śrī śrī guru gaurāṅga jayataḥ!
Year-5, Issue 6
Posted: 8 July 2012
Dedicated to
nitya-līlā praviṣṭa oṁ viṣṇupāda
Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja
Inspired by and under the guidance of
nitya-līlā praviṣṭa oṁ viṣṇupāda
Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja
On Our Way Home
by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda
This world is a perverted reflection of the original world, which is our real home. Instead of passing our time here, we want to go back to our eternal abode. We are now very busily engaged in pursuing pleasant sensations gained by our senses from phenomenal objects. We should make it a point to eradicate the root cause of this, which has brought us to this world of delusion, apparent pleasures, miseries and troubles. The mind is the root of all evils and the root of all pleasure-seeking inclinations. So the mind should be subjugated first; that is, it should not be allowed to take initiative in anything. Ordinarily the mind controls our senses and the soul is lying in a dormant condition. The soul has delegated its power of transacting with the external world to the mind, and the mind has five ministers to help in the administration of the phenomenal world. But the mind is a not a dutiful agent of the soul. It always tries to injure the interest of the soul.
The soul has come down here and, while doing so, it has incorporated two envelopes; one subtle and the other gross. Consequently the soul is now in a drowsy condition. It cannot exactly compel the mind to look after its interest. At this point of crisis, the ever merciful Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa sends His messengers with the transcendental sound. This transcendental sound is to be received through the ears. The transcendental sound is meant to regulate the five senses, which are presently engaged in the wrong way – namely, catering to the mind’s purposes while injuring the purposes of the eternal soul. So aural reception is the first thing we should seek from the agent – the deputed messenger from the transcendental plane.
The transcendental sound is transmitted through the lips of the messenger in the form of a mantra and in the form of the name. The very name of the Transcendent Godhead can regulate the senses. Go on chanting the name, constantly repeat the transcendental nomenclature and you will find that energy is being injected into you. But this name should come to you from a good source, from a transcendental source, and not from any mundane source. The name should not be confused with the other form of sound, which is of this world. The transcendental sound regulates the senses and does not submit to the senses for scrutiny. When the Supreme Lord Śrī Caitanya-deva met Śrī Rūpa at Allahabad, He first of all transmitted something into the entity of Śrī Rūpa which empowered him to receive the transcendental sound from Him, and then He imparted those transcendental sounds to him with all explanations.
Mantra is the name in the dative case*. The Supreme Lord, being adhokṣaja (beyond the perception of the material senses), does not allow anybody to see Him. But people are impatient to see Him first, and this is the wrong process.
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* A grammatical case used to indicate the noun to which something is offered.
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There cannot be more than one guru. Guru is one without a second. First of all, we should search throughout the world to single out the proper person from whom we can adopt the correct process. We then should rely on him fully and have our confidence (śraddhā) in him. He will dictate to us what sort of engagement, or bhajana, we should perform for the welfare of our soul. As a result of this engagement, or bhajana-kriyā, we will be set free from all sorts of troubles and all our acquisitions and empiric activities will be regulated. That is, all undesirable elements that have crept into our activities will be eliminated. This is called anartha nivṛtti.
Then comes niṣṭhā. We should resolve that we will not deviate from our only object, which is to serve the Absolute, to be constantly attached to Him. We should have some sort of predilection, or taste, for our bhajana-kriyā, the continuity of which should not be disturbed. When we transcend sādhana-bhakti, we are placed in the bhāva-bhakti region where we will find that rati is the cardinal point, the principal thing.
When we were passing through sādhana-bhakti, śraddhā was the index. Here in bhāva-bhakti, rati is the index. Rati has five different aspects, śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya and mādhurya. Rati is the Medulla Oblongata or the substratum that lies between sādhana-bhakti and bhāva-bhakti. Rati is supplied by four different ingredients known as vibhāva, anubhāva, sāttvika-bhāva and sañcārī-bhāva. Vibhāva includes ālambana and uddīpana. In ālambana we find viśaya and āśraya. There is activity of viśaya for āśraya and of āśraya for viśaya. The viśaya is one without a second, but there are many āśrayas. Kṛṣṇa is the only viśaya, and kārṣṇas, His devotees, are the āśrayas.
Adapted from The Gaudiya, Volume 28, Number 11
by the Rays of The Harmonist team
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