Mahāprabhu’s Prīti-Dharma Process

April 28, 2013 (VNN) by TVP BOOKS

Śrī Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu (painting by Anjana das)

Excerpt from a lecture given by Śrī Śrīmad Gour Govinda Swami Mahārāja

Thus we have ātma-dharma and mano-dharma. Mano-dharma is aprīti-dharma, dharma not based on love, aprīti, which is concocted, imaginative. Therefore mano-dharma is speculation. Ātma-dharma is based on prīti-dharma, love, and descends by the hearing process, śrauta-paramparya. Prīti-dharma is dharma based on love where Kṛṣṇa is prīti-viṣaya, the object of love, and all bhaktas, devotees are prīti-āśraya. This is viṣaya and āśraya. There is harmony between them; there is no question of disharmony. If you establish yourself in this prīti-dharma, then there will be no disharmony at all, only harmony. Some say that there is some aprīti inpriti-dharma, but one should understand that there is some aprīti in those who say this. That is why they say that, but there is no question of aprīti, it is only pure prīti, love. That is the reason why there is disharmony between vaisnava-sampradāyas.

Why will there be disharmony? If you establish pure prīti-dharma, then there is no question of disharmony. Only because there is some aprīti in you if you have not established yourself in this prīti-dharma process, then there is disharmony, but there should not be any disharmony at all. If you really get the causeless mercy of Guru and Gauranga, then you can understand this, otherwise no one can understand it. Therefore there is so much quarrelling nowadays in this Kali-yuga. Kali means hypocrisy, vivāda (quarrelling), and dambha (pride). There is this dambha, pride of aham baḍa he, “I am great!”  Therefore there is quarrelling, two parties are quarrelling and two groups are quarrelling. This is going on because it is Kali-yuga. This dambha, pride, is the measuring rod. One, who is proud, tries to establish his own philosophy by suppressing others. So there is quarrelling, but this is not there in prīti-dharma, in Mahāprabhu’s process.

 ”One should chant the holy name of the Lord in a humble state of mind, thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street; one should be more tolerant than a tree, devoid of all sense of false prestige and ready to offer all respect to others. In such a state of mind one can chant the holy name of the Lord constantly.” (Śikṣāṣṭaka 3)

One who is tṛṇād api sunīcena thinks, “I am the lowest of the low” and is much humbler than a blade of grass lying on the street. Where is the question of pride?

Uttama hañā āpanāke māne tṛṇādhama, (Cc Antya 20.22) he is uttama, the topmost person, the crest jewel of the paramahaṁsas, but he thinks “I am the lowest of the low, I am a worm in the stool.” Then there is no question of pride in Mahāprabhu’s prīti-dharma.

Taror iva sahiṣṇunā, as tolerant as a tree. Where is the question of intolerance? Why will there be quarreling, hypocrisy or cheating? Why? There should not be anything like that in Mahāprabhu’s prīti-dharmaprocess. Amānī mānada, he never demands respect, rather he gives respect to one and all.