The higher taste, surrender, contradictions and groupism

Dear Swamiji and all Vaisnavas,

     Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna! Jaya Visnupada Srila Prabhupada! Jaya Visnupada Swami Gaurangapada! All glories to the guru parampara and all Vaisnavas!

    Before starting this I humbly pray for the mercy of all devotees and I beg that my offenses be forgiven and that I advance further and begin to relish the taste of pure devotional service.

      Regarding the material desires which forces us into subjucation and distract us from advancement, my own experiences have established concretely that no amount of effort, no tactic, no scheme, no device all of which are manufactured by us can ever hold them back for long. 1 week, 2 weeks...at best a month...then they come back stonger than before. The best and only solution is to take complete shelter of the most merciful mantrarajas and the maha-mantra for there is no possibility to stop the mind with our efforts. Desire must become spiritual by the mercy of the Lord and the vaisnavas. The more we try...the more we forget to surrender to the Lord and the less we recognise that we are not the doer. It is the Lord who can remove those offenses and material mountains of dirt by his names and there is no use in looking for this solution...that solution etc to each and every variety of material problems that we face. Again and again the answer hits one in the face that it is chanting and chanting alone that is the cure.

    The material desires will go only when the lust for them gets replaced by a higher taste of chanting the names. This happens only with chanting in complete surrender and humility and making advancement. We have chanted at a stretch for a few days, a few weeks or at most a month before we become just slightly slack and that is more than enough to guarantee stagnation in our advancement. The attitude that "I have chanted enough" must go. No amount of chanting is ever enough. From my example we must always think that we have not done enough and have wasted time in other things which means a lack of sraddha. From your spiritual point of view the names expand unlimitedly and having tasted them just once the desire to taste more can never cease. In that sense I think the best solution would always be to consider what we are doing as inadequate and always pray for the Lord's mercy that we get sincerity to make the most of whatever time we have. Opportunities like this are far rarer than the chance one gets to become a Brahma and we cannot throw billions of lifetimes of sukrti away by understating the importance of the opportunity given to us. That must be the weapon. Always to remind oneself of how rare and how great the opportunity is and not to forget its importance which can hardly be described in the limitations imposed by the mundane language of the material world.

For reference, please go to www.be-pure.info then the weekly link to the previous articles and navigate to the articles mentioned below which are truly excellent pieces from which i gained this information i am sharing here

Paradoxical Reconsolidation
Hadai Nityananda dasa                                                                                                                                     

Contradictions: Real Or Apparent?
Swami B.V. Tripurary           
   
      There are always more and more sides to the Lord and that everything is resolved on the spiritual plane. The truth is the language of this world is extremely limited as we discussed once and it is incapable of describing or resolving even that which is there in the revealed scripture. Hence there are bound to be some 'mistakes' (apparent). It is painful to see how all over the place, people are arguing over words. This groupism tendency of supporting whom I like and saying, "All others are wrong. What they say is different" is even more dangerous than the offenses as it leads to narrow-mindedness. Consequently one rejects a bona fide Vaisnava simply because that devotee is not in his group. This is very great danger for any sadhaka and over a period of time, it simply leads to what is known as 'fanaticism'. Religion without any philosophy as Srila Prabhupada quotes in the Bhagavad Gita.

  There was a story about how a guru once tied up a cat that was wandering over the place disturbing the yagna that he was performing. A few foolish disciples later on thought that there was some importance in that and began to do that in their own sacrifices later on. Details are a bit hazy, I will try to get the proper story out. Anyhow the story goes on to say that after a few generations of disciples, they all forgot the correct procedures by giving to much importance to the cat and soon a time came when sacrifice meant "Go get the cat and tie it up!"  This is what happens when people blindly accept things without understanding in the name of the so called 'as it is' philosophy which ultimately never realises the goal which styles its name. I am a quite ignorant of the full story...so if anyone knows they are welcome to fill up the gap. It takes just a small deviation or misconception in the very beginning which can lead to serious problems like creation of the apasampradayas.

The gradual degradation generated by sectarianism leads to groupsim over who's right and then fanaticism where it becomes that "If you say something which sounds different, you are a heretic! I will kill you". Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura says that this sectarianism marks the end of the living spiritual advancement. In this regard I would like to add that theoretical reading of different books by different authors is no solution. No amount of theoretical reading done with the mind can clear doubts. On the contrary seeing the scenario today, I think it has rather created more confusion than ever. All these online wars on the net...There are millions of sites which just debate and which are the favourite grounds for people who really have no idea of any useful work. Most of the people there are not even properly aware of their own philosophy or the other's vews either. If any devotee goes there, he is insulted without any consideration. I feel that for a person like me such things are absolutely as taboo as lust is for a sannyasi. I think Swamiji had once written on how the net is the worst place full of the evils of Kali except for those places where pure Vaisnavas are there - namely websites like Nitaai Veda.

  First and foremost, if we have to accept the apparent contradictions we have to admit our own inability and lack of realisation. Merely saying that we are humble or by using appealing language is not a sign that humility lies within. We have to accept that we are far inferior to the acaryas and that we are not their guru to talk about them this way or that as we like. No one can claim one is going to preach and clear misconceptions without having sufficient spiritual authority and advancement to do so. I tell this because I have spoken to people who claim that there are true followers...etc..etc...in the past. Criticism is very detrimental to spiritual progress, even of non-devotees, any criticism.

  The next thing one may ask is "Ok! Now who's genuine and who's not?" There is another class of people, the majority, who accept everything and anything that anyone says as genuine. The distinction between who's the fraud and who's actually telling the truth from another point of that infinite spiritual variety can only be revealed by an advanced devotee who has had proper realisations on the matter. We have no power to do that. Therefore we must pray for the mercy of the Lord to lead us to such a great soul and go on chanting. Usually the solution comes sooner than we expect. But one must accept this. Arguments are no way to come to a conclusion.

  Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami has written about how some consider Krishna Visnu, others Vamana, etc and says that all these things are true because everything is included within Krsna (see Caitanya Caritamrta) . But before that he gives the example of someone who tries to minimise the glories of Lord Krishna by using language that puts him at an inferior position like a partial expansion which is actually incorrect since Lord Gauranga Krsna is the summum bonum absolute truth and is complete in all qualities. That is an example

  By our experience, a black coloured body only absorbs light. And yet Lord Krishna's blackish form is the source of the infinite and limitless Brahman effulgence. There are many things which are revealed to us which are not in any manifested scripture, but which are not in violation of them either. Indeed the manifested scriptures are only a small portion of the limitless spiritual knowledge. With so many constraints, we can understand properly that what every devotee realises is true, even if it may seem contradictory. Only when we have some realisations ourselves can we reconcile and accept the apparent differences while rejecting the real ones. And that again comes down to quality chanting and respecting all Vaisnavas. The four sampradayas all say slightly different things, but Mahaprabhu combined all of them properly and by understanding this, one sees that these sampradayas have all revealed a small part of the siddhanta at the appropriate time and circumstances. So close are their statements that one can feel that ultimately its the same thing just being said in different ways. Mahaprabhu's siddhanta immediately resolves these differences.

  It is good if in the very beginning people are properly informed about this matter since this problem can be easily dismissed in the beginning. It is only when it gets well seasoned by theoretical knowledge and association that it really starts to play havoc. I sincerely pray to the Lordships Nityananda Gauranga that people learn to accept this without further arguments. All glories to Hadai Nityananda Dasa Prabhu for having brought the real truth to the light. Prabhu, I thank you for your service to the Vaisnava community!


  Aspiring to be your servant,
--
Srinath

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