To learn how Kṛṣṇa enjoys pleasure, we must study the first nine cantos of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and then we should study the Tenth Canto, in which Kṛṣṇa's pleasure potency is displayed in His pastimes with Rādhārāṇī and the damsels of Vraja. Unfortunately, unintelligent people turn at once to the sports of Kṛṣṇa in the Daśama-skandha, the Tenth Canto. Kṛṣṇa's embracing Rādhārāṇī or His dancing with the cowherd girls in the rāsa dance are generally not understood by ordinary men, because they consider these pastimes in the light of mundane lust. They foolishly think that Kṛṣṇa is like themselves and that He embraces the gopīs just as an ordinary man embraces a young girl. Some people thus become interested in Kṛṣṇa because they think that His religion allows indulgence in sex. This is not kṛṣṇa-bhakti, love of Kṛṣṇa, but prākṛta-sahajiyā—materialistic lust.
Materialistic (CC)
Expressions researched:
"materialistic"
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Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
CC Preface and Introduction
CC Adi-lila
Worship of Madana-mohana is on the platform of reestablishing our forgotten relationship with the Personality of Godhead. In the material world we are presently in utter ignorance of our eternal relationship with the Supreme Lord. Paṅgoḥ refers to one who cannot move independently by his own strength, and manda-mateḥ is one who is less intelligent because he is too absorbed in materialistic activities. It is best for such persons not to aspire for success in fruitive activities or mental speculation but instead simply to surrender to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The perfection of life is simply to surrender to the Supreme. In the beginning of our spiritual life we must therefore worship Madana-mohana so that He may attract us and nullify our attachment for material sense gratification. This relationship with Madana-mohana is necessary for neophyte devotees. When one wishes to render service to the Lord with strong attachment, one worships Govinda on the platform of transcendental service.
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.
The gopīs came out to meet Kṛṣṇa in the dead of night when they heard the sound of His flute. Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has accordingly composed a nice verse (see Ādi 5.224) that describes the beautiful boy called Govinda standing by the bank of the Yamunā with His flute to His lips in the shining moonlight. Those who want to enjoy life in the materialistic way of society, friendship and love should not go to the Yamunā to see the form of Govinda. The sound of Lord Kṛṣṇa's flute is so sweet that it has made the gopīs forget all about their relationships with their kinsmen and flee to Kṛṣṇa in the dead of night.
Material sexual indulgence can never be equated with spiritual love, which is in unadulterated goodness. The activities of the sahajiyās simply lower one deeper into the material contamination of the senses and mind. Kṛṣṇa's transcendental pastimes display eternal servitorship to Adhokṣaja, the Supreme Lord, who is beyond all conception through material senses. Materialistic conditioned souls do not understand the transcendental exchanges of love, but they like to indulge in sense gratification in the name of devotional service. The activities of the Supreme Lord can never be understood by irresponsible persons who think the pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa to be ordinary affairs. The rāsa dance is arranged by Kṛṣṇa's internal potency yogamāyā, and it is beyond the grasp of the materially affected person. Trying to throw mud into transcendence with their perversity, the sahajiyās misinterpret the sayings tat-paratvena nirmalam (CC Madhya 19.170) and tat-paro bhavet.
Lord Śrī Caitanya exhibited the highest stage of the feelings of a devotee in separation from the Lord. This exhibition was sublime because He was completely perfect in the feelings of separation. Materialists, however, cannot understand this. Sometimes materialistic scholars think He was diseased or crazy. Their problem is that they always engage in material sense gratification and can never understand the feelings of the devotees and the Lord. Materialists are most abominable in their ideas. They think that they can enjoy directly perceivable gross objects by their senses and that they can similarly deal with the transcendental features of Lord Caitanya. But the Lord is understood only in pursuance of the principles laid down by the Gosvāmīs, headed by Svarūpa Dāmodara. Doctrines like those of the nadīyā-nāgarīs, a class of so-called devotees, are never presented by authorized persons like Svarūpa Dāmodara or the Six Gosvāmīs.
A diseased person who has become diseased because of a certain bad habit must be ready to follow the advice of the physician, and as a natural sequence he must attempt to give up the cause of the disease. The patient cannot indulge in the bad habit and at the same time expect to be cured by the physician. Modern materialistic civilization, however, is maintaining a diseased atmosphere. The living being is a spiritual spark, as spiritual as the Lord Himself. The only difference is that the Lord is great and the living being is small. Qualitatively they are one, but quantitatively they are different. Therefore, since the living being is spiritual in constitution, he can be happy only in the spiritual sky, where there are unlimited spiritual spheres called Vaikuṇṭhas. A spiritual being conditioned by a material body must therefore try to get rid of his disease instead of developing the cause of the disease.
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.
As spiritual sparks of the beams emanating from the transcendental body of the Lord, we are all permanently related with Him and equal to Him in quality. The material energy is a covering of the spiritual spark, but in the absence of that material covering, the living beings in Vaikuṇṭhaloka are never forgetful of their identities: they are eternally cognizant of their relationship with God in their constitutional position of rendering transcendental loving service to the Lord.
Thus the poor materialist is busy making political adjustments on a planet that is most insignificant in God's creation. To say nothing of this planet earth, the whole universe, with innumerable planets throughout the galaxies, is comparable to a single mustard seed in a bag full of mustard seeds. But the poor materialist makes plans to live comfortably here and thus wastes his valuable human energy in something that is doomed to frustration. Instead of wasting his time with business speculations, he should seek the life of plain living and high spiritual thinking and thus save himself from perpetual materialistic unrest.
The best plan is to prepare oneself to return to the spiritual sky after leaving the body. However, if one is intent on enjoying material facilities, one can transfer himself to other planets in the material sky by utilizing yogic powers. The playful spaceships of the astronauts are but childish entertainments and are of no use for this purpose. The aṣṭāṅga-yoga system is a materialistic art of controlling air by transferring it from the stomach to the navel, from the navel to the heart, from the heart to the collarbone, from there to the eyeballs, from there to the cerebellum and from there to any desired planet. The velocities of air and light are taken into consideration by the material scientist, but he has no information of the velocity of the mind and intelligence. We have some limited experience of the velocity of the mind because in a moment we can transfer our minds to places hundreds of thousands of miles away.
In reality, the temporary manifestations of material nature are originally caused by the spiritual glance of the Lord. The Personality of Godhead is the direct, or remote, cause of creation, and material nature is the indirect, or immediate, cause. Materialistic scientists, puffed-up by the magical changes their so-called inventions have brought about, cannot see the real potency of Godhead behind matter. Therefore the jugglery of science is gradually leading people to a godless civilization at the cost of the goal of human life. Having missed the goal of life, materialists run after self-sufficiency, not knowing that material nature is already self-sufficient by the grace of God. Thus creating a colossal hoax in the name of civilization, they create an imbalance in the natural self-sufficiency of material nature.
Similarly, Nārāyaṇa is the chief cause of all material creations, and the material energy supplies the ingredients of matter. Therefore without Nārāyaṇa, all other causes are useless, just as the potter's wheel and tools are useless without the potter himself. Since materialistic scientists ignore the Personality of Godhead, it is as if they were concerned with the potter's wheel and its rotation, the potter's tools and the ingredients for the pots, but had no knowledge of the potter himself. Therefore modern science has created an imperfect, godless civilization that is in gross ignorance of the ultimate cause. Scientific advancement should have a great goal to attain, and that great goal should be the Personality of Godhead. In the Bhagavad-gītā it is said that after conducting research for many, many births, great men of knowledge who stress the importance of experimental thought can know the Personality of Godhead, who is the cause of all causes.
Such philosophers wrongly observe that the living creatures within the cosmic manifestation are caused by the material energy, and they think that the supreme absolute conscious being must similarly be a product of the material energy.
Since materialistic philosophers and scientists are too much engaged with their imperfect senses, naturally they conclude that the living force is a product of a material combination. But the actual fact is just the opposite. Matter is a product of spirit. According to the Bhagavad-gītā, the supreme spirit, the Personality of Godhead, is the source of all energies. When one advances in research work by studying a limited substance within the limits of space and time, one is amazed by the various wonderful cosmic manifestations, and naturally one goes on hypnotically accepting the path of research work or the inductive method.
For one who does not understand the power of the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His diverse energies because of not knowing the relationship between the source of the energies and the energies themselves, there is always a chance of error, which is known as vivarta. As long as materialistic scientists and philosophers do not come to the right conclusion, certainly they will hover above the material field, bereft of proper understanding of the Absolute Truth.
The great Vaiṣṇava philosopher Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa has very nicely explained the materialistic conclusion in his Govinda-bhāṣya, a commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra. He writes as follows:
Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, in his commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra, has tried to nullify this conclusion because he thinks that discrediting these so-called causes of the cosmic manifestation will nullify the entire Sāṅkhya philosophy. Materialistic philosophers accept matter to be the material and efficient cause of creation; for them, matter is the cause of every type of manifestation. Generally they give the example of a waterpot and clay. Clay is the cause of the waterpot, but the clay can be found as both cause and effect. The waterpot is the effect and clay itself is the cause, but clay is visible everywhere. A tree is matter, but a tree produces fruit. Water is matter, but water flows. In this way, say the Sāṅkhyites, matter is the cause of movements and production.
“Thus one should understand that pradhāna, matter, cannot act unless impelled by a living creature. The materialistic theory that matter independently acts cannot, therefore, be accepted. Matter is called prakṛti, which refers to female energy. A woman is prakṛti, a female. A female cannot produce a child without the association of a puruṣa, a man. The puruṣa causes the birth of a child because the man injects the soul, which is sheltered in the semen, into the womb of the woman. The woman, as the material cause, supplies the body of the soul, and as the efficient cause she gives birth to the child. But although the woman appears to be the material and efficient cause of the birth of a child, originally the puruṣa, the male, is the cause of the child.
Kardama Muni is accepted as an incarnation of Vāsudeva. The Padma Purāṇa gives evidence that the Supreme Personality of Godhead Vāsudeva takes birth in the incarnation of Kapila and, by His expansion of theistic Sāṅkhya philosophy, teaches all the demigods and a brāhmaṇa of the name Āsuri. In the doctrine of the atheist Kapila there are many statements directly against the Vedic principles. The atheist Kapila does not accept the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He says that the living entity is himself the Supreme Lord and that no one is greater than him. His conceptions of so-called conditioned and liberated life are materialistic, and he refuses to accept the importance of immortal time. All such statements are against the principles of the Vedānta-sūtra.”
Instead of being envious that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is spreading all over the world by the grace of Lord Caitanya, those who are jealous should be happy, as indicated here by the words parama ullāsa. But because they are kaniṣṭha-adhikārīs or prākṛta-bhaktas (materialistic devotees who are not advanced in spiritual knowledge), they are envious instead of happy, and they try to find faults in the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Yet Śrīmat Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī writes in his Caitanya-candrāmṛta that when influenced by Lord Caitanya's Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, materialists become averse to talking about their wives and children, supposedly learned scholars give up their tedious studies of Vedic literature, yogīs give up their impractical practices of mystic yoga, ascetics give up their austere activities of penance and austerity, and sannyāsīs give up their study of Sāṅkhya philosophy. Thus they are all attracted by the bhakti-yoga practices of Lord Caitanya and cannot relish a mellow superior to that of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
As such, Brahman or Paramātmā realization of the Absolute Truth is but a partial realization. There are four different types of human beings—the karmīs, the jñānīs, the yogīs and the devotees. The karmīs are materialistic, whereas the other three are transcendental. The first-class transcendentalists are the devotees who have realized the Supreme Person. The second-class transcendentalists are those who have partially realized the plenary portion of the absolute person. And the third-class transcendentalists are those who have barely realized the spiritual focus of the absolute person. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā and other Vedic literatures, the Supreme Person is realized by devotional service which is backed by full knowledge and detachment from material association. We have already discussed the point that devotional service is followed by knowledge and detachment from material association.
This indicates that the body of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is spiritual, for even though He expands in many ways, He remains the same. In the Bhagavad-gītā (10.8) the Lord says, ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate: "I am the origin of all. Everything emanates from Me." Māyāvādī philosophers materialistically think that if the Supreme Truth expands Himself in everything, He must lose His original form. Thus they think that there cannot be any form other than the expansive gigantic body of the Lord. But the Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad confirms, pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate: "Although He expands in many ways, He keeps His original personality. His original spiritual body remains as it is." Similarly, elsewhere it is stated, vicitra-śaktiḥ puruṣaḥ purāṇaḥ: "The Supreme Personality of Godhead, the original person (puruṣa), has multifarious energies."
Although Māyāvādī philosophers are supposed to be very much advanced on the path of liberation, we see that after some time they descend to politics and philanthropic activities. Many big sannyāsīs who were supposedly liberated and very advanced have come down again to materialistic activities, although they left this world as mithyā (false). When a devotee develops in devotional service, however, he no longer has attachments to such philanthropic activities. He is simply inspired to serve the Lord, and he engages his entire life in such service. This is the difference between Vaiṣṇava and Māyāvādī philosophers. Devotional service, therefore, is practical, whereas Māyāvāda philosophy is merely mental speculation.
It is offensive to consider the chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra to be a religious ritualistic ceremony. Performing religious ceremonies, following vows and practicing renunciation and sacrifice are all materialistic auspicious activities. The chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra must not be compared to such materialistic religiosity. This is an offense at the lotus feet of the holy name of the Lord.
Bhagavān Ācārya was very liberal and simple. His father, Śatānanda Khān, was completely materialistic, and his younger brother, Gopāla Bhaṭṭācārya, was a staunch Māyāvādī philosopher who had studied very elaborately. When his brother came to Jagannātha Purī, Bhagavān Ācārya wanted to hear from him about Māyāvāda philosophy, but Svarūpa Dāmodara forbade him to do so, and there the matter stopped. Once a friend of Bhagavān Ācārya's from Bengal wanted to recite a drama that he had written that was against the principles of devotional service, and although Bhagavān Ācārya wanted to recite this drama before Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Svarūpa Dāmodara, the Lord's secretary, did not allow him to do so.
In the list of offenses in the chanting of the holy name of the Lord, it is said, dharma-vrata-tyāga-hutādi-sarva-śubha-kriyā-sāmyam api pramādaḥ: to consider the chanting of the holy name of the Lord equal to the execution of some auspicious religious ceremony is an offense. According to the materialistic point of view, observing a religious ceremony invokes an auspicious atmosphere for the material benefit of the entire world. Materialists therefore manufacture religious principles to live comfortably and without disturbance in executing their material activities. Since they do not believe in the existence of God, they have manufactured the idea that God is impersonal and that to have some conception of God one may imagine any form. Thus they respect the many forms of the demigods as different representations or manifestations of the Lord. They are called bahv-īśvara-vādīs, or followers of thousands and thousands of gods.
CC Madhya-lila
When the atheistic philosophers or the Māyāvādīs, being unable to understand the inconceivable energies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, imagine an impersonal void, their imagination is only the counterpart of materialistic thinking. Within the material world, there is nothing inconceivable. High-thinking philosophers and scientists can tackle the material energy, but not being able to understand the spiritual energy, they can simply imagine an inactive state, such as the impersonal Brahman. This is simply the negative side of material life. By such imperfect knowledge, the Māyāvādī philosophers conclude that the cosmic manifestation is a transformation of the Supreme. Thus they must necessarily also accept the theory of the illusion of the Supreme (vivarta-vāda). However, if we accept the inconceivable potencies of the Lord, we can understand how the Supreme Personality of Godhead can appear within this material world without being touched or contaminated by the three modes of material nature.
“You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Nārāyaṇa Himself, and I am only a government servant interested in materialistic activities. Indeed, I am the lowest among men of the fourth caste.
In his Anubhāṣya commentary, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura says that this stage—devotional service mixed with speculative knowledge—is also external and not within the jurisdiction of pure devotional service as practiced in Vaikuṇṭhaloka. As soon as there is some conception of materialistic thought—be it positive or negative—the service is not spiritual. It may be free from material contamination, but because there is mental speculation the devotional service is not pure and freed from the contamination of material life. A living entity who wants to be completely pure must be above this material conception. The negation of material existence does not necessarily mean spiritual existence. After material existence is negated, spiritual existence—namely sac-cid-ānanda—still may not be manifested.
Those who are interested in material promotion engage in ritualistic religious ceremonies and economic development to develop sense gratification. They ultimately attempt to merge into the impersonal existence of the Lord. Such people generally become impersonalists. They are interested in worshiping Lord Śiva or goddess Durgā, but their return is one hundred percent materialistic.
Following the example of the gopīs, the devotees sometimes worship the goddess Kātyāyanī, but they understand that Kātyāyanī is an incarnation of Yogamāyā. The gopīs worshiped Kātyāyanī, Yogamāyā, to attain Kṛṣṇa as their husband. On the other hand, it is stated in the Sapta-śatī scripture that a kṣatriya king named Suratha and a rich vaiśya named Samādhi worshiped material nature in the form of goddess Durgā to attain material perfection. If one tries to mingle the worship of Yogamāyā with that of Mahāmāyā, considering them one and the same, he does not really show very high intelligence.
The perfect devotee always acts according to the desires of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But a materialistic man is carried away by the waves of the material energy. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has said, māyāra vaśe, yāccha bhese, khāccha hābuḍubu, bhāi. A person under the grip of the material energy is carried away by the waves of that illusory energy. In other words, a person in the material world is a servant of māyā. However, a person in the spiritual energy is a servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Although Rāmānanda Rāya knew that nothing was unknown to Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he nonetheless began to speak further on the subject because the Lord desired it.
He is also known as Manmatha-madana, which means that He is attractive even to Cupid. Sometimes Kṛṣṇa's activities and attractive features are misinterpreted by gross materialists who accuse Him of being immoral because He danced with the gopīs, but such an accusation results from not knowing that Kṛṣṇa is beyond this material world. His body is sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha (Bs. 5.1), completely spiritual. There is no material contamination in His body, and one should not consider His body a lump of flesh and bones. The Māyāvādī philosophers conceive of Kṛṣṇa's body as material, and this is an abominable, grossly materialistic conception. Just as Kṛṣṇa is completely spiritual, the gopīs are also spiritual, and this is confirmed in the Brahma-saṁhitā (5.37):
Neither Kṛṣṇa nor the gopīs have anything to do with lumps of matter or the material conception. In the material world the living entity is encaged within a material body, and due to ignorance he thinks that he is the body. Therefore here the enjoyment of lusty desires between male and female is all material. One cannot compare the lusty desires of a materialistic man to the transcendental lusty desires of Kṛṣṇa. Unless one is advanced in spiritual science, he cannot understand the lusty desires between Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta the lusty desire of the gopīs is compared to gold. The lusty desires of a materialistic man, on the other hand, are compared to iron. At no stage can iron and gold be equal. The living entities—moving and nonmoving—are part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa; therefore they originally have the same kind of lusty desire as His. But when this lusty desire is expressed through matter, it is abominable. When a living entity is spiritually advanced and liberated from material bondage, he can understand Kṛṣṇa in truth.
The topics that are about to be discussed between Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Rāmānanda Rāya cannot be understood by a materialistic poet, nor by intelligence or material perception. Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura states that the spiritual mellow can be realized only when one is situated on the transcendental platform beyond the material stage of goodness. That platform is called viśuddha-sattva (sattvaṁ viśuddhaṁ vasudeva-śabditam). Realization of the viśuddha-sattva platform is beyond the pale of the material world and is not perceived by bodily senses or mental speculation. Our identification with the gross body and subtle mind is different from spiritual understanding. Since the intelligence and mind are material, the loving affairs of Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are beyond their perception.
They cannot accommodate an elephant upon a dish. Similarly, mundane speculators cannot capture the spiritual elephant within their limited conception. It is just like a frog's trying to measure the Atlantic Ocean by imagining it so many times larger than his well. Materialistic philosophers and sahajiyās cannot understand the talks between Rāmānanda Rāya and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu concerning the pastimes of Śrī Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. The only tendency of the impersonalists or the prākṛta-sahajiyās is to face the platform of impersonalism. They cannot understand spiritual variegatedness. Consequently, when Rāmānanda Rāya attempted to sing his own verses, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu stopped him by covering his mouth with His own hand.
Some materialistic sahajiyās who cannot actually understand the pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa manufacture their own life-styles without referring to authority. Such sahajiyās are called sakhī-bhekī, and sometimes they are called gaura-nāgarī. They believe that the material body, which is fit to be eaten by jackals and dogs, is enjoyable for Kṛṣṇa. Consequently they artificially decorate the material body to attract Kṛṣṇa, thinking themselves sakhīs. But Kṛṣṇa is never attracted by the artificial grooming of the material body. As far as Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī and Her gopīs are concerned, their bodies, homes, dresses, ornaments, endeavors and activities are all spiritual.
What is the need of any other scripture? As soon as one attentively and submissively hears the message of Bhāgavatam, by this culture of knowledge the Supreme Lord is established within his heart.” This verse of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam rejects as cheating processes all religious activities that aim at achieving materialistic goals, including dharma, artha, kāma and even mokṣa, or liberation.
According to Śrīdhara Svāmī, the material conception of success (mokṣa, or liberation) is desired by those in material existence. Devotees, however, not being situated in material existence, have no desire for liberation.
A devotee is always liberated in all stages of life because he is always engaged in the nine items of devotional service (śravaṇam, kīrtanam, etc.). Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu's philosophy holds that devotional service to Kṛṣṇa always exists in everyone's heart.
Spiritual advancement means stopping material activities and entering into spiritual activities. This is the process of bhakti-yoga. In the material world, the via media for sense gratification is mainly a woman. One who is seriously interested in spiritual life should strictly avoid women. A sannyāsī should never see a man or a woman for material benefit. In addition, talks with materialistic men and women are also dangerous, and they are compared to drinking poison. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was very strict on this point. He therefore refused to see King Pratāparudra, who was naturally always engaged in political and economic affairs. The Lord even refused to see the King despite the request of a personality like Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, who was the Lord's intimate friend and devotee.
However, there is no material contamination in transcendence, nor is there any possibility of imagining a spirituality in matter. One cannot accept matter as spirit. As indicated by the technical words bhauma ijya-dhīḥ (SB 10.84.13), materialistic Māyāvādīs imagine the form of God in matter, although according to their imagination, God is ultimately formless. This is simply mental speculation. Even though Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He placed Himself in the position of a gopī. He also accepted the King's son directly as the son of Mahārāja Nanda, Vrajendra-nandana Hari. This is perfect vision according to the direction of the Vedic culture, as confirmed in Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā: paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ (BG 5.18). Such acceptance of the Absolute Truth according to Vaiṣṇava philosophy is explained in both the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad (3.2.3) and the Kaṭha Upaniṣad (1.2.23) in the following words:
Satyarāja Khān said, "My dear Lord, being a householder and a materialistic man, I do not know the process of advancing in spiritual life. I therefore submit myself unto Your lotus feet and request You to give me orders."
However, when the novice engages in devotional service—especially in Deity worship—and follows the order of a bona fide spiritual master, he is a pure devotee. Anyone can take advantage of hearing about Kṛṣṇa consciousness from such a devotee and thus gradually become purified. In other words, any devotee who believes that the holy name of the Lord is identical with the Lord is a pure devotee, even though he may be in the neophyte stage. By his association, others may also become Vaiṣṇavas.
One is known as a materialistic devotee if he simply worships the Deity of Hari with faith but does not show proper respect to the devotees and to others. This is stated in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (11.2.47):
There are many yogīs who want to control the senses, and for them Patañjali Ṛṣi is a mahājana. For the jñānīs, the atheist Kapila, Vasiṣṭha, Durvāsā, Dattātreya and other impersonalist philosophers are mahājanas. For the demons, Hiraṇyākṣa, Hiraṇyakaśipu, Rāvaṇa, Rāvaṇa's son Meghanāda, Jarāsandha and others are accepted as mahājanas. For materialistic anthropologists speculating on the evolution of the body, a person like Darwin is a mahājana. The scientists who are bewildered by Kṛṣṇa's external energy have no relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, yet they are accepted by some as mahājanas. Similarly, philosophers, historians, literary men, public speakers and social and political leaders are sometimes accepted as mahājanas. Such mahājanas are respected by certain men who have been described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (2.3.19):
“Out of Your causeless mercy, You have delivered me from the materialistic path. Now, by the same causeless mercy, please tell me what my duty is.
Devotees do not have such desires. However, if a karmī, jñānī or yogī somehow contacts a devotee and renders devotional service, Kṛṣṇa immediately awards him love of God and gives him shelter at His lotus feet, although he may have no idea how to develop love of Kṛṣṇa. If a person wants material profit from devotional service, Kṛṣṇa condemns such materialistic desires. To desire material opulence while engaging in devotional service is foolish. Although the person may be foolish, Kṛṣṇa, being all-intelligent, engages him in His devotional service in such a way that he gradually forgets material opulence. The point is that we should not try to exchange loving service for material prosperity. If we are actually surrendered to the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, our only desire should be to satisfy Kṛṣṇa. That is pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Surrender means not that we demand something from the Lord but that we completely depend on His mercy. If Kṛṣṇa likes, He may keep His devotee in a poverty-stricken condition, or if He likes He may keep him in an opulent position.
“"A prākṛta-bhakta, or materialistic devotee, does not purposefully study the śāstra and try to understand the actual standard of pure devotional service. Consequently he does not show proper respect to advanced devotees. He may, however, follow the regulative principles learned from his spiritual master or from his family who worships the Deity. He is to be considered on the material platform, although he is trying to advance in devotional service. Such a person is a bhakta-prāya (neophyte devotee), or bhaktābhāsa, for he is a little enlightened by Vaiṣṇava philosophy."
“Materialistic devotees take to devotional service and worship Kṛṣṇa when they are distressed or in need of money. Those who are actually inquisitive to understand the supreme source of everything and those who are in search of knowledge are called transcendentalists, for they desire liberation from all material contamination.
“"The intelligent, who have understood the Supreme Lord in the association of pure devotees and have become free from bad, materialistic association, can never avoid hearing the glories of the Lord, even though they have heard them only once."
CC Antya-lila
The poet or writer dealing with transcendental subject matters is not an ordinary writer or translator. Because he is empowered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whatever he writes becomes very effective. The principle of being empowered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead is essential. A materialistic poet who describes in his poetry the material activities of men and women cannot describe the transcendental pastimes of the Lord or the transcendental conclusions of devotional service. Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī has therefore warned all neophyte devotees that one should not hear from the mouth of a non-Vaiṣṇava:
"Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform—do that, O son of Kuntī, as an offering to Me." Everything actually belongs to Kṛṣṇa, but so-called civilized men unfortunately think that everything belongs to them. This is the mistake of materialistic civilization. The prostitute (veśyā) had earned money by questionable means, and therefore Haridāsa Ṭhākura advised her to distribute to the brāhmaṇas whatever she possessed. When Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī retired from family life, he distributed fifty percent of his income to the brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas. A brāhmaṇa knows what the Absolute Truth is, and a Vaiṣṇava, knowing the Absolute Truth, acts on behalf of the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Generally one earns money by many questionable means.
Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura comments in this connection, “Any person seriously inclined to hear about the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa's rāsa dance, as mentioned in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, with great faith and a transcendental, spiritually inspired mind, is immediately freed from the natural lusty desires found within the heart of a materialistic man.”
When a pure Vaiṣṇava speaks on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and another pure Vaiṣṇava hears Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from such a realized soul, both of them live in the transcendental world, where the contamination of the modes of material nature cannot touch them. Freed from the contamination of the modes of nature, the speaker and hearer are fixed in a transcendental mentality, knowing that their position on the transcendental platform is to serve the Supreme Lord.
Thus although Śrīla Rāmānanda Rāya acted as a gṛhastha and was accepted as an ordinary pounds-and-shillings man, he was always absorbed in the transcendental pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Therefore his mind was spiritually situated, and he was interested only in the subject of Kṛṣṇa. Rāmānanda Rāya was not among the Māyāvādī impersonalists or materialistic logicians who are opposed to the principles of Lord Kṛṣṇa's transcendental pastimes. He was already spiritually situated in the order of renounced life; therefore he was able to turn sand into gold by spiritual potency, or, in other words, to elevate a person from a material to a spiritual position.
One should rigidly avoid hearing the Bhāgavatam from a Māyāvādī or other nondevotee who simply performs a grammatical jugglery of words to twist some meaning from the text, collect money from the innocent public, and thus keep people in darkness.
Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī strictly prohibits the behavior of the materialistic so-called hearers of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Instead of awakening real love for Kṛṣṇa, such hearers of the Bhāgavatam become more and more attached to household affairs and sex life (yan maithunādi-gṛhamedhi-sukhaṁ hi tuccham (SB 7.9.45)). One should hear Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from a person who has no connection with material activities, or, in other words, from a paramahaṁsa Vaiṣṇava, one who has achieved the highest stage of sannyāsa. This, of course, is not possible unless one takes shelter of the lotus feet of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is understandable only for one who can follow in the footsteps of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
When a man is attached to material enjoyment, he is attached to many miserable conditions, but nevertheless he accepts his condemned position as one of happiness. Sense enjoyment is so strong for such a person that he cannot give it up, exactly as a worm in stool cannot give up the stool. From the spiritual point of view, when a person is too absorbed in material enjoyment, he is exactly like a worm in stool. Although such a position is utterly miserable to the eyes of liberated souls, the materialistic enjoyer is greatly attached to it.
The pure Vaiṣṇava has no desire for material enjoyment. That is the basic qualification of a pure Vaiṣṇava. There are men, especially rich men, who regularly worship the Deity, give charity to brāhmaṇas and are pious in every respect, but they cannot be pure Vaiṣṇavas. Despite their outward show of Vaiṣṇavism and charity, their inner desire is to enjoy a higher standard of material life. Raghunātha dāsa's father, Govardhana, and uncle, Hiraṇya dāsa, were both very charitable to brāhmaṇas. Indeed, the brāhmaṇas from the Gauḍīya district were practically dependent upon them. Thus they were accepted as very pious gentlemen. However, they presented themselves as Vaiṣṇavas to the eyes of people in general, although from a purely spiritual point of view they were ordinary human beings, not pure Vaiṣṇavas. Actual Vaiṣṇavas considered them almost Vaiṣṇavas, not pure Vaiṣṇavas. In other words, they were kaniṣṭha-adhikārīs, for they were ignorant of higher Vaiṣṇava regulative principles. Nevertheless, they could not be called viṣayīs, or blind materialistic enjoyers.
“When one eats food offered by a materialistic man, one's mind becomes contaminated, and when the mind is contaminated, one is unable to think of Kṛṣṇa properly.
“"O Lord of the universe, I do not desire material wealth, materialistic followers, a beautiful wife or fruitive activities described in flowery language. All I want, life after life, is unmotivated devotional service to You."
A pure devotee has no way of sensing happiness except by seeing that Kṛṣṇa is happy in every respect. If Kṛṣṇa becomes happy by giving him distress, such a devotee accepts that unhappiness as the greatest of all happiness. Those who are materialistic, however, who are very proud of material wealth and have no spiritual knowledge, like the prākṛta-sahajiyās, regard their own happiness as the aim of life. Some of them aspire to enjoy themselves by sharing the happiness of Kṛṣṇa. This is the mentality of fruitive workers who want to enjoy sense gratification by making a show of service to Kṛṣṇa.
Physical presence is sometimes appreciable and sometimes not, but vāṇī continues to exist eternally. Therefore we must take advantage of the vāṇī, not the physical presence. The Bhagavad-gītā, for example, is the vāṇī of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Although Kṛṣṇa was personally present five thousand years ago and is no longer physically present from the materialistic point of view, the Bhagavad-gītā continues.
In this connection we may call to memory the time when I was fortunate enough to meet His Divine Grace Śrīla Prabhupāda, sometime in the year 1922. Śrīla Prabhupāda had come to Calcutta from Śrīdhāma Māyāpur to start the missionary activities of the Gauḍīya Maṭha. He was sitting in a house at Ulta Danga when through the inducement of an intimate friend, the late Śrīmān Narendranath Mullik, I had the opportunity to meet His Divine Grace for the first time. I do not remember the actual date of the meeting, but at that time I was one of the managers of Dr. Bose's laboratory in Calcutta.
| Page Title: | Materialistic (CC) |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, RupaManjari |
| Created: | 30 of Mar, 2012 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=56, OB=0, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 56 |