Chapter 10: Supersubjective Reality

Devotee: It was very nice at your birthplace. I enjoyed that very much —

Śrīla Guru Mahārāj:  — enjoyed?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Guru Mahārāj: That is not to be enjoyed. We should not use that expression ‘to enjoy’ about any place of reverence. We should try to see with only a serving attitude. Higher existence is to be tackled only with awe, reverence, and serving attitude. Otherwise, we shall be anthropomorphists; we shall take one thing for another. Martya-buddhi — aparādh. It will be offense.

Whenever we shall approach the higher subjective realm, we should feel that “I am not seeing; I am not the subject, but that is seeing me.” Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Guru Mahārāj: That is the supersubjective element. For example, when we stand before the Śrī Mūrti, the Deity, our attitude should be, “I am not seeing Him; He is seeing me.” He’s the seer. We have to approach the transcendental world not as a seer, but as we are being seen by Him. We are being bathed, cleansed by the ray of His vision. Can you understand this?

Devotee: Yes, yes.

Śrīla Guru Mahārāj: Our whole approach should be like this; otherwise, we shall see mundane things and imagine them to be spiritual. We won’t come practically in connection with that reality.

The reality is supersubjective. Taking this world as the object, we are a subject. But when I am going to have a touch of the Supersubjective, I must know that He is all-seer, all-feeler, all-hearer. The very basis of spiritual life is like this.

Then we shall come in contact with the higher reality; otherwise, we shall go on plodding in the mud of imagination. The attitude should be to want to be utilised by Him, and try for any chance of serving Him: “I have come here to serve, and not to enjoy the scenery.” Can you feel this?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Guru Mahārāj: This will take us to connection with the higher substance — subjective, super-subjective, super- super- super-super-subjective — the very fine, finer, finest — in this way, in the sphere of consciousness. So jñāna-śūnyā — one should surrender himself: “How can I be utilised by Him?” This is the way. Otherwise, what is the use of sight-seeing? Enjoy the scenery — that is offensive.

Devotee: When the environment comes to attack us, how can we see that as Kṛṣṇa?

Śrīla Guru Mahārāj: When the environment is unfavorable?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Guru Mahārāj: We shall try to find out the Supreme Will there. We should feel, “I have done something wrong, so this is coming to control me and to exact the reaction for my offenses.” Tat te ’nukampāṁ susamīkṣamāṇo. In the perfect vision, we are not to quarrel with the environment. “Not even a straw can move without the Supreme Will, without the order of the Supreme Will. So, whatever is coming to attack me is my necessity. Just that is necessary for me, to correct me.”

Just as when the mother is punishing the child, she does so only with the good will to correct the child. Similarly, the Absolute has got no vindictive nature to punish me, but His dealings are only for my correction. We shall have to see and approach in that way.

Tat te ’nukampāṁ susamīkṣamāṇo bhuñjāna evātma-kṛtaṁ vipākam: “Whatever undesirable I find here is the result of my previous karma, and by the good will of the Supreme, that previous karma is going to be finished. I will be relieved. I will be made fit for higher service to Him, so this has come.” That is the advice in Bhāgavatam. Don’t quarrel with the environment. Try to be adjusted with it; correct your own ego. Everything is all right.

Your ego is demanding some sort of comfort from the environment. That is the cause of this hitch. There’s no hitch in the outside, no ailment, but within, your ego creates the problem. That false ego should be dissolved, and the liquid nectar will flow and place you within the highest plane, the plane where there is no complaint. The smooth movement, affectionate movement of the most fundamental plane, your soul will find yourself standing and walking in that plane. And the false friends — the circumstances we think to be friends but which are really all false — those false friends will be withdrawn.

That is nirguṇa, the causeless flow of welfare, most fundamental in the Absolute Plane. That is bhakti proper. Bhakti means sevā, service — service divine. That is a causeless wave. The deepest wave, the wave of the deepest plane. That is causeless and that is irresistible. That means no beginning, no end. Eternal flow. And only my soul can take a stand in that plane and move in harmony with that plane.

Kathā gānaṁ nāṭyaṁ gamanam. In Brahma-saṁhitā it is mentioned, “All the talks there are as sweet as song; all the walking there, movement, is as sweet as dancing.” In this way, everything is sweet. That is the harmonious movement plane. In Vṛndāvan. We have to go back to that home.

We have come out with the spirit of colonization in a foreign land, with the bad object of exploitation. For the purpose of exploitation we have come to colonize in this material world, and as a reaction we suffer. The whole cover must be eliminated, and our person within, the finest ego, must emerge. Within this gross mischievous ego there is the finer ego, soul, and that is the child of that soil. Do you understand?

Devotee: Yes. Sometimes I understand —

Śrīla Guru Mahārāj: So, faultfinding will take us in the wrong direction. Finding fault in others is the negative side. We should feel, “Cent-per-cent I shall engage my attention to correct myself. My responsibility is there. My main responsibility is to correct myself.” ‘Physician cure thyself.’ That should be the principle of any bona fide student of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That is the positive side, and the negative side, indirect side, is to judge others’ practices and how to associate with them. We shall associate with the good and we shall avoid those who are not up to standard. But this is the negative side, and this is not as important as the positive side. We shall be optimistic to see good everywhere, and for ourselves we should think, “My knowledge and angle of vision is bad, so I can’t see others properly.” ‘Physician cure thyself.’

If our āchāra or our own practices are well, only then can we have some qualification for preaching to others. How can one who is not in a normal position try to bring others to a normal position?

If we shall take the Divine Name, there are also many considerations. Mainly, there are ten kinds of offenses to avoid, which deny us proper conception. Proper conception will help proper dealing and positive attainment, which is how to get out of the negative side. Māyā means misconception, misunderstanding, misleading. We are misleading the environment.

The difficulty is all apparent and suicidal. Sometimes we want causeless mercy; at the same time we can’t tolerate others in that same line. We go to judge in the case of others: “Why should he receive causeless mercy? He has got so many defects, so much anti-attitude and disqualification. Why should he be accepted or given any chance?” But for us — we want, “Don’t come to judge me; otherwise, I have no hope, my Lord.”

Jñāna-śūnyā-bhakti. “If You come to judge, I have got no hope. Please grant grace, then I can hope to approach You, to offer myself to make progress towards You; if You become very lenient, not to find fault with me.” But if at the same time, in the same breath, we say, “Why should this disqualified man get any grace? Why should he get some mercy and affection?” That is hypocrisy in us, and that causes a great deal of difficulty within us. It is suicidal.

This is Vaiṣṇava-nindā, Vaiṣṇava-aparādh — offense to the devotee. A devotee may be accepted by Him, and gradually he will be purified, but we are very eager to find fault in him. That is most dangerous for our own progress; it is suicidal. If in my case I want something higher but in the case of others I can’t tolerate the same behavior of the Lord, that is a most difficult position.

Generally, that is the basis of Vaiṣṇava-aparādh. When someone has been accepted by the Lord and He is gradually purifying him and we give particular attention to the remnants of impurities and difficulties in him, the result is that all those difficulties will be transferred to us. This is the actual experience. If I especially mark the fault of another devotee, that will be transferred to me. It happens. In our experience and also in the śāstra we have seen this.

So, one must be very careful not to make any remark generally about the practices and activities of another Vaiṣṇava. It may be possible only in the case when one is empowered by the Supreme, just as in the case of his disciple. To correct his disciples, with a guardian’s sympathetic eye, he can mark the defects, and he will help them to remove them. There must be some affectionate heart within. Not jealousy or anything of that type, but with good will; the affectionate guardian’s want to remove the defects.

Either from the position of Śikṣā-guru or Dīkṣā-guru, one may detect the faults of the students of this line and help them sincerely to get free from them. Otherwise, if we are attracted by those faults, they will come to us, and we shall have to pay for it.

It is a practical thing, and also based on good reason and scriptural advices. We must be careful. It is also warned in the Vaiṣṇava literature that we must be careful about Vaiṣṇava-aparādh that comes from the jealous spirit of competition. That jealousy is very detrimental to our spiritual life.

So we all must be very careful to not be especially attracted by any defect. If some doubt about anyone comes to our attention, we may refer it to the higher authority. But if we make too much of it, either in opposition or in any other way, that will be transferred back. We must know, “I am devouring. My mind is coming in touch with that fault.” That is being devoured as food, and the contamination is transferred to the critic. Somehow, it is entering into the mental system of the critic, and it must get its satisfaction there, as a reaction.

This is like a trade secret of our devotional line. You must be aware and very careful about these practical difficulties in the path of your life.

So we have been recommended, tat te ’nukampāṁ susamīkṣamāṇo: the faculty of judgment has been discouraged; your standard of measuring things won’t stand there. Jñāna-śūnyā-bhakti. You have to learn a new alphabet here. In the devotional school you have to come in connection with a new alphabet. The old alphabet won’t do. Jñāna-śūnyā-bhakti. Give up all the pride of your past experience. Your knowledge out of experience of the mortal world won’t do here, won’t be applied here. This is the position in the case of the Infinite Autocrat and Goodness.

In our mouth we pronounce all these big things — Absolute Good — Absolute Truth — but we do not know about the characteristic of that. So we need His revelation. He reveals Himself. We must carefully note His nature.

So, jñāna-śūnyā — give up the pride of your old experience on the basis of which you will go to judge things. It is not like that. A new law is here, and we have to think of the land of Autocrat and Goodness. In jñāna-śūnyā-bhakti the first step will be to give up all the pride of our previous experience and to begin a new life: “I shall accept the laws of the infinite, not the laws of this finite world that I acquired as a subject. I shall have to enter that domain as an object, of the subject. There, He is the subject and I am the object here, possessing only a particle of the space there, and that is also at His sweet will. At any time I may be dispossessed of it.” This is not in the democratic government, but in the mad monarchy — a kind of dictatorship. This is to live in the land of dictatorship, and not in the democracy and law. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva.

Everywhere we shall try our best to find mercy, grace, kindness, pity. Because whatever the dictator is doing is all good. We have to be trained like that. He’s the highest dictator, without fault, so we may or may not understand, but whatever is commanded by the dictator must be helpful for us. There is no law on which we shall base our judgment and give any remark. To remark is not only absolutely useless, but it is faulty and injurious to ourselves. Such consciousness we have to acquire, and it is not unreasonable.

Newton said, “I am only collecting pebbles on the shore of the ocean of knowledge.” He was a man of this world, yet he had the sincerity and courage to make this statement. If such a statement is made in deference to the knowledge of only this world, what should be thought of the knowledge of the infinite unknown and unknowable? We must have courage, just as Columbus floated his ship to discover America. He had the courage. To float our little boat in the ocean of the unknown and unknowable, we must be cognizant that the laws will be of that type. The laws of the higher ocean may not be applied in the strait or local sea. A thoroughly new thing we have to study — the revealed truth. If we go to measure the infinite with the law of finite, it will be hopeless for us to go that side. We must invite and think purely of that land, that standard. The unknown world.

svayaṁ samuttīrya sudustaraṁ dyuman
bhavārṇavaṁ bhīmam adabhra-sauhṛdāḥ
bhavat-padāmbhoruha-nāvam atra te
nidhāya yātāḥ sad-anugraho bhavān

“O Self-revealed One, You are Bhakta-vāñchhā-kalpa-taru, the wish-fulfilling tree of the devotee. The great devotees surrendered unto Your lotus feet, who have crossed over this ghastly insurmountable ocean of mundanity, have left the boat of Your lotus feet in this world (in the Guru-paramparā or in the line of revealed truth, śrauta-panthā), because they are greatly affectionate to all beings.”

The Devas (Brahmā and Śiva) say in the Bhāgavatam, “The saints who by Your grace have crossed that insurmountable ocean, that dreadful ocean, with dreadful waves and so many water animals, those saints again sent back the boat, which is compared with the lotus feet of the Lord. By the help of the lotus feet of You, the Infinite Absolute Lord, they cross this ocean, by the grace of Your holy feet; and they again send that boat back here for others to cross the same ocean. They’re experienced about the ocean, and in which way they crossed and what difficulty they faced, and where. Your devotees are so magnanimous that after using the boat of Your holy feet to cross, they again send them back for us. Because, their friendship for the people is very white and pure. And You are always in favor of those devotees, so by their request you can’t refuse. You allow Your lotus feet again to come this side and take others across.”