The Caitanya-caritāmṛta teaches that the spirit soul is immortal and that our activities in the spiritual world are also immortal. The Māyāvādīs, who hold the view that the Absolute is impersonal and formless, contend that a realized soul has no need to talk. But the Vaiṣṇavas, devotees of Kṛṣṇa, contend that when one reaches the stage of realization, he really begins to talk. "Previously we only talked of nonsense," the Vaiṣṇava says. "Now let us begin our real talks, talks of Kṛṣṇa." In support of their view that the self-realized remain silent, the Māyāvādīs are fond of using the example of the waterpot, maintaining that when a pot is not filled with water it makes a sound, but that when it is filled it makes no sound. But are we waterpots? How can we be compared to them? A good analogy utilizes as many similarities between two objects as possible. A waterpot is not an active living force, but we are. Ever-silent meditation may be adequate for a waterpot, but not for us. Indeed, when a devotee realizes how much he has to say about Kṛṣṇa, twenty-four hours in a day are not sufficient. It is the fool who is celebrated as long as he does not speak, for when he breaks his silence his lack of knowledge is exposed. The Caitanya-caritāmṛta shows that there are many wonderful things to discover by glorifying the Supreme.
In the spiritual world (CC and Other Books)
Expressions researched:
"in the spiritual world"
|"into the spiritual world"
|"within the spiritual world"
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Preface and Introduction
The material world has a manifested state (vyakta) and a potential, unmanifested state (avyakta). The supreme nature is beyond both the manifested and the unmanifested material nature. This superior nature can be understood as the living force, which is present in the bodies of all living creatures. The body itself is composed of inferior nature, matter, but it is the superior nature that is moving the body. The symptom of that superior nature is consciousness. Thus in the spiritual world, where everything is composed of the superior nature, everything is conscious. In the material world there are inanimate objects that are not conscious, but in the spiritual world nothing is inanimate. There a table is conscious, the land is conscious, the trees are conscious—everything is conscious.
We can see only with our eyes; we cannot touch or smell with them. Kṛṣṇa, however, can smell and also eat with His eyes. When food is offered to Kṛṣṇa, we do not see Him eating, but He eats simply by glancing at the food. We cannot imagine how things work in the spiritual world, where everything is spiritual. It is not that Kṛṣṇa does not eat or that we imagine that He eats; He actually eats, but His eating is different from ours. Our eating process will be similar to His when we are completely on the spiritual platform. On that platform every part of the body can act on behalf of any other part.
Viṣṇu does not require anything in order to create. He does not require the goddess Lakṣmī in order to give birth to Brahmā, for Brahmā is born from a lotus flower that grows from the navel of Viṣṇu. The goddess Lakṣmī sits at the feet of Viṣṇu and serves Him. In this material world sex is required to produce children, but in the spiritual world a man can produce as many children as he likes without having to take help from his wife. So there is no sex there. Because we have no experience with spiritual energy, we think that Brahmā’s birth from the navel of Viṣṇu is simply a fictional story. We are not aware that spiritual energy is so powerful that it can do anything and everything. Material energy is dependent on certain laws, but spiritual energy is fully independent.
When this is established, in the sixteenth verse Kṛṣṇadāsa offers his obeisances to the functional Deity, Govinda. The Govinda Deity is called the functional Deity because He shows us how to serve Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. The Madana-mohana Deity simply establishes that "I am Your eternal servant." With Govinda, however, there is actual acceptance of service. Govinda resides eternally in Vṛndāvana. In the spiritual world of Vṛndāvana the buildings are made of touchstone, the cows are known as surabhi cows, givers of abundant milk, and the trees are known as wish-fulfilling trees, for they yield whatever one desires. In Vṛndāvana Kṛṣṇa herds the surabhi cows, and He is worshiped by hundreds and thousands of gopīs, cowherd girls, who are all goddesses of fortune.
CC Adi-lila
Before the creation and after its dissolution, only the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His associates exist; there is no existence of the material elements. This is confirmed in the Vedic literature. Vāsudevo vā idam agra āsīn na brahmā na ca śaṅkaraḥ. The meaning of this mantra is that before creation there was no existence of Brahmā or Śiva, for only Viṣṇu existed. Viṣṇu exists in His abode, the Vaikuṇṭhas. There are innumerable Vaikuṇṭha planets in the spiritual sky, and on each of them Viṣṇu resides with His associates and His paraphernalia. It is also confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā that although the creation is periodically dissolved, there is another abode, which is never dissolved. The word "creation" refers to the material creation because in the spiritual world everything exists eternally and there is no creation or dissolution.
Yo ’vaśiṣyeta so ’smy aham indicates that the Lord is the balance that exists after the dissolution of the creation. The spiritual manifestation never vanishes. It belongs to the internal energy of the Supreme Lord and exists eternally. When the external manifestation is withdrawn, the spiritual activities in Goloka and the rest of the Vaikuṇṭhas continue, unrestricted by material time, which has no existence in the spiritual world. Therefore in the Bhagavad-gītā (15.6) it is said, yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama: "The abode from which no one returns to this material world is the supreme abode of the Lord."
Dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya and śṛṅgāra are the transcendental modes of loving service to the Lord. Śānta-rasa, or the neutral stage, is not mentioned in this verse because although in śānta-rasa one considers the Absolute Truth the sublime great, one does not go beyond that conception. Śānta-rasa is a very grand idea for materialistic philosophers, but such idealistic appreciation is only the beginning; it is the lowest among the relationships in the spiritual world. Śānta-rasa is not given much importance because as soon as there is a slight understanding between the knower and the known, active loving transcendental reciprocations and exchanges begin. Dāsya-rasa is the basic relationship between Kṛṣṇa and His devotees; therefore this verse considers dāsya the first stage of transcendental devotional service.
In Goloka Vṛndāvana there is an exchange of love known as parakīya-rasa. It is something like the attraction of a married woman for a man other than her husband. In the material world this sort of relationship is most abominable because it is a perverted reflection of the parakīya-rasa in the spiritual world, where it is the highest kind of loving affair. Such feelings between the devotee and the Lord are presented by the influence of yogamāyā. The Bhagavad-gītā states that devotees of the highest grade are under the care of daiva-māyā, or yogamāyā: mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ (BG 9.13). Those who are actually great souls (mahātmās) are fully absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, always engaged in the service of the Lord. They are under the care of daivī-prakṛti, or yogamāyā. Yogamāyā creates a situation in which the devotee is prepared to transgress all regulative principles simply to love Kṛṣṇa. A devotee naturally does not like to transgress the laws of reverence for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but by the influence of yogamāyā he is prepared to do anything to love the Supreme Lord better.
This text is from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.33.36). The Supreme Personality of Godhead has innumerable expansions of His transcendental form who eternally exist in the spiritual world. This material world is only a perverted reflection of the spiritual world, where everything is manifested without inebriety. There everything is in its original existence, free from the domination of time. Time cannot deteriorate or interfere with the conditions in the spiritual world, where different manifestations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are the recipients of the worship of different living entities in their constitutional spiritual positions. In the spiritual world all existence is unadulterated goodness. The goodness found in the material world is contaminated by the modes of passion and ignorance.
As long as one is in material, conditioned life, strict discipline is required in the matter of moral and immoral activities. The absolute world is transcendental and free from such distinctions because there inebriety is not possible. But in this material world a sexual appetite necessitates distinction between moral and immoral conduct. There are no sexual activities in the spiritual world. The transactions between lover and beloved in the spiritual world are pure transcendental love and unadulterated bliss.
According to expert sexologists like Bharata Muni, the male and the female enjoy equally in material sexual pleasure. But in the spiritual world the relationships are different, although this is unknown to mundane experts.
The all-pervading Brahman, composed of the impersonal glowing rays of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, exists in the spiritual world with the Vaikuṇṭha planets. We can get some idea of that spiritual sky by a comparison to the material sky, for the rays of the sun in the material sky can be compared to the brahma-jyotir, the glowing rays of the Personality of Godhead. In the brahma-jyotir there are unlimited Vaikuṇṭha planets, which are spiritual and therefore self-luminous, with a glow many times greater than that of the sun. The Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa, His innumerable plenary portions and the portions of His plenary portions dominate each Vaikuṇṭha planet. In the highest region of the spiritual sky is the planet called Kṛṣṇaloka, which has three divisions, namely Dvārakā, Mathurā and Goloka, or Gokula.
In the material world one may try to make everything permanent by developing the above-mentioned qualities of goodness, but because the goodness in the material world is mixed with passion and ignorance, nothing here can exist permanently, despite all the good plans of the best scientific brains. Therefore in the material world we have no experience of eternity, bliss and fullness of knowledge. But in the spiritual world, because of the complete absence of the qualitative modes, everything is eternal, blissful and cognizant. Everything can speak, everything can move, everything can hear, and everything can see in fully blessed existence for eternity. The situation being so, naturally space and time, in the forms of past, present and future, have no influence there. In the spiritual sky there is no change because time has no influence. Consequently, the influence of māyā, the total external energy, which induces us to become more and more materialistic and forget our relationship with God, is also absent there.
Persons with a poor fund of knowledge conclude that a place void of material qualities must be some sort of formless nothingness. In reality, however, there are qualities in the spiritual world, but they are different from the material qualities because everything there is eternal, unlimited and pure. The atmosphere there is self-illuminating, and thus there is no need of a sun, a moon, fire, electricity and so on. One who can reach that abode does not come back to the material world with a material body. There is no difference between atheists and the faithful in the Vaikuṇṭha planets because all who settle there are freed from the material qualities, and thus suras and asuras become equally obedient loving servitors of the Lord.
The quadruple forms have a spiritual existence that can be realized in vasudeva-sattva (śuddha-sattva), or unqualified goodness, which accompanies complete absorption in the understanding of Vāsudeva. The quadruple forms, who are full in the six opulences of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are the enjoyers of the internal potency. Thinking the absolute Personality of Godhead to be poverty-stricken or to have no potency—or, in other words, to be impotent—is simply rascaldom. This rascaldom is the profession of the conditioned soul, and it increases his bewilderment. One who cannot understand the distinctions between the spiritual world and the material world has no qualification to examine or know the situation of the transcendental quadruple forms. In his commentary on Vedānta-sūtra 2.2.42–45, His Holiness Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya has made a futile attempt to nullify the existence of these quadruple forms in the spiritual world.
This is a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.3.1). The commentary of Madhva on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam mentions that the following sixteen spiritual energies are present in the spiritual world: (1) śrī, (2) bhū, (3) līlā, (4) kānti, (5) kīrti, (6) tuṣṭi, (7) gīr, (8) puṣṭi, (9) satyā (10) jñānājñānā, (11) jayā utkarṣiṇī, (12) vimalā, (13) yogamāyā, (14) prahvī, (15) īśānā and (16) anugrahā. In his commentary on the Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta, Śrī Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa has said that the above energies are also known by nine names: (1) vimalā, (2) utkarṣiṇī (3) jñānā, (4) kriyā, (5) yogā, (6) prahvī, (7) satyā, (8) īśānā and (9) anugrahā. In the Bhagavat-sandarbha of Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī (text 117) they are described as śrī, puṣṭi, gīr, kānti, kīrti, tuṣṭi, ilā, jayā, vidyāvidyā, māyā, samvit, sandhinī, hlādinī, bhakti, mūrti, vimalā, yogā, prahvī, īśānā, anugrahā, etc. All these energies act in different spheres of the Lord's supremacy.
Spiritually there are no differences between these five tattvas, for on the transcendental platform everything is absolute. Yet there are also varieties in the spiritual world, and in order to taste these spiritual varieties one should distinguish between them.
Actually there is no difference between them because they are situated on the absolute platform, but they manifest different spiritual varieties as a challenge to the impersonalists to taste different kinds of spiritual humors (rasas). In the Vedas it is said, parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate: (Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport) "The varieties of energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are differently known." From this statement of the Vedas one can understand that there are eternal varieties of humors, or tastes, in the spiritual world. Śrī Gaurāṅga, Śrī Nityānanda, Śrī Advaita, Śrī Gadādhara and Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura are all on the same platform, but in spiritually distinguishing between them one should understand that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the form of a devotee, Nityānanda Prabhu appears in the form of a devotee's spiritual master, Advaita Prabhu is the form of a bhakta (devotee) incarnation, Gadādhara Prabhu is the energy of a bhakta, and Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura is a pure devotee. Thus there are spiritual distinctions between them.
A pseudo incarnation of Kṛṣṇa once told his disciple that he had emptied himself by giving him all knowledge and was thus spiritually bankrupt. Such bluffers speak in this way to cheat the public, but actual spiritual consciousness is so perfect that the more it is distributed, the more it increases. Bankruptcy is a term that applies in the material world, but the storehouse of love of Godhead in the spiritual world can never be depleted. Kṛṣṇa is providing for millions and trillions of living entities by supplying all their necessities, and even if all the innumerable living entities wanted to become Kṛṣṇa conscious, there would be no scarcity of love of Godhead, nor would there be insufficiency in providing for their maintenance. Our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement was started single-handedly, and no one provided for our livelihood, but at present we are spending hundreds and thousands of dollars all over the world, and the movement is increasing more and more. Thus there is no question of scarcity.
In describing the Kāśīra Māyāvādīs, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura has explained that persons who are bewildered by empiric knowledge or direct sensual perception, and who thus consider that even this limited material world can be gauged by their material estimations, conclude that anything that one can discern by direct sense perception is but māyā, or illusion. They maintain that although the Absolute Truth is beyond the range of sense perception, it includes no spiritual variety or enjoyment. According to the Kāśīra Māyāvādīs, the spiritual world is simply void. They do not believe in the Personality of the Absolute Truth or in His varieties of activities in the spiritual world. Although they have their own arguments, which are not very strong, they have no conception of the variegated activities of the Absolute Truth. These impersonalists, who are followers of Śaṅkarācārya, are generally known as Kāśīra Māyāvādīs (impersonalists residing in Vārāṇasī).
Thus although materialists who are addicted to experimental knowledge and the so-called "scientific method" cannot place their faith in the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, it is a fact that simply by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra offenselessly one can be freed from all subtle and gross material conditions. The spiritual world is called Vaikuṇṭha, which means "without anxiety." In the material world everything is full of anxiety (kuṇṭha), whereas in the spiritual world (Vaikuṇṭha) everything is free from anxiety. Therefore those who are afflicted by a combination of anxieties cannot understand the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, which is free from all anxiety. In the present age the vibration of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra is the only process that is in a transcendental position, beyond material contamination. Since the holy name can deliver a conditioned soul, it is explained here to be sarva-mantra-sāra, the essence of all Vedic hymns.
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, therefore, explains in this verse that Kṛṣṇa—the Supreme Personality of Godhead, or the Absolute Truth—has a spiritual body that is distinct from material bodies, and thus His name, abode, entourage and qualities are all spiritual. The material mode of goodness has nothing to do with spiritual varieties. Māyāvādī philosophers, however, cannot clearly understand spiritual varieties; therefore they imagine a negation of the material world to be the spiritual world. The material qualities of goodness, passion and ignorance cannot act in the spiritual world, which is therefore called nirguṇa, as clearly indicated in the Bhagavad-gītā (trai-guṇya-viṣayā vedā nistrai-guṇyo bhavārjuna). The material world is a manifestation of the three modes of material nature, but one has to become free from these modes to come to the spiritual world, where their influence is completely absent. Now Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu will disassociate Lord Śiva from Māyāvāda philosophy in the following verse.
One who thinks that there is a difference between Lord Viṣṇu's body and His soul dwells in the darkest region of ignorance. There is no difference between Lord Viṣṇu's body and Viṣṇu's soul, for they are advaya-jñāna, one knowledge. In this world there is a difference between the material body and the spiritual soul, but in the spiritual world everything is spiritual and there are no such differences. The greatest offense of the Māyāvādī philosophers is to consider Lord Viṣṇu and the living entities to be one and the same. In this connection the Padma Purāṇa states, arcye viṣṇau śilā-dhīr guruṣu nara-matir vaiṣṇave jāti-buddhiḥ … yasya vā nārakī saḥ: "One who considers the arcā-mūrti, the worshipable Deity of Lord Viṣṇu, to be stone, the spiritual master to be an ordinary human being, and a Vaiṣṇava to belong to a particular caste or creed is possessed of hellish intelligence." One who follows such conclusions is doomed.
One who engages in the spiritual activities of unalloyed devotional service (avyabhicāriṇī-bhakti) is immediately elevated to the transcendental platform, and he is to be considered brahma-bhūta (SB 4.30.20), which indicates that he is no longer in the material world but is in the spiritual world. Devotional service is enlightenment, or awakening. When the living entity perfectly performs spiritual activities under the direction of the spiritual master, he becomes perfect in knowledge and understands that he is not God but a servant of God. As explained by Caitanya Mahāprabhu, jīvera "svarūpa" haya—kṛṣṇera "nitya-dāsa": the real identity of the living entity is that he is an eternal servant of the Supreme (CC Madhya 20.108). As long as one does not come to this conclusion, he must be in ignorance.
The spiritual potency is manifested in the spiritual world. Kṛṣṇa's form, qualities, activities and entourage are all spiritual. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.6):
- ajo ’pi sann avyayātmā bhūtānām īśvaro ’pi san
- prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā
- (BG 4.6)
"Although I am unborn and My transcendental body never deteriorates, and although I am the Lord of all living entities, by My spiritual potency I still appear in every millennium in My original transcendental form." Ātma-māyā refers to the spiritual potency. When Kṛṣṇa comes to this or any other universe, He does so with His spiritual potency. We take birth by the force of the material potency, but as stated here with reference to the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, the kṣetra-jña, or living entity, belongs to the spiritual potency; thus when we free ourselves from the clutches of the material potency we can also enter the spiritual world.
All potencies are invested in the holy vibration of the holy name of the Lord. There is no doubt that the holy name of the Lord, or oṁkāra, is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. In other words, anyone who chants oṁkāra and the holy name of the Lord, Hare Kṛṣṇa, immediately meets the Supreme Lord directly in His sound form. In the Nārada Pañcarātra it is clearly said that the Supreme Personality of Godhead Nārāyaṇa personally appears before the chanter who engages in chanting the aṣṭākṣara, or eight-syllable mantra, oṁ namo nārāyaṇāya. A similar statement in the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad declares that whatever one sees in the spiritual world is all an expansion of the spiritual potency of oṁkāra.
One must come to the understanding that the holy name of the Lord and the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself are identical. One cannot reach this conclusion unless one is offenseless in chanting the holy name. By our material calculation we see a difference between the name and the substance, but in the spiritual world the Absolute is always absolute: the name, form, qualities and pastimes of the Absolute are all as good as the Absolute Himself. Thus one is understood to be an eternal servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead if he considers himself an eternal servant of the holy name and in this spirit distributes the holy name to the world. One who chants in that spirit, without offenses, is certainly elevated to the platform of understanding that the holy name and the Personality of Godhead are identical. To associate with the holy name and chant the holy name is to associate with the Personality of Godhead directly.
This tree of devotional service is not of this material world. It grows in the spiritual world, where there is no distinction between one part of the body and another. It is something like a tree of sugar, for whichever part of such a tree one tastes, it is always sweet. The tree of bhakti has varieties of branches, leaves and fruits, but they are all meant for the service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There are nine different processes of devotional service (śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātma-nivedanam (SB 7.5.23)), but all of them are meant only for the service of the Supreme Lord. Therefore whether one hears, chants, remembers or worships, his activities will yield the same result. Which one of these processes will be the most suitable for a particular devotee depends upon his taste.
The expansion of Baladeva known as Saṅkarṣaṇa in the spiritual world is the ingredient and immediate cause of this material cosmic manifestation.
Because Mahā-saṅkarṣaṇa is the ingredient and efficient cause of the cosmic manifestation, He is present in every detail of it. Lord Caitanya therefore called Him His elder brother. The two brothers are known as Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma in the spiritual world, but at the present moment they are Caitanya and Nitāi. Therefore the conclusion is that Nityānanda Prabhu is the original Saṅkarṣaṇa, Baladeva.
According to the Vedānta-sūtra (janmādy asya yataḥ (SB 1.1.1)), since creation, maintenance and annihilation exist in the Supreme Absolute, whatever we find within this material world is already in the spiritual world. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa Himself. How is He stealing, and how is He fighting? It is not as a thief or an enemy but as a friend in a loving condition. He steals as a child not because He is in want but out of a natural instinct. In this material world also, small children, without enmity or bad will, sometimes go to a neighboring house and steal, and sometimes they fight. Kṛṣṇa also, like other children, did all these things in His childhood. Without the existence of the stealing propensity and fighting propensity in the spiritual world, they cannot exist here in this material world. The difference between the material and spiritual worlds is that stealing in the spiritual world is done in friendship and love, whereas fighting and stealing within this material world are executed on the basis of enmity and envy. Therefore we should understand that in the spiritual world all these activities exist, but there is no inebriety, whereas in the material world all activities are full of miserable conditions.
As there are many planets within the material world, there are many millions of planets, called Vaikuṇṭhalokas, in the spiritual world. All these Vaikuṇṭhalokas, or superior planets, rest on the effulgence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā (yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi- (Bs. 5.40)), the Brahman effulgence emanating from the body of the Supreme Lord creates innumerable planets in both the spiritual and material worlds; thus these planets are creations of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The astrologer saw Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu to be the very same Personality of Godhead. We can just imagine how learned he was, yet he was traveling door to door, just like an ordinary beggar, for the highest benefit of human society.
CC Madhya-lila
Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, and no one is greater than Him. He is the source of all incarnations. In the Laghu-bhāgavatāmṛta there are descriptions of His partial incarnations, a description of the impersonal Brahman effulgence (actually the bodily effulgence of Śrī Kṛṣṇa), the superexcellence of Śrī Kṛṣṇa's pastimes as an ordinary human being with two hands and so forth. There is nothing to compare with the two-armed form of the Lord. In the spiritual world (vaikuṇṭha-jagat) there is no distinction between the owner of the body and the body itself. In the material world the owner of the body is called the soul, and the body is called a material manifestation. In the Vaikuṇṭha world, however, there is no such distinction. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is unborn, and His appearance as an incarnation is perpetual. Kṛṣṇa's pastimes are divided into two parts—manifest and unmanifest. For example, when Kṛṣṇa takes His birth within this material world, His pastimes are considered to be manifest. However, when He disappears, one should not think that He is finished, for His pastimes are going on in an unmanifest form. Varieties of humors, however, are enjoyed by the devotees and Lord Kṛṣṇa during His manifest pastimes. After all, His pastimes in Mathurā, Vṛndāvana and Dvārakā are eternal and are going on perpetually somewhere in some part of the universe.
The potencies are divided into categories—internal, external, personal, marginal and so forth. There are also discussions of the eternality of Deity worship, the omnipotence of the Deity, His all-pervasiveness, His giving shelter to everyone, His subtle and gross potencies, His personal manifestations, His expressions of form, quality and pastimes, His transcendental position and His complete form. It is also stated that everything pertaining to the Absolute has the same potency and that the spiritual world, the associates in the spiritual world and the threefold energies of the Lord in the spiritual world are all transcendental. There are further discussions concerning the difference between the impersonal Brahman and the Personality of Godhead, the fullness of the Personality of Godhead, the objective of all Vedic knowledge, the personal potencies of the Lord, and the Personality of Godhead as the original author of Vedic knowledge.
The difference between the Absolute Truth and relative truth is explained here. Lord Gopīnātha has openly declared herein that He is a thief. He had stolen the pot of sweet rice, and this was not kept a secret because His act of stealing is a source of great transcendental bliss. In the material world, theft is criminal, but in the spiritual world the Lord's stealing is a source of transcendental bliss. Mundane rascals, who cannot understand the absolute nature of the Personality of Godhead, sometimes call Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa immoral, but they do not know that His seemingly immoral activities, which are not kept secret, afford pleasure to the devotees. Not understanding the transcendental behavior of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, these rascals slur His character and immediately fall into the category of miscreants (rascals, lowest among men, demons and those whose knowledge is taken away by the illusory energy).
Thus even the Lord's criminal activities make His devotee the most fortunate person. How can a mundane rascal understand the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa and judge whether He is moral or immoral? Since Kṛṣṇa is the Absolute Truth, there are no mundane distinctions such as moral and immoral. Whatever He does is good. This is the real meaning of "God is good." He is good in all circumstances because He is transcendental, outside the jurisdiction of this material world. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa can be understood only by those who are already living in the spiritual world. This is corroborated in the Bhagavad-gītā (14.26):
- māṁ ca yo ’vyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena sevate
- sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahma-bhūyāya kalpate
"One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman."
One who is engaged in unalloyed devotional service to the Lord is already situated in the spiritual world (brahma-bhūyāya kalpate). In all circumstances, his activities and dealings with Kṛṣṇa are transcendental and thus not understandable by mundane moralists. It is therefore better not to discuss such activities among mundane people. It is better to give them the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra so that they will be gradually purified and then come to understand the transcendental activities of Kṛṣṇa.
According to the Vedic instructions, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has His eternal, transcendental form, which is always blissful and full of knowledge. Impersonalists think that "material" refers to the forms within our experience and that "spiritual" refers to an absence of form. However, one should know that beyond this material nature is another nature, which is spiritual. Just as there are material forms in this material world, there are spiritual forms in the spiritual world. This is confirmed by all Vedic literature. The spiritual forms in the transcendental world have nothing to do with the negative conception of formlessness. The conclusion is that a person is an agnostic when he does not agree to worship the transcendental form of the Lord.
Therefore the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, says, māyayāpahṛta-jñānāḥ (BG 7.15). Because of the temperament of the Māyāvādī philosophers, real knowledge is taken from them. Because they cannot receive the mercy of the Lord, they will always be bewildered by His transcendental form. Impersonal philosophy destroys the three phases of knowledge—jñāna, jñeya and jñātā. As soon as one speaks of knowledge, there must be a person who is the knower, the knowledge itself and the object of knowledge. Māyāvāda philosophy combines these three categories; therefore the Māyāvādīs cannot understand how the spiritual potencies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead act. Because of their poor fund of knowledge, they cannot understand the distinction in the spiritual world between knowledge, the knower and the object of knowledge. Because of this, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu considers the Māyāvādī philosophers more dangerous than the Buddhists.
(1) Śrī Puruṣottama Yati appeared as the instructor of many learned men. He was a very favorite devotee of Lord Viṣṇu. (2) His preaching was accepted throughout the world with great respect, and by his power he liberated many nondevotees with strong reason and logic. (3) He initiated Ānanda Tīrtha (Madhvācārya), who, after accepting sannyāsa, punished many foolish men with his rod and converted them. (4) All of Madhvācārya's writings and words are very potent. He gave people devotional service to Lord Viṣṇu so they could be elevated to liberation in the spiritual world. (5) His instructions in devotional service were able to elevate any man to the lotus feet of the Lord. (6) Narahari Tīrtha was initiated by him and became the ruler of Kaliṅga Province. (7) Narahari Tīrtha fought with the Śabaras, who were caṇḍālas, or hunters, and thus saved the temple of Kūrma. (8) Narahari Tīrtha was a very religious and powerful king. (9) In Śaka Era 1203, in the month of Vaiśākha, in the fortnight of the moon's waxing period, on the day of Ekādaśī, Narahari Tīrtha dedicated to the holy name of Yogānanda Nṛsiṁhadeva the temple he had constructed on His order. (The tablet is dated that very day, corresponding to Saturday, March 29, 1281 A.D.)
"When Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was dancing with the gopīs in the rāsa-līlā, the gopīs were embraced around the neck by the Lord"s arms. This transcendental favor was never bestowed upon the goddess of fortune or the other consorts in the spiritual world. Nor was such a thing ever imagined by the most beautiful girls in the heavenly planets, girls whose bodily luster and aroma resemble the beauty and fragrance of lotus flowers. And what to speak of worldly women, who may be very, very beautiful according to material estimation?’
In the spiritual world the Absolute Lord is always identical with His name, fame, form, qualities and pastimes. Such identity is impossible in the material world, where the name of a person is different from the person himself. The Supreme Lord has many holy names like Paramātmā, Brahman and "the creator," but one who worships the Lord as the creator cannot understand the relationship between a devotee and the Lord in the five types of transcendental mellows, nor can he understand the conception of Kṛṣṇa. One cannot understand the six transcendental opulences of the Lord simply by understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead as impersonal Brahman.
Kṛṣṇa's devotees in Vṛndāvana address Him as Rādhāramaṇa, Nandanandana and Yaśodānandana, but not as Vasudeva-nandana or Devakī-nandana. Although according to the material conception Nārāyaṇa, Rukmiṇī-ramaṇa and Kṛṣṇa are one and the same, in the spiritual world one cannot use the name Rukmiṇī-ramaṇa or Nārāyaṇa in place of the name Kṛṣṇa. If one does so out of a poor fund of knowledge, his mellow with the Lord becomes spiritually faulty and is called rasābhāsa, an overlapping of transcendental mellows. The advanced devotee who has actually realized the transcendental features of the Lord will not commit the mistake of creating a rasābhāsa situation by using one name for another. Because of the influence of Kali-yuga, there is much rasābhāsa in the name of extravagance and liberal-mindedness. Such fanaticism is not very much appreciated by pure devotees.
Thus there is another nature, which is superior to material nature. The word bhāva or svabhāva refers to nature. The spiritual nature is eternal, and even when all the material universes are destroyed, the planets in the spiritual world abide. They remain exactly as the spirit soul remains even after the annihilation of the material body. That spiritual world is called the aprākṛta (anti-material) world. In this transcendental, spiritual world or universe, the highest planetary system is known as Goloka Vṛndāvana. That is the abode of Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself, who is also all-spiritual. Kṛṣṇa is known there as Aprākṛta-madana. The name Madana refers to Cupid, but Kṛṣṇa is the spiritual Madana. His body is not material like the body of Cupid in this material universe.
The word siddhaye indicates liberation. Only after being liberated from material conditioning can one understand Kṛṣṇa. When one can understand Kṛṣṇa as He is (tattvataḥ), one actually lives in the spiritual world, although apparently living within the material body. This technical science can be understood when one is actually spiritually advanced.
"When Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was dancing with the gopīs in the rāsa-līlā, the gopīs were embraced around the neck by the Lord"s arms. This transcendental favor was never bestowed upon the goddess of fortune or the other consorts in the spiritual world. Nor was such a thing ever imagined by the most beautiful girls in the heavenly planets, girls whose bodily luster and aroma resemble the beauty and fragrance of lotus flowers. And what to speak of worldly women, who may be very, very beautiful according to material estimation?’
“"When Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was dancing with the gopīs in the rāsa-līlā, the gopīs were embraced around the neck by the Lord"s arms. This transcendental favor was never bestowed upon the goddess of fortune or the other consorts in the spiritual world. Nor was such a thing ever imagined by the most beautiful girls in the heavenly planets, girls whose bodily luster and aroma exactly resemble the beauty and fragrance of lotus flowers. And what to speak of worldly women, who may be very, very beautiful according to material estimation?’
According to the Tattvavādīs, the best process for achieving the highest goal of life is to execute the duties of the four varṇas and āśramas. In the material world, unless one is situated in one of the varṇas (brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya or śūdra) one cannot manage social affairs properly to attain the ultimate goal. One also has to follow the principles of the āśramas (brahmacarya, gṛhastha, vānaprastha and sannyāsa), since these principles are considered essential for the attainment of the highest goal. In this way the Tattvavādīs establish that the execution of the principles of varṇa and āśrama for the sake of Kṛṣṇa is the best way to attain the topmost goal. The Tattvavādīs thus established their principles in terms of human society. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, however, differed when He said that the best process is hearing and chanting about Lord Viṣṇu. According to the Tattvavādīs, the highest goal is returning home, back to Godhead, but in Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's opinion the highest goal is attaining love of Godhead, in either the material world or the spiritual world. In the material world this is practiced according to śāstric injunction, and in the spiritual world the real achievement is already there.
In the material world, parakīya-rasa, or loving affairs with unmarried girlfriends, is the most degraded relationship, but in the spiritual world this type of loving affair is considered the supreme enjoyment. In the material world everything is but a reflection of the spiritual world, and that reflection is perverted. We cannot understand the affairs of the spiritual world on the basis of our experience in the material world. The Lord's pastimes with the gopīs are therefore misunderstood by mundane scholars and word-wranglers. The parakīya-rasa of the spiritual world should not be discussed except by one who is very advanced in pure devotional service. The parakīya-rasa in the spiritual world and that in the material world are not comparable. The former is like gold, and the latter is like iron. Because the difference between the two is so great, they cannot actually be compared. However, just as a knowledgeable person can easily distinguish gold from iron, one who has the proper realization can easily distinguish the transcendental activities of the spiritual world from material activities.
This verse is a quotation from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.33.25). The gopīs are all transcendental spirit souls. One should never think that the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa have material bodies. Vṛndāvana-dhāma is also a spiritual abode, and there the days and nights, the trees, flowers and water, and everything else are spiritual. There is not even a trace of material contamination. Kṛṣṇa, who is the Supreme Brahman and Supersoul, is not at all interested in anything material. His activities with the gopīs are all spiritual and take place within the spiritual world. They have nothing to do with the material world. Lord Kṛṣṇa's lusty desires and all His dealings with the gopīs are on the spiritual platform. One has to be transcendentally realized before even considering relishing the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa with the gopīs. One who is on the mundane platform must first purify himself by following the regulative principles. Only then can he try to understand Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī are here talking about the relationship between Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs; therefore the subject matter is neither mundane nor erotic. Being a sannyāsī, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was very strict in His dealings with women. Unless the gopīs were on the spiritual platform, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu would have never even mentioned them to Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī. Therefore these descriptions do not at all pertain to material activity.
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu continued, “"O my Lord, O unconquerable one, O master of all potencies, please exhibit Your internal potency to conquer the nescience of all moving and inert living entities. Due to nescience, they accept all kinds of faulty things, thus provoking a fearful situation. O Lord, please show Your glories! You can do this very easily, for Your internal potency is beyond the external potency, and You are the reservoir of all opulence. You are also the demonstrator of the material potency. You are also always engaged in Your pastimes in the spiritual world, where You exhibit Your reserved, internal potency, and sometimes You exhibit the external potency by glancing over it. Thus You manifest Your pastimes. The Vedas confirm Your two potencies and accept both types of pastimes due to them."
This verse was spoken by Uddhava to Lord Kṛṣṇa. This was during the time when the Uddhava-gītā was spoken. At that time there was some disturbance in Dvārakā, and Lord Kṛṣṇa decided to leave the material world and enter the spiritual world. Uddhava could understand the situation, and he talked with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The verse quoted above is an excerpt from their conversation. Śrī Kṛṣṇa's pastimes in this material world are called prakaṭa-līlā (manifested pastimes), and His pastimes in the spiritual world are called aprakaṭa-līlā (unmanifested pastimes). By "unmanifested" we mean that they are not present before our eyes. It is not that Lord Kṛṣṇa's pastimes are nonexistent. They are going on exactly as the sun is shining perpetually, but when the sun is present before our eyes, we call it daytime (manifest), and when it is not present, we call it night (unmanifest). Those who are above the jurisdiction of night are always in the spiritual world, where the Lord's pastimes are constantly manifest to them.
When one understands that he belongs not to the material world but to the spiritual world, one is called liberated. Being situated in the spiritual world is certainly pleasurable, but those who realize the transcendental name, form, qualities and pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa enjoy transcendental bliss many times more than one who has simply realized the self. When one is situated on the platform of self-realization, he can certainly be easily attracted by Kṛṣṇa and become a servant of the Lord. This is explained in the Bhagavad-gītā (18.54):
- brahma-bhūtaḥ prasannātmā na śocati na kāṅkṣati
- samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu mad-bhaktiṁ labhate parām
"One who is thus transcendentally situated at once realizes the Supreme Brahman and becomes fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything. He is equally disposed to every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional service unto Me."
Those who are filled with ecstatic love for Kṛṣṇa always see the form of Śyāmasundara within their hearts. Raghupati Upādhyāya confirms that the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has many incarnations—Nārāyaṇa, Nṛsiṁha, Varāha and others—but Kṛṣṇa is distinguished as the supermost. According to Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.3.28), kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam: "Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead." Kṛṣṇa means Śyāmasundara, who plays His flute in Vṛndāvana. Of all forms, this form is the best of all. Kṛṣṇa lives sometimes in Mathurā and sometimes in Dvārakā, but Mathurā is considered the better place. This is also confirmed by Rūpa Gosvāmī in his Upadeśāmṛta (9): vaikuṇṭhāj janito varā madhu-purī. "Madhu-purī, or Mathurā, is far superior to the Vaikuṇṭhalokas in the spiritual world."
"I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord. He resides in His own realm, Goloka, with Rādhā, who resembles His own spiritual figure and who embodies the ecstatic potency (hlādinī). Their companions are Her confidantes, who embody extensions of Her bodily form and who are imbued and permeated with ever-blissful spiritual rasa." In the spiritual world, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, has expanded Himself by His spiritual potency. He has His eternal form of bliss and knowledge (sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1)). Everything in the Goloka Vṛndāvana planet is a spiritual expansion of sac-cid-ānanda. Everyone there is of the same potency—ānanda-cinmaya-rasa. The relationship between the Supreme Personality of Godhead and His servitor is cinmaya-rasa. Kṛṣṇa and His entourage and paraphernalia are of the same cinmaya potency. In this way the Supreme Personality of Godhead is expanded throughout the spiritual world, and when that cinmaya-rasa potency expands through the material potency, it becomes all-pervading. The idea is that although the Supreme Personality of Godhead exists on His own planet, Goloka Vṛndāvana, He is also present everywhere. Aṇḍāntara-stha-paramāṇu-cayāntara-stham (Bs. 5.35). He is present within all the universes, although they are innumerable, and He is also present within the atom. Īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ hṛd-deśe ‘rjuna tiṣṭhati: (BG 18.61) He is also present within the heart of all living entities. This is His all-pervasive potency.
Goloka Vṛndāvana is the highest planet in the spiritual world. In order to go to the spiritual world after penetrating the covering of the material universe, one must penetrate Brahma-loka, the spiritual effulgence. Then one can come to the Goloka Vṛndāvana planet. There are also other planets in the spiritual world, called Vaikuṇṭha planets, and on these planets Lord Nārāyaṇa is worshiped with awe and veneration. On these planets śānta-rasa is prevalent, and some of the devotees are also connected with the Supreme Personality of Godhead in dāsya-rasa, the mellow of servitorship. As far as the mellow of fraternity is concerned, in Vaikuṇṭha this rasa is represented by gaurava-sakhya, friendship in awe and veneration. The other fraternity rasa, exhibited as viśrambha (friendship in equality), is found in the Goloka Vṛndāvana planet. Above that is service to the Lord in vātsalya-rasa (parental love), and above all is the relationship with the Lord in the mādhurya-rasa (conjugal love). These five rasas are fully exhibited in the spiritual world in one's relationship with the Lord. Therefore in the spiritual world the bhakti creeper finds its resting place at the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa.
In Goloka Vṛndāvana the devotees have very intimate relationships with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The devotee engages in the Lord's service in great ecstatic love. Such love was exhibited personally by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu in His teachings to the people of the material world. The fruit of the devotional creeper is the pure desire to serve and please the senses of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Kṛṣṇendriya-prīti-icchā dhare "prema" nāma. (Cc. Ādi. 4.165) In the spiritual world one has no desire other than to please the senses of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The conditioned soul within the material world can neither understand nor appreciate how a pure devotee in the material world can render confidential service to the Lord out of feelings of ecstatic love and always engage in pleasing the Supreme Lord's senses. Although seen within this material world, the pure devotee always engages in the confidential service of the Lord. An ordinary neophyte devotee cannot realize this; therefore it is said, vaiṣṇavera kriyā-mudrā vijñeha nā bujhaya (CC Madhya 23.39). The activities of a pure Vaiṣṇava cannot be understood even by a learned scholar in the material world.
The word tāhāṅ indicates that in the spiritual world one can taste the juice of the fruit of devotional service and thus become blissful.
The living entity is called the marginal energy because by nature he is spiritual but by forgetfulness he is situated in the material energy. Thus he has the power to live either in the material energy or in the spiritual energy, and for this reason he is called marginal energy. Being in the marginal position, he is sometimes attracted by the external, illusory energy, and this is the beginning of his material life. When he enters the material energy, he is subjected to the threefold time measurement—past, present and future. Past, present and future belong only to the material world; they do not exist in the spiritual world. The living entity is eternal, and he existed before the creation of this material world. Unfortunately he has forgotten his relationship with Kṛṣṇa. The living entity's forgetfulness is described herein as anādi, which indicates that it has existed since time immemorial. One should understand that due to his desire to enjoy himself in competition with Kṛṣṇa, the living entity comes into material existence.
All these forms preside over different Vaikuṇṭha planets in the spiritual world. Beginning from the east, in consecutive order there are three different forms in each of the eight directions.
All of these forms are mūrti forms, and They are worshiped in the temples. Their names are Keśava at Mathurā, Puruṣottama or Jagannātha at Nīlācala, Śrī Bindu Mādhava at Prayāga, Madhusūdana at Mandāra, and Vāsudeva, Padmanābha and Janārdana at Ānandāraṇya, which is situated in Kerala, South India. At Viṣṇu-kāñcī is Lord Varadarāja, and Hari is situated at Māyāpur, Lord Caitanya's birth site. Thus in different places throughout the universe there are various Deities in temples bestowing Their causeless mercy upon the devotees. All these Deity forms are nondifferent from the mūrtis in the spiritual world of the Vaikuṇṭhas. Although the arcā-mūrti, the worshipable Deity form of the Lord, appears to be made of material elements, it is as good as the spiritual forms found in the spiritual Vaikuṇṭhalokas. The Deity in the temple, however, is visible to the material eyes of the devotee. It is not possible for one in material, conditioned life to see the spiritual form of the Lord. To bestow causeless mercy upon us, the Lord appears as the arcā-mūrti so that we can see Him. It is forbidden to consider the arcā-mūrti to be made of stone or wood.
Lord Śeṣa in the spiritual world of Vaikuṇṭha and, in the material world, Lord Ananta, who carries innumerable planets on His hoods, are two primary empowered incarnations. There is no need to count the others, for they are unlimited.
No one can measure the length and breadth of the one fourth of My energy manifested in the material world. Who then can measure the three fourths that is manifested in the spiritual world?’
The nitya-baddhas are always conditioned by the external energy, and the nitya-muktas never come in contact with the external energy. Sometimes an ever-liberated personal associate of the Supreme Personality of Godhead descends into this universe just as the Lord descends. Although working for the liberation of conditioned souls, the messenger of the Supreme Lord remains untouched by the material energy. Generally ever-liberated personalities live in the spiritual world as associates of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and they are known as kṛṣṇa-pāriṣada, associates of the Lord. Their only business is enjoying Lord Kṛṣṇa's company, and even though such eternally liberated persons come within this material world to serve the Lord's purpose, they enjoy Lord Kṛṣṇa's company without stoppage. The ever-liberated person who works on Kṛṣṇa's behalf enjoys Lord Kṛṣṇa's company through his engagement. The ever-conditioned soul, provoked by lusty desires to enjoy the material world, is forced to transmigrate from one body to another. Sometimes he is elevated to higher planetary systems, and sometimes he is degraded to hellish planets and subjected to the tribulations of the external energy.
A liberated person who has no material body can go anywhere and everywhere; therefore a living entity is called sarva-ga, which indicates that he can go anywhere and everywhere. Presently scientists are trying to go to other planets, but due to their material bodies, they are not free to move at will. However, when one is situated in his original spiritual body, he can move anywhere and everywhere without difficulty. Within this material world there is a planet called Siddhaloka, whose inhabitants can go from one planet to another without the aid of a machine or space rocket. In the material world every planet has a specific advantage (vibhūti-bhinna). In the spiritual world, however, all the planets and their inhabitants are composed of spiritual energy. Because there are no material impediments, it is said that everything in the spiritual world is one.
"Before the cosmic manifestation was created, the creative propensity was merged in the Supreme Lord"s person. At that time all potencies and manifestations were preserved in His personality. The Lord is the cause of all causes, and He is the all-pervading, self-sufficient person. Before the creation, He existed with His spiritual potency in the spiritual world, wherein various Vaikuṇṭha planets are manifested.’
CC Antya-lila
"When Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa was dancing with the gopīs in the rāsa-līlā, the gopīs were embraced around the neck by the Lord"s arms. This transcendental favor was never bestowed upon the goddess of fortune or the other consorts in the spiritual world. Nor was such a thing ever imagined by the most beautiful girls in the heavenly planets, girls whose bodily luster and aroma resemble the beauty and fragrance of lotus flowers. And what to speak of worldly women, who may be very, very beautiful according to material estimation?’
Haridāsa Ṭhākura is mentioned here as the most learned scholar, parama-vidvān. Actually, the most important science to know is the science of getting out of the clutches of material existence. Anyone who knows this science must be considered the greatest learned person. Anyone who knows the temporary situation of this material world and is expert in achieving a permanent situation in the spiritual world, who knows that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is beyond the jurisdiction of our experimental knowledge, is understood to be the most learned scholar. Haridāsa Ṭhākura knew this science perfectly. Therefore, he is described in this connection as parama-vidvān. He personally preached the importance of chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, which is approved by the revealed scriptures.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Teachings of Lord Caitanya
The Caitanya-caritāmṛta teaches that the spirit soul is immortal and that our activities in the spiritual world are also immortal. The Māyāvādīs, who hold the view that the Absolute is impersonal and formless, contend that a realized soul has no need to talk. But the Vaiṣṇavas, devotees of Kṛṣṇa, contend that when one reaches the stage of realization, he really begins to talk. "Previously we only talked of nonsense," the Vaiṣṇava says. "Now let us begin our real talks, talks of Kṛṣṇa." In support of their view that the self-realized remain silent, the Māyāvādīs are fond of using the example of the waterpot, maintaining that when a pot is not filled with water it makes a sound, but that when it is filled it makes no sound. But are we waterpots? How can we be compared to them? A good analogy utilizes as many similarities between two objects as possible. A waterpot is not an active living force, but we are.
"Yet there is another unmanifested nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is." The material world has a manifested state (vyakta) and a potential, unmanifested state (avyakta). The supreme nature is beyond both the manifested and the unmanifested material nature. This superior nature can be understood as the living force, which is present in the bodies of all living creatures. The body itself is composed of inferior nature, matter, but it is the superior nature that is moving the body. The symptom of that superior nature is consciousness. Thus in the spiritual world, where everything is composed of the superior nature, everything is conscious. In the material world there are inanimate objects that are not conscious, but in the spiritual world nothing is inanimate. There a table is conscious, the land is conscious, the trees are conscious—everything is conscious.
We can touch only with our hands or skin, but Kṛṣṇa can touch just by glancing. We can see only with our eyes; we cannot touch or smell with them. Kṛṣṇa, however, can smell and also eat with His eyes. When food is offered to Kṛṣṇa, we do not see Him eating, but He eats simply by glancing at the food. We cannot imagine how things work in the spiritual world, where everything is spiritual. It is not that Kṛṣṇa does not eat or that we imagine that He eats; He actually eats, but His eating is different from ours. Our eating process will be similar to His when we are completely on the spiritual platform. On that platform every part of the body can act on behalf of any other part.
Viṣṇu does not require anything in order to create. He does not require the goddess Lakṣmī in order to give birth to Brahmā, for Brahmā is born from a lotus flower that grows from the navel of Viṣṇu. The goddess Lakṣmī sits at the feet of Viṣṇu and serves Him. In this material world sex is required to produce children, but in the spiritual world a man can produce as many children as he likes without having to take help from his wife. So there is no sex there. Because we have no experience with spiritual energy, we think that Brahmās birth from the navel of Viṣṇu is simply a fictional story. We are not aware that spiritual energy is so powerful that it can do anything and everything. Material energy is dependent on certain laws, but spiritual energy is fully independent.
When this is established, in the sixteenth verse Kṛṣṇadāsa offers his obeisances to the functional Deity, Govinda. The Govinda Deity is called the functional Deity because He shows us how to serve Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. The Madana-mohana Deity simply establishes that "I am Your eternal servant." With Govinda, however, there is actual acceptance of service. Govinda resides eternally in Vṛndāvana. In the spiritual world of Vṛndāvana the buildings are made of touchstone, the cows are known as surabhi cows, givers of abundant milk, and the trees are known as wish-fulfilling trees, for they yield whatever one desires. In Vṛndāvana Kṛṣṇa herds the surabhi cows, and He is worshiped by hundreds and thousands of gopīs, cowherd girls, who are all goddesses of fortune.
Kṛṣṇa-bhaktas are free from all material desires. Although those who are theoretically liberated by knowing that the living entity is not material may be classified among liberated souls, they still have desires. Their main desire is to become one with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Such persons are very much attached to performing Vedic rituals and righteous activities in order to enjoy material prosperity. Even when some of them transcend material enjoyment, they still try to enjoy in the spiritual world by merging into the existence of the Supreme Lord. Some of them also desire to attain mystic powers through the execution of yoga. As long as any of these desires are within a person's heart, he cannot understand the nature of pure devotional service, and on account of constantly being agitated by such desires, he is not peaceful. Indeed, as long as there is any desire for material perfection at all, one cannot be at peace. Since the devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa do not desire anything material, they are the only peaceful persons within this material world.
"Everything manifested within this cosmic world is but the energy of the Supreme Lord. As fire situated in one place spreads its illumination and heat all around, so the Lord, although situated in one place in the spiritual world, manifests His different energies everywhere. Indeed, the whole cosmic creation is but various manifestations of His energy."
Since no one can trace the history of the living entity's entanglement in material energy, Lord Caitanya said that it is beginningless. By "beginningless" He meant that conditioned life exists prior to the creation; it simply becomes manifest during and after the creation. Due to forgetfulness of his real nature, the living entity, although spirit, suffers all kinds of miseries in material existence. It should be understood that there are also living entities who are not entangled in this material energy but are situated in the spiritual world. They are called liberated souls and are always engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, devotional service.
Kṛṣṇa first incarnates as the three puruṣa-avatāras, namely the Mahā-viṣṇu or Kāraṇodakaśāyīavatāra, the Garbhodakaśāyīavatāra and the Kṣīrodakaśāyīavatāra. This is confirmed in the Sātvata-tantra. Kṛṣṇa's energies can also be divided into three: His energy of thinking, His energy of feeling, and His energy of acting. When He exhibits His thinking energy He is the Supreme Lord, when He exhibits His feeling energy He is Lord Vāsudeva, and when He exhibits His acting energy He is Saṅkarṣaṇa Balarāma. Without the Lord's thinking, feeling and acting, there would be no possibility of creation. Although there is no creation in the spiritual world as there is in the material world, both worlds are manifestations of Kṛṣṇa's energy of acting, which He carries out in the form of Saṅkarṣaṇa Balarāma.
The spiritual world—the Vaikuṇṭha planets and Kṛṣṇaloka—is situated in Kṛṣṇa's energy of thinking. Although there is no creation in the spiritual world, which is eternal, it is still to be understood that the spiritual planets depend on the thinking energy of the Supreme Lord. This thinking energy is described in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.2), where it is said, "The supreme abode, known as Goloka, is manifested like a lotus flower with hundreds of petals. Everything there is manifested by Ananta, who is a form of Balarāma, or Saṅkarṣaṇa." The material cosmic manifestation and its different universes are manifested through māyā, or the material energy, but one should not think that the material energy, or material nature, is the cause of this cosmic manifestation. Rather, it is caused by the Supreme Lord, who uses His different expansions to act through material nature. In other words, there is no possibility of any creation without the superintendence of the Supreme Lord. The form of the Lord who causes the energy of material nature to bring about creation is Saṅkarṣaṇa, and it is understood that this cosmic manifestation is created when the material nature comes in contact with the superintendent energy of the Supreme Lord, Saṅkarṣaṇa. The example is given of iron becoming hot in contact with fire and, when red hot, acting just like fire.
In his prayers in the Hari-vaṁśa, Indra admitted that he could not understand the situation of Goloka, even by asking Brahmā. Devotees of the Nārāyaṇa expansion of Kṛṣṇa attain the Vaikuṇṭha planets, but it is very difficult to reach the Goloka planet. Indeed, that planet can be reached only by devotees of Lord Caitanya or Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Indra then said to Lord Kṛṣṇa: "You have descended from that Goloka planet in the spiritual world, and the disturbance I created was all due to my foolishness." Therefore Indra begged Lord Kṛṣṇa to excuse him.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Absolute Truth, but He is manifested by the expansions of His different energies also. Those who follow the regulative principles of devotional service ultimately attain to the Vaikuṇṭha planets in the spiritual world, but one who follows the principles of love in devotional service attains to the supreme abode, the highest planet in the spiritual world, known as Kṛṣṇaloka or Goloka Vṛndāvana.
In this age of logical argument and disagreement, the chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa is the only means for self-realization. And because this transcendental vibration alone can deliver the conditioned soul, it is the essence of the Vedānta-sūtra. According to the material conception, there is a difference between a person himself and his name, form, qualities, emotions and activities, but as far as this transcendental vibration is concerned, there is no such limitation, for it descends from the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, unlike the material world, there is no difference between a person and his name and qualities. Because the Māyāvādī philosophers cannot understand this, they cannot utter the transcendental vibration.
The Lord possesses His internal energy, His external, marginal and relative energies, and the manifestation of the cosmic world and the living entities. The external energy is manifested by the qualitative modes (guṇas) of material nature. One who can understand the nature of the living entity in the spiritual world can actually understand vedyam, or perfect knowledge. One cannot understand the Supreme Lord simply by seeing the material energy and the conditioned soul, but when one is in perfect knowledge, he is freed from the influence of the external energy. The moon reflects the light of the sun, and without the sun the moon cannot illuminate anything. Similarly, this material cosmic manifestation is but the reflection of the spiritual world. When one is actually liberated from the spell of the external energy, he can understand the constitutional nature of the Supreme Lord. Devotional service to the Lord is the only means for attaining Him, and this devotional service can be accepted by everyone and anyone in any country and under any circumstance. Devotional service is above the four principles of religion, culminating in liberation. Actually, even the preliminary processes of devotional service are transcendental to liberation, the highest subject of ordinary religion.
In his commentary on the Bhāgavatam Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura specifically deals with original and pure sex psychology (ādi-rasa), devoid of all mundane inebriety. The entire material world turns due to the basic principle of sex life. In modern human civilization, sex is the central point of all activities; indeed, wherever we turn our face we see sex life prominent. Thus sex life is not unreal, but its true reality is experienced in the spiritual world. Material sex is but a perverted reflection of the original; the original is found in the Absolute Truth. This validates the fact that the Absolute Truth is personal, for the Absolute Truth cannot be impersonal and have a sense of pure sex life. The impersonal, monist philosophy has given an indirect impetus to abominable mundane sex because it overly stresses the impersonality of the ultimate truth. The result is that men who lack knowledge have accepted perverted material sex life as all in all because they have no information of the actual spiritual form of sex. There is a distinction between sex in the diseased condition of material life and sex in the spiritual existence. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam gradually elevates the unbiased reader to the highest perfectional stage of transcendence, above the three kinds of material activities, namely fruitive actions, speculative philosophy and worship of functional deities indicated in the Vedas. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the embodiment of devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, and is therefore situated in a position superior to other Vedic literatures.
The devotees of Kṛṣṇa do not relish devotional service to Nārāyaṇa because devotional service to Kṛṣṇa is so attractive that Kṛṣṇa's devotees do not desire to worship any other form. Thus the gopīs of Vṛndāvana do not like to see Kṛṣṇa as Rukmiṇī-ramaṇa, the husband of Rukmiṇī, nor do they address Him by that name. In Vṛndāvana Kṛṣṇa is addressed as Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa—Kṛṣṇa, the property of Rādhārāṇī. Although the names Rukmiṇī-ramaṇa and Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa are on the same level in the ordinary sense, still, in the spiritual world these names indicate different understandings of various aspects of Kṛṣṇa's transcendental personality. If one equates the names Rādhā-ramaṇa or Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa with Rukmiṇī-ramaṇa, Nārāyaṇa or any other name of the Supreme Lord, he commits the fault of overlapping tastes, which is technically called rasābhāsa. Those who are expert, discriminating devotees do not accept such amalgamations, which are against the conclusions of pure devotional service. Less intelligent men think such discrimination is bigotry.
The loving affairs between Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs in Vṛndāvana are also transcendental. Such affairs appear like the ordinary lusty affairs of this material world, but there is a gulf of difference between the moods of Vṛndāvana and those of this material world. In the material world there may be the temporary awakening of lust, but it disappears after so-called satisfaction. In the spiritual world the love between the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa is constantly increasing. That is the difference between the love in the transcendental world and the lust in the material world. The lust, or so-called love, arising out of this body is as temporary as the body itself, but the love arising from the eternal soul in the spiritual world is on the spiritual platform, and since the spirit soul is eternal, that love is also eternal. Therefore Kṛṣṇa is addressed as the ever green Cupid.
The Brahma-saṁhitā (5.37) also confirms that Kṛṣṇa expands Himself by His pleasure potency in the spiritual world and that these potencies are all nondifferent from Him, the Absolute Truth. Although Kṛṣṇa is always enjoying the company of His pleasure-potency expansions, He is all-pervading. Therefore Brahmā offers his respectful obeisances to Govinda, the cause of all causes.
Those who have purified senses can understand these transcendental features and exchanges, but those who are impersonalists and who have no knowledge of spiritual senses can only discriminate within the scope of the material senses and thus cannot understand spiritual exchanges or spiritual-sensual activities. Those who are elevated by virtue of experimental knowledge can only satisfy their blunt material senses, either by gross bodily activities or by mental speculation. Everything generated from the body or the mind is always imperfect and perishable, but transcendental spiritual activities are always bright and wonderful. Pure love on the transcendental platform is the paragon of purity because it is devoid of material affection and is completely spiritual. Affection for matter is perishable, as indicated by the inebriety of sex in the material world. But there is no such inebriety in the spiritual world. Hindrances on the path of sense satisfaction cause material distress, but one cannot compare that with the spiritual distress of separation from Kṛṣṇa. In such spiritual separation there is neither inebriety nor ineffectiveness, as one finds with material separation.
Nectar of Devotion
Such loving exchanges should never be considered to be material. In the Mahābhārata, Udyama-parva, it is warned that things which are inconceivable should not be subjected to arguments. Actually, the transactions of the spiritual world are inconceivable to us in our present state of life. Great liberated souls like Rūpa Gosvāmī and others have tried to give us some hints of transcendental activities in the spiritual world, but on the whole these transactions will remain inconceivable to us at the present moment. Understanding the exchanges of transcendental loving service with Kṛṣṇa is possible only when one is actually in touch with the pleasure potency of the Supreme Lord.
Easy Journey to Other Planets
When a satellite is thrown into outer space, a child may not understand that there are scientific brains behind it, but an intelligent adult realizes that scientific brains on earth are controlling the satellite. Similarly, less intelligent persons do not have information of the creator and His eternal abode in the spiritual world, which is far beyond our range of visibility, but in actuality there is a spiritual sky, and spiritual planets which are more spacious and greater in number than planets in the material sky. From the Bhagavad-gītā we receive information that the material universe only constitutes a fraction (one fourth) of the creation. Such information is extensively available in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and in other Vedic literatures.
We have a chance to know about Kṛṣṇa provided we read the right literature under the right direction, and if we simply know what the nature of God is, then by understanding this one fact alone we become liberated. It is not possible in our human condition to understand the Absolute Supreme Personality of Godhead completely, but with the help of Bhagavad-gītā, the statements given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and of the spiritual master, we can know Him to the best of our capacity. If we can know Him in reality, then immediately after leaving this body we can enter into the kingdom of God. Kṛṣṇa says, tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti so 'rjuna: "After leaving this body, one who is in knowledge does not come again to this material world, for he enters into the spiritual world and comes to Me." (BG 4.9)
Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead
Actually, Kṛṣṇa is the husband of everyone because He is the supreme enjoyer. The gopīs wanted Kṛṣṇa to be their husband, but factually there was no possibility of His marrying all the gopīs. But because they had that natural tendency to accept Kṛṣṇa as their supreme husband, the relationship between the gopīs and Kṛṣṇa is called parakīya-rasa. This parakīya-rasa is ever-existent in Goloka Vṛndāvana, in the spiritual sky, where there is no possibility of the inebriety which characterizes parakīya-rasa in the material world. In the material world, parakīya-rasa is abominable, whereas in the spiritual world it is present in the superexcellent relationship of Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs. There are many relationships with Kṛṣṇa—master and servant, friend and friend, parent and son, and lover and beloved. Out of all these rasas, the parakīya-rasa is considered to be the topmost.
The gopī associates of Kṛṣṇa who assembled in the place where Kṛṣṇa was appearing were from different groups. Most of the gopīs were eternal companions of Kṛṣṇa. As stated in the Brahma-saṁhitā, ānanda-cin-maya-rasa-pratibhāvitābhiḥ: in the spiritual world the associates of Kṛṣṇa, especially the gopīs, are manifestations of the pleasure potency of Lord Kṛṣṇa. They are expansions of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. But when Kṛṣṇa exhibits His transcendental pastimes within the material world in some of the universes, not only the eternal associates of Kṛṣṇa come but also those who are being promoted to that status from this material world.
The necks of the gopīs became tinted with red due to their desire to enjoy Kṛṣṇa more and more. To satisfy them, Kṛṣṇa began to clap His hands in time with their singing. Actually the whole world is full of Kṛṣṇa's singing, but it is appreciated in different ways by different kinds of living entities. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā: ye yathā māṁ prapadyante tāṁs tathaiva bhajāmy aham (BG 4.11). Kṛṣṇa is dancing, and every living entity is also dancing, but there is a difference between the dancing in the spiritual world and that in the material world. This is expressed by the author of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, who says that the master dancer is Kṛṣṇa and everyone else is His servant. Everyone is trying to imitate Kṛṣṇa's dancing. Those who are actually in Kṛṣṇa consciousness respond rightly to the dancing of Kṛṣṇa: they do not try to dance independently.
As stated in the Vedic versions, the Supreme Personality of Godhead has multipotencies. According to expert opinion, Kubjā represents the bhū-śakti potency of Kṛṣṇa, just as Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī represents His cit-śakti potency. Although Kubjā requested Kṛṣṇa to remain with her for some days, Kṛṣṇa politely impressed upon her that it was not possible for Him to stay. Kṛṣṇa visits this material world occasionally, whereas His connection with the spiritual world is eternal. Kṛṣṇa is always present either in the Vaikuṇṭha planets or in the Goloka Vṛndāvana planet. The technical term of His presence in the spiritual world is aprakaṭa-līlā.
It is stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam that this new, well-constructed city, developed within the sea, had regular planned roads, streets and lanes. There were also well-planned parks and gardens filled with plants known as kalpa-vṛkṣas, or desire trees. These desire trees are not like the ordinary trees of the material world; the desire trees are found in the spiritual world. By Kṛṣṇa's supreme will, everything is possible, so such desire trees were planted in Dvārakā, the city constructed by Kṛṣṇa. The city was also filled with many palaces and gopuras, or big gates. These gopuras are still found in some of the larger temples. They are very high and constructed with fine artistic skill. Such palaces and gates held golden waterpots (kalaśas). These waterpots on the gates or on the palaces are considered auspicious signs.
The Ganges water flows as perspiration from the lotus feet of Your Lordship. And we are all so fortunate that today we have been able to see Your lotus feet directly. Dear Lord, we are all surrendered souls, devotees of Your Lordship; therefore, please be kind and bestow Your causeless mercy upon us. We know well that persons who have become liberated by constant engagement in Your devotional service are no longer contaminated by the material modes of nature; thus they have become eligible to be promoted to the kingdom of God in the spiritual world.”
The statements of the personified Vedas give clear evidence that the Vedic literature is presented only for understanding Kṛṣṇa. The Bhagavad-gītā confirms that through all the Vedas it is Kṛṣṇa alone who has to be understood. Kṛṣṇa is always enjoying, either in the material world or in the spiritual world; because He is the supreme enjoyer, for Him there is no distinction between the material and spiritual worlds. The material world is an impediment for the ordinary living entities because they are under its control, but Kṛṣṇa, being the controller of the material world, has nothing to do with the impediments it offers. Therefore, in different parts of the Upaniṣads, the Vedas declare, “The Supreme Brahman is eternal, full of all knowledge and all bliss.
The personified Vedas stated that persons born after the creation of this material world cannot understand the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by manipulating their material knowledge. Just as a person born in a particular family cannot understand the position of his great-grandfather, who lived before the birth of the recent generation, we are unable to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa, who exists eternally in the spiritual world. In the Eighth Chapter of the Bhagavad-gītā it is clearly said that the Supreme Person, who lives eternally in the spiritual kingdom of God (sanātana-dhāma), can be approached only by devotional service.
After the creation of Brahmā, the two kinds of demigods were born: demigods like the four brothers Sanaka, Sanātana, Sanandana and Sanat-kumāra, who are representatives of renunciation of the world, and demigods like Marīci and their descendants, who are meant to enjoy this material world. From these two kinds of demigods were gradually manifested all other living entities, including the human beings. Thus all living creatures within this material world, including Brahmā, all the demigods and all the Rākṣasas, are to be considered modern. This means that they were all born recently. Therefore, just as a person born recently in a family cannot understand the situation of his distant forefather, no one within this material world can understand the position of the Supreme Lord in the spiritual world, because the material world has only recently been created. Although they have a long duration of existence, all the manifestations of the material world—namely the time element, the living entities, the Vedas and the gross and subtle material elements—are created at some point. Thus any process manufactured within this created situation as a means for understanding the original source of creation is to be considered modern.
The living entities are of two kinds: one class is called nitya-mukta, ever liberated, and the other is called nitya-baddha, ever conditioned. The nitya-mukta living entities are in the spiritual kingdom, and the nitya-baddhas are in the material world. In the spiritual world both the living entities and the Lord are manifest in their original status, like live sparks in a blazing fire. But in the material world, although the Lord is all-pervasive in His impersonal feature, the living entities have forgotten their Kṛṣṇa consciousness to a greater or lesser degree, just as sparks sometimes fall from a blazing fire and lose their original brilliant condition. The sparks fall into different conditions and retain more or less of their original brilliance. Some sparks fall onto dry grass and thus ignite another big fire. This is a reference to the pure devotees who take compassion on the poor and innocent living entities.
Kṛṣṇa told Arjuna, "The brahma-jyotir is beyond the region of My external energy, known as māyā-śakti." When one is situated within the material world, it is not possible to experience this Brahman effulgence. In other words, in the material world this effulgence is not manifested, whereas in the spiritual world it is manifested. That is the purport of the words vyakta-avyakta in the Hari-vaṁśa. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said, avyakto ’vyaktāt sanātanaḥ: both these energies are eternally manifested.
Why Arjuna was puzzled by Kṛṣṇa's going to see Kāraṇārṇavaśāyī Viṣṇu in the spiritual world is fully discussed in the commentaries of Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura, as follows. It is understood from the speech of Mahā-Viṣṇu that He was very eager to see Kṛṣṇa. It may be said, however, that since Mahā-Viṣṇu took away the brāhmaṇa's sons, He must certainly have gone to Dvārakā to do so. Therefore, why did He not see Kṛṣṇa there? A possible answer is that unless Kṛṣṇa gives His permission, He cannot be seen even by Mahā-Viṣṇu, lying in the Causal Ocean of the spiritual world. Thus Mahā-Viṣṇu took away the brāhmaṇa's sons one after another just after their births so that Kṛṣṇa would come personally to the Casual Ocean to retrieve them, and then Mahā-Viṣṇu would be able to see Him there. If that is so, the next question is this: Why would Mahā-Viṣṇu come to Dvārakā personally if He were not able to see Kṛṣṇa? Why did He not send some of His associates to take away the sons of the brāhmaṇa? A possible answer is that it is very difficult to put any of the citizens of Dvārakā into trouble in the presence of Kṛṣṇa.
The concluding portion of Kṛṣṇa's pastimes is found in the Ninetieth Chapter of the Tenth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and in this chapter Śukadeva Gosvāmī wanted to explain how Kṛṣṇa lived happily at Dvārakā with all opulences. Kṛṣṇa's opulence of strength has already been displayed in His different pastimes, and now it will be shown how His residence at Dvārakā displayed His opulences of wealth and beauty. In this material world the opulences of wealth and beauty are considered the highest of all opulences, yet they are only a perverted reflection of these opulences in the spiritual world. Therefore, while Kṛṣṇa stayed on this planet as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, His opulences of wealth and beauty had no comparison within the three worlds. Kṛṣṇa enjoyed sixteen thousand beautiful wives, and it is most significant that He lived at Dvārakā as the only husband of these thousands of beautiful women. This is specifically stated—that He was the only husband of sixteen thousand wives. It is of course not unheard of in the history of the world that a powerful king would keep many hundreds of queens, but although such a king might be the only husband of so many wives, he could not enjoy all of them at one time. Lord Kṛṣṇa, however, enjoyed all of His sixteen thousand wives simultaneously.
Renunciation Through Wisdom
Son of Pṛthā, a transcendentalist engaged in auspicious activities does not meet with destruction, either in this world or in the spiritual world; one who does good, My friend, is never overcome by evil.
These fools do not realize that after many millions of births in lower species, the soul finally receives the rare human birth. And it is in this birth that the soul must sincerely endeavor to elevate himself to the transcendental platform, attain the Absolute Truth, and return to his original home in the spiritual world. If in this human life the soul makes no attempt to alleviate his situation, even after learning how horribly he has suffered in millions of previous lifetimes, then such a person is certainly a miserable miser and narādhama. But if one tries to utilize his rare human birth for self-realization by becoming elevated to the brahminical class, then his life is successful. Brāhmaṇa does not mean brāhmaṇa by birth. A brāhmaṇa is one who surrenders to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Lord of the brāhmaṇas. A narādhama cannot do so. Therefore another meaning of narādhama is "one who rejects devotional service."
O people of the world! Please try to translate the Gītā's message into action and channel your thoughts toward Lord Kṛṣṇa's lotus feet. Serve Him with your mind and body. If you dovetail all your energy in the Lord's service, then not only will you feel intense exhilaration in this lifetime, but you will be immersed in eternal bliss in the spiritual world, perpetually serving Him. The most munificent incarnation of Godhead, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, recently advented in the Age of Kali to propagate this message. By the great fortune of all Bengalis, He appeared in Bengal and blessed the Bengali race. Thus Bengalis can preach His mission and instructions to the entire human race and deliver the people of the planet and themselves. The presentation of this knowledge in a systematic and scientific manner will bring about universal sublime peace.
All the pastimes of the Supreme Lord in the spiritual world are eternal. His earthly pastimes are similarly transcendental and eternal. As the Caitanya-bhāgavata states, "Even at this very moment Lord Gaurāṅga is enacting His eternal, transcendental pastimes, but only the most fortunate souls can see them." When the sun sets, it goes out of our sight, but it continues to shine somewhere on this globe. Similarly, when the Lord winds up His earthly pastimes, He continues to manifest them in one or more of the uncountable millions of planets in the universe.
Light of the Bhagavata
The Lord has multifarious energies, and therefore the Lord and His energies are identical. Among His various energies the material energy is one, and it is said in the Bhagavad-gītā that the material energy is inferior in quality to the spiritual energy. Spiritual energy is superior because without contact with the spiritual energy the material energy alone cannot produce anything. But the source of all energies is the all-attractive Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. This material world is a combination of matter and spirit, but the spiritual world, which is far, far away from the material sky, is purely spiritual and has no contact with matter. In the spiritual world, everything is spirit. We have already discussed this. The Personality of Godhead, the original source of all energies, is able to convert spirit into matter and matter into spirit. For Him there is no difference between matter and spirit. He is therefore called kaivalya.
Sri Isopanisad
"But what need is there, Arjuna, for all this detailed knowledge? With a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe." Thus by His one plenary expansion, the all-pervading Paramātmā, the Lord maintains the complete material cosmic creation. He also maintains all manifestations in the spiritual world. Therefore in this śruti-mantra of Śrī Īśopaniṣad, the Lord is addressed as pūṣan, the ultimate maintainer.
Mukunda-mala-stotra (mantras 1 to 6 only)
The supreme "1" always wants to make our zero efforts valuable by His association, just as a loving father always wants an unhappy son to be in a prosperous position. A rebellious son, however, stubbornly refuses the cooperation of the loving father and thus suffers all sorts of miseries. The Lord, therefore, sends His bona fide representatives to all parts of the material creation, and sometimes He even comes Himself to reclaim His fallen sons. For this purpose He also exhibits the actual life in the transcendental world, which is characterized by relationships with Him in servitorship, friendship, parenthood, and consorthood. All relationships in the material world are but perverted reflections of these original relationships. In the mundane world we experience only the shadow of the reality, which exists in the spiritual world.
Similarly, the pure devotee of the Lord does not live anywhere in this material world, although He appears to live among mundane creatures. Actually, the devotee lives in Vaikuṇṭha. In this way the Supreme Lord bestows upon His pure devotee the inconceivable power that allows him to stay aloof from all mundane circumstances and reside eternally in the spiritual world. The devotee does not want this power consciously or unconsciously, but the Lord is careful about His devotee, just as a mother is always careful about her little child, who is completely dependent on her care.
Narada-bhakti-sutra (sutras 1 to 8 only)
By the divine grace of the spiritual master, the seed of pure devotional service, which is completely different from the seed of fruitive activities and speculative knowledge, is sown in the heart of the devotee. Then, when the devotee satisfies the spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa, this seed of devotional service grows into a plant that gradually reaches up to the spiritual world. An ordinary plant requires shelter for growing. Similarly, the devotional plant grows and grows until it takes shelter in the spiritual world, without taking shelter on any planet in the material world. In other words, those who are captivated by pure devotional service have no desire to elevate themselves to any material planet. The highest planet in the spiritual world is Kṛṣṇa-loka, or Goloka Vṛndāvana, and there the devotional plant takes shelter.
| Page Title: | In the spiritual world (CC and Other Books) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Mayapur |
| Created: | 24 of Mar, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=68, OB=44, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 112 |