Kamalini devi gave me a copy of Srutakirti dasa’s new book, “What Is the Difficulty?” The book gives the reader a glimpse into Srila Prabhupada’s humanity/divinity, as Srutakirti remembers his two-year stint as Prabhupada’s personal servant. In my opinion, it is the humanity of Srila Prabhupada as portrayed by Srutakirti that makes his book most relishable.

An inordinate emphasis on the guru’s divinity can in the very least eclipse the sweetness of his humanity. In the worst case scenario such an emphasis can turn to a religious fanaticism in which the scriptural conclusions of a spiritual tradition (siddhanta) are distorted and everything is lost.

It is the tension between madhurya (sweetness) and aisvarya (majesty) that holds the Bhagavatam together. Vyasa wants to tell us about the sweetness of the Absolute, but he cannot do so without telling us about its majesty. If only its sweetness if presented, everything will be lost, and if only his majesty is stressed, the book will hold no charm. Thus on the backdrop of majesty Vaysa masterfully paints a picture of the sweetness of the Absolute.

For the most part Srutakirti has provided a much needed emphasis on Prabhupada’s sweetness—his humanity—to a backdrop of majesty erected by others that has unfortunately left many with little common sense. And it is strong common sense among other things that Srila Prabhupada exhibits throughout Srutakirti’s account.

I laud Srutakirti for his obvious sincerity, simplicity, and immense love for Srila Prabhupada that pervade the book, but occasionally his comments partially cloud the import of anecdotes he cites. However, most readers will probably not notice this, being charmed by the sweetness and humanity of Srila Prabhupada that many of his disciples did not have any experience of. Sharing that experience is for the most part what this book is about, and thus it is very refreshing. Hopefully it will help to tip the balance away from the religious fanaticism in the name of adherence to Srila Prabhupada so prevalent today in favor of a much lacking common sense approach to understanding the immense contribution of His Divine Grace.

What follows is an example from the book accompanied by my reflections on it.

At one point Srila Prabhupada explains that his “adjustment” of allowing women to live in his temples (a standard not found in India and Gaudiya Matha in particular) was one of the reasons for his success. When Srutakirti asks how one can determine what can and cannot be adjusted, Prabhupada replies that for this one requires a little intelligence.

Reading this I thought that such statements would shock readers who are convinced that the requirement for making such adjustments is that one must be a saktyavesa avatara, nitya siddha, etc., etc., as is often implied. Shock them, that is, in a positive sense and help them to better understand the dynamics involved in expanding the tradition. Thus I was disappointed when I read Srutakirti’s insights that followed. His realization was that Prabhupada was only exhibiting his humility by his statement, for only he could make such an adjustment.

Realizations like this have served only to halt the progress of disseminating the precepts of Sri Caitanya. Why? Because they are often used to intimidate others from using their God given intelligence to distribute Krsna consciousness. Sri Krsna speaks of such intelligence in the Gita when he says, dadami buddhi yogam tam.

This was the first verse of the Gita that I learned, and one that Prabhupada cited many years later when discussing with one of my Godbrothers and I about the nature of preaching. He stressed that each preacher derives inspiration and insight—buddhi/intelligence— from Sri Krsna in consideration of time and circumstances, and that such intelligence is the essential dynamic of preaching. It is also well known that Srila Prabhupada expected his students to use their intelligence and thereby continue disseminating the tradition in his absence. In the absence of such intelligence, the ongoing relevance of the tradition will be lost.

Details need to be adjusted over time in order to establish the principal tenets of a tradition. One who understands the principal tenets understands the difference between that which is essential to a tradition and that which is a detail. When such a devotee makes adjustments, no doubt those who have not understood the difference between these two will cry foul, but as Prabhupada himself would say, “Dogs will bark, but the train goes on.”

I came across this explanation of the meaning and history of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura’s famous pujala ragapata gaurava bhange statement. It sheds some new light on it. This is an unedited informal speech of Pujyapada Sridhara Maharaja. Read it over.

“His (Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura’s) whole life in a nutshell is expressed in this, his own expression. Pujala ragapata, the very nature of my sampradaya is this. Pujala ragapata gaurava bhange. matala harijana visaya range, pujala ragapata gaurava bhange. The whole tenor of his preaching expedition, pujala ragapata gaurava bhange. The ragapat is above, on our head. That is the goal. We are to go there. But before that you have got charm for many things, the grandeur. You should try to learn that what is at present charming to you, utilize that for the service of that great domain of love. The majesty, the awe, the wealth, the reverence, what is grand to you, what attracts you most, all these, put into the service of that Lord of love and beauty. The absolute is beauty and love, harmony, autocrat, and everything should be sacrificed for Him. Learn this! Whatever you come in connection with sacrifice into the fire to establish that Lord of love. For his little satisfaction, all this grandeur may be put into the fire.

“Composed by Guru Maharaja himself. When from the hired house in Calcutta. The deities and the matha was removed to his own construction, constructed matha . The deities were carried in a chariot and we were dancing and we were dancing and singing just in front of the deities. At that time he composed some eight lines perhaps. You should sing this and direct the chariot from the hired house to our own house, matha. Matala hari jana visaya range pujala ragapata gaurava bhange. It is currently seen that the devotees have made themselves mad in handling so many material wealth. Generally the devotees should engage themselves in the subject of the Lord, but here in Gaudiya Matha we find they are handling money, motor car, this, that, everything here, lavishly, visaya range. For what purpose, pujava ragapata gaurava bhange to show that the ragapata, giving up everything and only through the internal love we shall worship the Lord not external sources, majesty, reverance not necessary. But here they have come to do this they are handling extensively the wealth and their of the outer world, what is the meaning?

“Gaurava bhange - to show that the ragapata is above all, those that are followers of raga-pata their position is very high. Not that they can not be masters of this mundane world. So, they have left everything and are taking the path of worshiping Him, in their heart. Not that. But all these grandeur, all reverence everything should go to serve them. Pujava ragapata - everything will havgot its fulfillment with their connecting in any way with the feet of those that are engaged in their worship exclusive of these worldly things with his heart. And only the flow of devotion from their heart they are doing. And the whole thing will have its fulfillment if that can connect to worship the feet of those that are living in that plane. The fulfillment of the majesty, awe and reverence, wealth everything. His grandeur is only meant to serve them, those niskincana, those who do not have anythlng on the gopi, and mentally they are reaching or not reaching. Who do not care for that. But all these must be meant to have their fulfillment to go to touch their feet. To exemplify to show, to teach to the world the fulfillment of everything is only to touch the feet of those niskincana who have made the absolute good, the Lord of love and beauty the all in all in their right.

“The whole world must learn for its own goodness for its own welfare to teach this to the world. The Gaudiya Matha people are handling all these things, the motor car, the wealth, the money, the airplane. While in Bombay one gentleman, a Bengali, was an officer in the mint there he asked me, You have come to collect money but you are very big man, very rich man, he told me. Yes we say we are rich and we say we are beggar. Now we must come to some understanding. You say that we are very rich. Why? We spend money like water. A man who has got much money he can spend his money for such purposes. And we being beggar we use, ordinary man would agree this is superfluous money otherwise a beggar man must not spend money for such purpose. One who has got a crore, he can throw some thousand for the luxurious activities. So you think we have got much money so one day we can see. But we say we are beggar with no money. Still we spend money in such a way. Now the question will come whether what we spend will be for a good purpose or bad. Suppose a doctor, he may not be wealthy, he has got a motorcar. Because he can attend many patients thereby this is not his luxury. Generally men will think that one who has got a car, one who has got a plane, he must be a money man of higher order. Then only he can keep such things. But for the business purpose he may keep such things. A doctor may have many patients he can visit by motorcar. We also use things in that way that with these things … One thing, to decorate the deity, you may think that this is superfluous. But we think this is the fulfillment of life. Every good things must come to decorate, to serve Narayana. That is our creed. Difference in creed. Beggars we are, still we spend money like water. Only for decoration, festival, distribution of prasadam. We beg money and we spend, lavishly, but not for our but we feel the necessity of our particular nature. So the question how we spend not how much money we have got. We are poor still we are beggar, Still we spend money like a rich man. Rather the rich man would be afraid to spend money like that. Pujala ragapata gaurava bhange. All wealth has got its only fulfillment in the service of those to preach the creed of those that are above this monetary world. The greatest goal possible by worshiping the Lord and connecting him with this world. Pujala ragapata. He has understood what is real ragapata. With this idea I have gotten such attraction; with this we have got encouragement within him. They are dancing, I have seen. I have had a sort of conception of the reality that he is good and beautiful and they are dancing. . Pujala ragapata gaurava bhange. What is proper expressions they have understood, they have realized and they are dancing. Krsna nama ruci habe gucibe vandana doyale nitai caitanya bole nace amar mana.” (Srila Sridhara Maharaja)

This speech of Pujyapada Sridhara Maharaja is interesting for a number of reasons. First of all it tells us the history of this poem, giving it context. It would be wonderful to locate the rest of the eight or so verses that Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura gave along with this one on the day of the installation of the Deities at the famous marble temple in Calcutta.

This event was of great significance for the mission of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura and Gaudiya Vaisnavism. It involved Gaudiya Vaisnavas living in and preaching in a major metropolis, as opposed to living in the Dhama and doing bhajana where preaching was mostly directed to devotees who were classified as such by birth, which had been the standard for centuries. The fancy marble temple was a huge statement. As indicated in the passage above, the whole event took on the appearance of worldliness, while the inner spirit of it was other worldly to the extreme. This reminds us of the Vraja-lila itself, wherein the players appear to be worldly and Krsna is among them as one of them rather than separated from them as an object of worship.

Note that the words visaya range means enjoying sense gratification. I have seen a translation of this verse that construes the sense gratification to be that of gratifying the sense of Bhagavan, and of course this is no doubt correct. However, here it is pointed out that the devotees (Hari jana) are intoxicated (matala) by this sense indulgence that takes the outward form of worldliness making the activities of true Vaisnavas sometimes difficult to understand. They are using everything in the world for Krsna, everything that they might be charmed by themselves at a lower stage such that they will lose the charm for the world. This also goes to the heart of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura’s dynamic conception of kirtana. Interestingly, the verse is sometimes written with the word kirtana in palce of visaya—kirtana range.

As long as one pursuing the raga marg is charmed by the world, one’s relationship with Bhagavan will be tempered by reverence, or the sense that there is a distinction between the worshipable object and the worshiper, such as we find in vaidhi bhakti. At this stage those aspiring to tread the raga marg proper worship the raga marg (pujala ragapata). The word puja/worship indicates distance between the devotee and Deity and such worship is thus possessed of gaurava, or reverence. However, this approach to raga marg results in an eventual breakdown of reverence (gaurava bhange) as the charm of the world disappears from one’s heart, bridging the gap between devotee and Diety, at which time one treads the raga marg proper. In raga marg the Deity become one with the devotee as friend, lover, and family member. Such love of Krsna is devoid of reverence.

So, “The devotees, intoxicated by the kirtana of the Holy Name that consumes the entire world, worship the raga marg at a distance until the time when by such kirtana their hearts are cleansed of any charm for the world and the distance between themselves and their Deity is bridged as reverence for the Deity breaks down and is replaced by love.” This seems to be the spirit of the verse.

I think it is important to realize that the closeness one feels with Sri Krsna in raga marg is to a large extent brought about by absence of separate interest. This absence of separate interest refers not only to material desire but spiritual selfishness as well. We find this spiritual selfishness in Vaikuntha, where reverence is the norm and thus there is a distance between Bhagavan and his devotees. We also find this spiritual selfishness or sense of difference between the Deity and devotee in the case of Rukmini. Compare her unwillingness to forego the Vedic Dharma in relation to her desire to wed Sri Krsna to the approach to Vrajendranandana that we find illustrated in the gopis. The gopis were not concerned with the consequences of transgressing the Vedic law. What might happen to themselves was of no consequence to them because they had no separate sense of self from their Deity, who was himself independent of Vedic law. They were absolutely one in desire with Krsna. They were in one in love and thus not merely self-sacrificing, but self-forgetful. In Vaikuntha and Dvaraka the difference between Bhagavan and his devotees is clear. There is no such distinction in Vraja.

One must realize that regardless of one’s practice, the underlying truth is that one’s closeness to one’s Deity will be determined by how much one harbors separate interest in one’s heart. There is no getting around this.

Talk is cheap, and I believe that this is what Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura was referring to when he used the term sahajiya. And I say that we will only be sahajiya ourselves if we merely talk about this by way of criticizing others to make ourselves feel as though we are better than them in the name of defending our guru parampara. It is we who must die in order to live among the Vraja loka. It is not about killing others, but the death of our own ego. While kirtana-range no doubt involves pointing out what not to do, one must be doing the right thing oneself.

It should also be clear that Mahaprabhu Sri Krsna Caitanya has personally shown us that nama sankirtana is the most effective means of cleansing one’s heart of material self interest—ceto darpana marjanam. Thus when we engage in nama sankirtana, and especially in consideration of the dynamic expression and understanding of it given to us by Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura that is so potentially consuming, two things will happen. First one’s heart will be cleansed of material self-interest. As this cleansing takes place, one becomes eligible to culture one’s spiritual identity following in the footsteps of the Vrajaloka, the people of Vraja, who personify absolute selflessness, especially the Vraja sundaris. This is the second effect, which Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura addresses when he writes kirtana prabhave smarana svabhave, “The power of kirtana brings about meditation on one’s svarupa.” Worship of raga marg while concentrating on cleansing one’s heart is what constitutes “first deserve then desire.” And what is that desire for the deserving? It is the desire to please Krsna that first appears as anukulaya-abhilasa, prapty-abhilasa, and sauharda-abhilasa (see Siksastakam p. 72). This is ruci, sreyah kairava candrika vitaranam.

So let there be pujala ragapata in the midst of kirtana range. This will do away with separate interest over time and allow one to break free from reverential devotion, gaurava bhange. All of you must do this. Gaura Hari bol!

The word gaurava also means pride. So one’s pride must be broken to enter the raga marg, trinad api sunicena. Thus the necessity of focusing on the interim goal of nistha comes to mind. Breaking one’s pride or ego of separate interest is required. It is one’s ego consisting of separate interest that separates one from God.

Worship in reverence also preserves one’s separate sense of self since it clearly distinguishes the servant from the served, as discussed above. Yet avoiding this or jumping over viddhi to raga is really not possible because it is one’s desires that determine one’s closeness to Krsna. In other words even if we start with the raga marg in mind, as we should, we will have to pass through awe and reverence beause we are still possessed of separate interest–from the yuga dharma aspect of Mahaprabhu to his heart seva of vipralambha.

Do para-upakara–the highest good for others–and your own true interest will appear within. We must try to absorb ourselves in assisting the mission of Mahaprabhu in disseminating the yuga dharma. This will open the door to his inner life.