A conversation between Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur and Major Rana N. J. Bahadur at Armadale, Darjeeling on June 14th, 1935.
Question: I cannot understand this world.
Answer: It is camp life. This world is not our original abode. It is meant for certain purposes. After that we are to proceed to our original home. This world is not a desirable place. It is not good to be enticed to stay here for a long time, forgetting our original abode. We stay there with Godhead. We are the eternal servants of Godhead. When we decide to lord it over the universe we are allowed these facilities for temporary purposes. They do not serve our eternal purposes. It would be better to seek for a place where we can find the real peace. Here we are always liable to be disturbed. By these disturbances Providence wants to teach us that world is not our eternal habitation, but that all real peace is to be found in Him.
Being thus troubled we would naturally like to go back to the original place. Life in this world should be conducted peacefully instead of in the spirit of retaliation. We should learn to suffer all these things by submitting to His Holy Wishes. If we do so we may have that very peace here.
It is because we are ambitious to dominate that we are brought here. Conditions here are so that they dovetail the whole position. If we require more than we are allowed, we are in trouble. We should better go back into our own position, to our only Friend. He is the only Resort of all our needs and desires. But if we take the burden upon ourselves to run into wrong we run into troubles in the shape of our daily transactions. We should not be so tempted. The aesthetic culturer's offers are meant to delude us when they lead us to think this world to be a comfortable place. All real improvement should lead to Godhead. It should give us all useful things by which to get rid of these temptations. As we are men we should lend our ears to know about the better situation of the transcendental world where the best aspects of the Reality are exhibited. Here we suffer from the difficulties of our eclipsed vision. It is, therefore, better to look after that region where all sorts of manifestive Nature are in vogue.
The servitors of Godhead will always look to our interest. Here our friends sometimes like us and sometimes they turn against us. But here there is opportunity of hearing about our original home from the lips of persons who are quite familiar with the same. If we neglect the opportunity we shall repent in the long run. Their words will lift us and change our mentality. All sorts of puzzling questions will be solved if only we give our lending ear to those persons who have very little to do with this world. Our situations in this world are liable to change like fogs and mists. As intelligent men our prudent nature should manage sometimes to hear of the transcendental world and the manifestive nature, instead of being unaccountably diffident. Such incredulous attitude will not give us the opportunity.
This external body will be changed and also our present situations. But we have got a transcendental frame. As soon as we will learn that the transcendental frame is working in us, this mortal coil will cease to trouble. The people of the West think that the mind is the soul. We differ from them. There exists an ample Indian literature in support of the view that the soul is the proprietor of the mind. The mind is the proxy of the soul to deal with the external world in five different relations as husband and spouse, master and servant, parent and child, as friend and as neutral. The soul is now enwrapped by some other foreign agency. Body is different from apparel. The soul is enwrapped by the gross and subtle material bodies. They are meant for the use of the soul for a certain period. When the true activity is latented the mind acts with the impetus of the senses alone, covering the soul by the material molecular substances. But the soul is the real entity.
The senses are the working things, some of them for external and some for internal use. Grossness has an attraction for the ordinary run of people. It is meant for such people. Even the so-called philosophers are found to subscribe to the slogan that the gross material body should have the preference in all religious affairs of this world (sariram adhyam kalu dharma sadhanam). They are very busy with the gross and subtle material things, ignoring the very health of the soul. The material things will change. This change sometimes gives us facilities and sometimes hinders our progress. But the soul does not change and cannot be destroyed, although he is susceptible of being covered up by the subtle or abstract form of material grossness in the shape of our passing mentality which is a gift of Maya. She has given us the senses to measure the pleasing things for selfish aggrandisement. Religious people think they need not gratify the senses which are meant to delude only. As for instance we are liable to be deluded if we suppose the air of the atmosphere to be meant for our enjoyment or for the purpose of giving us temporary pleasures. That very opportunity will be taken away to let us know that is is not meant for our good.
We are liable to be troubled by these impeding agents. Their number will show us that they are more numerous than the things that can give us bliss, the only thing that should be sought. The whole ecstatic centre is in Godhead. All pleasing sensation of this world, if properly judged, is found to hold for temporal purposes only, in order to have our fruits later on. It is the training plane. On this plane we are liable to suppose that everything is meant to serve us. But the real truth is that we are to serve Godhead in the five different capacities. It is only when we deem it fit to come down to this world to lord it over other finite entities for our enjoyment that our real position happens to be forgot to some extent. This contingency arises when we want to deprive our Lord. That tendency was innate with us. It led us to prefer this temporal region by our own desire. These entanglements will be slowly removed when the true suggestions will come to us on our meeting with persons who are cognisant of our interest.
Optimistic people are apt to avoid such apparently pessimistic thoughts. They prefer to run into the troubles. But we should have the only Resort in the Absolute. Aural reception is the only track that we should follow. We should be prepared to hear how we can live a peaceful life and aspire after eternal bliss from the Absolute who can give it. Unless we submit to Him there is no possibility of getting to the Eternal Region. If we do otherwise we would be multiplying speculations that will only be checks. Instead of posing as the predominating agent we should pose as predominated agents in order to serve Godhead Who is the Source of all manifestive things; and all activities should tend to Him without hoping for any commercial return. We are Philistians averse to theological thought. We are for making money, earning fame and enjoying pleasures. This is the natural inclination here. All this non-Absolute propaganda is due to aversion to the service of the Absolute. We should, therefore, lend our ear to the descriptions of Transcendence in order to be able to understand how to get the true fruit of the soul instead of being misled by the mind. The mind is the proxy of the soul. He is always on the look-out for aggrandising his own interest at the expense of the principal if the latter thinks to pass his days in indolence, when he will be naturally deluded by the mind. The slumbering soul requires to be roused up. The best use of our intelligence, foresight, desirability, should be to make progress towards the eternal life. Temporal pleasures are bound to trouble us in the long run.
Question: What is the difference between shanti and ananda (peace and bliss)?
Answer: Impersonalists think that Godhead should offer a neuter race. Buddha thought cessation of perception at the end. Sankaracharya argued that Godhead should have no form at all, that there should not be any sexological question in regard to Him, that everyone should go back to the Absolute, that there should be no difference between the individual soul and Godhead, the three situations of the Observed, observer and observation being merged into one viz., the Brahma who is full of joy and at the same time void of joy, there being no distinction between the two. The third school is the devotional school. According to this school whatever we find here such as trees, rivers, hills, etc., are all present in the transcendental world. Here we have only screened entities and sometimes miss the sparks of the Reality.
Question: Why does the study of Philosophy not give me peace now?
Answer: Because we choose to stick to the miserable situation and do not pay attention to Godhead.
This reproduction of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta's conversation, originally published in The Harmonist (Vol. XXXI, No.21) on the 27th of June, 1935, is not edited, except for a few ortographical changes.
Comments
The True Meaning of
Being Humbler than a Blade of Grass
by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
Question 1: Is the material nature, or māyā, the root cause of the cosmic creation?
Answer: The material energy consisting of the three modes of material nature can never be the root cause of the creation of the universe. The Supreme Lord infuses His energy into material nature through His glance. Only then, by the strength of His energy, does nature (prakṛti) become the secondary cause of cosmic creation, just as iron becomes infused with burning power only after it is placed in fire. The false nipple on the neck of a goat – the very emblem of things that are not as useful as they seem – fails to deliver milk. Similarly, the material energy, or prakṛti, is only the ingredient cause of creation (upādāna-karaṇa), and cannot create the universe alone.
However, by virtue of certain aspects of nature that take the form of creative modalities, the material energy has also been described as the instrumental cause (nimitta karaṇa). But, even in that case, it is solely Kṛṣṇa who is the original instrumental cause. Lord Nārāyaṇa is the primary instrumental cause (nimitta karaṇa) and can be likened to a potter, while the material nature can be likened to the potter’s wheel and spinning-rod, which comprise the secondary instrumental cause (nimitta karaṇa).*
_____________
* This is an extension of a common analogy used to describe the difference between the two types of cause: ingredient (upādāna) and instrumental (nimitta). Clay is the ingredient used to make a pot, but it must be shaped by a potter. The clay is the ingredient cause (upādāna karaṇa) and the potter is the instrumental cause (nimitta karaṇa).
Just as a pot cannot be created without a potter, the universe cannot be created without Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The Kāraṇavaśāyī Puruṣa, Śrī Viṣṇu, resides in the Causal Ocean. From a distance, He glances upon the material nature. This leads to two actions. First, He infuses nature with countless living beings, who exist as the photons within the rays of His glance, and second, by touching māyā with just the semblance of His limbs, He personally generates countless universes.
That He touches māyā with the semblance of His limbs implies that He touches her with the mere impression of His limbs; they do not ever meet in the real sense. It is Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself, the Supreme Being, who enters into each universe through His expansion as the Puruṣa avatāra. Therefore, Śrī Kṛṣṇa alone is the root cause of the creation.
It is said in the scriptures:
kṛṣṇa-śaktye prakṛti haya gauṇa kāraṇa
agni-śaktye lauha yaiche karaye jāraṇa
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Ādi-līlā 5.61)
Brahma-dhāma, the plane of luminous spirit, exists external to the paravyoma, the spiritual sky. And external to that is the causal ocean (karaṇa-samudra). While the abode of full transcendental consciousness (cinmaya-dhāma) has no cause (karaṇa-śūnya), the material nature is composed of various causes (karaṇa-mayi). The space between these two realms is the divine causal ocean (karaṇa-samudra).
The Supreme Being, lying in that causal ocean, glances at the material nature, which exists extrinsically to that region, and it is this glance alone that engages nature in creation. The material energy (māyā-śakti) exists externally to the causal ocean and cannot touch it. The glance of the Supreme Being enters into the material nature and activates her.
Question 2: By what method should we rid ourselves of anarthas (tendencies that are obstacles to spiritual advancement)?
Answer: Without performing hari-bhajana, the living entity becomes a fruitive worker (karmī), an empiricist (jñānī) or one engaged in the pursuit of selfish interests (anyābhilāṣī). Therefore one must always call out to Bhagavān by chanting the mahā-mantra. One must chant a fixed number of Kṛṣṇa’s holy names, according to ones capacity, for it leads to deliverance from anarthas and sends inactiveness and lethargy far away. By engaging in chanting the holy names of Śrī Hari without offence, all varieties of perfection are achieved.
Question 3: How should the devotee behave while living in this world?
Answer: Although people around him will invariably engage in mundane conversations, he should not listen to such discussions. When a person is determined to move forward on his own dutiful path, nothing harmful can hinder him. He should offer respect to those who are averse to bhakti, but should not come to honour their behaviour. Rather, he should renounce it within the core of his heart.
When he has time, he should deliberate on books like Śaraṇāgati, Prārthana and Prema-bhakti-candrika. It is better to have śāstriya-sādhu-saṅga (saintly association through authentic scripture) than no sādhu-saṅga at all. Later, for instruction in the art of internal, transcendental service (bhajana-śikṣā), direct sādhu-saṅga is necessary.
Question 4: What is the true meaning of being humbler than a blade of grass?*
_____________
* C.f. Śrī Śikṣāṣtaka (3): “tṛṇād api sunīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ”
Answer: Although the Vaiṣṇava is the topmost personality, he considers himself more insignificant than a blade of grass. In reality, he is not insignificant or lowly. Rather he is worthy of being honoured by the Supreme Lord Himself. Vaiṣṇavas are worthy of everyone’s worship and honour. This is why the word su-nīca* has been used instead of simply nīca (low).
_____________
* Apart from adding emphasis, the prefix su- indicates goodness, virtue and beauty. Therefore sunīca has often been translated as ‘humbler’ rather than ‘lower’.
“I am the dust of the lotus feet of Śrīla Gurudeva. I am the servant of śrī guru and Śrī Kṛṣṇa.” This transcendental self-conception (abhimāna) is indeed tṛṇād api sunīcatā* – being humbler than a blade of grass.
_____________
* ṭṛṇāt – than grass; api – even; sunīca – humbler; tā – the quality. Hence, tṛṇād api sunīca-tā indicates the quality of being even humbler than grass.
Śrīman Mahāprabhu gave three teachings: compassion toward all living entities (jīve-dayā); taste for the holy names (nāma ruci); and service to the Vaiṣṇavas (vaiṣṇava-sevā). Tṛṇād api sunīcatā does not mean duplicity – enacting humility externally or through words alone. The true meaning of tṛṇād api sunīcatā is the actual ability (adhikāra) to perform kīrtana. In other words, it means to have true taste for chanting the holy names, identifying oneself as the servant of Śrī Nāma.
Service to śrī guru and the Vaiṣṇavas is the only doorway to attaining taste for chanting the holy names. That service alone is tṛṇad api sunīcatā. One’s expression of lowliness (nīcatā), humility or prayer for mercy should be exhibited in front of the Vaiṣṇavas, not in front of avaiṣṇavas.
The mahājanas (the great spiritual authorities) have advised that one’s humility should not be made evident in front of anyone and everyone. To express one’s humility in front of an atheist who is envious of śrī guru and the Vaiṣṇavas, in front of a demoniac person like Rāvaṇa or in front of a pretentious brāhmaṇa, is not vaiṣṇava-sevā, nor is it tṛṇād api sunīcatā. If a person does so, he can never attain the ability to perform kīrtana, nor can he develop taste for chanting the holy names. In fact, such a misplaced display of humility is an act of violence toward other living entities. On the other hand, when Śrī Hanuman, the devotee of Śrī Rāma, set all of Lanka on fire, it was truly tṛṇād api sunīcatā.
Question 5: What does it mean to be compassionate to other living entities?
Answer: Śrī Caitanyadeva explains that the true meaning of compassion towards the living entities is to inspire them to engage in serving Śrī Viṣṇu (Kṛṣṇa) and Vaiṣṇavas. This is the most astonishing element of Śrī Caitanyadeva’s compassion.
Question 6: Is everything the Supreme Lord does beneficial for us?
Answer: Definitely. Everything that the most benevolent Supreme Lord does is solely an expression of His mercy. He is all-auspicious, so there is no scope for inauspiciousness in the arrangements He makes. Whatever He does and whenever He does it, it is solely for absolute good. All those conditioned souls who consider that apparent impediments to their happiness are harmful or the cruelty of the Supreme Lord, see only the first move in the chess game. They are unable to foresee what lies beyond the fourth or the fifth move.
The mercy bestowed by Śrī Caitanyadeva or His devotees is amandodāya-dayā*. There is no trace of anything that could be called harmful or lowly in their compassion. When bitter medicine is given to a patient, he calls the doctor a merciless cruel person, but when he is relieved of the disease, he realizes how compassionate the doctor was to give him the bitter medicine.
_____________
* a-manda – nothing bad; udāya – gives rise; dayā – compassion. Compassion that exclusively awakens immense good fortune, without granting any insignificant results or causing any harm or loss, is calledamandodāya-dayā.
Translated by the Rays of The Harmonist team
from Śrīla Prabhupādera Upadeśāmṛta
Questions re-numbered for this on-line presentation
_____________________
Śrīla Prabhupādera Upadeśāmṛta is a compilation of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda’s instructions in question-and-answer form.
By Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada, adapted from 'The Gaudiya', Volume 24, Number 5.
We shall be enabled to realise our lasting good if only we place ourselves wholly under the protective guidance of Srila Vyasadeva. Note in particular a verse from one of the Upanisads that tells of having vision of the Golden Lord: "yada pasya pasyate rukmavarnam – The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna, appears in a form the colour of molten gold. (Mundaka Upanisad 3.1.3)." Our lasting good will be the repercussion of learning to view that Unlimited Entity by means of transcendental service, which links us to Him, engaging our thoughts in Him and seeking to attain knowledge of Him in loyal pursuance of the teachings of Sri Vyasa.
In the act of listening to discourses about the Transcendental Entity, the faculty of hearing will expand and acquire new powers. The Transcendental Word chanted by Devarsi Narada made His way into the cavity of Srila Vyasadeva's ear. He was thus enabled to have a vision of the Absolute Personality. Under the influence of the domineering aptitude that prevails in this mundane world, we adopt the cults of hero-worship and apotheosis on the one hand, or, on the other hand, we become anthropomorphists, zoomorphists and the like. 1 By being infected with these respective modes of thought, Godhead will surely reveal Himself to us in just the way we chose to embellish Him.
If we abuse the prerogative of human life, if we choose to consider ourselves to be on an equal footing with Sri Krsna, then we shall fall into the snare of delusion and be consigned to perdition. The consequence of conceitedly supposing oneself to be master in one's own right has been analysed by Srila Vyasadeva in the verses "ye 'nye aravindaksa – those who approach the platform of liberation egoistically claim to be liberated, but they fall down again by neglecting the lotus feet of the Lord (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.2.32)", "gyane prayasam – one should give up trying to know Godhead through the empirical process (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.14.3)", and "sreyah-sritim bhaktim – the effort of cultivating knowledge that is devoid of bhakti is as useless as beating empty husks of grain (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.14.4)". We are truly benefited by listening attentively to these discourses of his.
"Without any delay, Godhead enters the heart of one who constantly and faithfully hears and chants the narrations of His transcendental activities." Our real good is assured if we have the good fortune to hear the Word of Godhead at the lotus-feet of Sri Guru. The divine master constantly chants the Word of Godhead. He has no other function.
It is imperative that we listen to and accept the Word chanted by Sri Guru and yet, even after we have been enabled to receive the Word issuing from the lotus lips of Sri Guru, we still cannot retain Him for He tends to be eclipsed if He is not chanted to others. If we busy ourselves in any unnecessary pursuit by abstaining from chanting the Word received from Sri Gurudeva, we lose our connection to the eternal entity and render ourselves fit for welcoming sorrow.
tat te 'nukampam su-samiksamano
bhunjana evatma-kritam vipakam
hrid-vag-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te
jiveta yo mukti-pade sa daya-bhak
A person is entitled to the treasure of serving the lotus feet of Godhead, who redeems us of our worldly bondage, if he lives with his heart, speech and body submitted to Him and if, through his good vision, he truly sees the Mercy of Godhead in the sufferings he brought about by his own deeds (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.14.8).
There is no other way of being delivered from this world. Whatever Godhead does is for our good. We can be redeemed if we behold His Mercy in every event and in every activity. But if we notice any defect in His work, or realise any cruelty therein, it is sure to result in evilness and difficulty.
All my difficulty is due to the fact that I happen to be engrossed in activities other than serving Sri Krsna. If my taste for serving Sri Krsna truly increases day by day, then I shall be blessed indeed. He who engages us in activities of this nature is certainly Sri Gurudeva. The line of genuine gurus consists only of persons who are loyal followers of Sri Vyasadeva.
Just by being touched by my Srila Gurudeva's lotus feet, I lost all sense of this external world. I do not know if any transcendental agent equal to him in greatness has ever appeared in this world. How may those who are busy with the likes of lust and anger present in this world, ever know him?
FOOTNOTES:
1 Apotheosis refers to declaring a mortal man to be God or a god, and conversely, anthropomorphism in this context indicates the tendency to mistake God as a mortal man (or animal as with zoomorphism).
Adaptation by and published in 'Rays of The Harmonist' No. 19 (2009)