THE PATH OF THE HEART

THE PATH OF THE HEART

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Any question?

Disciple: In the Bhagavad-gītā, Kṛṣṇa says:

bahūnāṁ janmanām ante
jñānavān māṁ prapadyate
vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti
sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ
(Bhagavad-gītā 7.19)

(“After many, many births, the jñānī, person in knowledge (who happens to achieve the association of My pure devotee) finally comes to understand that the whole universe of moving and stationary beings is of the nature of Vāsudeva, alone, inasmuch as all are subordinate to Vāsudeva. (I, as Vāsudeva am the source and substance of all that be.) Having grasped this conception, he surrenders unto Me. Know such a great soul to be extremely rare.”)

What exactly is the meaning, here?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: From ‘brahma’ conception, the different instalments follow. In brahma realisation, there is a ‘mass’ of consciousness: ‘all-consciousness’. Then, the next step will come: the consciousness is of individual character – with deeper vision, individuality is added to consciousness. There is consciousness plus individuality.

Consciousness and Personality

In fact, no consciousness can exist without individuality, without personality. So, the consciousness is personal: personality and consciousness, they cannot be separated, one from the other. What is differentiated from personality, that is only the halo of the personality – it is something like that. And that ‘halo’ that brahma – is also the combination of minutest personality, of souls.

Substance is of two kinds: kṣara, or changing, perishable; and akṣara, unchanging, eternal. In the Bhagavad-gītā (15.16) Lord Kṛṣṇa says: kṣaraḥ sarvāṇi bhūtāni – whatever we see in the changing aspect of the world, that is called kṣara. And what is unchangeable is called akṣara. Then, He says:

yasmāt kṣaram atīto ‘ham
akṣarād api cottamaḥ
ato ‘smi loke vede ca
prathitaḥ puruṣottamaḥ
(Bhagavad-gītā 15.18)

“My existence transcends both of these two substances, kṣara – akṣara. So, I am puruṣottamaḥ – My name is ‘Puruṣottama’. My glories are sung in the world and in the scriptures, as Puruṣottama, the Supreme Person.”

‘Puruṣottama’ means Vāsudeva. So, bahūnāṁ janmanām ante…; after many births, when the jñānīs, those of the impersonal school, come to understand that the Prime Cause of the consciousness of their quest is a personal one, then they come to conceive of Vāsudeva.

Real Devotion – Most Rare

But such jñānīs are very rarely to be found. Mostly, jñānīs cannot cross this line. They are lost there:

ye ‘nye ‘ravindākṣa vimukta-māninas
tvayy asta-bhāvād aviśuddha-buddhayaḥ
āruhya kṛcchreṇa paraṁ padaṁ tataḥ
patanty adho ‘nādṛta-yuṣmad-aṅghrayaḥ
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.2.32)

(“O lotus-eyed Lord, although non-devotees who accept severe penances and austerities to achieve the highest position may think themselves liberated, their intelligence remains impure. They simply speculate in various ways and do not seek the means to take shelter of You. Because they have no regard for Your lotus feet, they simply fall down from their position of imagined superiority into material existence again.”)

Generally, it is the fate of the jñānīs to climb up to the highest position with great effort, and then, when they cannot grasp that “consciousness means ‘person’” – they cannot cross that understanding – they have to revert back. They have to come back, fall back. And for those who can cross this line, who can understand that: “Yes, consciousness means person – a Big Personality, I am small….”, bhakti begins there. The relation of subordination of the lower to the Higher, that comes into effect.

And, sa mahātmā sudurlabhaḥ – such a person among the jñānīs is very rarely to be found, who can take the positive connection of the higher aspect of life. Mostly they come back, they have to come back from there. After much penance, they climb up to that high mark, but they cannot accommodate that “the higher Entity must be dealt with devotion”, so they have to come back.

Personality with Potency

But those who realise: vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti, that Vāsudeva – Puruṣottama – is personal, they can ‘cross the line’ and enter Vaikuṇṭha, the service area proper.

And there, we are told, gradually as their vision grows more and more, they can find potency on the side of the personal God. Then they become the devotee of Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa, and enter completely into Vaikuṇṭha-sevā. And in that service, we find awe, reverence; there are śāstric (scriptural) rules, and also examples of the higher-realised souls, to guide them.

The Search for Full Engagement

And in that Vaikuṇṭha-sevā, if the soul does not find the whole of his innate nature having full engagement, there will be some sort of thirst, some inner tendency which cannot find any corresponding relation to satisfy itself. And when he feels this kind of urge from within, he has to search after another rasa (a soul’s specific service mood/relationship with the Lord, and the ‘taste’ derived therefrom), for a purer, more friendly service than the filial service (dāsya-rasa).

And ultimately the madhura-rasa service – the sweetheart’s service, in consorthood – urges him to go up. It urges him to go up, and to go deeper. And gradually, by coming in contact with such (madhura rasa) agents, he finds his own heart blossoming. And blossoming to its fullest extent, his heart takes him gradually towards Goloka Vṛndāvana (the supreme spiritual planet, abode of Lord Kṛṣṇa)……

The Service of Reality the Beautiful

Then he can see that what was (initially realised as) ‘brahma’; then Paramātmā, or Vāsudeva; then Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa – that has gradually come to him as Kṛṣṇa consciousness, not Nārāyaṇa consciousness. Superseding Nārāyaṇa consciousness, he comes in contact with Kṛṣṇa consciousness of the Reality.

He is awakened – he finds himself awakened in a plane where he sees the all-connecting, all-harmonising principle is no longer Nārāyaṇa, but Kṛṣṇa – He is showing Himself as Kṛṣṇa. Then he is fully awakened. His heart is fully awakened, and at the same time he sees that the environment, and the object of his search, is also fully equipped. This is full-fledged theism.

Full-fledged theism – where the theistic conviction receives its satisfaction in the fullest way. Just as, with the opening of the eye we can see the world, and according to the degree of our sight we come to see the subtlest thing of the environment, so also, by our inner awakement of the fullest type, we come to a particular world, environment, and that is Vṛndāvana – Goloka Vṛndāvana, the land of love. And movement there is spontaneous; and all around, we find the environment only friendly. It is so simple, so friendly; and the dealings of all who are there are filled with so much intimacy.

And in Vṛndāvana we will find that our thirst for any higher change of environment, of association, no longer needs to be quenched; but there is thirst, eternal thirst, for coming in closer relation with them, closer connection with them. There is no possibility of any higher change of environment – where he has reached is almost final – and now the only remaining thing, is how to come into a more and more close connection with the environment.

And that becomes the initiative of our movement there: more and more intimate connection with the environment. The environment is eternal, but in the intimacy of connection – the ‘competition’ (in loving service), the movement, is there. And the guidance is given according to that.

Merging in Kṛṣṇa Consciousness

In this way, there is progress. There is some sort of ‘necessity’, by which the service is moving. And, there is repetition – a kind of ‘repetition’, but it is ever-fresh, ever-new! It is ever-new, and it is only a question of the time. For example, every day when I am hungry, in the morning, food is tasteful to me, and not always – by the movement of the time, it is like that. In this way, everything is palatable, not stale. In that plane, there is movement of time, but it is eternal. It is managed by yogamāyā (the internal potency of Lord Kṛṣṇa, who arranges and conducts His līlā) in such a way.

And finally, there we will attain the fullest satisfaction of all the inner parts of our system, the wholesale satisfaction of every atom of every constituent part of our spiritual body: pṛti aṅga lāge kale, pṛti aṅga mora – “Every part of my every limb, cries for union with the corresponding part of every limb of the other side”. Sambandha – relationship with the environment – may come to such a stage, that every atom constituting my spiritual body and mind, will aspire after union with every corresponding part of the environment.

In this way, in such a friendly way, so many are moving there, and it is adjusted accordingly by yogamāyā. And this is the highest conception.

Pṛti aṅga lāge kale, pṛti aṅga mora – “Every atom of my existence is in loving aspiration with the environment, and that is Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa consciousness has surrounded me.” ‘Surrounded me’ means, “From all sides it has embraced me; I am lost in the thought of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, with its detailed, elaborate acquaintance. I am merged, merged in the deepest part of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, where I shall find “Kṛṣṇa has captured every atom of my existence. Every atom is feeling as if it is experiencing separate pleasure by His embracing….”

This is possible only in consorthood relationship, where every atom has been embraced, captured, by coming into the most intimate connection with Him. It is called ādi-rasa, or mukhya-rasa. The name of mādhurya-rasa is ādi-rasa, that is, it is the most original, it is the source of all other rasas, and all other rasas are dependent on it. So it is called ‘ādi-rasa’. And, mukhya-rasa: the sum total of all ‘rasas’ – their gist, their essence, is represented there. We are told like that.

And Mahāprabhu came with this gift – mādhurya-rasa. It is anarpita carīṁ cirāt, “that which was never distributed before” – that of which, it is considered, any distribution was not possible previously, before Him.

Highest Revelation

In Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s book Jaiva Dharma, we find that one Vaiṣṇava is asking his Gurudeva, “Devotion, it is eternal; but why do you say that it came from Mahāprabhu?” Then his Guru, Paramahaṁsa Bābājī, is saying, “I visited Vṛndāvana and asked the eternal servitor of Śrī Caitanyadeva, Sanātana Gosvāmī: “This anarpita carīṁ cirāt – “which has never been dealt with before” – what is the meaning underlying it?” Then Sanātana Gosvāmī replied:

“Bhakti is eternal; in ‘Nārada-bhakti-sūtra’, ‘Śāṇḍilya-sūtra’, all such scriptures, this has been given – but the type of devotion which Mahāprabhu came with, which we meet after the advent of Mahāprabhu Śrī Caitanyadeva, that was not previously at any time open to the ordinary person. So, it is called ‘anarpita carīṁ’. And what is that standard of devotion?

It is this: complete surrender to Kṛṣṇa in consorthood, where every atom of the jīva-soul gets welcomed and embraced by the corresponding atom of Kṛṣṇa consciousness – madhura-rasa. That was not open to the public before. This is my finding, my faith. You may accept, or not accept…” Sanātana Gosvāmī told like this to that Vaiṣṇava: “This is my private conception – you may take it, or not”. This was his reply.

The World of Dedication

So devotion has its beginning; the beginning of devotional life is here, where Kṛṣṇa says ‘vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti….’ (Bhagavad-gītā 7.19) (“I, Vāsudeva, am the source and substance of all that be”).

Then, the beginning of bhakti, the primary admission into the devotional school above ‘jñāna’ – knowledge – and vairāgya – renunciation, that is śānta-rasa (‘passive’ relationship with the Lord.) And from there the gradation: dāsya-rasa (servitude); then sākhya-rasa (fraternity); then vātsalya-rasa (parenthood); then madhura-rasa (conjugal). All this is given in detail in ‘rāmānanda-saṁvāda’.

In this way, bhakti is going up. Systematically, we are to understand, and digest, digest what is ‘bhakti’. But, in the beginning, we are to have a broad conception of the positive world, the world of dedication.