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EDITORIAL August 2, 1999 VNN4413 Comment on this story Sarva-dharman Parityajya BY PURU DAS ADHIKARI  EDITORIAL, Aug 2 (VNN) — For the pleasure of the assembled devotees here is another re typed article from the 1998 Sri Vyas Puja of Srila Prabhupada, His Divine Grace Sri Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. Special mention should go to the staff of devotees who published this magazine last year. Editor: Krishna Sarana Das, Proofreading: Arjuna Das, Design: Sucih Das, Editorial Assistance:Shyamal Krishna Das and Mihir Das, Printing assistance:Ramananda Das, Sri Titikshyu Das and Jayanti Sri Dasi.The back page of the magazine lists the members of the Sarasvata Gaudiya Vaishnava Association Association of the disciplic Descendants of Sri Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Thakura. Chairman: HH Bhaktivibudha Bodhayan Maharaj (SRI GOPINATH GAUDIYA MATH) Cashier: Sri Biswamangal Das (BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI CHARITY TRUST0 Secretary: Sri Vinod Ranjan Das (SRI CHAITANYA SARASWAT MATH0 MEMBERS HH Bhakti Raskshak Narayan Maharaj (SRI GAURANGA GAUDIYA MATH) HH Bahkti Lalita Madhava Maharaj (SRI GAURANGA GAUDIYA MATH) HH Bhakti Prasada Bon Maharaja (SRI SWARASWATA GAUDIYA ASHRAM) HH R. N. Bon Maharaj (SRI KRISHNA CHAITANYA MATH) Sri Bhadra Charu Das (ISKCON) Many more names are listed as this was a cooperative effort of many Vaisnavas. Anyone interested in reading the entire page can contact me at PuruDas@compuserve. com and I can scan the sheet and sent it as a tif file for you to read. Here is the article. Others are forthcoming as they appear in the magazine in order. Two articles from Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura will follow this one, then one by His Divine Grace Tridandi Swami Srimad Bhakti Sorabh Bhaktisara Maharaj, . As well as one from His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, our beloved gurudeva. Your servant, Puru Das Adhikari This 24th day of July 1999, Sayana Ekadasi Sarva-dharman parityajya Commentary on the famous verse of Bhagavd-gita. His Divine Grace Sri Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur Prabhupada mam ekam saranam vraja ahm tvan sarva- papebhyo moksayisyami ma suchah In the Bhagavad-gita, the Lord has declared that all forms of different religions and self-imposed duties should be given up and the only shelter and resort should be His lotus feet. In the same Gita, in a previous verse, it is mentioned that to practice other forms of duties is not going to result in auspiciousness. Even if one is killed while performing his duty, this is more superior than performing duties of others, which is the cause of great fear. Equivocally, the Lord has again ordered one should renounce all so-called duties. What is the meeting ground from these two statements? The fact is the ordinary man, with all his accumulated study and intelligence, cannot hope to understand the Supreme Lord. It is only by His causeless mercy that He can be understood at all. Sri Krishna has descended as His most magnanimous incarnation, Sri Caitanya, in order to teach us the truth about Him. So by analyzing the teachings of Mahaprabhu, we can get the solution very easily. Sriman Mahaprabhu, after embracing the renounced order of life, began to stay in the house of Candrasekaracarya. The ruler of Bengal Hussain Shah's prime minister, Sakar Mallik (Sanatan Goswami) went there to see him and he asked this question to Sriman Mahaprabhu: Iha nahi jani-kemane Ôhita Ôhaya "Who am I? Who is suffering from the three whips of material energy and how will I be able to cross over these miseries?" krsnera Ôtatastha-sakti' Ôbhedabhedaprakasa, Krsna bhuli se jiva anadi bahirmukha Ataeva maya tare deya samsara duhka Although the living entity is eternal servant of Lord Krishna, he is considered as the marginal potency. Having forgotten the lotus feet of Sri Krishna, his conditioning has been from time immemorial. In replying to Sri Sanatana Goswami, Sriman Mahaprabhu did not see the questioner as a karnatak brahmin, an elderly man, minister or erudite scholar. He, without any such considerations, simply remarked that the living entity is the eternal servant of Sri Krishna and thus clearly defined the original duty of the living entity. Further, Lord Caitanyadeva, the Supreme Consciousness, did not identify Sanatana with his external identity, in terms of country, time and personality. Mahaprabhu, not caring for the external circumstances of his material body and mind, told him the function of his original self, in relation to the Supreme Spirit. The Lord mentions that mind and false intelligence are part of the total material constituents of this universe (apara-prakrti:earth, water, fire, air ether, mind, false ego and intelligence). The pure, indestructible soul which cannot be burned, dried or cut, has been covered by the subtle and gross bodies made up of the eight components (apara prakriti) which were defined before. If the living entity mistakes the unreal for real and is oblivious to listening to proper instruction, then whose fault is it? On the other hand, by the mercy of the Lord, if he, taking this instruction to heart. that which drives away the fog of temporary illusion in explaining the service of the pure soul with the Supreme Lord in his original identity, then what is left to understand or explain? All ignorance and doubts are wiped away in a slate by the above-mentioned verse. The soul (jiva) is a speck or tiny part of the whole Pure Consciousness, which is the Supreme Lord. Their relation is that of servant and master eternally. One, in forgetting that illuminating consciousness of the soul and trying to identify with the gross body, as ÔI' or the Ôjiva' is ignorance. Further, by his false mentality he thinks, "I am high class (brahmin)', priestly caste, or warrior class, farmer or business man, server (sudra) class or I am a man or woman, and when considering the changes of body in the course of time: a boy, and old man etc. or in identifying this body with the place he was born" "I am Indian", "I am Punjabi" or "I am householder, celibate student or renunciate", and all this is the result of false ego or false pride. All these diverse natures or dharmas are not real but artificial and have been falsely superimposed on the pure self. The speaker of the Gita, Lord Krishna has declared that the soul is pure and eternal. The body subject to changes is temporary. Those thinking that in the constant evolution of this body, from birth to death, the soul is likewise changing is a fool. The Ôsarva-dharman' referred to in this verse means the sum total of all duties, born of false designations which the temporary mind and body has cast over the indomitable pure soul. In other words, all the classes and stations of life (varnasrama) like brahmin, ksatriya, etc. or householder, celibate student and renunciate, as well as all forms of sense enjoyments which include elevating oneself to the heavenly planet, in other words all forms of false designations possible in the fourteen worlds. The nature and its object go hand in hand. If there is no object then we cannot explain nature (dharma). The primary object in question is the soul which has been covered by the temporary mind and body. The natures, (dharma) of these temporary mind and body have to be given up completely until all attachment is cut the very root (This is possible in due course, by the process of taking a spiritual master and performing devotional service under him). The Lord has informed us here of our unflagging duty as eternal soul in the sense of devotional service. The conditioned soul cannot take immediately to this simple instruction. The next part of the verse is the proof of this point: aham tvam sarva-papebhyo mokhsayisyami. Actually, in order to take up this original, eternal function, he has to cast away all the self-imposed so-called duties which he had performed under illusion of the body and mind. The living entity, in his bewilderment, thinks that to give up such duties is sin or even worse; he laments about that fact. The next point is where the Lord tries to console us: Ôma sucah'-Don't worry. The lower class person (sudra) is usually prone to worry and lament. Such people are not qualified to practice celibacy, read the scriptures or serve the spiritual master, in any sense. Even the highest class, scholarly, brahmin, if he identifies with this temporary body, then he comes in the category of a Ôsudra' and no better! Concluding, this knowledge of how to serve the Supreme Lord was given by the Lord Himself to all the conditioned souls. Sriman Mahaprabhu on hearing this profound verse from the lip of Ramananda Ray, told Him to proceed on. Why not? The natural function of the soul is to serve the Supreme Lord and not that the Lord has to make promises to make the devotee perform such practice. If the father has to coax his son to be filial to him, which is the natural duty of the son, what more to understand about the character of the son? The devotee, with his own hands, is very eager to serve the Lord with devotion, or could it be otherwise? The living entity has not only forgotten the Lord but has been ignorant of his pure blissful, original, self identity. He has been busy serving temporary masters ignorantly. The Supreme Lord, his original master, even if turning him away by the hand and trying to guide hi by sound instruction, still, he will neither listen nor bother to understand. Sriman Mahaprabhu has condensed a profound spiritual conclusion within the limit of this material universe and slowly tried to raise the understanding of the aspirant above the boundary of this material universe, across the river viraja, to the spiritual world. In actual fact, He is expressing the mood and intense love of separation, which are exhibited by the residents of the spiritual world and who are His parsadas, associates. Concluding, He has revealed the devotional love that had never been given away so simply before. Thus the living entity can aspire to reach the highest pinnacle of spiritual consciousness by following His instructions. About the Author  Other Stories by this AuthorComment on this story Contact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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