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 | JUNE, 1928, 442 Chaitanya-Era | No. 1. |
Foreword
The Harmonist is now ready to approach the seekers of Absolute Truth, and specially persons who have got an aptitude to promote their devotional culture also, in her twenty-sixth year of publication. This Journal made her appearance long ago, though in Bengali, to create an inquisitive field among her readers who like to discern their connection with the transcendental world, although their bearing was limited to the horizon of mundane activity. The different leading ideas of religion may be arrayed to three varieties namely – (1) ever-shifting longing for ameliorating the present predicament, (2) seeking eternal rest by dismissing the three-fold locations of observer, observed and observation with a view of ignoring a personality of the cosmic fountainhead, (3) regaining the perpetual position in the corporate spiritual kingdom, evading wrong temporary interest that tempts in misguiding to lord over the phenomenal existence. We can classify the schools of religionists and philosophers on one of these three specifications. Apart from polytheistic view, we have different faces of Monism in Deity, both in the forms of personality and impersonality. Sometimes the impersonal forms terminate in pure atheism and sometimes to other multifarious speculations. In India and abroad we find hundreds of mental speculationists who show their irregular dance to carry the impressions of innocent people who follow them to a destination unknown. Their emulations can never be considered fruitful unless they positively assert for something for our present acquisition. Professors who are apt to describe the different limbs of personal God are decidedly misled to restrict their hallucinative adventures to temporary objects of nature. The Harmonist though an advocate of the devotional thought has in her scope the determination of saving the readers from plunging into sensual efforts and as such she is often found to remind her readers not to confound the Divine personality within the material range of visual inspection. Generous readers, we believe, have marked the distinction between the conceptions of enjoying the universal phenomena and submitting oneself to the ever-existing, infinitely extended, inexplicable Object of devotion. We do not know how far we have succeeded in placing the true aspects of a region where we have no access at present on the table of our respected judges, but they can easily admit that our attempts are sincere when we undertook the translations of some original works left to us by the devotional sages in other languages specially meant to diffuse the veiled truth underlying the natural phenomena. Appreciations reached us from different quarters which have no doubt encouraged us to continue the progress of the Journal for the benefit of those who are not conversants in the indigenous languages of India. We have dealt on different current topics that may lead to enlighten our readers on special views of devotional life.
Thakur Bhaktivinode
It is not possible to understand Thakur Bhaktivinode by dissociating him from Sri Chaitanya and His most illustrious followers and associates. He did not set up as an Incarnation of God. He led to all external appearance the ordinary life of a householder. He did not claim any originality for himself in his writings nor did he establish any new doctrine or practice. He only walked with a loyal heart in the path which has been followed by all former devotees and which is laid down in the holy Scriptures, the meaning of which was made clear by the teachings and practice of Sri Chaitanya and His associates. His career is, therefore, perfectly simple in its purpose. Thakur Bhaktivinode wrote as he lived. In his books he tried to convey what according to Sri Chaitanya is the real meaning of the eternal religion that has come down to us in the records of the Scriptures through the chain of preceptors. There would have been no necessity for the appearance of Sri Chaitanya if the Scriptures had not been grossly misunderstood. There would have been no necessity for the lifework of Thakur Bhaktivinode if the life and teachings of Sri Chaitanya and His associates had not been misunderstood and misstated. The position of Sri Chaitanya and His associates in regard to our ancient Scriptures and of Thakur Bhaktivinode as their loyal follower, need not wound the susceptibilities of any reader who is not specifically opposed to our ancient Scriptures. Thakur Bhaktivinode’s attitude should also appeal to all exact thinkers as being at best definite and free from ambiguity of method or object. Accordingly the works of Thakur Bhaktivinode can be profitably considered only by those who at best tentatively admit the validity of his general position. The scientifically critical attitude need not start on, or proceed with, the study of a subject with previously formed prejudices. We would, therefore, ask those who may study the works of Thakur Bhaktivinode in the original not to form any conclusion on a large and un-familiar subject before they have accorded him a patient hearing really free from bias. In the pages of the Harmonist we have been trying to re-state what Thakur Bhaktivinode has told us in a comprehensive manner and from his own experience as a pure devotee of God, in his numerous works.
The kind heart of Thakur Bhaktivinode felt keenly for the sufferings of man and like a competent physician was not satisfied till it could find out the very root of the disease that afflicted humanity all over the world. Once convinced of the nature of the disease and of the method of its real and permanent cure he at once adopted the only way of helping others out of their misery by preaching those principles and practising them himself in order to be able to realise from actual personal experience the truth that he was to preach.
Thakur Bhaktivinode became convinced as the result of un-biased study of the works of the associates of Sri Chaitanya and the old Scriptures following the method laid down in those works that the words of Sri Chaitanya were nothing but the same language that he could hear God Himself always speaking to his own heart. He has proclaimed this in no uncertain words in his writings declaring Sri Chaitanya to be no other than the teacher Who is ever present in the heart of everybody and constantly admonishing him from within. He pleads with pathetic earnestness that all may unreservedly believe in this statement which he makes from his own personal experience and which is confirmed by all the Scriptures he had studied. By listening to the voice from within he believed that all will be bound to argue with him some day that the only way of bringing about real harmony in this world is that of chanting together the Holy Name in the manner that has been taught by Sri Chaitanya. His philanthropy was not confined to sect, creed or country. His kindness extended unstintedly to the whole of animate and seemingly inanimate nature. He was confident that all religions will one day admit the supreme necessity of chanting the Holy Name and range themselves under the banner of Sri Chaitanya.
Turning to his own countrymen he implored them to have faith in the old institution of varnasrama and to set about its re-establishment in a pure form. He has told us that the varnasrama institution is eminently fitted for the spiritual purpose and is superior to any other system that is to be found in this world. Its true significance was missed when it degenerated into a hereditary affair. This degeneracy which characterizes the caster system need not blind us to the merits of the real institution. It is the only machinery that is capable of purifying the heart of the people en masse; and all true patriots should think over this matter with an unbiased mind to be fully convinced of the immediate and imperative necessity of its re-establishment. All the problems of this country and of humanity awaiting solution can be settled by India if it simply re-occupies its spiritual position as featured by the varnasrama institution. All of us can obtain the necessary enlightenment on the subject from the teachings of Sri Chaitanya and His associates as elaborated, we may add, with this special object in view, in the writings of Thakur Bhaktivinode.
Thakur Bhaktivinode does not underestimate work or knowledge. He only warns us against work or knowledge divorced from relation to God. He condemns non-work and non-knowledge which cut at the very basis of life. He is an advocate of the most strenuous work and of knowledge in every form on condition that they are pursued with a mind really alive to its relationship with God for the purpose of serving God therewith. It is Sri Chaitanya alone who can enlighten us about this relationship of the jiva with God. We must, therefore, most attentively listen to what He has to say on the subject. We must not jump to a definition of the kirtan of the Holy Name without hearing from the lips of devotees who are truely un-biased in this matter what the kirtan that is proclaimed by Sri Chaitanya as the worship of this age of discord really means and how it is related to work and knowledge. As a matter of fact it is only by chanting the Holy Name in the manner laid down by Sri Chaitanya in conformity with the teaching of the whole body of the Scriptures that we can be aroused to the true knowledge of our relationship with God which is essential in the pursuit of word and knowledge, without which it is not possible to maintain our life in this world, in a way that is not inconsistent with the highest purpose of life viz. the service of God.
To those who are opposed to organised sect in any form Thakur Bhaktivinode says that the so-called nonsectarians also form a sect of their own. It is necessary to follow and obey the devotees of God. This is possible only within an organisation. It is not possible to lead a holy life by avoiding association with devotees. The church offers a society of the good consciously pursuing a common spiritual purpose in place of one made up mostly of bad people who have no such purpose. The society of devotees is indispensable. By opposing this not liberalism or non-sectarianism but the anarchical, disruptive, egotistic sentiment alone is displayed. Instead of directing one’s energy against principle of association, without which life in this world is impossible it would be really profitable if we would seriously endeavour to purify the society and make it conform to the true principles. The Sampradaya or church thus understood requires to be preserved and not abolished.
Purity within the congregation will be secured by all its members abstraining on principle from sitting up as a preacher of religion without previous regular discipleship under a true devotee of God qualifying to such service. No one should preach the religion the truth of which he does not realise by his own practice. Those who in imitation of the example of certain great devotees betake prematurely to a life of solitary devotion are less useful to society than those who set about preaching what they have learnt from sadhus and themselves actually practise the same in their own lives.
Thakur Bhaktivinode draws our particular attention to those text of the Scriptures that condemn trade in the name of religion. No one must on any account try to earn his livelihood by selling the Word of God. There are a hundred and one legitimate means of maintaining one’s family approved by the Scriptures that should be adopted for the purpose. It is denounced by the Scriptures as an offence against God Himself to become a preacher on hire. Most of the worst evils of all current religion are traceable to this source. The paid readers of the Bhagabat should be persuaded to adopt some other method of earning their livelihood. The abuse of diversion of religious endowments to secular purposes including the maintainance of the family of the preacher is strongly condemned by our Scriptures and must be prevented by legislation, if necessary, as the very first step in the direction of reform of religion in this country and elsewhere. It is these vested interests that have been the agents of religious corruptions in the past and are the official opponents of their removal at present. The same remarks applies to the mercenary gurus and dealers of mantras. The process in un-scriptural and there is according to the same authority, not only no possibility of any benefit either to the person who practises such a trade or to one who submits to receive the mantram as a marketable commodity, but on the contrary it constitutes a positive offence against the Divinity, and is, therefore, extremely harmful to such guru and disciple.
These are also several other important points to which we have to attend if we want to preserve the purity of communal worship. Those who occupy the pulpit must not deviate from the true principles of the religion and indulge in promulgating the concoctions of their imaginations. No one is fit to be a teacher of religion who is not really free from all taint of any ambition for popular applause or self-conceit.
Thakur Bhaktivinode warns everybody to be extremely cautious in the election of the spiritual guide. The preceptor must be fit in every way to instruct one in the true principles of religion. The preceptor who initiates is to be implicitly obeyed and cannot be discarded except for two definite reasons viz. (1) if the disciple at the time of choice of preceptor failed to choose as his guru one who is ignorant of the principles of religion and is not a Vaisnava, i.e. a true devotee of the Absolute, such a guru has to be discarded for the reason that he is of no practical help; and (2) if the preceptor although he happened to be a Vaisnava and well-versed in the principles of religion at the time when initiation was received from him, subsequently becomes a professor of illusionist doctrines or a hater of Vaisnavas such a guru should also be discarded.
Thakur Bhaktivinode lays special stress on the avoidance of all association with un-godly persons. These un-godly persons fall broadly in two classes viz. (1) those who are carnally addicted to women and (2) those who are without devotion for Krishna. There will be absolutely no spiritual progress if such aloofness is not strictly maintained despite the adoption of every other process that is recommended by the Scriptures.
The central topic of Thakur Bhaktivinode’s teaching, in strict conformity with that of Sri Chaitanya, is the supreme importance, nay the absolute necessity in this age, of worship by the method of taking the Holy Name. Thakur Bhaktivinode’s special contribution to this all important subject is his detailed treatment of every variety of offence that has to be carefully avoided if the Name has to be taken in the proper manner. He ascribes the present corruptions of the Vaisnava church which professes to follow the teaching of Sri Chaitanya mainly to mis-understanding of this cardinal subject. The Name coupled with offence is productive of perdition. The whole subject is minutely treated in very simple language in his Sri Hari-nama-chintamani which is a unique work in the whole range of literature and deserves to be translated into every language of the world.
Thakur Bhaktivinode most strongly opposes the blasphemous practice of the public singing of the devotional amorous hymns by impious persons, and on the authority of the Scriptures, condemns also those who encourage such practice by submitting to listen to such songs.
Thakur Bhaktivinode considers it essential that the spiritual varnasrama institution should be re-established in this country and elsewhere for the benefit of people in general as the status of a Vaishnava is not attainable by any except spiritual Brahman. The Vaishnava is, however, above varna and asrama which are again quite different from ‘caste’ in as much as the former serve a purely spiritual purpose while the latter is a product of history and embodies purely distinctions of social grades based on birth.
Thakur Bhaktivinode distinguishes true humility from the caricature of it that ordinarily passes under its name. The humanity of the Vaishnava consists in carrying out the precepts of his religion without minding any wordly discomfort or dishonour to himself. He is prepared to give due worldly honour to everybody without having any interest in his own in such matters for their own sake; but he never defers to the judgement of any worldly person in the matter of the religion. He is as tender as he is firm; but this is realisable only by one who himself possesses single-hearted devotion to Krishna. In preaching the true religion from door to door, despite all manner of apparent personal discouragement and hardship, with a heart that overflowed with infinite kindness for suffering humanity without distinction of caste, creed or colour. Thakur Bhaktivinode set the ideal to his followers of true philanthropy that brings no evil in its train.
Seekers of Popularity versus Seekers of the Truth
I have read with a kind of interest bordering on the tragic a most remarkable article bearing the title Lokapriyata O Satyanusandhan which may be rendered as ‘Seekers of Popularity versus seekers of the Truth,’ the title that has been adopted as the heading of this communication. The article appeared in two successive issues of the weekly Bengali journal the Gaudiya, the principal organ of the Gaudiya Mission, in its issues of the 19th and 26th May respectively. That article has not received the attention that is its due for the reason that in Bengal there is at present a dearth of both the genuine religious sentiment as well as the modern democratic spirit. Had the article been written in any European language it would most likely have forced itself on the attention of thoughtful publicists, if not for its religion, at any rate for its un-compromising attitude of antagonism to the modern democratic ideal in the form it is winning the practical acceptance of the present generation in most civilized countries of the world.
The issue raised by the above-named article may be put thus. ‘Is the Truth attainable by the universal suffrage of the people of this world? If it is not attainable by such method why has it been adopted, why also is it so strongly recommended, by such a very large number of the most cultured persons of this generation, for the purpose?’ A public meeting has to be called to pronounce its verdict on every question that affects the ordinary life of the people. Endorsed by such an assembly an ‘interest’ becomes a public interest; opposed by ‘a public meeting’ the genuineness of an issue becomes at once a matter of grave suspicion ‘to the public.’ In proportion to the degree of ‘public support’ that is received by a proposition the ‘suspicion’ of the public regarding its ‘genuineness’ is ‘cleared up’ and they can accordingly extend to it this ‘active sympathy’. It is the duty of ‘the leaders’ to push this process of classification of all important issues. The tribunal of public opinion alone is entitled to pass the verdict that can be accepted as ‘genuine’ and ‘impartial’.
Any issue that cannot stand this crucial and ‘open’ test must wait outside the hallowed circle of active public sympathy and should be deservedly looked upon with the gravest suspicion.
But who are to bring all important issues to the one anvil? Is it the duty of the leaders or of those persons who are convinced of their justice and truth? If it be the latter can they get up a public propaganda on the requisite scale without the help of the former? Why also should the public take them seriously at all? There are so many more urgent calls on the attention of the modern public. Every proposal to the public should, therefore, come in a business-like form or, in other words, through the leaders. These leaders will practically settle what is to be put before the public for its serious consideration. After a proposition has been thus ‘regularly’ put to the public it is bound to win the active sympathy of the masses by reason of the ‘innate power’ that truth always possesses of impressing itself on the minds of the generality of the people no appreciable number of whom can have any interest in being perversely hostile to the truth for the reason that it happens to be the truth. This is the well-earned reward of those staunch adherents of the truth who undergo all this unselfish exertion for securing the acceptance by the public of the truth for the general well-being. This at any rate offers the most perfect of all practicable methods of settling popular issues, and, even if it falls short of the ideal, there is no alternative but to accept it tentatively for what it is worth till the discovery of some other method that is better or at least equally satisfactory.
The assumption underlying this popular philosophy of modern democracy has been subjected to a searching analysis from the point of view of the truth in the article referred to above. That analysis discloses the following state of affairs.
The public is made up of individuals. There can be no public opinion which is un-acceptable to a numerical majority of individuals forming a group, a community or mankind. The acceptance of a proposition by the individual is, therefore, the basis of the general acceptance unless, indeed, the general public wave its right of considering the pros and cons through reliance on its leaders or for want of the faculty of reason. There can be no qualitative difference between public and private opinion in the sense that the former is true while the latter is liable to error because the one happens to be based upon the other. If such opinion originates from an individual or individuals who are themselves free all liability to error and is subsequently endorsed by the public it still derives its truth not from the fact of such endorsement but from the purity of its original source. Thus we come back to the individual or individuals responsible for a proposition in order to avoid being prejudiced in judging of its truth or falsity by the wholly extraneous factor in the shape of the nightmare of its endorsement by public opinion.
We cannot, therefore, completely, or even for a moment, shake off the individual. By this masked vicious circle of argument we are conducted to the heaven of the voice of God viz. the voice of the people from the purgatory of the opinion of the individual, for whose opinion the democrat especially in this generation has such an undisguised contempt, through the magical process of a number of public meetings organised by the selfless exertions of a few (?) seekers (?) after the truth (?) which by the way cannot be known to or admitted by any individual on account of his personal prejudices and selfish interests. A community of tigers can by such process be raised to the level of the gentle lamb and the democratically organised society of individual apes be made to develop the highest zeal of the purest philanthropy and both of them forget respectively the un-tameable ferocity and the native turn for mischief of their unfortunate individual brethren in their ‘private’ capacities. The individuals also need not despair in as much as ‘the pure stream that pours incessantly from this unpolluted source provided with such divine prescience within the ‘body-politic’ itself by the democratic society is bound naturally to exercise a constant and effective cleansing on the character of its individual members.’ Or in other words, the individual apes will turn into tigers and all distinction obliterated in the ideal state that will be automatically brought about by the working of the democratic machinery. It has the same logical cogency as is possessed by the argument that filth is changed into honey by the mere mechanical accumulation and manipulation of filth.
As a matter of fact it is the character of the average individual that determines the public opinion of a democratically organised community. The average man of this world, and for the matter of that the average member of every species of animals, seeks both as private individuals and as members of a community, only the direct or indirect gratification of his own sensuous appetites. The public opinion of a democratic society based on the opinions of the aggregate of its individual member, in proportion as such organisation is perfected, is bound to embody this general principle with greater fullness and clearness. When the ideal of democracy has been realised only such proposals as carry in them any prospect of the gratification of the senses of its members will receive the ‘active’ support of such community. This true psychology of the masses is exploited deliberately by all successful public men for their own private sensuous gratification. This is the truth regarding the philosophy of the lifeless numerical or democratic principle. It is the virus carried from the source pollution to other parts of the body by the fly that gloats over the process.
The force of the above observations is not lessened by the enumeration of the names of all the distinguished persons that are ordinarily paraded in the forefront of such proposals to furnish such foreign aristocratic support to an insubstantial structure. But these distinguished men would lose their distinction the very moment they proved untrue to their salt. They have gained their distinction by success in pandering to the sensuous gratification of their bretheren. How else can such people be grateful to them? Let us take a very ambiguous looking case viz. that of a person who has attained distinction by scientific research but refused all titles and riches for himself. His discovery is appreciated by the people because it either directly provides them with a new means of sensuous gratification or does so indirectly by the prevention or amelioration of worldly misery either physical or mental. He himself seeks the satisfactions of being the benefactor of mankind by helping them in thus gratifying their senses, the satisfaction in his case taking the mental form based on the sensuous. All real analysis brings us by the pitiless force of impartial logic to the economic value which governs the whole physical and mental world. The tangibility and strength of the modern European civilization consist in its clear realization and un-flinching pursuit of this ideal. Modern philanthropy is the impulse, prompted by the reaction of sentimental and the pre-science of calculating selfishness for the dissemination of the direct and indirect means for the sensuous gratification of the largest number of men and women who may not possess a sufficiency of it. Such philanthropy alone, such science alone, can expect the active support of a community composed of individuals who want nothing else except of the means of gratification of their senses.
Religion is used similarly by those who really want to catch the popular applause. What such persons have to prove is that all the benefits promised by religion are nothing but a stronger and an eternal foundation on which the most permanent structure of sensuous gratification, to which the other sciences cater so imperfectly, can be most successfully reared. If you want social or political or any sort worldly betterment all you have to do is to betake yourself to religion and the thing will be automatically secured. It will give you all those things that you desire. “Believe implicitly in this. Look at me. Have I not been successful in making the two ends meet? Follow, therefore, my example.” Have those preachers of the religion ever looked “a certain measure” of popular support in any age or century? Should such support be considered therefore, as the conclusive proof of their professions?
Now look at another picture. It is a matter of historical knowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was demanded by public opinion to which the weak-kneed Pilate succumbed against his own convictions. Muhammad was ferociously persecuted by the public of his day. Sri Chaitanya avoided the determined persecution of the elite of the most cultured city of that age by renunciation of home and society and by a voluntary exile. And this is true of all other preachers of the true religion. All of them instead of having any public support in this day were objects of special public detestation. The subsequent reaction of public opinion in their favour was equally deceptive and brought about by persons who exploited their sufferings for winning public fame for themselves by presenting in the name of the martyrs an attenuated form of the true religion which could be recognised as helpful to the worldly ambitions of the generality of the people.
The mass is never likely to be converted to the true faith. Such conversion is a strictly individual affair. Real converts to the true faith have always been extraordinarily few and none of them found it possible to mix with the people of this world on terms of real intimacy because their tastes and aspirations were an uncompromising denial of all economic values which form the one basis on which is founded the discordant hypocritical unity of the civilized communities of every age which are more savage in reality than the unlettered barbarians who posses no covering for their naked bodies and whose frank animalism has no artistic or philosophical apetopics or watchdogs of the ‘liberty’ of the un-restrained pursuit of sensuous gratification in the form of the fourth estate of the realm of Pluto, viz. the modern newspaper.
One cannot serve both God and mammon. It is only those who seek the real Truth for Its own sake that can have any ‘active’ sympathy for those who ‘serve Krishna by giving up all sensuous desire for the objects of this world in obedience to the command of the holy Scriptures and by so doing are relieved from every other form of obligation either to the gods, the rishis or the pitris that is to say the so-called ordinary ‘obligations’ of the society that only lives unto itself. All these worldly obligations they have to forego because they stand directly in the way of serving the real Truth which is no other than God Himself. And God, the Absolute Truth, rewards them by bestowing on them not any of those things that men of this world covet because all those have no charm for them, but – Himself, by submitting to be won by their really unselfish devotion to Himself for the sake of Himself.
Pro Bono Publico.
The Supreme Lord Sri Krishna-Chaitanya
(Continued from P. 279, May, 1928.)
When Sri Chaitanya came to learn from the lips of the towns-people, who were in a great dismay about the occurrence of the khol being broken, He became indignant and told them to continue the kirtan in every house with full vigour. But as the people were very much afraid of the Kazi He decided to lead a processional kirtan of all the citizens to the door of the Kazi’s house to reassure the people. Three huge kirtan-processions of all the citizens, each of whom carried two lighted torches, were accordingly formed on that ever memorable evening and made their way to the residence of the Kazi, who hid himself inside his house on its approach. But the people made the Kazi come out. Whereupon Sri Chaitanya had a long conversation with the Kazi on the subject of the practice of Islamic religion. The Kazi was silenced by the argument of Sri Chaitanya and admitted the insufficiency of the scriptures on which he had relied. He further confessed to Sri Chaitanya that he had been put into a great fear by a series of most extraordinary occurrences. After he had returned from the house of the citizen, whose ‘khol’ he caused to be broken, in the night he was all but killed by a most terrible form with human body and the face of a lion which sprang upon him and grinding its teeth threatened to tear up his heart and kill his whole family for his offence of having broken the mrdanga. The Kazi showed Sri Chaitanya the very marks of the lion’s paw on his chest in corroboration of his statement. He also described the experience of the peon whom he had sent to forbid kirtan. That man complained that his face was struck by a meteor-like substance which burnt his beard and scarred his cheeks. The man also reported that from the moment that he had told the Hindus that they should not shout ‘Hari, Hari’, as the words meant ‘I steal, I steal’ and it would prove their purpose of stealing other people’s property, his lips had been automatically uttering ‘Hari, Hari’ against his own inclinations. The Kazi also said that complaints had been made to him by a number of Hindus charging Sri Chaitanya with practices that were new and contrary to their religion and likely to destroy it if they were not stopped; that the loud kirtan in and out of season broke the peace of the town and prevented their sleep; that it was against their religion to utter with a loud voice the mantra of the Name of God; that, therefore, as ruler of the place, the Kazi should order Sri Chaitanya to leave the town. Sri Chaitanya was delighted on hearing the words ‘Hari’, ‘Krishna’, ‘Narayan’ from the mouth of the Kazi and told him that all his ills had left him as he had uttered those holy Names of God. The Kazi then touched the feet of Sri Chaitanya and prayed for devotion to His feet. Sri Chaitanya then begged this as alms from the Kazi that there might be no further molestation of kirtan at Navadwip. The Kazi promised that he would leave an order to his family and descendents that none of them must offer any opposition to kirtan at any time in the future. Even to this day at Sri Mayapur on the occasion of the annual perambulation of Sridham the descendents of the Kazi have always willingly joined in the kirtan of Krishna.
One night while Sri Chaitanya was chanting the kirtan of Hari with His companions in the yard of Sribash, a son of Sribash chanced to breathe his last. Sribash ordered the females of the house not to make any noise or other demonstration of their grief as it might interfere with the joy of Sri Chaitanya in the chanting of kirtan. After the kirtan was finished Sri Chaitanya learnt of what had happened and expressed His regret that the news of it had been kept from Him for such a long time. He then made the dead child tell the bereaved family the truth regarding what had happened to him and this relieved them of all grief on his account. Sri Chaitanya said to Sribash, ‘The son that was once yours has left you; but Myself and Nityananda are your eternal Sons. We can never leave you.’
A certain tailor who lived close to Sribash’s house and sewed the clothes of Sribash was charmed by witnessing with faith the dance of Sri Chaitanya. Thereupon the Lord showed that fortunate tailor His own Form; the tailor smitten with holy love at once began to dance crying ‘I have seen, I have seen’.
One night the Lord took part in a dramatic exhibition of certain sacred episodes at the house of Chandra-Sekhar Acharyya. Sri Chaitanya Himself appeared in the garb of Rukmini, and Sri Advaita, Sri Nityananda, Sribash, Sri Haridas and other devotees put on dresses in keeping with other parts. This was the first theatrical performance staged in Bengal. Sri Chaitanya Math, the source of the numerous Maths that are the centers of propaganda of the movement of un-alloyed devotion in the present age, stands on the site of the house of Chandra-Sekhar Acharyya.
One day a Brahman woman having touched the feet of the Lord on the conclusion of kirtan, Sri Chaitanya, as Teacher of the world, in order to warn those so-called Sahajiyas who follow sensuous inclinations, threw Himself into the Ganges to do away with His body for allowing itself to be touched by a woman, but was rescued by the exertions of Nityananda, Haridas and other devotees.
On a certain day as Sri Goursundar, the embodiment of grief at separation from Krishna, was articulating the word ‘gopi’ with a heart broken with the pang of separation, a student, a scoffer of God, happened by accident to come to the presence of the Lord and intruded with the remark, ‘Why are you repeating in vain the word ‘gopi’ which is the name of a woman, instead of taking the Name of Krishna?’ The Lord hearing this began to blame Krishna in the mood of the gopi. The luckless student showing no disposition to catch the sense of His words the Lord, in His exclusive mood, as milkmaid of Braja, taking the student to be a partisan of Krishna, ran after him stick in hand with an appearance of anger threatening to beat him. The student fled outright. On hearing of the so-called Brahmans, addicted to mechanical ceremonials for gaining worldly ends and wholly averse to God, in their infatuation, began to conspire for beating the Lord Himself. In order to reclaim those professors, students, religionists, elevationists, ascetics and other impious persons from the offence of their inveterate hostility against Vishnu and Vaishnavas, the Lord now wished to accept the fourth asrama, that of sannyas, which in the estimation of the society of those worldly people conferred on a sannyasin the status of the teacher of even those who were proud of being the possessors of the highest varna and social position. If He accepted sannyas all would, therefore, bow to Him as a sannyasin. By such deference to Him even those Brahmans who vilified Him might be aroused to the impropriety of such conduct. Having formed this decision, on the last day of the north-ward course of the sun of the bright fortnight of the month of Magh, in the closing hours of the wintry night, Sri Chaitanya, having just completed the twenty-fourth year of His pastimes, left the home of His father and having swum the Ganges at the point that has since been called the ‘unkind bathing ghat’ (nidayar ghat), arrived at Katwa. There Sri Chaitanya showed his mercy to Keshav Bharati under the guise of receiving back the same mantra of sannyas from him which He Himself first spoke into his ear, and also received the staff of sannyas. Inspired by Sri Chaitanya Keshav Bharati declared ‘Sri Krishna Chaitanya’ as the Name which the Lord was to bear thence-forward as a sannyasin. The explanation offered that Bharati offered for his choice of the Name was that Sri Chaitanya would arouse the spiritual consciousness of the inert world by the kirtan of Krishna. By the desire of Sri Chaitanya Chandra-Sekhar Archaryya performed, on His behalf, the necessary rites that had to be gone through on the occasion. The shaving of the head was finished amidst the cries of His devotees towards the close of a day which had been spent in constant kirtan. On the next day Sri Krishna Chaitanya started on His wanderings in Rahr chanting all the way the song in quest of the Infinite that has such a strange power of inclining the hearer to the paths of devotion, of the mendicant of Avanti, which we find in the Bhagavat.
(To be continued.)
The Special Characteristics of the Acharyya
[BY PROF. NISHI KANTA SANYAL, M.A.,]
(Continued from P.-234, March, 1928.)
The power of the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Deva has opened up a vast store-house of considerations regarding philanthropy or kindness to others so unique in character that they have literally transported us to quite a new age in the very midst of the old. Sri Chaitanya-Chandra’s own words are these – ‘Let him who has been born as man in this land of Bharata do good to others after realising the significance of such birth.’
The power of the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Deva becoming manifest in this age has caused to be thrown open the portals of an eternal mansion-house of never-ceasing hospitality opposite the row of shops of so-called charity that are straitly squeezed each within the narrow enclosure of its particular vendor. This immense mansion-house of perfectly open-handed charity instead of doing harm to jiva in the guise of temporary kindness makes a free gift to him of the right of offering as bounteously to others of the deliciously cool shade of the purpose-tree of eternal well-being and its ripe fruitage. This philanthropy does not limit its kindness to this gross and subtle physical body but extends its anxious concern to the soul. It is the function of his non-harm-producing kindness to arouse in every one the consciousness of one’s own eternal nature by destroying ignorance, the root of the disease to which he has been subject from time immemorial. The kirtan of Krishna, Who draws to Himself the minds of all jivas of the three worlds, the surging ocean of Divine pastimes, the Embodiment of the elixir of infinite deliciousness, is alone the only food given away freely that causes the ocean of bliss thus to swell and overflow, and the water that bathes the feet of Krishna and the feet of those who belong to Krishna, the Divinity waited upon by all His manifest powers, is the only drink offered which has the quality of quenching the otherwise insatiable worldly thirst and infuse life and vigour into spiritual striving.
The words of the song of the great Muni, Alabandru Srimad Jamunacharyya, have been rendered by Srila Kaviraj Goswami in the following manner, ‘we actually witness the visible manifestations of the manifold display of the Divine Power, supernatural acts, supernatural indications. The race of disbelievers do not see them although they are enacted before their eyes, as the owl does not see the light of the Sun.’
In this age of speculative and so-called ‘spiritual’ explanations the reader is requested to be on his guard against mis-understanding such expressions as ‘visible manifestation of the Divine Power’ ‘super-natural acts and supernatural indications’. He should not suppose them to mean either the quackeries of the hallucinative imagination, the performances of the magician or the illusive powers of the pervert Yogi, etc. etc. As a matter of fact in this particular instance these manifestations, acts and indications are nothing but those activities and preachings so obviously beneficial to the world that are issuing in a bounteous stream from this transcendental Acharyya. Those practices and preachings are not something that astonishes, bewilders or deceives the people like the deeds of a magician. It is merely the pure samkirtan (chanting together in company of kirtan) of Krishna.
This kirtan of Krishna is the only weapon, that never fails, possessed by the Teachers sent by God. Those who are able to understand this are alone endowed with goodness of judgement, all the rest are of a perverted understanding. This has been put into the language of the soul by those who realised its significance. ‘Nityananda and Advaita, the two commanders, at the head of an army of followers the foremost of whom is Sribash, are constantly on the move chanting the kirtan in company. The standards of Nityananda-Rai trample down all the atheists. The evil-minded pashandis scatter in a fright at the very sound of the thundering voice of the Acharyya. Sri Krishna-Chaitanya has instituted the chanting of the Name of God in company. He is worthy of all praise who serves God by the sacrifice of the samkirtan. Such a person alone possesses a sound judgement, all the others are of a perverted understanding. Of all sacrifices the sacrifice of the Name of Krishna is the one that is alone essential.
Sriman Mahaprabhu, Sri Damodar Swarup, Sri Rai Ramananda, Sri Nityananda Prabhu, Sri Haridas Thakur, the Six Goswamins, Sri Bakreswar Pandit Prabhu, Sri Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswamin Prabhu, Sri Srinibash Acharyya, Sri Narottam Thakur, Sri Shyamanandeva Thakur, Srimad Rasikananda, Murari Prabhu and after them, Sri Biswanath Chakravarti Thakur, Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusan Prabhu and their successors are the teachers of the age,—the world teachers. The supernatural deeds and super-human indications that these teachers have manifested, the ideal of practice and preaching that they have held up before the world, are not an artificial and a strange path, neither is it something that is diligently concocted, nor is it the use of any physical or brutal force. It is not the endeavour of the heroic man of action, brandishing of the sword, the display of the powers of the pervert Yogi or the delusive art of the magician. It is merely the practice and preaching of the exceedingly easy, simple, natural, eternal, old religion of all the servants of God, viz. the pure samkirtan of Krishna.
The worship of the Holy Name, or the Divine Logos or samkirtan by the scriptural method for the purpose of bringing about the descent of the Image of the Divine Logos, Sri Radha-Govinda, has been adopted by all of them by common consent as the only means of effecting the real good of the world.
They have not considered as efficacious any of the methods that have been imagined, made, or newly discovered by any mortals. The devotion to God that bears the name of kirtan alone possesses the highest potency. It is possible to conquer the world with this supernatural weapon. This conquest is no ordinary conquest. It is not a conquest that remains effective only for a few days. It is not the conquest of the body or the mind of men. It is the supreme victory. By this method it is not man only but the souls of all the jivas of all the worlds can be won. The soul of the jiva cannot be conquered by any worldly weapons. It can be conquered only by the supernatural, un-ambigious kirtan of Krishna. The victory over the body and mind that lasts only for a few days has no value unless the soul is won. The paths of material activity, of yoga, of the pursuit of the Brahman as un-differentiated knowledge, can, indeed, lead to the conquest of the body and the mind, but the soul can be conquered only by the greatest of all weapons viz. the power of the kirtan of Krishna Who is the Soul of all souls. He alone is fit to occupy the seat of the world-teacher, the seat of the Acharyya of the Age, who has adopted as his only weapon the un-alloyed kirtan of Krishna. He alone possesses the strength to unfurl the banner of victory of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Who instituted the samkirtan, and proclaim to the four quarters the trumpet-call of the mercy of Sri Chaitanya.
(To be continued.)
Sree Sree Chaitanya Bhagavat
(Continued from P.285, May, 1928.)
- In this manner Misra with sublime patience approaching the Lord through knowledge
By slow degrees quieted the faculties of the mind. - In this manner did Biswarup go out of his home
Whose body is the same as Nityananda’s own proper self. - Who listens to the sannyas of Prabhu Biswarup
Attains devotion to Krishna and is freed from the noose of fruitive works. - Hearing the sannyas of Biswarup all the devotees
With mingled joy and sorrow thus constantly thought within themselves - ‘Krishna has robbed us of the only place
Where it was possible to talk about Krishna. - ‘We also will not remain here any longer, we will go into the forest.
Where we shall not see the faces of these sinful people. - ‘How bear the suffering of the words of the pasandis!
All the people are constantly given to the un-righteous course! - ‘In no one’s mouth hear such Name as Krishna
All the world are in the agony of death being drowned in false pleasures. - If it is explained no one takes the path of Krishna
But on the contrary even ridicules. - ‘But serving Krishna what has been your happiness?
You get your food by begging, this further increases your misery.’ - ‘It is not proper to live in the society of such people.’
All of them breathed long-drawn sighs of grief saying ‘ Let us go into the forest.’ - The generous Advaita consoled them —
‘All of you will assuredly obtain the supreme bliss - ‘I feel greatly rejoiced in my heart : —
The thought comes to me ‘Krishna-Chandra has appeared.’ - ‘Let us all sing Krishna with the greatest joy.
You will see Krishna in this very place and in a few days; - ‘Krishna will sport in your company;—
If this comes about Advaita is a true servant of Krishna, - ‘Such high favour as is hardly obtained by Suka or Prahlad
Will be the lot of even the servant of you all.’ - Hearing these exceedingly honeyed words of Advaita
The devotees cried aloud ‘Hari’ with the greatest joy. - With a thundering voice all the devotees shouted the name of Hari
And the faculties of their minds were steeped in bliss. - Sri Gaursunder was at play with the children,
Hearing the sound of ‘Hari’ He went into the house. - ‘What brings Thee here, Darling !’—asked the devotees.
The Lord made the response, ‘Why did ye call Me ?’ - Saying this the Lord sped into the midst of the children.
No one recognised by the force of His illusive power. - Since when Viswarup left home
The Lord became quiet for a time. - He was constantly at the side of His parents
That the father and mother might forget their sorrow. - Holding Himself aloof from play the Lord minded only His books
And never left off even for the fraction of a moment. - After the Lord read up a Sutra*
He puzzled the boys over it. - Beholding such extraordinary cleverness all admired.
‘All praise to the father and mother of such a family’, they said. - Much delighted the people informed ‘Misra,
You have gained the reward of your good acts by having such a Darling. - ‘There does not exist in all the three worlds another child with such good sense;
He will surpass Brihaspati in learning. - ‘He can construe everything as soon as He hears;
His puzzles no one can un-riddle’. - The mother rejoiced listening to this report of the goodness of her Son;
On the contrary Misra felt greatly depressed in his mind. - The worthy Jagannath Misra observed to Sacchi,
‘This Son also will not remain in the family. - ‘Viswarup, too, after studying the Scriptures in this fashion
Came to know that this world is not true at all. - ‘Realising the true meaning of all the Scriptures Viswarup, steady of purpose,
Quitted this transitory world. - ‘If He, too acquires the knowledge of all the Scriptures
He will also go away leaving behind all pleasures of the world. - ‘This son is verily the life of us both;
If we do not see Him it will be the death of both. - ‘Therefore He need not read any more.
Let my Nimai be a dunce remaining at home.’ - Said Sacchi, ‘By what will He live if He be a fool?
No one will ever give his daughter to one who is so stupid.’ - Misra said, ‘Thou art a simple daughter of a Brahman.
Krishna is Slayer, Lord, Support and Protector of all. - ‘The Lord of the world maintains the world.
Who told you that learning maintains any body.’ - ‘Whether one be a fool or a pandit he needs must have the maiden
That Krishna ordains, whatever she be. - ‘Family, learning and such other matters are but minor indications;
It is Krishna Who maintains all and is the strength of all. - ‘Thou may’st see this directly in my own case:
Why is it that there is no food in my house despite all my learning, - ‘While the door-step of the man who cannot properly tell even his alphabet
Is thronged with thousands of pandits? This thou canst easily see for thyself. - ‘Therefore, it is neither learning nor such other things that provide maintenance.
It is Krishna alone who nourishes and maintains all.— - ‘How can death without pain and life without want
Betide one who has never worshipped the feet of Govinda?’ - ‘Death with an easy mind and a life free from want
Can be had only by serving Krishna and neither by learning nor wealth. - ‘Save by the grace of Krishna there is no deliverance from sorrow
Despite of learning, birth, or wealth that is counted by the crore. - ‘Krishna perchance chooses to afflict with some great malady the very person
In whose house there is the very best of enjoyments. - ‘He is thus consumed with grief being unable to enjoy
Such a person I deem more unhappy than one who owns nothing. - ‘By this know that to have a thing does not avail.
Touching everyone the command of Krishna alone holds good. - ‘Therefore, have no anxiety for thy Son.
Krishna alone will maintain the Boy, I say. - ‘As long as there is life in my body
He will not suffer the least sorrow. - ‘Have not all of us Krishna as our Protector?
Is there anxiety for one whose mother even is as loyal as thyself ? - ‘I tell thee He does not require to read further;
Let my Son being ignorant only remain at home. - Saying this the worthy Misra called unto his Son,
‘Harken, Darling’, said Misra, ‘this is what I have to say. - ‘For Thee there is no more reading from to-day;
There is my oath if You do otherwise in this matter. - ‘Dearest, I shall give Thee what-so-ever Thou mayst want;
Remaining at home do Thou live in perfect weal’. - So saying the Misra went off to other work
Lord Bisvambhar was deprived of any further chance of study. - Sri Gauranga-rai is Himself the old eternal religion.
He did not disobey His father’s command and gave up going to school. - The Lord was grieved at heart for this break of the joy of study.
He relapsed into His wayward ways in the company of the children. - He did not mind whether it was another’s house or His own.
But smashed all things that came in His way and did great damage. - The Lord would not return home even after dusk
For whole nights He played in divers ways with the children. - Covering up the body with a piece of blanket, with one other boy,
The Lord went about in the likeness of a bull for fun; - And when by day He chanced to espy a clump of plantain trees in a house,
In the guise of the bull broke it up during the night. - The inmates of the house would lament thinking it was the bull;
He would bolt with the boys so soon as the master awoke. - He would bind fast from outside the doors of another’s house,
So the owner could not come out to answer e’en the call of nature. - ‘Hallo, who binds our door !’ they would exclaim much perplexed;
And as soon as the master was astir the Lord decamped. - In this manner all night and day the Lord of the gods
Played constantly in the company of the children. - However wayward the deeds that the Lord Viswambhar perpetrated
The Misra ever maintained un-perturbed silence. - One day after the Misra had gone out on business
The Lord being angry for the reason that He was not allowed to read - Sat Himself down on a pile of discarded earthen pots
That had been used in cooking the offering of meals for Vishnu. - This is a very deep subject, so listen with undivided attention;
By hearing it devotion to Krishna is matured. - Making a throne for Himself of all those refuse earthen pots
And being seated thereon Gaur with His beautiful face went on laughing. - The soot from the side of the pots blackened every limb of Gaur:
As if a charming figure of gold was besmeared with perfumed paste. - The children conveyed the tidings to Sachi,—
‘Nimai is seated on the pile of pots’. - The mother saw for herself as she reached the spot and exclaimed with sorrow,
‘My dear in such place it is not proper to sit - ‘Those are refuse cooking pots ; one needs must bathe if he touch them.
It is strange Thou art ignorant of this at Thy age’. - The Lord said, ‘you never allow me to read.
How may a Brahman who is a dunce know right and wrong ? - ‘I am ignorant and don’t know what are good and bad places.
My knowledge of all places is one and undivided. - So saying He began to laugh seated on the throne of refuse pots.
Presently the Lord lapsed in to the mood of Dattatreya. - The mother said, ‘Thou sitt’st in a foul place.
By what method will Thou be cleansed of impurity ?’ - The Lord replied, ‘Mother, you are very childish.
I never dwell in any impure place. - ‘The place where I am is full of all holiness;
There abide the Ganges and all the sacred streams. - ‘My purity or impurity is a fancy of the imagination.
Consider well whether any offence is ever possible in the Creator. - ‘Admitting a thing to be impure in the opinion of the Scripture or of the people.
Can such impurity exist after it is touched even by Myself? - ‘There has also never been any occasion for impurity with regard to these pots
In which even thyself cooked for the offering intended for Vishnu. - ‘The utensils used in cooking for Vishnu can never be polluted.
By the touch of those pots other places are sanctified. - ‘Whence it follows that I can by no means be in any impure place.
The purity of all things being due to My touch.’ - The Lord laughed in the mood of a child having thus declared the whole truth.
Yet by the influence of His illusory power no one understood. - All laughed on hearing these words of the Child
And Sachi said, ‘come away from that place, Thou needs must bathe.’ - The Lord would not move and kept His seat.
Sachi was insistent, ‘Be quick, lest father comes, to know’. - The Lord said, ‘If I am not allowed to read!
Then be sure that I will never come down!’ - All the people spoke ill of the mother of the Lord
Saying ‘why, indeed, do you not allow Him to read? - One undertakes with all care to educate his son.
What rare fortune it is when the Child Himself is so anxious to read. - ‘What enemy has given you this precious piece of advice
To keep the Boy at home in order to make Him a dunce? - ‘In this matter no iota of blame attaches to the Child.
‘Do Thou come down, Darling Nimai,’ said they, - ‘If Thou art not given the chance to read even from this very day,
Then shouldst Thou do all sorts of mischief in right earnest.’ - The Lord did not come down but continued to laugh seated at that place
And those people of pious deeds floated in the mid-ocean of happiness. - Catching hold of Him herself the mother at last brought down the Child;
Gaur Chandra laughed like the dark stone scattering light. - The Lord told the Truth after the manner of Dattatreya,
No one understood by the strength of the illusory power of the Vishnu. - Taking Him along Sachi of excellent deeds made Him bathe
When Misra, possessed of a superior order of mind, appeared. - Sachi related to Misra all that had happened.
That the Boy felt grieved at heart being unable to read. - The others said, ‘Misra, you are admittedly of a generous disposition.
By whose advice you disallowed your Boy to read? - ‘Whatever Krishna Chandra ordains must come true.
Giving up all anxiety bravely allow your Son to read. - ‘Luckily the Boy Himself is eager for study.
So on an auspicious day invest Him with the holy thread in a suitable manner.’ - Misra said, ‘You are the best of friends;
What you have said are even as my own words.’ - All people noted that all the deeds of the Child were extraordinary
And felt astonished ; but no one realised its meaning. - Now and then some who were exceptionally fortunate
Had already declared to Jagannath Misra– - ‘This Boy is never a mortal Child;
Cherish Him in your heart with all tenderness.’ - The Lord ever sports in this hidden manner.
In His own yard played the Beloved Lord of Vaikuntha. - By command of His father the Lord resumed His studies.
And the Supreme Lord was most highly delighted at this. - Sri Krishna-Chaitanya is the Life of Nityananda-Chand
At whose twin feet sings Brindabandas.
*Formula, a brief statement.
Here ends chapter seventh entitled ‘the narrative of the sannyas of Sri Biswarup and other matters’ in part First of the Sri Chaitanya Bhagabat.
(To be continued)
Taking Refuge
(Continued from P.280, May, 1928.)
[ XIX ]
- I have surrendered my all at Thy feet;
I have thrown myself on Thy household.
Thou, the Supreme Lord, as Thy dog
May Thou accept me. - Chaining me close to Thee Thou wilt maintain me;
I shall lie at Thy door-step.
Who is opposed to Thee I will not allow to enter
I will ever keep him out-side the bounds. - What is left over of the favour of the refuse of Thy meals
After being honoured by Thy own.
Will be my food every day;
On it I will feed with the greatest joy. - Sitting up or lying down, on Thy feet
I will meditate without a pause:
And dancing hie to Thee with joy
Whenever Thou call’st. - I will never think for my own nourishment;
I will ever cherish love.
Bhaktivinode elects Thee
As his Protector.
[ XX ]
- Thou, Son of the Lord of Braja, art the Sovran paramount over all rulers.
Creation and dissolution in the world take place in accordance with Thy will. - In accordance with Thy will Brahma creates.
According to Thy will Vishnu maintains. - Siva destroys according to Thy will.
Thy illusory power builds the prison in accordance with Thy will. - Thy will is the cause of the birth and death of the Jivas,
Prosperity and ruin, joy and sorrow. - Fettered by Thy illusory power the Jiva vainly turns about in the meshes of hope;
It can do nothing without Thy will. - Thou art, indeed, the Protector and Maintainer of myself.
I have no other hope except Thy feet. - Leaving all dependence on my own strength and contrivance
I now live in reliance on Thy will. - Bhaktivinode is most humble and desires nothing.
He lives and dies in accordance with Thy will.
(To be continued.)