AssociAtion, ReAding, And HeARing
Comments from His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Association
So we should associate by vibration, and not by the physical presence. That is real association. (Lecture, 18 August 1968.)
Reading
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, or, for that matter, any other scientific literature, cannot be studied at home by
one’s own intellectual capacity. Medical books of anatomy or physiology are available in the market, but no one can become a qualified medical practitioner simply by reading such books at home. One has to be admitted to the medical college and study the books under the guidance of learned professors. Similarly, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, the postgraduate study of the science of Godhead, can only be learned by studying it at the feet of a realized soul like Srila Vyasadev. (Purport to Bhāg. 2.1.8.)
Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja
There are three things that are very important to me. One is that I want to preach to the preachers. It causes me so much pain to see the devotees falling down and going away. The second thing is that I want to show how everything is in Prabhupada’s books. Those persons who are saying that Srila Prabhupada only gave ABC, it causes me so much pain in my heart. I want to make them silent. And the third thing is that I want to show how everything is in ISKCON and that devotees do not have to go elsewhere for higher teachings.
— Room conversation. New York City. July 1994.
FRoM tHe liPs PARt 1
Association through Literature
The abundant profusion of vaiṣṇava literature and recordings available today may bring one to question the need of accepting and hearing from a guru.
One could reason that, “I will just read the books and hear tapes and that will suffice for my practice of hearing, for guidance, and for my connection to Krishna.”
This conception can be supported by a number of comments from our previous ācāryas, such as the following words of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur from a lecture on Śrīmad Bhāgavatam that he gave in Dinajpur, West Bengal, that were later made into a small book, The Bhagavat: Its Philosophy, Its Ethics & Its Theology:
Do the spiritual masters, after they disappear, bestow their mercy upon the living entities? The souls of great thinkers of bygone ages, who now live spiritually, often approach an inquir- ing spirit and assist him in his development.
His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada also made a number of similar statements, such as:
It is sometimes misunderstood that if one has to associate with persons engaged in devo- tional service he will not be able to solve the economic problem. To answer this argument, it is described here that one has to associate with liberated persons not directly, physically, but by understanding, through philosophy and logic, the problems of life. (Purport to Bhāg. 3.31.48.)
The potency of transcendental sound is never minimized because the vibrator is apparently absent. (Purport to Bhāg. 2.9.8.)
These books I have recorded and chanted, and they are transcribed. It is spoken kīrtana. So book distribution is also chanting. These are not ordi- nary books. It is recorded chanting. Anyone who reads, he is hearing. (Letter to Rupanuga Das. 19 October 1974.)
Krishna’s Form of Srimad Bhagavatam
However, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is not an ordinary book. Just as Krishna is inconceivable to dull sense perception, so, too, is Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur describes in Caitanya- bhāgavata (madhya 21.23):
mahācintya bhāgavata sarva-śāstre gāya ihā nā bujhiye vidyā, tapa, pratiṣṭhāya
All the scriptures glorify Śrīmad Bhāgavatam as the most sublime literature. It cannot be understood through education, austerity, or social position.
Again, the Caitanya-bhāgavata (antya 3.513) states:
īśvarera tattva yena bujhane nā yāya ei mata bhāgavata—sarva śāstre gāya
The science of the supreme Lord is incompre- hensible, so, too, is the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. This is the statement of all scriptures.
Vrindavan Das Thakur further explains in Caitanya- bhāgavata (madhya 21.24):
`bhāgavata bujhi’ hena yāra āche jñāna se nā jāne kabhu bhāgavatera pramāṇa
One who thinks, “I understand Śrīmad Bhāgavatam,” does not know Śrīmad Bhāgavatam.
Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami explains that this is because the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is equal to Krishna (Cc. madhya 24.318):
kṛṣṇa-tulya bhāgavata—vibhu, sarvāśraya prati-śloke prati-akṣare nānā artha kaya
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam is as great as Krishna, the Su- preme Lord and shelter of everything. In each and every verse of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, indeed in each and every syllable, there are various meanings.
Three Sources
To understand the inconceivable Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, Srila Prabhupada and ācāryas in our line have distinguished between reading from a book and hearing from a saintly person. They have stressed the need for what Srila Prabhupada called “three parallel lines”. He writes in his purport to Caitanya-caritāmṛta ādi 7.48:
Srila Narottam Das Thakur advises,
sādhu-śāstra-guru-vākya, hṛdaye kariyā aikya. The meaning of this instruction is that one must consider the instructions of the sādhu, the revealed scriptures, and the spiritual master in order to understand the real purpose of spiritual life. Neither a sādhu (saintly person or vaiṣṇava) nor a bona fide spiritual master says anything that is beyond the scope of the sanction of the revealed scriptures. Thus the state- ments of the revealed scriptures corre- spond to those of the bona fide spiritual master and saintly persons. One must therefore act with reference to these three important sources of understanding.
Reading śāstra or devotional literature is one of the three items. Reading books does not replace the need for guidance from guru and the vaiṣṇavas. All three principles are required for advancement in spiritual life.
Two Bhagavatas
These three principles are synthesized into two manifestations of the Bhāgavata — the book and the sādhu- guru devotee. Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami describes (in Cc. ādi 1.98-100) that by the mercy of Sri Sri Gaura Nitai one comes in contact with these two Bhāgavatas:
dui bhāi hṛdayera kṣāli’ andhakāra
dui bhāgavata-saṅge karāna sākṣātkāra
But these two brothers [Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda] dissipate the darkness of the inner core of the heart, and thus they help one meet these two kinds of bhāgavatas.
eka bhāgavata baḍa—bhāgavata-śāstra āra bhāgavata—bhakta bhakti-rasa-pātra
One of these bhāgavatas is the great scripture Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, and the other is the pure devotee absorbed in the mellows of loving devotion.
dui bhāgavata dvārā diyā bhakti-rasa tāṅhāra hṛdaye tāṅra preme haya vaśa
Through the actions of these two bhāgavatas the Lord instills the mellows of transcendental loving service into the heart of a living being, and thus the Lord, in the heart of his devotee, comes under the control of the devotee’s love.
Pure vaiṣṇavas never die, but they do become unmanifest (aprakaṭa) to the perception of conditioned souls. The pure vaiṣṇava spiritual master who is manifest (prakaṭa) in this world is called the mahānta-guru, as described by Srila Krishnadas Kaviraja Goswami in Caitanya- caritāmṛta (ādi 1.58):
jīve sākṣāt nāhi tāte guru caittya-rūpe śikṣā-guru haya kṛṣṇa-mahānta-svarūpe
Since one cannot directly experience the pres- ence of the Supersoul, he appears before us as a śikṣā-guru, an instructing spiritual master. Such a mahānta-guru, a topmost devotee, should be seen as Krishna himself.
Jagad-guru Jesus Christ
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada has explained (Amrta Vani, p. 44. ) that we cannot make proper advancement merely by studying the scriptures and instructions of a spiritual master who has become aprakaṭa (unmanifest). Rather, we must follow the principle of the disciplic succession and seek guidance from the mahānta-guru, the physically manifest (prakaṭa) spiritual master:
We accept both the universal spiritual master and the initiating spiritual master. By accepting only the jagad-guru we may face many anarthas. If at present we want to follow Christ’s orders by accepting him as jagad-guru and we think we do not require an initiating spiritual master, we will certainly face doubt about how well we can follow Christ’s orders. The Supreme Lord, the universal jagad-guru, delivers his instructions about the absolute truth only through the disci- plic succession. As I sit on the bank of the Ganga in Nabadwip, far from the Himalayas where the Ganga originates, and am able to touch her water here, the initiating spiritual master similarly brings the Ganga of pure devotional service, which emanates from the Lord’s lotus feet, and places it in my hand and on my head. Because I am an ordinary, powerless, poor person, I am not able to climb the Himalayas to touch her water there. Similarly, if the flow of the Ganga from the Himalayas is interrupted on the way, I would have to face the danger of accepting a polluted flow instead of the pure Ganga. If the instruc- tions Jesus Christ gave two thousand years ago do not come to us through disciplic succession, or if we have to sort them out from books, then perhaps we may create a blunder and accept a
perversion of the truth taught in the name of Christianity. We may even come to accept some- thing opposite from what he taught, thinking it his actual philosophy.
The initiating spiritual master is also jagad-guru because he is a manifestation of the original jagad- guru. Out of his causeless mercy he delivers the message of the original jagad-guru through the dis- ciplic succession. He does not cheat or flatter the disciple, nor does he yearn for any material gain. He is simply a messenger of the absolute truth.
sūtra-bhāṣyādibhiḥ śāstraṃ sākṣād vedana-sādhanam śrotavyaṃ svaguroḥ svātma-svarūpa-pratipattaye
Śāstra, along with its various commentaries, glosses, sūtras etc., is the direct means of attain- ing knowledge. It should be heard from one’s guru for attaining the goal of realization of the
self. — MD
(To be continued)
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