Yoga is an Ancient Science

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada · Vrindavan · 1974

Chapters

Historical foundations of devotional service

BG 4.3स एवायं मया तेऽद्य योगः प्रोक्तः पुरातनः ।भक्तोऽसि मे सखा चेति रहस्यं ह्येतदुत्तमम् ॥३॥sa evāyaṁ mayā te 'dyayogaḥ proktaḥ purātanaḥbhakto 'si me sakhā cetirahasyaṁ hy etad uttamamThat very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend and can therefore understand the transcendental mystery of this science.

Prabhupada: So this verse we discussed last night, that this bhagavad-bhakti-yoga is not a new thing. It is purātanaḥ. Kṛṣṇa says, yogaḥ proktaḥ purātanaḥ

So just like I was discussing now with Dr. Kapoor, our philosophy is not new = purātanaḥ—the old thing. At the present moment it is a fashion to propound a new kind of philosophy.

Not only now; formerly also, as it is said in the Bhāgavatam, nāsāv munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam

A muni is not a muni... Muni means mental speculators; manansi, thoughtful muni, thoughtful also—always absorbed in thoughts.

So a thoughtful man or a great saintly person is not a great saintly person if he hasn’t got to propound a new theory—nāsāv munir yasya mataṁ na bhinnam That is the modern philosophical way, researchment.

This philosopher’s contribution is up to this; and this philosopher... We have also such things.

The evolution of transcendental mellows

Just like our Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava and Rāmānujācārya Vaiṣṇava. Rāmānujācārya Vaiṣṇava, they appreciate the service of the Lord up to sakhya-rasa—viśrambha-sakhya—with awe and veneration.

Śānta, dāsya, sakhya, up to this information, Rāmānujācārya.

But Mādhavācārya sampradāya, they have got up to mādhurya-rasa. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu propounded this mādhurya-rasa. Therefore He is worshiped by Rūpa Gosvāmī:

CC Adi 1.4অনর্পিতচরীং চিরাৎ করুণয়াবতীর্ণঃ কলৌসমর্পয়িতুমুন্নতোজ্জ্বলরসাং স্বভক্তিশ্রিয়ম্‌ ।হরিঃ পুরটসুন্দরদ্যুতিকদম্বসন্দীপিতঃসদা হৃদয়কন্দরে স্ফুরতু বঃ শচীনন্দনঃ ॥ ৪ ॥anarpita-carīṁ cirāt karuṇayāvatīrṇaḥ kalausamarpayitum unnatojjvala-rasāṁ sva-bhakti-śriyamhariḥ puraṭa-sundara-dyuti-kadamba-sandīpitaḥsadā hṛdaya-kandare sphuratu vaḥ śacī-nandanaḥMay the Supreme Lord who is known as the son of Śrīmatī Śacī-devī be transcendentally situated in the innermost chambers of your heart. Resplendent with the radiance of molten gold, He has appeared in the Age of Kali by His causeless mercy to bestow what no incarnation has ever offered before: the most sublime and radiant mellow of devotional service, the mellow of conjugal love.

Unnatojjvala. Everyone has got some relationship with Kṛṣṇa, but the highest, topmost relationship is mādhurya-rasa—unnato-ujjvala. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu gave this mādhurya-rasa, gopīs, gopī-bhāva-rasāmṛtābdhi-laharī. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s contribution to the Vaiṣṇava philosophers or Vaiṣṇavas = mādhurya-rasa. Other ācāryas... We have got four ācāryas in Vaiṣṇava sampradāya. Vātsalya-rasa, I think, is Vallabhācārya; they are vātsalya-rasa, Bāla Kṛṣṇa.

And Rāmānujācārya, they are up to sakhya-rasa, viśrambha-sakhya. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu gives information, ramyā kācid upāsanā vrajavadhū-vargeṇa yā kalpitā. The method of worship as it was done by the gopīs, vrajavadhū, that is the best.

Ramyā kācid upāsanā. There is no better process of worship than the method adopted by the gopīs: always thinking of Kṛṣṇa.

Kṛṣṇa is gone to the pasturing grounds, and the gopīs are thinking at home, "Oh, Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet is so soft that we feel ashamed to keep His lotus feet on our breasts.

We think our breast is too hard for keeping His lotus feet. Such nice lotus feet is now wandering on ground with stone chips. How much pain He is feeling!" Thinking this, the gopīs were crying.

How much their mind was absorbed in the thought of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore the Gosvāmīs, they also followed = gopī-bhāva-rasāmṛtābdhi-laharī [Śrī Sad-gosvāmy-aṣṭaka, verse 4].

Here also in Vṛndāvana, the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas especially, they worship Kṛṣṇa in the mādhurya-rasa. Their aspiration is how to become an assistant associate of the gopīs, mādhurya-rasa.

So every devotee is associated with some rasa with Kṛṣṇa = raso vai saḥ [Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.7.1].

The Vedic information is, "He is the reservoir of all pleasure,"raso vai saḥ. Hṛdayāni bhavanti: "If one gets that rasa, or mellows, then he becomes spiritually blissful." These are Vedic injunctions.

So the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava contribution is this mādhurya-rasa. But it is not to be artificially imitated.

Cultivating the seed of devotion

When one becomes actually liberated, mukta-puruṣa, then he can relish, mālī hañā kare sei bīja āropaṇa

It has been described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta that at the present moment we have to become the gardener and water the bhakti-latā creeper. Then it grows.

It grows, penetrating through the cover of the universe, reaches the spiritual world, and then it grows still more, and when the creeper catches some shelter, some other big tree...

Similarly, this bhakti-latā creeper goes up and up, and when it catches the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then it is satisfied, and the bhakta who nourished this bhakti-latā-bīja, when he goes back to home, back to Godhead, he relishes the fruit grown in that bhakti-latā-bīja. So this is the description in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta in connection with Rūpa Gosvāmī.

So that bhakti-latā-bīja begins practically by understanding Bhagavad-gītā as it is.

There are some so-called devotees, they jump over Bhāgavatam, especially daśama skaṇḍa, rāsa-pañcādhyāya. But that is not the process.

The process is to begin bhakti-latā, bhakti-latā-bīja. Guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja So we have to take care of the seed. That seed is the last word of Bhagavad-gītā:

BG 18.66सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज ।अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ॥६६॥sarva-dharmān parityajyamām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vrajaahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyomokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥAbandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.

When one accepts Kṛṣṇa in the last resort, or shelter, with faith, Kṛṣṇa says, BG 18.66सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज ।अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ॥६६॥sarva-dharmān parityajyamām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vrajaahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyomokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥAbandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.

When one accepts this philosophy, that "I have nothing to do except surrendering unto the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa," this is the beginning of that seed. It has been explained in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta that,

CC Madhya 22.62‘শ্রদ্ধা’-শব্দে — বিশ্বাস কহে সুদৃঢ় নিশ্চয় ।কৃষ্ণে ভক্তি কৈলে সর্বকর্ম কৃত হয় ॥ ৬২ ॥'śraddhā'-śabde — viśvāsa kahe sudṛḍha niścayakṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya“Śraddhā is confident, firm faith that by rendering transcendental loving service to Kṛṣṇa one automatically performs all subsidiary activities. Such faith is favorable to the discharge of devotional service.

Developing faith through surrender

Śraddhā. Because if you want to advance in spiritual life, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the first stage is śraddhā. First stage is śraddhā. And what is the meaning of śraddhā? Śraddhā means "full faith."’Śraddhā-śabde—viśvāsa, full faith.

What is that faith? ’Śraddhā-śabde—viśvāsa sudṛḍha niścaya: firm faith, not faulted. Firm faith, that "If I surrender unto the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then everything is done. Everything is done.

I have nothing to do any more."Kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya. This is called śraddhā, beginning. Śraddhā. Ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu 1.4.15].

This is the process given by the Gosvāmīs.

First śraddhā—firm faith, unflinching faith, that "If I surrender unto Kṛṣṇa, if I take shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, then my life is successful; everything is done."’Śraddhā-śabde—viśvāsa kahe sudṛḍha niścaya: without any hesitation.

Why shall I take shelter of Kṛṣṇa? One big scholar says it is sophistry, that it is too much demanding. Kṛṣṇa is demanding too much. Sarva-dharmān parityajya

= "Give up everything and surrender unto Me." That is the only thing. Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord. He can demand like that.

Authenticity in the disciplic succession

So our paramparā system, as it is explained, BG 4.2एवं परम्पराप्राप्तमिमं राजर्षयो विदुः ।स कालेनेह महता योगो नष्टः परन्तप ॥२॥evaṁ paramparā-prāptamimaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥsa kāleneha mahatāyogo naṣṭaḥ parantapaThis supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.

Our paramparā is = Kṛṣṇa says, "Surrender unto Me," and we catch up the word, we preach, "Surrender unto Kṛṣṇa." This is paramparā system. Not that I have to say that "Surrender unto me." That is rascaldom.

Real kṛṣṇa-sevā is...

Because Kṛṣṇa wants everyone to surrender unto Him, so if we preach to everyone that "Surrender to Kṛṣṇa," then it is paramparā. Then it is paramparā. Paramparā means what is spoken by Kṛṣṇa, you preach that gospel.

You preach that philosophy. So our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is very simple. We haven’t got to manufacture anything, any philosophy, by research work. Kṛṣṇa says, yogaḥ proktaḥ purātanaḥ We have to speak the same thing.

The most..., very, very old = purātanaḥ. We haven’t got to manufacture it. Nowadays we have advanced in education and civilization; therefore we have to concoct some idea. It is not our business.

We have to speak the same old purātanaḥ thing. What is that purātanaḥ thing? Five thousand years ago, Kṛṣṇa says, "Surrender unto Me." So we have to preach this old gospel, "Surrender unto Kṛṣṇa.

Finish your business." Kṛṣṇa says, "I am speaking that old thing which millions of years ago I spoke to sun-god." Similarly, we have to refer to Kṛṣṇa = "Five thousand years ago, Kṛṣṇa said this; let us repeat that."Yogaḥ proktaḥ purātanaḥ. And who can speak this?

Bhakto 'si—one who is actually devotee. Others, rascals, they interpret Bhagavad-gītā in different ways. They are not speaking the purātanaḥ; therefore they are null and void, they are rejected.

Sa kāleneha yogo naṣṭaḥ One who does not speak the whole thing by the paramparā system is speaking nonsense. Take evidence from Bhagavad-gītā—sa kāleneha naṣṭaḥ

Kṛṣṇa said that "The old paramparā system, as I spoke to sun-god," BG 4.2एवं परम्पराप्राप्तमिमं राजर्षयो विदुः ।स कालेनेह महता योगो नष्टः परन्तप ॥२॥evaṁ paramparā-prāptamimaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥsa kāleneha mahatāyogo naṣṭaḥ parantapaThis supreme science was thus received through the chain of disciplic succession, and the saintly kings understood it in that way. But in course of time the succession was broken, and therefore the science as it is appears to be lost.

As soon as we deviate from the paramparā system...Paramparā system means to receive the knowledge through disciplic succession—very simple thing. But in due course of time it becomes deviated.

Just like nowadays they are interpreting Bhagavad-gītā in different ways. That means kālena naṣṭā.

This is not Bhagavad-gītā. Anyone who is speaking against Kṛṣṇa, they are discovering some new meaning, ādhyātmika meaning. They say ādhyātmika meaning. Do they not say like that, ādhyātmika meaning?

What is this nonsense, ādhyātmika meaning?

That means kālena naṣṭaḥ. Anyone who discovers some ādhyātmika meaning of Bhagavad-gītā, according to his fertile brain, that sort of preaching of Bhagavad-gītā is naṣṭaḥ. It is not real Bhagavad-gītā. Real Bhagavad-gītā is if you speak the very old thing:

What Kṛṣṇa said five thousand years ago in the Battlefield of Kurukṣetra, if you speak that old thing, that "Kṛṣṇa desires that everyone surrender unto Him, so let me preach this cult = ‘My dear friend, please surrender to Kṛṣṇa,’ " then you are a good preacher.

Three words—"My dear friend, please surrender to Kṛṣṇa." That’s all. To become a preacher in Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is not at all difficult. We have to speak the same thing. This is confirmed by Caitanya Mahāprabhu:

CC Madhya 7.128যারে দেখ, তারে কহ ‘কৃষ্ণ’ উপদেশ ।আমার আজ্ঞায় গুরু হঞা তার’ এই দেশ ॥ ১২৮ ॥yāre dekha, tāre kaha 'kṛṣṇa'-upadeśaāmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra' ei deśa“Instruct everyone to follow the orders of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa as they are given in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. In this way become a spiritual master and try to liberate everyone in this land.”

Yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa—this is guru. Guru does not mean anything extraordinary. Any damn rascal like me can become guru. You cannot question, "You are a damn rascal. How you have become guru?" Yes... [end]