20211129 Kṛṣṇa-bhakti is Abhidheya, Part 1

The following is a Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book Compilation By His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on 29th November 2021 in Śrīdhāma Māyāpur, India

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Hare Kṛṣṇa! Dear Devotees! Today is the compilation of Caitanya līlā book, the chapter today is entitled:

Kṛṣṇa-bhakti is Abhidheya, Part 1
Under the section: The Process of Devotional Service

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.1

kali-yuga-pāvanāvatāra premadātā prabhura praṇāma—

vande śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya- devaṁ taṁ karuṇārṇavam
kalāv apy ati-gūḍheyaṁ bhaktir yena prakāśitā

Translation: I offer my respectful obeisances unto Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He is an ocean of transcendental mercy, and although the subject matter of bhakti-yoga is very confidential, He has nonetheless manifested it so nicely, even in this Age of Kali, the age of quarrel.

Jayapatākā Swami: Normally the process of Bhakti is very escoteric, and very difficult to understand for most people. However Lord Caitanya had presented it in such a nice simple way that people can easily take up devotional service and His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda has kept the presentation also very simple so that everybody easily can take up the process of bhakti-yoga.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.3

samagra veda-śāstre kṛṣṇai sambandha’rūpe nirūpita —

eita kahiluṅ sambandha-tattvera vicāra
veda-śāstre upadeśe, kṛṣṇa—eka sāra

Translation: Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, I have described one’s relationship with Kṛṣṇa in various ways. This is the subject matter of all the Vedas. Kṛṣṇa is the center of all activities.

Jayapatākā Swami: The real purpose of Vedas is to bring us to understand our relationship with Kṛṣṇa.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.4

śrī-sanātana-śikṣā—(2) abhidheya (kṛṣṇa-bhakti)-varṇana; abhidheyai sambandha o prayojana-pradātā :—

ebe kahi, śuna, abhidheya-lakṣaṇa
yāhā haite pāi—kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa-prema-dhana

Translation: Now I shall speak about the characteristics of devotional service, by which one can attain the shelter of Kṛṣṇa and His loving transcendental service.”

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya is instructing Sanātana Gosvāmī on abhidheya, the process of devotional service.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.5

kṛṣṇa-bhaktii abhidheya —

kṛṣṇa-bhakti—abhidheya, sarva-śāstre kaya
ataeva muni-gaṇa kariyāche niścaya

Translation: A human being’s activities should be centered only on devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa. That is the verdict of all Vedic literatures, and all saintly people have firmly concluded this.”

Jayapatākā Swami: Human life should be centered around serving Kṛṣṇa.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.6

śruti-smṛti-purāṇa-pañcarātre kṛṣṇa-bhaktii ‘abhidheya’ baliyā vihita— muni-vākya —

śrutir mātā pṛṣṭā diśati bhavad-ārādhana-vidhiṁ yathā mātur vāṇī smṛtir api tathā vakti bhaginī purāṇādyā ye vā sahaja-nivahās te tad-anugā ataḥ satyaṁ jñātaṁ mura-hara bhavān eva śaraṇam

Translation: ‘When the mother Vedas [śruti] is questioned as to whom to worship, she says that You are the only Lord and worshipable object. Similarly, the corollaries of the śruti-śāstras, the smṛti-śāstras, give the same instructions, just like sisters. The Purāṇas, which are like brothers, follow in the footsteps of their mother. O enemy of the demon Mura, the conclusion is that You are the only shelter. Now I have understood this in truth.’

Purport: This quotation from the Vedic literature was spoken to the Lord by great sages.

Jayapatākā Swami: All śruti-smṛti-purāṇādis, concluding that one should worship Kṛṣṇa and serve Kṛṣṇa.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.7

kṛṣṇa o svarūpa-śakti ekātma haiyāo vilāsārtha paraspara āśliṣṭa—

advaya-jñāna-tattva kṛṣṇa—svayaṁ bhagavān
‘svarūpa-śakti’ rūpe tāṅra haya avasthāna

Translation: Kṛṣṇa is the nondual Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Although He is one, He maintains different personal expansions and energies for His pastimes.”

Purport: The Lord has many potencies, and He is nondifferent from all these potencies. Because the potencies and the potent cannot be separated, missing they are identical. Kṛṣṇa is described as the source of all potencies, and He is also identified with the external potency, the material energy. Kṛṣṇa also has internal potencies, or spiritual potencies, which are always engaged in His personal service. His internal potency is different from His external potency. Kṛṣṇa’s internal potency and Kṛṣṇa Himself, who is the potent, are always identical.

Jayapatākā Swami: Kṛṣṇa simply by desiring something, His spiritual potencies automatically implement that.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.8

asaṁkhya vaikuṇṭhe svāṁśa viṣṇurūpe o brahmāṇḍe jīvarūpe līlā-vilāsa—

svāṁśa-vibhinnāṁśa-rūpe hañā vistāra
ananta vaikuṇṭha-brahmāṇḍe karena vihāra

Translation: Kṛṣṇa expands Himself in many forms. Some of them are personal expansions, and some are separate expansions. Thus He performs pastimes in both the spiritual and the material worlds. The spiritual worlds are the Vaikuṇṭha planets, and the material universes are the brahmāṇḍas, gigantic globes governed by Lord Brahmā.”

Jayapatākā Swami: His direct expansions are considered as His personal expansions; the living entities are considered as separate expansions. So, in this way He manifests different pastimes. He is the Supreme Lord and the separated living entities are His subordinates.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.9

svāṁśa-vilāsa caturvyūha o avatāraga—kṛṣṇa-svarūpa vā śaktimat-tattva ; jīva—vibhinnāṁśa vā śakti-tattva—

svāṁśa-vistāra—catur-vyūha, avatāra-gaṇa
vibhinnāṁśa jīva—tāṅra śaktite gaṇana

Translation: Expansions of His personal self — like the quadruple manifestations of Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, Aniruddha and Vāsudeva — descend as incarnations from Vaikuṇṭha to this material world. The separated expansions are the living entities. Although they are expansions of Kṛṣṇa, they are counted among His different potencies.”

Purport: by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda The personal expansions are known as Viṣṇu-tattva, and the separated expansions are known as jīva-tattva. Although the jīvas (living entities) are part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, they are still counted among His multipotencies.

This is fully described by Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.5):

apareyam itas tv anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām
jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat

"Besides this inferior nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature."

Although the living entities are Kṛṣṇa’s parts and parcels, they are prakṛti, not puruṣa. Sometimes prakṛti (a living entity) attempts to imitate the activities of the puruṣa. Due to a poor fund of knowledge, living entities conditioned in this material world claim to be God. They are thus illusioned. A living entity cannot be on the level of a Viṣṇu-tattva, or the Personality of Godhead, at any stage; therefore it is ludicrous for a living entity to claim to be God. Advanced spiritualists would never accept such a thing. Such claims are made to cheat ordinary, foolish people. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement declares war against such bogus incarnations. The bogus propaganda put out by people claiming to be God has killed God consciousness all over the world. Members of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement must be very alert to defy these rascals, who are presently misleading the whole world. One such rascal, known as Pauṇḍraka, appeared before Lord Kṛṣṇa, and the Lord immediately killed him. Of course, those who are Kṛṣṇa’s servants cannot kill such imitation gods, but they should try their best to defeat them through the evidence of śāstra, authentic knowledge received through the disciplic succession.

Jayapatākā Swami: Kṛṣṇa declares in the Bhagavad-gītā that He comes in every yuga. But these false incarnations, they are coming in every century, every year, may be every month. So they must be defeated by spiritual arguments.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.10

dvividha jīva—

sei vibhinnāṁśa jīva—dui ta’ prakāra
eka—‘nitya-mukta’, eka—‘nitya-saṁsāra’

Translation: The living entities [jīvas] are divided into two categories. Some are eternally liberated, and others are eternally conditioned.”

Jayapatākā Swami: This is very clear that the jīvas in the spiritual world, they also understand their position as the servitors of the Supreme Lord, they are nitya-mukta, or eternally liberated and the others are nitya-baddha or eternally conditioned they form vast majority of those who are in this material world.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.11

(1) nityamuktera caritra –

nitya-mukta’—nitya kṛṣṇa-caraṇe unmukha
‘kṛṣṇa-pāriṣada’ nāma, bhuñje sevā-sukha

Translation: Those who are eternally liberated are always awake to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and they render transcendental loving service at the feet of Lord Kṛṣṇa. They are to be considered eternal associates of Kṛṣṇa, and they are eternally enjoying the transcendental bliss of serving Kṛṣṇa.”

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.12

(2) nityabaddha jīvera caritra—

‘nitya-bandha’—kṛṣṇa haite nitya-bahirmukha
‘nitya-saṁsāra’, bhuñje narakādi duḥkha

Translation: Apart from the ever-liberated devotees, there are the conditioned souls, who always turn away from the service of the Lord. They are perpetually conditioned in this material world and are subjected to the material tribulations brought about by different bodily forms in hellish conditions.”

Jayapatākā Swami: So, the devotees are trying to liberate the conditioned souls, give them a chance to serve the Lord and enjoy the eternal happiness of serving the Lord.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.13

kṛṣṇabimukhatāra phala vā śāsti—

sei doṣe māyā-piśācī daṇḍa kare tare
ādhyātmikādi tāpa-traya tāre jāri’ māre

Translation: Due to his being opposed to Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the conditioned soul is punished by the witch of the external energy, māyā. He is thus ready to suffer the threefold miseries miseries brought about by the body and mind, the inimical behavior of other living entities and natural disturbances caused by the demigods.”

Jayapatākā Swami: At present due to the global warming, there are different different sufferings which fall in the third category.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.14-15

kāma-krodhera dāsa hañā tāra lāthi khāya/ bhramite bhramite yadi sādhu-vaidya pāya uddhārera upāya —

tāṅra upadeśa-mantre piśācī palāya
kṛṣṇa-bhakti pāya, tabe kṛṣṇa-nikaṭa yāya

Translation: In this way the conditioned soul becomes the servant of lusty desires, and when these are not fulfilled, he becomes the servant of anger and continues to be kicked by the external energy, māyā. Wandering and wandering throughout the universe, he may by chance get the association of a devotee physician, whose instructions and hymns make the witch of the external energy flee. The conditioned soul thus gets into touch with devotional service to Lord Kṛṣṇa, and in this way he can approach nearer and nearer to the Lord.”

Purport: An explanation of verses 8 through 15 is given by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in his Amṛta-pravāha-bhāṣya. The Lord is spread throughout the creation in His quadruple expansions and incarnations. Kṛṣṇa is fully represented with all potencies in each and every personal extension, but the living entities, although separated expansions, are also considered one of the Lord’s energies. The living entities are divided into two categories — the eternally liberated and the eternally conditioned. Those who are ever liberated never come in contact with māyā, the external energy. The ever-conditioned souls are always under the clutches of the external energy.

This is described by Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.14):

daivī hy eṣā guṇamayī mama māyā duratyayā

This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome.”

The nitya-baddhas are always conditioned by the external energy, and the nitya-muktas never come in contact with the external energy. Sometimes an ever-liberated personal associate of the Supreme Personality of Godhead descends into this universe just as the Lord descends. Although working for the liberation of conditioned souls, the messenger of the Supreme Lord remains untouched by the material energy. Generally ever-liberated personalities live in the spiritual world as associates of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and they are known as kṛṣṇa-pāriṣada, associates of the Lord. Their only business is enjoying Lord Kṛṣṇa’s company, and even though such eternally liberated persons come within this material world to serve the Lord’s purpose, they enjoy Lord Kṛṣṇa’s company without stoppage. The ever-liberated person who works on Kṛṣṇa’s behalf enjoys Lord Kṛṣṇa’s company through his engagement. The ever-conditioned soul, provoked by lusty desires to enjoy the material world, is forced to transmigrate from one body to another. Sometimes he is elevated to higher planetary systems, and sometimes he is degraded to hellish planets and subjected to the tribulations of the external energy.

Due to being conditioned by the external energy, the conditioned soul within this material world gets two kinds of bodies — a gross material body and a subtle material body composed of mind, intelligence and ego. Due to the gross and subtle bodies, he is subjected to the threefold miseries (ādhyātmika, ādhibhautika and ādhidaivika), miseries arising from the body and mind, other living entities and natural disturbances caused by demigods from higher planetary systems. The conditioned soul subjected to the threefold material miseries is ceaselessly kicked by māyā, and this is his disease. If by chance he meets a saintly person who works on Kṛṣṇa’s behalf to deliver conditioned souls, and if he agrees to abide by his order, he can gradually approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa.

Jayapatākā Swami: So, if one receives the copy of Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-bhāgavatam then he can be taken from the eternally conditioned status if he follows the instructions then he can become eternally liberated, free from the influence of material energy.

Caitanya Caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 22.16

śaraṇāgatera prārthanā:— Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (3.2.25)—

kāmādīnāṁ kati na katidhā pālitā durnideśās teṣāṁ jātā mayi na karuṇā na trapā nopaśāntiḥ utsṛjyaitān atha yadu-pate sāmprataṁ labdha-buddhis tvām āyātaḥ śaraṇam abhayaṁ māṁ niyuṅkṣvātma-dāsye

Translation: ‘O my Lord, there is no limit to the unwanted orders of lusty desires. Although I have rendered these desires so much service, they have not shown any mercy to me. I have not been ashamed to serve them, nor have I even desired to give them up. O my Lord, O head of the Yadu dynasty, recently, however, my intelligence has been awakened, and now I am giving them up. Due to transcendental intelligence, I now refuse to obey the unwanted orders of these desires, and I now come to You to surrender myself at Your fearless lotus feet. Kindly engage me in Your personal service and save me.’

Purport: This verse is also quoted in the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu (3.2.35). When we chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra we are saying, Hare! O energy of the Lord! O my Lord Kṛṣṇa!” In this way we are simply addressing the Lord and His spiritual potency, represented as Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Sītā-Rāma or Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa. The devotee always prays to the Lord and His internal energy (consort) so that he may engage in Their transcendental loving service. When the conditioned soul attains his real spiritual energy and fully surrenders unto the Lord’s lotus feet, he tries to engage in the Lord’s service. This is the real constitutional position of the living entity.

Thus ends the 1st Part of the chapter entitled, Kṛṣṇa-bhakti is Abhidheya
Under the section: The Process of Devotional Service