Question: What was Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur’s vision of preaching in European countries?

Gurudev: Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and Bhaktivinod Thakur are not ordinary human beings. They are transcendental realized persons. They are the personal associates of Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. So, a conditioned soul, by his finite intellect, finite mental capacity, all these temporary sense organs cannot enter into that (spiritual realm). That is the difficulty, serious difficulty. But when we think that we can judge them then everything is lost. Any time when you think that you have got this sort of capacity to understand them and we can say that they are good or bad persons, then your spiritual amelioration (is)stopped. Everything descends from Supreme Lord. There should be absolute complete surrender, unconditional surrender. Without that we cannot enter into the spiritual realm.

After the disappearance of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His personal associates like the six Goswamis, Srinivas Acharya, Narottam Thakur, Shyamanand Prabhu and others, there came a dark age. Why was that? All the books were there, all scriptures were there; Chaitanya Bhagwat, Chaitanya Charitamrita were there, but so many pseudo sects cropped up that time. They claimed that they were actually preaching the message of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but they were doing just the opposite. Totaram Das Babaji Maharaj named thirteen such pseudo sects:

āul, bāul, kartābhajā, neṛā, daraveśa, sain
sahajiyā, sakhībhekī, smārta, jāta-gosāṣi
atibāṛī, cuṛādhārī, gaurānga-nāgarī
totā kahe ei teror saṅga nāhi kari

The number that time was 13, but now it may be 40-50. It increased. Why? Chaitanya Mahaprabhu saw that worldly people are unable to understand His teachings. He thought, “How can I give eternal benefit to them? I have to send My own persons from here. These conditioned souls, by their intellect, they are misinterpreting My teachings and saying just the opposite.”

So He sent Bhaktivinod Thakur and by accepting Bhaktivinod Thakur and Bhagwati Devi, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur appeared in Purushottam Dham. It is written in Padma Purana, hy utkale purushottamat—the message of pure devotion to Sri Krishna would get spread throughout the world from Jagannāth Purī. In this Kali-yuga, pure devotion would get spread over through a personal associate of Supreme Lord; who is he? Our Param Gurudev, after whose appearance in Purushottam Dham, Krishna-bhakti got spread over throughout the world.

(Guruji is having some light conversion with devotees for about a minute. He is showing affection to the child of the devotee who came to have his darshan. Guruji, referring to the age of the child, says, “This age is very good. They do not know anything. This is pure age. This purity should be retained throughout the life. Then it is possible to get God. It is not very difficult to get God. Only you should give up deceitfulness. One should be simple hearted.)

You want to hear from me but I do not have complete surrender to Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur or to his another extended form, our Gurudev. How can I speak? Yet, it is the standing order of our Gurudev that wherever you go you should repeat whatever you have heard from the lotus lips of your Guru, Guruvarga and Vaishnavas for your own spiritual benefit. Benefit yourself, automatically others will get benefitted.

Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur came to Bagh Bazar Gaudiya Math, Kolkata from the Chatak Parvat, Purushottam Dham. He was playing the pastimes of being very sick. So, all were very much perturbed. He called all the devotees, they came. Household devotees and everyone who had the desire to hear from him had come. And addressing them he said in Bengali, “aapnara sakaleyi ek advaya-gyaner aprakrit indriya triptir uddesye ashraya vigraher aanugatye mile mise thakaben—You, one and all, should satisfy the transcendental sense organs of advaya-gyan. Who is advaya-gyan?

advaya-jñāna-tattva
krishna—svayaṁ bhagavān
‘svarūpa-śakti’ rūpe
tāṅra haya avasthāna

(Krishna is the non-dual Absolute Truth, the Supreme Lord. Although, He is one, He maintains different personal expansions and energies for His pastimes.)

Advaya-jñāna is both the substance (the Lord) and His potency. Absolute spiritual potency is Radharani. So, Advaya-jñāna means RadhaKrishna. You have to satisfy the transcendental sense organs, not these mundane non-eternal material sense organs. This body is non-eternal. Sense organs are also non-eternal. When you leave this body, you lose your sense organs also. You lose the capacity of sense organs to get their objects; you cannot see, hear or touch. When the body perishes, sense organs also perish. Whatever you feel through these non-eternal sense organs is also non-eternal. It is very easy to understand. There is no complication. You think, ‘I am the enjoyer, master of this world’, but everything is non-eternal. The eternal truth is beyond the comprehension of our mundane sense organs, even the subtle sense organs; mind and intellect.

Krishna has said in Gita, mind, intelligence and perverted ego are the outcome of His material energy (apara-prakriti) and not the spiritual energy. And beyond that apara-prakriti, there exist His superior potency, the marginal potency—tatastha-shakti also called para potency. Jiva is the outcome of para potency. In their real self they are sat-chid-anand. They are conscious entities; nobody can destroy them. They exist eternally but there are minutest spiritual particle. Jivas are the part of the potency, not the part of the substance. Substance is God, Bhagavan—who possesses all opulences in totality. There are infinite opulences amongst which six opulences are main. One who possesses all the opulences in full is called God. All the jivas are the outcome of the potency of God, not the part or manifestation of Supreme Lord. Supreme Lord has got many manifestations. Supreme Lord is one but He can appear in various forms. Ontologically, all His manifestations are same but if you think in reference to the delightful relations, then the highest is Sri Krishna. All kinds of delightful relations are there in Krishna. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught us that you can worship Narayan, Varaha Bhagwan or any other form of Lord but you will attain the highest bliss by worshipping Nandnandan Sri Krishna only. All sorts of delightful relations exist in Him.

In Brahma's one day, Nandanandana Sri Krishna appears once only. It is difficult to calculate the time duration of one day of Brahma. It comprises of 14 Manvantaras. Each Manvantaras has 71 Chatur-yuga (four ages). And there are 4 ages—Satyayug, Treta, Dwapar and Kali. We are in the 28th Chatur-yuga of Vaivasvata Manvantara. Kali-yuga has the duration of 4,32,000 years. Dwapar is double of Kali-yuga, Treta-yuga is triple of Kali-yuga and Satya-yuga is four times of span of Kali-yuga. Then 43, 20,000 years is one Chatur-yuga. 71 such Chatur-yuga is the span of life of one Manu. And the life span of 14 such Manus is Brahma’s one day. Currently, we are in the 7th Manvantara. In this Dwapara-yuga Nandanandan Krishna has appeared. He performed His pastimes with His own personal associates. He did not give this sweet love to anybody. But in this Kali-yuga, He appeared taking the form and complexion of Radharani as Gauranga to taste his own sweetness as well as to give the highest Divine Love to all. So it is His standing order to His personal associates, “You have to inform this to all corners of the world”.

Previously they did not go outside India. Because of the order of Supreme Lord, “You should give this to all. You should not deprive them”, they went outside India and propagated His message. Our Puri Goswami Maharaj repeatedly asked me to go. What benefit shall I get by going there? But he ordered me three times. Then, he wrote a letter to me and then I decided to go. I asked him, “Will you take my responsibility if I have a spiritual fall by going outside India? So much opulence and attractive things are there. I shall be indebted to my parents and others. Will you please take my responsibility?”

Then he said, “Your Gurudev will take your responsibility. You should go.” Vaishnavas speak like this. They are always humble. They do not express any kind of vanity. When there is vanity everything is lost. Target should be one—to satisfy Supreme Lord Krishna. He has transcendental sense organs. And to satisfy His absolute counterpart Radharani. That should be the target. He is the owner and the master.

ahaṁ hi sarva-yajñānāṁ
bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca
na tu mām abhijānanti
tattvenātaś cyavanti te
(Srimad Bhagavad Gita 9.24)

(I am the only enjoyer and master of all sacrifices. Therefore, those who do not recognize My true transcendental nature fall down.)

We are to be enjoyed by Him. We are to be subdued by Him. My potency remains for me. His potency should remain for Him. Our bodies (gross and subtle) are the outcome of His potency. He is the possessor of all the potency. His potency should remain Him. So, our body, sense organs and everything should be engaged for His service. That should be natural. Our subtle body also called astral body made up of mind, intellect and ego should be engaged for His service. Our real self, the soul, is the product of His para potency (marginal potency). So, He is the master of soul, subtle body and gross body, everything. If we do not get that realization of our natural relation with Supreme Lord then how can we proceed? Our target should be one—the satisfaction of Supreme Lord and that one should do by taking shelter of His absolute counterpart Gurudev. Gurudev is ashraye vigraha—Predominated Absolute. We should submit to him and remain unitedly. If there is any other desire except this then, we cannot remain united. There will be quarrel. This world is the prison house and we all have come here because of our desires for enjoyment. Because of our enjoying tendencies we fight with each other. In family, society, nation, everywhere there is fight. The root cause of our ignorance is the misconception of self—we think that I am this body. We consider the body to be everything and always think about bodily interests. We think, “I shall run after all these non-eternal things”. If anybody gets something that I do not get then I become furious and fight with him. The world is a forest fire.

Srila Prabhupad instructs, “You all should remain unitedly”. Merely staying in Math will not bestow upon actual benefit. If you remain here morphologically, externally, without understanding the ontological aspect then you will not get any benefit. By seeing the outward wealth etc., for getting some mundane benefit if you enter into Math then, you are deceiving yourself and others as you have not got contact with the ontological aspect.

Srila Prabhupad said, “I do not stay in Kolikata (Kolkata)”. Koli (or Kali) means black age, full of quarrel and all abominable things. That time he was in Kolkata only at Bagh Bazar Gaudiya Math but he said, “I do not stay in this Kali’s place. Because my object of worship RadhaKrishna reside here; this is transcendental realm—Vrindavan. This Gaudiya Math is not the place of Kali; it is not made up of earth, water, fire, air, sky etc.”

With this physical body, we cannot enter in Navadwipa Dham, we cannot enter in Vrindavan Dham. Dham appears in this world. If you submit, then by His grace you can enter. His grace spiritual potency, Radharani and Her extended forms will come to you. If you submit to them then the eternal nature of the real self will be awakened and you will get causeless devotion to Him and you will cry for Him. You will not cry for kanik, kamini and pratishtha—money, woman and fame. When causeless devotion will awaken, you will run towards Supreme Lord as iron runs towards the magnet. Magnet attracts iron naturally. Krishna is like magnet. Krishna is All Attractive. We are to be attracted by Him. But we do not feel that attraction so it is not true that He is All Attractive. It is not like that. When there is rust on the iron, it does not get attracted by Magnet.

When you remove rust then iron will run towards the magnet. There is rust in your own self; he is being enveloped by the illusory energy. All these evil desires have spoiled your mind; have made your mind impure. You have to remove that rust by the company of actual sadhu. Sadhu may be of different stages. If you have company of kanishtha (preliminary stage) that is also beneficial. But if you associate with non-devotees then you will not get anything. By association of sadhus our mind will be changed.

(Guruji is asking the devotees, “Have you taken Prasad. You have to be careful when you take Prasad because there is atom bomb inside it. What is that atom bomb?” Devotees, “Chili!!” Guruji, “Yes, chili is there inside. Even if you boil it, it has so much tremendous power inside which can harm you. So you should be very careful while taking Prasad as you are not accustomed to take it. It can cause some defect in your stomach.” Gurudev then continues some light conversion with devotees).

(Guruji then continues to speak about the last instructions of Srila Prabhupad)

Don't think about the comforts of the body, somehow you take something. Don’t give too much importance to physical comforts, then you will get devotion. Our shad Goswamis used to live under tree, they were very rich; Sanatan Goswami was prime minister; Raghunath Das goswami was a son of a very rich person. Do not give up shravan-kirtan—chanting and hearing. Majority of the people are not following this, don’t be disappointed. In spite of hundreds of scolding and reproach, hundreds of humiliation and hundreds of insults don't give up RadhaKrishna bhajan.