Sri Caitanya-caritamrita Antya 5.120
Бхакти Вигьяна Госвами · Лондон · 2019
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Offenses made by the Bengali poet
Jaya Jaya Śrī Caitanya Jaya Nityānanda, Jaya Advaita Candrāṁśa Gaurabhakta Vṛnda, Jāhnavī Vṛnda.
Jaya Śrī Caitanya Jaya Nityānanda, Jaya Advaita Candrāṁśa Gaurabhakta Vṛnda, Jaya Śrī Caitanya, Jaya Nityānanda, Jaya Śrī Caitanya, Caitanyānanda, Jayādvaita Candrāṁśa Gaurabhakta Vṛnda, Hare Kṛṣṇa.
So we're reading today, Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, dvitiyāparāde pāibi durgati māyāpai, dvitiyāparāde pāibi durgati, dvitiyāparāde pāibi durgati, atattvajña-tattva varṇe, tārā-riti, atattvajña-tattva varṇe, tārā-riti, tārā dvitiyāparāde pāibi durgati, atattvajña varṇe tar, dvitiyā parāde pāibi durgati, dvitīva- jña-tattva varṇe tār-īti, Dvitiyāparāde, unto both aparādhas by offense, pāibi you will get durgati, hellish destination.
Atattvajña, one who has no knowledge of the absolute truth. Tattva-varṇe, describes the absolute truth. Tārā is this rīti, course. Translation. Svarūpa Dāmodara continued:
Because you have committed an offense to Lord Jagannātha and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, you will attain a hellish destination. You do not know how to describe the absolute truth, but nevertheless, you have tried to do so.
Therefore, you must be condemned. The brāhmaṇa poet from Bengal was an offender in the estimation of Svarūpa Dāmodara dāsa.
For although the poet has no knowledge of the absolute truth, he had nevertheless tried to describe it.
The Bengali poet was an offender of both Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Lord Jagannātha, because he had made a distinction between Lord Jagannātha's body and his soul, and because he had indicated that Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was different from Lord Jagannātha. He had committed offenses to them both.
Atattvajña refers to one who has no knowledge of the absolute truth or who worships his own body as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
If an ahaṁgra-upāsaka, māyāvī, a person engaged in fruitive activities, or a person interested only in sense gratification describes the absolute truth, he immediately becomes an offender. Śrīla Prabhupāda kī jī!
Gvitanya Paradipai Vidurgati Atatvagya Tatva Varne Ta Taraeriti
Swarupadamadara continued because you have committed an offence to Lord Jagannatha and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, you will attain a hellish destination. You do not know how to describe the absolute truth, but nevertheless you have tried to do so. Therefore, you must be condemned.
Namaḥ oṁ viṣṇu-pādāya kṛṣṇa-preṣṭhāya bhū-tale śrīmate bhaktivedānta-svāmin iti nāmine. Namaste sārasvate deve gaura-vāṇī-pracāriṇe, nirviśeṣa-śūnyavādī-pāścātya-deśa-tāraṇe.
Vāñchā-kalpatarubhyaḥ ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca, patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ. Jaya Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Prabhupān Nityānanda Śrī Advaita Gadādhara,
Śrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare. Ājānu-lambita-bujau kaṅkā-saṅkīrtanāya kapitau yuga-dharma-pālau vandē
jagತ್-priyau karuṇayāvatīrṇau. Vāñchāḥ kalpataruḥ, bhagavataḥ prabhus taṁ saṁjīvayaty akhila-śakti-dharaḥ svadhāmnā, anjam śravaṇa tvaṁ gatiṁ praṇamato bhagavate prachayatu.
Difference between sins and spiritual offenses
Hare Krishna. So we are reading kind words of Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī, Bengali poet, was very well intended and he composed something which he thought was the glorification of Lord Chaitanya, Lord Jagannath.
But Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī here says, Durgati, you will get very bad destination. Your future is quite bleak. There is a very serious reason for this. We always say, usually say, often say, that the
path of bhakti is very simple. Just chant and dance and eat prasādam, and you will somehow or other dance your way to Godhead, as Śrīla Prabhupāda once said. That's true.
Externally it's difficult, nevertheless, there is a it's it's easy nevertheless there is some difficulty internally and this internal difficulty uh is very severe the internal difficulty which we
traverse the path of bhakti is that we have this ahaṅkāra of āsattyo. And we approach the transcendence from the point of view of ahaṅkāra, we inevitably commit a aparādha. An aparādha is serious.
According to the philosophy of bhakti, which is quite different from the philosophy of all common religions, the sins are not so important.
Sins very easily can be counteracted. Just once chanting Hare Krishna, no sins. Just in case you have something, just go around Tulisi. That's it. Three times, seven, seven times. No problem.
Because sins don't go very deep. But there is a distinction between sins and aparādha. Aparādha means offense and offense means some evil inclination in your mind. When you do something without too much evil intentions.
That's okay, that's a sin, that's not good, but it will be easily washed away from your soul or from your heart.
But aparādha is serious and therefore there is so much this aparādha-vicāra is a very important part of our philosophy. To understand what constitutes aparādha, what constitutes offense and how to avoid offences. And basically, what we see in this particular story,
here it is said: where the aparādha, where the root cause of aparādha is. The root cause, how it is said here, atattva-jña. The lack of knowledge or ignorance about the truth, the absolute truth.
In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the very beginning of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is one of the foundational verses of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam for our Gaudiya Vaishnava Siddhanta, it is said that vadanti tat-tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate. This, uh, very important verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is the, you know, the foundation of our philosophy, it is said that Krishna God is advaya-jñāna. Jñāna means conscious, consciousness, and advaya means there is no duality in this consciousness. So we also have consciousness.
Unfortunately, now because of our situation is material in the material world, our consciousness is steeped in duality. So when we approach the non-dual truths with our dual dualistic consciousness and we try
to judge the non-dual truths from our relative dualistic point of view, then inevitably we commit offense. Therefore, it's a very difficult situation.
We do have this dualistic concept, and dualistic concept basically means that we always discriminate: this is higher, this is lower, this is good, this is bad. And when we approach with this mentality towards the Lord,
who is Advaya Gyan by definition, and try to judge, we somehow rather project our dualistic understanding of the world towards spiritual reality, and we commit serious mistakes in this judgment.
In Madhva Sampradaya, whom we belong to Madhvācārya, he describes nine kinds of manifestation of dvesh or envy in the heart, which actually is the root cause of all aparādha.
Aparādha is this dvesha, is this envious inclination or envious attitude which we have.
And among those dveshas he says that to discriminate between different forms of the Lord, it's a dvesha. It's the hatred towards the Lord. If we say this form is better, this form is not so good, I don't like this form.
And they are all forms of non-dual absolute truths, we commit an offense. But at the same time, we know we say that Krishna is the highest form of the absolute truth, highest manifestation of the absolute truth.
And we always make this judgment. So how to reconcile these things? Madhvacharya cannot make a mistake.
It definitely indicates a very serious disease and actually the same disease is indicated by Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī here in this episode with Bengali brāhmaṇa, who was well intended but still committed aparādha.
So how to reconcile this? We say that this is there is a hierarchy, there is higher and lower, and uh at the same time we're not supposed to do this.
We are applying for uh projecting our material understanding into the spiritual realm where our uh material understanding or material mind uh is totally improper and unsuitable.
Prabhupada correcting improper spiritual discrimination
So let's try to somehow rather solve this riddle. There is a very instructive story in this regard in the life of Śrīla Prabhupāda when he came to Los Angeles and there was this famous formation within his conko club.
And the members of this club and they were kind of with a lot of neglect and you know relating towards Bhagavad-gītā. Bhagavad-gītā is just some. Ah, Krishna and Arjuna, no, this is not important.
Krishna and Gopīs, this is the highest. So they were only talking about this, and Bhagavad-gītā, whenever they would speak about Bhagavad-gītā, they would speak in very denigrating terms, very neglectfully.
Jaganadvalade subhadra mayki ja she gorni taikija. And when Prabhupada came to Los Angeles and somebody, Pradyumna Prabhu told him about this club. Prabhupada became very disturbed. And he said, call them.
What are their names? Call them all here. And they all came and uh they started discussing with this and uh you know they were saying, you know, we are into this into relationship with Gopi and isn't it our philosophy?
We're supposed to develop this gopi-bhāva, you know. So what's wrong with it? And uh in the course of the discussion, uh this is Pradyumna Prabhu's uh his memories about this episode.
Somebody said that uh Prabhupāda, isn't it uh gopīs are the highest in the spiritual realm? Isn't that the highest in the hierarchy? Srila Prabhupada said no. No.
So then somebody tried to interfere and said, what do you mean to say? Aren't gopīs higher than cows? On the blade of grass? In the spiritual world? Prabhupāda said, No. No! For you, there is no difference.
And this is actually the solution for this riddle. For us, there is no difference.
If we try with our and Śrīla Prabhupāda became very angry and emphatic, you know, for you there is no difference, no difference, no difference for you. So the solution here says is like this.
There is a difference, definitely. There is no doubt about it. But at the same time, there is no difference.
And there is difference if our consciousness is transcendental, then there is discrimination, then there is relatively high and lower.
But when we look from our point of view, from our material point of view, and try to judge from our material point of view, inevitably the judgment will become faulty because this judgment will be taken from the point of view of our pride.
And by saying that something is lower, we will naturally, as we are used to in material world, look with neglect into this. And who we are to look with neglect towards the blade of grass in the spiritual world.
The blade of grass in the spiritual world for us completely steeped in matter, completely engrossed in matter is a worshipable object and chaos. And if we start discriminate, we commit an offense.
Dangers of projecting material concepts onto spirit
So the discrimination is only possible when our consciousness becomes non-dual.
Then only the discrimination is proper. If we are trying to make discrimination, having this dual consciousness, being in this duality, Ichhadvesha Samutina Dvandva Mohina Bharata, having this Dvanva Moha, the complete bewilderment of dwandva, this is good, this is bad, you know, then we commit offense.
And ultimately it means the lack of the lack of proper knowledge, the lack of proper respect. Offense means that we will think that we are higher than somebody else.
Towards the spiritual, worshipable spiritual objects, we will exercise our pride in this spiritual relationship. Therefore, to start judging, we first have to come to the level when the judgment is possible.
That means that our own consciousness has to become free from duality. What does it mean? It basically means that there is nothing good and there is nothing bad in this material world. Everything is bad.
You know, sometimes people say, you know, I have a bad karma. This is an oxymoron. There is no bad karma. There is no good karma either. You know, all karma is bad.
You know, when you say I have bad karma, it means that there is good karma, but there is no good karma. All karma is bad.
You know, and uh therefore Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu says that when we say this is good, this is bad, this is all, you know, this is all manodharma. Manodharma means concoction, imagination.
It basically means improper judgment. When we apply our material experience, and that's the problem, when we apply our material experience or project our material experience onto the spiritual
world, we will inevitable commit aparādha. Therefore in the beginning, and that's exactly what Śrīla Prabhupāda meant when he said, for you there is no difference. In the beginning we should not discriminate.
Sometimes people have this serious, make this serious offensive aparādha when they say, you know, he's a pure devotee and he's not a pure devotee, you know. So for whom he's nobody. You know, he's a kaniṣṭha-adhikārī.
Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmīpāda says that if you're not sure about the level of advancement of somebody, just treat him as a uttama-adhikārī just in case. Just in case he's a uttama-adhikārī. You know, no mistake in this.
And in the beginning, the advice is that everyone is a pure devotee.
And that's actually the reason why when people just join Krishna consciousness, they make very rapid advancement because they look at everyone with all in reverence, oh, they're so pure.
And then they started discriminating. When they become advanced, quote unquote, when they become senior devotees, oh my goodness. They commit so many offenses because, oh, this is and he's ha shhh.
This is for us, there is no difference. Whoever is related with God, this will help us to develop non-dual consciousness, to get free from this duality, which is the shackle, material shackle in this material world.
It keeps on this in this material world. So the path to the transcendence goes through this very difficult stage when we have to basically view everything which is same or rather related with God.
And develop in this way, develop this spiritual, spiritual, properly spiritual mentality. Because again, we look at the deity and we say, you know, it's made of stone, it's not deity.
We don't see the—we don't have the proper vision. And the proper vision is only coming from the new saṁskāras.
What I want to say, and that's a very important point, is that when we see something, we see or judge something on the basis of our experience in this world, on the basis of our saṁskāras.
Material perception in spiritual topics
And when we see or judge something on the basis of our saṁskāras, we basically drag anything which we see to our own level.
In this particular chapter of Caitanya-caritāmṛta, there are two stories, and both stories are similar in this way. There is a common theme in these two stories.
First story is about Pradyumna Miśra, who was advised by Caitanya Mahāprabhu to see Rāmānanda Rāya. He came to Rāmānanda Rāya and he wanted to discuss with Rāmānanda Rāya a very high subject matter.
And he saw how Rāmānanda Rāya was massaging the body of young girls and touching their private parts. He was aghast, he was shocked. He couldn't understand what's going on. You know, what's going on?
And he came back to Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu smiled at him and said, "Did you discuss something with Rāmānanda Rāya?"
He said, "No, I didn't have a chance because he was too busy massaging the young girls. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he became elated. He said, "Oh my goodness, he's so elevated. He can do it.
I cannot do it. When I see even a wooden doll of a woman, I become agitated. But he can do it because his consciousness is totally transformed. He is not in this world.
He's just while doing this, he's just a you know manjar in the spiritual world. He's a little girl in the spiritual world who is helping or serving the servants of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī by massaging their body. He has no identification with this world whatsoever.
And you are committing offense indirectly.
Caitanya Mahāprabhu didn't say this, but indirectly he indicated to Pradyumna Mishra that you're committing offense because you're judging him based on your own experience in this world, based on your own saṁskāras. So that's the common theme of these two stories.
This Bengali poet he was well-intended and he wanted to describe the absolute truth, but because he was a-tattvajña, because he didn't have... A-tattvajña basically means.
A-tattvajña doesn't mean that this, you know, ignorant Bengali poet was a-tattvajña.
And this particular story, very interesting, is that all the other devotees except for Svarūpa Dāmodara were very happy to hear the poetry which he wrote.
Everyone was completely amazed and they said, oh my goodness, so nice. So they were all a-tattvajña. And this is whom? This is direct associates of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. They didn't have this fine discrimination.
And basically what to speak about us, you know, we of course we have Bhakti-śāstri Shastri diploma. We are tattvajña. Good luck for you to judge the spiritual matters, you know.
We still have this completely material consciousness. So it's about us. This is a warning to us how careful we should become when we are describing the absolute truth.
You know, sometimes we very boldly sit down on the āsana and say something is and condemning somebody, you know, is bad and is bad, you know. There is such a big chance to commit offense.
And uh what is the result of committing offense? We go to hell. Welcome to Krishna Consciousness Movement.
Humility as protection against offenses
It's not to put scare on you, but uh to warn you how important it is to develop the fine discrimination when uh it uh comes to spiritual matters. And in the beginning, as I said, we have to be very humble.
The humility is the inoculation, is the uh uh uh uh against these offenses. The humility is the only protection from these offenses. If the humility is there, then uh the temptation to judge others from our highly advanced position in Krishna consciousness will be little less, you know.
Humility is actually the only protection which we have. Otherwise this disease of aparadha is it it's it's very contagious.
When we associate with somebody who is uh who has offensive mentality, immediately it comes to us because uh we are prone to it. The tendency is already there.
Well you know it's uh it's uh like when uh the uh epidemic of some disease is there. Why it spreads so fast? Because there is certain impurity which is on the bodily level.
And this impurity makes a very nice breeding ground for this infection, for the viruses and everything else. And somebody does not get this disease. Why? Because he's pure. So in the same way, we are impure inside.
Therefore, when we associate with somebody who has their offensive mentality, it very quickly goes right into us. Right into us and uh pollutes the whole body and the whole consciousness of us.
Therefore this internet is such a such a dangerous stuff. There is so much aparadha there. So much aparadha. And we associate with it. And you know, when we hear this, it makes sense to us, isn't it?
You know, we hear aparadha. It makes perfect sense to us. But what is the destination? The consciousness becomes completely polluted.
The consciousness loses its uh ability to really understand Krishna. And we are going away from Krishna. The very word aparadha means the worship. Aparadha means far away from worship.
We become, instead of becoming worshipers, and in the spiritual world everyone is a worshiper, everyone has this elevated consciousness of worship, of you know, elevated pure consciousness. It takes us away to the material realm.
And that's hell. You know, hell doesn't mean this certain planet where everyone is being born. But hell means London. Krishna Śrīla Prabhupāda says London is hell.
You know, the journalist asked Śrīla Prabhupāda, what is your conception of hell in London? He asked, What's your conception of hell in your religion? Prabhupada says, London is hell.
This is our conception of hell in our religion. Because there is hardly any sun here, so that's that's hell. That's a part of the material world.
The material world is a hellish, airy, hellish, ignorant realm of the existence. So we have to be very careful about
Four anarthas and improper understanding of truth
this whole things and for that we need to know tattva. It's very interestingly we have to be very careful in knowing tattva and not to be in a hurry in knowing tattva.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, while explaining anarthas, which are clouding our consciousness, which are the impediment for us to see God, to relate to God, to really understand God. This is an anartha.
So he says there are four kinds of, four categories of anarthas. And he starts with tattva-jñāna-vibhrama. Tattva-jñāna-vibhrama means the bewilderment or illusion about tattva-jñāna.
The not proper understanding, not proper judgment about tattva. And then he says, then, then asat-tṛṣṇā, then aparādha, and then hṛdaya- daurbalya.
But even though Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura doesn't say this, but it's quite clear that tattva-jñāna is the root cause of asat-tṛṣṇā. Asat-tṛṣṇā means the thirst for unreal.
We all have this insatiable thirst for unreal, unreal happiness. Material happiness, happiness of liberation, happiness of all these mystic powers, all this stuff. This is all asat-tṛṣṇā.
So why the asat-tṛṣṇā, this thirst is there in our heart? Because we don't have proper tattva-jñāna.
We don't have proper sambandha-jñāna, don't have really proper understanding who we are and what is God and how the happiness is only possible in relationship with God. Therefore, asat-tṛṣṇā develops.
And from asat-tṛṣṇā, aparādha comes.
The offenses are coming from this four, from tattva-jñāna-vibhrama, then asat-tṛṣṇā, then aparādha, and then weakness of the heart, weakness of the heart means all kinds of deficiencies which we have. The all kinds of faults or problems which we have in our heart.
Envy, matsarya, uh, which is there and so on and so forth. So, but the root cause is, uh, tattva-jñāna, uh, not knowing the tattva, tattva-jñāna-vibhrama, not knowing the proper tattva.
And therefore, Bhaktivinoda says that in the beginning, what we have to
do, uh, he says the beginning of spiritual life, the spiritual life starts from KramaSuddha Shravana Dasha. The first period of spiritual life, Dasha, is Krama-Suddha Shravana.
When we hear systematically, you know the problem in this con, why there are so many offenses in this con? Because there is lack of systematic Krama Sudha Shravana, systematic hearing of Tattva.
Everyone has knowledge, and Jiva Goswami says, jñāna-lava-durvidagdha ācikitsā.
He says, those people who have little knowledge, jñāna-lava, lava means very little knowledge, uh, durvidagdha, uh uh this little knowledge, ācikitsā, they become completely incorrigible.
You have little knowledge and you think you have the complete knowledge and that that's very bad. Actually, little knowledge is worse than no knowledge.
Because when you have no knowledge, uh as I said in the beginning, somebody comes and he he thinks that he has no knowledge uh and uh therefore he looks at everyone with or in reverence, worships everyone and uh everything is fine and, he's progressing.
He has all this, at least reflections of spiritual emotion. He's so enthusiastic. And then a few years later, he thinks he has all the knowledge. He still has no knowledge whatsoever.
Nothing changed in this regard, but the only change is that now he thinks he has knowledge. His perception changed. Perception changed and then he commits offenses.
And therefore, Jiva Goswami is very clear about this: jñāna-lava-durvidagdha vicikitsā. Vicikitsā means you cannot cure this person.
You cannot cure somebody who does not have complete knowledge and who thinks he has knowledge. He has little knowledge, but he somehow or other he thinks he has the whole knowledge.
Therefore, as I said, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura he says that krama-śuddha-śravaṇa-daśā in the beginning uh you should hear, but not hear how we hear it. Little bit from here, little bit from there, and then you know at the end of the day, you know, you think you know everything.
From Rasa dance to you know, I'm not this body, the whole range of spiritual philosophy is within you.
Dangers of premature entry into esoteric topics
No. Krama-śuddha means very systematic sort of knowledge when we systematically go and understand the spiritual science. It's a science.
And uh and therefore, you know Gorki Sordas Babaji for example was very very conservative and Prabhupada was very conservative don't carry to speak about gopis Yes, this is the highest, no doubt about it.
All this rasa is the highest. But when you rush into this realm, you will commit what is called and what uh actually Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī is explaining that, you will commit rasābhāsa.
Rasa is a very delicate subject matter. And uh when we are talking about Krishna and his personal relationship with devotees, it's so easy to commit offense. So easy to commit offense.
Recently I was with one devotee and he was showing me his treasures. He has a manuscript, handwritten Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is 500 years old. And all the cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam are there, handwritten.
Somebody, you know, and this Day and night, you know, basically fifteen hours a day he was writing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Without any mistakes, he was doing this.
But what is most amazing about this particular manuscript which he has, 500-year- old manuscript, written very carefully. There is no tenth canto there. Everything else is there. Tenth canto is not there.
So and this devotee who is very knowledgeable about our tradition, he says it's not uncommon in the uh old manuscripts of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that tenth canto is not there because the scribes didn't want to write tenth canto. The intention was that, you know, when when something is written you become a little neglectful.
The basically the idea was if you want to know tenth canto, just know it by heart, learn it by heart, meditate again and again upon it. And and then again, it's very special. It's really special.
Everything else explains to you tattva. Tenth canto explains to you rasa. And to know rasa, you have to be very expert, you have to first know Tattva.
And that's exactly what Śrīla Prabhupāda says in the first canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. You have to learn Shrimad Bhagavatam from the very beginning very carefully. Then only you will come to the tenth canto.
Then only you will understand something which is there, uh what is there. Otherwise you look at this and you you project your own saṁskāras into what Krishna is doing.
And what saṁskāras do you have? We all know what saṁskāras do we have. You know, and how to project it. You know, okay. You know, Krishna has stolen the clothes of goatis. Very nice, very nice. I also would like to do this.
Krishna wanted to see them naked. Krishna doesn't need to see them naked. He's already in their hearts. He sees them only not from outside, from inside also. He knows what's going on there.
We project our own lust into the spiritual realm and, projecting lust into the spiritual realm, we commit offenses, we commit serious offenses. And this is called trasabaz, something which is improper, inappropriate.
It's when it comes to these subtle things, we have to be very appropriate, we have to know rasa, we have to reciprocate with Krishna. Krishna is a person. Why this uh this offense there, why this concept of offense there?
Sometimes people say, no, no, I don't believe in offenses. How you can how you can offend Krishna? He's he's basically, he is Brahman, right? How you can offend Brahman?
No, Brahman you cannot offend, but Krishna you can offend. Because he is a person. And therefore he's sensitive. He has sensitive feelings. It's very easy to hurt the heart of Krishna. Therefore, he is so protective.
Therefore, he made this huge Brahman effulgence so that nobody can see what he is doing there. No offenders could see what is there behind this curtain of spiritual light.
Because again, when we are with our impure eyes try to go into this realm or judge this realm, we commit an offense and it's bad for us. And it hurts Krishna. Krishna is a person, it's easy to hurt him.
Sometimes you know devotees they have this strange understanding that when you become a pure devotee, you become totally insensitive. It's a māyāvādī contamination.
The more pure devotee you become, the more sensitive you become. The more easy to offend you because your feelings are easily hurt. You know, because when your consciousness develops, you become very sensitive.
When you're growth, you know, somebody says to you, you're foolish, okay, no problem. But when when uh when your consciousness develops, uh it's very easy to hurt somebody's feelings.
It's very easy to hurt Krishna's feelings.
Uh that's what we have to know and therefore this whole idea or this whole concept of Aparada is there and therefore we have to be this is the responsibility upon us to understand properly and to relate to Krishna properly because you know we all know of course how easy it is when
we reciprocate with somebody somebody wants to do something good to us and uh you uh and and we don't understand this you know somebody wants to for example somebody wants to give us
something very, you know, very valuable for him. And for us it doesn't have any value. And we we we don't understand what's going on in his heart and we look at this and we throw it away.
Will it be an offense to this person? He will be hurt. He gave us something which is very dear to him. And uh how we related to it, we we couldn't understand the emotion which he attaches to this present and useless stuff.
Something like this. You know, this is this is called rasābhāsa. There is the whole consideration of rasābhāsa in Bhakti-rasāmṛta- Sindhu, where Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī describes different kinds of rasābhāsa.
Uparasābhāsa, aparasābhāsa and Anurasābhāsa, all different kinds of three kinds of rasābhāsa with different categories and subcategories. And basically it means the lack of proper reciprocation.
One example, for example, he gives one example. What is rasābhāsa? He says, When the wives of brāhmaṇas in Krishna's līlā, look we'reing towards Krishna with amorous intentions.
Because wives of Brahmins they developed some sort of love towards Krishna. Krishna was very embarrassed. He didn't look at them. All this, you know, their wives, they're brāhmaṇas, I am a cowherd boy. There is rasābhāsa.
Something unmatching, the rasa, the ecstasy is not coming, the feelings are hurt. Feelings are not proper. So the whole bhakti is about this. The whole bhakti is about feelings. Therefore, aparādha is so prominent in bhakti.
When we hurt somebody's feelings, it's aparādha.
When Rūpa Gosvāmī and Rūpa Gosvāmī is completely pure when he uh just by mistake uh he was laughing by seeing some Krishna līlā and uh some old vaiṣṇava or crippled vaiṣṇava thought he's laughing at him. His feelings were hurt.
And because his feelings were hurt, the whole Leela experience disappeared from Krishna, from Rūpa Gosvāmī's heart. Because that was aparādha. Why this story is there?
Just to stress the point, to drive home the point, how important it is for us to become extremely sensitive. Especially when we grow up in Krishna consciousness. Growing up in Krishna consciousness means this growth or development of internal sensitivity, the sensitivity of the heart. When we are sensitive towards the feelings of others, and when we are sensitive towards the feelings of Krishna.
Because he's a person, he's not just Brahman. You know, when, uh, when Ramachandra Puri came to Madhavendra Puri, Madhavendra Puri was, uh, living this world and he was crying. I didn't achieve the Lord of my love. I did I
Din-dayali-dharanatha, hey Mathuranatha, kada vilokishye, Dayita-padaloka-kataram brahmati, dayita brahmati Kim karamyaham.
So So when he was lamenting like this, and Ramachandra Puri looked at him and said, you're supposed to achieve the Brahman. You're supposed to be in ecstasy. Why are you crying?
And Madhavendra Puri said, get out from here. Go to hell. I didn't achieve Krishna, I'm crying and now this guy is coming to me and saying about the impersonal Brahman, you know. So that was Rasabhas and that was offense.
And this offense actually, as it is said in Chaitanya-caritāmṛta, all the material desires they manifested in the heart of Ramachandra Puri, and he became a professional fault finder by committing this aparādha. Why?
Learning Shrimad Bhagavatam from realized devotees
Because he couldn't reciprocate, he didn't understand, he was not sensitive enough to understand what's going on in the heart of other devotee. So that's basically the point of this.
And this sensitivity, the development of this sensitivity starts from our
development of, uh, tattva-jñāna. Without understanding tattva-jñāna, there is no question of the sensitivity of the heart. Tattva-jñāna is extremely important.
And therefore, the most important verse of this chapter, I will just only say this and then I finish my class, which is already a little too late.
The most important verse of this chapter, and in fact, uh extremely important verse of the whole Caitanya-caritāmṛta and the whole of our literature is when Svarūpa Dāmodara, just few verses later says, Yāha bhāgavata-pāra vaiṣṇava-sthāne, ekānta āsiyā kara caitanya-caraṇe.
If you want to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, he said, you must approach a self-realized Vaishnava and hear from him. You can do this when you have completely taken shelter of the lotus feet of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
The meaning of this verse is that you can only understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, not by reading. You cannot understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by reading.
You understand something, but you will not understand the whole Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The only way to understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the only way, yaḥ bhāgavatapara vaiṣṇava-sthāni.
You have to be situated at the lotus feet of a Vaiṣṇava.
And hear how a Vaiṣṇava, the proper Vaiṣṇava, who understands all the subtleties of siddhānta, subtleties of tattva-jñāna, subtleties of personality of Kṛṣṇa, how he explains this.
Then only you will understand Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Otherwise you will have a distorted conception about Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. You will not understand.
This personally that's exactly what happened with this fortunate brāhmaṇa from Bengal. Well when he heard what Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī explained to him. He gave up everything and he stayed there in Purī.
He said, Okay, I understood everything. I have to be here. Under the personal guidance of this great Vaiṣṇava, only then I will be able to understand something. Otherwise, uh, what is our understanding?
The mechanism of our understanding is simple.
You have your saṁskāras, you read something and whatever, you know, somehow or other is in sync with your saṁskāras, you understand only this, you only see in the book what you already experienced according to your saṁskāras, there is no other way, you will not change your own experience.
You only change your own experience if you are in personal association with the Vaiṣṇava. If you hear personally a Vaiṣṇava and under his guidance you study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. That's the main point of the stories.
Otherwise, you're doomed. Why you're doomed? Because you will start prematurely judging the matters about absolute truth. You will describe it improperly, you will commit aparādhas.
And your heart instead of becoming very soft will become more hard. That's the result of aparādha.
You know, if despite of chanting Hare Krishna and doing all devotional service, we are not uh you know that the the heart is not becoming more soft, something is wrong. It means we're committing aparādhas.
Why we're committing aparadhas? Because there is no because we think we can understand everything ourselves. We cannot understand it. No way.
Because again, the only way to understand something is to compare with our own experience. And we have zero experience in spiritual realm. Less than zero, if there is anything less than zero. We have no experience.
Therefore, the only way to understand that transcendental matters is to be done under the guidance
of Vaishnavas is to receive Vaishnavas, to listen to him carefully. And that's exactly what Prabhupada explains when he says, naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhīdreṣu nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā bhagavaty uttama-śloke bhaktir bhavati naiṣṭhikī.
He says, nityaṁ bhāgavata-sevayā. You have to constantly serve the book Bhagavatam and Devotee Bhagavata together, not separately.
And there is no question of just serving the book Bhagavata without serving the devotee Bhagavatam. Then naṣṭa-prāyeṣv abhīdreṣu, your heart will be cleansed. No doubt about it.
But if you are not under the guidance, if you don't have this personal guidance, if you on if you're trying to do it on your own, then the result may be quite different.
Like it was in case of Ramachandrapurya or whatever. You will commit some grievous aparadhas and then you know of course there is no loss and diminution, ultimately you again regain your Krishna consciousness.
But it is serious. Why it is serious again? Because Krishna is a person. He is not an impersonal Brahman who cannot be offended. Impersonal Brahman you cannot offend, no problem. So go there and do whatever you like.
No problem whatsoever. With Krishna, we have to be very sensitive.
We have to develop, consciously develop the sensitivity of the heart, softness of the heart by serving all the devotees and by trying to tune up our consciousness and make it more and more sensitive.
This is what ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanam means. This is what purification of the heart means. When the heart becomes uh transparent enough to reflect the feelings of others which I spoke yesterday about this. Okay.
Thank you very much, Hare Krishna.
Questions on spiritual growth and discrimination
Yes, perfect. Yes thank you very much, Maharaj.
I very much appreciate your class and your insights, and especially this emphasis on understanding the Vaishnavaparat or Apparat in general, how this is the real destroyer of devotees lives.
I have a question and a comment. You were describing the incident in, um, in Los Angeles with Ekendra prabhu. My recollection is a little bit different.
Um, basically what was happening, the, um, Caitanya-caritāmṛta just come out and, uh, the devotees were very excited to read Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and they had devotees that were reading Caitanya-caritāmṛta. And you know, in the first, uh, volume there's some very high level topics.
Yeah, the force that got back to Prabhupāda. And then Prabhupāda chastised the devotees.
But it wasn't like they were saying, "Oh, Bhagavad-gītā is not so important." They were just absorbed in trying to actually study Prabhupada's books.
Yeah, they were studying Bhagavad-gītā, but the vo— was, uh, at l— uh, I'm, I'm basing— I, I don't have personal experience, so I, I, uh, I'm basing my, uh, story on, on the memories of, uh, Pradyumna Prabhu, who was with Prabhupāda. But I'm just basically asking questions.
So Prabhupāda at that time gave the, the famous saying, "First deserve then desire." Desire. Yes. Meaning new devotees or young devotees, you're in involving yourself in these high topics prematurely.
Yet Prabhupāda gave it to us in his books.
But your point is well taken that at a certain point, because these devotees were five-year devotees, maybe seven, eight, not still experienced, you could say, according to modern standards.
But at a certain point in a devotee's life, how does he know when it's appropriate to delve more into these esoteric topics? Ten years, twenty years, thirty years, forty years?
Uh, I don't think the time matters. It's not a question of time.
It's like this, you know, if you, uh, if we take math and we ask, you know, when it's appropriate time for a boy to study integral calculations or whatever, calculus, or whatever. You know, it's simple.
When he studied arithmetic and then algebra and all other subjects and then he's capable. You know, if it takes him one year to study all this, then he can, he can study in the higher mathematics, no problem.
It's not a question of time. It's a question of going systematically and understanding and building up the foundation. When the foundation is there, then you will be able to properly understand.
Otherwise, again, while you are building up the foundation And learning this systematically, then your saṁskāra has changed.
Then you gain the spiritual experience, the proper spiritual experience or advaya-jñāna, the non-dual consciousness, to understand the non-dual matters and to understand the higher realm of relationship of Krishna with his devotees.
So again, it's not a question of time, it's a question of properly systematically studying under the proper guidance. Okay, so when when one is in the association of devotees and you feel that that time is there.
Because Prabhupāda and Bhaktisiddhānta were both very conservative when it came to these discussions. In public they would rarely talk about it.
In the books, of course, they would delve into the Gauḍīya literatures and some of these more esoteric But at the same time Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī at one point said now it's time to talk about this.
And he was very careful, but at the same time was very, you know, it's not that it's completely forbidden from now for the rest of eternity. Yeah, that's our tradition. That's our tradition. But in a systematic way.
First ABC, very slowly, and then after ABC, you know, D, E, F and whatever is there. Okay. Thank you very much. It's a good answer. Thank you. Um I just have another comment, please.
Um, in terms of the uh, the, the jñāna-tattva or tattva-jñāna, um, this is also a very important thing that devotees need to understand to stuff and thoroughly understand that the kaniṣṭha mentality is usually oh I understand it. Yes.
Actually there's subtleties, there's nuances, there's depths of understanding, layers of understanding, so many issues that they're not actually aware of, but they're thinking, oh I understand it. That's a big problem.
Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, he said there's actually two tattvas that are very difficult to understand. Śiva-tattva, which we understand is Guru. Guru-tattva is even more difficult.
Yet the devotees have this tendency to think, I understand Guru-tattva, is very simple. But it actually is very mystical, it's very deep, lots of layers of nuances. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Okay.
Marge, if we look at this translation in isolation, we see—I mean, Margaret was leader and is one of compassion. Yet we see, sort of, though it's quite heavy. Stern. Yeah.
So how do we understand compassionate correction or not misunderstand this in the wrong way?
Well, when he saw that Bengali poet became very humble after being chastised in this way, he actually completely accepted this chastisement. Then he said, actually your verse is not so bad.
Actually the Saraswati entered your tongue and it made it, she made it right. So he gave a different explanation of the verse and said, actually, it's not so bad. So, but only when he saw the humility of the Vaishnava.
So when we are proud and then we are incorrigible, then it's very difficult to, you know, get rid of disease.
But, uh, devotees are very, uh, compassionate when they see the sincere remorse, then immediately they—they come to rescue you. So there was no problem with this Bengali poet, the problem is with us.
If we compose some verse—oh, my goodness, especially in Sanskrit—and somebody will try to correct it, oh, my goodness.
I—I know it because I—I've been dealing with the books, you0, and if you do something and somebody comes and says this is a mistake, you become so offended. You become so. Yes, thank you for it.
You spoke very nicely about the offensive mentality spreading like a disease and so as aspiring devotees trying to always be in good association.
How can we draw—and we need to draw—distinction between good association and bad? So how can we avoid bad association without becoming proud ourselves?
Bad association does not imply—necessarily imply—offenses, because you just maintain respectful distance.
Once, Śrīla Radhanath Maharaj said, if somebody is trying to say some—some gossip to you, then your reply should be—your reply should not be "you are—you're gossiping," you're just normal sons.
Your reply should be I'm not so advanced to hear this. So I'm not as advanced as you to hear this. That's a very respectful way of avoiding this.
I I yeah and that's a fact I'm not advanced. So please don't speak this to me. I don't want. I I'm not as advanced, you know. When I reach your level of advancement, I will hear this one now please.
So there is a way to to avoid without committing aparādhas. We we just know that maybe according to my imperfect judgment there may be something wrong with this so better I stay a little in the distance and uh I will associate with somebody about whom I know that he's not offensive. He doesn't have offensive mentality. That's it.
Thank you very much, Mahārāja.
Meaning and impact of initiation samskara
Regarding the initiation, did the saṁskāras change? Does the karma change? Because I mean as we get older we we suffer from the infirmities of old age, we get diseases, and so what actually changes when one gets initiated?
Initiation is a samskara. There are two main meanings in the word samskara.
One is the subliminal impressions in the mind, whatever memories are there in the mind, whatever especially emotionally charged memories which are very active in the mind.
And another meaning of the word samskara, Sanskrit word samskara, according to Śrīla Prabhupāda is the purificatory ceremony, the ritual or ceremony which purifies these bad saṁskāras which you have.
So the science behind it when when you undergo the ceremony, it has to be imprinted in your consciousness, it has to leave a very deep impression upon your consciousness,
so much so that it inactivates material saṁskāras or other saṁskāras which are not so good.
And we know that you know there is this Garbhādhāna saṁskāra and all the saṁskāras which people do during the pregnancy and jāta-karma, they all are to leave the good impressions.
So initiation is the same sort of ceremony. If it's done properly, it leaves a very deep impression. And there are different traditions in regard to spiritual initiation, dīkṣā.
Like I know that in some traditions the guru and the disciple they have to fast the whole day and the whole night and you know discuss spiritual matters. And only after that the disciples get the mantra from a guru.
So if you fast the whole day and whole night it definitely will leave a very deep impression upon your heart. But the idea again is to give and you know if the devotee is properly tuned towards this ceremony,
then the impression will be definitely very deep and it will change because they can give the vows. And the guru asks, you know, please tell which vows you will follow for the rest of your life, and somebody thinks, my goodness, for the rest of my life. If he is conscious, if he is present during the ceremony, he understands that there is no way back.
Actually, that's another very interesting element of the science of saṁskāra. This is explained by Charaka Muni and Charaka Saṁhitā.
He says that you know when the saṁskāra is done, something irrevocable is done, some even on a physiological level, you cannot go back.
For example, if vivāha saṁskāra is done, you will never become a bachelor after vivāha saṁskāra again. Even if you divorce.
You're not going you're you you will never become a brahmacārī again. That's it, brahmacarya is finished.
So some some saṁskāras is very deep, some saṁskāras are there, so you cannot go back. Some saṁskāras is so deep then uh then you cannot revive the previous state of consciousness which was there before.
So in a similar way, when we give these vows and when we receive the name, and you know, and properly Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura explains the pañca-saṁskāra should be there, all these five five different saṁskāras starting with tapa and what is it, tapa and pundra, ūrdhva-puṇḍra and nāma and yāga and śikhā or whatever it is there.
So when you undergo this then you obtain a different identity. Your name is changed and dāsa is there. It means that you have the identity of the servant.
You know, before people were not allowed even to chant the holy name on the beats. They could chant mentally, but then now you have the beats. You have now ūrdhva-puṇḍra.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura before initiation he would not put tilak and traditionally it's not proper only after initiation you put tilak.
So all this external signs they're not so external, they're just manifestation of your changed identity.
Now I I I'm developing my spiritual identities through all this myths, through through the changing of the name, through putting tilak uh on my forehead and the twelve parts of the body through chanting the holy name and uh you know through my changed name and so on and so forth. So this is what is supposed to change.
Whether it changes or not very much depends on your consciousness during the samskara. But the science behind this is that you're very attentive and you understand what is supposed to take place.
You are changing your identity from the material identity of being enjoyer of this world. You become the dasa servant. Thank you very much for that. Thank you.
I haven't adjusted—you were speaking about as the neophytes advance, they become more sensitive and easier to attend.
So I was a little confused, because as we read the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, we see that the neophyte is killing him or by beating him.
This is not an offense, but you can offend a devotee if you say something bad about his guru, for example, isn't it? And for somebody who is neophyte, you say something, okay, no problem. So he's not sensitive enough.
The sensitivity changes, you know. You become very sensitive when it comes to spiritual matters. And you lose material sensitivity. So it's not that uh you become sensitive in all regards.
No, you lose your material sensitivity, there's no doubt about it, but you develop the spiritual sensitivity, and therefore it becomes practically painful for you to hear something, you know.
Whereas as a neophyte devotee, you may hear something and you say, okay, fine, nice. It was painful for Svarūpa Dāmodara to hear this verse of this devotee.
And therefore, he was screening it so sorely so that it would not come to Caitanya Mahāprabhu, because Caitanya Mahāprabhu was extremely sensitive at this and Mahaprabhu because Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was extremely sensitive at this and his feelings could be hurt.
Cultivating genuine humility through proper association
Okay. I wrote it down. In a system which is eternal, Krishna consciousness, when will we have enough knowledge not to commit offences?
Um and I feel a little um in my heart discouraged because I feel on the path to Krishna it's full of offences because I'm so contaminated. What to speak of the offences I'll commit on the journey.
I feel like maybe I'll never make the necessary progress, but perhaps instead of moving forwards I'll keep moving backwards. Therefore the humility is the humility is the key, is the solution.
Therefore we have to be consciously developing humility and uh and when humility is there then offenses are nullified uh you know you you you you you start changing uh uh without
offences. When you develop humility, tṛṇād api su-nīcena, taror api sahiṣṇunā, amāninā mānadena, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. Kirtaniya Sadhari.
So offenses is a problem, but the solution is also there, and solution is easily available.
So just develop humility consciously, not to you know inflate your false ego, it's already overly inflated, so there's no need for it. You know, just put aside your false ego for the time being. You know, it's worth it.
And you become happy because it's false ego which makes you unhappy. So and to develop genuine humility, there's only one way to develop genuine humility, to associate with those people who have genuine humility.
Otherwise it will be it will be just another mask of the false ego, humble false ego. She's actually in reality very proud, but the mask is there.
So if if there is this genuine association and and therefore Prabhupada said only in the society of devotees you can become Krishna conscious if you develop this proper mood in associating festivals. Okay. Yes.
Thank you for that class is very enlightening. I uh was just wondering about that topic humility and then I
understand that really and so when there's the difference between giving association and taking association and um how to do that not on an equal platform.
That both people a group of people always feel equal but still there's the difference of giving and taking association. I don't know how to explain it. That that uh everyone feels that equal way
French see uh friendship is a is a relationship, is a feeling.
And um like also uh Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī in Bhakti-rasāmṛta- Sindhu, he gives another example of rasābhāsa. This example when Krishna was relating with one king who was father-in-law of his son.
The king gave his daughter in marriage to Krishna's son. And you know that implies some equality, right? Between Krishna and the king.
So and Krishna wanted to joke with him, and when he was joking with him, the king was taking this war hands and you know praying the prayers from the Vedas. And Krishna was embracing him and the king was bowing down and saying, you know, no no no no no no.
And uh Rūpa Gosvāmī says that's an example of rasābhāsa. You're trying to relate with somebody on an equal level, and he does not reciprocate with your with your advances, so to speak, with your relationship.
He is trying to develop something. And then the result, the whole situation becomes awkward, you know, the awkward feeling is there. You don't feel the joy because the reciprocation is not there.
So you can become the humility is not a problem,
but uh you know giving and taking it can be done on an equal level if you understand what the relationship on the equal level means. Uh it can be done very joyfully on the equal level. You give something uh joyfully and then somebody gratefully recip gets it and in reciprocation with you give something which he has and you don't have, you know whether it's emotion or something more gross.
But it's it's again, it's just a question of, it's a science of relationship, and the science of relationship ultimately is based on humility.
Because only when you develop humility, you develop the sensitivity towards what others feel. And then you can reciprocate and reflect the others' feelings.
If you're proud, you cannot reflect you don't understand what's going on in the heart of other person and therefore you inevitably will do or say something inappropriate because you don't understand.
You cannot reciprocate. And the highest reciprocation is of course the love of Krishna and Rādhārāṇī, you know. When she becomes sulky and when she turns away from Krishna, it's all reciprocation, it's just all play.
Beautiful play of love. Reciprocation. So that's what we are learning here. Okay, I I guess it's too late. Thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jai.