7 minute read
Foreword
To be honest, we are all unfortunate. Whether we can admit it or not, and even though we can’t possibly remember what we did to make it happen, we have been sent away from where we used to live very happily in the company of our best friend. “All we like sheep have gone astray.” (Isaiah 53:6) Or as Lord Caitanya tells it, praying for mercy:
ayi nanda-tan¡ja ki¯kara° patita° m§° vi¢ame bhav§mbudhau k¥pay§ tava p§da-pa¯kajasthita-dh¡l¦-sad¥ªa° vicintaya “O son of Nanda, I am Your eternal servant, but somehow or other I have fallen into this horrible ocean of nescience. Kindly pick me up and fix me as a speck of dust at Your lotus feet.” (®ik¢§¢±aka 5)
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We were K¥¢£a’s servants, perhaps His close friends, elders, or beloveds, and for some foolish reason or other we gave up that intimacy to enter the miserable struggle of material life. But even though we chose to forget Him, He is still our well-wisher, ever ready to save and restore us as soon as we honestly recognize our helplessness and with all humility beg for His mercy. Lord Caitanya begs K¥¢£a to think of Him as a particle of dust attached to His lotus feet. Taken too literally, of course, this image is not properly understood. Lord Caitanya is not advising us to become
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impersonalists or demons like ®iªup§la so we can attain s§yujyamukti by merging into the Supreme Lord’s body. No, becoming dust on K¥¢£a’s lotus feet should be understood as the poetic expression it is. Just as K¥¢£a’s feet are not literally lotus flowers, but rather lotuslike in their beauty and softness, so attaining K¥¢£a’s lotus feet means not the literal act of merging, but approaching Him with full submission and regaining a loving connection with Him. This image is repeated often in the prayers of K¥¢£a’s devotees.
In His ®ik¢§¢±aka prayer, Lord Caitanya sets the example of a devotee who expects his attitude to be changed by K¥¢£a to one of a wayward servant, simply by the servant’s making a sincere enough request of the Lord. One such perfect prayer should be enough to evoke K¥¢£a’s complete mercy. But what about those of us who are not fit to pray perfectly, who don’t have the required pure, helpless humility? K¥¢£a in His infinite kindness also pro vides for us:
atha citta° sam§dh§tu° na ªakno¢i mayi sthiram abhy§sa-yogena tato m§m icch§ptu° dhanañjaya “My dear Arjuna, O winner of wealth, if you cannot fix your mind upon Me without deviation, then follow the regulative principles of bhakti-yoga. In this way develop a desire to attain Me.” (Bhagavad-g¦t§ As It Is 12.9)
Regulative devotional practice, s§dhana-bhakti, begins with two basic activities, hearing and speaking about K¥¢£a, highly recommended as leading to all kinds of success. According to Queen Kunt¦:
ª¥£vanti g§yanti g¥£anty abh¦k¢£aªa¤ smaranti nandanti tavehita° jan§¤ ta eva paªyanty acire£a t§vaka° bhava-prav§hoparama° pad§mbujam
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Foreword
“O K¥¢£a, those who continuously hear, chant, and repeat Your transcendental activities, or take pleasure in others’ doing so, cer tainly see Your lotus feet, which alone can stop the repetition of birth and death.” (®r¦mad-Bh§gavatam 1.8.36) As ®r¦la Viªvan§tha Cakravart¦ explains in his commentary on this verse, it is because K¥¢£a is so attractive that hearing and chanting about Him brings a person to the point of insatiable obsession with Him and ultimately to constant remembrance of one’s forgotten loving relationship with the Lord. ®r¦ ®ukadeva speaks similarly:
pibanti ye bhagavata §tmana¤ sat§° kath§m¥ta° ªrava£a-pu±e¢u sambh¥tam punanti te vi¢aya-vid¡¢it§ªaya° vrajanti tac-cara£a-saroruh§ntikam “Those who drink through aural reception, fully filled with the nectarean message of Lord K¥¢£a, the beloved of the devotees, purify the polluted aim of life known as material enjoyment and thus go back to Godhead, to the lotus feet of Him [the Personality of Godhead].” (®r¦mad-Bh§gavatam 2.2.37) ®r¦la Viªvan§tha explains that devotees with developed attachment to the Supreme Lord see Him as §tmana¤, their own favourite object of worship. Some of them worship Him as N§r§ya£a, some as R§macandra, and some as K¥¢£a. And among those who worship K¥¢£a in particular, some worship Him as an infant, some as an older child, and some as a maturing youth. Because their taste for hearing about Him is strong, such devotees eagerly drink what they hear as if it were the nectar of the immortal gods. Less advanced devotees may have little taste for drinking this nectar, but their practice of hearing and chanting, if done faithfully, will purify their hearts and gradually give them the taste.
These two basic practices, hearing and chanting, are the foundation of all further activities of devotion: remembering the Lord, doing loving service for Him, and reviving one’s eternal bond with Him in a unique personal mood. In the current degraded age, proper meditation and loving service are almost impossibly heroic
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accomplishments for most people to even hope to achieve, so intense hearing and chanting about K¥¢£a are all the more important. And they are also all the most effective by the grace of Lord Caitanya, the prime teacher of the means of spiritual success in the Kali age.
kali° sabh§jayant y§ry§ gu£a-jñ§¤ s§ra-bh§gina¤ yatra sa¯k¦rtanenaiva sarva-sv§rtho ’bhilabhyate “Those who are actually advanced in knowledge are able to appreciate the essential value of this Age of Kali. Such enlightened persons worship Kali-yuga because in this fallen age all perfection of life can easily be achieved by the performance of sa¯k¦rtana.” (®r¦mad-Bh§gavatam 11.5.36)
There are many sources of authorized k¥¢£a-kath§, to hear and discuss. First, there are K¥¢£a’s names in the Hare K¥¢£a mah§-mantra, which contain everything of the spiritual nature. K¥¢£a’s own instructions on how to come back to Him are available in the Bhagavad-g¦t§, the Uddhava-g¦ta in the Eleventh Canto of ®r¦mad-Bh§gavatam, and in briefer exchanges with various devotees elsewhere in the Bh§gavatam and other Pur§£as. The Bh§gavatam elaborates on the beauty of K¥¢£a and His expansions, on His own activities and on those of His avat§ras, and on the saintly character and deeds of His devotees. Speaking at length in the Tenth Canto, ®ukadeva Gosv§m¦ has depicted K¥¢£a’s most confidential pastimes with the cowherds of Vraja. And several of the empowered followers of Caitanya Mah§prabhu have written numerous books and songs revealing even more of the sublime secrets of vraja-bhakti.
Given all this, shouldn’t those who want to be K¥¢£a’s devotees delve deeply into the nectar of His pastimes, giving up all inhibitions and other interests? Why, some ISKCON devotees may wonder, did ®r¦la Prabhup§da and his guru before him apparently de-emphasize hearing and chanting k¥¢£a-l¦l§ and focus instead on promoting the busy activities of preaching and organizing? This
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doubt has led too many devotees to leave the company of ®r¦la Prabhup§da’s preaching mission for supposedly greener pastures. Probably fewer would have made this most unfortunate choice had they better understood the intentions of ®r¦la Prabhup§da and his predecessors.
The vision of our §c§ryas is that everyone should hear and chant about K¥¢£a, but always according to the level of their individual qualification. Beginners should hear the basics and practise chanting K¥¢£a’s names. Only to the degree that devotees become purified of lust, envy, and greed should they gradually enter into more intimate hearing. Inappropriate hearing exposes a devotee to frightful dangers: cheap, imitation devotion that does nothing to please K¥¢£a and sets a bad example for others; and worst of all, defiance of the opinions of one’s gurus.
Devotees should with all care steer clear of these pitfalls. They should think carefully about how various degrees of adhik§ra for hearing and chanting k¥¢£a-l¦l§ come naturally by the step-by-step development of devotional practice. This gradual s§dhana-krama should always be kept in view:
sat§° prasa¯g§n mama v¦rya-sa°vido bhavanti h¥t-kar£a-ras§yan§¤ kath§¤ taj-jo¢a£§d §ªv apavarga-vartmani ªraddh§ ratir bhaktir anukrami¢yati “In the association of pure devotees, discussion of the pastimes and activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is very pleasing and satisfying to the ear and the heart. By cultivating such knowledge one gradually becomes advanced on the path of liberation, and thereafter he is freed, and his attraction becomes fixed. Then real devotion and devotional service begin.” (®r¦mad-Bh§gavatam 3.25.25) By proper practice, one after another, firm faith, then real attraction, and finally loving devotion will arise.
In ®uddha-bhakti-cint§ma£i, ®ivar§ma Swami is making a major statement to the devotees of ISKCON as he traces the progression of faith, attraction, and devotion through regulated devotional practice. What he says here is invaluably useful for all who have
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strayed from K¥¢£a and are serious about going back to Him. He explains how the adhik§ras for various depths of hearing k¥¢£a-l¦l§ are acquired in the course of this standard cultivation. In this way he gives us the information we need to decide for ourselves what we are ready to hear and speak about. And he does this with strict adherence to guru, ª§stra, and s§dhu.
Although I have never visited ®ivar§ma Swami’s prabhu-dattadeªa of Hungary, from what acquaintance I have had with him, from reading his books, and from my few opportunities to see him in action in GBC meetings and sitting briefly with him, I have become confident that he is as fit as anyone in our ISKCON assembly of exalted devotees to make thoughtful presentations on such crucial matters of siddh§nta as the questions addressed in ®uddha-bhakti-cint§ma£i. He is without doubt one of the most profound thinkers in ISKCON, and what he thinks about is closely centered on the Supreme Personality of Godhead, K¥¢£a.
Please, everyone who now has this book in hand, read it attentively.
Gop¦par§£adhana D§sa
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