By Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur

Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur, an important figure in the field of devotional service appeared in India in 1838, and with the help of his son, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami, rejuvenated the Hare Krishna Movement begun nearly 400 years earlier by Lord Chaitanya. It was Srila Bhaktivinode who first urged that this message be preached to the Western world, and he was the first true devotee to write in English on the subject of Vedic religion. The article published here was written in 1896, and the lucidity and simple force of the great Thakur's presentation go far to show us the transcendental timeliness of his mission.

Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu—properly known as the avatari, or source of all incarnations of God—appeared in India in 1486 A.D. Here we examine the precepts of this sublime apostle of love of Krishna, as they come to us from one of the great saints in Chaitanya's line of disciplic succession.

Lord Chaitanya teaches us in the first place that the rational attributes of men are not capable of approaching the divine sphere of spirit. Yukti, as He styles reason, is quite incompetent in such a matter. Ruchi, as He styles the religious sentiment in man, even in very small quantity has the power to comprehend it. It is inspiration which can alone give light to spiritual matters. Inspirations coming down from heaven through purified blessed souls have exhibited themselves in the form of the Vedas. The Vedas, together with their explanatory notes, the Puranas, are therefore the only evidence in matters of spirit, and are eternal in nature.

Vedic truths should, then, be accepted as the only truths in higher matters. Reason, while sincerely helping inspired truth, may be accepted as auxiliary evidence. The Vedas teach us, according to Chaitanya, nine principal doctrines, which are:

1) Hari, the Almighty, is one without a second.
2) He is always vested with infinite power.
3) He is the ocean of rasa [the transcendental bliss which forms the essence of any relationship].
4) The soul is His vibhinnamsha or separated part.
5) Certain souls are engrossed by prakriti His illusory energy.
6) Certain souls are released from the grasp of prakriti.
7) All spiritual and material phenomena are bhedabhedaprakash of Hari, the Almighty [simultaneously one and different with the Lord].
8. Bhakti, devotional service, is the only means of attaining the final object of spiritual existence.
9) Prema pure love in Krishna, is alone the final object of spiritual existence.

We must explain these points one by one:

1. Hari the Supreme Being is one without a second. In Aryan theology the creative principle of the Deity is personified in Brahma, and the destructive principle in Shiva. Indra is the head of some lower elements, in terms of administration. Hence, they are not the Almighty Himself, but are different representations of different attributes. They have obtained their powers from an original Fountainhead. Hence, they are subordinate beings in the service of Hari or Bhagavan, the Personality of Godhead.

Then again there are three distinct philosophical ideas of the Deity, i. e., (i) the idea of the negative Brahman of the pantheistic school, (ii) the idea of a universal soul, Paramatma of the yoga school, and (iii) the idea of a personal Deity with all His majesty, might, glory, beauty, wisdom and supremacy combined in His Person.

The ideas of Brahman and Paramatma are included in the idea of Bhagavan. Spiritually, therefore, Bhagavan is Hari, the Supreme Being. Human ideas are either mental or spiritual. The mental idea is defective as it has relation to the created principles of matter. The spiritual idea is certainly the nearest approach to the Supreme Being.

Then again, the spiritual idea of Bhagavan is of two sorts. In one sort, the person of the Deity is overpowered by His own majesty, and in the other, His personal beauty overpowers all His majesty. The first idea is represented in the great Narayana of Vaikuntha, Who is the Lord of Lords and God of Gods. The second is represented in the all-beautiful Krishna with Radhika, who is the representative of His hladini, or superior ecstatic energy. Krishna appears as man amongst men, and is again generally accepted as God above Gods. Krishna attracts, loves and produces ecstasy in all souls. His person and personal attachments are all purely spiritual and have no relation to the material world. The material senses of man cannot approach Him. It is the spirit in man which can see Him directly and commune with Him.

The soul, fettered in matter, has from its own degradation lost its right to see Krishna and His spiritual lila [pastimes] in the spiritual world, but Krishna out of His own Supreme Power and prerogative may appear with all His Vrindavan lila before the eyes of all men. The rational man can hardly conceive of or believe in Krishna and His lila. As his spiritual essence improves, however, he sees and loves Him with all his heart.

The Spiritual Process

In our small compass, we can hardly treat this subject fully and exhaustively. We therefore leave this point to our readers with these words: Give up the shackles of matter slowly. Cultivate your spirit inwards. Give up prejudices which you have acquired from the so-called rational thinkers who deny the existence of spirit. Be humble in yourself and learn to respect those who work towards spiritual attainments. Do these with your heart, mind and strength in the company of spiritual people alone, and you will see Krishna in no time.

Krishna is not an imaginary being, nor have you a right to think that He is a material phenomenon fancied to be the Supreme Being by fools. Krishna is not understood by the process of distinguishing the subjective from the objective, nor is He to be accepted as an imposition on the people set up by designing men. Krishna is eternal, spiritually true, reflected on the human soul when it is relieved of all pressure of gross matter, and He is the subject of love which proceeds from the soul. Accept Him as such and you will see Him in your soul's eye.

Words fail to describe that Transcendental Being. The highest, best and most spiritual ideal of the divinity is in Krishna. To bring arguments against Him is simply to deceive oneself and deprive oneself of the blessings that God has kept in store for man. Hence, all descriptions of His name, person, attributes and lila should be accepted spiritually, giving up the material portion which words must necessarily convey.

2. Hari is always vested with infinite powers. By infinite powers must be meant powers which know no bounds either in space or in time, as His powers alone created space and time. His powers are identified with His person. In material objects, there is a difference between the person and the powers, between the thing and its attributes, its name, its form and action: but it is a spiritual truth that in spirit the thing is identical with its name, form, attributes and action. This truth cannot be subjected to dry reason which deals with gross matter alone.

Krishna is supreme will in Himself, and He exercises His supreme power at His pleasure, which submits to no law, because all law has proceeded from His will and power.

Power is known from its exercise. In this world we have experience of only three of the attributes of Krishna's power. We see the material phenomena and we understand that His power has the attribute to create matter. This attribute is styled in the Vedas as maya-shakti. We see man and we understand that the Supreme Power has the attribute to produce limited and imperfect souls. The shastras [scriptures] call that attribute jiva-shakti. We conceive of one who is spiritual and supreme in His realm of eternal spirits. We understand that His power has an attribute to exhibit perfectly spiritual existences. The Vedas call that attribute by the name of atma-shakti, or chit-shakti.

All these attributes together form one Supreme Power which the Vedas call Para-shakti. In fact that power (shakti) is not distinguishable from the person of that Being. Still, the powers are separately exhibited in their separate actions. This is styled achintya-bhedabhedaprakash, or the inconceivable simultaneous existence of distinction and non-distinction. Hari being well above law, He exercises His infinite powers, while He Himself remains unaffected. This is not understood, but felt in the soul as intuitive truth.

Divine Ecstasy

3. He is the ocean of rasa. Rasa has been defined to be that ecstatic principle which comprehends the various forms of love and affection which can be exhibited between the living being and the Lord. The process of exhibiting of rasa relates to its exhibition in man while still enthralled in matter. But rasa itself is an eternal principle identified with the Supreme Hari. Hari is the ocean of rasa, and in the human soul only a drop of the ocean can be conceived.

Rasa naturally is spiritual, but in man, who is subject to maya, the progenitor of matter, it has been identified in a perverted state with the sensual pleasure of man in his connection with material objects, the soul losing itself in mind and the mind acting through the senses, enjoying the perverted rasa in the five different objects of the senses. This is the soul's going abroad with avidya, or ignorance of the spiritual self.

When the soul looks inward it obtains its spiritual rasa, and the perverted rasa wanes in proportion to the development of the spiritual rasa. In spiritual rasa the souls towards each other, and all towards the all-beautiful, have their unfettered action in Vrindavan, rising above material time and space. Hari, the Infinite Supreme Free Will, has eternal ecstasy in His spiritual power or chit-shakti.

The hladini attribute or chit-shakti (spiritual wisdom) produces all bhavas—relations and affections. The sandhini attribute of chit-shakti produces all existence (other than the free will), including the dhamas (abodes), individualities, and other substances in connection with the action of the spiritual Rasa. All these exhibitions are from chit-shakti, the spiritual power.

The mayik or material creation, including time, space and gross objects, has no place in chit-jagat, the spiritual world which is all the same as Vrindavan. Maya-shakti [illusory energy] is a perverted reflection of the chit-shakti. Hence the particularities in the mayik (material) world have semblance with the particularities in the chit-jagat or spiritual universe, but are not substantially the same. The chit-jagat is the model of the mayik-jagat, but they are not identical.

We must guard ourselves against the idea that man has imagined chit-jagat from an experience of the mayik-jagat. This idea is pantheistic, and it may also be styled atheistic. Reason, not spiritualized, has a tendency to create such a doubt, but one who has a wish to enjoy spiritual love must give it up as misleading.

The eternal rasa of Krishna exists spiritually in chit-jagat, the spiritual world. To we who are in the netherworld there is a screen which intervenes between our eyes and the great spiritual scene of Krishna lila. When by the grace of Krishna that screen is drawn up, we have the privilege to see it, and again when it pleases the Almighty to drop the screen, the great Vrindavan lila disappears. Taste the subject and your conviction will be the same as mine. Brethren! Do not give up such an important subject without due and liberal examination.

4. The soul is His vibbhinnamsha or separated part. By soul are meant all sorts of souls, whether animal, human or celestial. It must be understood that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu believed in the very liberal theory of transmigration of the soul. Certain readers may reject this idea on the ground that certain forms of faith do not support that theory, and because it is therefore in antagonism with the dogmas of certain sectarian creeds. Indeed, it is a matter which reason cannot dare to meddle with.

Candidly examining, we do not see any strong reason to disbelieve the theory of transmigration. On the other hand, our unprejudiced mind is inclined to stand for it. The belief that the human soul has only one trial in life is evidently illiberal, unjust and contrary to the belief that God is all good. When our spiritual sentiment supports the theory and the Vedas, the receptacles of inspiration, have taught us the fact of the continual existence of the soul in different stages in creation, we cannot but give up the idea of disbelieving in the theory of transmigration of the soul. However educated and scientific a man maybe, he is always liable to a creeping error. That which holds good regarding a man holds good also regarding a nation or sect.

The soul, according to Chaitanya, is an atomic part of the Divine Soul. It is a sort of God's power to produce beings who are spiritual in essence but liable to be enthralled by maya when they forget their position as eternal servants of the Deity. God here is compared with the Sun, and the souls are said to be the atomic portions of that Sun's ray, unable to stand freely unless they are protected by another competent attribute of God's power.

By the word "part" is not meant portions cut out of a piece of stone by an axe: part is meant to be understood as one lamp lighted from another, or gold produced from an alchemic stone, as was believed by the ancients. The souls are also compared with separate atomic emanations of the burning fire. Each soul has drawn from its Fountainhead a proportionate share of the Lord's attributes, and consequently a small proportion of free will.

These souls are naturally located between the chit-jagat and mayik-jagat. Those who chose to serve their God were protected from fall by the interference of the hladini attribute of the Supreme chit-shakti. They have been admitted as eternal servants of the Deity in various ways. They know not the troubles of maya and the karmachakra, the rotative principles of mayik action and its result. Those who wanted to enjoy were grasped by maya from the other side. They are in maya's karmachakra, which ends only when they again see their original position as servants of the Deity.

These souls, whether liberated from Maya or enthralled by her, are separate responsible beings dependent on the Deity. Hari is the Lord of maya, who serves His pleasure. The soul or jiva is so constructed as to be liable to enthrallment by maya in consequence of want of power when unassisted by the hladini-shakti of the Deity. Hence there is a natural and inherent distinction between God and jiva, the individual soul, which no pantheistic maneuver can annihilate. Please avoid the misleading question, "When were these jivas created and enthralled?" Mayik time has no existence in spiritual history because it has its commencement after the enthrallment of jivas in matter, and you cannot, therefore, employ mayik chronology in matters like these.

5. Certain souls are engrossed by prakriti, or His illusory energy. Prakriti, God's maya, pradhan, prapancha and avidya are different names for the same principle on account of its different phases and attributes. Maya is not an independent shakti from the supreme swarup shakti [free will or power]. She is simply a reflected and outward phase of the supreme power, and serves God in executing His penal order on those who become ungrateful to Him. In fact, maya is in charge of God's house of correction. Those living beings, who, in abusing their free will, forgot that they were eternal servants of the Deity and thought of enjoying for themselves, were grasped by maya for their penal servitude and correction.

Maya—The Nature Of Illusion

Maya has three attributes: sattva, rajas and tamas [goodness, passion and ignorance]. These attributes are just like chains used to tie up the ungrateful souls. Maya then applies a double case on the spiritual form of the soul. The double case is described by the words linga and sthul. The mayik existence has twenty-four substances: the five elements (earth, water, fire, air and firmament); the five properties (sound, touch, sight, taste and smell); and the ten indriyas, i. e. the five receiving senses (the eye, ear, nose, tongue and touch) and the five working organs such as hands, legs, etc. These twenty form the sthul, or outer case.

The mana, the buddhi, the chitta and the ahankar, i. e. the mind, the understanding, the attention and the perverted ego, compose the linga-deha, or inner case.

After encasing the spiritual form of the soul, maya employs the fallen souls to work. Mayik work is composed of karma, akarma and vikarma. Karma is conventionally good action done to obtain virtue, such as the performance of duties enjoyed by the Varnashram dharma [the Vedic system of civilization]. Akarma is the omission to do duty. Vikarma is sin or crime.
Karma procures heavenly elevations up to the Brahmaloka planet. Akarma gives an unpleasant state on earth. Vikarma hurls down souls to hell. The fallen souls travel from body to body with their linga-deha doing karma or vikarma, rising up to the heavens, and again coming down at the exhaustion of their virtues, going down to hell, and after suffering punishment, again rising up to the platform of work. Thus the state of the fallen souls is deplorable in the extreme. They enjoy and suffer massacre and murder, and go on in this state, sometimes smiling as the princess and sometimes suffering in ruin. The world is, therefore, a prison or a house of correction, and not a place for enjoyment as some people assert.

6. Certain souls are released from the grasp of prakriti. Jivas are travelling in the path of mayik existence from time out of mind, experiencing all sorts of pleasure and pain. How to get rid of this unpleasant state of existence? No, dharma (performance of duty), yoga (development of powers of the sthul and the linga), sankhya (the division of substances under the categories and simple knowledge that one is a spiritual being) and vairagya (abnegation giving up all enjoyments of the world) are not the proper means by which one can actually get what he wants.

When a man comes in contact with a Vaishnava, whose heart has been melted by Hari bhaktirasa, it is then that he loves to imbibe the sweet principle of bhakti, devotion, by following his holy foot-steps. By constant study of Krishna-bhakti he slowly washes off his mayik condition, and in the end obtaining his true nature, he enjoys the sweetest unalloyed rasa, which is the ultimate status of the soul.

Satsanga, or the company of spiritual people is the only means to obtain the ultimate object of man. Bhakti is a principle which comes from soul to soul, and like electricity or magnetism in gross matter, it conducts itself from one congenial soul to another. The principle of bhakti is sincere and entire dependence on the Deity in every act of life. The principle of duty is no part of bhakti, as it acts as gratitude for favour obtained and it works like an obligation which is contrary to natural love. The principle of morality in the mortal world, though good in its own way, does scarcely give spiritual consequence in the end. Faith in the supreme beauty of the Deity, a desire for the eternal unselfish service of that Being and a consequent repulsion of every other thought of pleasure or self-aggrandizement are the three principles which constitute shraddha, or actual hankering after bhakti. Bhakti by nature is ananya, exclusive.

Is it chance, then, which brings bhakti? No, sukriti, or good work, is the prime moving principle. Good work is of two classes. One class, passing as morals, includes those works which bring virtue and aggrandizement. The other class of good work includes all acts which have a tendency to bring spiritual culture. This latter class of good work brings one in contact with a sincere Vaishnava, from whom one at the first imbibes shraddha, or faith in spirit, and being then capable of receiving bhakti, one obtains a flash of that principle from the Vaishnava who is the actual Guru of the man.

Doctrine Of "One And Different"

7. All spiritual and material phenomena are achintya-bhedabheda-prakash of Hari, the Almighty. Metaphysical discussions are perfectly useless here. The Vedas go sometimes to establish that jiva, the individual living entity, is distinct from the Deity, and sometimes that jiva is the same as the Deity. In fact, the Vedas always tell the truth. Jiva is simultaneously distinct from and identical with God. This is not understood by the rationalist. Hence it must be said that in the exercise of His powers beyond human comprehension, God is distinct from jiva and the world, and again identical with them at all times.

The Vedanta teaches us the shakti-parinamvad doctrine, and not the erroneous vivartavad of Shankaracharya. Shankara's teachings are explained in different ways. Some say that the world and jiva have emanated from God, and others establish that jiva and the world are but developments of the Godhead. Shankara, in order to avoid Brahma-parinam, i. e. transformation of the Godhead into the world, established that Vyasa [compiler and author of the Vedic literature] teaches us vivartavad, which is this, that God undergoes no change whatever, but it is maya which covers a part of the Deity (just as a pot encloses a part of the firmament) and creates the world; or, that God is reflected on avidya, or ignorance, while in fact nothing else than God has yet come to existence.

These are worthless and abstruse arguments. It is plain that the Vedanta teaches us that God is unchangeable and is never subject to modifications. His power alone creates jiva and the material world, by its own parinam (modification). The example is in the action of the alchemist's stone, the power of which is manifested in the form of gold, while the stone remains always unchanged. Thus chit-shakti, the Supreme Will, goes in the form of the chit-jagat, the spiritual world, with all its particularities of eternal rasa; and jivashakti, the individual living force, goes in the form of innumerable jivas, some staying in Vaikuntha as angels and others moving in this world in various shapes and forms and under very different circumstances. Maya-shakti, the material energy, creates numerous worlds for the habitation and entertainment of the fallen souls.

Vivartavad is no doubt an error and is quite opposed to the teachings of the Vedas. Now shakti-parinamvad [the doctrine of change and variety existing in the energy of the unchanging Godhead] alone is true, and supports the fact that spiritual love is eternal. If vivartavad were true, the natural consequence would be to declare spiritual love a temporary principle.

8. Bhakti is the only means of attaining the final object of spiritual existence. Karma as it is cannot directly and immediately produce spiritual results. When it does, it does so by means of bhakti. Hence bhakti is independent, and karma (action) and jnana (philosophy) are dependent principles. Jnana, the knowledge that man is a spiritual being, cannot directly bring the ultimate object. When it does, it does so with the assistance of bhakti. Bhakti, therefore, is the only means to obtain the ultimate. Bhakti is thus defined. Bhakti is cultivation of a friendly sentiment for Krishna, free from all desires other than those for its own improvement, unalloyed by such other ingredients as karma and jnana.

It will be seen that bhakti is itself both a feeling and an action. Bhakti has three stages, viz ., sadhana-bhakti, bhava-bhakti and prema-bhakti. Sadhana-bhakti is that stage of culture when the feeling of love has not yet been roused. In bhava-bhakti the feeling awakes, and in prema-bhakti the feeling is fully set to action. Bhakti is a spiritual feeling towards the spiritual object of love.

Sadhana-bhakti is of two sorts, one is called the vaidha-sadhana-bhakti and the other is raganuga-sadhana-bhakti. The word vaida is from vidhi, or rule. Where bhakti is to be roused by the rule of the shastras [scriptures], there the vaidhi-bhakti works as long as the feeling is not roused. Where one out of natural tendency loves Krishna, there is a principle called raga, which is no other than a strong desire to serve the Lord of the heart. One who is tempted by the beauty of this process to follow Him has a tendency to cultivate his feeling for Krishna. This is raganuga-sadhana-bhakti. This latter class of sadhana is stronger than the vaidhi sadhana.

Cultivation of the friendly feeling for Krishna is performed in nine different forms:

1. To hear of the spiritual name, form, attributes and Lila [pastimes] of Krishna
2. To utter and sing all those
3. To meditate on and reiterate all those
4. Service of His holy feet
5. Worship
6. Bowing down
7. Doing all that pleases Him
8. Friendship
9. Resignation

Of all these forms, kirtana, singing the name and glories of Krishna, is the best. Humble knowledge is necessary in these forms of worship and fruitless discussions must be avoided. There are some who start at the theory of worshiping Srimurti [the incarnation of God in the apparent form of material elements, such as in a painting or sculpture]. "Oh," they say, "it is idolatory to worship Srimurti. Srimurti is an idol framed by an artist and introduced by no other than Beelzebub himself. Worshiping such an object would rouse the jealousy of God and limit His omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence!" Would tell them, "Brethren! Candidly understand the question and do not allow yourself to be misled by sectarian dogmas."

God is not jealous, as He is without a second. Beelzebub or Satan is no other than an object of imagination, and the subject of an allegory, an imaginary being, should not be allowed to act as an obstacle to bhakti. Those who believe God to be impersonal simply identify Him with some power or attribute in Nature, her laws and her rules. His holy wish is law, and it would be sacrilege to confine His unlimited excellence by identifying Him with such attributes as omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience attributes which may exist in created objects such as time and space.

God's excellence consists in having in Him mutually contradicting powers and attributes ruled by His supernatural Self. He is identical with His all-beautiful person, having such powers as omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence the like of which cannot be found elsewhere. His holy and perfect person exists eternally in the spiritual world, at the same time existing in every created object and place in all its fullness. This idea excels all other ideas of the Deity.

Idolatry And Worship

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu rejects idolatry as well, but considers Srimurti worship to be the only unexceptionable means of spiritual culture. It has been shown that God is personal and all-beautiful. Sages like Vyasa and others have seen that beauty in their souls' eyes. They have left us descriptions. Of course, word carries grossness of matter. But truth still is perceivable in those descriptions. According to those descriptions one