Sri Chaitanya

Sarawat Math,
Nabadwip Dham
SRI GAURA LILA
BHAKTI YOGA
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Bhakti Yoga
the spiritual teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
You can experience Sri Krishna. By your soul's experience you
may have perception of Him. Your eye's perceptions and your
ear's perceptions are not one and the same, they are different,
and similarly the soul's perception is different from the
experiences you have through your senses. The soul may have
such a high experience and understanding, but it will have to
soar up through devotion to Krishna and then draw that sort of
ecstasy.

New book about

Guru Parampara

Srila B. R. Sridhar Maharaj's explanation of the spiritual

lineage (Guru Parampara) of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati
Thakura is examined in depth in a new publication from Sri
Chaitanya Saraswat Math, Nabadwip Dham. In Spiritual
Successors of the Six Goswamis, readers are given a

detailed history of the Gaudiya Guru Parampara from the

sixteenth century to the 20th century. This book presents a
thorough examination of various philosophical issues in
regards to Guru Parampara. Many matters of concern which
have been raised by devotees, in regards to the spiritual
succession or Guru Parampara given by Srila
Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura, are discussed in detail.
Spiritual Successors of the Six Goswamis is available in print
from Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, Nabadwip. An Adobe
Acrobat (pdf) version of the book can be downloaded here.
Devotion to Sri Krishna grows like a creeper growing from a tiny
seed. The soul seeking devotion to Krishna is like a gardener who
sows the seed of love and splashes that seed with nourishing
water, in the form of hearing the Name of Krishna and chanting
the Lord's Holy Name. The creeper of devotion springs a shoot
and grows, piercing through this mundane sphere. The growing
creeper goes through the stream of Viraja, the energetic, flowing,
unmanifest formless state of existence outside this universe.
Then it grows further, and goes through the illuminated plane of
Brahma, the white light of Spiritual bliss; until at last the creeper
finally attains a home for herself in the soil of the infinite sphere
called Paravyoma. This Paravyoma atmosphere is sometimes
called the kingdom of God. The creeper continues to grow in that
Paravyoma atmosphere and reaches the limits of the higher
sphere called Goloka-Vrindaban where she climbs and clings to
the Purpose-Tree at the Feet of Sri Krishna.
The individual soul is feminine, in its intrinsic nature. When the
soul is approaching Sri Krishna, the first conception she will have
will be of the Name of Krishna, the sound aspect. Then, engaging
in proper production of the Divine Name, she will get realization
of Krishna's Form. The sound will show His Figure, Colour and
Beauty. Afterwards she will be able to come in contact with His
Qualities. Next she will find that there are so many servitors
around Him. Then, with all these mixed together, she will find
that the pastimes are revealed, and she will find she has a
particular place in those pastimes. The soul will find herself living

in the harmonious movement of pastimes, the playful life. In that

dynamic harmony your innermost soul will have a part to play,
and you will find your heart is filled with joy. You will find yourself
overjoyed.
Any vision, any hearing, any experience of the transcendental
Lord, is independent of our physical body. But when the Lord
descends in the plane of our consciousness we feel as if "with
this hand I am touching Him, with this ear I am hearing Him, with
this eye I am seeing Him." Dhruva was sitting in the forest,
absorbed in silent meditation, when the Lord first came to him. In
his meditation, Dhruva had a vision of the Lord's form and figure.
But when that vision was intensified Dhruva opened his eyes and
found that very figure of the Lord standing before him. The Lord
descends from above and appears within our consciousness.
Krishna comes from above to our soul, to reason, to mind.
Krishna comes down, and He is not a product of the external
world.
Why have souls come into this world of selfish exploitation and
not to the world of dedication to Sri Krishna? That should be
attributed to their innate nature, which is endowed with free will.
It is because of our free choice that we have been born in this
world of birth and death. This is substantiated in the Bhagavad
gita.
"Due to their tendency towards ignorance since immeasurable
time, the living beings act, considering themselves the doers or
inaugurators of action. The Supreme Lord does not generate
their misconceptions of considering themselves doers, nor does
He generate their actions or their attachments to the fruits of
those actions.
"The fully self-satisfied Supreme Lord accepts neither the sin nor
the piety of anyone. Cognizance is the intrinsic nature of the
living beings, but the living beings are infatuated by the material
body, thinking it to be themselves, on account of their original
spiritual nature being enveloped by the deluding potency (Maya)
of the Lord."
Bhagavad gita 5:14-15
Krishna says that the soul's innate free will is responsible for its
entanglement in the material world. The responsibility is with the

individual soul, otherwise the Lord would be responsible for the

soul's distressed condition. The soul has come to live in this
world in a mortal body, in a place where there is suffering,
disease and death.
In the Bible there is the story about Adam and Eve who were living in a blissful
garden but they were thrown out because they did something wrong. Because of
the sin committed by those primitive ancestors all the future generations of
mankind are punished by God. But we see this God is kind to some people and
harsh to others - he is not just. Some babies are born in wealthy homes, some
are born into a life of indescribable misery. Not because of anything they did in a
previous lifetime or karma or any other such thing, since Christians, Muslims and
Jews do not believe in karma, but rather because God is not fair. He gives some
people plenty of daily bread while others starve. This type of God who causes
people to suffer for no reason cannot be said to be a loving and Good God. The
Vaishnavas reject this type of God. Vaishnavas believe in Krishna, Rama, Vishnu
- who is pure goodness.
According to Vaishnavism, the ancient religion of the Bhagavat, there is one
Supreme Being who is known by many names such as Vishnu or Krishna, or
even Allah or Yahweh. Vaishnavas do not believe in the existence of any "Satan".
There is only one supreme power and Vaishnavas do not believe an evil anti-god
with supernatural powers is working against God to cause evil in the world. There
are many gods and demons in Hinduism but these beings are people like us and
are not considered to be the supreme being. They are like fairies or angels or
spirits, somewhat similar to the angels and jinns in the Koran. Srila Bhaktivinode
Thakur, a great devotee of Sri Krishna who lived in the nineteeth century, taught
that the notion that there are two great supernatural powers constantly struggling
against each other, one Good, the other Evil, is a idea that was first propounded
by Zoaraster in Babylon. Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur said the Jewish, Christian and
Muslim religions were influenced by Zoaraster's misconception that a Good God
is battling against a Bad God in some sort of cosmic war.
Neither do Vaishnavas do not believe there is any everlasting "hell". Living
beings create karma and if they do bad things they will suffer for that. But even if
a person is a "demon" like Hitler he will not go to an everlasting hell. Hell can
exist, no doubt. War is hell on earth. But wars are not an eternal hell. The soul
reincarnates and experiences the results of his karma and every soul will one day

evolve into a pure soul who will live in the spiritual world with God.

The soul is a particle of consciousness and since it is

consciousness it is endowed with freedom. "Consciousness"
means endowed with free will, for without free will no
consciousness can be conceived of. The soul has freedom of
thought and the capacity to act upon those thoughts and ideas.
But the freedom the conscious soul possesses does not
guarantee the soul will always act in the right way. Freedom has
its value independent of "right" and "wrong". Because the soul is
atomic in size its free will is imperfect and vulnerable. The
possibility of committing a mistake is there. An atomic pinpoint of
consciousness has very meager free will, and by misuse of their
free will some souls have taken their chance in the material
world. They refused to submit to the supreme authority. They
wanted to dominate. So, with this germinal idea of domination,
the soul enters into this world of exploitation.
The first position of a soul in the material world will be like that
of Brahma, the creator. Then his karma may take him to the body
of a beast like a tiger where he is surrounded by a tigerish
mentality, or to the body of a tree or creeper, where different
impressions may surround him.
It is the soul who gives light to the world, who creates an
understanding of the environment, the world of perception. Here
"soul" means individual soul. The individual soul is the cause of
his own world. The philosopher Berkeley said similarly, that the
world is in the mind. It is not that the mind is in the world but
that the world is in the mind.
Thought is coming from the thinker, and if there is "thought"
then there must be space and there must be time. Time and
space are factors of thought. The whole world has sprung up
from ether, from space; and the ether, that substance itself is
coming from mind. In the Bhagavad gita, 15th chapter, it is
mentioned that just as a tree's branches spring up, sprout up
from a seed, the objects of our sense experience are coming
from within to out. All our sense experience, of that which we
take to be external, has evolved from within ourselves.

I am a particle of consciousness and consciousness is the original

substance. Deviation from that sort of spiritual consciousness to
some other consciousness must be considered delirium. We have
deviated so far, thinking this flesh is our self. My home is in the
conscious world where there is proper existence (Sat), pure
consciousness (Chit) and ecstasy and fulfillment (Ananda).
This is the teaching of Gaudiya Vaisnavism, or Bengal
Vaishnavism, the religion and philosophy of Sri Krishna
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Sri Chaitanya is the Great Master Who
came into the world to teach about the glories of the Holy Name
of Sri Krishna.
In the beginning Krishna consciousness is a hazy thing. But if
devotee consciousness attracts us, if we come into contact with
a proper devotee and develop some consciousess of the nature
and character of a proper devotee, then that will be more
tangible, helpful and encouraging for us.
So Krishna says, " To serve My devotee is better than to serve
Me." In ordinary consciousness we do not like the idea of service
to a devotee. We may think "He is a man, I am searching for
God, why should I waste my time following the advice given by
this man. Why should I spend my time in the service of some
man? He may have some devotion to the Lord but still he is not
the highest." But when we really want to make progress then we
must understand that attraction for a devotee is more helpful for
us. My energy is utilized in a more concrete way under his
guidance.
I am going to some unknown place, I am captured by the charm
of that goal. If I can get some good company on the way, a good
companion who has more knowledge about the goal than myself,
then the journey becomes a very easy and happy journey.
Attraction towards God is a more or less abstract thing, but
service of a devotee is more concrete and therefore one can
raise more faith towards Krishna.
These teachings have come down to us in the present
generation, through this succession of Spiritual Masters:
His Divine GraceSrila B S Govinda Maharaj
ParamahamsaSrila B R Sridhar Maharaj
Om VisnupadSrila Saraswati Thakur

Final note by Muralidhar das...

Sri Rupa Goswami wrote:
abhivyakta mattah prakrti-laghu-rupad api budhavidhatri
siddharthan hari-gunamayi vah krtir iyampulindenapy agnih kim
u samidham unmathya janitohiranya-sreninam apaharati nantah
kalusatam
"O learned personalities, this treatise, composed of the divine
qualities of Lord Hari, will fulfill your cherished wishes despite the
fact that it is presented by me, a very insignificant person. Does
not the fire ignited from pieces of wood rubbed together by a
low-born barbarian dissipate the impurities in gold?"
Sri Rupa Goswami's words spoken in a mood of deep humility
give us hope that our efforts to repeat what we have heard from
our Spiritual Masters can be repeated even by a person of
barbaric nature such as myself.
Offering my prayers to the Divine Master who is the source of all
Truth, Auspiciousness and Beauty, seeking to become a
Vaishnava's servant, I have published the preceding article as an
offering to Srila B.S. Govinda Maharaj
Muralidhar das
Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Sridhar Mission
The Channon, NSW, Australia
21 January 1997