Part 2 - Worship of Sri Guru
The following passages from an article from the Harmonist magazine titled “Shree Nityananda Prabhu” by Simha Guru His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Srila Prabhupada, the destroyer of apasiddhanta (false conclusions) is the most illuminating, self-explanatory, enlightening Truth about Sri Nityananda Prabhu ever published. In this article he extensively discusses the role of Lord Nityananda Prabhu as the Savior. Here we present few passages:
Lord Nityananda
The Saviour
“It is all important to understand the relationship of the individual soul to Lord Nityananda Who is worshipped along with Shree Chaitanya by the community of the Madhva-Gaudiya Vaishnavas….”
“Shree Nityananda Prabhu is the source of the power of the Sad-Guru. He is the servant of Shree Chaitanya. He is the Divinity Himself in the form of His servant. It is through Him that the Supreme Lord manifests Himself to the souls of men. There cannot be any direct revelation of the Nature of the Supreme Lord to the spiritual consciousness of the individual soul. The individual soul is too small to be able to comprehend the Nature of the Divinity. He has to be helped by Godhead Himself in order to be enabled to understand the Divine Nature. This function of the Divinity is performed by Lord Nityananda and is known as the power of the Sad-Guru. Nityananda Prabhu serves Shree Gaursundar in the same way that Shree Balaram serves Shree Krishna. Both of Them are one and the same Person. Their functions are also identical. They are concerned with the task of reclaiming disloyal souls and preventing them from access to the Supreme Lord till they agree to give up their attitude of opposition to Krishna. The relation of Shree Nityananda Prabhu to the conditioned soul is that of the Saviour…”
Functions on Behalf of the Supreme Lord
Shree Nityananda Prabhu made His appearance in this world as the precursor of the Supreme Lord Shree Krishna Chaitanya. Lord Nityananda was commissioned subsequently by Shree Chaitanyadeva to preach the Holy Name of Krishna at the doors of all persons without exception. This shows that the Power which is wielded by Lord Nityananda belongs really to the Supreme Lord Himself. There is thus no distinction between the Power of the Supreme Lord and that of Lord Nityananda or that of the Sad-Guru whose power is identical with that of Lord Nityananda. But it also proves that there is such a thing as the real delegation of specific function of the Supreme Lord to appropriate agents. Shree Krishna Chaitanya is no doubt the Supreme Teacher of all persons. But Lord Nityananda exercises this function on behalf of the Supreme Lord. He exercised it even when the Supreme Lord Himself appeared in this world.”
“Shree Krishna Chaitanya is the Supreme Teacher of the World by His own example. This is also the specific nature of the function of the Sad-Guru. Shree Krishna is also the Supreme Teacher. But He does not teach by His own example. Shree Krishna Chaitanya is identical with Shree Krishna. He is, therefore, also the Master. But He chooses to conduct Himself as His Servant. Lord Nityananda performs the external part of this function of the Supreme Lord. He is the connecting link between the external world and Shree Chaitanya. There is also an inner world in which Lord Nityananda has a function which is different from His function concerning the external world. A conditioned soul has no access to the inner world but may have direct connection with Lord Nityananda or with the Sad-Guru who is identical with Nityananda. The service of Shree Gaursundar is identical with the service of Shree Krishna because Shree Chaitanya is identical with Shree Krishna. But the Activity of Shree Chaitanya is different from that of Shree Krishna. There is for this reason a corresponding difference in the methods of their respective services. Shree Gaursundar is to be served as the Supreme Teacher Who teaches by His own example. He is at the same time the Supreme Lord Himself. These two principles require to be combined in the service of Shree Gaursundar. The service of Shree Gaursundar alone can in this Iron Age enable the conditioned soul to attain to the service of Shree Krishna.”
Understanding the Nature of Lord Nityananda
“But Shree Gaursundar can be truly served only by the method of serving Lord Nityananda. Lord Nityananda is also Divine Functionary. But He is more merciful than even Shree Gaurasundar Himself, because he is accessible to all conditioned souls even of this Iron Age. For this reason it is also much more difficult to understand the real nature of Lord Nityananda. He has been accordingly widely misunderstood by both contemporaries and succeeding generations. There is no other road to Vaikuntha, the Holy Abode of Lord Nityananda, than a sincere heart. It is possible to get rid of mistakes to which a sincere nature is liable. But when the muddled intellect is allowed to mislead the heart by its casuistries the plight of the offending soul is rendered very much worse. Such is the condition of most persons, and especially of the Pundits, in this Iron Age. It was, therefore, necessary for Lord Nityananda Himself to come down into this world for the deliverance of the sophists and Pharisees of this quarrelsome Age by exploding their long-spun nostrums, for good.”
After reading the above passage no one can deny the eternal relationship between Sri Guru Nityananda Prabhu, the Sri Guru Acaryas and the conditioned souls. It would be wise on the part of the conditioned souls to take shelter of Sri Guru Nityananda Prabhu’s representatives, the Sri Guru Varga Acaryas for their own spiritual benefit. Here we present a warning from Sri Guru Vaisnava Acarya Sri Lochana Dasa Thakura.
lochan bole hena nitai jeba na bhajilo
janiya suniya sei atma-ghati hoilo
“If somebody does not glorify Sri Nitai, does not do the bhajana of Nitai, janiya suniya, deliberately, deliberately he kills himself, he kills himself, kills himself, yes. Jeba na bhajilo janiya suniya sei atma-ghati hoilo. So wonderfully merciful is Nitaicand, more merciful than Sriman Gauranga Mahaprabhu. If some ill-fated, ill-fated, hata-bhagya, doesn’t do the bhajana of Sri Nitaicand, doesn’t beg the mercy of Sri Nitaicand, he deliberately kills himself, atma-ghati hoilo. He commits self-suicide.” (Sri Caitanya-mangala, commentary by Srila Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja)
The following verses from Caitanya-caritamrta and translation and purports by Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada further strengthens the foundation of the parampara-acaryas’ conclusions regarding Lord Nityananda as Sri Guru and His associates as Sri Guru Varga Acaryas.
acaryam mam vijaniyan
navamanyeta karhicit
na martya-buddhyasuyeta
sarva-deva-mayo guru
“One should know the acarya as Myself and never disrespect him in any way. One should not envy him, thinking him an ordinary man, for he is the representative of all the demigods.” (SB 11.17.27)
The purport states: “This is a verse from Srimad-Bhagavatam spoken by Lord Krsna when He was questioned by Uddhava regarding the four social and spiritual orders of society.”
“The spiritual master is also called acarya, or a transcendental professor of spiritual science… In the Vayu Purana an acarya is defined as one who knows the import of all Vedic literature, explains the purpose of the Vedas, abides by their rules and regulations, and teaches his disciples to act in the same way.”
“Only out of His immense compassion does the Personality of Godhead reveal Himself as the spiritual master. Therefore in the dealings of an acarya there are no activities but those of transcendental loving service to the Lord. He is the Supreme Personality of Servitor Godhead. It is worthwhile to take shelter of such a steady devotee, who is called asraya-vigraha, or the manifestation or form of the Lord of whom one must take shelter.”
“If one poses himself as an acarya but does not have an attitude of servitorship to the Lord, he must be considered an offender, and this offensive attitude disqualifies him from being an acarya. The bona fide spiritual master always engages in unalloyed devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. By this test he is known to be a direct manifestation of the Lord and a genuine representative of Sri Nityananda Prabhu. Such a spiritual master is known as acaryadeva. Influenced by an envious temperament and dissatisfied because of an attitude of sense gratification, mundaners criticize a real acarya. In fact, however, a bona fide acarya is non-different from the Personality of Godhead, and therefore to envy such an acarya is to envy the Personality of Godhead Himself. This will produce an effect subversive of transcendental realization.”
“As mentioned previously, a disciple should always respect the spiritual master as a manifestation of Sri Krsna, but at the same time one should always remember that a spiritual master is never authorized to imitate the transcendental pastimes of the Lord.”
“The real Vedic philosophy is acintya-bhedabheda-tattva, which establishes everything to be simultaneously one with and different from the Personality of Godhead. Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami confirms that this is the real position of a bona fide spiritual master and says that one should always think of the spiritual master in terms of his intimate relationship with Mukunda (Sri Krsna). Srila Jiva Gosvami, in his Bhakti-sandarbha (213), has clearly explained that a pure devotee’s observation of the spiritual master and Lord Siva as being one with the Personality of Godhead exists in terms of their being very dear to the Lord, not identical with Him in all respects.”
“Following in the footsteps of Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami and Srila Jiva Gosvami, later acaryas like Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura have confirmed the same truths. In his prayers to the spiritual master, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura confirms that all the revealed scriptures accept the spiritual master to be identical with the Personality of Godhead because he is a very dear and confidential servant of the Lord. Gaudiya Vaisnavas therefore worship Srila Gurudeva (the spiritual master) in the light of his being the servitor of the Personality of Godhead. In all the ancient literatures of devotional service and in the more recent songs of Srila Narottama dasa Thakura, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and other unalloyed Vaisnavas, the spiritual master is always considered either one of the confidential associates of Srimati Radharani or a manifested representation of Sri Nityananda Prabhu.”
Caitanya-caritamrta explains:
eka mahaprabhu, ara prabhu duijana
dui prabhu seve mahaprabhura carana
“One of Them is Mahaprabhu, and the other two are Prabhus. These two Prabhus serve the lotus feet of Mahaprabhu.” (Cc. Adi 7.14)
The purport states: “Although Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Nityananda Prabhu and Sri Advaita Prabhu all belong to the same Visnu category, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is nevertheless accepted as the Supreme, and the other two Prabhus engage in His transcendental loving service to teach ordinary living entities that every one of us is subordinate to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. In another place in the Caitanya-caritamrta Adi 5.142 it is said, ekale isvara krsna, ara saba bhrtya: the only supreme master is Krsna, and all others, both visnu-tattva and jiva-tattva, engage in the service of the Lord. Both the visnu-tattva (as Nityananda Prabhu and Advaita) and the jiva-tattva (srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda) engage in the service of the Lord, but one must distinguish between the visnu-tattva servitors and the jiva-tattva servitors. The jiva-tattva servitor, the spiritual master, is actually the servitor God. As explained in previous verses, in the absolute world there are no such differences, yet one must observe these differences in order to distinguish the Supreme from His subordinates.”
Sri Srimad Dinashyam Prabhu, Sri Vaishnava Thakur
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