śrī śrī guru gaurāṅga jayataḥ!
Year 12, Issue 6
Posted: 29 July 2019
Dedicated to
nitya-līlā praviṣṭa oṁ viṣṇupāda
Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja
Inspired by and under the guidance of
Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja
Divine Amour – Part 1
The Personality of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya is identical with and yet distinct from Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The activities of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya are therefore also identical with and yet distinct from the amorous pastimes of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The activities of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya appear in a form that alone is capable of being received by the conditioned soul without any chance of being muddled by his conditioned judgment.
The mercy of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya and His followers is lavished on all mundane entities in such unstinted/abundant profusion that no one need have any chance of missing the knowledge of those transcendental entities who have descended and from whom the conditioned soul is to learn the method of his deliverance.
This mercy expresses itself in a visible form as the activities of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya and His bona fide followers. They teach conditioned souls complete service to the Divinity by displaying to them the eclipsed vision of their own transcendental activities, identical with the amorous performances of the spiritual milkmaids of Vraja. Those, therefore, who misunderstand the doings of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya and His associates do so either through laziness or by their deliberate, irrational hostility toward the manifest Truth.
The perfect chant –the name of Kṛṣṇa – is available to all souls, and it is identical with the amorous service of the spiritual milkmaids of Vraja. This is the sum and substance of the teaching of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya. Conversely, those who do not perform the congregational chanting of the name of Kṛṣṇa in a manner that is free from offence, are not in a position to realize the nature of Divine Amour. Those who miss such realization remain subject to being enthralled by mundane lust.
The epistemology that helps us to realize the truth of the above conclusion is in conformity with the requirements of the Absolute, as distinct from the pursuit of the deluding knowledge of anything non-absolute. In order to realize the nature of the spiritual function, it is only logical to use spiritual means. The descent of the Divinity and His eternal servitors provide us with the requisite spiritual means in an available form. Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya teaches us how to avail ourselves of this help when, of its own accord, it actually comes within our reach.
The service that is offered to the Divinity and His servitors, when they choose to be accessible to us on the mundane plane, is in no way different from the service offered by the fully liberated soul on the plane of transcendence. The function of the soul on the superior plane is reflected in a distorted way in the unwholesome functions of the conditioned state. But until the constructive grossness of mundane corporeality and mentality are eliminated, they continue to obstruct the function of the soul on his own proper plane.
This elimination is affected by the grace of Godhead when He appears on this lower plane and is inclined to confer His service upon the conditioned soul. Those, who are not allowed by Godhead to approach Him cannot recognize Him even when they see Him. Nobody can see Him as He is, even when he reveals Himself to the view of mortal eyes. This apparently self-contradictory statement is explained by the fact that there is actual correspondence between the formal aspect of the mundane and the spiritual experience. The conditioned soul sees the Divinity as He is, but only when the Divinity chooses to remove the barrier from the path of his vision and also when the Divinity simultaneously manifests His descent to the mundane plane. Not otherwise.
If the conditioned soul chooses quite irrationally to suppose Godhead to be a mundane entity, i.e. an entity capable of being approached by his mundane senses for any of the five forms of mundane relationship, he fails to see Divinity when He reveals Himself to his view. Under such circumstances, this mistake is inevitable, unless Godhead chooses to relieve the spectator of the fetters of his limited existence.
Adapted from The Gauḍīya, Year 17, Number 4
by the Rays of The Harmonist team
