MADHU BINDAVAH

OPENING THE INNER EYE

How the surrendered soul sees the environment.

By Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj

This post is a continuation of How Sweet! How Sweet!.

The eye is necessary: divya-darsan [divine vision], diksa [initiation]. Diksa means to acquire such an eye, the inner eye. Divya-jnan [divine knowledge] is a second eye, another eye within. At the sacred thread ceremony, the upanayana is meant to be imparted: another eye to see things around you. This is the eye of judgement, a theistic eye.

Try with this eye to see your Friend, your Friend with infinite affection for you. Don’t be afraid of anything. Get the eye to see that you are surrounded by a friendly circle. This is the depth of the vision of that eye, and that is to be appreciated.

kuryat papasya samksayam
(Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa: 2.9; Visnu-yamala)

Papa [sin] means previous prejudice which opposes us in reading the deeper truth in the background. Papa is prejudice, and such prejudices should be removed.

divyam jnanam yato dadyat kuryat papasya samksayam
tasmad dikseti sa prokta desikais tattva-kovidaih

Those that have real knowledge about reality say that diksa means to read the inner meaning, inner movement, and inner tendency passing through the cover of things. What is the environment? What is the inevitable? What is the irresistible inevitability that must happen which none can oppose? What is that? That is something friendly, something affectionate to us. We are to learn to read that the ultimate power is friendly to us.

Only local interests are clashing with one another. Individual, local, and provincial interests—these are clashing with one another. But if we can connect with the Absolute’s interest, then we shall see properly. If our interest can be included in the Absolute’s interest, if that is possible for us, then we shall see that everything is happy and everything is good. There in the universal calculation is present our representation. It is there in the universal calculation, but not from our misunderstood individual calculation of interest. That is what is necessary to realise.

The absolute good, the autocrat, is Krishna: the sweetest. He is above law, and that is the most beautiful thing. No rhyme, no reason, even no room for justice. So sweet. The plane is so sweet that no question of justice can enter there. How can I think of that? The complete autocracy of the absolute good has no room for justice to enter its realm. It is not necessary for anyone to think of any inconsideration. It is above that. His will is perfect. “Let there be light.” There was light. “Let there be water.” There was water. His will is all right. He is the autocrat whose will is all right. Then, there is no question of justice, wrong or right. Everything is all right, the highest right.

Separation, union, embracing, kicking, bruising—everything is sweet.

aslisya va pada-ratam pinastu mam
adarsanan marma-hatam karotu va
yatha tatha va vidadhatu lampato
mat-prana-nathas tu sa eva naparah

[“He may embrace this maidservant, He may trample over Me, or He may leave me and break my heart. Whatever that debauchee may do, He alone, and no one else, is the Lord of my heart.”]

Inner taste gives the assurance that whatever outer treatment we may get and however cruel it may seem to us, He is our well-wisher and the centre of all good. When our consciousness comes to this type of high Krishna consciousness, it never wants any separation from that, whatever treatment may come apparently.

“Mat-prana-nathas tu: He is my only Lord. So cruelly He may tread over me, but still He is my only Lord. So sweet. Mat-prana-nathas tu sa eva: no one else. He is the only Lord of my whole existence. No one else. Though apparently I feel that I am being treated most harshly by Him, it is so sweet, and I can never think of any alternative to being separated from that sweetest centre. He is so sweet. His punishment is also sweet. What to speak of union, embracing, or welcoming, punishment to the extreme is also sweet.”

Such consciousness grows in one’s mind; it awakens in one’s heart. He is so sweet that there can never be any possibility or hope of our good in any other place. This is the place, the sweetest. “He may behave with me in any way, but that does not matter. I cannot budge an inch. In the slightest I can’t withdraw from His connection. He is so sweet, so good, such a well-wisher, and affectionate always.” The Absolute is such to all of us.

Mahaprabhu told us this in His last poem amongst the eight poems He has given; His last poem says this.

When He is punishing us, we feel, “Yes, punish more, punish more and more. Punishment too from Your Hand is very sweet.”

Our hearts are contented. He is our guardian, and our whole faith, our eternal faith, is in Him: “You are my only shelter. No one else. I do not have any shelter, any safe shelter, anywhere except under Your holy feet.”

Such consciousness. We shall pray for the day when our hearts will rise up to that standard which Mahaprabhu wanted to teach us. This sort of exclusive reliance we must cultivate in view of the highest centre. He is the highest and our guardian. So, no complaints. No complaints. All possible complaints must be eliminated when we approach Him. This is the way to approach.

trnad api sunichena taror api sahisnuna

[“Be humbler than a blade of grass and tolerance like a tree.”]

“All responsibility for an evil future is yours. There everything is all right.” With this consciousness, we must begin our journey. “The whole responsibility of non-success or evil effects is yours; it is not His in any way.”

If we want to reach that plane, then we must adjust in this way. We are to take within us this thought, “That is all-good, all-blissful, but where I am is all evil, all nasty.”

This sort of attitude will bring us success very shortly.

trnad api sunichena taror api sahisnuna

We will stand face to face with Him, address Him, and take His Name. That means we will surrender at His feet by taking to sound, His Name, and our attitude, for our journey to be fruitful, must be trnad api sunichena: no complaint against anybody; all complaints against our own previous life. With a pure and open heart we are to approach there, and then in the shortest period we will be taken there.

Those that live there are people of such good temperament. They do not know how to complain against anybody. They are seeing the environment to be as good as anything, and they are very cautious that they do not create any dirt there. It is a pure sphere there, and one must not create any dirt there. Very anxiously we will be conscious of all purity. Those with this temperament are allowed to enter that plane where everything is good.