In2-MeC

Auckland, New Zealand
27 November 2003

>Dear Maharaj,

>Please accept my respects.
>All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

>I recently came across some issues, whilst giving a KC presentation to the Hindu Society at the University of London (Royal Holloway). I was asked about the ethical standing of the asvameda yagna. To my limited knowledge I simply replied that the animal was sacrificed for the elevation of its position to a gandharva.

>Maharaj, please could you provide me with a more complete response to this question? A brief background of the yagna would be great.

Regarding Asvamedha-yajna, Vedic kings used to conduct this ritualistic ceremony in order to get absolved of all sins. They fixed a victory flag upon the head of a horse and sent it out to roam about freely. If anybody caught the horse and tethered it, the king marched with his army to defeat that challenger in battle and bring back the horse. If the king was victorious then the horse was sacrificed. If a king could do a hundred such yajnas he could become Indra in the next life.

Regarding the ethics of that sacrifice, some salient points are: it was arranged for by kings within narrow circumstances, so obviously the occasion of such a sacrifice was rare (think how many horses are killed nowadays in slaughterhouses for no reason other than to provide meat, glue, leather and so on); the soul of the sacrificed horse was promoted to heaven; the brahmanas of those times demonstrated to the audience of the sacrifice their power over the destiny of that soul by sometimes bringing, by mantra, the dead horse back to life in a rejuvenated body; the asvamdha-yajna is forbidden in Kali-yuga because there are no such brahmanas to perform it.

>Also, I came across the issue of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura having rejected his diksha guru for some reason; my apologies in providing such a speculative query but i hope that you could clarify this apparent break in lineage challenge that I was presented with. I would also appreciate if you could clarify other controversies such as Bhaktivinoda Thakura apparently eating fish (again - not sure on the validity of this one as i heard some person speaking it).

Either you misheard that person or that person was speaking mistakenly. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura did not reject his initiating spiritual master, Vipina Bihari Gosvami. Rather, his son, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, did not show much respect to V.P.G. as he was a jata-gosai, a caste Gosvami in householder life. In any case, the Gaudiya Vaisnava sampradaya does not run so much on the diksa line of succession as it does on siksa (instruction). Taking a look at the list of spiritual masters in the disciplic succession given by Srila Prabhupada in his Bhagavad-gita, we find that some were not initiated by the one before. Sripada Madhvacarya, for example, was not initiated by Srila Vyasadeva.

Hoping this meets you well,

dasanudasa Suhotra Swami

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Bhagavad-Gita in Essence
(continued from yesterday)

The Second Essence: The Catur-Sloki Gita
(Bg 10.8-10.11)

Focus on Bg 10.11 purport

When Lord Caitanya was in Benares promulgating the chanting of Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna, Krsna Krsna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, thousands of people were following Him. Prakasananda Sarasvati, a very influential and learned scholar in Benares at that time, derided Lord Caitanya for being a sentimentalist. Sometimes philosophers criticize the devotees because they think that most of the devotees are in the darkness of ignorance and are philosophically naive sentimentalists. Actually that is not the fact. There are very, very learned scholars who have put forward the philosophy of devotion.

Notes:

Quotation from Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.2.12:

tac chraddadhana munayo
jnana-vairagy-yuktaya
pasyanty atmani catmanam
bhaktya struta-grhitaya

The seriously inquisitive student or sage, well equipped with knowledge and detachment, realizes the Absolute Truth by rendering devotional service in terms of what he has heard from the Vedanta-sruti.

Quotation from Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.101:

sruti-smrti-puranadi
pancaratra-vidhim vina
aikantiki harer bhaktir
utpatayaiva kalpate

Devotional service to the Lord that ignores the authorized Vedic literatures like the Upanisads, Puranas, Narada-Pancaratra, etc., is simply an unnecessary disturbance in society.

But even if a devotee does not take advantage of their literatures or of his spiritual master, if he is sincere in his devotional service he is helped by Krsna Himself within his heart. So the sincere devotee engaged in Krsna consciousness cannot be without knowledge. The only qualification is that one carry out devotional service in full Krsna consciousness.

The modern philosophers think that without discriminating one cannot have pure knowledge. For them this answer is given by the Supreme Lord: those who are engaged in pure devotional service, even though they be without sufficient education and even without sufficient knowledge of the Vedic principles, are still helped by the Supreme God, as stated in this verse.

Notes:

1. This point is already explained. Since Vedic knowledge is svatah-siddhi-jnana, self-manifest within the soul, it is the natural property of the pure devotee who surrenders to the Lord in the heart.

Quotation from Srila Prabhupada:

Tesam. Who are those, tesam? Not all. Satata-yuktanam bhajatam priti-purvakam, tesam. It is a special favor for them. Tesam evanukampartham. So if Krsna dissipates ignorance from the heart of a person, how he can be less intelligent? If somebody is guided by the most perfect intellect, intellectual, then how he can be less intelligent? So these Mayavadis' accusation that bhakti is meant for the less intelligent class and jnana is meant for the higher class of men, so this accusation is refuted that 'No, don't think that the devotees are less intelligent, because I am guiding them.

Dr. Patel: Nasayamy atma-bhava-stho, aham ajnana-jam tamah. Tamah nasayamy atma-bhava-stho.

Prabhupada: Tamah. No more ignorance, darkness. So how a devotee can be in darkness, in ignorance? This is refuted.

2. In any case, Vedic knowledge that analyzes the living entity's entanglement in the material energy is subordinate to the knowledge of the Personality of Godhead. Vedanta is mostly concerned with the former and only hints at the latter. Srimad-Bhagavatam says the former is to be given up upon attainment of the latter.

SB 11.12.24:

With steady intelligence you should develop unalloyed devotional service by careful worship of the spiritual master, and with the sharpened ax of transcendental knowledge you should cut off the subtle material covering of the soul. Upon realizing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, you should then give up that ax of analytic knowledge.

3. Surrender to the Lord and full realization of His transcendental personality does not depend upon the cultivation of analytic knowledge.

Quote from Srila Prabhupada:

No. There is no question of understanding. Suppose this process... Just like Krsna says, bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyante: "After many, many births of culture of knowledge, the person who has come to the highest point of knowledge, he surrenders unto Me." So similarly, if any person without any knowledge, if he surrenders only to Krsna, he acquires all the knowledge. He has surpassed all stages. He has surpassed all stages. And that is also confirmed. If you say, "How he has gone, surpassed all stage?" That answer in Bhagavad- gita you find, tesam evanukampartham aham ajnana-jam tamah, nasayamy atma-bhavastho jnana-dipena bhasvata. Tesam: "Because he is a devotee, just to give, just to show him a special favor," tesam evanukampartham, "simply for showing a special favor, I Myself, from within, I light up the knowledge, I mean to say, searchlight, and he becomes..." And you will be surprised that my guru maharaja's spiritual master was Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji Maharaja. He was completely illiterate. He did not know how to sign, and my spiritual master was the most learned man of his age. He accepted that guru who was completely illiterate. But when he would speak, that Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji Maharaja, he would speak with all Vedic references. And you will find in the Veda that yasya deve para bhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau, tasyaite kathita hy arthah prakasante mahatmanah. So the spiritual knowledge becomes revealed. It is not subjected to any material acquisition. It is not subjected to any material acquisition of knowledge. It becomes revealed. How? Yasya deve para bhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau. One who has a staunch faith in the Supreme Lord and staunch faith in the personality of his spiritual master, bona fide, then he gets all the things revealed in himself. Spiritual things are not just like material things. So according to Bhagavad-gita, sarva-guhyatamam, the Lord says that "The most confidential part of knowledge I am speaking to you, my dear Arjuna, because you are My very dear friend, that sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja." So one who has the conception of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and has surrendered unto Him, he is considered to be highest, topmost spiritualist.

4. The following two sections of the Purport to Bg 10.11 clearly establish that the knowledge Krsna reveals within the heart is the knowledge of His personal form, which is realized only through devotional service and which automatically dispells ignorance, as a flame destroys darkness.

Only by devotional service is the Supreme Truth, Krsna, pleased, and by His inconceivable energy He can reveal Himself to the heart of the pure devotee. The pure devotee always has Krsna within his heart; and with the presence of Krsna, who is just like the sun, the darkness of ignorance is at once dissipated. This is the special mercy rendered to the pure devotee by Krsna.

The ultimate goal, Visnu, can be attained only by this chant and by devotional service, and not by mental speculation or argument. The pure devotee does not have to worry about the material necessities of life; he need not be anxious, because when he removes the darkness from his heart, everything is provided automatically by the Supreme Lord, who is pleased by the loving devotional service of the devotee. This is the essence of the teachings of Bhagavad-gita.

Chatur-sloki summary:

SB 11.11.48:

My dear Uddhava, I am personally the ultimate shelter and way of life for saintly liberated persons, and thus if one does not engage in My loving devotional service, which is made possible by associating with My devotees, then for all practical purposes, one possesses no effective means for escaping from material existence.

(To be continued tomorrow, focusing on the Purport of Bg 18.65, the Gita-rahasya)

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