HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE 4 страница
To be real, earnestly shared sincerity of approach, regardless of expressional form, is at the very wellspring of trustworthiness, far above and beyond the indecorous, stereotypical tactlessness of frequently resorted to blunt, oft- times duplicitous managerial expediencies. Not all knavish administrative prevarication or diplomatic cajolery constitutes pious fraud. Moreover, love in the real sense, though certainly subsuming the substantive principle of service to actual eternal self-interest, in fact never seeks to interfere with, subvert, or squelch the individual’s freely volitional application of personal integrity in deciding one’s own suitable mode of devotional reciprocation. Hence, mature mutual give-and-take on the spiritual platform had better soberly respect a broader- mindedness, accommodating the significance of unique individual perspective or taste, perhaps even considerably beyond one’s own prejudice or preset dogmatic viewpoint – so help us God!
He Radhe-Shyama! The pursuit of lofty mundane academic degrees very rarely if ever really lends itself to an expedited pure devotional progress. Rather, it tends to render one more ass-like in that one often trends to unduly bear, even long after initiation into the bhakti cult, a cumbrous, almost unshakeable, inflated sense of self-importance. Furthermore, one may unfortunately entertain an immodest impression of one’s “superiority” over others who are less materially qualified, thus gobbling up heaps and piles of temporary hog-stool-like false prestige on the basis of accumulated collegial upadhis. One must sagaciously avoid the snobbish, over-intelligent, grossly idiotic notion that such slaughterhouse academia is in any way a prerequisite for high-grade devotional eligibility, competency, or potential, or to any degree indicative of such. When has such a conceited, specious idea ever been taught by an acarya or upheld by shastra?
How highly educated was Valmiki? Were Hanuman, Sugriva, Jambavan, or Jatayu college graduates? How doctorately decorated were Mrigari, the hunter; Dhruva; Prahlada; or even their guru, Narada, in his previous life as the son of a maidservant? How sophisticated or cultured was the prostitute who, by the grace of Haridasa Thakura, converted to Vaisnavism and chanted no less than three lakhs of hari-nama daily? What about Haridasa Thakura himself? How literate was the celebrated South Indian brahmana whom Lord Gauranga embraced, eulogizing him as having truly understood the essence of the Gita? How boastfully bookish was Srila Gaura Kishora Dasa Babaji Maharaja? How many pointed examples are required to illustrate the principle? Besides, we should simply ask – Is the world over not teeming with college graduates and professionals who profess avowed atheism or agnosticism?
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One may argue that collegians have a better chance of viewing the gamut of worldly affairs, thereby increasing their natural drift toward a spirit of renunciation, but I dare challenge this idea. Realistically, how many graduates conclude from all their studies that they should just abandon the path of material amelioration to join the Hare Krishna movement? Out of many thousands of such supposedly educated people, hardly one has any idea of spiritual perfection, what to speak of endeavoring for it. And of the relatively few who do gain some understanding of or interest in sampradayic devotion, what percentage of those practicing the process on any level opts for a life of practical, devotion-based renunciation stemming from genuine material exhaustion?
Sophistical, materially conceived strategic religio- administrative contrivances may appear to bluster their professed expediency in determining the devotional eligibility of a candidate, albeit, only as long as a dearth of genuinely mature spiritual insight debilitates one’s power to perceive otherwise obvious degrees of sharanagati or spiritual surrender, indicative of an individual’s actual level of pure devotional shraddha. My observation is that elevated paramarthika-shraddha manifests on the strength of the gradual accumulation of stockpiles of bhakty-unmukhi sukriti, or piety connected to and giving rise to shuddha-bhakti. Such accrues on account of service-related association with agents of pure devotion in this and previous existences. This alone is the true measure of anyone’s fitness to pursue the path of bhakti at the spiritual master’s ashrama. Such pure devotional shraddha and subsequent spiritual evolvement may be had by anyone – regardless of materially pious or impious background in terms of species, race, caste, creed, academic qualification, or pecuniary status – via the potent influence of authentically empowered, munificent representatives of Divine Grace. There is no use in eristically contending this point, drawing on any amount of sciolistic rhetoric. All things of this cosmos, though real in the sense that they consist of the energies of the Absolute Reality, in fact appear as valueless as so many zeroes by time’s dynamics, which reduce everything to oblivion. Zeroes alone are valueless. Only when the “One” of Krishna consciousness stands before the “zeroes” of this world do the zeroes gain spiritual value, proportionate to the degree that they actually contribute to the favorable cultivation of Krishna consciousness. Still, in truth, it is the “One” of pure, forceful Krishna consciousness, with or without any subsequent number of “zeroes,” that is ultimately noteworthy, important, precious, and efficacious.
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Magnanimous first-class preachers, in the course of spreading the message of Krishna consciousness, may go all out in various ways to extend Lord Gauranga’s sankirtana movement even to persons puffed-up or smug with aristocracy, mundane scholarship, and material affluence. They tenderheartedly consider those so materially obsessed to be the most terribly entrenched victims of Kali’s influences, the least likely to otherwise recognize and feelingly honor the mercy of the Holy Name. The complete conversion of such spiritually debased, vainglorious Kali-yuga reprobates to Vaisnavism would serve primarily to proclaim a most prodigious spiritual triumph, further acclaiming the glorious beatitude of bhakti’s benignity. Such conversion is not at all intended to “up-grade” the material status quo, prestige, or popularity of any missionary institution. To grant or deny facilities for advancing in Krishna consciousness merely on the consideration of material qualification certainly constitutes an outrageous spiritual iniquity. Real knowledge is engendered by and subservient to bhakti and is always evinced by genuine pure devotional humility. If it is observed that a “scholarly” individual has virtuously embraced standard pure devotional ethics, we should clearly conclude such to be attributable not to the individual’s mundane erudition or cerebral dexterity, whatever the level, but, undeniably, to the mercy of pure-hearted sadhus.
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Unvitiated, truly elevated, scientifically conversant devotees of the Lord easily see through the fraudulent front of feigned self-effacement so often accompanying the copiously concocted “foolosophical” distortions of Gaudiya-Vaishnava siddhanta, rasa-vicara, and so on rampant in the rather absurd dissertations of surprisingly well-placed, somewhat lavishly lettered institutional evangelists. Guileless pure devotees decline to recognize or support such gratuitous, bombastic, quasi-theosophical craftsmanship masqueraded as abstruse Krishna conscious esotericism. Hence, anything more than a semblance of bhakti most certainly eludes such show-bottle expositors of so-called transcendental knowledge, despite their sacerdotal echelon or externally impressive scholastic pre- eminence. Realization of the science of pure devotion is a matter of revelation from within the heart based on an individual’s degree of surrender to Krishna, not degrees of irrelevant mundane academic so-called qualifications. Bhakti, independent as she is, always causelessly appears to gradually influence the heart of anyone of her own choosing and accord. Flagrantly propagated or slyly insinuated, deviously hatched fallacies or misconceptions concerning the autonomous nature of Bhakti’s benevolence would certainly be seen as symptomatic of this present age of nescience, quarrel, and hypocrisy.
My dear Praneshvari, Shrimati Radhasundari! Do You remember the instance of Your extreme compassion upon that useless little flower? I become immensely solaced and hopeful thinking of Your special mercy upon her. During Your vana- vihara-lila, one evening in the month of Jyestha, as You and Your Beloved were strolling along the forest path with Your sakhis, playful Shyama, to give happiness to the trees and creepers, was admiring them by touching their fruits and leaves and smelling their fragrant flowers. As the two of You gradually approached a thicket along the way, one unassuming, useless little flower began to anxiously cry in great anxiety, lamenting, “Oh, why did I have to be a useless flower? Why? Why did I have to be so useless? Why did I have to be without any fragrance for the pleasure of His senses? Oh! He never accepts us useless flowers. I am the embodiment of the offense of offering useless flowers! I’m so unfortunate! What is the use of having taken such a useless birth in this land of Vraja? Why did I have to be so useless?” Crying and crying again and again, she deeply despaired: “Anyway, there is no hope of ever being enjoyed by Him in this birth. I will give up my life by being trampled under His lotus feet!” With this determination, she, weeping and weeping, forcibly threw herself down off the bush, falling unconscious on the forest path. O dear Shrimati Radharani! You, overhearing the distress of her heart, pointed her out to Your loving Shyama, who, mercifully reaching down and picking her up from the ground, happily placed her as a beautiful flower ornament atop His crown, giving her limitless beaming bliss and glorifying the intensity of her bhava above the sentiments of all other flowers! He Radhe-Shyama! Offering unto You my one and only scentless soul is no better than the offense of offering a useless flower. This lila, however, demonstrates to me that the little flower’s external deficiency really had no direct bearing on the actual status of her internal loving sentiments, but rather indirectly served to enhance them. He Radhe-Shyama! Please in the same way, despite everything, see something good in my lowly self; pick me up and save me from the perilous forest path of my own unbounded uselessness.
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Many devoted souls were placed in lower-class, materially degraded or uneducated, less sophisticated families by the will of the Supreme Authority, just to give them a better chance to more feelingly approach Your Lordship’s lotus feet with the requisite humility and natural modesty which was most lucklessly lacking in their previous life of liberal loftiness. Moreover, it is clearly explained in Gaudiya Vaishnava literature that great devotees of Lord Gauranga purposely appeared in such degraded families or in impious lands specifically to demonstrate that the evolvement of bhakti is in no way dependent upon material conditions. Everything considered, the culmination and conclusion of all learning and education is the congregational chanting of the Holy Name.
I don’t think every college graduate is an ass. Some of my best friends are college graduates. As for myself, I graduated from the ISKCON School of Hard Knocks where I am presently doing my postgraduate studies. Hare Krishna!
He Radhe-Shyama! Let those callous to the call for discipular self-improvement complacently attach themselves to retarded, self-centered, substandard, third-class sentimental modes of spiritual progress; we can be persuaded to spiritually advance only if we possess at least a preliminary aspiration for self-realization.
He Radhe-Shyama! Let the holier-than-thou religio- institutional corporate bureaucrats, endlessly clinging to their conspicuously crude, consistently illiberal kanistha disposition, sanctimoniously integrate their as-yet-unsubdued, ignoble fault- finding proclivities on the plea of loyal managerial vigilance. Shall not we overlook their own fault of resolute self- aggrandizing censoriousness, as do they? Shall not we stoop so low as to criticize the criticizers who opportunistically magnify the foibles of others? Shall we at all dare to see any fault in faulting the faultfinding of the faultfinders?
Are the pots not calling the kettles black? atma-van manyate jagat – a thief thinks everyone to be desirous of stealing his ill-gotten gains; a cheat sees the world to be full of cheaters. Krishna often allows us to see others’ faults just to remind us of the need to fine-tune our own approach to devotional life. We would always do well to remember in this connection that when we point our finger at the faults of others, three fingers conversely indicate our own. This incontrovertibly implies that even (if not especially) religiously ordained administrators who see fit to occasionally employ corrective measures with a view to bring about an individual’s or a faction’s Krishna-conscious cultural conformity should crucially consider it to be thrice their responsibility to address their own shortcomings, their own misconceptions, and their own reform, rather than be obsessed with the reformation of anyone else. Any field of management certainly demands the responsible assessment of the individuals involved – seeing any situation, individual, or faction with one bad eye and one good eye. Care ought to be exercized, however, so as to avoid any offense. After all, bees always delight in finding honey-like good qualities with a view to bring out the best in others.
Let the pugnacious, double-dealing congenital equivocators openly paying lip service to a dramatically elegant, generously accommodating “Krishna conscious” paradigm, underhandedly militate against any other than their own doctrinaire politically correct prejudications. We shall no longer waste our days and nights dwelling on the wonderful workings of the three modes of material nature. There is much more important business at hand.
Dear Shri Shri Radhe-Shyama! Let the inadequately edified thousands of those doggedly attached to their mere eligibility for the rudimentary practices of vaidhi sadhana-bhakti with their underdeveloped third-rate spiritual acumen and their unfortunate want of adequate scriptural penetration pertinatiously err to misrepresent the actual thrust of the Gaudiya creed in their rather pontifical preachings. Let them attempt in every way to systematically disparage or quell any upsurge of expressed aspirations for raga-bhajana. Looking askance, we shall politely ignore them.
If as a result of limitless transcendental book distribution, even one obscure undeterred soul perfectly ascertains, appreciates, and imbibes the superlative aspect of rupanuga Vaisnavism, following the immaculate, spontaneous selfless loving service moods (bhavollasa-rati) of Your most intimate eternal associates in the supremely enchanting land of Vraja, then, my dear Shri Shri Radhe-Shyama, please let us consider the Hare Krishna movement to be somewhat forward.
My dear most loveworthy and merciful Radha- Shyamasundara! 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.
Second Heartfelt Effusion
My dear Shri Shri Radha-Shyamasundara! Crying at the lotus feet of Shri Guru, one very fallen and destitute soul humbly offers to You the following unrestrained stream of prayerful outpourings for Your kind and considerate audience.
Some brazenly declare that the Hare Krishna movement is dead – a lifeless corpse spasmodically flapping for a few residual moments before total collapse. Others rashly conclude that transcendental book distribution is for the neophytes. Still others insist that the members of the Hare Krishna movement could never attain vraja-prema or vraja-lila due to all the offenses a few of its leading members have done to great souls; they could attain Vaikuntha at best. Even worse, much high- flung absurdity spews forth, inanely declaring the Bhaktivedanta purports to be detrimental to one’s faith in Krishna consciousness.
I ask, Are these blessings, promises, challenges, curses, insults, or threats? I dare doubt not only the legitimacy but also the very rectitude of such statements. If there were but one sincere, unsullied soul living among the members of the Krishna consciousness movement, could we not construe the establishment, notwithstanding all its trials and tribulations, to still be alive in spite of itself? Aside from that, did not great devotees of the Rupanuga-sampradaya, like Shrinivasa acarya, Bhaktivinode Thakura, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada, and more recently, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, humbly embrace the task of transcendental book distribution to uplift the fallen? Should we deem them neophytes? Moreover, are we to say that the above-suggested immature, superstitious bigotry of a few adherents becomes automatically imputed to yet the broader-minded more progressive students simply by dint of institutional membership? Must an entire army stand trial for the inter- institutional war crimes of a handful of its soldiers? Is attainment of the vraja-lilas not contingent upon the Lord’s response to an individual’s sincerity of purpose? Can we not see even one worthy soul among the followers of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada intently pursuing the progressive living spirit of self-discovery culminating in the realization of vraja-prema? Is there no one “in” the Hare Krishna movement desperately crying out for the mercy of Shri Lalita, Rupa, and their attendants? Can their decision to bestow or not bestow special causeless mercy upon anyone be countermanded merely by the miserly dictums of minute jivas who wish to be distinguished as the foremost rasa-Acaryas of all the little raganuga wannabes? Is there any consideration at all beyond the transcendental preponderance of Shri Rupa Manjari’s mercy?
O dear queen of my life, most gracious Shrimati Radharani! O cherished treasure of my heart, honey-moon-faced Shyama! Please let us have recourse to higher authorities to whom we may confidently appeal our individual cases! Have we not read many scriptures? Have we not served many gurus? Is Shri Vrindavana Dhama not the greatest of all gurus, the crowning splendor of all the scriptures? Is the dust of Vraja not ultimate authority? Is hari-dasa-varya, Giri Govardhana, not highest authority? May we not earnestly resort to the life-saving waters of Radha-kunda and Shyama-kunda, optimistically anticipating the fruition of our heart’s enshrined aspirations? Is His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja Srila Prabhupada himself not, in truth, higher authority? One may, to muster some sort of esteem amongst a rather credulous following, vaunt otherwise in violation of due Vaishnava decorum, but honestly speaking, one would do very well to remember that ultimately the decision as to who is nearer and dearer to Lord Gauranga is not in our hands. Are Shri Shri Jahnava-Nitai not our ultimate well-wishers? Does not the very name “Radha,” when fervently chanted, forgive all Vaishnava aparadhas? Does not even a single recitation of the name “Shri Krishna Caitanya” forgive all offenses? Do the statements of the Acaryas regarding all these things now betray us? Hridaya Caitanya, considering his disciple Duhkhi Krishnadasa to be a wayward offender, wanted to punish him for changing his tilaka and also for changing his name to Shyamananda. My dear Shyamasundara! Did Shyamananda not appeal to Lalita, Radha, and subsequently Subala (Gauri dasa Pandita, the spiritual master of Hridaya Caitanya himself)? Was Shyamananda not able to achieve the blessings of Radharani by the grace of Jiva Gosvami in spite of the displeasure and considerable consternation of his guru, Hridaya Caitanya?
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