Transcendental Nectar of Sadhu-Sanga

by

 Sushen Krishna Das, Ph.D.

Bhaktivedanta Institute

 www.mahaprabhu.net/satsanga

jaga.suresh@gmail.com

Mob: +91-9748906907

This article is a response to this message.

Dear Lopsact:

Certainly the sense 'I am' is a reality that eternally exists with an individual. But the misconception of 'I am' is placing us in this dangerous ocean of material existence. His Divine Grace Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada says, "False ego means accepting this body as oneself. When one understands that he is not his body and is spirit soul, that is real ego. Ego is there. False ego is condemned, but not real ego. In the Vedic literature it is said: aham brahmasmi. I am Brahman, I am spirit. This "I am," the sense of self, also exists in the liberated stage of self-realization. This sense of "I am" is ego, but when the sense of "I am" is applied to this false body, it is false ego. When the sense of self is applied to reality, that is real ego. There are some philosophers who say we should give up our ego, but we cannot give up our ego because ego means identity. We ought, of course, to give up the false identification with the body."

Bhagavad-gita doesn't support both the Buddhist philosophy of sunya-vad (there is nothing or the reality is void or zero) and the mayavad philosophy of Sankaracharya (everything is one, there is no difference between individual soul and Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krishna). It is mentioned in Bhagavad-gita 2.12 that:

na tv evaham jatu nasam
na tvam neme janadhipah
na caiva na bhavisyamah
sarve vayam atah param 

Translation: Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.

Srila Prabhupada says in purport, "In the Vedas, in the Katha Upanisad as well as in the Svetasvatara Upanisad, it is said that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the maintainer of innumerable living entities, in terms of their different situations according to individual work and reaction of work. That Supreme Personality of Godhead is also, by His plenary portions, alive in the heart of every living entity. Only saintly persons who can see, within and without, the same Supreme Lord, can actually attain to perfect and eternal peace.

nityo nityanam cetanas cetananam
eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman
tam atma-stham ye 'nupasyanti dhiras
tesam santih sasvati netaresam
(Katha 2.2.13)

The same Vedic truth given to Arjuna is given to all persons in the world who pose themselves as very learned but factually have but a poor fund of knowledge. The Lord says clearly that He Himself, Arjuna, and all the kings who are assembled on the battlefield, are eternally individual beings and that the Lord is eternally the maintainer of the individual living entities both in their conditioned as well as in their liberated situations. The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the supreme individual person, and Arjuna, the Lord's eternal associate, and all the kings assembled there are individual, eternal persons. It is not that they did not exist as individuals in the past, and it is not that they will not remain eternal persons. Their individuality existed in the past, and their individuality will continue in the future without interruption. Therefore, there is no cause for lamentation for anyone.

The Mayavadi theory that after liberation the individual soul, separated by the covering of maya or illusion, will merge into the impersonal Brahman and lose its individual existence is not supported herein by Lord Krsna, the supreme authority. Nor is the theory that we only think of individuality in the conditioned state supported herein. Krsna clearly says herein that in the future also the individuality of the Lord and others, as it is confirmed in the Upanisads, will continue eternally.

This statement of Krsna is authoritative because Krsna cannot be subject to illusion. If individuality is not a fact, then Krsna would not have stressed it so much--even for the future. The Mayavadi may argue that the individuality spoken of by Krsna is not spiritual, but material. Even accepting the argument that the individuality is material, then how can one distinguish Krsna's individuality? Krsna affirms His individuality in the past and confirms His individuality in the future also. He has confirmed His individuality in many ways, and impersonal Brahman has been declared to be subordinate to Him.

Krsna has maintained spiritual individuality all along; if He is accepted as an ordinary conditioned soul in individual consciousness, then His Bhagavad-gita has no value as authoritative scripture. A common man with all the four defects of human frailty is unable to teach that which is worth hearing. The Gita is above such literature. No mundane book compares with the Bhagavad-gita. When one accepts Krsna as an ordinary man, the Gita loses all importance. The Mayavadi argues that the plurality mentioned in this verse is conventional and that it refers to the body. But previous to this verse such a bodily conception is already condemned. After condemning the bodily conception of the living entities, how was it possible for Krsna to place a conventional proposition on the body again? Therefore, individuality is maintained on spiritual grounds and is thus confirmed by great acaryas like Sri Ramanuja and others.

It is clearly mentioned in many places in the Gita that this spiritual individuality is understood by those who are devotees of the Lord. Those who are envious of Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead have no bona fide access to the great literature. The nondevotee's approach to the teachings of the Gita is something like bees licking on a bottle of honey. One cannot have a taste of honey unless one opens the bottle. Similarly, the mysticism of the Bhagavad-gita can be understood only by devotees, and no one else can taste it, as it is stated in the Fourth Chapter of the book. Nor can the Gita be touched by persons who envy the very existence of the Lord.

Therefore, the Mayavadi explanation of the Gita is a most misleading presentation of the whole truth. Lord Caitanya has forbidden us to read commentations made by the Mayavadis and warns that one who takes to such an understanding of the Mayavadi philosophy loses all power to understand the real mystery of the Gita. If individuality refers to the empirical universe, then there is no need of teaching by the Lord. The plurality of the individual soul and of the Lord is an eternal fact, and it is confirmed by the Vedas as above mentioned."

Furthermore, we must know, what is Absolute Truth? and how we can establish in our real identity, 'I am an eternal servant of Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krishna." This is scientifically explained by Srila Sridhar Maharaja below:

Reality is by itself and for itself

by

His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj

An excerpt from the book: Home Comfort: An Introduction to Inner Fulfilment

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Please listen attentively to what I shall explain. In a scientific way I shall try to explain, the subject to you, in general, independent of all religious conceptions.

First of all we are to understand that there are three planes of life: the plane of mundane enjoyment, the plane of renunciation, and the plane of dedication. The plane of enjoyment is where we are at presently, more or less. Mundane enjoyment means exploitation; and without exploitation, none can exist in this plane:

ahastani sahastananam

apadani catuspadam

laghuni tatra mahatma

jivo jivasya jivanam

"Those that have hands live on those who have no hands. Four-footed animals live on grass, creepers, etc. and the big live on the small." Everything is full of life: creepers, grass, and trees also life, but without exploitation none can maintain their body here.

This is the plane of exploitation, and, as Newton's third law says, to every action there is an equal an opposite reaction. By exploitation one takes a loan, and to clear that loan he will have to go down. In this way, there are so many jivas (souls) going up and down, up and down due to action and reaction in the plane of exploitation. Society is trying to exploitation. Society is trying to exploit to the utmost; everywhere there is the attempt to live at the cost of others. Without it life is impossible in the area because this is the plane of exploitation.

The Buddhists, the Jains, the followers of Sankara, and so many others are trying to get out of this entanglement of exploitation and to find a life where there is no exploitation, no action and reaction. To avoid action and reaction they try to find a position of renunciation, and they come to a conception similar to dreamless sleep, that of Samadhi: to withdraw completely from the objective world and to remain in the subjective plane. Without allowing their feelings to move into the lower plane, they always keep a subjective position, and that is something like dreamless sleep.

The Vaisnava section - those who serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead - are of the opinion that there is another world, the world of dedication. That dedication is just the opposite of exploitation. In the mundane plane every unit wants to exploit the environment, but in the plane of dedication, every unit wants to serve the environment; and not only the environment, but the real key to the life of that plane is to serve the Centre. We are living in an organic whole, so every point must be true to the organic Centre. The explanation is given in Srimad-Bhagavatam by the analogy of service the root of a tree:

yatha taror mula-nisecanena

trpyanti tat-skandha-bhujopasakhah

pranopaharac ca yathendriyanam

tatheiva sarvarhanam acyutejya

(Bha: 4.31.14)

In the Vedic literature also, we find it said, "Try to find the one by knowing whom everything is known:"

yasmina jnate sarvvamidam

vijnatam bhavati

yasmina prapte sarvvamidam

praptam bhavati

tad vijijnasasva tadeva brahma

There is a central point by knowing which, everything is known, by attaining which everything is attained. The long and short of the entire Vedic advice is to try to find out that Centre. Therefore try to find out that Centre. In the beginning some may think this to be a ludicrous claim: "By knowing one, everything is know, by getting one, everything is got - what is this? Only a madman can say such a thing!" So an analogy is given in Srimad-Bhagavatam: when you pour water onto the root of a tree, the whole tree is fed, and if you put food into the stomach, the whole body is fed, similarly, if you do service to the Centre, everything is served. It is possible and to do that means to enter the plane of dedication. Avoiding the plane of exploitation, and also that of renunciation, try to enter the plane of dedication. Your atma, your soul proper is a member of that plane. That is the real world, whereas this is the perverted reflection.

The real world is where every unit is dedicating itself to the whole, represented by the Centre, just as in a healthy body every atom will work for the welfare of the whole body. If an atom works for itself, it exploits to the extreme, and such local works for local interest are clearly bad. Every part of the body, and every atom, is to work for the welfare of the whole system. There is a Centre, and by the guidance of that it will work.

What is the position of the Centre? It is mentioned in Bhagavad-gita,

sarvva-dharmman parityajya,

mam ekam saranam vraja

(Bg. 18.66) 

Krsna explains His position: "Abandon all dharmmas (duties) and just surrender unto Me."

Now I want to express this conception from another standpoint.

Hegel was a good German philosopher and his philosophy is known as perfectionism. He has given an idea: the Absolute Truth, the Prime Cause of everything, must have two qualifications. What are they? It must be by itself and for itself.

Please try to pay attention. By itself means that He is His own cause - nothing else created Him. If anything else created Him. If anything has created Him, that creator will have the primary importance. Therefore, to be the Absolute He must be anadi, eternally existing and not created by anything. The Absolute must have this qualification.

The next qualification is that the absolute Truth is for itself. He exists for His own satisfaction, not to satisfy any other. If His existence is to satisfy another entity, then he will be secondary, and they for whose satisfaction He is living will have the prime position.

Therefore, the Absolute must have these two qualifications: He is His own cause, and He exists only to satisfy Himself, to fulfil His own purpose. The Absolute is by itself and for itself. If any straw moves, it moves to fulfil the purpose of the Absolute.