Thakur Bhaktivinode

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada

The Harmonist, December 1931, vol. XXIX No.6

"We avail of the opportunity offered by the Anniversary Celebrations 
of the advent of Thakur Bhaktivinode to reflect on the right method of 
obtaining those benefits that have been made accessible to humanity by 
the grace of this great devotee of Krsna. Thakur Bhaktivinode has been 
specifically kind to those unfortunate persons who are engrossed in 
mental speculation of all kinds. This is the prevalent malady of the 
present Age. The other Acaryas who appeared before Thakur Bhaktivinode 
did not address their discourses so directly to the empiric thinkers. 
They had been more merciful to those who are naturally disposed to 
listen to discourses on the Absolute without being dissuaded by the 
specious arguments of avowed opponents of Godhead.

Srila Thakur Bhaktivinode has taken the trouble of meeting the 
perverse arguments of mental speculators by the superior 
transcendental logic of the Absolute Truth. It is thus possible for 
the average modern readers to profit by the perusal of his writings. 
That day is not far distant when the priceless volumes penned by 
Thakur Bhaktivinode will be reverently translated, by the recipients 
of his grace, into all the languages of the world.

The writings of Thakur Bhaktivinode provide the golden bridge by which 
the mental speculator can safely cross the raging waters of fruitless 
empiric controversies that trouble the peace of those who choose to 
trust in their guidance for finding the Truth. As soon as the 
sympathetic reader is in a position to appreciate the sterling quality 
of Thakur Bhaktivinode's philosophy the entire vista of the revealed 
literatures of the world will automatically open out to his reclaimed 
vision.

There have, however, already arisen serious misunderstandings 
regarding the proper interpretation of the life and teachings of Srila 
Thakur Bhaktivinode. Those who suppose they understand the meaning of 
his message without securing the guiding grace of the Acarya are 
disposed to unduly favor the methods of empiric study of his writings. 
There are persons who have got by heart almost everything that he 
wrote without being able to catch the least particle of his meaning. 
Such study cannot benefit those who are not prepared to act up to the 
instructions lucidly conveyed by his words. There is no honest chance 
of missing the warnings of Thakur Bhaktivinode. Those, therefore, who 
are misled by the perusal of his writings are led astray by their own 
obstinate perversity in sticking to the empiric course which they 
prefer to cherish against his explicit warnings. Let these unfortunate 
persons look more carefully into their own hearts for the cause of 
their misfortunes.

The personal service of the pure devotee is essential for 
understanding the spiritual meaning of the words of Thakur 
Bhaktivinode. The Editor of this Journal, originally started by Thakur 
Bhaktivinode, has been trying to draw the attention of all followers 
of Thakur Bhaktivinode to this all-important point of his teachings. 
It is not necessary to try to place ourselves on a footing of equality 
with Thakur Bhaktivinode. We are not likely to benefit by any 
mechanical imitation of any practices of Thakur Bhaktivinode on the 
opportunist principle that they may be convenient for us to adopt. The 
Guru is not an erring mortal whose activities can be understood by the 
fallible reason of unreclaimed humanity. There is an eternally 
impassable line of demarcation between the Savior and the saved. Those 
who are really saved can alone know this.Thakur Bhaktivinode belongs 
to the category of the spiritual world-teachers who eternally occupy 
the superior position.

The present Editor has all along felt it his paramount duty to try to 
clear up the meaning of the life and teachings of Thakur Bhaktivinode 
by the method of submissive listening to the Transcendental Sound from 
the lips of the pure devotee. The Guru who realizes the transcendental 
meaning of all sounds, is in a position to serve the Absolute by the 
direction of the Absolute conveyed through every sound. The 
Transcendental Sound is Godhead, the mundane sound is non-Godhead. All 
sound has got these opposite aptitudes. All sound reveals its Divine 
face to the devotee and only presents its deluding aspect to the 
empiric pedant. The devotee talks apparently the same language as the 
deluded empiric pedant who had got by heart the vocabulary of the 
Scriptures. But notwithstanding apparent identity of performance, the 
one has no access to the reality while the other is absolutely free 
from all delusion.

Those who repeat the teachings of Thakur Bhaktivinode from memory do 
not necessarily understand the meaning of the words they mechanically 
repeat. Those who can pass an empiric examination regarding the 
contents of his writings are not necessarily also self-realized souls. 
They may not at all know the real meaning of the words they have 
learned by the method of empiric study.Take for example the Name 
"Krsna". Every reader of Thakur Bhaktivinode's works must be aware 
that the Name manifests Himself on the lips of His serving devotees 
although He is inaccessible to our mundane senses. It is one thing to 
pass the examination by reproducing this true conclusion from the 
writings of Thakur Bhaktivinode and quite another matter to realize 
the Nature of the Holy Name of Krsna by the process conveyed by the 
words.

Thakur Bhaktivinode did not want us to go to the clever mechanical 
reciter of the mundane sound for obtaining access to the 
Transcendental Name of Krsna. Such a person may be fully equipped with 
all the written arguments in explanation of the nature of the Divine 
Name. But if we listen to all these arguments from the dead source the 
words will only increase our delusion. The very same words coming from 
the lips of the devotee will have the diametrically opposite effect. 
Our empiric judgment can never grasp the difference between the two 
performances. The devotee is always right. The non-devotee in the 
shape of the empiric pedant is always and necessarily wrong. In the 
one case there is always present the Substantive Truth and nothing but 
the Substantive Truth. In the other case there is present the apparent 
or misleading hypothesis and nothing but un-truth. The wording may 
have the same external appearance in both cases. The identical verses 
of the Scriptures may be recited by the devotee and the non-devotee, 
may be apparently misquoted by the non-devotee but the corresponding 
values of the two processes remain always categorically different. The 
devotee is right even when he apparently misquotes, the non-devotee is 
wrong even when he quotes correctly the very words, chapter and verse 
of the scriptures.

It is not empiric wisdom that is the object of quest of the devotee. 
Those who read the scriptures for gathering empiric wisdom will be 
pursuing the wild goose chase. There are not a few dupes of their 
empiric Scriptural erudition. These dupes have their admiring 
under-dupes. But the mutual admiration society of dupes does not 
escape, by the mere weight of their number, the misfortunes due to the 
deliberate pursuit of the wrong course in accordance with the 
suggestions of our lower selves.

What are the Scriptures? They are nothing but the record by the pure 
devotees of the Divine Message appearing on the lips of the pure 
devotees. The Message conveyed by the devotees is the same in all 
ages. The words of the devotees are ever identical with the 
Scriptures. Any meaning of the Scriptures that belittles the function 
of the devotee who is the original communicant of the Divine Message 
contradicts its own claim to be heard. Those who think that the 
Sanskrit language in its lexicographic sense is the language of the 
Divinity are as deluded as those who hold that the Divine Message is 
communicable through any other spoken dialects. All languages 
simultaneously express and hide the Absolute. The mundane face of all 
languages hides the Truth. The Transcendental face of all sound 
expresses nothing but the Absolute. The pure devotee is the speaker of 
the Transcendental language. The Transcendental Sound makes His 
appearance on the lips of His pure devotee. This is the direct, 
unambiguous appearance of Divinity. On the lips of non-devotees the 
Absolute always appears in His deluding aspect. To the pure devotee 
the Absolute reveals Himself under all circumstances. To the 
conditioned soul, if he is disposed to listen in a truly submissive 
spirit, the language of the pure devotee can alone impart the 
knowledge of the Absolute. The conditioned soul mistakes the deluding 
for the real aspect when he chooses to lend his ear to the 
non-devotee. This is the reason why the conditioned soul is warned to 
avoid all association with non-devotees.

Thakur Bhaktivinode is acknowledged by all his sincere followers as 
possessing the above powers of the pure devotee of Godhead. His words 
have to be received from the lips of a pure devotee. If his words are 
listened from the lips of a non-devotee they will certainly deceive. 
If his works are studied in the light of one's own worldly experience 
their meaning will refuse to disclose itself to such readers. His 
works belong to the class of the eternal revealed literature of the 
world and must be approached for their right understanding through 
their exposition by the pure devotee. If no help from the pure devotee 
is sought the works of Thakur Bhaktivinode will be grossly 
misunderstood by their readers. The attentive reader of those works 
will find that he is always directed to throw himself upon the mercy 
of the pure devotee if he is not to remain unwarrantably 
self-satisfied by the deluding results of his wrong method of study.

The writings of Thakur Bhaktivinode are valuable because they demolish 
all empiric objections against accepting the only method of 
approaching the Absolute in the right way. They cannot and were never 
intended to give access to the Absolute without help from the pure 
devotee of Krsna. They direct the sincere inquirer of the Truth, as 
all the revealed scriptures do, to the pure devotee of Krsna to learn 
about Him by submitting to listen with an open mind to the 
Transcendental Sound appearing on His lips. Before we open any of the 
books penned by Thakur Bhaktivinode we should do well to reflect a 
little on the attitude, with which as the indispensable pre-requisite, 
to approach its study. It is by neglecting to remember this 
fundamental principle that the empiric pedants find themselves so 
hopelessly puzzled in their vain endeavour to reconcile the statements 
of the different texts of the Scriptures. The same difficulty is 
already in process of overtaking many of the so-called followers of 
Thakur Bhaktivinode and for the same reason.

The person to whom the Acarya is pleased to transmit his power is 
alone in a position to convey the Divine Message. This constitutes the 
underlying principle of the line of succession of the spiritual 
teachers. The Acarya thus authorized has no other duty than that of 
delivering intact the message received from all his predecessors. 
There is no difference between the pronouncements of one Acarya and 
another. All of them are perfect mediums for the appearance of the 
Divinity in the Form of the Transcendental Name Who is identical with 
His Form, Quality, Activity and Paraphernalia.

The Divinity is Absolute Knowledge. Absolute Knowledge has the 
character of indivisible Unity. One particle of the Absolute Knowledge 
is capable of revealing all the potency of the Divinity. Those who 
want to understand the contents of the volumes penned by the 
piece-meal acquisitive method applicable to deluding knowledge 
available to the mind on the mundane plane, are bound to be 
self-deceived. Those who are sincere seekers of the Truth are alone 
eligible to find Him, in and through the proper method of His quest.

In order to be put on the track of the Absolute, listening to the 
words of the pure devotee is absolutely necessary. The spoken word of 
the Absolute is the Absolute. It is only the Absolute Who can give 
Himself away to the constituents of His power. The Absolute appears to 
the listening ear of the conditioned soul in the form of the Name on 
the lips of the sadhu. This is the key to the whole position. The 
words of Thakur Bhaktivinode direct the empiric pedant to discard his 
wrong method and inclination on the threshold of the real quest of the 
Absolute. If the pedant still chooses to carry his errors into the 
Realm of the Absolute Truth he only marches by a deceptive bye-path 
into the regions of darker ignorance by his arrogant study of the 
scriptures. The method offered by Thakur Bhaktivinode is identical 
with the object of the quest. The method is not really grasped except 
by the grace of the pure devotee. The arguments, indeed, are these. 
But they can only corroborate, but can never be a substitute for, the 
word from the living source of the Truth who is no other than the pure 
devotee of Krsna, the concrete Personal Absolute.

Thakur Bhaktivinode's greatest gift to the world consists in this; 
that he has brought about the appearance of those pure devotees who 
are, at present, carrying on the movement of unalloyed devotion to the 
feet of Sri Krsna by their own whole time spiritual service of the 
Divinity. The purity of the soul is only analogously describable by 
the resources of the mundane language. The highest ideal of empiric 
morality is no better than the grossest wickedness to the 
Transcendental perfect purity of the bonafide devotee of the Absolute. 
The word 'morality' itself is a mischievous misnomer when it is 
applied to any quality of the conditioned soul. The hypocritical 
contentment with a negative attitude is part and parcel of the 
principle of undiluted immorality.

Those who pretend to recognize the Divine Mission of Thakur 
Bhaktivinode without aspiring to the unconditional service of those 
pure souls who really follow the teachings of the Thakur by the method 
enjoined by the scriptures and explained by Thakur Bhaktivinode in a 
way that is so eminently suited to the requirements of the 
sophisticated mentality of the present Age, only deceive themselves 
and their willing victims by their hypocritical professions and 
performances. These persons must not be confounded with the bonafide 
members of the flock.

Thakur Bhaktivinode has predicted the consummation of religious unity 
of the world by the appearance of the only universal church which 
bears the eternal designation of the Brahma Sampradaya. He has given 
mankind the blessed assurance that all Theistic churches will shortly 
merge in the one eternal spiritual community by the grace of the 
Supreme Lord Sri Krsna Chaitanya. The spiritual community is not 
circumscribed by the conditions of time and space, race and 
nationality. Mankind had been looking forward to this far-off Divine 
Event through the Long Ages. Thakur Bhaktivinode has made the 
conception available in its practicable spiritual form to the open 
minded empiricist who is prepared to undergo the process of 
enlightenment. The key stone of the Arch has been laid which will 
afford the needed shelter to all awakened animation under its ample 
encircling arms. Those who would thoughtlessly allow their hollow 
pride of race, pseudo-knowledge or pseudo-virtue to stand in the way 
of this long hoped for consummation, would have to thank only 
themselves for not being incorporated in the spiritual society of all 
pure souls.

These plain words need not be misrepresented, by arrogant persons who 
are full of the vanity of empiric ignorance, as the pronouncements of 
aggressive sectarianism. The aggressive pronouncement of the concrete 
Truth is the crying necessity of the moment for silencing the 
aggressive propaganda of specific untruths that is being carried on 
all over the world by the preachers of empiric contrivances for the 
amelioration of the hard lot of conditioned souls. The empiric 
propaganda clothes itself in the language of negative abstraction for 
deluding those who are engrossed in the selfish pursuit of worldly 
enjoyment.

But there is a positive and concrete function of the pure soul which 
should not be perversely confounded with any utilitarian form of 
worldly activity. Mankind stands in need of that positive spiritual 
function of which the hypocritical impersonalists are in absolute 
ignorance. The positive function of the soul harmonizes the claims of 
extreme selfishness with those of extreme self-abnegation in the 
society of pure souls even in this mundane world. In its concrete 
realizable form the function is perfectly inaccessible to the empiric 
understanding. Its imperfect and misleading conception alone is 
available by the study of the Scriptures to the conditioned soul that 
is not helped by the causeless grace of the pure devotees of Godhead."


The following is a letter (1910) from Bhaktivinoda Thakura to 
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura wherein Bhaktivinoda gives Sarasvati 
essential spiritual instructions.

Saraswati!

"People of this world who are proud of their own aristocratic birth 
cannot attain real aristocracy. Therefore they attack the pure 
Vaishnavas, saying, 'They have taken birth in low-class families 
because of their sins.' Thus they commit offenses. The solution to the 
problem is to establish the order of daiva-varnasrama-dharma - 
something you have started doing; you should know that to be the real 
service to the Vaishnavas. Because pure devotional conclusions are not 
being preached, all kinds of superstitions and bad concepts are being 
called devotion by such pseudo-sampradayas as sahajiya and atibari. 
Please always crush these anti-devotional concepts by preaching pure 
devotional conclusions and by setting an example through your personal 
conduct.

"Please make great effort so you can start parikram of Sridham 
Navadwip as soon as possible. It is by those actions that everyone in 
this world will receive Krsna-bhakti. Please try very hard to make 
sure that the service to Sri Mayapur will become a permanent thing and 
will become brighter and brighter every day. The real service to Sri 
Mayapur can be done by acquiring printing presses, distributing 
devotional books, and sankirtan - preaching. Please do not neglect to 
serve Sri Mayapur or to preach for the sake of your own reclusive 
bhajan.

"When I am not present any more, please take care to serve Sri Mayapur 
Dham which is so dear to you. This is my special instruction to you. 
People who are like animals can never attain devotion; therefore never 
take their suggestions. But do not let them know this directly or 
indirectly.

"I had a special desire to preach the significance of such books as 
Srimad Bhagavatam, Sat Sandarbha, and Vedanta Darshan. You have to 
accept that responsibility. Sri Mayapur will prosper if you establish 
an educational institution there. Never make any effort to collect 
knowledge or money for your own enjoyment. Only to serve the Lord will 
you collect these things. Never engage in bad association, either for 
money or for some self-interest."

signed Kedarnatha Datta Bhaktivinode

