The Career and Teachings of the Supreme Lord Sree
Krishna-Chaitanya
by Sri Narayan Das Bhakti Sadhukar
ALL GLORY TO SREE GURU AND
GAURANGA
SREE
KRISHNA CHAITANYA
AUSPICATORY OBSERVANCE
I make my prostrated obeisance to Sree Guru
in the two forms of the Guide who imparts enlightenment and those who teach the
function of Divine service to prevent lapse into the conditioned state by
ensuring progressive advance on the path of devotion. Obeisance to the Devotees
of the Lord, to the Supreme Lord Himself, to those eternal Forms in which the
Lord manifests His Appearances (Avataras) on this mundane plane, to His
different Manifestations and His Powers! I bow to the Name Krishna Chaitanya
Who is Krishna Himself and all the Divine Categories. Obeisance to Sree
Krishna-Chaitanya with Lord Nityananda Who are like the Sun and the Moon risen
in conjunction on the Eastern Hill of Gauda ! Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya
manifested His Appearance in this world in order to give away by His causeless
mercy the highest loving service of Himself that had never been bestowed on the
conditioned souls of this world prior to His Appearance. May Lord Sree
Krishna-Chaitanya, resplendent with the concentrated hue of beauteous shining
gold, manifest Himself in the inmost chamber of the hearts of all persons!
Submission to Sree Hari, Sree Guru and
the Vaishnavas is the only condition of attaining to loving devotion to the
Feet of Sree Krishna and His devotees. The fulfillment of this condition
assures the success of the undertaking by enabling all persons who listen to
the Narrative of the Deeds of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya to obtain His mercy in the
shape of the highest quality of devotion to the Feet of Sree Radha-Krishna.
Sree Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami in the opening
verses of his work on the Deeds of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya has mercifully
explained in some detail, for our benefit, the nature, purpose and necessity of
the auspicatory observance as a preliminary for the success of all spiritual
undertakings. I can do no better than follow in his footsteps by attempting to
e~;plain the significance of the form of the auspicatory observance.
The auspicatory observance consists of
three parts, viz, ( 1 ) the
postulation of the subject-matter, (2) benedictory purpose, and (3) offering of
submissive obeisance.
The subject-matter of the present work is
Sree Krishna Chaitanya.
Sree Krishna-Chaitanya is identical with
Sree Krishna. He is the Final and Absolute Reality. He is Isvara, the Gurus,
the Devotees, the Divine Appearances and the Divine Powers. These are the
distinctive Divine Identities. The
undifferentiated Brahman of the
Upanishads is the glow of His Person. The Oversoul, Who indwells and regulates
every entity, is His Portion. Bhagawan, Who
is full of all Supremacy, all Power, all Glory, all Beauty, all Knowledge and
Freedom from every mundane Desire, is Sree Chaitanya. There is no higher Entity
than Chaitanya and Sree Krishna.
The Deeds of the Supreme Lord Sree
Krishna-Chaitanya are narrated in this work. His Deeds were made manifest to
the view of the people of this world that all conditioned souls may be enabled
thereby to attain to the realization of loving devotion to the Feet of Sree
Sree Radha-Govinda, which constitutes the highest platform of the service of the
Divinity and the knowledge of which had not been divulged to any soul of this
world by any former Dispensation. All this will flash to the hearts of all
persons who really seek for the Truth, by the causeless mercy of the Son of
Sree Sachi Devi wearing the yellow colour of shining gold.
The
Deeds of Sree Chaitanya are grounded in His Divinity!-. The Activity of the Hlhadini Potency born of the reciprocal
Love of Sree Sree Radha Krishna, Who constitute One Personality, brings about
differentiation of Divine Body as Couple. The Two Bodies of the Divine Couple
re-unite as Chaitanya. The united Form is Krishna's Own self clothed with the
glow of the Beauty of Sree Radhika.
The secondary Purpose of the Appearance
of Sree Krishna Chaitanya in this world found in the Scriptures is what has
been stated above, viz., the bestowal of loving devotion to all conditioned
souls. But there was another Purpose which is the main cause of His Appearance.
It is not explicitly mentioned in the Scriptures but is recognizable as their
hidden Import.
The main Purpose of the Appearance of the
Supreme Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya is connected with His distinctive Nature
that has been indicated. Krishna is anxious to learn how His Divine
Counter-Whole, Sree Radhika, realizes His Own Sweetness and Beauty. In order to
have this experience Sree Krishna clothes Himself with the mood of Sree Radhika
and appears in the Form of an Eternal Union with Her, alongside of and
identical with the coupled Form.
This is the inner hidden significance of
the Deeds of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya. This distinguishes the Leela of Sree Chaitanya from that of
Sree Krishna.
Sree Nityananda and Sree Advaita are
inseparably associated with the Appearance of Sree Chaitanya in this world. It
is not possible to realize the nature of the Deeds of Sree Chaitanya without
the knowledge of the Personalities of Sree Nityananda and Sree Advaita.
Through Nityananda and Advaita the
connection of Sree Krishna with the mundane world is established and
maintained. This brings us to the question of the transcendental cosmology of
the Scriptures. There is a gradation of spheres one above another up to Goloka, the Abode of Sree Krishna. In Goloka are found Baladeva, Pradyumna and
Aniruddha, the “Other Selves” of Krishna. Nityananda is identical with Baladeva
in Goloka.
Below
Goloka, in the realm of the Absolute,
is Vaikuntha. In Goloka Balarama or Baladeva
is the serving Self of Krishna (Bilas-bigraha).
Baladeva is Krishna in the role of serving His Own Self in various
capacities. Vaikuntha is the realm of the exclusive Activities
of Baladeva. In Vaikuntha, accordingly,
the fourfold expansion of Sree Narayana, the Lord of Vaikuntha, the manifestation of Baladeva corresponds to the “Other
Selves” of Krishna in Goloka with the difference that in Vaikuntha
the “expansion” (byuha.) is of
the “Other Self” of Krishna or Baladeva Who is delegated the power of
expressing his service of Sree Krishna in a realm of his own where His plenary
Manifestation, Sree Narayana, is served by the method of reverence. Baladeva
and his realm of Vaikuntha express and serve the Majesty of Sree
Krishna. The conception of the service of Sree Baladeva, the Majestic Other
Self of Krishna, is the highest that is reached by the help of such imperfect
Revelation as is not wholly unacceptable to the empiric instinct, although the
practice of this pure form of the reverential service is also very rare in this
world. All the revealed Scriptures, with the single exception of the Bhagawatum, are to a more or less extent
the text-books of reverential worship. The reverential service of Godhead in
its genuine form is wholly free from any mundane grossness, although there is
in it a comparative reference of eligibility. The ordinary degenerate practices
of the revealed religions are a caricature of the real function which cannot be
realized till the soul is released from the fetters of Nescience.
In Vaikuntha there exist positive transcendental
activities resulting from the relationships of servants and Master between the
individual souls and Godhead. But Godhead is there present in His Majesty and
not in His Beauty and Sweetness except in the sense that is compatible with the
predominance of His Majesty. The ideal of Heaven and Paradise of the
Elevationist religions is a misrepresentation of Vaikuntha in terms of
mundane felicity. Vaikuntha is, however, the goal that is dear to
ordinary theistically inclined persons with pure morals. It is substantially
inconceivable but is not apparently opposed to the ordinary aspirations and
functions of this world, at the first sight.
Next
below Vaikuntha is the realm of the
Brahman in which there is no specific
spiritual activity neither any form of worldly existence but which is full of a
light which has the negative quality of dispelling all worldly ignorance
without having power to disclose the specific nature of the transcendental
realm. This is the -realm of the Brahman of
the Upanishads, which has been the source and support, as manipulated by Sree
Sankaracharya, of the empiric worship current in this country that denies the
existence of Godhead and substitutes in place of the religion of His service
one aiming at complete spiritual annihilation by the process of merging the
individual soul in the Divinity. As a matter of fact the realm of the Brahman of the Upanishads is not a
habitable region at all but a sphere of light which has to be got across to
reach the realm from where it proceeds and with which alone the emancipated
soul can have anything really to do.
The realm of the Brahman is the outer limit of the Absolute world. Between this
outer uninhabited zone of the spiritual realm and the highest sphere of this
mundane world there flows the stream of the Biraja whose water is the causal essence in the
nascent form of liquid. This liquid is pure from all mundane quality. A person
who bathes in the river prior to entry into the realm of the Brahman is freed from all mundane
aptitudes.
It is in this stream that there appears
the Purusha, Who is the derivative of Balarama, being a secondary plenary Form
of the Divinity. There are three Purushas in the successive order of such
secondary derivative manifestation, viz., ( 1 ) He, Who lies in the Ocean of
the causal water of the Biraja, (2) He
Who lies in the-water of the Ocean of Milk, and (3) He Who lies in the Ocean of
the fluid of the Womb of the worlds. It is these Purushas, the secondary
extended Selves of Baladeva, each being the proximate source of the One next
following Him, Who are the Creators and Regulators of the mundane world without
being themselves any constituent part, or whole, of the same.
The
first of these three Purushas wills the creation of the world and wills to make
use of the deluding Potency for the purpose. In respect of the process of
material creation He occupies the position that the potter occupies in the
making of pots of clay. The potter's wheel, clay and appliances attain their
effective existence by another potency of the same Purusha. It is, therefore,
the first of the series of the Purushas Who is the source of both the efficient
as well as material cause of creation. But in neither capacity He Himself
belongs to this world. He does all this work from outside the plane of the
limiting energy. Brahma and Siva are connected with the material energy by
actual incorporation with her. While Vishnu (the Purusha), although exercising
His function with reference to the material world, is situated wholly beyond
all touch with, the material energy. The Purushas bear the Name of Vishu by
reason of this transcendental pervading relationship with the mundane world.
As transcendence, in the form of both
cause and material of the mundane creation, belongs to the first Purusha, the
second Purusha is charged by Him with the function of the collective regulation
of the created entities. The third Purusha performs the same function from
inside each separate created entity. These two, therefore, are the sources of
those spiritual functions that bear some analogy to the imperfect empiric
notions, enunciated hy Kant and other philosophers of the idealist schools of
the West, conveyed by the ill-defined terms, Immanence and Transcendence. These
terms of the empiric vocabulary refer to aspects of limited phenomena but the
immanence and transcendence of the third and second Purusha Avataras of Vishnu
are not a continuum of the material
shelf which is called phenomenon. There.is always the categorical difference of
plane between the phenomena and the spiritual transcendent and immanent functions
of Vishnu that have a reference to them by way of being their spiritual source.
The functions of Brahma and Siva are
those of creation and destruction. These two great personages belong to this
phenomenal world and are in charge of its temporal regulation in a
semi-conscious manner. The semi-conscious nature of the ruling functions of
Brahma and Siva makes them the prototypes of the conditioned soul. They are the
ideals of personality conceivable by the mind of man, possessed of the
super-human powers of creation and destruction of all phenomena. The nature of
this power itself is not intelligible to its wielders although they knou that
they are really endowed with the same by some unknown superior agency in an
unknown manner. There are other “powers” of this class who wield similar but
lesser powers over the phenomenal world than Brahma and Siva. These super-human
beings possessed of specific powers over physical nature in different measures,
are the highest order of souls in the conditioned state.
The
Will of Vishnu in the Forms of the three Purushas is ultimately derived from
Nityananda. The source of the material cause of creation is also Vishnu in the
Form of the first Purusha or Maha-Vishnu in whom the Material cause and
creating Will of the Divinity by reference to this mundane world are
incorporated and reconciled.
The word ‘Advaita’ means ‘non-duality’.
Matter and Will are not categorically different from one another at their
source. Neither are they, as regards their source, different from Godhead. But
matter as it appears to the conditioned soul as well as the operative will of
Godhead as viewed by the same agency, appear to be altogether dissociated from
and incompatible with the spiritual essence which is the Nature proper of the
Divinity. The solution of this difficulty that besets all speculative inquiry
is to be sought in the actual knowledge of the substantive Reality in His
graduated Manifestations and not in the hypotheses of inevitable ignorance of
fundamental conditions.
The Appearance of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya
so far as the Event has a reference to the deliverance of conditioned souls,
was effected by the agencies of Nityananda and Advaita. The functions of
Nityananda and Advaita should, however, be neither over-estimated nor underestimated
as regards Their respective bearings on the Deeds of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya.
Those functions are of primary importance. to the conditioned soul who,
however, need not, therefore, remain confined to the contemplation of these
plenary Manifestations of the Divinity. Neither need the conditioned soul
suppose himself to be above all help from Advaita and Nitvananda either at the
initial or the advanced stages of spiritual endeavour and realisation.
The
Real Purpose of the Appearance of Sree KrishnaChaitanva is not the deliverance
of the conditioned souls. The Real Purpose is one that exclusively concerns the
Divinity as He is. It is that which was meant when we observed above that the
Deeds of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya, as Those of Sree Krishna, are grounded in His
Divinity. The Knowledge of those Deeds is identical with the Deeds Themselves.
It is for this reason that it is necessarv to approach this Narrative with the
reverence and confidence that is due to the Person of Godhead Himself. Such
reverence and confidence are also necessarily complete. There must be no
reservation. The least reservation will lead the hearer or reader of this
Narrative to a certain face of the limited energy and not even to the level of
the Purusha Avataras Who are related to this world without being of it.
But the mercy of Sree Krishna:Chaitanya
enables all conditioned souls to pass through an these graded stages of
spiritual progress, by appearing to us in the form of this Divine Narrative of
His Deeds. This Narrative has been made available by the mercy of Sree Advaita
and Sree Nityananda Who are the eternal Divine Intermediaries between ourselves
and the Supreme Lord.
The function of making our prostrated
obeisance to Hari, Guru and the Vaishnavas is not an idle or symbolic ceremony.
It is exercise of the function of devotion to Godhead made possible by the
causeless grace of Sree Advaita who is the source of the material as well as
the sanction of all spiritual, functions of us, conditioned souls, under all
circumstances. Obeisance to Sree Advaita is obeisance to the Vaishnavas.
Obeisance to Nityananda is obeisance to Sree Guru. Obeisance to Sree
Krishna-Chaitanva is obeisance to Godhead Himself as He is. Obeisance to Sree
Krishna-Chaitanya is obeisance both to Sree Krishna and His Divine
Counter-Whole Sree Radhika in One.
The
relationship of Sree Radhika to Sree Krishna must not be confounded with the
mundane sexual relationship between male and female of this world. The service
of Sree Radhika is not an amorous function in the disruptive specific
unwholesome sense of the analogous mundane activity. That supposition, which is
due to the mundane import of the term used in describing the Divine Function,
may lead the ignorant critic to presume to find the defects of the mundane passion
in even the Divine Activity as He is, i.e., in His Fullest and Most Perfect
Manifestation. It is, therefore, necessary to implore our readers not to
approach the study of this Narrative in such unnecessarily irreverent and
superficial temper which will necessarily prevent his regarding the subject
from the only genuine point of view, viz., that of the Scriptures. It is only
by loyally following the method of submitting to look at the subject
unreservedly from the point of view of the Narrative itself that it will be
possible for the impartial reader, after he has gone through his self-imposed
task with the patience that is due to the right understanding of a subject
which is likely to be radically different, at any rate to many of our European
readers, from most current standards in its outlook on and valuation of the
activities of this world, to attempt to form a comparative estimate of the view
of the Absolute that is presented to him in the following pages.
Vaishnavism stands alone among the
revealed Religions of the world in providing a specific account of the Name,
Form, Qualities, Activities and the individual personalities of the Servitors
of Godhead Himself. The silence of the other Religions on this subject should
not be misunderstood as implying the non-existence of any or all specification
in the Absolute. There is also no rational ground for supposing that Godhead is
unwilling or unable to disclose His Own Specific Self and Divine Paraphernalia
to the serving impulse of pure souls.
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