ALL GLORY TO THE DIVINE MASTER
AND
THE SUPREME LORD SREE KRISHNA-CHAITANYA

SREE
SAJJANA-TOSHANI
OR
THE HARMONIST

Edited by - Sri Srimad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj

VOL.XXVI JULY, 1928, 442 Chaitanya-Era No. 3.

Current Topics

We are glad to notice that the higher spirits of the human Society after due deliberation have deemed it fit to establish harmony by dismissing the idea of contending with each other. At last the numerous streams of inhumanity that have filled up the cavity of the bloodthirsty ocean are forcibly going to be stopped by the generous humanitarian agency. This is an activity in the right direction to introduce the heavenly peace of love on mankind. The newspapers are flooded nowadays with the tidings of the future establishment of peace amongst belligerent nationalities. Misdirection of valour and wrong ambition lead men’s aspiring energy to unsympathetic tumults and the sequel proves to bar the future progress of true concord and harmony. The several powers are signing a wider Magna Charta to settle their disputed matter in a more civilised way than to indulge themselves in gunshots. Civilization should no doubt prove to come to a settlement wherever any prejudice prevails on a particular section of God’s creation. Contending ideas might be opposing when they think that they have got the greater justification in balancing their rights of the conflicting thoughts. It is needless to point out to the peace-loving higher feelings the prime necessity of putting a stop to violence and the conferers of the boon have rightly acted on this behalf. As an observer of harmony we would look forward to see the same demeanour among the contending intelligence when they engage themselves to trouble one another as fishvendors of the Billings gate.

People of different tastes are apt to talk fashionably about their own orthodoxy from their respective angles of vision, disregarding the subjective existence of the things observed; but they ignore to realise the positions and circumstances in which they themselves are placed. Everyone cherishes right and left his own belief and sticks to his sequel of his stubbornness in action. As advocates of harmony, can we not entreat them to desist from their waging war against one another on different merits. The Empiricists have taught to view the worldly manifestations in a particular light and they are not ready to accept the theistic truth outside the range of the senses. The medium of communication has been ordained us to sounds and words and whenever a symbolised message in the shape of sound is poured into our ear, we show an inclination of testing the sound by the process of conception with the help of four other sense-acquiring organs and this test instigates us to plunge into conflicts considering our position safe and well-guarded. In observing the specification of transcendental objects, we are completely overpowered by our old prejudice of viewing the thing as mundane object. The transcendental thing needs not a regulation from an empiricist who is apt to dwell upon the matter as one of the objects of phenomena. It is clear to everybody that a particular atmosphere has little value when it is considered from another sphere. If we neglect to distinguish sensuous from supersensuous manifestations we are apt to misunderstand our position in weighing things supernatural. Furnished with the limited store-house of mundane knowledge one should avoid unpleasant discourse with a transcendentalist by dint of one’s officious enterprise.

The epistemologic mood when ignored us likely to bring dissension among parties intoxicated with their particular temperamental hobbies. The Harmonist would not find her way to agree with the heterogenous thoughts vocalised in the sentiments of a recent centenary celebrationist. The exoteric reviewer might have found his way to impress on the people the efficacy of congregated religious parties of heterodox views; but an impartial observer may not subscribe to his opinion when he sees that such discordant heterogenous mood stands in the way of the propagation of the Absolute Truth. The proselytising activity of the following of Sree Chaitanya Deva did not spare any loophole to contaminate the intellectual and social atmospheres of the country, so it is quite needless that a proposer should be indulged in formulating a compound mixture of different thoughts which are likely to adulterate an Absolutist, that is, the uninterrupted idea of the true follower of the Vedas. The analogy of introducing some building materials into a palatable sauce may serve well to the misunderstood when the Harmonist fails to appreciate why the so-called well-wishers of the society take delight in assimilating undisputedly adulterated grease with water. Though the idea of preparing through stitching a garland of different flowers is unquestionably laudable, and may prove to be acceptable to the modes of lustful society, the Harmonist cannot possibly agree to the short-sighted policy when the Absolute Truth is going to be disfigured by the hasty attempts of deceitful atheists. The Religion of the Absolutist cannot stand without true ethical principles when we find that leaders come out as louder platform speakers to conceal their immoral views in the garb of intellectual feats. Such futile attempts on the part of incapable brains cannot hold good when critics come forward to scrutinise the ins and outs of their hearts full of spontaneous affinity towards their foul propensities.

The Word of the Amnaya as the sole fundamental evidence.

The heard transcendental sounds (Srutis) received through the channel of eternal preceptorial succession from Brahma creator of this physical world, which bear the name of the knowledge of the Brahman (Brahma-vidya) are known as the Anmaya *(1).

This science of the Brahman, as the basis of all sciences, was taught by Brahma the primal god, creator and sustainer of this world, to Atharvan his first-born by which the Divine Personality as Word which is identical with Truth, becomes known, along with the knowledge of the Truth*(2).

From the breath of the Supreme Person, Iswara, have issued all the four Vedas, Itihas, Purana, Upanishad, sloka, sutra, anubyakhya. The Ramayana, the Mahabharata etc, are Itihases. There are eighteen great Puranas with Srimad Bhagabata at their head, also eighteen Upa-Puranas (secondary Puranas), both of which are denoted by the term Purana. The word Upanishad is applied to the group of eleven Upanishads viz. Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashna, etc. By sloka is meant the works made into verse by the Rishis in anustupa and other metres. The Sutra denotes the various aphorisms, embodying the meaning of the Veda, made by the principal practising teachers (Acharyyas) of the knowledge regarding the Truth. By the word anubyakhya is meant those explanatory works in the form of commentaries etc., that have been made by the ancient practising teachers with reference to those sutras. The whole of this is spoken of as the Anmaya. The primary meaning of the word Anmaya is Veda (knowledge)*(3).

The Veda which is its own evidence is also the highest evidence. Its character as the evidence itself suffers by the adoption of derivative or secondary meanings of its words*(4). The evidence of the heard knowledge (sruti) is the highest. The primary meaning of the Sruti is the evidence. Whatsoever the word of the Veda says, which is its own evidence, is true. By the admission of secondary meaning its quality of being its own evidence suffers abrogation*(5).

The works of the Goswamis such as the Sat sandarbha (the six discourses) etc. and Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita belong to the class of anubyakhyas mentioned above. Whence the Vedas, Puranas, Itihas, Upanishad, Vedanta-sutra and the works such as the commentaries etc. of the Vaishnava Acharyyas, are all of them words of the authorities (Aptabakya). The special excellence of such authoritative words is thus noticed in the eleventh skandha of the Srimad Bhagabata (xi 14/3-7): —

‘Sri Krishna said to Uddhava, ‘The words known as the Vedas I spoke to Brahma in the beginning. Therein has been stated the principle of unalloyed devotion to My proper Self, which is the dharma (constituent function) of all jivas. The word known as the Veda is eternal. It being lost at the time of the complete absorption (pralaya) of this world I told it again clearly to Brahma at the time of creation. Brahma communicated it to his sons Manu, etc. The devas, rishis and men—all of them—in due course received the word known as the Veda. Created beings and their rulers have been differentiated from one another by reason of having obtained different natures produced by the triple qualities viz. sattva, rajas and tamas. A great variety of opinions has been adumbrated which differ from one another as explanations of the word in accordance with this difference of nature. Those alone oh Uddhaba, who have received the true anubyakhyas etc. through the channel of the spiritual preceptors from Brahma, profess the pure view. All the rest have become the slaves of various atheistical (pashanda) opinions, by reason of holding different views.’

We are thus enabled to learn definitely from the above that a community bearing the name of the Brahma-sampradaya has existed continuously ever since the time of creation. In this community the un-adulterated word itself known as the Veda has preserved the Divine religion. The Word thus received through the channel of the spiritual preceptors is the Anmaya. Those who do not admit the Brahma-sampradaya pointed to by such texts as (verse in Sanskrit), etc, are the preachers of the atheistical views as has been said by God Himself in the passage quoted above. Those who while professing to belong to the sampradaya of Sri Krishna-chaitanya do not admit in private the established method of preceptorial succession are undoubtedly the secret emissaries of Kali (discord).

However that may be, all persons of good fortune hold, as the highest of all evidence the Anmaya—the authoritative word received through the succession of spiritual preceptors. This is the first teaching of Sri Chaitanya.

In his Tattvasandarbha (9&10) Sri Jiva Goswami says, ‘I have already indicated that relationship with God (Sambandha) consists of the characteristics of Sri Krishna as the object of expression and the expression itself, that the means of attaining this relationship (bidheya) consists of the elements of worship, and that the object (prayojana) of the practice of such method comprises the characteristic of love for the God-head. I shall now try to specify the evidence that establishes the above explanation of the three categories. Man is by nature subject to the four-fold drawbacks in the form of error etc., and are, therefore, unfit to get into touch with the inconceivable and supernatural entity. The evidence on which he relies, in the shape of direct perception by the senses etc., is always faulty. The Word of the Veda marked by transcendental utterance, the cause of the universal and supermundane knowledge received through the channel of a succession of persons who are eternally pure spirits, is the one evidence that is available to a person who is desirous of understanding properly the entity that is located beyond all things, is the support of all, is inconceivable by all and is possessed of a nature that is altogether wonderful.’

Sri Jiva Goswami has established that the Srimad Bhagabata is the highest of all evidence by determining the evidential nature of the words of the authorities and proving that all the Puranas possess this quality of authoritativeness. The characteristics on which he relies for establishing the superiority of the Bhagabata have led him to mention as authorities also Brahma, Narada, Vyasa and in their company Shukadeva and also the scriptures proved as authoritative by Sriman Madhvacharya the spiritual preceptor of Bijayadhvaja, Brahmatirtha, Vyasatirtha, etc, of a later period. From these statements it appears definitely that the Sri Brahma-sampradaya is the undoubted preceptorial channel of the servants of Sri Chaitanya. In conformity with this Sri Kavikarnapur Goswami has firmly laid down the preceptorial line in his work ‘Gauraganoddesa-dipika’. The author of the commentary on the Vedanta sutra, Sri Vidyabhusan, has also adopted the same succession. Those who deny this line of preceptors are the greatest enemies of the followers of the feet of Sri Chaitanya. There cannot be the least doubt of this.

There is one special point which must not be overlooked in any discussion regarding the authoritative word. The words of the authorities are all of them the evidence of their own truth. In regard to them, therefore, there is no room for the adoption of secondary explanations. The meaning that is impressed on the mind directly on hearing the radiating sound-nucleus is the effect of the inherent quality of the sound itself (abhi-dha-britti). If we take the expression (words in Sanskrit), as soon as these words are heard the direct impression that is produced is that Sri Gaurchandra is no other than Sri Krishna-chandra Himself. Whereas the expression (words in Sanskrit), which directly means ‘the village of cowherds in the Ganges,’ does not yield any sense if we adopt the direct meaning of the words for which reason it becomes necessary in this instance to take the help of the secondary meaning to obtain the correct explanation that the village of the cowherds stand on the bank of the Ganges and not in the stream. In respect of the words of the Veda there is no such necessity for the adoption of the secondary meaning. The Chhandogya (8-13-1) says, (words in Sanskrit). The word (word in Sanskrit) means the spiritual power of Sri Krishna, the power which ever belongs to Sri Krishna’s proper Self. The direct meaning of the text, therefore, is: ‘I seek the refuge of the blissful state that is the essence of the spiritual power of God by submission to Sri Krishna; and seek the refuge of Sri Krishna by submitting to the condition that is the essence of the blissful spiritual power.’ In as much as the correct logical meaning of this Vedic text is obtainable by means of the direct meaning of the words why have we to adopt with Sri Sankaracharya the secondary meaning , viz. ‘Divinity that is present in the heart. (words missing from article))… of the word ‘Shyama’? All those who are free from the bondage of this world spontaneously worship Sri Shyamasundar with His Divine consort. That is the real meaning of the Vedic text. Therefore, we find it stated in the Charitamrita that the character of the Veda as the evidence itself suffers by the adoption of the secondary meaning.

There is a variety of methods of obtaining the secondary meaning, those methods have the technical manes of (words in Sanskrit) and (words in Sanskrit). None of these are effective in the ascertainment of the transcendental entity. On the contrary they give rise to error if they are so used. Sri Sankararcharya has observed that the direct meaning of words gives no help in ascertaining principles that are of an indeterminate character and for this reason, one has to find the meaning of the Veda by the secondary method of interpretation. Sri Gaudapurnananda Madhvacharyya has this specific objection (Tattamuktavali sloka 22) to the view just stated. ‘In considering the power of words it is a settled principle that there is no room for the secondary meaning when the direct meaning is adopted. Where is the necessity of any discussion about its boundary if the village itself has no existence? Can a son be born without a father? The issue may be put thus. If the direct meaning of words is found inapplicable in regard to transcendental entities how can the secondary meaning give any help in as much as it is by its nature the mere auxiliary of the direct meaning? A wise man should, therefore, try to find out the transcendental significance by the direct meaning of the words of the authorities and discard altogether the secondary interpretation.

The whole position may be summed up as follows. Sri Chaitanya Chandra who appeared in Nabadwip in this Kali Age (Age of Discord) has rescued the beneficient religion born of the Veda by freeing it completely from the defects that had crept into it in course of time. He is the same spiritual, primal Poet who disseminated the eternal Word of the Veda in the heart of Brahma. The four-fold fault in the forms of deceit, hallucination, mistake due to defective sense organs and error of judgement, unavoidably vitiates all the speculations of man. In the discussion of the Truth that is located beyond the reach of the senses the above four-fold fault cannot be avoided by even the greatest of scholars. Therefore, in regard to the transcendental entity the words of the Veda, which have not been made by any one, is the sole evidence. Other forms of evidence such as direct perception, inference, analogy, history, etc. are sometimes of help but always in strict subordination to the evidence of the Word of God.

*(1) Karika.
*(2) Mundaka 1-1-1 ;1-2-13.
*(3) Brihadaranyaka 2-4-10.
*(4) Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita Adi VII 132.
*(5) Ibid, Madhya VI, 135 & 137.


The Bhagabat: Its Philosophy, its Ethics and its Theology.

[ A lecture by Thakur Bhaktivinode in 1869 ]

Gentlemen,
We love to read a book which we never read before. We are anxious to gather whatever information is contained in it and with such acquirement our curiosity stops. This mode of study prevails amongst a great number of readers, who are great men in their own estimation as well as in the estimation of those, who are of their own stamp. In fact, most readers, are mere repositories of facts and statements made by other people. But this is not study. The student is to read the facts with a view to create, and not with the object of fruitless retention. Students like satellites should reflect whatever light they receive from authors and not imprison the facts and thoughts just as the Magistrates imprison the convicts in the jail! Thought is progressive. The author’s thought must have progress in the reader in the shape of correction or development. He is the best critic, who can shew the further development of an old thought; but a mere denouncer is the enemy of progress and consequently of Nature. Begin anew, says the critic, because the old masonry does not answer at present. Let the old author be buried because his time is gone. These are shallow expressions. Progress certainly is the law of Nature and their must be corrections and developments with the progress of time. But progress means going further or rising higher. Now, if we are to follow our foolish critic, we are to go back to our former terminus and make a new race, and when we have run half the race, another critic of his stamp will cry out: “Begin anew, because the wrong road has been taken!” In this way our stupid critics will never allow us to go over the whole road and see what is in the other terminus! Thus the shallow critic and the fruitless reader are the two great enemies of progress. We must shun them.

The true critic, on the other hand, advises us to preserve what we have already obtained, and to adjust our race from that point where we have arrived in the heat of our progress. He will never advise us to go back to the point whence we started, as he fully knows that in that case there will be a fruitless loss of our valuable time and labour. He will direct the adjustment of the angle of the race at the point where we are. This is also the characteristic of the useful student. He will read an old author and will find out his exact position in the progress of thought. He will never propose to burn the book on the ground that it contains thoughts, which are useless. No thought is useless. Thoughts are means by which we attain our objects. The reader, who denounces a bad thought, does not know that a bad road is even capable of improvement and conversion into a good one. One thought is a road leading to another. Thus the reader will find that one thought which is the object today will be the means of a further object tomorrow. Thoughts will necessarily continue to be an endless series of means and objects in the progress of humanity. The great reformers will always assert that they have come out not to destroy the old law but to fulfil it. Valmiki, Vyasa, Plato, Jesus, Mahomed, Confucius and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu assert the fact either expressly or by their conduct.

The Bhagabat like all religious works and philosophical performances and writings of great men has suffered from the imprudent conduct of useless readers and stupid critics. The former have done so much injury to the work that they have surpassed the latter in their evil consequence. Men of brilliant thoughts have passed by the work in quest of truth and philosophy, but the prejudice which they imbibed from its useless readers and their contact prevented them from making a candid investigation. Not to say of other people, the great genius of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the founder of the sect of Brahmoism, did not think it worth his while to study this ornament of the religious library. He crossed the gate of the Vedant, as set up by the Mayabada construction of the designing Shankaracharya, the chosen enemy of the Jains, and chalked his way out to the unitarian form of the Christian faith, converted into an Indian appearance. Ram Mohan Roy was an able man. He could not be satisfied with the theory of illusion contained in the Mayabada philosophy of Shankar. His heart was full of love to Nature. He saw through the eye of his mind that he could not believe in his identity with God. He ran furious from the bounds of Shankar to those of the Koran. There even he was not satisfied. He then studied the pre-eminently beautiful precepts and history of Jesus, first in the English translations and at last in the original Greek, and took shelter under the holy banners of the Jewish Reformer. But Ram Mohan Roy was also a patriot. He wanted to reform his country in the same way as he reformed himself. He knew it fully that truth does not belong exclusively to any individual man or to any nation or particular race. It belongs to God, and man whether in the Poles or on the Equator, has a right to claim it as the property of his Father. On these grounds he claimed the truths inculcated by the Western Saviour as also the property of himself and his countrymen, and thus he established the Samaja of the Brahmos independently of what was in his own country in the Beautiful Bhagabat.*(1) His noble deeds will certainly procure him a high position in the history of reformers. But then, to speak the truth, he would have done more if he had commenced his work of reformation from the point where the last reformer in India left it. It is not our business to go further on this subject. Suffice it to say, that the Bhagabat did not attract the genius of Ram Mohan Roy. His thought, mighty though it was, unfortunately branched like the Ranigunje line of the Railway, from the barren station of Shankaracharya, and did not attempt to be an extension from the Delhi terminus of the great Bhagabat reformer of Nadia. We do not doubt that the progress of time will correct the error, and by a further extension the branch line will lose itself somewhere in the main line of progress. We expect these attempts in an abler reformer of the followers of Ram Mohan Roy.

The Bhagabat has suffered alike from shallow critics both Indian and outlandish. That book has been accursed and denounced by a great number of our young countrymen, who have scarcely read its contents and pondered over the philosophy on which it is founded. It is owing mostly to their imbibing an unfounded prejudice against it when they were in school. The Bhagabat, as a matter of course, has been held in derision by those teachers, who are generally of an inferior mind and intellect. This prejudice is not easily shaken when the student grows up unless he candidly studies the book and ruminates on the doctrines of Vaishnabism. We are ourselves witness of the fact. When we were in the college, reading the philosophical works of the West and exchanging thoughts with the thinkers of the day, we had a real hatred towards the Bhagabat. That great work looked like a repository of wicked and stupid ideas, scarcely adapted to the nineteenth century, and we hated to hear any arguments in its favour. With us then a volume of Channing, Parker, Emerson or Newman had more weight than the whole lots of the Vaishnab works. Greedily we poured over the various commentations of the Holy Bible and of the labours of the Tattwa Bodhini Sabha, containing extracts from the Upanishads and the Vedant, but no work of the Vaishabs had any favour with us. But when we advanced in age and our religious sentiment received development, we turned out in a manner Unitarian in our belief and prayed, as Jesus prayed in the Garden. Accidentally, we fell in with a work about the Great Chaitanya, and on reading it with some attention in order to settle the historical position of that Mighty Genius of Nadia, we had the opportunity of gathering his explanations of Bhagabat, given to the wrangling Vedantist of the Benares School. The accidental study created in us a love for all the works which we find about our Eastern Saviour. We gathered with difficulties the famous Kurchas in Sanskrit, written by the disciples of Chaitanya. The explanations that we got of the Bhagabat from these sources, were of such a charming character that we procured a copy of the Bhagabat complete, and studied its texts (difficult of course to those who are not trained up in philosophical thoughts) with the assistance of the famous commentaries of Shreedar Swami. From such study it is that we have at least gathered the real doctrines of the Vaishnabs. Oh! What a trouble to get rid of prejudices gathered in unripe years!

As far as we can understand, no enemy of Vaishnabism will find any beauty in the Bhagabat. The true critic is a generous judge, void of prejudices and party-spirit. One, who is at heart the follower of Mohamad, will certainly find the doctrines of the New Testament to be a forgery by the fallen angel. A Trinitarian Christian, on the other hand, will denounce the precepts of Mohamad as those of an ambitious reformer. The reason simply is, that the critic should be of the same disposition of mind as that of the author, whose merits he is required to judge. Thoughts have different ways. One, who is trained up in the thoughts of the Unitarian Society or of the Vedant of the Benares School, will scarcely find piety in the faith of the Vaishnabs. An ignorant Vaishnab, on the other hand, whose business it is to beg from door to door in the name of Nityananda will find no piety in the Christian. This is, because the Vaishnab does not think in the way in which the Christian thinks of his own religion. It may be, that both the Christian and the Vaishnab will utter the same sentiment, but they will never stop any fight with each other only because they have arrived at their common conclusion by different ways of thoughts. Thus it is, that a great deal of ungenerousness enters into the arguments of the pious Christians when they pass their imperfect opinion on the religion of the Vaishnabs.

Subjects of philosophy and theology are like the peaks of large towering and inaccessible mountains standing in the midst of our planet inviting attention and investigation. Thinkers and men of deep speculation take their observations through the instruments of reason, and consciousness. But they take different points when they carry on their work. These points are positions chalked out by the circumstances of their social and philosophical life, different as they are in the different parts of the world. Plato looked at the peak of the Spiritual question from the West and Vyasa made the observation from the East; so Confucius did it from further East, and Schlegal, Spinoza, Kant and Goethe from further west. These observations were made at different times and by different means, but the conclusion is all the same in as much as the object of observation was one and the same. They all hunted after the Great Spirit the unconditioned Soul of the Universe. They could not but get an insight into it. Their words and expressions are different, but their import is the same. They tried to find out the absolute religion and their labours were crowned with success, for God gives all that He has to His children if they want to have it. It requires a candid, generous, pious and holy heart to feel the beauties of their conclusions. Party-spirit—that great enemy of truth—will always baffle the attempt of the enquirer, who tries to gather truth from religious works of their nations, and will make him believe that absolute truth is nowhere except in his old religious book. What better example could be adduced than the fact that the great philosopher of Benares will find no truth in the universal brotherhood of man and the common fatherhood of God? The philosopher, thinking in his own way of thought, can never see the beauty of the Christian faith. The way, in which Christ thought of his own father, was love absolute and so long as the philosopher will not adopt that way of thinking he will ever remain deprived of the absolute faith preached by the western Saviour. In a similar manner, the Christian needs to adopt the way of thought which the Vedantist pursued, before he can love the conclusions of the philosopher. The critic, therefore, should have a comprehensive, good, generous, candid, impartial and a sympathetic soul.

What sort of a thing is the Bhagabat, asks the European gentleman, newly arrived in India. His companion tells him with a serene look, that the Bhagabat is a book, which his Oriya bearer daily reads in the evening to a number of hearers. It contains a jargon of unintelligible and savage literature of those men who paint their noses with some sort of earth or sandal, and wear beads all over their bodies in order to procure salvation for themselves. Another of his companions, who has travelled a little in the interior, would immediately contradict him and say that the Bhagabat is a Sanskrit work by a sect of men, the Goswamis, who give Mantras, like the Popes of Italy, to the common people of Bengal, and pardon their sins on payment of gold enough to defray their social expenses. A third gentleman will repeat a third explanation. Young Bengal, chained up in English thoughts and ideas, and wholly ignorant of the Pre-Mohamedan history of his own country, will add one more explanation by saying that the Bhagabat is a book, containing an account of the life of Krishna, who was an ambitious and an immoral man! This is all that he could gather from his grandmother while yet he did not go to school! Thus the Great Bhagabat ever remains unknown to the foreigners like the elephant of the six blind who caught hold of several parts of the body of the beast! But Truth is eternal and is never injured but for a while by ignorance.

The Bhagabat itself tell us what it is:—

“It is the fruit of the Tree of thought (Vedas) mixed with the nectar of the speech of Shookdeva. It is the temple of spiritual love! O! Men of Piety! Drink deep this nectar of Bhagabat repeatedly till you are taken from this mortal frame.”

The Garooda Puran says, again:—

“The Bhagabat is composed of 18000 Slokas. It contains the best parts of the Vedas and the Vedanta. Whoever has tasted its sweet nectar, will never like to read any other religious book.”

Every thoughtful reader will certainly repeat this eulogy. The Bhagabat is pre-eminently the Book in India. Once enter into it, and you are transplanted, as it were, into the spiritual world where gross matter has no existence. The true follower of the Bhagabat is a spiritual man who has already cut his temporary connection with phenomenal nature, and has made himself the inhabitant of that region where God eternally exists and loves. This mighty work is founded upon inspiration and its superstructure is upon its reflection. To the common reader it has no charms and is full of difficulty. We are, therefore, obliged to study it deeply through the assistance of such great commentators as Shreedhar Swami and the Divine Chaitanya and his contemporary followers.

Now the great preacher of Nadia, who has been Deified by his talented followers, tells us that the Bhagabat is founded upon the four slokes which Vyasa received from Narada, the most learned of the created beings. He tells us further that Brahma pierced through the whole universe of matter for years and years in quest of the final cause of the world but when he failed to find it abroad, he looked into the construction of his own spiritual nature, and there he heard the Universal Spirit speaking unto him, the following words: —

“Take, O Brahma! I am giving you the knowledge of my own self and of my relations and phases which is in itself difficult of access. You are a created being, so it is not easy for you to accept what I give you, but then I kindly give you the power to accept, so you are at liberty to understand my essence, my ideas, my form, my property and my action together with their various relations with imperfect knowledge. I was in the beginning before all spiritual and temporal things were created, and after they have been created I am in them all in the shape of their existence and truthfulness, and when they will be all gone I shall remain full as I was and as I am. Whatever appears to be true without being a real fact itself, and whatever is not perceived though it is true in itself are subjects of my illusory energy of creation, such as, light and darkness in the material world.”*(2)

It is difficult to explain the above in a short compass. You must read the whole Bhagabat for its explanation. When the great Vyasa had effected the arrangements of the Vedas and the Upanishadas the completion of the eighteen Pooranas with facts gathered from the recorded and unrecorded tradition of ages, and the composition of the Vedant and the large Mahabharat, an epic poem of great celebrity, he began to ruminate over his own theories and precepts, and found like Fauste of Geothe that he had up to that time gathered no real truth. He fell back into his own self and searched his own spiritual nature, and then it was that the above truth was communicated to him for his own good and the good of the world. The sage immediately perceived that his former works required supercession in as much as they did not contain the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In his new idea he got the development of his former idea of religion. He commenced the Bhagabat in pursuance of this change. From this fact, our readers are expected to find out the position which the Bhagabat enjoys in the library of Hindu Theological works.

The whole of this incomparable work teaches us, according the our Great Chaitanya, the three great truths which compose the absolute religion of man. Our Nuddea Reformer calls from them Sambandha, Avidheya and Prayojana i.e. the relation between the Creator and the created, the duty of man to God and the prospects of humanity. In these three words is summed up the whole ocean of human knowledge as far as it has been explored up to this era of human progress. These are the cardinal points of religion and the whole Bhagabat is, as we are taught by Chaitanya, an explanation both by precepts and example, of these three great points.

In all its twelve Skandhas or divisions, the Bhagabat teaches us that there is only one God without a second, who was full in Himself and is and will remain the same. Time and space, which prescribe conditions to created objects are much below His Supreme Spiritual nature, which is unconditioned and absolute. Created objects are subject to the influence of time and space, which form the chief ingredients of that principle in creation which passes by the name of Maya. Maya is a thing which is not easily understood by us who are subject to it, but God explains, as much as we can understand in our present constitution, this principle through our spiritual perception. The hasty critic starts like an unbroken horse at the name of Maya and denounces it as a theory identical with that of Bishop Berkley. Be patient in your enquiry is our immediate reply. In the mind of God there were ideas of all that we perceive in eternal existence with him, or else God loses the epithet of omniscient so learnedly applied to Him. The imperfect part of nature implying want proceeded also from certain of those ideas, and what, but a principle of Maya, eternally existing in God subject to His Omnipotence, could have a hand in the creation of the world as it is? This is styled as the Maya Shakti of the Omnipresent God. Cavil as much as you can. This is a truth in relation to the created universe. This Maya intervenes between us and God as long as we are not spiritual, and when we are able to break off her bonds, we, even in this mortal frame, learn to commune in our spiritual nature with the unconditioned and the absolute. No, Maya does not mean a false thing only, but it means the concealment of eternal truth as well. The creation is not Maya itself but is subject to that principle. Certainly, the theory is idealistic but it has been degraded into foolishness by wrong explanations. The materialist laughs at the ideal theory saying, how could his body, water, air and earth be mere ideas without entity, and he laughs rightly when he takes Shankaracharyya’s book in his hand as the butt end of his ridicule.*(3) The true idealist must be a dualist also. He must believe all that he perceives as nature created by God full of spiritual essence and relations, but he must not believe that the outward appearance is the truth. The Bhagabat teaches that all that we healthily perceive is true, but its material appearance is transient and illusory. The scandal of the ideal theory consists in its tendency to falsify nature, but the theory as explained in the Bhagabat makes nature true, if not eternally true as God and His ideas. What harm there can be if man believes in nature as spiritually true and that the physical relations and phases of society are purely spiritual?

No, it is not merely changing a name but it is a change in nature also. Nature is eternally spiritual but the intervention of Maya makes her gross and material. Man, in his progress attempts to shake off this gross idea, childish and foolish in its nature and by subduing the intervening principle of Maya, lives in continual union with God in his spiritual nature. The shaking off this bond is salvation of the human nature. The man who has got salvation will freely tell his brother that “if you want to see God, see me, and if you want to be one with God, you must follow me.” The Bhagabat teaches us this relation between man and God, and we must all attain this knowledge. This sublime truth is the point where the materialist and the idealist must meet like brothers of the same school and this is the point to which all philosophy tends.

This is called Sambandha Jnana of the Bhagabat, or, in other words, the knowledge of relations between the conditioned and the absolute. We must now attempt to explain the second great principle inculcated by the Bhagabat i.e. the principle of duty. Man must spiritually worship his God. There are three ways, in which the Creator is worshipped by the created.

(verses in Sanskrit)

All theologists agree in maintaining that there is only one God without a second, but they disagree in giving a name to that God owing to the different modes of worship, which they adopt according to the constitution of their mind. Some call Him by the name of Brahma, some by the name of Paramatma and others by the name of Bhagawan. Those who worship God as infinitely great in the principle of admiration, call him by the name of Brahmo. This mode is called Jnana or knowledge. Those who worship God as the Universal Soul in the principle of spiritual union with him, give him the name of Paramatma. This is Yog. Those who worship God as all in all with all their heart, body and strength, styles Him as Bhagawan. This last principle is Bhakti. The book that prescribes the relation and worship of Bhagawan, procures for itself the name of Bhagabat and the worshipper is also called by the same name.*(4)

Such is Bhagabat which is decidedly the Book for all classes of theists. If we worship God spiritually as all in all with our heart, mind, body and strength, we are all Bhagabatas and we lead a life of spiritualism, which neither the worshipper of Brahma, nor the Yogi uniting his soul with (Paramatma) the universal soul can obtain. The superiority of the Bhagabat consists in the uniting of all sorts of theistical worship into one excellent principle in human nature, which passes by the name of Bhakti. This word has no equivalent in the English language. Piety, devotion, resignation and spiritual love unalloyed with any sort of petition except in the way of repentance compose the highest principle of Bhakti. The Bhagabat tells us to worship God in that great and invaluable principle, which is infinitely superior to human knowledge and the principle of Yog.

Our short compass will not admit of an explanation of the principle of Bhakti beautifully rising from its first stage of application in the form of Brahmic worship in the shape of admiration which is styled the Shanta Rasa, to the fifth or the highest stage of absolute union in love with God, sweetly styled the Madhura Rasa of Prem Bhakti. A full explanation will take a big volume which is not our object here to compose. Suffice it to say that the principle of Bhakti passes five distinct stages in the course of its development into its highest and purest form.*(5) Then again when it reaches the last form, it is susceptible of further progress from the stage of Prema (love) to that of Mahabhava, which is in fact a complete transition into the spiritual universe where God alone is the bridegroom of our soul.

(To be continued.)

*(1) This is gathered from what Ram Mohan Roy told to the public in the prefaces to the three dissertations, which he wrote about the precepts of Jesus as compiled by him from the Gospels and in answer to Dr. Marshman, the Serampore Missionary.
*(2) Sree Chaitanya’s lecture to Prakashananda Saraswati in Chaitanya Charitamrita.
*(3) The Padma Purana thus puts the following expression into the mouth of Shiva, and Chaitanya puts great stress on this text in his denounement of Shankar’s Mayavada: (verse in Sanskrit) Maya philosophy is Boodhism in disguise and (God of Tama Goona) have given expression to it in the shape of a Brahmin meaning Shankaracharya.
*(4) This explanation is gathered from what Chaitanya said to Sanatan—vide Madhyakhanda, Chaitanya Charitamrita.
*(5) These five stages are called Shanta, Dasya, Sakhya, Batsalya and Madhura.

The Special Characteristics of the Acharyya

(Continued from P.40, July, 1928.)

Thakur Bhaktivinode, the great follower of Sri Rupa in fulfilment of the heart’s desire of Mahaprabhu, walking closely in the footsteps of his master, also adopted the transcendental power of the Word as the only sure and the greatest weapon for compassing the good of the whole world. He made the current of the Mandakini of pure devotion to flow again in this age of the dry desert of atheism by refuting in his works the views opposed to devotion, by the performance of the kirtan of Hari and promoting the real welfare of the people by organised preachings from different ‘market of the holy Name, by the restoration of forgotten holy sites and by his personal efforts after the ideal of all-time service of Hari. The perfect lucidity with which Thakur Bhaktivinode has made known to the world the message of the kirtan of the holy Name and his detailed analysis of the subject are bound so immensely to benefit all jivas who like ourselves happen to be subject to perversion of judgement, intent on deceiving, dispirited and devoid of all worth, that the full significance of the blessing cannot be realised by any except those who have actually been the recipients of it.

To this Age the highest gift of Sri Gaursundar is the samkirtan (congregational chanting) of the Name of Hari which is nothing less than ‘the treasure of the holy love of Goloke’. Those poverty-ridden children of the old story who failed to find out the treasures of their father after the most laborious search simply for not knowing definitely the spot where it lay buried, had not the least difficulty in securing their father’s wealth to which they were the rightful heirs the moment that an extraordinarily merciful and omniscient sage, moved to pity by their miserable plight, acquainted them with the actual site; in like manner Thakur Bhaktivinode, for the well-being of destitute, unworthy, erring jivas like ourselves, appearing on the scene of our miseries as the power of the non-harm-producing mercy of Sri Gaursundar revelling in diffusing the bliss of devotion, playing the part of the cleaner of the ‘market’ of the holy Name, has swept clean the prickly thorns from off the path leading to the highest bequest of Sri Gaursundar in the shape of the treasure of the holy love of Goloka.

Thakur Bhaktivinode’s whole life was one arduous striving for turning the direction of the whole current of thought of this materialistic age back upon the inner self. The analytic method of his invaluable works bears eloquent testimony to his noble purpose. His disinterested kindness to jivas is without a parallel. There were very few people, indeed, who could recognise one full of such un-ambiguous kindness and in such immense measure. It is true that many persons resorted to him and also repeated their visits. But those who are really desirous of following in his footsteps are very, very rare, indeed. By adopting as his greatest weapon for this Age the kirtan of Hari, Thakur Bhaktivinode has consolidated the foundations of the preaching of the Name and love of God.

(To be continued.)

The Supreme Lord Sri Krishna-Chaitanya

(Continued from P.42, July, 1928.)

Meanwhile Sri Gopinath Acharya Sarbabhauma’s sister’s husband met Sri Mukunda who was an old acquaintance of his and from him came to learn the tidings of the sannyas of Sri Chaitanya and His arrival at Puri. The devotees now heard from the people of the condition of Sri Chaitanya and made their way to the house of Sarbabhauma. From Sarbabhauma’s house escorted by Sarbabhauma’s son Sri Chandaneswar they proceeded to the temple of Jagannath under Sri Nityananda. The external consciousness of Sri Chaitanya now manifested itself having been in abeyance for over nine hours, after the return of the devotees from their visit to Jagannath Whom they saw from a distance, Sarbabhauma had by this time been informed about Sri Chaitanya and now arranged for His stay at the house of the husband of his mother’s sister.

Sri Gopinath Acharyya having asserted that Sri Chaitanya was God Himself there was a protracted discussion on the subject between himself on one side and Sarbabhauma and his disciples on the other. In course of this discussion Sri Gopinath Acharyya demonstrated to Sarbabhauma that the knowledge regarding God which was self-manifest could not be attained except through the mercy of God Himself and was unattainable by worldly learning.

When Sarbabhauma next met Sri Chaitanya he asked Him to attend a course of lectures on the Vedanta which he would deliver for His benefit. As a Sannyasi, said Sarbabhauma, it was also the duty of Sri Chaitanya to listen to the Vedanta. Sarbabhauma used to teach the Vedanta even to the sannyasis so great was his reputation as a scholar. Sri Chaitanya agreed to Sarbabhauma’s proposal and listened to his dissertations for seven days without uttering a single word. On the eighth day Sarbabhauma asking the reason for His continuous silence Sri Chaitanya replied that He understood clearly enough the meaning of the original sutras of Vyasa, but the commentary of Shankara which he followed obscured the natural and easy meaning of the Brahma sutra; that the commentary of Shankar was really opposed to the Vedanta and was, concocted with the deliberate purpose of misleading the atheists; that the position taken up by the Vedanta as to the relation between the jiva and God was one of inconceivable simultaneous distinction and identity; and that the illusionists (mayavadis) were disguised atheists. Sarbabhauma attempted to defend his own views, but was forced to confess his defeat and to admit the superiority of the arguments of his adversary.

After this discussion Sarbabhauma requested Sri Chaitanya to explain one of the difficult slokas of the Bhagabata viz (quote in Sanskrit) etc. Sri Chaitanya asked Sarbabhauma himself to explain it first. Sarbabhauma made the utmost use of his unparalleled knowledge of the science of polemics to extract out of it nine different meanings. After this Sri Chaitanya without taking a single point from any of those nine varieties gave eighteen different explanations of the same sloka. Sarbabhauma was filled with the greatest admiration and begged for the refuge of the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord. Sri Chaitanya was pleased with Sarbabhauma and manifested to him His four-armed Divine Form and thereafter the two-armed Form also. By this Divine grace the true knowledge manifested itself in Sarbabhauma and he forthwith began to praise Sri Chaitanya in a hymn of a hundred slokas composed impromptu. Gopinath and all the devotees were filled with great joy by witnessing this extraordinary mercy of the Lord towards Sarbabhauma.

Shortly after this occurrence early one morning Sri Chaitanya Himself brought the Pakal prasad (cooked rice offered to Jagannath and allowed to stand overnight in water) of Sri Jagannath deva and handed it to Sarbabhauma. The Bhattacharya took it immediately although he had not yet performed his morning wash, all his smarta scruples having been completely removed by the grace of Sri Chaitanya. Yet another day Sarbabhauma having enquired as to what was the highest method of worship, the Lord told him to chant the holy Name. On another occasion Sarbabhauma, now a most zealous devotee, having suggested to change the reading of one of the slokas of the Bhagabata and proposing to substitute in it the word ‘bhakti pade’ in place of ‘mukti pade’, Sri Chaitanya intervened and said that the sloka of the Bhagabata required no change as the word ‘mukti pada’ meant ‘Sri Krishna’. All the people of Puri were amazed by witnessing the Vaishnava zeal of Sarbabhauma and believed that Sri Chaitanya was really no other than Krishna Himself; and Kashi Misra and many others surrendered themselves, body and soul, at the feet of the Lord.

(To be continued.)


Who is a Brahmana?

A text of the Vedas quoted by Nilakantha in his annotation of the Mahabharata *(1) puts the following confession in the mouth of the Vedic rishis —‘We do not know whether we are Brahmans or not-Brahmanas’. The claim of heredity which is the sole test now-a-days is categorically disallowed by the Scriptures. The Mahabharata *(2) says, ‘Birth, purificatory ritual, the study of the Vedas or descent, none of these make a Brahmana. The mental disposition is necessary. Even one who may be a Shudra by birth attains to the condition of a Brahmana if he possesses the settled disposition that is characteristic of the Brahmana.’

The Bhagabata *(3) has preserved the account of the origin of the varnasrama institution. In the Satya Yuga all the people had the same varna which had the designation of hansa. The three Vedas (viz. Rik, Yajus, and Saman) arose in the beginning of the Treta Age. After this arose the four varnas of Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra, each order possessing its typical disposition.

Mankind *(4) is divided into four varnas according to their nature. Those who are eqable, self-controlled, austere, pure, contented, forgiving, sincere, intellectual, kind-hearted, Godly and truthful, are Brahmanas. The Kshatriyas, the next order, possess the qualities of heroism, prowess, patience, energy, spirit of sacrifice, mastery over self, forgiveness, magnanimity, cheerfulness and truthfulness. The special characteristics of the Vaishya are devotion to the gods, the gurudeva and the Supreme Lord, willingness to support and foster religion and promote the satisfaction of wants and desires, faith in the Vedas, enterprise and skill. The Shudra nature exhibits the following traits viz. obedience to the good, purity, loyalty in serving the master, performance of sacrifice without the mantra, freedom from any desire to rob other people’s wealth, truthfulness, a desire to protect the cattle and the Brahmanas. The Geeta *(5) says that the division into four varnas is in accordance with the predominating quality (the qualities being sattva, rajas and tamas). The Mahabharata *(6) in one passage says explicitly that a Brahmana is made by disposition alone. It is stated in the Sama Veda Samhita that Gautama on this principle permitted the upanayana ceremony, which admits one into the order, to Satyakama for the reason that he possessed the distinctive Brahmana quality of sincerity. This is by no means the only instance of the kind that actually occurs in the Shastras.

Any persons possessing the requisite qualities becomes a Brahmana after Vedic initiation. But in the Kali Yuga *(7) as persons born of Brahmana parentage resemble the Shudras they fail to obtain the necessary purification by the method of the Vedic ritual and can be purified only by the method of the Pancharatra,—because all persons are enabled to attain to the condition of a Brahmana by the Satwata Pancharatric initiation ‘just as bell-metal is changed into gold by a proper chemical process.’ *(8) The initiation is named diksha for the reason that it confers the transcendental knowledge and completely destroys all sinfulness. *(9) We are told expressly by the Brihadaranyakopanishad *(10) that ‘one who departs from this world after becoming acquainted with the Absolute Truth is alone Brahmana’.

*(1) Bana Parva 180-32
*(2) Anu. Parva 143/50, 51
*(3) Bhag. 11-17-10,12,13
*(4) Bhag. 7-11-21,24
*(5) Geeta 13-4
*(6) Mahabharata Bana Parva 215-(13-15)
*(7) vide dictum of Vishnuyamala quoted in H. Bh. V. 5-3
*(8) Tattvasagar quoted in H. Bh. V. 2-7
*(9) Vishnuyamala quoted in H. Bh. V. 2-7
*(10) Brihad—3 9-10

Sree Sree Chaitanya Bhagavat

(Continued from P.48, July, 1928.)

CHAPTER VIII

(Contd.)

  1. Misra said, ‘I have seen a dream to-night,
    As if Nimai has shaved off His hair.
  2. ‘He wore the garb of a sannyasi which was so wonderful that no words can describe it.
    And laughed, danced and cried always calling upon the Name of Krishna.
  3. ‘Advaita Acharyya and all the devotees
    Chanted the kirtan making a circle round Nimai.
  4. ‘At times Nimai sat on the couch of Vishnu
    And holding up His feet placed them on the heads of all.
  5. ‘Four-faced, five-faced, thousand faced beings
    All sang, ‘Victory to the Darling of Sri Sachi.’
  6. ‘There was great joy as all chanted His Name on every side.
    Seeing all this I could not speak any words for fear.
  7. ‘Thereafter I saw that taking with Him crores and crores of people
    Nimai wandered about in every town dancing.
  8. ‘Millions of crores of people ran after Nimai;
    All of them sang the Name of Hari which thrilled the Universe.
  9. ‘On all sides I heard nothing but singing of the praises of Nimai
    Going toward Nilachal in the company of all the devotees.
  10. ‘This dream has filled my mind with anxious thoughts
    And the fear lest our Son leave the world and become a sannyasi’.
  11. Said Sachi, ‘It is after all only a dream, Gosain,
    Have no anxiety; Nimai will certainly remain at home.
  12. ‘Nimai knows nothing except His books.
    The taste of study is all the religion He has’.
  13. Thus those two, of a most generous disposition,
    Had many a talk by reason of their affection for their Son.
  14. Staying on for a short time longer in this manner the best of Misras
    Withdrew his eternal and pure form from the view of the people of this world.
  15. The Lord wept much at the departure of Misra
    Like Raghava at the disappearance of Dasarath.
  16. The loving attraction of Gaurchandra is irresistible;
    Wherefore the life of the mother was preserved.
  17. It is sad to dilate on a great sorrow;
    It is very pathetic and so I have been most brief.
  18. In this manner, in the company of His mother, Gaur-Hari
    Restraining Himself, remained scarcely manifest.
  19. At sight of the fatherless condition of the Boy, mother Sachi
    Ceased to perform all work except tending her Son.
  20. If the mother did not see Gaurchandra for half an hour
    Both of her eyes lost their vision and she became senseless.
  21. The Lord also evinced constant love for His mother
    And soothed her by cheering words—
  22. ‘Listen, mother, harbour no anxieties in your mind;
    You have all if you have only Me.
  23. ‘Even that which is said to be obtainable with difficulty by Brahma and Siva
    I will procure for you with ease.’
  24. Sachi, too, looking at the beautiful face of Gaurchandra,
    Lost even the memory of her body; how could there be any sorrow?
  25. By the mere recollection of Whom all desires are fulfilled—
    The Supreme Lord Himself was by her side as her Son.
  26. How could there be any sorrow in such as she?
    The Lord made His mother as joy’s own self.
  27. In this manner in the guise of a Brahman child at Navadwip
    Abode the Lord of Vaikuntha self-delighted.
  28. Utter poverty wore a visible form in the house:
    But His commands were as magnificent as of the Lord of Lords.
  29. Whether a thing was or not in the house He recked but little.
    If He did not get it for the asking chaos was let loose.
  30. The house, doors and windows were instantly smashed.
    He did not trouble about any damage to His own property.
  31. Yet Sachi promptly supplied whatever He demanded,
    And with the greatest care, out of affection for her Son.
  32. One day the Lord was going out for a bath in the Ganges
    He asked His mother for oil and amalaki
  33. ‘Give Me also good garlands and sweet-scented sandalwood paste.—
    Therewith I want to worship the Ganges after bath.’
  34. Said the mother, ‘Darling, listen to what I say.
    If Thou wilt wait a little I shall fetch the garlands.’
  35. No sooner did He catch her words that the garlands had to be fetched
    The Son of Sachi grew terrible like the god Rudra in His anger—
  36. ‘Will you then have to go out for the garlands?’ —
    With these words raging He entered the room.
  37. Under the influence of anger He smashed first of all
    The earthen pitchers filled with Ganges water, that were in the room.
  38. With a stick in His hand He then broke
    All those earthen pots that contained oil, salt, ghee.
  39. Self-willed God then broke to pieces all those pots big and small
    That happened to be in the room,—
  40. Oil, milk and ghee, husked rice, cotton, paddy, salt,
    Dried cakes of pulse and mudga—rolled on the floor.
  41. Snatching away all the hanging shikas of rope
    The Lord tore them to pieces in His fit of rage.
  42. All the clothing and such other stuff that He found in the room
    He tore them to shreds with both hands.
  43. When everything had been smashed and there remained nothing to break
    As a last resort the fury of the Lord was turned against the house.
  44. Pling the big stick with both hands the Lord showered blows on the rooms,
    No one thought it worth his life to forbid.
  45. After breaking up the house, doors and windows
    He cudgelled all the trees laying on with both hands.
  46. Still there was no abatement of His wrath!
    He rained un-numbered blows on the ground.
  47. Much alarmed Sachi had placed herself behind a corner of the house;
    In her fear she almost hid herself.
  48. The Lord, the Establisher of religion,—the eternal religion itself,—
    Never raised His hand against His mother.

  1. Hi quite forgot Himself in the fury of His anger to which He chose also to give full vent,
    But yet He did not hurt His mother.
  2. Having smashed all things He at last came out into the yard
    And with an angry mind rolled on the ground.
  3. His golden body was enveloped in the sand; And, strange though it may seem,
    Was a most beautiful sight,—so it were best left unsaid.
  4. Having rolled about on the earth for some time
    The Lord lay still.
  5. In that posture He glanced on the power that lulls God to sleep.
    The Lord of Vaikuntha lay on the Earth—
  6. Who eternally reposes on the holy form of Sri Ananta,
    And Whose lotus feet are ever served by Lakshmi!
  7. The Lord Who is sought by the four Vedas
    Slept in the yard of Sachi!
  8. In the cavity of Whose single hair floats an infinite number of worlds,—
    Whose servant creates, maintains and destroys,—
  9. Whose qualities are contemplated with rapture by Brahma, Siva and the rest,—
    The Supreme Lord Himself slumbered in the yard of Sachi!
  10. In this manner the highest Lord, tasting the bliss of His own self,
    Slept and all the gods laughed and wept at the sight.
  11. Some time passed,—then Sachi Devi having procured the garlands
    And arranged all requisites for the worship of the Ganges,
  12. Softly touching the beautiful body of her Son with her hands,
    Wiping off the dust, tried to rouse Him from sleep—
  13. ‘Wake, arise, my Darling, look! Here are the garlands,—
    Betake Thyself to the Ganges and worship her even as Thou likest.
  14. ‘Thou hast done well, my Dear, by breaking all things
    Let those take away Thy ills.’
  15. Hearing these words of the mother Sri Gaursundar,
    Ashamed at heart, went off to bathe.
  16. While Sachi, having first made clean all the rooms,
    Prepared to cook.
  17. Although the Lord often wrought such mischief
    Yet it caused no sorrow in the mind of Sachi.
  18. Just as the mani-fold waywardness of Krishna
    Were borne by Yasoda in the settlement of cow-herds.
  19. All the mischievous pranks of Gauranga were borne
    Constantly, with like spirit, by mother Sachi
  20. How tell even the smallest part of the pastimes of God?
    All His acts were utterly wayward like this.
  21. The mother bore them all with body, speech and mind.
    Sachi was as patient as the Earth herself.
  22. After some time, having bathed in the Ganges,
    The Lord, ever full of sport returned home;
  23. And, worshipping Vishnu and offering water to holy tulasi,
    The Lord sat down to meal.
  24. The mind of the Lord became cheerful after meal.
    And He chewed betel with a smiling face.
  25. Then gently the mother began to speak—
    ‘For what purpose, Darling, didst Thou make all this mischief?
  26. ‘The house, doors and windows, all things, belong to Thee.
    The loss is Thine. Does it affect me at all?
  27. ‘I say this as Thou art going out for Thy studies.
    There is nothing in the house. What wilt Thou eat tomorrow?
  28. The Lord laughed hearing these words of His mother.
    He said, ‘Krishna nourishes, He will provide.’
  29. Saying this and taking His books in His hand
    The Lord of the goddess of learning made off for study.
  30. Having spent some time in the sweet taste of learning,
    When it was evening He repaired to the side of the Jahnavi.
  31. Stopping a while on the bank of the Jahnavi
    The Lord there-after returned home.
  32. He called His mother aside to a corner
    And put into her hands two tolas of pure gold.
  33. ‘Behold, mother, Krishna has supplied this precious stuff.
    By changing it pay all expenses.’
  34. With these words the Lord went off to bed.
    Utterly amazed the mother thought within herself—
  35. ‘From where does He thus bring gold time and again?
    I am afraid lest some worse trouble befall.
  36. ‘So soon as money gets scarce in the house
    He brings gold repeatedly in this manner.
  37. ‘Does He borrow,—or know some magical art?
    Whose gold does He bring?—and how does He get it?’
  38. The mother was most generous and wholly free from all taint of greed.
    She felt many a misgiving even in procuring a change.
  39. ‘Show it to many different persons and then change’
    Such was the instruction of mother Sachi to her agent.
  40. In this manner the Lord, the sovereign of all the perfect beings,
    Lived, concealing Himself, in the heart of Nabadwip.
  41. Never for a moment did He quit His hold of books;
    The God of love manifest, He studied in the company of students.
  42. The beautiful tilak pointing upward adorned His forehead;
    The head bore a profusion of curls that took captive the minds of all;
  43. The sacred thread hang across the shoulder the em-bodiment of the fiery Brahman spirit,
    With His beautiful face overspread with smiles and with bland, exquisite teeth.
  44. And the wonder of the pair of those lotus eyes!
    And the marvellous beauty of the cloth worn with the triple Kachchha!
  45. His beauty fixed the gaze of all beholders.
    There was none who failed to pay his homage of praise.
  46. So wonderfully did the Lord construe the texts,
    That the joy of the teacher exceeded all bounds—
  47. In the very midst of all his pupils, taking hold of Him with his own hands,
    The teacher made Him take the highest place.
  48. ‘My Dear,’ he said, ‘do Thou read attentively;—
    I am sure, Thou wilt be the greatest of teachers.’
  49. The Lord replied, ‘Whom you bless, the position
    Of the Greatest of teachers is not at all difficult for Him to attain.’
  50. Whatever question Sri Gaursundar asked
    No student could answer.
  51. Thereupon Himself construed the sutra,
    And then refuted His own interpretation.
  52. And, when nobody was able to support the explanation,
    Himself established the same in the proper way.
  53. Whether at His bath, at meal, or at His walks
    The Lord minded nothing but the Shastras.
  54. Thus did the Lord pass the time in the sweet taste of learning
    And did not yet manifest Himself, such was the evil lot of the world.
  55. The whole world was void of devotion for Hari—
    There was nothing in it but evil society and wicked ways.
  56. They held high festivities in honour of sons and daughters in many diverse styles,
    And except the lusts of the body and family nothing else had a place in their thoughts.
  57. Finding all persons prefer false pleasures
    The community of the Vaishnavas felt sad in their hearts.
  58. The entire company of the devotees crying called upon Krishna,
    ‘Narayana’, they prayed, ‘have mercy on these jivas.
  59. ‘Having got such a precious body they have yet no attachment for Krishna!
    How long are they to suffer the miseries of their evil course?
  60. ‘The human body which even the gods covet
    Is wasted in the vain pursuit of pleasures!’
  61. ‘They never perform the high festivals in honour of Krishna,—
    But earn death by their merry bouts on weddings and such affairs:—
  62. ‘The jiva, Lord, is Thine; Thou art his Protector;
    It is not meet for us to say, Thou being the Father of all.’
  63. Thus did the devotees meditate on the good of all
    And sang the blessed praise of Krishna-chandra.
  64. Sri Krishna-chaitanya is the life of Nityananda-chand
    At Whose twin feet sings Brindabandas.

Here ends Chapter Eighth entitled ‘the departure of Misra to the other world’ in Part First of Sri Chaitanya Bhagabat.

(To be continued.)

Taking Refuge

(Continued from P.48, July, 1928.)

[ XXII ]

  1. Whom Thou will’st to slay who can protect?
    The three worlds are subject to Thy will.
    Brahma and all the gods are Thy servants numberless.
    They all carry out Thy commands.
  2. In accordance with Thy will all the planets constantly
    Shed the gifts of their good and evil influences.
    Disease, sorrow, death, fear obey Thy will.
    Thy command ever prevails.
  3. Fear of Thee makes the wind blow,
    And the Sun and the Moon and everything
    To perform each its allotted task.
    Thou art the Supreme Lord,
    Great beyond all things and the Goal Absolute.
    Thou hast Thy abode in the heart of Thy devotee.
  4. Eternally pure with every wish fulfilled
    Thy Name is Love for Thy devotees;
    The eternal Lord of those that love only Thee
    Whom Thou protect’st
    Who can slay?
    Thou art the Law unto all laws.
  5. At Thy feet, O Lord, Bhaktivinode, Thy servant,
    Has made his submission
    From all danger His master will surely deliver him,—
    This faith he doth cherish.

(To be continued.)