Your cart is currently empty!
Author: Vishakha Dasi
Morning Wake Up
Śrīla Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj reveals his personal meditation when he arises every morning.
I have a small altar in Kolkata where I keep some remembrance of Śrīla Guru Mahārāj, remembrance of Śrīla Prabhupād, remembrance of Girirāj, and so on, with photos. Every day, I offer some incense to them, and every morning when I wake up, alone, I first look at their faces and pray to them with some mantram. To Guru Mahārāj I pray, om ajñāna-timirāndhasya. Then, I pay daṇḍavat to my spiritual relatives and brothers. Then, I pay daṇḍavat to Nṛsiṁhadev, then Girirāj, then to our Maṭh Deities, and so on. Hanumānjī is also there. Hanumānjī is the best protector from all the nonsense things. He himself is a brahmachārī. He is a super devotee of Lord Rāmachandra and is always merciful to the devotees of Kṛṣṇa.
Here I don’t have that altar but when I meditate, then everything comes very clearly in front of me. Anywhere that I am staying, everything comes very clearly in front of me, and I am paying daṇḍavat to them, standing in Kolkata or Nabadwīp—especially Kolkata, where I have that altar. When I am paying daṇḍavat, I see everyone present there in the same position.
If we can follow this process every day, wherever we are, then we will receive some inspiration and good feelings which we can keep in our hearts and live with our whole day. I am telling you my feelings. Try to remember this, remember the association of the Vaiṣṇavas, remember Guru Mahārāj, and remember all his paraphernalia. If you can practise starting your day like this for a few days, then it will come naturally to you all, and I think that you will feel so much better.
It is true we are going to our daily jobs, but before that if we will try to meditate on our situation with love and affection, if we will try to meditate on our Gurudev and Kṛṣṇa and everyone, then we will get so much strength and light from them, and they will save us. If our day will start with this, they will live within our remembrance for the whole day. We may do anything, anywhere, for our maintenance or for any duty, but we will always keep in our remembrance our protector and our master. Then, the days will be easier for us.
When we are chanting, at that time our only prayer to Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa is, “Please reveal Yourselves in my heart.” And They will reveal Themselves. Their Pastimes are very sweet. It is depending upon the person, no doubt, it is all depending upon the person, and quality and qualification will come through our mood of surrender. However much we will be surrendered, that type of return will come to our mind.
Source
Spoken in Italy in September 1999 during His Divine Grace’s 14th World Tour.
The Krishna Factor
Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣak Śrīdhar Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj on the way to make calculations and progress through the gradation of theism.
“He is the owner and He is the enjoyer. I also belong to Him.” Only with this sort of conception can you come to your normal position. Otherwise, you are suffering from diseased knowledge, false knowledge. If you want proper adjustment with the Absolute, you are to set yourself in such a position.
You belong to Him, and everything belongs to Him; He is by Himself and He is for Himself. He is at the root of everything, and He is the future of everything. In this way, we are to adjust ourselves with the Absolute, and then we can hope to come nearer to Him. Otherwise, we are going far, far away for our selfish attainment.
No standard can measure Him in any respect. Even Mr Einstein has said that a thing is as it is and something more. What is the measurement of “and something more”? Whether He is growing or He is diminishing, that must also be added there. What it is, it is not that—some more qualification should be added there. You leave it in the infinite. What a thing is, it is not only that thing but something more must be added there. The possibility and prospect should be added to a particular thing when you are going to calculate: “This is the length, breadth, and height”, and then you are to add something more there for its possibility.
At every second, everything is changing by the supreme will. Everything is depending for its existence on the divine will, on the whole environment of the divine will. It is so uncertain. Nothing is certain here because it depends on His sweet will, so without calculating Him your calculation is not perfect. Whatever you go to calculate you must consider the supreme will at the back of everything. You are to add something more there because it is dependent on some other cause. The calculation of the sun, the planet, the brahmāṇḍa, and whatever it is, is all changing based on His sweet will, so no definite calculation can do.
Wandering through different stages of life according to our past karma, wherever we are placed, whatever qualification we have got, we are to surrender to the infinite, to the absolute will. That can take us nearer to His plane.
Here in India there are hedonists, or worshippers of many gods, but in the end the connection, the mantram, is, “Whatever I have done I am offering the result, the consequence, to Kṛṣṇa.” This Durga-pūjā, this pūjā, that pūjā, so many pūjās are done, but after finishing the whole ceremony there is one connection, one mantra: “Etat karma-phalam, whatever I have done, I am offering the result to Kṛṣṇa, Śrī Kṛṣṇāya samarpitam aṣṭu.” The link is there. According to my mental tendency, I am bound to do something, but the ṛṣis, the guardians of the spiritual society, have given the link there, “Whatever you do, connect it with Kṛṣṇa”: yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat (Bg 9.27).
Rāmānanda-saṁvād was begun with the basis of varṇāśram. Then next is Kṛṣṇe karmārpaṇ (offering the results of one’s activities to Kṛṣṇa), because indirectly varṇāśram-dharma is connected with Kṛṣṇa everywhere, but to feel direct connection with Kṛṣṇa with all the results, all the fruits, that is one step higher. Then, to give that up and to accept the conscious plane, dismissing the material energy, in jñāna-miśrā-bhakti (devotion mixed with knowledge) is higher. We should take to that: to have no faith in the material energy, but only the spiritual energy, which is more efficient and powerful. Samaḥ sarveṣu bhūteṣu: placed in such a plane of spiritual substance, we will feel, “I am spirit, I am nothing to do with matter. I am brahma, I am chetan, I am conscious, and my necessity with the material energy is nil. I won’t be attendant of either material acquisition or loss; I won’t be affected by the loss and gain of the material plane.”
“Mad bhaktiṁ labhate parām: from that basis, one is really eligible to search after Me.” When the charm of material acquisition disappears from one’s heart totally, one has a better position. But Mahāprabhu says, “Eho bāhya: this is also a lower conception. Go higher, deeper. This is also superficial. At the stage of Mad bhaktiṁ labhate parām, one has not attained any devotion or attraction and is only independent of material loss or gain. Withdrawal from the negative side does not mean that one has attained some position in the positive world, so, “Eho bāhya: this is also superficial. Go further.”
Then Rāmānanda Rāy came with jñāna-śūnya-bhakti. Wherever one may be posted, in whatever shade of life one may be posted, if one is seen to have some taste for Kṛṣṇa-kathā, for the tidings, the narration, about the līlā of Kṛṣṇa, if the story of Kṛṣṇa is very pleasing to one’s heart, then Mahāprabhu says, “Eho haya, āge kaha āra: here you are. Now I admit: when taste for Kṛṣṇa-kathā is to be traced in any jīva, it is surely a positive link, independent of their external position. Wherever or whatever one may be, even a beast like Hanumān or Garuda, if the taste for Kṛṣṇa is to be traced in one’s heart, then here it is begun. Then go further.”
Source
Spoken 20 January 1982
Careful Approach
Śrīla Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj discusses the proper approach to divinity, and the genuine humility of the true Vaiṣṇavas.
Mādhavendra Purī expressed the śloka ayi dīna-dayārdra nātha, and Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu said,
ei śloka kahiyāchena rādhā-ṭhākurāṇī
tāṅra kṛpāya sphuriyāche mādhavendra-vāṇī
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta, 2.4.194)This śloka was expressed by Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī in the mood of deep separation from Kṛṣṇa, and Mādhavendra Purī also tasted those deep feelings of separation. This is two persons, and here Chaitanya Mahāprabhu is also tasting that śloka. Ihā āsvādite āra nāhi chauṭha-jana, no fourth man can taste this śloka properly. If this is the comment of Śrīla Kavirāj Goswāmī, then where are you, and where am I? Everyone is unqualified. If divine grace will come then it may be possible to touch that śloka sometimes; otherwise, keep it in the museum! There is no other way. Be qualified and take it. This is the proper thinking.
Ṭhākurera chandana-sādhana ha-ila bandhana (Cc: 2.4.148): Mādhavendra Purī wanted to hide himself, but he could not hide because Gopāl had ordered him to bring chandan, sandlewood. He needed to collect the chandan and if he did not reveal himself as Mādhavendra Purī how would he be able to get that chandan? Therefore he unhappily exposed his own position and told the people of Gopāl’s order. It was proved by Gopīnāth, because Gopināth stole kṣīr for him. This made everyone very enthusiastic to help him and the king’s men arranged everything to send the chandan.
How can you stop the cheating? That is very difficult. Cheating business is going on in the society of Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur in many places by many persons. They do not even know that they are cheating, which is worse. If they know it is cheating, then there is some hope for them. But they do not know they are cheating.
The difficulty is ego. Ego is a dangerous difficulty in society. This is existing within the sahajiyā sampradāy: they are thinking, “Yes, I am qualified”. But Śrīla Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī said,
āśā-bharair amṛta-sindhu-mayaiḥ kathañchit
kālo mayāti-gamitaḥ kila sāmprataṁ hi“Eighty years have passed, and still I have not got Your mercy. With so much hope I have passed eighty years but still I am ignored by You and I have not got Your mercy.” If Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī said this śloka, then how can we expect to get this type of fortune?
āśā-bharair amṛta-sindhu-mayaiḥ kathañchit
kālo mayāti-gamitaḥ kila sāmprataṁ hi
tvañ chet kṛpāṁ mayi vidhāsyasi naiva kiṁ me
prāṇair vrajena cha varoru bakāriṇāpi
“Now I am going to die, and if You still do not bestow Your mercy, then what shall I do? Now I shall leave Kṛṣṇa, because without Your mercy Kṛṣṇa is useless for me.”
Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī showed this type of mentality in old age. In another śloka, he says, “Kām and krodha are attacking me.” In which way will kām, lust, attack Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī? We can say that he is describing this for us, but when he is writing it is not for us; he is not thinking, “I am writing for Govinda Mahārāj”. He is not thinking that, he is thinking, “I am writing for myself”. This is in the Manaḥ-śikṣā of Dās Goswāmī: “I am attacked by lust”. In which way are you attacked by lust? You left everything in young age: jahau yuvaiva mala-vad, Uttama-śloka-lālasaḥ. And now you are such an old man. You cannot digest one cup of buttermilk. But Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī has written this there. That type of writing is so glorious: gurau goṣṭhe goṣṭhālayiṣu sujane bhū-suragaṇe.
Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur and Śrīla Guru Mahārāj were in the same place and same rank in their realisation. What I have got from his lotus feet I can only say a little bit about. And they are not cheating. If tears would come in their eyes they would think it is false. They are actually real tears for Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, real tears for Kṛṣṇa, but they are checking them and saying that it is false. They are telling themselves, their own selves, that, “It is false, it is impossible, how will it come to me? I am unqualified.”
In his last days Śrīla Guru Maharaj was always saying, “Nitāi, Nitāi.” He is Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī’s man. Everyone knows he is Rūpa Goswāmī’s man, so why was he telling, “Dayāl Nitāi, dayāl Nitāi”? He can say ‘Mahāprabhu’ at least, but he was not going up to that. He was living within the zone of Saṅkarṣaṇ and not going to Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, even though he is actually living within those Pastimes. When Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur gave charge to him, and when Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur wanted to hear from him, then we must believe that he is living within that zone. And how strongly did Saraswatī Ṭhākur give opposition when the secretary ordered someone else to chant it! Saraswatī Ṭhākur stopped it, “No, no one here is qualified to sing this song; only Śrīdhar Mahārāj can do it. I want to hear from Śrīdhar Mahārāj.”
I do not want to make anyone hopeless, but I want to be perfect and I want to see that our society is perfect all around. I understand that this is not possible, but still, to hope is not bad. Today we may not get it but one day we will be enriched with pure devotion. This is because the seed of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a very high standard seed. That is why we are giving this connection: today or tomorrow, they must get it. It has no limit in time, space, or anything like that. Very unqualified persons will also be enriched. That is possible. It is like lottery money. Rickshaw wallahs and others may win the lottery, and they are becoming rich.
This article is a continuation of the post Jay Mā Kali.
Source
Spoken in Italy, September 2000, during His Divine Grace’s 16th World Tour.
References
gurau goṣṭhe goṣṭhālayiṣu sujane bhū-suragaṇe
sva-mantre śrī-nāmni vraja-nava-yuva-dvandva-śaraṇe
sadā dambhaṁ hitvā kuru ratim apūrvām atitarām
aye svāntar bhrātaś chaṭubhir abhiyāche dhṛta-padaḥ
(Manaḥ-śikṣā: 1)“Oh mind, I grasp your feet and beg you with sweet words: please cast away all hypocrisy and develop intense, unprecedented love for the spiritual master, Vrajabhūmi, the residents of Vraja, the pure Vaiṣṇavas, the brāhmaṇas, the gayatrī mantra, the Holy Name, and the transcendental shelter that is the fresh young couple of Vraja, Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.”
asach-cheṣṭā-kaṣṭa-prada-vikaṭa-pāśālibhir iha
prakāmaṁ kāmādi-prakaṭa-pathapāti-vyatikaraiḥ
gale baddhvā hanye ’ham iti bakabhid-vartmapa-gaṇe
kuru tvaṁ phutkārān avati sa yathā tvaṁ mana itaḥ
(Manaḥ-śikṣā: 5)“I am being bound tightly around the neck by the fearsome highwaymen of lust, anger, and so forth with the painful, fearsome ropes of my wicked deeds; I am being killed!” Cry out in this way to the Vaiṣṇavas, the guardians on the path to Kṛṣṇa, the slayer of Baka, so that they save you from these foes, O mind!”
yo dustyajān dāra-sutān
suhṛd-rājyaṁ hṛdi-spṛśaḥ
jahau yuvaiva mala-vad
uttama-śloka-lālasaḥ
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 5.14.43)“Being very eager to gain the association of Lord Kṛṣṇa, King Bharat, although in the prime of youth, gave up his very attractive wife, affectionate children, most beloved friends and opulent kingdom, exactly as one gives up stool after excreting it.”
Jay Mā Kālī
Śrīla Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj gives caution to practitioners on the day of Śrī Lalitā Devī’s appearance.
Why do I say “Jay Mā Kālī” from time to time? I should not say why, because if you hear then you will feel very shy. It is because it is not appropriate to discuss Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa’s Pastimes in the place where we are living at present. It is impossible, and not only that, but offensive. For that reason I say “Jay Mā Kālī”. It is an appropriate place for Mother Kālī, but not Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. We are discussing about Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa no doubt, but the liberated souls are trying to discuss this, and not one of us is liberated. We have some hankering for hearing, however, and if you do not show something, if you do not give something, if you do not try to expose something, then attachment will take the form of detachment. For that reason we do some discussion sometimes.
Devotee: I heard that whether you are liberated or not liberated you must discuss this.
Śrīla Gurudev: In this way it will only be in the book, but not the heart. If you teach a parrot, the parrot will say, “Rādhā Kṛṣṇa, Rādhā Kṛṣṇa”. But if you hit a parrot he will say “Tah! Tah! Tah!”. This is a fact.
It is very offensive if we try to take the position where Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī, Jīva Goswāmī, and Rūpa Goswāmī are living here in our mundane world of enjoyment. It is best if we will honour that plane from afar. Otherwise you can go to Mother Kālī and live with Mother Kālī, no problem. This is why I said you will be shy to hear why I say “Jay Mā Kālī”. We are living within the lap of Mother Kālī. A Ganges full of knowledge may be within us but it is useless. It has no value. It may only be a big mountain of offence.
Someone knows some English and they think that they can translate Śrīla Guru Mahārāj’s English Gītā. It is not so easy to translate. The day before yesterday a new book came to me and I saw that the devotees who published it made a massacre. I do not know their language but I know Sanskrit and I saw that they made a massacre. Without quality and qualification it is not possible to expose the substance properly. But our whole devotee section is doing that, and not only our section: I have seen that other societies have made more of a massacre, because they have published so many high standard books.
When Śrīla Guru Mahārāj published Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛtam it was a restricted law that it would not be given to everyone. At that time Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛtam was not available in the market, and Guru Mahārāj said it is an important book, and someone must publish it, otherwise it will be lost. But Guru Mahārāj also ordered us not to give it to everyone.
When Keśav Mahārāj published Śrīla Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur’s Jaiva-dharma he divided it into two parts, and he did not distribute the second part, which is about rasa vichār, realisation of rasa; he published it, but did not distribute it. He said that the first part was suitable for the adhikār, capacity, of the general devotees, and whoever knows rasa vichār by the grace of Gurudev may read the second part. Guru Mahārāj was happy, not unhappy that Keśav Mahārāj published Jaiva-dharma like this. That was the standard, but now where is that standard? Now some groups are randomly printing and distributing Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi, Madhurya-kaḍambinī, and many other books. This was not the process of Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur, and in the time of Saraswatī Ṭhākur even the third division students knew this and understood what was necessary to give to others.
The reading of Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta was restricted. Young men would not read it. I read it because I was the copyholder: Dr Śāstrī was the proofreader and I was copyholder, so I read it for making Sanskrit corrections. My memory was sharp and so I memorised it, but we did not read it actually. It was restricted because there is strong rasa vichār there.
māraḥ svayaṁ nu madhura-dyuti-maṇḍalaṁ nu
mādhuryam eva nu mano-nayanāmṛtaṁ nu
veṇī-mṛjo nu mama jīvita-vallabho nu
kṛṣṇo ’yam abhyudayate mama lochanāya
(68)[“My dear friends, where is that Kṛṣṇa, Cupid personified, who has the effulgence of a kadamba flower, who is sweetness itself, the nectar of My eyes and mind, He who loosens the hair of the gopīs, who is the supreme source of transcendental bliss and My life and soul? Has He come before My eyes again?”]
Śrīla Mādhav Mahārāj repeated this śloka many times, and Śrīla Kavirāj Goswāmī was very attracted to this śloka:
tvach-chhaiśavaṁ tri-bhuvanādbhutam ity avehi
mach-chāpalaṁ cha tava vā mama vādhigamyam
tat kiṁ karomi viralaṁ muralī-vilāsi
mugdhaṁ mukhāmbujam udīkṣitum īkṣaṇābhyām
(32)“We do not know what We have done in our early young age. You know something, I know something. You guess something, I guess something. But now You and Myself are separated. Now what shall I do? When We played together that was one situation, and We had full freedom, but now full restriction has come, and You are aloof from the whole environment. Now You are in Mathurā, and now what shall I do?”
These are very high standard ślokas.
Reference
Spoken in Italy on Śrī Lalitā-saptamī, September 2000, during His Divine Grace’s Sixteenth World Tour.
Slow and Steady
Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣak Śrīdhar Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj discusses the tṛṇād api principles in depth.
amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ
We should take resort to kīrtan always, but Mahāprabhu recommends that our attitude should be such: tṛṇād api sunīcha, taror api sahiṣṇu, amānī mānada. It is generally upwards, all towards high. Our attitude will be humble, and if we think that we are being done wrong still also we shall take to patience. Amānī, under no circumstances shall we work for our own position and prestige. That should not be our aim.
Amāninā mānadena, and we shall try to respect everybody. It is all mostly connected towards the upper world, towards the Vaiṣṇava world. Tṛṇād api sunīcha, taror api sahiṣṇu, amānī mānada. Our conduct will be always like that, and then only can we thrive well in our campaign.
Slow and steady wins the race: it is a long journey, not a journey to finish within a few hours, or few days, or few years. It is a continued appointment. It is to go on a long way, so we are to adjust accordingly. It is not that we shall run quickly and then we shall stop and sleep, it is not a matter of that type. But it is a long way: we shall have to walk on, and so our attitude will be such, then we will be successful.
Tṛṇād api sunīcha, we should not extend any cause for resistance, which will create resistance. We won’t create such circumstance that invite resistance. Taror api sahiṣṇu: still, if any resistance unexpectedly approaches me, I shall try my best to forbear, being conscious that my guardian’s eye is over me. He is also eager to help me in my campaign. I am not alone; I may go on confident that there is a person above to redress any wrong that can be shown to me. So I may not take initiative in the beginning.
Amāninā, and I won’t allow any other object to come and pollute my aim, the pure purpose of my life. I will have such purity of purpose. The pratiṣṭhā will come, or any other temptation will come, and induce me to go ahead—I won’t, I should never allow anything other than the satisfaction of Guru, Gaurāṅga, Vaiṣṇava, etc. No other element can enter there on my path. The purity of purpose will always be maintained very scrupulously.
Mānadena, and I won’t shrink to give proper conduct, to show proper conduct to my environment. That is, I won’t expect that they will come and help me. Amāninā mānadena, I won’t think, “Why are they not coming to help me?” No: “They are engaged in their own business. It is my own, alone I shall go on with my duty, I won’t be always searching that someone must come and help me.” Mānadena, “They are doing, let them do their own duty; this is mine, I shall go alone with this.”
amāninā mānadena kīrtaniya sadā hariḥ
With this attitude we shall go on. Only with this sort of adjustment may my concentration be more and more intense; my confidence in Kṛṣṇa will be more and more increased and my duty will be purer if I couch myself in such a way. Kīrtaniya sadā Hari. Hari kīrtan.
This will also make us conscious that such sorts of hindrances, obstacles, are almost sure to come to attack us. So you are already given this instruction, that whenever you begin, all these things will come to attack you. But you are already being given this instruction that if they come on your way, and it is almost sure that they will come, you are to deal with them in such a way.
Gaura Haribol, Gaura Haribol, Gaura Haribol.
Source
Spoken 17 February 1982
The Advance Towards Truth
Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣak Śrīdhar Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj describes the eliminative, yet accommodating nature of progress.
The Absolute cannot admit any secondary position. He cannot tolerate that He will be second to someone, because He is absolute. He is not second to anyone, so no partnership is conceivable there. “I am such.” In logic we read, “as connotation increases, denotation decreases. When denotation increases, connotation decreases.” This religious conception is there everywhere.
muktānām api siddhānāṁ nārāyaṇa-parāyaṇaḥ
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, 6.14.5)
jñānibhyo ’pi mato ’dhikaḥ, karmibhyaś chādhiko yogī
(Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā, 6.46)yoginām api sarveṣāṁ mad-gatenāntar-ātmanā
śraddhāvān bhajate yo māṁ sa me yukta-tamo mataḥ
(Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā, 6.47)The gradual development of sraddhā: elimination and improvement. Improvement means elimination. Improvement means elimination, so those that are very particular about quality cannot mix with the mass, and hankering of mass qualification or capacity. They are always trying to go higher in an eliminative nature. They are ruthless. They are ruthless in their progressing, eliminating nature.
While Yudhiṣṭhir Mahārāj was making advancement in his mahāpraṣṭhān, Draupadī, Sahadev, and Nakul were all falling down, and asking why it is so: “We are so intimately connected with you Maharaj, and you are going up, while we fall down.” Carelessly Yudhiṣṭhir Mahārāj was going up, “Oh you had such defect, so you fell down.” One by one, Draupadī, Sahadev, Nakul, Arjuna, Bhīma. “Why I am falling down?” “You had such defect of this nature, so you fall down.” Without caring he is marching onward.
Should we mark that this is a type of selfishness? No. To advance towards truth, it cannot be so. Truth is distributed by Himself. Truth is not only wholesome, but it is also distributive, self-distributive in nature, so I am going only to enhance that. By serving Him I am going to help Him in His self distribution. It is universal. Apparently, in the worldly sense, in the external sense, it may be thought to be very narrowed, but it is more universal from the qualitative difference.
Eliminating stone, earth, and water we are going to ether, but ether is more extensive than the earth. Water is more extensive than the earth, then the air is more extensive, spacious than the water. In this way, the gross is being eliminated and we are approaching towards sukṣma, subtle. We are going from subtler to subtlest, and in one sense that is more accommodating. Svayaṁ Bhāgavan Kṛṣṇa, the whimsical, absolute good, is at the back of every form of truth, so approaching Him is outwardly eliminating, but inwardly accommodating. Hare Kṛṣṇa. Nitāi Gaura.
This post is a continuation of No Partnership.
Source
Spoken 16 January 1982