Tongue is never satisfied until we chant the holy name of Krishna.
Radhika Gopinatha dasa
Professor of Vedic Theology and Religious Studies: Present society needs a new paradigm of devotion to God.
The tongue is the most dangerous part of the human body. People get fired for saying something inappropriate. Wars are started by loose tongues.
As Srila Prabhupada says “The philosophy of the Buddha, the argumentative presentations of the j?ānīs, the yoga systems of Pata?jali and Gautama, and the systems of philosophers like Ka?āda, Kapila and Dattātreya are dangerous creatures in the ocean of nescience”. They will deviate a man from true path of peace.
In the Caitanya Caritamrta, Adi Lilka 2.2 Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami sings:
k???otkīrtana-gāna-nartana-kalā-pāthojani-bhrājitā
sad-bhaktāvali-ha?sa-cakra-madhupa-?re?ī-vihārāspadam
kar?ānandi-kala-dhvanir vahatu me jihvā-maru-prā?ga?e
?rī-caitanya dayā-nidhe tava lasal-līlā-sudhā-svardhunī
Translation: O my merciful Lord Caitanya, may the nectarean Ganges waters of Your transcendental activities flow on the surface of my desertlike tongue. Beautifying these waters are the lotus flowers of singing, dancing and loud chanting of K???a’s holy name, which are the pleasure abodes of unalloyed devotees. These devotees are compared to swans, ducks and bees. The river’s flowing produces a melodious sound that gladdens their ears.
Commentary by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
"Our tongues always engage in vibrating useless sounds that do not help us realize transcendental peace. The tongue is compared to a desert because a desert needs a constant supply of refreshing water to make it fertile and fruitful. Water is the substance most needed in the desert. The transient pleasure derived from mundane topics of art, culture, politics, sociology, dry philosophy, poetry and so on is compared to a mere drop of water because although such topics have a qualitative feature of transcendental pleasure, they are saturated with the modes of material nature. Therefore neither collectively nor individually can they satisfy the vast requirements of the desertlike tongue. Despite crying in various conferences, therefore, the desertlike tongue continues to be parched. For this reason, people from all parts of the world must call for the devotees of Lord ?rī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who are compared to swans swimming around the beautiful lotus feet of ?rī Caitanya Mahāprabhu or bees humming around His lotus feet in transcendental pleasure, searching for honey. The dryness of material happiness cannot be moistened by so-called philosophers who cry for Brahman, liberation and similar dry speculative objects. The urge of the soul proper is different. The soul can be solaced only by the mercy of Lord ?rī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His many bona fide devotees, who never leave the lotus feet of the Lord to become imitation Mahāprabhus but all cling to His lotus feet like bees that never leave a honey-soaked lotus flower.
Lord Caitanya’s movement of K???a consciousness is full of dancing and singing about the pastimes of Lord K???a. It is compared herein to the pure waters of the Ganges, which are full of lotus flowers. The enjoyers of these lotus flowers are the pure devotees, who are like bees and swans. They chant like the flowing of the Ganges, the river of the celestial kingdom. The author desires such sweetly flowing waves to cover his tongue. He humbly compares himself to materialistic persons who always engage in dry talk from which they derive no satisfaction. If they were to use their dry tongues to chant the holy name of the Lord — Hare K???a, Hare K???a, K???a K???a, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare — as exemplified by Lord Caitanya, they would taste sweet nectar and enjoy life”.
So to enjoy life it is not necessary to go to movies, play cricket or gamble in stock market. What is needed is the chanting of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra.
Srila Prabhupada continues, “The Upani?ads, which are considered the most elevated portion of the Vedic literatures, are meant for persons who desire to get free from material association and who therefore approach a bona fide spiritual master for enlightenment. The prefix upa- indicates that one must receive knowledge about the Absolute Truth from a spiritual master. One who has faith in his spiritual master actually receives transcendental instruction, and as his attachment for material life slackens, he is able to advance on the spiritual path. Knowledge of the transcendental science of the Upani?ads can free one from the entanglement of existence in the material world, and when thus liberated, one can be elevated to the spiritual kingdom of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by advancement in spiritual life.
The beginning of spiritual enlightenment is realization of impersonal Brahman. Such realization is effected by gradual negation of material variegatedness. Impersonal Brahman realization is the partial, distant experience of the Absolute Truth that one achieves through the rational approach. It is compared to one’s seeing a hill from a distance and taking it to be a smoky cloud. A hill is not a smoky cloud, but it appears to be one from a distance because of our imperfect vision. In imperfect or smoky realization of the Absolute Truth, spiritual variegatedness is conspicuous by its absence. This experience is therefore called advaita-vāda, or realization of the oneness of the Absolute.
The impersonal glowing effulgence of Brahman consists only of the personal bodily rays of the Supreme Godhead, ?rī K???a. Since ?rī Gaurasundara, or Lord ?rī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, is identical with ?rī K???a Himself, the Brahman effulgence consists of the rays of His transcendental body.
Similarly, the Supersoul, which is called the Paramātmā, is a plenary representation of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The antar-yāmī, the Supersoul in everyone’s heart, is the controller of all living entities. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (15.15), wherein Lord K???a says, sarvasya cāha? h?di sannivi??a?: “I am situated in everyone’s heart.” The Bhagavad-gītā (5.29) also states, bhoktāra? yaj?a-tapasā? sarva-loka-mahe?varam, indicating that the Supreme Lord, acting in His expansion as the Supersoul, is the proprietor of everything. Similarly, the Brahma-sa?hitā (5.35) states, a??āntara-stha-paramā?u-cayāntara-stham. The Lord is present everywhere, within the heart of every living entity and within each and every atom as well. Thus by this Supersoul feature the Lord is all-pervading.
Furthermore, Lord Caitanya is also the master of all wealth, strength, fame, beauty, knowledge and renunciation because He is ?rī K???a Himself. He is described as pūr?a, or complete. In the feature of Lord Caitanya, the Lord is an ideal renouncer, just as ?rī Rāma was an ideal king. Lord Caitanya accepted the order of sannyāsa and exemplified exceedingly wonderful principles in His own life. No one can compare to Him in the order of sannyāsa. Although in Kali-yuga acceptance of the sannyāsa order is generally forbidden, Lord Caitanya accepted it because He is complete in renunciation. Others cannot imitate Him but can only follow in His footsteps as far as possible. Those who are unfit for this order of life are strictly forbidden by the injunctions of the ?āstras to accept it. Lord Caitanya, however, is complete in renunciation as well as all other opulences. He is therefore the highest principle of the Absolute Truth.
By an analytical study of the truth of Lord Caitanya, one will find that He is not different from the Supreme Personality of Godhead K???a; no one is greater than or even equal to Him. In the Bhagavad-gītā (7.7) Lord K???a says to Arjuna, matta? paratara? nānyat ki?cid asti dhana?jaya: “O conqueror of wealth [Arjuna], there is no truth superior to Me.” Thus it is here confirmed that there is no truth higher than Lord ?rī K???a Caitanya.
The impersonal Brahman is the goal of those who cultivate the study of books of transcendental knowledge, and the Supersoul is the goal of those who perform the yoga practices. One who knows the Supreme Personality of Godhead surpasses realization of both Brahman and Paramātmā because Bhagavān is the ultimate platform of absolute knowledge.
The Personality of Godhead is the complete form of sac-cid-ānanda (full life, knowledge and bliss). By realization of the sat portion of the Complete Whole (unlimited existence), one realizes the impersonal Brahman aspect of the Lord. By realization of the cit portion of the Complete Whole (unlimited knowledge), one can realize the localized aspect of the Lord, the Paramātmā. But neither of these partial realizations of the Complete Whole can help one realize ānanda, or complete bliss. Without such realization of ānanda, knowledge of the Absolute Truth is incomplete.
This verse of the Caitanya-caritām?ta by K???adāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī is confirmed by a parallel statement in the Tattva-sandarbha, by ?rīla Jīva Gosvāmī. In the Eighth Part of the Tattva-sandarbha it is said that the Absolute Truth is sometimes approached as impersonal Brahman, which, although spiritual, is only a partial representation of the Absolute Truth. Nārāya?a, the predominating Deity in Vaiku??ha, is to be known as an expansion of ?rī K???a, but ?rī K???a is the Supreme Absolute Truth, the object of the transcendental love of all living entities”.
“According to the rules of rhetorical arrangement for efficient composition in literature, a subject should be mentioned before its predicate. The Vedic literature frequently mentions Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān, and therefore these three terms are widely known as the subjects of transcendental understanding. But it is not widely known that what is approached as the impersonal Brahman is the effulgence of ?rī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s transcendental body. Nor is it widely known that the Supersoul, or Paramātmā, is only a partial representation of Lord Caitanya, who is identical with Bhagavān Himself. Therefore the descriptions of Brahman as the effulgence of Lord Caitanya, the Paramātmā as His partial representation, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead K???a as identical with Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu must be verified by evidence from authoritative Vedic literatures.
The author wants to establish first that the essence of the Vedas is the vi??u-tattva, the Absolute Truth, Vi??u, the all-pervading Godhead. The vi??u-tattva has different categories, of which the highest is Lord K???a, the ultimate vi??u-tattva, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā and throughout the Vedic literature. In ?rīmad-Bhāgavatam the same Supreme Personality of Godhead K???a is described as Nanda-suta, the son of King Nanda. K???adāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī says that Nandasuta has again appeared as Lord ?rī K???a Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and he bases this statement on his understanding that the Vedic literature concludes there is no difference between Lord K???a and Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. This the author will prove. If it is thus proved that ?rī K???a is the origin of all tattvas (truths), namely Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān, and that there is no difference between ?rī K???a and Lord ?rī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, it will not be difficult to understand that ?rī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is also the same origin of all tattvas. The same Absolute Truth, as He is revealed to students of different realizations, is called Brahman, Paramātmā and Bhagavān”.
“?rīla Jīva Gosvāmī has explained the word bhagavān in his Bhagavat-sandarbha. The Personality of Godhead, being full of all conceivable and inconceivable potencies, is the absolute Supreme Whole. Impersonal Brahman is a partial manifestation of the Absolute Truth realized in the absence of such complete potencies. The first syllable of the word bhagavān is bha, which means “sustainer” and “protector.” The next letter, ga, means “leader,” “pusher” and “creator.” Va means “dwelling” (all living beings dwell in the Supreme Lord, and the Supreme Lord dwells within the heart of every living being). Combining all these concepts, the word bhagavān carries the import of inconceivable potency in knowledge, energy, strength, opulence, power and influence, devoid of all varieties of inferiority. Without such inconceivable potencies, one cannot fully sustain or protect. Our modern civilization is sustained by scientific arrangements devised by many great scientific brains. We can just imagine, therefore, the gigantic brain whose arrangements sustain the gravity of the unlimited number of planets and satellites and who creates the unlimited space in which they float. If one considers the intelligence needed to orbit man-made satellites, one cannot be fooled into thinking that there is not a gigantic intelligence responsible for the arrangements of the various planetary systems. There is no reason to believe that all the gigantic planets float in space without the superior arrangement of a superior intelligence. This subject is clearly dealt with in the Bhagavad-gītā (15.13), where the Personality of Godhead says, “I enter into each planet, and by My energy they stay in orbit.” Were the planets not held in the grip of the Personality of Godhead, they would all scatter like dust in the air. Modern scientists can only impractically explain this inconceivable strength of the Personality of Godhead.
The potencies of the syllables bha, ga and va apply in terms of many different meanings. Through His different potent agents, the Lord protects and sustains everything, but He Himself personally protects and sustains only His devotees, just as a king personally sustains and protects his own children, while entrusting the protection and sustenance of the state to various administrative agents. The Lord is the leader of His devotees, as we learn from the Bhagavad-gītā, which mentions that the Personality of Godhead personally instructs His loving devotees how to make certain progress on the path of devotion and thus surely approach the kingdom of God. The Lord is also the recipient of all the adoration offered by His devotees, for whom He is the objective and the goal. For His devotees the Lord creates a favorable condition for developing a sense of transcendental love of Godhead. Sometimes He does this by taking away a devotee’s material attachments by force and baffling all his material protective agents, for thus the devotee must completely depend on the Lord’s protection. In this way the Lord proves Himself the leader of His devotees.
The Lord is not directly attached to the creation, maintenance and destruction of the material world, for He is eternally busy in the enjoyment of transcendental bliss with paraphernalia composed of His internal potencies. Yet as the initiator of the material energy as well as the marginal potency (the living beings), He expands Himself as the puru?a-avatāras, who are invested with potencies similar to His. The puru?a-avatāras are also in the category of bhagavat-tattva because each and every one of them is identical with the original form of the Personality of Godhead. The living entities are His infinitesimal particles and are qualitatively one with Him. They are sent into this material world for material enjoyment, to fulfill their desires to be independent individuals, but still they are subject to the supreme will of the Lord. The Lord deputes Himself in the state of Supersoul to supervise the arrangements for such material enjoyment. The example of a temporary fair is quite appropriate in this connection. If the citizens of a state assemble in a fair to enjoy for a short period, the government deputes a special officer to supervise it. Such an officer is invested with all governmental power, and therefore he is identical with the government. When the fair is over, there is no need for such an officer, and he returns home. The Paramātmā is compared to such an officer.
The living beings are not all in all. They are undoubtedly parts of the Supreme Lord and are qualitatively one with Him, yet they are subject to His control. Thus they are never equal to the Lord or one with Him. The Lord who associates with the living being is the Paramātmā, or supreme living being. No one, therefore, should view the tiny living beings and supreme living being to be on an equal level.
The all-pervading truth that exists eternally during the creation, maintenance and annihilation of the material world and in which the living beings rest in trance is called the impersonal Brahman”.
References:
https://vedabase.io/en/library/cc/adi/2/10/
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