This response to the Sree Vyasa Puja (1936) by Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur was published in The Harmonist or Sajjana Toshani March 19, 1936.
In today’s great gathering of such a large number of enlightened persons, a good deal has already been said by more than one speaker. The audience have been listening to their addresses for a long time. I have not much to. say of my own. Previous speakers have elucidated what I have to say. Many of them have spoken in the English language. For this reason it has become necessary for me to address you in Bengali. The Bengali language, such as I can command, is not easy. It do not know whether it will be intelligible to all. Before I proceed to say anything of my own, I have to offer an explanation for myself as to why I have been listening to all these words of praise without the least hesitation. I do not possess much knowledge of any language. I have, however, been able to gather from the words of praise, that have been so abundantly and so kindly addressed to me by my masters, that those words demonstrate my ineligibilities. On behalf of myself the only explanation I have to offer is this that – if i had said anything about myself I should have been responsible for the same. But i am relieved of all responsibility as the words of the order of my masters have been spoken by other mouths. As regards my part of the conduct, to which I have also alluded, it might have been open to the criticism of other persons if it had proceeded from myself. But it is not so. It is the doing of my Master. And it is for this simple reason that I have been under the obligation to display such behaviour without stopping to consider whether it might be disliked by other persons. We have heard it said that the plant comes out of the seed, and that it cannot grow otherwise. The seed is born from the tree and the tree grows from the seed, turn by turn. If we adopt the view that no seed should grow from the tree, the forward movement of growth is stopped and its continuous flow is destroyed. I have, therefore, to practise to sit at these assemblies in the garb of a wise person and to listen to words of praise relying on the dictum that the command of the Master is above all questioning.
If, however, I am thereby led to suppose that it is a good thing to listen to one’s own praise, my worthlesness is published to all the world in a glaring manner by such silly thinking. I am obliged to accept this honour in order that the current of the Word of God may not be obstructed and its perennial flow may not cease. Our judgment in this matter- is different from that of persons who listen to their praises for pampering their arrogance by such audiencing. We should listen to nothing else but the praises of the Divine Master I have to conduct myself, with all humility, in any manner that the order of my masters may at any moment consider it to be needful for me. I am not prepared to take the responsibility upon myself for any inconveniences that may result from such conduct. I have heard from my Divine Master that one should audience the Word of God by being infinitely humbler than a blade of grass.
Whoever chants the Word is no other than the Lotus Feet of the Divine Master. Audiencing the chanted Word is the disciplic function. The Word is mirrored in the heart by the only method of audiencing the chant of the Divine Master. Therefore, I am eligible to listen to these words of praise by the disciplic method. There is a great necessity to learn by the method of listening how one should approach God and His devotees with humility, in what manner one must sing their praises and honour them. Today I have found much that everyone should note most carefully. There has been an opportunity of learning how one should honour other persons being himself unhonoured, how one should sing the praises of God and His devotees by silencing the hostile clamours of all kinds of indolence. Singing the praises of the devotees of God is, indeed, the one thing needful. My revered masters have taught us to praise God and His devotees by their praises directed to myself. By praising the non -devotees both the offerers and the recipients of such praise are put into difficulties. My reverend masters are endeavouring to purify my heart by teaching me to be humble. They are saying to me, ‘We possess the priceless quality of honouring other persons. We are offering you all this honour that you may, by similarly honouring all persons of this world, be enabled to be constantly engaged in the service of God and His devotees who can be perfectly served only by those who are inspired with such burning love.
God and His devotees are worshipped by chanting their praises. It enables us to learn the language of Bandana or worship by the method of praise. We have also heard the following words which were spoken by our former masters, ‘I am incomparably more vile than insects bred in ordure and infinitely more wicked than Jagai and Madkai’. It is only when we have occasion to listen to the praises of the Supreme Object of all praise from the Master and they react on our hearts, that we may learn about our utter worthlessness. Their profound humility and obedience teach us that it is never possible to approach God and His devotees except by such humble submission. If we learn to be arrogant, we would surely be deprived of the service of God and His devotees for good. “There are persons who do not worship His devotees while worshipping God, Verily they are arrogant persons and not worshippers of God”. If the same devotion with which we worship God is not aroused in our hearts to the feet of His devotees, we are rendered perfectly worthless and will have lived in vain. I am extremely unfit and encompassed with all the evils. But an immense number of God’s devotees have mercifully appeared for my good who am so completely engulfed in evil. Many of them have gathered at this place for subduing my irrepressible arrogance. All of them are instructing me about the highest service of God. May we be ever ready to brush away from our hearts, by the rough application of hundreds of thousands of pointed broomsticks, the wicked desire of being honoured above other persons by the devotees of God. God will be merciful to us and we shall be blessed with the gift of devotion to His Divine Feet the very day that we are delivered from the evil desire of seeking advantages and honours from others. A person is relieved from all ineligibilities by being imparted fitness for the service of God.
Women, Shudras and the rest are condemnable and contemptible in the eyes of the world for their evil deeds. Even such persons are enabled to attain the eternal good by noting the model disposition of the devotees of God, who honour all persons without being honored and by following their conduct and teaching. Let us remember the text already quoted, “There are those who worship God but do not worship His devotees. Verily such persons are arrogant sinners. They are not worshippers of God”. If we become arrogant after having adopted the path of devotion, if we worship only God and disregard the worship of His devotees, we would be put to manifold difficulties for our offence at the feet of the servants of God ; we would be overtaken by the greatest of all misfortunes by being afflicted with apathy for the principle of devotion itself. Human life is not intended for gathering evil. It is meant solely for the attainment of the supreme good. Why do I forget it ? Why do I forget that I am the meanest and least of all entities ? The ambition to lord it over others, to be great, to be elevationist or salvationist, is brought about when we allow ourselves to fall a victim to the temptations of the deluding energy of God. Such ambition is petty and useless. If there is any use in curbing one’s hankering for becoming great in the eyes of the world, if there is any use in gaining one’s real health, it is imperative to accept the line of thought of the Vaishnavas. Those who are fit possess abundant power of devotion. They are strong. I have not gained so much strength. Being puffed up with the false idea of the same, I should not apply myself to find out the shortcomings of the Vaishnavas, or to condemn the service of Lord Vishnu or to seek to establish my own point of view by neglecting the method by which I may be enabled to serve the Lord and His devotees. No language can describe the havoc that is wrought in human life by such arrogance. I make this submission with all humility, taking hold of your feet, ‘May you kindly refrain from imitating the conduct of the Vaishnavas. May you always follow their line of thought’. There is no relationship for us other than with the devotees of Vishnu. Relationships with other persons can only aggravate the desire for sensuous gratification. Many a year have now passed over me one by one. I at last realise that there is no other help for me than the mercy of the holy feet of the Vaishnavas. Every one of my acts is fit to be attacked. I pray to those, who look down upon me, that if they consider that it is allowable for me to follow the conduct and the teachings of the Vaishnavas, they would no longer maintain that attitude. They will kindly impart to me the needful strength and fitness to communicate their power to those who are stupid and ignorant and devoid of all strength. One who serves Lord Hari counts himself as the least of all entities. One is lifted to the highest order of the Vaishnavas when one can feel himself the least Of all. One can then speak the message of the highest devotion of Lord Hari.
“The best of all persons deems himself to be less than all others”.
It is necessary for the best to scrutinise one’s ineligibility. Why should a person be anxious to pry into the defects of others when he does not seek to scrutinise his own conduct ? Is this the disposition of the Vaishnava ? On the other hand, even those, who are low in the scale of service, may attain the higher level. Let us remember the texts :
“Not to speak of persons who listen to and remember with care the instructions of the spiritual -scriptures, even those who live by sin, viz., women, Shudras, Hunas, Savarat and the birds of the air, can know God and prevail over Has deluding power if they follow the conduct of the devoted servants of the Lord who covers the worlds by His wonderful strides”.
“The acts and expressions of the Vaishnavas cannot be understood even by the wise.”
The devotees are attached to the Lord Who pervades the worlds with His wonderful strides. Let us not be misled by the apparent sight. Many a person have been liable to mistake the pebble for the pearl, the snake for the rope, evil for good, by falling a victim to delusion by their reliance on apparent sight. It is only when a person allows himself to fall into the clutches of self-delusion that one’s senses show their eagerness for supplying the wants incidental to the phenomenal world by supposing himself to be an inhabitant of the same. We should consider well how we are to be delivered from being thus exploited by the deluding energy. It will never bring us relief if we adopt the lordly mentality for supplying our present inadequacies and for avoiding what certain hasty observers have~ been pleased to dub as ‘the slave mentality’ of the devotees of God. Such modes of thinking accelerate our march towards the Inferno by plunging us into the course of sensuous indulgences. If we disregard or ignore the devotees of God for elevating ourselves, we would thereby be cast into the prison of three dimensions and spin towards inflation instead of contraction. ‘I will be good ; I will be cured of my disease ; I will have real well being’: this is the proper kind of judgment. But it is not at all laudable to entertain the contrary thoughts,—’I will be great, I will gratify my malice by stopping the course of the whole world.’
It is by no means proper to set up one’s superiority against the worshipfulness of God’s devotees. The path of audiencing the Transcendental Word has been rendered devious by the malinterpretation of the text ‘Aham Brahmashmi.’ I have listened to the true interpretation of the text at the lotus feet of my Divine Master. It is to this effect,
“It is our eternal duty to chant constantly the Name of Hari by being infinitely more truly humble than the smallest blade of grass, more truly forbearing than even the proverbially patient tree, by honouring others without being honoured.”
We find assembled here today many really great souls. What persuasive courtesy, what humility do they possess ! How great is the benefit, how great the good, that we may have by listening to their words! We hear it from the Talavakar Upanishad that those who aspire to be masters of the devotees, who are the masters of God Himself, are, indeed, most culpably arrogant. Srimad Bhagabat significantly declares, ‘Let those who profess to know God brag of their knowledge, but let me have nothing to do with such fellows. This is all I have got to say in this matter.’ Not one among the paths of this material world is a path of the service of the ‘Divinity. The idea that one should be master, of God’s devotees leads to Inferno. It is harmful to follow any worldly path. To follow the devotees of God is the best path that leads to one’s real good. Whatever method is followed by the devotees is worthy of being cherished with the utmost love and reverence. Holding the blade of straw between my teeth I pray time and again for this only boon that I may be a particle of dust at the lotus feet of the most revered Sree Rupa Goswami Prabhu. Let there be birth after birth for us that we may walk in the path of the followers of Sree Rupa by being the particles of dust of the lotus feet of the devotees of God. The root of it all is humilty or the due realisation of one’s own ineligibility. If the conviction of our unfitness for the service of God is revealed to us either automatically or by the instruction, of other persons, we are only then in a position to behold the beauty of the lotus feet of God’s devotees. In all the talks of the average people of this world the idea that is uppermost is how to promote the gratification of one’s senses. If we happen to be obsessed with the idea that it is the path of religion, we would be prevented for good from becoming truly religious.
All persons are accustomed to worship the Beautiful Feet of God. But the conception that God is to supply our comforts and conveniences in lieu of worship is worthy of a shopkeeper. That we are to receive some other things in exchange of our worship is not the trend of thought of the devotees of God. If one seeks to follow such a course, one will never understand the nature of the service of Krishna. God is full of the highest well-being. It is no proof of one’s goodness of judgment to pray to God for the gratification of one’s senses instead of the highest good. It should be the duty of all persons to follow the line of thought that seeks to find out how Krishna is to be served.
“I have not spared any method for carrying out the bad dictates of the lusts of the flesh. But they have had no pity upon me, nor have they produced in me any compunction or satiety. Wherefore, Lord of the Yadus, having only now gained the balance of my judgment, after finally giving up the abject thraldom of the sensuous appetites, I have come to Thee, Who art the Refuge from all fear. May Thou be pleased to employ me in Thy service.”
Oh my Lord, I pray to Thee for employing me in Thy service. I will no more serve dogs and horses, iron and gold, men and gods. I have courted my own destruction by engaging in their service Thy service, 0 Lord, is the only means of being delivered from this dire misfortune. But it is a far cry to seek to obtain Thy service without serving those who have dedicated themselves to Thy service. The service of Thy devotees is productive of greater good than any other method. We do not find God in this world. The devotees, who serve God, out of their mercy show themselves to us. We should follow their conduct and teaching. It is the only path to our well-being. Due to our meagre of education and small experience, to most of us the ideas and ways of thinking of the devotees of God appear to be unedifying ‘slave mentality’. Let us not indulge in such profane ravings under the urge of mental aberration. On the contrary, our line of thought should be, ‘Let the censorious people calumniate us to their hearts’ content. We will not mind them. Let us roll in the dust and forget everything in the ecstasy of intoxication by excessive drinking of the strong wine of the tasty liquid mellow of Lord Hari.’
We will roll in the dust sanctified by the tread of the feet of God’s devotees. We will not make any disciples. We have not made any disciples, nor will we ever make any. Because unless we cease to do so, we will be misled along the wrong tracks by the sinister insinuations of those who are constitutionally averse to the service of God. All of you are the order of my masters. May you have mercy upon me, remembering that I am your disciple.