Guidance, Volume 3

"Without Lord Krishna Life Is Meaningless"

Today is the holy appearance day of Lord Sri Krishna, and tomorrow is Sri Nandotsav. On this occasion, a festival of glorification of the Lord and chanting of the Lord's Holy Names is being held on the order of the Math's Acharya. Great teachers tells us, "If Lord Sri Krishna had not appeared, the life of the jiva souls would be useless," but the meaning of these words does not enter our ears! We futilely enjoy many petty senses and the distress it causes makes us so thirsty that we create a petty phoney version of Sri Krishna. Because of our false identification, we are fed the idea that instead of Supreme Lord Krishna a demon-killer Krishna is born on this day.

Being engrossed by enjoyment, does anyone of us ever think what is the necessity of worshipping Krishna? We accept an exclusive designation of an enjoyer of this world and from Lord Brahma down to the lowest life form everyone roams all planes of life, from hell to heaven, in this ego of an enjoyer; this is the driving force of all living entities' actions. Some become worms in stool and explore their world of enjoyment; some are born as humans and strive to attain high ranks, position, aristocracy, beautiful body, opulence, etc. Sometimes we are born as German Kaiser, sometimes as Chancellor Hitler, sometimes as a state leader, sometimes as a hero of a national movement, sometimes as a social reformer, sometimes as benefactor of the distressed—philanthropists, poets, writers, historians, archaeologists, capitalists, socialists, economists, politicians, journalists, sometimes singer, sometimes actors, sometimes musicians, speakers, beggars for food, sometimes we are stricken by famine, sometimes by earthquake, sometimes we stay without house after a flood, we lose our family, wealth, sometimes we are farmers, sometimes workers, sometimes rich, sometimes gross sensualists—how many forms have we assumed being swooned by enjoyment and how long have we been rejecting the necessity of Lord Krishna's existence and appearance!

We have no relation to the appearance of Lord Krishna any more. We merely spend our lives revolving within the cycle of birth and death. We always count the birth and death rate among humans or beasts, we are always busy reading the news about floods and famine, and just to get some happiness we become obsessed with various gross and subtle enjoyment. When a demon of enjoyment is born within our hearts at every second, what is the necessity of Krishna's appearance?

The Lord is knowns as visuddha-sattva, One whose existence is free from contamination of the three material modes; it means if it was not for such heart as that of Vasudev (Lord Krishna's father), Lord Vasudev (Krishna) would not appear today. We do not want to give even a second's thought to this, neither do we think it is necessary to think about this. We think that the directives given in the scriptures are merely some children's stories about bogeymen or some nursery rhymes. We feel tortured terribly when we get into some temporary difficulties and adversities, but the next moment, as the saying goes, "the dog's tail curls up again" (once the danger is over we immediately get excited again).

Sometimes posing as theists, sometimes posing as moralists, sometimes posing as atheists, we refuse to believe in the appearance of Lord Krishna. In Sri Gita (4.6, 9) Lord Krishna says,

aho 'pi sann avyayatma, bhutanam isvaro 'pi san
prakrtim svam adhisthaya, sambhavamy atma-mayaya.

"Although My eternal form is transcendental to birth and death, and I am the Lord of all beings, I appear within the world in My divine nature, by My sweet will, extending My internal potency."

janma karma cha me divyam, evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma, naiti mam eti so 'rjuna

"O Arjuna, one who comes to know thus the truth of My pastimes of divine birth and activities, does not undergo rebirth. After giving up this body, he attains Me."

Even if one claims that they believe in the transcendental instructions of Lord Krishna, they perceive it in a distorted way. We are unable to accept or grasp the Lord's transcendental and eternal pastime of birth because out of religious pride we actually do not understand that the Lord possesses all potencies, He possesses transcendental powers and is absolutely independent Supreme Personality of Godhead who enjoys His pastimes with His associates (Lila-Purusottama)—instead we want to squeeze the Lord within the tiny boundaries of our intellect. If we say we are moralists, then we think that the world is ruled, controlled and preserved by the moral principles, and there is no need for any separate God. Even if we say that we believe in God, that we believe that Sri Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then there arises the problem of sectarianism—that is why it is thought that there is no harm and no gain if one rejects the bias towards the conception of one and only Supreme Absolute in favour of the numerous so called religious doctrines that are perceived to be on equal footing with the material opportunism.

Sadhus give us innumerous advice and always incite us to remove unnecessary things from our life—the jungle forests of impurities, termite mounds, thorns and the stagnant mouldy water of material desires that nurture life after life, etc. When will we get the time to see the variegated beauty of transcendental Lord Krishna's appearance? There is so much inexhaustible beauty in the realm of Krishna's appearance, the liberated souls possess so much astounding and unrestrained par excellence in the realm of Krishna's appearance; there, the bliss of service life reprimands the bliss of sheer spiritual existence and is dancing on its head—when will we get the chance to see it? We either lose ourselves in the enjoyment in the lower base species of beasts and birds, or we consider that the purpose of human birth is realised when we gain petty release from animal life, and this is what we call being a sadhu or religious. It is extremely rare to come across people who would be worth teaching that the supreme goal of human life is the abode of Lord Krishna's appearance—as much so as the mount of our aversion is also insurmountable.

Although Sri Krishna appeared as a son of Sri Vasudev and Devaki, He did not take birth having been conceived by semen, etc. like an ordinary common man. Enveloped by the transcendental goodness of Devaki and Vasudev, who are situated in pure spiritual goodness within and without, the eternal, blissful, cognisant holy form of Sri Krishna comes up with His appearance pastime. In this regard, it is said in Srimad Bhagavatam (10.2.19) that just as the east captures the delightful moon, in the same way Devaki Devi, being fully aware of all the Vedic knowledge, had captured through Vasudev the all-auspicious, omnipotent, original, all-blissful form of Supreme Lord as her son within her heart. It is due to their parental love that Lord Sri Krishna's appearance took place.

There is one more proof that the birth of Lord Krishna cannot be compared to the birth of common mundane people: when a common child is born, it is born naked from the mother's womb, but as Bhagavatam described it, when Lord Sri Krishna appeared, He appeared in His four-armed form holding conch, disk, club and lotus, adorned with various ornaments such as a helmet, earrings, etc., He had dense fully grown hair and was clad in yellow clothes. Common children are never born from the womb of their mothers fully clad and adorned with ornaments. In this way, it can be proved that the ornaments and beauty of the Lord Krishna are as eternal and transcendental as Lord Krishna's Name and Form.

The Lord Himself explained why He appears in four-armed form: His original form is two-armed, but He revealed His four-armed form only to remind His two devotees who possessed parental devotional mood mixed with opulence and knowledge about His previous birth and pastimes.

When the soul becomes again favourable towards Lord Krishna, Lord Krishna appears at that time in the heart of this soul. By the mercy of Sri Gurupadpadma, Lord Krishna descends within the hearts of the souls covered by the darkness of ignorance every year in the rainy season (August-beginning of September). His appearance occurs at midnight on the eighth lunar day of the dark fortnight in the month of Bhadra. 'Jayasri' Vrisabhanu-nandini (Srimati Radharani) appears every year at midday on the eighth day of the bright fortnight. Despite this calculation, Lord Krishna's appearance day occurs eternally. His appearance is not just some historical fact, it is an eternal truth.

When Sri Krishna and Jayasri unite, They become Sri Gaurasundar. Although He is Krishna, He comes taking the heart (exclusive devotional mood) and halo of His devotee to bring the appearance of Lord Krishna into the hearts of all souls devoid of spiritual consciousness and to bestow upon such souls the gift of spiritual consciousness—taking this exclusive form, He appears on dol-purnima [known as 'holi' in the West], the day when Krishna enjoys the most.

Sri Gaurasundar appears in this combined form, taking the heart and halo of divine separation, to teach the world about the union with Krishna and the devotees' service in separation from Krishna. On this day of Lord Sri Krishna's appearance, we take the dust from the lotus feet of the Rupanuga guru-varga and the Gaudiya acharya-varga on our heads and beg for the qualification to be able to sing the glories of Lord Sri Krishna's appearance:

yad advaitam brahmopanisadi tad apy asya tanu-bha
ya atmantar-yami purusa iti so 'syamsa-vibhavah
sad-aisvaryaih purno ya iha bhagavan sa svayam ayam
na chaitanyat krsnaj jagati para-tattvam param iha

"What the Upanisads describe as the impersonal Brahman is the effulgence of My Lord; what the yoga-sastras describe as the Supersoul or Paramatma is My Prabhu's plenary portion, and who is described as the Supreme Lord, full with six opulences, the shelter of Brahman and Paramatma, He is My Master, the Lord Himself. Therefore, there is nothing greater in this world than Sri Krishna Chaitanya."

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.1.3)

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CONTENTS:

• Foreword
• (Preface) Meaning of Festival
• What Is Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math and Its Distinctions
• "Without Lord Krishna Life Is Meaningless"
• The Unrenounceable
• Sri Radhastami
• Proper Renunciation
• Astakala-Lila
• Is Religion the Cause of National Downfall?
• Householders and Renunciates
• Provincialism and Service to the Lord
• Offenders
• Hell
• Devotional Mood (Bhakta-Bhav)
• Home-interest vs Math-interest
• Samsara and Bhakti
• Questions and Answers