THE HARMONIST AS IT IS VOL.2 (VOL. XXVI, June 1928 - May 1929) VBT - THE V AISHNAVA BOOK TRUST Published in India by VBT - THE VAISHNAVA BOOK TRUST Ananda Krishna Van, Radha Nivas Sunrakh Road, Madhuvan Colony, Sri Vrindavan Dham 281121 U.P. - INDIA Reprint of The Harrnonist Magazine March 2006 - 500 collectios. Printed by Radha Press Kailash Nagar, New Delhi 110031 PREFACE If we speak of God as the Supreme, Who is above absolutely everyone and everything known and unknown to us, we must agree that there can be only one God. Therefore God, or the Absolute Truth, is thecommon and main link of the whole creation. Nonetheless, and although God is One, we must also agree that being the Supreme, God can also manifest as many, or in the way, shape and formthat may be most pleasant or unpleasant. In other words, any sincere student of a truly scientific path of knowledge about God, must learnthat the Absolute Truth is everything and much above anything that such student may have ever known or imagined. Therefore, a true conclusion of advanced knowledge of God must bethat not only is God one, but also that God manifests as many. Only under this knowledge and conclusion, a perspective student of the Absolute Truth could then understand the deep purport behind polytheism, since the existence of various 'gods' cannot be other than differentmanifestations fromthe exclusive source, which is the same and only Supreme God. Nonetheless, the most particular path of knowledge that explain in detail all such manifestations or incarnations,in a most convincing and authoritative description, can be found in the vast Vedas and Vaishnava literature. Therevealed scriptures of mankind have several purposes. All bona tidesacred texts declare that God will be always besides His devotees and somehow will chastise His enemies or miscreants. All scriptures offerdifferent kindsof references on how to follow and achieve knowledge about God. According to the differenttraits of a region, populace or culture, God descends or either sends one or more of His various agents. Therefore, God reveals differenttypes of scriptures as guidance to uplift a particular group of people. Thehistorical religious legacy widely recognized to understand, and finally love God, contain scriptures of various tenors, such as the Bhagavat-gita, the Bible, the teachings of Lord Buddha, and the Koran. Nevertheless, the most extensive information about the Supreme is to be found in the Vedas and Vaishnava literature with its philosophical foundation on the Bhagavat-gita. Vaishnava literature demonstratesthat amongst the different arid infinite incarnations of God, the most munificent is Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the combined incarnationof Sri Radha and Sri Krishna Besides satisfyingHis several reasons to incarnate,Sri Chaitanya revealedthe greatest philosophical, psychological and theological conception for mankind to understand the innermost qualities of God. Throughthe teachings of the followers of Sri Chaitanya, Sri Krishna in Vrindavanis revealed as the Personal Identity of Love. The most impressive evidence of the magnitude of Sri Chaitanya's causeless mercy is that He appeared during this most degraded age, known as Kali-yuga, with the most magnanimous gift ofltnowledgethat no other incarnationcould offer,the service to the Divine Couple Sri Radha-Krishna in the most intimate way possible-Manjari-bhava. Thefollowing versecomposed by His intimate devotee Srila Rupa Goswami Prabhupada, in glorification of the Golden Avatar Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, reflects such position: namo maha vadaniaya krishnaprema pradayate krishnayakrishnachaitanya namine gaura tvisenamah "I offermy most humble obeisances to Sri Gaura, known as Sri Krishna Chaitanya, who is Krishna Himself and is themost magnanimous incarnationof God, who has come to deliver everybody in this dark age of Kali by freely distributing love for Krishna." ii Preface Someone may question, why Sri Gaura or Gauranga is themost magnanimous incarnation of God since all incarnationsof God also come to protect and deliver His devotees? Theanswer is that Sri Gauranga is ultimately the most magnanimous because He has descended in the lowest age of mankind, not only to deliver God's devotees, but also to reveal the most elevated and intimate knowledge of God's personality; thusunveiling the highest form of Divine Love. By revealing in detail theservice to themale and female aspects of the Absolute Truth-Sri Radha and Sri Krishna­ in the most esoteric and intimate devotional mood, Sri Chaitanya has surpassed any revelation or knowledge about God offeredto mankind by any previous avatar. Lord Gauranga's incarnationas a bhakta established the exemplar activities of a devotee of God. However, one of the characteristics of God's agents is that they accept all kind of hardships according to time, place and circumstance to deliver the fallen. The devotees of God are many, and they all serve the same purpose of rescuing the conditioned souls fromthe material existence. Therefore, the intimate associates of the Supreme Identity of Godhead-the Divine Trilogy, Sri Sri Radha­ Krishna and Sri Gauranga-are extremely rare since they are equally or even more merciful thanthe Lord Himself. History has recorded that after having rescued the true teachings of Sri Chaitanya from unscrupulous practices, the great Vaishnava devotee Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura desired to spread such divine knowledge to the complete world. Under the visionary spirit of his pure devotion, BhaktivinodaThakura was eager to extend Sri Chaitanya'sgift to the rest of mankind, most particularly in theEnglish language. TheVedas inform thatin the present dark age of Kali, the populace becomes extremely insensitive, thus prompting humanity to materialistic pursuits. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura could foresee that the whole world would be enchanted and engulfed by the constant contemplation of money and sense gratification. Somehow he also understood that the English language would become prominent around theworld. English has become the most popular language in politics and business transactions.However, it is a language of limited capability and grammatical depth, particularly when attempting to describe the most refined sentiments. If compared with the academically accepted mother of all languages, Sanskrit, then the grammar of English falls short of describing the most refined sentiments and relationships regarding Godhead. Sanskrit is more complete and complex as a language than Greek, for instance. It has more cases is more complete in semantic terms also. Studying the ending of differentcases and conjugations, tenses, persons, etc., anyone can see that they are more clear and distinctive in Sanskrit. Because archaic English is no longer practiced, English does not offera stronger perception for refined verbal exchanges amongst family members and relationships in general. This can be substantiated by thefact thatEnglish grammar does not discriminate in how to refer to a social senior, junior or equal, since all are addressed as 'you', as is also done when one addresses a pet animal. Indeed, anotherobservation regarding a strong egotistic characteristic found in English is thatit is the only language that uses thefirst person 'I' in capital letters. Any writer that composes religious or devotional poetryin English is therefore entitled to use capital letters while using the second person, 'You', while exclusively addressing God; therefore, at least grammatically, placing himself in the same level as God. In Volume No. 4, Vol. XXVIII, June 1930, page I, of this collection, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Goswami published an article by Sri Bishwesswar Das, entitled The Study of the English Language. A short paragraph of such article mentions "The study of English or any worldly language is sure to lead to catastrophe unless directed to the higher purpose. The Harmonist As It Is iii But a not wholly unfounded charge is also broughtagainst the study of English. A Nationalist would say that the study of the English language disabuses men's minds of all ancient ideas and beliefs. In matters of religion, in matters relating to our highest interests the cultivation of the English language is hence calculated to a certainextent to make us losers rather than gainers. There is no gain­ saying the fact that a thorough mastery of the English language need be no bar to the requirements of spiritual lifethe nature of which can hardly be suspected by one who is ignorant of the higher purpose. Nevertheless the charge is true that the materialistic tendency of the English language makes it more or less skeptical of religion." English was the language that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura identified as the most popular and fluent amongst learnedpeople of his time. He began spreading the message of Sri Chaitanya in English in 1896 by sending his treatise Chaitanya Mahaprabhu-His Life and Precepts to the McGill University of Canada and also to England. His son, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, had closely seen his father's eagerness to give knowledge of Sri Gaura to the Western world. He then received the divine inspiration to pursue his father's task and begun the English publication of The Hannonist magazine, which was previously published by his father in Bengali and known as Sajjana-tosani. A forewordby Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada explaining the full meaning of The Hannonist'soriginal Sanskrit title can be read on Volume No. 1, Vol. XXV- June 1927, page 2. After Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada's departure from this world, another great devotee undertook the divine task of spreading the message of Gauranga in English; this was Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. All learned Vaishnavas have concluded that Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has bestowed his blessings upon all the world's preachers of the teachings of Sri Chaitanya by opening the path for all to spread the message in English. Also through the agency of his beloved disciples after his physical departure from this world in 1977, Srila Prabhupada has induced the preaching of many of his senior and junior god brothers, as well as their disciples.