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His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

81.11.05.C_81.11.06.A

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ...transcendental. We are subject and this is the objective world. We
gather knowledge of them as experience, pratyakṣa, parokṣa, aparokṣa, up to that. And the
knowledge of fourth dimension that is more subtle, more higher, but made of consciousness,
superior consciousness, that may come. __________________________________________ [?]
__________________________________________________________________________ [?]
Higher knowledge may come down within our gross consciousness, and when that
knowledge withdraws, only the memory I can detect. “Oh! I got some sort of wonderful
experience in me, some revolutionary thing, and that’s gone, very sweet and more broad in its
capacity. But now I don’t feel it in me. That’s withdrawn.” That is adhokṣaja, Vaikuṇṭha. Then,
next higher stage...

Devotee: ____________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Adha means lower _______________________ [?] Sense experience,
which is higher than sense experience knowledge: Jīva Goswāmī: Adhakrtam indriyam jñāna
yena. The particular knowledge which can make this knowledge of experience lower to it,
adhokṣaja, adhakrtam indriyam jñāna, the knowledge of experience has been pushed down.
That is in superior position. There is a knowledge that is more independent, that can connect this
knowledge, but this knowledge cannot connect that without His sanction, adhokṣaja. And the
highest portion, Mahāprabhu says, Bhāgavatam: kevala jñāna or aprakṛta, means to give us
warning, that don’t accept that as this mundane: similar to mundane but not same, meaning
Kṛṣṇa Goloka līlā, nara-līlā, Bhagavān. Four-handed, fifteen-legged, that this is we have not
experienced which is easy for us to accept that as higher knowledge.

Devotee: Vaikuṇṭha rasa līlā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: In Vaikuṇṭha, but in Goloka we find only human form of experience, life,
everything. That is very near to this mundane conception, but it is the supreme-most.

kṛṣṇera yateka khelā, sarvottama nara-līlā, nara-vapu tāhāra svarūpa

[gope-veśa, veṇu-kara nava kiśora, nata-vara, nara līlāra haya anurūpa]

[“Lord Kṛṣṇa has many pastimes, of which His pastimes as a human being are the best. His
form as a human being is the Supreme Transcendental Form. In this form, He is a cowherd boy.
He carries a flute in His hand, and His youth is new. He is also an expert dancer. All this is just
suitable for His pastimes as a human being.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 21.101]

Nara-līlā, this is so perfect that He comes within this lower experience, but still, it is not of
that type. His extension, His capacity, His control, is so powerful that it can take the shape of this
mundane, but not mundane, but play as mundane.

avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā, mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam

paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto, mama bhūta-maheśvaram
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[“Unable to comprehend My super-excellent divine form of human features, ignorant men

blaspheme Me - the Supreme Lord of all beings - by considering Me a mere human being.”]
[Bhagavad-gītā, 9.11]

“I’m the Master of everything, but still when I come down, ordinary people can’t
understand Me. They take Me as one of them.”

Devotee: __________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Aprakṛta – prakṛta vāt na tu prakṛtam, like mundane but not mundane,
so un-mundane, something like that, non-mundane, there is every chance of reckoning it as
mundane, but it is not so. Aprakṛta not prakṛta. And Bhāgavata also told, kevala, kevala means
the wholesale knowledge.

Devotee: __________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Caitanya-caritāmṛta and Mahāprabhu mentioned aprakṛta, prakṛta vāt
__________________________ [?] Not mundane, is non mundane.

Devotee: Pratyakṣa, parokṣa, aparokṣa, adhokṣaja, and aprakṛta.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Adhokṣaja and aprakṛta, fifth stage of knowledge. Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Today I stop here. Gaura Haribol.
...
Devotee: ...the conception of Puruṣa prakṛti, just like.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Puruṣa prakṛti. Misunderstanding, that is the cause, direct cause of the
world of creation, and the background is supplied by the Puruṣa. What is seen, that is not, that is
wrong, so real conception is not to be had here. Illusion, the background is real but the angle of
vision is wrong. Angle of vision is wrong, that is māyā – the māyā exists, the error exists in the
angle of vision, but the background is all right, it is not nothing, only misconception.
Misconception means the knowledge drawn that is false but something in the background that is
real. Mistaken, one thing taken for another thing; a rope taken for a serpent...

Devotee: ______________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: But there is _________ the mirage, we think water, the background is
there, that is all right, but only the judgement that is wrong, conception, angle of vision is wrong.
Hare Kṛṣṇa. Māyā nimitta kārana. This can be applied only in the case of the worldly experience.
Hare Kṛṣṇa. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Māyā nimitta kārana.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nimitta kārana, māyā withdrawn, then the right things will come to
your vision.

Devotee: _______________________________________ [?] When you’re making a pot, where

is that ultimate nimitta kārana?
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Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is the conception __________________________________ [?]

Devotee: _________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Nimitta kārana _____________ It can be pushed then the necessity of
the human beings. Though it is stated that the kumbaka [?] and the rods, all these things, cakra,
they’re also helping, and upādānā coming, earth coming, that is upādānā, coming from another
quarter. But really if we trace it more exhaustively then we shall find the necessity of the human
beings. That is the reason, the nimitta kārana, why it’s created, constructed, because the human
society feels the necessity of such form.

Devotee: But if the māyā is nimitta cause, what is the upādānā cause?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Upādānā from which the – that being created, or that being drawn –
which is used for the purpose.

Devotee: Achar. How far the God, God is the upādānā cause, that I can’t understand. Why God is
upādānā cause?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Because He exists only truly.

Devotee: Achar.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: His existence is the fact, and what we think to be the world, that is the
concoction of our mistake, misconception. The other day, yesterday I told that we thrust our
necessity on the environment and abuse that. Māyā, miyate mā - yā, what is not, that is, we are
in the midst of a particular conception of the environment which is not really so. For our special
interest we thrust on the environment that sort of needy misleading...

Devotee: Māyā also a creation of God!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Of course, everything created by God, or we may think coexisting with
Him.

Devotee: But what is the need of māyā?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is automatically the effect of the outcome, or the vulnerable free
will of the jīva. The world exists, just as the prison houses exist on the evil desire for the
encroachment on other’s property. If that misdeed is absent, prison house is absent. If disease is
absent, hospitals are absent. Do you follow?

Devotee: Yes.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: No disease, no hospital. No sin, no crime, no prison house. And why,
what is the reason of the crime? The vulnerability of the free thinkers. Why free thinking is
vulnerable? Because it is very meagre, small, aṇu cetana, aṇu sadinaka, limited freedom, limited
free will limited, limitation of free will. That is the cause of this world. No misuse of free will, no
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world.

Devotee: The world is also māyā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, this is māyā. Prison houses are necessary. Kala kuti, Durgā Devī is
kala kuti, in Brahma-saṁhitā [44] it is mentioned: chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni vibharti durgā. Kala
kuti, prison keeper. Why prison? Because there is vulnerability in the choice of freedom,
encroachment on other’s property. Otherwise no world is necessary. But because it is possible so
prison houses are there.

na kartṛtvaṁ na karmāni, lokasya sṛjati prabhuḥ

na karma-phala-saṁyogam, svabhāvas tu pravartate

[“Due to their tendency towards ignorance since immeasurable time, the living beings act,
considering themselves the doers or inaugurators of action. The Supreme Lord does not
generate their misconception of considering themselves doers, nor does He generate their
actions or their attachment to the fruits of those actions.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 5.14]

The circumstance needs it. Circumstance of what type: the vulnerable free will are
encroaching on another’s life. And conceived as another; and that is māyā. Māyā means mā yā,
self interest independent of absolute interest. That is the cause, self seeking, and that also in a
manner which can encroach other’s interest. That is desperate self seeking, that is the exploiting
nature, just the opposite, exploitation means under māyā.

Devotee: Exploitation means under māyā.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes. No māyā no exploitation. Exploitation, and if we go ahead a little
more and renunciation also, both exploitation and renunciation is under māyā, that is self
seeking. That is to separate one’s self from the organic whole. That is a revolt against the organic
whole.
_____________________________________________________ [?] Jīva enters into – say, he
may start out of curiosity and then comes in the factor of time and space in this mundane world.

Devotee: ____________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: The time and space, factor of our thought – beginning then enters into
this space of physical time and factor. Beginning means first rebel, revolt and captivated. Very
fine things!

Once in Purī one gentleman he was the honorary secretary, honorary president of, the
honorary officer in insurance company or so, he came to Prabhupāda, our Guru Mahārāja and
put such question, this question. “Why, what, how, the life in bondage began: how first started?
Who is responsible, either God, or māyā, or jīva? Three factors, God is, His power, His paramount
power, and the māyā is there which takes, comes to capture the jīva, and the jīva is independent,
so we are told. Then how it was begun? Why the first cause of such beginning that jīva’s contact
with the world? Jīva is told free, God of course is Absolutely Free, and the māyā is there and the
māyā is playing with us, but when first start, who is responsible?”
_____________________________________________ [?]
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And Prabhupāda answered him, and that gentleman can’t understand, follow, and in various
ways he’s pushing on. Prabhupāda was very much, apparently, feeling disturbance and he was
very weak, heart trouble. Then I, and a few other persons of our Maṭha including Professor
Prabhu Nisikanta Sanyal, writer of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Chaitanya, Vasudeva Prabhu, who was made Ācārya.
Then Mādhava Mahārāja, Hayagrīva Prabhu, and many others were present. I was also there. I
could not tolerate this. I offered obeisance to Prabhupāda and asked his permission: “That he
can’t follow your arguments, statements. Please order me to answer his questions.”
Prabhupāda did happily he did, “Yes, you may talk with him.”
I caught that man. Proof by exhaustion, in philosophy, is it not? Have you gone? Proof by
exhaustion, do you know? Are you not acquainted?

Devotee: No.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That method I took up. That one by one let us try. Suppose if by the
pleasure of God, God is the cause, then what is the next step? What it will be? The jīva is
suffering from misery and God He’s the cause of the suffering of the jīva: do you adjust it that
He’s omniscient, He’s omnipotent, and He’s all benevolent, and He’s the God, and He’s seeing the
fun when so many jīva souls they’re under misery, they’re suffering like anything. And He can
also deliver them but He does not do seeing the fun. Can you accept that conception with
Godhead?
“No, I can’t.”
Then, He may not be the cause of the suffering of the jīva.
“Yes.”
And that if māyā – I can’t give the statement exactly what I gave there, but with my faint
memory whatever...

Devotee: ________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: If māyā is the cause then so many other questions come. The māyā is
more powerful than jīva and God. Māyā is torturing the jīva and omniscient God He’s seeing the
fun. No justice in the world. God is aloof, and māyā is attacking and torturing the jīva. Is that the
position of the God? Is that God perfect one? Then, few other steps also I explained. After this,
this will be this, this will be this.
“No, that cannot be accepted.”
The sufferer, he’s responsible for his own suffering, and this happens in this way. I explained
to him that if we leave the responsibility on the shoulder of māyā, these are the difficulties. On
the shoulder of God, these are the difficulties. The cause of the suffering of the jīva, of the soul,
must be within him, and how it begins in this way, first start of free will. In the beginning it is like
that of curiosity, and then when you connect once with māyā then māyā gets some influence
over it. In this way, God does not come to interfere with the freedom of the soul. Consciousness
means endowed with freedom. But jīva is a particle of consciousness so his freedom is also a
particle, vulnerable. So vulnerability of the free will of jīva soul, that is the cause, the first
starting, and then māyā comes. Just as when one begins any intoxication, first starting is
something like curiosity, and then the intoxication gets some position, some impulse is created,
momentum. And then his freedom is not, he loses his freedom. The free will of the jīva gradually
comes into the clutches of māyā, losing its own free choice.
That man admitted that.
And this is in the clear introspection of the sādhaka it can be seen, the very subtle-most
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thing, the starting that cannot be detected by ordinary consciousness. So they have given:

na kartṛtvaṁ na karmāni, lokasya sṛjati prabhuḥ

na karma-phala-saṁyogam, svabhāvas tu pravartate

[“Due to their tendency towards ignorance since immeasurable time, the living beings act,
considering themselves the doers or inaugurators of action. The Supreme Lord does not
generate their misconception of considering themselves doers, nor does He generate their
actions or their attachment to the fruits of those actions.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 5.14]

It is by nature of the existence of things they happen to come in this way automatic:
encroachment and consequence.

Devotee: But this question – I cannot understand. When māyā surrounds the jīva, and also God,
jīva is now independent, the māyā surrounds jīva.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Jīva is independent, yes. at the side of jīva. Jīva is taṭasthā śakti,
kṛṣṇera taṭasthā śakti, marginal potency. In carrying, out carrying, and the meeting point is jīva,
buffer state, taṭasthā śakti, meeting point, meeting plane, of both the opposite potencies, that is
taṭasthā, there lies...

Devotee: Jīva never dependent?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Dependent? No. That is because it is a part of consciousness it is

endowed with free will.

Devotee: Is endowed with?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Free will! Free will eliminated it will be matter, the iron, stone, no
consciousness. Consciousness means endowed with free will. Devoid of free will no
consciousness there can be.

Devotee: Is it possible for jīva to be dependent?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Dependent? Dependent, he’s always independent. Independent

sometimes subdued. Independence is always there otherwise he cannot return from one side to
another side. His salvation, liberation, would have been impossible if he had lost the
independence forever. Independence is there but it is surrounded with other power, another
foreign force. When in intoxication it is overpowered by some other force, but still independence
within, otherwise he cannot get out any time.

Devotee: Māyā is also the intoxication of jīva, just like...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Yes, like intoxication, misunderstanding. Intoxication, that is the spirit of
exploitation, want to exploit, want to enjoy. To want to enjoy and want to service and between
the two complete renunciation.

Devotee: ____________________________________________ [?]

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Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: We tend to exploit, miscalculation leads us for exploitation,

miscalculation. ‘That we shall be able to thrive there on the soil, let us go and establish a colony
there. I shall thrive thereby.’ This miscalculation, misunderstanding is the cause.

Devotee: So jīvan mukta then is not out of this māyā?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: That is, jīvan mukta means of different types there may be.
Vastava buddhi śuddha nahi krsna bhakti vineer [?]
Real devotion is, real liberation is within the area of Yogamāyā, that is after mukti. Mukti
proper only to withdraw from the negative side: that cannot be mukti proper. Self determination,
the positive side, to be reinstated in its highest possible prospect in the service of Kṛṣṇa, that is
the perfect conception of mukti, or liberation. Only withdrawal from the area of māyā, that is
not enough. That cannot give us the real position of a liberated soul.

muktir hitvān-yathā-rūpaṁ svarūpeṇa vyavasthitiḥ

[“Liberation is the permanent situation of the form of the living entity after he gives up the
changeable gross and subtle material bodies.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 2.10.6]

The definition of mukti given by Bhāgavatam, svarūpe sabāra haya, golokete sthiti, to be
reinstated in the proper function in relation to the service of Kṛṣṇa, that is mukti, a positive
attainment.
Just as when there is a disease temperature, temperature gone, but that does not mean
that full health has been recovered. So he’s out of disease, but to get the healthy position that is
something more, positive attainment.
So mukti proper means something positive, not only withdrawn from the negative side.
That is not proper mukti. Self determination, mukti means self determination, to be reinstated in
the function in the eternity which is designed for me. To be active in the serving system, that is
mukti proper, the positive actual meaning of the mukti, to get, to be reinstated in proper health,
not only absence of temperature. There it may begin, but then positive progress and to attend to
the highest position possible for highest prospect, to be reinstated in the highest prospect which
is possible for him in his constitutional position. But these are not the things which are very
important for our real progress of life. _______________________________________________
[?] Śraddhā, faith, in the Absolute Good, faith in the bright side of the life, that is bright side of
the life, to have the faith, and to work for that. ______________________________________ [?]
Only who is well versed in the law of the country, he can give up crime, it is not true. Criminal
mentality is another thing, independent of the knowledge of the law of the country. Knows the
law fully well, but still he’s a criminal, he can’t but commit crime. So this knowledge cannot save
us. That is something else. What do you say?

Devotees: Yes. It’s fact!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: Some of the best criminals are the most knowledgeable of the laws, therefore they
know how to...
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Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: They know how they can utilise the law in their favour of exploitation.
The capitalists they also maintain many lawyers to support their exploitation. So knowledge of
the law has nothing to do with the purity of our life and achievement. Hare Kṛṣṇa. So real thing is
sukṛti, it is traced in this way, first ajñāta-sukṛti, ādau śraddhā, when it is the good faith comes
over the surface of our mind, consciousness, that of this type:

yasmin vijñāte sarvam evam vijñātam bhavati / yasmin prāpte sarvam idam prāptam bhavati

tad vijyi jnasa tad eva brahma

There is a particular thing, if I can know that I shall know everything. If I get that I shall get
everything. It is possible. It is not impossible, it is possible.

yasmin vijñāte sarvam evam vijñātam bhavati / yasmin prāpte sarvam idam prāptam bhavati

This central faith or central achievement is true.

yathā taror mula niṣecanena, tṛpyanti tat-skandha bhujopaśākhāḥ

prānopahārāc ca yathendriyānāṁ, tathaiva sarvārhaṇam acyutejyā

[“Just as if you pour water onto the root of a tree, the whole tree is fed, and just as when
you supply food to the stomach, the whole body is fed, so if you can gain knowledge of the
prime cause, Brahman, then you can know anything and everything.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
4.31.14]

If we pour water into the root of the tree, whole tree is fed. If we put food into the stomach,
whole body is fed. Such things are possible in our achievement of knowledge. If we can know the
central truth, the whole is known. To get that I have some good relation with Him, I can have
good relation with all. This central existence is possible. When such knowledge awakens in one’s
mind he gets faith, śraddhā.

'śraddhā' - sabde - viśvāsa kahe sudṛḍha niścaya / kṛṣṇe bhakti kaile sarva-karma kṛta haya

[“Śraddhā is confident, firm faith that by rendering transcendental loving service to Kṛṣṇa
one automatically performs all subsidiary activities. Such faith is favourable to the discharge of
devotional service.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 22.62]

sarva-dharmān parityajya, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja

[ahaṁ tvāṁ sarva-pāpebhyo, mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ]

[“Totally abandoning all kinds of religion, surrender exclusively unto Me. I will liberate you
from all kinds of sins, so do not despair.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 18.66]

yasmin tuṣṭe jagat tuṣṭam priṇite priṇito jagat

[By satisfying Kṛṣṇa, the whole universe becomes satisfied, for one who is dear to Kṛṣṇa is
dear to the whole universe.]
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However wonderful this may be but this is true. This is possible. When such awakening of
faith comes within one’s mind then he gets śraddhā. And what is the cause of the śraddhā that
can produce such faith? Sukṛti.

bhaktis tu bhagavad-bhaktasaṅgena parijāyate

sat-saṅgaḥ prāpyate puṁbhiḥ sukṛtaiḥ pūrvva-sañcitaiḥ

[“Actually we can recognise a sādhu by sukṛti. Apparently we can know him from the śāstras,
the scriptures, because the śāstra helps us to know who is a sādhu, and the sādhu gives us the
interpretation of the śāstra. So sādhu and śāstra are interdependent, but the sādhu holds the
more important position and the śāstra has the secondary position. The living śāstra is the sādhu,
but to know who is guru, who is sādhu, we are to consult the descriptions given about them in
the scriptures. The symptoms of the sādhu, both of the guru as well as the disciple, have been
written in the Bhāgavatam, in the Gītā and in the Upaniṣads.”] [Bṛhan-Nāradīya-Purāṇa]

Generally such faith comes when we come in contact with a real sādhu, a bona fide sādhu.
And how such connection is effected? That pūrvva sukṛti, what is that sukṛti? That is divided into
two sections, ajñāta, jñāta. In the first stage ajñāta sukṛti, unconsciously I get my energy utilised
for the service of the Supreme. I do not know, but my energy is utilised, and as reaction gets
something from nirguṇa, from the cent per cent truth conception, the conception of cent per
cent truth. My energy is connected there with that without my consciousness by the sādhus. I
have created, constructed a garden, flowers utilised by a sādhu for the service of Kṛṣṇa. I do not
know anything but because my energy was utilised... _______________________________ [?]
...
...a patient unconscious, then outsiders come, some injection, some sort of medicine
applied, then he gets his consciousness. Then the doctor will consult, “What is the matter? How
is your pain? Where is it?” Cooperation, before cooperation unconscious help necessary for the
patient who has lost his consciousness, and then, partial consciousness with his cooperation the
treatment continues.
So in the first stage unconsciously some connection comes to him from the nirguṇa.
Nirguṇa means guṇatita, satya, raja, tama, triguṇa – this is negative side, this is diseased, satya,
raja, tama, triguṇa. Nirguṇa means nirbadi, guṇa means badi, māyā, satya, raja, tama, three
divisions, stages of māyā, that is disease. Normal, healthy, that is nirguṇa, nirbadi, from that
perfect harmonised world, from there some agent comes and utilises my energy without my
consciousness, and that as a reaction I get something.
And when that thing’s accumulated to certain degree then comes jñāta sukṛti, or with half
consciousness we cooperate with the sādhu and acquire more. Then when that sukṛti is collected
to a particular stage, it is named as śraddhā. That is, there is something, if we can get that, all my
want will be removed. My real fulfilment I shall achieve. This sort of consciousness arises,
awakens in one’s mind, and that is śraddhā. And when that śraddhā, that sort of faith arises in
one’s mind he then tries his best to connect him with so many...

........