The Career and Teachings of the Supreme Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya
by Sri Narayan Das Bhakti
Sadhukar
CHAPTER XXIII
HIS INITIATION—(Cont.)
Ritual may be defined as
worship by means of the objects of this world, which function alone is
available to the conditioned soul, rendered possible by the grace of Godhead as
revealed by the Scriptures and the spiritual Guide to the community of the
servants of the Lord.
The empiric theory, which
seeks to derive the form and significance of ritual from the worldly activities
of the ancient peoples, is based on the assumption of the impossibility and
superfluity of revelation as the source of worship. But as a matter of fact it
is never possible for man, by progress in material civilization, to attain
either to the form or significance of spiritual worship. The form of worship can
derive its spiritual value, if it has any, only from revelation. As it does not
possess any mundane significance it is, therefore, independent of all mundane
reference. It may satisfy the spirit of antiquarian curiosity to discover how
the superficial aspect of the eternal process of worship varies from country to
country and from Age to Age. But will any number of such discoveries, add to
our knowledge of the real meaning of either the form or the spirit of true
worship?
If the mind can be supposed
to be fit to worship Godhead by means of concepts or precepts referring to
objects of phenomenal Nature, why should such worship be impossible by means of
the objects themselves? But mental worship in itself is no nearer to Godhead
than the show of worship by means of material substances, both being made of
non-spiritual stuff. The one is as much in need of the Divine Sanction as the
other, if it is to reach the Divinity at all. The one is as much capable of
being turned into worship as the other by virtue of such Sanction. The
controversy among empiricists on the subject of worship rages round the
external form versus the mental conception both of which are, by themselves, i.e., as they appear to the empiricists,
wholly devoid of all spiritual significance.
The allied question,
bearing on the same issue, may be put thus. Granted that a mental and physical
activity is endowed with spiritual quality of the service of the divinity by
the divine sanction, why should divine sanction itself be confined to any
particular and strictly circumscribes form of such activity and not extend to
the whole range of secular activities ? There is apparently much to be said in
favour of such contention from the point of view of ordinary rational judgment.
If the whole range of activities, both physical and mental, be made to be
covered by the term ‘ritual’ then the departmental narrowness, that has come to
attach itself to the term, would be removed.
There are also numerous passages in the Scriptures themselves in support
of such contention and to prove that one, who worships Godhead, necessarily
does so by every act of his life.
But notwithstanding all
this, spiritual worship is neither narrow and departmental nor liberal and
comprehensive in the empiric sense. These terms of condemnation and praise do
not apply to the issue at all. It is, therefore, necessary to be humble on the
threshold of any serious inquiry into the nature of the substantive spiritual
function. Pantheistic thought is only one form of atheism. No mental speculation
in itself is logically admissible regarding the Absolute, by reason of the fact
that the mind has no access to the transcendental plane.
The form of the ritual is
not improved by the suppression of the methods of antiquity by more ‘modern’
methods on the ground that these would be more ‘intelligible’ to our present
judgment. The question of intelligibility in the empiric sense does not matter.
When Godhead is addressed by the empiricist as the Source of all existence,
such form of prayer is adopted for the reason that it is supposed to be
intelligible to our limited understanding. But does the prayer become a
spiritual function by any such rational approval on the part of the worshipper?
It is not denied that Godhead is the Source of all existence. Neither is it
admitted that if a person addresses Godhead as the Source of all existence, he
will be enabled to be in communion with Godhead by such prayer. How does he
really know that Godhead is the Source of everything? His real ignorance cannot
be removed by merely repeating a formula whose meaning it is beyond his
capacity to understand. If he chooses to remain satisfied with an empty
performance, he should be considered to be indifferent to the issue.
If Godhead is the Source of
all existence, as the rational faculty claims to know instinctively, how is the
same aspiring faculty to reconcile such a supposition with its own actual utter
ignorance of the nature of its relationship with its own supposed source?
Hydrogen and Oxygen were not instinctively claimed to be known as the source of
water by the same all-knowing instinct. Is it not, therefore, only a silly and
superficial vanity that leads such ignorant persons to ‘believe’ that Godhead
is the Source of all existence?
Such an attitude of
ignorant omniscience, so lightly assumed as their birthright in the name of the
rational instinct by deluded souls, has to be got rid of if religion is to
avoid the defect that is attributed by physical scientists to the speculative
philosophers, viz., that their subject
‘bakes no bread’. The sterile philosophy of empiricism has been weighed in the
balance for too long a period and has been found wholly wanting. The world is
in some need of a positive and real, and not merely hypothetical, solution of
its spiritual difficulties.
In the process of spiritual
enlightenment there is also, quite inconceivably to our present power of
understanding no doubt, a beginning of the process followed by a probationary
stage which has to be gone through before the goal is reached. The first faint
glimmering of the approaching light is sufficient to impart the consciousness
of the categorical nature of the difference that separates the plane of the
mind and physical body from that of the soul. All empiric questionings are at
once and necessarily solved by this first experience of the actual spiritual
life.
Thereafter arises a new
curiosity which relates itself wholly to the transcendental plane. The
experience of the glimmer of light proceeding from a realm that is yet
completely out of sight except by the relationship of the light which while
bearing testimony to the reality of spiritual existence securely keeps the
secret of all definite knowledge regarding the same, makes one anxious, not for
the nostrums concocted for their idle amusement by the children of darkness
but, for positive information from those who really know about that world,
which is only then actually realized to be perfectly unknown and unknowable to
the aspiring understanding of man.
The present Narrative may
be regarded in two possible ways. The first is the ordinary empiric way for the
satisfaction of a limited curiosity born of the mental outlook. Such study is
not likely to be of much positive benefit. But it may have the negative value
of removing misconceptions to which even the open minded persons are liable by
reason of habitual and normal association with worldly-minded people. This
Narrative may strike the imagination of such a person and may induce a few to
agree with the point of view of the Scriptures as set forth in these pages. If
any person thereupon choose to undertake to act up to the principles inculcated
by the Deeds of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya, he will be in a position to realize the
necessity of praying for the grace of Godhead for directing him to the proper
teacher of the Truth. If the prayer is, indeed, not altogether hypocritical the
sincere seeker of divine aid may be rewarded by the mercy of Godhead and find
the bona fide spiritual guide. The same Influence may also help him to make the
complete surrender of himself at the feet of the Guru when found and to approach him with the further prayer for
positive spiritual enlightenment. The mercy of Godhead will further enable such
a person to be accepted by the Guru.
The acceptance by the Guru of his offer
of submission will be the beginning of his spiritual pupilage, and in
proportion as he will be enabled to enter into the plans and views of the Guru by the method of loyal, willing,
rational obedience, the true meaning of the deeds of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya
will manifest Themselves to his serving disposition. If he thereafter reads the
Narrative that has been handed down by the former serving teachers of the
religion (the bona fide Acharyyas) he
will gain the positive knowledge of the Truth.
In the following pages of
this work the Events of the Career of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya, corresponding to
the activity of the seeker of the Truth after he has sought for and received
spiritual enlightenment from the bona
fide teacher of the Truth, are recorded and interpreted in pursuance of the
exposition of the Acharyyas, by the method of the service of the bona fide spiritual guide. It will not
be possible for the uninitiated to enter into the spiritual meaning of such a
Narrative. But every one will be enabled to avoid forming any hasty and adverse
opinion if he only keeps in mind the necessary reservations when going through
the account of the happenings of the transcendental plane to which the
conditioned soul has no access in their substantive sense. It can be to him
more or less only like a story of the Fairyland with this difference that the
realm of the soul is not the concoction of the fertile imagination of man as
the other is; but on the contrary it is the only Substantive Reality that
vitally concerns all of us both individually and collectively. No reader of a
fairy tale ever thinks it worth his while to quarrel with any happenings in the
Fairyland even if they are in flat contradiction to all experiences of this
world. In the case of this Narrative also, from this point onward, even if the
reader is unable to agree with any proposition fully, he need not for an
analogous reason cherish any feeling of hostility inasmuch as the propositions
have no direct application to the plane of three dimensions for which alone he
is at present positively interested. His hostility against the Fairyland would
be like fighting with a shadow as the land of the Fairies is not capable of
being affected by his mundane blows; and one should not quarrel with a shadow
on principle. If one is disposed to quarrel by apprehending any bad effect that
the story may appear likely to produce on his actual worldly position, he
should still be able to find consolation in the reflection that his mere desire
to banish from this world anything that he does not like, will not necessarily
rid it of those objectionable entities, and, therefore, if those entities are
entitled to have a place in the world it is the world that deserves to be
condemned and not the story which would be perfectly harmless but for this
possibility of its existence in the world despite our desire to the contrary.
We are not required either
by our rational instinct or by the Scriptures to shut our ears against anybody.
It is only during pupilage that the student is required to obey the teacher not
mechanically but by the method of progressive co-operating conviction. The
association with evil-doers, that is so strongly condemned by the Scriptures,
is to he understood in the similar rational sense. The objectionable form of association
with evil can arise only when we identify ourselves with the evil. It is not
always practicable nor desirable to avoid external association with evil. But
it is always practicable and desirable to have a protesting or at any rate an
indifferent attitude towards evil. One must not be a consenting associating
party with evil. A person is not capable of being contaminated by mere external
association with evil, although he may be living in this world where ‘even the
light is as darkness.’ The attempt to avoid all association with evil by the
mechanical method is only another form of association with evil. One, who is
impure at heart but fastidious in his external conduct, is called in ordinary
language a hypocrite, who is not less harmful and who is not to be less avoided
than the downright professed scoundrel.
There need not be any
unnecessary mystery about spiritual matters. Everything is not intelligible to
everyone. It is necessary also to adopt a method that is neither unintelligible
nor misleading to the hearer. But nothing need be kept a secret unless it is
impossible to be divulged without producing serious and harmful
misunderstanding. The mantra is not
to be divulged to another person, because this is quite a personal matter. It
is also quite proper and logical to have the principles of reserve and privacy
in the realm of the soul. It is not necessary to abuse those principles for
securing transitory and narrow interests, as we do in this world. They are
capable of being used and should by all means be used, for serving the Truth.
This will no doubt give a chance to the hypocrite and the pseudo-teachers of
religion to befool their over-credulous victims; but it should befool nobody
who does not want to be. befooled by their over-attachment to the bauble
pleasures of this world.
The nature of those funeral
rites, that are enjoined by the Scriptures, requires to be understood from the
point of view of the service of Godhead. One’s duty to one’s parents does not
cease with the death of the latter. This admission is not avoidable by those
who recognize the claim of their parents. to their duty in return of benefits
received from them. The circle of such duties and benefits no doubt belong to
the mundane plane. Death is the greatest calamity that may befall the
relationship of parent and child. It severs the earthly connection between
them. But does it really sever all connection? The elevationists do not believe
it does. They suppose that the subtle body survives the death of the gross
physical body. This subtle body has to be reborn after an interval during which
it remains dissociated from the gross body. the subtle body embodies the
principle of material enjoyment. But it does not obtain this enjoyment except
through the gross body. The subtle body in the dissociated state, is called the
preta. The funeral rites are intended
for the benefit Of the preta. This
benefit, as understood by the elevationists (smartas),
consists in the rebirth of the preta in
some other gross body. By such rebirth the preta
is supposed to be delivered from his torments of the preta state. The salvationists on the other hand suppose that the preta is delivered if he is enabled to
avoid rebirth in the gross body by merging in the Divinity. The Vaishnavas do
not recognize any special duty to their forbears, for the reason that such duty
is rendered to the material case which is wrongly identified by the
elevationists and salvationists alike with the individual soul who is the
person to whom all duties are really due. The individual soul is not served by
any function that is intended for the amelioration of the gross or subtle
material case. The Vaishnavas accordingly express their duty towards their
forbears and all departed persons by making their offering at the Feet of Gadadhara.
At Gaya the round of the
funeral ceremonies leads up to the worship of the Feet of Vishnu, as their
consummation. This is the relation in which the Smarta ceremonies are intended by the Scriptures to stand to the spiritual
function proper. The Manes, i.e.,
souls imprisoned in the subtle bodies, are benefited by their descendants,
worship of the Feet of Gadadhara. The performance of funeral rites by Godhead
Himself is not to be supposed a concession to elevationist or salvationist
method or objective. The avoidance of the ceremonies, by those who do not
worship the Feet of Gadadhara, is also not supported by the conduct of Sree
Gaursundar. What it is intended to significant, is that the smarta practice is the result of
gratitude that is naturally felt by a person, who confounds himself with his
physical cases, towards the forbears of those cases. One, who is in the deluded
condition, need not be hypocritically ungrateful to his worldly parents till he
has been really relieved from the state of ignorance. He would be delivered
from his ignorance and all supposed obligations of that state, if he could
attain to the pure service of the feet of Vishnu. This desideratum is
recognized by the arrangement for the performance of the sraddha ceremonies at Gaya leading up to the worship of the Feet of
Gadadhara. According to the dictum of the Scriptures a person, who desires to
attain to the service of Godhead, should perform all duties enjoined by the custom
of his society or preferably by the Veda in the way that is conducive to the
attainment of the spiritual function. The smarta
view is that the devotee of Godhead is also under equal obligation to
appease the Manes by the performance of the sraddha
ceremonies. This is the reverse of the principle that is followed at Gaya
in the due performance of the funeral rites. The Supreme Teacher recognized by
His Conduct the justification of the elevationist and salvationist function for
the social purpose, while pointing to the attainment of the service of Godhead
as the objective towards which all activities should tend if they are to
possess any positive value for the soul. If any portion of the funeral ritual
is opposed to this end it is necessarily unacceptable to the Vaishnavas, for
that reason.
The ritual of diksha or initiation is liable to be
similarly misunderstood. The smarta view
of the ceremony is similar to their view of the funeral ritual. The smarta is anxious to provide for the
needs of the gross and subtle physical cares. He deliberately ignores the need
of the soul, because that is opposed to the interests (?) of the physical cases
as understood by the smartas. The
ceremony of diksha, according to the smarta view, confers only on the Brahmana
by seminal birth the eligibility for the worship of Sree Narayana. Those, who
are not Brahmanas by seminal birth, are, according to this view, enabled by the
process only to be born as Brahmanas in their next birth; but it does not
entitle them to worship Sree Narayana in their present life. The Brahmana, who
is eligible to worship Narayana or Godhead, is thus supposed to be the entity, viz., the physical cases, that is born
of mundane parents. But as a matter of fact the physical cases have no access
to Vishnu and the process of diksha cannot
accordingly apply to them and for this reason diksha is not a social but a spiritual function the nature of which
is misunderstood by those so-called Brahmanas who are anxious to retain intact
their hereditary social privileges.
By seminal birth, on the
contrary, everyone is made a Sudra who
is the opposite of a Brahmana. The seminal birth provides the physical cases by
which the conditioned soul is made subject to the sufferings of this world, or,
in other words, is made a Sudra which
term literally means ‘one who is subject to sorrow’. By the purificatory
ceremony of Upanayana, or being
conducted to the Guru for attaining
to the knowledge (Veda) of one’s
relationship with Godhead (diksha) in
order to be enabled to serve Him on the spiritual plane, the Sudra is re-born, not as a physical or
mental case but, as a soul or student of
the Veda. This second birth is not
seminal birth, because the pupil, who submits to the Guru, is not the physical body born of semen but the soul
inhabiting the same. The substantive consciousness, that one is not the
physical body but the soul inhabiting the body, can alone enable one to serve
the Guru for obtaining the true
knowledge of the function of his own proper self.
The ceremony of Upanayana, therefore, admits the
necessity, on the part of the conditioned soul, of serving the Guru and represents the soul’s act of
appearing before the Guru in order to
learn to serve Godhead. The ceremony of diksha
confers on the soul actual spiritual enlightenment. When the Guru is
satisfied by the probationary test that the candidate for spiritual
enlightenment possesses the genuine aptitude for service, he confers on him the
knowledge of his relationship with Godhead which enables him to serve Godhead.
By means of diksha a person is thus
born a third time. It is a case not
of seminal birth, but of the completion of the probationary stage of the
spiritual pupilage of the soul.
The purificatory process of
Upanayana and diksha are also proved to be necessarily open to all persons
irrespective of seminal birth. The seminal birth can bestow only mundane
aptitudes. The seminal birth cannot convey, or entitle one to, the spiritual
nature. That, which conveys or entitles to the spiritual nature, is spiritual
birth by Upanayana and diksha. There is real analogy but a
difference of plane between the seminal and spiritual birth.
Upanayana is the process of being connected to the
Guru. This refers to the function of
the shiksha Guru. The shiksha Gurus may be many, but the diksha Guru is only one. The shiksha Gurus are the associated
counterparts of the diksha Guru who
is the associated counterwhole of the Divinity Himself. There is thus only one diksha Guru who is associated with his
infinity of agents or limbs whose function is to lead the intending disciple to
the diksha Guru. The diksha Guru may, indeed, be also the shiksha Guru, but not necessarily so.
The distinction between the shiksha Guru and
the diksha Guru is one relating to
their respective spiritual functions which do not involve any unwholesome
implication of inferiority in the mundane sense. The shiksha Guru is, therefore, to be as much obeyed by the disciple as
the diksha Guru himself.
The function of diksha, in its ritualistic aspect,
consists of the process of imparting the mantra
by the diksha Guru which is spoken by
him into the ear of the disciple without being allowed to be heard by any other
person. It is the method of Truth communicating Himself to an individual soul
in the Form of the Transcendental sound Appearing on the lips of His devotee.
The mantra, as we have explained
elsewhere, is the Holy Name in the Form in which He is coupled with the process
of self dedication of an individual to the Guru.
It is a specific matter that delivers the particular individual from the grip
of all mental delusion by making him throw himself on the protection of the
Name under the exclusive direction of the Guru.
The process of initiation is not a limited one. It is as much a continued
process as the process of being helped by the shiksha Guru for approaching the diksha Guru. No one of these processes is capable of terminating is
a limited result. They are eternally co-present in a relation that is
progressive but without being hampered by the unwholesome imperfection of the
principle of limitation.
It has been necessary to
explain the process of entry into the spiritual life in some detail for several
reasons. A good deal of misconception has gathered round the issue. This
misconception is responsible for the mushroom growth of an endless variety of
pseudo-forms of the process that are being constantly manufactured by quacks
and knaves for leading astray simpletons and rascals, by the offer of their
support to diverse forms of pernicious worldly activities. It is not also easy
to withstand the temptation of being misled by the appeal to the principle of
pseudo-ethics manufactured by intellectualists for justifying a life of the
sensualists’ paradise for belittling the spiritual issue which transcends the
petty concerns of a nine days’ existence. It is absolutely necessary to have
this sense of perspective, if one is not to miss the only purpose for which the
subject, treated in this work has been offered to his unbiased and serious
consideration.
Nothing is easier than to
make a butt of ridicule of the concerns of the eternal life by the method of
empiric buffoonery. There is an enormous literature, that is also alarmingly
growing in volume by leaps and bounds, which has been deliberately seeking to
dissuade the limited mind from any thought of the Absolute by covering, with
their flimsy ridicule, all transcendental claims of religion. Such effusions
may have been partly called forth by the somewhat natural reaction against the
practices of the pseudo religionists who unfortunately abound all over the
world. They also serve the salutary purpose of checking the quarrels of the
quacks and hypocritical followers of the different religious persuasions. But
the warfare, that is waged by atheism against the forms of pseudo-religion, is
also itself part and parcel of the opera show of our deluded existence. The
history of the doings of man is full of instructive episodes in a short chapter
of a real tragedy of errors which we are gravely asked to regard as the
progressive march of an ethical civilization towards increasing perfection. The
reader has had enough experience of regarding the doings of the performers on
the worldly stage from this supposed optimistic and universally advertised
promising point of view. It is not our business here to offer him more of the
same familiar commodity.
The real transcendental
point of view is condemned by empiricists of all countries, with the exception
of India and of those lands which have received their creeds from her, as being
the hallucinate product of a sterile pessimism born of a decadent material
civilization fretting over the solid achievements of successful rivals. India,
which is the cradle and chosen land of the hankering for the realization of the
transcendental existence, presents the spectacle of the continuing attempt to
treat social issues by the Scriptural method by refusing to admit the absolute
value of mundane interests. No school of Indian philosophy professes to value
social activity divorced from the spiritual purpose. The difficulty in this
country is due not to the absence of traditional opinion in favour of the
endeavour after the realization of the transcendental existence, as
distinguished from the mundane, but to the misunderstanding and
mispresentation, by different schools of misguided exponents, of the nature of
the spiritual function itself. Whereas in those countries, which are proud of
possessing a social organization that is not ‘priest-ridden’ and aims frankly
at the multiplication and ‘improvement’ of the opportunities of sensuous
enjoyment and the hopeless ‘amelioration’ of the inevitable consequences of the unhampered pursuit of this
optimistic course, the difficulty is due to the absence of all traditional hankering
for the attainment of the spiritual state. This last difficulty is infinitely
increased by the misrepresentations of the whole body of empiric literature
which is never tired of harping ad
nauseam on the congenial theme of the glories of this mundane existence and
holds up its nose in indignant scorn and contempt if the soundness of its
wretched point of view is challenged by straight talk which it affects to
invite so vehemently on its own side.
It is not our purpose
merely to condemn the activities of this world. We should really try to
understand the nature of our proper relationship with them. We should not be
willing to be satisfied with any hypothetical views on this all-important
subject. We should not be violent lovers of the worldly sojourn without
reservation, nor should we be prepared to desire its perpetuation as it is and
as it is proposed to be made by those who derive their knowledge and wisdom
from their experience of this world and apply them solely for further
elaboration of our worldly activities on their present lines. We should long
for an unobstructed vision of the Absolute Truth and believe in the possibility
of the attainment of such vision, and to adjust our activities during this
worldly sojourn to the requirements of our real and whole position revealed by
the knowledge of the Absolute Truth. We should be disposed to regard the
attitude, that is content to be satisfied with less than the Absolute Truth, as
one of insidious and unpardonable revolt against the Absolute Truth. The
present Narrative offers a Career That is wholly devoted to the service of the
Absolute Truth. We are disposed to consider a pragmatist, if he does not
possess the supreme regard due to the devotee of the Absolute Truth, as no
better than a dangerous cheat and a sensuous hypocrite who wants only to
indulge his aptitude for untruth under the guise of a mock concern for the
Truth. We, therefore, claim to be neither pessimists nor optimists in the sense
ill which the contending factions of the empiric sages array themselves under
their respective worldly banners. We should share their furious interest on
behalf of the worldly life. We only invite our readers to lend their receptive
ear to the narration of the actual conduct of Nimai Pandit, as He manifested
Himself to this world, after He had received spiritual enlightenment by
unconditional submission to the feet of the bona
fide spiritual Guide. By the process of diksha,
with the intention of trying to enter the spirit of the same from the point
of view of the Narrative itself that has been handed down by the succession of
the spiritual teachers.
The boon for which Nimai
Pandit prayed to Sree Iswara Puri, was love for Krishna. He surrendered to Sree
Iswara Puri His Body and Mind unconditionally for the attainment of the above
purpose. When one obtains the actual sight of the bona fide Spiritual Guide, that is of the real exclusive servant of
the Absolute, by the grace of Godhead, the duty, that he has to perform on his
side, is to make the unconditional surrender of himself to the Feet of the bona
fide agent of the Absolute. This is the logical and consistent course but is
impossible of realization in practice except by divine grace.
If the complete surrender
to the Guru is made the spiritual mantra reveals himself to the disciple.
It is now our task to trace the growth of this loving devotion in Nimai Pandit.
But as we proceed to do so we must bear in mind the fact that Nimai Pandit was,
indeed, no other than the Lord Himself. This is noticeable in the manner of
Sree Iswara Puri towards his Disciple. He says that when he looks at Nimai
Pandit he obtains the bliss of beholding Krishna Himself. The Vaishnava Guru does not regard any one as his
disciple; but he does not, therefore, think that his disciples are Krishna
Himself. The Vaishnava Guru regards
his disciples as his Gurus and
himself as their disciple. The Vaishnava Guru
regards his disciples as his Gurus
for the reason that as servants of his Lord they are really his Gurus. The disciple, who is under
agreement to serve the Lord, becomes, by that very agreement, in the estimation
of the Guru to whom he is bound by
the agreement, the servant of the Lord Who is served by the Guru, and, therefore, his Guru. Iswara Puri would have been
justified in addressing Nimai Pandit as his Guru
after Nimai Pandit had agreed to become the Servant of Krishna. But he did not
call his Disciple his Guru but said
He was Krishna Himself. This shows the real state of things as realized by Sree
Iswara Puri. It is really the Lord Who gave the boon of His Mercy to Iswara
Puri under the guise of receiving initiation from His Guru.
Unless this point is
properly grasped there will be difficulty in following the subsequent
developments. Sree Iswara Puri belonged to the communion of Sree Madhvacharyya.
Initiation at the hands of Sree Iswara Puri marks the entry of Nimai Pandit
into the Madhva Community. It was certainly not incumbent on the Lord to enroll
Himself under the banner of Madhva. This would prevent Him, according to usage,
from breaking away from the tenets of a particular Community. It is well known
that Sree Madhva did not teach the service of Sree Sree Radha-Govinda which was
preached and practiced by Nimai Pandit. There is thus only connection but not
identity of teaching between Sree Chaitanya and Sree Madhva. Sree Madhabendra
Puri, the Guru of Sree Iswara Puri,
was the first of the Acharyyas to manifest his inclination, in an elementary
form, for the worship of Krishna as his Consort. In this respect he stands
alone among the followers of Sree Madhva. For this reason the followers of Sree
Chaitanya regard Sree Madhabendra Puri as the germinating seed of the tree of
loving devotion that was manifested to the world in its fully developed form by
Sree Chaitanya.
These points of contact and
difference will be dealt with more fully as we have occasion to examine, in the
following pages, the details of the devotional developments of Nimai Pandit.
The Lord accepted initiation from Sree Iswara Puri in order to satisfy. the
requirement of the scriptures that the mantra
cannot be efficacious except within the spiritual communion. In other words
spiritual activity is not a wholly individualistic affair. We have seen above
that the mantra concerns the
individual as regards its reception and practice of recital. But at the same
time the mantra withdraws the
individual spiritually from the society of those who are uninitiated. If the
individual continues his affinity with the uninitiated after his initiation in
ways that are adverse to his newly-formed spiritual connection, the mantra loses all its efficacy. This
implies, and is a corollary from, the exclusive nature of the service of the
Absolute and also lays down the nature of spiritual relationship among the
servants of Godhead, which is categorically different from what prevails in the
society of those who do not consciously serve the Divinity. It was in order to
observe this fundamental condition of entry into the spiritual sphere, laid
down in the Scriptures, that Nimai Pandit went through the form of spiritual
initiation at the hands of Sree Iswara Puri who belonged to one of the four
theistic communities recognized by the Scriptures. The New Dispensation does
not, therefore, claim that it is altogether New. It does not belie but on the
contrary only fulfills the requirements of the Scriptures in the most effective
manner. The Scriptures had announced that the New Dispensation for the Iron Age
will be given by the Lord Himself and that the form of worship, that will be
thus established, will be the congregational chant (sankirtana). There was, therefore, sufficient Scriptural
authorization for the establishment of the New Worship without reference to the
existing theistic communities who possessed apparently somewhat different
methods of worship. But the New Dispensation was to be accomplished, and could
be accomplished, according to the Scriptures and in no other way than by the
recognition of the necessity of initiation into one of the authorized theistic
communions. The Lord subsequently took the trouble of bringing about the
spiritual reconciliation of the apparent differences of the four Vaishnava
Communities, by giving to the world the complete explanation of the function of
the soul revealed by the Scriptures. The Teachings of Sree Chaitanya in fact
gathered up those of the former Acharyyas in a Scriptural Synthesis of a
supremely higher order. His full interpretation of the service of Sree Sree
Radha Govinda, Embodied in His Career, is not identical with the teaching or
practice of any of the four Vaishnava Acharyyas, but the further and complete
working out of the fundamentals of the teachings of all of them has been one of
its inevitable achievements.
That the mantra, which had been received by Nimai
Pandit from Sree Iswara Puri who had got it from Sree Madhabendra Puri, was to
bear fruit in an ample measure, did not take a long time to manifest itself.
Shortly after His Initiation, as Nimai Pandit was one day engaged in meditating
of the mantra in His privacy, the
impulse of loving devotion, which had been gathering strength, burst through
all restraints and showed itself in unique external manifestations. The Lord
was heard to be crying with a loud Voice in the act of reciting certain verses
from the Scriptures, the import of which is as follows,— ’Oh Krishna! Oh My
Darling! Sree Hari, My Life! Oh, whither hast Thou gone after stealing My
Heart? I, indeed, got My Lord;—but where is He gone?’
The Lord went on crying and
reciting these verses and rolling on the ground till His Whole Beautiful Frame
became gray with the dust, while He was thus immersed in the liquid bliss of
loving devotion. The Lord, indeed, cried at the top of His Voice, in the pang
of a Deep Agony, ‘Whither, Darling Krishna art Thou gone thus abandoning Me?’
His great restlessness under the impulse of loving devotion appeared all the
more strange as the Lord had formerly been distinguished by the quality of His
extreme reserve on the subject of religion. The Lord rolled on the ground and
cried aloud. He was adrift on the ocean of loving separation from Himself.
This gradually brought all
His pupils to the spot who succeeded, after prolonged endeavours, with the
greatest tenderness and loving care, in restoring Him to His normal condition.
But the Lord did not change His Purpose. He now proposed to His students that
they should at once return to their homes. He was resolved on His Part not to
enter the world again. He was resolved to go to Mathura to find Krishna, the
Lord of His Life. All the students appealed to Him, by every possible method,
to persuade Him to be calm. But the Lord of Vaikuntha, deeply immersed in the rasa (mellowing liquid) of devotion,
could find no rest in His Heart under His great anxiety and did not know where
to stay. In this condition the Lord, without the knowledge of any of His
associates, set out for Mathura, by the impulse of love for Krishna, towards
the closing hours of night on one of these days. He moved forward on the road
with the piteous cry, ‘Oh Krishna! Oh My Darling! Where shall I find Thee?’
When He had proceeded a certain distance in this manner the Lord heard a
celestial voice saying, “Jewel of the twice-born, forbear to go to Mathura for
the present. There will come the proper time for going there. Thou wilt go
there when the time will arrive. Retrace Thy Steps Home to Nabadwip for the
present. Thou art the Lord of Sree Vaikuntha. Thou hast appeared in the world
for the deliverance of the people, with all Thy Own. Thou wilt freely give away
the treasure of loving devotion to the world by performing the kirtana through the infinity of the
worlds. Thou has appeared in the world to give away to its denizens the good,
by whose mellow quality Brahma, Shiva, Sanaka and their associates, are
distracted with joy and which is sung by the Great Lord Ananta Himself. This is
known to Thyself. We are Thy servants, and we speak as Thou Desirest.
Therefore, have we made this submission at Thy Feet. Thou art Providence
Himself. Thou art the Master. What Thou wilst is never thwarted by opposition.
Therefore Supreme Lord, may Thou be pleased to return to Thy Home. May: Thou
come again to see the town of Mathura after a time.’ On hearing the Voice from
Heaven Sree Gaursundar was persuaded to retrace His Steps with a glad Heart.
Coming back to His lodging, the Lord prepared to return Home with all His
disciples with the purpose of making manifest to the world the function of
loving devotion to Krishna.
The reader is introduced
with staggering suddenness into an atmosphere which is not at all familiar to
him in his normal mundane existence. If he is disposed to exercise his judgment
at all he might be inclined to suppose the exhibition of love for Krishna as
the effect of a strong emotion on a naturally and extraordinarily sanguine
temperament. But he is at once assured by Thakur Brindavandas that prior to His
Initiation Nimai Pandit did not wear His Heart on His sleeves. He was, on the
contrary, possessed of a depth of reserve that baffled all penetration. This is
the description of an unusually balanced temperament. It also fully accords
with the respect and dread with which, as a Professor, Nimai Pandit was
universally regarded by His fellow townsmen. His Fame as Professor had not
remained confined to Nabadwip. The leading Professor of Nabadwip was at that
time, as now, the greatest savant of the whole country. All this implies
neither a morbid sentimentalism nor the lack of a balanced intellect.
Attempts have been made on
the testimony of nobody but by most illogical inference from the events of His
subsequent career regarded from the dishonest sceptic’s point of view, to give
publicity to the opinion that Nimai Pandit was never a particularly brilliant
scholar. He was only the teacher of Vyakarana which has been described by one
of His associates, who became subsequently His devotee, as a subject of study
fit for children. This, it has been suppose, proves that Nimai Pandit was not a
great scholar. But this view does not take into consideration the testimony of
the earliest accounts of His Career which informs us that He was the greatest
scholar of Nabadwip of His time and in all branches of knowledge. They are also
careful to inform us that it was His Favorite pastime to go about the streets
in the company of His pupils challenging every one to learned controversy with
Him in any branch of study. The work of Thakur Brindavandas was written within
less than forty years of the Disappearance of the Lord. We find that the Lord
met and defeated in open controversy all the scholars of all parts of India.
This could not be regarded as even an exaggerated account of the neurotic performance of a mad
sentimentalist. Those, who are at all acquainted with the nature of theological
controversies in India, should be aware that it is no child’s play to defeat an
Indian Pandit in open controversy in His subject.
‘But there is far more
convincing proof of His perfect rational sanity than all this. The theological
system, which is the Teaching of Sree Chaitanya, remains intact to this day.
Some indications of its nature have already been available to the reader of the
foregoing pages of this Narrative. It is for the reader to judge whether they
constitute a revolutionary and unparalleled advance on every system of every
school that has been prevalent in the world before or since His time. But that,
which has been placed before the reader, is only that infinitesimally small
portion what bears to be conveyed in the defective vocabulary that is at our
disposal for the purpose. No vocabulary of this world can touch even the
outermost fringe of the Absolute Truth whose complete face is presented by the
Career of Sree Krishna-Chaitanya, the Absolute Himself, in the Agony of an
endless striving for beholding Himself as He really is.
The difficulty that the
worldling has to overcome in order to be won to a rational faith in the
Transcendental Nature of the Absolute, is that he is made by all his cherished
habits of education and association to believe implicitly in the testimony of
his senses. When Nimai Pandit is found by one’s eyes to be no more than a human
being like oneself, it should be impossible to be won over by mere theological
arguments to a stable conviction of His transcendental nature. It would be
still less possible to believe in His divinity by the same method.
This natural disinclination
to believe in His transcendence would not be diminished by the closest possible
scrutiny of His Career from the confirmed empiric point of view. The ordinary
empiric attitude is to expect to find transcendence in the form that must
wholly bewilder the understanding by the manner of a miracle. If Nimai Pandit
possesses a Body which can be touched by my hands, seen by my eyes, how can
such Body be regarded as something really extraordinary ? Nothing mundane is
ordinarily expected to be found in the mundane sense in the truly
transcendental. Should, not, therefore, Nimai Pandit if He is really
transcendental, have nothing in common with us according to mundane
expectation?
The reply to such questions
has already been given more than once in the course of this narrative.
transcendence does not mean the denial of the mundane. It simply means that the
transcendent is inconceivable to our present understanding. For example it was
inconceivable to His contemporaries that Nimai Pandit is really a
transcendental person. This is quite in conformity with the peculiar
characteristic of transcendence. It need not obey, it is sure to belie, all
expectations of its mundane observers. No imagining on the part of the empiricists,
by the negative method of analysis of mundane experience, can enable him to get
to the real plane of transcendence. It is only by the mercy of the latter that
he can have any access to him. Transcendence reserves the right of showing, or
not showing, himself to the mundane spectator. He refuses to disclose his
nature to one who does not desire to serve the Truth. This is not at all
unreasonable, as we all recognize the paramount duty of serving the Truth in
order to be enabled to realize our own proper nature by reference to the Truth.
The theory of miracle, in
the sense in which the term is ordinarily supposed to stand for a
transcendental occurrence, must be wholly discarded if we are to be enabled to
approach the subject of transcendence in the truly scientific way. The power of
performing miracles, in the ordinary sense of that term, cannot and need not be
attributed to the divinity. The transcendence of Godhead consists in this that
He does not require any extraneous proof of His divinity to maintain His
transcendence. He is everything without being anything. This is the real nature
of His transcendence. Godhead has been accordingly described in the Bhagavata
as possessing a Medium Form. In other words there is prima facie nothing extraordinary at all about Godhead as He really
is. This is the proof of His supreme freedom from all form and convention. The
Divinity is also declared to have a specific form of His own who is
like the human. This is not proved to be untrue for the reason that it is nothing
apparently extraordinary to the judgment of man. The human form of the divinity
is not the human form of non-divine man. Sree Krishna is free from all limiting
connotations of the term ‘man’ and is at the same time Human in a manner that
is inconceivable to man himself.
Such a view no doubt
provides a capital opportunity for cheats and hypocrites to come forward as the
Avataras of Godhead, an opportunity that has not also failed to be exploited in
the most shameless way, specially in this country. But the exhibition of such
monstrous wickedness by all the sinners of this world, will be no palliative
for the error of those who are, with equal hypocrisy, thereby led to hold to
any belief which they know very well to be radically opposed to their own basic
conception of the nature of the Divinity. No hypocrisy, not even that of the
most subtle kind, is naturally permitted to trespass into the realm of the
Absolute, for the simple reason that it happens to be a revolt against the
service of the Truth as He is.
Nimai Pandit cries like a
mad-man for Sree Krishna. He does nothing else, but always longs for the sight
of Krishna. Who then is this Nimai Pandit and Who also is this Sree Krishna to
whom He realizes Himself to be so exclusively attached by love ?
We have to turn to the Bhagavata
for understanding the meaning of this Extraordinary Conduct. The shlokas, which Nimai Pandit was reciting
as he wept loudly in His agony of separation from Krishna, are to be found in
the Bhagavata. Krishna is leaving for Mathura. The shlokas express the grief of the milkmaids on that occasion. It is
on the plane of Braja that Nimai Pandit finds Himself in consequence of His
initiation. He is turned into a denizen of Braja that is now His real plane,
while this world only serves to increase His sense of separation from Krishna.
In order to enable the reader to avoid any gross misunderstanding of the nature
of the spiritual function itself, manifested in the activities of Nimai Pandit
from this time, we shall try to set forth in the next chapter a few additional
considerations towards the elucidation of His conduct as devotee of Krishna.
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