(3) Higher Conceptions

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Ishwarpur, 19 January 2019, part 3
Translated from Bengali

Our line is service to devotees (bhakta-seva). Even when one becomes an acharya and takes disciples, he must not think that the person who taking initiation from him is his disciple. Srila Prabhupad explains that there is Lord residing within the disciple (jivatma is part of the Lord and the Lord resides next to it), so the acharya will see the Lord within the disciple and will serve the Lord through this person. When Srila Prabhupad's disciples offered obeisances to him, he would say, 'Daso 'smi. I am your servant'. So, a guru must think, 'I am accepting you as a disciple not to take service from you but to serve you.' The disciple will think what they will think and do what they will do, but the acharya must think that he takes a disciple to serve that disciple, not to take service from them. There should be no acharya-abhiman (pride, ego, that 'I am a acharya!'). Always remember this. This is the highest conception.

If you read Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, you will find there Mahaprabhu speaking to Ramananda Ray on the bank of the Godavari. The ultimate advice of Srimad Bhagavad-gita is karma-yoga ('leave all religions and surrender to the Lord'). But Mahaprabhu rejected it as superficial. At the beginning of their talk, Mahaprabhu asked Ramananda Ray, 'Pada sloka sadhyera nirnaya. Please recite verses concerning the ultimate goal of life and cite the evidence from the scriptures.' First, Ramananda Ray said, 'Sva-dharma acharane Krsna-bhakti haya. You can attain devotion to Lord Krishna by practising the religion prescribed to you according to your social position.' When I went to Nepal, a seven- or eight-grade pupil asked me, 'You are Vaishnavs, then why do you not worship Vishnu? Why do you worship Krishna?' You can see how they listen and what kind of questions they ask – can any of you ask such clever questions? I explained to the boy and all the other school children who is Vishnu and who is Krishna. You must remember the explanation.

Krishna and Balaram (Gaura and Nityananda) are two forms of the same personality. There is no difference between them. Krishna, or Gaura, is visaya-vigraha (object of worship), and Balaram, or Nitai, is asraya-vigraha (embodiment of shelter). Balaram is Mul-Sankarsan, He maintains this whole universe. From Mul-Sankarsan come Sankarsan, Vasudev, Aniruddha and Pradyumna. This is all explained in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita and Srimad Bhagavatam, but it is written in difficult language, so I am explaining it to you in a simple way. It is said, 'Bhagavata pada Vaisnavera sthane, ekanta asraya kara Chaitanya-charane (ভাগবত পড় বৈষ্ণবের স্থানে, একান্ত আশ্রয় কর চৈতন্য-চরণে). Read Bhagavatam under the guidance of a Vaishnav and take exclusive shelter at the lotus feet of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu' (Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.5.131). Aniruddha further expands Himself into three forms of Vishnu: Garbhodakasayi Vishnu, Ksirodakasayi Vishnu and Karanodakasayi Vishnu. From Karanodakasayi Vishnu come the ten incarnations of the Lord: Matsya avatar, Kurma avatar (we will try to go to South India after Ratha-yatra – first, we will go to Kurma-ksetra, where Lord came assuming the form of a tortoise; people worship Earth as the Lord there – when you construct a house or a temple, you must remember Kurmadev), Varaha avatar, Nrisingha avatar, Vaman avatar, Parasurama avatar, Rama avatar, Baladev avatar, Buddha avatar, Kalki avatar.

একলা ঈশ্বর কৃষ্ণ, আর সব ভৃত্য ।
যারে যৈছে নাচায়, সে তৈছে করে নৃত্য ॥

ekala isvara krsna, ara saba bhrtya
yare yaiche nachaya, se taichhe kare nrtya

'Lord Krishna is the only supreme controller, and all others are His servants. They dance as He makes them do so.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.5.142)

Lord Brahma also said:

ঈশ্বরঃ পরমঃ কৃষ্ণঃ সচ্চিদানন্দবিগ্রহঃ ।
অনাদিরাদির্গোবিন্দঃ সর্ব্বকারণকারণম্ ॥

isvarah paramah krsnah sach-chid-ananda-vigrahah
anadir adir govindah sarva-karana-karanam

'Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the supreme controller. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, for He is the prime cause of all causes.'

(Sri Brahma-samhita, 5.1)

He is supreme (parama), He is eternal (sat), cognisant (chid) and blissful (ananda). He is the origin of all (He existed before all Vishnus), and He is cause of all causes. The place where He lives eternally is never destroyed, even during the universal annihilation, and this is where we must reach.

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