America Dropped the Bomb

“So, [Hitler] is advertised adversely, but if it is a true fact, then how he could have this human consideration that he did not throw the nuclear weapon?”

“So Asvattama was thinking of this brahmastra: astram brahma-sito mene atma-tranam dvijatmajah. Hopelessly.

So far, of course, I know that…uh…this nuclear weapon was already discovered by the German people and Hitler, it is said that he did not use it because he knew that, “If I throw this nuclear weapon there will be devastation.” So, from this point it can be considered that he had some human consideration. So, he’s advertised adversely, but if it is true fact, then how he could have this human consideration that he did not throw the nuclear weapon? And this was taken by the Americans, and it was thrown in Japan. That is the history so far as we know.”

(A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.7.19, 16 September 1976, Vrindavan, India)

 

Braja Mohan Prabhu (Visit To Varsana – Part 1)

November 1997, Varsana, India Kartik was drawing to a close.  I had only a few more days left in Vrindavan.  Even though I had gotten over my dysentry, I was eager to leave the Holy Dhama.  I had started off with ideas of performing austerities like Rupa Goswami.  Rupa was a contemporary of Lord Chaitanya who had resided on the banks of Radha Kunda, which are as hot as a desert – chanting for hours and hours, sleeping under a different tree every night, eating very little, writing devotional poetry and scripture and offering respects to devotees of Krishna. My neophyte level was exposed to me within days of arriving in Vrindavan – I just couldn’t stop thinking about western foods like ice-cream and custard.  Now, one month later, I felt as if I had been marooned on a desert island.  If my ship didn’t come soon, I might die.  There was one place I had to see before I left.  Varsana. Varsana is the ‘place of rains’, named after the gopis (the young cow-herd girls who sported with Krishna) tears of separation from Krishna.  It is the place of Sri Radha, one of the most sacred places in all of Vraja.  My travelling companions – Nicholas and Ivor – had other plans, so I ventured out on my own.  The autoricksa only arrived in Varsana in the afternoon, leaving only one or two hours of daylight within which to safely pay homage to this holy place.   A beautiful Temple loomed in the distance on the sacred hill which was once the site of Maharaja Vrishabanu’s palace.  I was excited.  I gulped back my Limka and focussed all my efforts on making my way for the sacred Hill and the Sriji Temple on its peak.  The first thing that struck me about Varsana was the beauty of the residents.  Had this something to do with their lineal relation to Krishna’s consort Sri Radha?  A winding cobblestone path drew me into the town.  After some time, the narrow path opened into a square where I walked into a gentleman sitting on a raised platform.  He wore black trousers and a white collared shirt.  He sat, like a yogi, beckoning to me with his right hand. He had a moustache and his hair was bryl-creamed.   Being a crime-conscious South African, and heeding the cautions of experienced devotees, I approached the man with due care.  He patted the sandstone dais and said to me, ‘You, sit here!  Sit here!’   I thought that it would be good manners if I sat with him for a while (Indians are very particular about hospitality).  The gentleman introduced himself in broken English, ‘I am Braja Mohan.  I live here.  We are all Radharani’s family here’.  He explained to me how the people of the village were mostly Goswamis and were all relatives of Sri Radha.  He explained to me that the place where he was sitting was a Temple of Sudhama, Lord Krishna’s Brahmana friend.  He then commenced with a fragmentary narration of the pastime of Krishna and Sudhama Brahmana.  Somewhat wary, I avoided discussing my purpose or plans in the village of Varsana with Braja Mohan.

Sudama Brahmana and Lord Krishna had been close friends at Sandipani Muni’s gurukula, in the town of Ujjain. After their education, they went their separate ways. Krishna was the son of Nanda Maharaja, a wealthy vaisya or business man; and Sudama was a poor and simple brahmana (priest or intellectual). One day, Sudama’s wife said to him, ‘My dear husband, we are very poor. There is hardly any food on our table. See how thin you are! Remember your old friend Krishna. Go to him and ask Him to assist us.’  Sudama Brahmana had only a handful of flat rice to offer the Lord when he met him in Mathura. Krishna was so pleased with Sudama’s simple devotion that when he returned to his wife, he found her in a beautiful gem-laden palace, resembling the opulences of Vaikuntha (‘place of no anxiety’) or the Kingdom of God.  

 

The Srimad Bhagavatam Or Bhagavata Purana

The Srimad Bhagavatam is the beautiful book of Sri Krishna, Bhagavan. Srimad Bhagavatam is also called the Bhagavata Purana. It contains the essence of the Ancient Vedic Histories known as the Puranas – the transcendental pastimes of Lord Krishna and His saintly devotees.

Mundane histories describe personalities caught in the grip of birth, death, disease and old age. As Nietsche so cynically said, ‘History is for those who dwell in the graveyards’. Prabhupada described mundane narrations as fit for crows. I have seen crows in India and they are very fond of garbage. The Vedas consider the pastimes of Krishna, however, to be amrita – immortal nectar. These descriptions are for swanlike persons and are full of sac-cid-ananda – eternity, knowledge and bliss. Srila Vyasadeva – the compiler of the Vedas, including Srimad Bhagavatam– calls the Srimad Bhagavatam ‘The ripened fruit of the desire tree of Vedic knowledge’.

The Bhagavad-gita is called the ‘Jewel of the Vedas’. Also known as Gitopanisad, an extension of the Vedic teachings called Upanisads, Bhagavad-gita is the oldest book on the planet – dating some 5,000 years. It is the sacred conversation or song between the saintly prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna. The Gita is a perfect summary of the entire Vedic Canon of knowledge.

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada writes, ‘Bhagavad-gita accepted as it is, is a great boon for humanity; but if it is accepted as a treatise of mental speculations, it is simply a waste of time’. Essentially, Bhagavad Gita As It Is means as it is understood in disciplic succession ie. via a lineage of qualified teachers. Srila Prabhupada has presented the world with wonderful translations of the Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita. Even more importantly, he has explained to the public at large the true spirit of these scriptures through his authoritative commentaries or purports.

 

Krishna Tattva

Krishna Das Kaviraja Maharaja explains in Chapter 2 of Caitanya-caritamrita Adi-lila that Lord Narayana possesses all six opulences in full: sad-aisvarya-purno.  He then distinguishes between Krishna and Narayana:

‘Narayana and Sri Krsna are the same Personality of Godhead, but although They are identical, Their bodily features are different’ [2.28]

‘This Personality of Godhead [Sri Krsna] has two hands and holds a flute, whereas the other [Narayana] has four hands, with conch, wheel, mace and lotus’ [2.29]

Kaviraja Maharaja then quotes Lord Brahma’s prayers to Lord Krishna from the 10th Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam 10.14.14:

‘O Lord of Lords, You are the seer of all creation.  You are indeed everyone’s dearest life.  Are You not, therefore, my father, Narayana?  Narayana refers to one whose abode is in the water born from Nara [Garbhodakasayi Visnu], and that Narayana is Your plenary portion.  All Your plenary portions are transcendental.  They are absolute and are not creations of maya’ [2.30]

Kaviraja Maharaja gives three proofs that Krsna is the source of Narayana from Brahma’s prayers from 2.31 to 2.57.  He establishes that Narayana is the source of the purusa avataras.  The culmination of his reasoning is that Narayana is the vilasa or pastime feature of Lord Krsna [2.58].

He then quotes the maha-vakya verse of the Bhagavatam again.  The maha-vakya verse is the principle verse of a Vedic scripture or portion of a Vedic scripture.  This verse gives the predominant conclusion of the work.  Jiva Goswami calls this verse the paribhasa sutra or ‘the emperor verse’ of Srimad Bhagavatam.  There is no verse in Bhagavatam that contradicts this verse.  Krsna Das Kaviraja Goswami, therefore, completes his argument by quoting it:

ete camsa-kalah pumsah/krsnas tu bhagavan svayam/indrari vyakulam lokam/ mrdayanti yuge yuge

‘All these incarnations of Godhead are either plenary portions or parts of the plenary portions of the purusa-avataras.  But Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself.  In every age He protects the world through His different features when the world is disturbed by the enemies of Indra’ [CC 2.67 from SB 1.3.28]

 

Krishna Das Kaviraja Maharaja Establishes That Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Is Krishna (Part 1)

Yad advaitam brahmopanisadi tad apy asya tanu-bha/ya atmantaryami purusa iti so ‘syamsa-vibhavah/sad-aisvaryaih purno ya iha bhagavan sa svayam ayam/na caitanyat krsnaj jagati para-tattvam param iha

‘What the Upanisads describe as the impersonal Brahman is but the effulgence of his body, and the Lord known as the Supersoul is but His localized plenary portion.  He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna Himself, full with six opulences.  He is the Absolute Truth, and no other truth is greater than or equal to Him’ 

[Sri Caitanya-Caritamrita, Adi-lila 1.3 (verse three of the 14 verse mangalacarana or introductory invocation]

Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, Adi-Lila, Chapter 2, is basically a lengthy purport to this third verse of the mangalacarana .  Krishna Das Kaviraja Maharaja argues that Lord Chaitanya is none other than Krishna Himself – or Narayana (not Vaikuntha Narayana, but Krishna who is also called Narayana).  A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has, therefore, aptly entitled this chapter: ‘Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead’.

The Vaishnava acaryas (spiritual masters) are always trying to establish the siddhanta (spiritual conclusions) of the guru-parampara.  The word parampara means ‘chain’.  The guru-parampara is an unbroken “chain” or line of spiritual preceptors that goes all the way back to the original spiritual master, or guru – Lord Krishna.  Hence the saying, ‘Guru is one’.  In other words, the guru simply represents Krishna and Krishna’s teachings.  Krishna and His representatives (the guru-parampara) try to establish, amongst other things, Krishna’s position as the Supreme Personality of Godhead; the supremacy of devotional service; and the authenticity of the disciplic succession.

Krishna Das Kaviraja Maharaja begins his argument in Adi-Lila 2.9: ‘He whom Srimad Bhagavatam (SB) describes as the son of Nanda Maharaja has descended to earth as Lord Caitanya.’  CC Adi-Lila Chapter 2 gives the supporting argument to this statement. In order to establish that Mahaprabhu is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kaviraja Maharaja has to establish Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Krishna Das Kaviraja describes the three features of the Lord, as they appear in Verse 3 of the mangalacarana: Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan.  He also quotes SB 1.2.11: vadanti tat tattva-vidas/tattvam yaj jnanam advayam/brahmeti paramatmeti/bhagavan iti sabdyate: ‘Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth say that it is nondual knowledge and is called impersonal Brahman, localized Paramatma and the Personality of Godhead.’  He then proceeds, quoting scripture,  to distinguish the incomplete realizations of the Absolute truth, Brahman and Paramatma, from the complete realization, namely Bhagavan.