Chaitanya-charitamrita Adi-lila.11.60-12.8
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Лондон · 2016
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Chanting and reading Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita
Okay, so we're reading quite a few verses from Sri Chaitanya Cheritamrita. We'll chant together the verse number eight from the twelfth chapter of Sri Chaitanya Cheritamrita.
Expansions of Hadvaita Charya we'll chant first this verse and then we'll go so translation. Pratame taikamaamatha, Ekama, Acharya, Gam, Pache, Ache, Dhui Mat, Dui Mat Haila Divira Karanda Pratameta Ekamata Acharya Gam
Pratameta Matachary Prathame ta eka mata achariagan, pachidui matahaila dai virakaran, pachidma dai Pache dui matahaila dai vira karan, pratame taika matacharyragam, Pachidui Mataha Daivira Karan, Pachitri Mamma. Okay.
So I will read the translation of the verses which uh previous verses starting from the eleventh chapter of Shri Chaitanya Chitamrita verse number sixteen. I have briefly described only some of the followers and devotees of
Lord Nityananda Prabhu. Even the thousandth mouth, Sashanag, cannot describe all of the all of these unlimited devotees. And the last verse of the chapter. With an ardent desire to serve the purpose of Sri Rupa and Ragunata.
I Krishna Dasan narate Sri Chaitanya Cheritamrita following in their footsteps. And then now we start with the twelfth chapter which is called The Expansions of Advaita Acharya and Gadathara Pandit.
The followers of Sri Advaita Prabhu were of two kinds. Some were real followers, and the others were false. Rejecting the false followers, I offer my respectful obeisances
to the real followers of Sri Advaita Acharya, whose life and soul were Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. All glories to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, all glories to Lord Nityananda, all glories to Sri Advaita Prabhu.
All of them are glorious. I offer my respectful obeisances to the all glorious Advaita Prabhu, who forms the second branch of the eternal Chaitanya tree and to his followers who form his sub-branches.
Sri Advaita Prabhu was the second big branch of the tree. There are many sub-branches, but it is impossible to mention them all. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was also the gardener, and he uh
and as he poured the water of his mercy upon the tree, all the branches and sub-branches grew day after day.
The fruits of love of God that grew on those branches of the Chaitanya tree were so large that they flooded the entire world with love of Krishna.
As the trunk and branches were watered, the branches and sub branches spread lavishly, and the tree grew full with fruits and flowers.
And now we read this verse and purport by Śrīla Prabhupāda. Prathame, in the beginning. Matā, one opinion, ācārya of Advaita Ācārya. Then followers pacha later. Dui mata, two opinions. Two opinions.
Hailā became, by the will of providence.
Gaudiya Math schism and Prabhupada's purport
Kāraṇa, the cause. At first all the followers of Advaita Acharya shared a single opinion, but later they followed two different opinions as ordained by providence.
Purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, ki jaya! The words daivera kāraṇa indicate that by dint of providence or by God's will the followers of Advaita Acharya divided into two parties.
Such disagreement among the disciples of one ācārya is also found among the members of the Gauḍīya Maṭha.
In the beginning, during the presence of oṁ viṣṇupāda paramahaṁsa parivrājakācārya aṣṭōttara-śata Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, All the disciples worked in agreement. But just after his disappearance they disagreed.
One party strictly followed the instructions of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, but another group created their own concoction about executing his desires.
Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura at the time of his departure, he requested all his disciples to form the governing body and conduct missionary activities cooperatively.
He did not instruct a particular man to become the next ācārya. But just after his passing away, his leading secretaries made
plans without authority to occupy the post of ācārya. And they split into two factions over the next ācārya, over who the next ācārya would be.
Consequently, both factions were asāra, or useless, Because they had no authority, having disobeyed the order of the spiritual master.
Despite the spiritual master's order to form a governing body and execute the missionary activities of the Gauḍīya Maṭha, the two unauthorized factions began litigation that is still going on after 40 years with no decision.
Therefore, we do not belong to any faction. Because the two parties busy dividing the material assets of the Gauḍīya Maṭha, instead institution stopped the preaching work.
We took up the mission of Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur and Bhaktivinoda Thakur to preach the cult of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu all over the world, under the protection of all predecessor Acharyas, and we find that our humble attempt has been successful.
We follow the principles especially explained by Srila Viswanatha Chakravarti Thakur and his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita verse Vyavasayatmika Buddhir Ekeha Kurunandana.
According to this instruction of Vishwanatha Chakravarti Thakur, it is the duty of a disciple to follow strictly the orders of his spiritual master.
The secret of success in advancement in spiritual life is the is the firm faith of the disciple in the orders of his spiritual master.
The words confirm this: Yasyasya deve parabhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau tasyaite kathita hyarthaah prakasante mahatmanah. (To one who has staunch faith in the words of the spiritual)
To one who has staunch faith in the words of the spiritual master and the words of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the secret of success in Vedic knowledge is revealed.
The Krishna consciousness movement is being propagated according to this principle, and therefore our preaching work is going on successfully in spite of many impediments offered by antagonistic demons because we are getting positive help from our previous acharyas.
One must judge every action by its result. The members of the self-appointed Acharya's party who occupied the property of the Gaudiya Mata are satisfied, but they could make no progress in preaching.
Therefore, by the result of their actions, one should know that they are Asara or useless.
Whereas the success of the ISKCON Party, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, which strictly follows Guru and Gauranga, is increasing daily all over the world.
Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur wanted to print as many books as possible and distribute them all over the world. We have tried our best in this connection and we are getting results beyond our expectations.
Mangalacharan prayers and intro to schisms
Sriva Prabhupada ki... [Prathanaeta ekama ta charya ragand] pachidui mata hila daivira Karana. At first all the followers of Advaita Acharya shared a single opinion, but later they followed two different opinions as ordained by Providence.
Janam jana salakaya chakshuru militamy tasmai sri guravenam, Sri Chaitanyama, Bishtaam, Stapi tamjale, Swayam Daadiswapadantikam, Vandeham Sri Guru, Sri Yutapadakamalam, Sri Guru, Vaishnavams Shripam Sagrajatam Saganarabunatam Vitam Sadivam
Sadvaitam, Sadutam, Parjanam, Saitam Krishna Chaitania Deam Sri Krishna Pada, Sahagan Lalita, Srisakavitamsha, E Krishna Karuna Sindhu, Deenabandu Jagatpat, Gopesha Gopikak, Radakantamus Tude.
Tapta kanchanagaurangi, pradevindavanishwari, Vishamanu su Devi Pranamami Haripri, Pancha Kalpatarubyasha, Kripasindubya Vacha, Patitanampamyoda Vaishnavyona, Shri Krishna Chaitanya, Prabunianda Sriadwaita
Gadathara Srivassadigura Bhta Brinda
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare
Dah pra vishi mamavachamprasutam sangivaya takila shakti darakswadhamna anyamu shahasta charana sramanatva dimandamo bhagavate purusha etu bhyam.
So we're reading this very instructive story from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta about the schism of the followers of Sri Advaita Acharya. And basically that's the fate of all religious movements. It usually starts as one.
But then, and then, as Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī says, there are branches and sub branches of the main tree which grows. It's a natural process and therefore there will be branches and sub-branches.
But then there are some deviant groups inevitably appear and all the religious movements know this dynamic.
It starts as one and it grows but then at one point it splits and sometimes the split is very drastic and very you know even a lot of bloodshed is going on during the split.
Sometimes it's more peaceful, but here Prabhupada teaches us how to relate to these events, which is very important for us. We are also witnessing similar processes in our movement to one extent or another.
And it's very important to understand this dynamic, the reasons behind this dynamic. And our attitude towards this dynamic and how we should keep ourselves uh loyal to the original intention of the acharya.
Because specifically it is said here originally, Prathame, there was only Ekamata, only one opinion. But then all of a sudden two opinions appear. So how do we know which opinion is right and which opinion is wrong?
Which opinion we should follow? Because this you know splitting will be there. Always there will be from one opinion two opinions and then four opinions and then ten thousand opinions will be there. So what to do?
How to relate to these events? How to make sure that we are following the original intent
because the very word mata means intent intention the original idea which is invested by the founder into particular movement or group and how to remain loyal to this.
And Śrīla Prabhupāda gives us some hints in this purport and many other purports to this very instructive story. And the very important word in this verse is actually daivād gatam.
Śrīla Prabhupāda starts his purport by explaining this because it is specifically said by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja that this is the will of providence.
What is the reason of all this splitting and subsplitting and you know all these different things. It's daivāt, providence. It's inevitable. We should not be naive and think, you know, we're exception to the rule. No.
Providence is there for us and for everyone else. And it basically means that we will be tested because this is the way to test our loyalty, our understanding, our intelligence after all.
Krishna's explanation of divergent paths in Bhagavatam
And therefore it is important to understand the workings behind all this will of providence behind all these events which inevitably take place in any religious movement.
So, first of all, I wanted to start with the explanation of this phenomenon which is given by Kṛṣṇa himself in the 11th Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Because Krishna Himself explains to Uddhava how it happens and what is the what is the dynamic behind it?
Uddhava after hearing explanation of bhakti-yoga and glorification of bhakti-yoga, that bhakti-yoga is the main process, asks a very important question which all of us have to understand, the answer we have to know very clearly.
If bhakti yoga is the path, if bhakti yoga is the way to go, if this is the main process which is propagated by the Vedas, if this is the only way to achieve the complete knowledge of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, why the hell there are so many other processes.
Why there are so many mantras, so many rituals, so many this and that, and you know, in every religion it's there, but in Hinduism my God.
It's just it's just it's uh totally completely incomprehensible event if you uh see from the outside. And Udava he's asking if if everything is so simple, why it is so complicated in reality?
If it is how you say it's so complicated Why there are so many other stuff is there. So he asked this question and Krishna starts explaining this.
I will read a few verses from the 11th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from the 14th chapter, which is called Lord Krishna Explains the Yoga System, how Lord Krishna is explaining this process to Uddava.
He says in the verse number three, the Supreme Personality of God had said, by the influence of time, the transcendental sound of Vedic knowledge was lost at the time of annihilation.
Therefore, when the subsequent creation took place, I spoke the Vedic knowledge to Brahma because I myself am the religious principles enunciated in the Vedas. First of all, Krishna starts by repeating the same principle,
that Vedas, the scriptures, are not different from him. He is one with the Vedic sound. And ultimately it means that all Vedic sound, all Vedic scriptures are to understand Him and to approach Him, to come closer to Him.
So he says he again confirms the same truth. Yes.
Vedaishya Sarva Rahama Vavadyo, all Vedas are to understand me, and this is how it is: by you know, by absorbing this sound, by relating to this sound and studying this sound and listening to this sound, ultimately we will come closer to Krishna.
But then immediately after that, Krishna starts saying how the how this process of splitting and how you call it divergence is taking place.
Lord Brahmā, who is the perfect recipient of this original Vedic sound coming from the original source, non-different from original source?
Lord Brahmā spoke this Vedic knowledge to his eldest son Manu and the seven great sages headed by Bhr̥gu Muni then accepted the same knowledge from Manu. So the first three generations of religious movements are there.
Original sound, Lord Brahmā is the first generation, he is the founder. He transmits it further to Manu, and Manu transmits it to the seven sages. And then very interesting process starts.
From the forefathers headed by Bhr̥gu Muni and other sons of Brahmā, appeared many children and descendants who assumed different forms as demigods, demons, human beings, Guhyakas, Siddhas, Gandharvas, Vidyadharas, Charanas, Kim Devas, Kinnaras, Nagas, Kimpurus, and so on.
All of the many universal species along with their respective leaders appeared with different natures and desires generated from the three modes of material nature.
Therefore, because of different characteristics of the living entities within the universe, there are a great variety, the great many Vedic rituals, mantras, and rewards.
So basically, there are a couple more verses which I will read. Basically, Krishna himself says that this original Vedic sound was given to Brahmā and to Manu and then to seven sages.
But even in the level of the seven sages, there are different opinions, different understandings. And from these seven sages are different forms
of living entities appeared, but these forms of living entities is nothing but the forms of their understanding of the original sound.
Because ultimately the different forms and different species of life is a manifestation of different minds. And all these guhyakas and charanas and Gandharvas and this and that.
Ultimately, you may say that this is different ways of understanding the original sound.
Which they will interpret in their different ways and they will fal- they will establish different schools and different paramparas and discipline successions and so on and so forth. And then Krishna continues: thus,
due to the great variety of desires and natures among human beings, there are many different theistic philosophies of life which are handed down through tradition, custom and disciplined succession.
There are other teachers who directly support atheistic viewpoints. It's also very remarkable because here Krishna says that ultimately even the atheistic philosophies are originally coming from him.
Through this process of perversion or imperfect reflections in the minds or in the mirrors of desires which are there in different species of life through the original seven sages.
And then the last verse which I wanted to read: or best among men, the intelligence of human being is bewildered by my illusory potency.
And thus, according to their own activities and whims, they speak in innumerable ways about what is actually good for people.
In other words, Krishna here says that everyone whoever is preaching here, whoever is teaching, whoever is propagating certain views, ultimately they want to bring something good to people.
You know, even if it's atheist, some, you know, what's his name? Dawkins? This famous famous guy who said that there is no God. He wants he wants good for people. That's God forbid. Siradaka Kulananda.
So ultimately that's because of their understanding.
There are certain leaders of the society, and these certain leaders of the society who are taking care of their particular followers they want to bring them good, and therefore, and only because of this, they propagate their views.
They sincerely believe that this is the best way to live.
And this is the way, the best process to follow, and this is the best mantra to chant, and this is the best ritual which we should do, and this is the best lifestyle.
So in one sense Krishna is establishing total complete uh pluralism here and he says, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, it's going on. Krishna is used to it because he he is just he's seeing how it goes on.
But it doesn't mean, again, it doesn't mean that everyone is equal and everything is equally correct and there is no right path. Because from the very beginning, Krishna said, yes, there is right path.
And the very question of Uddhava which sparked this conversation or these answers was: please explain to me why. If there is one past, why there are so many different things.
So uh even though this process is natural and it will go on, uh uh uh it actually uh um kind of establishes or not establishes but um basically it's there for us to first of all to test our sincerity and uh to uh uh we have to be very clear how it's going on and at the same time we have to understand uh how we should behave.
Because there is a very strong cheating propensity in human beings. And this cheating propensity, when the intelligence becomes subservient to our desires.
This is how the cheating propensity starts. We have desires, and there is an opinion which is coming down from above. And when this opinion is coming to our mind, it somehow rather mixes with our desires and then being transformed by our intelligence, by our very fruitful intelligence, we are trying to adjust their opinion to our desires.
Basically, the very strong desire of every human being is that you know, everyone wants to follow something. Everyone wants to know that he's saved. Everyone wants to follow the right path and whatever.
But at the same time, everyone wants to fulfill his or her desires. So, how to combine this? For that, the intelligence is given to us by God. And this intelligence is making magic.
He takes the pure teaching and cross-breeds it with our desires. And the result of this cross-breeding, some ugly teaching, takes place, basically, appears in the world.
This is how it is, this is how the truth is uh is becoming you know uh is uh taking all these shapes and forms and
being propagated in a human society so because of this cheating propensity, because of this propensity for our mind to somehow or other always adjust the truths towards our needs, to make the truths digestible and easily kind of you know pleasing to the heart.
We all want truths, but we only want the pleasing truth, the truth which is kind of, you know, comfortable, sits comfortably within our heart.
All these processes are taking place and none of the religious movements is exempt of these processes. So therefore, this Daiverakaran is there.
The reason is the providence, it's inevitable, and the basically it's testing our sincerity. All these processes are the test of our sincerity.
The dynamic of splits across religious generations
How we should behave, what should be our attitude, and how much we should bend the truths to adjust it towards our understanding or towards our desires, which are usually not so pure.
So First, I wanted to say while explaining this process, I also wanted to say a little bit in general about this dynamic.
This split or schism of a religious movement which usually takes place very early in the history of religious movement.
No matter which religion we take, whether it's Christian religion, Muslim religion, of course Hinduism is a it's difficult to say what Hinduism is and where where it is.
But if you take any other religion, you will see that usually the major split takes place very cly close to the beginning of a particular religious movement. And here we witness the same dynamic because the
sons of Advaita Ācārya, they are sons of Advaita Ācārya.
And there were six of them, and three of them, as Prabhupāda will explain later, became completely useless as sāra, and three of them followed the right opinion. So it was split in half. And again, as I said, it's amazing that they
were they had the privilege to directly associate with Advaita Ācārya, but still, despite of this fact, they they split it.
So usually uh this split if we take Muslim religion then the split uh also uh took place very early in the history of Muslim uh faith and uh as we know there are two main groups in Muslim religions, Shias and Sunnis.
Sunnis is the majority, Shias are there, but still, you know, and it's in the very beginning.
You know, if we take Christianity, then there is Orthodox branch and Catholic branch which also took place quite early but even before that there was split but anyway uh we'll skip it.
So what I want to say is that this this splitting tendency or this original split, which is described in this particular pastime in Caitanya-caritāmṛta usually takes place among the followers of the second generation.
The first generation, in our case, was of course Pañca-tattva, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Advaita Ācārya, Nityānanda Prabhu, and Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita, they are in our movement, the founders of our movement.
With the particular roles and particular roles to play and particular understanding of their natures and their missions. And this is the first generation. And the crisis, the severe crisis of the second generation is
uh usually inevitable because uh all their followers, because usually all these people who who establish religious movement they are very strong themselves and therefore their followers are very strong.
Their followers also are very strong minded people because the strong leader generates strong leaders under himself.
And because these strong leaders are being generated when the founder disappears, which is inevitable in this material world, then the strong leaders, and strong leaders mean strong heads, right?
They are very strong-headed people, you know, very stubborn people. Usually there is difference in opinion immediately. After the founder.
When the founder is there, uh it's very easy to resolve all these uh contradictions which maybe they are because they just come to founder and ask, and he will say. That's that's it, that's how it is.
But then immediately, as soon as he disappears, there are different opinions, and there's different opinions usually in all religious movements, not only in this case, although in this case in particular, but in all the religious movements over two issues.
The two issues which create the split in the religious movements is the position of the founder, who is he, and what is his place.
Like in this particular case, the sons of Advaita Ācārya, they said, you know, our father is more important than Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. And that was the split. That was the splitting point.
Three of the sons of Advaita Ācārya, including his elder son Acyutānanda, they accepted Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu as the Supreme Personality of Godhead and Advaita Ācārya, even though he is Ācārya and he is the avatāra, but still he is his servant.
But then the other people, they uh the other sons of Advaita Ācārya, they decided that you know his their father is more important than Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
If we take Christianity, then in Christianity there was I believe around the period over 200 years where they were debating the position of Jesus Christ. Trying to establish the position of Jesus Christ.
And they were different opinions who is he, whether he is God, whether he is Son of God, whether he is inconceivably one and different from this from God or whether he is, you know, whether he does he
have a material body or his body is spiritual, you know. They were trying to figure it out. So that's uh basically, one of the main issues over which people will start arguing. Why is it so important?
Because it establishes very many other things as a consequence of this establishing how we follow, who is the supreme authority in this movement, whose word is the last here, and so many other issues are the consequences of this particular issue, the position of the founder.
And then the second problem, which is usually a big big big problem and the same actually in Muslim religion the Shia and Sunni faith the they s they split it not because they argued about the position of Prophet Muhammad, but they argued about who is the successor, who is the right successor. Which is almost the same thing.
Because Śrīla Prabhupāda, he gives the similar instance from the history of Gauḍīya Maṭha. And in the history of Gauḍīya Maṭha, yes, everyone accepted Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī and his position, but then how to rule and who who will be the next, who is the successor? That will be the splitting point, so to speak.
So the first is uh the position of the founder and the way to succeed him. Who is the right successor?
Who is the right follower and how to follow him? This is the one issue which is usually a very troublesome issue for any religious organisation. And the second issue is actually the what the founder was teaching.
The first, most important, it's amazing how it works in human psychology. Most important, you know, who is he and what is his position. And second, you know, what he teaches. It should have been vice versa.
It should have been that what he teaches. But usually in the minds of people, the most important, you know, his position. That's him. We're following him. What we follow it, it's secondary.
The main thing is that we follow him.
It's interesting also that Prophet Muhammad once during his lifetime, according to one hadith, he said that when I pass away, there will be 70 different groups which will follow my path.
So all the followers they became stunned because when the founder is there, you usually don't think about these things. So they asked, you know, so who will be the one?
Then he said, and uh all of them except for one will go to hell. There will be seventy different groups and all of them will go to hell, but one. And everyone became, you know, really stunned, you know.
Can you imagine if Prabhupada would say and say, you know, there will be 70 different branches of and only one will go back to Godhead and the rest will go to hell.
So and they asked, who will go to heaven? And who will go to hell? And he gave a very interesting answer. He said, the one where I will be there will go to heaven. In other words, the one who will strictly follow me.
But you know, and you know, all the different groups in Muslim religions still, you know, the everyone believes that he's with them, not with with anyone else, because because nobody wants to go to hell.
Preserving original teachings and founder's position
But they will have to, uh, obviously, most of the so what is the judgment, how to judge? And that's a very interesting and that's exactly what Prabhupada is explaining in this purport.
In this purport, Prabhupada explains that we should definitely try to follow as sincerely as possible the original intention of the acharya.
And therefore, the second issue, which is very troublesome for any religious organization is not only to codify the teachings to kind of very firmly establish the teachings, to have it really, you know, paka, so to speak, that this is what the Acharya or the founder wanted, but also to uh develop the rules of hermeneutics hermeneutics, right?
Am I right? Hermeneutics. The rules of hermeneutics in other words, how to understand what he wants to say. Because usually in any religious tradition, uh well, uh at least now we have a vast body of Śrīla Prabhupāda said.
And everyone, every party quotes, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, we are the right ones. This is what Śrīla Prabhupāda said.
So the basically the success of religious movement is not only to codify or to establish the true teachings of an acharya and to have it very firmly written down and without any deviations, but also to establish the rules how to understand what is more important, what is less important, which instructions should be followed when.
It's also again very interesting in case of Muslim religion, also very interesting and very instructive. In case of Muslim religion, Prophet Muhammad initially wanted to establish Quran as the most authoritative scripture
and therefore he prohibited to write down any stories about him.
Because usually what we have, we have the teachings in itself, which is usually a revelation, which is coming down through the acharya. And then we have his example.
So he didn't want that his example would overshadow his original words, the words of revelation, the words of the scripture.
And therefore, he prohibited any stories of him being written because he wanted to establish first and foremost the authority of his book, Quran.
And therefore, one of the first caliphs, his successors, he and immediately different versions of Quran appeared when uh he disappeared.
So uh the one of his umare, I believe, he he collected different versions of Quran and uh he burned all the false ones and said this is the right one.
And this way he established very clearly this is the this is the main book. In our case we have the same dynamic because all these changes in Śrīla Prabhupāda's books. It's an issue.
It's a very hot issue and people are saying, you know, all these followers they're distorting Śrīla Prabhupāda's words.
Some people say this, and you know, some people believe this, some people, and uh definitely there is a lot of uh conspiracy theories plotting around, you know, why it is, how it is. So actually, this is the mission, very strong mission of the second generation of the followers of Anacharya to do these two things.
To establish the position for the posterity of the founder. And that's what has been done by Ravindra Swarup's work when he wrote this book.
And it's basically a very fundamental achievement because this is the book which establishes the position of Śrīla Prabhupāda and in this way gives the stability to the movement.
Because if this issue is not resolved, it will be inevitably a question of dissension over the time. And the second one is to codify the teachings.
And not only as I said, to codify the teachings or to establish and like uh recently we spoke with Dravida Prabhu and Dravida Prabhu is working on Prabhupada's books and he said, yes, we want to to make the kind of to seal Prabhupada's teachings, no more changes.
Yeah, they're doing changes because we know because of the nature of Prabhupada's books, he was dictating, and sometimes the transcriber didn't understand what is there, or sometimes so many other things which may be there. But that's what they want to do. They want to draw the line and say, no more changes. That's it.
That's the teaching which is intact for the rest of you know for all the generations in the future. Which again is very important. But as I said, the rules of hermeneutics should also be established.
And for that, very important is uh Prabhupāda's example.
As I said, even though originally Prophet himself said no stories about myself, in the second generation, people said, no, let's write down some stories because otherwise we will be in trouble.
And they started noting down different stories because in these stories he explains how to apply the teachings. The teachings is there, but then you need an example: how to practically apply the teachings.
And uh in their tradition, this is the separate sort of tradition, Muslim version of Prabhupāda said,
you know, like we have even during Prabhupāda's time, Prabhupāda, Prabhupāda himself was wondering, you know, he once said to Nanda Kumar, they say Prabhupāda said, Prabhupāda said, Prabhupāda, and many times I hear it for the first time when Prabhupāda said. That's how it works, you know.
Somebody comes and he is empowered representative of God, he speaks, and you know, all the people immediately start misusing his authority. Immediately starts adding authority to his authority to their, to establish their own authority. They want to establish something, they want to establish some opinion and how to do this in the religious
movement," Śrīla Prabhupāda said. It's not I'm saying and who knows whether he said it or not.
Therefore therefore, in the Muslim tradition, they established this, and of course, we know in Christian tradition there is this gospel, and gospel is basically the stories about Jesus Christ.
And again, they were written late. And in the Muslim tradition they distinguish the three kinds of stories about the Prophet. The most authoritative, uh medium authoritative and less authoritative.
Not authoritative at all, but still it's there. You know, so I think at one point we will also have to say that there are different Śrīla Prabhupāda's sets.
It definitely happened because uh and and they established the rule how to establish it you know who is the most reliable uh who is the most honest among the followers who is less you know, selfish because the selfishness is what corrupts the original teaching, what distorts the original teachings and makes the distortion going on.
So basically this is the mission of the second generation to establish very firmly at least these two things: the position of the ācārya, the way of succession, this is the third thing actually which should be done, uh which is quite uh successfully is established now in this con with GBC and ultimate managing authority and everything.
So the way of succession, the position of the founder, and the codification of his teachings. But then there is a lot more to say what should be done next because this is not all.
There are so many other things which should be done while you know to establish the religious movement and to firmly establish it in this material world.
I'm speaking about this because I'm planning to give some presentation on this topic during the upcoming ILS meeting, where I will speak in more details about this dynamic, how it goes on.
It's actually one Russian devotee, he made a very interesting research on this topic and he found that basically there are similar patterns in many different religions.
And they all have to face the same problems, but they resolve the problems differently, and the way they resolve the problems actually define the future of the religious organization.
Establishing the acharya's identity in Madhva tradition
How successfully they resolve inevitable problems which are there is actually very crucial for the whole future.
But coming a little back, and if we look if we look for example in our closer tradition to ours, for example Madhvācārya's tradition. It's also very interesting how they dealt with it and how it
was there was this Madhvācārya as we know he was Mukya Prana, the one of the manifestation of Mukhya Prāṇa, Hanumān, Bhīma and Madhvācārya. But then during his life, not everyone accepted this.
It's interesting how they dealt with the position of the founder in Madhva Sampradaya. So what happened in their line? Not all the followers really believed this, whether Madhvācārya is the manifestation of Mukhya Prāṇa.
So one of his last disciples, very illustrious and prominent disciple, Trivikrama Paṇḍitācārya, there is a recorded story that once Madhvācārya was doing puja behind the closed doors to Udupi Krishna.
And usually there is a certain ritual when the puja was supposed to be over uh after some time and the followers they're not allowed inside and they don't they're not allowed to see what is going on inside behind the closed doors. Uh but usually it has a specific time frame and they were waiting there.
They were reciting certain stutis. I think they were reciting this Dvādaśa Stotra by Madhvācārya, and usually by the time they would recite the whole stotra, the puja would be finished.
But this time they recited the whole stotra and nothing happened. So they recited it again and again nothing happened. The doors remained closed.
So ultimately Trivikrama Paṇḍitācārya, who was very close to Madhvācārya, although he was one of the last disciples of him, he kind of opened the door to see what's going on.
And to his surprise, he saw not only Madhvācārya serving Udupi Krishna, he saw Hanumān serving Ram, he saw Bhīma serving Krishna, himself and he saw Madhvācārya serving Vyāsadeva. All six were there.
From Udupi Krishna, there were three manifestations of Krishna, including Vyāsadeva, and from Madhvācārya the three servants of this particular incarnation were there and he was completely stunned.
And he immediately closed the door and he composed the Harivāyu Stuti, which is very famous among the followers of Madhvācārya, and this Harivāyu Stuti actually all the followers of Madhvācārya are supposed to chant and recite this Harivāyu Stuti every day.
Because this is the stuti which establishes the position of Madhvācārya.
This is the point which I am trying to make, how important it is to establish the position of the ācārya and very firmly and you know because this is the foundation of religious movement.
And of course, Prabhupada here he says that people they failed to do this in Gaudiya Math.
Assessing spiritual success through world preaching
And the indication which he gives how to make sure that that we are following the intention, the original intention of Acharya, the original opinion of Acharya.
The test for this, he quotes this, Yasyadeve Parabakteria Tadevetat Hagurota Syatekatha Yartai. He says basically it basically what he says, he says that the test is, the external test is success.
If the original Acharya wanted this movement to spread all over the world, so Falena Parichate, if it's spreading, it means the the following is there. He says Gauḍīya Maṭha became a Sahara because they they cannot preach.
Why? He's establishing the bona fineness so to speak of ISKCON on which by which criteria? Because we're doing what Śrī Caitanya, what what Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda wanted to do.
And in our case, you know, if we take, uh, notorious ṛtviks who claim to be the very staunch followers of Prabhupada, my
my, uh, my, uh, simple, uh, question to them: if you're such a staunch follower of Prabhupada, why you don't preach? Why you only fight with this code? Just preach. There are so many things.
Do how, you know, distribute books. No, no, no, no. This this con will do. We will fight with this. We will establish our mata, our opinion over this. This is ridiculous. This is self-defeating.
This is exactly what Prabhupada says. The original idea of Prabhupada was not established, you know, his position the way they want to establish.
We also want to establish Prabhupada's position very firmly, but we also want to fulfill his mission. And that's basically what Prabhupada is explaining here.
We have to really understand the teachings of Acharya, but not only the teachings of Acharya, but also his innermost desire.
And that's exactly what Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura is explaining in this famous verse of his praṇāma mantra to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, Śrī Caitanya mano-bhiṣṭāṁ stāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale. I'm f I'm I'm the follower of Rūpa.
And that's exactly actually the some reflection of the debates which were there in Gauḍīya Sampradāya in the beginning.
Because not everyone accepted Rūpa Gosvāmī. There were so many followers of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu who didn't accept the opinion of Rupa Goswami. And Narottam Dasa Thakura in this pranam mantra he proves or
he explains that, śrī-caitanya-mano-'bhīṣṁaṁ sthāpitaṁ yena bhū-tale, I'm uh I'm I'm the follower of Rupa Goswami. Why?
Because he established mano-'bhīṣṁa, the innermost desire of the heart of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in this verse. And he understood his intention, his opinion and his following this and therefore I am his follower.
And in our case, we also, if we want to prove that we are the followers of Srila Prabhupada, we have to really try to understand his mood and his intention, his desire and follow his desire.
Not only his teachings, but also the way he wants us to behave and interact with the world and live in this world basically.
There are so many other things which could be said about the details of this Gaudiya Math split and other juicy details, but I'm sure some other people will fill you up with this while reading this story.
But I just sort of explaining this initial sort of dynamic and how why it is so important to understand uh the mechanism of split.
Preserving clarity through humility and fixed terminology
Thank you very much. Any questions? Yes. Yes. Yes. Uh my question is, there would be many people whose intelligence is higher than us in around us. And their desires will be similar to ours as well.
And we'll be influenced by either one of them or many of them. And this will lead to a complete confusion of what's the... in addition to that there is language as well which we are conditioned to and other people are.
So what, how to lead, how to deal with this? Yeah. About the language. Could you repeat the question? I can repeat the question, yes.
Prayag Raj Prabhu said that there will be some other people who are more intelligent than us and they have similar desires than ours. And when they explain the teachings of Srila Prabhupada, it will be very close to our heart because they will reflect similar desires, right?
And ultimately we are kind of doomed to follow them because they are more intelligent, and they will explain so many things in a very flowery way, and we will follow.
And then he said about the language, right? That different people understand the same words in a different way. You know, we supposedly use the same words, but everyone understands it slightly differently.
And that's a fact. We had a very interesting game which shows this fact.
We took some very simple words and uh there were groups of five people, and we asked five people uh to write down the connotations of these words, what this word means for them.
Within two minutes, they will have to write many, many, many other many synonyms or connotations which come to their mind when they hear this word. And the group was supposed to share what they wrote and
only if the all the five people wrote the same word they can say that this is what it means you know the according to our opinion if the words the amazing result was none of the groups there was P group of people and many many groups by five or six people and in none of these groups not a single word was the same.
In other words, not all the five people would write the same meaning for the for this word.
So regarding the language, it's also very important this is actually the the job of the third generation the third generation of religious movement has to establish very firmly the meaning of the terms used by Acharya.
Otherwise, everyone will use the same terms and everyone will have completely different understanding what these terms means. So this is this is exactly what Jīva Gosvāmī did when he wrote Saṅdarbhas.
He established exactly in a very logical way the teachings of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
So this is the work of the third generation to very firmly fix uh the meaning of the key terms so that the followers could use the common language.
Regarding the first part of the question about the intelligence, yes, it will go on. Yes, yes, yes, somebody will come very intelligent and he will explain it in a very nice way, and you know, and people will follow.
But still, there are some hope for us. First of all, if we really want to be the followers, we should not follow only on the basis of intelligence of somebody who is claiming to be the successor or follower.
There are so many intelligent people. And actually intelligence is a very dangerous thing. It's in most cases it's probably better not to be too intelligent.
But there is much more important criteria for us to follow somebody, that's the humility. If somebody is humble and intelligent, then we should follow him.
If somebody is proud and intelligent, we should not follow him, uh, we should avoid him as much as possible because if he's proud and intelligent, it's a very dangerous combination. If he's proud and stupid, that's okay.
But if he's proud and intelligent, Very dangerous.
So if you really want to remain followers, then we should see the qualities of somebody, not that only judging by the level of his intelligence, but also by the level of his integrity and character.
Okay, so we have to finish.