he should be dealt with in a decisive manner.

“The Governor,” writes Thakur Brindavandas, “who was himself also of a
worldly disposition, on the representations of the misguided Kazi,
ordered Thakur Haridas to be seized and brought before him at once.

Haridas voluntarily offered to accompany the men despatched to seize his person
by violence and to appear before the Governor.” “By the Grace of Krishna,
Thakur Haridas,” says the author of the Chaitanya Bhagavata, “was not afraid of
death not to speak of the Moslem ruler. Thakur Haridas, with the chant of the
Name of Krishna on his lips, set out immediately and presented himself before
the Governor. All the good people of Fulia, apprehending the worst, were

filled with sorrow and dismay on being thus suddenly and violently deprived of
his happy companionship.”

And now an incident occurred which throws much light on the true personality
of Thakur Haridas. As soon as the tidings of the seizure of Haridas reached
the prison of the Governor, the leading persons of all those parts, who
were confined in the jail at that time, experienced a great joy in the core of
their hearts at the news. “They thought,” writes Thakur Brindavandas, “that
as Thakur Haridas was the greatest of Vaishnavas. The miseries of their
captivity were sure to end by the sight of him. They accordingly persuaded their
keepers to afford them an opportunity of obtaining a glimpse of the great devotee
as he passed by the prison house. Those captives awaited the arrival of
Thakur Haridas with their eyes fixed to the path by which he was to pass.

Thakur Haridas came to the spot and on catching sight of the prisoners he
mentally cast the glance of mercy on them. The prisoners fixing their eyes to the
feet of Thakur Haridas remained in the posture of obeisance. They saw that
Thakur Haridas was surpassingly handsome. His hands reached down to the
knee. His eyes were like the lotus flower. His incomparable moonlike face was,
however, the most beautiful of all.

All the prisoners bowed with a natural and loyal impulse of submissive devotion.
They at once underwent the spiritual perturbations of devotion to Krishna. Lord
Haridas noticed the devotional activity of them all and finding that they were in
chains broke into a smile of mercy. “May you continue to remain in your present
condition,” said Thakur Haridas. He began to laugh merrily after pronouncing
this veiled benediction. The prisoners failing to comprehend the real meaning,
which is, indeed, very difficult to understand, were somewhat depressed on
hearing these words.

Haridas Thakur was thereby moved to the mood of pity and at once proceeded to
explain clearly the import of his words. “I have indeed conveyed my concealed
benediction to you all by means of those words. You feel dejected because you
do not understand this. I never bless amiss. You will understand this If you give
my words your close consideration. May the minds of all of you remain
constantly turned towards Krishna as they actually are just now. May all of you
from now jointly chant the Eternal Name of Krishna and think only of Him.
There is now no malice, no thought of oppressing any creature, in your hearts.
May you meditate on Krishna by taking His Name with all humility. If you go
into the world once more you run the risk of forgetting Him again by mixing

with the worldly people. Love for Krishna cannot co-exist with any form of
worldliness. Know it for certain that from one who is of a worldly disposition
Krishna is always very far off. The mind, that is engrossed with the pursuit of the
objects of this world, is a great nuisance. Wife, sons and all worldly objects are
the toils of delusion. All these are ‘death’. It is by Providential contrivance that
any fortunate person gains real contact with the pure devotees of Godhead and,
being thereby enabled to give up his attachment for the world, is in a position to
devote himself to the service of Krishna. All those offenses that are now absent
from your minds will once more be committed when you mix with the worldly
people. It is the nature of this world. This is the gist of all that you require to be
told for your benefit. Give it your most attentive hearing. I pronounced this great
benediction which you misunderstood. It is not my desire that you may continue
to remain in this state of captivity. Forget the world and take the Name of ‘Hari’
night and day. I pronounced this only benediction in a disguised form. Feel no
dejection, no, not even for a moment. I see all persons who are really in the
fetters of this world with the eye of pity. May all of you attain to firm devotion to
Krishna. Have no anxiety. I assure you that you will be freed from your captivity
in the course of two or three days. Whether you engage in ordinary worldly
pursuits, or wherever you be, never forget your present resolve by any means.”
Having sought to promote the true well-being of the prisoners in the above
manner Thakur Haridas proceeded on his way and duly presented himself before
the Governor of the District.

The advice to the prisoners makes the position of Thakur Haridas clearer. It is
necessary to chant the Name of Krishna, to mediate on Krishna, instead of being
engrossed in worldly pursuits. For this purpose the state of captivity is more
favourable than the state of bodily freedom, provided one is really inclined
towards Krishna. It is very difficult to remember Krishna in the midst of the
thousand and one pre-occupations of the worldly life, Krishna and worldliness
having no connection with one another, the two being perfectly incompatible. It
is never possible to serve both. A worldly-minded person can have nothing to do
with Krishna. It is never possible to worship Krishna in the intervals of
worldliness. The slightest inclination to worldliness should be impossible to a
person who is at all inclined to Krishna. It is necessary to understand clearly that
as long as the least inclination for worldliness persists in our minds there can be
no love for Krishna. The society of worldly people has this tendency of making
us wholly forget Krishna. Wife and children are cited as instances of the deadly
traps that are laid by the Delusive Energy for encompassing our ruin. The
attachment for wife and children and other worldly objects can be overcome

only by association with the sadhus. In the company of the sadhus our
attachments are deflected towards Krishna. Therefore, Haridas properly enough
exhorts the prisoners to forget the world completely and chant the Name of
Krishna night and day.

The function of the soul, who is anxious to be restored to his natural condition of
loving devotion to the Lotus Feet of Krishna, is very simple. One must willingly
turn his thoughts and activities towards Krishna. He can do so most naturally by
association with the devotees of Krishna. The devotees of Krishna always serve
Krishna and do nothing else. By adopting their life under their direction love for
Krishna is gradually aroused in the fettered soul. Attachment for the world is
automatically dispelled by the dimmest apprehension of such inclination, as
darkness is dispelled by the glow of the reflected light that harbingers the
approach of Sunrise.

The cultivation of association with the devotees is the only method of attaining
to the natural function of the soul, viz., unalloyed love for Krishna.

This inclination for the society of sadhus, which is inherent in every soul, is
liable to be rendered ineffective by association with worldly people. Pure
devotees and worldly people and worldly objects generally present
themselves simultaneously and claim our service, as rivals. We cannot choose
both. If we choose one of them we completely lose sight of the other. They are
related to one another as darkness and light. The light of this phenomenal
world imperceptibly shades off into darkness, so that it is not possible to fix a
line of real demarcation between the two. But the darkness of the non-spiritual
state has a definite line of demarcation. Until this line is passed we can
have absolutely no idea of the spiritual state. Abetter analog from this point of
view is furnished by the case of life and death. Death is not an attenuation of life.
It is the complete cessation of life. We cannot have both simultaneously. It is
not possible to mix up the two. It is also possible to ascertain perfectly the
dividing line between the two. A dying person is a living person to the last
moment that he retains his animation in however attenuated a form. When he
dies he passes completely out of life. The smallest fraction of a second makes a
complete rupture, not merely a graduated difference. A dead man cannot also
come into life again.

This is the reason why the acceptance of a person as disciple by the spiritual
guide has been called the second birth. The seminal birth does not give
the spiritual life. One is spiritually dead till the second birth. One is born a

third time on receiving the full enlightenment of diksha. The first is the
seminal birth, the second is initiation or admission for enlightenment, the third
birth is brought about when one attains to the state of actual enlightenment. The
first is the condition of spiritual death, the second is the quasi-living state, the
third is the normal living condition. One who has any real experience of life and
death cannot prefer death to life; neither can he plead for an unnatural
and impossible mixture of the two.

We must not suppose that we are asked to accept anything blindly when we are
told to accept the life that was actually led by Thakur Haridas. If any one
shouts the Name of Krishna three or any number of lakhs of times everyday
and abstains from open debauchery or detectable forms of gross worldliness,
he cannot thereby mechanically attain to the spiritual plane. It is not
mechanical, nor even mental, activities and attitudes, that we are asked to adopt.
As soon as the Name of Krishna manifests Himself to our spiritual ear we obtain
the power of vision that can distinguish between the substance and the shadow.
The shadow now no longer stands in the way of our dealings with the
substance. Those, who are under the misapprehension that the shadow is
everything and behave and think accordingly, cannot at all understand the ways
of the devotee of Godhead.

The very idea of service is incomprehensible to the material mind. The material
mind is connected by the relationship of the deluded pseudo-enjoyer to
the objects that lie exposed to the physical senses. It misconceives certain forms
of such enjoyment to be ‘service’. It thinks that its very existence is dependent
on and consists of such enjoyment. Therefore, whenever it finds anybody
behaving on a different principle it judges him, consistently enough, to be in the
wrong and his course as suicidal. While the real Truth is that the judge himself is
all the time pursuing the course that leads to death while the sadhu has his
face eternally turned towards the Life Eternal.

How can one live at all unless one eats and tries to procure food, clothing and
shelter? Thakur Haridas also, it is supposed, required all these ‘necessaries’
of life. Once this is admitted it follows that one must lead the worldly life as
a matter of course. But Thakur Haridas says that nothing is necessary
except taking the Name of Krishna. If he is asked why he himself eats, drinks,
sleeps and does other kinds of work in the same way as another person, he
simply replies that he does nothing of the kind. The objection may prefer to
believe the testimony of his senses and consider Thakur Haridas to be a

shameless liar. It is of course, perfectly open to him to do so. But even by
disbelieving Haridas he does not establish the Truth of his own contention. All
that is proved is that if both of them are assumed to tell the Truth their points of
view must be admitted to differ widely. This brings us back to a re-examination
of the bases on which they take their respective stand. If we do so without bias
we should be impressed by the conviction that the method of Thakur Haridas
may lead us to the Truth, but the method of the mentalist can never do so.

True, we may pretend to stick to that course into which we suppose we have
been born by the Will of Godhead. But what right have we to suppose that
the phenomena of birth and death themselves may not be as deceptive as any
other similar phenomenon? So the question cannot be solved if we choose
merely to stick to the testimony of our deluding senses on the ground that it
happens to be so. If it be our fore-gone conclusion to adopt that course which
seems more likely to enable us to exploit for our transitory pleasure the
questionable so-called facilities offered by this world, we do not admittedly
approach the issue for the impartial purpose of finding out the Truth before our
conclusion is declared. If by taking the Name of Krishna in the manner that is
free from offense the senses themselves are transformed why should it be still
necessary for us to obey the dictates of the old, non-spiritual faculties? If I
actually can see that it is Godhead Himself Who always feeds and clothes me,
why should I still consider it my duty to maintain it is I who feed and clothe
myself? If I clearly realize my blunder, why should it still be my duty to stick to
it? One, who tries to mechanically imitate Thakur Haridas, without possessing
his vision and purpose, should find it impossible and inconvenient to imitate
his whole conduct, as will be evident from the incident that we are going
to describe just now.

After endeavoring to compass the good of the prisoners Thakur Haridas made
his way to the presence of the Governor. The Governor was fascinated by
the extraordinary charm and force of personality of Thakur Haridas.

He accordingly offered him a seat with the greatest respect. The ruler of the
mulk himself then questioned him. The questions of the Governor have
been preserved by Thakur Brindavandas in his account of Sree Chaitanya.

The Governor said in effect, ‘Brother, what is the cause of this peculiar
disposition in you? It is no small good fortune whereby you have been born a
Yavana. Why then do you incline to the practices of the Hindus? We don’t touch
our food if we but chance to see a Hindu. Why do you give up the superiority
that accrues to you by your birth in our great race ? You behave unnaturally

by transgressing against your race and religion. You cannot hope to escape the
dire consequences of such gross offense, at any rate in the next world.

The malpractices, of which you have been guilty through ignorance, are a
sin against Godhead. By all means do get absolved form these heinous offenses
by uttering the formula (qalma) of the faith.’

Thakur Brindavandas comments on the speech of the Governor as proceeding
from a person whose judgment was stupefied by the deluding energy
of Godhead. Haridas only burst into a loud laughter, “Lo, the Deluding Power of
Vishnu !” said he, and then began to reply in a sweet manner. “Listen, dear one,
there is only one Godhead and He is the Lord of Everything. It is the
mere concocted name that makes all the difference between ‘Hindu , and
‘Yavana’.

The Veda and the Koran alike declare the summum bonum to be one and the
same for all. The one eternal entity, free from all defect, indivisible
and indestructible, occupies fully the seat of heart of everyone. All the
worlds function exactly in the way in which the one Supreme Lord guides the
minds of His servitors. It is the Name and Quality of the Selfsame Lord on
Whom all persons discourse in conformity with the declarations of their
respective Scriptures. He, Who is Godhead, takes cognizance of the disposition
that prompts the utterances of all persons. Whence I am doing exactly that
very thing to which Godhead directs my mind. It is analogous to the conduct of
a person who, being a Brahmana and born in the Hindu community,
is sometimes found to become a Yavana by his own free choice. What can
even being a Hindu avail such a person? The deeds of every person are entirely
his own concern. What is the good of killing a person who has himself
committed suicide? Good sir, judge my case accordingly. If there be no real
lapse on my part, do by all means punish me for my offense.”

These wholesome and true words of Thakur Haridas satisfied all the Yavanas
who heard them. There was, however, one solitary exception. An
ecclesiastic (kazi), who was a great offender against Godhead, now tendered
quite different advice to the Governor. He said to the Governor, “Punish this
person. This wicked one will lead many others into his folly. He will bring low
the prestige of the Yavana race. For this reason let him be punished in all
seriousness. As an alternative let him recite his own Scriptures.”

On this the Governor spoke once more to Haridas, ’’Dear brother, profess your

own Shastra and be relieved of all anxiety. If you do not do so all
the ecclesiastics will band together and punish you. You yourself will also say
your own Shastra in the long run. Then what is the good of your choosing to
be lowered in the estimation of the people?”

Haridas said, “No one can do anything else than what Godhead makes him do.

Know it as certain that it is Godhead Who awards the punishment that is the fruit
of offense committed by ourselves. If my body be hacked to pieces, if life itself
desert me, even then I will not give up the Name of Hari.”

The ruler of the place, on hearing his words, put the issue to the ecclesiastics,
“What will you do to him now ?” The Moslem ecclesiastic (kazi) gave
his verdict, “Let him be whipped at the twenty-two market-places. Take his
life without any hesitation. If he survives the beating at the twenty-two
markets, then I should he prepared to admit the truth of what the sages have
declared.”

I have tried to reproduce the actual wording of Sree Brindavandas’s account of
the famous trial of Thakur Haridas. We should now try to put ourselves into the
attitude of the saintly narrator in order to be able to understand the real meaning
of his words.

But before we proceed to do so it is necessary to offer a few remarks as regards
the canon by which the authenticity of a statement is to be tested. It is not
the practice in the conventional history to use the method of direct
narration unless the words actually spoken can be reproduced verbatim, and even
in such case it is very rarely, indeed, that recourse is had to this direct method. In
the Biographies of Sree Chaitanya penned by Thakur Brindavandas and
other contemporaries and followers the method of recording the speeches of
the actors has been used very frequently and the followers of the Lord accept
the version of the Biographies as the actual language used by Sree
Chaitanya Himself.

The value of the actual words used by the speaker is even greater in the case of
theistic history than in secular narrative. In theistic history only the actual words
of the devotees convey the furl meaning intended by them. The words are living
entities. This is the reason why these authors are so careful to give us the actual
words of the devotees whose views they record. In this connection we should

remember that the method that is being followed in the compilation of the
present work is not the empiric method of induction-cum-deduction but that of
manifestation of the Truth in the Form of the articulated Transcendental Sound.
In this method the value of every single word, actually spoken by the devotee, is
worth preserving and the original text is therefore all-important.

It is possible for the devotee of Godhead to supply us with the actual words of
the Divinity. The slightest deviation from the Divine Language is also for
the same reason detectable by the devotee. The language in the form of
direct narration is, therefore, not a departure from the Truth in this case, but
the closest adherence to Him. In the form of indirect narration the
writer’s personality is the obtruding and dominating factor. In theistic history
the personal equation should be non-existent; and, therefore, its indirect
narration should also be acceptable in proportion as it approximates the direct
form. This is also the reason why quotations of actual texts are so much
esteemed in the theistic method of narration. Sree Jiva Goswami Prabhu has
tried to clothe his highest conclusions in the language of the Scriptures. The
method of Sree Jiva Goswami is a part and parcel of his function as the real
exponent of the Absolute.

If it be urged why it is necessary also to preserve the actual words of the
opponents of the devotees, as has been done in this case, the explanation is
that the words of a person, who is adverse to Godhead, when directed to the
devotee of Godhead even by way of opposition, do no longer point to the
mundane objective and for this reason acquire special value for the instruction of
novices. Nothing can purely express one’s personality except the words spoken
by the person himself. The indirect method of narration is due to the inability of
the writer to understand the real character of a person with sufficient
distinctness. There need be no categorical distinction between the dramatic
or conversational form and that of indirect narration which has found so
great favour, by reason of its very insufficiency, in all so called serious
compositions of these days. The indirect narration is suitable as medium of
expression in the case of inanimate objects or when the narrative is intentionally
converted into a monologue. Either of these, if properly used in place of the
other, would be a deviation from the Truth, and would, therefore, be
inadmissible, unless required for the purpose of expressing the Truth.

To proceed with our narrative, the issue, that was put before the Governor by the
Kazi and used by him in punishing Thakur Haridas, is by no means so crude and

unimportant as it may appear to a moderner to whom religious toleration is
supposed to be ‘as the very breath of his nostrils’. The Kazi said that as the
Moslem community are upholders of the Truth, Who can be but One, they have
a right to convert others to their faith by any method, even by force, for the good
of all parties. In case of extreme perversity the true believer has also the
benevolent right, on the same principle, of even putting an end to the earthly
existence of a person who sets himself in opposition to the Truth, for vindicating
the supreme necessity, on the part of all lovers of the Truth, of supporting the
cause of the Truth at all costs to prevent any misunderstanding. If cognizance is
to be taken at all of any lapse from the Truth no sentence, that will not maintain
the claim of the Truth to our fullest allegiance under all circumstances, can be a
true verdict.

Those, who do not profess to be the exclusive servants of the Absolute Truth,
need find no difficulty in practicing the duty of tolerating untruth without losing
their self complaisance. But the real lover of the Absolute cannot hasten to make
terms with untruth in order to satisfy the tendency of aversion to Truth that is
eternally inherent in the very nature of the dissociable particles of the Divine
Essence, viz. , the jiva souls. The uncompromising and even violent or impatient
opposition of a lover of the Truth to all suggestions of the lower self, who is
always whispering into his ears the counsels of disloyalty, may appear to be
intolerable to one who is complacently disposed towards the pernicious
tendency, but should not be justified on this ground by those who are not also
themselves disloyal.

Thakur Haridas did not blame the Kazi and the Governor for their intolerance of
untruth but for their hallucination which led them to mistake their own disloyalty
to the Truth for the undoubtedly good quality of uncompromising loyalty.
Intolerance, said Thakur Haridas, is impossible for one who is really a lover of
Godhead. Such a person can naturally blame nobody excepting himself when he
finds anything to be wrong. There can be no activity on any plane except by the
will of Godhead. If any activity is blamed or praised it shows the disposition to
judge the doings of Godhead Himself. Any thought against any person is nothing
short of malice against Godhead Himself. The Scriptures themselves are also not
really different from one another, if they are rightly understood. Those who do
not understand their real meaning are alone disposed to differentiate between the
Scriptures and revealed forms of worship which are all directed to the One
Godhead.

The question of religious toleration is a matter of the highest practical
importance. Those who maintain the doctrine of intolerance of untruth can only
be properly answered by the higher doctrine of the realization of the Hand of the
Supreme Lord in everything, except in the matter of the individual judgment.

The soul can really do no wrong. Godhead is solely responsible for all activities
of the world. The soul can be deluded and, in the state of delusion only, he can
imagine right and wrong. This deluded condition is full of misery for the soul
himself; and for this he should be an object of pity. The deluded soul is, however
deluded also by the Will of Godhead. Therefore, the delusion cannot be blamed.
The cause of the deluded state is inherent in the jiva soul as the necessary
condition of his dissociable individual existence.

It is, no doubt, necessary to get rid of the deluded state. But it is not possible to
bring this about by a policy of violence. As soon as one is disposed to be
violent he is subjected by his own activity to the delusion that he, or anybody
else except Godhead, is responsible for the ordering of this world. And if
one persists in acting under such delusion he is himself deluded by his own
acts. This is the meaning of the Koran. Those who imagine that the delusion is
cured by putting the unbeliever to death, are themselves deluded. The only way,
in which one can help both oneself and others, is by trying to avoid falling
under the delusion that anybody except Godhead can do anything either good or
bad. There is nothing good or bad but our disloyal thinking makes it so.

The policy of real toleration is not inconsistent with, but on the other hand
indispensable for, the relation of the true service of Godhead. The toleration, that
is disposed to dally with untruth is inconsistent with loyalty, is really due to
aversion to the Truth, and is, therefore, more disastrous in its consequences than
intolerance of untruth which it pretends to condemn.

The policy of sincere intolerance of untruth, although it is better than disloyal
tolerance of untruth, is thus itself a mischievous delusion. The chaste and
loyal wife may consider it her duty not only to cut off the connection with
all unchaste women but to revile and punish them for their misconduct. But
if those unchaste women could be reclaimed by a policy of milder firmness
their husbands would have real cause to thank this loyal wife of another person
for her benevolent and really kind disposition. This would certainly be no
neglect of her duty towards her own husband.

We crave the kind indulgence of the reader to tolerate an unhappy metaphor to

elucidate the position of the loyal servant of Krishna which cannot be
fully explained by our defective vocabulary. The unchaste wives, in the case
of spiritual service, have really also no other husbands than Krishna. They
are, therefore, the co-wives of the loyal matron. It should, therefore, be a duty of
the chaste wife towards her Husband to try her best to reclaim the unchaste
ladies. If the chaste wife does not do this she is herself proved to be disloyal to
her Husband to that extent.

Krishna is not pleased by the malice of loveless fanatics any more than by the
covert disloyalty of pseudo-latitudinarians. Fanaticism is due to ignorance of the
Perfect Nature of Krishna and of our common relationship with Him. It is also a
proof of our want of faith in the Dispensation of the Supreme Lord. It is of
course absolutely necessary to keep wholly aloof from all unbelievers in
the matter of loyalty to Krishna. But this should be coupled with the desire
to benefit the deluded souls by trying to win them over to the service of Krishna.

This duty, as the present episode shows, cannot be neglected with impunity
without producing the most tragic results. The fanatical Kazi could dupe
those who were maliciously disposed like himself to join with him in
practicing terrible oppression on a devoted servant of Godhead, on the strength
of a narrow interpretation of certain texts of the Koran condemnatory of
association with unbelievers. Those passages, if rightly understood, are a
condemnation of disloyalty to Godhead. But malice towards any creature, as
Thakur Haridas took care to point out, is malice against Godhead Himself and
such disloyalty is not less condemnable than any of the other more familiar
forms of that pernicious tendency.

Loyalty to Krishna necessarily means perfect toleration, nay perfect positive
good will, towards all creatures good and bad. Nothing less than this can
satisfy Krishna. But perfect toleration or good-will towards the misguided soul
need not be perversely supposed to mean either toleration or sympathy for
the motive that lies behind the conduct of such a person. There can be
no toleration of the tendency to untruth. There must be perfect toleration of
the activities of misguided persons as Krishna does not cherish any ill-will
against them, nay permits those activities with the object of effecting their
reclamation thereby. Loyalty to Krishna should express itself by serving the
perfect goodwill of Krishna towards all creatures and realizing the Mercy of
Godhead in the activities, as distinct from the motive, of even those persons who
are most averse to Krishna. Those, who find fault with the activities of

unbelievers from malice, forget that those activities are possible only by the
Sanction of Krishna and that by one’s malicious opposition of those activities it
is Krishna against Whom our malice is really directed. That this must be so is
proved by the fiendish persecution that was now launched against Thakur
Haridas.

Therefore, the excuse that, as it is not possible to distinguish between a believer
and unbeliever except by conduct and profession and as it is our duty to Krishna
to discourage disloyalty to Him by all means in our power, the persecution of
Haridas can be defended as being due to a strong sense of loyalty to Godhead, is
wholly untenable. Krishna can be properly served only when we possess the
knowledge of His Real Nature. Krishna does not want us to discourage
disloyalty to Him by hypocritically or maliciously opposing His wise and
benevolent method for the reclamation of disloyal persons. In other
words, fanaticism is the result of culpable ignorance due to a radically disloyal
and unserving disposition. Recourse to violence, either physical, mental or
spiritual, is directly opposed to the Purpose of Krishna, because violence is
powerless against the soul who, being the essence of Krishna, possesses His
perfect freedom of will. The freedom of will of the soul is indestructible. He can
be reclaimed only by an appeal to his judgment and free will. Those, who
advocate the policy of violence, are far away from Krishna and perfectly
ignorant of the nature of their own selves.

Faith in Krishna is the natural attitude of the pure soul. Fanaticism is the
hypocritical and malicious caricature of spiritual faith by the soul in the state
of utter delusion. Fanaticism, being essentially an attitude of opposition
to Krishna, is also necessarily intolerant of all loyal servants of the Supreme
Lord. It is not by accident that the fanatics crucified Jesus. The fanatics can
never tolerate the good-will of Krishna towards all His creatures. They pretend
to show their love ( ?) for Krishna by hating His loved ones.

The fanatics are bound to hate everybody because they really hate the Supreme
Lord Himself. They, therefore, also hate those who are averse to Krishna,
not from a sense of loyalty to Krishna but, because they themselves are
unmindful of the service of Krishna and want everybody to serve them.
Fanaticism always kindles counter-fanaticism in those of its victims who happen
to be equally averse to Krishna. But it is powerless to move the servant of
Godhead to thoughts of malice against his deluded oppressors.

By command of the Governor wicked ruffians laid violent hands on Thakur
Haridas. They beat him most ferociously from market to market to put an end to
the least sign of life. Haridas remembered to repeat the Name of Krishna. There
was no manifestation of bodily pain by the bliss of the Name. All good men
experienced boundless grief on witnessing the utmost severity of the beating that
was inflicted on the person of Haridas. Some apprehended the ruin of the whole
kingdom from such treatment of a good person in view of the people. Others
openly expressed their indignation against King and Minister. There was some
display of actual violent opposition also. Intimidation was combined with the
offer of bribes to soften the harshness of those ruffians. But all was to no
purpose. They beat him severely from market to market. Haridas did not
experience the least bodily pain by the Grace of Krishna, even under such
ferocious castigation. Thakur Brindavandas compares his condition to that of the
great devotee, the child Prahlada, who passed unscathed through all
hurt inflicted by the atheists (asuras). The writer assures his readers that
inasmuch as one, who remembers Haridas, is thereby delivered completely from
the possibility of all bodily pain, it is no wonder that Haridas himself was
also perfectly immune from all such pain on this occasion.

Those, who suppose that the above is the exaggerated version of a petty incident,
or may be disposed to minimize or explain away its real significance, are
perfectly free to do so. It is not also impossible to adduce instances of
the marvelous powers of endurance of the worst of criminals under
deserved chastisement. The story of Prahlada may itself be dismissed as a
concoction of the fertile imagination of writers who find a senile pleasure only in
praising deeds of transcendental performances. The sedulous cultivation of a
taste for the super-natural is also supposed to be that unfortunate trait in the
Indian character that distinguishes the Hindus even in the twentieth century from
the saner peoples of every other part of the world. It is for this reason that
foreign writers, who are really well-disposed towards the Indians, find
themselves at the end of their resources to invent a suitable apology for this
favourite defect of the narrators of the Indian spiritual traditions that are
cherished with the utmost tenacity and reverence by this strange people.

If instead of allowing ourselves to be obsessed by our indigenous or foreign
prejudices we stop to consider seriously the version of the event from the pen of
the contemporaneous writer in order to arrive at the truth that he is anxious to
impress on our minds, we should not fail to be struck by certain very remarkable
points in the above narrative. In the first place it is evidently not the intention of

the writer to arouse animosity against the Yavanas. Had this been his real object
he would not have taken the trouble of insisting on the point that Haridas
actually suffered no pain. Neither could it also be the object of the writer to
praise Haridas for his courage or power of endurance. In fact he does not want to
praise any worldly merit or condemn any worldly demerit. He is wholly
indifferent to such issues which alone possess any interest for the secular
historian.

Thakur Brindavandas is trying to understand the experiences of Haridas in terms
of his own. What he means to say in effect is this: ‘I, who have been immune
from all bodily pain by the mere recollection of Haridas, am in a position to
testify to the fact that neither he nor Prahlada can ever really be subject to bodily
pain’. So it is necessary to understand what the writer really means. If it be asked
why others are not similarly relieved of their sufferings by the mere recollection
of Haridas? Why were not those people, who had an opportunity of actually
witnessing all these events, instantly relieved of all anxiety on his account by the
very sight of him, which should not be regarded as less than recollection?

Thakur Brindavandas could realize that the devotee of Krishna is not a convict
who is put in the prison of this world of three dimensions like ordinary
worldly people. The difficulties of three dimensions are automatically solved on
the plane of four dimensions although this may pass the understanding of
those who are privileged to have a view of events on the plane of four
dimensions from their platform of three dimensions without being able to dive
into their real meaning. By taking the Name of Krishna one is relieved from all
worldly sufferings. If one chooses to stick to his platform of three dimensions
he cannot, merely by uttering the word Krishna, avoid the sufferings of this
world. The sufferings of the body are a part and parcel of the phenomenal world.
The soul does not belong to the phenomenal world and is, therefore, not subject
to bodily sufferings. This is logical. But how can this be actually realized
in practice? It can be realized in this world by only one method, viz., by
uttering constantly the spiritual Name of Krishna. This is Divinely ordained as
there cannot be any mere logical way out of this insuperable difficulty.

The devotee of Krishna is relieved from all bodily and mental suffering by the
realization of his natural condition, viz., that of the soul. The tree is to be judged
by its fruit. If by uttering the Name of Krishna one is not wholly relieved from
all worldly trouble he cannot claim to have succeeded in taking the Holy Name.

It is only the pure soul who can really utter the Name of Krishna. It is only by

uttering the name of Krishna, by listening to the same from the lips of a devotee,
that one can attain to one’s natural spiritual condition when alone he is fit to take
the Name of Krishna. It is only by getting out of the sphere of three dimensions
or any dimensions that all unwholesomeness can be finally, logically and
naturally eliminated.

Those, who pray to Godhead to give them the power of endurance under trial;
commit a great blunder. Those, who pray to be permitted to serve Godhead
on the plane of the Absolute by His causeless grace, alone pray truly. Prayer
means unconditional reliance on the Grace of Godhead. The Grace of Godhead
is perfectly wholesome and need not be reminded of our wrong aspirations by
the method of selfish, criminal insistence for their dire fulfillment. Those who
pray in order to gain any object of their present ambition, do not pray at all in
the Scriptural sense. The Grace of Godhead will revolutionize our limited
outlook and impart other ambitions than those that are giving us such
interminable and unrelievable trouble.

Those ruffians and on-lookers, who were interested in the fate of Haridas, were
all of them equally misguided in supposing that a devotee is subject to
bodily sufferings like themselves. It is to prove by his teaching as well as
conduct that he is not subject to any worldly suffering, that Thakur Haridas was
displaying those activities in order to induce them to believe in the absolute
Truth of what he taught. He, who has himself attained to real immunity from all
suffering, is the proper person to be approached as a teacher of the true method
for attaining to the free state. Those ruffians and on-lookers were
apparently innocent of any such purpose, except a very few who were led to
reflect seriously on the real meaning for themselves of those events.

So the mere sight of a Vaishnava under the impression that he is only a mortal,
or the mere recollection of a Vaishnava viewed as a mortal, are
properly speaking not seeing or recollecting him at all. The Vaishnava can be
really seen and recollected only on the plane of the Absolute by the pure eye of
faith possessed by the soul in the state of Grace. The recollection of such a sight
has the efficacy of freeing from all difficulties. The endeavour to attain such
sight and recollection is the spiritual practice available to the novice by the grace
of the spiritual teacher. The process of spiritual novitiate under a pure devotee
is not ignored by the words of Thakur Brindavandas. The novitiate itself
being also spiritual in character cannot be attained in this Iron Age except by
the method of perfect submission to the teachings of Thakur Haridas and of

those who are privileged to see as well as remember him as he really is. He is
the Acharyya of this Age of Evil. By following his teaching and practice one can
be easily freed from every difficulty. There is no other way of our final and
true liberation.

Chapter 21 Thakur Haridas (Contd.)

Thakur Haridas experienced only one kind of pain while he was undergoing
ferocious beating at the hands of the minions of the Moslem Governor. He felt
sorry for those sinners who were involved in this terrible offense against himself.
He prayed to Krishna to do him this Favour that those miscreants might not incur
the Divine Displeasure by reason of their ferocious cruelty towards himself.

Those Yavanas, however, continued to beat him severely from marketplace to
market-place with the resolve of putting an end to his life. They beat him with all
the strength they had. Haridas had no memory of his mental body and was
perfectly immune from any sensation of suffering which was actually inflicted
on his physical body. Neither did he die. The Yavanas now experienced a sense
of surprise in their minds. They thought in this way, ‘ Can the life of a mortal
survive such beating? The life of a man is extinguished by beating at two, or at
most three, market-places. We have already beat him at no less than twenty-two
market-places. Not only does he not die, but, the wonder of all wonders, he
actually smiles now and then. All of them were filled with a terrible misgiving. “
Was this person after all the Pir that people claim him to be?”

At last the Yavanas put their own plight before Thakur Haridas. They said,
‘“Haridas! you will be the cause of the death of all of us. We have beaten you to
the best of our ability. But although we are fatigued to death by our severe
exertions life still refuses to quit your body. It will now be the turn of the Kazi to
punish us. He will take the lives of all of us.”

This pathetic and strange protest made Thakur Haridas laugh as he said, “If my
being alive be the cause of mishap to all of you, mark me well, I will die just
now before your eyes.” Saying so Thakur Haridas became absorbed in
the contemplation of Krishna. Haridas, observes Thakur Brindavandas, is
possessed of all power. He became perfectly inert and there was no sign of the
breathing activities in any part of his body.

The sight of this phenomenon filled the Yavanas with great astonishment. They
conveyed Thakur Haridas to the steps of the entrance of the Governor’s
residence. The Governor then gave the command, “ Let him have a burial.” The
Kazi opposed. He said, “ He will fare well after death if he is given the benefit of
burial. Being born in a superior faith he stooped to accept a low creed. He should

be dealt with in accordance with the gravity of the offense. It will benefit his
soul if his body is allowed a burial. Let his body be, therefore, cast into the river
so that he may be doomed to eternal misery.”

At these words of the Kazi all the Yavanas caught hold of the body of Thakur
Haridas with intent to cast him into the Ganges. Thakur Haridas now sat upright
in the bliss of Divine contemplation and as he did so Viswambhar Who upholds
the whole world, manifested His Presence in his body. The Presence of
Viswambhar made it out of the question for any one to move the body of Thakur
Haridas. Mighty men pushed the body from every side. Lord Haridas remained
immovable like a great tower. Haridas had been perfectly immersed in the deep
nectarine Ocean of Krishna-bliss and there had been no manifestation of any
external consciousness. Haridas had not known whether he was on dry ground,
in the air above the ground or in the water of the Ganges. The devotion to
Krishna, manifested in the recollection of Krishna by Prahlada, is the only
parallel to that of Thakur Haridas. Thakur Haridas’s conduct is also comparable
to that of Hanuman, the servant of Sree Ramachandra, who submitted to be
fettered by the Rakshashas of his own accord, out of deference to Brahma. It is
in the like spirit that Haridas accepted the beating of the Yavanas, for the
instruction of the world. That teaching is to be found in his words, “ If my
sufferings know no end, if life itself leaves my body, yet will I not give up
uttering the Name of Hari with my mouth.” This constant loyalty to the Name is
the teaching of this most wonderful exhibition of devotion by Thakur Haridas. Is
it otherwise possible for any one to attempt any harm against Haridas whose
Protector is Govinda Himself ? All suffering is instantly ended by the
recollection of Thakur Haridas. How can, therefore, any suffering be inflicted on
Haridas himself ? Let no one doubt that Haridas is verily the Iswara (Divine
Ruler) of the world, one of the foremost of the greatest associates of Chaitanya-
Chandra Himself.

Then Thakur Haridas exhibited the leela of being cast into the water of the
Ganges by the Yavanas and lay afloat on the bosom of the holy stream. By the
Will of Godhead Thakur Haridas soon regained his external consciousness. He
then came out of the water and got to the bank of the river experiencing all the
while the fullness of the transcendental bliss. In that manner he came on to the
town of Fulia continuing to chant loudly the Name of Krishna.

The Yavanas, as they witnessed this wonderful exhibition of his power, were
cured of their malice against him and their minds were purified. All bowed to

him with humility, being convinced that he was, indeed, the Pir. All these
Yavanas thus received their deliverance. When Thakur Haridas recovered his
external consciousness he found the Moslem Governor in presence of him. This
made Thakur Haridas smile as he was moved to mercy. The
Governor reverentially responded, with palms joined in the act of supplication,

“I now know most certainly that you are a great Pir. You have realized the
knowledge of the One. People claim to be in touch with the Supreme Soul, to
possess the knowledge of Him. But they only use their mouths to utter empty
words. You have alone attained the realization in very truth. I have personally
come down here to have a sight of you. Have mercy on me, great one. May you
be pleased to forgive an my offenses. All are equal in your sight. You have
neither friend nor foe. There is no person in all the three worlds who can know
what you are.

May you proceed auspiciously anywhere of your own free choice and continue
to stay in your solitary cell on the bank of the Ganges. You may abide
at whatever place you choose and do whatever you like at your own sweet will.”

Commenting on this change of heart of his oppressors Thakur Brindavandas
observes that if even those Yavana miscreants could forget their animosity at the
sight of the holy feet of Thakur Haridas what to speak of those people who are
endowed with a natural goodness of disposition ? The change of heart was,
indeed, quite marvelous. Those Yavanas had come forward in the greatest anger
to beat him to death. They recognized him as Pir and threw themselves at his feet
in the end. Thakur Haridas bestowed on the Yavanas his glance of mercy as he
came on to Fulia.

Thakur Haridas now presented himself again to the assembly of the Brahmanas
of Fulia, in the act of chanting the Name of Hari with a loud voice. As they
caught sight of Thakur Haridas, those Brahmanas of Fulia experienced in their
minds the bliss that transcends all joys of this world. Those
Brahmanas spontaneously burst into chanting the Name of Hari. Haridas danced
with joy in their midst.

The spiritual perturbations of Haridas pass all attempt at description. There were
manifest tears, shivering, laughter, swooning, horripilation, thundering
ejaculation. Haridas would often tumble down headlong on the ground by the
melting quality of the liquid mellowness of love. The Brahmanas swam on the
current of a great joy on seeing these edifying exhibitions of love. As Haridas

became quiet and sat still after a while the Brahmanas also seated themselves in
a circle round him.

Haridas then spoke these words to the Brahmanas, “ O ye Brahmanas, cherish no
sorrow on my account. This has been condign punishment for me who have
heard endless blasphemy against the Lord. It has been all very well, indeed. It
has been a source of very great satisfaction to me that the Lord has been pleased
to pardon a great offense by awarding such light punishment. One is doomed to
the sufferings of the lowest Hell by the offense of listening to blasphemy against
Vishnu. With my vile ears I have heard a good deal of the same. The Lord has
awarded the just punishment for that offense, so that it may not be committed by
me again.” In this manner Haridas passed the time in the company of those
Brahmanas in the great joy of the congregational chant of Hari. While all those
Yavanas, who had given him pain, were utterly ruined. They were destroyed
with their families in a short time.

Haridas now lived in his cell in the bank of the Ganges. He lived in seclusion by
constant recollection of Krishna. He took three lakhs of the Holy Name
everyday. The cave became to him even as the realm of Vaikuntha. Inside that
cave there also lived a huge serpent. The extremely venomous quality of
its poison vitiated the atmosphere of the cave so that no one could bear
the burning sensation that was experienced on entering the cave. None of
those, who came to have a sight of Thakur Haridas, could bear to stay in the
cave.

They all felt the burning effect of the most virulent poison. But Haridas on his
part was not aware of it at all. All those Brahmanas then met together and talked
about it among themselves. They could not understand why there was such a
great burning sensation in the cell of Haridas.

There lived in Fulia persons who were skilled in the treatment of poisoning by
snake-bite. They made the discovery that the sensation was due to the presence
of some extremely venomous snake within the cave. They informed the people
about it and said that it was advisable for Thakur Haridas to quit the cave
without delay and shift to some safe place. Accordingly the people went up to
Thakur Haridas and implored him earnestly to leave that cave. But Thakur
Haridas said that he did not experience any inconvenience personally, although
he had been there for a very long time. However, if they really felt it to be
unbearable he was willing to move out of the cave the next day if the serpent did

not shift elsewhere by that time, provided he was there at all, adding, ‘that there
was, however, no cause for any anxiety’ and bade them to proceed with Krishna
talk.

As the people continued their auspicious discourse about Krishna a most
wonderful event came to pass then and there. On hearing that Haridas was to
leave the cave the great serpent at once quitted his abode. In the approaching
gloom of that very evening the huge reptile came out of its hole and moved off
from the cell in the view of all the people. It was a most beautiful creature, most
wonderful to see and most deadly, spotted with yellow, blue, and white. A great
gem burnt on the top of its hood. The Brahmanas were struck with a great fear at
the sight of the serpent and involuntarily recollected the Name of Krishna As the
serpent left the place there was no longer any trace of the burning sensation that
its presence had caused.

The Brahmanas felt a great joy on being relieved of the presence of the brute in
that wonderful manner. They conceived a great regard for Thakur Haridas on
witnessing this exhibition of his great power. It is a small proof of the power of
Thakur Haridas that the huge snake left the place at his mere word. By the very
sight of Thakur Haridas the bondage of nescience is snapped at once. Krishna
does not oppose the word of Thakur Haridas.

The above incident is recorded in the work of Thakur Brindavandas. Another
story regarding the greatness of Thakur Haridas is also recorded ~y the same
writer. It runs as follows:—

One day at the residence of a wealthy person of Fulia a certain snakebite healer
was performing a musical dance when Thakur Haridas arrived there by accident
and stood on one side to witness the dance. There now appeared the Prince of the
Nagas, by the force of the Mantra taking its effect, in the person of the dancing
snake-bite healer and began to dance m that human form. He sang in a loud key
the moving song of pity of the Dance that was enacted by the Lord of dancers in
the Lake of Kaliya. On hearing the Song of Glory of his own Lord, Haridas fell
down in a swoon and there was no sign of breath in any part of his body.
Regaining his consciousness in a short time he gave expression to his joy in
thundering ejaculations and began to dance rapturously in an infinite variety of
figures.

The snake-bite healer on beholding the spiritual possession of Thakur Haridas

stood still on one side of the arena. Thakur Haridas rolled on the ground decked
in the wonderful manifestations of tears, horripilation and shivering. The great
Thakur Haridas was filled with the Presence of Krishna by listening to the chant
of the Goodness of his Lord and burst into weeping. All the assembled people
now sang the chant of Krishna, forming a ring round Haridas. The snake-bite
healer looked on from one side with the palms of his hands joined in the attitude
of humble supplication.

The spiritual trance of Haridas lasted for a short time. On its termination the
snake-bite healer resumed his dance. All the people were filled with great joy by
witnessing the trance of Thakur Haridas. All the people now began to rub their
bodies with the dust of every place that was touched by the feet of Thakur
Haridas.

There happened to be present in that crowd a hypocritical Brahmana who now
conceived the fancy of performing a similar dance, under the impression that
‘foolish uncivilized people evince the highest devotion for even an insignificant
person if he but dances.’ As soon as this thought flashed across the brain of this
Brahmana he forthwith fell prostrate on the ground and appeared as if bereft of
all power of movement. But no sooner did he fall in this manner inside the arena
of the performance of the dance of the snake-bite healer than the latter at once
began to beat him violently in a frenzy of anger.

He began to beat him so ferociously on the head and shoulders and on all sides
of his body with his big cane that the Brahmana was in imminent danger
of being killed outright by the violence of his repeated blows. The
Brahmana, groaning with pain under the merciless caning, fled from the spot
screaming “Oh father!” Thereafter the snake-bite healer danced for a long while
feeling all along a great delight.

This strange conduct of the snake-bite healer filled the people with a great
curiosity. With palms joined in supplication they begged the snake-bite healer to
tell them the cause of his unnatural behaviour. “ Tell us why” they asked, “ you
beat this Brahmana. and stood with your palms joined while Haridas danced. We
wish to hear all about it from your own lips.”

Thereupon the Naga, devotee of Vishnu, began to speak as follows, through the
mouth of that snake-bite healer. “ What you have asked is, indeed, a great
mystery and one that is not to be divulged. Yet I will assuredly tell you about the

same. On beholding the spiritual trance of Thakur Haridas all of you showed in a
special manner your great devotion towards him. This Brahmana watched your
conduct and through sheer malice tumbled on the ground to make a hypocritical
display of devotion. But no one has power to disturb the joy of my dance by any
malicious performance. Inasmuch as he falsely set himself up to caricature the
devotional perturbations of Haridas I have inflicted this severe punishment on
him. The idea by which this wicked Brahmana was led to act the part of a
hypocrite was that people might be thereby deceived to honour him as a great
personage. His only object was self-advertisement by means of an exhibition of
seemingly pious activity. Such arrogant people have no love for Krishna. One
may obtain the devotional aptitude to Krishna if only one is perfectly free from
all desire to deceive. You have witnessed the dance of Haridas. Those, who have
the good fortune of ever beholding his dance, are wholly relieved from the
bondage of the world. Krishna Himself dances when Haridas dances. The whole
world is sanctified by the sight of his dance. He is, indeed, deservedly named
‘the servant of Hari.’ Krishnachandra eternally dwells in his heart. He is a lover
of every entity, is the benefactor of all, appearing in the Company of the Lord
Himself in every birth. He is free from offense against Vishnu and the
Vaishnavas. His vision does not stray to the wrong path even in sleep. The soul,
who finds his company for the fraction of a moment, verily gains the Refuge of
the Lotus Feet of Krishna. The highest souls such as Brahma, Shiva, etc.,
experience a great exultation of heart if they chance to be favoured by the
company of a devotee like Haridas. He has appeared in an inferior race in order
to prove the utter worthlessness of birth and lineage for the purpose of
worshipping Krishna. All the Scriptures declare that if the devotee of Vishnu
makes his appearance in the lowest of families he is still the only person who is
fit to be honoured. If one, who is born of the highest lineage, do not serve
Krishna, he is doomed to perdition, his high birth being of no avail. In order to
bear testimony to the truth of those declarations of the Veda Haridas appeared in
a family of the lowest social standing. Just as Prahlada is a demon, Hanuman a
monkey, so is Haridas a low-born person, only in name The celestials covet the
touch of Haridas. The Ganges herself desires the immersion of Haridas in her
sacred stream. It is not necessary to touch but only to have a sight of Haridas, to
be relieved for-good from the bondage of the eternal chain of one’s fruitive
activities. If I go on speaking for hundreds of years it would not be possible for
me to reach the limit of his greatness. You are most fortunate. It is for the sake of
such as you that this imperfect account of his glory has manifested itself on my
lips. He who takes the name of Haridas only once, will assuredly attain to the
Realm of Krishna.” The King of the Nagas lapsed into silence after delivering

the above discourse. The good people were satisfied on hearing this wonderful
speech. The great Naga, who is the eternal devotee of Vishnu, made known in
this manner the nature of the spiritual perturbations of Haridas. All people were
already well-disposed towards Thakur Haridas. They were most highly delighted
on learning these things about him from the mouth of the Naga.

These performances of Thakur Haridas may be ordinarily supposed to belong to
the class of events that are called miracles in the theology of certain creeds. But
they are not supernatural occurrences in the sense of being immune from the
operation of the laws of physical Nature for no other reason than that they are
the performances of possessors of superior power. Like his immunity from
physical and mental suffering under severe castigation at the hands of
the Yavanas, the conduct of Haridas towards the serpent, his dance,
perturbations and trances are only expressions of his great love for Krishna.

They are justified and explained properly by the laws of spiritual love which
transcend, and by transcending fulfill, the imperfect and essentially
unwholesome laws of physical Nature.

The cudgeling of the hypocritical Brahmana is similarly an exhibition of love for
Godhead on the part of the snake-bite healer; while the barbarous behaviour of
the Yavanas towards Haridas is an act of hatred against the Divinity
notwithstanding the Scriptural language in which it was sought to be clothed by
the Kazi. It is not the external appearance of an act that constitutes its spiritual
worth. In the one case an act of apparent cruelty is to be justly regarded as the
exhibition of unalloyed devotion to the Tmth; in the other case an externally
identical act against Thakur Haridas is to be justly condemned as it proceeded
from sheer malice and cruelty of disposition. So it is not the external appearance
that determines the spiritual quality of an act.

But it is much more difficult to prove, to the satisfaction of atheists, how love for
Krishna can be the sole criterion of spiritual activity. Haridas Thakur cares only
to act under the impulse of love for Krishna in all situations. It is only for this
reason and for no other that his conduct is to be regarded as spiritual. The
relation to Krishna is the only condition by which to distinguish spiritual from
non-spiritual conduct.

Spiritual conduct is beneficial to the person practicing it as well as to those who
are in anyway brought within its influence. Any form of conduct, which is
devoid of reference to Krishna, is bound to be equally and altogether harmful to

all parties concerned. It is this consideration which lifts the activities, of the
theist above the level of the so-called moral conduct, which is related to a
standard of duty towards others independently of the exclusive reference to the
Divinity.

The dance, the trance, the horripilation and other perturbations also belong to the
category of spiritual activities that are supremely beneficial for all concerned
because of their exclusive reference to Krishna. If a hungry man is fed by the
birds at the command of another person, the latter may be credited with the
possession of extraordinary power for removing physical suffering; but such
conduct should not, therefore, be called also spiritual, although it may be moral
in the empiric, i.e, worldly sense which that term has come to acquire quite
wrongly at the hands of empiric exponents of ethical ( ?) conduct unconnected
with Godhead. The theistic point of view cannot logically recognize the
possibility of any person being really benefited by any activity that has no direct,
conscious and sole reference to Godhead.

The conduct of the hypocritical Brahmana is on a par with that of the Kazi who
ordered that Thakur Haridas should be beaten to death for taking the Name of
Hari. Hypocrisy and fanaticism are not far removed from one another as regards
genesis. The reference to Krishna may be, and, as a matter of fact, often is,
intended to cover a selfish purpose. The Kazi wanted to punish Haridas for a
political and racial reason. The Brahmana sought his own fame and also to spite
Thakur Haridas. These motives have nothing to do with Krishna Who is the
Absolute Truth Himself in Whom there can be no scope for malice
or narrowness. The apparently harsh conduct of the snakebite healer towards
the hypocritical Brahmana is an act of mercy, solely because it is prompted
by exclusive regard for the servant of Krishna.

If Krishna Himself is conceived in any narrow sense any reference to such false
concept of the corrupt brain of man will not also make one’s conduct spiritual.
Krishna does not owe His Nature to the particular conception of the person who
wants to be related to him. There is only one way in which one’s relationship
with Krishna may be really established, viz., by the resolve of single-hearted
devotion to the Truth Absolute combined necessarily with the equally single-
hearted resolve to eschew all association with non-Krishna. Any act, that
expresses these complementary characteristics, is alone entitled to be designated
as spiritual conduct. Partiality for any really narrow conception, by merely
calling the same Krishna, will not enable a person to escape the punishment that

is due to the enjoyment of non Krishna, any more than any other form of covert
hostility to the Truth.

The kind and forbearing attitude of Thakur Haridas towards the offending
Yavanas must not also be praised for its quality of toleration of any form or
degree of untruth. Thakur Haridas did not pity the Yavanas for the reason that
they were not responsible for their ignorance. Haridas knew that ignorance is
really identical with aversion to Krishna, and he had, therefore no motive to find
any excuse for their hostility to Truth. All, that he desired to express, was that his
own punishment was fully deserved and not that the unpardonable aversion to
Krishna, that was openly displayed by the Kazi and his myrmidons, did not
deserve to be punished. He was silent on this last point.

Thakur Haridas passed his days in the performance of the chant of the Name till
the period when Sree Gaurachandra at last began to manifest His Leela of
bestowing loving devotion to Krishna on the people of this world. The world
stood in extreme need of the Manifestation of Divine Mercy in His highest
perfection. In all parts of the country all the people were altogether lacking in
devotion to Vishnu. No one knew that there could be such a thing at all as the
Kirtana of Krishna. Not only was there no sign of any spirit of devotion to
Vishnu in any part of the country but it was the public fashion to ridicule the
Vaishnavas. The attitude of hostility and contempt towards the Vaishnavas was
universal, there being no exception to the rule. This state of public feeling
compelled the Vaishnavas to sing the Name of Sree Krishna by clap of hand only
among themselves. Even this modest activity proved too much for the patience
of those wicked people. The atheists hurled their invectives against the
Vaishnavas, whenever they met one of themselves.

The grievance of those people against the Vaishnavas have been recorded by
Thakur Brindavandas in many passages of his work and we have already
referred to them at several places of this Narrative. Here are a few additional
samples of the ordinary charges that were brought against the Vaishnavas by
their implacable enemies. ‘These Brahmanas will bring ruin upon the country.’
‘These Brahmanas resort to various devices in the shape of singing the Name
with excessive display of sentimentality, in order only to live by begging.’ ‘The
Lord sleeps during the four months of the rainy season. Is it meet to call upon
Him with a loud voice at all time? If the sleep of the Lord is broken by their
noise He will be most angry and afflict the country with famine. There can be no
doubt of this.’ There were not a few who said, ‘If the price of paddy is found to

increase ever so little we will make our fists familiar with the shoulders of these
miscreants . 5 Some opined that ‘it is indeed fit to chant loudly the Name of
Govinda by keeping awake during the night of the eleventh day of the lunar
fortnight. What is the use of uttering the Name everyday ? 5 This was the utmost
concession that the best disposed people of the society were prepared to make to
the Vaishnavas, although the people in general did by no means endorse such a
policy of undeserved indulgence towards them.

The devotees felt sorely grieved at heart by hearing night and day all these
blasphemies, but no one of them ceased to chant loudly the Name of Krishna
in the company of the Vaishnavas. Haridas was also filled with sorrow
on beholding the absence of any regard for the communion of devotion in
the people. Yet Haridas continued to chant his Lord with a loud voice
and employed his mouth exclusively to this supreme function. But the loud chant
of Hari even by Thakur Haridas proved unbearable to certain extremely
wicked sinners.

A certain wicked Brahmana, who belonged to the village of Harinadi, angrily
protested against his practice. “Haridas 55 said he, “what is this that you are
doing? What is the reason of your uttering the Name with such a loud voice? It is
enjoined by the religion that the Name is to be taken mentally without being
audible. What Scriptures tell you of addressing Godhead by calling upon His
Name with a loud voice? By whose teaching is the Name of Hari recited with a
loud voice? Let this assembly of the Pandits judge what you have got to say to
this . 55

Haridas said, “You are all Pandits and well versed in the Scriptures. You must
know very well all the reasons in favour of this method. You are also well aware
of the greatness of the Name of Hari. In reply to your question I can only repeat
what I have heard from the Pandits such as you are yourselves. If the Name is
uttered with a loud voice no offense is committed. On the other hand the
excellence of the process is augmented a hundredfold if me Name is uttered with
a loud voice. This is declared by the Scriptures. The particular text of
the Scriptures I refer to, is as follows,— ‘by uttering (the Name) with a loud
voice the excellence is augmented a hundred-fold . 5

The Brahmana asked, “What is the reason that the meritorious effect is increased
a hundred-fold by uttering the Name with a loud voice?”

Haridas proceeded to explain, “Listen, revered Sir” said he, “the reason of it as
given in the Veda and the Bhagavatam,. All the Scriptures
manifested themselves on the holy lips of Thakur Haridas. He was impelled to
expound by the joy of Krishna bliss. “Hear, O Vipra” said Thakur Haridas, “by
listening to-the Name of Krishna, only once, beasts, birds and insects find
unobstructed passage to the Holy Realm of Vaikuntha. Here is my text. “What is
the wonder of the brute (serpent) being delivered by the touch of the Feet of
Krishna, by the taking of Whose-Name the person uttering the same is at once
sanctified among with all those who listen to him?, The beasts, birds, insects,
etc., cannot utter the Name of Hari. They are saved as soon as they chance to
hear the Name. If the Name of Sree Krishna is taken mentally only the person
taking the Holy Name is saved thereby. By chanting the Name with a loud voice
the chanter benefits others also. It is for this reason that all the Scriptures
declare that the good is augmented a hundred-fold if the Name is chanted with a
loud voice. The text of the Bhagavatam is as follows, “It is, indeed, fit that
the chanter of the Name of Hari with a loud voice is a hundred times better
than one who takes the Name mentally. The person, who takes the Name
mentally, saves only himself; one, who chants the Name with a loud voice, saves
also his hearers.”

“So by the authority of the Pur ana I hold that one, who chants the Name with a
loud voice, is a hundred times superior to him who does so mentally. The reason
of this, O Vipra, also deserves to be listened to most attentively. By mentally
taking the Name a person maintains only himself. If one chant the Name of
Govinda with a loud voice every creature is delivered as soon as he hears. All
animals, with the sole exception of man, although they are privileged to possess
a tongue, are unable to utter the Sound of the Name of Krishna. The process, by
which even those, who are born in vain, are saved, certainly does not deserve to
be condemned. There are those who maintain thousands besides themselves.
Which of them is superior? This is easy to find by a tittle of reflection. It is for
this reason that the superior merit of the process of chanting the Name with a
loud voice is held to be well established.”

The reply of Thakur Haridas only served to augment the anger of that wicked
Brahmana who now threw off the mask of the hypocritical inquirer and began
openly to revile Thakur Haridas. He said, “Haridas has at last become the maker
of our Philosophy! So the path of the Veda is going to be destroyed before our
very eyes after enduring through the Ages. It is said that the sudra is destined to
expound the Veda towards the close of the Iron Age. That thing has come to pass

at this very moment, without our having to wait for the end of the Yuga. I can
now see what it really is. You go about from door to door feeding on the choicest
delicacies by this capital method of cheap self-advertisement. If the explanation
thou hast offered is proved to be wide of the mark thy nose and ear require to be
chopped off on the spot.

On hearing-these blasphemous effusions of that wretch of a Brahmana, Thakur
Haridas smiled slightly as he uttered the Name of Hari. Without making any
further reply Haridas left the place continuing to chant the Name of Hari with a
loud voice. Those, who happened to be present in the assembly, were also sinful
persons and, being of an evil disposition, made no proper answer to what was
said by that Brahmana. “All these Brahmanas,” observes Thakur Brindavandas,
“are verily cannibals (Rakshasas). They are Brahmanas only in name. All of
them are proper objects of punishment by Yama. In the Kali Yuga all the
Rakshasas are ordained to be born in the families of the Brahmanas for venting
their spite against the good people. The Rakshasas, under the fostering care of
Kali, are born in the womb of Brahmanas. They oppress the few who really
possess the knowledge of the Vedas. The Dharma-Shastra, indeed, forbids to
touch, hold talk with or bow to these Brahmanas in any circumstances. What
more need be said. It is incumbent to avoid addressing or touching those
Brahmanas, who are non-Vaishnavas, even by mistake. In this world it is one’s
duty not to see a non-Vaishnava Brahmana, even as one should avoid the sight of
the dog-eating Chandala. The Vaishnava, although he be born outside the Varnas,
sanctifies the three worlds. If one, born a Brahmana, be not a Vaishnava, by even
talking with such a person one loses the merits acquired by his previous good
deeds.”

I have reproduced the words of Thakur Brindavandas and also the texts of the
Scriptures quoted by him. Thakur Brindavandas informs us that a
terrible calamity overtook the offending Brahmana only a few days after the
above occurrence. The nose of the Brahmana fell off by an attack of the small¬
pox.

The punishment, which he had proposed for Thakur Haridas, was allotted to
himself by Krishna.

We next meet Thakur Haridas in Nabadwip, whither he was attracted by the

prospect of the society of the Vaishnavas. He resided there, as the

honoured guest of Sree Advaitacharyya, on a footing of intimate friendship with

all the devotees.

It is, however, necessary, before we leave this portion of our narrative, to offer a
few remarks on an important aspect of the incident just described.

The method of chanting in company the Name of Hari with a loud voice within
the hearing of all persons, is the form of worship that was subsequently instituted
by Sree Chaitanya as the Dispensation for the present controversial Age. The
only offense, which may stand effectively in the way of one’s taking the Name
of Hari, is absence of faith in the Transcendental Nature of the Name Himself
and of Sree Guru on whose, lips the Name manifests Himself. Provided one is
not deliberately resolved to disbelieve the Divine Nature of the Name and the
spiritual nature of His chanter there is no other circumstance that can stand in the
way of one’s taking the Name mentally or uttering Him with a loud voice. The
second of these methods is called Kirtana. This is held to be much
more efficacious than the mental process.

By taking the Name only once a person is relieved from the bondage of
Nescience for good. On the manifestation of the natural function of the soul
the abnormal function automatically disappears. The Kirtana or loud chant of
the Name is the only function of the soul in the state of Divine Grace. By His
means the whole world is to be saved. This is the Dispensation of this Age.

But this is vehemently objected to by Brahmanas of the stamp of the person who
reviled Thakur Haridas at Harinadi. It is necessary to consider the mentality that
produces such vehement opposition to a method which should appear even to
those who may not have any faith in it, as hardly capable of giving offense to
anybody.

No one is likely to be angry with the loud chanter of the Name of Hari unless he
is himself accustomed to take the Name in the offensive manner. The rank
atheist is less dangerous than the hypocrite. A person takes the Name of Hari
mentally, but opposes the loud chant of the Name. What can be the reason of
such opposition? It can be but due to the natural partiality for the wrong method
to which he has been accustomed, as he must believe, on principle.

But if he is asked further why he takes the Name of Hari even mentally, the
opposer of the loud chant should have no reasonable answer to give.

The Transcendental Sound is the Name of Hari. The Name as Sound is identical

with Hari. Hari’s Name makes His Appearance in this world as Sound through
the medium of the chanters of the Name. The Name is to be heard only from
the lips of pure devotees. If He is so heard, even without faith but without
offense, the dormant function of the soul is aroused thereby, enabling the hearer
also to chant the Name. As soon as the Name appears on the tongue Hari is fully
served. But why should the Name, received from His loud chanter, appearing on
the tongue of the hearer, be recited mentally in order to prevent others
from hearing Him?

The mantra, indeed, requires to be repeated to oneself mentally. The mantra is
also the Name, but not in the form of direct address. The mantra is the formula
by which the person repeating the same, makes a surrender of his mind and its
function to the Name who is yet inaccessible to the worshipper because of his
conditional state. If the Name is compared to the full-blown flower the mantra
would be comparable to the unopened bud. The mantra is the formula for getting
rid of the vanity of one’s mental existence. The mantra helps to clear the way for
the Appearance of the Name. The mantra involves mental surrender to the Guru
and is, therefore, a deliberate act of conviction on the part of the person who is
entitled to practice this method. The mantra in fact represents the special favour
of the Guru and the personal relationship between the disciple and the spiritual
guide. The imparting of the mantra is tantamount to recognition by the Guru that
a person is accepted as disciple. This process is called diksha which means the
bestowal of spiritual enlightenment by elimination of sinfulness, by the spiritual
guide to the disciple who is disposed by sincere conviction to walk in the path of
service under Divine Guidance manifested through the Guru.

The chanting of the Name of Hari, after hearing Him from the lips of the pure
devotee, in the company of His devotees, is the method of worship that was to be
promulgated by Sree Chaitanya as the only Dispensation for the Age. Thakur
Haridas is the Acharyya, or the Divinely Authorized Practicing Teacher, of this
very function. He is here found to declare that the chanting of the Name with a
loud voice is open to all persons and does not require on the part of the neophyte
any precondition of fitness except the absence of deliberate opposition to
recognizing the Name as being identical with the Transcendental Possessor of
the Name, i.e., Godhead Himself. If there is no deliberate intention of refusing to
acknowledge the Divinity of the Name appearing on the lips of the pure devotee
of Krishna, a person is eligible to hear and, after hearing, sing the Name in the
company of His devotees by discarding all unnecessary association whim
unbelievers. By practicing the chant of the Name in this manner, that is to say by

being free from the offenses of intimate association with unbelievers and the
intention of deliberately cherishing any doubt or disbelief regarding the Divinity
of the Holy Name manifesting Himself in the form of the Sound on the lips of
pure devotees, a person should be enabled in due course to realize the Divine
Nature of the Name, i.e., of Krishna, His service and of his own soul as being the
eternal servant of Krishna.

But the mantra is not really different from the chant of the Name. It only marks a
stage of progress in an identical process. After the Name begins to be chanted in
the manner that is free from offense against the Name, one begins to make
progress on the path of spiritual endeavour. The first sign, that actual progress is
being made, manifests itself in the form of the conviction that it is necessary to
follow unconditionally the guidance of the Guru from whose lips the Name has
been heard. This is the specific entry into the properly serving state of the
process.

The position may also be explained in another way. The chanting of the Name
with a loud voice in the manner that is free from offense is not possible for a
person till he is relieved of the exclusively mental outlook on life which
is inevitable in the conditioned state. So long as the mental outlook retains
its Prevailing force a person cannot conscientiously recognize the necessity
of unconditional submission to the guidance of the Guru. This is so because
he cannot realize by mental speculation the spiritual nature of the personality
of the bona fide Guru and the consequent necessity of unconditional surrender
to the bona fide spiritual guide.

It also does not follow that after the mantra is received one is not entitled to
chant the Name with a loud voice. On the contrary it is the mantra who in his
turn strengthens the faith of the chanter in the Divinity of the Name by relieving
him from the obstructive force of mental speculation regarding the spiritual
function. The mantra has to be repeated mentally because all persons are not
entitled to listen to it nor does it concern any one else except the person to whom
it is imparted. The identity between the Name and the mantra is established by
the fact that the mantra is also the Name with the addition of the personal
admission that the chanter is convinced that he can be relieved from the state of
ignorance regarding the spiritual nature of the Name only by following
unconditionally the guidance of the Guru.

It will not do to repeat the mantra mentally without receiving the same from the

Guru, for the reason that the process would then be meaningless. The mantra
really means that a person places himself under the unconditional guidance of
the Guru in order to realize the spiritual function of chanting the Name of Hari
without offense. If there is no Guru whom the person is to follow there is no
meaning in merely uttering a formula which implies one’s consent to practice
obedience to the Guru.

The Guru understands the particular state of spiritual eligibility of the
conditioned soul and is also aware of Krishna’s intention in regard to him. He
is the channel used by Krishna to convey His Mercy, to the conditioned soul.

The best of devotees are alone privileged to enjoy this supreme confidence
of Krishna. It is the function of the Guru to raise the disciple to the level of
the intimate confidence of Krishna, because Krishna is fully served only by
the congregational method to be found in the perfectly spiritual community of
His pure devotees. The unfortunate Brahmana of Harinadi and the learned
Pandits assembled there could not understand the necessity or propriety of
chanting the Name of Hari with a loud voice because they were satisfied with
their individual mental outlooks and speculative opinions regarding the teaching
of the Scriptures, although the same Scriptures are never tired of warning
their readers against committing the offense of confounding the spiritual with
the physical or mental issue. Those learned Pandits had found the untruth
which they were seeking in their lives by precept and example. No sincere
seeker of the Truth should, however, allow himself to be deliberately committed
to views regarding the worship of Godhead for the purpose of thereby ensuring
his own superiority over his fellowmen. Those pseudo-Brahmanas were too fond
of the social superiority of their hereditary position to be inclined to pay heed to
the real meaning of the Scriptures which is so utterly incompatible with the
social privileges, which they so unworthily monopolized. It is seldom that
the prosperous and confirmed thief is inclined to pay serious attention to
the counsels of stainless honesty.

Chapter 22 Pilgrimage to Gaya and Initiation

Nimai Pandit continued to teach His students in Nabadwip after His Marriage
with Sree Vishnupriya Devi. The Lord was leading the ideal life of
the householder Brahmana up to this point of our Narrative. It was the life that
is enjoined by the Dharma-Shastras for those who want to lead a life that is
not opposed to spiritual well-being. But it is not itself the spiritual life The life
of the Brahmana is the model for the other classes of the worldly people. It
places before us the necessity of not putting one’s trust exclusively in the so-
called good things of this world. If one has to live in this world, as one must till
he finds it really necessary to change his worldly life for one that is higher,
he should constantly keep before him the purpose underlying the life of
the Brahmana as laid down in the Scriptures.

It does not mean that every one should embrace the calling of the teacher of
religion nor that everyone should marry. So long as a person feels any affinity
for the activities of this world he should learn a calling that is to his taste and
follow the same. Those, who feel a taste for the work of a teacher, have also to
qualify themselves for the same by adopting a life that is in keeping with the
proper discharge of the responsibilities of that particular worldly calling. The
teacher of the people must in the first place lead a life that is in conformity with
the interests of his pupils. The highest of all interests is knowledge of the
Brahman. One, who is devoid of the knowledge of the Brahman is debarred by
this radical disqualification from taking charge of the education of the people.

It is not the purpose of the Scriptures to prevent the proper cultivation of any
branch of knowledge by thus making the Brahmana the sole custodian of
the education of the people. The arrangement recommended by the Shastras
does not recognise the competence of any secular knowledge to free us from
the fetters of ignorance, and is, therefore, unwilling to recognise the cultivation
of such knowledge for its own sake, and is opposed to the purely
secular education which they do not consider to be beneficial or even
harmless pastime. All persons, even those who are engaged in secular pursuits,
must possess the spiritual outlook to be enabled to function properly even in
those pursuits. The superiority and desideratum of spiritual living in
its unadulterated purity must be recognized by being practically imposed on
all social institutions.

It must, however, be borne in mind that it is not to a sacerdotal, hereditary caste
that the Scriptures intend to bestow the lucrative privilege of the monopoly of a
trade of educating the people. Any person, who possesses the genuine
disposition to seek for the Truth and who prefers the quest of the Truth to every
other consideration, to whatever class of the society he may belong by birth, is to
be recognized as a Brahmana who is fit for this purely spiritual purpose for its
own sake. It does not appear that the Scriptures, by means of the Varnasrama
organization, sought to prevent the free choice of secular occupation by
individuals. As a matter of fact the object of the institution is just the opposite of
this. It requires every individual to be put into the profession that best suits his
natural aptitude and to do this at the proper early age. But it also recognized a
natural graduation of classes. It considers the position of the spiritual teacher of
society as superior to that of all the others. Next below the spiritual teachers it
puts the spiritually guided ruling class. Those, who are the leaders of the
economic pursuits under spiritual direction, come next below the political body.
The fourth estate consists of those who are devoid of spiritual inclination but are
prepared to earn a living by loyally serving others who are spiritually disposed.

The peculiarity of the arrangement is that it puts the spiritually enlightened
teaching class, carefully recruited from all the classes, at the head of the
society, not in the political, nor in the economic, but in the purely spiritual sense.
If a Brahmana meddles in politics or trade or service, he automatically loses
his status as a teacher. As a teacher the Brahmana is to be maintained by the
free gifts of the community to be obtained, not by political pressure but, by
begging by the teachers themselves, or their students on their behalf. It is
incumbent on the Brahmana not to amass any wealth but to devote all surplus
wealth which may come into his hands in the way that is spiritually beneficial
for the society.

In other words the Brahmana lives for the purpose of finding the Truth in order
to serve Him when found. His life is the probationary stage of spiritual
living. The practical result of this obligation, on the part of the teacher, of
leading the theistic life enjoined by the Scriptures, would not be objectionable as
long as the process of recruitment remains inefficient. The Scriptures provide
that an unworthy teacher should forfeit his position as a matter of course. The
function of degrading such a person belongs to the body of the Brahmanas. We
find that the privilege was misunderstood and grossly abused in actual practice.
But it would be difficult to suggest that the system itself is, therefore a defective
one.

If any society wants to be guided by the instruction of unworthy persons it is
always free to do so and to be ruined by choosing to do so. The
Varnasrama institution is a secular organization and as such shares the
unavoidable defects of all such institutions. It is claimed to be the only
organization that has been scientifically conceived for the promotion of spiritual
living. Unless this is borne in mind it would be difficult to understand what
follows.

We have seen that Sree Gaursundar had been leading the life of the ideal
Brahmana householder up till now. The actual mode of life that He led
has already been described in different ways. The successful endeavour to live
the life of a Brahmana was now to be rewarded by the attainment of
spiritual enlightenment which is the goal to which it is directed.

This is the secondary aspect of the event that we are now going to narrate. The
Supreme Lord was induced to manifest His Appearance in this world by
being moved to Pity by the sufferings of His devotees. The Iron Age proved too
bad to be redeemed by the exertions of His agents. Even Sree Advaita acharyya,
Who is the cause of the Appearance of the Lord, had been set at naught by the
stubborn atheists of Nabadwip, despite the universal respect in which he was
personally held in all the learned circles and among those Brahmanas who
occupied the highest social position. In spite of the personal exertions of Advaita
and ah the devotees who were resident at Nabadwip there was perceptible no
change for the better in the attitude of the people towards the Vaishnavas. On the
contrary their hostility to the Vaishnavas continued to increase and at last
became intolerable. The denunciation of the Vaishnavas by those bad people
became the constant and fashionable pastime of the day. The devotees felt the
greatest sorrow on beholding the prevalence of such universal preference for
false worldly pleasures on the part of the people. The very name of devotion
was banned from the category of topics worthy of their serious discussion.
Vishnu and the Vaishnavas were, however, constantly reviled by one and ah. All
this was happening at Nabadwip under the eyes of the Lord Himself Who was
all the time absorbed in scholastic pursuits. The grief of His devotees at last
moved the Lord to compassion and made Him manifest His Activity of the
Savior.

But before the Supreme Lord openly ranged Himself on the side of His devotees
He wished to visit the holy Tirtha of Gaya. For the ostensible purpose
of performing the due funeral rites in honour of His deported father the Lord

set out for Gaya with many of His disciples. With a mind full of great delight the
Lord took leave of His mother and obtained her permission for the journey to
Gaya. The holy feet of the Lord then began their triumphal progress
towards Gaya, sanctifying all the country and the villages wherein the people
dwelt, turning them into the holiest of tirthas.

The Lord journeyed in the company of His numerous followers in the pleasure
of delightful talk on all manner of topics ranging from religion to gossip
and hilarious laughter and jocoseness. Traveling for days in this fashion the
Lord reached Mandara and after beholding Sree Madhusudan, Who is
worshipped there, roamed over the Hill to please Himself. But in a few days
after the resumption of His journey the Lord manifested the Leela of falling ill
by an attack of fever. The Lord was to all appearance smitten with fever, like
ordinary men, on His way in the middle of the journey. This filled the hearts of
His disciples with great anxiety. They halted on their way and made every effort
for having Him cured of the distemper. But the fever obstinately refused to
be healed, such being the Will of the Lord. At last the Lord prescribed the
proper medicine for Himself, declaring that drinking the water that had been
used in washing the feet of a Brahmana relieves from all suffering., In order to
vindicate the greatness of the feet wash of Brahmanas the Supreme Lord drank
the same Himself in the view of all the people. As soon as He had drunk the feet-
wash of the Brahmanas the Supreme Lord was instantly restored to the healthy
state and the fever left for good.

Thakur Brindavandas, commenting on the above, says that the Veda and the
Puranas bear testimony to the fact that it is the nature of Godhead to drink
the feet wash of Brahmanas and quotes the following from the Geeta. ‘I serve
every one in the way that he submits to Me. Men, O Partha, follow in all cases
the lead of My Service .’

The service of Krishna is performed by all the activities of men. All methods of
activity come under the category of the service of the Indivisible
Knowledge Who is identical with Krishna. If it be asked what constitutes the
basic difference between the methods of fruitive activity, seeking to merge in
the undifferentiated Brahman, and the path of devotion (the only possible modes
of activity open to the individual soul) the answer is that the last is the model
for the rest. Every one seeks to follow his own inner conviction and light.

In proportion as the light within is actually followed it also gives the
proper guidance. To one, who chooses to follow the inner guidance only

partially, the Light offers only a proportionately partial view of Himself. One,
who chooses to neglect Him, is offered a correspondingly deluding view of the
Truth and one which he finds more in accordance with his choice. But the Light,
Whom all men serve in different ways, is always the same indivisible knowledge
dealing with His votaries in the way that His votaries choose to deal by Him.

The difference is, therefore, due to the degree of submission to the
indivisible knowledge that is actually offered by the individual soul. The
doctrine of rebellion against Godhead, to explain the origin of sin, is true only in
the above sense.

Krishna is found and served only by those who offer their full submission to the
Indivisible Truth. When one offers less than his full submission to Krishna he no
longer sees Krishna as He is but in an eclipsed form of the Truth corresponding
to his own imperfect homage to Him. Indra is also Krishna but only as viewed
by the worshipper who covets the pleasure of paradise. Every object of worship
to be found in the different creeds, which is offered less than the whole service,
is also Krishna in His secondary, z.e., deluding, forms. When the object of
worship is not Krishna, or is an eclipsed view of Krishna, the Indivisible
Knowledge does not show Himself to the worshipper who experiences in
consequence all those difficulties that beset the path of those who do not worship
Krishna as He is.

Sree Gaursundar exhibited the pastime of drinking the feet-wash of Brahmanas
and not of non-Brahmanas to signify that Krishna fulfills all requirements of
the soul who throws himself wholly on His protection, but He does not deal in
the same way with those who are not disposed to serve Him. He is not disposed
to accept the service of those who are not disposed to offer Him their
wholehearted service. But He keeps back nothing from His devotee; nay, He
uses all his power in vindicating the preeminence of His devotees over those
who are not disposed to serve Him fully.

Thakur Brindavandas goes so far as to assert that the Lord serves those who seek
to serve Him in every way by their whole attitude and at all time. The Lord is the
servant of His servant. He is subdued by His servant. This is in keeping with
what has been stated above. In the battle of Kurukshetra Krishna was compelled
by Bhishma to take up arms, thereby breaking His own promise to observe
absolute neutrality during the conflict, which had led Duryodhana to prefer to
accept the help of Krishna’s army to Krishna’s own Person pledged not to fight
by actually using His weapons against any party. Bhishma did not consider this

policy of Duryodhana, on whose side he had to fight against his own better
judgment, to be at all wise; and he told Duryodhana that Krishna was bound to
break His promise if He found the Pandavas in real danger. Bhishma was
confident of proving his contention as he knew that without the active help of
Krishna no one could prevail against any one. Krishna could, of course, have
easily made the Pandavas prevail over Bhishma without openly breaking His
promise or neutrality; but He preferred to be vanquished on this point in order to
glorify both Bhishma and Arjuna who were His devotees. Krishna is thus proved
to be always ready to obey the wish of His devotee even when it seems to run
counter to His Own. There are numerous instances of this kind of Conduct on
the part of Godhead in the Puranas when He allows Himself to be vanquished by
His devotee whenever He is seriously opposed by the latter.

I am perfectly aware that there are persons who have grossly misinterpreted the
Shloka of the Geeta, quoted above by Thakur Brindavandas, and also
the conduct of Sree Gaursundar on this occasion: There is a body of opinion
among a section of the commentators of the scriptures who are inclined to
exploit the passages in the Scriptures expressing the superiority of the
Brahmanas into an argument in favour of the unconditional predominance of the
hereditary caste of Brahmanas over everything including the Divinity Himself.
Sree Gaursundar as well as Sree Krishna are held by these commentators to be
upholders of the social and spiritual superiority of the hereditary Brahmana
caste. The point is pushed to the promulgation of the view that those worshippers
of Krishna, who are not born in the Brahmana caste, are rendered inferior to the
caste Brahmanas by their not being born in Brahmana families.

This ridiculous interpretation of the particular passages of the Scriptures, of
which an instance is given above, is so obviously sectarian and so
utterly opposed to the contexts in which they appear that there should remain at
this point of the Narrative no ground for such silly misunderstanding on the part
of those readers who are not pledged to shut their eyes to the Truth out
of deference to narrow individual or class prejudices. The true Brahmana
is certainly deserving of universal respect by reason of his disposition for
the unconditional service of the Truth. But no one is a Brahmana who does
not serve the Truth in this unreserved manner. The Truth is identical with
Vishnu. A Brahmana, who does not serve Vishnu, is worse than a Chandala
whose very sight is to be avoided by all persons. Therefore, it is not the birth that
makes the Brahmana in the sense in which he is to be regarded as the servant of
Vishnu. It is the test of complete submission to Vishnu that is the only

consideration. The distinction between one person and another is due to the
measure in which he is disposed to serve not a fancy of his erring mind under the
name of Truth but the Truth Himself, Who is no other than Vishnu. If one does
not serve Vishnu, z.e., Godhead as He really is, he cannot claim the homage of
society by reason of his birth in a Brahmana family. The community of genuine
Brahmanas would also necessarily repudiate all claims of their own social
superiority independently of the reference to the service of Vishnu which is the
one thing needful and is admitted as such in practice by the Brahmanas who
follow this real interpretation of the Scriptures and who are recruited from
among all classes of the people by this sole text.

The doctrine, that requires unconditional submission to the feet of Godhead,
does not entail any curtailment of our individual liberty to serve the Truth in the
way we choose. There is no loss of scope or diversity on the plane of complete
submission, but only an increase in the degree and outlook of the faculty of
cognition. The very same act is viewed differently from different angles of
vision even on the plane of the Absolute, but without causing any loss of
Harmony. On the mundane plane there are also the same different angles
of vision but they conflict with one another and produce only a temporary
and unwholesome result by their diversity. The game is not worth the candle in
the latter case.

A person, who is located on the mundane plane, commits the fatal error of
looking at everything from a point of view that is not really his own. This
real abandonment of his individuality is wrongly supposed, by mere force of
habit, as constituting his proper individual point of view. In this case there is not
only a disadvantageous angle of vision, from which the Truth cannot be
properly seen, but also a resolve not to see the Truth. Truth can be seen only by
the serving disposition. If I choose to look at the Truth from the point of view
of the master I am left by the process without any ground to stand upon. This
is so because the Truth does not serve anyone except Himself. If I choose to
look at Truth from the point of view of the master and choose to call ,this as
my individual angle of vision for viewing the Truth, I thereby commit the
offense of suppressio veri inasmuch as my real intention, in taking up the
impossible point of view, is not to see the Truth at all but only a particular
hypothetical entity or non-Truth that is made to appear to my view by my own
manipulation to miss the sight of the Truth.

The protection of Godhead in all circumstances is realizable as the basic

condition of all rational activity on the part of the individual soul. The
devotee is, therefore, under no temptation of seeking to disown the Refuge of the
lotus feet of Krishna, even if such ambition be permitted a seeming scope by
the absolute master Himself. The devotee is spontaneously and exclusively
attached to the feet of Krishna not by the need of the preservation of his
rational consistency of conduct but by the innate impulse of love. The devotee
seeks the protection of the Lord for the satisfaction of the causeless loving
hankering of his pure nature for the service of the all-beautiful who is also all¬
knowledge and all-existence, there is therefore, no plea which need be availed by
him for seeking to disown the protection of the Lord.

After displaying the pastime of getting cured of the manifestation of fever, the
Lord made His way to the holy Tirtha of Poonapoona. Having bathed
and worshipped the Pitris (Manes), the Son of Sree Sachi entered Gaya. The
Lord, joining His beautiful hands, made obeisance to holy Gaya on entering
the sacred tirtha, being overcome with spiritual fervor. He then proceeded
to Brahmakunda and, after bathing in its holy water duly honoured the Pitris.

Thence He came to Chakrabera and made haste to have the sight of the lotus feet
of Sree Gadadhara.

The Lord found that the holy site of the lotus feet was surrounded by the
Brahmanas. The garlands, offered to the lotus feet, had accumulated to the height
of a temple. The offering made of perfume, flower, incense, lighted
lamp, clothing, ornament, was beyond all calculation. The Brahmanas, wearing
the beauty of celestials and attending on all sides, were engaged in reciting
the power of the lotus feet. “Ye most fortunate people, behold those feet that
are clasped to his bosom by the lord of Kashi, that are ever the life of Lakshmi,
that make themselves manifest on the head of Bali. Behold all ye those feet by
whose momentary meditation one ceases to be subject to the god of death
(Yama). Behold, all ye fortunate people, the self-same feet that are so rarely
attainable to the highest yogis, those feet in whom the sanctifying Bhagirathy
makes her appearance whom the devotee never parts from his heart. Fortunate
people, behold those dearly beloved feet that repose on the couch of Sree
Ananta.”

On hearing of the power of those feet from the lips of the Brahmanas the Lord
was overwhelmed by transcendental bliss. His two lotus eyes overflowed
with tears. At the sight of the divine feet His person was decked with

horripilation and shivering. So did Lord Gaurachandra, for the good fortune of
all the worlds, begin the manifestation of loving devotion. The never ceasing
Ganges flowed in the eyes of the Lord. All the Brahmanas beheld the wonderful
sight.

I have tried to preserve the actual words of Thakur Brindavandas in describing
the incident that first excited the manifestation of loving devotion by
Sree Gaursundar.

This is the turning point in the Career of the Lord. From this point onwards the
Lord appears as the ideal devotee of Godhead. The change to spiritual life
when it does come to the Brahmana householder, comes in the form of the
undeserved causeless mercy of Godhead. The mercy of Godhead is indescribable
to one who has not been the recipient of the same. Had it been describable in
terms of worldly experience it would have been more or less deserved.

Those, who seek to understand the spiritual life in terms of mundane values,
contradict themselves when they assert with the same breath that Godhead is the
judge of right and wrong and is the Dispenser of reward for righteous conduct. If
the spiritual enlightenment is a gift for righteous living preceding the gift, can it
also be described as causeless or undeserved? Those, who insist that the value of
the spiritual life should be intelligible to a person before he accepts it, in order
that he may make his choice in the rational way, only commit the mistake of
begging the question. If, on the other hand, the value of the spiritual life be
admitted on trust without any previous knowledge of its nature, it would be
liable to be justly condemned as ‘blind faith’ that has proved the fruitful source
of all the patent corruptions to be found in all parts of the world and which are
cherished by their victims under the terrible self-delusion that they only appear
to be bad by reason of their very transcendental nature. The sight of Vishnu’s
feet at Gaya gave Sree Gaursundar His first spiritual experience as devotee. The
sight of the feet of the Lord is not available to any one except by the mercy of
the Lord. Why the Lord is merciful to a person, can never be known. The
Supreme Lord is full of mercy and makes no distinction in bestowing His favour
in boundless measure on all persons. But there is also a process of receiving His
favour which depends on the free choice of the recipient of the divine favour. As
soon as this condition is fulfilled by the recipient, he is rewarded with the sight
of the feet of the Lord.

If it be contended that a gift, which is conditional on the recipient fulfilling any

requirement, cannot be described as either causeless or undeserved, the
answer would be that the particular gift fulfills all these contradictory conditions.
The gift remains causeless although it is bestowed only on those who fulfill
the conditions necessary for qualifying for receiving it. The sole condition is
the desire, which is also causeless, of serving the Truth when found. This
attitude may be called blind faith so long as the Truth is yet unfound. But the
Truth reveals Himself only to His sincere seeker. There is no cause why He
should do so; but, as a matter of fact, He does so. It is the nature of Truth to do
so.

If hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water we are satisfied that we
understand how water is formed. If it be asked why the two gases should
be transformed into water at all, which is altogether a different substance, we
are only offered further information on the process itself by way of explanation.
We are also not dissatisfied when we get such explanation. This is so because
we understand that it is our business not to question the tmth of the operations
of nature because they are of the nature of facts which exist independently of
our speculations regarding them. We are naturally enough only anxious to
know more about the actual process of the working of the different forces of
nature. The question of ‘Why’ this should be so, z’.e., the ethical issue does not
arise at all, in regard to these ‘blind’ operations of nature.

But when we are asked to accept the spiritual ‘fact’ that the sight of the feet of
Hari is capable of producing the disposition for serving the Lord we are at
once impelled to bring up the ethical question why this should be so. In regard
to such attitude, however, it is important to bear in mind that the ethical
question itself is always relative to a standard. That standard is the unknown
quantity. The empiricists have been trying in vain to discover the real standard of
the ethical instinct. All speculative standards, as yet discovered in terms
of mundane values, have proved more or less unsatisfactory and wide of the
mark. The only useful purpose, that those speculations have served, is to expose
the utter futility of finding the ethical standard by the method of such
speculation.

The fun is that this admitted failure notwithstanding the exponents of the so-
called science of ethics do not hesitate to lay down detailed instructions for the
guidance of those who are desirous of leading the ethical life. The disciples
of this imperfect science are also in their turn never tired of bragging
their superiority (?) over those who are not acquainted with the conclusions

(not errors) of their favorite science of moral (?) conduct. A certain type of
admirers of Christianity are especially fond of trying to prove this kind of moral
(?) superiority of the Christian religion over other creeds of the world. But if
they are held tightly to the meaning of their words they can escape only under
the cover of transparent prevarications and by dint of the dense understanding
or contemptuous indifference of their opponents.

It is not our purpose to deny the value of the ethical instinct; but we are sworn
foes of the hollow pretensions of the so-called empiric science of ethics
which has such disastrous effect on the morals of some of its votaries. It makes
them insuperably self-conceited ‘without rhyme or reason’. Godhead is no doubt
the Source of all righteousness but certainly not of the brand that is
manufactured by the science of empiric ethics. That science will be found on
examination to be opposed to the real ethical issue by its presumption of being
able to explain all ethical value by the superficial analysis of the external
activities in which the ethical principle seeks to express itself. The method is that
of shunting off the real issue to the side track and getting up a case in favour of
its unworthy proxy on the evidence of non-essential adventitious circumstances.

We appeal to the experience of all that no person had ever been helped to
become more ethical by the mere study of the empiric ethical science, nor
has any person been ever really satisfied that the science has been able to throw
any light on the nature of the principle that really matters. It has, on the
contrary, only offered destructive criticism of the only really ethical conduct on
the irrelevant ground of the defective circumstances under which it manifests
itself in this world.

It’s really the immaculate soul who expresses his dissatisfaction of meaningless
unnatural sensuous existence, in the form of the ethical protest. The soul cannot
be satisfied by any values offered by our mundane experience or hopes of
mundane improvement. He believes instinctively in an existence which is wholly
free from all these defects and is impelled by his innate nature to seek to realize
the conditions of such existence. It is the question of function and plane, about
which the empiricist is so unduly skeptical. The function of the soul on the
mundane plane is directed, is bound unaccountably to be directed, towards only
mundane objects. The mundane objective is also, in its turn the cause of the
degeneration of the function. The organs, through which the soul functions
towards the mundane objective, share in the defects of the objective and are as
unavoidable causes of degeneracy as the objective itself. This is the only ethical

problem.

The ethical instinct is thus co-related with the quest for the Truth, not the
speculative truth which sets its heart on a radically glorified sensuous
existence but the Absolute Truth to Whom the present muddy understanding,
with its natural preference for the dirt, has no access and which is not even
privileged to suspect that it is itself so far away from the direction of the Truth.
This introduces the all-important factor of the plane. The ethical life is capable
of being substantively realized, in a form that is perfectly unintelligible to
our present understanding, only on the plane of the Absolute, to which our
present faculties have no access.

This brings us to the necessity of divine grace for being relieved of our mundane
equipments. Until this point of view has been reached by the discontented soul
by the force of his earthly disillusionments, he is not in a position to lend his ear
to the message regarding the proper nature of the spiritual function and the only
method of its attainment. A person, who has arrived at this stage, should be in a
position to recognize the manifestation of divine mercy in aid of the seeker of
the Truth. The Archa is such divine Manifestation. The feet of the Lord,
worshipped at Gaya, are really the feet of the Lord Himself and may be seen as
such only by the most fortunate people who have been convinced of the utter
worthlessness of the promised improvement of this temporary worldly existence
by speculative methods and have been thereby led to put their trust, not blindly
but in all true rational humility, in divine aid appearing in a form that is also
accessible to our present defective equipments. To such a person the Archa of the
feet of the Lord at Gaya manifests His divine nature.

The actual service of Godhead is barred to empiricists by reason of their
stubborn disbelief in the divinity of the Archa. An aspect of the
Protestant movement in Christianity and the religion of Mohammed as
expounded by certain schools of his followers, inculcate doctrines akin to those
of the school of the worshippers (?) of the undifferentiated Brahman in this
country. The element of error in such attitude consists in the fact that it seems to
imply the wrong assumption that it is possible to rise to the conception of the
nature of Godhead in a way that is also explicable to mundane judgment. The
descent of

Godhead is not, therefore, fully admitted. Once the empiric ambition of our
capacity to work up to Godhead is properly discarded the deluded form

of iconoclastic fury should appear to be itself subject to the delusion which
it claims to condemn with such otherwise laudable vehemence. The
iconoclasm of the rabid iconoclast must be carefully avoided by the cultivation
of the true patience of judgment if one is to earn the privilege of recognizing the
descent of Godhead in the Archa. Those, who are unfit to worship the Archa, are
still less qualified for the higher form of confidential worship of the Holy Name
by the methods of kirtana and recollection.

The mercy of Godhead is recognizable by His influence on the disposition of His
recipient. As soon as Godhead wills to show Himself to the fettered soul,

He does so by directing the latter to seek the guidance of His devotee. This
involves two things. The person favoured by Godhead is enabled to recognize
the devotee and is also enabled to be convinced of the necessity of submitting to
his unconditional guidance. If this result is not produced we should suppose
that the person has not really received the divine favour but has only been
deceived by his own disloyal imagination.

As Sree Gaursundar was in the act of exhibiting those spiritual perturbations that
were produced by hearing the praise of the holy feet of Sree Gadadhara from the
lips of the Brahmanas.

Sree Iswara Puri appeared on the spot, apparently by mere accident, but really by
the Will of Godhead. On catching sight of Sree Iswara Puri Sree
Gaursundar made obeisance to him with an exhibition of His most cordial
regard. Iswara Puri also on his part, on seeing Gaurachandra, embraced Him
with great delight. The holy forms of both were drenched with the tears of both
by the force of the experience of spiritual joy.

The Lord said, “My pilgrimage to Gaya has born fruit only now inasmuch as I
have obtained the sight of your feet. By offering the pinda at Gaya only the
pitris are saved from their sufferings. Even so it is only the particular person,
to whom the pinda is offered that is saved thereby. By the sight of you crores
of the groups of the pitris are instantly set free from all their fetters. Therefore,
the tirtha itself is not the equal of you, You are the highest of tirthas and the best
of all blessings. Vouchsafe to deliver Me from the ocean of this worldly sojourn.

I surrender My Person to you, now and here. May you be pleased to make
Me drink of the nectarine juice of the lotus feet of Krishna. This is the gift that
I pray for”. Iswara Puri replied, “Listen, Pandit, I now know as certain that
Thou art divine portion of the Iswara Himself. Are scholarship and goodness,

that are Thine, possible in one who is not the Portion of the Divinity? I have had
an auspicious dream of this truth this very day. I have now obtained the fruit of
it in this tangible form. I tell Thee truly, Pandit. At the sight of Thee I
experience the transcendental bliss at all time. Ever since I beheld Thee at Nadia
nothing else has had any attraction for my heart. This is the bare truth I am
telling Thee. There is nothing else in it but the truth. I obtain the bliss of
beholding Krishna by seeing Thee.”

On hearing the true words of His beloved Iswara Puri the Lord said laughingly,

“I am, indeed, most fortunate.” This was followed by a good deal of mutual
talk in which both joined with alacrity. Thakur Brindavandas does not attempt
to record the same, remarking that the task will be performed in future by
Sree Vedavyasa. Having greeted Sree Iswara Puri in this manner the Lord,
after begging and obtaining his permission, applied Himself to the performance
of the funeral rites that are enjoined by the Scriptures on the pious pilgrim on
his arrival at the tirtha.

The Lord now performed the rite of offering the pinda on the sand and went to
the hill-top of Preta-Gaya. Having performed the rite of loyal homage
(Sraddha) at Preta-Gaya the Son of Sree Sachi gratified the Brahmanas by gifts
and sweet words. Having thus delivered and pleased the pitris the Lord
proceeded to Dakshina Manasa with a glad Heart. The Lord next visited Sree
Rama-Gaya where He had performed the sraddha when He Appeared in this
world as Sree Ramachandra. After performing the same ceremony at the place in
this Avatara also, Sree Gaur-Hari went from there to Judhisthira-Gaya where
Judhisthira had offered the pinda in old times. Lord Gaurarai now exhibited the
Leela of performing the same ceremony at this place in loving remembrance of
that event. The Brahmanas, attending on all sides of the Lord, made Him
perform the sraddha and made the Lord repeat their words. As the Lord threw
the pinda into the water on the conclusion of the ceremony, the priestly
Brahmanas of

Gaya caught up and swallowed the same. The Lord laughed as He saw this
performance. All the worldly fetters of those Brahmanas were canceled.

After offering the pinda at Uttara Manasa Gauranga Sree Hari performed the
rites of Bhima Gaya. The Lord duly performed all the customary ceremonies at
Siva-Gaya, Brahma-Gaya and all the other places and at last went up to
Shorasha-Gaya. Having performed the Shorashi at Shorasha-Gaya, the Lord
offered the pinda to all, with all due regard. Then, after bathing in the Brahma

Kunda, the Supreme Lord came up to the Head of Gaya and offered the pinda
there. Taking up the excellent garlands and sandal-paste with His own beautiful
hands, the Lord worshipped the Print of the feet of Vishnu with great joy. Having
thus performed the sraddha at all the different places, the Lord returned to
His lodgings after satisfying the Brahmanas with gifts.

After refreshing Himself by a short rest, the Lord began to cook His meal. Just
as He had finished cooking the great Sree Iswara Puri arrived there. In the act
of reciting the Name of Krishna by the process of loving devotion Puri came
with tottering steps to where the Lord was preparing His meal. The Lord
desisted from cooking as soon as He caught sight of Puri and, with the
greatest reverence, after making His obeisance, offered him the best seat and
made him seated.

Puri said laughingly, “Listen Pandit, I find that it is in very good time indeed that
I chance to arrive !” The Lord replied, “As the good fortune has
manifested itself, may your reverence accept the alms of this cooked food to¬
day.,” As this request was pressed by the Lord Puri laughed as he said, “What
wilt Thou have?, The Lord replied, “I will cook again, just now”. Puri demurred,
“What is the use of cooking again? Divide the cooked food into two halves.”

The Lord could not help smiling as He said, “If, indeed, you want to have Me at
all, accept all the food that has been cooked. I will cook afresh, in a very short
time. Be pleased not to hesitate, but do accept this alms.”

Thereupon the Lord, making over His own food to Puri, applied to cook for
Himself once again with a joyful Heart. Great, indeed, is the mercy of the
Lord to Sree Iswara Puri. Puri also on his part had no other inclination save
towards Krishna. The Lord served the meal with His own beautiful hands. Puri
ate in the state of transcendent bliss. At that very moment Ramadevi
Herself, unobserved by any one, with the greatest secrecy, cooked the food for
the Lord in no time. After having made Puri accept the alms of food, the Lord
ate His meal with a glad heart. Those, concludes Thakur Brindavandas, who
listen to this Narrative of the dining of the Lord in the company of Iswara Puri,
gain the treasure of the love of Krishna.

After finishing His meal, the Lord, with His own holy hands, applied excellent
perfumes to all parts of the person of Sree Iswara Puri. The tenderness of
the love of the Lord for Iswara Puri passes the power of description of all
persons. Lord Sree Chaitanya, who is Godhead Himself, undertook pilgrimage to

the birth place of Sree Iswara Puri. Arrived at the place, the Lord greeted it with
His fervent affection. “I make My obeisance,” said He, “to Sree Kumarahatta,
the blessed village in which Sree Iswara Puri made his appearance in this
world.” Chaitanya wept long at the sight of the place, and could not articulate
any other sound except ‘Iswara Puri’. The Lord took the earth from the spot and,
tying it in His own outer-cloth brought it with Him. “This is the birth-place of
Iswara Puri” said the Lord, “This earth is my heart’s love, my treasure, my life.”
With such intensity does the Lord love Sree Iswara Puri. The Supreme Lord,
indeed, wields all His power to glorify His devotee. The Lord said, “That I came
to Gaya on pilgrimage, has been proved to be true, as I have obtained the sight of
Iswara Puri.”

On the following day the Lord went to Sree Iswara Puri alone by Himself and
implored from him, with sweet words, the favour of initiation (diksha) by
the mantra. Puri said, “It is a small matter to bestow the mantra. I can by all
means give Thee my life.” Thereupon, Narayana, Teacher-Guru of the world,
accepted the ten-lettered mantra from him. Then the Lord after
circumambulating Puri said to him, “I surrender My Person to you. May you
bend your auspicious glance on Me that I may float in the ocean of the love of
Krishna.” On hearing these words of the Lord Sree Iswara Puri bestowed his
embrace on Sree Gaursundar by clasping Him to his bosom. The Forms of Both
were drenched with the tears of Both by love, and Neither could remain
unmoved.

The question of unconditional submission to the spiritual guide has a close
connection with that of ritual in general. Those, who are on principle averse
to ritualistic observance in any form, are also necessarily disinclined to express
in any formal way their decision to submit to the direction of the spiritual
guide. They are disposed to make a distinction between the external act and
the internal motive prompting the same and to hold the former as superfluous
and unnecessary. This will appear to be an untenable attitude inasmuch as just
to the extent that one’s own differing judgment is asserted in the method
and motive of offering one’s submission, the submission, that is so offered,
is rendered conditional and imperfect. Such protest is, therefore, really
made against the principle of unconditional submission itself.

The point, that has to be borne in mind, is that the submission in this case is

offered to the Supreme Lord Himself. If the Guru is supposed to be less

than divine, less than the Truth Himself, the disposition, that holds back the offer

of unconditional submission from such an entity, is both rational and
perfectly justifiable. No one is under any obligation to offer his submission to
the nonTruth. From this point of view the offer of partial submission to anything
or to any person can be only a hypocritical show of submission against one’s
own conviction. The Truth is Truth. Adulterated Truth is contradiction in
terms. Adulterated truth is untruth that tries to pass itself off as truth on this
mundane plane of self-deceived delusions.

In this world no one is anxious to serve, but every one is anxious to be served.
Service is, therefore, rendered in the expectation of a return in service
greater than what is offered, by the estimation of the recipient of service. He
who renders service is actuated by this deliberate desire to deceive the recipient
of such service. This is the principle of hypocrisy. Expectation of greater
service from others, is the antithesis of the bona fide impulse of service. One,
who really offers service, does so without expectation of return, in any form, in
exchange of the service that is offered. If the servant is critical, he is critical only
to be on his guard against any reservation on his part. He is only anxious to
render the complete service. He is anxious to be satisfied that there is no
lurking reservation in this matter in any obscure corner of his heart. He is
anxious to study the nature of the demand that is made upon him by his master.
He is not disposed to criticize the motive or method of the master making the
demand. The servant must not suppose himself to be a better judge of the
requirement of his master than the Master Himself. If he thinks he should be
allowed to judge as to how the master should be served, he steps into the place
of the master and makes his real Master serve the pleasure of His hypocritical
servant. This would be the reversion of the natural process.

The show of opposition, that is made by the really loyal servant to the Master’s
wishes, should not be confounded with the desire of the disloyal servant
to thwart the master for reasons of his own convenience. The demarcating line
is, no doubt, an extremely fine one and is likely to be missed by those who
have not a very clean heart. But there is all the difference between the
seeming opposition of the loyal servant and the disloyal attempts of the
mercenary selfseeker, that distinguishes the genuine gold from the treacherous
counterfeit. The latter of course tries to mask his disloyal motive under the
profession of an over-strained solicitude for the Master’s interest. This only
makes his conduct more hideous and ungrateful. The objectionable principle,
underlying the latter form of conduct, is called hypocrisy. The loyal servant is
free from all taint of hypocrisy. He may commit mistakes in judging the Master’s

wishes, but he is always and fully anxious to understand and serve the wishes of
his Master. Any seeming opposition of his to his Master’s wishes, even when his
judgment is wrong, also expresses his single-hearted devotion to his Master’s
interests.

The mischief is that the conditioned soul has got also other interests besides the
service of the Truth. The conditioned soul is prepared, in every case, to offer this
mixed form of service to Godhead: the disloyal servant also is prepared to serve
his Master to a varying extent. It is seldom that the disloyal servant is prepared
to openly defy his Master in every act. But even when the disloyal servant
happens to agree to serve his Master, he does so for the ultimate purpose of
serving only himself thereby. The hypocrite throws off the mask as soon as he is
safe to disobey his Master without the risk of jeopardizing his interests, or when
his own interests are best promoted by open disobedience. In the case of the
loyal servant the Master’s difficulties only serve to vindicate the genuineness of
his loyal disposition by making him still more submissive to his Master.

It is necessary for every one, who is really anxious to find and serve the Truth, to
realize that the Truth is not to be found by the present physical and
mental equipments. It is further necessary to realize that it is nevertheless
possible to find and serve the Truth by the present defective equipments by the
grace of Truth Himself. One is then prepared to wait patiently till the initiative of
the Truth is properly. The person, who is in this genuine expectant mood, is on
the lookout for the Appearance of the Truth in any form that Truth likes. He
is prepared to understand that, as Truth is All powerful, He is likely to appear
to his own defective understanding in a form that is least likely to conform to
his natural misjudgment. He knows that all these difficulties notwithstanding
the grace of Truth is sufficiently powerful to prevail over all obstacles and
to manifest Himself to His servant in a manner that is perfectly inconceivable
to our defective judgment.

This is the Theistic disposition proper. It is credulous in the sense that, although
it is never prepared to remain satisfied with seeming Truth or half truth, it is
always fully ready to make its unconditional, that is to say, loving submission to
the Real Truth the moment He makes His Appearance. The Theistic disposition
is prepared to wait patiently, even inactively, as far as this is at all practicable, till
the actual Appearance of the Master of his heart. He does not believe in
pragmatic loyalty. He abhors to serve any thing but the Absolute Truth. To such
a disposition the Truth is bound to manifest Himself.

The worship of the feet of Sree Gadadhara or the offering of the pinda to the
Manes by Sree Gaursundar, is not performed for any other purpose than
for serving the pleasure of the Lord. An analysis of the forms of the
rituals, enjoined by the Scriptures, should make it abundantly clear to every
impartial person that making the service of the Lord the only duty of all persons
is their only object. There is, therefore, no falling away from Theism by such
activity even on the part of those who are not in a position to explain their
motive to the satisfaction of those logicians who are illogically opposed to the
Theistic disposition. It is the atheistic attitude that makes the ritualistic worship a
form

of idolatry. But the atheistic iconoclast is the worst of idolaters as he is actuated
by the resolve not to recognize the Omnipotence of the Supreme Lord and
the consequent necessity of His grace for being enabled to distinguish between
the idol and the Divinity. The iconoclast launches his fury against the Lord,
Whom he mistakes to be stone or earth by the deluding evidence of his senses,
whose slave he is by his nature. The truly serving disposition is always really
humbler than the blade of grass, being aware that nothing is impossible with the
Lord and that it is never possible to find Him by venting one’s malice against
His creatures or by the assertion of one’s superior claim to
selfconceited righteousness.

The conditioned soul stands in absolute need of grace. This grace can only
descend to him when he is in the attitude of absolute humility. This grace
is bestowed directly by the Supreme Lord on the sincere seeker of His grace.

In the recipient the grace of Godhead expresses His presence in the form of
the rational inclination of seeking perpetual enlightenment from the devotee
of Godhead. He, who is disposed to serve the Lord but not His devotee, is
really disposed to serve nobody except the deluded self. One, who is disposed to
serve the Lord, is disposed to serve His servant, if possible, with even greater
loyalty. The loyal subject of the King is not, therefore, less loyal to one who
is commissioned by the King to carry out his commands in regard to himself.

The Guru is no other than the Servant of the Lord, commissioned to effect
the deliverance of those who are really anxious to serve the Lord. The Archa is
the Lord making Himself accessible to the worship of conditioned souls by
means of all their defective equipments. The Archa is not an image made by the
hand of man. Neither is the Guru a mortal like ourselves. It is only the delivered
soul who can help the conditioned soul to gain his deliverance. It is the
eternally pure souls, who are themselves infallible by their nature, who are sent

into this world in the form of the Guru to impart spiritual enlightenment to
the individual soul liable to be fettered by the flesh. The Guru seems to the
senses and the sensuous judgment to be an ordinary mortal. But he is not really
any part of this plane at all, no more than the Archa. Both are equally
manifestations of the eternal saving Potency of the All-merciful Supreme Lord
to deliver the conditioned soul from his self-elected bondage of the deluding
energy.

By an empiric analysis of the wording of the mantra or the composition of the
Archa or the eternal conduct of the spiritual guide one cannot hope to gain
any idea of the substantive plane of the Absolute. Because it happens to be really
the attitude of refusal to recognize the imperative and moral necessity of
loyally seeking for the divine grace for the attainment of spiritual enlightenment.

Chapter 23 His Initiation ( Cont.)

Ritual may be defined as worship by means of the objects of this world, which
function alone is available to the conditioned soul, rendered possible by
the grace of Godhead as revealed by the Scriptures and the spiritual Guide to
the community of the servants of the Lord.

The empiric theory, which seeks to derive the form and significance of ritual
from the worldly activities of the ancient peoples, is based on the assumption
of the impossibility and superfluity of revelation as the source of worship. But as
a matter of fact it is never possible for man, by progress in material civilization,
to attain either to the form or significance of spiritual worship. The form
of worship can derive its spiritual value, if it has any, only from revelation. As
it does not possess any mundane significance it is, therefore, independent of
all mundane reference. It may satisfy the spirit of antiquarian curiosity to
discover how the superficial aspect of the eternal process of worship varies from
country to country and from Age to Age. But will any number of such
discoveries, add to our knowledge of the real meaning of either the form or the
spirit of true worship?

If the mind can be supposed to be fit to worship Godhead by means of concepts
or precepts referring to objects of phenomenal Nature, why should such worship
be impossible by means of the objects themselves? But mental worship in itself
is no nearer to Godhead than the show of worship by means of material
substances, both being made of non-spiritual stuff. The one is as much in need of
the Divine Sanction as the other, if it is to reach the Divinity at all. The one is as
much capable of being turned into worship as the other by virtue of such
Sanction. The controversy among empiricists on the subject of worship rages
round the external form versus the mental conception both of which are, by
themselves, i.e., as they appear to the empiricists, wholly devoid of all spiritual
significance.

The allied question, bearing on the same issue, may be put thus.

Granted that a mental and physical activity is endowed with spiritual quality of
the service of the divinity by the divine sanction, why should divine
sanction itself be confined to any particular and strictly circumscribes form of
such activity and not extend to the whole range of secular activities ? There

is apparently much to be said in favour of such contention from the point of
view of ordinary rational judgment. If the whole range of activities, both
physical and mental, be made to be covered by the term ‘ritual’ then the
departmental narrowness, that has come to attach itself to the term, would be
removed.

There are also numerous passages in the Scriptures themselves in support of
such contention and to prove that one, who worships Godhead, necessarily does
so by every act of his life.

But notwithstanding all this, spiritual worship is neither narrow and
departmental nor liberal and comprehensive in the empiric sense. These terms of
condemnation and praise do not apply to the issue at all. It is,
therefore, necessary to be humble on the threshold of any serious inquiry into the
nature of the substantive spiritual function. Pantheistic thought is only one form
of atheism. No mental speculation in itself is logically admissible regarding
the Absolute, by reason of the fact that the mind has no access to
the transcendental plane.

The form of the ritual is not improved by the suppression of the methods of
antiquity by more ‘modern’ methods on the ground that these would be
more ‘intelligible’ to our present judgment. The question of intelligibility in
the empiric sense does not matter. When Godhead is addressed by the empiricist
as the Source of all existence, such form of prayer is adopted for the reason that
it is supposed to be intelligible to our limited understanding. But does the
prayer become a spiritual function by any such rational approval on the part of
the worshipper? It is not denied that Godhead is the Source of all existence.

Neither is it admitted that if a person addresses Godhead as the Source of all
existence, he will be enabled to be in communion with Godhead by such prayer.
How does he really know that Godhead is the Source of everything? His real
ignorance cannot be removed by merely repeating a formula whose meaning it is
beyond his capacity to understand. If he chooses to remain satisfied with an
empty performance, he should be considered to be indifferent to the issue.

If Godhead is the Source of all existence, as the rational faculty claims to know
instinctively, how is the same aspiring faculty to reconcile such a
supposition with its own actual utter ignorance of the nature of its relationship
with its own supposed source? Hydrogen and Oxygen were not instinctively

claimed to be known as the source of water by the same all-knowing instinct. Is
it not, therefore, only a silly and superficial vanity that leads such ignorant
persons to ‘believe’ that Godhead is the Source of all existence?

Such an attitude of ignorant omniscience, so lightly assumed as their birthright
in the name of the rational instinct by deluded souls, has to be got rid of
if religion is to avoid the defect that is attributed by physical scientists to
the speculative philosophers, viz., that their subject ‘bakes no bread’. The
sterile philosophy of empiricism has been weighed in the balance for too long a
period and has been found wholly wanting. The world is in some need of a
positive and real, and not merely hypothetical, solution of its spiritual
difficulties.

In the process of spiritual enlightenment there is also, quite inconceivably to our
present power of understanding no doubt, a beginning of the process followed by
a probationary stage which has to be gone through before the goal is reached.

The first faint glimmering of the approaching light is sufficient to impart the
consciousness of the categorical nature of the difference that separates the plane
of the mind and physical body from that of the soul. A11 empiric questionings are
at once and necessarily solved by this first experience of the actual spiritual life.

Thereafter arises a new curiosity which relates itself wholly to the transcendental
plane. The experience of the glimmer of light proceeding from a realm that is yet
completely out of sight except by the relationship of the light which while
bearing testimony to the reality of spiritual existence securely keeps the secret of
all definite knowledge regarding the same, makes one anxious, not for the
nostrums concocted for their idle amusement by the children of darkness but, for
positive information from those who really know about that world, which is only
then actually realized to be perfectly unknown and unknowable to the aspiring
understanding of man.

The present Narrative may be regarded in two possible ways. The first is the
ordinary empiric way for the satisfaction of a limited curiosity born of
the mental outlook. Such study is not likely to be of much positive benefit. But
it may have the negative value of removing misconceptions to which even
the open minded persons are liable by reason of habitual and normal
association with worldly-minded people. This Narrative may strike the
imagination of such a person and may induce a few to agree with the point of
view of the Scriptures as set forth in these pages. If any person thereupon choose

to undertake to act up to the principles inculcated by the Deeds of Sree Krishna-
Chaitanya, he will be in a position to realize the necessity of praying for the
grace of Godhead for directing him to the proper teacher of the Truth. If the
prayer is, indeed, not altogether hypocritical the sincere seeker of divine aid may
be rewarded by the mercy of Godhead and find the bona fide spiritual guide. The
same Influence may also help him to make the complete surrender of himself at
the feet of the Guru when found and to approach him with the further prayer for
positive spiritual enlightenment. The mercy of Godhead will further enable such
a person to be accepted by the Guru. The acceptance by the Guru of his offer
of submission will be the beginning of his spiritual pupilage, and in proportion
as he will be enabled to enter into the plans and views of the Guru by the
method of loyal, willing, rational obedience, the true meaning of the deeds of
Sree Krishna-Chaitanya will manifest Themselves to his serving disposition. If
he thereafter reads the Narrative that has been handed down by the former
serving teachers of the religion (the bona fide Acharyyas) he will gain the
positive knowledge of the Truth.

In the following pages of this work the Events of the Career of Sree Krishna-
Chaitanya, corresponding to the activity of the seeker of the Truth after he has
sought for and received spiritual enlightenment from the bona fide teacher of the
Truth, are recorded and interpreted in pursuance of the exposition of
the Acharyyas, by the method of the service of the bona fide spiritual guide. It
will not be possible for the uninitiated to enter into the spiritual meaning of such
a Narrative. But every one will be enabled to avoid forming any hasty and
adverse opinion if he only keeps in mind the necessary reservations when
going through the account of the happenings of the transcendental plane to
which the conditioned soul has no access in their substantive sense. It can be to
him more or less only like a story of the Fairyland with this difference that the
realm of the soul is not the concoction of the fertile imagination of man as the
other is; but on the contrary it is the only Substantive Reality that vitally
concerns all of us both individually and collectively. No reader of a fairy tale
ever thinks it worth his while to quarrel with any happenings in the Fairyland
even if they are in flat contradiction to all experiences of this world. In the case
of this Narrative also, from this point onward, even if the reader is unable to
agree with any proposition fully, he need not for an analogous reason cherish
any feeling of hostility inasmuch as the propositions have no direct application
to the plane of three dimensions for which alone he is at present
positively interested. His hostility against the Fairyland would be like fighting
with a shadow as the land of the Fairies is not capable of being affected by

his mundane blows; and one should not quarrel with a shadow on principle. If
one is disposed to quarrel by apprehending any bad effect that the story may
appear likely to produce on his actual worldly position, he should still be able to
find consolation in the reflection that his mere desire to banish from this
world anything that he does not like, will not necessarily rid it of those
objectionable entities, and, therefore, if those entities are entitled to have a place
in the world it is the world that deserves to be condemned and not the story
which would be perfectly harmless but for this possibility of its existence in the
world despite our desire to the contrary.

We are not required either by our rational instinct or by the Scriptures to shut our
ears against anybody. It is only during pupilage that the student is required to
obey the teacher not mechanically but by the method of progressive cooperating
conviction. The association with evil-doers, that is so strongly condemned by the
Scriptures, is to he understood in the similar rational sense. The objectionable
form of association with evil can arise only when we identify ourselves with the
evil. It is not always practicable nor desirable to avoid external association with
evil. But it is always practicable and desirable to have a protesting or at any rate
an indifferent attitude towards evil. One must not be a consenting associating
party with evil. A person is not capable of being contaminated by mere external
association with evil, although he may be living in this world where ‘even the
light is as darkness.’ The attempt to avoid all association with evil by the
mechanical method is only another form of association with evil. One, who is
impure at heart but fastidious in his external conduct, is called in ordinary
language a hypocrite, who is not less harmful and who is not to be less avoided
than the downright professed scoundrel.

There need not be any unnecessary mystery about spiritual matters. Everything
is not intelligible to everyone. It is necessary also to adopt a method that
is neither unintelligible nor misleading to the hearer. But nothing need be kept
a secret unless it is impossible to be divulged without producing serious
and harmful misunderstanding. The mantra is not to be divulged to another
person, because this is quite a personal matter. It is also quite proper and logical
to have the principles of reserve and privacy in the realm of the soul. It is
not necessary to abuse those principles for securing transitory and narrow
interests, as we do in this world. They are capable of being used and should by
all means be used, for serving the Tmth. This will no doubt give a chance to the
hypocrite and the pseudo-teachers of religion to befool their over-credulous
victims; but it should befool nobody who does not want to be. befooled by their

overattachment to the bauble pleasures of this world.

The nature of those funeral rites, that are enjoined by the Scriptures, requires to
be understood from the point of view of the service of Godhead. One’s duty
to one’s parents does not cease with the death of the latter. This admission is
not avoidable by those who recognize the claim of their parents, to their duty
in return of benefits received from them. The circle of such duties and benefits
no doubt belong to the mundane plane. Death is the greatest calamity that
may befall the relationship of parent and child. It severs the earthly
connection between them. But does it really sever all connection? The
elevationists do not believe it does. They suppose that the subtle body survives
the death of the gross physical body. This subtle body has to be reborn after an
interval during which it remains dissociated from the gross body, the subtle body
embodies the principle of material enjoyment. But it does not obtain this
enjoyment except through the gross body. The subtle body in the dissociated
state, is called the preta. The funeral rites are intended for the benefit Of the
preta. This benefit, as understood by the elevationists (smartas), consists in the
rebirth of the preta in some other gross body. By such rebirth the preta is
supposed to be delivered from his torments of the preta state. The Salvationists
on the other hand suppose that the preta is delivered if he is enabled to avoid
rebirth in the gross body by merging in the Divinity. The Vaishnavas do not
recognize any special duty to their forbears, for the reason that such duty is
rendered to the material case which is wrongly identified by the elevationists and
Salvationists alike with the individual soul who is the person to whom all duties
are really due. The individual soul is not served by any function that is intended
for the amelioration of the gross or subtle material case. The Vaishnavas
accordingly express their duty towards their forbears and all departed persons by
making their offering at the Feet of Gadadhara.

At Gaya the round of the funeral ceremonies leads up to the worship of the Feet
of Vishnu, as their consummation. This is the relation in which the
Smarta ceremonies are intended by the Scriptures to stand to the spiritual
function proper. The Manes, i.e., souls imprisoned in the subtle bodies, are
benefited by their descendants, worship of the Feet of Gadadhara. The
performance of funeral rites by Godhead Himself is not to be supposed a
concession to elevationist or Salvationist method or objective. The avoidance of
the ceremonies, by those who do not worship the Feet of Gadadhara, is also
not supported by the conduct of Sree Gaursundar. What it is intended
to significant, is that the smarta practice is the result of gratitude that is

naturally felt by a person, who confounds himself with his physical cases,
towards the forbears of those cases. One, who is in the deluded condition, need
not be hypocritically ungrateful to his worldly parents till he has been really
relieved from the state of ignorance. He would be delivered from his ignorance
and all supposed obligations of that state, if he could attain to the pure service of
the feet of Vishnu. This desideratum is recognized by the arrangement for
the performance of the sraddha ceremonies at Gaya leading up to the worship
of the Feet of Gadadhara. According to the dictum of the Scriptures a person,
who desires to attain to the service of Godhead, should perform all duties
enjoined by the custom of his society or preferably by the Veda in the way that
is conducive to the attainment of the spiritual function. The smarta view is
that the devotee of Godhead is also under equal obligation to appease the Manes
by the performance of the sraddha ceremonies. This is the reverse of the
principle that is followed at Gaya in the due performance of the funeral rites.

The Supreme Teacher recognized by His Conduct the justification of the
elevationist and Salvationist function for the social purpose, while pointing to
the attainment of the service of Godhead as the objective towards which
all activities should tend if they are to possess any positive value for the soul.

If any portion of the funeral ritual is opposed to this end it is
necessarily unacceptable to the Vaishnavas, for that reason.

The ritual of diksha or initiation is liable to be similarly misunderstood. The
smarta view of the ceremony is similar to their view of the funeral ritual.

The smarta is anxious to provide for the needs of the gross and subtle
physical cares. He deliberately ignores the need of the soul, because that is
opposed to the interests (?) of the physical cases as understood by the smartas.
The ceremony of diksha, according to the smarta view, confers only on
the Brahmana by seminal birth the eligibility for the worship of Sree
Narayana. Those, who are not Brahmanas by seminal birth, are, according to this
view, enabled by the process only to be born as Brahmanas in their next birth;
but it does not entitle them to worship Sree Narayana in their present life.

The Brahmana, who is eligible to worship Narayana or Godhead, is thus
supposed to be the entity, viz., the physical cases, that is born of mundane
parents. But as a matter of fact the physical cases have no access to Vishnu and
the process of diksha cannot accordingly apply to them and for this reason
diksha is not a social but a spiritual function the nature of which is
misunderstood by those so-called Brahmanas who are anxious to retain intact
their hereditary social privileges.

By seminal birth, on the contrary, everyone is made a Sudra who is the opposite
of a Brahmana. The seminal birth provides the physical cases by which
the conditioned soul is made subject to the sufferings of this world, or, in
other words, is made a Sudra which term literally means ‘one who is subject
to sorrow’. By the purificatory ceremony of Upanayana, or being conducted to
the Guru for attaining to the knowledge (Veda) of one’s relationship with
Godhead (diksha) in order to be enabled to serve Him on the spiritual plane, the
Sudra is re-born, not as a physical or mental case but, as a soul or student of the
Veda. This second birth is not seminal birth, because the pupil, who submits to
the Guru, is not the physical body born of semen but the soul inhabiting the
same. The substantive consciousness, that one is not the physical body but the
soul inhabiting the body, can alone enable one to serve the Guru for obtaining
the true knowledge of the function of his own proper self.

The ceremony of Upanayana, therefore, admits the necessity, on the part of the
conditioned soul, of serving the Guru and represents the soul’s act of
appearing before the Guru in order to learn to serve Godhead. The ceremony of
diksha confers on the soul actual spiritual enlightenment. When the Guru is
satisfied by the probationary test that the candidate for spiritual
enlightenment possesses the genuine aptitude for service, he confers on him the
knowledge of his relationship with Godhead which enables him to serve
Godhead. By means of diksha a person is thus born a third time. It is a case not
of seminal birth, but of the completion of the probationary stage of the spiritual
pupilage of the soul.

The purificatory process of Upanayana and diksha are also proved to be
necessarily open to all persons irrespective of seminal birth. The seminal
birth can bestow only mundane aptitudes. The seminal birth cannot convey,
or entitle one to, the spiritual nature. That, which conveys or entitles to
the spiritual nature, is spiritual birth by Upanayana and diksha. There is
real analogy but a difference of plane between the seminal and spiritual birth.

Upanayana is the process of being connected to the Guru. This refers to the
function of the shiksha Guru. The shiksha Gurus may be many, but the
diksha Guru is only one. The shiksha Gurus are the associated counterparts of
the diksha Guru who is the associated counterwhole of the Divinity Himself.
There is thus only one diksha Guru who is associated with his infinity of agents
or limbs whose function is to lead the intending disciple to the diksha Guru.

The diksha Guru may, indeed, be also the shiksha Guru, but not necessarily so.

The distinction between the shiksha Guru and the diksha Guru is one relating
to their respective spiritual functions which do not involve any
unwholesome implication of inferiority in the mundane sense. The shiksha Guru
is, therefore, to be as much obeyed by the disciple as the diksha Guru himself.

The function of diksha, in its ritualistic aspect, consists of the process of
imparting the mantra by the diksha Guru which is spoken by him into the ear
of the disciple without being allowed to be heard by any other person. It is
the method of Truth communicating Himself to an individual soul in the Form
of the Transcendental sound Appearing on the lips of His devotee. The mantra,
as we have explained elsewhere, is the Holy Name in the Form in which He
is coupled with the process of self dedication of an individual to the Guru. It is
a specific matter that delivers the particular individual from the grip of all
mental delusion by making him throw himself on the protection of the Name
under the exclusive direction of the Guru. The process of initiation is not a
limited one. It is as much a continued process as the process of being helped by
the shiksha Guru for approaching the diksha Guru. No one of these processes
is capable of terminating is a limited result. They are eternally co-present in
a relation that is progressive but without being hampered by the
unwholesome imperfection of the principle of limitation.

It has been necessary to explain the process of entry into the spiritual life in
some detail for several reasons. A good deal of misconception has
gathered round the issue. This misconception is responsible for the mushroom
growth of an endless variety of pseudo-forms of the process that are being
constantly manufactured by quacks and knaves for leading astray simpletons and
rascals, by the offer of their support to diverse forms of pernicious worldly
activities. It is not also easy to withstand the temptation of being misled by the
appeal to the principle of pseudo-ethics manufactured by intellectualists for
justifying a life of the sensualists’ paradise for belittling the spiritual issue which
transcends the petty concerns of a nine days’ existence. It is absolutely necessary
to have this sense of perspective, if one is not to miss the only purpose for which
the subject, treated in this work has been offered to his unbiased and
serious consideration.

Nothing is easier than to make a butt of ridicule of the concerns of the eternal
life by the method of empiric buffoonery. There is an enormous literature, that is
also alarmingly growing in volume by leaps and bounds, which has
been deliberately seeking to dissuade the limited mind from any thought of

the Absolute by covering, with their flimsy ridicule, all transcendental claims
of religion. Such effusions may have been partly called forth by the
somewhat natural reaction against the practices of the pseudo religionists
who unfortunately abound all over the world. They also serve the salutary
purpose of checking the quarrels of the quacks and hypocritical followers of
the different religious persuasions. But the warfare, that is waged by
atheism against the forms of pseudo-religion, is also itself part and parcel of the
opera show of our deluded existence. The history of the doings of man is full
of instructive episodes in a short chapter of a real tragedy of errors which we
are gravely asked to regard as the progressive march of an ethical
civilization towards increasing perfection. The reader has had enough experience
of regarding the doings of the performers on the worldly stage from this
supposed optimistic and universally advertised promising point of view. It is not
our business here to offer him more of the same familiar commodity.

The real transcendental point of view is condemned by empiricists of all
countries, with the exception of India and of those lands which have
received their creeds from her, as being the hallucinate product of a sterile
pessimism born of a decadent material civilization fretting over the solid
achievements of successful rivals. India, which is the cradle and chosen land of
the hankering for the realization of the transcendental existence, presents the
spectacle of the continuing attempt to treat social issues by the Scriptural method
by refusing to admit the absolute value of mundane interests. No school of
Indian philosophy professes to value social activity divorced from the spiritual
purpose. The difficulty in this country is due not to the absence of traditional
opinion in favour of the endeavour after the realization of the transcendental
existence, as distinguished from the mundane, but to the misunderstanding
and mispresentation, by different schools of misguided exponents, of the nature
of the spiritual function itself. Whereas in those countries, which are proud
of possessing a social organization that is not ‘priest-ridden’ and aims frankly
at the multiplication and ‘improvement’ of the opportunities of
sensuous enjoyment and the hopeless ‘amelioration’ of the inevitable
consequences of the unhampered pursuit of this optimistic course, the difficulty
is due to the absence of all traditional hankering for the attainment of the
spiritual state.

This last difficulty is infinitely increased by the misrepresentations of the whole
body of empiric literature which is never tired of harping ad nauseam on
the congenial theme of the glories of this mundane existence and holds up its

nose in indignant scorn and contempt if the soundness of its wretched point of
view is challenged by straight talk which it affects to invite so vehemently on its
own side.

It is not our purpose merely to condemn the activities of this world. We should
really try to understand the nature of our proper relationship with them.

We should not be willing to be satisfied with any hypothetical views on this
allimportant subject. We should not be violent lovers of the worldly
sojourn without reservation, nor should we be prepared to desire its perpetuation
as it is and as it is proposed to be made by those who derive their knowledge
and wisdom from their experience of this world and apply them solely for
further elaboration of our worldly activities on their present lines. We should
long for an unobstructed vision of the Absolute Truth and believe in the
possibility of the attainment of such vision, and to adjust our activities during
this worldly sojourn to the requirements of our real and whole position revealed
by the knowledge of the Absolute Truth. We should be disposed to regard the
attitude, that is content to be satisfied with less than the Absolute Truth, as one
of insidious and unpardonable revolt against the Absolute Truth. The
present Narrative offers a Career That is wholly devoted to the service of the
Absolute Truth. We are disposed to consider a pragmatist, if he does not possess
the supreme regard due to the devotee of the Absolute Truth, as no better than
a dangerous cheat and a sensuous hypocrite who wants only to indulge
his aptitude for untruth under the guise of a mock concern for the Truth.

We, therefore, claim to be neither pessimists nor optimists in the sense ill which
the contending factions of the empiric sages array themselves under their
respective worldly banners. We should share their furious interest on behalf of
the worldly life. We only invite our readers to lend their receptive ear to
the narration of the actual conduct of Nimai Pandit, as He manifested Himself
to this world, after He had received spiritual enlightenment by
unconditional submission to the feet of the bona fide spiritual Guide. By the
process of diksha, with the intention of trying to enter the spirit of the same from
the point of view of the Narrative itself that has been handed down by the
succession of the spiritual teachers.

The boon for which Nimai Pandit prayed to Sree Iswara Puri, was love for
Krishna. He surrendered to Sree Iswara Puri His Body and Mind unconditionally
for the attainment of the above purpose. When one obtains the actual sight of the
bona fide Spiritual Guide, that is of the real exclusive servant of the Absolute, by
the grace of Godhead, the duty, that he has to perform on his side, is to make the

unconditional surrender of himself to the Feet of the bona fide agent of the
Absolute. This is the logical and consistent course but is impossible of
realization in practice except by divine grace.

If the complete surrender to the Guru is made the spiritual mantra reveals
himself to the disciple. It is now our task to trace the growth of this
loving devotion in Nimai Pandit. But as we proceed to do so we must bear in
mind the fact that Nimai Pandit was, indeed, no other than the Lord Himself.

This is noticeable in the manner of Sree Iswara Puri towards his Disciple. He
says that when he looks at Nimai Pandit he obtains the bliss of beholding
Krishna Himself. The Vaishnava Guru does not regard any one as his disciple;
but he does not, therefore, think that his disciples are Krishna Himself. The
Vaishnava Guru regards his disciples as his Gurus and himself as their disciple.
The Vaishnava Guru regards his disciples as his Gurus for the reason that as
servants of his Lord they are really his Gurus. The disciple, who is under
agreement to serve the Lord, becomes, by that very agreement, in the estimation
of the Guru to whom he is bound by the agreement, the servant of the Lord Who
is served by the Guru, and, therefore, his Guru. Iswara Puri would have been
justified in addressing Nimai Pandit as his Guru after Nimai Pandit had agreed
to become the Servant of Krishna. But he did not call his Disciple his Guru but
said He was Krishna Himself. This shows the real state of things as realized by
Sree Iswara Puri. It is really the Lord Who gave the boon of His Mercy to Iswara
Puri under the guise of receiving initiation from His Guru.

Unless this point is properly grasped there will be difficulty in following the
subsequent developments. Sree Iswara Puri belonged to the communion of
Sree Madhvacharyya. Initiation at the hands of Sree Iswara Puri marks the entry
of Nimai Pandit into the Madhva Community. It was certainly not incumbent
on the Lord to enroll Himself under the banner of Madhva. This would
prevent Him, according to usage, from breaking away from the tenets of a
particular Community. It is well known that Sree Madhva did not teach the
service of Sree Sree Radha-Govinda which was preached and practiced by
Nimai Pandit. There is thus only connection but not identity of teaching between
Sree Chaitanya and Sree Madhva. Sree Madhabendra Puri, the Guru of Sree
Iswara Puri, was the first of the Acharyyas to manifest his inclination, in an
elementary form, for the worship of Krishna as his Consort. In this respect he
stands alone among the followers of Sree Madhva. For this reason the followers
of Sree Chaitanya regard Sree Madhabendra Puri as the germinating seed of the
tree of loving devotion that was manifested to the world in its fully developed

form by Sree Chaitanya.

These points of contact and difference will be dealt with more fully as we have
occasion to examine, in the following pages, the details of the
devotional developments of Nimai Pandit. The Lord accepted initiation from
Sree Iswara Puri in order to satisfy, the requirement of the scriptures that the
mantra cannot be efficacious except within the spiritual communion. In other
words spiritual activity is not a wholly individualistic affair. We have seen above
that the mantra concerns the individual as regards its reception and practice of
recital. But at the same time the mantra withdraws the individual spiritually
from the society of those who are uninitiated. If the individual continues his
affinity with the uninitiated after his initiation in ways that are adverse to his
newly-formed spiritual connection, the mantra loses all its efficacy. This implies,
and is a corollary from, the exclusive nature of the service of the Absolute and
also lays down the nature of spiritual relationship among the servants of
Godhead, which is categorically different from what prevails in the society of
those who do not consciously serve the Divinity. It was in order to observe
this fundamental condition of entry into the spiritual sphere, laid down in
the Scriptures, that Nimai Pandit went through the form of spiritual initiation
at the hands of Sree Iswara Puri who belonged to one of the four
theistic communities recognized by the Scriptures. The New Dispensation does
not, therefore, claim that it is altogether New. It does not belie but on the
contrary only fulfills the requirements of the Scriptures in the most effective
manner.

The Scriptures had announced that the New Dispensation for the Iron Age will
be given by the Lord Himself and that the form of worship, that will be
thus established, will be the congregational chant (sankirtana). There was,
therefore, sufficient Scriptural authorization for the establishment of the New
Worship without reference to the existing theistic communities who
possessed apparently somewhat different methods of worship. But the New
Dispensation was to be accomplished, and could be accomplished, according to
the Scriptures and in no other way than by the recognition of the necessity
of initiation into one of the authorized theistic communions. The
Lord subsequently took the trouble of bringing about the spiritual reconciliation
of the apparent differences of the four Vaishnava Communities, by giving to
the world the complete explanation of the function of the soul revealed by
the Scriptures. The Teachings of Sree Chaitanya in fact gathered up those of
the former Acharyyas in a Scriptural Synthesis of a supremely higher order. His

full interpretation of the service of Sree Sree Radha Govinda, Embodied in
His Career, is not identical with the teaching or practice of any of the
four Vaishnava Acharyyas, but the further and complete working out of
the fundamentals of the teachings of all of them has been one of its
inevitable achievements.

That the mantra, which had been received by Nimai Pandit from Sree Iswara
Puri who had got it from Sree Madhabendra Puri, was to bear fruit in an
ample measure, did not take a long time to manifest itself. Shortly after His
Initiation, as Nimai Pandit was one day engaged in meditating of the mantra in
His privacy, the impulse of loving devotion, which had been gathering
strength, burst through all restraints and showed itself in unique external
manifestations. The Lord was heard to be crying with a loud Voice in the act of
reciting certain verses from the Scriptures, the import of which is as follows,—
’Oh Krishna!

Oh My Darling! Sree Hari, My Life! Oh, whither hast Thou gone after stealing
My Heart? I, indeed, got My Lord;—but where is He gone?’

The Lord went on crying and reciting these verses and rolling on the ground till
His Whole Beautiful Lrame became gray with the dust, while He was
thus immersed in the liquid bliss of loving devotion. The Lord, indeed, cried at
the top of His Voice, in the pang of a Deep Agony, ‘Whither, Darling Krishna
art Thou gone thus abandoning Me?’ His great restlessness under the impulse
of loving devotion appeared all the more strange as the Lord had formerly
been distinguished by the quality of His extreme reserve on the subject of
religion. The Lord rolled on the ground and cried aloud. He was adrift on the
ocean of loving separation from Himself.

This gradually brought all His pupils to the spot who succeeded, after prolonged
endeavours, with the greatest tenderness and loving care, in restoring Him to His
normal condition. But the Lord did not change His Purpose. He now proposed to
His students that they should at once return to their homes. He was resolved on
His Part not to enter the world again. He was resolved to go to Mathura to find
Krishna, the Lord of His Life. All the students appealed to Him, by every
possible method, to persuade Him to be calm. But the Lord of Vaikuntha, deeply
immersed in the rasa (mellowing liquid) of devotion, could find no rest in His
Heart under His great anxiety and did not know where to stay. In this condition
the Lord, without the knowledge of any of His associates, set out for Mathura,

by the impulse of love for Krishna, towards the closing hours of night on one of
these days. He moved forward on the road with the piteous cry, ‘Oh Krishna! Oh
My Darling! Where shall I find Thee?’ When He had proceeded a certain
distance in this manner the Lord heard a celestial voice saying, “Jewel of the
twice-born, forbear to go to Mathura for the present. There will come the proper
time for going there. Thou wilt go there when the time will arrive. Retrace Thy
Steps Home to Nabadwip for the present. Thou art the Lord of Sree Vaikuntha.
Thou hast appeared in the world for the deliverance of the people, with all Thy
Own. Thou wilt freely give away the treasure of loving devotion to the world by
performing the kirtana through the infinity of the worlds. Thou has appeared in
the world to give away to its denizens the good, by whose mellow quality
Brahma, Shiva, Sanaka and their associates, are distracted with joy and which is
sung by the Great Lord Ananta Himself. This is known to Thyself. We are Thy
servants, and we speak as Thou Desirest. Therefore, have we made this
submission at Thy Feet. Thou art Providence Himself. Thou art the Master. What
Thou wilst is never thwarted by opposition. Therefore Supreme Lord, may Thou
be pleased to return to Thy Home. May: Thou come again to see the town of
Mathura after a time.’ On hearing the Voice from Heaven Sree Gaursundar was
persuaded to retrace His Steps with a glad Heart. Coming back to His lodging,
the Lord prepared to return Home with all His disciples with the purpose of
making manifest to the world the function of loving devotion to Krishna.

The reader is introduced with staggering suddenness into an atmosphere which is
not at all familiar to him in his normal mundane existence. If he is disposed to
exercise his judgment at all he might be inclined to suppose the exhibition
of love for Krishna as the effect of a strong emotion on a naturally
and extraordinarily sanguine temperament. But he is at once assured by
Thakur Brindavandas that prior to His Initiation Nimai Pandit did not wear His
Heart on His sleeves. He was, on the contrary, possessed of a depth of reserve
that baffled all penetration. This is the description of an unusually
balanced temperament. It also fully accords with the respect and dread with
which, as a Professor, Nimai Pandit was universally regarded by His fellow
townsmen. His Fame as Professor had not remained confined to Nabadwip. The
leading Professor of Nabadwip was at that time, as now, the greatest savant of
the whole country. All this implies neither a morbid sentimentalism nor the lack
of a balanced intellect.

Attempts have been made on the testimony of nobody but by most illogical
inference from the events of His subsequent career regarded from the

dishonest sceptic’s point of view, to give publicity to the opinion that Nimai
Pandit was never a particularly brilliant scholar. He was only the teacher of
Vyakarana which has been described by one of His associates, who became
subsequently His devotee, as a subject of study fit for children. This, it has been
suppose, proves that Nimai Pandit was not a great scholar. But this view does not
take into consideration the testimony of the earliest accounts of His Career
which informs us that He was the greatest scholar of Nabadwip of His time and
in all branches of knowledge. They are also careful to inform us that it was
His Favorite pastime to go about the streets in the company of His
pupils challenging every one to learned controversy with Him in any branch of
study. The work of Thakur Brindavandas was written within less than forty years
of the Disappearance of the Lord. We find that the Lord met and defeated in
open controversy all the scholars of all parts of India. This could not be regarded
as even an exaggerated account of the neurotic performance of a
mad sentimentalist. Those, who are at all acquainted with the nature of
theological controversies in India, should be aware that it is no child’s play to
defeat an Indian Pandit in open controversy in His subject.

‘But there is far more convincing proof of His perfect rational sanity than all
this. The theological system, which is the Teaching of Sree Chaitanya,
remains intact to this day. Some indications of its nature have already been
available to the reader of the foregoing pages of this Narrative. It is for the
reader to judge whether they constitute a revolutionary and unparalleled advance
on every system of every school that has been prevalent in the world before or
since His time. But that, which has been placed before the reader, is only
that infinitesimally small portion what bears to be conveyed in the
defective vocabulary that is at our disposal for the purpose. No vocabulary of
this world can touch even the outermost fringe of the Absolute Truth whose
complete face is presented by the Career of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya, the
Absolute Himself, in the Agony of an endless striving for beholding Himself as
He really is.

The difficulty that the worldling has to overcome in order to be won to a rational
faith in the Transcendental Nature of the Absolute, is that he is made by all his
cherished habits of education and association to believe implicitly in the
testimony of his senses. When Nimai Pandit is found by one’s eyes to be
no more than a human being like oneself, it should be impossible to be won
over by mere theological arguments to a stable conviction of His
transcendental nature. It would be still less possible to believe in His divinity by

the same method.

This natural disinclination to believe in His transcendence would not be
diminished by the closest possible scrutiny of His Career from the
confirmed empiric point of view. The ordinary empiric attitude is to expect to
find transcendence in the form that must wholly bewilder the understanding by
the manner of a miracle. If Nimai Pandit possesses a Body which can be touched
by my hands, seen by my eyes, how can such Body be regarded as something
really extraordinary ? Nothing mundane is ordinarily expected to be found in
the mundane sense in the truly transcendental. Should, not, therefore,

Nimai Pandit if He is really transcendental, have nothing in common with
us according to mundane expectation?

The reply to such questions has already been given more than once in the course
of this narrative, transcendence does not mean the denial of the mundane. It
simply means that the transcendent is inconceivable to our
present understanding. For example it was inconceivable to His contemporaries
that Nimai Pandit is really a transcendental person. This is quite in conformity
with the peculiar characteristic of transcendence. It need not obey, it is sure to
belie, all expectations of its mundane observers. No imagining on the part of
the empiricists, by the negative method of analysis of mundane experience,
can enable him to get to the real plane of transcendence. It is only by the mercy
of the latter that he can have any access to him. Transcendence reserves the
right of showing, or not showing, himself to the mundane spectator. He refuses
to disclose his nature to one who does not desire to serve the Truth. This is not
at all unreasonable, as we all recognize the paramount duty of serving the
Truth in order to be enabled to realize our own proper nature by reference to
the Truth.

The theory of miracle, in the sense in which the term is ordinarily supposed to
stand for a transcendental occurrence, must be wholly discarded if we are to
be enabled to approach the subject of transcendence in the truly scientific way.

The power of performing miracles, in the ordinary sense of that term, cannot and
need not be attributed to the divinity. The transcendence of Godhead consists in
this that He does not require any extraneous proof of His divinity to maintain His
transcendence. He is everything without being anything. This is the real nature
of His transcendence. Godhead has been accordingly described in the Bhagavata
as possessing a Medium Form. In other words there is prima facie nothing

extraordinary at all about Godhead as He really is. This is the proof of His
supreme freedom from all form and convention. The Divinity is also declared to
have a specific form of His own who is like the human. This is not proved to be
untrue for the reason that it is nothing apparently extraordinary to the judgment
of man. The human form of the divinity is not the human form of non-divine
man. Sree Krishna is free from all limiting connotations of the term ‘man’ and is
at the same time Human in a manner that is inconceivable to man himself.

Such a view no doubt provides a capital opportunity for cheats and hypocrites to
come forward as the Avataras of Godhead, an opportunity that has not also failed
to be exploited in the most shameless way, specially in this country. But the
exhibition of such monstrous wickedness by all the sinners of this world, will be
no palliative for the error of those who are, with equal hypocrisy, thereby led to
hold to any belief which they know very well to be radically opposed to their
own basic conception of the nature of the Divinity. No hypocrisy, not even that
of the most subtle kind, is naturally permitted to trespass into the realm of the
Absolute, for the simple reason that it happens to be a revolt against the service
of the Truth as He is.

Nimai Pandit cries like a mad-man for Sree Krishna. He does nothing else, but
always longs for the sight of Krishna. Who then is this Nimai Pandit and
Who also is this Sree Krishna to whom He realizes Himself to be so
exclusively attached by love ?

We have to turn to the Bhagavata for understanding the meaning of this
Extraordinary Conduct. The shlokas, which Nimai Pandit was reciting as
he wept loudly in His agony of separation from Krishna, are to be found in
the Bhagavata. Krishna is leaving for Mathura. The shlokas express the grief of
the milkmaids on that occasion. It is on the plane of Braja that Nimai Pandit
finds Himself in consequence of His initiation. He is turned into a denizen of
Braja that is now His real plane, while this world only serves to increase His
sense of separation from Krishna. In order to enable the reader to avoid any
gross misunderstanding of the nature of the spiritual function itself, manifested
in the activities of Nimai Pandit from this time, we shall try to set forth in the
next chapter a few additional considerations towards the elucidation of His
conduct as devotee of Krishna.

Chapter 24 His Initiation and After

The method of service by the mood of separation is the distinctive feature, the
differential as it were, of the religion of pure devotion that is exhibited by
the Conduct of Nimai Pandit after His Initiation. It is this which makes the
religion of pure devotion the antipode of the worship (?) of Material Energy by
the mood of enjoyment represented by the gross type of the Shakta Cult.

The worship of Godhead, being located on the transcendental plane, cannot
be practiced in its positive or substantive form on the material plane.

But neither is the spiritual function performed by the method of abstention from
material enjoyment. The method of abstention is a radically
unnatural, hypocritical and pessimistic attitude. Why should a person abstain
from the ordinary activities of this world? If one loses any organ of sense should
it be regarded as any cause for congratulation in itself ? Any deliberate attempt
to be deprived of the functions of all the senses, cannot be supposed, for the
same reason, to be either desirable or equivalent to any positive function on
the transcendental plane. Moreover the process itself of being deprived of
one’s senses is really impracticable. Any offense against Physical Nature
is automatically punished by an equally violent re-action. Nature always takes
her revenge.

The sensuous aptitude is the natural condition for the physical body under the
direction of the mind which is dependent on the sense-organs for all its activities.
This is the fact. The world is not an illusion, to be got rid of by the mere desire
of any person. Those, who believe in the philosophy of illusion and the
omnipotence of the mind, fall thereby only more deeply into the clutches of the
sensuous nature. The victims of cynicism may not be themselves prepared to
admit the sterile failure of their cherished misconceptions, but it is none the less
patent to all impartial observers.

When, therefore, it is stated that Sree Gaursundar practiced the pure devotion of
Krishna by the Mood of Separation, as distinct from that of material enjoyment
practiced by the elevationists (or materialistic Shaktas), it is not to be supposed
that He necessarily belonged to the opposite camp of equally materialistic
ascetic Salvationists. As a matter of fact He belonged to neither materialist camp.
He was acting according to the pure dictates of the soul when he wakes from his
mundane stupor to find himself wholly off his proper plane in this world. The

plank of the elevationists as well as of the Salvationists offered Him the
alternative aspects of the perverted spiritual function that prevails on the
mundane plane. Elevationism is fruitful of transitory positive activities which are
essentially irrational in their nature, although they seem to be true for a time;
while Salvationism offers freedom from the round of such activities by
substituting in place of the positive a number of impracticable, negative equally
irrational and transitory activities. The stuff in either case is the same, viz., an
unintelligible existence depending on the physical senses for its functioning. It
is, therefore, no wonder that the Salvationists should consider himself saved only
by his total immunity from the shackles of his present unwholesome existence as
a thinking individual with compulsory, positive tantalizing functions.

The quarrel between Elevationism and Salvationism is as old as the hills. It has
also remained the eternal Gordian Knot which cannot be untied by any
earthly thinking. Each can be justified only by including the other which is
logically its direct negation. This vicious circle is the very plane of all empiric
thinking on the subject of itself.

Nimai Pandit was perfectly aware of the insoluble nature of this problem of
empiricism and He took care not to embrace either of those alternatives.

He found Himself instead on the real positive plane of the Absolute. This plane
is not one of sensuous activities at all. On the mundane plane the senses
demand their own gratification. On the spiritual plane the senses are found to
be absolutely free from this hankering. The sensuous hankerings of
the Elevationists are capable of being only suppressed. The Salvationists are
never cured of their longing for material enjoyment which is indirectly or
directly the very stuff of all existence on the material plane.

If I suddenly find myself on a plane where the senses do not require their own
gratification, I should be left without any motive for active existence. This is
the seemingly rational conclusion of the Salvationists. But Nimai Pandit did
not find that it is really so. He found that He was being prevented from
exercising the proper function of His Senses by His Separation from the only
Object towards Whom it is worthy of being performed. He found no worthy
function to be performed by His senses towards this world. He desired an
infinity of functions to be performed towards the Absolute. But the Absolute had
ceased to be accessible to Him after a sudden momentary revelation. This was
the plight in which He found Himself.

The empiric critic might be inclined to agree to this for a reason of his own. He
may think that such a state is identical with the goal of the Salvationists.

If Nimai Pandit did nothing but cry for Krishna night and day, did He not
thereby limit Himself to the minimum of barren transitory performances which
is the cherished goal of ascetic Salvationists?

But as a matter of fact the ascetics themselves of that period did not recognize
the Performances of Nimai Pandit as coming under the requirements
of Salvationism. They said that He was only a soft-hearted sentimentalist.

They scorned His company and His philosophy, as being utterly incompatible
with a life of austerities.

Nimai Pandit was, therefore, out of His element both among Elevationists and
Salvationists. Neither could He find any other footing of His own in this
world. Thereupon He behaved as one who is distraught with a great sorrow, and
found no consolation except in the talk of Krishna. His sorrow was that He had
found Krishna but that He had been immediately forsaken by Him. He had lost
sight of Him. But He could not live without seeing Him. His only concern was to
find Him again. He was interested in the company and talks of those who
were attached to Krishna and who might enable Him to find Krishna. He had
no duties till He found Krishna. Can such a Person be described as a
Salvationist who seeks freedom from the miseries of his individual existence? Or
can He be regarded as an Elevationist, who is bent upon finding his goal in
the gratification of his own senses ?

Nimai Pandit gave up all earthly occupation from the moment of His initiation,
devoting Himself heart and soul to the Search for Krishna. Did He also expect to
find Him ? He was engaged in this Search for the rest of His Career. The Search
served to intensify the pang of separation from His only Beloved. He ceased at
first to care for the ordinary duties of a householder and finally renounced the
world and lived away at Puri, far from His widowed mother and loving consort,
who were left to be taken care of by, and to care for, Krishna, in His place.

Such a course, although at first sight it seems to bear a close external
resemblance to Salvationism, is radically different from the same. To
love Krishna is the summum bonum of all animation. The love for Krishna had
been aroused in Nimai Pandit as the result of His Initiation. But from the
very beginning it had the form of the anguish of loving separation from the
object of His love. This was the fulfillment, brought about by the process of

initiation, of His spiritual need. He had gained the summum bonum in this form.

If one is seriously disposed to settle down in a contented mood in this world,
such a person cannot be regarded as possessing an iota of real love for
Krishna. Krishna is never to be found in this world. It is also necessarily
impossible to serve one who cannot be found. A person, who is favoured by the
sight of Krishna, is thereby deprived of all taste for the life on the plane of
sensuous existence that alone is available in this world. In this terrible
predicament what is such a person to do for passing his time ?

Krishna shows Himself to the neophyte only once, at the moment of the
fulfillment of the probationary stage of his spiritual pupilage, and
immediately vanishes from his view. This, indeed, sets him on the real quest. Till
the novice has been favoured by the sight of Krishna he has no love for the Real
Krishna. The instant he is blessed by the sight of Krishna he finds Krishna to be
his only beloved and he is ready with the offer of his all for His service. But
Krishna has no need for the things of this world. The pure soul, who has once
been blessed by the sight of Krishna, is thereby enabled to know also this
perfectly well. He, therefore, on his part does not expect nor want that Krishna
should actually allow Himself to be served by the offerings of mundane things.

In other words that form of worship, which bears the Scriptural designation of
archana, cannot also have an exclusive attraction for such a person.

It is possible to worship Godhead by means of the objects and thoughts of this
world. But this form of worship can be but symbolical at its very best. It is
not possible to attain to the substantive spiritual service of Godhead on
the mundane plane. But notwithstanding this necessary reservation the process
of worship represented by archana possesses the greatest value during the
period of novitiate on the path of spiritual endeavour. It is not also correct to say
that archana is symbolical worship. It should be described as the practice of
learning to regard all mundane objects as being unacceptable to Godhead. The
food, which is offered to Krishna by the process of archana, is not the
mundane eatable. But it is nevertheless offered to Him by uttering the formula
that the act of such offering is only the mental function which has a
correspondence in the spiritual sphere and that the offering is therefore, made by
means of the formula which shields the worshipper against mistaking the
mundane act for the spiritual. The person who performs archana is required, as
the initial act of the process, to try to realize that it is his soul who is offering
worship. After this attitude has been assumed the object of worship and the

articles of offering are regarded as further items in a corresponding function. The
mantras impress this vital difference on the mind of the worshipper. All this
precaution is necessary in order to guard oneself against the profane error that
the articles of offering or any mundane figure of, the object of worship to whom
they are offered or the mind or body of the worshipper, are the entities engaged
in the service of Godhead on the spiritual plane. The mantra says that they are
not. The archana, however, is not a symbolical process. The worshipper is
instructed not to suppose that he is doing anything which can be conceived,
either symbolically or otherwise, as at all like the spiritual process on which he
is engaged. The mantra forbids him to exercise his mind at all on the subject.

The consideration, that affords the real clue to the spiritual significance of the
method of archana as a valid form of worship, is to be sought elsewhere than
in the visible items actually employed in the worship. The process derives
its spiritual value from the fact that it has the sanction of Godhead Himself. It is,
of course, perfectly conceivable that a person should be disposed to cherish
the firm conviction that no entities of this world can have any locus standi on
the spiritual plane. It should also be possible to devise an infinite variety of
forms and processes of worship based on such conviction. But if the conviction
were acted up to under those forms, would it help us to get rid of our present
doubts and difficulties? Our unbiased reason should hold out no hope of any
such possible consummation. But if once it could be rationally admitted that
the process has the sanction of Godhead we would have no further objection to
it even on the rationalistic grounds. In other words it is not sufficient for
any form of worship to be rationalistic in the conditioned sense. The
rational instinct itself requires that there must be a Supernatural sanction, not
for reinforcing the rational but, for endowing it with the substantive
spiritual value. Human emotion is as much a mundane phenomenon as human
reason; and, therefore, the mere addition of human emotion to an imperfectly
rational process, will not make the function a religious practice even in the
rational sense.

It should, therefore, be possible for a human being to gain the goal of spiritual
endeavour only by the pursuit of a scriptural process. But what is this goal
in itself ? Sree Chaitanya’s conduct shows that it consists partly of the
realization of the categorical difference that separates the mundane from the
spiritual. This realization is effected by the momentary vision of the Reality as
He is. The vision is attained only for a moment in this life by the due
performance of the archana and as the supreme fulfillment of the process.

Should the process be, therefore, continued even after the vision has been
attained?

The answer should be in the affirmative. It should now be possible for the
worshipper to perform the worship in the manner that is required by the mantra.
The mantra will now be consciously applied. But the resulting process, although
there has been no external difference, will have been wholly changed as regards
its significance and something more, for the worshipper. The worshipper is now
no longer under the obligation of avoiding to exercise his mind on the
impossible. He is now conscious of the nature of the spiritual process by reason
of his spiritual experience. The function itself has thus become quasi-spiritual.
After this stage has been reached it is optional for him to continue to worship the
Archa (image ) by means of the symbols.

Nimai Pandit gave up the method of archaha shortly after His Initiation, when
He found it impossible to go through the process by reason, not of
His opposition to the principle of archana but by the discovery, of His
actual incapacity for the due performance of the valued ceremony. This point
will be taken up again at the proper place.

It is the fuller realization of the spiritual that is the cause of the non-attachment
of the devotee, in the higher stages of spiritual endeavour, alike to the
concrete and abstract forms of the mundane. The activities on the mundane plane
are not discarded in the ordinary sense by the realization of their
spiritual worthlessness, as the Salvationist avers. All activities are expanded by a
change of plane into quasi-spiritual performances. The devotee in this stage
appears to an external observer as being neither attached nor averse to mundane
activities. But he is not found to be devoid of all interest. He is found to be
partial to hearing and talking about Krishna and, unconditionally serving those
who serve Krishna by the true method.

With the change of His point of view the nature of Nimai Pandit’s normal
Activities underwent only the corresponding alterations. The nature of
this change is not conceivable to one who is bent upon confounding the
spiritual with the mundane. Neither can a mere pessimist, a mere scorner of the
things of this world, enter into the purpose of the pure devotee of Vishnu. His
case bears a distant analogy to that of the love-lorn maiden separated from her
sweetheart. She is not unmindful of the duties of the household on principle. But
she cannot also avoid being unmindful. Her seemingly deliberate neglect

of ordinary duties need not be objected to on economic and utilitarian grounds,
in consideration of her inner condition.

It is no part of our duty to neglect the concerns of this world any more than to be
wholly engrossed with transitory mundane interests. Those interests have a real,
although temporary, value during our sojourn in this world. But they are by no
means the only interests. They need not be cultivated in the spirit that they are
our permanent interests. They concern the perishable and changing physical
body and mind. They can have no relation to the eternal. If the soul can subsist
independently of the body and mind why should it be at all his duty to engage
himself in supplying their so-called needs ? It is certainly necessary if these so-
called duties are to be performed with the solace of any real conviction of their
necessity for our souls, to inquire in what way, if any, they can really supply the
needs of the soul.

As soon as this necessity for inquiring about the needs of our soul is seriously
experienced we drift into the process of archana by whatever name we
may choose to designate the ensuing function. The essence of archana consists
in seeking to do every duty of this world by a considered reference to
the paramount needs of the soul. The attainment of such an attitude is
practicable in this world. Otherwise there would be no way of the redemption
of conditioned souls. The archana develops into bhajana, or actual
spiritual service, which is the function proper of the soul and which manifests
itself to the view of this world as a causeless hankering for association with
Krishna involving internal dissociation from all mundane concerns.

There is a still higher form of worship, viz., that which was exhibited by Nimai
Pandit during the concluding twelve years of His Leela, at Puri. During that long
period He did nothing but listen to the discourses of the Pastimes of the Divine
Pair from the lips of His most confidential associates, Swarup Damodar and Rai
Ramananda, in the strictest seclusion of His own private chamber.

All stages of worship of the Absolute, that are available on the mundane plane to
conditioned souls, are of the nature of the unrealized quest of the Absolute.

It is never possible, so long as the mortal coil persists, to know Krishna as He is.
If it had been possible to know Him in that way the function would
be substantively eternal. Nimai Pandit was apprised of this by the actual vision
of the Object of worship. It had made Him realize that it is not possible to

serve Krishna by the method of archana laid down in the Scriptures and that it
is really impossible to serve Godhead on the mundane plane. The method
of archana undoubtedly possesses the merit of being the legitimate form of
endeavour, available on this mundane plane the conditioned souls by the Grace
of Godhead, for realizing the spiritual service of Krishna in Sree Brindavana,
the eternal Realm of the Divinity. But the archana is nevertheless only an
endeavour for realization; it is not the realized service.

The more strongly and fully this unbridgeable gulf that thus effectively separates
archana from bhajana is realized by the endeavouring soul, one is bound to lose
in proportion his confidence in the method of archana. The realization comes to
him in the shape of the sense of utter inadequacy and impropriety of the
available method. In other words, one does not become more sensuous, but one
realizes that no form of activity, possible on this mundane plane, can possess the
substantive spiritual nature of the Divine service proper. Such a person must still
continue to retain his regard for archana, but he is unable to be satisfied by
merely remaining on the steps of the ladder by lacking the means of the
performance of the actual service of his Beloved.

It is this mood that has been termed ‘bipralambha’ by the Acharyyas who are
self-realized, practicing, authorized teachers of the pure substantive
eternal function. The word ‘bipralambhd means the Mood of Separation from
one’s only Beloved. Godhead can be fully served on the mundane plane only by
the growing realization of one’s utter separation from Him. This is the sine qua
non of the Teaching of Nimai Pandit. It is from after His initiation that He began
to practice this hitherto unrevealed form of the religion of pure devotion.

Those, who consciously exhibit by the manipulation of their external conduct
that they are actuated by the mood of separation, commit the blunder
of supposing that they possess the thing, which alone it is certainly desirable
to have. Any real manifestation of genuine self contradiction of this kind in
the conduct of a person who is actually distraught with the uncontrollable
anguish of separation from the Divinity, need not also be willfully undervalued.
The condition of the loyal, loving wife is certainly to be preferred to that of
the harlot. If it is not possible to serve Krishna really on the mundane plane,
one, who desires to serve Him at all, should show his sincerity by submitting
to undergo the preliminary training, in the form of the archana and must
patiently and loyally wait for the realization of his desire when he is actually
lifted to the higher plane by the grace of Godhead by His own promise recorded

in the scriptures.

But for the sincere soul there can be no meaning in simulating a condition
simply because it resembles, in its external feature, that of Nimai Pandit. If
one goes into the streets weeping and crying aloud the Name of ‘Krishna’ such
an act should be discouraged by all means. If such a person is really actuated
by the bona fide sense of separation from Godhead, he should be expected
to exhibit his mood only to his confidential sympathizers, as Nimai Pandit
took care to do. Nimai Pandit realized that the whole world is steeped in
atheism, and that, therefore, it would be crying in the wilderness to ask them to
listen to the tale of His woes. Notwithstanding all this precaution and
apprehension, He could not always control His real sentiments. But whenever
He chose to exhibit them openly, they only served to strengthen the general
misconceptions against Krishna. They were so utterly opposed to the method of
archana enjoined by the Scriptures that nobody, who was not himself very far
advanced on the path of spiritual endeavour, could be expected to understand
what it really was. It was only Sribas Pandit who could recognize in it the very
highest form of devotion and accordingly proposed that Nimai Pandit might be
pleased to perform the sankirtana of Krishna in his court-yard where all the
Vaishnavas would join the holy function and from where all other persons would
be excluded.

The Scriptures reveal Krishna through the medium of language. The sadhu
reveals Krishna through his spoken words and every activity. But the
spoken Word is the Source of all Manifestations of Krishna on the mundane
plane. The Name of Krishna is the Supreme, All-sufficing, Spoken Word. The
Name of Krishna is identical with Krishna and possesses all the Powers of
Krishna. The Name of Krishna has greater Potency than any other form of
divine manifestation. The person, who can utter the Name of Krishna without
offense, is the purest of sadhus. By the service of the best of sadhus one
acquires eligibility for uttering the Name of Krishna without offense. The only
method of serving the pure sadhu consists in uttering the Name of Krishna
without offense in his company. The companionship of the sadhu helps the
realization

of that mode of life which is free from offense against Krishna. The sole motive
for leading such a life is to be enabled to realize Krishna in the form of
taking His Name without offense. If one calls upon the Name of Krishna only
once with the really sincere motive of service, he is freed from all

worldly entanglements for good.

This simple creed Sreebas Pandit was enabled to understand by the Mercy of
Nimai Pandit, as embodying the complete significance of all the Scriptures.

The conditioned soul can only try to sincerely call upon the Name of Krishna. If
he wants to do anything else, he is bound to go astray. He is in utter need
of receiving all enlightenment from Krishna. The sense of this supreme
need makes itself felt in its truly effective form only to the person who is
sincerely desirous of leading a life of which the sole object is to conduce to the
Pleasure of Krishna. Such a life is made available for the conditioned soul by the
grace of the sadhu who has himself attained the same position. The need for the
grace of the sadhu is, therefore, the fundamental fact in the method by which
spiritual enlightenment is to be sought by the conditioned soul.

The sadhu is not a denizen of this phenomenal world. The conditioned soul is
not a sadhu. The redeemed soul is, indeed, a sadhu . But the process
of redemption does not mean that the physical body and mental body of
the conditioned soul are turned thereby into spiritual essences. There is
no transformation of the mundane into spiritual. Just as the pure soul is liable
to be enveloped by the double casing of the physical body and mental sheathe
on attainment of the conditioned state, in like manner the redeemed soul finds
his material casings in their turn capable of being coated or saturated with
the substantive principles of spiritual cognition and bliss. This is in perfect
keeping with our experience of the known phenomenon of the conditioned state.
If the conditioned state is possible without the necessity of changing the essence
of the soul, the redeemed state should also be possible without transforming
the material casings.

But the sadhu has no material casings at all. The redeemed soul resembles a
sadhu in his function inasmuch as he is in a position to render his service to the
Supreme Lord unhampered by the presence of his actual material coverings. The
sadhu is the soul himself without the encumbrance of material coverings. But the
sadhu appears to the vision of conditioned souls in the guise of the possessor of
material cases. Or rather the form of the sadhu to the view of the mundane
spectator, i.e., the conditioned soul, appears to be like the material case. If it be
asked how the conditioned soul can at all see those material cases if the sadhu
really has them not, the answer is that whatever the conditioned soul is permitted
to see with his material eyes appears to him like material casing. No mortal eye
is permitted to see the agent of Godhead as he really is.

Let us have recourse to a mundane analogy for avoiding any possible
misunderstanding of this all-important point. If a live tiger could find his
way into the bioscopic show, the spectators should have no cause to suspect
that there is any material difference in the show by his appearance, unless,
indeed, the tiger chooses to come out of the picture to prove to the spectators that
he is really no part of the painted show. But if the tiger is content to behave as
a harmless actor inside the show, no spectator need suspect that he is not
the painted picture of the live animal. This impression of the spectators,
however bona fide it may be, will be still in flat contradiction to the real fact,
provided the tiger is actually the live animal instead of being the show that he
looks.

The sadhu possesses the power of entering into the bioscopic show of this world
in order to come within the range of the ocular vision of mundane spectators,
without being really a part of the show. This is the real nature of the appearance
of the sadhu on this mundane plane. His visible body is not any product of this
phenomenal world any more than the body of the tiger is painted show. What
appears to the mundane spectator as the physical body of the sadhu , is not the
picture in the show, although it resembles the same to his view, but the form of
the soul. The least gesture of the form of the soul is, therefore, a spiritual event.
This can be known to the spectator only if he is inclined to submit to the sadhu
for being initiated into the otherwise impenetrable secret.

There are no doubt lots of bogus persons who are passing themselves off as
sadhus , as an easy way of gratifying their sensuous appetites at the expense
of their victims. But the undoubted existence of the bogus Sadhu can be
no rational cause for disbelieving, the existence of the real sadhu . The
bogus sadhu does not practice the service of Godhead, nor does he propose to
teach his disciple the same. The bogus sadhu cannot teach his pupil the conduct
that is enjoined by the Scriptures in regard to one who is anxious to attain to
the spiritual service of Godhead. One who is anxious to find the genuine sadhu
, however, can never go astray. The only thing that a person is required
for finding the bona fide sadhu is to be true to himself. If one is insincere he has
no chance of finding the sadhu and has to thank only himself for his
dire misfortune.

If it be asked how an insincere person can be made sincere, the reply should be
that no one is altogether insincere. It is not possible for a person to have a
thing for which he possesses no aptitude. Everyone has got the faculty in an

explicit or latent form. One is only asked to exercise the function in its full
measure. The appeal of the sadhu is made to the higher nature of every person,
which is fully sincere. The higher nature is deluded into supposing that it is the
same as the lower nature which also is found in every person. It is the function
of the sadhu to impress upon all persons that the one is categorically different
from the other and to insist that the lower nature should be made to occupy
a position of subordination to the higher. The sadhu says in effect to the
insincere person, “You are really sincere, as you possess the higher nature. You
have become insincere by supposing that you have an obligation to your
lower nature. Any indulgence of your lower nature is partial or total denial of
your obligation to the higher nature. The higher should be allowed to dictate
your duty to the lower nature, and not vice versa. It is, therefore, your only duty
to be true to your higher nature. Your higher nature has got no other
function than to serve the Absolute. It is in a position to do so even by the
resources of your lower nature when the latter happens unavoidably to be in his
way. But it is possible, nay normal, for your higher nature to refuse to take any
help of the lower, in serving the Absolute. It is also possible for your higher
nature, z’.e., your soul, to compel the lower, z’.e., the physical body and mind, to
be employed in the service of the Absolute during his temporary sojourn in
this world.”

The insincere man may, indeed, pretend to hold that inasmuch as the service of
the Absolute is only open to the higher nature, who is perfectly sincere, it can be
no business of a person who is insincere to bother about the service of Godhead.
The weak point of such contention is brought out when we remember that the
function of denying the higher nature would be impossible except by connivance
of the higher nature himself. Such obstinacy of the insincere person is, therefore,
nothing short of a gross and deliberate suicidal folly on the part of the soul. Of
course it is open to the soul to choose to commit suicide and to say wrongly that
he is being compelled to do so. But as a matter of fact there is and can be no
necessity for insincerity. The most hardened sinner can be such only by option.
He cannot also be redeemed unless he chooses similarly to be a really consenting
party. He can be redeemed by the sadhu only with his own consent, by the
method of his unconditional submission to the Absolute. The sadhu enables a
repentant sinner to obtain the strength required for such submission even in the
otherwise impossible surroundings of this mundane world. The sadhu never asks
for more than it is really in one’s power, by one’s sincere conviction, to give.

Once the bona fide candidate for spiritual enlightenment finds himself in

presence of the sadhu , he recognizes in him the transcendental guide of
whose help he stands in such absolute need. There is no danger in making
one’s unconditional submission to the bona fide servant of the Absolute. If one
really seek the exclusive service of the Truth one finds the person who is capable
of instructing him in His service. The teacher of the Absolute is incapable
of deceiving any person. He may find it necessary to advise an insincere person
to shun the society of insincere persons by any pretext that may tend to
aggravate the malady. But the sadhu is never the enemy of any person. This
is instinctively realized by all who are themselves sincerely engaged in the
quest of the eternal service of the Absolute. When the candidate for spiritual
service is enabled to be really established on the path of the Absolute by the
causeless grace of the pure devotee, he is liable to be set upon by all the deluding
forces of the limiting energy for pulling him down to the mundane plane if he
is found to cherish any lurking insincerity. If he stands the test he is also cured
of his worldly hankering and assured of unhampered progress on the path
of divine service. The crisis of his life naturally makes the
neophyte extraordinarily sensitive to the dangers of his position and makes him
properly enough desirous of avoiding all association with non-sadhus lest he
be misguided by their advice. The new experience is nothing less than the
sudden revelation to the spiritual consciousness of the neophyte of his
relationship to the Absolute which makes him realize the function of serving
Krishna as the only thing needful. The Sight of Krishna excites an unpreventible
disposition for His service which is recognized as the summum bonum.
Thenceforward the only function of the awakened soul resolves itself into a
sleepless endeavour for retaining and augmenting his newborn attachment to the
Lotus Feet of Krishna.

There is a real danger of losing one’s attachment to Krishna as long as the
physical cases continue to be in one’s way. By their means it is
always practicable to cultivate the contrary disposition of seeking one’s own
sensuous gratification from the things of this world. The presence of the two
material bodies is also an effective bar in the way of all access to the substantive
plane of the Absolute. The service, that it is possible for the redeemed soul to
render while he still continues to retain the entanglements of his material cases,
is probationary service under the unconditional guidance of the sadhu .

The whole duty of such a soul consists in obeying the sadhu. Krishna has,
indeed, been seen by the grace of the sadhu , but the vision is not capable of
being retained till Krishna is pleased to divest the soul of his mortal coils.

The memory, however, persists by the grace of the sadhu. If the service of the

sadhu is relaxed the memory about Krishna also tends to lose its spiritual
significance. It is only by the continuous and exclusive service of the sadhu that
one has any chance of retaining the memory of the divine event. If there is no
real memory there can be no real relationship with the Absolute. No amount of
punctilious observance of external conduct can restore to one’s activities the
spiritual character when once the tie of living memory is snapped.

The sadhu cannot be served in the way in which a person of this world is said to
be served. The sadhu is a transcendental person. He can be served only on the
transcendental plane. He is not served by the mundane aptitude of his service-
holder. This is the meaning of the Scriptural dictum that it is only by the method
of unconditional obedience that the sadhu has to be served. The way, in which
the sadhu requires to be served and is actually served by his disciples, cannot for
this reason be at all understood by the uninitiated. Empiricists may think that
they are justified in adversely criticizing the perfectly pure conduct of the
devotee from the angular point of view of their mundane plane. They are apt to
think that if the devotee really belongs to the transcendental plane, his conduct
would be of an extraordinary kind and would also appear as such to all mundane
spectators. Empiricists expect miracles and are prepared to serve only persons
who are able to gratify their atheistical demands. But the devotee of Krishna
lives above all expectations and performances of the worldling. It is no part of
his business to seek to satisfy any expectations of any mundane person. It is the
only duty of the worldling to try to understand in a spirit of humility and
reverence why the sadhu claims to be able to serve the Absolute without having
to perform miracles that alone are claimed to be recognized as spiritual
manifestation by unbelievers.

When Sree Krishna-Chaitanya did nothing but cry for the Sight of Krishna, after
He had been initiated into the transcendental service of Godhead by the grace of
Sree Iswara Puri, His contemporary worldly spectators affected to regard His
conduct to be absolutely sterile and wholly below the mark of their fanciful
theories of the spiritual function. They could have been mystified by the
manifestation of miraculous powers and some would have fallen at His Feet for
obtaining ‘boons ’ in the shape of extended scope for the gratification of
their sensuous appetites. But all were sadly disappointed when they discovered
that the Conduct of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya did not offer the least prospect of
their worldly advancement. They turned into relentless opponents of the Lord
when they found out later that the teachings of Sree Chaitanya were necessarily
most radically opposed to their own cherished supposed interests and convictions.

Those who hold the view that the practice of spiritual service of Sree Krishna is
conducive of social, political or physio communal welfare (?), betray
utter ignorance of the nature of the elementary principles of the function of the
soul in the state of grace. Social, political or so-called personal welfare, can be
the cry only of those who are actually in a state of want. The soul in his
spiritual essence is self-satisfied. He requires no external condition for the
perfection or augmentation of his happiness. To the pure soul the proposal of
being made happy would be as unacceptable as that of being rendered unhappy.
He covets neither. He has no reason to covet them even if he could know,
because he is eternally located on a plane to which those considerations are
absolutely foreign and inapplicable. The boatman of the fable conceived the
ridiculous ambition of spreading prospective quilts on the thorny banks of the
river when he would become a king in order that his bare feet might no longer be
hurt in the process of tugging at the line of his boat. He could not imagine that
it would not be necessary at all for him to pull at the line on actually becoming
a real king. The amenities coveted by the conditioned soul refer only to
the mundane plane and the adventitious material casings. The soul, when he
is really free from those casings, has nothing to do with any physico-
mental prospect offered by the mundane world. The real problem of the
conditioned soul is located beyond the limited outlook of his fettered mental
understanding. The problem for the conditioned soul is one of finding a method
of realizing the inconceivable function of the unfettered soul. If the soul has no
physical body nor limited mind, if he has, therefore, no mundane wants, in
what manner could it be possible for him to be occupied at all when he leaves off
his mortal coil? It is the problem of the boatman of the fable. The boatman
could not find the solution by scratching his head with the help of the resources
of his actual experience. He would have been better advised to inquire of
those who knew about the function of a real king and who were not limited to
his unwholesome experience of a life of unedifying menial drudgery.

If a person, after being thus admonished and after being promised good things of
which he can have no idea till he had actually seen them with his own unsealed
eyes, is suddenly informed that he would have lots of servants to pull at the boat¬
line for his pleasure and that he himself would only have to take his ease on the
soft cushions spread inside the delicious cabin of a boat of wonderful quality, the
boatman should no doubt be disposed to bless his extraordinary good fortune and
be prepared to give up his own plans for the betterment of his condition, directed to an imaginary end.

But if on the contrary the boatman were told in a blunt fashion that he would
have to tug at the line of the boat that conveys Krishna on the blue waters of the
Yamuna and would have to do so without being supplied with the amenities of
quilts, etc., and without being allowed to quit his hold of the line for a moment,
nor to have even the scantiest of meals after the longest intervals, should he have
the stomach for welcoming such strange tidings so apparently contrary to all
ideas of the prospective good fortune that he had been eternally promised with
all the choice phrases of the mundane vocabulary?

It is this sort of disappointment that is apt to be experienced by empiric
expectants of transcendental enlightenment when they chance to meet the agent
of the Absolute on this mundane plane. They have been building castles in the
air from the moment that they were informed by the Scriptures that they are not
physical bodies but pure souls and that the soul has no cause of unhappiness.
Like the boatman of the fable the empiric sages, by ignorant inference from their
mundane experiences, had proposed to themselves a condition which is to
provide worldly amenities that would exceed their wildest demands.

But how can any worldly amenities be of any use on the transcendental plane ?
The happiness and unhappiness of this world are of no use at all for the soul who
happens to be located wholly beyond their limited and temporary jurisdictions.
The conditions on the transcendental plane are wholly and inconceivably
different from those on the mundane. The nature of the soul in the state of grace
is also altogether different from the disposition and outlook of the temporary
conditioned sojourn. In such circumstances it is foolish for the conditioned soul
to embark on fictitious speculations on his own resources, regarding the
substantive nature of the function of the soul in the unfettered state.

So without affecting to be undeceived by the actual conduct and words of the
pure devotee, for the reason that they do not serve the purposes of our body and
mind, it is necessary to turn one’s unprejudiced attention to the real significance
of such activities. One need not bring up the resources of worldly experience for
understanding the tidings of the transcendental plane by the method of trying to
assimilate them to the mundane. It is not necessary to accept them for the
purpose of gaining any worldly end that one may have in view. Such ubiquity is
out of court in the perfectly pure atmosphere of transcendental enquiry. The
whole position has to be accepted as it is and for good. It is necessary to try to become acquainted with the real nature of what is offered as our only eternal function, from the point of view of the soul, and not from that of the body and mind.

The body and mind are satisfied only when they receive an abundance of the
deceptive treasures of this world. The mind covets subtler forms of
acquisitions that can no more be retained than the grosser possessions of this
world which it looks down upon. This accumulative aptitude, for no purpose of
the soul, is apt to be accepted as the only function of human life. But why should
it be obligatory on anybody to take the mind at its word? Why should one not
agree to sit for a quiet half-hour for taking stock of the permanent achievements
of his life? Are any of our acquired million of items likely to endure? Is it
desirable that any of them should endure? Suppose all of them could be had
without any effort; would they be worth one’s while to have them? Or are their
seeming values due to their being difficult to obtain and impossible to keep? Is
not this a veritable wild goose chase from the point of view of substantive value?
If a thing is really valuable for me, why should it tend to lose its value at all so
long as I myself endure?

So it is absolutely necessary to try in all sincerity to get over the habitual, but
nevertheless abnormal, feeling of disappointment that is experienced by
all conditioned souls when they read the accounts of the Scriptures without
being able to understand why it should be necessary for them to desire to have
access to a realm which seems to resemble this world in many respects but is
unduly lauded to the skies by a comparatively small number of the most peculiar
type of people and their equally peculiar admirers?

The answer to their reasonable question is supplied by the Scriptures and they
should only have the patience to question with an open mind. If they
are prepared not to accept nor desire any merely tentative solution applicable to
the conditions of this temporary sojourn, they are likely to find the real answer
to their real inquiry.

Conclusion of the Early Part of the Career of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya

 

 

 

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