Perfection at Home — A Novel Contribution to the Fallen Humanity

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu the supreme merciful incarnation of Godhead is the supreme benefactor of all human race in their most fallen conditions by the stringent laws of nature.

The modernised setup of human civilization is perpetual struggle against the grim laws of nature in a befooled manner.

There was a big mirror hanging on the wall and a small chirping bird saw its shadow on the mirror. The bird thought that there is another chirping bird just opposite to him and thus it wanted to strike it by the bick. The shadow chirping bird equally strock the bick of the real one and thus a struggle of competition for bitting one another began on the face of the mirror. The befooled creature continually tried to go to the other side of the mirror without any success. We saw this illusory struggle of the befooled little bird personally and got the lesson from it how we are also befooled in the same manner on the surface of the illusory nature. Compared with the chirping bird we may be intelligent enough to understand the foolish endeavour of the tiny being but there are as many bigger problems in which we are also befooled. In the animal life it is completely impossible to understand our foolishness but in the human form of life there is every possibilities of understanding such foolishness because in the human form of life the consciousness is developed. A human being can of course know the nature of the mirror and as such he will not spoil his energy like the bird.

But there are befooled human being also in the present set of human civilization who are like the befooled bird are trying perpetually to penetrate into the mysteries of the material nature without any tangible success; because the laws of nature are not so easy that one can surmount them without the help of the Supreme Lord. They are trying to make various plans to become happy in this miserable land. In the Bhagwat Geeta [9.12] such foolish activities have been depricated in the following words.

Foolish persons, who are captivated by the bewildering situation of the material nature, do desire to lord it over the resourceful and beautiful Nature. It is just like the small chirping bird mentioned above perpetually trying for going to the other side of the mirror through the hard glass. Such foolish persons must be baffled in their hopes because they have neglected to know the Personality of Godhead with His multifarious potencies. The bewildered hopeful persons are of different grades. Some of them are Karmis or the fruitive workers who want to enjoy the fruits of their labour. Some of them are Jnanins who cherish wishful desire to merge into the existence of the Supreme Being or to become one with Him. And some of them are pseudo devotees who wants to enter into the eternal kingdom of God without the existence there. But all of them being inconclusive of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and disrespectful in the Person of Sree Krsna, will be baffled in their respective attempts for the above reason.

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has however given hopes to all the above mentioned hopeless persons by His way of teachings. He does not disturb any one in his respective position of a Karmi, Jnani, or so called Bhakta. He does not disturb others also who do not come with in abovementioned classes of persons in their different respective positions.

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu advises every one of the above classes only to hear the message of the Personality of Godhead in a submissive manner by sincere aural reception without any irrelevant interpretation. The most dangerous thing is to interpret the message of the Personality of Godhead in one's own interpretation in the pedagogical attitude. The only restriction that He imposes upon his audience, is that they must give up the idea of a false sense that a living being is equal to the Supreme Lord in quality and quantity both and thus to become one with Him at the end. In the devotional path these two dangerous things are stumbling blocks of the superlative degree for realisation of the Supreme Truth.

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu met Sril Ramananda Rai a highly placed government official and a leaned scholar in the devotional science. Both of them talked on the supreme goal of life in a detailed manner. The Lord Himself played the part of an enquirer and the learned official, although he was neither a Brahmin nor a Sanyasi, replied the questions of the Lord in a fitting manner.

In the beginning of the topic the devotee of the Lord Sri Ramananda Rai submitted the importance of the system of Varnashram Dharma, the program of regulative life in the order of four scientific castes and status of social organization. But Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu rejected this proposal as useless because both the principles of caste system as well as the orders of social life are now not in order neither such system can actually lead one to the pure transcendental state. No body can revive now the lost system of Varnashram Dharma to its original position for so many reasons and as such the system was altogether rejected as the means of self realisation.

The next important proposal was explained by Srila Ramananda Rai on the plan of Karmayoga. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu rejected this proposal also because He knew that the foolish fruitive workers will not agree now to accept the principles of Karmayoga or do everything for the satisfaction of the Supreme Lord. No body can now perform any work without being desirous to enjoy the result of such work. Niskama Karma or to work without any desire for the fruit is as much impossible as the observance of VARNASHRAM Dharma. So this was also rejected in order.

Similarly when Sri Ramananda Rai proposed about the efficacy of Sanyas either in the order of the Mayavadins or in the order of the Vaisnavas, the same was again rejected by the Lord for He thought that in this age Sanyas is an impossible game. The so called Sanyasins dress themselves in the red garments to earn an easy livelihood but in action they are like ordinary men of filthy mind. Such filthy Sanyasins of the age of Kali may be able to accumulate large sums of money by the plea of establishing temples and deities by exploiting foolish persons but they are unable to bring their followers to Godhead. These Sanyasins generally construct some temples and install deities in them to exploit the religious feelings of ordinary men but the main purpose of constructing such temples is to open different branches of income for comfortable material life although in the dress of an renouncer. They construct such temple most unauthorisedly and thus implore many foolish men to make contribution upon it. And some of them perform unauthorised Yajnas and thus accumulate money. The temple builder Sanyasi assures every one of the contributors to become the chief donor in such pious act but ultimately none of them is given any position but the Sanyasi himself becomes all in all by accumulating a big bank balance for his personal material comfort.

A practical example of this befooling business adopted by the so called Sanyasins, is the GEETA MANDIR at Baroda which we had the opportunity to visit personally. Here we have seen that in the Mandir an idol of four armed woman imagined by the Avidyananda Sanyasi, is installed and worshipped. Along with this idol there is another statue of this non-sense Sanyasi. This Sanyasi is making such waste of public money and as a result of this the public in general becoming disinterested in the real acts of religiosity. This Sanyasi, it is understood, has many other such temples in other cities and the poor people are so befooled that they continue to contribute in such unauthorised enterprises.

These Sanyasins are in fact 'iconographers' and they are as good as the iconoclasts. The iconographers engrave an idol of his own imagination and the iconoclast who is intolerant of idol worship does break such idol. Both these iconographers and the iconoplasts have no idea scientifically what is the Sri Murti. The scientific method of installing a deity or Shri Murti of the Personality of Godhead is mentioned in the revealed scriptures. These so called Sanyasins act against the rullings of scriptures and therefore willfully violate the established law although they pretend to be the defender of faith (?). Such selfish and foolish men are never happy; neither they can attain to perfection. That is the verdict of Sreemad Bhagwat Geeta. The Avidyanand sanyasi pretends to preach the teachings of Bhawat Geeta but he himself a wilful violator of the principles mentioned in it. Sree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu the Supreme Lord is aware of the intentions of the socalled Sanyasins of this age and he expected all these disturbances by the Sanyasins, therefore He rejected the proposal of sanyasi or renounced order of life as the means of spiritual realisation in this age.

Similarly He rejected the attempt of becoming one with the Supreme Lord by cluturing devotional service as means to this end. Devotional service mixed up with empiric type of knowledge is futile attempt for self realisation. As such the Avidyananda Sanyasi and company do some pretention to practice devotional services but at heart the desire is to become one with Lord where the so called devotional services completely stop.

Such pretentious religion is completely rejected by the Bhagwat School. Transcendental loving service of the Personality of Godhead is an eternal affair of the pure devotees. It is not a means for merging into the Absolute as conceived by the Mayavadins. The Upashana is never to be ceased even at the liberated stage, because it is an eternal engagement. The object of worship, the process, of worship, and worshipper all of them exist eternally inspite of the childish disturbances of men like Avidyananda and company. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wanted to stop the method of such false devotion because according to the Bhagwat school this is religion pretentious.

When Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu rejected all these pseudo religious practices of spiritual culture, he had within his mind about the ability of the present generation poor in everything. The present generation of the human race in the Kaliyuga are hopeless spiritually ematiated persons. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu the Supreme merciful incarnation of Godhead gave special facilities to these ematiated population, a right of preferred perfection which was unattainable even by personalities like Brahma in other ages. The highest stage of perfection that can be attained by a living being is the stage of attainment of loving service of the Personality of Godhead. Brahmananda or the transcendental bliss derived out of an attempt for merging into the Absolute is compared a fig in the presence of the ocean of transcendental bliss derived from the direct loving service of the Personality of Godhead.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is considered to be the most magnanimous incarnation of Godhead because He wanted to award the highest perfection of spiritual bliss to the ematiated persons of this age who have practically no bona fide qualification for receiving the award. He therefore accepted the following method of spiritual realisation as it was spoken by Brahma Ji. This is as follows [Bhāg. 10.14.3]: --

The only qualification that is necessary for attaining the topmost spiritual bliss—is first and foremost to give up completely the idea of merging into the identity of the Absolute. This dangerous idea will never qualify a man to enter into the transcendental loving service of the Lord face to face which is highest blissful life. The living being is an infinitesimal particle of the Supreme spirit, like a drop of water of the vast ocean. To merge into the ocean by a drop of water is not all a very difficult task and it is always at the command of the pure devotee. But to keep one's identity as a creature of the ocean and at the same time to attain to the stage of a strength more than that of the ocean is far more glorious a thing than the act of merging into the ocean. The drop of water merged into the ocean is always at the risk of being evaporated by air unless it has not attained the necessary power to remain within the ocean. The process of attaining this transcendental strength is unknown to the person seeking to become one with the Absolute. Such persons are therefore possessed of pure fund of knowledge. To merge into the identity of the Absolute is not the highest perfection of achievement. In the Bhagwat Geeta it has been clearly mentioned that persons who are addicted to this impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth—suffer more troubles than those who concentrate their devotional activities on the Personal feature of the Supreme Lord. Therefore the only qualification that is necessary for a deserving person to enter into the kingdom of Godhead is that a person must completely be reluctant to this method of salvation which is the easiest of all the five categories of salvations mentioned in the scriptures, although a pure devotee is not meant for any of the above mentioned salvasionary processes.

When the puffed up idea of becoming one with the Lord is given up one is sure to become a humble and meek personality before the Lord and this submissive attitude makes him qualified to enter into the Kingdom of God. By submissive aural reception of the powerful messages of the Lord or His bonafide representative the Acharya who is a self realized soul—one is sure to be awakened by his original spiritual consciousness which is the inborn quality of every living being that remains in dormant condition even in the premitive form of human being. Even the savage and uncivilized groups of men—bow down to the order of the Supreme Powerful. As such they worship the emblems of theism in the form of Thunderbolt, big ocean, big mountain or any other gigantic natural phenomenon. The dormant inborn quality of obedience to the Supreme is present in primitive condition means that it is quite natural to the human being but with the advancement of so called civilised form of life this dormant quality of human being is killed by bad association and artificial standard of conventions of the so called civilised men. This is happened specially on account of the Avidyananda Sanyasins now improportionately increased by the grace of the Kali. Such Sanyasi's one sided preaching of one with the Absolute makes the common man a puffed up being and although Sripad Samkaracharya adopted the method to serve some particular purpose as ordered by the Lord, just to bring in the most materialist persons to the stage of renunciation and to prove the nonimportance of the material nature—at the present moment the whole procedure is miscarried and the preaching Sanyasins themselves enjoy in the highest standard of material comfort while preaching the nullity of the same. And all the gods(?) are being more and more pressed by the laws of nature by such false propaganda. This rabild habit of posing oneself as god has done tremendous harm to the people at large and as a result of this, they are now more passionate than ever before. This attitude is not only harmful in this life but also it is very much risky for the next and what to speak of salvation as dreamt by those misguided men. How these irresponsible men are being hurled into the ocean of material miseries is correctly pictured in the 'Bhagwat Geeta' [16.20] as follows: --

The disobedient Ashuras who are envious of the exalted position of the Supreme Lord are called the Naradhamas (the lowest of the human being) and the Mudhas (one who has no information of the spiritual realm). We have already discussed the position of the Naradhamas and the Mudhas in our article THE LOWEST OF MANKIND. We do not wish therefore to go into further description of these notorious creatures.

One may note herein only how the Naradhamas and Mudhas are treated by the laws of Nature. The Naradhamas and the Mudhas who do not surrender unto the Lotus feet of the Lord and still desire for salvation—are in fact sent to the lowest regions of hell instead of getting salvation from the material existence.

Many Sanyasins who are known to be very learned men are sometimes seen to take part in the rotten politics which is the last shelter of the scoundrel, because inspite of their erudition and hard penances, they had no faith in the Person of the Supreme Lord. Due to impersonal conception of their spiritual culture they cannot have position in the realm of transcendental service. As such they fall down even from their exalted position by the laws of nature and sometimes they take pleasure in the bunglings of dirty politics. As such they are sent into the cells of the prison walls and instead of becoming one with the impersonal Brahma, they become one of so many criminal prisoners.

In that way the Mudhas and the Naradhamas do not get the shelter of the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord and are forced to take birth in the species of the demons or lower grade living being. That is the progress of life in the wrong direction attained by the class of Mudhas and Naradhamas.

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wants us only not to become one of the Mudhas and Naradhamas. There are as many Mudhas and Naradhamas in the midst of the Sanyasins as there are in the midst of so called householders. Similarly according to the opinion of the Lord, there are as many Mahatmas in the midst of the householders as there are in the midst of the renounced order of life. He is not very eager to turn any body into the life of Sanyasi from the life of a householder neither He is anxious to pick up spiritualists from the community of a particular class, society, nation or group of people. He is in fact for every one and all even for the birds and the beasts in the jungle. Some Mudha class of men consider that Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saved the Hindu religion from the onslaught of the Mahamedans and His appearance at a suitable time for the sense gratification for the Hindu designated people was quite appropriate (?) But Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did not appear either to serve the Hindu community or to declare war against the Mohamedan community. Even the then Kings and Nawbs of Bengal and other parts of India were friendly to Him so much so that some of them intuitionally recognised Him to be the Supreme Lord. So He was never against any community but He was for all human kind. He appeared for the Supreme benefit of the complete set of the living entities never mind in whatever form of quality he may be. He wanted to teach the real science of spiritual life or He was to propagate the REAL RELIGION which is the inborn quality of the living being. He asserted that every living being is eternally a transcendental servitor of the Supreme Lord and as such the whole and cent per cent energy of the living being must be engaged in the Lord's service only. Any fraction of deviation from this universal principle of eternal relation with the Supreme Lord is proportionately a covering of the nescience, and a living being is completely freed from all designations when he is substantially purified to render transcendental service to the Lord.

According to Sree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu one who is sufficiently conversant in the science of Krishna or the all attractive feature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, may he be a Brahmin, a Sudra, a Sanyasi or a householder—can act as the bonafide spiritual master for the deliverance of the fallen people. So according to Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu one can perfect himself in any position and in any place provided he learns the science of Krishna from the Lord of the name Shri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. During His preaching propaganda He made a practical demonstration of this truth in the following manner.

He deputed Srila Rupa Gosvami and Srila Sanatana Goswami to expand the science of devotional service although they were householders and government officials. These Goswamins were not created or inflated Goswamins or the caste Goswamins; but they were Goswamins by action even not undergoing any ceremonial function or changes. They were goswamins even they were playing the part of the householder. They did not require to become Sanyasins in the order of renounced life.

Considering all the different phases of preaching activities of Lord Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, it is evident that one has to learn the art of the approved method and no body has to change his position of worldly life. That is the purport of teachings in the Bhagavad-gita. The process of submissive hearing from the self-realised sources will help one in every way. That will inject and that will make one able to receive the message of Godhead from the innermost region of one own self.

As a matter of fact 'BACK TO GODHEAD' is the helping medium to convey the self realised messages of liberated souls. This paper does not manufacture any idea of pretentious religion in the line of Avidyananda sanyasins or by mental concoction. Those who are carried by the process of mental concoction can never develop his inborn quality, viz. unadulterated love of Godhead. Man's only business during life is to awaken the divine nature or Love of Godhead. The divine nature is misused in the material plane by love of flickering objects of material gain, fame, and stability.

All material creeds under the name of socialism, communism, communalism, nationalism, altruism, bolsevism, Leninism, Gandhiism, Christiaism, Hinuism, Mohamedanism, or any other hundred and thousands of isms are different manifestations of the divine nature adulterated with materialism. Divine nature is spiritualism and is completely free from all the above mentioned materialism and therefore Spiritualism is pure and simple Love of Godhead.

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu wants to divert the misplaced different channels of love into the original form and we shall gradually publish His most instructive teachings in the pages of Back to Godhead. No body is better spiritually realised soul than that of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

We shall therefore request the people in general, religionists, modern philosophers and all other enlightened men and women to take advantage of this opportunity and try to attain perfection of life at home.

There are two ways of inducing a conditioned soul towards the path of self realisation. The one is called PANCHARATRIKI system and the other is called the BHAGBATI SYSTEM. In the Pancharatriki system worship of the form and Deity of the Supreme Lord is done according to the rulings of the authorised courses whereas the BHAGWATI system is the rational and philosophical representation generally meant for the advanced intellectuals and realised souls. The Vedanta Sutra is the nucleus of the BHAGBATI SYSTEM wherein the PARAM BRAHMA or the Supreme Personality of Godhead is described by His transcendental nature.

Srimad BHAGAWATAM is the genuine exposition of the Vedanta Sutra. Because in the very beginning of this great Scripture the life of the Bhagwat school—the Supreme Truth is described in nutshel of Vedantic form. The substance of the Vedanta Sutra in fact is explained by the Srimad BHAGWATAM in the very beginning and they are understood by the non-envious liberated souls called by the name Paramhansas. Such Paramhansas or Mahatmas are cent percent engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Personality of Godhead. Such Mahatmas are however rarely found amongst the dry speculationists. Some of the dry speculationists after many many births become such Mahatmas who has surrendered himself in the serivce devotional of the Supreme Person. Such Mohatmas engaged cent percent in the service of the Lord are liberated in practice whereas the mental speculators are bound up by the material quality of goodness. Such material quality of goodness is also a source of bondage by the conditions of material nature and it has the risk of subdued by the other inferior qualities namely the mode of passion and ignorance. We have practically seen it in the daily affairs of life how the material qualities are overlapped by one another. Many Mayavadins Sanyasins are attracted by the material modes of passion and they are seen sometimes engaged in the mundane affairs of politics or social services which they pretended to give up earlier or at the time of accepting the renounced order of life. Such social service or political sanyasins bring themselves in the category of Narayana or Daridra-Narayan but actually such false attempt of being liberated never helps them either to become Narayana or Daridra-Narayan or His servitor but keep them ever Daridra or poor in knowledge and the result of such imbalance state they fall down from higher status in the modes of goodness to the lower status of passion and ignorance due to the will ful negligence in the transcendental service of the Lord.

Practical liberation therefore lies in the service of the Lord. The Lord wants that we shall relinquish our all rubbish engagements under the plea of so many isms, and may take shelter under the Lotus feet of the Supreme Lord. We may follow the instructions in toto. The Lord is th [TEXT STOPS HERE]