VOLUME 1 PART IX

MARCH, 1952

Paramahamsa Sree Sreemad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaja.

ONE

Adore adore ye all,
The happy day.
Blessed than Heaven,
Sweeter than May.
When He appeared at Puri,
The holy place,
My Lord and Master
His Divine Grace.

TWO

Oh! my Master
The evangelic angel.
Give us thy light,
Light up thy candle.
Struggle for existence
A Human race,
The only hope
His Divine Grace.

THREE

Misled we are
All going astray,
Save us Lord
Our fervent pray,
Wonder thy ways
To turn our face
Adore thy feet
Your Divine Grace.

FOUR

Forgotten Krishna
We fallen soul.
Paying most heavy
The illusion's toll.
Darkness around
All untrace,
The only hope
His Divine Grace.

FIVE

Message of service
Thou has brought.
A healthful life
As Chaitanya wrought.
Unknown to all
It's full of brace.
That's your gift
Your Divine Grace.

SIX

Absolute is sentient
Thou hast proved.
Impersonal calamity
Thou hast moved.
This gives us a life
Anew and fresh.
Worship thy feet
Your Divine Grace.

SEVEN

Had you not come
Who had told,
The message of Krishna
Forceful and bold,
That's your right
You have the mace.
Save me a fallen
Your Divine Grace.

EIGHT

The line of service
As drawn by you,
Is pleasing and healthy
Like morning dew.
The oldest of all
But in new dress
Miracle done
Your Divine Grace.

Om Vishnupada Sree Sreemad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami appeared in this mortal world in the year in February on as the third son of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur known as Late Kedarnath Dutt in His early householder life. Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati was known as Bimala Prasad Dutt in His early life and from His very boyhood, inspired by His devotee father, lived a strict pious and religious life. One instance in His early life will prove how much He was rigid in His principle of religious way of life. The instance may be cited here as a matter of course. Srila Kedar Nath Dutta as an ideal Grihastha used to worship Sree Sree Radha Govinda Vigraha at his house. As such one day he purchased some good quality mangoes for the deity when Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati was a mere child. The child Bimala Prasad pretending the childish nature ate up the mangoes without the knowledge of His father. The father when he came to know that the mangoes purchased for offering to the deities at his house were swallowed up by his child Bimala Prasad, he mildly rebuked Him and warned Him also not to commit the mistake in future. The child Bimala Prasad took up this matter very seriously and as the proverb goes that child is the father of future men, so He proved Himself then as the future Acharya of the human community. From that day forward till His departure from this mortal world He remembered that mistake which He had committed in His early life and as a matter of self imposed punishment He never touched mangoes of any kind for His eating purpose. In His later life He was so many times requested by His thousands and thousands disciples to accept mangoes but He always reminded of His childish so called mistake and always quoted the instruction from the Ishopanishad that everything belongs to the Almighty God. No body therefore accept anything in this world unless the same has first been offered to Him (Almighty God).

Another instance of His early life may be stated here that when Bimala Prasad was on the lap of his beloved mother His father Late Kedar Nath Dutta was posted as Magistrate of Puri. The Car festival of Sree Sree Jagannathji took place at that time. The house was situated just near the main road through which the Car used to pass. So when the Car was moving it stopped all of a sudden in front of the house where Sri Bimala Prasad was on the lap of His mother. The Car of Jagannath stopped and did not move with utmost endeavour of the pulling devotees. The mother of Bimala Prasad took this opportunity and was helped to get up on the Car for Darshan of the Deity with her saintly son. The baby Bimala Prasad was then thrown on the holy feet of Sree Sree Jagannathji and at once the baby was blessed by the God as some flowers fell down on the baby from the hands of the Deity. After this incidence the Car began to move and every intelligent person present there could understand that the child Bimala Prasad was not an ordinary one. There are many such small but very significant instances from His very childhood which indicated Bimala Prasad to be a future great personality and it so happened that in His later age He became the most powerful Acharya in the line of Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya in the disciplic succession from the Madhyacharya who was in the line of Brahma Sampradaya coming down Brahma the Creator of this Universe. There are four Sattawata or transcendental spiritual Acharya Sampradayas or fundamental schools of Theism such as the Brahma Sampradaya beginning from Brahma after His initiation from the Personality of Godhead; the Rudra Sampradaya beginning from Sankara or Mahadeva; the Shree Sampradaya beginning from Sreemati Luxmi Devi the Eternal Consort of Shree Narayana and the Kumar Sampradaya beginning from the Kumar namely Sanak Sanat Kumars. Sree Madhyacharya belonged to Brahma Sampradaya, Sree Ramanuja to the Sree Sampradaya, Sree Vishnuswami to the Rudra Sampradaya and Sree Nimbarka belonged to Kumar Sampradaya. All these four Acharyas are bonafide preachers of the pure transcendental philosophy dealing with the problems of the world, the living entities and the Almighty God who is the Father of the creation as well as the living entities who are falsely trying to dominate over the creation and the controlling energy known as the material Nature.

Sree Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj happened to be the tenth generation in the line of disciplic succession from Lord Chaitanya who accepted Srila Iswar Puri as His spiritual Master. Srila Madhabendra Puri was the spiritual Master of Srila Iswar Puri and He (Sri Madhabendra Puri) belonged to be in the disciplic succession from Madhyacharya who was direct disciple of Sree Vyasdeva. The Spiritual Master of Srila Vyasdeva was Srila Narada Muni who was directly initiated by Brahma the originator of the Brahma Sampradaya and therefore my spiritual Master Sree Sreemad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj belonged to the transcendental spiritual school of philosophy of the Brahma Sampradaya linking Brahma to Vyasdeva; from Him to Madhyacharya, from Madhyacharya to Lord Chaitanya and from Lord Chaitanya to Himself in a systematic principle of disciplic succession as stated in the Bhagwat Geeta.

Ebam Parampara Paraptam etc.

As a bonafide Acharya of the Brahma-Madhya-Gaudiya Sampradaya the mission of Sree Sreemad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami was to re-establish the pure form of theism as propounded by Lord Chaitanya in the line of His predecessors. Lord Chaitanya preached only the teachings of Bhagwat Geeta in the most practical way to suit the present environment created by the dark age of quarrel and fight. In the latter-age calculated to be two hundred years before the advent of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj many pseudo-spiritualistic parties in the name of Lord Chaitanya grew up like mushrooms to exploit the noble sentiment of spiritualism of the innocent people of Earth. Such pseudo-spiritualistic parties deviated poles asunder from the preaching of Lord Chaitanya because they were unfit to undergo the disciplic regulations and as such they had mitigated a via-media principle of rotten materialistic idea with pure spiritualism. They misunderstood the highest form of worship contemplated by the Gopies of Brindaban in the transcendental loving pastimes of Lord Shree Krishna and misidentified the spiritual process with a materialistic idea of erotic principle. As such the highest principle Rashlila stated in the Bhagwat to be understood and relished at the stage of the Paramhansas was made a plaything by such pseudo parties are known as the Oal, Baoul, Nera, Karta Bhaja, Sain, Darbesi Sakhi-vekhi, Sahajia, Caste Goswamins, Caste Brahmins and so on. These pseudo parties passed as the disciples of Lord Chaitanya with their cheap nefarious activities and of all the above parties the Sahajias and the Caste Goswamins became the most obstinate obstructors to the onward—progress of the universal movement of Lord Chaitanya.

The Philosophy of Lord Chaitanya was that God is One without a second. He is known as Shree Krishna but His incarnations such as Rama Nrisingha are all identical with Him. The living entities or Jivas are qualitatively one with Godhead but quantitatively they are innumerable but eternal servitors of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The present materialistic activities of the Jivas are to be understood as the acts of Maya or illusion and therefore they are all waste of energy of the human being. The energy of the human being as also of other living being should therefore be directed under the bonafide regulations of the Acharya so the line of Lord Chaitanya and as such He vehemently protested against the principles of those pseudo transcendentalists now passed in the name of Lord Chaitanya.

Srila Thakur Bhaktivinode initiated the reformatory movement by literary contributions while he was still engaged as a high Government Officer. During his householder life and serving as a Magistrate he wrote books of various descriptions in Bengali, English, Sanskrit & etc. to present an actual picture of pure devotional activities of Lord Chaitanya. Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj got inspiration from his very Childhood all about Srila Thakur Bhaktivinode's movement. As a matter of fact out of all his other son's Srila Saraswati Thakur practically worked as the private secretary of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur as such Bhaktivinode Thakur gave Him (Srila Saraswati Thakur) the transcendental Power of Attorney to espouse the cause of Lord Chaitanya and so after Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur's departure—Srila Saraswati Thakur took up reins of that reformatory movement.

The first and foremost task of Srila Saraswati Thakur was to excavate the holy birth-place of Lord Chaitanya at Sreedham Mayapur in the district of Nadia in West Bengal. To substantiate this preliminary act of His great future movement Srila Saraswati Thakur had to face tremendous difficulties offered by the caste goswamins at Nabadwip-because they apprehended a lawyer in that initial movement. The caste goswamins were exploiting and still are exploiting the religious sentiments of the common people in the name of Lord Chaitanya and presented themselves as so called relative and descendants of Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityananda. Factually Lord Chaitanya or for the matter of that Lord Nityananda accepted nobody as their relative or kinsmen who were not devotee of the Lord. On the contrary Lord Chaitanya accepted Thakur Haridas, who happened to come out of a Mohammedan family, as the Namacharya or the most powerful authority for preaching the samkirtan movement which Lord Chaitanya inaugurated so arduously.

Lord Chaitanya, as it is stated in the Bhagwat Geeta or in other authentic scriptures, wanted to re-establish the Vaishnava Dharma on the real basis of spiritualism. He never deprecated the natural caste system but neither He approved of the birth-right caste system, which has degenerated into slut of anachronism. Lord Chaitanya opined that anyone who is well conversant with the philosophy of the Absolute Truth Shree Krishna, never mind what he is either a born Brahmin or Sudra or in the Ashram of a Sanyasi or Grihastha, is perfectly competent to act in the role of Spiritual Master. And He practically demonstrated this fact during His preaching work.

The caste goswamins assisted by the other pseudo-transcendentalists made a clique to check up the universal movement of Lord Chaitanya and made a business of dispatching those foolish followers to the kingdom heaven after having drawing a lumpsum amount for this priestcraft hooliganism.

Sree Sreemad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj wanted to check up this pseudo-spiritualistic activities of the so-called followers of Lord Chaitanya and present the actual thing for acceptance by the general public religionists and modern philosophers for a critical study of the sublime gift of Lord Chaitanya. It is the honest belief of Srila Saraswati Thakur that people in general, modern philosophers and thinkers as also the religionists will be struck with wonder when they seriously make a study of the gift of Lord Chaitanya.

What was thought by modern leaders like Gandhi and Rabindranath was long long before thought by Lord Chaitanya not as a public leader of political aspiration but as the Father of all living entities. The movement of Lord Chaitanya is generally known as the Samkirtan movement which is a transcendental process of self-realisation by removing the dust of materialism on the mirror of human intelligence. The present problem confronting the human civilization is due to lack of a proper introspection of the goal of human knowledge.

Theosophy Concluded

[This article also appears as the final part of the article "Theosophy Ends in Vaishnavism" in Back to Godhead Vol I Parts I-IV published in 1944]

"It is from this realisation of an interlinking of all mankind, and in a very precise manner the interlinking of man and man within any community, whether small like a village, or large like a nation, that the reality underlying the word 'citizen' derives its implications of responsibility, duty and sacrifice. The Theosophist knows, by his knowledge of the pattern, that men have not come together to form communities because of greed or for the purpose of self-protection; but that they have together primarily because they are to be mutually helpful, each to give what he can to the others, and to receive from them what he needs and to help to release in every other the Goodness, Love and Beauty that lie hidden in the heart of every man, woman and child.

"It is towards this goal that the Great Plan has fostered civilization from savage to civilized; therefore the word civilized connoted the duties of Citizenship. Among these duties are a valiant defense of those who are unjustly attacked, to protect the weak against the exploitation by the strong, and to release the hidden Beauty of the Divine in all men and things, by aiding in the development of the sciences and the arts, and by all ways which appeal to the Highest in Man and which bind man to man and nation to nation."

The Vaisnavite accepts all the above principles in the bond of universal brotherhood but he can see that these ties of brotherhood are only superficial and they cannot stand for a permanent relationship. Great leaders of thought in almost all countries in the world have tried this method of binding man to man and nation to nation by some sort of altruistic method but the Vaisnavite differs from them that such process may temporarily cause some sort of external brotherhood between man to man, etc., but will fail in the ultimate, unless one is not helped to revive his inborn-nature technically called "Swarupa" as distinguished from his "Birupa" or external nature. The valiant defense of those who are unjustly attacked or protect the weak from the exploitation by the strong, are undoubtedly worthy of mention for binding man to man and nation to nation but the Vaisnavite wants to make every one and all so strong that he would not need any outside protection nor will be exploited by... ...anyone else. The Vaisnavite says that a living entity when he forgets his real "Swarupa" as the eternal transcendental subordinate unit of service, becomes exploited and constantly attacked by the "Birupa" or material nature. The exploitation and attack which we generally see externally on our fellowbeings are but the attacks and exploitation of the Grim Material Nature which tries to put the conditioned soul to the path of righteousness in an indirect method-just like the teacher chastises the student in order to put the latter into righteousness. Temporary help to save one from such attack or exploitation, may save one from such attacks or exploitation by a visible agent of the material nature, but that will not save the sufferer from the hands of Material nature which is called Godly and unsurmountable in the Bhagwat Geeta. When a culprit is given punishment within the walls of a prison house by the Superintendent of the prison, the childish cry of other prisoners or protest by them can give some temporary relief to the prisoner meant for punishment, but that cannot give him real relief. Brotherhood within the prison walls by the prisoners themselves will not surely improve their ideal of universal brotherhood under the grip of the Jailor in charge.

The whole ideal of universal brotherhood, peace and amity will surely give permanent delight as soon as the brothers are given relief from the exploitation and attacks of the Material Nature just like prisoners when they are freed from the control of the Jail Superintendent to relish the sweetness of brotherhood conceived by them. Within the walls of a prison house brotherhood for mutual relief is revolt against laws of the Jail and as such universal brotherhood within the laws of Material Nature is meaningless.

The Vaisnavite therefore tries to bring one first of all out of the exploitation and attack from the hands of Material Nature by putting one under the guidance of Yogamaya and then only he conceives for a real universal brotherhood between man to man and nation to nation.

The process of getting relief from the exploiting and attacking hands of the Material Nature is to surrender oneself unconditionally unto the care of the Absolute Personality of Godhead and that is the recognised formula in the Bhagwat Geeta. When one gets "BACK TO GODHEAD" he can really form an unit in the ideals of universal Brotherhood and none else.

Every action in the mundane world is influenced by the modes of Material Nature and as such they are activated either by good ideals, passion or ignorance. The first class actions are performed under the modes of goodness but even such actions are influenced by the material nature as a result of which they are nonpermanent, imperfect and uncongenial.

So in order to get rid from the exploiting and attacking hands of the Material Nature, one has to transcend the modes of material nature by constant service of the Personality of Godhead because that is the process of transcending the modes of material nature. When every one therefore is engaged in the service of the Personality of Godhead it is then and then only in relation with the Personality of Godhead everything becomes perfect, permanent and transcendental. That is the process concluded in Bhagwat Geeta.

The Personality of Godhead says in the 26th sloka of the 14th chapter as follows:—

"And he who worships Me by an exclusive devotion in service, having passed over all the three modes, is conformed to the nature of Brahman (the Absolute)." [Bg. 14.26]

Thus according to the Vaisnavite, only those who will engage themselves in the devotional service of the Personality of Godhead by their life, money, intelligence and words can be eligible to be a member of the bond of universal brotherhood. By serving the whole only the units can be served.

The ideals of the Theosophist as put by H. P. Blavatsky are as follows:—

"Let thy Soul lend its ear to every cry of pain like as the lotus bares its heart to drink the morning son.

Let not the fierce sun dry on tear of pain before thyself has wiped it from the sufferer's eye.

But let each burning human tear drop on thy heart and there remain; nor ever brush it off until that caused it is removed.

These tears, O thou of heart most merciful, these are the streams that irrigate the fields of charity immortal."

These words can be given practical shape only by those who have dedicated their life for cent per cent service of the Personality of Godhead and without this they will simply remain as golden ideals never to be fulfilled in the kingdom of man. The devotees only think for the fallen and down-trodden, try to pick them up from the mud of material existence and it is they only who try for the permanent benefit of the sufferers from the exploitating and attacking hands of the Grim Material Nature represented by the figure of the Goddess Kalika in destructive mode.

"Charity immortal" can be effected only when we are able to revive one's remembrance of the eternal service of the Personality of Godhead. How this service can be performed is a subject for delineation in another chapter but as the Theosophist says that to become a citizen in the kingdom of God implies responsibility, duty and sacrifice, the responsibility of a Vaisnavite is to revive in the consciousness of every one and all, the transcendental relation of Godhead. The duty is first to engage oneself in the transcendental service of the Personality of Godhead and then to try to engage others also in the same transcendental engagement and therefore there must be sacrifice of life, money, intelligence and word for the propagation and revival of such transcendental activities. Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed His life for this cause and everyone who wants to enter into the Kingdom of God must be ready to sacrifice at least portion of his income if not other things in order to turn this hell into the Kingdom of God. God is Great and He reserves the right of not being exposed to the mundane speculationist and dry philosophers but He appears Himself by His own Will and Independence when He is offered transcendental loving services in all respects. The Sun appears in the morning just out of His own accord and not being bound up by the extraneous effort of the scientist. The scientist will fail to make appear the Sun at night by the discovery of all searchlights and scientific instruments. When He appears, ignorance disappears and one is able to see Him All-Good, All-Knowledge and All-Beautiful and one is also able to see himself too, that he is also all-good, all-knowledge and all-beautiful qualitatively. When he rises one can see the sun in the rays of the sun and not only the sun but also himself and all other things by him. As with the appearance of the Sun the darkness flies away so with the appearance of Godhead by His transcendental Name, Fame, Form, Qualities, etc., ignorance, poverty and wretchedness disappears; that is the verdict of all savants and scriptures.

The Theosophist tries to know the Godhead and His Kingdom in the Pattern by slow degrees in the process of self-effort and by the inductive process of generalisation but the Vaisnavite's process is the opposite. He approaches a Superior Authority who knows Godhead and His kingdom and tries to know from him submissively by the process of deduction in a mode of service and relevant sincere questions for knowing the truth. The thirty-fourth sloka of the fourth chapter of Bhagwat Geeta enjoins this in the following words:—

"Learn this (knowledge of Godhead and His Kingdom, etc.) by doing reverence (i.e., by becoming disciple) by counter-questions and by services. The Wise (one who has realised Godhead and His Kingdom) who has seen the Truth will teach (this knowledge) unto thee." [Bg. 4.34]

The process of the Vaisnavite is easier and perfect than the process of the empiric philosophers who try to know God and His Kingdom by dint of their poor fund of limited senses and imperfect knowledge derived from sensual speculation. In ordinary course of our life also we approach to the right person for learning a subject perfectly. We do not approach an engineer if we want to learn the science of medicines. Similarly if we want to know God and His kingdom or if we want to be servant of God, we must approach a real servant of God and must not approach one who is a servant of dog. Unless therefore one has not approached to the feet of one who is transcendentally wise and perfect, it is useless to talk of God and His kingdom.

In that process the Vaisnavite has realised Sree Krishna as the Absolute Personality of Godhead and the Origin of all causes. The Great Goswamins have discovered 64 transcendental qualities in their fullness in Sree Krishna which are never to be found out in any other person or god and therefore found Him (Krishna) as All-Good, All-Knowledge and All-Beautiful.

The Theosophist realises Sree Krishna in His Impersonal Aspect Brahman or All-pervading Vishnu Who dwells within as Paramatma and without as the Virata and this realisation is in perfect harmony with the observation of the Vaisnava. But the Vaisnava goes still deeper and sees Him as the Personality of Godhead "Bhagwan." The all-pervading aspect of the Personality of Godhead is realised by the Vaisnava simultaneously along with his realisation of His Personal Aspect. The vivid example for this is Pralhad Moharaj. When Pralhad Moharaj was being threatened by His atheist father Hiranyakashipu to be killed instantaneously, He (Pralhad Moharaj) stood firmly and boldly without any care for His father's threatening words. Hiranyakashipu asked, "How is it that you, foolish boy dare to neglect my anger which threatens the whole of the universe? Under whose influence you are so much fearless that you do not take any care for my words?"

Pralhad Moharaj replied to his father, "Oh king, the strength on which I depend is not only my strength but that is also your strength and that strength is also the strength of all strong men. Under that strength everything animate or inanimate in this universe works as subordinate. He is the Almighty, He is the Time, He is the Power of the senses, He is the strength of the mind, He is the strength of the body and He is the spirit of the sense organs. His power is unlimited, He is the Greatest of all, He is the Lord of the three modes of nature and He by His own strength, creates, maintains or destroys this whole universe. You may give up your this faithless character, do not nourish this nature of enmity and friendship within your heart but be equal to all beings. There is no other greater enemy than the mind who is uncontrolled and always going astray. To feel for all entities as one with us is the highest form of religion. In the ancient time some foolish men like yourself used to think as if they have conquered all the four corners of the universe, without conquering the six senses within themselves who are all-killing objects. But there is no enemy for the one, who is equal to all entities, self-conquered saint. The enemy is created by our ignorance only."

The atheist father became too much angry on these words of his son Pralhad Moharaj and began to taunt him saying, "You fool, you dare to ill-fame me and call yourself as the conqueror of all enemy and thus you are proud of your acquisition. By this I can clearly understand that you are strongly desirous of death as I know those who want to die say all these rubbish words before me. Do you believe that there is any God more powerful than myself? Where does He live? If He is all-pervading why does He not live within this pillar before me? I shall sever your head from your body who is so much proud and let your God come here and save you."

Pralhad Moharaj still remained silent as He knew that God is all-pervading and that He is sure to live within the pillar marked by Hiranyakashipu. Hiranyakashipu broke the Pillar and the Personality of Godhead came out of it in the shape of Narasingha just to kill the atheist Hiranyakashipu and other demonic people.

So the Vaisnavite's realisation of the Absolute Godhead is full and perfect in all of His different aspects while the realisation of the Empiricist or the Mystics (Yogins) or Fruitive worker are but partial and imperfect as they can only realise in one aspect of the Absolute Truth.

The Theosophist as an unit in the Whole desires to mould his destiny and thereby the destiny of the Whole. The individual soul when he becomes a Vaisnava that is, identifies himself with the interest of the Visnu, the Lord of the Universe, it is then only he realises his real position as a unit in the Whole and thus he finds out his duty towards the Whole also. He realises that he is a part in the Whole and not equal with the Whole. He is simultaneously one with the Whole and different too. He realises that Sree Krishna the Absolute Personality of Godhead is Great and Infinite while he himself although the part and parcel of that Infinite—is infinitesimal. He is the Fire and the individual souls are innumerable emanated sparks from Him. As such qualitatively the individual souls have the same potency of fire as the Fire himself. Sree Krishna the Absolute Personality of Godhead is All-attractive, so the individual soul when he actually realises his own position and thus becomes attracted by Sree Krishna—he is then able to attract thousands and thousands of other individual souls towards the Lotus Feet of Sree Krishna. In other words when an individual soul realises himself fully by the mercy of Sree Krishna, it is then only possible for him to attract others to the Lotus Feet of the Absolute Personality of Godhead. At this stage only the individual soul can realise that he is an eternal servitor of the Great and the Infinite. Eternal life is his constitution and transcendental Love of Godhead is his business or religion. As such the Vaisnavite at this stage moulds his destiny by activities which transcendentally increases his Love of God and similarly he tries for others so that they may also revive their latent constitution of Love and Service for the Absolute Person. These activities are as practical as we have to do our daily necessary works and are never to be simply an intellectual speculation with result of fatigue and disappointment. The practical works are so much real that they gradually put oneself in the ocean of transcendental Bliss and the whole universe shall appear to such lover of God, as all-blissful, eternal and full of light. This is called unconditional pure and eternal life of the individual soul in his spiritual existence.

As such the Vaisnavite can distinguish the life of an individual soul in divisions namely unconditional and conditional. As referred to above the individual soul remains the same part and parcel of the Great and the Infinite both in the unconditional as well as conditional states. It is never to be misunderstood that in the unconditional state the individual soul becomes the Infinite from infinitesimal. And because the individual soul is infinitesimal always and never the Infinite, he is subject to become conditional under the laws of material nature and were he infinite at any stage he would have never been subjected to a conditional life under the laws of Nature. That is his marginal position.

Karmayoga of Bhagwat Geeta

(in Devanagari:)

arjuna uvaca
sannyasam karmanam krsna
punar yogam ca samsasi
yac chreya etayor ekam
tan me bruhi su-niscitam
[Bg. 5.1]

Synonyms

arjuna uvaca: Arjuna Said.
sannyasam: Renunciation.
karmanam: Of the works.
punah: Again.
yogam ca: Karmayoga (Service without attachment).
samsasi: Putting in doubt.
yac chreya: What is better.
etayor ekam: Either of these two.
tat: That.
me bruhi: Tell me.
su-niscitam: Certainly.

TRANSLATION.

Arjuna said, Oh Krishna, you have said about renunciation of works, and again you are putting in doubt about works without attachment. Please let me know certainly as to which of these two is better.

PURPORT

To be free from the bondage of works by 'Karmyoga' (to work without attachment for the result) and to fight by destroying all doubts by the sword of pure knowledge (renunciation) although apparently seem to be contradictory, actually they are one and the same thing. We cannot stop our activities as living entities. Activities dictated by lust are followed by their action and reactions (bondage) and the result of which is enjoyed by the conditioned soul himself. But activities for the service of the Absolute Truth are the products of pure knowledge. When activities, therefore undertaken for the services of the Absolute Truth, one has no responsibility for the result of those actions.

Renunciation of all works means to cease to enjoy the fruits of all works and the very same result is obtained when one performs actions for the transcendental service. Renouncement of anything is the negative side only of positive truth. The value of such renunciation is zero only if there is no positive engagement. Stop playing by a student is certainly a kind of renunciation whose value is zero only if the boy does not engage himself in his valuable studies. Renunciation of works (Sanyasam) therefore is a step forward from the state of satisfying sense-gratification, towards acceptance of engagement in the transcendental services of the Absolute Truth. In the absence of such transcendental service for the Absolute Truth, mere renunciation of works has no value so to say. Arjuna is to fight in order to execute the supreme will of Sree Krishna the Absolute Truth. In order to come to that state of pure knowledge, Arjuna is advised to do works for the Absolute Truth i.e. to work without any attachment for the result of the work. To renounce therefore material attachment of a work is to create interest is spiritual attachment. To renounce therefore material enjoyment means to enter into spiritual felicity. The aim being one and the same there is no difference between Karmayoga and pure knowledge.