52 Touchstone of Vaishnava Consciousness A Mahaprabhu Charan Pahari Series Vaishnav Chetan Parasmani A Mahaprabhu Charan Pahari Series Vaishnav Chetan Parasmani यय सादागवसादो ययासादान गतः कु तोऽप यायतुवंतय यशि - सयं वदे गुरोः ी - चरणारवदम ् A Mahaprabhu Charan Pahari Series Page 2 of 226 Vaishnav Chetan Parasmani C ONTENTS DEDICATION 4 PREFACE 5 BHAKTI TODAY 6 KRISHNA BHAJANA 14 ACARYAS OF THE BHAKT I TATTVA 40 THE ENEMIES WITHIN 75 THE GAUDIYA PATH 106 THE GOAL 139 SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUS NESS 161 NECTAR OF LEELA 196 GAUR TATTVA 213 A Mahaprabhu Charan Pahari Series Page 3 of 226 Vaishnav Chetan Parasmani D EDICAT ION This second work after “Sri Krishna Seva Prapti” titled Vaishnav Chetan Parasmani is dedicated to the Lotus feet of our eternal spiritual master Param Pujya Sri Sri 108 Premadasa Babaji Maharaj . An embodiment of transcendental humility, he picked us up from the darkness of “ jeeva maya ” and in the mood of a loving mother keeps nurturing us to our final des tination of Sri Krishna Seva Prapti. A Mahaprabhu Charan Pahari Series Page 4 of 226 Vaishnav Chetan Parasmani P REFACE This work is a collection summa ry of spiritual realizations and conversations with a God - realized spiritual master . The contents of this work form the basis of spiritual tenets on the path of Bhakti and represent experiential principles of the Gaudiya Vaishnava thought. This work does n ot boast of positioning itself as an authoritative treatise on Gaudiya Vaishnavism or any other school of spiritual rigor. Any inadvertent representation of any spiritual/religious school should be considered to be purely unintentional. The purpose of thi s work is to drive home the need for the general populace to immediately take up to Sri Gaudiya Vaishnavism considering the fact that this is the need of Kaliyuga as expounded by the Kaliyuga Avatara Sriman Gauranga Mahaprabhu who briefly visited our plane t about 53 0 years ago. A Mahaprabhu Charan Pahari Series Page 5 of 226 Vaishnav Chetan Parasmani B HAKTI T ODAY The aspect of Krishna Bhajana that deals with the living entity’s ultimate goal or Prayojana has three touch points. These are the Sadhu, Sadhguru and Shastra. Any other means that is used to relate the living entity an d Krishna Bhajana may appear to be useful in the larger context yet may not be relevant. Depending on the hidden desires and motives of human beings (living entities who take up to Bhakti ); various arrangements are done by the Supreme Lord usually arranged by an aspect of His sandhini potency or Yogmaya. Yogmaya has setup various institutions and setups that dish out various flavours of how to perform Krishna Bhajana and the means to reach Him so that “One goes back home, back to Godhead”. The offer is quit e attractive but not entirely useful in achieving the objective. Depending on the sincerity and the spiritual greed of living entities; Yogmaya takes the living entity to the widely spread out Spiritual Bazaar so to say. Thanks to the sprawl brands of spir itual institutions that have done remarkable work in getting the basics of Krishna Bhajana in place but they nevertheless fall short of guiding a sincere aspirant to the final goal. Leave alone attaining the final goal; there is a lack of understanding ove rall at such spiritual fares as to what is the final goal of Krishna Bhajana. In such a scenario the living entities who started off on the right path; slowly lose the objective in the long run. The spiritual organizations that eulogize Krishna claim to sh ow you the path to Godhead; having their own well designed internal objectives. In the name of Service to Krishna; a lot of associations are formed that revolve around nurturing devotees and giving them an experience of sorts. The plan is to encourage part icipation from devoted followers A Mahaprabhu Charan Pahari Series Page 6 of 226 Vaishnav Chetan Parasmani who have a host of “Gurus” who guide them along the path of Krishna Bhajana and in return, get the means to cultivate and maintain lavish temples. Temples are sponsored by the cream of influential and rich patrons who swear by their Gurus and talk of surrender! Well everything is rosy and picture perfect. People are very much certain that they are going back home, back to Godhead. The folks that participate in such spiritual groups are looking out for some ego - massaging, som e recognition and a lot of attention from guardians of such plush spiritual setups who appear to be freely distributing “Krishna”. This is very unfortunate because we are deviating from the basic principle of Krishna Bhajana. The place for Krishna’s reside nce is not in temples but in the white butter like hearts of seekers who sacrifice their attachment to this ephemeral world and are single - pointed towards the Prayojana of attaining Love of Godhead; in the truest spirit and not merely through psychological rhetoric. When 100 people claim that they are on the way back home back to Godhead; there is a group of another 10,000 who deliriously follow this set of 100 without first enquiring scientifically of how this is possible. The term “faith” is being used ve ry liberally today and people just follow wearing blinkers and just rush towards an unknown destination. Yes, the intention of people is genuine; however one should always use intelligence and refer time and again to whether one is shooting in the right di rection. The movement of Sriman Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is the most genuine of all recent movements; of this there is no doubt. This is also an established fact. However there are myriads of such movements who show history and claim to be authentic. This is K aliyuga and the Lord is very benevolent. He does guide a sincere aspirant in the form of the Chaitya Guru. It also becomes the duty of intelligent folk to develop a submissive questioning mind ; the answers to which will guide the A Mahaprabhu Charan Pahari Series Page 7 of 226 Vaishnav Chetan Parasmani sincere aspirant. We shou ld be extremely attached to the cause of Krishna Bhajana and seek guidance. Bhakti is the essence of our eternal relationship with the Lord. As living entities we have been separated parts and parcels of the Lord. Bhakti is that process which revives the lost link with the Lord. The world is populated with myriads of such living entities that have been traversing the eight point four million species circle incalculable times with a hope to ending the journey and attaining eternal bliss. The human species i s the most fortunate amongst these species, since it has an opportunity to hit upon a permanent solution in the form of Bhakti. Bhakti has been distributed on the planet from India and the Guru Parampara system is extremely potent to deliver Bhakti even du ring these gory days of Kaliyuga. The Supreme Lord has made adequate arrangements so that the human race does not wilt away, being parched by the onslaught of unfavourable times. By the will of the Lord great missions have picked up especially after the de parture of the last known incarnations of the Supreme Lord, Sriman Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The Gaudiya Vaishnava Movement is a massive revolution in Vaishnavism that is transforming the entire world and has assumed the form of a vehicle that carries sincere aspirants back to the spiritual realm and thus ending their thankless cycles of repeated births. Many great institutions have had a great contribution in the entire process and Institutions of great name and reckoning stand testimony to the Gaudiya Vaishna va revolution that is estimated to continue on this planet for the next ten thousand years as prophesised by the scriptures themselves. Having said that; Institutions, Organized Preaching, Congregational movements and other social formats have a great say in the wide - A Mahaprabhu Charan Pahari Series Page 8 of 226 Vaishnav Chetan Parasmani spread of the movement, when one considers a living entity’s individual journey into the system of Sriman Mahaprabhu, the equation of success has to be considered in a totally different light. Sriman Mahaprabhu’s great movement is based on perf ect Vedic principles, the roots of which remain unchanged since the very creation of time and space which is as old as Creator Himself! The philosophy relies on this base that what gets one back to the spiritual world simply depends on 3 base entities tha t is the living entity, the Guru and the Lord Himself. What really gets anybody back to the spiritual realm is the transaction of factors like sincerity , Chanting of the Holy Name , Spiritual Service to please Guru and Lord and one’s utmost commitment to Bhakti process in preference to any other aspect of mundane existence. Other than this there are no other criteria that can get one across the tidal wave of material existence. Commitment to temple rules, social c are, preaching, spreading social Awareness on Bhakti, Congregational Activities and other Institution based chores may initially appear to support and encourage the Bhakti tendency in an individual but can never ever be sufficient to proffer Bhakti towards ultimate fulfillment. Moreover when it com es to the original precepts of Sriman Mahaprabhu, Sriman Mahaprabhu only focussed on the Mahapurana Srimad Bhagavatham and that too on the pure principles of unalloyed devotion enjoined therein. However it is common that Vedic strictures still form the maj or structure of the organizations which base elaborate social functions on a grand scale that attract devotees.