PRO-KANISTHA SIDDHA-PRANALI (PART 2)

To briefly recap, in part I, it was established that the ekadasa-bhava imparted to kanistha-adhikaris is necessarily a placebo or generic template, with a few variables to make it appear less generic.

Now in part II, we want to highlight the fundamental misconception in the worldview of the

pro-kanistha siddha-pranali camp that necessitates their adoption of the pro-kanistha siddha-pranali doctrine.

To understand this subject it is useful to frame it in the form of a question:

“What is it that occupies the space between the state of no realization of Sri Krsna’s lila and perfect realization of Sri Krsna’s lila?”

All aspiring devotees will be benefitted by carefully considering their answer to this vital question. Our answer will indicate the fundamental nature of our conception in relation to transcendence. The pro-kanistha siddha-pranali camp proposes an answer that comprises the very precondition for susceptibility to their doctrine.

Here it is. The devotee who has no realization of Sri Krsna’s lila can gradually acquire realization by visualizing the lila every day while chanting. By receiving siddha-pranali, the devotee is furnished with the information necessary to visualize his svarupa and project himself into the lila, thus following Srila Rupa Gosvami’s instruction to render service in the siddha-rupa as his daily sadhana. Sastras such as Sri Govinda-lilamrta and Sri Krsna Bhavanamrta provide an outline of the lila.

They believe that by mechanically visualizing a lila and mentally projecting oneself into the pastime as a manjari, gradually the visualization will become clearer and clearer until one day, by “the causeless mercy”, it becomes real. The visualization, a product of the material mind, will actually become spiritual, if you just believe in it enough. Believing more and more intensely every day is called greed, lobha, and that is all you need. Is this really the teaching of the Gosvamis?

Do you agree with this answer? If so, your siddhanta is in a total shambles.

We have seen in recent years a good number of naive devotees with impaired judgment, usually arising from a history of drug abuse, became completely convinced by “The Secret” - the Law of Attraction – “Whatever you think about will become reality if you just believe in it strongly enough.” Similarly, not a small number of devotees think that raganuga-bhakti works in more or less the same way. Due to a total lack of discrimination between matter and spirit, they become utterly incredulous if someone suggests, “Wait a minute. Actually it is not so.” For the undiscerning, raganuga-bhakti is the Indian equivalent of “The Secret.”

Now here is the actual answer to the question of what lies between “no realization” and “perfect realization.” – OFFENSELESS CHANTING.

It seems like a simple answer, and it is. But we should understand that it contains a vast wealth of deep siddhanta.

When the devotee chants the Holy Name without offense, ceto darpana marjanam, the cleansing of the mirror of the heart takes place. This corresponds to the stage of anartha-nivrtti. Then the devotee’s citta develops “bhagavad-bimba-grähitvam” (VCT Sarartha Darsini 3.6.22) the capacity to catch the reflection of the Lord’s form while chanting.

The form and qualities of Sri Krsna appear one after the other in the stage of nistha (VCT Sarartha Darsini 3.25.25). Namabhasa chanted with firm faith awakens realization of Sri Krsna’s form, qualities, opulence, sweetness and beauty. (Sarartha Darsini 6.2.11 - tan-näma uttama-slokasya gunän aisvarya-mädhurya-saundaryädin apy upalambhayati)

Still, in that stage the citta is not sufficiently cleansed to accommodate realization of the Lord’s associates. That takes place in the stage of ruci. In the stage of asakti, the mantramayi upasana pastimes of the divine couple in the Vrndavan Yoga Pitha appear. When this realization becomes mature, the asta-kaliya lila (svarasiki) becomes visible (mantropasanamayitve’pi svarasikyam eva paryavasyati - Krsna Sandarbha 153).

Srila Jiva Gosvami directly states that raganuga-bhakti depends entirely on experiencing this reflection (abhasa) of the associates of Sri Krsna. It is a genuine realization. Not a mechanical visualization.

tasya tadrsa-raga-sudhakarakarabhasa-samullasita-hrdaya-sphatika maneh sastradi-srutasu tadrsya ragatmikaya bhakteh paripatisv api rucir jayate

“When the devotee hears about the services of the eternal associates from scripture etc. the clear crystal of his heart is enlightened by the REFLECTION (abhasa) of the moonlike rays of their raga giving rise to ruci in their very methods of service. Bhakti impelled by this taste is called raganuga-bhakti.” (Sri Bhakti Sandarbha 310)

Thus it should be recognized that if the form of Sri Krsna does not awaken within the citta while chanting, either the citta is not sufficiently cleansed and/or namaparadha, offenses to the Divine Name are obstructing the appearance of namabhasa. In that situation no amount of mechanical visualization and projection can possibly remedy the problem.

KRAMA – Sequence:

One outstanding feature of the pro-kanistha siddha-pranali camp, and indeed of all prakrta-sahajiyas, is that the concept of krama, sequential realization, a central feature of the Gosvamis’ presentation, is conspicuously absent from their conception.

Perception of the transcendental realm has a peculiar feature that distinguishes it entirely from our experience of perception related to objects of the mundane realm. Imagine you are seated in an empty room. The door opens and a man walks in and begins to speak to you. Simultaneously, you observe his height, build, colour, movements, speech and so on. It is so obvious it hardly bears mentioning. We experience the perception of objects in their entirety, with all their visible, tactile, olfactory and audible features appearing simultaneously. Thus, we are conditioned to assume that our perception of transcendence will be somewhat similar.

Yet there is a peculiarity in regard to the awakening of realization in the citta of the devotional practitioner. According to the experience of the Gosvamis, the unfolding of spiritual perception occurs in a sequence of distinct stages. This is because the practicing devotee can only accommodate the reflection of Sri Krsna and his lila in proportion to the cleanliness of his citta. The full-fledged experience of lila cannot occur until the citta melts and becomes one with Sri Krsna’s svarupa-sakti in the stage of bhava. Therefore, in the stages of nistha, ruci, and asakti, there is a gradual realization of the abhasa (reflection) of Sri Krsna in the following sequence: nama, rupa, guna, parikara, seva, lila:

atha pürvavat krama-sopäna-rityä sukha-labhyam guna-parikara-sevä-lilä-smaranam cänusandheyam

"In order to easily attain realization, one should practice smaranam of the nama, rupa, guna, parikara, seva, and lila in sequence in accordance with the process described previously in anuccheda ..."

(Bhakti Sandarbha 278)

Note that seva occurs after parikara and before lila, indicating precisely the appropriate stage in which to take up the instruction to serve by siddha-deha – “seva sadhaka rupena siddha-rupena catrahi”.

The pro-kanistha siddha-pranali camp literally lives in a state of utter denial of the whole concept of KRAMA as if it does not exist as a central theme of Gaudiya Theology. The significance of krama is discussed in detail in Bhakti Sandarbha wherein Srila Jiva Gosvami goes to great lengths to stress that smaranam must be performed in a sequence of nama, rupa, guna, parikara, seva, and lila, (BS.278) and that one is not qualified to progress to the next stage until one attains complete realization of the previous stage:

prathamam nämnah sravanam antahkarana-suddhy-artham apeksyam | suddhe cäntahkarane rüpa-sravanena tad-udaya-yogyatä bhavati | samyag-udite ca rüpe gunänäm sphuranam sampadyate | tatas tesu näma-rüpa-gunesu tat-parikaresu ca samyak sphuritesv eva lilänäm sphuranam susthu bhavatity abhipretya sädhana-kramo likhitah | evam kirtana-smaranayor jneyam | (Bhakti Sandarbha 256)

“At first a person must hear the holy name to achieve purity of the antahkarana, or psychological faculty (citta). Thereafter, when his citta has become pure, it is a fit appearance place for the Lord’s beautiful form, and as soon as the Lord’s form thoroughly manifests in his heart as a result of hearing descriptions of that form, the devotee experiences revelations (sphurti) about the Lord’s qualities. As the Lord’s qualities fully unfold, the defining characteristics of His associates (and thus His own defining characteristics and His unique interrelationship with each of them) are exhibited. After that, when the Lord’s name, form, qualities and associates have completely manifested in the bhakta’s heart, the Lord’s pastimes blossom in their full splendour. The progression of sädhana has been delineated in this way with the intention of acquainting the devotees with the sequential process involved in the Lord’s appearance within their hearts. The same sequence is applicable in regard to the practice of kirtana, chanting, and smaranam, remembrance.” (Bhakti Sandarbha 256)

Note that until one step in the sequence has been complete, that is, unless that stage has clearly awakened as a sphurti (vision) within the citta, one is not eligible for further realization of the next step in the sequence.

Instead of performing smaranam in the sequence of gradual stages, which depend upon the factual unfolding stages of realization, the pro-kanistha siddha-pranali camp attempt to go straight to the stage of parikara smaranam because remembering one’s own svarupa is technically in the category of parikara smaranam.

Then, they encourage us to mechanically imagine Sri Krsna’s daily pastimes (svarasiki), without even realizing the abhasa of Sri Krsna’s Yoga-pitha pastimes (mantramayi), again reversing the only order by which genuine realization becomes accessible (mantropasanamayitve’pi svarasikyam eva paryavasyati - Krsna Sandarbha 153).

By jumping over all the essential stages, they make it impossible for themselves to realize even the first stage. Therefore, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura wrote: lila hoite nama-sphurti, rupanuga bole na - “A true follower of Srila Rupa Gosvami never teaches that a sphurti of the Holy Name can arise from trying to remember lila.” We nullify the possibility of realization by reversing the sequence in which realization naturally occurs.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF SMARANAM?

The plain fact is that the pro-kanistha siddha-pranali camp does not even understand what the word SMARANAM means. They think that the word smaranam used by our Gosvamis means the same as the word “remember” that regular people use in everyday life.

To accept the words of sastra based on the conventional meanings of words used by conditioned souls in worldly experience is called ajna-rudhi-vrtti. Sastra is only understood in terms of vidvad-rudhi-vrtti, the self-evident meaning of words as they appear before the nondual-consciousness of a liberated vaisnava for whom there is no distinction between the word and the object described.

In the context of bhakti-tattva, smaranam means contact of the mind with Sri Krsna’s name, form, etc. (manasa-sambandhah smrtir ucyate –BRS 1.2.175) In other words, factual contact of the mind with Sri Nama Prabhu; factual contact of the mind with his divine form, not your imagination; contact of the mind with the actual pastimes, not your mechanical visualization of something you have no experience of.

It does not mean contact of the mind with the external syllables of namaparadha.

It does not mean contact of the mind with material samskaras that are aroused by the verbal cognition (sabdartha-jnana) of the meaning of some words you recognize while looking at ink on a page in book about Sri Krsna’s pastimes.

This is a deep point of psychology that is impossible for a kanistha-adhikari to grasp unless he submits himself to submissive aural reception of the sabda-brahma emanating from the lotus lips of Sri Guru.

There are three features of a perception:

1) The sound of a word.

2) The meaning of that word.

3) Perception of the actual object indicated by the word.

These three are distinct for material objects. The experience of the oneness of these three features in relation to a material object is called kalpana or vikalpa – imagination. (tatra sabdärtha-jnäna-vikalpaih sankirnä savitarkä samäpattih – Yoga Sutra1.42)

However, for spiritual objects, manifestations of advaya-jnana-tattva, the nondual-conscious-reality, there is no difference at all between the sound, the meaning, and the object. In this case, it is the perception of the difference between these three that constitutes kalpana or vikalpa. The Lord’s name and form are vikalpa-rahita (Bhag.6.8.32). Therefore, hari-namni kalpanam, to cover the potency of the Sri Nama Prabhu with imagination is an offense to the Holy Name.

If one experiences a difference between the Holy Name and the Divine Lila, as expressed by the attempt to make a separate endeavour to mechanically visualize pastimes with the material mind while ignoring the sound of the Holy Name, wherein the actual pastimes factual exist, then the subject of one’s visualization is entirely prakrta in nature. Hence the term, prakrta-sahaja.

Indeed, as long as the mind is inflicted with duality, there can be no awareness of any aspect of Sri Krsna, the advaya-jnana-tattva, or even of brahman, the least of his attributes.

With this in mind, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu describes that the bhakti-lata, the creeper of devotion, attains the brahmajyoti before taking shelter of Sri Krsna’s lotus feet in Vrndavana. (CC. 2.19.153)

It should be understood that genuine smaranam performed while chanting arises automatically when Sri Nama Prabhu is uncovered from the influence of kalpana.

Therefore, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura writes: so’pi smarana-prayatnah sravana-kirtanavato bhaktasya nävasyaka (Bhag 2.8.4) “For he who engages in hearing and chanting there is NO necessity to endeavour for smaranam.” That is, smaranam takes place automatically.

However, the pro-kanistha siddha-pranali camp focus on making a huge effort to engage in manasika-seva and lila-smarana in direct contradiction to this instruction of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura and the entire theology of Sri Nama-tattva. In reality, they are simply covering the potency of the sun of the Holy Name with the dark clouds of massive amounts of kalpana – and calling it “lila-smaranam”.

The pro-kanistha siddha-pranali camp think that lila-smaranam is a sadhana by which one can advance through anartha-nivrtti. In this regard, we should ask the following questions, to which they are unable to reply:

1) If smaranam is a sadhana to purify the heart in the stages before nistha, why does Srila Jiva Gosvami say the exact opposite in Bhakti Sandarbha 275?

atha saranäpatty-ädibhih suddhäntah-karanas cet.. smaranam kuryät

"By surrender, hearing and chanting, and so on, IF the citta has become pure, one may take up the practice of smaranam." Bhakti Sandarbha 275.

2) If lila-smaranam can be practiced before passing the stage of anartha-nivrtti, why does Srila Jiva Gosvami say that even nama-smaranam cannot be properly performed without a pure citta?

näma-smaranam tu suddhäntah-karanatäm apeksate

"Nama-smaranam certainly depends on the antah-karana (citta) being suddha."

This further illustrates the point that our material concept of the word “remember” and the sense in which the Gosvamis use the word “smaranam” are completely different. Anyone can “remember” Sri Krsna’s name, as we all do, but only those with a pure citta can do “smaranam” of Sri Krsna’s name.

Note here that pure antah-karana simply means predominantly sattvika citta, since the element of citta in its uncorrupted state is predominantly sattvika.

In the words of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, “Once the citta is pure, then all the genuine practices of sadhana-bhakti begin.” (citta-śuddhi, sarva-bhakti-sādhana-udgama - Sri Caitanya Caritamrta 3.20.13)

Thank you for your patient consideration. All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga!

(To be continued)

In part III we will discuss the precise concept of SIDDHA-DEHA as defined by our acaryas and present new evidence on this matter from the first ever English translations of the legal documents from the court case between the direct disciples of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura and Sri Rupa Kaviraja in the Royal Court of the Maharaja of Jaipura.