Sri Sanmodana Bhasyam, Part 2

Sri Sanmodana Bhasyam, Part 2

BY: SUN STAFF

Jun 19, 2010 — CANADA (SUN) — A commentary on Lord Caitanya’s ‘Siksastakam’ by HDG Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, with a Bengali song for each verse that expands upon Mahaprabhu’s devotional moods (Sanskrit, 1886).

 

As long as the jiva takes full shelter of the Supreme Lord, he remains a resident of Vaikuntha; but when his innate spiritual knowledge of the Lord is covered by forgetfulness, he is placed outside the transcendental realm. The jiva is compared to a ray of the sun, and when under the cloud of maya he becomes conditioned to an unconstitutional and hence unnatural type of existence. The jiva was created to support and participate in the Supreme Lord’s transcendental pastimes, but due to his marginal nature he can fall under maya’s spell to suffer the pangs of repeated birth and death. If, however, the jiva awakens to his original self, the dark mists of ignorance are dissipated and the long suffering of repeated birth and death at last comes to an end. Then he regains his true spiritual identity.

 

When the jiva meets a saintly person, he gradually acquires an eager taste for knowledge of scripture and attraction to the Supreme Lord Himself; when situated in his original constitutional position, the awakened soul is eligible to enter into a conjugal loving exchange with the Lord. One gets the chance to associate with real saintly persons and take shelter of a bonafide spiritual master by sincerity and faith; only in this way can he hear the true import of the revealed scriptures.

 

After submissively hearing, one can chant the holy name; and gradually the real self, the respiritualized jiva, overcomes the illusory energy as his original nature becomes prominent. Such is the sublime effect of chanting the Lord’s holy name. Chanting alone cleanses the heart – ceto-darpana-marjanam – and eventually brings out seven types of perfections in the spirit soul.

 

The phrase ceto-darpana-marjanam indicates the original transcendental nature of the living entity. Srila Jiva Gosvami explains that the living entity is a part and parcel of the Supreme Absolute Energetic Truth; He is the aggregate of all jivas. Like rays of the sun, the jivas are of the same spiritual nature as the Supreme; but they are infinitesimal in size.

 

Srila Baladeva Vidyabusana has similarly analyzed Godhead as the infinite Supreme Lord, with the jiva being His infinitesimal part. All transcendental qualities are eternally present in perfect fullness in the Supreme Lord. His pure ego is manifest as both absolute knowledge and knower. The jiva is also in possession of transcendental knowledge and pure ego, but to a partial degree. By logic, qualities of the sun like heat and light present must also be present in the sun’s rays.

 

Of the two, then, it is the Supreme Godhead who is fully independent. He possesses and embodies all transcendental qualities. He is the origin of everything, and He enters into material nature and as its controller; He alone creates and maintains the material world. As the reservoir of all spiritual bliss, He relishes His own spiritual self and distributes the nectar of pure love of Godhead by the means of His pure devotional service. Indeed, He forces all living entities to taste that sweet nectar.

 

Innumerable living entities move through varied stages of existence; some become eternally conditioned, some become eternally liberated. When the jiva rejects the Supreme Lord, he is eternally ensnared by matter; but if he again aspires for the shelter of the Lord, the curtain of maya that separates the jiva from his own transcendental identity and qualities is forever removed; he is and immediately restored to his original pure self.

 

Therefore, it is clear that the jiva is infinitesimal. Though he is of a transcendental nature having pure ego, pure consciousness and pure form, if he turns away from God and contemplates material energy, his pure nature becomes contaminated by nescience.

 

In this way, the soul’s consciousness is like a mirror: just as it is impossible to see one’s face in a dusty mirror, it is similarly impossible to see the real self in the mirror of consciousness when it is covered by the dust of ignorance. But if one begins to render loving devotional service (particularly hearing and chanting the holy names and pastimes of Sri Krsna) under the influence of the Lord’s hladhini pleasure potency, the material contamination of nescience is completely eradicated.

 

Then jiva’s pure consciousness, which is a function of his pure ego, manifests itself. He sees reflected on the mirror of his pure ego the five principles of the Supreme Lord, the jiva, prakriti (nature), kala (time), and karma (action), with absolute clarity. He sees the reflection of his original identity without any distortion, and this helps him to know his inherent nature as an eternal servant of the Lord. When one becomes truly expert in serving the Lord, the propensity to enjoy material life is converted into a loving devotional mood of service.

 

The word bhava indicates the jiva’s forcible subjection to repeated births in this world. Bhava is a continuous cycle of birth and death called mahadavagni (blazing fire), a raging conflagration that cannot be extinguished by any means other than the congregational chanting of Krsna’s holy name.

 

A question may arise at this point: when one is at last enlightened about his svadharma or eternal function as a liberated soul, does he then cease chanting Krsna’s holy name? The answer is no; the stoppage of chanting never occurs, because chanting God’s name is verily the soul’s sva-dharma. The phrase sreyah-kairava-candrika-vitarana confirms this by specifically conveying the sense of the eternal activity of the spirit soul in his original spiritual condition.

 

Jivas who are enslaved by maya prefer to enjoy material life, and this desire perpetuates their bondage to the cycle of birth and death. This the root cause of the threefold miseries. But when the spirit soul becomes disgusted with material enjoyment and re-dedicates his time and energy to Lord Krsna’s loving service, he reaps the greatest benefit. This benefit is compared to a the cluster of pristine white lotuses, for just as the moon’s soothing rays cause the white lotuses to blossom, the rasa laden rays of the chanting of the holy name stirs the enfolded petals of the lotus of the jiva’s good fortune, causing it to open.

 

As it is said, “devotion gives birth to devotion”: the sincere and faithful devotee must therefore follow the principles of elementary bhakti by regularly hearing and chanting the holy name until the first light of pure devotion begins to dawn in the heart. The closed lotus flower touched by the moon’s rays awakens in full bloom, and similarly, when the congregational chanting of the holy name spreads the rays of bhava (the essence of hladini) and impregnates the soul’s heart, rati (conjugal love for Sri Krsna) then lights up his consciousness, bestowing the highest benediction. This is what is meant by the “rays of the benediction moon.”

 

When does a person, having attained this level of pure devotion, acquire his pure spiritual identity? Lord Caitanya answers this question by saying, vidya-vadhu-jivanam, “the life of all transcendental knowledge.” The Supreme Lord’s sakti has two aspects, vidya (knowledge) and avidya (ignorance). Yogamaya, the svarupasakti, is the Lord’s internal spiritual potency. This potency is called vidya, whereas mahamaya, His external energy, is avidya; it is the latter that creates the material universe and covers the soul’s svarupa.

 

When, by his sincerely following the process of hearing and chanting, the first rays of pure devotion finally appear on the horizon of the sadhaka’s heart, then the Bhaktidevi, the eradicatress of all unwanted material desires detrimental to the Lord’s service, eclipses the avidya potency. By suffusing the soul with spiritual knowledge, Bhaktidevi destroys both the gross and subtle coverings of the soul. Simultaneously, the jiva’s original spiritual form becomes manifest so that he acquires the form of a gopi, for example, if his pure devotional propensities are steeped in the conjugal mood. Thus it stands proven that Krsna’s holy name is the life and the soul of all transcendental knowledge (vidya-vadhu-jivanam.) Svarupasakti is therefore often said to be Krsna’s wife.

 

When the gross and subtle material bodies of the jiva are completely destroyed, the infinitesimal soul regains his original pristine purity. Although the jiva is anu or minutely small, his capacity for spiritual happiness is not minute. To remove any doubt about this fact, Lord Caitanya adds, anandambudhi-vardhana, “It is an ever increasing ocean of bliss.”

 

The Holy Name of the Lord, through the hladini potency, endlessly expands the natural bliss inherent in the soul; thus his happiness increases by leaps and bounds, fixing the soul eternally in one of the spiritual mellows (of dasya, sakhya, vatsalya or madhurya). When thus established in his eternal spiritual mellow, he continues to relish the limitless nectar at every step of the exchange of loving emotions in his transcendental relationship with the Supreme Lord.

 

Lord Krsna’s enchanting beauty, His divine qualities, and His sublime pastimes are eternal and everfresh in ecstacy. Inebriated with divine prema, the pure jiva continuously drinks that ecstatic nectar, yet still the Lord’s captivating beauty is forever new.Sri

 

 

 

#Sanmodana Bhasyam