Nomenclature of the Absolute (pg 23-26)
They are always engaged in pleasing their Master. There cannot be any difference of interest between the Master and His servitor, nor does it happen that when the Master is wanting one thing the servitor is supplying another thing. Whatever is wanted by the Master that should be supplied by the servitor, that constitutes real service. We should always be ready to serve according to the whims and predilections of the Master. This is devotion. It is not for us to offer to the Master anything according to our own taste, which may not have His approval...
The Absolute is ever ready to receive His servitors, and His servitors have no other engagement but to serve Him. Devotees do not think that they have any other course to be adopted. They need not have any other engagements. They are always engaged in pleasing their Master. There cannot be any difference of interest between the Master and His servitor, nor does it happen that when the Master is wanting one thing the servitor is supplying another thing. Whatever is wanted by the Master that should be supplied by the servitor, that constitutes real service. We should always be ready to serve according to the whims and predilections of the Master. This is devotion. It is not for us to offer to the Master anything according to our own taste, which may not have His approval. He is the Fountainhead of all potency. He is the Predominating Agent and we are the predominated agents. We have no other duty but to attend to the wishes of the master. Our duty should be to serve Him as a devoted spouse and not as husband. The Master should not be the spouse. The devotion to a single wife such as we find in society is not be applied always to the Transcendental. Sri Ramachandra has been restricted to one wife, whereas in the case of Shri Krishna there are millions of Gopis; but this love is on a Transcendental plane where Shri Krishna, the Supreme Autocrat rules over all souls. We need not restrict Him. He is the Proprietor of everything and everything is within His range.
INNER PEACE, SELF-REALIZATION, SOCIAL HARMONY
The yogi's interest is inner peace and self-realization and social harmony.
We need not put Him under the clutch of restriction as if He is Nature's product and not nature one of His products. We should always abide by the rules of civic discipline otherwise some restlessness or disturbance may arise in society. We are to remember such maxims as, "Do unto others what you wish others to do unto you" in the transactions with our friends. But the case is different in our relation to the Absolute. The Absolute lays claim to everything as Proprietor and therefore all properties are meant for His service only and not for the service of any one else. Since we are dependants, we should be restricted in every way, but we need not for this reason try to put restrictions on the Master. We have got some independence, but that independence should not be indulged in such a way as to restrict the Master. We are allowed some definite things for our purpose, whereas He has sway over all. So we must not think of Him as we do about His created beings. When the Absolute wants something, we are morally bound to offer our services to Him and to attend to His needs. If He thinks that He is the Husband, all should be His wives. The soul should attire her body according to the taste of her Husband; she should apparel herself in such a way as to please her Master.
We are not to think that Godhead should be a predominated agent to serve our purpose. We cannot lord it over Him, We are not allowed to do so. We are incapable of doing so. Being infinitessimally small, we have not the power to have Him as our dependent. We ought not to think that He should be our parent and serve us, as we find our worldly parents doing from the beginning of our lives. We should serve and worship Bala Krishna, Child Krishna, as His parents. "I need not go through the Vedas, I need not read the dharmashastras and Mahabharata for the amelioration of my troubles. Let persons who are too much afraid of worldly troubles read Vedas and so on. I am not at all afraid of all these. I do not think that the pessimistic trend of my mind should engage me in reading these books. These are lifeless transactions. I want a living thing. I see that Nanda, as father, has got the privilege of nurturing and fostering Child Krishna from the very beginning. So it is better for me that I should have Nanda as my preceptor instead of all these Shastras." The Child Krishna is found to be crawling in the corridor of Nanda's house. I am also going to worship Him as His parent servitor. Therefore, the parent servitor should be my preceptor. I should not ask Him to be my friend, but instead, I should befriend Him, i.e., I should render my services to Him as a friend. I should also like to be termed as His confidential friend and not a reverential friend. Flatterers are used to flattering their masters posing themselves as friends. I should not be His flattering friend. I should like to be His confidential friend. I won't hesitate to offer Him any food which I have already tasted before to see whether it is relishable or not. If I find the food to be nice, then only shall I place it before the Supreme Lord, whereas our reverential friend would not allow such conduct which is quite contrary to ideas of the reverential worshippers of the Lord. Even Shri Ramanuja followed the rules of reverential worship. But Shri Krishna Chaitanya has told us that we should be His confidential friends instead of posing ourselves as friends in a reverential mood. The reverential mood puts a sort of screen before us. Shaanta-rati is the neutral mood. The Absolute has the right of receiving the different services rendered by His servitors. The Lord says, "He is ever ready to receive service from His servitors in whatever manner it is offered.'
In the same way that we do not befriend or reject somebody just on the basis of the type of clothing he is wearing, we should not feel prejudice nor bigotry towards others just because of the type of body that they are wearing. We should know that we aren't our bodies and thus not relate with others according to their temporary bodies.
Ordinary people do not understand what religion is. Most people injure the cause of service, excepting the school of Devotion. Jnanins want to merge in the Personality of Godhead. Buddhists think that they can get rid of all miseries by annihilating themselves. Henotheists think that they will, in the long run, reach a state where there is no manifestive or designative feature. Devotees call such people non-devotees, atheists, sceptics, etc. There are Karmins or Karma-virs who are capable of doing many things. They declare they have got a definite object for which they work, otherwise they would be called frantic or mad people. They are all wage-earners or contractors, and do their work in order to get something in return. Agnostics on the other hand do not trouble themselves with such things; they want to lose themselves, they want to commit suicide. These people are not devotees. The idea of a devotee is quite different from the ordinary idea of men in general. The devotional school is always looking after the interest of the Absolute. They do not class themselves as Karmakandins or Jananakandins - they do not join these two parties. They are quite different.
We all should aspire to be Mathura people. We should have a proper conception of spiritual Mathura instead of the mundane Mathura which is the place of enjoyment of people with very low aspirations. Our Sahajiyaa brothers think that they can have access to Mathura by paying the railway fare. It is by surrendering ourselves to the Preceptor's Feet that we can have an abode in Mathura. Otherwise we cannot get an entrance into the transcendental region. We should approach the Guru Who will confer on us the eight things i.e., Name, Mantra, etc. The Name is the Transcendental Sound and Mantras are incantations. The Name is identical with the Namee. The Mantra is required in order to reach that situation in which the Name can be properly chanted. The son of Shachi is the Supreme Lord Himself. Damodar Swarup is the head of the Gaudiyas who are the transcendental servitors of Shri Krishna Chaitanya.
Hatred and conflict are often rooted in differences between people of different races and religions. We all need to respect people of different races as well as people of different faiths and religions. We need to unite by recognizing our common desire and need for a harmonious society—a society in which we and our children and families and friends and communities can all live our lives in peace and harmony. Regardless of our race or religion, we all want and need such social harmony.
Without respect for people of different races or ethnicities or religions, how can we have a peaceful and harmonious society or world? And without a harmonious society, how can there be the necessary economic development and atmosphere conducive to spiritual happiness and self-realization?
Rupa and Sanatana were sent to Mathura by Shri Krishna Chaitanya to diffuse transcendental knowledge there. There are several Puris which can give salvation and among them Mathura is the most supreme. Gosthavati signifies the place where Shri Krishna was feeding His cows. (The sound "Go" has various meanings such as - Knowledge, the senses, the animal cow, etc.). Another holy spot is Radhakunda is a tank where Shri Krishna got rid of the sin He had incurred by killing a cow named Aristanemi. He killed Aristotelianism or the rationalistic process of reasoning of this imperfect world. When Krishna wanted to join hands with Radhika, Aristanemi came forward to disturb Him, because Radhika was thought by many people to be the wife of a milkman named Abhimanyu. This Aristanemi was the incarnation of mundane knowledge, and Krishna killed him, for that act He expiated by taking a dip in the Radhakunda. This kunda is the mental speculation of Radha. The eternal land of our abode should be Radhakunda. By the border of Radhakunda we should have our groves. There are millions of groves on the banks of Radhakunda.
This world is a perverted reflection of the original which is our real home. Instead of passing our time here, we want to go back to our eternal abode. We are now very busily engaged in pursuing pleasant sensations gained by our senses from the Phenomenal objects. We should make it a point to eradicate the root cause which has brought us to this world of delusion, apparent pleasures, miseries and troubles. The mind is the root of all evils and the root of all pleasure-seeking inclinations. So the mind should be subjugated first i.e., it should not be allowed to take initiative in anything. Ordinarily the mind controls our senses and the soul is lying in a dormant condition. The soul has delegated its power of transacting with the external world to the mind, and the mind has five ministers to help in the administration of the phenomenal world. But the mind is not a dutiful agent of the soul. It always tries to injure the interest of the soul. The soul has come down here and, while doing so, it has incorporated two envelopes, one subtle and the other gross. Consequently the soul is now in a drowsy condition.
CULTIVATING KNOWLEDGE
The wise have explained that one result is derived from the culture of knowledge, and that a different result is obtained from the culture of nescience.
~Sri Ishopanishad, Mantra Ten
For one who lives a hedonistic life, a life in which nescience is cultivated, the results are envy, anger, greed, impatience, disrespect for others, anxiety, depression, hatred, ever-increasing lust, forgetfulness, frustration, dissatisfaction, duplicity, fear of death, and so on.
It cannot exactly compel the mind to look after its interest. At this crisis, the ever-merciful Lord Shri Krishna sends His messengers with the Transcendental Sound. This Transcendental Sound is meant to regulate the five senses which are engaged in a wrong way to foster the cause of the mind and to injure the cause of the eternal soul. So aural reception is the first thing we should seek from the Agent, the deputed Messenger from the transcendental plane. The transcendental Sound is transmitted through the lips of the Messenger in the shape of a Mantra and in the shape of the Name. The very Name of the Transcendent can regulate the senses. "Go on chanting the Name, constantly repeat the Transcendental Nomenclature, and you will find that energy is being injected into you. But this Name should come to you from a good source, from a transcendental source, and not from any mundane source. The name should not be confused with the other sounds of this world. The Transcendental Sound regulates the senses and does not submit to the senses for scrutiny. When the Supreme Lord Shri Chaitanya Deva met Shri Rupa at Allahabad, He first of all transmitted something into the entity of Shri Rupa which empowered him to receive the Transcendental Sounds from Him, and then He imparted those Transcendental Sounds to him with all explanations.
Mantra is the Name in the dative case. The Supreme Lord, being Adhokshaja, does not allow anybody to see Him. But people are impatient to see Him first, and that is a wrong process.