Highly elevated devotees

Expressions researched:
"highly elevated devotee" |"highly elevated devotees" |"highly-elevated devotee"

SB Canto 5

SB 5.5 Summary:

Those who are materially attached to women and sense gratification gradually become entangled in material consciousness and suffer the miseries of birth, old age, disease and death. Those who are engaged in the general welfare of all and who are not attached to children and family are called mahātmās. Those who are engaged in sense gratification. who act piously or impiously, cannot understand the purpose of the soul. Therefore they should approach a highly elevated devotee and accept him as a spiritual master. By his association, one will be able to understand the purpose of life. Under the instructions of such a spiritual master, one can attain devotional service to the Lord, detachment from material things, and tolerance of material misery and distress. One can then see all living entities equally, and one becomes very eager to know about transcendental subject matters. Endeavoring persistently for the satisfaction of Kṛṣṇa, one becomes detached from wife, children and home. He is not interested in wasting time. In this way one becomes self-realized. A person advanced in spiritual knowledge does not engage anyone in material activity.

SB Canto 7

SB 7.7.14, Purport:

Haridāsa Ṭhākura also spoke with a young woman, a prostitute, in the dead of night, but the woman could not deviate his mind. Instead, she became a Vaiṣṇavī, a pure devotee, by the benediction of Haridāsa Ṭhākura. Ordinary persons, however, should not imitate such highly elevated devotees. Ordinary persons must strictly observe the rules and regulations by staying aloof from the association of women. No one should imitate Nārada Muni or Haridāsa Ṭhākura. It is said, vaiṣṇavera kriyā-mudrā vijñe nā bujhaya. Even if a man is very advanced in learning, he cannot understand the behavior of a Vaiṣṇava. Anyone can take shelter of a pure Vaiṣṇava, without fear. Therefore in the previous verse it has been distinctly said, devarṣer antike sākuto-bhayā: Kayādhu, the mother of Prahlāda Mahārāja, stayed under the protection of Nārada Muni without fear from any direction.

SB 7.7.55, Purport:

In this verse the words sarvatra tad-īkṣaṇam describe the highest perfection of devotional service, in which one sees everything with reference to Govinda's activities. The highly elevated devotee never sees anything unrelated to Govinda.

sthāvara-jaṅgama dekhe, nā dekhe tāra mūrti

sarvatra haya nija iṣṭa-deva-sphūrti

"The mahā-bhāgavata, the advanced devotee, certainly sees everything mobile and immobile, but he does not exactly see their forms. Rather, everywhere he immediately sees manifest the form of the Supreme Lord."

SB Canto 8

SB 8.20.3, Purport:

Bali Mahārāja had already been blessed by his grandfather Prahlāda Mahārāja. Therefore, he was a pure devotee, although born in a family of demons. There are two kinds of highly elevated devotees, called sādhana-siddha and kṛpā-siddha. Sādhana-siddha refers to one who has become a devotee by regular execution of the regulative principles mentioned in the śāstras, as ordered and directed by the spiritual master. If one regularly executes such devotional service, he will certainly attain perfection in due course of time. But there are other devotees, who may not have undergone all the required details of devotional service but who, by the special mercy of guru and Kṛṣṇa—the spiritual master and the Supreme Personality of Godhead—have immediately attained the perfection of pure devotional service.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 25.127, Translation:

“‘A highly elevated devotee can bind Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in his heart by love. Wherever he looks, he sees Me and nothing else.

CC Antya-lila

CC Antya 2.95, Purport:

The commentary by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī is elaborately given in the Ādi-līlā, Chapter Seven, text 101. The Māyāvāda commentary Śārīraka-bhāṣya is like poison for a Vaiṣṇava. It should not be touched at all. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura remarks that even a mahā-bhāgavata, or highly elevated devotee who has surrendered himself unto the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, sometimes falls down from pure devotional service if he hears the Māyāvāda philosophy of the Śārīraka-bhāṣya. This commentary should therefore be shunned by all Vaiṣṇavas.

CC Antya 2.96, Translation:

"The Māyāvāda philosophy presents such a jugglery of words that even a highly elevated devotee who has accepted Kṛṣṇa as his life and soul changes his decision when he reads the Māyāvāda commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra."

CC Antya 2.143, Purport:

This chastisement was given to Junior Haridāsa as an example to future sahajiyās who might adopt the dress of the renounced order to imitate Rūpa Gosvāmī and other bona fide sannyāsīs but secretly have illicit connections with women. To teach such men, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu chastised His dear devotee Haridāsa for a slight deviation from the regulative principles. Śrīmatī Mādhavī-devī was a highly elevated devotee; therefore approaching her to ask for some rice to serve Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was certainly not very offensive. Nevertheless, just to preserve the regulative principles for the future, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu enforced the hard-and-fast rule that no one in the renounced order should intimately mix with women.

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 31:

No one can appreciate Vṛndāvana without being highly elevated in spiritual knowledge, Kṛṣṇa consciousness. According to ordinary experience, Vṛndāvana appears to be just like an ordinary tract of land, but in the eyes of a highly elevated devotee, it is as good as the original Vṛndāvana. A great saintly ācārya has sung: "When will my mind be cleared of all dirty things so I will be able to see Vṛndāvana as it is? And when will I be able to understand the literature left by the Six Gosvāmīs so that I will be able to understand the transcendental pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa?"

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 32:

Now I see before You a golden doll, and due to its presence Your complexion has become golden. Yet I also see You as a dark-complexioned cowherd boy. Will You kindly explain why I am seeing You in this way? Please tell me without reservation.”

"It is the nature of highly elevated devotees to see Kṛṣṇa in everything," Lord Caitanya replied. “Whenever they see anything, they do not see the form of that particular thing. They see Kṛṣṇa. This is confirmed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.2.45):

sarva-bhūteṣu yaḥ paśyed bhagavad-bhāvam ātmanaḥ

bhūtāni bhagavaty ātmany eṣa bhāgavatottamaḥ

“"One who is highly elevated in devotional service sees the Supersoul, Kṛṣṇa, who is the Soul of all individual souls."

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Lecture on BG 16.13-15 -- Hawaii, February 8, 1975:

Samaḥ. He knows that "Nobody can become my enemy unless Kṛṣṇa desires. So why shall I think of him as my enemy? Kṛṣṇa has desired him to act as my enemy just to correct me, just to make me more advanced in spiritual life. So why shall I take any action upon him as enemy?" Of course, this stage is meant for very highly elevated devotee. That is not meant for ordinary devotee. But the fact is this: "How one can become my enemy? If I am Kṛṣṇa's servant, how one can become my enemy? If one is acting as my enemy, it is Kṛṣṇa's desire. I have got some defect, and he is correcting me." Therefore it is called samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām (BG 18.54). That is the topmost devotee's conception.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

Lecture on SB 6.3.12-15 -- Gorakhpur, February 9, 1971:

"Because I am confident that you are My confidential friend." Dṛḍham iti tato vakṣyāmi te hitam: "Therefore I am disclosing this to you."

Kṛṣṇa does not say everyone that sarva-dharmān parityajya (BG 18.66), only to a selected devotee. Because unless one is very highly elevated devotee, he cannot accept this proposition. He is puffed up with his material, contaminated life. That's all. "I am this. I am that. I am this. I am that. Why shall I surrender?" Actually they forgot. Dr. Radhakrishnan says, "This is sophistry, that Kṛṣṇa is demanding like that." He is proud of his becoming a great philosophy, but he does not know he is a fool number one. He comments on the Bhagavad-gītā in a different way. That he does not know. Therefore he is surprised: "How this gentleman, Kṛṣṇa, is asking to surrender? I am so proud. I am so learned." But this is the only process. What is that?

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

Lecture on CC Adi-lila 1.6 -- Mayapur, March 30, 1975:

One is gold, and one is iron. Don't minimize the value. Therefore Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī has described that it is ahlādinī-śaktiḥ. Rādhā-kṛṣṇa-praṇaya-vikṛtir hlādinī-śaktiḥ.

So this hlādinī-śakti is being described in Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Therefore Caitanya-caritāmṛta is the postgraduate study of highly elevated devotees. Ordinary devotees, they cannot understand. I have seen one professional reader. He was reading Caitanya-caritāmṛta, but he did not believe in it. Because he cannot understand. He cannot understand it. He plainly said, "These are only imaginary descriptions. There is no fact in it." I have seen it. So how one can understand this is fact unless one has understood what is spirit? Just like in your country, big, big professors, they do not believe in the spirit.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 20.395 -- Hyderabad, August 17, 1976:

Just like either you worship Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet or you offer a garland to Kṛṣṇa on His head, it is the same thing. It is no such thing as "This is head, this is tail." No. This is absolute conception of... So Bhagavān, His līlā, His form, His pastimes, His place, they're all Bhagavān. Even higher, those who are highly elevated devotees, they do not see even this material world different from Bhagavān. Idaṁ hi viśvaṁ bhagavān ivetara. That is described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Nārada Muni says. The whole universe is Bhagavān, although it appears different from Him. Bhagavān ivetara. So actually everything is Bhagavān, but it is not this Māyāvāda philosophy, that because everything is Bhagavān, there is no Bhagavān. No. Everything is Bhagavān, and still Bhagavān is there. Kṛṣṇa says, mayā tatam idaṁ sarvam (BG 9.4).

Festival Lectures

Six Gosvamis Lecture, Sri Sri Sad-govamy-astaka -- Los Angeles, November 18, 1968:

That's it! That's it. When you actually see God, you cannot see anything except God. That is God-seeing. That is stated in Caitanya-caritāmṛta, sthavor jaṅgam dekhe na dekhe tava mūrti. A highly-elevated devotee, first-class devotee, he sees trees or the animals are moving, nonmoving, so many varieties, but he does not see their form. Everywhere he sees Kṛṣṇa. That is a fact. Kṛṣṇa says that sarva-yoniṣu kaunteya sambhavanti mūrtayayaḥ yaḥ (BG 14.4). There are millions of varieties of forms of life, but I am the seed-giving father. So a devotee sees, "Oh, here is a son of Kṛṣṇa. Here is a son of Kṛṣṇa. Here is a son of Kṛṣṇa. Here is a son of Kṛṣṇa." So if you love somebody, as soon as you see his son, you immediately remember who's son he is.

1974 Conversations and Morning Walks

Room Conversation with Monsieur Roost, Hatha-yogi -- May 31, 1974, Geneva:

Prabhupāda: So bhakti school does not very much appreciate the speculative method. They surrender and they try to get knowledge directly from the Supreme Lord, as Bhagavad-gītā is being spoken by the Supreme Lord, or statements of the pure highly elevated devotees, just like Brahmā is speaking. This way. Hearing. The main purpose is hearing, hearing from the right source. That is... Especially in the western world, instead of hearing from the right source, they want to speculate about the Absolute. We have got about twenty books like this, but they are not speculation. They are simply by hearing. I am writing what I have heard, not that I am speculating. Mostly, the philosophers, they write as they speculate. They write their own opinion. But our process is not that. We don't speculate.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Himavati -- Hawaii 23 March, 1969:

One should not discuss about such great devotees' apparent fall-down. Just like one should not discuss about the sun who evaporates urine from the earth; it is possible for the sun to do it, and still remain the sun, but for ordinary man if he lives in a filthy place he will be infected. So Lord Siva or Lord Brahma, they are highly elevated devotees, and we should not try to criticize about their behavior even though it appears against the rules. These things are very nicely explained in Srimad-Bhagavatam in course of discussion between Maharaja Pariksit and Sukadeva Goswami, in the 10th canto.