by Srila Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Maharaja
© Mandala Publishing
tat te’ nukampam susamiksamano
bhunjana evathma-krtam vipakam
hrd-vag-vapurbhir vidhdhan namas te
jiveta yo mukti-pade sa daya-bhak
(Bhagavatam, 10.14.8)
With the help of the Guru, the Scriptures, and the previous experienced persons, I shall try to stand the test, that “Yes, because the bile is so, everything is tasting bitter. But this process will remove the bile. I shall have to wait for some time, and when the bile is gone, I shall taste sugar candy as sweet.”
When normal, I will be able to feel that so many sweet waves are coming from all around to me. Maya santusta manasah, sarvvah sukhamaya disah (Bhagavatam, 11.14.12) “For one who is satisfied with Me, then all the directions, all the four directions will bring only good news to him.” All waves will carry only welfare to that person who is satisfied with God only and nothing else. “I want God, and His interests are my interest. He is the loving father, guardian, or friend of everyone.”
Now we are distracted and have many different interests, but if we can put God’s interest in the centre, then we shall be able to find, to read, that from all directions only good news is coming to me – no bad or unfavourable news. All favourable news will come to me if I can be on that level, that plane, if my ego can take a stand there. In that universal wave, every vibration will only carry favourable news to me. Maya santusta manasah, “He who is satisfied with Me alone, sarvvah sukhamaya disah, he will see that all the directions are only carrying happy news to him, cent-per-cent good news”. So a readjustment is necessary, and religion means proper adjustment. We are now incorrectly adjusted and are concerned with different types of separate interests; that is the difficulty. We have to change and find out the universal interest. That universal wave is the most fundamental current.
Sa vai pumsam paro dharmmo: The highest type of duty for everyone is yato bhaktir adhoksaje, that your attention, your submission will go to Adhoksaja, that unknown universal guardian. Ahaituky-apratihata: this submission is causeless and can never be opposed. The original vibration is forever existing. It is self-existent: none can have created that. It is eternally continuing. and none can oppose it – that wave is irresistible. Try to identify your interest with that wave. That is bhakti, bhakti proper. This is the definition of bhakti: sa vai pumsam paro dharmmo; the highest duty of everyone, every soul, is this. That bhakti is adhoksaja. Your attention, your interest should be diverted towards the infinite, to the unknown, to the unknown quarter, up to the Nth degree. The mathematicians speak of calculating, continuing to the Nth degree. But this is beyond the Nth degree. Yato bhaktir adhoksaje. What are its qualities? Ahaituki and apratihata. Ahaituki: No hetu, no cause; it is causeless. And that is eternal, apratihata; it can never be stopped. None can oppose it; none can give any hindrance to it. It is so forceful and continuous, forcefully continuous, that none can stop it.
Such is the original vibration, and that is all sweet, all-accommodating, and all-embracing. So this is the advice of Bhagavatam and Mahaprabhu, and there we will find the wave of love, prema. This is most accommodating – comprehensive. And fulfillment is given in that way: bhakti, prema-bhakti – love. Without love, none can be, none can hold a dignified position. Everything else is defective – only love is perfect. Justice is also defective. Justice comes to divide things between many; no unity results. This is the position of justice. But above that is the land of affection, the land of love: prema-bhumi. Love only can be the most comprehensive cause; that can accommodate or harmonize anything and everything. Love is the most generous, the most accommodating, and the most fulfilling.
This is the conclusion of the Srimad-Bhagavatam, which has been conceived as the ripe fruit of the Veda. The ripe fruit of the Veda means that it is revealed truth. Revealed truth is that which does not originate from the experience of so many fallen souls, from their limited brains. No, it is coming from above, from the land of the eternally extended truth. And ripe fruit means it is in its full-fledged position: the highest conception of love. There we will find love, beauty, affection, mercy, charm. They are all similar, of the same taste and kind.
Our soul must go to that land of love. This body will remain here. Our mind which is always seeking the limited happiness of this world will also be dissolved. They will all disappear. At the present, the body and the mind are our ‘property’. But the inner factor, the soul – that conscious unit which is within us – can only be a member of that soil. Soul is our proper self, and these other things are all encasements. The mental system and the physical system are encasements, and they want this mortal world. That is their misconception.
