The Atheist's Call for Peace is the Audacity of a Brittle Mind
Excerpts from “Śrī Patrikāra Nava-varṣa” – Śrī Gauḍīya Patrikā, Year 49, Issue 1, page 35–39:
The terrifying fruit of mundane knowledge
Śrī Gauḍīya Patrikā is a vehicle only for parā-vidyā (superior or spiritual knowledge). It wards off the discussion of aparā-vidyā (material knowledge) completely. Because: “Jaḍa-vidyā jata, māyāra vaibhava, tomāra bhajane bādhā | moha janamiyā, anitya saṁsāre, jīvake karaye gādhā || – All material knowledge is but the grandiosity of illusion and an impediment to Your worship. It begets infatuation with this temporary material existence and makes the living entity a beast of burden.”
Outside of the Gauḍīya community, much of the education that has proliferated throughout the world has created a poisonous mist that has made life in society practically unbearable. This kind of education is really just another name for miseducation. As those centers for the study of that miseducation crop up from place to place like frog umbrellas [mushrooms], society as a whole has flooded with a certain heart-rending wail of degeneration. In a world of ever-increasing jealousy, violence, murder, theft, division, and inequality, human beings are gradually losing their sense of direction. At present it is a penchant for self-interest, lack of foresight, self-centeredness, and unethical behaviour that has been instated as the structural policy for the whole of society, top to bottom. Today the rakṣakas (protectors) are playing the role of bhakṣakas (devourers). All of this is the foul harvest to be expected of aparā-vidyā.
Of all the types of aparā-vidyā, it is mundane science that currently occupies the main platform. Intoxicated with it, material scientists have effected an explosion of demoniac proclivity. The real worry, however, is if such people begin to engage beyond their level of qualification, in the cultivation of higher knowledge, of parā-vidyā. If, for example, a ginger seller (a small-time trader) hears of a huge ship full of cargo coming in to port and starts coming up with various schemes and promising deals he can't deliver on, he will cause chaos for himself and everyone else. A materialistic person can create even greater chaos by dabbling in spiritual science than by manipulating material knowledge.
Expressing sadness for such persons, the spiritual scientist Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has said: “O brothers! You should engage in the kind of activities you are suited to. That will spell auspiciousness for you and the rest of the world. Do not try to deliberate beyond your capacity and evaluate the pros and cons of ātma-tattva, the truths of spirit. Function as good human beings and we will shower you with constant blessings.”
Jagatpati Śrī Kṛṣṇacandra, the master and maintainer of the universe, has dubbed these jaḍa-vādīs (materialists) as “bhūtejyā.” “Bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā – those who worship ghosts and spirits, or the material elements, end up reincarnating as such entities or substances.” [Gītā 9.25] According to this statement, such persons are destined to move into a state of existence as inert matter after their death. The fact of the matter is that a science that does not evolve into darśana (vision, philosophy) is immature and confining. The darśana that does not get delivered from the whirlpool of artha (material, economic development) and applied to ātma-dharma (the nature and function of the soul) ends up wallowing away in the womb of material nature.
The atheistic message of universal brotherhood is fruitless
Though atheistic morality may yield some results for a time, ultimately it is bound to produce bad results. The so-called morality that exists separately from the wholehearted acceptance of God can never overcome corruption or evil. “As you study history, just reflect on the sheer volume of atrocities committed by demoniac people. The goal of their lives was to satisfy their senses. To this end, they engaged in endless evil acts. And in the end, they all died anyways. That much is certain. At the time of death, they could not understand what to do and they were burnt in the fires of regret for they had spent their lives as a dog or any other animal would. Alas, they never contemplated the real meaning of life.”
Today, in a world that is rife with brothers killing brothers, people are anxiously broadcasting messages of universal brotherhood to bring about peace overnight. This noble invitation of rejecting racism and sectarianism is being prosleytized everywhere. But proposing universal brotherhood while rejecting the universal father is just audacity voiced by an unstable, brittle consciousness. If one cannot take to heart the words of timeless scriptures that resonate statements like: “amṛtasya putrāḥ – the children of immortal divinity,” the problem of gross racism is not about to go away just by talking about it. Ethics as a whole, in every scriptural canon, are the very breath of God, borne upon His inhalation and exhalation. If you do not take shelter of those ethics as authored by God, there is only misfortune to be had in obstinately trying otherwise to become somehow ethical. If you become indifferent to parā-vidyā, spiritual awareness, and spread aparā-vidyā in all ten directions, you leave yourself no escape from the tenth and final stage of life, i.e. death.
God is to be served—not seen as a convenience supplier
The kind of acceptance of the Viśva Pitā (Universal Father) that treats Him just as a supplier of one's daily bread is extremely lowbrow. If you do not offer your heart and soul to Him and instead offer prays and obeisance on a mercantile, profit-oriented basis, you will not effect the expansion of your soul’s true nature and function. “Kṛṣṇa āmāya pāle rākhe, jāno sarva-kāla | ātma-nivedana dainye ghucāo jañjāla || – Know at all times that ‘Kṛṣṇa takes care of me and protects me’; do away with all the rubbish by surrendering your heart and staying humble.” Only someone who is genuinely surrendered to God is a real philosopher, a seer of the truth. That person is the kind of person who is actually keen on living a good and moral life. He is compassionate to all living beings, and he is endowed with all good qualities. It is this kind of person who is actually established in beliefs like: “vasudhaiva kuṭumbakam – all the world is a family,” “viśva-bhrātṛtva – universal brotherhood,” “sama-darśana – seeing all as equals,” etc. If you are not drawn to serve God, but anxious to serve souls bound in varying degrees of ignorance, what you end up doing is the equivalent of meticulously tending to a lifeless corpse. “Jīve sammāna dibe jāni’ kṛṣṇa-adhiṣṭhāna | – Give all living entities honor, knowing them to be the abodes of Kṛṣṇa.” Adopting this teaching of Śrī Caitanya is the only thing that will get rid of mutual division and inequality in the world. It is only in connection with Paramātmā, the Supreme Soul, that we can establish ātmīyatā, or a sense that we are related, that we are a family of souls. We cannot do this based on a conceptions related to the material body.
Īśvara, God, who protects and maintains us, can never be formless
If the abode of infinite qualities, the most beautiful Śrī Jagannātha-deva, is conceived of as formless, featureless, and powerless, then of course it is not possible to establish a relationship of loving master and loving servant between God and the soul. In fact, the current impersonal conception of God is one of the leading causes of mayhem in the world. Nāstikatā, atheism or denial of being, is that wherein there is no existence of auspiciousness. Śrī Bhagavān is the abode of divine love. Any statement that declares Him to be formless is just another expression of nihilism. There is no chance of establishing love, affection, and sympathy in this world by such statements. God is the auspiciousness of all that is auspicious. If you say He is nirviśeṣa, or without definition, in a literal sense, then auspiciousness itself loses all definition. Just as the inconceivably almighty God’s existence is acceptable as protector and maintainer of all, He is likewise eternally present as the object of service. He does not suddenly lose all potency or form in that context. If you express doubt, laziness, or inertia in this regard, then you will end up being the companion of inauspiciousness for as long as you live.
Sampradāya-praṇālī is not sāmpradāyikatā
Sampradāya-praṇālī (sacred tradition) and sāmpradāyikatā (sectarianism) are not the same. In the parlance of this world, the word sāmpradāyikatā rouses a picture of violence, conflict, debate, and accusation. But sampradāya-vicāra, the concepts transferred through a spiritual tradition, are not at all like that. A sat-sampradāya, or genuine disciplic tradition, is that which is truly capable of bestowing Śrī Bhagavān’s lotus feet [connection with God] in a specialized capacity. It is not just any group or party formed for the sake of some insignificant, trivial purpose. The sat-sampradāya pays its obeisance from afar both to the idea of collecting the ingredients of enjoyment and to the idea of becoming detached from the ultimately distressing results of enjoyment. All manner of designation that arises from body and mind is a disease for the living entity. To diligently give up all that and experience the revelation of soul in a particular mood directed toward the Absolute Truth can only happen by adopting a sat-sampradāya.
On the order of Bhagavān, His supremely merciful and eternally liberated associates—Śrī, Brahmā, Rudra, and the Catuḥsana—expressed all these confidential truths for the benefit of the living entities. The descent of these confidential truths from them via disciplic succession, via the path of hearing, is the esoteric wealth of these sampradāya traditions. There are only unique specialities between these sampradāyas, not contradictions. Those specialities constitute the respective splendor of each sampradāya.
The pañcopāsakas, who worship Durgā, Gaṇeśa, Sūrya, Śiva, and Viṣṇu, do not maintain the eternality of their worship and deities. Therefore, to include them in any of the sampradāya traditions would just create a confusing mess. In the preliminary stages, when they want something from their deities, then they maintain distinction between their deities and the techniques of worshipping them. But when it comes to their ultimate ambition, which is liberation, all those unique specialities in each of their deities are rendered impersonal as they give utmost regard to merging into the impersonal brahma. Thus they cheat themselves of attaining the real objective.
Śrīman Mahāprabhu is a follower of the Brahma-sampradāya, not the creator of His own tradition
Though Śrīman Mahāprabhu is the zenith of Godhead, by accepting Śrīla Īśvara Purī Gosvāmī as His śrī guru, He manifested a pastime of accepting the Brahma-sampradāya. Some individuals, despite being initiated into this sampradāya, have been infected by Kali and have decided to play God with God’s own affairs, so now they do not hesitate to reject even Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s affiliation with the Brahma-sampradāya. They have come up with a fifth, separate sampradāya called the “Śrī Caitanya-sampradāya” and are thus engrossed in the frenzy of creating something new. “All those who do not accept the Brahma-sampradāya as shown in statements such as ‘paravyomeśvarasyāsīc-chiṣyo brahmā jagatpatiḥ – Brahmā, master of the universe, was a disciple of the Lord of the Spiritual Sky,’ are preachers of the atheistic, heretical doctrines mentioned by Bhagavān. Those who accept the sampradāya of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya but secretly do not accept the siddha-praṇālī of the guru-paramparā are secret agents of Kali. What doubt is there in that?” [From Śrīman Mahāprabhura Śikṣā by Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda]
Śrīla Keśava Gosvāmī Prabhu’s bṛhat-mṛdaṅga, the Śrī Gauḍīya Patrikā, loudly proclaims the glory of the Śrī Brahma-Mādhva-Gauḍīya-sampradāya. In safeguarding the message of the unbroken disciplic succession, Śrī Patrikā is avowed to refute and reject all hearsay, all contrived misconceptions, with fearsome vehemence. This new year of Śrī Gauḍīya will bear loud witness to this.
The meaning of the word “mṛdaṅga”
For the sumedhā, those of refined intelligence, the sound of the mṛdaṅga is the messenger of the saṅkīrtana-yajña. Therefore, by the definition of the Gauḍīya-Sārasvatas, the mṛdaṅga is not just an instrument, but also the suyantra (beautiful instrument) that spreads the sounds of the saṅkīrtana everywhere, both in the form of the bṛhat-mṛdaṅga (big drum) and the jīvanta-mṛdaṅga (living drum). To fulfill the cherished desires of Paramahaṁsa-varya Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, his supreme followers are avowed in spreading the message of Gauḍīya Vedānta as living mṛdaṅgas across the East and West. May the deafness regarding kṛṣṇa-kathā that is afflicting the unconscious world be dispelled by the resonance of that mṛdaṅga. May Śrī Rūpa and Raghunātha’s message from the highest echelons of Vaikuṇṭha be preached limitlessly and raise up Śrī Caitanya-candra’s victory flag. This is my piteous prayer at the lotus feet of Śrī Guru-Gaurāṅga-Rādhā-Vinoda-bihārī and Śrī Lakṣmī-Varāha-Nṛsiṁhadeva.