More Intimate Than Our Soul

Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja

Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja


"Fear arises when a living entity misidentifies himself as the material body because of absorption in the external, illusory energy of the Lord, called maya. When the living entity thus turns away from the Supreme Lord, he also forgets his own constitutional position as a servant of the Lord. Therefore, an intelligent person should engage unflinchingly in the unalloyed devotional service of the Lord, under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, whom he should accept as his worshipable deity and as his very life and soul." Source Srimad Bhagavatam


Explanation By Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja

I offer millions of obeisances unto the lotus feet of my spiritual master, nitya-lila-pravishta om vishnupada Sri Srimad Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvami Maharaja, and same to my siksha-guru, nitya-lila- pravishta om vishnupada Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja.

I remember a verse of Srimad-Bhagavatam that was spoken by Sri Narada Rishi to Vasudeva, the father of Krishna.1 This verse was then re-told by Srila Sukadeva Gosvami to Parikshit Maharaja, who was cursed to die by the bite of a snake-bird after seven days:

bhayam dvitiyabhinivesatah syad isad apetasya viparyayo ’smritih tan-mayayato budha abhajet tam bhaktyaikayesam guru-devatatma
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.2.37)

Fear arises when a living entity misidentifies himself as the material body because of absorption in the external, illusory energy of the Lord, called maya. When the living entity thus turns away from the Supreme Lord, he also forgets his own constitutional position as a servant of the Lord. Therefore, an intelligent person should engage unflinchingly in the unalloyed devotional service of the Lord, under the guidance of a bona fide spiritual master, whom he should accept as his worshipable deity and as his very life and soul.

“This is a quotation from Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.2.37). It is an instruction given by Kavi Rishi, one of the nine saintly personalities called the nine Yogendras. When Vasudeva, Krishna’s father, asked Devarshi Narada, in Dvaraka about devotional service, it was mentioned that previously King Nimi, who was the King of Videha, was instructed by the nine Yogendras. When Sri Narada Muni discoursed on bhagavata-dharma, devotional service, he indicated how a conditioned soul can be liberated by engaging in the loving transcendental service of the Lord.” (Sri Caitanya-caritamrita (Madhya-lila 20.119) purport by Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada).

Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

What are the causes of fear? Srila Sukadeva Gosvami has explained this. We all fear. Although everyone, in all species of life, throughout all the material universes, only wants peace of mind and happiness, everyone is full of fear.

Happiness and peace of life follow us like a shadow. If we want to take that shadow within our grasp, we will find it to be intangible – with no substance. On the other hand, when we proceed forward, turning away from our shadow, that shadow will follow us. This is the nature of shadows.

Perhaps all of you know the meaning of maya (illusion)? Maya, in the form of economic development, sense gratification and impersonal liberation, is like a shadow. When we turn to her and try to enjoy sense gratification, we find that sense gratification to have no substance. In other words, the desire for material happiness becomes the cause of pain and grief. There is no happiness in the material world, only distress and suffering, and this suffering is experienced as the endless chain of birth and death. No one is happy to be in maya. On the other hand, if we progress towards Krishna, all material facility and liberation will follow us.

We are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, Krishna, and He is an ocean of ananda, unlimited happiness and peace. He is the reservoir of pure ananda and, in fact He Himself is ananda. Because we are His parts and parcels, by our constitutional position, by nature, our bodies are also made of pure ananda. This refers to our transcendental body, however, not our material body.

bhayam dvitiyabhinivesatah syad isad apetasya viparyayo ’smritih tan-mayayato budha abhajet tam bhaktyaikayesam guru-devatatma (same as above)

Somehow we have departed from that Supreme Lord, the ocean of rasa (transcendental taste) and ananda, and now we are entangled in the deluding potency called maya. Ma-ya. We are seeing that which is not actually a fact to be a fact. Whatever we see or feel by our sensory perception is maya. When we first departed from Krishna, when we first forgot Him, maya came at once and attacked us. She defeated us and put us in her jail. What is that jail? It is this body and mind. Actually  there are two jails, one within the other. This gross body is the outer jail and the subtle body is the inner jail. We have been suffering and fearing since time imme- morial, and we are never free from that.

The Supreme Lord Narayana

The Supreme Lord Narayana

Parikshit Maharaja asked Srila Sukadeva Gosvami, “How can we come out of this endless chain of birth and death? How can we get free from maya?” Srila Sukadeva Gosvami replied, “Tan-mayayato budha abhajet tam / bhaktyaikayesam guru-devatatma.” (same as above)

Being in maya, we cannot become free from maya at once and go to the spititual realm of Goloka Vrindavana. This is possible only by the help of Vaishnavas, pure devotees. By the association of Vaishnavas we can have a very pure guru – not an imitation guru but a sad-guru (a self-realized guru). If we take shelter in his lotus feet, he will take full charge of our lives. He will take all kinds of responsibility for our lives and he will teach how to do devotional service to Krishna.
Guru-devatatma. First, we must think that guru is our atma, our life and soul. Being totally surrendered to him, we must depend solely on him. Tan abhajet. Tan means the Supreme Lord, Krishna. If we serve Krishna under the guidance of sad-guru, then certainly, like magic, we will be out of maya. We will see that our transcendental form has manifested, that we are serving Krishna, and that we are now bathing in the endless ocean of ananda and rasa. At that time, we will also be embodiments of ananda, and we will simultaneously be the enjoyers of ananda by serving.

Try to realize all these facts. It is not sufficient to simply hear about this and tell others. We will have to be established in this truth. We are in deep maya, and to the extent we are in maya we are that far away from Krishna. Our only hope is the fact that Krishna has sent sad-guru and Vaishnavas to this world. I realize this; I was a third-class bogus person, but my gurudeva picked me up and engaged me in this transcendental service.

To give the happiness of direct service to the Divine Couple Radha and Krishna is the mission of ancient scriptures like Srimad- Bhagavatam, and great spiritual masters like Sri Narada Rishi, Srila Sukadeva Gosvami, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, our guru-varga (disciplic succession), and especially, in Western countries, parama- pujyapada Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja – who ordered me to also preach it.

I request you all to understand these eternal truths and be established in them, and to also preach this mission of the succession of spiritual masters, called guru-parampara, to others. If you are practicing but not preaching, you are selfish. Do not be weak. Preach.

It is stated in Sri Caitanya-caritamrita: “sthane sthitah sruti- gatam tanu-van-manobhir.” If you are wearing the saffron cloth of a renunciate (brahmacari or sannyasi ), do not marry and do not fall down. If you are grihastha (a householder), then remain grihastha. But after you are fifty years old, try to come out of grihastha life. Do not engage your whole life in the grihastha asrama. If you can be a grihastha like Prahlada Maharaja or the Pandavas, that is fine; but that is very rare.

 

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