OUR LOVING GUARDIAN, HIS CREATION, AND THE SPIRIT OF HIS SERVICE

Primary subjects of discussion

• Our loving guardian
• The creation
• The only famine in this world is that of Krishna-katha
• Trnad api sunichena
• The spirit and the form of Gaudiya Vaisnavism as expressed by Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur and Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj

Portions of this discourse were used to compile Chapter Three of the book Loving Search For The Lost Servant, entitled ‘Beneath The Loving Eye of God’ and Chapter Two of the book Subjective Evolution of Consciousness, entitled ‘The Creation’.

Literal Transcript

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: … that sort of understanding our capital. We shall consider that we are always living under the sky.

tad viṣṇoḥ paramaṁ padaṁ
sadā paśyanti sūrayaḥ
divīva chakṣur ātatam
(Ṛg-veda)

“The holy, the divine, feet of our holy Master are just like the sun and eye, a big eye like the sun, which is above our head. A vigilant eye a guardian, grand guardian, it is on our, hanging on, our head, and we are living under that vigilant eye of the guardian.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gauraharibol.

Not that the objective reference, but the subjective reference. We shall try to live always in subjective relativity, not objective. Not: “Under the feet that I have got hard ground to stand, so I am big. Because under my feet there is hard land, I can erect there.” Not that. But, over my consciousness is superconsciousness: the vigilant guardian’s eye. I am living under the glance of that eye. Not below but upside, above, our āśraya. We are hanging. We are hanging with our support in the substantial and upper world. Always be conscious, consideration with the guardian. And only on their direction we shall come to connect with servants, that is, who is considered t be of lower realisation. But main support we shall think about to have from the upper world. Tad Viṣṇoḥ. So, this Ṛg-mantra, this is a principle mantra in Ṛg-veda. Whenever anyone will approach to any new duty, he will think himself just before that, “What is he? Who is going to approach a particular duty? What is his position?” His position has been given to think out in such a way that you are under a vigilant eye of your guardian. And it is as living as the sun, a great eye just like the sun spread over your head. The light itself, it can pierce through to see anything within you. And with this identification of you, you approach anything whatsoever as your duty. But [it is] not encouraged [to think] that you on a solid earth you are standing and you are going to do this thing and that thing. Never. So, subjective relationship. Really, we are … just as the sun’s run. Where does it stand, the sun’s ray? It stands on the sun. The ray stands on the sun. That is its source. So also, we are to think that our stand is on the … We are so many particles of consciousness, and our stand, our motherland, is that conscious area: God consciousness, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Kṛṣṇa consciousness, that is our relationship. We shall always be conscious of the fact. We are connected with Kṛṣṇa consciousness. We are member of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness world, and we have come to wander in the foreign land of material consciousness, this māyā, misconception that we are one unit of this material world. It is not so. We are unit of the conscious world, Kṛṣṇa conscious world, and anyhow we have come in this material conception of things. And matter is where, what you can exploit, our objective side, and the subjective side, that which we should revere, and our relationship with that of reverence, devotion, with the higher entity. And not of exploitation or enjoyment. And real enjoyment, enjoyment divine, that comes from service,not from exploitation. All these basic things we are to understand.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gauraharibol.

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

Swāmī Mahārāj told in New York, the engineers, they have built so many houses that will stand for ages, but they did not mind that their body may stay how long? The engineers’ body, how long? The houses will stand for a long period, but those that will live in the houses, their body how it will stand and how the vitality can be improved, longevity can be improved? They do not care for that at all. The objective side. [They are] very busy with the objective side, neglecting subjective value. Who will use them? No cultivation is necessary for the user of the object, objective world. All importance to the objective side, neglecting totally the subjective side. Who will utilise the object, they are neglected.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gauraharibol.

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

Student: Parisevan has gone.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: But our Bhāratī Mahārāj gone to Durgapur or where?

Student: Yeah, he said. So he said. No news yet though.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: For a week he has gone.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Who is at Māyāpur now? Bhavānanda Mahārāj or Jay Patākā Mahārāj?

Student: Only Bhavānanda  Jay Patākā.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Both?

Student: Yes. No one else is around

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: No one. Only two.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: [Śatadaṇḍa?] Mahārāj has sent two messages, one today and one yesterday, to our [Satānanda?] that we apologise if any made offence to you. Please come back and stay with us with your good wife.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Then, what [Śatadaṇḍa?] Mahārāj says? Our Prabhu says?

Student: He is here.

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: What’s your reply?

Student: I told them thank you for your kind note, and any offences are my deserved lot. And I told that I am leaving India to go to Japan in three days. So, it is not necessary for me to go to Māyāpur for such a short period because I am leaving soon anyway. I did not want to explain my position to them.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Not even a courtesy visit? A formal visit for courtesy?

Student: I was staying there for one month, and they understood that I was coming for your darśan in the morning every day. So, they asked me, “Pleas leave Māyāpur. Please go to Japan.” So, I said, “All right.” But I did not go to Japan, I came here. But now they understand that I am here, so they are saying so please come back.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: That is general expectation in a [sane?] man. Especially, their guardian, his guardian, has asked him to do so.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gauraharibol.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gauraharibol.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

What are other two letters? Name of Mahāmuni?

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: They are redirected here from Chaitanyachandrodaya Maṭh perhaps. Two letters in the name of Mahāmuni.

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: Oh, I didn’t know that. Two for Mahāmuni, and they have been sent to …

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: But Mahāmuni’s proper address is not known to us, is it?

Student: Berkeley.

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: Yeah, they were sent to Berkeley, the same place where Dayādhar Gaurāṅga is. They have been sent already, eh?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: The letters may be sent there.

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: Will be sent?

Student: Yes.

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: You have the letters?

Student: Yes.

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: All right. They will be sent.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: We need not know what is there the contents. Not necessary?

Student: No.

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Then, it may be redirected.

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: Just general [?].

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gauraharibol.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gauraharibol.

The sun ray touching, that touching the earth. Then, where is its home? The sun ray [comes in a play?], is touching the sun, is touching the hill, touching the water. What should be the consideration as its home?

Śrīpād Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāj: The sun.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Necessarily the sun, and not the earth where it is. That is our position. We are of the … we pertain to the conscious world, not the material. Our home connection is there: the sun, the spiritual sun. We are being advised to consider that though you are in a hole in this earth, but still your soil is in the sun proper. You emanate from there. You are sustained by, sustained from, there, and your prospect is there though you are in a hole of this earth or water. We are to conceive like that. Because we are consciousness, so our home is the source of consciousness. Wherever we are—bird, beast in the mountain—whatever position, the consciousness, this conscious existence: your source just like sun. You are not a child of this soil. You may be a captive here, captive, but you are not home; a foreign land. All your prospect and aspiration can be supplied from that soil because your nature is of that order. Your food, your everything, will be made of that stuff, and this will be all poison to you.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Pertaining to consciousness. That is our immediate, our nearest, nature or acquaintance, but if we are to go deeper, then we shall find something else. Crossing the vision of light or consciousness, the necessity of the existence, that is happiness or ecstasy, prema, for the other side. Following chit, we are to go and establish ourselves in ānandam, beauty, sundaram, and never on this side. So, ānanda is above light; rasa is above consciousness. Beauty, charm, that is above mere consciousness, mere understanding. Feeling. Feeling is not complete in itself. Feeling for something. Feeling. So, perfect thing, the fullest conception of a thing, is in beauty or ecstasy. Consciousness cannot be the perfect thing ,just as not mere existence, but ānandam, ecstasy, is perfect: prema, love, beauty. That presupposes consciousness as well as existence: sat chit ānanda. Ānanda is the final conception of substance. It can stay by itself. It can exist by itself. Or He or She can exist by Himself or Herself: ānandam. But feeling or consciousness: hankering for ecstasy. And existence without consciousness and ānandam, that is useless. Mere existence is useless; it [has] no purpose. But endowed with consciousness somewhat, it can search for its own good, and goodness is ānandam or ecstasy. And that is an independent and concrete thing, because the feeling as well as existence, both are subservient to its existence, to ānandam.

ānandaṁ brahmaṇo vidvān na bibheti kadāchana
(Taittirīya-upaniṣad: 2.3.1)

When you are to realise that, Raso vai Saḥ, you need not be afraid of anything from any apprehension that can arise here.

ānandaṁ brahmaṇo vidvān na bibheti kadāchana

The apprehension, the fear, fear of death, fear of the threatening of nonexistence. Not only shall I have any fulfillment, but my existence will … is also at stake. I may be devoured by nonexistence. So, this apprehension will vanish.

ānandaṁ brahmaṇo vidvān

Where I am trying to find it, it is not located here.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gauraharibol.

Apparently, it seems that His aim is fixed in what we look at the Vigraha. To our vision, only a doll of wood, and Mahāprabhu is fixing His eye there, but He is shedding tears, and tears flowing in an current, no end, incessant current. Where is He connected? What we see as a wooden doll, and He is looking at that, and an incessant current of tears is coming down. His connection, where [is it] located? He is on the opposite side, in the subjective, subjective. So, when we approach to have a darśan of the Śrī-Mūrti, what attitude should I approach to have a look at the Śrī-Mūrti? So, we should learn to have darśan of Śrī-Mūrti. It is meant … it is not a mundane thing. Try to see with the opposite connection. It has come down to help you, you fallen soul in the material world, and He has come down as if in such a plane to take you up to His domain. He has come down.

para vyūha vaibhava antaryāmī archā

Rāmānuja has classified the expression of the Supreme Entity in these five forms. Para: the central conception of the highest entity. Vyūha: then He extends Himself, His extended Self, extends Himself in different functions; in different figure if we

may call it. Vaibhava: by further attempt, He comes down here in this mundane plane as Avatār: Matsya, Kūrma, Varāha. Antaryāmī: by another function, He is present in every heart of every soul. Every conscious unit falls within His presence. That is the fourth function of Him. And the fifth is Archā: He comes down in the plane of our physical perception. … eyes are not fixed on the wood, but with the touch of that superficial wood characteristic, it is connected high to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, deep with Kṛṣṇa consciousness that He has come here and making arrangements for the deliverance of the crores of fallen souls, especially by extending His own prasādam to one and all in a great magnitude. His magnanimous presence here for the relief work, for the relief work of this world.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Durbhikṣa: by the famine. Our Guru Mahārāj used mostly this word: the famine, durbhikṣa. What sort of durbhikṣa, famine? Food want, want of food? Kṛṣṇa-kathā durbhikṣa: the world is suffering from the famine of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, Kṛṣṇa talk, Kṛṣṇa-kīrtan. So, here try to open so many food distributing offices. Stock. Distribute the food of all the souls: talk about Kṛṣṇa.

yāre dekha tāre kaha
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Madhya-līlā, 7.128)

Mahāprabhu also told, “Whoever you will come across, talk of Kṛṣṇa. Give him food, and the food is Kṛṣṇa consciousness,

Kṛṣṇa-kathā. The famine period everyone is stricken of … famine stricken or ki? Famine stricken? [In] the world we find all famine stricken people, famine stricken, and [we] distribute food, life and breath. Whoever you come across, speak about Kṛṣṇa.

That was the feeling of our Guru Mahārāj, and Swāmī Mahārāj did that in the West: distribution of food to the souls. They are famine stricken all everywhere. Kṛṣṇa-kathā durbhikṣa: our Guru Mahārāj told, “I do not admit of any other conception of famine, but only famine is here, and that is of Kṛṣṇa-kathā, Kṛṣṇa-smṛti, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Only that famine is here, and I don’t admit of any other conception of famine or want in this world.” With whole so … seriousness, he could conceive the necessity of Kṛṣṇa consciousness in connection with us. We are suffering from famine. [?] food. We are in want of food. That is only our food. We can thrive there only. Kṛṣṇa-kathā. Kṛṣṇa-kathā. So, Kṛṣṇa is such to us, of such importance to our existence. To live, to move, vitality: Kṛṣṇa can supply vitality to us. Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So, Vāsudev Datta says, “Śrī Gaurāṅga is my vitality. How could I live if Gaurāṅga did not appear? I could not live.

yadi gaura na hata kemana ha-ita
kemana dharitām de

“If Gaurāṅga did not appear, then how could I live? I have come in connection with such a valuable thing, valuable food, now I think that without this my life is sheer impossible!”

So, vitality of the vitality: Kṛṣṇa-kathā, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And Swāmī Mahārāj went to distribute that vitality of the vitality of the soul to so many souls in the Western world. And Prabhupād did his best here, and so we have come. And it is also told by Haridās Ṭhākur to Mahāprabhu that, “You have chanted Kṛṣṇa-nām, Name, cultivated Kṛṣṇa consciousness here, sthāvara-jaṅgama, animate-inanimate, the whole world is supplied with the food of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and their life is fulfilled in whatever position they may be here. I heard of Your Jharkhanda campaign. The elephants, the tigers also, danced and chanted Kṛṣṇa-nām. So, what wonder there would be if I say that the stones and trees, they also have attained their highest end of Kṛṣṇa consciousness when You are chanting, You Yourself are chanting. What degree of intensity of Kṛṣṇa consciousness has been produced here by Your own chanting?!”

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gaurahari.

Gauraharibol.

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

Primary education is also education, but that should not come in hitch with higher education. No. It should not enter into competition with higher education. Primary education. We must be careful about that. At the same time, higher education and lower education, the differentiation between the two, that must be genuine also. Primary education may not be thought that this is the highest education. Then is, is also, a dangerous thing.

alpa-vidyā bhayaṅkarī

In Sanskrit there is a saying. What is the English version, alpa-vidyā bhayaṅkarī?

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Yes. Dangerous thing. We must be careful about that. Otherwise, it will be suicidal. The question of offence comes there when primary stands against higher education and asserts. That sort of assertion is committing offence, commitment of offence means that: the lower stands against [the] higher. Offence arises.

Gauraharibol.

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Ādi-līlā, 17.31)

We should resort to kīrtan always, but our attitude should be such Mahāprabhu recommends: tṛṇād api sunīcha, taror api sahiṣṇu, amānī, mānada. Generally, upwards. Tṛṇād api sunīcha, taror api sahiṣṇu, amānī, mānada. Our attitude will be humble, all towards high, and if we think that we are being done wrong, still also we shall take to patience, sahiṣṇu. Amānī: under no circumstances we should work for our own position and prestige. That should not be our aim. From above. Amāninā mānadena: and we shall try to respect everybody. It is all mostly connected towards the upper world. Tṛṇād api sunīcha, taror api sahiṣṇu, amānī towards Vaiṣṇava world. Our conduct will be always like that. Then, only we can thrive well in our campaign. That is, slow and steady wins the race. It is a long journey, not journey to finish within a few hours, a few days, or a few years. A continued appointment. It is true. Go on a long way. So, we have to adjust accordingly. We shall run quickly, and then we shall stop and sleep. It is not a matter of that type. But it is a long way we will have to walk on and so when our attitude will be such. Then, we will be successful. Tṛṇād api sunīcha: no cause, we should not extend any cause for resistance, which will create resistance, won’t create such circumstance that invites resistance. Tṛṇād api sunīcha. Still, if any resistance unexpectedly approaches me, I shall try my best to forbear being conscious that my guardian’s eye is over me. He is also eager to help me in my campaign. I am not alone. So, I may go on confidently. There is a person above to redress the wrong that can be shown to me, so I may not take the initiative in the beginning. Sahiṣṇunā. Amāninā: and no other object will come and pollute my aim, the pure purpose of my life. I won’t allow any pollution from outside to contaminate my [Start 820217 B] purity of purpose. Amāninā: that pratiṣṭhā will come or any other temptation will come and induce me to go ahead, I won’t, I should never allow any other but the satisfaction of Guru, Gaurāṅga, Kṛṣṇa, etc., Vaiṣṇava. No other element can enter there in my path. The purity of purpose should always be maintained very scrupulously. Amāninā. And mānadena: and I won’t shrink to give proper conduct, to show proper conduct to my environment. That is, I won’t expect that they will come and help me. I must not very eagerly … Amāninā mānadena: why they are not coming to help me? No such mentality. They are engaged in their own business. It is my own. I shall … alone I shall go on with my duty. I won’t be always searching that someone must come and help me. Mānadena. They are doing; let them do their own duty. It is mine. I shall along with this.

amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

With this attitude we shall go on. Kṛṣṇa-nirbharatā. Our … my concentration only with this sort of adjustment may be more and more intense. My confidence with Kṛṣṇa will be more increased, and my duty will be purer if I couch myself in such

away. Kīrtanīyaḥ sadā Hariḥ: Hari-kīrtan. Hari-kīrtan. Also, it will make us to be conscious that such sorts of hindrances, obstacles, are almost sure to come to attack you. So, you are …already you are given this instruction. Whenever you begin your work, all these things will come to attack you, but you are already being given this instruction, so if they come in your way and [it’s] almost sure they will come, and you are to deal with them in such a way.

Gauraharibol.

Hari-kīrtan. The life is not very comfortable, won’t be found comfortable. A life of comfort? My Guru Mahārāj told me, “Comfort-seeker”, accused me of comfort-seeking nature,

“You don’t want risk, you are comfort-seeker. You don’t want to take the risk of Kṛṣṇa-kīrtan. You are an ease-lover. Ease-lover. You don’t like to take the risk of Kṛṣṇa-kīrtan. So many in the famine, so many souls, they are dying, and you keep yourself under closed doors in the room. Ease-lover. I can’t sit idle. You may sit idle, but I can’t. So many crying in need of food. I can’t.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gauraharibol.

His grace. “You need not go out to distribute food in the famine area? You just look after the store. You stand and keep the store, and I shall engage another person. You become storekeeper at least.” He has told me. You don’t like to take risk for the distribution, for outdoor works, then a storekeeper at least you do the duty.”

Gaurahari.

So much graceful to me.

Student: You have such valuables in your store, that people from allover the world are coming to purchase them.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Almost my time is finished.

Gauraharibol.

A storekeeper’s post.

Gauraharibol.

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

I am saying so many things about meself, but also it is seen in the śāstra the Vedavyās has written Bhāgavatam, but there also his name is mentioned with deep honour. The writing came from him after all. Bhagavān Vyāsa. When someone is addressing Vyāsa, he is using Bhagavan Vyāsa. But it is ultimately passing through him. That is nirapekṣa: impartial representation of his own self also. When he is saying something in his writing, his own writing, still, he is doing justice to him also, the writer himself. Impartial judgement. Bhagavān Vyāsa. Vyāsadev himself is writing that as it is, as it is, an impartial description.

Gauraharibol.

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

Śrīpād Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāj: But Mahārāj, Vyāsadev, he is saying Bhagavān Vyāsa, but you’re not speaking like that.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: I told just now “the storekeeper”. “Storekeeper” in a general way as I am thought by others. I simply represented their feelings. But am I to think that I am really a storekeeper? I am giving vent to the general opinion only. But according to the advice of Mahāprabhu,

na prema-gandho ’sti darāpi me harau
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Madhya-līlā, 2.45)

“No store. I have not come across any store as yet. If I could find such a store, then what would be my condition?” From the Absolute standpoint, the standpoint of Mahāprabhu, “I do not know what is the real scent of Kṛṣṇa-prema divine. The love divine, the Kṛṣṇa … divine love of Kṛṣṇa, I have no scent even of that high thing.” Mahāprabhu says like that. So, He has got some conception of what Kṛṣṇa-prema should be, what higher standard that has got. “Not yet I have achieved the scent, what to speak of getting anything in possession.” So high. How high the position of the purity of Kṛṣṇa-prema? This is all fighting with shadow. Still, yāre dekha tāre kaha, because we are wanted in our condition to do so, we do. Dūre śuddha-kṛṣṇa-prema

dūre śuddha-prema-gandha kapaṭa premera bandha
seha mora kṛṣṇe nāhi bhāya
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Madhya-līlā, 2.46)

Dūre śuddha-prema-gandha.

Mahāprabhu.

Gaurahari.

Gauraharibol.

The sun is the source of the infinite intensity of heat, but that is not necessary for us. A particular stage of heat is sufficient for us. More than that not useful for our purpose. So, we have to take position in a particular place where we can thrive from the heat of the sun and may not be burned into ashes. Our thriving point, our thriving point, in a particular space. You see iron is being melted by a particular heat, but there is metal which holds that liquid iron, that is harder stuff that can tolerate that intense heat. That is not melted, the pot is not melted, but the iron in the pot is being melted by the heat. So, different stuff. So, we are told that proper location, proper location. Liberation is proper location, and the highest heat, we cannot tolerate, we cannot endure. So, the first group— Nanda Yaśodā, Śrīdām Sudām, Rādhārāṇī Lalitā—they can tolerate, they can adjust, and our capacity requires adjustment in the proper position of ānandam. The wave should be utilised. Mahābhāva.

‘rasa-rāja’, ‘mahābhāva’—dui eka rūpa
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Madhya-līlā, 8.282)

The Rasarāj-Mahābhāva.

Gaurahari.

Student: Three persons from ISKCON came just now.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Huh?

Student: Three persons from ISKCON came just now.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: What for?

Student: What for I don’t know. They are downstairs now. I didn’t meet them yet.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: দেখ । কি জানতে হবে । এখানে নিয়ে আসবে হঠাৎ না ।

Student: They want to come here.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: তারা কি এখানে Indian, না ?

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: Nimāi Prabhu, are they Indian also?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: তারা Indian, না ?

Student: American.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: So, one of you can go and meet… One should go and meet, what is their necessity, requirement … Nitāi Gauraharibol.

Śrīpād Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāj: So, the jīva-śakti, what you mentioned, Śrīdām, Sudām, they are chit-śakti, they can tolerate that heat. Can jīva-śakti ever tolerate such heat?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: They cannot contain, no. So, under, just from behind them, they should take their stand, position. Otherwise, as Swāmī Mahārāj told to Achyutananda, “You will faint.” Do you remember?

Śrīpād Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāj: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: You will faint there, cannot keep your consciousness to that standard, as yet you have not acquired that position, So, something like that: we will faint there.

Śrīpād Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāj: So jīva-śakti always remains jīva-śakti?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Jīva-śakti is always subservient position, secondary. That will be his highest attainment, position.

Śrīpād Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāj: Nitya Kṛṣṇa-dās.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: But the dāsatā is of such degree. এরা পরিচিত না ? They are old faces or new?

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: One I know. Ruchi Prabhu.

Śrīpād Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāj: This is Ruchi Dās.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Ruchi. I might have heard his name perhaps

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gaurahari.

Śrīpād Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāj: One is, one devotee is Vipramukhya.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: From?

Śrīpād Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāj: Vipramukhya from Jayatīrtha Mahārāj’s zone. Another devotee …

Student: Succren?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Hare Kṛṣṇa. In England?

Śrīpād Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāj: England.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: How long he is separate from Jayatīrtha Mahārāj?

Śrīpād Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāj: He says how long are you separate from Jayatīrtha Mahārāj?

Vipramukhya Swāmī: Not separate.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Not separate in that sense, but you come away, but I want to hear his news from you.

Vipramukhya Prabhu: Āchchhā.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: How long you do not know, you are disconnected, that physically?

Vipramukhya Swāmī: I’ve been away for two weeks.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: He is all right then.

Vipramukhya Swāmī: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Before two weeks he was all right?

Vipramukhya Swāmī: Yes.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gaurahari.

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gauraharibol.

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

You come from Māyāpur now?

Vipramukhya Swāmī: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Bhavānanda Mahārāj, Jay Patākā Mahārāj, both of them are there now?

Vipramukhya Swāmī: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: They are doing well?

Vipramukhya Swāmī: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: বৃষ্টি । Rain fall.

Vipramukhya Swāmī: Much construction is going on there.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Much?

Vipramukhya Swāmī: Construction, building.

Student: Building, construction.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Construction. Construction means Swāmī Mahārāj’s Temple construction?

Student: Yes, samādhi.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Samādhi Mandir.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gauraharibol.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: Raining.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Rain coming?

Śrīpād Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāj: No, no, no it’s not coming.

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: Outside it’s coming.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gaurahari.

ঘরে যাবেন ?

নিতাই চলে গেল ?

হ্যাঁ ।

আপনার কথা ভাল লেগেছে বলছে ।

কার ? নিতাই–এর ?

আমার দিকে test আছে । আমি এখন সংসার ঠংসার ইহে করতে হচ্ছে । Test আমাদের আছে মহারাজ ভালবাসা কেমনে জানি । [?]

হরে কৃষ্ণ । গোবিন্দ চলে গেল না কি ?

বোধ হয় ।

[?] পড়েছে ?

কি জানি । জানি না ঠিক কি রকম বৃষ্টি হবে ।

ভেঙ্গেছে । শতরিঞ্জি উপরে ছিলেন না কি ?

যাই হোক । যাই হোক । আপনি ঘরে রখুন ।

ঘরে যাব ?

বৃষ্টি পড়ছে আর ঠাণ্ডা পড়ছে । It’s raining.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Should we go in?

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: Yes, if you wish.

[Cut]

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: Your room is completely full. House full, packed.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Spectacle is only formal.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Gauraharibol.

Manu-saṁhitā begins the creation from this point:

āsīd idaṁ tamo-bhūtam aprajñātam alakṣaṇam
apratarkyam avijñeyaṁ prasuptam iva sarvataḥ
(Śrī Manu-saṁhitā: 1.5–6)

Just before creation, the creative movement began. Just before that, the position was that of equilibrium. Taṭastha means equilibrium.

Āsīd idaṁ tamo-bhūtam: in the stage of darkness, ignorance, enveloped fully with ignorance. Aprajñātam: no possibility of any estimation. Alakṣaṇa. Aprajñātam. Alakṣaṇa: no symptoms would exist that any conjecture or inference would be possible.

Avijñātam: science has no position there for investigation. Avijñātam prasuptam iva sarvaśam: only we can say from here [everything] was complete in deep sleep. Deep sleep may be, may bear, some conception of the period. Prasuptam iva sarvataḥ: sound sleep.

Tataḥ svayambhūr bhagavān avyakto vyañjayann idam: then a movement began; a movement began from within and some light came. Light was seen by the seers, that the seers … the light, that was preexistent, but the seers got the eye to see the light. They began to see. Apa …

apa eva sasarja-ādau
(Manu-saṁhitā: 1.8)

In the first conception, there was water. The light first showed something like water. Apa eva sasarja-ādau: the light that came, that is compared with personality, light means consciousness, consciousness means person, the personality gave birth to the onlooker, to the feeler, a substance, objective substance just like water, that is Virajā. Brahmaloka and Virajā, what is told by the Vaiṣṇava vocabulary. The light means Brahmaloka, and the first objective side is represented as water, Virajā-jal.

apa eva sasarja-ādau

Then,

tāsu vīryam avāsṛjat
(Manu-saṁhitā: 1.8)

Then the seeds were sown in the water, the shade of light, the first conception like water, accommodating, moving solution (tāsu vīryam avāsṛjat), and some seed was sewn, thrown into that water (avāsṛjat).

Apa means of lower conception; so the lower creation began. Apa eva … The water is also … the water proper, that was created long afterwards, but the first creative energy is compared with water. That is prakṛti. The highest conception of prakṛti is considered to be like water, [Video resumes here] and the lowest conception of Godhead is considered like light, a ray. A ray and water. The nearest approach of the conception of the chetana as well as jaḍa, matter and consciousness. Consciousness is compared with light, and matter compared with water in their primitive differentiated position.

Prakṛte mahān

Then, in connection with the bīja and the water, the next production was known as mahat-tattva: some light mixed with some matter as a mass. The mass of matter infused with some light, that is known as mahat-tattva. And that was divided into many units, ahaṅkāra. Mahato ahaṅkāra: ahaṅkāra as a whole, the element of all the ahaṅkāra, the mother ahaṅkāra, is mahat-tattva. Prakṛte mahān mahato ahaṅkāra. Ahaṅkārāt pañcha-tānmātrāṇi: then it expressed himself, developed itself, into five main ingredients, pañcha tānmātrā, that is what can be seen, what can be scented, what can be heard, what can be tasted, what can be touched, the primitive principle of such expression. Ahaṅkārāt pañcha-tānmātrāṇi. Mahato ahaṅkāra ahaṅkārāt pañcha-tānmātrāṇi: then they again that five principle developed itself in three phases: sattva, rajaḥ, tamaḥ. Just as rūpa, the vision, and the darśak, the sun, the light, the vision, the colour, and the eye. So, the ether, the ear, and sound. So, everything in this way, that five again converted itself into three respectively. So five into three, twenty came to existence, and those prakṛti, mahat-tattva, ahaṅkāra. Twenty and prakṛti. Twenty. Prakṛtim, mahān, ahaṅkāra, pañcha-tānmātrā, and these, so chatur-viṁśa [mahābhūtāni?]. The development of the material world has been described to come down in such a process. Again when withdrawn, the most gross enters, dissolves, into the subtle, and then it into the more subtle and more subtle. In this way, it enters into that prakṛti, that watery substance, and the ātmā, to that brahma, that mere consciousness, nondifferentiated mass of consciousness, brahma, akṣara.

kṣaraḥ sarvāṇi bhūtāni kūṭastho ’kṣara uchyate
(Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: 15.16)

That brahma has been defined as akṣara.

kṣaram atīto ’ham akṣarād api chottamaḥ
(Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: 15.18)

“I exist transcending both the two aspects of the substance, kṣara and akṣara, so I am Puruṣottama, Vāsudev, Parabrahma. Within Me, the whole of My jurisdiction is also considered, that Vaikuṇṭha, Goloka. The whole thing represented only by the name of Puruṣottama, Vāsudev. Then, when we enter into that domain of Vāsudeva, we can see so many demarcation, and so many stages, so many Pastimes, so many dealings there. They are busy in their dedicated life there. Eternal world. The general conception like that. Calculative dedication and then spontaneous dedication, that is called Goloka, and there are so many different kinds of Pastimes: śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya, madhura, svakīya, pārakīya. That is very very high. Still, we have to somewhat view that our fate is finally connected with that high thing, what is given to us by Bhāgavatam, Mahāprabhu, Chaitanya-charitāmṛtam, etc., Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur, etc., in the scriptures. That is our future. Our future prospectus is such. Sambandha-jñān needs it. According to our taste, taste also can be improved by hearing from a higher source. Selection may … the spirit of selection may be improved when we are shown different ideas, models. What may attract us most according to our choice, inner choice, we are to move on, to get that, to acquire that.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gauraharibol.

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

নিমাই ? নেই ?

Is it a regular rainfall?

Student: Yes.

Viśuddha Sattva Dās: In which place the conscious is being differentiated as a unity? How does take place?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Huh? I can’t follow?

Viśuddha Sattva Dās: In the evolution of the sāṅkhya universe, in the creation process that you explained …

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Who are you?

Viśuddha Sattva Dās: Viśuddha Sattva Dās.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Viśuddha Sattva. Viśuddha-sattva is above the creation.

Viśuddha Sattva Dās: I am only a servant of all the Vaiṣṇavas.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Now, what do you say?

Viśuddha Sattva Dās: In this time, the consciousness, the individual consciousness takes place as individual entity, in the process of sāṅkhya universe …

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Anyone repeat it?

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: In the process of sāṅkhya universe, the creation of the universe according to the saṅkhya philosophy, at which stage does individual consciousness occur, during the process of creation?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Just now I described that. A general ahaṅkāra is created first.

[Prakṛti ? apy apsṛjata?]

tal-liṅgaṁ bhagavān śambhur
(Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā: 5.8)

In Brahma-saṁhitā, the ray of consciousness comes to mingle with prakṛti. Prakṛti means energy. Consciousness and energy. The most fundamental conception of energy, that is prakṛti, and consciousness. There are of two categorical differences: energy and consciousness. The mass consciousness comes in contact with mass energy, and they mingle together. And then a general ego is … comes to be seen. Then, that is dissolved. That general ego is dissolved into innumerable parts, innumerable ego, and that consciousness within, that also distributes itself within each unit. In this way, gradually, the individual soul is coming down. Individual ahaṅkāra. When they are one as a common whole, all ahaṅkāra, in that primitive state it is known as mahat-tattva. Then after when it grows, we see it in so many different individual units. When a particular thing is broken to pieces, an atom, an atom also broken, then electrons, in this way, gradually in their development they came as individual ahaṅkāra, jīva-souls. Taṭastha, akṣara. Akṣara: undetectable. Akṣara means undetectable. From that plane it comes to detectable plane as a whole, and then again in the next process of development in the negative side, it is seen, innumerable units from that mass lump as mahat-tattva. Then gradually, other things develop in this negative side of exploitation.

Viśuddha Sattva Dās: The creation of brahmāṇḍa is posterior to this process?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: হ্যাঁ.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

ekayā yāty anāvṛttim anyayāvartate punaḥ
(Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: 8.26)

Force, sometimes thrashing, pushing forth, and sometimes withdrawing. In this way, heart contracts and expands, contracts and expands. The whole brahmāṇḍa expands and contracts, collecting within the one and many, one and many, in this way, the creation and dissolution, evolution and dissolution. In this way, as a heart contracts and expands, the whole brahmāṇḍa is in such a process. What we find in the smallest unit, the same character is to be traced in the bigger units. This is the suggestion to know the whole, more or less. And there are some categorical new elements to be added to our knowledge also. And those that are within, they can have some partial knowledge, and those that are independent, outside this contract and expand world, onlookers from outside, they are giving the real history of the whole thing. And that is revealed truth, and that also is distributed according to the capacity of the people of the province or the section. So, revealed truth also as Bible, as Koran, as Veda, in this way they are dealt. Revealed truth is dealt partially, thinking [of] the capacity of that particular group in that portion, but revealed truth is reliable somewhat, and there also extended with some modification befitting the persons to whom it is extended. So, some difference we find in the revealed truth.

parokṣa-vādo vedo ’yaṁ bālānām anuśāsanam
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.3.44)

And the Vedic revealed decision is conceived to be the most ancient as well as the most perfect. [Possible interlude text: We are told. Revealed truth up to the Bhāgavatam, revealed truth, and then we consider to be [Start 820217 C] Charitāmṛtam, [Mahāprabhu’s?] full-fledged theism. And also there is mention that beyond this created world, what is there? Eternally dancing world. The eternal dance is there. Here contraction and expansion, and there eternal dance. And that is also of lower and higher type according to the nature of the rasa or ānandam or ecstasy, which is the desired thing of every conscious unit.

Gaurahari.

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

Rain stopped?

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

Student: Mahārāj?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Yes?

Student: Kṛṣṇa’s Pastimes in this material world are eternally going on.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Yes.

Student: When Kṛṣṇa finishes one Pastime in this universe, the Pastime begins in another universe. So, my question is, when the universes are withdrawn into Mahāviṣṇu, do the Pastimes continue to go on?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Then what?

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: When the universe is …

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Hyā̐. Disolved …

Śrīpād Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāj: Mahāpralay.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Hyā̐. Mahāpralay. This side, this side is almost equates to zero, equilibrium, and the other side is in full swing always. Nitya-līlā, the eternal aspect, no harm there.

Student: But the bhauma-līlā?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Just as suppose the fruit falls from the tree, and it is finished gradually, but the tree is there. Something like that. This may equate to zero, but the other is eternally going on.

Student: But this question of Goloka-Gokula arises.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: The Gokul Vṛndāvan, it is there, but the seers are all absent. It is there. It is there in ideal, that is extended here. What we see, we see from our different position of existence, but it is there always, but we have no eye, so no seer, no touch, none to … But it is the same with that. It is in such a plane that it cannot … the external different processes over the material energy, it cannot touch that fine ideal existence in that plane. Suppose if the earth vanishes, that does not mean that the whole solar system will vanish. It is there, but the men on the earth, they cannot see that and its influence on the earth. It is in another plane existing, finest plane. Of that the creation, the evolution: it is beyond evolution and dissolution. Such subtle energy. If the earth destroys, the air or the ether may not destroyed. The ethereal representation in the earth is not destroyed, but it is within and outside the earth. The ether within and outside the earth, but with the dissolution of the earth, ether may not be dissolved. It is there. Something like that.

yathā mahānti bhūtāni bhūteṣūchchāvacheṣv anu
praviṣṭāny apraviṣṭāni tathā teṣu na teṣv aham
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 2.9.35)

He is there and not there: “I am everywhere, and I am nowhere. Everything is in Me; nothing is in Me.” We to understand that aspect of the cause and the effect, relation of the cause and the effect of different types. The inner representation of the cause, and the outer superficial representation of the cause, they may have different positions, different property in every respect. The body may be disturbed, mind may not be. Mind may be destroyed, ātmā may not be.

Student: Mahārāj?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Yes?

Student: When Kṛṣṇa in Kṛṣṇa-līlā, Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvan, is the original Kṛṣṇa, but when Kṛṣṇa is in Mathurā or Dvārakā, it’s Vāsudev Kṛṣṇa. So, my question is when Chaitanya Mahāprabhu is in Nabadwīp and when Chaitanya Mahāprabhu goes to Jagannāth Purī, is Chaitanya Mahāprabhu in Jagannāth Purī the original Chaitanya Mahāprabhu?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: One and the same. A difference in function and our concern. He is conscious of His own position, but the functional question differs.

Gaurahari.

কে ?

Nimāi.

Nimāi? Huh?

Yes.

একটু খাবার জাল দাও ত [?] গরম । [Give me a little warm drinking water.]

Hare Kṛṣna.

Student: Is Mahāprabhu in Jagannāth Purī an expansion of Mahāprabhu in Nabadwīp?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Mahāprabhu in Nabadwīp is generally of two phases: Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa-milita, that is, that has come once in one day of Brahmā: aṣṭa-viṁśa chatur-yuge (Cc: Ādi, 3.10). And Mahāprabhu as the giver of the Hari-nām, Yugāvatār, every Kali-yuga, He comes. Both combined here. And when in Purī, generally we do not find this Nām-avatār, but that Rādhā-Govinda-milita, and He is particularly engaged in His original līlā. He is searching Himself in the mood of Rādhārāṇī. Not so much engagement of spreading [the Name of Kṛṣṇa is to be found there. That] superficial aspect is almost absent there. A very far connection. Not completely eliminated, but in the greater aspect, the partial representation is represented in such a way. The Yugāvatār is represented in Svayam Bhagavān-līlā.

harṣe prabhu kahena, “śuna svarūpa-rāma-rāya
nāma-saṅkīrtana kalau parama upāya”
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Antya-līlā, 20.8)

Mahāprabhu addressing to Svarūp and Rām Rāy, sometimes coming outside on the superficial temperament in connection with the world: “O Svarūp, O Dāmodar!” In this way, “Rāmānanda! Nām-saṅkīrtan is a very wonderful means to attain the divine love of Kṛṣṇa.” In this way, He is expressing and tasting, but mostly deeply engaged in separation of Kṛṣṇa, searching. More attentive or less attentive, no function can be completely separated from another. All have some unification or uniting relationship tied in.

īśvaratve bheda mānile haya aparādha
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Madhya-līlā, 9.155)

The continuance is always present anywhere and everywhere. Nothing can come in to separate totally. Continuous.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gaurahari.

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

Student: Mahārāj?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Yes?

Student: In every Kali-yuga there is a particular form of Chaitanya Mahāprabhu that comes?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: What does he say?

Student: In every Kali-yuga there is a particular form of Mahāprabhu coming?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Yes. Yugāvatār. As Yugāvatār, He generally comes in every Kali-yuga. Kṛṣṇa also comes every Kali-yuga. Then, Haṁsa and Hayagrīva, then Satya-yuga,

Tretā-yuga, Dvāpar …

kṛte yad dhyāyato viṣṇuṁ
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 12.3.52)

tretāyāṁ rakta-varṇo ’sau
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.5.24)

dvāpare bhagavān śyāmaḥ
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.5.27)

And in Kali,

kalāv api tathā śṛṇu
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.5.31)

kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair yajanti hi sumedhasaḥ
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 11.5.32)

Kali Guhya-avatār: secret. So, it is in a mystic way it has been described in Bhāgavatam, not very clearly as in other ages. Because: chhannaḥ Kalau (SB: 7.9.38). In Prahlād Mahārāj’s song we find, “So, one of Your names is Triyuga. You are represented in three yugas, and the fourth, it is chhanna, in disguise.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Hare Rāma.

Gauraharibol.

Nitāi Gauraharibol.

[How are the newcomers?]

Student: Mahārāj?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Yes?

Student: The Gambhīrā at Jagannāth Purī …

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Hum?

Student: The Gambhīrā at Jagannāth Purī …

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: The Gambhīrā, yes?

Student: Is that Gauḍīya Maṭh Temple?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: No. That is separate. Not within the administration of any followers of Prabhupād Bhakti Siddhānta Saraswatī, but they belong to the sahajiyā section.

Student: They are sahajiyās.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Something like that. More influence of the sahajiyā section there, but still cannot but be some modification in them. Though they are opposing Gauḍīya Maṭh, but unconsciously imbibing something from there. Cannot but improve their condition. Though putting blame on Gauḍīya Maṭh people, but still they are correcting themselves unconsciously because the eyes of the public are being opened, so it is difficult to continue in their foolish way. Being modified, more or less. The goswāmins, the others, so many who take the Name of Nitāi Gaurāṅga but go on with their whimsical things, as much as the propagation of Gauḍīya Maṭh is extended, they are feeling to maintain difficulty their own whimsical opinions and activities. Unconsciously they are modifying themselves, correcting themselves.

Gauraharibol.

Many of them are openly announcing, “We could not understand Bhakti Siddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākur in the beginning. We opposed him like anything, but now we understand gradually that what he did, though we thought he was against the sampradāya, but now we can see that what he did apparently different from our custom, but he did rightly.” Many of them say like that in the open meeting. One of them who was the chairman when some municipal address was given to Swāmī Mahārāj when he came here first with Achyutānanda and that Rāmānuja. He was given here the welcome, municipal welcome, and one Mr. Kopendhu Sāṅkhya Tīrtha, he was a good scholar of Sanskrit and so-called follower of Mahāprabhu, and he has remarked one day in a meeting, while I was present, that, “We fought with Bhakti Siddhānta Saraswatī Ṭhākur in many ways that he was introducing many novelties into the sampradāya, crossing the direction of the previous Āchāryas. We accused him with this vehemently on paper, press, and platform, but now we have come to realise that what he did, he did the right thing. We had not so much foresight to see him at that time. So, the other day, the Chaitanya [Bhavan?], the principal of the college of Nabadwīp, he also announced that in the meeting, “We could not understand him at that time. Now we realise that what he did, it was quite justified, and we failed to understand him.” In this way, many of them are admitting the fact. The apparent service, it may not be real, and the real service may not always apparently be a copy of the former, imitation of the former. The spirit is all-important, not the form. Rūpa-Sanātan took the form of kaupīn, white dress, and Prabhupād took red dress and daṇḍam, new introduction. Nut the spirit was there; the form was modified. And the form is with the Bābājīs, but the spirit is absent. The difference is this. So, spirit should be welcomed at all costs in all ages and times. The spirit is all-in-all, and the form may vary, the outer. According to the environment, the form may vary, but the spirit must be there eternally. And the differentiation between spiritual representation, that is of eternal type, it is there, and we have to adjust with them according to our inner necessity and capacity.

Gauraharibol.

Gaurahari.

[Cut]

… the process in which our Guru Mahārāj gave names to the sannyāsīs. Swāmī Mahārāj deviated from that, but though other godbrothers, they feel something difference, I do not do so because his work was more grand and great in magnitude, and the circumstances was also very different from that of India. So, this sort of freedom he must have to adjust with the circumstances to the nature and the education and civilisation of the populace. This latitude he should enjoy. Enjoy means he must find such insinuation from within for greater accommodation. So naming and so many things are different, but we have to see the spirit within and not the outer thing. And Prabhupād also, formally he seemed to deviate from Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur. Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur laid stress in the household life, and he was very much afraid of the renounce … life of renunciation. That may be very grave and serious, and may be reactionary, but Prabhupād he came with such an organisation, he gave some chance for what was not generally available, that Vaiṣṇava-sevā, Vaiṣṇava association, sādhu-saṅga. What is the most indispensable necessity in the life of a sādhaka? That is sādhu-saṅga. He made arrangement that sādhu-saṅga would be available to many, and so he took a bold step to collect persons of different stages and to draw them in and give them the chance of divine service under the guidance of the Vaiṣṇava, Vaiṣṇava-sevā. Always hearing, always engagement, and so this deviation from Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur was amply compensated by another aspect. So, that deviation is no deviation in spirit but in form. So, Swāmī Mahārāj has also deviated formally in many cases, but the spirit is intact there. Who can, who have an eye to see that, they will embrace them. Otherwise, others will murmur that he took the name of Prabhupād himself, of his Guru. His Guru had reverence for Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur’s name, and he has given this ‘ānanda’.  Vivekānanda, the Ramakrishna Mission, they generally use this ‘ānanda’ in the sannyāsīs, but our Prabhupād did not do, so deviation from Prabhupād. All these sort of accusing may come on Swāmī Mahārāj, deviation from his own Guru, but one who has got the eye to see the spirit within, he won’t care for this change of formality. He will see the inner thing and not the external. And one who has got such a high degree of distributing himself, he must be given by the higher authority some latitude, magnitude, of extending himself in some original way.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Student: Mahārāj, what form did the apparent deviation of our Śrīla Prabhupād take place? Exactly what was the difference, that how he was different from … ?

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: I can’t count them. I have given example two, three, etc.

Śrīpād Dhīra Kṛṣṇa Mahārāj: The sannyās names.

Student: Yeah, but no, I know that, but specifically in relationship to the sannyās names …

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: For sannyās names, Prabhupād used first ‘Bhakti’ and then a three-lettered word, one word, and then that eighty, one hundred and eight names he began to use beginning from the first. This sannyās, that was not in vogue before Prabhupād, this 108 names or so, sannyāsī names. It was ‘Bābājī’, always ‘Bābājī’ and ‘Dās’. And he did not use any ‘Ānanda’. Generally it was [aslisya group?] by Vivekānanda. Thye use it. The Śaṅkār section some way or other. ‘Ānanda’ is generally added in the brahmachārī , the ‘Svarup’, ‘Ānanda’, ‘Chaitanya’, and ‘Prakāśa’, these are generally recommended for the brahmachārī, but we find the Ramakrishna Mission and Śaṅkār also in the name of sannyās—Prakāśānanda, Prabodhānanda—but Prabhupād used according to scripture only ‘Ānanda’ in the brahmachārī.  ‘Ānanda’, ‘Prakāśa’, ‘Svarup’, and ‘Chaitanya’ in brahmachārī, not in the name of the sannyāsī.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Gaurahari.

Gauraharibol.

I was told, I heard direct from Sakhī Bābu, that when Prabhupād took sannyās, then he went to Vṛndāvan with two of his followers, one Paramānanda, another Kuñja Bābu, a gṛhastha, Śrī Bhakti Vilās Tīrtha who was recently the Āchārya of Chaitanya Maṭh, and their dress … Prabhupād’s dress was that of a sannyāsī, the red cloth, but the bābājīs, they did not like, and they said,

rakta-vastra ‘vaiṣṇavera’ parite nā yuyāya
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Antya-līlā, 13.6)

It is mentioned in Chaitanya-charitāmṛta, “A Vaiṣṇava should not wear red cloth because that represents near māyāvādī and tantric. So, they will always take white cloth.” But Prabhupād took red cloth, and his dress was that of a sannyāsī. He went to Vṛndāvan, and two of his disciples that followed him, Paramānanda and Kuñja Bābu, they were clad in European dress. Sakhī Bābu told that created a commotion amongst the sahajiyās. What is this? He is going to Vṛndāvan with red cloth, and also took the brahmachārīs there with European dress. Generally, we use this cloth, the Indian dress, but entering Vṛndāvan with a revolutionary dress. So, they began to criticise from all sides. But what Prabhupād showed? “We see that was the emblem, that you people, you don’t appreciate what Mahāprabhu has given for us. All your attention is drawn by the glamour of the European culture. So, Europeans should be approached, and when you will be … possible for us to accept them Mahāprabhu’s creed, then you will come and accept. You are followers of the glamour of the European civilisation. You are all slaves, you have become slaves to European civilisation. All your attention towards that. So, they should be taken in. So, I am couching myself in such a way that when I shall approach to the present scientific culture and the seat is with the Europeans.” So, his attitude was to attack, to prepare himself as a general, to attack the present civilisation in the European camp, and these fools, they are only blind followers of that culture. That was his attitude.

Student: মহারাজ, দশটা পঁচিশ বাজে ।

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: All right.

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

We shall search the spirit most, and not the form so much. Whether it is a cloth or it is a pantaloon or coat, that has got some value, not that it has no value, some value, but within, the man within, is all important.

All right then, I can dissolve.

Śrīpād Akṣayānanda Mahārāj: Jay Om Viṣṇupād Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣak Śrīdhar Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj ki jay!

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj: Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāj ki jay!

Sevaka-vṛnda ki jay!