— { HOLY ENGAGEMENT } —

CHAPTER FOUR:
INNER DOMAIN

Conceptually Sanatan Goswami took Krishna to Mathura, and from there he took Him again back to Vrindavan. He did not allow Krishna to go out of Mathura. We see this in his writings. But we see that Rupa Goswami connected Vrindavan-lila with Dvaraka-lila. He showed that everything of Vrindavan-lila was transferred to Dvaraka-lila including even the Queens. When asked what the adjustment is, our Srila Prabhupad replied, “Why has this subject matter been termed as adhoksaja—beyond our understanding? If it is possible to understand everything and keep it within our fist, then it cannot be adhoksaja—achintyah khalu ye bhava, na tams tarkena yojayet.”

It is His sweet will. We must leave everything up to His sweet will. If it is possible to capture all knowledge within me, then His existence does not transcend mine. Therefore, jnane prayasam: don’t bother yourself uselessly to try to know anything and everything about Him, but submit. By submission you will come to understand by partial instalments according to your feeling of service necessity. You are finite, so do not try to ‘devour’ the Infinite—that attempt is not desirable. To want to devour the whole thing and put it in your belly is not only a waste of energy but it is detrimental to your cause. By trying to do so means that even unconsciously you consider it to be limited, otherwise how can you be bold enough to try to know everything about Him—to want to know more and more, more and more? This tendency proves that you want to finish all understanding about Him. It may be possible to have some sort of ‘complete’ knowledge of Maya to a certain extent, but not Adhoksaja, Krishna, in any way. Such hankering for knowledge is a disqualification within you. By that path you cannot make any real progress. Yam evaisa vrnute tena labhyah—it must come from the higher side. You can only try to encourage your negative side: “I am so low, I am so mean. I am the most needy.” And that must be sincere—not a show.

Sincere progress rests on our realising that, “I am the most needy, the most wretched, the most mean.” This is the way we should try to cultivate. So, jnane prayasam udapasya. We are to hatefully banish such a tendency to ‘know’ Him. Namanta eva, jivanti san-mukharitam bhavadiya-vartam—instead, I must try to catch whatever comes through the mouth of the devotees, because by that way knowledge from the positive direction comes to me out of its own accord. I shall welcome and invite that. It is automatically coming. It is freely coming to me, and not that by labouring I shall try to know everything about Him. I will accept such revelation in whatever form it may come, and not that I shall disturb Him with the demand, “You make it known to me what You are.”

Sthane sthitah—and it does not matter wherever one is placed. One may even be a bird or beast, but that does not matter. Hanuman is not in a human form, Garuda also, but they have much. Krishna indicates, “Really they have access to enter into My Domain and within My heart. The real path to Me is through Devotion, through service. Leaving the path of service, those who are very eager to ‘know’ everything about Me, they labour with much pain to try to have some conception and estimation about Me. But their pain is their only reward. Pain is the only reward if one leaves the path of service and wants to know Me. You have curiosity, but why? You are My servant, so don’t try to go to any other side. Don’t be eager to know Me, to know who I am. Instead, try to fulfil Me. Really, you are to satisfy Me. I am anandam, ecstasy. That is My highest part, and you are to come and add to that.”

You are to search for Krishna-santosa, a way to satisfy Him, but without caring for that, you are using so much energy to try to satisfy your abstract knowledge, your curiosity. Therefore you are a self-deceiver.

sreyah-srtim bhaktim udasya te vibho
klisyanti ye kevala-bodha-labdhaye
tesam asau klesala eva sisyate
nanyad yatha sthula-tusavaghatinam

(Srimad Bhagavatam 2.4.16)

How? The example is given that if paddy is threshed there will be rice, but if only the husk is threshed it is likened to the attempt for knowledge of Krishna. We want rice, not the husk. To thresh the husk is mere fruitless labour. The pain of the endeavour is its only reward. Similarly, when the finite wants to know the Infinite, his labour is wasted there. Krishna says, “Whatever you get, try to use that in your duty to satisfy Me, anandam.” That is the real thing, the real taste.

There are four slokas in Srimad Bhagavatam condemning jnana. Another one is:

naiskarmyam apy achyuta-bhava-varjitam
na sobhate jnanam alam niranjanam
kutah punah sasvad abhadram isvare
na charpitam karma yad apy akaranam

(Srimad Bhagavatam 1.5.12)

Naiskarmam paramam siddhim. The idea that I shall have to labour to live is very dishonourable. If I have to live, I must labour; that is very dishonourable. So the ancient scholars searched for a position where we can live without labour, where without pain we can live easily. They started a campaign to discover or invent such a position. Sometimes naiskarma received much appreciation within the society. They want to be without labour troubles, and in this way the capitalists use computers and so many machines in place of so much man-labour. The man-labour has been so impertinent that the capitalists want to eliminate it.

The ancient scholars were sometimes very busy to discover a social position for all the souls whereby they can live without labour, without karma: naiskarma. They came to consider that self-satisfaction, atmaramata, could be achieved by complete withdrawal. To back up this conception they considered that Buddha and Sankar came to give relief by pointing out that there is a stage of samadhi such as we feel in a sound sleep. They described that if we can reach that plane of no labour we will still be able to live happily and we will find no trouble there.

Sukadeva Goswami agreed, “Yes, naiskarma is also found here.” But in Srimad Bhagavatam he gave a new form of naiskarma: “You say that work is painful, work is dissipating. You say that labour is wasting energy. But now I am going to give you an ideal of life where there is no dissipation. You will labour, but without dissipation of energy.”

How?

“Yatra jnana-viraga-bhakti-sahitam naiskarmyam aviskrtam—we have discovered, or invented, a new type of naiskarma: jnana-viraga-bhakti.”

Jnana and viraga took Buddha and Sankar to samadhi, but the Bhagavata school says, “No, no. You must not be captivated by that. It is not that at the cost of your own individual prospect you are to purchase naiskarma, the labourless life. In samadhi you will be nowhere, so it is suicide for whoever will purchase that kind of naiskarma in samadhi. But we are giving you painless labour, and that is the labour of love in raga-marga. In Srimad Bhagavatam the atma (soul) is ascertained as eternal, and in the eternal plane you can keep your own individuality, and you will labour. But the atma is above mortality, so there is no pain in such labour. At the same time you can retain your own identity and position, and have a better form of life.”

Our Srila Guru Maharaj used to give an example. If a cowshed catches on fire, the cows naturally become fearful and run out, and, because of that experience, those cows may sometimes become afraid to see red clouds in the sky at dawn or dusk. Our Guru Maharaj said that the Buddhist and Sankarite schools have the type of fear which the cows have upon seeing the red clouds. They think that after emancipation any energising in spiritual life also produces the pain of labour. But it is a labour of love, and that will give nourishing ecstasy, anandam. As much as you energise, that degree of anandam will come to you, and there is no dissipation of energy because it is the eternal plane; and you are also eternal. Everything being in the eternal plane, there is no dissipation of energy and you can retain your individual, pleasant, fruitful life. It is a life of fulfilment. It is a life of progress. You can have everything, but without the dissipation of energy which you are so afraid of in this mortal world. You can playfully live without any reaction which leads towards death.

jnana-viraga-bhakti-sahitam naiskarmyam aviskrtam

Service to the Lord is not labour. It is a giver, a sustainer. It does not deplete vitality, but it sustains more and more. It is life-giving. Pure service is life-giving, not life-taking; not vitality-killing, but vitality-supplying. It is opposite in the eternal plane, especially in the Goloka area where everything is a labour of love.

Without labour the residents of Goloka will think themselves to be fasting, and when engaged in labour they will think themselves to be well fed. Service is nourishing. Service is not depleting; it is not killing. Therefore our attempt should not be so much for knowledge, for trying to know everything, but it should be directed towards how we can utilise ourselves in the highest function—service.

naiskarmyam apy achyuta-bhava-varjitam
na sobhate jnanam alam niranjanam
kutah punah sasvad abhadram isvare
na charpitam karma yad apy akaranam

(Srimad Bhagavatam 1.5.12)

Naiskarma is much renowned and appreciated by many scholars, but that naiskarma, to say nothing of the proposal of the elevationists in the mundane world, has no place at all in the Bhagavata school. Even naiskarma, which has so much respect from the higher leaders such as Buddha and Sankar, is discarded—scornfully thrown out.

Service, service, service. Don’t be afraid that service is depleting energy. Service is life-giving. It is feeding you properly. Service!

Die to live. You must have such courage to die for Krishna and you will see everything come in glorious colour. So, engage in service; that is the main thing. To try to know Him is futile. You cannot make Him an object of your knowledge. He is Adhoksaja.

Why is there a difference between what Sanatan Goswami and Rupa Goswami gave? They are one and the same, so why is there a difference in what they presented? Our Guru Maharaj said, “It is adhoksaja. Do not try to bring everything within your understanding, for that will be Maya.” It is to be revered by us. It is unknown and unknowable. And faith will help you to ‘die’ for living.

CONTENTS

• Introduction: Divine Transformation
• An excerpt from Sri Dasa-mula by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur
• (1) Devotees’ Pilgrimage
• (2) Searching Life's Secret
• (3) Recognising Divinity
• (4) The Inner Domain
• (5) The Greatest Benediction
• Epilogue: Holiest Engagement

Download (epub)
Download (pdf)