śrī śrī guru gaurāṅga jayataḥ!
Year 10, Issue 11
Posted: 12 December 2017
Dedicated to
nitya-līlā praviṣṭa oṁ viṣṇupāda
Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja
Inspired by and under the guidance of
nitya-līlā praviṣṭa oṁ viṣṇupāda
Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja
The Perfect Decency of Kṛṣṇa’s Pastimes
(A continuation of the reply to Professor Suther’s question, Year 10, issue 10)
That which may be considered immoral or indecent in relation to a jīva – who is imperfect, infinitesimal, powerless and not free, but dependent – can never be seen as obscenity when it is in relation to the true autocrat, Kṛṣṇa, who is not within the jurisdiction of māyā, His own delusory potency. Where there have been attempts made to minimize, even to the slightest extent, the fullest independence or unbridled volition of the Absolute Autocrat, there have been proportional denials of the fullest independence and over-Lordship of God, a proportional diminution of the fullest divinity and the ultimate real Truth, and a proportional curtailment of regard for that same real Truth. It is only those who are fully attached to the real Truth who have ever been able to accept to the fullest extent, and to an unlimited degree, the omnipotency and all-independence of the Autocrat.
What to speak of those from the West, even the foremost members of the secular intelligentsia of India, who are well-known throughout the world as the greatest scholars of empiricism, are unable to appreciate the autocracy of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Śrī Rāma Mohan Roy possesses the highest order of intelligence, and Dr. Bhanderkar is one of the greatest scholars. There are many. With all their immensely admired powerful intellect, they have failed to make the conception of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s supra-mundane, transcendental ontology even the least bit known. Instead, they have misconstrued the whole thing, laying the load on the wrong shoulder. The echoes of the opinions of Dr. Bhanderkar, and other scholars of India have infiltrated the judgement of Messieurs McNichol, Kennedy, and so on.
Two kinds of evolutionary ways are found among the spiritual paths. In one class there is the gratification of the senses, or the evolution of empiric knowledge. Conversely, in the other class there is the gratification of Kṛṣṇa’s senses, or the evolution of transcendental wisdom. The thicker sensual gratification becomes – through the evolution of empiric knowledge – the thicker atheism becomes. And the thicker gratification of God’s senses becomes – through the evolution of transcendental wisdom – the greater and more distinct faith in God becomes – from full faith, to fuller faith, to the fullest extent of faith.
In the evolution of sensual gratification, or empiric knowledge, at first there is pure atheism. In the second stage it becomes skepticism; in the third, agnosticism; in the fourth māyāvāda or pantheism; and at the end it terminates in nihilism. On the other hand, according to the principle of spiritual dalliance, gratification of the senses of God, or of the knowledge of the transcendental Lord, gradually evolves from worship of non-distinct brahma to the solitary form of Vāsudeva, to serving Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa, Sītā-Rāma, the Rukmiṇī and Her Lord, and Rādhā-Govinda. These evolutions are distinctly felt as successively improved.
The principle of the evolution of the gratification of human senses maintains that the transcendental sports of Śrī Rādhā-Govinda are devoid of decency; that the conception of the Lord of Rukmini is a little better than that of the Lord of Rādhā; and that the monogomist, Jānakī-vallabha Rāma, is more moral than the Lord of Dvārakā, who has innumerable queens. It regards the conception of Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa as much purer than that of Rāma, who incarnated in this world as the son of Daśaratha. It again accepts the imaginary conception of a solitary Vāsudeva as more supported by morality than that of the worship of combined male-female Entities.
But the imagination of the existence of a solitary Vāsudeva, which is as logical as conceiving of an omnipotent God without any potency, is a stepping stone to atheism, or the doctrine of non-distinction. Thus the morality of sensual gratification, or, in other words, the empiric knowledge of man, while gradually wandering along the wrong path, reaches the stage of the conception of non-distinct brahma. In other words, that morality seeks to eternally deprive the Over-Soul of His eternal, transcendental enjoyment and attempts to destroy His transcendental personality.
Gradually wanting to proceed further, it increases its empiricism to court Jainism or Buddhism. Their doctrines of overly moral life are then reduced from the conception of mere knowledge to that of the pure unintelligence of matter, from that of existence to that of mere non-existence, which is the same as nihilism. The evolution of sensual gratification thus deflects human intelligence from the principle of gratification of divine senses and totally throws it down into the unfathomable abyss of the ocean of atheism, at last burying it under the depths of purely unintelligent matter, or materialism. The more man walks the path of his own sensual gratification, having been thrown out from the path of gratifying divine sense, he advances in atheism more and more deeply.
Adapted from The Gaudiya Volume 5, Number 12
by the Rays of The Harmonist team
