The Career and Teachings of the Supreme Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya

by Sri Narayan Das Bhakti Sadhukar

CHAPTER VIII

EARLY YOUTH AND STUDENT LIFE

The Lord still chose to remain self-concealed, passing His days mostly in the company of His mother. Sree Sachi Devi, in lieu of His father, now devoted herself exclusively to the service of the Boy. If she did not see her Son for the fraction of an hour, the power of sight left her eyes, and she would lose all self-consciousness. The Lord also displayed constantly His love for His mother and consoled her with encouraging words. He bade her have no anxieties since He Himself belonged to her, and as He would supply all her wants and fetch for her, with ease, things that were obtainable with great difficulty by Brahma and Siva. As she gazed on the beautiful Face of the Child, Sachi Devi lost the memory of her bodily existence, not to speak of her sorrows. The Lord Himself, by the mere remembrance of Whom all wants are fulfilled, was ever present to her in the form of her own Son. How could, therefore, any bodily sorrows persist in her? The Lord made His mother the very soul of joy.

There is no desire for selfish enjoyment in the realm of the Absolute (Vaikuntha). The servants of Godhead, who are the denizens of that Happy Realm, being always in the Presence of the Lord by reason of their entire dependence on Him, are altogether forgetful of their own selves. The inhabitants of this mundane world, due to their forgetfulness of Krishna, put their reliance on their own bodies, and are accordingly liable to cherish all those concerns that minister to its transitory pleasures. It is in this manner that fallen jivas by their own contrivance become subjected to the various miseries of this mundane world. There was no room for selfish grief in the pure heart of Sachi which was wholly occupied with love for Godhead. The eternal spiritual impulse of maternal affection for the Divine Child alone possesses the quality of causing complete forgetfulness of one’s own body. A worldly mother loves her son for her own selfish pleasure. This is also the case with the so-called love of a mundane wife for her husband. All such pretended attachments are impure by reason of their intrinsic selfishness which completely captures the mind the moment it is turned towards the objects of this world.

The Lord Godhead, King of Vaikuntha, thus passed His days in Nabadwip in the form of a Brahmana Boy, in the Ecstatic Bliss of enjoying the moods of His own mind known only to Himself. In the home at Nabadwip the uttermost poverty prevailed. The Lord’s commands were ever worthy of the Lord Paramount of the highest gods. He did not care to know whether there was anything in the house. If whatever He demanded was not instantly supplied, it produced the most terrible consequences. He would immediately smash up everything, the house, doors and windows; and, in fact, nothing escaped the fury of His Anger. He was absolutely heedless of the damage done by Himself to His own property. But despite all mischief that was thus done continuously, Sachi Devi was always assiduous in supplying, with all care, whatever He asked for, by reason of her unmixed affection for her Son.

On a certain day as the Lord was about to go out for His bath in the Ganges, He asked His mother for oil and ‘myrobalan’ and also for choice garlands of flowers and odoriferous sandal paste, as He wished to worship the holy Ganges with the said offerings after His bath. The mother implored Him to wait for a very short time to enable her to procure the garlands. No sooner did Sree Gaursundar catch her words that she was to bring the garlands from elsewhere, He became terrible as Rudra, the God of Destruction, in His sudden anger. With the words, ‘Would you then, indeed, go out for the garlands now?’ He entered His apartment raging furiously. Then first of all He vented His wrath on the earthen pots, in which the holy water from the Ganges was stored, and broke all of them. By the stroke of a big stick, He next broke deliberately all those pots which contained oil, ghee and salt. He then smashed all the pots, big and small, that happened to be in the room. Oil, ghee, milk, rice, cotton, paddy, salt, cakes of pulse, mudga, were mixed up together on the floor of the room. He then snatched away all the nets of rope for hanging up articles and tore them to shreds. All clothing that He found in the house shared the same fate. When there remained no article to break, the Lord’s anger turned against the house itself. He plied the big stick with both Hands on the house, no one venturing to utter a word of protest. Having smashed the doors and windows, He turned to the trees and treated them in the same fashion. In that mad fit of anger there was no disposition to forgive. When there remained no article to break, His stick showered blows on the very earth itself.

All this while Sachi remained in a state of great fear, almost hiding herself behind a remote corner of the house. The Lord, the Establisher of religion Himself the Eternal Religion, did not lift His Hands against His mother. Although He was still fully disposed to manifest the fury of His wrath which knew no bounds, yet He did not go against His mother, nor try to hurt her. Having smashed all things, the Lord came out into the yard and rolled on the bare ground with an angry mind. His golden Body became enveloped in sand and was, it is hardly meet to divulge, a wondrous, beautiful Sight.

After thus rolling frantically on the ground for some time, the Lord became motionless. As he lay in this quiet posture, the Lord glanced at the Power that lulls Him to slumber ( Yoga-maya) and the Lord of Vaikuntha did enjoy His Sleep on the bosom of the Earth. The Lord, Whose resting-place is the All-Holy Form of Sree Ananta Deva, Whose Lotus Feet are ever tended by Lakshmi Herself, the Object of quest of the four Vedas, slept in this fashion in the yard of Sachi ! The Lord, in the vesicle of Whose hair there lies afloat an infinitude of worlds, Whose servants have power to create, maintain and destroy, Whose Qualities Brahma, Siva and their peers sing with rapture, the Self-same Supreme Lord Himself thus reposed in a deep slumber in the yard of Sachi! The Supreme Lord slept on in the Bliss of His Own Consciousness. The Sight made the gods laugh and cry.

After some time had passed, Sree Sachi Devi, having procured the garlands and made ready all requisites for the worship of the Ganges, laying her hand softly on the Body of her Son, tried to awaken Him by- gently wiping the dust from His Person. ‘Wake up, my Darling,, said she, ‘see, here are the garlands; take them for worshipping the Ganges even as Thou likest. It is well and good that Thou hast smashed all things of the house. Let it take away Thy Sorrows., Roused by these words of His mother, Sree Gaursundar, feeling ashamed at heart, set off for His bath without more ado.

After the Lord had left, Sachi made all the rooms clean and prepared to cook His meal. Sachi did not feel the least sorrow in her mind, although the Lord habitually did such intolerable mischief. Sachi put up with all the waywardness of Sree Gaursundar in the same manner that Sree Yasoda bore the restless turn for mischief of Sree Krishna in the cowherd settlement. I have no power to record all the wayward acts of the Lord. But Sachi bore up with all those with unruffled patience of body, speech and mind, like mother earth herself.

The playful Lord returned home after bath and, having worshipped Vishnu and offered water to tulasi, beloved of Vishnu, sat down to His meal. After meal the Lord appeared to be satisfied. He then performed achaman and began chewing betel. His mother then spoke gently. ‘For what purpose, Darling, didst ‘Thou do all this damage ? The house, doors, windows, all articles of the household are Thine. All the loss is Thine. It does not affect me. Even now Thou wilt be going off for Thy study. There is nothing in the house wherewith to buy anything. What wilt Thou eat tomorrow?’ Hearing these words of the mother the Lord laughed. ‘Krishna,’ said He, ‘nourishes; He will maintain.’ With this the Lord of the goddess of learning, book in hand, strolled off to His studies.

A certain interval of time was passed in the joy of study, after which the Lord came to the bank of the Ganges in the evening. Having stayed there awhile, the Lord returned home. He then called His mother and taking her aside gave her two tolas of pure gold. ‘Mother,’ said He, ‘Krishna has given this stuff. By changing it, meet all necessary expenses.’ He then retired to bed.

Sachi was filled with great astonishment. ‘Whence could He procure this gold He had been doing it pretty frequently of late.

In fact whenever there was any want of money, He obtained gold in this manner. Was it likely to bode any danger ? Did He borrow or know some magical art? Whence, how, whose gold was thus brought?, These anxieties troubled the mind of Sachi which was untainted with greed in any form, being perfectly generous. She was also afraid of getting a change for such gold time and again. She always instructed the person; whom she entrusted the changing of it, to do so after he had shown it to a sufficient number of discreet people.

Such conduct in any other boy, as old as Sree Gaursundar, if allowed free scope by his doting mother, would hardly appeal to the judgment of many persons as auguring any good for the future of the child. They would, at any rate, fail to find any decent apology for such excessive and unbounded material leniency. An unruly child is required to be handled, indeed, with tact but also with real firmness if he is to be prevented from getting out of hand. The conduct of Sree Sachi Devi and of Sree Yasoda does not fulfill this ideal of motherhood. Many a child, with an abundance of the animal spirit, have been altogether spoiled by the doting policy of unrestrained motherly indulgence. It should be very difficult, nay almost impossible, for dutiful worldly mothers to appreciate the maternal conduct of Sree Sachi Devi.

Vaishnavism has been charged with the attempt to idolize sentimentalism of the most exaggerated type. Even if for the sake of argument sentimentalism be allowed to possess any outstanding value, it should still be necessary to keep it within natural bounds. The Vaishnava is apparently supposed to know no such limits. He seems to be ready to make a display of his feelings and to evince a great pleasure in carrying his heart on his sleeves. The practical and cognitive sides of one’s nature do not thus appear to receive their due recognition in the conduct that is extolled by the Vaishnavas as ideal, which displays an apparently sickening exuberance of the most effusive sentimentalism. This is doubly inexplicable as coming from persons who deprecate a11 sensuousness.

I think it would not be fair to my readers if I do not avail myself of the first opportunity of trying to clear up misapprehensions that are apt to be entertained even by unprejudiced persons in reward to this feature of Vaishnavism.

Most worldly people identify, religion with morality. Ordinary morality aims at serving the jiva by ensuring for his mundane body and mind an ever-increasing fund of sensuous enjoyment. A child is subjected to rules of discipline in order to aid the realization of the above object. Waywardness has to be checked, lest it becomes a habit which may stand in the way of the worldly well-being of the child when he grows up. Morality would not be valued and is ignored on principle, whenever it is actually opposed to the worldly interest. The instinct which seems to claim for it an absolute value, is apt to be stifled by the voice of the worldly reason, which secures its victory by pointing to the uncertain, transitory enjoyable consequences of any absolute rule of practice.

There are also those who have tried to prove that the moral instinct itself is the product of those untoward material circumstances which it is set up to correct. The Absolute is thus altogether ruled out, and the purely temporary object is substituted in His place, a procedure which has given to the empiric science of ethical conduct its so-called ‘practical’ and definitely worldly character. The rule of expediency has been openly adopted as the final principle of rational human conduct, the object being the amelioration of worldly wants and the consequent extension of worldly happiness. It is taken for granted that there is nothing beyond our present pleasures of this world that need be considered as really valuable. This scheme undoubtedly possesses the qualities of clearness and apparent feasibility. It is admittedly incomplete, as it professes to be ignorant of many things. But if it be identified with religion, it becomes necessary to suppose that there is a dead void beyond the activities of this world, as they, are practiced by the majority of us. This would be inconsistent with the ideal ordinarily professed to be cherished by the empiric moralists.

But it may be urged that, even if morality is not wholly identifiable with religion, it should not, therefore, be also ignored by the latter. If it be pleaded that morality, in the above sense, forms an integral part of religion, this would also be illogical. Such proposition really begs the question to be proved. The whole scheme of morality is based on a definite and unwarrantably narrow view of life. Is it logical to insist that such narrowness should be allowed to remain intact even after the view of life has been infinitely widened. All we can insist on is that morality must be incorporated in Religion in so far as its retention may not defeat the purpose of Religion. We cannot insist that it must not be enlarged, while admitting that expansion is not mere destruction or involving the loss of any wholesome interest.

It is not asserted that no evil consequences, in the worldly sense, can result from the licensed extreme waywardness of an earthly child due to fond indulgence shown to such a Child by a doting earthly mother. A man of this world will be punished, if he breaks any law of this world. One, who is in quest of worldly pleasures, will not gain ( ?) them by neglecting to follow the course apparently laid down by God Himself for their attainment. A wayward child, who merely refuses to submit to the laws of physical Nature, will incur and deserve the punishment that is attached to such conduct by such law. On the other hand, one who does not desire to enjoy material pleasures is also punished as he chooses to go against the laws of Nature. It is not possible for any possessor of the physical body and limited mind to be immune from the operation of the laws of physical Nature.

But Sree Gaursundar and Sree Sachi Devi, although they may appear to us to be like the people of this world, really belong to the transcendental sphere. They act in accordance with the innate freedom of that higher realm. It would be unwise, therefore, for us, while we are situated in this world, to try to imitate their conduct or to condemn it for the mere reason that it does not correspond to the ideal of mortals. They are beings of another world, endowed with other and higher natures, who have chosen to appear in our midst, independently of the laws of this world. Therefore, what we have to do is to try to learn about that other world from what they say and do. That would be the proper and logical attitude on our part. We must by no means try to imitate them. We shall be punished by the laws of this world, if we try to do so.

In that transcendental world waywardness need not be checked, as no evil consequences are produced, everything being perfectly pure and harmonical and incapable of being curtailed by hostile conflict with anything else. Our souls in their normal state are the denizens of that happy realm. We have been hurled into this nether world by our disinclination to avail ourselves the freedom of that world. We can regain our natural state of purity and unalloyed bliss, if only we agree to accept the Higher Law. Godhead and His beloved ones come down into this world to remind us of our true native land and enlighten us regarding the cause of our exile therefrom. The words of the people of the Spiritual Realm are identical with their conduct. Both mean the same thing. Godhead and His beloved ones come down into this world to tell fallen jivas the tidings of Vaikuntha and, lest they misunderstand their words by supposing them to refer to the things and conditions of this world, Godhead makes All His Activities of Vaikuntha visible to mortal eyes. Even a mortal can see them with the eye of faith, that is to say., if he is disposed to love and obey Godhead which is the only law of the Spiritual Realm. on the contrary, if we seek to please ourselves, those very visible Divine Activities represent only their deluding, i.e., seemingly worldly, face to us.

Common misapprehensions in regard to Vaishnavism owe their origin mainly to that natural aversion to Godhead which is the sedulously cultivated second nature of all fallen jivas, and partly to the misleading activities of the pseudo-Vaishnavas who, in the state of sin, imitate, without caring to understand its real significance, the external conduct of the true devotees of Godhead. The conduct of the true devotees of Krishna is always perfect and combines in itself, without necessitating the least curtailment, the principles of knowing, willing and feeling in the fullest harmonious measure. To us who are wholly sensuous, the Perfectly Pure Activities of God necessarily appear as being also wholly sensuous. They are, however, absolutely pure and without any mundane defect. But this can be fully realized only by the soul who is himself free from all earthly taint. The Activities of Godhead and His devotees rebound to our lasting good, if they are approached with a serving disposition as manifestations of the Divinity by the method of listening to the account of them from the lips of the true devotees of Godhead. By this method and this method alone we, fallen jivas, may be enabled to understand their real meaning and thereby learn to obey Krishna. If they are approached for any other purpose, they only show their deluding face to us. The pseudo-Vaishnavas are as much more deluded than even those who are openly and frankly skeptical. Both are equally attached to the pleasures of this world; but the former further try to extend the scope of their sensuous enjoying propensities also towards spiritual matters. They seek to procure sensuous pleasure by aping deliberately the performances of the sadhus with fatal consequences both for themselves and their followers. The skeptics are right in holding the pseudo-religionists to be worse than themselves; but they certainly carry their aversion to undue lengths by supposing that the true worship of Godhead, described in the Scriptures, is itself non-existent or harmful. This is the real punishment of Such worldly skepticism.

The Supreme Lord, Who could have easily disarmed the opposition of all the people, even the most skeptical, by the display of His Divine powers, chose to remain in obscurity, and went on with His Pastimes, in this manner at Nabadwip. At this period He never left off His books for a single moment. He was most assiduous in His studies in the company of the other students among whom He could be easily distinguished by His extraordinarily beautiful Appearance. He looked as if the god of love himself had become manifest on this earth. His Appearance of this period is thus described by Thakur Brindavandas: ‘The beautiful tilaka mark, pointing in an upward direction, adorned His Forehead. The profusion of curly hair that graced His Head captivated the minds of all beholders. The sacrificial thread was placed gracefully across His Shoulder. He was the Living Form of the fiery Brahmana spirit. His cheerful and beautiful Face was always covered with smiles. His Teeth were perfectly pure. The pair of His lotus Eyes were inexpressibly wonderful. His Cloth, worn with a triple kachcha, was a thing of most marvellous beauty. Whoever beheld Him gazed on His Beauty and found it impossible to take away their eyes from Him. There was no one who did not pay Him the tribute of his unstinted praise.’

The wonderful manner of His expositions filled His teacher with unbounded joy. His teacher, leading Him by his own hands, made Him occupy the highest seat among all his pupils. The teacher said, “My Dear, read attentively. I strongly declare that Thou shalt be the Greatest of Teachers.” The Lord replied, “Is the position of the Greatest of Teachers difficult to be attained by One Who has your blessing”

No student could answer the questions of the Lord. He Himself settled the interpretation of the sutras and then refuted His own explanations. And when no one was able to establish the right meaning, the Lord explained the text in the proper manner. The Lord had no other thoughts except the Shastras, whether at His bath, at His meal or in His walks.

The Lord thus came to be looked up to as almost their Teacher by the pupils of Pandit Gangadas. Early in the morning, after performing the sandhya ceremony, the Lord went out to study in the company of all His students. He then took His seat at the assembly-hall of Gangadas Pandit and was constantly engaged in polemical discussions in opposing or supporting propositions that might be advanced. The Lord always deprecated those students who did not avail themselves of His Teaching, mercilessly using every opportunity to expose their ignorance. After study with Pandit Gangadas the Lord expounded the texts to the pupils. The leading students, each with his group of junior followers, sat round the Lord in different rows, all with the solitary exception of Murari Gupta who alone refused to be coached by the Lord, for which reason the Lord was never tired of exposing his defects.

While explaining lessons to the students, the Lord sat in the centre wearing his cloth in the style of Yogapatta and in the posture of the seated warrior (beerasana). The upward tilaka mark of sandal-paste adorned His Forehead. The glow of the rows of His charming Teeth put to shame the lustre of pearls. The Lord was in His sixteenth year in the bloom of budding youth. His beauty enchanted the god of love himself. He displayed a scholarship that was deemed superior to that of the celestial sage. He ridiculed all who did not study under Him. He was very proud of His learning and would challenge everybody to refute His conclusions. He often declared that those, who did not know how to combine two words by the process of sandhi (compounding), dared to set up as expounders of the texts in order to console themselves with the idle vanity that they could really understand the books by their unaided intelligence. Many persons unfortunately turned out fools by reason of such vanity which prevented them from learning from their betters.

This was intended for Murari Gupta who would remain silent and obdurate even under this severe castigation. But the Lord always loved to poke His servant whose sight filled Him with joy. The Lord would ask Murari, who belonged to the vaidya caste, to betake himself to his legitimate trade of healing sick persons, by giving up study: ‘The Vyakarana Shastra was difficult in the extreme. There was no prescription in it for phlegm, bile or indigestion. what will you understand of it by your assiduous cogitations ? Better go back home and treat your patients.’

Murari, though of a fighting temperament was prevented from being angry by looking at Vishwambhar, and only replied, “What a great personage ! You poke everybody and brag a good deal. You are author of sutra, britti, panji, tika, etc. But did You ever fail to get a reply to Your questions from me? Without asking any questions You say, ‘What dost thou know?, You are Brahmana and worthy of my reverence. What can I say?” The Lord said, ‘Explain then what you have read to-day.’ As Gupta began to construe, the Lord began to refute. Gupta explained in one sense, the Lord expounded in another. The Master and the servant were equally matched and neither could score a decisive victory.

Gupta was most profoundly learned by the power of the Lord. The Lord was delighted by hearing his explanations. Being pleased, the Lord touched his body with His Lotus Hand and forthwith the whole frame of Murari was thrilled with joy. The thought flashed in the heart of Murari Gupta, ‘This Person is never a man of this earth. Such scholarship is also impossible in man. By the Touch of His Hand one’s body becomes full of transcendental bliss. There is no humiliation to study under Him. In the whole of Nabadwip there is not another who possesses such excellent understanding.’ The worthy Gupta being highly pleased said, ‘I say, Vishwambhar, I agree to study under Thee.’ Godhead and His devotee ever engage in such blissful Pastimes. They went off to bathe in the Ganges after this learned encounter, in the company of all the students. Godhead Himself tasted the delights of study in this manner, as Student.

These details have been handed down by the associates of Sree Chaitanya, regarding His Student Career. Study divorced from religion is not only considered now-a-days to be useful, but also as a necessity. Religion, which appeals to ‘authority,’ is supposed to be the antipode of that ‘freedom of thought’ which is considered necessary for really successful pursuit of knowledge. Knowledge is never pursued for its own sake. In gathering knowledge we suppose to make use of a faculty which the Great God has mercifully bestowed upon us for our physical and mental improvement. This may also be supposed to be corroborated by the conduct of Nimai as Student. He also devoted Himself whole-heartedly to the acquisition of secular knowledge, e.g., Grammar, which is the science of language. He rebelled against His parents, when He was a mere Child, when they stopped His secular studies. He was the terror of all the students for His acumen in purely secular controversy. Does all this look like tame submission on His Own Part to authority by relegation of freedom of thought? It is true He led the life of the ideal Brahmacharin and daily worshipped Vishnu and honoured the tulasi and mahaprasada. But those did not prevent Him from the undiluted pursuit of purely secular studies. His method as well as object as student may thus appear to be identical in practice with those of modern pedagogics.

Why did He find fault with everybody and specially the teachers ? He boasted that no one could meet His objections, nor refute His interpretation. The evident implication is that according to Him a11 those teachers were wandering in a maze of errors. Even as Student He wanted all persons, including the Professors themselves, to learn from Him, and not to depend on themselves. We have the recorded testimony of the Vaishnavas of that period that the learned Professors were no less deeply engrossed than others in the pursuit of worldly objects. This plan was also carried into their Academies in which, in place of the pursuit of Truth, was substituted the dissociated study of different secular subjects, such anarchy being mistaken for real freedom. The result was the absolute want of all real scholarship and the utter disregard of the only proper object of all studies. The conclusions of such spurious scholarship only confirmed the reign of ignorance. Nimai had no respect at all for this system or its products.

European psychologists have tried to establish the rationale of the exclusive pursuit of isolated branches of knowledge, by their denial of the very existence of a soul who is located beyond the jurisdiction of the mind. They make the limited mind identical with the soul. They want to add to the defective equipments of the mind. This they call spiritual effort, as in their opinion the mind is identical with the soul. The mind, thus furnished with knowledge, is regarded as being thereby rendered more capable of successfully performing the various duties of this life. One’s duties are also supposed to be properly performed, if the worldly consequences of one’s acts are duly considered and provided for, the object again being to obtain the maximum pleasant results in the worldly sense. The mind, which lives, moves and has its being in this World, is to be enabled to do all this in such manner that it may not only fall foul of the laws of Nature, but may avail itself of them for overcoming the unpleasant possibilities represented by those very laws. The policy may properly be described as the application of the principle of ‘divide and rule, to Nature. This mastery over, or enjoyment of, physical Nature, according to fashionable Philosophy, is the goal of spiritual progress.

The Pandits of Nabadwip of the time of Sree Chaitanya were famous for their learning and also for their aversion to Krishna. They had no idea of obeying ‘authority,’ that is to say, of serving anybody excepting themselves. The means, whereby this result was to be achieved, might have been more defective than now-a-days, as was to be expected in that comparatively backward Age.

Their exclusive pursuit of Grammar, Logic and such ‘abstract’ subjects was the cause of their lack of worldly ‘prosperity,’ as was also the case in other countries in the mediaeval period. The pursuit of scientific knowledge by the methods of observation and induction has ensured the wonderful material progress of the present day. The agreement between empiric method and object, which was then lacking, has been effected with greater success by the ‘free’ efforts of the human mind during the last four centuries. Might not Sree Chaitanya’s objection to the comparatively barren pursuits of the Pandits of His day have been due to His perception of this defeat in the systems of the studies of His time ?

Let us take a hypothetical case. Let us suppose that we possessed a vision that enabled us to find out the details of the operation of all the laws of Nature. What use would we then make of this knowledge? Would we try to submit to those laws or control them by making them oppose one another? Why should we consider it our duty to be able to do either? In what way does it profit us ? It would be excellent amusement to be able to manipulate Nature in the way we like. But why do we at all desire to do it? Would we be really satisfied by the temporary seeming possession of this power ? It would not enable us to eliminate our bodily and mental sufferings. It would only modify them. But such modification, in itself, would also be an equally intolerable suffering, if we are thereby doomed to live perpetually under limiting conditions of that sort. So we arrive at no satisfying goal of our efforts by the method of merely modifying the opportunities of material enjoyment, mental or physical, which is the professed and exclusive object of the empiric scientists.

Did Sree Chaitanya only want us to follow this so-called advanced scientific method and object? Did He want us to be more engrossed in material pursuits? The Pandits of that time had made great progress in the sciences of abstract Logic and Grammar. It would be difficult even at the present day to suggest any considerable improvement of the knowledge they then possessed of those subjects. Modern science has put its seal of approval on the abstruse speculations, in those fields, of the ancients although it has supplemented them by the methods of more careful observation of phenomena on which all empiric knowledge is supposed to be based.

The science of Indian Grammar is apparently one of the greatest triumphs of inductive generalization from observed phenomena. Sree Chaitanya seems to have objected neither to the empiric method nor to the subject of investigation. His objection applied to the interpretation. Interpretation means the establishment of the connection of a subject with the self. The interpretations of Nimai were true. The interpretations of everybody else were fallacious. In the absence of the right interpretation, all so-called knowledge remains external to the self and is liable to be used in a way that is harmful to the self. The right interpretation of phenomena can be known by the mercy of Godhead and learnt only by submission to Him. Without this allegiance to the Supreme Lord, all so-called knowledge becomes only a dangerous delusion, although we, in the unsubmissive state, are not properly aware of this. We shall presently learn more regarding this matter, when we consider the Activities of Nimai as Professor of the Real Science of Grammar.

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