Nomenclature of the Absolute (pg 6-10)
We have no ambition to shift our position. But we are to do everything for the confidential services of the Over-soul; and this is safe too. We find a particular worship but we find that all our activities are not engaged hundred percent in Ramachandra. We find another particular worship and in this worship a part of our activities may be kept apart for our selfish personal use, and only some portion of our activities may go to that very adorable object. Such worship is not perfectly disinterested. We often find that a man claims himself to be the master of several dependent things here believing this - 'I have got many servants', 'I have got a big estate', 'I have great learning' and so forth. If one is inclined to confine oneself to a particular Aspect, then it would be rather incompatible with human nature, as he will have nothing to do with the other Aspects of the same Object.
We need not keep anything for our engagement beyond the Absolute; otherwise we must go under some other name than that of 'Devotees'. For instance, if we serve a horse, we would be called a 'groom', if we treat others with medicine, we would be called a physician. These are different denominations we have here. But these designations are meant for individual beings like us, and we are often found engaged in various objects other than the Absolute.
Shri Krishna is the Fountain-head of all these manifestations. Therefore, there must not be any such gross ethical idea that He should be crippled or restricted to receive some particular sort of service only. We must not be doing so. We are to approach the Whole Being the one Entire Absolute, the very Fountainhead. He is Satchidananda 'Akhilarasarita-moorty' and cannot be disliked by any perfectly healthy thought.
We may think we are attracted to the beautiful body of a woman, but actually it is the spark of life which attracts us. When Marilyn Monroe "died", when the life force left the material body, the body was no longer attractive. All that was left was a lump of unattractive matter that was thrown in the dirt. So is it logical to think that material energy is all-attractive? No. Life force or spirit is the attractive element.
We should not associate ourselves with some other form which may give us self-centered happiness merely. That sort of engagement would be rather detrimental to our Final Cause or Goal. We find that the Fountainhead is possessed of all qualifications with all sorts of aspects; but a particular shape may often be seen in our engagements.
So Shri Krishna Chaitanya has explained and shown to us the Whole Object. And if we resolve that we are simply to follow Him, we shall then be called higher theists. That theism cannot be restricted and found in a particular aspect only, just as we find in this world. If we can get rid of all our mental speculations, we would be relieved of this mundane conception of the universe with the help of the medium of Transcendental Words. If we confound them with similar words of the mundane lexicon we would be erring; because we cannot at one and the same time use All-pervading Transcendental expressions fully for earthly purposes. The Transcendental Word, Sound, or Concept is identical with that Great Personal Absolute or the Fountainhead.
We would be known to have advanced well in our theistic aspiration for that Fullest Form, if only the awful and majestic attributes other than All-blissful-ness or All-ecstatic Beauty were taken out from that One Integer. So when we approach Shri Krishna we find that all sorts of Aspects are fully in Him and we can offer all sorts of confidential services to Him with our transcendental and eternal body. We can offer ourselves with all the closest intimacy to Him in all ways.
We must not think that restricting ourselves in a particular aspect only, would entail a quarrel with some one else dealing with some other school of thought or philosophy or some other religious controversies; there can be little scope for that since our whole-time attention, hundred percent, should be devoted to Him and His Counter-Whole. This is the general outline of the Supreme Lord Shri Krishna Chaitanya's Teachings.
Lord Krishna Chaitanya is the combined personality of the predominating and predominated Moieties of the Absolute. We, individual souls, are endowed with a mixed aptitude. Our consciousness possesses a two-fold potentiality. It takes cognisance of the material categories. It is open to the influence of the spiritual as distinguished from the mundane. Lord Chaitanya is our only support and the source of our animation. He is the only Object of our worship. As a matter of fact every activity of ours owes its possibility and existence to His initiative and works as a corollary of his activities. Lord Chaitanya displays the pastime of seeking Himself. All through His Manifestation He is found most anxiously devoted to the exclusive quest of the Absolute Godhead, His predominating Moiety, viz., Krishna. We, His eternal proteges, are conditioned to follow His lead in this matter. If we do so we shall be doing the right thing. By doing so we would obtain the knowledge of the realm of the Absolute. We would no longer have to remain penned within the narrow material scope of three dimensions. But we are hampered by our mixed aptitude. We have the option of meddling with the material as well as the spiritual. As soon as we indulge this mixed aptitude by mistaking it to be our real function we are obstructed by the process. We find ourselves forth-with subjected more or less to the handicaps of insurmountable disqualifications. These disqualifications have been analysed and classified into four groups. They are liabilities to (1) blunder (2) inadvertence, (3) deception and (4) grossness of the senses. These are very serious defects. They make it impossible for us to obtain even a glimpse of the transcendental. Hence there arises the imperative necessity of seeking the help of those who are free from those defects.
Our present sense-function does not give us any knowledge of the whole Truth. On the contrary it always keeps us away from the Full, the Eternal, the Blissful. We are prevented from all access to uninterrupted existence, uninterrupted knowledge and uninterrupted bliss. These constitute the Reality to be gained by the exercise of our present facilities. We obtain instead the so-called knowledge of the things of this world. We perceive only matter. We can imagine the condition of material negation. But neither of these is the Reality proper. We cannot avoid the consideration of distinctions. But it is not possible to entartain [sic] any proposition regarding distinctive entities except under the operation of the four-fold defects mentioned above. It is, however, incumbent on us to try to be perfectly free from those defects. The method based on sense-experience is useless for this end. It can never free us from those defects.
If life is materially based, then why don't we see it springing from matter in the natural world? And why can't we create life from matter in our laboratories?
Those who live on the resources of the mind express themselves in language. The vocabulary used by them is more or less defective and mutually conflicting. The experience of the moment is different from true experience. We try to gain admission in the realm of true experience. We desire to make progress in such experience. It is our purpose thereby to gain the love of the Real Entity. This is the supreme goal.
We are now interested in the acquisition of all kinds of worldly facilities. We find it useful to study those sciences that deal with objects that we wish to acquire. But we need not remain confined to such investigation. We are fit to be attracted also by the science of supermundane reality. We are attracted by One who is Existence, Knowledge and Bliss. He attracts us in different degrees. He has given us the fitness to be attracted in different measures. We are subject to His attraction. We can endeavour to attain to realisation of the science of reality to the extent of His attraction. There are many persons who are not exclusively engrossed in the acquisition of worldly facilities. Many wish to progress in the direction of the supreme function, the supreme facility, the supreme object of desire, the supreme position which frees us from all illusion. Different persons try to do so in different degrees. The language of a person is affected by the progress that he makes. It progresses towards the spiritual realm in the proportion of his advance. Soch [sic] a person can respond to questions regarding the supreme goal in the proper spirit. We formulated a number of questions on the subject. We approached those persons who are spiritually inclined with those questions. We hoped for reasonable response from them.
Persons who are possessed of mixed aptitude are always subject to the fourfold defects. Such is the condition of all those persons who set store by worldly facility. The quest after Krishna is free from the fourfold defect. Persons with the mixed aptitude can know nothing of such quest. We also know this. But we nevertheless cherish the inclination to approach them. We want to be enlightened in our quest of the truth by the positive as well as negative method. We had sought this contact with the spiritually inclined as we know that we shall be gainers by such contact. Such contact helps in our quest of Krishna which is based on the analytic and synthetic methods. It is our greatest desire to succeed in the quest.
We know that such procedure has also its difficulties. The mixed aptitude is really opposed to the quest of the truth. It is opposed to absolute emancipation, to the supreme function, the supreme need and the supreme goal. Its nature as well as its language is equally opposed to the quest of the truth. They are found to try to baffle our purpose. We know this. We also knew that all this notwithstanding, there is no objection to seek contact with an entity that is so hostile to our purpose. He intended to accept that portion from it which is our due.
There are non-spiritual Puranas, non-spiritual Pancharatras and non-spiritual philosophical systems and non-spiritual Darshana Shastras. All these are full of varieties of injunctions in the midst of narratives of useful and harmful activities. But they also contain much instruction for the propagation of real good and suppression of evil. The great sages of old times also studied those works. They were not thereby prevented from attaining the object of their desire. We have felt assured by the knowledge of this fact.
Our purpose is to search for Krishna. We have to consider in this connection two subjects, viz., (1) 'Krishna' and (2) 'His Search'. The word 'Krishna' has an ordinary meaning which is intelligible to all of us. This meaning is supported by History and the conditioned intellect of man. This meaning leaves us ignorant of the truth. We shall not accept this meaning. On the contrary we shall know the real, indivisible Truth Himself. There is a meaning which can enlighten us regarding the Truth. The ordinary meaning of the word 'Krishna' is an entity which is different from Krishna. It is something that is enveloped by the deluding energy of Krishna. It is an object which is comprehensible to the other gross senses besides the ear. It is a product of our sensuous perception. We shall not defile the word Krishna by accepting this meaning.
All the different languages derived from Brahmi, Kharausti, Shanki and Puskarasadi, etc. are the sources of the knowledge which men have gained through the senses of these words. They are guided by the secondary meaning. They are more or less different to the primary meaning of those words. Such desire to attain any visible object of this world by means of such words should be considered as opposed to the supreme goal.
Most people who have actually experienced leaving their bodies and existing outside their bodies no longer identify their bodies as themselves. They know that they can and will exist without the body. They no longer view death as the end of their existence.
There are different words in the different languages to signify the real Truth. These words are the products of intellectual speculation. They point to the Truth. But all those terms are subject to knowledge gained through the senses. Therefore they are entities limited by three dimensions. None of those terms can attain to the level of the transcendental entity.
The word 'Krishna' points to the real Truth. The real truth is not identical with the secondary meaning Himself. The word Krishna is not used to convey any allegorical sense. The word 'Krishna' uttered by the soul desirous of the supreme goal cannot accommodate the meaning that is productive of ignorance. The meaning or words is narrowed by the eye, the nose, the tongue, the skin and the mind. This narrow meaning expresses other than Brahman (the great undefined nourishing Principle), Paramatma (the supreme Soul) or Bhagavan (the supreme Person possessed of all power). The word "Krishna" points to no such narrow meaning. Such words as 'adhokshaja' (transcendental) aprakrita (non-mundane) and atindriya (supersensuous) etc., are the products of negative speculation. By their means it is possible to draw a picture that exists only in the imagination of man. Such performances are different from the real Truth. They retain the power of producing ignorance, which makes them different from the Truth. The adulterated quality of physical space affects such words. They are hereby separated from the real Entity. They contribute to the elaboration of that entity by the conceptions of the relative and the numerical. The Brihadaranyaka speaks of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of the complete whole. But those processes do not destroy the unity of the whole.
All diversity exists by the divisions of object and subject. Mental speculation is based on preference for absence of all distinction. Mental speculation fulfills its purpose by this distinctive achievement. There is no possibility of the elimination of the triple limiting envelope by its means. The truth of the Divinity has His existence in the indivisible cognitive principle. Therefore he does not obstruct the enlightening process of words. The modes of investigation represented by the schools that worship Rudra and Brahma respectively, express a gross kind of difference from the mode of the Vaishnavas. Such procedure is obstructive of indivisible knowledge. It is necessary to consider these speculations with thoroughness and with a dispassionate mind. If we do not do so there will arise a variety of obstacles, in regard to object of meditation, the meditator and the process of meditation. It is necessary to try to remove these obstacles. It is necessary to get rid of them permanently. It is not reasonable to depend on eclipsed knowledge for the purpose of temporary relief. The sun moves in the course in space in due order of time. If the sun is worshipped the object of our worship is an obstacle to our indivisible knowledge. It is not possible to acquaint a person with the nature of the word 'Krishna' by means of language that is conditioned by the triple quality of the phenomenal world.
Work has been done regarding the life force present in plants. In one typical experiment, electrical wires are connected from an electro sensitive meter to a plant. After a stable reading is obtained on the instruments, a small twig is cut from the plant. Invariably, at that moment, a significant response is perceivable on the meter, indicating that the separation of the twig has disturbed or agitated the plant.
The Name Krishna is identical with the possessor of the Name, the word Krishna is identical with the object expressed by the same. Yet the two are also inconceivably distinct from one another. It is necessary to be able to realise the true nature of this inconceivable simultaneous difference and non-difference. Till we are in a position to realise it, our weak speculation can never enable us to understand the distinctiveness of the inconceivable.
The word 'quest' signifies a movement which finally merges into the significance of progressive realisation. Till then the object of 'quest' is allowed to drift away on the tide of unchecked imagination. It does not become available for the practice of the process of real quest. It is necessary for attaining such apprehension that the seeker of the Truth feels himself under His protection. When this is so the process of quest no longer goes astray from indivisible knowledge who is Vasudeva. Then also the process of quest loses its difference from the activity of realisation. The process of quest involves the clear apprehension of relationship with the object of search. It is this which in the subsequent stage becomes known as Bhakti of the stage of endeavour. It is Bhakti which supplies us with the clue to the love of Hari. Love of Hari is the complete, constant and exclusive activity of realisation. Love of Hari is realised as the one thing needful.
There are many obstacles in the way of the search of the Truth. Those obstacles serve to eclipse the real nature of the seer of the truth, of the search, and of the object of search. It is the enlightening potency of words which alone is able to destroy all those obstacles. Therefore it is only when the ephemeral manifestation of the deluding potency of words is resolved into their enlightening function that it does not allow the individual soul to become severed from the indivisible knowledge, the supremely true Entity. It also does not promote the perversion of the oneness of the cognitive principle. On the contrary it tears up by the root the blunder of the speculative theory of undifferentiated cognition. Shri Chaitanyadeva is this one-ness of the subject and object of the indivisible knowledge. Nityananda is the manifestation of this oneness. He is the manifesting aspect of the indivisible knowledge Himself. These two are like the Sun and the Moon. They reveal the cognitive potency of the spiritual soul. Bhakti bestows the quality of oneness and love of Krishna. These two potencies of bestowing oneness and producing the pleasure of the indivisible knowledge are located in Shri Chaitanya.
In this world we construct various structures by means of our cognitive and active sense-organs. Among these sense-organs the organ of speech is the parent of the hearing of sound. The organ of speech may not be wholly established in the line of the heard transcendental Sound. In such a case there will appear conflict with the heard Divine Sound, which leads astray the other four senses. This is to be distinguished from words free from all limitation which remove the obstructive filth that blocks the path of the auricular cavity. It dissipates the limited perceptual word.
Many Chinese and Japanese acupuncturists (possibly out of a desire to "prove" the existence of chi to skeptical Westerners) have invented all sorts of electrical technological gadgetry to monitor the flow of chi through the meridians and to precisely locate the acupuncture points. So although chi cannot be perceived directly, its presence can be detected by a meter that monitors electrical activity.
By such operation the path of transcendental hearing is not prejudicially affected. There is a ten-fold process of rectifying the defects of the physical body produced by semen in the mother's womb. This satisfies the speculative function of the mind. By such purifactory process our sensuous knowledge is enriched. It may produce indifference to indivisible transcendental knowledge. In such a case it mistakes entities possessing relationship with Godhead for things of this phenomenal world. Under such misapprehension it may renounce such entities by the deluding power of the real entity leading them away from the truth and making them place more reliance upon the nonspiritual reflection of the realm of true cognition.
In the demonstration of teaching, there are two parties, viz., the 'teacher' and the 'taught'. We find a reciprocal relation between the aforesaid two. The position of the taught has a special signifinance [sic] in that he has to pay his attention to the words and observe the deeds of the teacher as well as perceive the true goal of his attempts. If he is found to be negligent to receive anything from the teacher, he will simply miss the real bearings of the taught. His function as a recipient would vary according to the nature, capacity and degree of whole-hearted attention. When his nature is under consideration we find that he must own himself as a follower of an elevationist or a salvationist or a devotee. By availing himself of the teachings he is expected to make up for his inadequacies by rectifying this wrong notions and assimilating the essence of the knowledge he is going to receive. He can regulate his mentality by any addition to or deduction from his store of intuition.