Views on Creation
(By Prof. Nimananda Dasadhicary Sevatirtha, B.Ag, B.T.)
PEOPLE generally ask three questions -- whence is this creation? Why is this creation? And when is this creation? Different schools of thought give different replies to them. These are empirical questions and their empirical solutions are, indeed, not possible. Yet two sets of replies to these questions commend themselves for our discussion -- one given by the Mayavadi School of thought, and the other given by the Vaishnava School of thought. The former, proceeding from the known to unknown, has, in fact, tackled these problems in an empiric way. The latter, proceeding from the veiled absolute knowledge to the known, has given a solution of them as found in the scriptures which are infallible guides in matters spiritual.
The Mayavadi does not believe in the existence of a personal God as the creator of this world. According to him God is impersonal. He is distinguishable. There is none to know Him and there is none whom He knows. The existence of this creation is due to Maya or ignorance. It is unreal and merely phenomenal. It is an illusion. The ignorance which is the cause of the creation is not eternal and consequently phenomenon as the creation is also not eternal. You think it exists, and therefore it exists; but as soon as you think otherwise it ceases to exist for you. The world is of your own creation, and you are yourself one of the things of this creation. You are both the subject and the objects of your creation. As you realise yourself, all this Meum et Tuum, difference and differentiation of the world go once for all. What is then left is Brahma, and you are That.
Now who will solve these problems for you and whom can you approach for their solution? So long as you are under the influence of this Maya, you cannot trust yourself nor can you trust any other man who is equally illusory. None of you-- yourself and your adviser-- have any locus standi in positive reality. But the solution also necessarily lies entirely with you. You realise and know. It is a matter of experience and not of credence. You cannot ask these questions. For in that case you take away the world from itself. You cannot measure the world by when, why and whence. It is because that whence, why and when are themselves the world, and that your illusory self that goes to ascertain the why, the whence and the when of the world is itself not different from these things. To know the world you must be something different from the world, something beyond the world. But you are not that. You being the world, it is not possible for you to know it. A man in a dream cannot say when his dream begins. For the dreaming self and the object of the dream make their appearance in the dream simultaneously and are therefore themselves the dream.
The vaishnavas, the true: Vedantists, on the other hand, abhor such a solution as blasphemous. They say "God is, the world is and Jiva or the individual soul is." They are distinct entities, coexisting. None of them are false.
The world is an ever-changing reality but God and jiva are unchanging realities as master and servant. As the sun and its rays are one so God and Jiva are one. "My father and I are one." God is all knowledge, and He cannot forget Himself into a man. He is ever perfect and forgetfulness cannot enter to His character. He is all powerful, and there is nothing to overpower Him. He is always above ignorance or Maya. Maya is His handiwork, His maid and not His mistress. Mayavadin's God is a helpless chap always in the grip of Maya. He cannot get away from her. If at one time He thinks Himself free, at another time He is made to lick the dust at the feet of Maya. His freedom from maya is most unsteady, if His thraldom were illusion, His freedom is nothing better than it. The Vaishnava's God is transcendental personal entity. He is the Supreme being. One without a second. He is the fountainhead of all energies three of which are known as Atma-shakti, Jiva-shakti, and Maya-shakti. In Atma shakti is manifested the Chit world or the Baikuntha, In Jiva shakti is manifested the limited, imperfect souls or Jivas and in maya shakti is manifested the Achit world that we see. The insentient Nature which is the cause of the insentient world supplies us with the physical body. Our imperfection leads us to seek for enjoyment in an atmosphere independent of God when we become encased in this body as punishment. Our attempt to become free has led us to bondage. Thus encased we forget our real self and always identify our self with the body. This is our ignorance. If ignorance is gone, we realise ourselves as the slave of God. Our measured eternal self is not but the identification of our self with our body is illusory. Once we overcome this illusion we do not fall into it again.
For a fallen individual soul the world begins from the when he is conscious in it. It is therefore not at all possible for it to ascertain the whence the why and the when of the world. It being now of the world cannot measure it. But nevertheless, the world is there. It is not false or illusory as is supposed by the Mayavadi. Jiva and the world are at once distinct and nondistinct from God. To human scope this simultaneous existence of distinction and nondistinction is inconceivable. In all-embracing reality all is possible. We cannot separate the idea of the world from that of God. God and the world are one. When there is God there is manifestation just as whenever there is the sun there are rays.
Doctrines of Sri Chaitanya
By Prof. Nishi Kanta Sanyal, M.A.
The doctrines of Sri Chaitanya are put tersely by an old author in a well-known Sloka which reads as follows. 'The Divine son of the Lord of Braja is to be worshipped with devotion. Brindaban is His holy realm. The worship that is practised by the matrons of Braja is alone excellent. The unimpeachable evidence of this is contained in the Srimad Bhagabata. The transcendental love for the Lord is the highest good. This is the doctrine taught by the Supreme Lord Sri Chaitanya. There is nothing deserving of higher loving esteem'.
The spiritual is eternally and categorically distinct from the limited, apparent, phenomenal, material or mundane. The mental faculties of man are by their constitution incapable of attaining the complete knowledge of anything. But the attainment of complete knowledge of the truth is universally regarded as the goal of the activities of the cognitive principle in man. The existence of man is realisable by him through the principle of self-consciousness. The cognitive principle may therefore be regarded as the stuff of the self or soul of man. The attainment of the truth is thus the fulfilment of the principle of human existence. Man's relation with God-head becomes absolutely necessary and indispensable if only Godhead is identical with the truth.
But the Godhead be, indeed, identical with the complete or absolute truth how is it possible for man with his limited faculties to know Him? The complete or absolute truth is located beyond the reach of the faculties of man. To err is human. The judgement of man is liable to be affected by the force of his changing moods. The senses of man are defective. Man often deceives himself and others consciously and unconsciously. It is on account of these draw-backs that it is not possible for man to have a complete knowledge of the truth.
The complete or absolute truth is, therefore, not a mental phenomenon or a tentative opinion regarding matters conceivable by the faculties of the mind. It is spiritual as distinct from the mental. In this world man ordinarily leads a mental existence. The very first question that is bound to occur to all who are not determined to stifle their innate hankering for the knowledge of the complete or real truth, is whether there exists any means of realising the deepest hankering of the soul?
The spiritual transcends phenomenal or mental. It cannot be known by any mental effort. The so called truth is attainable by the effort of the human mind is an inelastic, limited, material or dead thing. The real, complete or spiritual truth is an unlimited, living, indivisible, self-conscious entity. Empiric or mental truth has to be acquired and is not self-communicative. It is complete or dependent on other similar truth for its very existence. It is only apparent truth having no specific existence of its own. The apparent is related to the real as shadow to substance, darkness to light, death to life or falsehood to the truth. The two cannot co-exist. The presence of the one means the absence of the other. The mental life is the negation of the spiritual life as mental truth is the negation of spiritual truth. The difference between the two is more than qualitative. It is also exclusive.
The spiritual truth can be attained only by spiritual methods. The mental method is a process of advance from the apparently known to the unknown but knowable. It is the ascending process. The spiritual method is different from the inductive as well as deductive processes of empiric logic. The intuitions which form the basis of deductions are themselves the inherited products of experience handed down through the gross physical body from parent to child. There is, therefore, no difference between the inductive and deductive processes, the two together forming the complete whole of all empiric reasoning. These methods being limited by experience gathered through our defective senses are inapplicable to investigations of the empirically unknowable.
The revealed word of the Veda claims to be the only source available to us of spiritual enlightenment. The transcendental word appears to us in the form of sound and is orally communicable from preceptor to disciple. Information regarding the phenomena of this world is also communicable through the medium of sound verified by the testimony of the other senses. The spiritual communication cannot be conveyed by means of sound that targets objects of this world or thoughts and ideas regarded them. The sound that is charged with the message of the eternal is also necessarily itself eternal and self-revealing. It is, however, almost impossible to understand or admit this with our present convictions regarding the nature of ordinary sounds. There is sound and sound. That which is admittedly unknowable to our mental effort can never appear to it in the form of the knowable familiar vibration in air. The ordinary sounds of the mundane atmosphere are on a level with the corresponding physical organ of senses, viz. the fleshy ear. The transcendental sound which comes down from the realm of the absolute and manifests itself on the lips of the pure servants of the Lord communicates itself to the soul of the jiva through the medium of the attentive ear that is rendered fit to receive it with the faith that the sound itself is identical with the self-communicative living knowledge of the otherwise unknowable reality.
The word of the Veda or revealed knowledge imparted orally to the disciple by the good preceptor who is specially empowered by the Lord to communicate the spiritual message and understanding to fallen souls is the only and substantive evidence of the unknown and empirically unknowable.
The Author of Sri Chaitanya-Charitamrita
KRISHNA Das Kabiraj, the illustrious author of Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita the most authoritative work on the life and teachings of the Supreme Lord Srikrishna Chaitanya, appeared at Jhamatpur near Salar st. (E.I.R. 101 miles from Howrah), about the middle of the fifteenth century of the saka era. At the place where he passed his days in the village there still exist the Holy Images of Sri Sri Gour and Nityananda. In a dream he was ordered by Lord Nityananda to leave Jhamatapur ; so he went to Brindaban where he passed the rest of his life. The memorial over his ashes is still to be found in the temple of Sri Radha Damodar at Brindanban.
Approximate Date of Appearance.
The time of his appearance may be ascertained from certain incidents. The year 1537 of the saka era is the year of his finishing his literary labours-- so says a certain sloka. Some say that this sloka is written by the man who copied his works, and not by Krishna Das himself. In another of his books we find that he mentions the name of Sri Gopal Champu which was in with the year 1512 of the saka era, corresponding to 1590 A.D. Sri Chaitanya Chandrodaya Nataka, a sanskrit drama-- composed in the year 1498 of the saka era corresponding 1576 A.D.as well as books written in between the years 1189 and 1521 of the saka era, viz., Dina Chandrica, Ekadasi tattwa and Malamasatattwa are referred to in his works. Chaitanya Charitamrita is, therefore, a later work. Srimat Raghunath Das Goswami was a direct disciple of Chaitanya Deva. In his Danacharita he mentions the name of Krishna Das. The last sloka of Sri Gobindalilamrita by Krishna Das proves that he was a contemporary of Gopal Bhatta and other followers of the Supreme Lord. From these as well as from other contemporary incidents we may come to the conclusion that he lived in this world from 1452 to 1538 of the saka era or 1530 to 1616 A.D. approximately.
Sri Brindaban Das Thakur, to whom the world is indebted for the invaluable book Sri Chaitanya Bhagabata, appeared after the year 1432 of the saka era (1510 A.D.). Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita is the supplement of Sri Chaitanya Bhagabata. Sri Jiva Goswami appeared before 1435 of the saka era (1513 A.D.). From a list of Sri Chaitanya's devotees who were contemporaries of the Lord and who lived at Brindaban when Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita was composed, we come to know that Hari Das Pandit who was in charge of the worship of Sri Govinda Deva and was a disciple of Anantacharya himself a disciple of Sri Gadadhar Pandit Goswami, Govinda Goswami the favourite attedant of Gobinda a disciple of Kashishwar Goswami, Jadabacharyya Goswami an associate of Sri Rupa Goswami, Chaitanya Das who was a worshipper of Gobinda and disciple of Bhugarbha Goswami a disciple of Sri Gadadhar pandit Goswami, Mukund Ram Chakrabarti, Krishna Das who was all loving, Jivananda Chakrabarti a disciple of Adwaita Prabhu, Gossindas the worshipper of Holy image and other vaishnavas, were then still in this world. None of the six Goswamis-- Sri Jiva, Sri Gopal Bhatta, Sri Raghunath Bhatta, Sri Raghunath Das, Sri Rupa and Sri Sanatana Goswami-- were present in this world at that time, nor were Sri Bhugarbha and other Vaishnavas of his time. Had they been present in this mundane world there would have been some mention of his craving their permission for writing this book.
The Author's Caste
Opinions differ regarding the caste of the author. Sri Krishna Das wrote a voluminous sanskrit book Sri Gobindalilamrita and was thenceforward known as Kabiraj in the Vaishnva world. In Gauda the Brahmans, the Kayasthas and the Vaidyas have ever been the most learned castes. There were others who were not so learned, still they commanded respect in society. They carried on trade and commerce and were useful to their country in various ways. Their professions were not held in contempt but respectability and social position were denied to those who did menial duties and carried on trade in things tabooed by Hindu society. There are different theories regarding the caste of Krishna Das. Those who are versed in literature, rhetoric or other branches of art are called Kabirajas, as also those who are versed in medical science. Hence Krishnadas might be supposed by some as a Vaidya. He was highly proficient in Philosophy, Sruti, smritis and Logic and hence he has also supposed to have been a Brahman. On account of his vast knowledge of worldly affairs and dealings with worldly-minded men he has also been regarded by some as a Kayastha. There are analogous differences of opinion regarding the castes of Ram Das the author of Kabyaprakas a book of rhetoric, Kasiram Das the author of the Mahabharata in Bengali, Bharat Mullik and other Goudiya authors.
(To be continued.)
