Take the case of Srimad Bhagavata – when Pariksit Maharaja was deeply concerned about the dilemma he was in after hearing various opinions from great men and sages, at that moment, by divine providence, Sukadeva arrived. The enquiry of Pariksit is not that of any particular group or class of people – it is not even confined to the human species – it is relevant to all conscious jivas. At that final moment he only had one question – what activity within this very short phase of time can lead to attaining supreme auspiciousness and transcendental peace? In what way is it possible to obtain the greatest benefit?
Pariksit was affected by this problem – the giver of the solution was Sukadeva. One is in an extreme crisis and the other is the solution-giver at that extremely critical situation. On this point there are similar comparative narrations in the Srimad Bhagavata which you can understand in more detail.
Hearing Pariksit’s question Sri Sukadeva, who is self-satisfied and worshipped even by the denizens of Brahmaloka, became satisfied and replied, “O King, this question of yours is not only relevant to you – this question is relevant to the entire world and it a most pertinent one.
srotavyadini rajendra nrnanam santi sahasrasah
apasyatam atma-tattvam grhesu grha-medhinam
"O king, those who are engrossed in materialistic household affairs and are blind to knowledge of the self, find thousands of subject matters to hear about within human society." (Bhag. 2.1.2)
In this world from animals, birds, insects (both flying and non-flying), to the different levels of human beings – all are busy trying to satisfy their own requirements. Eating, sleeping, sense gratification etc. is their requirement, and this requirement is the root cause of all problems. Yet all of them are ignorant of self-realisation (anatmavit). This is because one who is self-realised (atmavit) only has one program. Those who have not seen themselves – those who have not learnt to see their actual requirement – they will only accept those things that they consider to be necessities. But those who know themselves, who know their actual necessity, will accept your question as the real question or the only question. The program of those who are anatmavit will always be ‘booked’ for eternity. That is because they are grhesu grha-medhinam (engrossed in materialistic household affairs).”
The only program of the atmavit is to be delivered from the clutches of ignorance. A person who has submerged under water – his only program will be to try to save himself. Despite all kinds of external endeavors that are made to improve this world – all such attempts still remain confined to the realm of mortality.
ajnanenavrtam jnanam tena muhyanti janatavah
"The living entities are bewildered because their knowledge is covered by ignorance. "(Bhag. 5.15)
Entrapped in illusion and suffering miserably, those who are anatmavit do not achieve any result other than running from one body to another. Their consciousness is fully covered by ignorance and by identifying themselves with the material body, they revolve eternally, subjugated by birth and death. No immediate relief can be obtained in spite of increasing one’s wealth, followers or equipping oneself with more weapons. House and home, wealth, close relatives and dear friends – none of these things are mine. Even my body does not belong to me. Identifying ones body as ‘I’ or ‘mine’– this is an animalistic mentality. While I continue to think of these things as ‘I’ or ‘mine’ I will surely continue to face problems. Birth, death, old age, disease – yet at that time I will surely be tricked into transmigrating from one body to another. Thus, in this way, for all eternity, one will never be able to discover the path that will deliver one from these problems.
The Bhagavata has said, “You have not even learnt how to look at these problems properly. The way to look at these problems is svapne yatha siras-chedam (like the cutting off of one’s head in a dream). The man who is sleeping, shouts in his dream, “I have been caught by a tiger!” He only needs to be woken up to solve the problem that he is facing. If he is woken up he will see that everything is fine. He will see that the hope of relief that keeps him absorbed day and night in innumerable programmes – those are actually no ones problem. Sukadeva has said, tvam tu rajan marisyeti pasu-buddhih – this means that death is ‘animal conception.’ You can’t die! You won’t die! So many types of problems are not yours. Back to God –become situated in the self!
muktir-hitvanyatha rupam sva-rupena vyavasthitih
"Liberation is the permanent form of the living entity after he gives up his gross and subtle bodies." (Bhag. 2.10.6)
Reject any material form! You are a member of the spiritual sky. That which you are thinking is nectar –that is actually poison. What you are thinking is happiness, is sorrow; those things that you consider to be ‘mine’ and ‘yours’ are nothing. It is all ignorance.
asato ma sad gamaya tamaso ma jyotir-gamaya
mrtyor ma’mrtam gamaya
"From falsity, lead me to truth; from darkness lead me to light; from death lead me to immortality." (Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad 1.3.28)
Leaving behind ignorance, advance towards light. Make your journey from matter to consciousness – you will be saved from unnecessary garbage – “to make the best of a bad bargain.”
All philosophers that are searching for the self, both in the eastern and western world, say the same thing. All of them say – ‘instead of chasing the hawk outside, first try to touch your own ears.’(1) In the Vedas and other scriptures, various reformatory measures are mentioned for ignorant jivas that are mentally deranged to guide them to become truly ‘self-centred.’ When the uncultured jivas are disciplined through all these injunctions that will raise them to the plane of the atma, then they will be able to realise their true identity.
yato yato niscalati manas cancalam asthiram
tatas tato niyam yaitad atmany eva vasam nayet
"The nature of the mind is flickering and unsteady. However, one should always endeavor to control the mind from its wanderings and bring it back under the control of the atma." (Gita 6.26)
All endeavours progress from ‘shadow’ to ‘substance,’ from ‘phenomena’ to ‘reality.’ It is a one-way journey and this is considered to be real bhuta-suddhi (purification of the self). Once bhuta-suddhi happens then everything is solved. Although with pure knowledge one can overlook or ignore one’s connection to this world, again one faces a problem regarding that other (spiritual) world which we try to conceive of from here. Therefore I will speak a little on this topic and conclude my speech.
We find various acaryas teaching various ways of how to undergo the journey from the mundane to the spiritual. From our perspective, a constellation of stars may look as if they are all on a single plane in spite of actually being many light years away from each other – similarly there are vast differences amongst the spiritual contributions of various acaryas. And if we understand them properly then we will fully realize the unique contribution of Sri Caitanyadeva. I have found the solutions to all these topics very beautifully from the Ramananda-samvada portion of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta. Under proper guidance if you read the eighth chapter of the Caritamrta you will be able to clearly understand all these things.
Depending on different levels of perfection there are also different levels of endeavor required to achieve them. On the basis of their individual realizations and dedication, acaryas have shed light in different directions with the intention of bringing auspiciousness to the lives of the jivas. But due to the influence of the wonderful effulgence of Sri Caitanyadeva’s supreme magnanimity, other lights have paled into insignificance. The primeval Supreme Lord is the cause of all causes, full of eternity, bliss and knowledge and is the possessor of all opulence, and in order to distribute Himself fully, He Himself glorifies the process of achieving the highest goal attainable by a sadhaka and executes that Himself in order to teach others by His own example. Then only, by His mercy, one can realize Him as the sva-bhajana-vibhajana-prayojanavatari-bhagavan (the original Supreme Lord whose goal is to come and distribute His own worship and simultaneously taste His own intrinsic ecstasy). Then we can make our lives successful by chanting the pranama-mantra spoken by Sri Rupa:
namo maha-vadanyaya krsna-prema pradayate
krsnaya krsna-caitanya namne gaura-tvise namah
"O most munificent incarnation! You are Krsna Himself appearing as Sri Krsna Caitanya. You have assumed the golden colour and You are distributing love of Krsna. We offer our respectful obeisances unto You." (Cc. Madhya. 19.53)
By Srila Sridhar Maharaj
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"We find various acaryas teaching various ways of how to undergo the journey from the mundane to the spiritual. From our perspective, a constellation of stars may look as if they are all on a single plane in spite of actually being many light years away from each other – similarly there are vast differences amongst the spiritual contributions of various acaryas. And if we understand them properly then we will fully realize the unique contribution of Sri Caitanyadeva."