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

of their preaching struggle, meeting Krishna could hardly be a
very happy affair! So why bother to advance one’s purva-raga,
anxiously hoping against hope to some day actually meet Him
face to face and eye to eye? Moreover, if they were factually
tasting the ten-million-fold happiness they were purported to be
able to taste, then why do so many of them fall away to re-chew
the pre-chewed gross and subtle sense gratification for want of
achieving a higher taste? We see, but we don’t see. If one
actually saw Krishna, one would faint! If one actually saw
Radharani, one would die!

One might pause for a moment and question to what
extent a practitioner could have actually seen, experienced,
tasted, “realized,” or even basically understood for that matter
what is Krishna, what is Krishna consciousness. For the most
part, a sadhaka cannot do any more than conjecture or imagine
what it means to be fully Krishna conscious. We should
doubtlessly acknowledge that the Lord quickly recognizes
anyone who teaches the secrets of the science of Krishna
consciousness for the benefit of the fallen conditioned souls.
Still, to be sure, it would not be inappropriate at this point to
aver that only a topmost devotee can really preach with the
requisite purity, potency, and background of full-fledged
shuddha-sattvika realization to effectually revolutionize or
spiritually enkindle the heart of anyone. Only a maha-bhagavata
invested with the (hladini) potency to do so is fit to bestow
shuddha-nama, which alone can be said to be, in the real sense,
identical with nami, Krishna Himself, subsumptive of all His
internal spiritual potencies. Others, occupied with missionary
movements (antics), may by hook or by crook generate a
curiosity, persuade via various inveigling modus operandi, or
sympathetically encourage by pointing the way; something is
better than nothing, for sure. Still, merely going through the
motions (Hare Krishna movements), as it were, and actually
getting the whole job done may prove to be conspicuously
dissimilar at the upshot. In other words, the degree of a
devotee’s genuine experience of Krishna’s sweetness, as
proportionately revealed by Krishna Himself in response to
one’s evolving premika sweetheartedness toward Him, assumes


the fundamental measure of one’s adhikara to perform
empowered sankirtana.

Those who think themselves to be Vaishnavas, as well as
individuals who regard themselves as guru of Vaishnavas,
looking forward to receiving honor and respect; vying for fame,
recognition, and reputation; equating the rapacious,
quantitative accumulation of disciples with sampradayic worth;
uppishly considering themselves to be superior to others though
incapable of genuinely crying for the Lord’s special causeless
mercy, all the while forgetful of or oblivious to, nay, totally
apathetic toward their internal sac-cid-ananda spiritual identity
(vraja-svarupa), yet anxious to satisfy their greed for prestige
and material gain by accessing religio-institutional power and
position for securing diverse gross and subtle personal and
extended sense indulgences or ego-inflations; remaining
enslaved by mental concoction while keeping Krishna in the
front, can never chant the actual Holy Name of the Lord. Nor
can they qualify their fawning followers to hear the Holy Name,
which alone can award the highest happiness. Though the
syllables of the Holy Name be ostensibly articulated, the
aparadha-nama or abhasa-nama kirtana of the egotistical can
never directly help any jiva attain the final beatific prayojana,
i.e., pure unalloyed vraja-prema. Krishna, as a person, can on
the basis of His own personal feelings like someone or not like
someone according to His own sweet will. No one, even
adhering to or outwardly espousing strict regulative devotional
proprieties, can compel Him to selectively use one’s fleshy
tongue as an instrument in the service of His divine sound
avatara merely by paying lip-service to the vulgar similitude of
Hari-nama or ingeniously mouthing off sampradayic rhetorical
jargon to the extent that one prides oneself to ably parrot
something of the Krishna consciousness philosophy. First
deserve, then desire! How can we expect to fully enlighten
others about the secrets of high-level Krishna consciousness, to,
when required, lead or instruct them to their supreme
perfection, if we ourselves have not deeply penetrated the
esoteric truths and devotional conclusions via our own personal
introspective application of the tenets of antaranga-bhakti-


bhajana, humbly following in the footsteps of the previous
Acaryas? If one, being uninformed, inexperienced, or disinclined,
is incapable of even theoretically discussing the constituent
principles of raga-margabhidheya, or if one fancifully fabricates
dubious, superstitious, or presumptive aberrations thereof, then
how far could the disciples expect to advance under such
unsatisfactory neophyte guidance fraught with utter spiritual
ineptitude?

Compassion is defined as “pity inclining one to help or be
merciful,” implying that one should presumably possess the
capacity to do so. Obviously, one can only effectively help to
the limits of one’s spiritual wherewithal. We vibhinnamsha souls,
as minute parts and parcels of the pleasure potency of Krishna,
are compassionate by nature; it is our intrinsic constitutional
dharma. Arousal of one’s spontaneous, constitutional quality of
benevolence toward others is therefore integral to the very
substance of self-realization. There is, however, essentially no
qualitative distinction between the pure devotional compassion
displayed in terms of one’s participation in the internal
supramundane pleasure dalliances of the spiritual realms of
Gokula and Goloka and the pure devotional compassion
expressed extensibly to the fallen souls of this world by a
constituent of the acarya’s preaching mission. Both varieties of
ministrative concern, whether existentially manifest (in practice
or in perfection) as seva toward those who are ontologically
superior or as daya toward subordinates, are really aspects of
the same substance – the selfless service disposition, far
beyond the bestial self-gratifying nescience of mundane egoism.

The intangible inverted reflection of a tree seen on the
surface of a pool of water can have no existence without the
original substantial prototype at the water’s edge. Similarly,
miserable, selfish, and spiritually corrupt personal and extended
sense gratification on the material platform, antithetical to its
divine counter, exists only on the basis of the original ananda-
maya tree of concentrated and extended selfless prema for
Krishna and His devotees on the terrace of spiritual perfection.
Censurable desire for gross and subtle personal sense
gratification is at the root of the tree of material existence,


whereas the varieties of lustfully extended sensory or emotional
indulgences expand the tree’s downward spread of distressful
material entanglement in terms of increased ephemeral bodily
identification with mundane family, society, nationality, race,
humanity, and so on. Correspondingly, with regard to Krishna’s
nitya-lilas it should be clearly decided that personal
concentrated premika appreciation and enthralling worship of
Krishna’s supremely enchanting loveliness and lovableness is at
the very root of the ever-expanding, all-entangling labyrinth of
extended para-upakara premika fascinations, which are notably
marked by a concerned ministering to others’ love-laden,
deepest desires for the Lord’s loving association (a‰ga-
sa‰ga). Without a doubt, these two tendencies – the trend
toward solitary bhakti-bhajana-kriya and the predilection for the
more gregarious devotional service characterized by
outreaching sanga-kirtana – are natural and actually essential to
every soul. This is quite so because both proclivities have
originated from the absolute personalities of Radha-Krishna and
Shri Gauranga as seen in Their madhurya and audarya-lilas
respectively. As infinitesimal, eternally separated fragments of
the Supreme, the vibhinnamsha-jivas are in their own minute
way inherently ever possessed of both these relevant
juxtapositional divisions of purely supra-mundane madhurya
and audarya expression. It stands to reason, therefore, that one
may without much difficulty justifiably deduce that if preaching
to induce wayward souls to reunite with Krishna be akin to a
gopi’s selfless service of gracefully canvassing to effectuate
another gopi’s enhanced rapture of samprayoga (conjugal union
with the Lord) in the context of the vraja-lilas, then the
execution of solitary bhajana in this sphere should also sensibly
correspond to its self-same essential substance seen in the
Lord’s nitya-lilas in all purity. No one would blame Radharani for
consenting to sport with Krishna in solitude for some interlude
in the course of Her showering mercy upon the whole of Vraja.
Similarly, solitary bhajana for any relative period in the progress
of the eternal life of any elevated Vaishnava should not be
misconstrued to be abhorrent to the high-grade pure devotional
demeanor in that such may well prove to be integral to the


complete whole, long-term, ongoing eternal maturation of the
individual’s multi-aspected Krishna conscious experience. We
must acknowledge that although solitary bhajana and sankirtana
appear to be divergently constituted, the objective of both ways
of worship is one – to please Krishna. It is nowhere indicated
that progress in Krishna consciousness demands a
unidimensional, one-sided approach to the Lord’s loving service.
The sincere adoption of one mode of service or another is
simply a question of pertinence with regard to personal
requirements in consonance with the extent of the Lord’s mercy
manifested in all variegatedness. In fact, today’s consummately
introverted bhajananandi may very well be tomorrow’s
empowered gosthy-anandi preacher, or vice versa.

In the long run, practically tasting the sweetness of vraja-
prema-bhakti-rasa itself becomes the true impetus for earnestly
endeavoring to share the experience with others. It is not
enough to merely distribute, distribute, distribute – superficially
going through the motions on the basis of bare theoretical
understanding without sufficiently developed internal
devotional proficiency. With considerable preparatory foresight,
one must also conscientiously endeavor to ascertain the truth of
one’s ultimate nitya-dharma in terms of one’s eternal inner
spiritual identity. It is imperative that one progressively come to
the point of actually relishing transcendental rasa, self-
manifested through the precise systematic culture of sthayi-
bhava, which fosters the tangible increments of prema from
sneha up to the stage of maha-bhava. Please bear in mind that
these upper levels of prema are possible only upon the
attainment of sampatti-dasha, otherwise known as vastu-siddhi,
the ultimate perfection of gaining Krishna’s direct shelter upon
achieving the actuation of one’s supra-substantial sac-cid-
ananda siddha-deha (perfect spiritual body) in the bhauma-lilas
of the Lord. Nothing happens automatically or blindly by
chance. Everything must be cultivated scientifically and
consciously for the absolute pleasure of guru and Krishna with a
clear conception of deliberate cause and due consequence. One
could hardly expect to achieve the supreme spiritual perfection
by unapprisedly harboring anomalous devotional (what to


speak of non-devotional) idiosyncrasies, which are not
accommodated by the purest realm of Vraja.

To be sure, what one sees in the make-up of one’s sadhana
is basically what one could prospectively see in one’s sadhya
(outcome of spiritual practices). Vaidhi bhakti (fear-based,
reverential devotion) alone can never in a million lifetimes lead
to the stage of raga-bhakti (attraction-based, spontaneous loving
devotion), which is essential for the attainment of Radha’s realm
of sweetest intimacy. Sakala jagate more kare vidhi-bhakti /
vidhi-bhaktye vraja-bhava paite nahi shakti. “Everywhere in the
world people worship Me according to scriptural injunctions.
But simply by following such regulative principles one cannot
attain the loving sentiments of the devotees in Vraja-bhumi.”
(Cc. adi 3.15) Only by the merciful arrangement of a rasika
Vaishnava, wherein the regulative principles of vaidhi sadhana-
bhakti are therapeutically directed toward the diverse
madhurya elements of Vraja, is it at all possible for vidhi (rule) to
attendantly promote the attraction and lobha (greed)
essentially required to gain the adhikara (eligibility) for raga-
marga-bhajana. Even still, one would have to possess sufficient
faith, fortune, and spiritual acumen to actually recognize the
need to progressively transition by stepping up onto the
platform of raganuga sadhana-bhakti in order for the rule to be
said to have effectively served its real purpose. Undoubtedly,
the unqualified, irresolute anisthita-bhajana-kari novices on the
plane of rudimentary devotion, due to insufficiently evolved
greed for the Vrajavasis’ sweetest moods of selfless loving
service, factually have no recourse but to rely heavily upon the
force of pancaratrika rules and regulations in their attempt to
rise above the material quagmire. However, simply sticking to
the reverential process alone does not produce the superlative
result, the highest satisfaction of the self. The bhava eventually
attained with great effort through exclusive fear-based,
reverential adherence to the regulative principles of vaidhi
sadhana-bhakti and the bhava naturally awakened as an
outcome of avidly following the course of raga-bhajana are not
qualitatively one and the same. Bhagavata-dharma, or the cult of
Shrimad-Bhagavatam, is specifically and purposely, if not