The following excerpt is adapted from Sri Guru and His Grace, which can be downloaded in PDF format, here.

The original spiritual master is Nityananda Prabhu. He is the general representation of guru. In the spiritual world, he is the guru-tattva principle in the four primary mellows of devotion, excluding the conjugal mellow. In madhurya-rasa, Baladeva’s representation is Ananga Manjari, the sister of Radharani.

The position of Nityananda is greater than that of Baladeva. Why? He is distributing prema, divine love. And what is prema? It is higher than all other achievements. If one can give divine love, then all others must be subordinate to him. If Krishna is subordinate to Mahaprabhu, then of course, Balarama is subordinate to Nityananda. They are similar, but when magnanimity is added, Balarama becomes Nityananda. That Balarama who can distribute divine love, who can perform that higher function, has come here as Nityananda. Our foundation must be solid and proper. Then the structure should be erected. Otherwise the whole thing will go down (heno nitai vine bhai radha krsna paite nai). We can get a solid foundation from Nityananda Prabhu.

One day Nityananda Prabhu came to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s house in Mayapura. Mahaprabhu’s mother, Saci devi, and Visnupriya devi, his wife, were also there, as well as other devotees. Suddenly, Nityananda arrived, quite naked. Mahaprabhu managed to give him some cloth. And perhaps He was concerned that the devotees might have some misconception about Nityananda Prabhu. So, to prevent this he asked Nityananda Prabhu for his kaupina, his loincloth. He tore it up and distributed it amongst the householders that were present, instructing them, “Keep a piece of his loincloth, as a kavaca, an amulet, and tie that with a thread to your arm or wear it around your neck. Please keep it with you. Then you will be able to achieve sense control very soon.” Nityananda Prabhu has control of his senses to the extreme degree; he does not know anything of this world. His vairagya, indifference to the world of mundane transaction, is of such a degree that he can appear naked amongst both male and female. So, the grace of Nityananda Prabhu will construct a firm foundation for us. If there is a firm foundation, then we may build a great structure over it. If we have faith in Nityananda, then that faith can bear any amount of weight. It won’t betray us.

To get the grace of Nityananda Prabhu, we should try as far as possible to study the character of Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu, to serve him, to serve his dhama, and his devotees. That will easily help us attain the grace of Nityananda Prabhu. And there will always be so many practical dealings in our present stage, but we must always keep the highest ideal over our heads. With this ideal we shall be able to make progress. Our ideal, our highest model – that is our all in all in life. To be acquainted with the conception of the highest ideal and to be on the path of realization of that goal is the greatest wealth in one’s life.

So, Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has laid stress amongst the Westerners on devotion to Nityananda. First, we must get his mercy. And then, afterwards, we can get the mercy of Radha-Krishna. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu means Radha-Krishna (sri krsna caitanya radha-krsna nahe anya). First achieve the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, and then Gauranga Mahaprabhu, and then Sri Radha Govinda. In these three stages, we must raise ourselves up.

The following is an adapted excerpt of Swami Tripurari’s upcoming commentary on the mangala-carana slokas of Sri Caitanya-caritamrta.

Typically, the avataras who teach the dharma of each yuga appear in the world through Mahavishnu. As the primal purusa of this world, he is a prominent yet partial manifestation of Bhagavan Narayana, who is a person of many faces. The many faces of Narayana appear in the world for different purposes: for lila, for establishing dharma, and so on. In this way, they assist him in his form of Mahavishnu, the compassionate overseer of the world.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s descent is somewhat different from that of other avataras in that he is none other than svayam-bhagavan Sri Krishna, the source of Narayana, who is himself but one of Krishna’s many faces. Nonetheless, when Mahaprabhu appears in the world, he does not defy convention. Thus he appears at the request of Advaita Acarya, the Mahavishnu of Gaura-lila.

Krsnadasa Kaviraja relates how Advaita Acarya, who at the time was arguably the leading Vaishnava in West Bengal, expressed frustration at the impiety of the general public and its ambivalence, if not opposition, to the practice of Sri Krishna sankirtana, the dharma of Kali-yuga. His frustration in turn gave rise to immense compassion. As empathy more readily arises in one closer to suffering, Advaita Acarya, the overseer of a world of suffering, is a veritable abode of compassion. By contrast, Krishna’s world revolves around his love for Radha, a love that renders him devoid of any tangible experience of the suffering of others and thus arguably less capable of directly expressing compassion.

Descending at Advaita’s request and fulfilling the role of yuga-avatara, Sri Caitanya is naturally full of compassion for the world’s inhabitants and their perpetual suffering in cycles of birth and death. But this aspect of Mahaprabhu is only one side of his descent, constituting his external reason for incarnating. While secondary, this role as yuga-avatar is unique, as it is no doubt informed by his internal reason for incarnating, to taste the highest form of divine love—ujjvala-rasa—that is the domain of Sri Radha. Here we find a theistic ladder of love on which compassion for worldly suffering lies at the bottom rung and the prema of Radha is the final step into a love that is unlimited and ever-expanding.

The compassion of Sri Krishna Caitanya is saturated with prema. As the yuga-avatara, he not only benedicts the world with a means of deliverance from its karmic web through Krishna sankirtan, but also grants entrance into the ujjvala-rasa of his intimate circle of devotees, a dispensation that is atypical of a yuga-avatara.Thus, the combination of Sri Krsna Caitanya’s exalted prema, along with his compassion, is the combination of madhurya (sweetness) and audarya (magnanimity) that leads to the possibility of drowning the entire world in love of God, and it is Sri Advaita’s compassion that opens the gates to Sri Caitanya’s compassionate dispensation.

Despite his absorption elsewhere, Sri Advaita asks Krsna to show compassion to his constituents, a request Krishna apparently cannot refuse. However, neither can he fulfill it in any way short of a benediction that corresponds to who he is. Thus, at Advaita’s request, Sri Krishna Caitanya fulfills the role of the yuga-avatara and then some, blessing the world with the opportunity to taste ujjvala-rasa.

It is one thing to bless the most qualified with the highest benediction and quite another to bless the least qualified (as people are considered to be in Kali-yuga) with the highest benediction. Sri Caitanya’s compassion is of this nature; blessing the masses—the least qualified—with the highest benediction, that which Krishna himself has come to experience. Therefore, Sri Rupa Goswami has described Sri Caitanya as the most compassionate avatara—maha vadanyaya avatara, and he blesses the world with Krishna prema—krsna prema pradaya te.

The method of worship that Advaita attached to his request was simple. He worshipped Saligram with water from the Ganges and blossoms of the tulasi. This simplicity of Advaita’s puja is notable. Kaviraja Goswami cites the Gautamiya-tantra: “Sri Krishna, who is very affectionate toward his devotees, sells himself to a devotee who offers him merely a tulasi leaf and a palmful of water.” Advaita Acarya is certainly an uncommon devotee, and his method of worship was pure. Although Ganges water and tulasi blossoms are not difficult to acquire, Advaita offered them with uncommon love, and thus the world knows something about love that in our times has never been known before.

The word gita means “song.” Just as in the Bible the Song of Solomon has traditionally been known as “The Song of Songs” because it was interpreted to symbolize the ultimate union of Israel with God (in terms of human married love), so the Bhagavad-gita is, for Hinduism, the great and unsurpassed song that finds the secret of human life in the unquestioning surrender to and awareness of Krishna.

While the Vedas provide Hinduism with its basic ideas of cult and sacrifice and the Upanisads develop its metaphysic of contemplation; the Bhagavad-gita can be seen as the great treatise on the “active life.” But it is really something more, for it tends to fuse worship, action and contemplation in a fulfillment of daily duty that transcends all three by virtue of a higher consciousness: a consciousness of acting passively, of being an obedient instrument of a transcendent will. The Vedas, the Upanisads, and the Gita can be seen as the main literary supports for the great religious civilization of India, the oldest surviving culture in the world. The fact that the gita remains utterly vital today can be judged by the way such great reformers as Mohandas Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave both spontaneously based their lives and actions on it, and indeed commented on it in detail for their disciples. The present translation and commentary is another manifestation of the permanent living importance of the gita. Swami Bhaktivedanta brings to the West a salutary reminder that our highly activistic and one-sided culture is faced with a crisis that may end in self-destruction because it lacks the inner depth of an authentic metaphysical consciousness. Without such depth, our moral and political protestations are just so much verbiage. If, in the West, God can no longer be experienced as other than “dead,” it is because of an inner split and self-alienation that have characterized the Western mind in its single-minded dedication to only half of life: that which is exterior, objective, and quantitative. The “death of God” and the consequent death of genuine moral sense, respect for life, for humanity, for value, has expressed the death of an inner subjective quality of life: a quality that in the traditional religions was experienced in terms of God-consciousness. Not concentration on an idea or concept of God, still less on an image of God, but a sense of presence, of an ultimate ground of reality and meaning, from which life and love could spontaneously flower.

Realization of the Supreme “Player” whose “Play” (lila) is manifested in the million-formed, inexhaustible richness of beings and events, is what gives us the key to the meaning of life. Once we live in awareness of the cosmic dance and move in time with the Dancer, our life attains its true dimension. It is at once more serious and less serious than the life of one who does not sense this inner cosmic dynamism. To live without this illuminated consciousness is to live as a beast of burden, carrying one’s life with tragic seriousness as a huge, incomprehensible weight (see Camus’ interpretation of the Myth of Sisyphus). The weight of the burden is the seriousness with which one takes one’s own individual and separate self. To live with the true consciousness of life centered in Another is to lose one’s self-important seriousness and thus to live life as “play” in union with a Cosmic Player. It is he alone that one takes seriously. But to take him seriously is to find joy and spontaneity in everything, for everything is gift and grace. In other words, to live selfishly is to bear life as an intolerable burden. To live selflessly is to live in joy, realizing by experience that life itself is love and gift. To be a lover and a giver is to be a channel through which the Supreme Giver manifests his love in the world.

But the Gita presents a problem to some who read it in the present context of violence and war, which mark the crisis of the West. The Gita appears to accept and to justify war. Arjuna is exhorted to submit his will to Krishna by going to war against his enemies, who are also his own kin, because war is his duty as a prince and warrior. Here we are uneasily reminded of the fact that in Hinduism as well as in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, there is a concept of a “Holy War” that is “willed by God,” and we are furthermore reminded of the fact that, historically, this concept has been secularized and inflated beyond measure. It has now “escalated” to the point where slaughter, violence, revolution, the annihilation of enemies, the extermination of entire populations and even genocide have become a way of life. There is hardly a nation on earth today that is not to some extent committed to a philosophy or to a mystique of violence. One way or other, whether on the left or on the right, whether in defense of a bloated establishment or of an improvised guerrilla government in the jungle, whether in terms of a police state or in terms of a ghetto revolution, the human race is polarizing itself into camps armed with everything from Molotov cocktails to the most sophisticated technological instruments of death. At such a time, the doctrine that “war is the will of God” can be disastrous if it is not handled with extreme care. For everyone seems in practice to be thinking along some such lines, with the exception of a few sensitive and well-meaning souls (mostly the kind of people who will read this book).

The Gita is not a justification of war, nor does it propound a war-making mystique. War is accepted in the context of a particular kind of ancient culture in which it could be and was subject to all kinds of limitations. (It is instructive to compare the severe religious limitations on war in the Christian Middle Ages with the subsequent development of war by nation states in modern times-backed of course by the religious establishment.) Arjuna has an instinctive repugnance for war, and that is the chief reason why war is chosen as the example of the most repellent kind of duty. The Gita is saying that even in what appears to be most “unspiritual” one can act with pure intentions and thus be guided by Krishna consciousness. This consciousness itself will impose the most strict limitations on one’s use of violence because that use will not be directed by one’s own selfish interests, still less by cruelty, sadism, and mere blood lust.

The discoveries of Freud and others in modern times have, of course, alerted us to the fact that there are certain imperatives of culture and of conscience which appear pure on the surface and are in fact bestial in their roots. The greatest inhumanities have been perpetrated in the name of “humanity,” “civilization,” “progress,” “freedom,” “my country,” and of course “God.” This reminds us that in the cultivation of an inner spiritual consciousness there is a perpetual danger of self-deception, narcissism, self-righteous evasion of truth. In other words the standard temptation of religious and spiritually minded people is to cultivate an inner sense of rightness or of peace, and make this subjective feeling the final test of everything. As long as this feeling of rightness remains with them, they will do anything under the sun. But this inner feeling (as Auschwitz and the Eichmann case have shown) can coexist with the ultimate in human corruption.

The hazard of the spiritual quest is of course that its genuineness cannot be left to our own isolated subjective judgment alone. The fact that I am turned on doesn’t prove anything whatever. (Nor does the fact that I am turned off.) We do not simply create our own lives on our own terms. Any attempt to do so is ultimately an affirmation of our individual self as ultimate and supreme. This is a self-idolatry which is diametrically opposed to “Krishna consciousness” or to any other authentic form of religious or metaphysical consciousness.

The Gita sees that the basic problem of man is his endemic refusal to live by a will other than his own. For in striving to live entirely by his own individual will, instead of becoming free, man is enslaved by forces even more exterior and more delusory than his own transient fancies. He projects himself out of the present into the future. He tries to make for himself a future that accords with his own fantasy, and thereby escape from a present reality which he does not fully accept. And yet, when he moves into the future he wanted to create for himself, it becomes a present that is once again repugnant to him. And yet this is precisely what he has “made” for himself—t is his own karma. In accepting the present in all its reality as something to be dealt with precisely as it is, man comes to grips at once with his karma and with a providential will that, ultimately, is more his own than what he currently experiences, on a superficial level, as “his own will.” It is in surrendering a false and illusory liberty on the superficial level that man unites himself with the inner ground of reality and freedom in himself which is the will of God, of Krishna, of Providence, of Tao. These concepts do not all exactly coincide, but they have much in common. It is by remaining open to an infinite number of unexpected possibilities which transcend his own imagination and capacity to plan that man really fulfills his own need for freedom. The Gita, like the Gospels, teaches us to live in awareness of an inner truth that exceeds the grasp of our thought and cannot be subject to our own control. In following mere appetite for power, we are slaves of our own appetite. In obedience to that inner truth we are at last free.

In his acceptance address for the Nobel prize in literature, Alexander Solzhenitsyn cited a Russian proverb: “One word of truth outweighs the whole world.” He also quoted Dostoyevsky: “Beauty will save the world.” If one word of truth outweighs the whole world, the world must be very false. But this truth is unpalatable, given the extent of beauty in this world. So much is this so that we cling to the beauty of the world, even when we are told the simple yet profound truth that it will not endure. How then will beauty save us, when attachment to it seems to be the cause of samsara, suffering in rounds of repeated birth and death? For Dostoyevsky, beauty will save us because its manifestation in art, literature, poetry, and the like is a semblance of the divine beauty that truth must ultimately personify. The aesthetic experiences of reading great literature, viewing a drama, and reciting poetry are experiences of the threshold of transcendence. Having tasted a drop of truth, we will be driven to drink deeply from its cup.

The quest for the beauty of the world no doubt must be balanced with the harsh truth—the knowledge—of its ephemeral nature. But there must be more to truth than this if it is to save us. The harsh truth of the ephemeral is its inability to deliver enduring beauty. This, however, is but “one word of truth.” It no doubt outweighs the entire experience of the ephemeral world, but it is not the whole truth. And half truth, we are told, is worse than no truth at all. If we are to live in the light of truth, that truth must be inherently beautiful. It must possess the full face of beauty, which truth’s mere triumph over falsity lacks. The beauty of the world is what makes life worth living, and this tells us that without beauty even truth is lifeless. If truth is merely the negation of the material world—“Not this, not that” cry the Upanisads—can we live in the void that is thus created, forever silent and still? To do so is the idea of those who tread Vedanta’s path of knowledge. Realizing the emptiness in the world’s apparent fullness is itself a profound fullness, but as the Buddha says, it is merely the fullness of emptiness. If we move from negative numbers to zero, then zero appears to have positive value. But are there positive numbers as well? This is the question raised by those who tread Vedanta’s path of love—bhakti, with whom I concur.

It is our quest for beauty—real, enduring beauty—that will save us from settling for only the few words of truth that render the world false. This quest will move us from zero to an infinity of positive values. It should drive us onward to the whole truth of infinite conscious beauty, about which one cannot say enough. The great stalwart on the path of knowledge, Sankara, reasoned “consciousness is truth, the world is false.” But this is not enough, nor is the world altogether false.  We must progress from this half truth to the whole truth of the beauty of consciousness in its fullest expression, a beauty whose mere reflection is the charm of the world. It is this beauty, the reality behind the reflection, that India’s sacred Upanisads and devotional Vedanta refer to when they speak of Krishna. Sri Krishna, the speaker of the Gita, is, in Hegel’s terminology, “reality the beautiful”; in Upanisadic language “Krishna is sacred aesthetic experience—rasa.” And we are to drink from the fountain of beauty and charm that is Krishna, one in purpose with the center, while taking our proper place on the circumfrance in eternal service to the center. Knowledge that turns us from the temporal and the exploitation of the world to the inner self—the atma—is but a stepping stone to the dance of love. Really, love is the highest knowledge. In love there is something to do. And in love one knows what to do, not merely what not to do.

This article was adapted from Aesthetic Vedanta: The Sacred Path of Passionate Love.

Guidance must come from those above you. It is very rare, but it is most valuable to us. Whatever directions are coming from above, we must selflessly embrace that as all in all. This is the clue: this is the key to the hidden treasures in your heart. I will not work with my whims or serve men on my level. But we shall very eagerly obey what directions will come from the above plane. This is service proper and it will be a real help for progressing on the path of dedication and self-giving.

What is necessary for our progress is very rarely to be found. It comes from a higher plane and we must surrender ourselves to substantiate that reality within us.

viracaya mayi dandam dinabandho dayam va
gatir iha na bhavattah kacid anya mamasti
nipatatu sata-kotir nirbharam va nayambhas
tad api kila payodah stuyate catakena

The Cataka bird is a kind of bird that drinks only rain water from above. This class of bird is always looking high in the sky for rain drops to fall. There may be much water available here on the ground, but this bird will not take a drop. They are waiting for that rain water which comes from above. Sufficient rain water may come, or thunder may come, but still they will not take a single drop from the earth.

Our attitude should be like this. Whatever directions will come from above for us to do, we shall take that on our heads as our life and soul. But we shall never take any plan from this mundane world. The Director, the Master, the Lord is there and I am connected with Him. This sort of practice is helpful. We may take the Holy Name, or hear the devotional musical chants, but the very life will be that it is coming from the above place; and I am carrying out that order.In this way, I may be taken above to the higher planes. I shall be directed to the higher layers and I may go there eternally. I am preparing myself only to carry out this spotless, uncolored order and surrender without any questioning. If we are sure it is coming from the higher layer, then we shall live selflessly at his disposal. We want selfless service to the higher and not to any mundane source. This is what is necessary for real progress in the line of self-dedication and self-giving. This is service. Many signs and symptoms are there to indicate the higher directions descending from Gurudeva. We shall whole-heartedly embrace the directions given by Gurudeva.

The sum and substance is that by obeying the directions from the higher, we can make progress towards the higher planes. By serving the higher, we can hope to be selected by the higher. We may then be taken up into that higher layer if we are considered qualified through our dedication. If we want to go towards that high, high, super-conscious region, then this is the process of self-giving that will be the main tenure of our lives. Revealed truth is necessary. No intelligence or reason can be applied here. If we apply any reason, then we will be nowhere. A man who is expert in argument will defeat another man not so qualified in argument, but the truth remains regardless. Intellect and reason have no position there because truth, super-consciousness, and dedication do not come within the jurisdiction of intellect, logic, and reason.

We can invite that high guest only by serving, by honoring, by self-giving, by heart-giving and never otherwise. It is not possible to enforce, to capture or to encase him by any intrigue or by any conspiracy. This will have the opposite effect. This is considered as Satan in another color. God realization means saranagati, self-surrender unto him. We can approach him not only through self-abnegation, but with deep self-surrender. This self-surrender, saranagati, will take us in connection with the higher, nobler substance. This self-surrender, self-giving is to be cultivated at all cost. Service is to God, and not to misconception, maya. We must be very careful that we are not serving maya in a charming form. In the form of God – in a godly form – some maya is coming to take us away from our service. So, in our present position, we must very carefully consider the propriety of our service – that to whom we are giving that service are not themselves serving maha-maya.

So, jnane prayasam udapasya namanta eva. To hatefully give up all proposals that the intellect will offer to you. To hatefully throw out what your intellect will come to propose to you. What the intellect will be able to judge and accept or not accept, that must be of a lower type. So, summarily you are to reject that and understand you must bow down your head, namanta eva. We are to approach the higher substance in this way.

The beginning of your real self-interest is to bow down your head, capturing your heart automatically. Try to connect with that section where you will always be with folded palms as a servant and never as a master. Such abnegation, such courage of self-giving is necessary if you want to live in the higher plane. Otherwise, you will become a master and reign in hell. In Satan’s words, “It is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.” But, in wholesale self-giving, just the opposite is necessary.

Even tears and cries will have no value if the inner tendency of self-giving is not awakened there. Seva, service, is self-giving—this is the main principle of life in the devotee. This self-giving is really meant towards the higher planes and not here and there around us in this mortal word. Otherwise, in another way, this self-giving tendency may be captured by the hateful things of this perishable world. Jnana, knowledge, is supposed to be very, very pure and free from doubt. In the majority of persons, knowledge is considered very innocent as it does not mix with these gross material things. The higher personalities consider knowledge to be very pure, very innocent, and spotless. But, if this knowledge is not connected with Krishna, then it must be rejected. In Srimad Bhagavatam it is written:

naiskarmyam apy acyuta-bhava-varjitam
na sobhate jnanam alam niranjanam

“Knowledge is widely considered as pure, innocent and spotless. But if it is not connected with the positive absolute good, then it is your enemy and it will devour you.”

You are to consider like that, then you will become a qualified candidate. This is jnana-sunya-bhakti, self-surrender, is so pure that even connection with knowledge that is considered to be very innocent and spotless is also rejected. Such a degree of self-surrender is necessary for the higher association of devotion proper. Jnana-karmady-anarvrtam, the charm of material acquisition and the charm of mastery, of knowing everything are both rejected. We do not know anything in the infinite, even in magnitude or quality. We cannot know anything in the infinite. It is a flow of autocracy. What can we know?Knowledge means not to store so many false incidents and sell them to the world for some name and fame. No! That is to be hatefully rejected, given up. But, service—unconditional self-giving—is noble and will take you to the higher, super-conscious region. Jnana and karma are both discouraged. We are discouraged from handling matter and knowledge. Knowledge will not apply in that plane of dedication. That is the plane of absolute will, the flow of absolute autocracy and no rule or regulation can work there. So, false gathering, false storing has got no value there, no market value. Indeed, no market is there! Therefore, only by self-surrender, self-giving will you have such high quality of devotion. So, a serving, a self-giving attitude is our friend. We are a unit of serving attitude and service means to surrender to the higher. The higher means uncontaminated with material and intellectual acquisition. This sort of higher devotion swiftly carries us to Krishna’s divine abode where love, beauty, and charm reign supreme.

deve varsati yajna-viplavarusa vajrasma-varsanilaih sidat-pala-pasu-striyatma-saranam drstvanukampy-utsmayam utpatyaika-karena sailamavalo lilocchilindhram yatha bibrad gosthamapan mahendram adabhit priyan na indro gavam¹

“May that lord of the cows be satisfied by us. Who is Indra when compared to Krishna? Krishna is the master of Indra. And yet he has appeared as the master of cows; the Supreme Absolute Truth has accepted a simple position as the keeper of cows. Superficially, he is a mere cowherd boy. But let that cowherd boy, who holds within him the power of controlling the whole universe, be satisfied with us. We want to worship that Lord who has taken the humble position of the king of the cows.”

The very gist of the Govardhana lila, the very substance of the pastime, is represented in this verse. The milkmen in Vrindavana used to observe a sacrifice to satisfy the king of heaven, Indra, at whose command the rain, clouds, and other subtle elementary powers move. The main wealth of the cowherd men is the cow, and the cow’s main food is grass. Only rain can produce grass, and so the cowherd men used to perform sacrifice to satisfy the subtle power who is supposed to be in command of natural substances like rain.

By satisfying Indra, favorable rains would come and there would be sufficient grass. The cows could then graze easily on the grass and generate milk profusely. The gopas, the cowherd men and their families, used to make different preparations from the milk, sell them in the marketplace, and in that way earn their livelihood.

As the grazing ground in one place was finished, they would move from one forest to another. Only for the purpose of obtaining grass for the cows, Krishna’s father Nanda Maharaja and the cowherd men would wander from one place to the next. In this way, they lived sometimes in Vrindavana, sometimes in Nandagrama, and sometimes in Gokula.

Once, Krishna wanted to assert himself and modify the worship of Indra. He wanted to establish his own domain, Vrindavana, in its pristine glory.

Although he was only a boy, he was a boy of extraordinary capacity. He was only seven years old. But in the Padma Purana it is said that the development or growth of special personalities is one and a half times that of ordinary persons. Although Krishna was only seven years old by ordinary calculation, he was eleven according to general calculation.

Krishna said, “Why should we perform this sacrifice to Indra? We have a direct concern with Govardhana Hill and not Indra.”

He announced this idea to the gopas, and somehow, willingly or reluctantly, the gopas submitted to the advice of Krishna. Nanda Maharaja was influenced by affection for his son, and, because he was the king, he told them, “This time we shall worship Govardhana Hill and not Indra.” And so the gopas, the milkmen of Vrindavana, followed Krishna’s advice—some reluctantly and some willingly—and they began the sacrifice for Govardhana Hill. This news reached Indra, who thought to himself: “A boy of special capacity lives there. Now he has taken the leadership of Vrindavana and stopped this ancient sacrifice to me. For a long time it was the tradition of the gopas to perform sacrifice to satisfy me, and now one boy is the cause of stopping my sacrifice!” He was very much enraged. Indra ordered the clouds and the wind and the lightning to attack the residents of Vrindavana.

According to Vedic understanding, all the elements are personified. In ancient days, the Aryans and rajarsis, elevated human beings and great sages, used to see everything as persons. They saw everything in a personal way. They thought of the creepers, the trees, and everything else in the environment as persons. They understood that they were all persons who, according to karma, are wandering through the different species of life.

Once I was asked by a professor of biology about alternatives to Darwinian evolution. I advised him that evolution from consciousness to matter may be understood on the basis of Berkeley’s theory. Whatever we think of is really part of our consciousness. And consciousness means person. Everything that we may be conscious of is a person. We may think of the wind as an inanimate object, but it was thought of in the Vedic line as a person. Lightning, wind, clouds, and rain are all persons. Whatever we consider to be elementary matter, gross and subtle, were all considered by the ancient seers of the truth to be persons.

Indra commanded the wind, the clouds, and the rain to go and devastate the whole area of Gokula Vrindavana. “The residents of Vrindavana have insulted me!” He said. “They have rejected me, have stopped worshiping me, and are instead worshiping that mountain, that hill of Govardhana. I can’t tolerate this insult! Go and devastate them.” By the order and wrath of Indra, the master of all the higher subtle elements, heavy rain began to fall. And so thunder, hail, and rain simultaneously attacked the whole of Vraja Mandala.

Consequently, all the residents of Vrindavana were thrown into a great disaster. Misery, pain, and sorrow afflicted the animals and the protectors of the animals, the gopalas. So the helpless—the women, children, and animals of Vrindavana—had no alternative but to take refuge of Krishna. They all came to Krishna for relief. They cried, “O Krishna! Now what are we to do? You influenced us to stop the sacrifice meant for Indra, and now Indra, being vindictive, has begun to afflict us in this very heavy way. How can we live? Please save us!” They all came to Krishna for protection. Seeing this, Krishna had much pity for them. Being merciful upon them, he smiled a little, thinking, “They have all come to me for relief.”

At that time, with only one hand Krishna lifted up the Govardhana mountain. For him, it was a very easy thing; with only one hand; he uprooted the hill and lifted it up as a child lifts a toy ball. And holding up that great mountain, Krishna gave protection to all those who were living in Gokula. The men, women, and children of Vrindavana brought the cows and all their worldly goods and took shelter beneath Govardhana Hill.

The whole cowherd society was given shelter under that hill. In this way, by lifting Govardhana Hill, Krishna gave protection to the residents of Vrindavana, and crushed the pride of the lord of heaven, Indra himself.

And so Nanda Maharaja prays in this verse, “May that lord of the cows be satisfied by us. Who is Indra when compared to Krishna? Krishna is the master of Indra. And yet he has appeared as the master of cows; the Supreme Absolute Truth has accepted a simple position as the keeper of cows. Superficially, he is a mere cowherd boy. But let that cowherd boy, who holds within him the power of controlling the whole universe, be satisfied with us. We want to worship that Lord who has taken the humble position of the king of the cows.”

From this verse of Srimad-Bhagavatam, we can understand the position of the Lord’s pastime at Govardhana. It is also described here that when the Vrajavasis worshipped him and engaged in sacrifice for his satisfaction, they saw Govardhana Hill as the Supreme Person, extending his hands, accepting the things offered to him, and feeding himself.

At that time, Krishna pointed out, “You see! You thought that Govardhana Hill was only a heap of stone. No—it is living, it is the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” At that time, Krishna revealed himself as Govardhana Hill and showed how it is also his extended self. According to authorities in our line, Radha-kunda is the extended self of Srimati Radharani and Govardhana is the extended self of Krishna. And so we worship a stone from Govardhana Hill, a part of Giridhari, as Krishna himself.

1. Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.26.25

Gaudiya Vaishnavas are fond of chanting “Jaya Radhe!” Love of Radha, Sri Krishna’s principle consort, is central to this theistic school of Vedanta. Such love is described as the brightest jewel of sacred aesthetic rapture, unnatojjvala rasa. This love is accessible to devotees following in the footsteps of Sri Rupa Goswami both in terms of his teaching on bhakti rasa in general and in terms of his own personal ideal of sacred aesthetic rapture. Sri Rupa’s personal ideal is that of a handmaiden of Radha—Radha dasyam—often referred to as manjari-bhava.

The now-common term manjari-bhava is not used by Rupa Goswami. In Bhaktirasamrta-sindhu he instead uses two different terms to explain this love of Radha. Sri Rupa first refers to this love as tad-bhavecchatmika (1.2.299)—that type of bhakti whose very life (atma) is the desire to taste the love (bhava) that a particular gopi has for Krsna. Tad-bhaecchatmika is tad-bhaveccha-mayi— to be filled (mayi) with the desire (eccha) for her (tad) ecstasy (bhava). Sri Rupa describes it as as a particular type of madhurya rasa that is preferable and involves pursuing the love of one who loves Krishna (Radha’s bhava) rather than pursuing a direct relationship with Krishna. Rupa Goswami also describes another type of madhurya rasa, which he terms sambhogeccha-mayi, sambhoga meaning a direct union or romantic relationship with Krishna. But his preference is clearly for tad-bhaveccha-mayi, the implication of which is that tad-bhaveccha-mayi madhurya rasa actually enables one to experience more intimacy with Krishna than pursing a direct relationship with him. How so? Because no milk-maiden can draw as much reciprocation from Krishna as Radha can. Thus if one attaches oneself to Radha as her assistant and intimate friend, the intimacy that she experiences with Krishna becomes the experience of oneself, a handmaiden who is wholly identified with Sri Radha in service to her. This is the position of Radha’s manjari. Sri Radha is the vine of love that most fully embraces Sri Krishna, and the flower (manjari) of that vine is nourished as the vine itself is nourished. Love of Radha is tad-bhavaeccha-mayi madhurya rasa. However, Sri Rupa Goswami also refers to it as bhavollasa, and as we shall see, love of Radha constitutes the fullest measure of this term.

Madhurya rasa is further described in Bhaktirasamrta-sindhu in terms of its visaya (object of love) and asraya (embodiment of love). As with other rasas, Krishna alone is identified as the visaya of tad-bhavaeccha-mayi bhakti rasa. Indeed, in his commentary on text 2.1.16, Sri Jiva Goswami emphasizes this point: “Krishna alone is the visaya-alambana.” This, of course, is much of what the entire book is about, as Bhaktirasamrta-sindhu begins by describing Krishna as “akhila rasamrta murti.” He alone is the visaya, and his devotees who taste rasa in relation to him are the asrayas, or personifications of five dominant loving sentiments. So it is clear that Krishna is the visaya of tad bhaveccha-mayi kamanuga bhakti, kamanuga being a division of raganuga bhakti centered on romantic love of God. The asraya of this love is those paradigmatic devotees like Rupa and Rati-manjaris (Rupa and Raghunatha dasa Goswamis, respectively) who embody this tad-bhaveccha-mayi—Sri Radha’s love of Krishna, her mahabhava. The asraya is Radha’s love embodied in her handmaidens.

However, because the handmaidens of Radha focus their attention on her rather than directly on Krishna, this brings up a quandary: what is Radha’s position in relation to this type of madhurya rasa, since Krishna alone is the visaya-alambana of bhakti rasa? Krishna is the object of tad-bhavaeccha-mayi madhurya rasa, but it appears that Radha is more the object of her manjaris’ love. Can Sri Radha be the object—the visaya-alambana—of this kind of bhakti rasa? This would appear to contradict the clear teaching of Sri Rupa on rasa tattva already mentioned: Krishna alone is the visaya-alambana of bhakti rasa. Bhaktirasamrta-sindhu, the ocean of the science of bhakti rasa, gives a simple and straightforward answer to the quandary. We need look nowhere else, for Sri Rupa’s treatise would be terribly incomplete if it did not address this point.

In text 2.5.128, Sri Rupa Goswami teaches that there are those who have rati for Krishna (a sthayi bhava or dominant loving emotion for him) who at the same time have love for another devotee. Generally this love for another devotee is less than one’s love for Krishna, or at best equal to one’s love for him. In such cases this love for another devotee or one’s friend is constituted of a sancari bhava, a loving emotion that augments ones dominant loving emotion for Krishna. Rupa Goswami calls this love for one’s friend—another devotee—a special sancari bhava named suhrt rati, “love of a friend.” Thus we learn that in Krishna lila devotees’ love for one another constitutes a sancari bhava named suhrt rati that augments their sthayi bhava, or dominant loving sentiment for Krishna as friend, lover, etc. Although this love is addressed by Rupa Goswami in the context of discussing bhakti rasa proper, in principle it also extends down into the lives of sadhakas, spiritual practitioners. Devotees love one another in a manner that assists them in loving Krishna. Thus for example, a husband’s healthy spiritual love for his wife is a love that assists or augments his love for God and vice versa. Love and attachment have their place not only in relation to Krishna but also in relation to his devotees.

However, in the same verse, Rupa Goswami goes on to highlight an exception with regard to loving a friend or another devotee. In an exceptional instance a devotee may love another devotee more than one loves Krishna! This love he says increases at every moment and, instead of nourishing the devotee’s sthayi bhava for Krishna, the devotee’s sthayi bhava for Krishna nourishes it! Thus there are two kinds of suhrt rati, or “love of the friend.” In the first kind of suhrt rati, a devotee has a sthayi bhava for Krishna—friendship, romantic love, etc.—and an equal or lesser degree of love for another devotee. This suhrt rati is a sancari bhava in which the friend is the object of that sancari bhava that nourishes the devotee’s sthayi bhava for Krishna in the way that sancari bhavas normally do. But in the second type of suhrt rati the devotee experiences a sancari bhava that is unique in that it is not a loving sentiment that augments one’s love of Krishna and is thus sometimes prominent in one’s loving relationship with him and sometimes not. Unlike ordinary sancari bhavas it is ever-present and ever-increasing. Furthermore instead of nourishing the devotee’s love for Krishna, the devotee’s love for Krishna nourishes it! Thus Sri Rupa Goswami distinguishes this loving sentiment from the sancari bhava known as suhrt rati by giving it its own name: bhavollasa—the “most exalted loving sentiment.”

What kind of devotee is it that can draw this extraordinary bhavollasa from another devotee? Sri Radha as devotee and friend turned deity clearly embodies the perfect example of whom Rupa Goswami is writing about in this section of Bhaktirasamrta-sindhu. And Radha’s handmaidens, Sri Rupa and Rati-manjaris perfectly embody this bhavollasa. Indeed, we find Raghunatha dasa Goswami—Rati-manjari—even deprecating Krishna in his extreme love for Radha! “Without your grace, Radha, I can’t stand to live another moment. And Vrindavana, which is even dearer to me than my life itself, I am disgusted with it. It is painful; it is always pinching me. And what to speak of anything else, I am even disgusted with Krishna. It is shameful to utter such words, but I can have no love even for Krishna unless and until you take me within your confidential camp of service.”¹.

Thus tad-bhaveccha-mayi madhurya rasa involves a sthayi bhava for Krishna and bhavollasa for Radha. Krishna is the object of the manjaris’ tad-bhaveccha-mayi madhurya rasa and Radha is the object of their bhavollasa. However, because this bhavollasa acts in two ways like a sthayi bhava—it never recedes into the ocean of one’s sthayi bhava for Krishna, and rather than nourishing the manjari’s sthayi bhava for Krishna, it is nourished by it—in these respects it functions like a sthayi bhava. The only difference between it and a sthayi bhava is that its object is not Krishna. Nonetheless many devotees have traditionally preferred to refer to bhavollasa as a sthayi bhava for Radha and Krishna—thus elevating Radha in this instance to the perfect object of love along with Krishna. There is no question of dethroning Krishna from his position as the visaya, but there is reason to elevate Radha to join him in this rasa as the object of love as a divine couple. And because we see this in the bhajana of great devotees such as Narottama Thakura, who for example refers to this divine couple as the singular object of his love (Radha-Krishna prana pati), devotees feel justified in making this extraordinary claim.

But does this elevation of Radha to the position of the visaya along with Krishna not contradict Bhaktirasamrta-sindhu? Some would clearly say “yes” and take a more conservative approach, granting that Radha is only the visaya of the manjari’s bhavollasa—a special sancari. After all, neither Jiva Goswami nor Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura have said that the bhavollasa is a sthayi bhava, much less one centered on Radha alone. But theology is something that is always in the making, while at the same time remaining faithful to all that has come before it.

Drawing on sastra yukti with regard to Bhaktirasamrta-sindhu’s siddhanta, we find that the term tad-bhaveccha-mayi itself can be understood to imply that Radha and Krishna are the object of manjari bhava. The manjari’s ideal is tad bhava, and while this term is usually rendered as “her (tad) love (bhava)”—the love of Sri Radha for Krishna—arguably it may be said that it is “their (tad) love”—the combined love of Radha and Krishna—that is the manjaris’ ideal, and not Krishna separated from Radha as in sambhogeccha-mayi madhurya rasa. Nor is it Radha separated from Krishna (heaven forbid). The Godhead in its fullest sense is rasa (raso vai sah), and the manjari’s love is for this expression of the Godhead. Sri Radha’s handmaidens’ object of love is rasa, or the mahabhava that involves Radha-Krishna becoming one in love. After all, there is no meaning to Rasaraja Krishna without Mahabhava-svarupini Radha. And while there is also no meaning to mahabhava without rasaraja, mahabhava is arguably the more important of the two: Krishna is Rasaraja because of Radha’s mahabhava, for in Sri Rupa’s theology God is what his devotees make him. He is their love more than he is anything else. Jaya Rupa! Jaya Radhe!

1. Vilapa-kusumanjali 102, paraphrased in English by Pujyapada B.R. Sridhara Deva Goswami

The word “Hindu” derives from a Persian way of characterizing the variety of traditions and cultural practices that can be found on the other side of the Indus River, the great Himalayan cascade that now bisects Pakistan. “Hindu” describes persons practicing Vedic ritual or worshipping Krishna. “Hindu” also describes the shared customs of Jains, Sikhs, and Zoroastrians.

The excavations of early Indian civilization reveal a dynamic, multicultural society in constant trade and contact with Mesopotamia. It flourished over 5,000 years ago and remained largely unchanged for two millennia. The seals, insignia, and ruins from this era indicate a veneration of female energy that has endured in the form of goddess worship, as well as a respect for animals that can be seen throughout India. The iconic heroes and heroines of this ancient culture were often depicted in poses resembling modern-day meditation.

At least 3,500 years ago, collections of songs known as the “Knowledge Hymns” or Vedas circulated first in northwest India, then spread east through the Ganges River plain and then south through the Deccan to the very tip of India. These hymns include praise of the earth goddess, the sky gods, and the great seers and philosophers who originated sacrificial rituals and brought some order to society. In an unbroken oral tradition, these chants passed from generation to generation up to the present.

From the wisdom of the Vedas arose several philosophical schools and traditions of worship. Perhaps the most compelling image can be found in Indra’s attempt to harness the thunder and the rain, necessary for the replenishment of life in India’s critical monsoon season. Gentler images include the description of two birds on the same tree, one always active, the other looking on wisely and dispassionately. India still grapples with its extreme weather and places great value on the aspect of being human that allows one to sit and reflect.

Widely popularized 1,300 years ago, the spiritual philosophy known as Tantra arose as a marriage of these concerns. Tantra speaks of an intimacy between the human body and the cosmos. Meditation reveals that the earth stands in relationship with our sense of smell, located in the human nose. The scent of snow on the distant mountains, the fragrance of flowers bursting forth following the rains, the musky smell of fertile humus remind us of our reliance on Mother Earth.

Meditation also establishes the connection between the water we drink and the saliva that allows us to digest our food. Meditation unveils the power of our eyes to connect with the radiance of the sun and perceive form, beauty, and color. Meditation brings us into a quiet realization of the power of the wind that circulates in our bodies as breath. And meditation on the power of hearing provides an orientation in space. Our five great senses interact with the five great elements, fueling the motion to be interpreted and understood by the mind.

The mind seeks to grasp meaning and purpose. A mind sullied by greed will attempt to gather as much of the material world as possible. However, no matter how much one acquires, it can never be enough. A mind liberated from greed moves with power, always in touch with the deeper spiritual aspect that lies within a human in harmony with the cosmos. When one finds that connection and can reach deep within before moving outward, then the imprint on the earth becomes light, even luminous.

Yoga seeks to enhance and bring out this acknowledgement that regardless of what a human being might accomplish in this lifetime, the world, the earth, will continue. By appreciating the movements of the body and the breath, by culturing oneself through the ethical practices of nonviolence and truthfulness, one moves into the world with ease and grace.

Ritual, quietly observed, perhaps in a salutation to the sun, or the kindling of a flame, or the careful arrangement of flowers, promotes a deep link with the earth goddess, the god of the breath and wind, and the vast expanse of the heavens. Through Yoga, one realizes the connection between oneself, other people, that which is below, and that which is above.

For one attuned to the ritualism and artistry of the Hindu tradition, the practice of religion cannot be separated from an appreciation of the earth. Hindu ecology makes us catch our breath and enter into that special moment where our senses become filled, our mind becomes stilled, and we dwell, even if for just an instant, in a state of perfection and gratitude.

Christopher Key Chapple is Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University and author of a dozen books, including Hinduism and Ecology (co-edited with Mary Evelyn Tucker) and Reconciling Yogas.

This article was excerpted from Hinduism and Ecology.

Baladeva bears the plow, which symbolizes his agricultural leaning stemming from his mother’s side, who despite her royal marriage, for all intents and purposes lived as a vaisya throughout Rama’s formative years. It also symbolizes the importance of the guru’s need to till the field of the heart of his or her student before planting the seed of bhakti therein. This preparation is not any kind of puruscarya, or purification process, as much as it is the awakening of faith. The puruscarya for mantra diksa of the Gopala mantra can amount to nothing more than the guru’s grace. And no puruscarya is required for chanting Krishna nama, but sri guru will give us his or her blessing to do so if the requisite faith is awakened. To give this blessing where faith has not arisen is an offense to the divine name. Balarama’s other self in Gaura lila, Sri Nityananda Prabhu, gave the holy name liberally to those who paid the price of their faith alone. So we follow Nityananda Rama in this and make adjustments as needed in consideration of time and circumstance. Rama’s lead has also been followed by Sri Rupa Goswami, who explains that it is faith that grants one eligibility to tread the path of bhakti. Thus sri guru follows Baladeva, the original guru—Krishna in the form of his best servitor.

Sri Balarama also manifested his plow in Vraja during his yamunakarsana lila (dragging the Yamuna) at the time that he returned from Dvaraka to deliver a message to the Vrajavasis. He is also referred to as “he who bears the plow” (Haladhara) in the Vraja lila involving the slaying of Pralambasura. At that time, in spite of using this name to address Balarama—a name that reminds us of his power—Sukadeva depicts him in very human terms, momentarily frightened as Rama was by Pralamba’s astonishing transformation from a cowherd into an asura, tvisadbhutam haladhara isad atrasat. Rama was, that is, completely absorbed in his identity as a gopa, and Pralamba was in the guise of a cowherd. Suddenly Pralamba assumed his actual form, and it was Krishna who revived Rama’s sense of his Godhood, empowering him to deal effectively with the asura. Rama thus remembered how Krishna had killed the woman Putana and the calf Vatsasura, and thereby he came to his senses regarding Pralamba, who appeared as one of Krishna’s friends. Krishna’s remembrance empowered him, and despite his Godly prowess, Balarama leans eternally on the shoulder of his younger brother, Ramanuja, and derives his strength in life from him, his friend and master, for whom in lila he also assumes the role of Krishna’s guru with regard to decorum. This is Haladhara, the maryada purusa of Gopala Krishna.

Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami also mentions Rama with reference to his bearing the plow when he informs us that Nityananda Prabhu is directly Balarama, nityananda gosani saksat haladhara. And when Mahaprabhu accepted the ecstasy of Balarama he also assumed the form of Haladhara.

But for the most part Baladeva does not carry his plow in Vraja, but rather a buffalo horn. Every morning he blows this horn signaling the time for the young cowherds to assemble and awaken Kanai Krishna. Zillions of cowherds stampede to the courtyard of Nanda Baba at the sound of Rama’s horn. While Krishna sends his devotees into a trance with sound of his flute, Rama awakens those in vatsalya, sakhya, and dasya rasas to their nitya seva. Always in the forefront of seva, he is the root of the serving ego in all souls and the seva that underlies the entire lila, bhakta abhiman mula balarama. With his buffalo horn, he leads the world of divine service and with his plow he prepares the field of our heart where the seed of that seva is first planted.

Chastity is faithfulness to the cause for which we have come. It is a relative term. Chastity in the absolute sense is unchangeable adherence to the Absolute. There also may be relative chastity, such as when someone sincerely pursues his interest in a particular plane. However, that type of sincerity is not complete. We think sincerity is only complete when one comes to accept the Supreme Absolute. Other forms of chastity are all relative. No knowledge separate from Krishna consciousness is chaste. And within Krishna consciousness also we shall not think that by beginning, by getting the touch of Krishna consciousness we have acquired the whole thing. When we get the pure conception of Krishna consciousness the hazy conceptions will vanish. As we attain different stages of realization in pure Krishna consciousness, to that degree we become more and more chaste.

Chastity means our adherence to the truth. The truth that we have come to realize, that truth is in Krishna consciousness. Krishna consciousness is not a limited thing that one can capture in his hand and swallow. It is of infinite character. There is gradation and there is room for progress in Krishna consciousness. We will say that one is chaste due to his own sincere progress, not due to adherence to the figure, the formal conception. Vyaso vetti na vetti va (Vyasa might know, or he might not know). Such a strong expression is also there. All rights reserved. Krishna consciousness is unlimited, but still there is the possibility of conceiving its purity in its unadulterated form, and the acaryas are giving that to us. In the beginning a new student who gains admission to a college cannot expect to know anything and everything. We need to have systematic, properly adjusted knowledge.

There are many amongst our group who heard Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada’s advices and words, but only partly. One day a senior man and sannyasi repeated something Srila Prabhupada had said. Although it related to a particular time and place, he wanted to utilize that in a universal way. I gave some objection: “Maharaja, Srila Prabhupada told this, it is true, but this is not the whole thing. He explained other things also, therefore we have to harmonize. We cannot ignore the other part of his advice.”

So we have to come into adjustment and systematic understanding of the words of Sri Gurudeva. The partial aspect may sometimes lay stress on a particular point and who has attentively caught that, he might only take that and nothing beyond. But systematic knowledge of the whole must be understood. In a progressive life, the plane where one devotee may want to withdraw from to make further progress may be the goal of attainment for another devotee. What may be the object of attainment for the kanistha-adhikari, a madhyama-adhikari may withdraw from in an attempt to climb higher, as in ascending a staircase step by step.
Under the guidance of one Guru there are so many different sections of disciples. All the students may not be equal in their realization. One can understand to a certain extent, another can understand something more, and another can understand even more. In this way there may be gradation. Even the senior disciples may fall back and the juniors may go up. That is also possible. We have seen and you can also see now. Many of the older ones have gone away and the newcomers are showing greater energy. You may find that amongst yourselves, as we also found amongst ourselves. There are no stereotyped rules. It is a living thing.

Form and substance are two different things. And here is the main difficulty in our progress: sreyah sva-dharmme… progress means to deal with these two difficulties, to stick to one’s former position, and beyond that, to make progress—advance. If advancement is not sure, it is judicious to stick to the former position. If there is any doubt of progress one should stick to the former position. But that is not progress. Progress means to leave the former position and go ahead. Only one who is hopeful of a bright future, should leave the former position and go to advance. Those who are of doubtful mentality, suspicious mentality, it is better for them to stick to their former position where they already have a consolidated foundation. They should take their stand there. According to his own progress he cannot but see that some things must be rejected and some new things in front must be invited to come near. This is progress. [With these principles in place we can cultivate absolute chastity to our beloved gurudeva, recognizing that which he represents and therefore recognizing his many manifestations along the progressive course of our spiritual life.]