Glories of Advaita Acharya
Harikatha, Sreela Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Goswami Maharaj
In the initial part of Harikatha, Srila Gurudev remembers Srila Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Prabhupad’s delivering lecture in Bengali language at Madras Gaudiya Math and emphasizes on the important teaching that devotion can be transmitted only by devotion not by any other means. In the later part, He sings the glories of Advaita Acharya describing his ontological identity and remembering his various pastimes with Mahaprabhu.
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Bhakti cannot be propagated and transmitted by any language. Only devotion transmits devotion. I do not have devotion in me. Our Param Gurudev instructed us in this regard. Once he was to speak in Madras Gaudiya Math. He started to speak in Bengali language. Afterwards some dignitaries came there from the city. They could understand only the local language or English. There were also many highly educated persons amongst them. So some of the Brahmacharis approached Srila Prabhupad and requested him to speak in English so that everybody can understand him. But our Param Gurudeva continued to speak in Bengali only. They approached him repeatedly and requested but then too he did not speak in English, although he was a learned person and used to and can speak English very well, he spoke in Bengali only. Afterwards Srila Prabhupad told them, “I have not heard from my Gurudev that devotion can be propagated and transmitted by language.”
Whatever language a pure devotee speaks in, his words will transmit devotion. He does not belong to this material world. So his words are also of not this world. I have heard from one of my senior God-brothers about the effect of his conversation with Srila Saraswati Thakur. He belonged to Sarbhog, Assam. He was a Brahman and his father was a family priest. When he was of twelve years, Srila Prabhupad went to Sarbhog for deity installation ceremony. One day Srila Prabhupad was traveling in a bullock cart. He was facing towards the rear end of the cart. That time, the then twelve year boy, Kamalaprasad who later became Ashrama Maharaj, the in-charge of our Mayapur Math, followed the cart running behind it and had some conversation with Srila Prabhupad.
Srila Prabhupad asked, “What is your name? Where do you stay? What do you do?”
He asked ordinary worldly questions only. He did not speak Harikatha, but this ordinary words also changed the mind of that boy. He lost his interest form the worldly life. He decided to give up the material life. Why did this happen? Srila Prabhupad is a personal associate or Supreme Lord, he is Nayanamani-manjari in Krishna-lila. Though he spoke material things only but his worlds changed the heart of that boy. He was attracted by the words and the personality of Srila Prabhupad so much so that he lost his interest from all the material attachments. His parents got very perturbed by his behavior. They were orthodox Brahmins who wanted him to follow the rules and regulations pertaining to eating and meeting with different people. They advised him to maintain his Brahminical standards. They also tried to allure him by offering a position of a family priest after his father. But he was firm in his decision on leaving the worldly life. Finally, he came to Math and accepted renounced order of life. As Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur had disappeared by then, he took initiation from our Gurudev.
The words of a person who is on the material platform will not have any effect on anyone as those words have false vanity in them. The words of a person who has the realization that he belongs to the Supreme Lord has transcendental power in them which will directly communicate with the living principle.
So Srila Prabhupad’s words are transcendental which have changed the life of many. Whoever came to him, he advised him to stay in Math and practice devotion. He used to take the responsibility of the livelihood of whoever desired to perform devotion.
Srila Prabhupad did not have the desire to preach but when he completed the vow of chanting hundred crores of Holy Names then Panchatattva, his Gurudeva, Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Jagannath Das Babaji Maharaj appeared before him and ordered him to preach the message of pure devotion to the whole world. After that our Gurudev and all other great personalities came to him and joined the mission. So what language you speak, does not matter. If devotion is not there, whatever language you speak in will not have any effect.
Today is appearance day of Bhakatavatara Advaita Acharya Prabhu.
pañca-tattvātmakaṁ kṛṣṇaṁ
bhakta-rūpa-svarūpakam
bhaktāvatāraṁ bhaktākhyaṁ
namāmi bhakta-śaktikam (Chaitanya Charitamrit Adi 7.6)He remained in this material world for 125 years. Guruvargas descend to this world prior to the appearance of the Supreme Lord and Advaita Acharya is one amongst the senior Guruvargas of Mahaprabhu. So after the descent of Advaita Acharya, other Guruvargas and later Nityanand Prabhu also descended to this world. Nityanand Prabhu appeared in Ekachakra Dham in a Brahmin family, accepting Hadai Pandit and Padmavati as His parents bestowing the opportunity to serve Him in vātsalya-rasa.
By getting the grace of Advaita Acharya one will get the grace of Mahaprabhu and Nityanand Prabhu simultaneously. Advaita Acharya was residing in Sylhet, and later He moved to Shantipur. When His parents disappeared, He went to Gaya on the pretext of performing the appropriate rituals of mourning, and thence continued on a pilgrimage of all of India’s holy places. When He came to Vrindavan, beneath a banyan tree He became absorbed in the worship of Sri Krishna. This was near Madan Mohan temple. We take darshan of that place. Through His meditation He was able to understand that Krishna was about to appear in Nabadvip. He finally returned to Shantipur from Vrindavan after spending several days in Nabadvip. The people of Shantipur had been suffering from His separation for a long time and were very happy to see Him.
Lord Vishnu is always accompanied by three aspects or Shaktis—Sri, Bhu and Lila. Advaita Acharya’s own Divine persona would not be fully manifest without all these three aspects of His identity. Therefore, Advaita Acharya accepted two wives. One was named Sridevi, the other, Sitadevi.
He observed that the sinfulness of the age of Kali had reached a disturbing extreme and that the world was entirely devoid of devotion to Lord Krishna. He thought that a partial Avatara of Lord would not be sufficient to completely remedy the situation. He thought, “The world will only benefit if the Supreme Lord Himself descends to the earth.” So He began to worship Krishna’s lotus feet with Ganges water and Tulsi leaves, shouting and pleading to the Lord for His advent. With roars of love (prema-huṅkāra), Advaita Acharya showed His desire for the Lord of Goloka to descend to the earth.
Advaita Acharya is Mahavishnu Himself. Mahavishnu is the cause of whole cosmic manifestation. Sankarshan expands Himself as Mahavishnu.
Rupa Goswami writes,
viṣṇos tu trīṇi rūpāṇi
puruṣākhyāny atho viduḥ
ekaṁ tu mahataḥ sraṣṭṛ
dvitīyaṁ tv aṇḍa-saṁsthitam
tṛtīyaṁ sarva-bhūta-sthaṁ
tāni jñātvā vimucyate
(Laghu-bhagavatamrit Purva 2.9, Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya 20.251)Vishnu has three forms called three Purushas. The first, Karanodakasayi, is the creator of the total material energy (Mahat), the second is Garbhodakasayi, enters into all the universes, and the third is Kshirodakasayi, who is the indwelling Supersoul of the individual universes, as well as the individual living beings. He who knows these three becomes liberated from the clutches of Maya. He is the only master and enjoyer. We are not masters and enjoyers. Until we have the false ego that, ‘I am a woman’ or ‘I am a man’, we will be entangled in this material world.
When Karanodakasayi Mahavishnu glances upon Prakriti, it gets agitated and the cosmic manifestation, innumerable Brahmandas come to existence. Garbhodakasayi Mahavishna is situated within each universe. Kshirodakasayi Mahavishnu, who resides in Kshira-sagar, Himself came as Advaita Acharya.
As per Rupa Goswami’s instructions, one who knows the three Purushas as the enjoyers and masters of all, and everyone else as the object of Their enjoyment, he gets emancipation from the clutches of Maya. When we forget Them, we forget our position and try to become the enjoyers then we get entangled by Maya and the three-fold miseries of this material world.
Mahaprabhu, Nityanand Prabhu and Advaita Acharya appeared in this world to rescue the fallen souls. So after coming back to Shantipur, Advaita Acharya pleaded to the Lord to advent.
Do not consider Advaita Acharya as an ordinary person. He started a school in Nabadvip-Mayapur and started teaching the doctrine of pure devotion.
Mahaprabhu’s elder brother Vishvarupa (non-different from Nityanand Prabhu) used to go to Advaita Acharya’s house to listen to Him. After hearing Advaita Acharya, Vishvarupa decided that He would renounce family life in the knowledge that the material world is temporary and a human being’s only real duty is to worship the Lord. When Advaita Acharya was engaged in performing His worship, Vishvarupa would explain to everyone present there that devotion to Sri Krishna is the ultimate purport of all the scriptures. When Advaita Acharya heard Him speaking in this way, He got up from worshiping His deity and embraced Him.
When Vishvarupa saw that His parents were starting to make wedding plans for Him, He immediately left home, went to South India and took Sanyas order of life, after which He was known by the name Shankararanya. After Vishvarupa left home, Sachi Devi and Jagannath Mishra feared that Nimai would follow His example and so they put a stop to His education. Later, however, they thought that it would be better to send Him to school. While Nimai was still fully devoted to His pastimes as a scholar, His mother arranged His marriage to Lakshmipriya. Lakshmipriya Devi disappeared before His accepting the Sanyas order of life. Sachi Devi then made Him marry to Vishnupriya. After His Sanyas, Vishnupriya Devi showed the ideal of worshipping Him in the mood of separation. There are three potencies of Lord Vishnu—Sri, Bhu and Lila. In Mayapur Dham, Mahaprabhu enacted the pastimes of Vishnu-tattva. Gadadhar Pandit is His potency when He is exhibiting the Krishna-tattva pastimes. So to obtain the highest love—unnata-ujval-prem, one needs the grace of Gadadhar Pandit. He was the part of Mahaprabhu’s pastimes in both places—Mayapur as well as Purushottam Dham.
After Mahaprabhu took Sanyas at Katva, Nityananda Prabhu, with the help of some cowherd boys, tricked Him into coming to the banks of the Ganges at Shantipur. He instructed the cowherd boys “If Mahaprabhu asks you about the path to Vrindavana, please show Him the path on the bank of the Ganges instead.” When the cowherd boys were questioned by the Lord about the path to Vrindavana, they showed Him the path on the bank of the Ganges. He took the path advised by them. When He saw Ganges, He thought it to be Yamuna and became overwhelmed with ecstasy. Meanwhile, Nityanand Prabhu informed Advaita Acharya that He had brought Mahaprabhu there. Advaita Acharya came there by boat across the river with new clothes for Him. Mahaprabhu was astonished to see Him there. He asked Him how He had known about His arrival in Vrindavan. Advaita Acharya answered Him, “Wherever You stay is Vrindavan”.
“Am I not seeing the River Yamuna?”
“This is Yamuna only. The western flow of the Ganges is known as Yamuna.”
Saying so He took Mahaprabhu to His place. All the devotees from Nabadvip came to His place and had Darsan of Mahaprabhu. From there Mahaprabhu went to Purushottam Dham. The devotees of Nabadvip Dham used to go to Purushottam Dham for four months during Rathayatra.
In order to show the fallen jivas how auspicious it is to receive punishment from the Lord, the guru or a Vaishanavas, Advaita Acharya enacted a wonderful pastime. Mahaprabhu always used to respect Advaita Acharya as He is the God-brother of His Gurudev, Iswarpuri Pad. But Advaita Acharya did not like that, He used to think, “Mahaprabhu is the object of My worship. He should instruct Me about what is good and what is bad but instead of doing so He is giving respect to Me. I have brought Him for the welfare of all the conditioned souls. Although, He is My master, He is not controlling Me. So I will now preach Gyana-marga—the process of knowledge, the ideology of Mayavadis, so aham—I am that Brahman. When Mahaprabhu will come to know about this, He will become angry on Me and will then instruct Me on what is the right path. If I will not do so then He will not instruct Me.”
There were a few unfortunate people there that time to whom Advaita Acharya started instructing about the Mayavad philosophy. As He was a reputed person there, nobody was there who could refute Him. Everyone came to know that He is preaching the Mayavad philosophy—so aham, aham brahmasmi—I am that Brahman.
When the Lord caught wind of this, He became extremely angry and went to Shantipur to give Him a good thrashing. When He was chastised in this way, Advaita Acharya danced in joy, saying, “Just see, My desires have been fulfilled today! Mahaprabhu was previously miserly with Me, treating Me as His respectful elder. Now He has acted toward Me as though I were His servant or disciple, by trying to save Me from the heresy of Mayavad.” When the Lord understood that this had all been a ruse on Advaita Acharya’s part, He was embarrassed but pleased with Him.
Advaita Acharya invited the Lord to this world, seeing the plight of the conditioned souls, by worshiping Him with the water of Ganges and Tulsi leaves. He prayed to the Lord who takes rest in Kshira-sagar—the ocean of Milk, to advent to this world. Ontologically, the Supreme Lord and all His expansions are the same, the only difference is in Their pastimes. It comes in the pastimes of Lord Ramachandra, when the Rishis of Dandakaranya expressed their desire in front of Him to serve Him as their husband. He replied them saying, “It is not possible in My pastimes as Lord Ramachandra. I have taken a wow to keep one wife only. Only Sita Devi has the right to serve Me as Her husband and no one else has that right.”
When they requested Him again, He told that they would get Him as their husband in Krishna-lila and will be able to serve Him in the loving guidance of Gopis. By the words of Lord Ramachandra, the Rishis got Him as their husband in Krishna-lila, but in the form of Ramachandra, He could not fulfill their desire as He is Marayda-purusottam. Is there any difference ontologically? There is no difference. Only pastimes are different. The pastimes of Lord Nandanandan Krishna are the highest but ontologically all His expansions are same as Him.
There is one more incident related to Advaita Acharya. When Vishvarupa, the elder brother of Mahaprabhu, came to the conclusion, after studying with Advaita Acharya, that the world is a temporary place and the only real duty of humankind is to worship the Supreme Lord, He left home and took sanyas. Sachi Mata, though troubled by His departure, was wary of insulting Advaita Acharya for the role He had played in it, knowing Him to be a Vaishnava, and took solace in Nimai’s presence at home. But when she saw that Nimai too was constantly going to associate with Advaita Acharya, leaving His wife Lakshmipriya alone at home, she began to think that Advaita Advaita’s name was really unsuitable, that rather than unifying people as it would indicate, He split them apart. ‘Dvaita’ would thus be a more appropriate name, she thought. “This old Gosai goes by the name Advaita, but He should be called Dvaita. One son of mine, as beautiful as the moon, has left home because of Him, and He hasn’t let me keep the other one settled. No one has mercy on me, I am now alone in this world. He may be one (Advaita) with the world, but I see him as Maya (Dvaita).”
(Chaitanya Bhagavata 2.22.114-6)Because of her affection for her son, Sachi Mata mentally criticized Advaita Acharya in this way and no one knew except for her son, Gaura Hari, Who is the indweller of all beings. On the day of the Mahaprakash-lila in the house of Srivas Pandit, when Mahaprabhu was fulfilling the desires of every one of His devotees by allowing them to see His Divine form for twenty-one hours, Srivasa Pandit asked Him whether Sachi Devi could also be blessed with this Divine vision. Mahaprabhu answered, “My mother has committed an offense against Advaita Prabhu, so I will not show her this form.”
When the devotees told Sachi Mata what her son had said, she immediately went to Advaita Acharya and begged Him for forgiveness. After Advaita Acharya had heard Sachi Mata’s confession, He began to glorify her as the one who had carried the Supreme Lord of all creation in her womb. He continued to do so until He became unconscious from the overwhelming love that He felt. Only when He fell unconscious could Sachi Devi finally take the dust of His lotus feet and thus be free from her offense. Mahaprabhu was satisfied with His mother and showed her His glorious, Divine form. Another important lesson we can draw from this incidence is that Vaishnavas are never proud. Even though she had given birth to Lord Gaura Hari, Sachi Devi felt no pride in her exalted status. As soon as she became aware of having committed an offense, she went to Advaita Acharya without any hesitation and prayed to be pardoned.
When Mahaprabhu appeared in Nabadvip Dham, even Advaita Acharya, who had invited Him to advent in this world could not recognize Him as the Supreme Lord. He along with His potency came to Jagannath Mishra’s place and blessed Him considering Him to be the son of Sachi Devi and Jagannath Mishra. Mahaprabhu became satisfied to recieve the love of His devotee, the disciple of Madhavendra Puripad, in the form of His blessings.
One day at Srivasa’s house, Mahaprabhu indicated that He wanted to perform the Vyasa Puja to Nityananda Prabhu. On the eve of this puja, Mahaprabhu showed everyone that Nityananda Prabhu is Baladeva and then, repeating the words, “Nāṛā, Nāṛā”, revealed that Advaita Prabhu had caused Him to descend to the earth by calling Him. After the Vyasa Puja had come to an end, Mahaprabhu took on the mood of the Supreme Lord and sent Ramai Pandit, Srivasa Pandit’s brother, to fetch Advaita Prabhu from His house in Shantipur. Ramai Pandit told Advaita Acharya of the Lord’s Divine manifestation.
Advaita Acharya decided to test Him by hiding in Nandanacharya’s house. He told Ramai Pandit not to tell Mahaprabhu, but the Lord, who knows the heart of all, was able to see through Advaita Acharya’s plan. As Mahaprabhu sat on the altar and revealed to everyone His Divine identity, Nityananda Prabhu held the royal parasol while Gadadhar Pandit and the other devotees engaged in a variety of services. This time, when Mahaprabhu sent Ramai to Nandanacharya’s house to fetch Advaita Acharya, Advaita Acharya realized that Mahaprabhu was omniscient and hesitated no longer.
Advaita Acharya joyfully prostrated Himself before the Lord, stunned by the sight of the Lord’s Divine power. He washed the Lord’s lotus feet and then worshiped Him with the five ingredients.
So even Advaita Acharya could not recognize the real identity of Supreme Lord, initially. There is one more such incident of a Brahmin pilgrim who passed through Nabadvip with Bala Gopal. Jagannath Mishra offered the Brahmin a place to perform his puja as well as food to cook for an offering. When the pilgrim had finished cooking, he sat down to offer the bhoga to his deity. But as soon as he started meditation on his Mantra, Nimai came and began eating the offering. The Brahmin saw this and started to shout in distress. Jagannath Mishra was extremely disturbed by the incident and the Brahmin had to intercede to stop him from giving the child a spanking.
Although the Brahmin did not want to cook again, Jagannath Mishra begged him to do so. Before he recommenced preparing the offering Jagannath Mishra took Nimai to a neighbor’s house so that He would not do any more mischief. Once again, when the Brahmin sat down to meditate on his Bala Gopal Mantra to make his offering, Gaura Gopal appeared out of nowhere and started to enjoy the food-stuffs. The Brahmin again began to shout in frustration, “Everything’s ruined. Everything’s ruined!” For a second time Jagannath Mishra was devastated and once again was about to punish the child, only to be stopped by his guest. The Brahmin said, “He’s only a child and doesn’t understand anything. It’s not His fault. It seems that it is not my destiny to eat today.”
This time, Nimai’s elder brother Vishvarupa begged the Brahmin to try a third time, and so finally, on his insistence, he began to cook again. This time it was quite late at night and Nimai was fast asleep in His room so no one suspected any trouble. Even so, the Brahmin waited until the entire household had gone to bed before making his offering; but once again, contrary to all expectation, Gaura Gopal came to accept the offering. This time, however, He gave the Brahmin a vision of an extraordinary eight-armed form. In four of these hands, He held the conch, discus, mace and lotus flower of Narayana; but in the palm of another hand, He held a lump of butter from which He was taking morsels with another hand. The last two hands were engaged in playing a flute. When the pilgrim Brahmin saw this wonderful vision, he fainted away completely.
When he came to consciousness, Nimai told him not to reveal this pastime to anyone. He told him, “You have been My servant for many, many births. This very same pastime also took place at Nanda’s house in Gokula.”
Every day after finishing his daily activities, he would return to Nimai’s house to behold his worshipable lord.
So even by directly having the sight of Supreme Lord one cannot understand Him to be the Supreme.
Mahaprabhu advents in this word and performs His pastimes as a devotee. Nityanand Prabhu who is Baladev Himself, also performs the pastime of a devotee. Similarly, Advaita Acharya performs the pastimes of worshiping the Lord by offering Tulsi and water of the Ganges River. Tulsi can be offered to Vishnu-tattva only, not to any other demigod.
vâñchâ-kalpatarubhyas cha kripâ-sindhubhya eva cha
patitânâm pâvanebhyo vaishnavebhyo namo namah
Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya
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