Суд над Бхагавад-гитой / Attempt to ban Bhagavad-gita

From the stage of basic anartha-nivritti, when guru and
Krishna will be satisfied with the intensity of our anxiety, our


desperation, our ardent avidity for attaining our natural eternal
mood of loving ecstasy, bhava-siddhi, there will certainly be
further and further enlightenment by gradual revelation from
both within and without. Then practical attainment of our
authentic, eternal prayojana, our requisite premika relationship
as an assistant of Shri Guru in his or her eternal services to
Radha and Krishna, will be sure and solid by Their grace. At
that stage only, fullest empowerment to act as an agent of
Krishna’s compassion, both internally as a vraja-gopa or gopi
serving in His nitya-lilas and externally as a preacher moving
within this psycho-physical dimension, becomes possible – not
otherwise.

This material world will be repeatedly vyakta and avyakta
(manifest and unmanifest) for the rest of eternity. It is not that
this insignificant point on the eternal time continuum is the all-
important consideration. For all of eternity there will be
innumerable fallen conditioned souls who will need to be
delivered to the supreme perfection by the influence of
someone’s highly qualified and most capable, fully self-realized,
super-consciously empowered preaching efforts. Furthermore, a
most profound truth is that Krishna, being an extremely witty
connoisseur, very often requests the emancipated jiva who has
in the sac-cid-ananda spiritual body attained His pleasure
pastimes at His abode of Goloka to return in the acarya-svarupa
to this material cosmos as a nitya-muktavatara. Such a mukta-
jiva may then act as the greatest emissary of the Lord’s
compassion to the baddha-jivas bound by the network of Maha
Maya’s allurements. Having become the recipient of the fullest
extent of Krishna’s mercy, only the said emancipated jiva, as a
fully enlightened gopa or gopi, has the most splendid,
incomparably beatific experience of the brightest absorbing
prema contrasted against the black background of previous
material existence characterized by abject forgetfulness of the
Lord. The nitya-siddha-jivas as well as Krishna’s divine svarupa-
shakti-tattva counterparts, and even Shri Krishna Himself, being
always transcendentally situated and ever free from the
influence of the modes of material nature, can never have such
an extremely enhanced contrastive experience of the extent of


the Lord’s compassion. Only the emancipated jiva fully evolved
to the acme of individually achievable trancendency can most
perfectly empathize with the plight of the conditioned soul. And
only such a thoroughly unfettered devotee, having perfectly
completed the progressive course of vraja-bhakti-bhajana, can
bring about in Krishna an enhanced appreciation of His own
golden quality of benevolence – an appreciation otherwise
unfeasible in the spiritual world. It is only the emancipated jiva,
therefore, who truly realizes what bliss is in store for the
conditioned soul upon achieving the highest perfection, and as
such, the emancipated jiva is the fittest instrument to deliver
the fallen souls to the highest end. Having the fully actuated sac-
cid-ananda-siddha-deha, the emancipated jiva remains ever
beyond the degrading influence of the modes of material nature.
He or she may, therefore, remain perpetually within the material
world if required for assisting the Lord’s preaching mission,
apparently descending to the second-class or madhyama-
adhikari devotional status without running the risk of falling
down to the material platform. Every disciple wants Guruji to be
such a fully empowered parama-maha-bhagavata-avatara,
coming down from the spiritual world to deliver discipleji to the
lotus feet of Krishna. We will have the rest of eternity to collect
the thousands and millions of disciples, if that’s what Krishna
wants. Not that we push the panic button, childishly play
makeshift lifeguard guru jumping into the ocean of material
existence to “save” the “drowning” souls, become overwhelmed
by the tidal wave of maya, and heroically get ourselves drowned
in the process.

It’s nice that we in all our spiritual infantility intelligently
rely on the power of our guru’s fully self-realized purports in the
matter of serving to assist his preaching mission through the
medium of transcendental book distribution. That is, no doubt,
a tremendous credit. In the end, however, it would surely be
preposterous to expect the books to be fully Krishna conscious
for us, wouldn’t it? Transcendental book distribution certainly
serves to puissantly inculcate ideal spiritual standards upon
humanity. That is the mercy of the acarya-parampara – to give
us some meaningful engagement along the way. Nevertheless,


who have to personally learn and gradually realize the full
gamut of progressive pure devotional experience. This must
necessarily be accomplished by the practical application of
appropriate, authoritatively approved internal rupanuga
methodologies, which are notably illustrated in the writings of
Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami and Vishvanatha Cakravartipada.
The point is that practically every one of us at some juncture
was on the receiving end of the book distribution effort. “Book
distribution effort” means that the books were distributed to
someone, and we happened to be the “someones” to whom the
books were distributed. Why were the books distributed to us?
The idea should be that the books were distributed to us to
induce us to go to the highest end of realizing our eternal
relationship with Krishna in one of the vraja-bhavas. Unless and
until we actually go to that end, the purpose of the book
distribution that was done to enable us to receive the book
won’t be perfectly fulfilled. Therefore we have to go to that end
to make the book distribution effort a complete success. Any
intelligent and thoughtful book distributor should deeply
consider, understand, appreciate, and in due course apply this
principle in practical life. Otherwise, what is the meaning of the
whole affair? How can we deem our transcendental book
distribution a complete success unless the “someone” becomes
fully absorbed in relishing the vraja-bhavas as a result of having
gained an attraction and greed for them? “Someone” – Who? –
The wewe should not idiotically ignore the obvious implication that it is
we
“someones.” “Work now; samadhi later.” That’s all right.
But how much later? How later does later have to be before
later can be considered later enough? Later after some future
God-knows how many births?

Restoration of one’s constitutional topmost vraja-prema-
saturated quality of para-duhkha-duhkhi compassion toward
others, following in the wake of the immaculate moods of the
gopas and gopis of Vrindavana, and achievement of full-blown
self realization in terms of the jiva’s highest potential are in
effect one substance. Prema and compassion are essentially
tantamount in that prema deliberately expresses itself as the
service endeavor to facilitate the happiness and relieve the


distress of Krishna and His devotees, not excluding the fallen
potential devotees of this prison world of threefold sufferings.
Particularly in the higher vraja-rasas – shringara, vatsalya, and
some varieties of sakhya – a natural, supramundane sense of
superiority in relation to Krishna as a lover, son, or friend may
be noticed, wherein the devotee is seen to rightfully manifest
daya-bhava (mercy) as a consequence of karuna (pathos)
toward the Lord. Such occurs in response to suitable uddipanas
(stimuli) due to the intoxicating nature of intensified rati for the
visaya-alambana (object of affection), which naturally covers a
raga-bhakta’s knowledge of Radha-Krishna’s omnipotence. This
is not very astonishing. As the highest features of prema
exhibited in the stages of sneha, mana, raga, anuraga, bhava,
and maha-bhava are unachievable in the present material body
(sadhaka-deha), it is no laughing matter that one progressively
attend to the internal culture of the moods of Vraja, for without
doing so, one could never hope to manifest the suitable eternal
spiritual body (siddha-deha) essentially required for prema’s
maximum expression. Actually, the highest premika compassion
evincible by any jiva can only be gained in the company of
Krishna’s eternal retinue after joining His manifest earthly lilas
in this material world. When that degree of prema brims over to
compassionately inundate the rotting lives of this world’s doleful
detinue, then only can topmost empowered preaching be done
by anyone. As such, it would behoove any aspiring preacher
who wants to realize his or her highest preaching potential to go
to that end, even if it demands a concentrated, purposeful
dedication of considerable time and energy in this lifetime to
preparatory antaranga-bhajana with that long-term aim in view.

Greed-induced multi-aspected absorption in ananda-maya-
vraja-bhakti-bhajana, both internal and external, could never in
its real light be discerned by a deepest intellect to be a selfish or
self-centered affair. It should never be confounded with the
egoistical approach of the Himalayan forest-dwelling
liberationist referred to by Prahlada in his prayers to Lord
Nrisimhadeva, as recounted in Shrimad-Bhagavatam. If it were,
it could hardly be accepted as vraja-bhakti, because by
definition, at its very core, the exclusively selfless, self-giving


service attitude, far above petty concerns for mitigating
personal pangs of material bondage or for private spiritual
satisfaction, is meticulously cultured for the absolute pleasures
of the Lord and His devotees. Lalasamayi, the intense desire for
being reinstated in one’s eternal, constitutional, perfect spiritual
body (siddha-deha) as an eternal resident of Vraja, should in no
way be presupposed by anyone to be any sort of gross or subtle
material or spiritual sense gratification. A surrendered devotee
harbors no ambition separate from the interest of the Lord.
Such a devotee’s only business is to recognize and sensibly
submit to Krishna’s desire to have us back with Him – to serve
Him, play with Him, and dance with Him in the eternal sky of
Krishnaloka. In as much as it honors the Lord’s wishes, a sincere
sadhaka will nobly do the needful, pursuing the favorable
internal cultivation by which His desire may ever be fulfilled.
Not to do so would be utter conceit. This attainment of the
Lord’s nitya-lilas at Vraja-bhumi and onward to Goloka is
coveted only for the purpose of achieving the otherwise
unachievable highest expressible form of pleasure-giving prema.
A true Vrajavasi does not consider personal happiness and
distress independent of Theirs (Radha-Krishna’s) to be in any
way a compelling factor for his or her actions. That is the
speciality of the Vrajavasis’ standard of devotion, which
distinguishes their excellence, far surpassing that of the best
devotees of any other realm. Although in vraja-bhakti liberation
and beatific delight are naturally consequential, as in any other
pure devotional approach, they could never be seen as crucial
elements in a Vrajavasi’s decision-making process, though they
should not necessarily be altogether eschewed or despised.

To say that the genuine, pure-hearted vraja-bhakti-
bhajananandi is selfishly bent on his own bliss, personal benefit,
or comfort zone would be akin to declaring that the gosthy-
anandi preacher is primarily engaged as such to secure for
himself either the spiritual beatitude; the ego-gratifying daksina,
honor, and reputation; or the sheer adventure personally
plundered from his burlesque preaching extravaganzas. One
might exhaustively harp and harp about the hypocritical, cheap,
imitative imposters of either ilk, but that should never ascribe


any improbity to the truly sincere. Negation of the nonessential
in no way suggests a need to negate the essential. In either
authentic case, we should be prepared to acknowledge the
primary focus on the actual sincere service endeavor as distinct
from its pleasurable or remunerative side effects – “eating to
live” as opposed to “living to eat.”

Shrimati Radharani in Her inimitable Krishna conscious
absorption transcendentally experiences more distress than the
combined distresses of all the conditioned souls of the entire
material existence put together. Although Her “distresses” are
transcendental and ananda-maya, as opposed to the niggardly
nature of a baddha-jiva’s suffering, they are nonetheless very
real and unimaginably excruciating. In truth, Her anxieties over
the condition of the incarcerated baddha-jivas, as represented in
the lamentations of Shri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to Thakura
Haridasa, constitute but a minor feature of Her complete whole
domain of loving afflictions. It is of little wonder that a soft-
hearted para-duhkha-duhkhi devotee, upon knowing these
things, might opt to compassionately seek in various ways to
somehow help mitigate Her severe amorous excruciations. How
could we conceive that such an attempt to assist in the services
of Her preponderant internal “home” affairs is in any way less
noble than the attempt to alleviate the relatively insignificant
sufferings of the minute individuals of this world? If anything,
the consideration of the magnitude of necessity pertaining to
the primary plight of Radha all the more amplifies the reason to
laud the internal affairs of those enlightened individuals
seriously endeavoring to qualify themselves to become Radha’s
palya-dasis through strenuous antaranga-bhakti-bhajana. They
are neither in the least bhukti-kami nor mukti-kami nor
svananda-kami.