HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE 22 страница
– as well as all domestic, public, socio-political, governmental, and inter-governmental irregularities of this age – can be positively surmounted simply by intelligently administering “heavier,” more frequent medicinal doses of life-giving yuga- dharma shri-hari-nama-sankirtana. Once again, if we’re not part of the solution, we’re part of the problem. We have busied ourselves over the years, trying so many other ideas. Why not sincerely concede to this one and be pleasantly surprised? We hardly expect to revamp the mental climate of an entire society. It is unlikely everyone will be genuine enough to rise to the occasion and seriously implement, but the faithful individuals who do will beyond a shred of doubt be recognized by Lord Caitanya and immensely benefited.
The proliferation of transcendental literature is certainly the best advertising front of the Krishna consciousness movement. The idea is to canvass in such a way as to persuade human society’s literate intelligentsia to join the fold of Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana movement on the basis of convincingly sound reason and philosophy. Transcendental book distribution can be compared to a sakhi’s campaign to enlist new girls to become dedicated followers of Maha-bhava-svarupini, Shri Radhika. Certainly, no book distributor in the line of Rupa Gosvami would be caught dead canvassing on behalf of Candravali! Raga Manjari is perhaps the Lord’s best and most reliable messenger, having opted to become His vamshi flute. Knowing the purposes of her svamini’s inner heart, Raga Manjari serves, in the form of the flute, to mercifully break the resolve of Radha’s mana, or jealous pouting, forcefully facilitating the fruition of her mistress’s deepest desires to intimately satisfy Her beloved Shyama. She similarly serves to satisfy Radha’s cupidity for expanding the sweet empire of Shyama’s love dalliances, by artfully calling all the new sadhana-siddha-gopis for maha-rasa at Vamsivata, near the Yamuna’s shore. The sadhana-siddha-gopis, possessed of their fully actuated sac-cid- ananda-siddha-deha and the adhikara for directly participating in Lord Krishna’s prakata-lilas, having risen from the status of ordinary human beings, for the first time enter the sacrificial arena of confidential love dalliances with their beloved Lord through the Vamsivata “gateway” at the time of maha-rasa. It is well known that Krishna’s flute has manifest in Kali-yuga as Shri Mridanga. The mridanga principle has expanded its influence by appearing as brihat-mridanga, the printing press, which facilitates mass production and proliferation of Vaishnava scriptures. Broadcasted bhagavata-katha by means of transcendental book distribution could, therefore, be suitably likened to the call of Krishna’s flute, which purposely serves to arouse intensified purva-raga, or preliminary attraction in the hearts of the damsels of Vraja. The mercifully extended flute-call (book distribution) magnetically allures the vraja-sundaris (fortunate souls) away from their so-called husbands (all superficially binding mundane considerations) to excitedly dash off to join the rasa dance festivities (hari-nama-sankirtana). Hence, they become progressively more and more qualified and inspired to enter deeply into the intimate nikunja-sevas of the Divine Couple (nama-japa). Again and again they anxiously hearken to the overtures of the flute (bhagavata-kathamrita) and become ever-more-irresistibly enchanted. Again and again they skillfully shake the shackles of household encumbrances to exuberantly sing and dance in rasa-lila delight (hari-nama- sankirtana) in order to transcendentally enrapture the Lord of all supramundane conjugal beatitude. Again and again they blissfully receive and personally serve the Divine Couple at their private pleasure groves within the all-enchanting forest of Vraja (hari-nama-japa).
|
|
|
What a disappointment! What a let-down! What a treachery! What a sham! If after so much canvassing, if after answering to so much flute-calling (transcendental book distribution), the excited vraja-sundaris (bhakta-gana) find, to their disillusionment, upon arriving at rasa-mandala (the Hare Krishna movement), no rasa-lila festival (invigorating, publicly demonstrated hari-nama-sankirtana)! If, upon reading the advertisements (books) and expectantly joining Lord Caitanya’s hari-nama-sankirtana movement, having been philosophically persuaded to faithfully surrender to the idea of prosecuting the yuga-dharma, hari-nama-sankirtana, one chances to notice a pitiful dearth of hari-nama-sankirtana painfully persisting among the vast majority of the movement’s members in most corners of the world, would one not wonder as to whether one had in fact actually found Lord Caitanya’s sankirtana movement of the Holy Name? Was it false advertising, or what? The vraja-gopis were not satiated by rasa dancing for the duration of an entire night of Brahma. Similarly, anyone who has gained a grain of regard for kali-yuga-dharma hari-nama-sankirtana would not very much appreciate the extent to which hari-nama-sankirtana has been side-lined and so irresponsibly de-emphasized over the years in Lord Caitanya’s hari-nama-sankirtana movement. Advertising and advertising . . . but what are we advertising? Do we have any idea? Have we actually understood? Chanting, dancing, feasting, and philosophy. The philosophy in the books is basically to convince us to chant and dance. Feasting is to energize our chanting and dancing. Chanting and dancing is required for getting a taste for chanting and dancing. Chanting and dancing with a taste for chanting and dancing is actually required to progress to the position of chanting and dancing on the stage of preliminary love of Godhead, bhava-siddhi. And chanting and dancing in spontaneous devotional ecstasy on the stage of bhava-siddhi is an absolute prerequisite for chanting and dancing in Lord Caitanya’s eternal prema-sankirtana-lilas in the spiritual sky.
|
|
|
The current bustle about writing, publishing, distributing, and reading transcendental literatures expounding the science of Krishna consciousness, though brilliantly facilitating the widespread inculcation of spiritual values upon the ignorant populace, is nonetheless a temporarily manifested, externally oriented phenomenon. Yet, it unquestionably finds its internal original timeless counterpart in the messenger services and nama-rupa-guna-lila-katha done by Shri Shri Radha-Krishna’s nitya-parikara gopa and gopi associates of Goloka Vrindavana. We must always remember that the real purpose of the scriptures’ outreach is to advance a purified raga-mayi inreach in both the receptive reader and the progressive preacher. The printing press can be considered a raga-marga implement only to the extent that whatever is printed by the press actually promotes attraction to and deep attachment for the principles of vraja-bhakti-bhajana. A printing press in and of itself is not a brihat-mridanga. If the press is hijacked by materialistic entrepreneurs to produce volumes and volumes of crow- infested-garbage-dump-like mundane novels, poetries, and porn, are we to laud the printing press as a brihat-mridanga? Would it be at all unreasonable to suggest that the status of the printing press actually depends on the quality of the service rendered – the purpose for which the thing is being used? Human life is meant for purposefulness. Krishna consciousness is like a razor’s edge. If a razor is utilized as an instrument for shaving, then it serves its true purpose and may rightly be called a razor. If it is purposely used to slash another’s jugular vein, however, one might call it a razor, but in effect it is actually a lethal weapon. A mridanga exists to enhance the kirtana of the Lord’s Holy Names. If the mridanga is used to enhance mundane cinema songs, is it still to be deemed a mridanga? It may look like a mridanga, it may sound like a mridanga, but is it truly a mridanga? It is a mridanga in name only. Similarly, if the “preachers” of the Krishna consciousness movement use the printing press to present volumes and volumes of articles exclusively moralizing on the all-importance of varnashrama and vaidha-marga correctitudes, while evading, suspending, suppressing, disparaging, or altogether denouncing topics regarding the practical implementation of the principles of raga- marga-sadhana, is their printing press still to be deemed an implement of raga-bhakti? What makes using the genuine brihat- mridanga printing press a part of the raga-marga process of devotional service is its use as a tool to propagate the principles of raga-bhakti. If the press were to be used exclusively for the purpose of extolling the importance of vaidhi bhakti, without emphasizing vidhi’s role in the evolvement of raga, it would no longer boast its pride of place on the path of raga. Preaching can only be considered a symphonious feature of raga-marga- bhajana if the aim of one’s preaching is to progressively awaken a resolute greed for the ultimate attainment of raga-maya-prema in the hearts of those to whom one preaches. Are there not innumerable “preachers” of various sectarian denominations tirelessly “preaching” their wearisome religio-moralistic dogmas dismally devoid of the slightest scent of even the least of Vrindavana’s flowers? Are their preach-preachidy-preachments to be regarded as raga-marga-bhakti? Alternatively, there are others, well equipped with esoteric shastric data, who fraudulently make a show of preaching raga-marga-bhakti in the world to satisfy their self-establishing lust for labha, puja, and pratistha. Is their preaching to be regarded as instrumental to anyone’s raga-marga-bhajana? Once again, we scrutinize the mind-set that backs our activities in “Krishna consciousness.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
In truth, no external action – preaching, book publication, book distribution, nama-sankirtana, nama-japa, sadhu-sanga, vrindavana-vasa, arcana, prasada-seva, pot-washing, or whatever – can be considered an aspect of either ajata-ruci- or jata-ruci-raganuga-sadhana if it is not prompted by a greed to attain the perfection of one’s abhista-bhava. If one does not recognize within oneself a specific attraction to any one of Krishna’s nitya-parikara vraja-bhava exemplars – if one does not have a desired bhava – then there is no question of one’s external engagements in devotional service being prompted by lobha. Hence, one’s devotional activities can never be accepted as nija-abhista-bhava-maya, -sambandhi, -anukula, -aviruddha, or even for that matter -viruddha, simply because there is no nija- abhista-bhava reference point involved to merit the consideration of such judgements. If one has neither the prerequisite lobha nor the inclination toward relevant internal devotional absorption, the very substance that establishes one’s eligibility to pursue the path of raga, and if one feels no urgency, on the basis of such lobha, to propagate raga-marga-bhakti in the world as per the will of the Lord, then one may preachidy- preach till one is blue in the face or distribute innumerable volumes and volumes of transcendental literatures till the cows come home and still one’s actions will never be deemed any sort of raga-marga-sadhana nor engender raga-marga-bhava as their direct outcome. One could hardly expect to gain the outcome of raganuga-sadhana on the strength of one’s external devotional engagements if the inward and outward features of one’s devotional performances do not assume raga-marga characteristics. If a sadhaka’s action is prompted merely by shastra-vidhi and guru’s order, then such action is relegated to a status no loftier than vaidha-marga-sadhana, ropa-siddha- bhakti, or perhaps niskama- or even sakama-karma-yoga, depending on the quality of the motivation. For the deserving lobha-maya-sadhaka, however, who unpretentiously endeavors to conscionably cultivate the moods of Vraja, differentiating between favorable and unfavorable practices while inwardly musing upon the eternal vraja-lila archetype features of all culturally transfigured varieties of external devotional engagements, practically anything done as well as any apparatus employed to internally or externally advance Lord Gauranga’s mission to flood the world with vraja-bhakti-rasa can be accepted as part and parcel of the raga-marga dimension.
Much of the paraphernalia diversely utilized in “modern- world” Krishna consciousness (automobiles, jet airplanes, amplifiers, computers, cameras, printing presses, cell phones, audio/video recording and broadcasting devices, refrigerators, gas burners, electric blenders, neon lights, singing alarm clocks, disposable diapers, etc., etc.) may be circumstantially accepted in the attempt to facilitate or expedite the solid external preaching progress of the Krishna consciousness movement, but in the end it would be preposterous to think that we could take these temporarily useful accoutrements with us when we go to the spiritual world. No doubt, as long as the present-day oil-based techno-industrial “civilization” holds up, we really ought to take full advantage of all these gorgeous Kali-yuga arrangements as far as possible. We must, however, scrupulously avoid the inanity of becoming unnecessarily attached to or reliant upon the service methodologies and preaching paradigms generated by the inclusion of these various external trappings, to the point of spinelessly minimizing or even blindly excluding the essential internal culture of radha- Krishna-prema-bhakti-rasa through the eternally viable process of nama-sankirtana. Although we should doubtlessly make our lifelong plans for disseminating Krishna consciousness though the medium of transcendental book distribution, we should not naively overlook the inevitability of various God-sanctioned upheavals in material nature. The sudden demise of our demonic technologically “advanced” “civilization” is not a karmic impossibility. If such were to occur at any time, we would hardly expect to see the continued feasibility of mass book distribution as we know it today. Will we be left with our gas-tanks empty, our book-bags empty, our piggy banks empty, our minds empty, our hearts empty, our lives empty, and our mouths empty – having never gained a tangible taste or attachment for the congregational chanting of the Holy Name? Will such a fate ever force us to finally acknowledge (by default) the sublime shelter of hari-nama-sankirtana? All of our computers will have long since crashed. No more e-mail! No more Internet! No more television! No more printing press! No more newspapers! Damn, man. None of our mp3 players and iPods will sing for us any more! You mean we’ll have to do it ourselves? We may have to close the temples. We may lose our cozy ashrama habitats. We may have to live – and die – under the trees! But despite the extreme miseries of life, we must never desist from our determination to chant the Holy Name of Krishna, though we are hardly able.
Anyway, as you ramble on through life, dear reader, whatever fancy be your goal, keep your eyes upon the doughnut and not upon the hole! Kali-yuga is an ocean of innumerable hole-like faults. Yet, there is one tremendous redeeming doughnut-like quality – sankirtana of the Holy Name of Krishna. The Holy Name is the emporium of all rasas. “There is nothing to be had in the fourteen worlds but the Holy Name.” Don’t think these words to be mere cliche or sampradayic platitudinous mumbo-jumbo. “Don’t think this chanting and dancing will not lead to the desired goal. It will!” I speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me Krishna! . . . so help me Gaura! . . . so help me Srila Prabhupada!
I have no knowledge; I’m no scholar and I have no devotion. I am not a Bhaktivedanta. I’m not even a Bhakti- shastri. I’m not a Bhakti-anything. For all the decades of whatever little sorry service I have managed to muster to the Hare Krishna movement, I have never really ever amounted to very much. Moreover, how very meager is my every kind of so- called sadhana! All my endeavors are fraught with a myriad of imperfections. Practically, I have no recourse, no other hope, no other sadhana than to pitifully cry for the special causeless mercy of the Lord and His devotees. I continue to stand as an insignificant very low-class so-called disciple of a very high-class guru. Indeed, fool that I am, I have not even the slightest remorse for that. Still, by the grace of my beloved spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, within me has somehow grown an exceptionally profound regard and attachment for Krishna’s Holy Name. Without pretence, I beg my esteemed readers to mercifully bless me with even so much as a (vraja-dhuli) dust particle of raga-mayi loving service to the Holy Name, which ever-exaltedly reigns as the very heart of transcendental book distribution.
My dear most loveworthy and merciful Radha- Shyamasundara! I end these effusive outpourings in the dust of Your lotus feet on this twenty-fifth day of August, 2008, corresponding to the 112th appearance day anniversary of my beloved spiritual master, Nitya-lila-pravistha Oà Vinëupäda Paramahaàsa 108 Çré Çrémad Bhaktivedanta Swami Mahäräja Prabhupäda Srilaa Srilaai, in the year Gaurabda 522 at the Krishna-Balarama Mandira, situated in the blissful, wish-fulfilling pleasure sands (Ramana-reti) of Your resplendent land of Shri Vrindavana-dhama. May the broad-minded, forward-thinking souls evermore respect these deliberations, which are replete with profound concerns for advancing a more progressive culture of antaranga-bhakti in the lives of Your seriously dedicated sankirtana devotees. Please let those essence-seeking, deeply introspective, softhearted individuals who patiently and sincerely read or hear these verbose utterances very soon attain the highest transcendental happiness (paramananda) in the spontaneous loving service of Your lotus feet according to their innermost heart’s aspirations.
Om Tat Sat!
Please greedily chant:
HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE
from the heart – and be happy!
Appendix
Дата добавления: 2019-11-25; просмотров: 143; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!