Selection From The Harmonist

Selected articles from the magazine
SREE SAJJANA-TOSHANI or THE HARMONIST
Edited by Paramahamsa Paribrajakacharyya
Sri Srimad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj
Published between 1927 - 1936

A Divine Event burst once again upon the world.
The Iron Age fettered our soul
As we had forgot the goal;
So the Lord Himself in pity came as the Teacher of His Word.

Let this saving Message be not hastily disbelieved.
There is no other course
Possesses the force
To lift us to the plane that by the saints are trod.

IT reminds one of the old story of an aged Brahmin who desired to lead a life of ease at the fag end of his career, after handing over his all to his son. He became infirm and invalid, so much so that like a child he meant to while away his time by living upon the most palatable dishes. For this reason, his daughter-in law felt much disgusted and made her husband also apathetic to him. She rings into her husband in this strain: ‘Oh, what ill-luck it is that I have been wedded to one under whose roof I cannot fully feed my children although I toil night and day.” Questioned by the husband the reason thereof, says she: “Don’t you know why? You seem not to know anything! You have kept your old father in the house. I have to labour hard to supply his endless demands; besides that, whenever any dainties are offered to the children, the old man’s mouth waters and he hankers after them although they are far too insufficient for the boys to spare. I am to suffer all these troubles. I will leave your home and go away to my father’s house.”

PREPARATIONS are being rapidly pushed forward for the All-India theistic Exhibition that the Viswa Vaishnava Raj Sabha proposes to hold at Sreedham Mayapur, the holy Birth-place of Lord Sri Chaitanya.

The detailed prospectus of the Exhibition which has already appeared in a previous issue of the Journal is well worth our most careful perusal. It is a unique document that appears to possess a permanent interest for all thoughtful persons in every part of the world and for all time. It is, however, almost an irony of fate for humanity that the greatest spiritual events always happen to pass almost unnoticed by contemporaries. This is not due to any want of advertising energy on the part of those who are properly informed regarding the exceptional nature of the event happening in their time. But people at large as a rule show a singular inaptitude for being impressed by those appeals.

Vaishnavism is pre eminently the religion of transcendental Love. It embodies the essence of all philosophies nay it is the highest of all. It is a religion of total self abnegation and of absolute self-surrender to that Supreme God-head in Whom “we move, live and have our being”. It is the realisation of the sublimest aspirations of the soul. By embracing Vaishnavism and by living up to its noble precepts, a man, whatever be his caste, creed or colour, reaches the highest goal by slow but sure and sometimes unconscious steps. And what is true of man is of course true of woman also. Nay, Vaishnavism is peculiarly adapted to even the soft and tender nature of woman. For it is essentially a religion of loving tenderness, sweet love, and celestial mercy. A man must entirely kill the beast in him and thoroughly divest himself of his awkward masculine sternness or feminine bashfulness, before he can be a true Vaishnava. It is indeed the highest privilege of man to be able to call himself a Vaishnava. To be a true Vaishnava is to see God, to love God and to enjoy holy and blessed communion with God in his own eternal nature. A Vaishnava stands to God in the most endearing of all relations. In the highest stage of Vaishnavism, the devotee approaches his Beloved One, not as the servant approaches his master, nor as the son approaches his parent, nor as the disciple approaches his preceptor, nor as the friend approaches his friend, but as the bride approaches the bridegroom or as the sweetheart approaches the lover with all confidence.

WE have the following from the holy lips of our Divine Lord in His instructions to Sanatan: Krishna is One without a second, Whose attributes form, name and pastimes are one and the same. He is eternally served by His plenary spiritual power. He manifests Himself as plenary constituent factors of His own Self and as differentiated parts, and indulges in transcendental pastimes in this world as well as in the infinite Baikuntha the spiritual world. His plenary manifestations are Vasudeva, Sankarsan, Pradyumna and Aniruddha. The created world is the example of His differentiated power. Individual souls are of two classes, one is ever liberated, the other ever-fettered to the world. The ever liberated are ever eager for serving Krishna’s feet, they are Krishna’s exclusive followers and they enjoy the bliss of serving Him. The ever-fettered are ever excluded from Krishna and ever feel the sufferings of limited existence; the Fury, Illusion or maya constantly haunts them and for that reason the three afflictions scourge them, they are kicked at by Lust and Anger and other deadly sins whose slaves they are. If in course of their life’s roamings they meet with an ever-liberated soul as their healer his teaching like a charm exorcises the demon Maya (Illusion) out of them; then they experience devotion to Krishna and come to Him,”

The ceremony of diksha or initiation is that by which the spiritual Preceptor admits one to the status of a neophyte on the path of spiritual endeavour. The ceremony tends to confer spiritual enlightenment by abrogating sinfulness. Its actual effect depends on the degree of willing co-operation on the part of the disciple and is, therefore, not the same in all cases. It does not preclude the possibility of reversion of the novice to the non-spiritual state, if he slackens in his effort or misbehaves. Initiation puts a person on the true track and also imparts on initial impulse to go ahead. It cannot, however, keep one going for good unless one chooses to put forth his own voluntary effort. The nature of the initial impulse also varies in accordance with the condition of the recipient. But although the mercy of the good preceptor enables us to have a glimpse of the Absolute and of the path of His attainment, the seed that is thus sown requires very careful tending under the direction of the preceptor, if it is to germinate and grow into the fruit-and-shade-giving tree. Unless our soul of his own accord chooses to serve Krishna after obtaining a working idea of his real nature, he cannot long retain the Spiritual Vision. The soul is never compelled by Krishna to serve Him.

ON many occasions the first question that we hear from one just stepping into the spiritual world is “What are my duties and how should I go on?” Desiring to lead a religious life he makes a routine of the daily affairs of life and resolves to go on accordingly. The principle is well and good. But before this can be properly followed one thing is to be carefully noted.

In the affairs of this mundane World we notice that a maid is not busy about making a routine of her daily duties as wife before her marriage. At the beginning, the girl and her relatives take care to establish her intimacy with the husband. The first and foremost affair after her arrival at the husband’s house is the establishment of relation with the husband and then she attempts to lead her life of serving her husband and his relations. If one without establishing due relationship with one’s husband, or without getting a husband at all, performs carefully all conjugal affairs after the manner of a harlot having no true aim, then the performance of those affairs does not bestow happiness on the performer but on the contrary takes her to hell, because her efforts are meant for satisfaction of passions. So the proper relationship with the husband should be established at the outset.

People cherish many erroneous ideas and indulge in idle speculations about the attainment of the service of God-head. They also have many wrong notions about His devotees. What are we and what relationship do we bear towards Him? We have to try to understand that, before we can attempt to discover how to attain Him. A man has a soul, a mind, senses and a body. While he is conditioned, his mind reigns over all the rest with the result that he falls in the hands of delusion or Maya and is thus enmeshed in many troubles and whirled round in manifold births and deaths in various forms both animate and inanimate. But where the soul reigns supreme, the mind, the body and the senses are all engaged in the service of the Supreme Lord Krishna, and the result is abiding harmony and eternal bliss.