HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE 13 страница
Many will be pleased to prostitute the pure devotional principles for affectedly dignified, institutionally conventionalized substandard objectives which accommodate conditional devotional, mixed devotional, quasi-devotional, or non-devotional attachments. Some would be happy just to get the hell out of this hellhole and go to Vaikuntha. Others would be gratified to go to heaven. Some are more than happy to hoard their collected guru-daksina in their secret Swiss bank accounts. Others, keen on contractual so-called devotional engagements, are rapaciously bent on bringing home their monthly wage packets (Ooops! I mean their grihastha “maintenance allowances”). Anyway, however we euphemize the thing, they get their padded positions – their hearth and home, their conveyances, and their promised pensions upon retirement. The institution becomes practically like any other materialistic corporate establishment. It may be pragmatically convenient to contractually bind people in order to ensure an externally impressive illusion of managerial success, but in terms of generating an atmosphere of pure, unconditional devotion, it does no more than increase our indigestion. Nevertheless, it’s easier to pay people to do the jobs than to engage them in acts of pure devotion. So it looks like the jobs are getting done. The floors are getting swept; the Deities’ bhoga offerings are getting cooked; the puja is being covered; the funds are being raised. There is even a semblance of institutional management. However, no one gets the benefit of entering an atmosphere that is surcharged with unconditional devotion, simply because the pure devotional energy is most conspicuously lacking. Performing services with a view to gaining material amenities hardly even constitutes karma-yoga, what to speak of bhakti. Some individuals, making excuses for themselves, are simply satisfied with short-term genital infatuations on the plea of “Krishna conscious” home life. Still others boldly campaign for the institutional ratification of “Krishna conscious” homosexuality, and so on and so forth.
When an individual or the consensus or joint action of a body of individuals accords with the principles of sampradaya as per the decisions of guru, sadhus, and shastras, then only will the words and deeds of such individuals elicit our commendation and compliance. Conversely, it would be most indecorous of an individual or body of individuals deviating in various ways from standard sampradayic conclusions, regardless of ecclesiastico-administrative bearing, to expect or demand anyone’s unreserved avowed allegiance. Our fealty shall be to the service of truth, not to the service of rationalized philosophical misconstruction.
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Everything is undoubtedly orchestrated by the Supreme Controller to mete out the various circumstantial requirements of every devotional candidate. It is not by chance or for no good reason that one soul gets genuine sadhu-sanga and another has to hear from an avowed institutional charlatan. We all have to go through our various positive and negative learning experiences. No one can avoid cooperating, in some way or another, with the Lord’s greater cosmic arrangement. However, it should be noted that one result is attained by directly supporting the Lord’s unimpeded munificence and another by indirectly serving as His cheating agent. It is not that, because we have “joined” a maha-bhagavata’s promising spiritual institution (society), we cannot become cheaters, we cannot dull-headedly or mischievously mislead or under-edify people. “Jaya Gurudeva! Jaya Gurudeva!” But are we actually guiding them properly? Or are we cheating them by not allowing them to see what the sampradaya actually intends to teach. Years and years are wasted in misconception, both for the cheaters and for the cheated. And then, maybe, if one is fortunate (bhagyavan jiva), one miraculously stumbles upon someone who can actually elucidate the essential import of the shastras and mercifully offer proper internal devotional direction from the realized platform. Regardless of the extent to which the prakrita- bhaktas and other show-bottle miserly institutional ignoramuses pride themselves to be satisfied that whatever they’re doing on the basis of ulterior personal motives is in some way gratifying to the ego, mind, senses, or whatever, the true fact is that they will, in due course, eventually, in some lifetime or another, dejectedly recognize that their soul has not been satisfied. They have not become prasannatma. Watered-down philosophy means watered-down result. Watered-down result means they are cheated and cannot become fully joyful. Becoming sufficiently frustrated, they may then, sooner or later, fortunately come to the position of crying out to Krishna and honestly begging for the real thing in all humility.
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Wherever we will find a realized exemplar of the full array of unalloyed devotional wisdom, there we will behold a perfectly holistic representative of Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana movement. It may be argued that “Well, we, on various levels, are all representing the movement in the making.” “Movement in the making” means to progressively move the bungling bhaktas from the position of unaccomplishment to the position of accomplishment, from imperfection to perfection, from impurity to purity. The idea is that the movement is like a hospital gradually moving everyone toward the healthy pure devotional ideal – not that one should idealistically expect everyone in the hospital to be perfectly healthy and pure. That’s all right. We shouldn’t unjustly cast aspersions upon the sincere patients (sadhakas), though they, with all their frailties, have yet to be fully disinfected. The point, though, is that the doctor should be healthy and pure. The movement’s Acaryas (leaders) coming in the acarya-parampara should be pure and self-realized. It is not that there shall be no subsequent generations of Acaryas. All the disciples are instructed to come up to the decontaminated, liberated standard of acarya. The offenseless shuddha-nama- bhajana/sankirtananandi practically manifesting the pure attributes of an acarya, who clearly ascertains, follows, and, from the realized position, propagates the scriptural conclusions, as per the decisions of the previous Acaryas, is to be considered a truly viable link in the sampradaya’s disciplic succession. There really can be no feasible makeshift or stopgap “blind uncle” vicar. Disciplic succession means from acarya to acarya or Acaryas, not from acarya to umpteen gazillion blockheads who, being too spiritually gutless to grasp the recognized esoteric method of unalloyed devotional realization, prefer to parade about, presumably on the plea of para-upakara, preaching any retarded shabby so-called philosophy that blunderbusses out from their internally bankrupt, institutionally bamboozled, busy-bodying brainlessness.
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Just as the series of crystal-clear lenses of a telescope brings a distant image within the purview of our eyes, in the same way, a sampradaya’s transcendental heritage is brought into the scope of our understanding through a transparent medium, the chain of pure and spiritually potent representatives of the acarya-parampara. Dusty, foggy, flawed, warped, or impotent lenses will not do. A chain is as clear and reliable as its faultiest lens. To act as transparent medium means to allow others to clearly perceive the descending radiance of the bhagavata-siddhanta by purely exemplifying the perfect application of the principles of bhagavata-dharma (as per sambandha-abhidheya-prayojana-vicara) on the basis of scriptural evidence and personal attainment. acarya, in the Gaudiya line, really means one who is fully Krishna conscious, who purely teaches the path of unalloyed devotional conduct (both external and internal) by personally imbibing and practically demonstrating the unalloyed, unconditional loving devotional ideals of a Vrajavasi. Whether a nitya-siddha avatara appears in this world as an acarya, or a sadhana-siddha, having attained perfection in a previous life, is reborn by the will of the Lord to act as acarya in the service of the sampradaya, or one or more individuals in the present life gain the spiritual fitness to exemplify the principles of vraja-prema-dharma for the benefit of others, the role of sampradayic acarya is not a matter of institutional rubber-stamping. There’s no question of institutional rubber-stamping. The rubber-stamping of gurus is, in fact, quite against the principles of sampradaya. It indicates neither purity nor high-caliber Krishna consciousness. There actually has to be purity, and where there is purity coupled with realized siddhanta-based raga-mayi unalloyed devotional expression, rubber-stamping or no rubber-stamping, there we may hope to see the actual current of the sampradaya.
No amount of institutional legislation has ever in the past ensured that the budding disciples will not get any other than sad-guru, nor does such presently offer any reasonable assurance to that effect, nor can such ever feasibly promise a foolproof approach to sad-guru in the future. Glaring testimony of this statement rests in the much-less-than-unblemished post- founder-acarya institutional track record. What more need be said? One gets sad-guru by the grace of God. Having accumulated suitable sukriti by lifetimes of inadvertent contact with agents of bhakti, a fortunate jiva becomes inclined toward the service of the Absolute. When Krishna, who is seated as Paramatma within the heart, directing the wanderings of every living entity since time immemorial, deems one the object of His mercy, then only, by His arrangement, is it possible for one to get the feet of sad-guru – not otherwise. By the mercy of Krishna, one gets guru, and by the mercy of a genuinely elevated Vaishnava guru, one gets Krishna. The institutional rubber-stamping of guru as well as the recurrently observed herding of unsuspecting fledgling devotional candidates into institutionally endorsed liaison with chic-awash, locally lionized, ecclesiastically rubber-stamped guru figure-heads simply boasts of a preposterously overestimated shot at managerially manipulating, governing, or meddling with the entirely independent will of the Absolute. In reality, though, God’s will is quite beyond the grip of any theocracy’s ostensibly ironclad administrative edicts. Those who are God-sanctioned to get the feet of sad-guru will definitely succeed by dint of Providence’s inscrutable transcendental system – even without the “aid” of materially concocted religio-legislative contrivances. And, despite all the well-intended precautionary legislation, those not destined to get sad-guru in the present life, though associated with one or another preaching organization, will be frustrated time and again, even after repeated futile attempts. Of this there is ample precedence. The shining example of devotees authentically empowered by Krishna-shakti to undeviatingly represent the teachings of the predecessor Acaryas will itself suffice to satisfy all institutional requirements. Aspiring sampradayic adherents need only be siddhantically edified and alerted as to the standard shastric criteria for ascertaining the fitness of guru. That much institutional governance is legitimate. Deviants and imposters will automatically be shunned and fall into disrepute. No amount of artificially imposed ecclesial governance in the matter of guru appointment under any clumsy pretext can change for half a hair-breadth the God- sanctioned progress of a jiva’s sojourn through eternal time. To advocate otherwise on the plea of administrative safeguard and quality-control is to indecorously vaunt one’s lack of faith in the inescapable will of the Supreme and the Acaryas’ actual instructions concerning the principles of disciplic succession.
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It is not enough to proficiently engage the unapprised, sub- devotional, ass-like neophytes in preliminary sub-religious purificatory processes. Outwardly epitomizing the strict adherence to rudimentary vaidhi devotional codes of conduct alone is not sufficient to qualify anyone as an acarya in the real sense. Certainly the bona fide bhagavata-acarya has the enormous task of gradually uplifting two-legged animals to a reasonable semblance of religious life, but the onus does not culminate in merely instituting semi-devotional or obligatory devotional regimentation on the foundation of stereotyped external religious formulae. An acarya must have the fitness to elevate the disciple to the pinnacle of ultimate raga-mayi spontaneous devotional perfection. He himself must exemplify the standard of unalloyed devotional perfection as inspirational living proof that the process of rupanuga-bhajana actually works, that transcendence or divine consciousness is practically achievable. A language instructor does not merely teach his students the alphabet. There’s also spelling, grammar, composition, style, syntax, and so forth. Similarly, a bona fide sampradayic agent must be competent to offer advanced instruction to further enlighten the more eligible graduate and post-graduate disciples. A disciple could hardly hope to reach the stage of para bhakti for the attainment of life’s ultimate objective under a neophyte’s insufficient guidance. The velocity of a disciple’s pure devotional progress is an individual affair, contingent upon preexisting and presently acquired types and levels of shraddha. It is not the duty of an acarya to hinder the advancement of a progressive student by insisting upon the latter’s exclusive confinement to the regulative principles of vaidha-sadhana. With all due respect, vaidhi bhakti, being considerably encumbered and constrained under the sway of aishvarya-jnana (knowledge of Krishna’s supremacy) and encroached upon by scriptural injunctions together with argument, intellection, analysis, and ascription, is not real bhakti. It is not para bhakti or kevala-bhakti in the real sense. Unless one comes to the platform of para bhakti, one’s devotion to guru and Krishna cannot be considered real. Vaidhi bhakti as applied in the context of Rupanuga Vaisnavism serves only as a threshold to the house of real bhakti. It is merely a rudimentary apprenticeship, meant to offer the kanistha-adhikaris a preliminary footing on the devotional path. It is not that we are to remain indefinitely on the prakrita platform as life-long kanistha-adhikaris with no higher superlative devotional idea. Bhakti that is characterized by the unconditional endeavor to please Krishna, to love Him because His personality is so unlimitedly enchanting and lovable, simply because He is the way He is, the sweetest of all sweets, regardless of whether or not He is, in fact, the Supreme Personality of Godhead – that is real bhakti. Real bhakti, para bhakti, is none other than raga- mayi spontaneous devotion, and raganuga-sadhana-bhakti is unarguably a necessary bridge to the plane of spontaneous raga-mayi realization.
Real bhakti is solely the prerogative of the raga-bhakta. Any expression of devotion to guru and Krishna not based on raga cannot be accepted as a real devotional expression, because the devotion on which the expression is based is not actually real devotion. It is obligatory, fear-impelled ritualistic devotion, which does not lend itself to the natural, free-flowing spontaneous loving attraction of the heart toward the confidential service of Krishna and His dearest devotees. The acarya may graciously hear and accept a neophyte disciple’s relatively sincere but rather sentimental childish glorifications to encourage his disciple’s gradual devotional progress. Moreover, an aging kanistha-adhikari posing as an intimate associate of the acarya may naturally take pride in nostalgically reminiscing about the guru’s past inter-personal dealings, as far as a tenaciously life-long neophyte’s paltry perception of reality permits. Yet unless and until one comes to the pure cognition of one’s ultimate internal raga-mayi relationship with sad-guru, in consonance with the intrinsic nitya-dharma of the soul as an eternal denizen of Vraja-dhama, any air of allegiance to or appreciation of the acarya, the acarya-parampara, or the acarya’s sampradayic legacy must be considered relatively petty, shallow, or superficial. As such, apart from the unalloyed devotee established on the platform of para bhakti or real, spontaneous raga-mayi devotion, no one would be accepted as a perfect and complete siddhantically comprehensive and very real representative of the Rupanuga-sampradaya. Delineation of the principles of vaidhi bhakti constitutes merely a tiny fraction of Shri Caitanya’s teachings. If one does not pursue the path of real devotion, raga-bhakti, and if one does not purposely endeavor in the course of one’s preaching to encourage others to surpass the kanistha stage, to upgrade to the path of raga- bhakti, then it cannot be said that one is viably representing the tenets of the Gaudiya-sampradaya. To genuinely represent the Gaudiya-sampradaya as per the principles of rupanuga-dharma, one must, through the process of extensive hearing about Krishna’s vraja-lilas and all relevant topics, from the stage of shravana-dasha, first allow oneself to become attracted to the sweetest prospect of realizing an intimate relationship with Vrajendra-nandana Krishna. Then, with intense greed, great enthusiasm, strong conviction, and one-pointed determination, one must, following one’s own intrinsic inclination toward one of the vraja-bhavas, transcend the conditional, vidhi-dependent kanistha-adhikara and come to the position of firmly embracing the principles of raganuga-sadhana-bhakti from the stage of acceptance (varana-dasha) in the madhyama-adhikara. By deep internal cultivation, characterized by intensified hearing, chanting, and increasingly constant recollection of Radha and Krishna’s names, forms, qualities, and pastimes, one can verily gain the appropriate raga-mayi-bhava as one’s sadhya (apana- dasha). Then, as a bhavuka or premika maha-bhagavata, from the realized position, having attained the desired outcome (sadhya), namely spontaneous loving devotion based on raga or attraction to the beauty and sweetness of Krishna in His loving dealings with the Vrajavasis, one can powerfully propagate the bhagavata-siddhanta in such a way as to positively inspire adequately fortunate conditioned souls to abandon all occupations save and except the cultivation of loving service to the lotus feet of Radha and Krishna on the basis of the attractiveness of the vraja-lilas and the superlative nature of the principles of supra-mundane raga. To say nothing of the true function of various illustrious institutions established on behalf of the Gaudiya-sampradaya, ultimately, the total material creation is an institution set up simply to directly and indirectly facilitate a few fortunate souls’ eventual highest attainment of the vraja-lilas. To preach raga-marg-bhakti, the path of vraja- bhakti-bhajana, to the world via the prema-nama-sankirtana movement of Shri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is to effectuate the purpose of the entire creation.
If neophyte devotees cannot at least begin to appreciate the elementary example of compassion toward others, as shown by Prahlada Maharaja’s expressed anxieties for the fools of this external realm, then how could we expect them to fathom the ocean of premika compassion abounding in the topmost devotees’ transmundane eroticism in the supreme realm of Vraja? Can a kindergarten pupil understand calculus or trigonometry? It is necessary for the externally oriented novices to observe the principle of compassion directed externally toward the realm easily identifiable to them owing to their own horrific experiences of material entanglement. Then it may be possible for them to gradually come to recognize and serve the superlative, internally applied aspect of the same principle, appreciable only from a platform of considerable purification. That is an indispensable part of our basic training. In that sense, for a novice, earnest engagement in the Lord’s external preaching mission under rudimentary rules and regulations may certainly function as a prerequisite for future high-grade internal bhajana. If, however, one does not intelligently come to the position of meticulously culturing the internal raganuga-bhava, then preaching Krishna consciousness remains for the most part an external affair, a kind of showbottle-ism in the name of Krishna consciousness. The put-on sankirtana smile may appear to be temporarily useful in the matter of eliciting an immediate favorable response from a naive or good-natured audience, but unless one is actually blissful, having achieved the ananda-maya status of apana-dasha, attaining the genuine experience of one’s constitutional spiritual sthayi-bhava as a result of spiritual trance (samadhi), one’s make-show preaching won’t effectively generate in others the ruci required to sustain long-term pure devotional service on the basis of powerfully inculcated spiritual substance. Nor will it directly foster the preacher’s own ultimate premika absorption in the moods of Vraja.
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