Vol. 1, No. 09, March 1, 1967

IN THIS ISSUE:

THE ORIGIN OF THE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT
THE SPIRITUALIZATION OF ENERGY by Hayagriva Das

We’re very happy to be able to report that Swami Bhaktivedanta has been lecturing at various places in and around San Francisco during his visit there, including the Berkeley campus.

A donation of land has made it possible to begin plans for an ashram in Northern California.

A third Krishna Consciousness center has now been opened—this one in Montreal, Canada. Although we don’t have much to report on activities there as yet, we expect to make great strides in spreading the Samkirtan movement when that city’s World’s Fair, called “Expo 67,” opens in April. We’re hoping to have the Swami present at that time.

Krishna Consciousness has taken to the television airwaves both in San Francisco and New York. In the former case, a local station, KPIX, carried a program on the Haight-Ashbury section on Tuesday evening, February 21, in which Samkirtan and the temple were mentioned. In the case of New York, the station is CBS and the program “Eye On New York.” Unfortunately, as this is being written, it’s too early for us to say any more than that. In our next issue, however, we’ll be able to consider the response to these endeavors.

In the meantime—wouldn’t you like to send us a letter? Our post man needs the work, and what’s more we’d like to hear from you. Let us have your comments, suggestions and criticisms regarding the Samkirtan movement in general, and Back to Godhead in particular.

Hare Krishna.

The Editors.

To begin to understand the Truth, one must surrender oneself, because surrender is the beginning of spiritual life. Ultimately, we must surrender to God. To do this, one should find a bonafide spiritual master and question him, just as Arjuna questioned Lord Krishna. The disciple should also render service to the master.

Material life is based on false ego. One thinks, “I am this,” or, “I am that,” leading ultimately to “I am God.” Man is an insignificant spiritual spark, but he is puffed up with imaginary thoughts of what he is. He thinks he is moving the sun, but he cannot overcome even a toothache.

There are two kinds of energy: prakriti and purusha. Prakriti is the passive or female principle, and purusha is the active or male principle. Purusha is the enjoyer; prakriti is the enjoyed. Purusha is the predominator; prakriti is the predominated.

Living entities are prakriti. They may think that they are the enjoyers, but their true function is to be enjoyed. They think that they are the predominators, but their true function is to be predominated.

Living beings are a form of energy. Where there is energy, there must be a field for the energy. The body is the field and the soul is the knower and the owner. One thinks, “This is my hand,” or, “This is my ear,” but who is this “I?” It is pure spirit soul. That which is “mine” is the field. Every individual soul has a different field of activities.

Krishna said, “Know Me as the Knower of all fields.” So there are two knowers, Krishna and myself. But Krishna knows more than I. Although I know what goes on in my body and mind (to an extent), I do not know what goes on in yours. In this way, my knowledge is limited. Krishna knows everything that goes on everywhere. His knowledge is not limited, and that is the difference between us.

Krishna sits with everyone as a friend. It is like two birds in a tree. One bird eats the fruit of the tree while the other bird sits and watches. We are like the bird that eats, while Krishna is the other bird, watching and waiting for us to turn to Him.

People who worship a Personal God accept this duality of individual soul and Super Soul. When the individual entity dovetails his own consciousness with the Supreme Consciousness, he becomes superconsciousness. In the spiritual world, all consciousnesses are in resonance.

God is all-pervading. He is in all of the many universes. He is in every atom and in every living being.

To doubt
is to say, “God is wrong.
I will find my own answers.”
But do you know
who you are?
where you came from?
why you are here?
To know the answers
to all questions
all you need to know
is that you are a fragment
of Krishna.

—Brahmananda Das Brahmachary
(Bruce Scharf)

After all, it is Kaliyuga.
But still, I do wish
As I hear of the beauty of the Lord
That I could learn to praise Him.
And when I hear of the kindness of the Lord,
I long to glorify Him.
But my mouth is barren and my voice is cracked,
And all I know of is stone
—if a man can be stone.
So I must beg my Lord
To give me the means
And the method
And the strength
And the will
To serve Him.
And after all that, O Krishna—
What is there left that I can do for You?

—Rayarama Das Brahmachary
(Raymond Marais)

These waters speak of our Lord
they are continually descending down
as a man bowing
as a man bowing.
like a cup emptying.
Yet in reverence & humility
the fulfillment & recognition
as a man bowing
like a cup emptying
these waters run down from the mountains
into the sea
and speak of our Lord
for it is only by running into the sea
that the river never grows dry
it is only by devotion to the Lord
that a man never dies
Yet the river is without salt
and man without memory
but he has been remembered
from all eternity
indeed the cup cannot be emptied
from all eternity Neither can the cup be turned
upside down or right side up
for gravity clashes in other realms
and the river descends in praise
like a man bowing
bowing in His Love.

—Rabindrasvarupa Das Brahmachary
(Bob Lefkowitz)

“The world is charg’d with the grandeur of God . . . .”
—Gerard Manly Hopkins

(Mantra to be sung at the top of your lungs to whatever tune you like from dawn to dawn to dawn without cessation forever and ever and ever into eternity.)

HARE KRISHNA, HARE KRISHNA
KRISHNA KRISHNA
HARE HARE, HARE RAMA
HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA
HARE HARE
All that we ever see
Is God’s blissful energy.
O God’s blissful energy!
O God’s blissful energy!
God’s blissful energy
All just for you and me.
O God’s blissful energy.
Blissful, blissful energy!
Wipe your eyes
So you can see,
Blow your cool,
Don’t play the fool—
Can’t you see?
We’re His very
E N E R G Y
Energy!
Sing it, shout it,
Tell the entire
World about it.

Chant it, rant it!
Dance, enhance it.
Don’t sit and sigh,
Let’s all get high.
Don’t feel morose,
Have a double dose
Of
Energy!
Energy!
It’s always, always
ALWAYS free!
FREE! FREE!
Don’t be suspect,
It’s direct
From God to thee,
And it’s FREE!
ENERGY! E N E R G Y!
Blissful, blissful
E N E R G Y!
HARE KRISHNA! HARE KRISHNA!
KRISHNA! KRISHNA!
HARE! HARE! HARE RAMA!
HARE RAMA! RAMA! RAMA!
HARE! HARE!

“‘Hare’ means ‘the energy of the Lord.’ So when we sing ‘Hare Krishna,’ we are saying, ‘O Lord, O the wonderful energy of the Lord, O Lord please accept me who am no more than the straw in the street.’”—- Swami Bhaktivedanta

Krishna, the Supreme Lord, is Energetic. In fact, Krishna is the Energetic Supreme Person. Everything is His energy; everything we come into contact with during our brief lives is energy, and what’s more it’s Krishna’s energy. This may sound staggeringly simple (or staggeringly unacceptable) but the degree of our realization of this fact will account for our happiness in this world and in whatever spheres we encounter after death.

As far as man is concerned, the Lord’s energy can be broken into three categories: material energy, marginal energy, and spiritual energy. Material energy is called inferior or external energy, Prakriti, or Nature. Spiritual energy is called superior or internal energy, Purusha, or Spirit. The combination of the two creates marginal energy. Liberated souls without material bodies are examples of spiritual energy. Man, as a conditioned embodied soul, is an example of marginal energy. He is both matter and spirit. And a rock or a piece of metal is an example of material energy. All are emanations of Krishna, the Indwelling Spirit of all things. The process we are interested in involves transferal of ourselves from inferior, material energy (Nature) into the realm of superior, spiritual energy (what has been called the Kingdom of God). This transferal has been referred to as “salvation” by the Christians and “liberation” by the Hindus.

In the Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna has explicitly stated that Nature, His external, inferior energy, is under His control. “Prakriti, under My guidance, gives birth to all things, moving and unmoving; and because of this, O son of Kunti, the world revolves.” (Gita, IX/10) Again, He states that Nature Herself rests in Him, that He, in brief, contains Nature.

As the mighty wind blowing everywhere ever rests in the akasa (ethereal space), know that in the same manner all beings rest in Me. At the end of a cycle all beings, O son of Kunti, enter into My Prakriti (Nature), and at the beginning of a cycle I generate them again. Controlling My own Prakriti, I send forth, again and again, all this multitude of beings, helpless under the sway of maya. (Gita IX/6-8)

It is Nature, Prakriti, that is called maya or illusion, because it is a perverted, temporary covering of the eternal Reality. All phenomena meeting our senses is termed maya. This includes our very bodies, the bodies of others, all the boys and girls and men and women and animals and aquatics and fowls and insects, the earth and grass and trees, plains, deserts, mountains and oceans, the towns and cities, roads and junctions, signboards, railroads, highways and skyways with all concomitant paraphernalia: clouds and rain and snow and hail and sun, moon and stars and whatever visible through microscope or telescope, on earth or down in the deepest seas or in the highest material planet or sun and whatever else visible or invisible from the tiniest atom to the largest whirling galaxy—all this and whatever else comes to mind is God’s blissful energy, is His Prakriti, or Nature, which He controls, and all, without exception, is maya, illusion, and is therefore subject to the rigid elementary laws governing creation, maintenance and destruction. All this phenomena, which in its entirety comprises the material universe, has been said to be “on fire.” The material universe has been likened to a forest fire because it is by nature always changing and raging. There is no peace for embodied beings in such a place. It has not been designed for peace or happiness. It is called, therefore, Krishna’s inferior energy. It is blissful for Krishna because Krishna is not attached to it—it has consequently been described as His leela, or “play.” But for the embodied, conditioned beings, caught in the ocean of maya, this “play” can be very painful and terrifying. This is because this multitude of beings, not perceiving the eternal Reality behind the play, is “helpless under the sway of maya.” Some men, however, through God’s grace, have been able to perceive the Omnipotent One, the Living God, shining in all His effulgent glory behind His maya. The poet Coleridge in The Destiny of Nations writes of “the clouds that veil His blaze,” in some sublime poetry revealing his knowledge of the One Reality governing the play of the many:

For all that meets the bodily sense I deem
Symbolical, one mighty alphabet
For infant minds; and we in this low world
Placed with our backs to bright Reality,
That we may learn with young unwounded men
The substance from its shadow.

This phenomenal universe, a “mighty alphabet for infant minds,” passes across the Face of the Supreme like clouds passing across the sun. Yet every particle of this universe, being His creation, reflects a bit of Himself, however pervertedly. From this shadow of Reality we may briefly deduce the substance, and by so doing turn from the shadow to the substance. Socrates, in the famous parable of the cave in Book VII of The Republic, speaks of mankind as being chained in a cave with their backs to the blazing fire of Reality, only capable of making out shadows of one another which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave. When at first confronted with the blazing light of Reality, men, not accustomed to it, turn away, their eyes dazzled, for they are used to the cave and require to grow accustomed to the upper world. But once their sight is accustomed to the sight of the upper world, they would disdain returning to their prior condition. The shadows, thrown on the wall of the cave, are analogous to the illusory energy of Krishna. The light of the upper world is His superior energy. Our process, in the spiritualization of energy, is a process of moving out the cave, of turning from maya, the inferior energy of Prakriti, to the spiritual light of the Imperishable.

In the Gita, Krishna Himself differentiates between His two energies: Prakriti, or Nature, His inferior energy; and Purusha, or Spirit, His superior energy.

Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, false ego—such is the eightfold division of My separated material energies. Besides these there is another energy of Mine which is superior, which is the living entity, by which the world is utilized. (Gita, VII/4-5)

Prakriti, therefore, is indefinable and beginning less nescience in which conditioned souls have been entangled since time immemorial. Conditioned souls are, in actuality, Purusha, or spirit soul, and as such they have no business being entangled in matter. They are Purusha in so much as they are part and parcels of the Supreme Lord. It is the Self, or Spirit-soul, entangled in Prakriti, Nature, that brings about birth, suffering and death. Krishna informs us:

Prakriti is said to be the cause of the generation of the body and the organs, and Purusha is said to be the cause of the experience of pleasure and pain. Purusha, embodied in Prakriti, experiences the gunas (the modes of goodness, passion and ignorance) born of Prakriti. It is attachment to these gunas that is the cause of his (the soul’s) birth in good and evil wombs. (Gita, XIII/20-21)

Furthermore, to insure us that all individual entities in the material universe are deluded by Prakriti, Krishna says, “There is no creature here on earth, nor among the gods in heaven, who is free from the three gunas born of Prakriti.” (Gita, XVIII/40) If this is the case, then how is liberation possible?

Liberation from Prakriti is possible through the spiritualization of energy. Krishna assures us, “He who knows Purusha and Prakriti, along with the gunas, is not born again, howsoever he may comport himself.” (Gita, XIII/23) How is this possible? Through a) Knowledge, b) Performance of duties with renunciation of the fruits of labor, c) Devotion to Krishna, and d) Grace given by Krishna to His devotee. Combined, these constitute a sure formula for flipping our of material energy and into spiritual energy. Of course this involves a process of change; up to this point your life has been like a deflated balloon. The process of spiritualization, whereby you turn the material energy in your life into spiritual energy, is like blowing up the balloon and blissfully watching it pop. It was Newton who discovered that every object or body in the universe attracts every other body or object. This is not only true of heavenly bodies—it is true of ourselves. The attraction of energy for energy is basic and natural. This attraction largely operates on the basis of the sex drive. Now the process for eternal happiness is in redirecting all energies to Krishna. Our energies must not be attracted to Prakriti (maya), the illusory energy of Socrates’ cave. Rather, all energies should be one hundred percent directed to Krishna and His eternal Spiritual Kingdom. This is what the spiritualization of energy entails. It is a turning from the illusion to the Reality.

I have mentioned that liberation is made possible by a) Knowledge. In regards to Knowledge, that is, the ability to distinguish between the Reality and the illusion, Krishna says, “Even if you are the most sinful of sinners, yet by the raft of Knowledge alone will you be borne over all sin. Verily, there exists no purifier on earth equal to Knowledge.” (Gita, IV/36, 38) In describing the man of knowledge, Krishna characterizes him in this way:

He who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, he is wise among men, he is a yogi, and he has performed all action. He whose undertakings are all free from desires and self-will, and whose works are consumed in the fire of Knowledge—he, by the wise, is called a sage. Giving up attachment to the fruit of action, ever content, and dependent on none, though engaged in work, he does no work at all. Free from desire, with body and mind controlled, and surrendering all possessions, he incurs no sin through mere bodily activity. Satisfied with what comes to him without any effort on his part, rising above the pairs of opposites, free from envy, and even-minded in success and failure, though acting, he is not bound.
(Gita, IV/18-22)

The man in true knowledge, according to Krishna, is always in communion with the Supreme Lord. His life has been purified through desirelessness and renunciation of the fruits of action (not action itself). He sees Krishna as the Reality behind all form, the Supreme Spirit behind the material guise. “The knowledge by which one indestructible Substance is seen in all beings undivided in the divided—know that that knowledge is of the nature of sattva (goodness).” (Gita, XVIII/20) For him, energy is already spiritualized. It is only a matter of seeing properly.

Knowledge can be acquired through b) Performance of duties with renunciation of the fruits of labor, and c) devotion to Krishna. Krishna says that “He who neither hates nor desires may be known as constantly practicing renunciation.” (Gita, V/3) Krishna further states that renunciation of action is not possible without the performance of action. In practicing Krishna-consciousness and spiritualizing one’s life, one does not sit stock still in a room staring at the wall. Rather, one is always engaged in action, devoting one’s action to Krishna and surrendering the fruits of action to Him. Action is not separate from knowledge; rather, they are intimately related. “It is children, and not the wise, that speak of the path of knowledge and the path of action as distinct,” Krishna says. “He who is firmly set on one reaches the end of both.” (Gita, V/3)

How does one spiritualize energy through renunciation of the fruits of action? First, we recognize that nothing belongs to us. All things belong to Krishna, for He is the proprietor of all energy. For instance, when typing an essay, a man in Krishna consciousness is not performing the same action as a man who is bound by the sense of “I” and “mine,” although an observer may not see a difference. A man on the spiritual platform sees the typewriter as Krishna’s, the paper and ink as Krishna’s, the words as Krishna’s and the fingers that type as Krishna’s. In his action he sees nothing but Krishna’s energy at work. For him there is nothing but God’s blissful energy. He is not attached to this action because he sees “the inaction in action,” that is, he knows that it is simply the senses busy with their objects: or, illusory energy at work. He knows that the real Self remains inactive. In this way he is free from all taint of ego, for he is not the doer. Krishna instructs us in this way:

“I do nothing at all,” thinks the yogi, the knower of Truth; for in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting; in walking, breathing, and sleeping; in speaking, emitting, and seizing; in opening and closing the eyes, he is assured that it is only the senses busied with their objects. He who works without attachment, resigning his actions to Brahman, is untainted by sin, as a lotus-leaf by water.
A selfless man who has renounced the fruit of his action attains peace, born of steadfastness. But the man who is not selfless and who is led by desire is attached to the fruit and therefore bound. (Gita, V/8-10, 12)

Detached action is made easier through practice. Through such detached action, one becomes purified from actions in the modes of passion and ignorance. Then one is in a better position to execute pure devotional service to Krishna. It is through pure devotional service—chanting of the Holy Names, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”—that one receives grace from Krishna enabling liberation from the material energy.

Regarding such devotional service, Krishna is outspoken in the Gita. He makes it clear that the wisest man worships Him (Krishna) alone.

All beings, from their very birth, O Bharata, are deluded by the spell of the pairs of opposites arising from desire and aversion. But the men of virtuous deeds, whose sin is ended, are free from the delusion of the pairs and worship Me with firm resolve. (VII/27-28)

That Supreme Purusha (Spirit), in whom all beings abide and by whom the entire universe is pervaded, can be attained, O Partha, by whole-souled devotion directed to Him alone. (8/22)

There are two beings in the world: the Perishable and the Imperishable. The Perishable comprises all creatures, and the Imperishable is said to be the Unchanging.
But there is another Being, the Highest, called the Supreme Self, who, as the Immutable, pervades and sustains the three worlds.
As I surpass the Perishable and as I am higher even than the Imperishable, I am extolled in the world and in the Vedas as the Supreme Personality.
He who, undeluded, knows Me thus as the Supreme Personality—he knows all, O Bharata, and he worships Me with all his heart. (Gita, XV/16-19)

How then is worship and devotional service carried out? There have been many methods used. Meditation, sacrifice and temple worship were common practice in more religious ages. In this age of irreligiosity, however, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a 15th century incarnation of Krishna, has suggested the method of Samkirtan, that is, a method of bhaktiyoga utilizing the Maha Mantra, the chanting of “Hare Krishna, Hare Rama.”

The greatest spiritualizer of all energy is this Maha Mantra, the Great Hare Krishna Mantra, which obliterates all materialistic dust by dint of transcendental sound vibration. As Lord Chaitanya and Swami Bhaktivedanta are always pointing out, the words “Hare Krishna” and Krishna are non-different. Lord Chaitanya said, “In these transcendental Names (Hare Krishna, Hare Rama) you have invested all your transcendental energies . . . .” Because Krishna is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, He is present in the very sound of His Holy Names. When we say the word “Krishna,” Krishna is there by His sound representation. We are always anxious to “see” God. But why do we put such stress on seeing God? As He reveals Himself to us, we will see more and more of Him, but we should take advantage of the fact that we can also “hear” Him through His sound representation. Hearing Him is just as good as seeing, tasting or feeling Him. As the origin of sound, He is sound personified. Religion has actually been defined as the worship of God through sound. The transcendental sound vibrations of the “Hare Krishna” Mantra provide the quickest and most effective means for purifying our lives, spiritualizing energy, and making us eligible for “promotion” to the spiritual Kingdom of God.

When one chants the sixteen word mantra (HARE KRISHNA, HARE KRISHNA, KRISHNA KRISHNA, HARE HARE, HARE RAMA, HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA, HARE HARE) one should be careful to follow certain rules in regard to the chant. One should never:

1. Blaspheme the Lord or His devotees

2. Consider the Lord and the demigods on the same level or assume that there are many gods

3. Interpret the Holy Name (All personal interpretations, being conceptualizations of the inconceivable, will of necessity lead one astray. Lord Chaitanya suggested chanting the Holy Name with all humility, thinking oneself lower than the straw on the street and begging the Lord to accept him.)

4. Minimize the authority of the Scriptures or of the spiritual master under whom one is studying

5. Commit sin on the strength of chanting

6. Instruct the glories of the Name to the unfaithful or demoniac

7. Compare the Holy Name with material piety or mundane goodness (The Holy Name is transcendental to all worldly conceptions of sanctity.)

8. Be attentive while chanting the Holy Name (This is a matter of personal, mental discipline. The tendency of the mind to wander will render the chant less effective. One should concentrate on each syllable as one emits it, fully aware that the sound representation of the Supreme Lord of the Universe is passing through one’s body.)

9. Be attached to material things, especially while engaged in chanting. (One should be oblivious to one’s circumstances or surroundings when chanting. The mind should be totally fixed on the Supreme Lord.)

If the rules are consistently broken, then the Lord will render the chant ineffective, for one is then not worthy to chant His Name. The Maha Mantra is not the “hit song of the week,” but the hit song of Eternity, and as such should be chanted with all due reverence and concentration. If one keeps the rules 20% of the time, then the chant will work 20%. If he keeps the rules 50% of the time, then the chant will work 50%, and so on up to 100%. Also, the more frequently one chants, the more effective the chant becomes. One need not chant in a temple with instruments and other devotees, though this is highly desirable. One can chant softly to oneself while at work or walking down the street or on the bus or subway or in the privacy of the home. And if no supplementary instruments (such as cymbals or harmoniums or drums) are available, one can always clap one’s hands softly. The hands and the voice are the original instruments of praise, and as such are especially pleasing to Krishna. In such a simple way we can be transferred out of Prakriti, material energy, into Krishna’s spiritual realm.

It has been argued that in actuality there are no distinctions between material and spiritual energy, that in reality all energy is spiritual energy. If this is the case, then why does Krishna, in the Bhagavad-Gita, make the distinction between Prakriti, his inferior nature, and the jiva (living entity), His superior nature? True, once we are pure, liberated devotees of the Supreme, we are in the spiritual kingdom, having overcome the inferior modes of Prakriti. One whose primary thought is serving the Supreme, in whatever condition he may be, is liberated. In his Purports to Srimad Bhagavatam, Swami Bhaktivedanta clarifies this point.

There is no difference between matter and spirit for the Lord, although there is a gulf of difference between the two in the case of the conditioned living being. As for the Lord, there is nothing except spiritual existence, so also there is nothing except spiritual existence for the pure devotee of the Lord in his intimate relation with the Lord. (Srimad Bhagavatam, Vol. II, p. 696)

As to what constitutes a pure devotee, Swami Bhaktivedanta writes:

… those who see everything in the Lord and everything of the Lord and also sees in everything an eternal relation with the Lord so that there is nothing within his purview of sight except the Lord—are called the Mahabhagwatas, or the first grade devotees of the Lord. Such first grade devotees of the Lord are perfect in all respects.
(Bhaktivedanta, Purport, Bhagawatam, Vol II, p. 708)

Krishna Himself speaks in this way of His pure devotee: “He who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, to him I am never lost, nor is he ever lost to Me.” (Gita, VI/30) Even Lord Chaitanya, God Himself incarnated as a devotee, lamented the inadequacy of His devotion, often saying that if He really loved Krishna He would have died long ago rather than endure separation for a moment. So even Lord Chaitanya taught separation from the Supreme Lord due to His descent into material nature. Until we reach the absolute transcendental levels, we must admit to the duality of matter and spirit, for we are conditioned souls and conditioned souls, entangled in material nature, are marginal energy, a combination of matter and spirit. One might ask how spiritual energy can ever be under the grip of material energy. Well, that is the very conditioning of conditioned souls—if they weren’t under the grip of the material energy they would be unconditioned. This is the difference between conditioned souls and the Supreme Lord. Krishna, who controls Prakriti, is never under the control of maya. That would mean that maya, the inferior energy of Krishna, is stronger than Krishna. No, Krishna is never illusioned. It is the conditioned individual souls that have fallen under the influence of the material nature through contact with it. The process of renunciation and devotion is the process of making oneself eligible to receive the Lord’s grace which will free the individual soul from the entanglements of material energy. It is this process that is called salvation, or liberation. A devotee who considers the Supreme Lord to be his ultimate aim and takes refuge in Him will certainly be transferred to the eternal spiritual realm. This is the promise of Krishna:

Fix your heart on Me, give your love to Me, worship Me, bow down before Me; so shall you come to Me. This is My pledge to you, for you are dear to Me.
Abandon all dharmas and come to Me alone for shelter. I will deliver you from all sins; do not grieve. (Gita, XVIII/64-65)

This is Krishna’s promise not only to Arjuna but to all devoted men. Because, in this age, we have fallen below the status of even a warrior like Arjuna, Lord Chaitanya incarnated Himself to introduce the Samkirtan method of spiritual realization. This method of chanting “HARE KRISHNA, HARE KRISHNA, KRISHNA KRISHNA, HARE HARE, HARE RAMA, HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA, HARE HARE” is the quickest and most direct way to Krishna. The chant is an instant spiritualizer, transforming the singer into spiritual energy and clearing the way easily to his ultimate liberation for returning home, back to Godhead.

Dear Lord, as I begin this day,
assure me that Your energy is in
Your Name. I ask no boon but to
be allowed to do everything for
You, and transform the mundane
into actual service acceptable
to Your mercy in Your inconceivable
Power.

In the few minutes before 9 A.M. the office karmis are rushing to each other for idle talk. Pray that you will have no business with anyone which will divert you from those thoughts that lead like arrows back to home, back to Godhead. The work begins, and hopefully the chant is in everything and everything is in the chant.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Karma yoga is not only a matter of the paycheck going to Kṛṣṇa and not to the sense gratification of the worker. It has to be done favorably. (The Lord doesn’t need your karma yoga at the office; your joy in the morning doesn’t sustain Him, nor do you cause the planets to float in space. But your faith and devotion please Him—“My devotee is dear to Me.” (Bhagavad Gita, XII/14). You must establish moment to moment links with the Supreme. Therefore, the practice of penances in mind, speech and body is prescribed, and we shall see why.

The Gita declares purity, uprightness, continence, and non-violence to be the penance of the body. “The utterance of words which give no offense, which is truthful, pleasant and beneficial” is said to be the penance of speech. Serenity of mind, gentleness, silence, self control, the purity of mind—is called the penance of the mind. (Bhagavad Gita, XVII/14-16) These penances, performed without expecting reward, put one in the nature of goodness. Goodness is the level from which we can most easily progress to the Transcendental. If you are shackled in the illusion of nonsense-talk, or is you are gambling with co-workers on the outcome of sports, and “killing time” whenever possible, then you are not likely to be performing actions acceptable as yoga (toward union with God). Be absorbed. The work is the medium. “Hard to understand is the way of works.” (Gita, IV/17)

When the actual eating-up of work and work-time commences—that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not merely a sentiment or spiritual recreation, that your love for Kṛṣṇa is not merely a good-time, speculative, “fair-weather” friendship—these truths get tested in the fire of work. To the limited eye, what is going on in the office is simply the action of fruitive workers engaged in mundane turmoil. The boss is saying he is God, and he is applying the full force of his authority upon the workers and clerks. Of course in some instances, the boss-worker relationship is going smoothly. Whether he is favored or oppressed by his boss does not concern the karma yogi; he is really not concerned this way or the other with the prevailing mundane temperament. It is part of a karma yogi’s skill that he is able to perform work expertly. He maintains an even temperament under fire, and as a constant activity of work he avoids all embarrassment. To the karma yogi, this desk, these drawers, these forms and files are the paraphernalia of a sacrifice. He is practicing celibacy, and concentration, and meditation and worship. “He who is trained in the way of works … he is not tainted by works, though he works.” (Gita-V/7)

The true yoga of the Bhagavad Gita, in which one takes a firm seat covered with sacred grass, a deerskin and a cloth one over the other, in a solitary place, for the purpose of the purification of the soul—is a way leading to the same realization (love of Kṛṣṇa) for which the karma yogi, in his shirt, pants and neck-tie, is ever intent on. In the Chapter of the True Yoga (VI) the Lord describes him at his task:

“Serene and fearless, firm in the vow of celibacy, subdued in mind, let him sit, his mind turned to Me and intent on Me alone.” (VI/14).

“With the heart undismayed,” and disconnected from union with pain, the karma yogi makes his hymn to Kṛṣṇa while fully engaged in the tasks of the office. Because he is using the body—which includes the mind—to perform these tasks, his senses are occupied with the sense objects in sacrifice: by offering each act to God, he “is not touched by sin, even as a lotus leaf (is untouched) by water.” (Gita, V/10) Even in the beginning stages, a sincere devotee can practice such work in relaxation and with no uneasy sense of being scrutinized by the world. The devotee is confident that everything belongs to Kṛṣṇa. Fixed in the assured protection of the Supreme Lord, there is no worldly power that can drag him down. The medium of work is a constant purification, a form of penance, and its end-aim is to achieve love through His service. As long as he works, he can’t go wrong.

Karma yoga has been described by Swami Bhaktivedanta as yoga for those who are addicted to work and activity; in this sense it is being practiced by the man who “can’t stop” fruitive work itself, but who is enlightened enough to dovetail his labor with the pleasure of the Supreme. This description of karma yoga places it in a transitional stage between material and spiritual life. The direct, karma-less service is called bhakti yoga, or devotional service. Bhakti is loving service of man to the Supreme Lord; such a devotee in bhakti performs only the Lord’s work in the world, as a direct, confidential servant, who is compact in love for his influential Master. We can understand that the karma yogi is on the path to bhakti. He (the karma yogi) is working behind enemy lines (with the karmis) and waiting for the day when the Supreme Lord will bring him closer into confidence. Man cannot presume to speed up his approach to God—he can’t take Kṛṣṇa by “storming” His abode. A man in karma yoga turns over his work to the Supreme Personality, Kṛṣṇa, Who is realized within his heart—where he perceives that he himself is part of God. And it is also realized personally in that ecstatic inconceivable name of Kṛṣṇa—found kindly dancing on the karma yogi’s tongue when saying the Maha Mantra:

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Average workers who are trapped in the material (non-spiritual) concept of work believe that they themselves are matter, and the work is matter, and so they slug it out—one piece of matter against another—for a fixed rate of pay, for a certain number of hours a day. They will make demands for reduced hours and more pay and better lighting, but they make no demand for karma yoga, the only process which can relieve them from hopeless labor.

As a fellow worker we humbly invite each and every employee at any job whatsoever to take to this process of dove-tailing with God-consciousness—in action. The principles of karma yoga are sound. The results are definite and immeasurably good. Try it whole-heartedly for one week—chant the Holy Name all day and sing it at lunch hour, and chant yourself to sleep at night. See for yourself. No one will have to tell you.

An infinite ocean of bliss!
Is it milk?
Or pure love energy?
Dancing, on a sea of chimes,
Arms stretched out
In a rain of sweetness;
Legs, dancing for God,
Dancing to His tune;
Alan, leaping to the chant
Like a drunk Cossack.
Everyone’s astonished—
At last—
This is Krishna Consciousness!

by Daniel Clark

Fool Number One:

Am I talking to Krishna?
Am I talking to an angel?
Am I talking to my wife?
Am I talking to myself?
One moment without you is an agony in Hell.
And even more hellish is the fact that I don’t know it’s happening.

Fool Number Two:

The fool searches to do something for himself alone.
Afterwards he sees his stupidity and thinks,
“Was I searching for the ground floor of experience?”
“A base of pure physicality upon which all else may be built?”
“A definition of my individual existence?”
Then he feels again the all-encompassing negation, the denial.
He knows where the physical ends if it is followed.
It ends in Hell.
It is a planet, it exists somewhere out there,
There is a head magistrate, officers, and so on,
A specific “training course” for each capital transgression;
And after Hell, release; perhaps as a rock.
The fool gets another chance.

Fool Number One:

There must be a memory of something like that,
Somewhere in my head, and at times I escape to it.
It’s easy to escape into memories,
To try to make the present into an ideal that turns out to be Hell.

Fool Number Two:

The past is suffused with Hell,
The present is suffused with Hell,
The future is suffused with Hell.
Hell is the reductio ad absurdam of material life.
Stop trying to prove you can do it alone.
You can’t, you need Krishna, you need your wife,
Your idea is a grotesque joke without them,
Your conception of God is pretty stupid if God didn’t give it to you.
Give up;
Give up this silly notion that you have to prove something to somebody.
God loves you as you are;
Anyway, He knows all about your schemes,
And finds them unpleasant.
Is there any other reason He doesn’t give you all His love?
Take off your mask, face it;
You don’t exist,
You are only part and parcel of Krishna,
Yes, and your wife too;
How else can you love each other?

Fool Number One:

All that confuses me.
Crying is better,
Giving up even the attempt to understand,
Giving up hope of liberation, love,
Giving up hope of hope, and crying.
Crying is better, because somehow in crying I know
Krishna loves me.
All I can do is call His Name,
And hope He hears me:
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare;
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare!

is a picture of Vasudeva, Who is a plenary expansion of Krishna (in other words, a fully empowered incarnation representing the Lord engaged in one of His eternal and infinite pastimes). With Vasudeva is Lakshmi, His consort, Who is further identified as the Goddess of Fortune. The stencil was drawn by our art directress, Jadurani Devi Dasi, who is further identified as Judy Koslofsky. She’s good fortune to us.

The Lord was then married with great pomp and gaiety and began to preach the congregational chanting of the Holy Name of the Lord at Nabadwipa. Some of the Brahmins became envious of His popularity and put many hindrances in His path. At last these Brahmins complained about the matter before the Muslim Magistrate at Nabadwipa. Bengal was then governed by Pathans and the Governor of the Province was Nawab Hussain Shah. The Muslim Magistrate of Nabadwipa took the complaints of the Brahmins seriously, and at first he warned the followers of Nemai Pandit (Lord Chaitanya) not to chant the Name of Hari loudly. But Lord Chaitanya asked His followers to disobey the orders of the Kazi and they went on with their Samkirtan party as usual. The Magistrate then sent constables and broke some of the Mrindangams (drums) which were being used in Kirtan. When Nemai Pandit heard of this incident, he organized a civil disobedience movement at Nabadwipa. He is the pioneer of the civil disobedience movement in India—for the right cause. He organized a procession of one hundred thousand men with thousands of Mrindangams, and the procession passed over the roads of Nabadwipa without any fear of the Kazi who had issued the order. At last the party reached the house of the Kazi, who went upstairs out of fear of the mass movement. The men, assembled there at the house of the Kazi, showed a haughty disposition, but the Lord asked them to be peaceful. At this time the Kazi came down and pacified the Lord by addressing Him as his nephew. He said that Nilambar Chakrabarty was called by him “Chacha”, or “uncle,” and as Srimati Chachidevi the mother of Nemai Pandit became his sister. He asked Nemai Pandit whether a sister’s son can be angry with his maternal uncle. Why should be not be respected? In this way, the whole incident was mitigated, and there was a long discussion of the Koran and Hindu Shastras between the two learned scholars. The question of cow-killing was also raised by the Lord and they properly replied with reference to the order of Koran. The Kazi also questioned the sacrifice of cows mentioned in the Vedas, and the Lord replied that the sacrifice of cows mentioned in the Vedas is not considered cow-killing. In that sacrifice an old bull or cow is sacrificed to give it a fresh, younger life by the power of the Vedic Mantra. In the Kali Yuga (the present age of discontent) such cow sacrifice is forbidden on account of the absence of learned Brahmins able to conduct such ceremonies. In the Kali Yuga, therefore, all Yajnas (sacrifice) is forbidden because it is a useless attempt by foolish men. In the Kali Yuga only the Samkirtan process is recommended for all practical purposes. The Kazi was convinced, and he became a follower of the Lord. He declared that thenceforward no one was to hinder the Samkirtan Movement started by the Lord. The Kazi’s crematorium is still existent within the area of Nabadwipa, and all Hindu pilgrims go there to show their respects. The Kazi’s descendants were residents of Nabadwipa, but they never objected to Samkirtan, even during the days of the Hindu-Muslim riots.

March has already been an eventful month for all three centers of the Society—in San Francisco, Montreal and New York.

Swami Bhaktivedanta led kirtan at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. to the delight of some 400 stomping, dancing, chanting students. The local Palo Alto newspaper caught up the student enthusiasm for Swamiji and the Hare Krishna Mantra by reporting that a new dance called “The Swami,” a “trance dance,” has replaced the “twist” and “frug.” The students at Stanford danced for 70 minutes with fervor, hands held over their heads a la Lord Chaitanya.

Even more successful have been the Sunday Golden Gate Park kirtans in San Francisco which have been led by Swamiji and devotees weekly. Banners, kettle drums, cymbals, trumpets, mridangam, bongos, tambourines and voices have been attracting some 500-700 at the park kirtans every Sunday. A “love feast” in the San Francisco center has also initiated a Pacific Ocean Sunset Kirtan held at the beach every Tuesday at sundown. Lord Krishna freely provides all splendor.

The new center at 3720 Park Avenue, Montreal, Canada has been throwing Mantra Rock Dances for temple benefit, utilizing local rock and roll bands and lights. The Mahamantra, Kirtanananda reports, “is being made an integral part of the dance.” San Francisco devotees have also been chanting the Mahamantra at local dances.

The New York center is engaged in negotiating for a large building in the downtown Manhattan area. This building would be an important spiritual center for New York and the nation, and as such warrants the work and contributions not only of full-time devotees but of all people interested in spiritual rejuvenation in America. HARE KRISHNA, HARE KRISHNA, KRISHNA KRISHNA, HARE HARE, HARE RAMA, HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA, HARE HARE.

—The Editors

Lord Chaitanya is describing the Leela Avatars. There are innumerable avatars: Rama Nrsimha, Kalki, etc. In Srimad Bhagavatam some names are mentioned. All the incarnations, and especially the Leela avatars, descend to settle disturbances caused by demons.

There are, for these purposes, two types of men: devotees and demons. The devas (devotees) are demigods; they are completely Krishna conscious, and are entrusted with universal management. The demons or asuras (atheists) are meant for creating disturbances. When the number of asuras greatly increases and life becomes intolerable for the devas, then the Lord comes in the form of one of His plenary expansions. As stated in the Bhagavad Gita, “Just to deliver the faithful and to annihilate the unfaithful, I come in every millenium.” This is the function and purpose of the Leela avatars.

Lord Chaitanya tells Sanatan Goswami that He will now speak of incarnations of material qualities, the Guna Avatars. Each quality of material nature is controlled by the Supreme Lord in His expansions as Vishnu, Who is a full plenary expansion of God with 94% of the known godly qualities; Lord Shiva, a pure devotee, has 84% of the godly qualities, and Brahma, who is a living entity (like ourselves) with 78% of the godly qualities. Each one is a part and parcel of the Lord (Krishna). The guna avatars are in charge of material affairs. Lord Shiva is the avatar of Ignorance—but he is not ignorant, just as a prison official visiting the prison is not subject to its rules. Similarly, Brahma creates and initiates—passion comes from Brahma. Vishnu maintains these and all plural eternals in the material sphere—but He is the singular eternal.

What is the constitution of Brahma? There are innumerable living entities. Many of them are devotees, but they want to enjoy the material world and take favor from God. Brahma is in this position. Sometimes Krishna Himself becomes Brahma, when suitable living entities are not available. Just as a diamond has the power to illuminate, its power to shine being derived from the sun, so the powerful creator Brahma inherits power from the Supreme Lord. Brahma’s power is tiny in comparison; it is not originally luminous like the sun. This material universe is created by him at certain intervals, stays for some time, and then is destroyed.

As with Brahma, sometimes when Lord Shiva is not available, Krishna accepts management of the modes of ignorance. Shiva is a direct expansion of God, but because He is in the department of ignorance he is not quite God. Shiva means auspicious. His business is destruction. There is a popular statue of Shiva dancing, surrounded by the fires of annihilation. Material energy is under the control of Shiva. Shiva is the father and material energy (Durga) is the mother. Because, unlike Krishna, Shiva has this connection with illusory energy, Shiva is not quite God. He stands between the living entity and Krishna. Lord Chaitanya quotes the Brahma Samhita on Lord Shiva: “If you mix something sour with milk, it becomes yogurt; such is the difference between Krishna and Shiva.” Once made into yogurt it cannot be changed back into milk, although it has the same constitution. Those who worship Shiva cannot derive the same benefits as those in Krishna consciousness. Shiva is not different from Krishna, but he is altered by his association with matter—as he takes on the jobs of destruction and tamas (ignorance) management.

Vishnu is never in touch with material energy. Vishnu is beyond the material worlds. Sankaracharya accepted this Supreme position of Narayana (Vishnu), although he was an impersonalist. Therefore, Vishnu’s Body is Sat-Chit-Ananda, full of knowledge, eternal, and blissful.

In the instruction of Lord Chaitanya to Sanatan Goswami we can understand the Science of God in the matter of His transcendental Form, His opulences, and His devotional service—for everything is being described to Sanatan Goswami by the Lord Himself. At the time Sanatan fell at the feet of the Lord and with great humility asked about his real identity. He spoke as follows: “I am born of a lower family, my associations are all abominable, and I am fallen and the most wretched of mankind. I was suffering in the dark well of material enjoyment, and I never knew the actual goal of my life. I do not know what is beneficial to me although in the ordinary way I am what is known as a great learned man; in fact, I am so much of a fool that I even accept that I am a learned man. You have accepted me as your servant and you have delivered me from the entanglement of material life; now you can tell me what my duty is in this liberated state of life.” In other words, we see by this plea that liberation is not the final word of perfection; there must be activities in liberation. Sanatan clearly asks, “You have saved me from the entanglement of material existence; now after liberation, what is my duty? Kindly explain it to me.” Sanatan further inquired “Who am I? Why are the three-fold miseries always giving me trouble? Finally, tell me how I will be relieved from this material entanglement? I do not know how to question about spiritual advancement of life, but I beg that you kindly, mercifully let me know everything that I should know.”

This is the process of acceptance of a spiritual master by the disciple. One should approach a spiritual master and humbly submit to him and then inquire from him about one’s spiritual progress. The Lord was pleased by Sanatan’s submissive behavior and He replied to him as follows: “You are already benedicted by Lord Krishna, therefore you know everything and you are free from all miseries of material existence.” The Lord further replied that because Sanatan was in Krishna Consciousness, naturally, by the grace of Krishna, he was already conversant with everything, but, “Because you are a humble devotee you are asking me to confirm what is already realized by you. This is very nice.” These are the characteristics of a true devotee. In the Narada sutra it is said that one who is very serious about developing his Krishna Consciousness, by the grace of the Lord, has his desire for understanding Krishna very soon fulfilled. The Lord said, “You are a suitable person for protecting the devotional service of the Lord, therefore it is my duty to instruct you in the science of God, and I will explain to you one of the orders.”

It is the duty of a disciple approaching a spiritual master to enquire about his constitutional position. In response to that spiritual process, Sanatan has already asked, “What am I and why am I suffering from threefold miseries?” The threefold miseries are called adhyatmic, adhibhautic, adhidaivic. Adhyatmic means pertaining to the body and mind, therefore there are two kinds of miseries suffered by the living entity: sometimes he is suffering bodily, and sometimes he is distressed mentally—both are miseries. We are put into miseries even in the womb of the mother. And there are also many forms of misery that take advantage of our delicate body and give us pain. Miseries inflicted by other living entities are called adhibhautic. There are many living entities such as bugs born of eggs, that give us miseries while we are sleeping in bed. There are many living entities, like cockroaches, that sometimes give us pain, and there are other living entities born on different kinds of planets, and they also give us miseries. So far as adhidaivic miseries are concerned, they are offered by the demigods from the higher planets. For instance, sometimes we suffer from serious cold weather, sometimes we suffer by the thunderbolt, sometimes earthquakes, tornadoes, droughts and all other natural disasters. So we are always in either of these three kinds of miseries. Sanatan’s enquiry was, “What is the position of the living entities? Why are they always put into these three kinds of miseries?” Sanatan has admitted his weakness; although he was known by the mass of people as a great learned man (and actually he was a highly learned scholar in the Sanskrit language)—and although he accepted the designation of a very learned man given him by the mass of people, yet he did not actually know what his constitutional position was, and why he was subjected to the threefold miseries.

The necessity of approaching a spiritual master is not a fashion, but is for him who is seriously conscious of the material miseries and who wants to get out of them; it is the duty of such a person to approach the spiritual master. We find similar circumstances in the Bhagavad Gita. When Arjuna was perplexed by so many problems, whether to fight or not to fight, he accepted Lord Krishna as his spiritual master. There also it was a case of the Supreme Spiritual Master instructing Arjuna about the constitutional position of the individual entity. In the Bhagavad Gita we are informed that the constitutional position of the individual entity is spirit soul; he is not matter, therefore as a spirit soul he is part and parcel of the Supreme Soul, Absolute Truth, Personality of Godhead. We also learn that it is the duty of the spirit soul to surrender, for only then can he be happy. The last instruction of the Bhagavad Gita is that the spirit soul is to surrender completely unto the Supreme Soul, Krishna, and in that way realize happiness. Here also, Lord Chaitanya in answering the questions of Sanatan is repeating the same truth, but without giving him information of the spirit soul which is described in the Gita. He begins from the point where Krishna ended his instruction. It is calculated by great devotees that Lord Chaitanya is Krishna Himself. And as He ended His instruction in the Gita, from that point he begins His instruction again, to Sanatan. The Lord said to Sanatan, “Your constitutional position is that you are pure living soul. This material body is not the identity of your real self, neither is your mind your real identity, nor your intelligence, nor is false ego the real identity for self. Your identity is that you are eternal servitor of the Supreme Lord, Krishna. Your position is that you are transcendental. Superior energy of Krishna is spiritual in constitution, and inferior external energy is material. In other words, you are between the material energy and the spiritual energy, therefore your position is marginal. In other words, you belong to the marginal potency of Krishna. You are simultaneously one with and different from Krishna because in a sense you are spirit, therefore you are not different from Krishna; but because you are only a minute particle of Krishna, you are therefore different from Krishna.”

This simultaneous oneness and difference always exists in the relationship between the living entities and the Supreme Lord. From the marginal position of the living entity, this “simultaneously one and different” is understood. The living entity is just like a molecular part of sunshine, whereas Krishna is compared to the blazing and shining sun. Lord Chaitanya compared the living entities to the blazing sparks from the fire, and the Supreme Lord to the blazing fire of the sun. The Lord cites in this connection a verse from Vishnu Purana in which it is stated that everything that is manifested within this cosmic world is but a different energy of the Supreme Lord. For example, as the fire emanating from one place exhibits its illumination and heat all around, similarly the Lord, although situated in one place in the spiritual world, is manifesting His different energies everywhere, and the whole world of cosmic representation is but different manifestations of His energy. The energy of the Supreme Lord is transcendental and spiritual, and the living entities also belong to that energy, but there is another energy which is called hard-working material energy, which is covered by the cloud of ignorance and therefore divided into the three modes of material nature. Lord Chaitanya quoted from Vishnu Purana that all inconceivable energies are there in the Supreme Personality of (sic:) ceivable energy is there in the Supreme Lord, and the whole cosmic manifestation is acting due to the same inconceivable energy of the Supreme Lord. For example, as the heat of the fire is all perceivable, similarly the inconceivable energy of the Supreme Lord is always perceivable by an intelligent person.

The Lord says that the living entities are also known as ksetrajna, or “knower of the field of activities.” In the Gita in the 13th Chapter the living entity is described as ksetrajna, the body is described as the field of activities, and the living entity is the knower of that field. Although the living entity is constitutionally conversant with spiritual energy, or has the potency of understanding, he is being covered by the material energy, and he consequently understands this body to be himself. This is called false ego. In material existence, under this false ego, the bewildered living entity is changing his different bodies and suffering different kinds of miseries. The knowledge of understanding his true position is present to various extents in different varieties of living entities. In other words, it is to be understood that the living entity is part and parcel of the spiritual energy of the Supreme Lord. The material energy is inferior energy, and therefore man has the potency to uncover this material energy and utilize the spiritual energy. It is stated in the Bhagavad Gita that the superior energy is covered by the inferior energy. Due to this covering, the living entity is subjected to the miseries of the material world, and, according to the different degrees of obscuration, is proportionately suffering material miseries. Those who are a little enlightened are suffering less, but on the whole, everyone is subjected to material miseries on account of being covered by the material energy. The Lord also quoted from the Gita, 7th Chapter, in which it is stated that earth, water, fire, air, sky, mind, intelligence, and ego, all combine together to form the inferior energy of the Supreme Lord. But the Superior Energy is the real identity of the living entity; on account of that energy the whole material world is working. The cosmic manifestation, made of material energy or material elements, has no power to act unless it is moved by the Superior energy, the living entity. So actually, the conditional life of the living entity is forgetfulness of his relationship with the Supreme Lord in Superior energy. When that relationship is forgotten, conditional life is the result. Only when man revives his real identity, that of eternal servitor of the lord, does he become liberated.

(PART II OF LORD CHAITANYA’S TEACHING WILL APPEAR IN NEXT ISSUE)

************************************

Last night I saw
In a dream orchard
Hanging from the branches of the trees
In place of fruit
Clusters of golden finger cymbals
Which tingled in the breezes
As if they were thousands of tiny frozen lotus flowers
Shimmering and tingling;

and flocks of devotees in streaming yellow robes
danced up and down between the rows of trees
with upraised arms that looked like the curved necks
of swans
and heads tilted and eyes that looked lost
because they had found
bliss
which only Krishna can bestow
to His pure devotees;

and beneath one of the trees sat Swamiji
as if enthroned
beating His drum intently
smiling, placed

and chanting
HARE KRISHNA
While all the yellow-robed marionettes swirrled about him
Chanting
HARE KRISHNA
And the timbriled trees tingled from each breath of Krishna

Oh Krishna, if in my next thousand births
This dream is all You reveal to me of Your Kingdom
Then it would be enough.

—Brahmananda Das Brahmachary
(Bruce Scharf)

Purports by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Text rendered into verse
by Hayagriva Das Brahmachary

(Sri Shankaracharya—or Shankara—is considered to be an incarnation of Lord Shiva, according to Padma Puranam. Appearing in India in the 6th century A.D., he single-handedly drove the Buddhist philosophy out of India and re-established Vedic culture, all in his short lifetime of 32 years. Although he took up the impersonalist guise to better battle the Buddhists-impersonalism is much akin to Buddhism-the commentary rendered below, as well as other writings, reveal him to be, in actuality, devoted to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna. Shankara’s most famous treatise is Vivekachudamani, and his other words include Sarirak Vhasya and Prayers for Krishna.)

O Bhagavad Gita,
Through Thy eighteen chapters
Thou showers upon Man
The immortal nectar
Of the Wisdom of the Absolute
O Blessed Gita
By Thee Lord Krishna Himself
Enlightened Arjuna.
Afterward, the ancient sage Vyasa
Included Thee in the Mahabharata
O Loving Mother,
Destroyer of Man’s rebirth
Into the darkness of this mortal world,
Upon Thee I meditate.

Salutations to thee, O Vyasa.
Thou art of mighty intellect,
And thine eyes
Are large as the petals
Of the full-blown lotus.
It was thou
Who brightened this lamp of Wisdom,
Filling it with the oil
Of the Mahabarata.

Srimad Sankaracharya was an impersonalist from the materialist point of view. But he never denied the spiritual form known as Sat-Chit-Ananda Vigrata or the Eternal all-blissful Form of Knowledge which existed before the material creation. When he spoke of Supreme Brahman as impersonal he did not mean that the Lord’s Sat-Chit-Ananda Form was to be confused with a material conception of Personality. In the very beginning of his commentary on the Gita, he maintains that Narayana, the Supreme Lord, is transcendental Personality, and He has nothing to do with the material Personality. Lord Krishna is the same Supreme Personality and has no connection with the material body. He descends in His spiritual eternal Form, but foolish people mistake His body as like unto ours. Sankara’s preaching of impersonalism is especially meant for teaching foolish persons who consider Krishna to be an ordinary man composed of matter.

No body would care to read the Gita if it had been spoken by a material man, and certainly Vyasadeva wouldn’t have even bothered to incorporate it into the history of the Mahabharata. According to the above verses, Mahabharata is the History of the Ancient World and Vyasadeva is the writer of this great epic. Bhagavad Gita is identical with Krishna; and because Krishna is the Absolute Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is no difference between Krishna and His words. Therefore the Gita is as worshipable as Lord Krishna Himself, both being Absolute. One who hears Bhagavad Gita “as is” actually hears the words directly from the lotus lips of the Lord. But unfortunate persons say that the Gita is too antiquated for the modern man who wants to find out God by speculation or meditation.

I salute Thee, O Krishna,
O Thou, Who art the refuge
Of ocean-born Lakshmi
And all who take refuge
At Thy lotus Feet.
Thou art indeed
The wish-fulfilling tree
For Thy devotee.
Thy one hand holds a staff
For driving cows,
And Thy other hand is raised—
The thumb touching the tip
Of Thy forefinger,
Indicating Divine Knowledge.
Salutations to Thee, O Supreme Lord,
For Thou art the Milker
Of the ambrosia of the Gita.

Srimad Sankaracharya explicitly says, “You fools, just worship Govinda and that Bhagavad Gita spoken by Narayana Himself,” yet foolish people still conduct their research word to find out Narayan; consequently they are wretched and waste their time for nothing. Narayana is never wretched nor Daridra; rather, He is worshipped by the Goddess of Fortune, Lakshmi, as well as all living entities. Sankara declared himself to be “Brahman,” but he admits Narayana or Krishna to be the Supreme Personality Who is beyond the material creation. He offers his respects to Krishna as the Supreme Brahman or Param Brahman because He (Krishna) is worshipable by everyone. Only the fools and enemies of Krishna who cannot understand what Bhagavad Gita is (though they make commentaries on it) say, “It is not personal Krishna to whom we have to surrender ourselves utterly, but to the unborn, beginningless Eternal who speaks through Krishna.” Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Whereas Sankara, the greatest of the impersonalists, offers his due respects to Krishna and His book Bhagavad Gita, the foolish say that “it is not to the Personal Krishna.” Such unenlightened people do not know that Krishna is Absolute and that there is no difference between His inside and outside. The difference between inside and outside is experienced in the dual material world. In the Absolute World there is no such difference because in the Absolute everything is spiritual (Sat-Chit-Ananda) and Narayana or Krishna belongs to the Absolute World. In the Absolute World there is only the factual Personality, and there is no distinction between body and soul.

The Upanishads
Are as a herd of cows,
Lord Krishna, Son of a cowherd,
Is their Milker,
Arjuna is the calf,
The supreme nectar of the Gita
Is the milk,
And the wise man
Of a purified intellect
Is the drinker.

Unless one understands spiritual variegatedness, one cannot understand the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. In the Brahma Samhita it is said that Krishna’s Name, Form, Quality, Pastimes, Entourage and Paraphernalia are all anandachinmoyarasa—in short, everything of His transcendental association is of the same composition of spiritual bliss, knowledge and eternity. There is no end to His Name, Form, etc., unlike the material world where all things have their end. As stated in the Bhagavad Gita, only fools deride Him, whereas it is Sankara, the greatest impersonalist, who worships Him, His cows and His pastimes as the Son of Vasudeva and pleasure of Devaki.

Thou Son of Vasudeva,
Destroyer of the demons Kamsa and Chanura,
Thou Supreme Bliss of Mother Devaki,
O Thou Guru of the Universe,
Teacher of the Worlds,
Thee, O Krishna, I salute.

Sankara describes Him as the Son of Vasudeva and Devaki. Does he mean thereby that he is worshipping an ordinary material man? He worships Krishna because he knows that Krishna’s birth and activities are all supernatural. As stated in the Bhagavad Gita (4th Chapter), Krishna’s birth and activities are mysterious and transcendental and therefore only the devotees of Krishna can know them perfectly. Sankara was not such a fool that he would accept Krishna as an ordinary man and at the same time offer Him all devotional obeisances, knowing Him as the son of Devaki and Vasudeva. According to Bhagavad Gita, only by knowing the transcendental birth and activities of Krishna can one attain liberation by acquiring a spiritual form like Krishna. There are five different kinds of liberations. One who merges into the spiritual auras of Krishna, known as impersonal Brahman effulgence, does not fully develop his spiritual body. But one who fully develops his spiritual existence becomes an associate of Narayana or Krishna in different spiritual abodes. One who enters into the abode of Narayana develops a spiritual Form exactly like Narayana (four-handed) and one who enters into the highest spiritual abode of Krishna, known as Goloka Vrindaban, develops a spiritual Form of two hands like Krishna. Sankara, as an incarnation of Lord Shiva, knows all these spiritual existences, but he did not disclose them to his then Buddhist followers because it was impossible for them to know about the spiritual world. Lord Buddha preached that void is the ultimate goal, so how could His followers understand spiritual variegatedness? Therefore Sankara said Brahma Satya Jagat Mithya, or material variegatedness is false but spiritual variegatedness is fact. In the Padma Puranam Lord Shiva has admitted that He had to preach the philosophy of Maya or illusion in the Kaliyuga as another edition of the “void” philosophy of Buddha. He had to do this by the order of the Lord for specific reasons. He, however, disclosed his real mind by recommending that people worship Krishna for no one can be saved simply by mental speculations composed of word jugglery and grammatical maneuvers. Shankara instructs further: Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam Mudhamate; Prapte sannihite khalu marane nahi nahi, raksati du krim karane. “You intellectual fools, just worship Govinda, just worship Govinda, just worship Govinda. Your grammatical knowledge and word jugglery will not save you at the time of death.”

Of that terrifying river
Of the battlefield of Kurukshetra
Over which the Pandavas victoriously crossed,
Bhishma and Drona were as the high banks,
Jayadratha as the river’s water,
The King of Ghandara the blue water-lily,
Salya the shark, Kripa the current,
Karna the mighty waves,
Ashvatama and Vikarna the dread alligators,
And Duryodhana the very whirlpool—
But Thou, O Krishna, wast the Ferryman!

May the spotless lotus of the Mahabharata
That grows on the waters
Of the words of Vyasa
And of which the Bhagavad Gita
Is the irresistably sweet fragrance
And its tales of heroes
The full blown petals
Fully opened by the talk of Lord Hari,
Who destroys the sins
Of Kaliyuga,
And on which daily light
The nectar-seeking souls,
As so many bees
Swarming joyously—
May this lotus of the Mahabharata
Bestow on us the Highest Good.

Salutations to Lord Krishna,
The Embodiment of Supreme Bliss,
By Whose grace and compassion
The dumb become eloquent
And the lame scale mountains—
Him I salute!

Foolish followers of foolish speculators cannot understand the meaning of offering salutations to Lord Krishna, the embodiment of Bliss. Sankara himself offered his salutations to Lord Krishna so that some of his intelligent followers might understand the real fact by the example set by their great Master Sankara, the incarnation of Lord Shiva. But there are many obstinate followers of Sankara who refuse to offer their salutations to Lord Krishna, and instead mislead innocent persons by injecting materialism into Bhagavad Gita and confusing innocent readers by their commentaries and consequently the readers never have the opportunity to become blessed by offering salutations to Lord Krishna, the cause of all causes. The greatest disservice to humanity is to keep mankind in the darkness about the science of Krishna or Krishna Consciousness by distorting the sense of the Gita.

Salutations to that Supreme Shining One
Whom the creator, Brahma, Varuna,
Indra, Rudra, Marut and all divine beings
Praise with hymns,
Whose glories are sung
By the verses of the Vedas,
Of Whom the singers of Sama sing
And of Whose glories the Upanishads
Proclaim in full choir,
Whom the Yogins see
With their minds absorbed
In perfect meditation,
And of Whom all the hosts
Of gods and demons
Know not the limitations.
To Him, the Supreme God Krishna, be all salutations—
Him we salute! Him we salute! Him we salute!

By recitation of the ninth verse of his meditation quoted from Srimad Bhagavatam, Sankara has indicated that Lord Krishna is worshipable by one and all, including himself. He gives hints to materialists, impersonalists, mental speculators, “void” philosophers and all other candidates subjected to the punishment of material miseries-just offer salutations to Lord Krishna, Who is worshipped by Brahma, Shiva, Varuna, Indra and all the other demigods. He has not mentioned however the name of Vishnu because Vishnu is identical with Krishna. The Vedas and the Upanishads are meant for understanding the process by which one can surrender unto Krishna. The yogins try to see Him (Krishna) within themselves by meditation. In other words, it is for all the demigods and demons who do not know where the ultimate end is that Sankara teaches, and he especially instructs the demons and the fools to offer salutations to Krishna and His words, the Bhagavad Gita, by following his footprints. Only by such acts will demons be benefited, not by misleading their innocent followers by so called mental speculations or showbottle meditations. Sankara directly offers salutations to Krishna as if to show the fools, who are searching after light, that here is the light like the sun. But the fallen demons are like owls that will not open their eyes on account of their fear of the sunlight itself. These owls will never open their eyes to see the sublime light of Krishna and His words the Bhagavad Gita. They will, however, comment on the Gita with their closed owl-eyes to mislead their unfortunate readers and followers. Sankara however discloses the light to his less intelligent followers and shows that Bhagavad Gita and Krishna is the only source of light. This is all to teach the sincere seekers of Truth to offer salutation to Lord Krishna and thus surrender unto Him without misgivings. That is the highest perfection of life and that is the highest teaching of Sankara, the great learned scholar whose teachings drove the void-philosophy of Buddha out of India, the land of knowledge. Om Tat Sat

[SSR]

In the past 130 years the United States has swiftly travelled a long way down the road of materialism and atheism and has done a great deal in bringing the rest of the world down that road with them. It is a dead end road, but anyone jumping off that bumbling, rambling bandwagon is likely to encounter squatting along the roadside as fine a company of transcendental “bums” as one could ever want to meet—Emerson, Thoreau, Miss Emily Dickonson, Whitman, and “roaring boy” Hart Crane. There are some others, but these are the principle American transcendental waysiders who keep their fires of love and canned beans of joy and bliss warm for the hungry, wearied traveller.

There is little doubt in the minds of most truly intelligent man that America has been betrayed by the money-hungry, power-hungry atheist class of men. They have initiated that rambling bandwagon of capitalism that is presently wending its merry way to hell under the banners of Progress, Prosperity, Materialism, Power, and Sense Enjoyment. Even the countries that have previously boasted considerable God-consciousness, such as India, are now scrambling to get on the bandwagon. As a result, the devotees of the Supreme Lord are feeling more isolated and generally “out of it” socially. They lock their doors, close their windows, and chant softly in order not to disturb their atheist neighbors. At least this is the cast in the big American cities. There is no transcendental hero or bearded bard of Fifth Avenue sounding his “barbaric yawp all over the roofs of the world.” The hollow men with heads of straw are holding the wagon reins, and even a whisper frightens them.

This calamity is largely due to there never having been sufficiently powerful spiritual leaders in America. Although some of the early settlers came to this country seeking religious freedom, the New World soon came to represent a challenge of material conquest—gold and land—rather than a spiritual promise. The Christian Church was imported from Europe, and spasmodically—with Jonothan Edwards, Edward Taylor, and the revivalists of the 1830’s and 50’s—the air was surcharged with spirituality. But after the Civil War this country began to ascend the ladder of Material Progress: the bumbling, rambling bandwagon started rolling down the open road to chaos, and the sages started jumping off. Since then the real spiritual gurus have been chased out, killed, or cancelled amid the waves of official materialist propaganda, or perhaps given quaint roles in the Great American Circus. What great poets and sages America has given birth to have had to attain their realization in a secular way, and with God’s help and grace. With many it was a lonely battle—there were no systems planned for them. For the American, the cosmic way to spiritual universe was uncharted, and the few who managed to make their ways to it were often eccentric poets, polite mendicants, hermetic spinsters, mad geniuses—in short, the American “transcendental bums.”

From a spiritual point of view, India is most fortunate in its parampara system of God-realization, a system of disciplic succession steming from Brahma, the creator-god. This system utilizes the guru-brahmachary (student) principle of desseminating transcendental knowledge from generation to another. Krishna speaks of this is the Gita:

The eternal yoga I taught to Vivasvat (the Sun god); Vivasvat taught it to Manu (the father of mankind); and Manu taught it to Ikshvaku (ancestor of the earth-warriors). Thus handed down from one to another, it became known to the royal sages. But through long lapse of time, this yoga has been lost to the world. (Gita, IV/1-2)

To re-establish this yoga on earth, Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna. In the West, the best example that can be given of disciplic succession is the Roman Catholic Church which traces its papal history directly from Christ and St. Peter, the first Vicar of Rome. Such systems are useful, especially for guiding the mass of people who look to higher authorities in spiritual matters. The dangers of such a system are also obvious: the system may become regimentalized, it may deviate from the original teachings, it may become corrupt and die, it may become narrow and secular—in which cases the parampara system stumbles over itself and deals a death blow to God-consciousness. The system is legitimate, but man is frail and subject to error.

There was never such a system in America. America is a new country—not even 200 years old—a baby compared to Vedic culture and civilization. The saints, sages and poets of this country do not generally work out their salvation or progress in God consciousness through the parampara system, or, for that matter, through any orthodox religious system. Many seem to have been directly favored by the Supreme Who endowed them with prophetic powers and Who gave them poetic powers with which to praise Him and direct grace by which to attain Him. In fact, direct revelation—always the Supreme’s gracious gift—seemed natural in a country where individualism and the new, free man were spiritual ideals. One often hears in Whitman and other transcendentalists the sigh of relief for their release from the rotting philosophic, literary and religious traditions of Europe. And the Supreme Lord seems to have taken many of them by the hand, showing them how to “celebrate” Him and justify His ways to man. God is not limited and neither are His ways, and although man may be confined to stringent systems and rules, He is beyond all rules and reveals Himself to whomever He pleases. The tendency of many religionists to place the Supreme under the regulations of their religions is vain and silly.

The Supreme Lord has been directly praised by many great poets in the West—notably Dante, the English metaphysical poets, St. John of the Cross, Milton and Blake—great Christian poets who managed to utilize the orthodox terminology of religion and the Bible as the basis of their poetry. Other poets, although secular in their approach, wrote of the Absolute in different ways, often using the medium of Nature. This is the case for Wordsworth in his famous “Ode: Intimations of Immortality,” and Keats’ reciprocal serenade between himself and the Supersoul in “Ode to a Nightengale.” Byron in “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” uses the ocean as a symbol of the Absolute, and it is easy to see Krishna as Coleridge’s Kubla Khan. The “unseen presence” of Shelley’s West Wind is addressed as “Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;/Destroyer and preserver.” In fact, one might say that all the major English poets (especially of the 19th century) had to plug into the Supreme Consciousness for their inspiration.

In America, the poets’ Krishna or cosmic consciousness was given a boost by the “transcendentalist” movement in the early 19th century. Prior to this time, Edward Taylor (1645-1729), a New England Puritan poet, wrote excellent metaphysical poetry in praise of Christ. No major force emerges, however, between Taylor and Emerson, the first superior literary mind of the 19th century.

In his introduction to Nature, Emerson writes:

The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should now we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? And a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs. The sun shines today. There are new lands, new men, new thoughts.

This is a capsule statement of the zeit-geist catching hold in the literary circles of New England during the 1830’s—a new land, a new man, a new relation to God. This relationship to God is intimately tied up with the land and Nature which serve as springboards into the realms of the eternal. Emerson describes his mystical experiences in this way:

Standing on the bare ground—my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space—all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am a part and parcel of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be brothers, to be acquaintances, master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. (From Nature)

Emerson was also aware of attempts to attain this cosmic consciousness by abortive, artificial means:

It is a secret which every intellectual man quickly learns, that beyond the energy of his possessed and conscious intellect he is capable of a new energy (as of an intellect doubled on itself) by abandonment to the nature of things; that beside his privacy of power as an individual man, there is a great public power on which he can draw, by unlocking, at all risks, his human doors, and suffering the ethereal tides to roll and circulate through him; then he is caught up into the life of the Universe, his speech is thunder, his thought is law, and his words are universally intelligible as the plants and animals.. For if in any manner we can stimulate this instinct, new passages are opened for us into nature; the mind flows into and through the hardest and highest, and the metamorphosis is possible. (From Essays, 2nd Series, “The Poet”)

Regarding narcotics and the psychedelics of his day, Emerson writes:

This is the reason why bards love wine, mead, narcotics, coffee, tea, opium, the fumes of sandalwood and tobacco, or whatever other procurers of animal exhilaration. All men avail themselves of such means as they can, to add this extraordinary power to their normal powers. (From “The Poet”)

However, Emerson makes it clear that he does not condone such artificial means, which he considers to be used by an inferior man. He also deems the results to be imperfect and temporary and imaginary, for in actuality deterioration and dissipation are provoked by reliance on external stimuli.

Never can any advantage be taken of nature by a trick. The spirit of the world, the great calm presence of the Creator, comes not forth to the sorceries of opium or of wine. The sublime vision comes to the pure and simple soul in a clean and chaste body. That is not an inspiration, which we owe to narcotics, but some counterfeit excitement and fury. Milton says that the lyric poet may drink wine and live generously, but the epic poet, he who shall sing of the gods and their descent unto men, must drink water out of a wooden bowl.. His cheerfulness should be the gift of the sunlight; the air should suffice for his inspiration, and he should be tipsy with water. (From “The Poet”)

In “The Poet,” as in other essays, Emerson is prophesying the great poetic vindicator of his philosophy—Whitman. Emerson’s philosophy draws a great deal on Plato and the Bible, but the English romanticists and German philosophers of the 19th century also find their ways into his works. He envisions the self-reliant man in direct relationship with God, free from all “animal exhilarations” such as narcotics, society, and materialism, and also free from the intellectual shackles of the Old World, intoxicated instead with “air and water” in the great virgin woods of America. In this way he struck the theme for the transcendental man in America—and Thoreau and Whitman were to be the most famous embodiments of his vision.

This liberated man is a man free from all encumbrances. He is dependant on no one. He stands alone with his Creator upon the new and fertile American landscape, and he is the epitome of rugged individualism. Emerson’s famous “Self Reliance” essay advises in this way:

A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages.. Trust thyself; every heart vibrates to that iron string. (From “Self Reliance”)

Later, Whitman was also to exhort his reader to see the direct revelation:

You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books, You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me, You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.
(From “Song of Myself,” section 2)

Emerson felt that part of man’s slavery is due to his attachment to the past—his functioning on old premises, theories and actions—in short, his enslavement to karma. Break them off, he advises, and disregard apparent contradictions.

In your metaphysics you have denied personality to the Deity, yet when the devout motions of the soul come, yield to them heart and life, though they should clothe God with shape and color. Leave your theory, as Joseph his coat in the hands of the harlot, and flee. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. (“Self Reliance”)

Abandonment of mundane conceptualization and open acceptance of the infinite diversity of the Creator and His creation are considered by Emerson to be characteristics of the mahatma, the great-souled man. In Whitman’s words, “Do I contradict myself?/ Very well then I contradict myself,/ (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” (“Son of Myself,” 51) This great souled man has no time for fault-finding, scoffing, argumentation or lamentation. He is blissful, ecstatic, absorbed in Krishna-consciousness. Nor is he attached to anything on the earth.

Nothing is secure but life, transition, the energizing spirit.. People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them. (Emerson’s “Circles”)

This is non-attachment as practised by the free man who does not anchor however calm the waters. For him the universe is not a house for sleepers. It is an open road for travelling souls.

Although the poetic strain is everywhere apparent in Emerson’s essays and philosophy, he was not able to completely express his thoughts in his own poetry. This remained for Whitman to do. Emerson did write poems, but he is remembered instead for his essays, which represent him better. Emerson did write a poem called “Brahma,” that appears to be influenced by certain verses in the Gita, especially Krishna’s injunction: “He who looks on the Self as the slayer, and he who looks on the Self as the slain—neither of these apprehends aright. The Self slays not nor is slain.” (Gita, II/19) Emerson actually paraphrases this verse in “Brahma,” his best poem:

(1)

If the red slayer think he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways I am the doubter and the doubt,
I keep, and pass, and turn again.

(2)

Far or forgot to me is near;
Shadow and sunlight are the same;
The vanished gods to me appear;
And one to me are shame and fame.

(3)

They reckon ill who leave me out;
When me they fly, I am the wings;
I am the doubter and the doubt,
And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.

(4)

The strong gods pine for my abode,
And pine in vain the sacred Seven;
But thou, meek lover of the god!
Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.

That the above poem was influenced by the Bhagavad Gita is not surprising, for it is reported that Emerson’s copy of the Gita was more “widely used than the one in the Harvard College Library.” No doubt Emerson was fully competent to deliver lectures on Krishna consciousness, but he was not competent to celebrate his great ideas in poetry, for his own poetry is too often stilted and sing-song. And although Henry David Thoreau, Emerson’s youthful disciple, also tried verse, the ascetic of Walden Pond is also best remembered for his Walden and other essays. The poetry of the new God consciousness of 19th century America had to wait for the 1855 “yawp” of another man.

(Next Issue: KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS IN AMERICAN POETRY, Part II: Henry David Thoreau and Emily Dickinson)

*********************************

I got those Samsara Blues,
Thinking good or bad? Win or lose?
All that smokin’ and talkin’ meth
Just turns the wheel of birth and death.
I’ll never attain liberation
By mere sense gratification
LSD and marijuana
Won’t get me to Nirvana,
And meditating on the Void
Only gets me paranoid
Remembering I’m not this body,
Telling her I’m Brahmachary,
There’s really nothing to control
‘Cause I’m eternal spirit soul.
Fixed up in Krishna Consciousness,
Who cares about the Maya mess?

So forget that Uncle Sam Thing,
Just keep chanting, chanting, chanting
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama
Rama Rama Hare Hare.
In material entanglement what calms me?
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.
Krishna chase away those Samsara blues!
That’s what I said.

—Hari Das Brahmachary
(Harvey Cohen)

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The editors welcome poems, songs, essays. Please mail contributions to Editor, c/o International Society for Krishna Consciousness, 518 Fredrick Street, San Francisco, California.

Also available from the Society:

Essays by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami: WHO IS CRAZY AND KRISHNA THE RESERVOIR OF PLEASURE (50 cents) INTRODUCTION TO GEETOPANISHAD (35 cents) and SRIMAD BHAGWATAM (3 volumes) translated and with Purports by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.