Chapter 6. Going Deeper
In this world, we are always playing with fire. Maya Devi is very powerful. She always wants to take our time for her service. But Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has shown us that the path of our life is the practising of Krishna consciousness. That is necessary for our transcendental super-benefit. And we can cross over the illusion of maya only if we practise Krishna consciousness under the guidance of a good Vaisnava who is giving twenty-four hours a day to Krishna for His service. With his association, we must get our super-benefit.
You understand, «I am not this body». Further, «I am not man or lady». Still, in fact, we are all of female nature in the sense that we are to be enjoyed by Krishna. So, the male or female bodies that we have at present are illusory. But it is necessary to cross over that illusion. We have some desire, but that desire is also illusory. Our potency, that is soul, is made of willing, feeling, thinking; it is transcendental. We come from the transcendental power of Krishna. You will find Tal-lingam Bhagavan Sambhur in Sri Brahma-samhita. Also, in Sri Gita, Krishna says:
mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-charācharam
hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate
Krishna throws His vision, and that vision is also transcendental. The place of that vision is Sambhu (Siva). With the agency of maya, that vision produces this mundane world. And the transcendental world is produced by Baladev through Sankarsan.
sahasra-patra-kamalaṁ gokulākhyaṁ mahat padam
tat-karṇikāraṁ tad-dhāma tad-anantāṁśa-sambhavam
And where Krishna-lila or the Pastimes of Krishna are going on, everything is transcendental and full of ecstatic joy. And that, in general, is produced by Sankarsan. This means we should know that Sankarsan is the Guru of Lord Siva. But Lord Siva’s forms are in general two — one is Sadasiva, and one is Gun-avatar Siva (incarnation in the modes of material nature). Gun-avatar Siva is the vision of the Lord. His original form is Sadasiva, but when he mixes with the modes (gunas) of material nature, he takes the form of Gun-avatar Siva. In our present situation, we cannot actually differentiate between the two. Sadasiva is above maya. He is a pure Vaisnava, and his highest position is in Paravyoma (Vaikuntha), the spiritual world. And when the Gun-avatars Brahma, Visnu, and Mahesvar incarnate here, Sadasiva’s incarnation is as Mayadhipati or the husband of Maya; and the husband of Yogamaya, the divine potency, is Sankarsan. Tad anantamsa-sambhavam. This is the way in which the transcendental world and the mundane world are produced and flow.
Our real form is transcendental. The jiva-soul has the capacity to go to the transcendental world, and that is the actual place of the jiva-soul. But in this world, everything is an illusory environment. The problem is that we are running through our previous karma. If we can leave that karma, we will solve all our problems. But the only way we can completely leave it is by surrendering to Krishna. That is the final decision in the Gita.
First Bhagavan, the Supreme Lord, said to practise karma-yoga, then jnana-yoga, «Sarvam karmakhilam partha jnane parisamapyate: the perfection of action is knowledge.» Also, in Srimad Bhagavatam:
kāmasya nendriya-prītir lābho jīveta yāvatā
jīvasya tattva-jijñāsā nārtho yaś ceha karmabhiḥ
«The purpose of accepting material facilities is not sensual satisfaction. Rather, to accept only as much material facility as to keep body and soul together is the purpose of desire, that is, the only justifiable desire. Therefore, enquiry about the Supreme Lord is the chief objective of life, and the attainment of higher planes like heaven through fulfilment of compulsory and conditional duties as made much of in this world is not the objective.»
neha yat karma dharmāya na virāgāya kalpate
na tīrtha-pada-sevāyai jīvann api mṛto hi saḥ
«In this world a person whose work does not lead him to virtue, whose virtue upon becoming desireless does not bear the fruit of his detachment from all things ‘non-Krishna’, and again whose abnegation does not culminate in the service of Tirthapad Sri Hari — such a person is nothing more than the living dead.»
naiṣkarmyam apy acyuta-bhāva-varjitaṁ
na śobhate jñānam alaṁ nirañjanam
kutaḥ punaḥ śaśvad abhadram īśvare
na cārpitaṁ karma yad apy akāraṇam
«Knowledge or liberation in Brahma that denies love for the Infallible or devotion to Sri Krishna — that liberation is not glorious even if it is spotless or free from all material coloration. Why? Because the variegatedness of divine Pastimes is absent. Then how can worldly work, karma — which is by its very nature inauspicious — ever be glorious when it is not offered to the Lord, even when it is selfless?» [Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur wrote: «Karma depends on the material body, and its fruits are also mundane. Therefore, karma is most inauspicious for the spiritual soul. Even if that karma becomes desireless or selfless, it cannot directly yield any spiritual fruit. Still, if one’s work yields bhakti or devotion, only then does work, being offered to the Lord, become unblemished and the indirect yielder of an auspicious result. Even jnan or enlightenment or liberation in pure spirit is not perfect. At times, it is rather completely injurious or opposed to real progress. Only when liberation is a servant of devotion which is full of divine variegatedness does it succeed in becoming one with, or merging with, devotion.»]
Therefore, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s teachings begin from this point:
jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva
jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām
sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir
ye prāyaśo ’jita jito ’py asi tais tri-lokyām
«[Lord Brahma said to the Supreme Lord:] O Lord, completely shunning the attempt for enlightenment by meditating on the nondifferentiative Brahma, those devotees who hear the talks about You that flow from the mouths of the sadhus (saints) and pass their lives remaining by thought, word, and deed on the path of the sadhus — they attain You, O Lord, who are practically impossible to reach in the entire universe.»
That is life; actual transcendental life starts from that point. The tendency of jnan is also being thrown out. The surrendered soul lives with the sadhu who is glorifying Krishna. That is the primary lesson for taking the jiva-soul upwards. That is the primary lesson of bhakti. Real ananya-bhakti — exclusive devotion — begins here. And Mahaprabhu said, «Yes, but you proceed. No doubt here is real devotion. But proceed, don’t stop here.» In that way, one by one, Ramananda Ray elucidated the stages of rasa or divine serving levels.
And lastly, the bhakti-yoga in parakiya-rasa [divine consorthood in paramour sentiment] was shown by Mahaprabhu as the most elevated. Still, although it may be very high, it is our own property. We can have it. The question always arises here: can we achieve it or not? But we can.
In this world we say, «He is my son, she is my wife, he is my husband», and so on, but after a few years I must see that my husband, wife, and so on, have gone. ‘Husband’ means this body. But I have never seen who was inside. I never saw him either before or after. That is the problem, but we are very attached. We are crying, crying, crying. Sometimes, crying and crying, we leave our body also. Then, the position is very insecure for the jiva-soul, but by his bad karma, he is suffering like this.
Seeing this, Krishna Himself becomes very sad, and so He sometimes sends the sadhu and the Guru, and He also descends, as an Avatar. And also Svayam Bhagavan or the Lord in person comes and reveals His Pastimes. In many ways, He tries, but He doesn’t want to disturb their freedom. If you can freely and spontaneously render seva — devotional service, that is genuine seva. He can influence us very easily, but He does not want to do that. He wants you to eagerly, with your full devotion, try to serve His associates and His lotus feet. That is your super-benefit, and He does not want to disturb that. But He can advise through sastra or scriptures, through the Vaisnava, and through the Guru. He teaches us in many ways and circumstances, sometimes taking the form of a fish as Matsya-avatar, or a tortoise as Kurma-avatar, and so many other Avatars. There are ten main Avatars listed in the scriptures, and others also. But all His advices and directions «lead to Rome» in the sense that He does everything for our super-benefit by showing that path to the service world. And that is necessary. Only through service can we go there. Otherwise, we have no possibility to touch that plane.
na tad bhāsayate sūryo na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥh
yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama
«That place having attained which the (surrendered) souls never return from again — that is My supreme (all-illuminating) abode. Neither the sun, moon, nor fire can illuminate it.»
This sun, this moon — nothing in this world can supersede or touch that world. In the middle portion, there is the vast Viraja River. But if you plant the seed of devotion very nicely, the bhakti-lata (creeper or vine of devotion) can cross over Mayaloka or the illusory environment, cross over the Vaitarani, and also the Viraja.
upajiyā bāḍe latā ‘brahmāṇḍa’ bhedi’ yāya
‘virajā’, ‘brahma-loka’ bhedi’ ‘para-vyoma’ pāya
tabe yāya tad-upari ‘goloka-vṛndāvana’
‘kṛṣṇa-caraṇa’-kalpa-vṛkṣe kare ārohaṇa
Devotee: Vaitarani and Viraja are the same?
Srila Govinda Maharaj: No, Vaitarani is before Viraja. We have seen in Puri, there is also a river called Vaitarani representing that. It is described as being like a moat surrounding Svargaloka [heaven].
The whole brahmanda or universe is floating in Viraja. Above are the seven planes Bhu, Bhuva, Sva, Maha, Jana, Tapa, and Satya, and below are the seven planes called Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talatala, Mahatala, Rasatala, and Patala. Total fourteen. That is one brahmanda, and millions of millions of such brahmandas are floating in the Viraja River, which is like an ocean. And the bhakti-lata or creeper of devotion has the strength to cross over that Viraja. But when the creeper of our devotion is young and tender like a child, at that time we must protect her.
yadi vaiṣṇava-aparādha uṭhe hātī mātā
upāḍe vā chiṇḍe, tāra śukhi’ yāya pātā
«If offence to the Vaisnava [Vaisnava-aparadh] occurs, the mad elephant uproots and breaks the creeper, and its leaves dry up.»
This is the greatest difficulty. If one commits Vaisnava-aparadh, one’s creeper of devotion will be uprooted as though by a mad elephant. And Srila Jiva Goswami has mentioned in his Bhakti-sandarbha (265):
«sarvāparādha-kṛd api» ity ādy ukty-anusāreṇa
nāmāparādha-yuktasya bhagavad-bhakti-mato ’py
adhaḥpāta-lakṣaṇa-bhoga-niyamāch cha
In general, there are ten kinds of offences to the Holy Name, headed by sadhu-ninda or offence to the sadhu; then, to disbelieve in the transcendental Name, Quality, Form, and Pastimes of the Lord and consider the demigods like Siva to be equal to Krishna; then, to offend the Guru, the scriptures, and so on. So, even if one may be a very high Vaisnava, one’s creeper of devotion will be destroyed and even one will go down if one offends another Vaisnava. So, we must try to avoid Vaisnava-aparadh, and then we can succeed with everything else in our spiritual life. For our real goal of life, we must cross over Viraja. At present, our universe is actually floating in Viraja. But beyond Viraja and Brahma also is Paravyoma or the transcendental world.