TLC – The Teachings of Lord Caitanya—Part 01 VIHE

Giriraj Swami: Krishna imparted knowledge directly in the heart of Brahma or to Arjuna. Similarly, Krishna as Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, imparted knowledge directly, especially to certain confidential devotees like Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami. But the most complete discussion with Lord Chaitanya has recorded in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta or Srila Prabhupada summaries study—Teachings of Lord Chaitanya, or Lord Chaitanya’s Instructions to Sanatana Gosvami.

In various places, Lord Chaitanya explained that the Vedic literatures discuss three subjects only. Do you know what the three subjects are? Yes.

Devotee: [Inaudible] sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana.

Devotee: Karma-kāṇḍa and second is. . .

Giriraj Swami: No, actually, what he said is correct; sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana. Sambandha means knowledge of our relationship with the Lord, which necessarily means knowledge of who I am, knowledge of who the Lord is, knowledge of the Lord’s energies, which lead to the conclusion of my relationship with the Lord.

So, when Sanatana Gosvami first met Lord Chaitanya at Varanasi, he inquired of the Lord. And actually, the Lord gave him the strength and the intelligence to inquire, so the Lord had the chance to reply and explain all of the three departments of knowledge to Sanatana Gosvami. Sanatana Gosvami approached the Lord very humbly, taking some grass between his teeth and prostrating himself before the Lord, and he submitted to the Lord as follows, “In ordinary society, people considered me to be very learned, and I actually used to think of myself as being learned. But the fact is that I’m not at all learned. In fact, I’m very foolish because I do not know even who I am. So, please tell me, who am I? Why am I suffering the threefold miseries? What is the perfection of life? And what is the means to attain it?

Then, Lord Chaitanya answered the questions of Sanatana Gosvami, which have filled several chapters in Caitanya-caritāmṛta. More than one full volume of Srila Prabhupada’s translation.

So, I will just summarize Lord Chaitanya’s instructions about sambandha. Because by the time we surrender and take to devotional service, we are supposed to have sambandha-jñāna. And in considering Lord Chaitanya’s instructions to Rupa Gosvami and others, I thought that the most appropriate instructions for us to discuss would relate to abhidheya, or the process of devotional service, because we are engaged in the process of devotional service. And we’ll also discuss prayojana, or love of Krishna, which is the ultimate goal, briefly.

At the end of the class, we’ll hand out the one and a half chapters, namely Chapter Twenty-Two and part of Chapter Twenty-Three that we’ll be discussing in detail. But just to give the summary of sambandha-jñāna, to set the background, we’ll read from Chapter Twenty.

Text 108, Lord Chaitanya begins to answer the three or four questions asked by Sanatana Gosvami. And this is in one line sambandha-jñāna summarized.

TEXT 108

jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya — kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’

COMMENT

And besides the one line, there are a few more lines.

TEXT 108

kṛṣṇera ‘taṭasthā-śakti’ ‘bhedābheda-prakāśa’ sūryāṁśa-kiraṇa, yaiche agni-jvālā-caya
svābhāvika kṛṣṇera tina-prakāra ‘śakti’ haya

TRANSLATION

“It is the living entity’s constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa because he is the marginal energy of Kṛṣṇa and a manifestation simultaneously one and different from the Lord, like a molecular particle of sunshine or fire. Kṛṣṇa has three varieties of energy.

COMMENT

One time, when Srila Prabhupada was sitting in his room in Calcutta, he commented, “I am the eternal servant of Krishna, I think that most of my disciples understand this much.” And this is the basic understanding that we need to have. And we should learn the Bengali words, if we don’t already know. I’ll write them on the board sometime. So, that is the answer to the question, “Who am I?”

TEXT 117

kṛṣṇa bhuli’ sei jīva anādi-bahirmukha
ataeva māyā tāre deya saṁsāra-duḥkha

TRANSLATION

“Forgetting Kṛṣṇa, the living entity has been attracted by the external feature from time immemorial. Therefore the illusory energy [māyā] gives him all kinds of misery in his material existence.

COMMENT

So, this is the answer to the question, “Why am I suffering the threefold miseries of material existence?” Why? Yes, because I’ve forgotten Krishna.

TEXT 120

sādhu-śāstra-kṛpāya yadi kṛṣṇonmukha haya
sei jīva nistare, māyā tāhāre chāḍaya

TRANSLATION

“If the conditioned soul becomes Kṛṣṇa conscious by the mercy of saintly persons who voluntarily preach scriptural injunctions and help him to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, the conditioned soul is liberated from the clutches of māyā, who gives him up.

COMMENT

So, here is the answer to the question, “How to become free from the threefold miseries of material existence?” And that is to become Krishna conscious. The medium by which we become Krishna conscious is the instruction of saintly persons who explain the scriptures.

So, what do the scriptures say? The way to become free from the clutches of maya is to follow the instructions of the scriptures as explained by saintly persons. So, what do the scriptures say?

Here is the answer, in Text 124 and 125.

TEXT 124

veda-śāstra kahe — ‘sambandha’, ‘abhidheya’, ‘prayojana’
‘kṛṣṇa’ — prāpya sambandha, ‘bhakti’ — prāptyera sādhana

TRANSLATION

“The Vedic literatures give information about the living entity’s eternal relationship with Kṛṣṇa, which is called sambandha. The living entity’s understanding of this relationship and his acting accordingly is called abhidheya. Returning home, back to Godhead, is the ultimate goal of life and is called prayojana.

TEXT 125

abhidheya-nāma ‘bhakti’, ‘prema’ — prayojana
puruṣārtha-śiromaṇi prema mahā-dhana

TRANSLATION

“Devotional service, or sense activity for the satisfaction of the Lord, is called abhidheya because it can develop one’s original love of Godhead, which is the goal of life.

COMMENT

So, our goal of life, or prayojana, is kṛṣṇa-prema, not Krishna. When we get kṛṣṇa-prema, we automatically get Krishna because Krishna comes under the control of the devotee who has kṛṣṇa-prema. So, prayojana is prema, the goal.

Now, Lord Chaitanya next tells a story to illustrate the three subjects described in the Vedic literatures. He tells the story of one astrologer named Sarvadya. And the astrologer visits one poor man who is suffering in poverty, and he sees the poor man is suffering so much. He hardly has food to eat, he hardly has clothes to wear, he has no comforts to call a home. And he is suffering so much. So, the astrologer approached him and told him, “Your father was a very rich man, but you are living so poorly. Your father has left some treasure for you, but he must have died without telling you, and therefore you are suffering.” Then, he said that the treasure is buried right in the compound of the house, “All you have to do is dig and you will find it. But don’t dig to the southern side, because on the southern side, there are so many wasps and drones who will bite you and torment you. So, don’t dig there. And don’t dig on the western side also, because there are yakshas there, ghosts, and they will trouble you like anything if you try to dig on the western side. And don’t try to dig on the northern side either, because on the northern side is a black snake, and if you try to dig there, he will bite you and poison you. You should dig on the eastern side, and very soon, your hands will touch the treasure.”

So, Lord Chaitanya told this story to illustrate sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana. That by hearing the words of the astrologer, the poor man found out about his relationship with the desirable object, or treasure. Then, when he understood that he has some relationship with the treasure, the astrologer told him the process by which he could get the treasure. And in the end, he got the treasure, and he immediately became rich. And by becoming rich, he was able to enjoy all sorts of happiness. And by enjoying all sorts of happiness, automatically, his miseries went away.

The knowledge of his relationship with the treasure is sambandha-jñāna, the process by which one gets the treasure is abhidheya, and the treasure is prayojana, or kṛṣṇa-prema. When one gets kṛṣṇa-prema, he enjoys spiritual pleasure. And enjoying the transcendental happiness of devotional service and pure love of Godhead, automatically, all miseries go away. He is liberated without any separate effort.

So, the conclusion, as stated by Lord Chaitanya in Text 143.

TEXT 143

veda-śāstre kahe sambandha, abhidheya, prayojana
kṛṣṇa, kṛṣṇa-bhakti, prema, — tina mahā-dhana

TRANSLATION

“In the Vedic literatures, Kṛṣṇa is the central point of attraction, and His service is our activity. To attain the platform of love of Kṛṣṇa is life’s ultimate goal. Therefore Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa’s service and love of Kṛṣṇa are the three great riches of life.

COMMENT

So, sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana correspond to Krishna or our relationship with Krishna; krishna-bhakti and prema.

So, Lord Chaitanya is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead for many reasons. He is accepted so in the scriptures, with various references. His characteristics and His activities correspond to those of the Supreme Personality of Godhead only, and especially important for us is that He has given us the essence of the Vedic literature—sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana. He has taught us how we can reestablish our relationship with Krishna and act in our relationship, and ultimately, reach our goal, especially in the modern age of Kali-yuga.

So, although the Supreme Personality of Godhead has spoken in other ages, even as recently as 5,000 years ago, Krishna to Arjuna, but the instructions of Lord Chaitanya are especially important for us, because Lord Chaitanya appeared only five hundred years ago, right in Kali-yuga, and He taught us how we can execute devotional service and attain pure love of Krishna in Kali-yuga.

Now, the three divisions of knowledge actually, are all bhakti. So, the real subject of the class will be bhakti. And in Lord Chaitanya’s instructions to Rupa Gosvami, one verse that Rupa Gosvami included in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu is quoted in Caitanya-caritāmṛta. And we should learn this verse, because this verse defines bhakti. And the whole subject of Lord Chaitanya’s instructions to Sanatana Gosvami, which we will discuss, is bhakti. So, we should be able to see everything that we discuss in relation to the one verse. And by understanding the one verse, we’ll be more easily able to understand the other subjects.

anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ
jñāna-karmādy-anāvṛtam
ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-
śīlanaṁ bhaktir uttamā

What does anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ mean? Yes, material desire. What is material desire? Any desire other than the desire to serve Krishna. Sometimes we engage in devotional service and we are very careful not to desire anything besides Krishna’s service. Even when we are sick, we don’t pray to Krishna to make us well because we know that we should not pray to Krishna for anything material, or anything else besides Krishna’s service. But sometimes, some bad person may come with a gun or a knife to kill us, and we will immediately pray to Krishna and chant Krishna’s name to save us. So, is this against bhakti? Is this outside the definition of anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ?

Devotee: Not necessarily, if we want to be able to use that body to serve Krishna and not have it damaged so we can serve Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: But can’t you serve Krishna without the body?

Devotee: If you go back to Godhead.

Devotee: The body belongs to Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: That’s all right; the body belongs to Krishna.

Devotee: (inaudible)

Giriraj Swami: Yes, that is a good answer. Actually, Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura analyzed the word anyābhilāṣitā, and he says that in normal circumstances, we should not pray for anything except devotional service. Although the body can be a facility for service, generally, we don’t pray to the Lord for facilities, because we can serve the Lord with or without the facilities. If the facility is provided by the Lord, we can accept it and use it in the Lord’s service. But if we think that if we get one million dollars, we can do so much more service for Krishna. But will we pray to Krishna for one million dollars? No.

So, similarly, Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says that in ordinary circumstances, we should not pray to the Lord for anything material. But in extreme circumstances, when one is threatened with death, then one may pray to the Lord, and that doesn’t violate the basic principle of uttamā bhakti. Of course, what the other devotee said is also true—that if we see the body as Krishna’s property, as something that can be used for Krishna, and if we see Krishna as our only protector, then those are also elements of Krishna consciousness.

Devotee: Why would it necessarily be, without taking into consideration the points that we brought up, that under these extreme circumstances it wouldn’t violate the principles of bhakti?

Giriraj Swami: Well, he has analyzed the word anyābhilāṣitā as opposed to the word anyābhilāṣ. And the suffix, which makes the complete word, anyābhilāṣitā, means that one should not be habituated to praying for anything material or desiring anything material. In other words, one’s basic motive should be to serve Krishna. One should not come to devotional service with any other motive. But Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura says that due to some false identification with the body, at the moment of crisis, we may pray to the Lord for protection. But such misidentification with the body will be purified by the process of devotional service in due course.

It doesn’t mean that one is disqualified from rendering pure devotional service. As long as under ordinary conditions, he is not impelled by any other motive than service, still, he can reach the goal. But if he is not engaged in pure devotional service, if he has other motives besides Krishna’s service, even under normal circumstances, he wants bhukti or mukti or something else, then he is not eligible for pure devotional service, and he can’t reach the goal.

Of course, someone who is engaged in mixed devotional service can also come to the platform of pure devotional services with good association and good instructions.

So, we engage in many activities, just like worshiping the Deity is an activity. But that won’t cover devotional service. What covers devotional services is fruitive activity. So, worshiping the Deity, obviously, is not against the principles of bhakti. Similarly, jnana refers to speculative knowledge, because we are also trying to understand sambandha-jñāna, or when we do understand sambandha-jñāna, then we can enter very nicely in devotional service. So, here jnana means such type of jnana as we’ll cover bhakti, like impersonal speculation.

Ānukūlyena means?

Devotee: (inaudible)

Giriraj Swami: Ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanaṁ. Ānu-śīlanaṁ means cultivation, or continuous activity in relation to Krishna, which is favorable to Krishna’s pleasure. And how do we know what is Krishna’s pleasure, or what will please Krishna?

Devotee: Through the spiritual master and scripture.

Giriraj Swami: Yes. But sometimes the scriptures give different instructions in different places. And the scriptures are not contradicting themselves. But one instruction will apply in one situation, and another will apply in another. Just like Krishna says paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge, “I come to reestablish the principles of dharma.” And at the end of the Gītā, He says sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja, “You should leave aside all dharmas and just surrender to Me.”

So, the two instructions appear contradictory. In one place, He says that He comes to establish dharma, and in another place He says that you should reject dharma. But according to time, place, circumstance, and candidate, one instruction will apply, and in another situation, another instruction will apply. And Lord Chaitanya also discusses this in His instructions to Sanatana Gosvami, “When one is eligible to give up following the rules and regulations of varnashrama-dharma.” It’s not that everyone can just suddenly or whimsically give up dharma. One has to have some qualification for sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja.

And Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura raises another question, that when Mother Yasoda was feeding baby Krishna with her breast milk, some of the milk that was on the fire began to overflow the pot. Then Mother Yasoda set aside baby Krishna to tend to the milk on the fire, and baby Krishna became very upset, very angry, and very frustrated, because He didn’t get enough milk, He wasn’t satisfied. So, the question is that pure devotional service should be favorable to Krishna’s pleasure. But here, we find that Krishna was not pleased when Yasoda set Him aside, rather, He was angry. So, is this pure devotional service, to give more importance to the milk than to Krishna? She thought the milk was more important than Krishna, so did she go against the principles of bhakti?

Devotee: No. Because milk is for Krishna’s satisfaction, and the worship or the tending to that milk is even more important than, in that case, satisfying Krishna, because it’s for Krishna’s ultimate service.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, the milk is Krishna’s paraphernalia, and service to Krishna’s paraphernalia is included in the category of service to Krishna. Here, Krishna means not only Krishna, but the expansions of Krishna, the paraphernalia of Krishna, the devotees of Krishna. And the service of the devotees of Krishna, or the paraphernalia of Krishna, may be more befitting than the service of Krishna directly. Just like when Lord Chaitanya refused to meet Maharaja Prataparudra because he was a king and was supposed to be involved with women and money. So, the devotees arranged to send Lord Chaitanya’s cloth to King Prataparudra, and King Prataparudra began to worship the cloth. And when Lord Chaitanya heard, He was satisfied because the cloth of Lord Chaitanya was considered non different from Lord Chaitanya. And He quoted the verse:

ārādhanānāṁ sarveṣāṁ
viṣṇor ārādhanaṁ param
tasmāt parataraṁ devī
tadīyānām samarcanam

“Of all types of worship, the worship of Vishnu is the highest, but even higher than the worship of Vishnu is the worship of things related to Vishnu.”

Devotee: In that particular pastime, Krishna, at least immediately, was not pleased then. Now, of course, we may well assume that He became pleased this time that we are talking. But according to the definition of anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ, Krishna has to desire, Krishna has to be pleased.

Giriraj Swami: Very good point. He says that ānukūlyena kṛṣṇānu-śīlanaṁ means it should be favorable to Krishna’s pleasure. But here, Krishna was not pleased. And another example also comes, that Kamsa and other demons who are inimical to Krishna, pleased Krishna by fighting with Him. They actually helped Him in His pastime by fighting with Him. So, was their activity bhakti? Because Krishna was pleased.

Devotee: All Krishna’s pastimes are under His yoga-māyā or līlā shakti, so everything that is done is for Krishna’s pleasure, whether He is killing Kamsa or Mother Yasoda is taking care of Him. It’s for Krishna’s pleasure.

Giriraj Swami: So, there is no difference between Mother Yasoda and Kamsa? [laughter]

Devotee: There is a difference.

Giriraj Swami: What is the difference?

Devotee: Kamsa was not desiring to please Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: That’s it. Kamsa’s attitude was not favorable to Krishna’s pleasure, although by his activities, Krishna was pleased. And Yasoda was favorable to Krishna’s pleasure, but Krishna was not pleased. But there is another point, which is that the milk is also a devotee. The milk is also conscious. So, the milk was thinking, If Krishna gets satisfied by drinking the milk from Yasoda’s breast, then I won’t get the chance to do any service for Krishna. So, the milk was thinking, Somehow or other, I also want to serve Krishna. So, the milk deliberately boiled over the pot, so Yasoda would leave Krishna and the milk would also get the chance to do some service.

So, this is the platform of līlā. And when we come to the last Chapter, Twenty-Three, about prayojana, we will find that after prema. . . Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu goes up to prema. It begins with sraddha and goes up to prema.

But actually, there are developments beyond prema. If one achieves prema, he can get śānta-rasa. But beyond prema is sneha. And if one gets sneha, he can have dāsya-rasa. Then, above sneha there is mana. Now, mana is translated as the anger of love. So, the special feature of mana is that there appears to be anger, there appears to be jealousy, but inwardly, there is ecstasy. So, sometimes Krishna does things and Radharani becomes angry, or sometimes Radharani or Yasoda will do something and Krishna will become angry. This is only apparently displeasure, but actually, it is ecstasy.

But on our level of sādhana-bhakti, we cannot imitate the devotees who have gone more than prema, who are in relationships with Krishna more than neutral relationships, and more than servant relationships, who are playing with Krishna like equals or superiors. But still, we have to know that generally, for us, our effort should be to please Krishna. In other words, our attitude should be favorable, and the result should also be pleasing to Krishna. And if we follow the instructions of the spiritual master and the scriptures, then Krishna will be pleased. And if we just have the desire to please Krishna, but we don’t follow the instructions of scripture, then we may just create a disturbance.

That’s also stated in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, that if one performs devotional service without reference to the instructions of the revealed scriptures, then the result will be just a disturbance. Just like sahajiyās. Their attitude may be that they want to please Krishna, but their activities will not please Krishna because they are not serving according to paramparā.

So, this is very important for us, that we should desire to please Krishna. And desiring to please Krishna—follow sadhu, shastra, and guru, and then actually please Krishna.

Devotee: So, is this level of mana a division of prema, or is this just something beyond prema?

Giriraj Swami: It’s like adau śraddhā tato sādhu-saṅga tathā bhajana-kriyā. All of these things are further developments of sraddha. But still, we can distinguish between ruci and simple sraddha, which exists in the beginning. So sneha, mana, raga, anuraga, bhāva, mahā-bhāva, they are further developments of prema. But they can be distinguished from simple prema also. So, in Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, Rupa Gosvami talks only up to prema in discussion. But then he wrote another book called Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi, in which he discusses all the way to mahā-bhāva, which is only in mādhurya-rasa. And Lord Chaitanya has given everything and Srila Prabhupada has explained everything. And there is something more than mahā-bhāva. So, this course is from before sraddha to after prema.