The Personal Nature of the Supreme Absolute Truth

“He is transcendentally situated in the innermost core of your heart“

BEING FREED FROM ATTACHMENT, FEAR AND ANGER

BG 4.10-Being freed from attachment, fear and anger, being fully absorbed in Me and taking refuge in Me, many, many persons in the past became purified by knowledge of Me—and thus they all attained transcendental love for Me.

PURPORT-As described above, it is very difficult for a person who is too materially affected to understand the personal nature of the Supreme Absolute Truth. Generally, people who are attached to the bodily conception of life are so absorbed in materialism that it is almost impossible for them to understand that there is a transcendental body which is imperishable, full of knowledge and eternally blissful. In the materialistic concept, the body is perishable, full of ignorance and completely miserable. Therefore, people in general keep this same bodily idea in mind when they are informed of the personal form of the Lord. For such materialistic men, the form of the gigantic material manifestation is supreme. Consequently they consider the Supreme to be impersonal. And because they are too materially absorbed, the conception of retaining the personality after liberation from matter frightens them. When they are informed that spiritual life is also individual and personal, they become afraid of becoming persons again, and so they naturally prefer a kind of merging into the impersonal void.

Generally, they compare the living entities to the bubbles of the ocean, which merge into the ocean. That is the highest perfection of spiritual existence attainable without individual personality. This is a kind of fearful stage of life, devoid of perfect knowledge of spiritual existence. Furthermore there are many persons who cannot understand spiritual existence at all. Being embarassed by so many theories and by contradictions of various types of philosophical speculation, they become disgusted or angry and foolishly conclude that there is no supreme cause and that everything is ultimately void. Such people are in a diseased condition of life. Some people are too materially attached and therefore do not give attention to spiritual life, some of them want to merge into the supreme spiritual cause, and some of them disbelieve in everything, being angry at all sorts of spiritual speculation out of hopelessness. This last class of men take to the shelter of some kind of intoxication, and their affective hallucinations are sometimes accepted as spiritual vision. One has to get rid of all three stages of attachment to the material world: negligence of spiritual life, fear of a spiritual personal identity, and the conception of void that underlies the frustration of life. To get free from these three stages of the material concept of life, one has to take complete shelter of the Lord, guided by the bona fide spiritual master, and follow the disciplines and regulative principles of devotional life. The last stage of the devotional life is called bhāva, or transcendental love of Godhead.

According to Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, the science of devotional service:

ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-, saṅgo ’tha bhajana-kriyā
tato ’nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt, tato niṣṭhā rucis tataḥ

athāsaktis tato bhāvas, tataḥ premābhyudañcati
sādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥ, prādurbhāve bhavet kramaḥ

“In the beginning one must have a preliminary desire for self-realization. This will bring one to the stage of trying to associate with persons who are spiritually elevated. In next stage one becomes initiated by an elevated spiritual master, and under his instruction the neophyte devotee begins the process of devotional service. By execution of devotional service under the guidance of the spiritual master, one becomes free from all material attachment, attains steadiness in self-realization, and acquires a taste for hearing about the Absolute Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. This taste leads one further forward to attachment for Kṛṣṇa consciousness, which is matured in bhāva, or the preliminary stage of transcendental love of God. Real love for God is called premā, the highest perfectional stage of life.” In the premā stage there is constant engagement in the transcendental loving service of the Lord. So, by the slow process of devotional service, under the guidance of the bona fide spiritual master, one can attain the highest stage, being freed from all material attachment, from the fearfulness of one’s individual spiritual personality, and from the frustrations resulting from void philosophy. Then one can ultimately attain to the abode of the Supreme Lord. (bg/4/10)

Some Conclusions- What I find very interesting in this verse and purport is that Prabhupada is describing not just outright karmis but devotees as well. He begins his purport with this….

..”it is very difficult for a person who is too materially affected to understand the personal nature of the Supreme Absolute Truth.”

Before we can get to God-Krsna we have to faithfully serve His representative Srila Prabhupada who is trying to teach us the personal aspect to religion by showing it to us himself. If one cannot or will not develop an intimate loving relationship with Srila Prabhupada/or Krsna then as this verse states it is due to attachment fear or anger.

Prabhupada is explaining the subtle aspects of these attachments here as to why we will go ahead and serve Srila Prabupada as master, guru or acarya but not personally as our dearmost friend. It is due in one part, to fear of having a personal relationship with him due in part, to so many past bad experiences of having personal relationships end in utter failure. And this (attachment fear and anger) all comes due to so much attachment to this body and its expansions namely spouse kids, home, money, etc.

He writes….Generally, people who are attached to the bodily conception of life are so absorbed in materialism that it is almost impossible for them to understand that there is a transcendental body…

Therefore, people in general keep this same bodily idea in mind when they are informed of the personal form of the Lord.

And because they are too materially absorbed, the conception of retaining the personality after liberation from matter frightens them. When they are informed that spiritual life is also individual and personal, they become afraid of becoming persons again, and so they naturally prefer a kind of merging into the impersonal void. … This is a kind of fearful stage of life, devoid of perfect knowledge of spiritual existence.

Some devotees may think Prabhupada is here describing the impersonalists which he is, but he is also describing anyone who has fear of a personal relationship with the spiritual master or Krsna Himself. This is yet another form of impersonalism-fear of a spiritual identity and developing such an intimate relationship with the spiritual master and ultimately the Lord Himself. And all this is due as Krsna tells us-attachments.

I remember reading how Karandhar das (former GBC in LA) was questioning Prabhupada on morning walks abut impersonalism and later on he blooped and became a buddhist of some sort. So how was this possible? He didnt think KC worked for him and there are/were many other devotees who left for the same or other reasons. Krsna says-attachment, fear and anger.

So when we are watering the bhakti lata bija by chanting, we are also watering the weeds as well . These weeds are deep and some of them we cannot even recognize even when right in front of us.

Bg 7.19 purport…The living entity, while executing devotional service or transcendental rituals after many, many births, may actually become situated in transcendental pure knowledge that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the ultimate goal of spiritual realization. In the beginning of spiritual realization, while one is trying to give up one’s attachment to materialism, there is some leaning towards impersonalism, but when one is further advanced he can understand that there are activities in the spiritual life and that these activities constitute devotional service.

I have personally seen some devotees sit there like impersonalists while a nice ecstatic kirtan is raging on , everyone else is dancing and loudly chanting, and all they can do is smugly clap their hands and show basically no emotions at all.

I always wondered what was wrong with these people? Well one reason we find here in this verse is about excessive attachment to the body and so much else from there.

If we think we are spiritually advanced then consider this—when I look at you I see your body and when you look at me you see my body but who sees the self within the body?

And isn’t that the very first stage of spiritual life? To see the soul within?-brahma bhuta platform is this stage, always blissful and see all others the same and never bothered by the dualities. Ceto darpanam marjanam–by the pure mind we see ourselves within. Who has this basic realization? Very few if any.

We are all in this together and should be helping each other and not criticising anyone who is offering their realizations to some deeper understanding.

When Srila Prabhupada showed up somewhere everybody was ecstatic, in bliss we called it in those days, and some were even crying. These are transcendental emotions which come from the soul and are pure when observing a pure devotee of the Lord. But today nobody sees this anymore and if you do show some little emotion you are labeled a crackpot or sahajiya. I am talking emotion in relation to a pure devotee and not the bogus gurus.

Personally I feel that devotees worldwide are forgetting the original intent of Lord Caitanyas appearance-to distribute ecstatic love of Godhead. We have settled into a churchianity type mentality of just chanting our rounds, then tossing the beadbag aside and thinking-ok now my business is finished.

Bliss-what’s that?

So to remind us all of what this chanting is about we have included a few verses from our sastra below

Hare Krsna
damaghosa das

In a drama, entitled Vidagdha-Madhava, Srila Rupa Goswami has written the following verse, which was later included in the Sri Caitanya-caritamrita by Srila Krishna das Kaviraj, Adi lila, chapter 1, verse 4, and again in Chapter 3, verse 4.

May that Lord
Who is known as the son of Srimate Sacidevi
be transcendentally situated
in the innermost core of your heart
Resplendent with the radiance of molten gold
He has appeared in this age of Kali
by His causeless mercy
to bestow
what no incarnation has ever offered before:
the most elevated mellow of devotional service,
the mellow of conjugal love

Similarly, in his introduction to Sri Caitany-caritamrita, Srila Prabhupada quotes Srila Rupa Goswami’s prayer to Lord Caitanya:

namo mahā-vadānyāya, kṛṣṇa-prema-pradāya te
kṛṣṇāya kṛṣṇa-caitanya-, nāmne gaura-tviṣe namaḥ

Translation: I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Surpreme Lord Sri Krishna Caitanya Who is more magnanimous than any other avatar, even Krishna Himself, because He is bestowing freely what no one else has ever given – pure love of Krishna.

In Adi-Lila, chapter four, Krishna das Kaviraj quotes Lord Sri Krishna as follows:

Everywhere in the world people worship Me according to scriptural injunctions. But simply by following such regulative principles one cannot attain the loving sentiments of the devotees in Varjabhumi. (Adi-lila 3.15).

Knowing My opulences, the whole world looks upon Me with awe and veneration. But devotion made feeble by such reverence does not attract Me. (Adi-lila 3.16).

By performing such regulated devotional service in awe and veneration, one may go to Vaikuntha and attain the four kinds of liberation. (Adi-lila, 3.17).

I shall personally inaugurate the religion of the age – nama-sankirtana, the congregational chanting of the holy name. I shall make the world dance in ecstasy, realizing the four mellows of loving devotional service. (Adi-lila, 3.19).

I shall accept the role of a devotee, and I shall teach devotional service by practicing it Myself. (Adi-lila, 3.20).

In so many ways, Krishna das Kaviraj describes how Lord Caitanya distributed love of Krishna:

Raising His arms, chanting the holy name and looking upon all with deep love , he drives away all the sins and floods everyone with love of Godhead. (Adi-lil, 3.62).

Sri Pancha-tattva themselves danced again and again and thus made it easier (for others) to drink nectarian love of Godhead. They danced , cried, laughed and chanted like madmen, and in this way they distributed love of Godhead. (Adi-lila, 7.22).

Upon seeing the dancing and ecstatic love of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, everyone became astonished. In their hearts they became infatuated with love of Krishna. (Madhya-lila, 13.176).

By personally tasting the mellows of love of Godhead, Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught the process….(Madhya-lila, 2.81).

Purport excerpt: “……His devotees, who learned it from Him, also had to distribute it munificently all over the world. This Krishna consciousness movement, following in the footsteps of Sri Caitanya Mahprabhu and His confidential devotees is also trying to distribute love of God all over the world through the chanting of the holy names of the Lord………….”

In all the villages through which the Lord passed and in all the places He rested on His journey, everyone was purified and awakened to ecstatic love of God. When some heard the chanting of the Holy Name from the mouth of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and someone else heard this chanting from that second person, and someone again heard this chanting from the third person, everyone in all countries became a vaishnava through such disciplic succession. Thus everyone chanted the Holy Name of Krishna and Hari, and they danced, cried and smiled. (Madhya-lila, 17. 47-49).

The Lord did not always manifest His ecstasy. Being afraid of a great number of people, the Lord kept His ecstasy concealed. Although Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu did not manifest His natural ecstatic love, everyone became a pure devotee simply by seeing and hearing Him. (Madhya-lila, 17. 50-51).

Purport excerpt: …….Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared 500 years ago, but it cannot be said that the potency of the Hare Krishna mantra is less powerful now than it was in His presence. By hearing Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu through the parampara system, one can be purified…….