Source: Encounters with Divinity, by Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Dev Gosvāmī Mahārāja
Yāre dekho tāre kaha kṛṣṇa upadeśa. Once I went to Kṛṣṇanagara court. There the lawyers put to me, “Why do all you sādhus come to court? It is very awkward that sādhus come to court. Are you not ashamed?”
I told him that, “You have a bad conception of sādhu. You think the sādhu must retire to Haridvāra or the jungle and there he will go on with his practices. That is the conception of the sādhu in your court. But you have not seen such a sādhu as the founder of Gauḍīya Maṭha. He is not afraid of the māyā. He wants to attack the whole system of māyā and destroy it.”
Prabhupāda wanted to attack and be in war with māyā. Our Guru Mahārāja declared that we will capture all the centers of activities and paralyze them. “We want to take the bhāgavata-kathā there. Nothing should be eliminated. We are not afraid of māyā. We want to conquer it, defeat it, to capture all the centers. Why this court should be eliminated from that. We are sādhus of that type. We are not afraid of māyā, that we shall run away to the jungle and enter into a cave and there we will go on with hari-nāma. Hari will stand and all these other things must vanish,” I told him.
Gaudiya Matha is not afraid of anything. A Vaiṣṇava who loved the solitary life of bhajana once asked our Guru Mahārāja, “Why do you stay in Calcutta? That is the place of Satan, where fighting for selfish interest is so acute. Leave that and come to the holy dhāma.” But Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura especially chose that place, saying, “I prefer to represent Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s creed in an extremely contaminated place.” For this reason, he wanted to send men to the West. “The East is captured by the glamour of Western civilization,” he said, “So Western civilization must first be crushed. Then, its glamour will vanish and the whole world will come to join the campaign of divine love of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.” This was the same spirit with which Nityānanda Prabhu canvassed the fallen souls of this world in His attempt to take them to the lotus feet of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
No recognition of the jāti-brāhmaṇas, jāti-gosvāmīs, these bābājīs, the Ramakrishna Mission—all foes, no friend! This is Gaudiya Matha. Single-handed they are fighting with everyone existing in the name of religion or non-religion or hodge-podge religion. Single-handed! Our Guru Mahārāja, on the basis of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s findings, took the sword and declared war against the whole world. That was his characteristic.
So that was the idea of the general, Prabhupāda. I must capture all the important points from māyā wherever I see it. Go on chanting the Name of Kṛṣṇa. Make service to Kṛṣṇa. One day in Allahabad, perhaps that very year Swami Mahārāja was initiated, in a park our Guru Mahārāja gave a challenge, “I issue a challenge.” As wrestlers challenge anyone to wrestle, in a meadow, two fighters face-off—just as that one who became a Mohammedan from Christian—Mohammed Ali, challenged the world. “I am ready to fight with any person to show that the highest position is occupied by my Gurudeva, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Gaura-kiśora Dāsa Bābājī, Mahāprabhu. Let anyone come to fight with me to decide—I’m ready!” That he told. “I am ready to challenge anybody and everybody. Let them come and fight with me. I want to establish my Gurudeva on a throne, in the highest place.”
With so much force he came. Just as river comes from the hill very forcibly, the current is very fierce when it comes. So Prabhupāda began such wholesome pracāra (preaching). Let the enemies come with all their points of argument and we shall dissolve all that. Say what you have to say. From the lowest atheist to the so-called theist, all come! Only Kṛṣṇa is the highest, and His bhajana in divine love, that is the highest. We shall stand for that, we shall occupy it with that. That is the idea.
Deep Knowledge of Bhagavatam
Our Guru Mahārāja wanted to conquer the whole territory of māyā. That was his spirit, to attack from different directions. One of the moderate leaders of the time, a pro-Hindu, when he came to the Calcutta maṭha, he appeared to have some knowledge of the scriptures and also of Bhāgavatam. When he heard our Guru Mahārāja speak, he asked many questions and said that, “I can’t imagine these two things that I find here—such deep knowledge of the Bhāgavatam and such appreciation at every stage of argument—reciting and giving quotations from the Bhāgavata. Whatever the subject matter of discussion, a Bhāgavata śloka is given in support of that—so much deep knowledge of Bhāgavatam I have never seen before nor conceived.
“And another thing, a daily religious paper, I can’t conceive that daily a religious paper is published.” Prabhupāda answered that, “We are talking about Vaikuṇṭha—that unlimited world. And this world is māyā, which means the limited world. So many daily newspapers are going on with the subject of this limited world. In the unlimited world there is only one daily newspaper and that is inconceivable to you? There is so much news.” Influenced by the discussion of our Guru Mahārāja that man started publishing books in his own way, but he was not successful in that matter.
The books of the Gauḍīya Maṭha however are of a different kind. They are based on scientific principles with hari-nāma. It is mentioned in the śāstra that the smallest amount of Kṛṣṇa consciousness can purify remaining anarthas—it is so powerful and disinfecting that the least connection of Kṛṣṇa consciousness can purify miraculously. But it must be proper Kṛṣṇa consciousness to purify—the nirguṇa, the highest class of nirguṇa conception. Like a small homeopathic dose can work miraculous cures immediately—instantly, any man from the lowest class may be fit for the highest duty of a brāhmaṇa. If there is sat-saṅga, with the association of the sādhus, by their combined force any bold attempt may be taken up.
Friends to Help Me Preach
We heard from our Prabhupāda: “So many friends have come to me to help me in the discharge of my duty. I should do all these things myself, but because I am not fit for that, Kṛṣṇa has sent so many friends to help me in that action.” This is the real conception of a Vaiṣṇava in our guru-varga. We are
told to see things in this way. When we look to the real plane we find that everyone has a separate soul—by nature everyone belongs to Kṛṣṇa only and none else. So each has come to help under a different garb—in a different color they have come to do the service of their Lord. The svarūpa-śakti is engaging those of different status to help in the discharge of Her duty to serve kṛṣṇa-līlā—to be used in līlā. Everything is for Himself, in Hegelian language, for Itself. Everything is for Himself. So that is sacrifice—to sacrifice everything for His satisfaction. That is the main current of thought and purity.
The highest type of purity is there—surrender to the Autocrat. When the Autocrat is the absolute good, beauty, love, and harmony—don’t be a miser dealing with Him. Wholesale giving, realizing that we are His property, He is our Master, to make or mar—He is in a position to do anything He likes with us—such a Master.
Surrender of such quality can save us, give us eternal life and healthy life. We must live and breathe in such an atmosphere where He has full right over us to make or mar—we belong to Him. This realization must be of such a degree of purity that the degree of holiness will also increase accordingly—purity and holiness are of the same order. Ordinary purity is not purity proper, it must come to the standard of holiness, divinity. Tat-paratvena nirmalam—purity is nirmala. Tat-paratvena nirmalam—as much as we realize that we are meant for Him, according to that degree the purity will increase. Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktam—what is otherwise, that must be removed. Tat-paratvena nirmalam—an innermost understanding that we fully belong to Him—a type of slave. The purity is there—as much as we have faith in Him, that is the standard of purity—so much it is pure and divine and holy. It does not mean that that realized position is an abstract one. Hṛṣīkeṇa hṛṣīkeśa-sevanam bhakti-yogyate—all the constituent parts of your spiritual body will be utilized. They are not your enemy—the enemy is in the nature of engagement, not in those that are doing some function, not there. They should not be eliminated at all. But only the nature should be changed. Everything will be gold. From iron it will be converted into gold—from mud it will be converted into gold. But everything will be retained. Only the nature is to be changed. The dreadfulness of danger is only with a conception of a secondary interest—a conception of separate interest from that of the absolute center of absolute good. That is to be eliminated, nothing else. Everything will be kept intact and utilized to its fullest satisfaction and fulfillment. Everything has its real and highest fulfillment, only the connection should be established.