20200415 Advaita Ācārya Cites the Destruction of Sudakṣiṇa and Others As Evidence of His Statements (Part 2)

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Someone asked me to explain what the glories of this Vaiśākha month was? I said that in the Vaiśākha month you get 100 times the benefit for any devotional service we do. They are asking is there any story. I told the story which I remembered from the Padma Purāṇa. Did you hear that? So, there was a brāhmaṇa, he had no children and no money. And he told his wife that I want to go to some distant land and raise money and send you. She said, well, I have no money, but at least I have a husband, and if you go to a distant land, then I will have no money and no husband!  Vasiṣṭha Muni is in a nearby village. Why don’t you find out from him why we don’t have any money and no children? And what the solution is. So, then he went and saw Vasiṣṭha Muni. He asked Vasiṣṭha muni why don’t I have money and no children? So Vasiṣṭha Muni was Trikālajña, he knew the past, present and future. So, he told the brāhmaṇa, in your previous life you were a rich śūdra. But you were a miser. You didn’t spend on your wife, you didn’t spend on your children, you had buried your money and somehow you suddenly died and the family did not know where the money was. So they spent the last days of their life in hunger and poverty. So in this life, that is why you have no money and no children. He asked how was I born in a brāhmaṇa family? I have such a good wife, very intelligent! He said in the month of Vaiśākha for three days, you fed Vaiṣṇavas. Therefore, you took birth as a brāhmaṇa and got a good wife. So what can I do now? So Vasiṣṭha Muni said well, there are only 7 days left in the month of Vaiśākha, so you can use this month, the seven days to feed Vaiṣṇavas and do devotional service, and that will change your karma. So, he did that for seven days, he did devotional service, he fed Vaiṣṇavas, then he got children he got money, and then he got devotion. So moral of the story is treat your wife nice! Ha Ha! Ha! And observe the month of Vaiśākha! It is also known as Madhusūdana month.

So, we will continue reading the pastime of Advaita offering different prayers to Lord Caitanya:  He cited the example of destruction of Sudakṣiṇa and others.

* * *

Chapter entitled as Advaita Ācārya Cites the Destruction of Sudakṣiṇa and Others as Evidence of His Statements – Continued…

CB Madhya-khaṇḍa 19.196

ye tore laṅghiyā kare more namaskāra
se jana kāṭiyāśira kare pratikāra

Translation: “One who transgresses You and offers Me obeisances is cutting off the head of his worshipable Lord and then trying to remedy the situation.

The service and the superficial rejection of false ego displayed by conditioned souls who are covered by the three modes of nature and who consider themselves the enjoyers and the doers of all activities are simply insults to the worshipable Lord. Darśana without service is simply an exhibition of aversion to the service of Hari by living entities inclined towards material enjoyment. Therefore, the show of devotion offered to one's material father, mother, friend, or lover is simply improper behavior intended to convert the worshipable object into a servant. The external show of service without the actual inclination for service is like severing the head of one's worshipable object; in other words, it is meant to lord it over one's worshipable object.

Jayapatākā Swami: “One who offends You and then offers Me their obeisances, that person is cutting the head of his worshipable Lord and trying to remedy the situation.” So, the conditioned souls in this material world, who are conditioned by the three modes of material nature, consider themselves as doers, and enjoyers of all the activities. They are insulting the worshipable Lord. Going to some temples and seeing the Lord without offering any service, is being averse to the service of Lord Hari, is simply offensive. And that shows they are inclined to material enjoyment and not to devotional service. So, this is like cutting the head off of the deity and then approaching Advaita to remedy it. So, we should be very careful to offer the Lord our surrender and service. We may show appreciation for our mother, father, friends, or lover, but that doesn’t have any devotion for Kṛṣṇa, then that is also improper, because they want to take their worshipable object and to serve it. Just like one prays to Kṛṣṇa or some worshipable deity, give me this, give that, give me those things, they want the Lord to serve them. Rather we should want to serve the Lord.

CB Madhya-khaṇḍa 19.197

kṛṣṇalaṅghanakārī itara devapūjaka satrājitādira dṛṣṭānta—

sūryera sākṣāt kari' rājā satrājit
bhakti-vaśe sūrya tāna hailā vidita

Translation: “Being pleased by the devotion of King Satrājit, the sun-god directly appeared before him.

Jayapatākā Swami: “Being pleased by the devotion of the king Satrājit, the sun god appeared before him directly.”

CB Madhya-khaṇḍa 19.198

laṅghiyā tomāra ājñā ājñā-bhaṅga-duḥkhe
dui bhāi mārā yāya, sūrya dekhe sukhe

Translation: “Yet because of the offense of transgressing Your order, he and his brother were killed. The sun-god saw this with satisfaction.

Jayapatākā Swami: “Since they disobeyed or transgressed Your order, they were guilty of disobeying Your order, the two brothers died, and the sun god saw this with satisfaction.”

CB Madhya-khaṇḍa 19.199

baladeva-śiṣyatva pāiyā Duryodhana
tomāre laṅghiyā pāya savaṁśe maraṇa

Translation: “Although Duryodhana was a disciple of Baladeva, he and his family members were killed because he disregarded You.

Jayapatākā Swami: “Although Duryodhana was a disciple of Baladeva, because he offended or disregarded You, he with his whole family were killed.”

CB Madhya-khaṇḍa 19.200

hiraṇyakaśipu vara pāiyā brahmāra
laṅghiyā tomāre gela savaṁśe saṁhāra

Translation: “Hiraṇyakaśipu received benedictions from Brahmā, yet he and his family members were killed when he disregarded You.

Jayapatākā Swami: “So Hiraṇyakaśipu received the benediction of Lord Brahmā, but when he offended You, he was killed with his whole family.”

CB Madhya-khaṇḍa 19.201

śiraś-chedi, śiva pūjiyā o daśānana
tomā' laṅghi' pāileka savaṁśe maraṇa

Translation: “The ten-headed Rāvaṇa, who took pleasure in cutting off other's heads, worshiped Śiva, yet he was nevertheless killed along with his family members when he disregarded You.

Jayapatākā Swami: “The ten headed Rāvaṇa, cut his heads off and worshipped Lord Śiva. Yet, he was killed along with his family, when he disregarded or he offended You.”

CB Madhya-khaṇḍa 19.202

śrīcaitanyadevai-sakala devatāra mūla ākara o sakala īśvarera īśvara vyaktāvyakta jagat sakalai tāmhāra dāsa—

sarva-deva-mūla tumi sabāra īśvara
dṛśyādṛśya yata—saba tomāra kiṅkara

Translation: “You are the origin of all demigods and the controller of everyone. All living entities, seen and unseen, are Your servants.

Jayapatākā Swami: “You are the origin of all the demigods. You are the Lord of all Lords, controller of everyone. All the seen and unseen living entitites are Your servants.”

CB Madhya-khaṇḍa 19. 203

sarveśvareśvara kṛṣṇe sevā-vimukha vyaktira kṛṣṇadāsa devagaṇera pūjā-phale tattadevatā kartṛka vināśa-prāpti—

prabhure laṅghiyā ye dāsere bhakti kare
pūjā khāi' sei dāsa tāhāre saṁhāre

Translation: O Lord, if one disregards You and devotedly makes offerings to Your servant, that servant accepts the offerings and kills that worshiper.

“O Viśvambhara Caitanyadeva, You are the original source of all demigods. You are the supreme controller of all controllers. You are the object of love. The living entities of all manifested and unmanifested worlds act as Your servants by engaging in various activities under Your authority. Some of Your servants appear before living entities averse to the service of Hari as objects of their sensual knowledge and become similar to fuel for their sense gratification. Those greedy, ignorant people averse to the service of Hari do not display any attitude of service to the Supreme Lord and are convinced that aversion to Hari is completely justified. Those servants misguide such people by teaching them to disrespect You, while You are in fact the supreme worshipable object for all manifested and unmanifested objects driven by external perception. Such qualified servants of the Supreme Lord collect the ingredients for satisfying their own senses from their respective deceitful worshipers and make those worshipers more averse to the service of Kṛṣṇa. Those worshipers' lusty external conceptions born of sensual knowledge destroy them by increasing their false sense of domination.

Jayapatākā Swami: “If someone transgresses or offends You, and then approaches Your devotee with devotion, that devotee accepts the worship and then destroys the person, that worshipper.” So, Advaita Gosāñi is worshipping Caitanyadeva, Viśvambhara, as the origin, as the real source of all the demigods, as the Parama Īsvara Bhagavān, the Supreme controller of all controllers, the object of all transcendental love. So, all the living entities seen and unseen, manifest and unmanifest, are Your servants. So, bewildered living entities who think that material enjoyment is the purpose of life, they offend You and they think that this is justified, to ignore You or to transgress You, and for their offences, they have to suffer. So, the so-called worshippers of these different devas, the demigods, they destroy themselves by their false sense of domination.

CB Madhya-khaṇḍa 19.204

viṣṇuke laghanapūrvaka śivādira pūjā vṛkṣera mūlocchedapūrvaka pallavādira sevanakāryavat—

tomāre laṅghiyā ye śivādi-deva bhaje
vṛkṣa-mūla kāṭi' yena pallavere pūje

Translation: “Worshiping the demigods headed by Śiva while disregarding You is like watering the leaves of a tree after cutting its root.

Being filled with pride and, according to viśiṣṭādvaita philosophy, being fallen from Viṣṇu's devotional service, Śrīkara, Śrīkaṇṭha, the current Śaivites like Apyaya Dīkṣita, Māṇikya Bhāskara, and Jñāneśvara from the Liṇgāyet-sampradāya, as well as the ācāryas of the impersonal school have introduced a type of devotion to Śiva, yet because they have no knowledge of their constitutional position that same Mahādeva does not accept their worship and more or less entangles them in the philosophy of impersonalism and thus dispels their propensity for worship. Those who in the course of analyzing the science of the energetic Lord, which establishes the temporary nature of Viṣṇu's partial manifestation, this material world, give up the service of Viṣṇu and worship the demigods headed by Śiva, who are in contact with matter and who belong to the external energy of Viṣṇu, do nothing more than uproot the tree while serving its leaves and branches. In this regard, one should discuss the verse beginning yathā taror mūla-niṣecanena [yathā taror mūla-niṣecanena, tṛpyanti tat-skandha-bhujopaśākhāḥ prāṇopahārāc ca yathendriyāṇāṁtathaiva sarvārhaṇam acyutejyā, “As pouring water on the root of a tree energizes the trunk, branches, twigs and everything else, and as supplying food to the stomach enlivens the senses and limbs of the body, simply worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead through devotional service automatically satisfies the demigods, who are parts of that Supreme Personality.” (Bhāg. 4.31.14)] as well as the verses of Brahma-saṁhitā that describe the distinction between the essential characteristics of Viṣṇu and those of the five demigods.

Jayapatākā Swami: Worshipping the demigods, headed by Śiva and others, while disregarding and offending You, is like cutting the root of the tree and then watering the leaves! So different sampradāyas of Liṇgāyet and impersonalists have recommended the worship of Śiva, without understanding His constitutional position as the greatest of all Vaiṣṇavas. So as a result, Mahādeva does not accept their worship. And by their getting entangled in the conception of impersonalism, they lose their propensity to worship. So, this world is a temporary nature of the Supreme Lord. They are more interested in the temporary fruits of this world. So, they worship Śiva or different demigods, devas, who are in contact with the external energy of Lord Viṣṇu. It is like uprooting a tree and watering the leaves. So, this is the example, watering the root of the tree naturally energizes the whole tree, the branches, the leaves. Supplying food to the stomach, energizes the whole body. We don’t put food on our body! Ha! Ha! We feed it to our stomach. So, like that we should worship the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Audio break Brahma-saṁhitā explains the difference between Viṣṇu and the demigods.

CB Madhya-khaṇḍa 19.205

yajñādi sarvamūla gaurasundarera upekṣākārīra pūjā advaitera agrāhya—

veda, vipra, yajña, dharma—sarva-mūla tumi
ye tomā' nā bhaje, tā'ra pūjya nahi āmi”

Translation: “You are the root of the Vedas, brāhmaṇas, sacrifice, and religious principles. I do not accept the worship of one who does not worship You.”

If Advaita Prabhu is approached and offered worship by those who have no taste for the rarely achieved kṛṣṇa-prema taught by Śrī Caitanyadeva, or by those who could not fully surrender themselves at the feet of Śrī Caitanya, the bestower of kṛṣṇa-prema, Advaita will never accept their worship. A few ignorant people deceived by the portion of the Vedas known as karma-kāṇḍa have introduced ritualistic sacrificial performances. If because of not understanding the actual purport of the Vedas they become bereft of Lord Caitanya's service, their external conceptions will make them more or less rivals with the Buddhists, engage them in battle with the demons, encourage them to praise their respective performances of sacrifice, and induce them to forget the Supreme Lord. People under the influence of the three modes of material nature in their respective states full of anarthas, or unwanted things, who do not accept the Vaiṣṇava conclusions found in the manifested and unmanifested worlds as the goal of life falsely think of themselves as the doer of activities. “Yet You are the original source and shelter of all objects and the cause of external conceptions of all temporary objects. I will never consider materialistic people predominately engaged with pride in activities that are neglectful of You as my own, because they are offenders at the feet of Viṣṇu and the Vaiṣṇavas.” Gaurasundara became pleased as He heard Advaita Prabhu's irrefutable glorification of the Absolute Truth, and when He heard Advaita Prabhu explain the purport of the Absolute Truth described in the verse vadanti tat tattva-vidaḥ [vadanti tat tattva-vidas tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam, brahmeti paramātmeti bhagavān iti śabdyate, “Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān.” (Bhāg. 1.2.11)], Śrī Caitanyadeva regarded Mahā-Viṣṇu Advaita Prabhu as the ācārya of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva, which establishes that everything is simultaneously one with and different from the Personality of Godhead.

Jayapatākā Swami: You are the root of all the Vedas, brāhmaṇas, sacrifices and religious principles. I do not accept the worship of those who don’t worship You. So Advaita Gosvāmī explains that if someone does not accept the blessing of kṛṣṇa-prema, from Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, those who cannot fully surrender themselves at the lotus feet of Śrī Caitanyadeva, who gives out, bestows kṛṣṇa-prema, Advaita will not accept their worship. The Vedas are divided into different aspects. One part is known as karma-kāṇḍa. So, they have some people take that part, and then perform ritualistic sacrificial performances to attain sense gratification. The real purport of the Vedas is to have devotional service to the Supreme Lord. In this way, they forget the Supreme Lord, and they engage in fighting demons and rivaling with the voidists and impersonalists. They are under the three modes of material nature and they don’t accept the Vaiṣṇava conclusions of the scriptures. They don’t see that the Supreme Lord should be worshipped, they see themselves as the doers of the activity. So Advaita Gosvāmī is saying that, never consider such falsely proud living entities, materialistic people who are engaged in activities which are neglectful of Lord Caitanya, because they are offensive to the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu and His Vaiṣṇavas. So, Lord Caitanya became pleased by Advaita Gosvāmī’s explanation of the Absolute Truth, and when He heard Advaita Prabhu glorifying the Absolute Truth, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu regarded Mahā-Viṣṇu avatāra Advaita, as the Ācārya of acintya-bhedābheda-tattva. Which establishes that everything is simultaneously one with and different from the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

So, we learned from this that we cannot offend Lord Caitanya, and go to His servants to correct the offense. We should avoid offences. Then naturally, the mercy of the Lord is available to us.

Thus ends the chapter, Advaita Ācārya Cites the Destruction of Sudakṣiṇa and Others as Evidence of His Statements

* * *

So, two questions.

Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Guru Mahārāja. PAMRO. Being a sādhaka many times there is a tendency of impersonalism within our activities. So, how can we overcome this tendency of impersonalism as a sādhaka? Rasapriyā Gopikā devī dāsī.

Jayapatākā Swami: Since Śrīla Prabhupāda said we are hyper personalists, we see that the Lord is a person, nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān - the Lord is a person. Even if we are offering sādhana-bhakti to the Lord, He accepts because we are surrendering to Him. And when we start to take up devotional service a bit spontaneously and that is considered as rāgānuga. So, that is still in the level of sadhana until we have ecstasies of devotional service. Just like some devotees, they think and breathe devotional service, they are thinking how to expand the preaching, how to improve my service, that is rāgānuga. And if we just do our service methodically, not very enthusiastically, just like someone cleans the temple. They clean, (Guru Mahārāja gestured with his hands like mopping the floor and said in a singing way) cleaning the temple, da, da, da da da! They take two hours! And if someone else is cleaning Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare, (Guru Mahārāja chanted very enthusiastically) they clean the temple very fast and they diligently try to do better, then that is the upper level of sadhana-bhakti. From that you can develop bhava bhakti.

Question: Hare Kṛṣṇa Guru Mahārāja! In Caitanya Caritāmṛta it is said that Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu is a full expansion and Sri Advaita Prabhu is the incarnation. Please explain the difference between expansion and incarnation. Your spiritual granddaughter, Jayagopī devī dāsī, Moscow.

Jayapatākā Swami: Baladeva is svayam-prakāśa of Kṛṣṇa. Nityānanda Prabhu is Baladeva. So, He is the first expansion of Kṛṣṇa. He is the full expansion. And then the three incarnations are avatāras, who are expansions of expansions, there is Mahā-Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu So technically Mahā-Viṣṇu is the incarnation for the material world, He manifests all the universes, and He puts into the universes the living entities at the beginning of the creation. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Last question.

Question: Bengali question: PAMRO. The living entity gets liberation in any of the forms of liberation. There are five kinds. What is the kind of liberation that we are talking about here? Your spiritual son, Aruṇakānti Gaurāṅga dāsa.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, there are five kinds of liberation. And one is the liberation called sayuja-mukti which is merging into the brahma-jyoti, which is the effulgence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And the other four are sārūpya, sālokya, sāmīpya and sārṣṭi - having a similar divine form of the Lord, living on the same planet, having similar opulence and having some direct association of the Lord. So, devotee can accept the other four, but he doesn’t want to merge in. If the other four included devotional service, then he can accept.