750228 - Lecture Purport to Parama Koruna - Atlanta

Lectures by Date, 1975

His Divine Grace
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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750228PU-ATLANTA - February 28, 1975 - 37:08 Minutes

Prabhupāda: . . .pahū dui jana. Pahū means prabhu. The shortcut is pahū. Prabhu, lord, or master. So these prabhu, two, two prabhus, Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Nityānanda Prabhu. Caitanya Mahāprabhu is addressed as Mahāprabhu, Mahā-puruṣa. And others, they are addressed as prabhu. So these two prabhus, Nityānanda Prabhu and Caitanya Mahāprabhu, are very merciful, parama koruṇa. Parama koruṇa means extremely merciful. Extremely merciful because . . . Kṛṣṇa is also merciful, but because He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead in His original feature . . . Caitanya Mahāprabhu is also Kṛṣṇa, but He is acting as devotee. He is not acting as Kṛṣṇa. He is acting as devotee of Kṛṣṇa.

namo mahā-vadānyāya

kṛṣṇa-preme-pradāya te

kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-

nāmne . . .

He is Kṛṣṇa, but at present He has assumed the name of Kṛṣṇa Caitanya.

Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya also appreciated Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He made one hundred verses about Caitanya Mahāprabhu, but Caitanya Mahāprabhu, just to teach us, He destroyed the ślokas: "Oh, it is too much praising Me." So anyway, some of the ślokas were saved. Two of them are mentioned in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. So one of the śloka, verse, is,

vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yoga-

śikṣārtham ekaḥ puruṣaḥ purāṇaḥ

śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-śarīra-dhārī

kṛpāmbudhir yas tam ahaṁ prapadye

(CC Madhya 6.254)

Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya is offering his obeisances to Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, speaking like this, that "You are the same original person, Kṛṣṇa, but You have now assumed the form of Kṛṣṇa Caitanya just to teach vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yogam. You have come to teach the mass of people the art of becoming detached to this material world." Vairāgya-vidyā. Vairāgya. Rāgya means attachment, and virāga means detachment.

So we fallen souls, conditioned souls, we are very much attached to this material body, and consequently, material world. This is the disease. This is called bhava-roga, or material disease, to become attached to this body. "I am Indian," "I am American," "I am white," "I am black"—I identify with this body because we are very much attached to this body. But if we study very deeply, "Why I am attached to this body?" Suppose if there is some danger, immediately warning, just this roof is going to fall down, we shall immediately take care of our own body, not of our Godbrothers, because we are very much attached to this body. This is the first business, how to save this body.

Now, the next question is "Why you are so much anxious to save this body?" What will be the answer? Can anyone say? Why one is so much attached with this body? The answer is that because I, the real I, I am within this body, therefore I am anxious to save it. Then why you are anxious to save the soul, individual soul? The answer will be that because I am part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. So ultimately we want to love Kṛṣṇa, but because we are in a forgetful platform, then someone is trying to save his body, someone is trying to save his bodily relationship. Therefore in so many ways we are implicated with this material atmosphere.

So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu came to teach us how to become detached to this material. That is vairāgya-vidyā. Vidyā means vairāgya-vidyā. Vidyā does not mean to become more and more attached to this material world. That is not . . . that is avidyā, illusion, because I will not be able to save this body. This body will change, or will be annihilated. But still, I am very much anxious for this body. This is called illusion or ignorance or avidyā. So Caitanya Mahāprabhu came to teach us vairāgya-vidyā, how to become detached. He personally showed by His life example that . . . He was very learned scholar in Navadvīpa. His name was Nimāi Paṇḍita. And He was very influential also. He was so influential that simply by His calling, 100,000 people joined Him to show a civil disobedience movement, disobeying the order of the magistrate that "You cannot perform kīrtana." So Caitanya Mahāprabhu organized immediately about one lakh of people and went to perform at the house of the magistrate. The civil disobedience movement, perhaps you know that it was inaugurated by Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi, in India against the British government. But long, long before, five hundred years before, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He started this civil disobedience movement against the order of Kazi.

So He was so popular. My point is that not only He was a very learned scholar . . . He was young man, twenty, twenty-two years, but He was so popular that He could call 100,000 people at once to start this civil disobedience, His social position. He was beautiful, Gaurasundara. His another name is Gaurasundara, very beautiful body. And a very learned scholar, Nimāi Paṇḍita. Nobody could defeat Him. And very influential and born of a very high grade brāhmaṇa family. His father, His grandfather was very, very learned scholars. So in every way He was very well situated, although the brāhmaṇas are not very rich. They do not care for money. They are interested in knowledge, brahma-jñāna. And if one knows Brahman, then he is brāhmaṇa. Brahma jānātīti brāhmaṇaḥ: "Brāhmaṇa means one who knows the Absolute Truth." That is brahma-jñāna. The human life is meant for that purpose, athāto brahma jijñāsā. Everyone should be interested to enquire about Brahman, the Absolute Truth. At least, a class of man must be there in the society. That is the brain, brain of the society, brāhmaṇa. Just like you have got the brain in your body. If the brain is absent, if the brain is gone mad, then your whole body is useless.

That is the position at the present moment. There is no brain in the society. All śūdras; no brāhmaṇas. Because nobody is interested with the Absolute Truth. Everyone is interested how to eat, how to sleep, how to have sex and how to defend. That is going on, nationwide, worldwide. Therefore our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is interested to make a section of the people brāhmaṇa, brain. They can guide. It is not that everyone requires; neither it is possible. Unless one is very intelligent, he cannot become brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa means the most intellectual class of the society. That is brāhmaṇa. Satya śamaḥ damaḥ titikṣa ārjavaḥ, jñānaṁ vijñānam āstikyaṁ brahma-karma svabhāva-jam (BG 18.42). These are the brāhmaṇa's qualification. He must be truthful—so much so truthful that even to his enemy he will not keep any secret. That is called truthfulness. And śamaḥ. Śamaḥ means controlling the senses. Damaḥ . . . Śamaḥ means controlling the mind. Mind is our enemy; mind is our friend. So if we can control the mind, the mind can act as very good friend. And if we do not control the mind, then he acts as enemy. Therefore the yoga system means controlling the mind, controlling the senses so they can act as my friend. Otherwise they will act as my enemies, kāma krodha lobha moha.

So there is necessity of a class of men who will act as the brain of the society. That is called brāhmaṇa. That is real human society, where there are four classes of men: one acting as brain; one acting as arms or armies or protection; one acting as belly, or the food digesting machine . . . unless you eat and digest food, how your body will be maintained? So everything is very scientifically designed in the Vedic civilization. So in the Kali-yuga there is scarcity of brāhmaṇa. Brāhmaṇa is vairāgya. A brāhmaṇa is not interested with pounds, shilling, pence, "Get money and enjoy." That is not brāhmaṇa's business. What is enjoyment? That is illusion. You cannot enjoy, because you are conditioned by the stringent laws of nature, and where is enjoyment? There is no enjoyment. But they are thinking, "I am enjoying." This is called illusion, māyā. There cannot be any enjoyment. When you are not free, when you are conditioned under the stringent laws of . . . you do not like to die; you are forced to die. You must die. You cannot say, "No, I will not die." No, that is not possible. So where is your freedom? But we are declaring, "Now we are independent." This is all illusion.

So Caitanya Mahāprabhu appeared to save us from all these illusions. That is Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Caitanya means living, not dead. If we have no spiritual consciousness, if we have not Kṛṣṇa's consciousness, then we are dead. This . . . what is this body? This body is dead. Alive or dead, so-called dead, it is already dead because it is matter. But because there is spirit soul, it is moving. The same example: the motorcar, what is this? A lump of matter, some iron, some other metals or some rubbers, some combination. And so long the driver is there—it is moving—it is important so long it is moving. And as soon as the movement stops, you throw it away. That is very good experience in your country. So many useless motorcars are heaped together.

So similarly, the brāhmaṇa means one must know that who is the driver of this body, brahma-jñāna. So at the present moment nobody knows who is driving this body. So therefore all śūdras, fourth-class men. There is no first-class man. But in the human society there must be four classes of men: first class, second class, third class . . . fourth class also required for assisting the higher, third class. Everything is very nicely described in the Bhagavad-gītā, and Bhagavad-gītā was taught by Kṛṣṇa Himself. But people could not follow Him, misunderstood Him. Therefore Kṛṣṇa again came as Kṛṣṇa Caitanya to teach personally the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa.

Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not teach anything else than what was taught by Kṛṣṇa. Therefore, Sarvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya said, vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yogam śikṣārtham, purāṇah puruṣaḥ. That Supreme Personality of Godhead . . . vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yogaṁ śikṣārtham ekaḥ purāṇaḥ puruṣaḥ śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya-śarīra-dhārī (CC Madhya 6.254): "Now You have assumed the form of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, but You are Kṛṣṇa." That is also Rūpa Gosvāmī said. We have to follow the mahājanas, great personality, authorities. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ (CC Madhya 17.186). We cannot manufacture a way of life. We have to follow the footprints of mahājana, great personalities. That is the way. Here, at the present moment, everyone is speculating. What is the use of speculation? You are imperfect. Your senses are imperfect. Whatever you establish, because you have established by imperfect senses, they are all imperfect. Therefore they are suffering. There is no solution. So speculative method will not help us.

So Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching is . . . it is not as He had manufactured something. He is also following. He quoted one verse from the prayers of Lord Brahmā:

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva

san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir

ye prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi tais tri-lokyām

(SB 10.14.3)

This is a quotation from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in Brahma's prayer to Kṛṣṇa. The purport is that you should give up this bad habit of speculation, jñāne prayāsam. Prayāsam means endeavor: "I shall get this knowledge by speculating." This is called jñāna-prayāsam, endeavoring uselessly for knowledge. So udapāsya: you give it up. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta. Just become submissive. Don't think yourself that you are very learned. Because if the senses are imperfect, how you can be learned? Whatever you see, that is imperfect. Just like we see every day the sun, these eyes. And what we see? It is just like a disc. Is it a disc? It is fourteen hundred times bigger than this earth. So what is the value of your seeing? You cannot see what is behind the wall. Still, you are proud of seeing—"Can you show me? Can you show me God?" And what power you have got to see? That he does not consider. He thinks, "I have got seeing power." Similarly, you study every sense—they are all imperfect, blunt. So any knowledge you acquire by gymnastic of the senses—useless. This is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's teaching. Not Caitanya Mahāprabhu's; it is the Bhāgavata's teaching, and Caitanya Mahāprabhu's the same. So we have to give up this nonsense idea, that "I can attain to the perfect knowledge by speculation, manodharma, by speculation, manodharma, mental gymnastic." This will not help us.

So jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva. Just become submissive. And where to submit? You must submit to a perfect person. Otherwise why should you submit? Tad-vijñānārthaṁ sa gurum eva abhigacchet, samit-pāṇiḥ śrotriyaṁ brahma-niṣṭham (MU 1.2.12). So Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa also says,

tad viddhi praṇipātena

paripraśnena sevayā

upadekṣyanti tad jñānaṁ

jñāninaḥ tattva-darśinaḥ

(BG 4.34)

Tattva-darśī, one who has seen the things as it is, go there and from him take the knowledge, not that one who is speculating. This is the process, Vedic process. Therefore it is called śruti. Śravaṇam. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ (SB 7.5.23). Śravaṇam means hearing; kīrtanam means glorifying. Of whom? About Viṣṇu, not for anything else, Śravaṇam. So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu approved this process. When He was talking with Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya, Rāmānanda Rāya suggested various methods of self-realization. So Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not reject them. He said, "Yes, it is also nice, but you go farther above. Go forward still." So in this way, when Rāmānanda Rāya quoted this verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, jñāne prayāsam udapāsya, He said . . . no, in the beginning He had, eho bāhya, āge kaha (CC Madhya 8.59): "This process is not very important; it is external. If you know better than this, say." So in this way, after many rejection, when Rāmānanda Rāya came to this version, jñāne prayāsam udapāsya, Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not say that it is useless. Eho haya: "Yes, it is nice." Eho haya: "It can be accepted." That is the beginning, that don't try to speculate. Just become humble and meek and hear from the realized soul. Namanta. Jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva. Just become submissive. Do not think that you know by everything. That is your illusion, māyā. Because you cannot know everything. You can . . . you may know something. That is not possible that you know everything.

So to know everything perfectly you cannot do it simply by speculating or handling your senses, imperfect senses. San-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām (SB 10.14.3). You hear from the realized soul. So Kṛṣṇa, hear from Kṛṣṇa. That is . . . He is perfect. And sthāne sthitāḥ: to hear about Kṛṣṇa, you do not require to change your position. Sthāne sthitāḥ. You are a medical man? That's all right. Remain medical man. You are scientist? That's all right. You are lawyer? That's all right. You are fool? That's all right. (laughter) Because everyone is fool, but they are divided by mental concoction that "Here is a fool; here is a learned." Because the learned is also a fool, but by mental concoction he is recognized as intelligent. Same mental concoction. Dvaite' bhadrābhadra sakali samana. Caitanya-caritāmṛta kaj said that "In the material world, 'This is good' and 'This is bad'—this is all mental speculation." Dvaite' bhadrābhadra sakali samana, ei bhāla, ei manda', saba manodharma (CC Antya 4.176): "That division, 'This is good; this is bad,' it is mental speculation." It has no value. It has no value. So this mental speculation will not help us. And therefore sthāne sthitāḥ: you remain in your position. It doesn't matter, good or bad. The mental speculator's verdict that "This is good; this is bad. This is intelligent; this is fool," they are all mental speculation. That will not help.

So you remain in your position. Either in good or bad, it doesn't matter. But you do one thing. Sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ (SB 10.14.3). You use your ear. That ear is bestowed upon everyone, either fool or learned. So use that ear, sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhiḥ, and hear attentively, and mold your life as you hear from the realized soul. Sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-mano . . . one who remains like this, although he is imperfect fool, whatever he may be, he can conquer the ajita. Ajita means God. Nobody can conquer Him, but a devotee who sincerely hears about Him from the realized soul, he can conquer even Ajita, Kṛṣṇa. Just like gopīs. The gopīs were women, and not very high class woman—cowherd's men, in the village, not in town. Very educated, high society, brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya—no. They all belonged to vaiśya class. And they were woman, not Vedāntist, not scholar. But they conquered Kṛṣṇa. Why? And that is the . . . they heard about Kṛṣṇa, and they became lover of Kṛṣṇa. That is required. So that is the real qualification. Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He was so strict about womanly association. Still, He recommended, ramyā kācid upāsanā vrajavadhū-vargabhir yā kalpitā: "There is no better type of worshiping Kṛṣṇa than the system which vraja-vadhū, the gopīs, adopted to love Kṛṣṇa. That is the first class."

That is the recommendation of Vedic śāstra. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro dharmo yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6). First-class religion . . . religion means to understand God. That is the sum and substance. The process may be different according to country, men. Just like we worship the Deity in the temple. This is also bhakti. And the Christians go to the church and offers prayer to God. That is also bhakti. That is also bhakti. Nine items of bhakti: śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam, arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyam (SB 7.5.23). Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam, arcanam vandanam. Vandanam is offering prayer. So they go to the church or go to the mosque, they offer prayers to the Supreme. That is also bhakti. So there is no question of what type of religion you are following. That doesn't matter. You follow anything, whatever suits you. But the result should be judged. What should be the result? The result is how to love God. That should be the result.

If you have come to that platform, how to love God, mad after God, as Caitanya Mahāprabhu is . . .

yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa

cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam

śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvaṁ

govinda-viraheṇa me

(Śikṣāṣṭaka 7)

Govinda-viraheṇa: "Being separated from Govinda, God, My life is vacant." This is required. It doesn't matter whether you follow Christianity or Hinduism or Muslimism. Whether you are feeling vacancy, everything vacant without Kṛṣṇa, without God—that is the test. Yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa. Every moment . . . because one who is feeling separation from the Lord, he is feeling also, "When I shall see Him?" So this anxiety, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa: "A moment is seeming to Me a millenium, hundreds and millions of years' separation." That is love. If you love somebody and if you . . . of course, in the material world, this love is not possible. There is no love in the material world. It is all lust. So love means loving God. That is love. So the Caitanya Mahāprabhu is teaching this. Yugāyitaṁ nimeṣeṇa cakṣuṣā prāvṛṣāyitam: "I am feeling one moment as a millenium, being separated from Kṛṣṇa. And the torrents of tears are coming just like torrents of rain." And śūnyāyitaṁ jagat sarvam: "And the whole world is seeming to Me vacant," govinda-viraheṇa me, "being separated from Govinda." This is love. So it doesn't matter what religious system you are following, but the result should be this, that you should be mad after God. That is the test. Sa vai puṁsāṁ paro . . . that is first-class religion, yato bhaktir adhokṣaje (SB 1.2.6), to love. Bhakti means love, service, rendering service. Adhokṣaje. Adhokṣaje means beyond the speculation of mind, mental exercise, bodily exercise. Adhokṣaja. Adhakṛta akṣaja jñānam.

So Caitanya Mahāprabhu taught this. And He took sannyāsa. For the benefit of the whole world, He took sannyāsa. He gave up His very opulent position in Navadvīpa, as I have told you - very learned scholar, very beautiful body, very beautiful wife, very affectionate mother, good popularity. There was no scarcity. And He is God Himself. Why there will be any scarcity? There is no question. But in spite of, He took sannyāsa for the benefit of the whole world. That Caitanya Mahāprabhu has come here in Atlanta. So you worship this Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Parama koruṇa, pahū dui jana. They are very, very merciful, and little service will enhance your devotional service to a larger scale.

Thank you very much.

Devotees: Jaya Śrīla Prabhupāda. (end)