Gaudiya Touchstone | Premier Issue

Gaudiyatouchstone

The Magazine of Sri Narasingha Chaitanya AshramPremier Issue

Consciousness is not just an issue for biologists; its a problem for physics.

Muddy Universe page - 39

As soon as a single person will have conceived the sincere desire

of undertaking the promulgation of the tidings of the Gaudiya

literature to the peoples of the world, he is thereby enrolled among

the agents of divine mercy with power to forward the fulfillment

of this expressed wish of the Supreme Lord.

(Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura)

Gaudiyatouchstone

Gaudiyatouchstone

Gaudiyatouchstone

Gaudiyatouchstone

Senior Editor

Science Editor

Associate Editors

Art Department

Layout and Design

Photography

Webmasters

Swami Narasingha

Dhira-lalita

Swami Vishnu

Advaita Acharya Kirtanananda

RasikanandaGaura-Gopala Daruka

RupanugaGaura-GopalaDarukaSwami Giri Satyaraja Kirtanananda

Swami Giri Swami Srirupa Madhava

Contents

Indica

Editorial

Art

Words of Wisdom

Culinary Magic

Poem

Griha PraveshaSrila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada

ReligiositySrila A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Pandita Sri Gadadhara GoswamiSrila Bhakti Rakshaka Sridhara Deva Goswami Maharaja

Raga-patha is Above AllSwami Narasingha

Muddy UniverseRobert Lanza MD

Quantum ConsciousnessKingsley Dennis ph.D

Swami SadanandaInterview - Dasadasanudasa Kishordas & Kalakanthidasi

What is Rasa?Swami Sadananda

The Ideal VaishnaviDhira-lalita

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11

20

27

39

47

51

75

85

105

113

129

135

145

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EditorialW elcome to the world of the electronic magazine and the premiere issue of Gaudiya Touchstone. To bring the knowledge of Krishna consciousness to the world with the least environmental impact as possible is our goal. Since the invention of the printing press a flood of books and magazines have inundated the world, contributing to the destruction of forests everywhere, but for the rarest exceptions, with very little spiritual benefit to Earths residents. The Gaudiya Touchstone electronic magazine is now available to you tri-annually, bringing you interesting

and spiritually inspiring articles from an age old tradition of Krishna consciousness, but in a new dress.

In our premiere issue there are ten articles, the cover story being Muddy Universe wherein consciousness as the cause of the universe is discussed from a scientific point of view by leading scientist Robert Lanza. Other articles of interest from our archives are those by Saraswati Thakura, Swami B.R. Sridhar and A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

In this issue and future issues of Gaudiya Touchstone you will be pleased to find articles on Vaishnava philosophy, science, archaeology, biographies, interviews, history, culture, art, music, tidbits of practical wisdom, photography, culinary magic and more. All this promises to make the Gaudiya Touchstone an interesting and inspiring read.

The editors of Gaudiya Touchstone will try to bring you something of interest and profound spiritual benefit with every issue and we invite you journey with us in this new adventure. Literary contributions are also invited from those who harmonize with the objectives of the Gaudiya Touchstone and who would like to see this publication flourish.

Sincerely,Swami Narasingha

G a u d i ya To u c h s t o n e

Griha-praveshaEntering the New House

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada

On the morning of Friday, April 10, 1931, Sriyukta Nitya-Gopala Ghosh Mahashaya, one of the most important helpers of the preachers of Sri Gaudiya Matha, who has great faith in the Vaishnavas and who is dedicated to the Holy Name of the Lord, having finished constructing his new home, sanctified it with the foot dust of His Divine Grace Om Vishnupada Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada, only entering it after the Guru and his pure Vaishnava servants. Those who perform griha-pravesha, following the rituals of the materialistic karma-kanda Smarta paddhatis, certainly fall down into the dark well of materialistic household life; but that householder who reject such common conceptions and is always entertaining spiritual topics, maintaining a mood of humility and submission, always inviting the paramahamsa maha-bhagavata and the pure devotees to his home and filling his new home with hari-bhajana benefits his town and indeed the whole world.

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For this purpose, filled with causeless mercy, the saviour of the fallen Sri Srila Prabhupada and his associates stepped into the home of Sriyukta Nitya-Gopala Ghosh Mahashaya and spoke hari-katha and performed kirtana with the understanding that entering a spiritually surcharged house and entering the matha are non-different. In this place Srila Prabhupada manifested some ambrosial instructions. That morning, Srimad Ananta Vasudeva Paravidyabhusana B.A,Sriyukta Haripada Vidyaratna MA. BL. and Pandita Sriyukta Pramoda-bhushana Chakravarti Pratna-vidyalankara Mahashaya performed sankirtana for the satisfaction of Gauranga. At the request of Sri Srila Prabhupada, the Gaudiya editor Sripada Sundarananda Vidyavinoda Prabhu read and explained the precepts of the duties of grihastha-ashrama from the Srimad Bhagavatam, 4th Canto, 22nd Chapter, wherein Maharishi Sanat-kumaras gives instructions to Maharaja Prithu.

That same day in the evening, Sri Srila Prabhupada and his associates came to the home of parama-bhagavata Sriyukta Nitya-Gopala Ghosh Mahashaya and delivered instructions concerning the griha-pravesha performed by the spiritually minded householder. At that time we had the chance to hear that and we consider ourselves to be most fortunate. We have published some of that here.


By the powerful association of the representatives of a paramahamsa, one removes the risk of falling into the dark well of family life and the same powerful association with liberated family members allows one to become a paramarthika-grihastha. When one does not constantly deliberate upon Srimad bhakta-bhagavata and Srimad grantha-bhagavata, then there can be no auspiciousness in that house. Those who do not live every moment by the mercy of the Bhagavata, will not be able to understand the meaning of the two instructions of Sri Gaurasundara these two commandments serve as a guiding light towards the ultimate goal of life:

anasaktasya vishayan yatharham upayunjatah nirbandhah krishna-sambandhe yuktam vairagyam uchyate

prapanchikataya buddhya hari-sambandhi-vastunah mumukshubhih parityago vairagyam phalgu kathyate

Things should be accepted for the Lords service and not for ones personal sense gratification. If one accepts something without attachment and accepts it because it is related to Krishna, ones renunciation is called yukta-vairagya.

When persons eager to achieve liberation renounce things that are related to the Supreme, though they are material, this is called incomplete renunciation. (Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu 2.253-542)


Griha-pravesha is the duty of every Vaishnava, because the house will become conducive for hari-bhajana. It is not possible for those that follow griha-vrata-dharma. It is better to enter the house and make the vow that, I shall serve Krishna. It is incomparably better than those that follow futile monkey-like renunciation (markata-vairagya). Firstly, one who follows such useless renunciation is not a good sadhaka. If family life is favorable to hari-bhajana, then one should accept the grihastha-ashrama, and if family life is unfavorable then one should certainly reject the dark well of household life. If one shows aversion to family life simply to demonstrate the gymnastic feats of useless renunciates, then the rejection of household life will never be beneficial. It will only be a matter of a couple of days before such immature vairagis will fall down.

There is no difference between entering a spiritual household and entering a matha; but do not mix the griha-pravesha of the griha-vrata and the griha-pravesha of the krishna-vrata together just as you would mix muri. Those that belong to the school of the griha-vrata cannot understand these words. For those whose life is governed by the Srimad Bhagavatam, their attachment to griha-vrata-dharma is completely destroyed. Those who enter household life following the laws of the external world will be increasingly absorbed in griha-vrata-dharma. Just as the acceptance of the sannyasa-ashrama is most essential for the Lords devotees, similarly entering the grihastha-ashrama and griha-pravesha are also essential for the Lords devotees.

Griha-pravesha should only be performed by the Lords devotees, the non-devotees should not perform it. When the Lords devotee performs the griha-pravesha, we should understand that he has actually entered his matha. Performing griha-pravesha is for creating a conducive environment to constantly serve Krishna. Collecting more than necessary (atyahara), over endeavoring (praya), gossiping (prajalpa), neglecting the scriptural injunctions (niyamagraha), bad association (jana-sanga) and mental restlessness (laulyam) a spiritually minded householder should always keep these things far away. With enthusiasm (utsaha), determination (nishchaya), patience (dhairya) he


should constantly cultivate such various divisions of bhakti such as hearing and chanting etc; he should completely reject female association which is not according to scriptural law, association with those who are attached to women and those who are dominated by a feminine nature and he should abandon the bad association of non-devotees of Krishna. He should perform his activities by following the virtuous examples of Prithu, Ambarisha and other mahajanas, all his ordinary and spiritual activities should be done while cultivating a favorable mood of hari-seva. The spiritually minded householder should curb the impulses of speech, mind, anger, tongue, stomach and genitals. That man who is totally indifferent to all the instructions given in Sri Upadeshamrita and is obsessed with household affairs almost has the nature of an animal. He deviates from grihastha-dharma and becomes firmly attached to griha-vrata-dharma. I will not accept griha-vrata-dharma nor useless renunciation and for the sake of hari-bhajana I will perform the spiritual activities of grihastha-dharma and act as a caretaker for

Things should be accepted for the Lords service and not for ones personal sense gratification. If one accepts something without attachment and accepts it because it is related to Krishna, ones renunciation is called yukta-vairag ya.


Krishna by earning money honestly to perform Krishna-bhajana in this way one who is spiritually minded will make this vow when entering the house. Immorality makes hari-bhajana impossible, only when one is moral can hari-bhajana be performed.

It is not possible to serve Hari while collecting a multitude of sins, and it is also not possible to serve Hari by performing various works of piety. For those people who think about the limited boundaries of their piety, who wish to enjoy the fruits of their own heroic works and who desire to nourish their crooked mentality, there is no other way for them to be freed of their misconceptions except by the exclusive worship of Sri Hari through the execution of grihastha-dharma. By the endeavors of trying to satisfy his senses, the sensual griha-vrati

The present business of Sri Gaudiya Matha is to engage all of mankind in the service of Sri Hari


will fall down; but by completely endeavoring to serve Krishna, he acquires auspiciousness. By niyamagraha (infatuation with ritualistic ceremonies) and niyama-agraha (disregard for the scriptural injunctions), one becomes a griha-vrata. Many people think, I will enter my new house, shut the doors and chant japa! That will be auspicious and I will also be recognized as a spiritually-minded householder. But after many days chanting on beads they will fall into the dark well of the basest pleasures. If they did not perform kirtana after hearing the words delivered from the divine mouth of the associates of the paramahamsas, if they do not construct their lives properly, they will descend into griha-vrata-dharma. Grihastha devotees will try to do everything possible to help those who have given up everything and who constantly perform krishna-bhajana. The present business of Sri Gaudiya Matha is to engage all of mankind in the service of Sri Hari to this end Sri Gaudiya Matha is willing to spend many, many gallons of blood. Those who are reluctant to take up this opportunity of service and are immersed in griha-vrata-dharma, are aware of this. The spiritually-minded householder works hard for his wife and children, and works just as hard to serve Hari. Knowing that his wife and children belong to Bhagavan, he feeds them and takes care of them. Otherwise, just as one does not feed a snake bananas and milk, if the association of family members is unfavorable then one should remain aloof from them. Such spiritually-minded householders have absolutely no interest in material pleasures, he only tries to serve Hari twenty-four hours a day. He is krishnarthe akhila-cheshta (Serving Krishna) at all times and in various ways he is busy serving Hari. Grihastha devotees fully respect the spiritual concepts of duty and morality, but as regards mundane ethics, they have neither love nor hatred towards them. For one whose consciousness is always immersed in divine service, all his mundane obligations are concluded by his performance of spiritual duties.

Tirumangai Alvar took birth in the Kallara tribe. Even though he preached hari-bhakti, influenced by his past samskaras, he was involved in robbery. Yet his heart was moved by spiritual ethics, and he even managed to make


robbery favorable to serve Lord Hari. Only the devotees of Bhagavan know the art of utilizing any activity in the service of Hari. When Jagad-bandhu Bhakti-ranjana Mahashaya could have done many things with his wealth, he made his accumulated money favorable by engaging it in the service of Hari. He mastered the spirit of service in such a short time! Amongst unlimited multitudes of jivas, one can scarcely comprehend how one came to the Lord so suddenly. He surrendered everything to the service of Hari.

He decided that, This family and home is His, and if I perform service to Hari, whatever will be left will be His prasadam and I shall accept His remnants. He had only to realize that his losses and gains were all connected to the service of Hari; he was not involved in either sin or piety. By trying to deceive the Supreme Lord by ones sin or piety, exploitation or renunciation, morality or immorality, one will be forced to reap the fruits of good and evil. But if all results go to the Almighty, the jiva will not be involved in the consequences of good and evil. A man robs others to enjoy for himself, but Tirumangai Alvar robbed others for the service of Vishnu, and thus he did not have to pay for the results of his plundering. All the ways by which Jagad-bandhu Babu had to resort to in order to earn his fortune and all the difficulties he encountered found their true meaning when he offered the fruits of both morality and immorality in the service of the Supreme Controller.

But relying upon the Holy Name is no reason to sin. Since Tirumangai Alvar served Hari by robbing people, then let all looting be used to serve Hari such arguments come from the desire to commit sinful activities on the strength of chanting the Holy Name. Jagad-bandhu Babus material activities were unexpectedly used to serve Hari. The idea that, First we should become good materialists and then we will become servants of Hari this sort of argument is unfavorable in cultivating devotion. Even if the divine will utilizes activities that are due to ones previous samskara, in the service of Hari, such acts cannot be considered as the rule or as an example for ordinary people. Although Tirumangai Alvar was committing crimes, although Jagad-bandhu was facilitating service by inappropriate ways sometimes, through the results

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of their extraordinary sukriti, they considered everything as the property of the Supreme Lord, and being utilized in that way, it became beneficial.

Engaging in karma is futile. The path of karma-kanda never brings the jiva any auspiciousness they are just like a football. One minute the jiva is up, the next minute they are down again and they are constantly moving around. By receiving a good thrashing for his sins, the jiva gradually takes to the path of piety, then once again when he has been deceived by the illusory flowers of piety, he again turns to the path of sinful activities. Due to this he takes to the path of renunciation the desire to renounce everything up to the point of moksha. These are known as the specific activities of devotion to the Lord.

Whether a devotee resides in the house or he resides in the matha - the result is the same. A devotee is always vigilant; every act he performs is for worship of the Almighty, and not for the worship of Satan or an attempt to enjoy for himself.

Griha-pravesha

Griha-vrata-dharma

Jagad-bandhu Bhakti-ranjana

Paddhati

SamskaraTirumangai Alvar

Muri

The ceremony of entering a newly constructed house for the first time

The spiritual name of Sri J.B. Dutta, a wealthy businessman of Calcutta and disciple of Srila Saraswati Thakura

Following materialistic household life

Dried puffed rice mixed with spices

A text describing the performance of various rituals

The results of ones previous actionsOne of the twelve Alvar saints of the Sri Vaishnava sampradaya

Glossary

Religiosityr e a l & a p p a r e n tS r i l a A . C . B h a k t i v e d a n t a S w a m i P r a b h u p a d a

I n the Srimad Bhagavatam a distinction between Religion Pretentious and Religion Real has been clearly made. According to this original and genuine commentation of the Vedanta-sutra, there are a number of pretentious religious faiths which pass on by that name but actually there is nothing in essence which can be accepted as real religion. Real religion is the natural inborn quality of the living being and pretentious religion

is an artificial nescience covering of the living entities pure consciousness effected under certain unfavourable conditions. Real religion remains in dormant condition when artificial religion dominates over the mental plane. The dormant religion is awakened by hearing in pure heart. But the inborn quality is never killed.

For example, it is sometimes experienced that a person professing a particular faith of mundane religiosity changes his own and embraces another kind of religious faith. In India many such changes have taken place in the social life in different circumstances. During the Mohammedan rule in India many Hindus changed their faith in Hinduism and embraced Islamism on account of many circumstantial pressures. Later on many such Hindus and Mohammedans changed again into Christian faith and so on. There are many educated gentlemen who profess practically no particular faith of religiosity and yet they are passing on under the shadow of a certain type

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of religious faith. All these different circumstances prove it definitely that professing a particular faith of religiosity is completely different from the natural inborn religious quality of the living being.

What is the inborn quality of the living being? Let us first of all understand the nature of inborn quality. We can understand the inborn quality of the five elements. The inborn quality of earth is solidity. The inborn quality of water is liquidity. The inborn quality of fire is burning heat and light. The inborn quality of air is mobile humidity. The inborn quality of ether is all-pervading entity. The inborn quality of mind is determination and rejection. The inborn quality of intelligence is thinking and feeling and the inborn quality of ego is identification of Existence.

The living entity does not belong to either of the above eight different elements of material nature. These eight elements are called products of the inferior nature of Godhead. But there is another superior spiritual nature of Godhead, of which the living entity is made. Both the inferior and superior qualitative nature of Godhead are non-different from Him but the actions of the two different natures are completely different. The all-powerful Godhead has innumerable different energies out of them the para-prakriti is known as His internal energy. The internal energy is always personally associated with the Personality of Godhead and therefore the inborn nature of the living entity is to remain personally associated with the Supreme Being. The Supreme Being is eternally existent along with His associated internal energy and therefore in the shruti mantras it is said that the Supreme Lord is the Primeval Eternal Personality amongst innumerable other personalities of living being. In other words every individual living being is an individual person. Everyone has his personal separate existence and nobody is equal with another living being, that is the variegatedness of the living world. The Supreme Lord is also the Supreme living Personality with His separate identity, Form, existence and mode of life. The living entities are therefore equal in quality of the Supreme Lord, but the Supreme Lord is one and the Absolute while the living entities

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are innumerable and relative. The Absolute Personality of Godhead has expanded Himself in his differentiated parts and parcels who are called by the name jiva or the living being. Being one in quality, the living being has the proportionate fraction of the quality of overlordship propensity. When this relative overlordship propensity is manifested disproportionately in the living being, he falls in contact with the external energy of Godhead, called by the name material nature, and his ego is misidentified with the inferior nature. An appropriate example may be given here in connection with the disproportionate independent action of a state citizen. A citizen of an independent nation cannot be absolute. His independence is relative in terms of the state laws. When the citizen therefore disproportionately exhibits his independence, it becomes an act of civil disobedience and he is put under police action an inferior state of citizen life. The false ego is given to the material mind and sense-perception thereof and as such, material sense-perceptions contact with material objects by form, taste, smell, sound and touch. That makes it possible for the living being to drag on a material existence with hard struggle for life. The hard struggle for life is manifest because the living entity is fallen in the material existence, a foreign and inferior quality of nature for the living being. It is something like a living being of the land thrown into the ocean of water, and thus a hard struggle for existence for the overthrown living being. The overthrown living being can be happy only when he is picked up from the ocean of material existence and reinstated again in his normal spiritual existence by the grace of the Supreme Lord. That is his Religion Real.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu therefore teaches us to pray like this:

ayi nanda-tanuja kinkaram patitam mam vishame bhavambudhau

kripaya tava pada-pankaja- sthita-dhuli-sadrisham vichintaya

O my Lord who is born out of the body of Nanda Maharaja, please consider me who is fallen in the ocean of birth and death, out of Your

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immense and causeless mercy, as one of the particle of dust remaining at Your lotus feet.

That is the idea of sincere religious prayer. One must know himself as the spiritual entity eternal associate of the Supreme Lord. Somehow or other he is now thrown into the ocean of material existence where there is a perpetual hard struggle for existence to get rid of the disease of birth and death.

Treatment for disease is accepted in order to get a temporary relief from the cruel hands of death. Why there is such vast arrangement of Health service both by the government and the public also?

The medical practitioner out of a false egoistic identification considers himself too much busy in the research work for curing disease. When he is approached with a request to become a subscriber for Back To Godhead, very gravely he says that he is too busy. But he does not know why medical treatment is at all required. It is required for the relief of pains out of diseases and to avoid the cruel hands of death temporarily. But is it possible to get relief from the pains of diseases or to avoid the hands of death permanently by the help of such advanced mode of medical science? We say most emphatically on the strength of the message of Bhagavad-gita that man can never get relief from the following unwanted items. They are as follows:

(1) The pains of birth.

(2) The pains of death.

(3) The pains of old age and

(4) The pains of diseases.

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As such, unqualified path of religiosity is that which can bring in real relief to the above invincible sources of pains so much unwanted by the human society. The goal of religious path is therefore to achieve the status of relief from pains. The path of religion which does not offer this highest benefit to the mankind is certainly a pretentious religion and Srimad Bhagavatam deprecates such process of religiosity as a matter of cheating the public. Srimad Bhagavatam begins therefore its real form of religion in the following manner.

dharmah projjhita-kaitavo tra paramo nirmatsaranam satam vedyam vastavam atra vastu shivadam tapa-trayonmulanam Srimad-bhagavate maha-muni-krite kim va parair ishvarah

sadyo hridy avarudhyate tra kritibhih shushrushubhis tat-kshanat

In this scripture of beautiful Bhagavatam which is compiled by the great sage (Vyasadeva) paths of religiosity which are full of cheating process are completely rejected. Herein is mentioned the supreme beneficial subject matter of the Substance in reality. It is understandable by the liberated souls of the highest order because it can alone uproot the threefold miseries. Because it is compiled by the great sage (Vyasadeva) by His mature knowledge, what is the necessity of other scriptures? The Supreme Lord Personality of Godhead becomes at once locked up in ones heart by such fortunate creatures who are constantly engaged in this transcendental service. (Bhag.1.12)

The path of religion as chalked out by Srimad Bhagavatam is different from all other types of imperfect religiosity. The paths of religiosity can be divided into three divisions as follows:

(1) The path of fruitive work.

(2) The path of culturing knowledge and mystic powers.

(3) And the path of devotional service and worship.

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(1) The path of fruitive work, karma-kanda, because under the cover of religious ceremonies and with the purpose of elevating ones material conditions, are all cheating process because they can never reach to the highest status of relief from the material existence. As mentioned herein before, the living entity is perpetually struggling hard to get rid of the pangs of material existence because he wants the supreme relief from material pains. The path of fruitive work leads one either to happiness or to distress of the material existence. By pious fruitive work one is placed in the position of temporary material feelings of happiness whereas acts of vices lead one to the distressful position of material wants and scarcity.

Even if one is put into the most perfect order of material happiness, one is not able by that way to become free from the pains of material existence as birth, death, old age and diseases. The materially happy person is therefore in need of the eternal relief which the path of religiosity of fruitive work can never award to such religionist.

(2) The path of culturing knowledge known as jnana-marga and that of mystic powers known as yoga-marga are equally hazardous and nobody knows where he is going by culturing such uncertain procedures. The empiric philosophers in search of spiritual knowledge may endeavour by mental speculations most laboriously for many, many births but unless and until he reaches to the stage of the purest form of the quality of goodness or until he has transcended the plane of material speculation, it is not possible for him to know everything emanating from the Personality of

O my Lord who is born out of the body of Nanda Maharaja, please consider me who is fallen in the ocean of birth and death, out of Your immense and causeless mercy, as one of the particle of dust remaining at Your lotus feet.

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Godhead Vasudeva. His attachment to the impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord makes him unfit to rise up to that transcendental stage of Vasudeva and therefore due to his unclean state of mind he glides down again into the material existence even after an ascendance to the highest stage of liberation. This fall down is made possible due to his want of locus-standi in the service of the Supreme Lord.

And so far as the mystic powers of the yogins are concerned, they are still more full of juggleries in the path of spiritual realisation.

One German scholar who became a devotee of Godhead in India said that so far mystic powers of the yogns are concerned, the German scientists have made laudable progress by the aid of material science. He therefore came in India not to learn the method of Yogis mystic powers solved by material science but what he needed most was to learn the path of transcendental loving service of the Supreme Lord mentioned in the great scripture of Bhagavatam.

The mystic powers of the yogins make the student materially powerful for a temporary relief as much as other material science can give. But such mystic powers can never be the permanent source of relief from the abovementioned four items and therefore according to the Bhagavata school, this path of religiosity is also a method of cheating the followers.

In the Bhagavad-gita, it is therefore clearly defined that the highest mystic powerful yogi is the one who can constantly think of the Supreme Lord within his heart engaged in the loving service of the Lord.

(3) And the path of worship of the innumerable devas or administrative gods is still more hazardous and uncertain than the abovementioned two items of karma-kanda and jnana-kanda. This system of worshipping many gods such as Durga, Shiva, Ganesha, Surya or impersonal Vishnu is accepted by persons who have been made blind by the intense desire of sense gratification.

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Worship of gods, as above mentioned, when it is properly made in terms of the rites mentioned in the shastras which is now very difficult to prosecute in this age of want and scarcity, can certainly fulfill the intense desire of sense gratification, but the success obtained by such methods is certainly very transient and befitting a person of poor fund of brain substance. That is the verdict of Bhagavad-gita. No sane man should be satisfied by such temporary benefit, driven by a sense of enjoying this material world.

None of the above mentioned three methods of religious path can deliver a person from the law of material existence called the threefold miseries. But the process of religiosity as mentioned in the Bhagavatam is able to give permanent relief to the followers from the laws of threefold miseries.

Herein the highest standard of religious form is described by which one can be reinstated in his original position of transcendental loving service to the Supreme Lord. Loving service of the Supreme Lord is free from the infection of sense gratificatory desires, fruitive work or culture of knowledge-seeking merging in the Absolute to become one with the Supreme Lord. All such methods are pretentious religiosities because they are unable to give perfectual relief to the followers. The word projjhita is significant. Pra means complete and ujjhita means reject.

Any process of religiosity based on sense gratifications gross or subtle must be accepted as one of the pretentious religions. The process of religiosity in the shape of fruitive work is directly a method of gross sense gratification while the process of culturing spiritual knowledge with a view to merge in the Absolute is a method of subtle desire of sense gratification by becoming one with the Absolute. Therefore all such sense-gratificatory methods of pretentious religiosities including the path of culturing knowledge to become one with the Supreme or the idea of liberation and everything like that are completely rejected in the process of bhagavata-dharma, or the transcendental process of religion the inborn quality of the living being.

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The bhagavata-dharma or the religious principles described in the bhagavata of which the preliminary study is The Bhagavad-gita is meant for the liberated persons of the highest order who give very little value to such sense-gratificatory pretentious religiosities. The fruitive worker or the elevationist and the empiric philosopher or the Salvationist all of them want to raise their material position first and foremost but the devotees of Godhead have no such desire for themselves. They serve the Supreme Lord for His satisfaction only. Sri Arjuna at first decided not to fight and wanted to satisfy his senses by becoming a so-called non-violent pious man but when he was fully situated in the principles of bhagavata-dharma culminating in complete surrender unto the will of the Supreme Lord, he changed his decision and agreed to fight for the satisfaction of the Lord. He said like this.

nashto mohah smritir labdha tvat prasadan mayacyuta sthitosmi gata-sandehah karishye vacanam tava

I am now freed from all illusions by Your grace. I have now revived my pure consciousness. I am now situated in my real position without any doubt and as such I must now do as You desire. (Gita 18.73)

Anything that hampers this unadulterated spiritual position of the living being must be taken therefore as the process of pretentious religion. Real form of religion is spontaneous loving service of Godhead. This relation of the living being with the Absolute Personality of Godhead is eternal. The Absolute Personality of Godhead is described as the vastu or the Substance and the living entities are described as the vastavas or the innumerable samples of the Substance in relative existence. This relation of the Substantive with the Substance can never be annihilated as it is in the case of inborn quality. By contact with material nature, the substantive living entities may exhibit varied symptoms of the material disease but to cure this material disease is the supreme object of human life. The process which helps such treatment is called by the name as bhagavata-dharma, sanatana-dharma or the Religion Real. We shall try to describe the form of real religion in the pages of Back to Godhead.

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Pandita Sri Gadadhara GoswamiSrila Bhakti Rakshaka Sridhar Deva Goswami Maharaja

Amongst the dear associates of Sri Gauranga, Sri Gadadhara Goswami is the topmost. Just as the position of Sri Radhika, in comparison to others, is undisputedly the topmost in the madhurya pastimes of Sri Krishna, similarly in the most magnanimous pastimes of Gaura-Krishna, in the service of audarya-madhurya-rasa, the character of Sri Pandita Goswami, in comparison to others, is the topmost object of attraction for Sri Gauranga the embodiment of sweetness with magnanimity. The mahajanas see radha-tattva within Pandita Gadadhara.

The appearance day of Pandita Gadadhara is during the summer time, on the new moon of the month of Jyeshtha (May/June); his disappearance is one month after on the new moon of the month of Asadha (June/July). The specialty of the character of Pandita Goswami as an intimate companion is the offering of silent and complete self-submission. Only those that are capable of relishing within their hearts the incredible bliss of seeing the astonishing contradiction of a begging-bag upon the shoulder of Lakshmi-devi, are qualified to directly experience the extraordinary glories of the personality of Srimat Pandita Goswami.

During his childhood he was very simple, indifferent, modest and extremely courteous, devoted to the Lord and the brahmanas and affectionate towards his friends. He was polite, yet timid; he was surrendered to the Lord, yet he felt offensive; he was fully realized, yet he felt ignorant; he was a leader, yet

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considered himself an obedient servant. Though he had firm faith in his dear Lord Sri Gauranga, the sidelong glances of the ordinary followers that had taken shelter of Gaurasundara made him hesitant and timid. Being madly engrossed in thoughts of his guru, Gaura, caused him to forget His Deity mantras. Even a little faith in Sri Gauranga attracts His heart so much so that due to His affection towards such a person, he accepts even an insult from him as an honour. Basically, Sri Pandita Goswamis character is the neglected personification of one who has willingly accepted a beggars garb after giving away all his personal wealth.

Sri Gadadharas wealth is not like the external wealth of Harishcandras kingdom nor is his sacrifice like that of Shibis or Dadhichis sacrifice of their material bodies. It is not like the sacrifice made by the nurse Panna of her dear son, nor like the self-immolation of Queen Padmini etc. Similarly, it is also not like Socrates reason for propagating self-realization or Jesus Christs bodily sacrifice for the sake of the delivery of the world. For the knower of the self who is situated on a higher plane, bodily sacrifice is a very ordinary thing.

The wealth that is derived from the svarupa or inherent nature makes any other type of sacrifice seem futile. Even if the devotional wealth of the liberated souls or even the nature of the object of prema is realized in our hearts still, deeply understanding and conceiving the cordial nature of the incontestable sacrifice of the inner wealth of Pandita Goswami is only possible through his compassion and that of his intimate associates.

It is not possible for all these esoteric subjects to be immediately understood as if they were ordinary mundane topics. Nevertheless, considering the necessity, we are giving a general overview. Moreover, just as it is a responsibility to ascertain particular limits while considering what substance is worth giving, similarly it is certainly wise to ascertain the specialty of a gift while considering the qualification of its recipient.

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As much as the recipient of the gift is highly qualified, that much is the glory and the result of giving the gift. In the same line of thought there is no comparison of objective and subjective excellence of Pandita Goswamis self-surrender. After all, the wealth of Sri Radhas love is the topmost substance and Sri Krishna-chandra, the son of a brahmana (as Sri Chaitanya), is the topmost recipient.

While reflecting on this subject, we are reminded of the tale of Sri Yajnavalkya. Having studied the highest knowledge of the self and after reaching the final stage of questioning, in answer to the curiousness of the curious of even higher truths, Yajnavalkya Rishi, in a serious way, declares it as being the limit of curiosity.

We are incapable to fully comprehend the glories of Sri Pandita Goswami, therefore the mahajanas have left us that divine knowledge concerning the true identity of Gadadhara. Yet due to our misfortune, we are unable to establish our faith in this matter. We commit offenses due to our lack of faith and become absorbed in our own selfish pursuits.

Moreover, some claim that Gadadhara, the very wealth of Sri Radhas form, is a part of Nityananda-Baladeva, while others say that he is concealed within a part of Gadadhara Dasa. But by flying ones own flag of mental speculation one will become an offender to sambandha-tattva and ones attainment of svarupa-siddhi will be obstructed. Some people are unable to understand the method of Gadadharas worship of Gaura-Krishna, and consider the Lord of Vishnupriya, Gaura-Narayana, as being influenced by a mood of enjoyment and sambhoga, addressing Narayana as one who takes the role of a nagara. Sri Gaura is Sri Krishna with the mood of Radha, and Gaura without Radha is Sri Krishna. Sri Krishna is the object of worship for all rasas beginning with madhura. He is not in the same category of bhagavata-tattva as Sri Rama etc. Sri Gaurasundara, as the son of a brahmana or as the best of sannyasis, Sri Krishna Chaitanya, never accepted the mood of a nagara, nor did He ever enter into

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discussions and the like with the wives of other men at any time. The notion that He was an example of parakiya-sambhoga is rasabhasa, it is an offence, it is against the conclusions of the mahajanas and is an atheistic misconception.

In Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita and other authorized works of the mahajanas there is absolutely no example of Gaura-nagara philosophy. This ideology is not mentioned and does not exist therein.

A husband engages in Deity worship and his dutiful wife serves him by trying to help him in his worship. But at that time, she will not think of conjugality and engage in amorous talks with him, as this will impede his worship of the Deity. Similarly, when He is in the bhava of Sri Radha, the only concern of Krishna-chandra is selfless service to Sri Krishna in other words, Sri Gaurangas nature is to worship Sri Krishna through His own lila, and Sri Radhikas form as Sri Gadadhara devotedly worships His adorable Lord accordingly throughout his whole life. Thus, Gadadharas form is an eternal manifestation.

Sri Radha-Krishna eternally personify the divine pastimes of Vraja, and Sri Gadai-Gauranga, eternally residing in Navadvipa, personify the mood of audarya (magnanimity). When there is the sweetness of Vraja, that is Sri Radha-Krishna when there is the audarya of Navadvipa, that is Sri Gadadhara-Gauranga. By being fully absorbed in one or the other, all other conceptions are eliminated. Sadhakas reject all types of common ideologies and should accept that revered path prescribed by the mahajanas.

Sri Gauranga is the Lord of love divine. Sri Krishna is also the Lord of love divine, but because His predominant rasa is sambhoga not everyone has the

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qualification to fully understand Him as such. However, Sri Gauranga, who is the shelter of the rasas of vipralambha and audarya, is the Lord of love divine even for the ordinary fallen souls who have cultivated faith in Him.Sri Nityananda Prabhu distributes that Lord of love to even the lowest of mankind and in the form of Sri Guru, he wanders door to door for the sake of the living entities.

Also Sri Advaita Prabhu invoked the prema-avatara, Sri Chaitanya-chandra, and brought Him down to earth, showing the path to that supremely benevolent Lord.

Srivasa Pandita and others participated in the sankirtana pastimes of the Lord of Love, Sri Gauranga, and were valuable assistants that served the Golden Lord in His pastimes.

Sri Svarupa, Rupa, Sanatana, Raghunatha. Jiva etc. were the currents springing from the fountain of ambrosial prema who enlivened the entire world (this fallen and most hopeless soul begs and yearns for just a single drop of that ambrosia. His one and only hope is the mercy of Sri Guru and the Vaishnavas).

Sri Gauranga, the Lord of Love Divine, accepted that form in order to sing the glories of the topics of divine love of Sri Krishna. Amongst all the treasures of prema, the dearest to Him is the bhava of His most beloved, which He fully accepts. When this realization dawns on Him and Sri Radha is in His proximity then He plunders Her bhava. Sri Krishna does this in order to worship Himself in the same mood as Sri Radha.

But even when Sri Krishna is amongst the devotees in gaura-lila, He is the same Sri Krishna. This means that the subordinate gopi-priti of Sri Radhas must also fully manifests there. Gadadharas love for Gaura is extraordinary. But the form of his love is the opposite. When Krishna adorned Himself with the garment of Radhas bhava, Sri Radha became bereft of Her bhava. That is the form of Gadadhara.

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Hidden behind Gauras worship of Krishna in the bhava of Radha is the beloved of Sri Gadadhara the One for whom everything is dedicated, whose direct and most glorious form the eyes hanker to see, in whom is reflected the look of the most close associate a exceedingly eager and thirsty look hankering for prema. The One who is worshipped accepted the role of a worshipper. The worshipper offers to the Worshipped (who has taken the role of a worshipper) everything up to the very award of worship and appears as the personification of the greatest fortune of sarvatmarpana completely offering the self to Godhead.

Therefore, one who has attraction or love towards the worshippable Worshiper and strongly desires to attain the invaluable wealth of the shelter of Gauras associate, Sri Gadadhara, should follow his type of bhajana for Sri Gauranga and thus they will discover the results of such bhajana. The followers of Sri Gadadhara becomes the relishers of Sri Radhas vipralambha-rasa which is greater than the highest form of bhava.

gadai-gauranga jaya

jahnavi-jivana

sita-pati jaya

Srivasadi-bhakta-gana

gadai-gauranga jaya

jahnavi-jivana

sita-pati jaya


gadai-gauranga jaya

jahnavi-jivana

sita-pati jaya


gadai-gauranga jaya

jahnavi-jivana

sita-pati jaya


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The Raga- patha Is Above All

S w a m i N a r a s i n g h a

Question: I have read numerous translations and comments about the pujala raga-patha verse on the Internet and there seems to be a lingering controversy about who wrote the verse, what it means, etc. Can you provide me with a broader overview of the topic so that I might clarify my understanding?

Swami Narasingha: My answer below may seem a little tedious at times, but if you bear with me on the details you may find what you are looking for. Regarding the verse that you have quoted, it is part of a six-line Bengali song that reads as follows in the Roman transliteration:

matala hari-jana vishaya-range pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange

bhramala chadi bhoga chinmaya bange dhaula pathi-pathi bhakata-sange

chadla para-ghara arcchite gange bujhala rasa-niti nachata dange

The controversy that you speak of only surrounds the meaning of the

first two lines and particularly the second line. As for the translation of verses 2 and 3, we are not aware that any controversy exists. The translation of the song by our ashrama, Sri Narasingha Chaitanya Matha is as follows:


The servants of Hari are engaged in lavish affairs, handling material wealth and engaging all manner of things in the Lords service. They worship the path of spontaneous devotion with gaurava-bhange (in a mood of awe and reverence) and to show that the raga-patha is above all (above our heads), they remain as servants, being a little distant and below, praying for that of a servants duty, not for that of a confidential nature not to bring that highest divine love down here, but to hold that upon their heads.

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bhramala chadi bhoga chinmaya bange dhaula pathi-pathi bhakata-sange

Having given up all sense-enjoyment, one should wander through the divine land of Gauda-desha, running along the paths and roads in the association of the devotees.chadla para-ghara arcchite gange bujhala rasa-niti nachata dange

Leaving that previous house forever to worship the Deity on the banks of the Ganges, one will understand the science of rasa by the process of dancing (i.e. sankirtana).

The history of this song, its origin, and its later alteration from the original is very interesting. The original author of the song was Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura, who composed the verses in 1930. It was on the occasion of moving the Deities of Sri Gaurasundara and Sri Sri Vinoda-Anandajiu from the old house at Ultadanga Junction Road to the new temple in Bagh Bazaar, Kolkata. Saraswati Thakura especially composed the six-lines of song for the occasion and requested the devotees present to sing it during

kirtana. The day of the procession was Sunday 5th, October 1930.

In that months edition of the Bengali magazine Gaudiya, the six-line song was printed above a photo that showed the ratha of the Deities with Saraswati Thakura and the devotees standing in front. The first two lines of the Bengali read as follows:


Herein begins the controversy. The first line reads matala harijana vishaya-range. In later years the first line became popular as matala hari-jana kirtana-range. The original composition by Saraswati Thakura however reads vishaya-range, and not kirtana-range. How this came to pass is indeed interesting. But before mentioning how kirtana-range came to replace visaya-range, we should first mention that some leading contemporary Vaisnavas such as Swami B.V. Tripurari Maharaja, Swami B.V. Madhava Maharaja and others are quite comfortable with the implementation of kirtana-range. Both these personalities that I have mentioned have at least on one occasion quoted the first line

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of the song in their writings and discourses as matala hari-jana kirtana-range. Swami B.V. Tripurari Maharaja translates the first two lines as:

The devotees, intoxicated by the kirtana of the Holy Name that consumes the entire world, worship the raga-marga at a distance until the time when by such kirtana their hearts are cleansed of any charm for the world and the distance between themselves and their Deity is bridged as reverence for the Deity breaks down and is replaced by love. (Sanga of Swami B.V. Tripurari, disciple of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada)

Swami B.V, Madhava Maharaja translates the same two lines as:

The servants of Hari revel in the chanting of the Holy Name. They worship the path of spontaneous devotion, whereby awe and reverence is overthrown. (from the website of Swami B.V. Madhava, disciple of Swami B.V. Narayana Maharaja)

In our humble opinion, the translation of Swami B.V. Tripurari Maharaja is in consonance with a deeper understanding of the verse, whereas that of Swami B.V. Madhava relies solely on a reading based on the meaning of gaurava-bhange as to overthrow awe and reverence

The nat-mandira of Sri Chaitanya Sarasvata Matha

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focusing on the word bhanga (breaking or splitting).

However, when it is understood that the root of bhange is actually derived from the noun bhangi (a mood, a distinction of style, way or attitude), then gaurava-bhange means in a mood of awe and reverence. Thus, pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange is to worship the path of raga-patha with awe and reverence.

In the controversy that we are discussing this is then the ultimate question when composing the verse pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange, did Saraswati Thakura intend gaurava-bhange to mean to break awe and reverence or a mood of awe and reverence? It will be seen later on in this essay that his intention was gaurava-bhange a mood of awe and reverence.

It has recently been suggested by some devotees that it was Srila B.R. Sridhar Deva Goswami Maharaja who changed visaya-range to kirtana-range, but from the history of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Matha it is said that the disciple of Sridhar Maharaja, namely Sripad B.S. Govinda Maharaja suggested to Sridhar Maharaja that

kirtana replace vishaya in order to make the verse more understandable or clear to the devotees. Sridhar Maharaja welcomed the suggestion. Govinda Maharaja recalls as follows:

Matala hari-jana vishaya-range. Originally Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura made that poetry. Later it became matala hari-jana kirtana-range, pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange. Kirtana-range this word I

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gave and Srila Guru Maharaja accepted it very happily, You can change this for us.

Hence it is engraved on the wall of the nat-mandira at Sridhar Maharajas temple,

matala hari-jana kirtana-range, pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange.

The controversy that is addressed in the beginning of this essay is not actually about vishaya-range or kirtana-range. The real controversy is about pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange. Does this simply mean as Swami B.V. Madhava points out that, They worship the path of spontaneous devotion, whereby awe and reverence is overthrown or is there another meaning to pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange that suggests a completely different approach to raga-patha, the path of spontaneous devotion?

We should mention here that contemporary preachers outside the following of Srila Sridhar Maharaja rarely if ever quote the song we are discussing. In fact, Swami B.V. Madhava Maharaja only ever referenced the song that we are discussing in response to a video

production that expressed the opinion of Srila Sridhar Maharaja, that raga-patha is worshipable and should always be kept above our heads.

However, Srila Sridhar Maharaja quotes pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange again and again throughout his discourses and in his books. What to speak of those words being engraved on the wall at his temple, they are engraved in the core of his heart as the essence of the teaching and mission of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura. Srila Sridhar Maharaja speaks about the song in question in several places as follows:

Pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange composed by Guru Maharaja himself when from the hired house in Calcutta, the Deities and the matha was removed to his own constructed matha. The Deities were carried in a chariot and we were dancing and singing just in front of the Deities. At that time he composed some six lines perhaps. You should sing this and direct the chariot from the hired house to our own matha. Matala hari-jana vishaya-range pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange. It is currently seen that the devotees have made

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themselves mad in handling so much material wealth. Generally the devotees should engage themselves in the subject of the Lord, but here in Gaudiya Matha we find they are handling money, motor car, this, that everything here, lavishly, visaya range. For what purpose? Pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange. Gaurava bhange to show that the raga-patha is above all. Those that are followers of raga-patha, their position is very high. Not that they cannot be masters of this mundane world. So, they have left everything and are taking the path of worshiping Him, in their heart. But all this grandeur, all reverence everything should go to serve them. Pujala raga-patha everything will have its fulfillment with their connecting in any way with the feet of those that are engaged in their worship exclusive of these worldly things with his heart. (Darshan with Srila Sridhar Maharaja, 14-08-81)

Pujala raga-patha gaurave-bhange that is always upon our head, that the prospect of our lifes future, life after life, cannot be finished.

We shall rather foster the hope, the pure hope that we may be taken in one day in that camp. With this idea. (Follow The Angels, Part 2)

But we must be ready to pay for it, and our Guru Maharaja came for that purpose. Pujala raga-patha dont go hurriedly. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. That experience is for the highest minded. It is the highest. One must go step by step. If we omit any step, we will be nowhere. (Follow The Angels, Part 2)

Pujala raga-patha gaurave-bhange very sweet. The raga-patha is on the head. We are servants of the raga-patha. We are in vidhi-marga, under sastrika rule. We must live and move under shastric rule, and always keep the raga-patha upon our head. The whole tenor of Guru Maharajas life was such: That is high, very high, and from below we are to honor that. We must establish this conception, the proper regard for that higher lila, throughout the entire world: That is too high. (Follow The Angels, Part 2)

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In madhurya-rasa, the highest conjugal relationship, even Radharanis own tendency is always to serve Krsna. Her inclination is towards dasya-rasa, service. Is sakhya-rasa, intimate friendship with Krishna, a very small thing? No, it is too high for me. Pujala raga-patha gaurava-bhange. From a distance I want to show my respect to sakhya-rasa, but I really crave dasya-rasa. That should be the inclination of a real devotee. If we disregard all these things, we are playing like children. (Follow The Angels Part 2)

First understand the degree of purity in Krishna consciousness. The followers of form are only imitationists; they want only to exploit Mahaprabhu and not to serve Him. They are our worst enemies. They are traitors; they have taken the garb of Mahaprabhus sampradaya, and they are saying something bogus. This is cheap marketing; they are extensively selling adulterated things very cheaply. They have no inner necessity to attain the purest thing (pujala ragapatha gaurava-bhange). Although he was such an exalted Vaishnava, our Guru Maharaja never presented himself as a great devotee. He always used to say, I am a servant of the servant of the Vaishnavas. That was his claim. And he would say, The higher devotees are my guru, they are so exalted. First come and practice all these things, and then you can hope to reach the goal. It is not so easy, or so cheap. (Sri Guru and His Grace, Ch.3)

And to take our stand in the negative position is the strategy of remaining in the relativity of the highest quarter of service to Krishna, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura once composed a verse expressing the proper attitude. Pujala raga-patha gaurava bhange, matala hari-jana vishaya range. The path of divine love is worshipable to us and should be held overhead as our highest aspiration. (Loving Search For The Lost Servant, Ch.6)

Pujala raga-patha gaurave-bhangeThe whole tenor of his life was such: That is high, high. And from below we are to honor that. We are to establish in the whole world this sort of posing: the proper regard of that higher lila, That is too high. Pujala raga-patha gaurave-bhange, Guru Maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura, preached exclusively this madhurya-rasa, but with great precaution. What is not that thing, he used perhaps 90% of

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his energy to point out the negative side This is not madhurya-rasa and clear away the negative side. He had to spare, in his words, gallons of blood to establish what is not that madhurya-rasa. (Darshan with Srila Sridhar Maharaja, 14-08-81)

Srila Sridhar Maharaja preached extensively from the verses of the song that is under discussion and supported the idea that gaurava-bhange is derived from the root bhangi. Thus gaurava-bhange means a mood of awe and reverence of this there can be no doubt. And that Sridhar Maharaja represented the adage: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure in his explanations, also goes without question.

Equally, we can say that since the time of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura no second person has given a clearer or more pronounced understanding of the pujala raga-patha verse than Srila Sridhar Maharaja. His depth of understanding was profound and his respected Godbrothers never hesitated to accept his deep realizations. As Saraswati Thakura had said of Sridhar Maharaja, At least one man is left behind who will be able to represent my conceptions.

This brings to mind a pastime that occurred in the time of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu during the annual Ratha-yatra festival in Puri. During the procession Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sang a verse from the Kavya-prakasha of Sri Mammata as follows:

yah kaumara-harah sa eva hi varas ta eva chaitra-kshapas te chonmilita-malati-surabhayah praudhah kadambanilah

sa chaivasmi tathapi tatra surata-vyapara-lila-vidhau reva-rodhasi vetasi-taru-tale chetah samutkanthate

That very personality who stole away my heart during my youth is now again my master. These are the same moonlit nights of the month of Chaitra. The same fragrance of malati flowers is there, and the same sweet breezes are blowing from the kadamba forest. In our intimate relationship, I am also the same lover, yet still my mind is not happy

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here. I am eager to go back to that place on the bank of the Reva under the Vetasi tree. That is my desire. (Cc. Madhya 13.121)

Taken at face value [mukhya-vritti], the devotees could not understand the internal purpose of the Lord. However, Sri Rupa Goswami, being a super caliber devotee could understand the Lords internal purpose (gauna-vritti) and thus he composed another verse revealing the Lords heart.

priyah so yam krishnah sahachari kurukshetra-militas tathaham sa radha tad idam ubhayoh sangama-sukham tathapy antah-khelan-madhura-murali-panchama-jushe

mano me kalindi-pulina-vipinaya sprihayatiMy dear friend, now I have met My very old and dear friend Krishna on this field of Kurukshetra. I am the same Radharani, and now We are meeting together. It is very pleasant, but still I would like to go to the bank of the Yamuna beneath the trees of the forest there. I wish to hear the vibration of His sweet flute playing the fifth note within that forest of Vrindavana. (Cc. Madhya.1.76)

In this way we cannot help but express our conviction that when Saraswati Thakura composed the six-line poem for the ratha festival of the Deities in Kolkata in 1930, that Srila Sridhar Maharaja being a super-caliber devotee, dear to Sri Rupa Goswami, could unequivocally understand the internal purpose of his Guru Maharaja. Thus it is our lasting determination that the explanation of the pujala raga-patha verse as given by Srila Sridhar Maharaja should be accepted in the hearts of all the devotees desiring to follow in the footsteps of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura.

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To read more articles and travel log by Srila Bhakti Gaurava Narasingha Maharaja, visit his personal website www.narasingha.net

Articles Travel Log

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Muddy Un iver seby Robert Lanza MD

The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. John Haldane, Possible Worlds (1927)

The world is not, on the whole, the place described in our schoolbooks. For several centuries, starting roughly with the Renaissance, a single mindset about the construct of the cosmos has dominated scientific thought. This model has brought us untold insights into the nature of the universe and countless applications that have transformed every aspect of our lives. But this model is reaching the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced with a radically different paradigm that reflects a deeper reality, one totally ignored until now.

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This new model has not arrived suddenly, like the meteor impact that changed the biosphere 65 million years ago. Rather, it is a deep, gradual, tectonic-plate-type alteration with bases that lie so deep, they will never again return whence they came. Its genesis lurks in the underlying rational disquiet that every educated person palpably feels today. It lies not in one discredited theory, nor any single contradiction in the current laudable obsession with

devising a Grand Unified Theory that can explain the universe. Rather its problem is so deep that virtually everyone knows that something is screwy with the way we visualize the cosmos. The old model proposes that the universe was, until rather recently, a useless collection of particles bouncing against each other, obeying predetermined rules that were mysterious in their origin.

Excerpted from the book Biocentricism How Life and Consciousness

are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe.

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The universe is like a watch that somehow wound itself and that, allowing for a degree of quantum randomness, will unwind in a semi-predictable way. Life initially arose by an unknown process, and then proceeded to change form under Darwinian mechanisms that operate under these same physical rules. Life contains consciousness, but the latter is poorly understood and is, in any case, solely a matter for biologists.

But theres a problem. Consciousness is not just an issue for biologists; its a problem for physics. Nothing in modern physics explains how a group of molecules in your brain

create consciousness. The beauty of a sunset, the miracle of falling in love, the taste of a delicious mealthese are all mysteries to modern science. Nothing in science can explain how consciousness arose from matter. Our current model simply does not allow for consciousness, and our understanding of this most basic phenomenon of our existence is ritually nil. Interestingly, our present model of physics does not even recognize this as a problem.

Not coincidentally, consciousness comes up again in a completely different realm of physics. It is well known that quantum theory,

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while working incredibly well mathematically, makes no logical sense. As we will explore in detail in future chapters, particles seem to behave as if they respond to a conscious observer. Because that cant be right, quantum physicists have deemed quantum theory inexplicable or have come up with elaborate theories (such as an infinite number of alternate universes) to try to explain it. The simplest explanationthat subatomic particles actually do interact with consciousness at some levelis too far outside the model to be seriously considered. Yet its interesting that two of the biggest mysteries of physics involve consciousness.

But even putting aside the issues of consciousness, the current model leaves much to be desired when it comes to explaining the fundamentals of our universe. The cosmos (according to recent refinements) sprang out of nothingness 13.7 billion years ago, in a titanic event humorously labeled the Big Bang. We dont really understand where the Big Bang came from and we continually tinker with the details, including

adding an inflationary period with physics we dont yet understand, but the existence of which is needed in order to be consistent with our observations.

When a sixth grader asks the most basic question about the universe, such as, What happened before the Big Bang? the teacher, if knowledgeable enough, has an answer at the ready: There was no time before the Big Bang, because time can only arise alongside matter and energy, so the question has no meaning. Its like asking what is north of the North Pole. The student sits down, shuts up, and everyone pretends that some actual knowledge has just been imparted.

Someone will ask, What is the expanding universe expanding into? Again, the professor is ready: You cannot have space without objects defining it, so we must picture the universe bringing its own space with it into an ever-larger size. Also, it is wrong to visualize the universe as if looking at it from the outside because nothing exists outside the universe, so the question makes no sense.

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Well, can you at least say what the Big Bang was? Is there some explanation for it? For years, when my co-author was feeling lazy, he would recite the standard reply to his college students as if it were an after-business-hours recording: We observe particles materializing in empty space and then vanishing: these are quantum mechanical fluctuations. Well, given enough time, one would expect such a fluctuation to involve so many particles that an entire universe would appear. If the universe was indeed a quantum fluctuation, it would display just the properties we observe!

The student takes his chair. So thats it! The universe is a quantum fluctuation! Clarity at last.

But even the professor, in his quiet moments alone, would wonder at least briefly what things might have been like the Tuesday before the Big Bang. Even he realizes in his bones that you can never get something from nothing, and that the Big Bang is no explanation at all for the origins of everything but merely, at best, the partial description of a

single event in a continuum that is probably timeless. In short, one of the most widely known and popularized explanations about the origin and nature of the cosmos abruptly brakes at a blank wall at the very moment when it seems to be arriving at its central point.

During this entire parade, of course, a few people in the crowd will happen to notice that the emperor seems to have skimped in his wardrobe budget. Its one thing to respect authority and acknowledge that theoretical physicists are brilliant people, even if they do tend to drip food on themselves at buffets. But at some point, virtually everyone has thought or at least felt This really doesnt work. This doesnt explain anything fundamental, not really. This whole business, A to Z, is unsatisfactory. It doesnt ring true. It doesnt feel right. It doesnt answer answer my questions. Somethings rotten behind those ivy-covered walls, and it goes deeper than the hydrogen sulfide released by the fraternity rushers.

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Like rats swarming onto the deck of a sinking ship, more problems keep surfacing with the current model. It now turns out that our beloved familiar baryonic matterthat is, everything we see, and everything that has form, plus all known energiesis abruptly reduced to just 4 percent of the universe, with dark matter constituting about 24 percent. The true bulk of the cosmos suddenly becomes dark energy, a term for something utterly mysterious. And, by the way, the expansion is increasing, not decreasing. In just a few years, the basic nature of the cosmos goes inside out, even if nobody at the office watercooler seems to notice.

In the last few decades, there has been considerable discussion of a basic paradox in the construction of the universe as we know it. Why are the laws of physics exactly balanced for animal life to exist? For example, if the Big Bang had been one-part-in-a-million more powerful, it would have rushed out too fast for the galaxies and life to develop. If the strong nuclear force were decreased 2 percent, atomic nuclei wouldnt hold together, and plain-vanilla hydrogen would be the only kind of atom in the universe. If the gravitational force were decreased by a hair, stars (including the Sun) would not ignite. These are just three of just more than two hundred physical parameters within the solar system and universe so exact that it strains credulity to propose that they are randomeven if that is exactly what standard contemporary physics baldly suggests. These fundamental constants of the universeconstants that are not predicted by any theoryall seem to be carefully chosen, often with great precision, to allow for the existence of life and consciousness (yes, consciousness raises its annoying paradoxical head yet a third time). The old model has absolutely no reasonable explanation for this. But biocentrism supplies answers, as we shall see.

Theres more. Brilliant equations that accurately explain the vagaries of motion contradict observations about how things behave on the small scale. (Or, to affix the correct labels on it, Einsteins relativity is incompatible with quantum mechanics.) Theories of the origins of the cosmos screech to a halt

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when they reach the very event of interest, the Big Bang. Attempts to combine all forces in order to produce an underlying onenesscurrently in vogue is string theoryrequire invoking at least eight extra dimensions, none of which have the slightest basis in human experience, nor can be experimentally verified in any way.

When it comes right down to it, todays science is amazingly good at figuring out how the parts work. The clock has been taken apart, and we can accurately count the number of teeth in each wheel and gear, and ascertain the rate at which the flywheel spins. We know that Mars rotates in 24 hours, 37 minutes, and 23 seconds, and this information is as solid as it comes. What eludes us is the big picture. We provide interim answers, we create exquisite new technologies from our ever-expanding knowledge of physical processes, we dazzle ourselves with our applications of our newfound discoveries. We do badly in just one area, which unfortunately encompasses all the bottom-line issues: what is the nature of this thing we call reality, the universe as a whole?

Any honest metaphorical summary of the current state of explaining the cosmos as a whole is . . . a swamp. And this particular Everglade is one where the alligators of common sense must be evaded at every turn.

The avoidance or postponement of answering such deep and basic questions was traditionally the province of religion, which excelled at it. Every thinking person always knew that an insuperable mystery lay at the final square of the game board, and that there was no possible way of avoiding it. So, when we ran out of explanations and processes and causes that preceded the previous cause, we said, God did it. Now, this book is not going to discuss spiritual beliefs nor take sides on whether this line of thinking is wrong or right. It will only observe that invoking a deity provided something that was crucially required: it permitted the inquiry to reach some sort of agreed-upon endpoint. As recently as a century ago, science texts routinely cited God and Gods

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glory whenever they reached the truly deep and unanswerable portions of the issue at hand.Today, such humility is in short supply. God of course has been discarded, which is appropriate in a strictly scientific process, but no other entity or device has arisen to stand in for the ultimate I dont have a clue. To the contrary, some scientists (Stephen Hawking and the late Carl Sagan come to mind) insist that a theory of everything is just around the corner, and then well essentially know it allany day now.

It hasnt happened, and it wont happen. The reason is not for any lack of effort or intelligence. Its that the very underlying world-view is flawed. So now, superimposed on the previous theoretical contradictions, stands a new layer of unknowns that pop into our awareness with frustrating regularity.

But a solution lies within our grasp, a solution hinted at by the frequency with which, as the old model breaks down, we see an answer peeking out from under a corner. This is the underlying problem: we have ignored a critical component of the cosmos, shunted it out of the way because we didnt know what to do with it. This component is consciousness.

Robert Lanza MD, is considered one of the leading scientists in the world. He is currently chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology and adjunct professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He has hundreds of publications and inventions, and 20 scientific books: among them, Principles of Tissue Engineering, which is recognized as the definitive reference in the field. His latest publication, Biocentricism is a must-read for progressive thinkers.

About the Author

Human thought in the twenty-first century needs to work towards a new model that immerses the human being within a vibrant energetic universe. However, this need not demand that we throw away what we already have; rather, we can expand upon the tools that have brought us to our present position. There is an eastern proverb that roughly translates as: You may ride your donkey up to your front door, but would you ride it into your house? In other words, when we have arrived at a particular destination we are often required to make a transition in order to continue the journey. In this sense we can be grateful to a vast knowledge base of scientific and religious thought for

helping us arrive at the point where we presently stand. Yet it is now imperative that we move forward. As Deepak Chopra wrote his post Consciousness and the End of the War Between Science and Religion how we move forward is likely to be centered in our understanding of consciousness.

Our physical apparatus is spectacular; consider that each of us carries around a 100-billion-cell bioelectric quantum computer that creates our realities, with almost all its neurons established the day we were born. Still, this phenomenal reality shaper has undergone monumental perceptual change over our evolutionary history. What is required, at this significant juncture, is again another catalyst of consciousness change. This may come about through discoveries in the field of quantum biology, and the idea, emphasized by Ervin Laszlo in his blogs (http://ervinlaszlo.com), that the form of consciousness we possess is likely to be the result of quantum coherence.

Quantum Consciousness: The Way to Reconcile Science and Spirituality

by Kingsley Dennis. Ph.D.

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Quantum Consciousness: The Way to Reconcile Science and Spirituality

The human body is a constant flux of thousands of inter-reactions and processes connecting molecules, cells, organs and fluids throughout the brain, body and nervous system. Up until recently it was thought that all these countless interactions operated in a linear sequence, passing on information much like a runner passing the baton to the next runner. However, the latest findings in quantum biology and biophysics have discovered that there is in fact a tremendous degree of coherence within all living systems. It has been found through extensive scientific investigation that a form of quantum coherence operates within living biological systems through what is known as biological excitations and biophoton emission. What this means is that metabolic energy is stored as a form of electromechanical and electromagnetic excitations. It is these coherent excitations that are considered responsible for generating and maintaining long-range order via the transformation of energy and very weak electromagnetic signals.

After nearly 20 years of experimental research, Fritz-Albert Popp put forward the hypothesis that

biophotons are emitted from a coherent electrodynamic field within the living system. What this effectively means is that each living cell is giving off, and resonating with, a biophoton field of coherent energy. If each cell is emitting this field, then the whole living system is, in effect, a resonating field -- a ubiquitous non-local field. And since it is by the means of biophotons that the living system communicates, then there is near instantaneous intercommunication throughout. And this, claims Popp, is the basis for coherent biological organization -- referred to as quantum coherence.Biophysicist Mae-Wan Ho has described how the living organism, including the human body, is coherent beyond our wildest dreams in that our bodies are constituted by a form of liquid crystal, which is an ideal transmitter of communication, resonance, and coherence. All living biological organisms continuously emit radiations of light that form a field of coherence and communication.

Moreover, biophysicists have discovered that living organisms are permeated by quantum wave forms. In her 1998 book The Rainbow

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and the Worm: The Physics of Organisms, Ho informs us that the visible body just happens to be where the wave function of the organism is most dense. Invisible quantum waves are spreading out from each of us and permeating into all other organisms. At the same time, each of us has the waves of every other organism entangled within our own make-up ...This incredible new discovery actually positions each living being within a non-local quantum field consisting of wave interferences (where bodies meet). Each person is thus not only in an emphatic relationship with each other but is also entangled with one another.Neuroscience, quantum biology, and quantum physics are now beginning to converge to reveal that our bodies are not only biochemical systems but also sophisticated resonating quantum systems. These new discoveries show that a form of nonlocal connected consciousness has a physical-scientific basis. Further, it demonstrates that certain spiritual or transcendental states of collective Oneness have a valid basis within the new scientific paradigm.If we are willing to step down from the donkey, we will find that our new path ahead has a place for reconciling science and spirituality. We should focus on the best of both worlds: engage in cooperation, not in conflict and competition.

Kingsley L. Dennis, Ph.D., is a sociologist and writer currently connected with the Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University. He is also a cofounder of WorldShift International. The author of numerous articles on complexity theory, technologies, new media communications, and consciousness, he spends his time between Andalusia, Spain, and the United Kingdom

About the Author

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VEDIC SCIENCE

Can science provide us with the answers to life's mysteries? Can modern scientists continue to reject the concept of a creator intelligence?

Scientists have long held that the universal creation is describable by simple mathematical formulas. Recent discoveries in algorithmic informa-tion theory have definatively shown that this is not so.

Where do we go from here?... Can Vedic Science help?

This website is inspired by the profound Vedic culture and the many important contributions to modern science, mathematics, architecture and many other fields that are credited to it. As such, many of the scientific and other articles here are not about Vedic Science directly but lead one to the conclusions of the Vedas they are inspired by Vedic Science and the culture of the Vedas.

www.vedicsciences.net

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Swami Sadananda Hard as a Thunderbolt Soft as a Flower

Interview with Dasadasanudasa Kishordas & Kalakanthidasi

Disciples of Swami Sadananda

A Brief Introduction

Swami Sadananda, as he is popularly known, was the first western adherent to Gaud-iya Vaishnava philosophy in the 20th century. Sadananda was of German descent. He traveled to India, became an initiated disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati and was later interned in a prisoner of war camp in India during World War II. Upon his release at the end of the war, Sadananda traveled extensively in India and eventually returned to Europe where he established a modest following in Sweden, Switzerland and Germany. That following of disciples continues to this day.

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Hard as a Thunderbolt Soft as a Flower

How did Swami Sadananda come in contact with the teachings of Gaudiya Vaishnavism?

In the winter of 1933, when he was 25 years old, he met Swami Bon in Berlin and through him he later got the work Sree Krishna Chaitanya by Prof. Sanyal. There he found the

answers to all the questions he had nurtured for many years:

It is since the year 1922 that my life was engaged in the search for a deeper conception of Religion, Truth and Godhead than the religion of my confession. I have never been interested in worldly learnings. I have been studying the Comparative History of Religion and reading the best books and scriptures of the different religions not for scholarly purpose but for finding out the way of the

realisation of the natural function of the soul. (Letter to Swami Bon, January 12, 1934)

This led him to intensive studies of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and further contact with Swami Bon and Bhakti Pradip Tirtha Maharaja, who both gave him initiation at the matha in London in the beginning of 1934. In April Sadananda wrote in his first letter to Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati:

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Blessed by Your Divine Grace I was initiated by Sree Swami Bon and received the holy Name from Sree Tirtha Maharaj.

Sadananda then worked for the mission both in England and Germany until Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati invited him to join his mission in India, where Sadananda arrived in September 1935, together with Swami Bon and Baron Von Koeth from Germany.

Did Swami Sadananda ever speak about his years in the Gaudiya Matha in India? What places, what

events, and what personalities and Godbrothers did he mention?

He could only serve his gurudeva in the Gaudiya Matha from September 1935 till January 1937. From his notes it seems that he followed Bhaktisiddhanta on his tours, took notes from his lectures etc. Most of the time he was certainly engaged in studying the shastrams, preparing lectures himself and writing articles for The Harmonist.

Not much is known about his relation to his Godbrothers during this time but we know that he never felt at home in the Gaudiya Matha.

Swami Bons return to India in 1935 1) Baron Von Koeth, 2) Sadananda, 3) Swami Bon, 4) Bhaktivedanta Swami.

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Moreover already then his health was fragile. He never believed in organized religion, and in his article in The Harmonist, Society Community Math, one can see that his vision of the true matha was rather utopian, as it implies a society of absolutely pure Vaishnavas. He seems to have had difficulties in fitting himself into the real organisation, with all its shortcomings. In some notes from Darjeeling, July 12, 1936 one can read:

You must have your own sensitive, i.e. organic system, tailor-made, no suit off the peg. It is only when you subserve yourself and your environment to the necessities and rules of living according to your personal conditions that you can render your fellow beings a service. Judges of character can see through your automatic skeleton suit in the same manner as you can see through the armour of conventions, into the corrupt substa

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