A blind man, with no experience of form or color, could see by His will. So if His position is such then what our attitude should be in approaching Him? "How much earnestness should we have to approach that land? It is easy - it is difficult. Easy, because it is our inborn tendency. It is our home. But now we are far away from home. It is home, my own, so there is hope that I may reach there one day."
Now I am hopeful.
This is what is to be considered as knowledge. All knowledge is with Him. What I know is nonsense. My experience and calculation is not a real knowledge through which I can know Him. More I know of this world the more I am filled with poison. Because any amount of information cannot grasp His infinite state of art. If I ma ready to admit this I will have a chance to know Him to the point He wants me to know. Then I will consider to be fully knowledgeable. Like a cup that was filled with ocean water. He himself said "the knowledge of this world is just an insignificant spark of the whole manifestation of Him." Not knowing this we are deceiving ourselves. Why? Because the so-called education will create a sense of pride that is very difficult to remove. It it somewhat better to deal with an ignorant man of the street then a scholar. But also a religious man who has the ego of a religious man is difficult to convince to be a man of a real faith. Both are proud of their position thinking they know.
vedasraya nastikya vada baudhake adhika (CC. Madhya 6.168) Half truth is more dangerous than a falsehood.
It is better to be ignorant at the front of the Lord. That's why when we go to see the Lord in the temple we are there to be seen by Him.
"(...)If we have to admit God, then we have nothing. If we are His created objects, play dolls, we have nothing. As soon as we have admitted God, then we are dispossessed of everything! So much renunciation is impossible. To hold that 'I am the absolute authority' means that I am nowhere. Such self-abnegation is not so cheap!"
So, what is "that land", "home" and "there"?
ReplyDeleteMay be you can tell?
ReplyDelete"That land, home and there" is a state of mind, a mood of surrender, a consciousness. We are advised to pray, not to go to a location, but to be cognizant of our eternal position as servitor. We are trying to be Krsna "conscious". That consciousness is "that land, home and there".
ReplyDeleteIt is a state of consciousness and a location. With a wrong consciousness you cannot go there. Similarly if your consciousness (Krishna Consciousness) is a right one you can stay anywhere. This is what Advaita Goswami said to Mahaprabhu and this is what Srila Guru said to Swami Mahraj Prabhupad when he was in NY. Yet they aspired for that land and as we have seen they have been transformed there. There means "Govardharn" - vrindavan hoite govardhana shoila giridhari gandharvika jata krita koila. Above Vrindavan there is a place called Govardhan where the Divine Pastimes of Sri Sri Gandharavva-Giridhari are eternally manifested. Sarasvati Thakura said that our prayojan (destination) is there. He would say: we will stay at the feet of Govardhan, go to Kusum Sarovar, collect the flowers and offer them at Radhar Kunda and Shyama Kunda." This is our home, our meditation, our aspiration, our cherished place. Srila Govinda Maharaj called Govardhan the hill on our property in Seva Ashram in Soquel. I was fortunate to be there when he spoke about it. He said to the extend - Their Lordships are playing there. Then he spoke about Srimati Radharani very sweetly. Srila Guru Maharaj has chosen the specific location for his Math and consider it the top most location. When Goswami Mahraj was leaving to California for preaching work thinking he is going to the hub of devotional activities (that was the case in 80s), Srila Guru Maharaj said: "Now you are going to some remote place", which occurred to Goswami Maharaj as insignificant and the real place is here, in Nadbadwip, just like the name of this blog. Staying in Koladwip within Nabadwip, removes our offenses, which we are cause of our non-progressive or even reversed spiritual life. This is the main reason why Srila Guru Maharaj settled there, although his consciousness is always right. If the location was irrelevant he would stay in Kolkata. Of course one may say that it was done for the missionary purposes as he was staying by the Ganges in solitude before that. Nevertheless he made a conscious choice in selecting the place. How lucky we are!
ReplyDeletePeople go to holy place to take bath there not having met the sadhus there. This is condemned by Bhagavatam as gokhara, cow-conscious-activities.
Na dhanam na janam na sundarim
ReplyDeleteKavitam va jagad-isa kamaye
Mama janmani janmanisvare
Bhavatad bhaktir ahaituki tvayi
"Oh Lord, I have no desires to accumulate wealth, followers, beautiful women or salvation. My ONLY prayer is for Your causeless devotional service, birth after birth. "
Perfect!
ReplyDeleteOne of the pancha-angam announced by Mahaprabhu is Mathura Vasa, living in Mathura, a holy place. These pancha-angas are the five rules conducive to spiritual progress. (bhagvat shravan, sadhu sangha, tulsi seva, mathura vasa etc...) That mathura vas is not merely a physical location.
ReplyDeleteSo it is about place and location but conscious. Just like Guru Maharaj speaks about overcoming the kama, moha, lobha... He says that to stop once bodily urges one needs to engage in a responsible seva, not merely bodily seva. Mind has to be preoccupied, conscious of the purpose. Then the seva is complete. He does not recommend only a manasa puja (mental worship) nor empty bodily activities.
The point I am trying to make is that we must be VERY careful what we are praying for. We are instructed by Mahaprabhu to pray for devotional service. WHERE this devotional service may occur is inconsequential. There is NO request even for this "cycle of birth and death" to end. The ONLY prayer is that we may somehow be engaged in devotional service.
ReplyDeleteThis is no small point of contention. I grew up in a gurukula and was taught from an early age that we should pray for service SO we may go back home, back to Godhead. Srila Guru Maharaj and Srila Gurudev did NOT preach this message. There is too much opportunity for this prayer to become a transactional request (I will do service IF I can go Home). There is NO quid pro quo in the Vaisnavism preached by our beloved guru's.
I do not think we disagree on these points, and perhaps we are saying the same thing, but I must make clear that our ONLY prayer should be to be engaged in devotional service. All anarthas/aparadhas can be eradicated simply by engaging in devotional service. This mood is thoroughly exemplified by Srila Acharyya Maharaj, the maha sevaka of Srila Gurudev.
I have just re-read the comments to this post. We are actually talking about the same thing, the substance over the form. I have methodologically tried to elaborate on the location v.s. consciousness whereas you've made it abundantly clear what is the siddhanta (conclusion) of Sri Chaitanya Sarasvat Math. Srila Guru Maharaj used to say "our siddhanta is everything" which in inversion reads "we are dead without it".
ReplyDeleteOn the point of not praying for anything except seva, Srila Gurudeva has mentioned in response to why we do not worship Narashimha Deva, said "for everything we should pray to Nityanana Prabhu". Because what will we do if we cannot do our service, or it is disturbed, or we are disturbed, or we luck inspiration, or see no direction, etc., etc... Those are not the things one can always solve within oneself.
Nicely put.
ReplyDeleteThe post has been re-filled few days ago. If you are inspired you are welcome to comment.
ReplyDelete