Importance of Perfect Absolute Knowledge in Meditation
BY: ACARYAVILASA DASA
Mar 13, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (SUN) — In the Jiva's Entanglement by Brthatsloka dasa; Brhatsloka gives us good instruction:
"This should also be our inquiry: how can I free myself from this temporary world of suffering and illusion? We need to wake up from this dream, as Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur says: Somehow or other I have fallen into the material world, now my dear Krsna kindly please pick me up from this material pool."
No dispute with that. So the question then arises how does one get out of the material pool? The answer is given in one of the verses Brhatsloka has quoted:
Means of Liberation Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.1.6:
"The highest perfection of human life, achieved either by complete knowledge of matter and spirit, by practice of mystic powers, or by perfect discharge of occupational duty, is to remember the Personality of Godhead at the end of life."
So here Sukadeva Goswami gives three processes to get out of the material pool. Kindly note that "complete knowledge of matter and spirit" is mentioned. "Complete knowledge" is the important phrase. If our knowledge of matter and spirit is incomplete or grossly mistaken that knowledge is not complete, of course. So can we expect to the ultimate perfection of remembrance of Sri Krsna at the time of death? Hardly likely according to this verse.
The Dreaming Avatar
We mention this point because if persons believe they are "sleeping on a bed in Goloka dreaming they are in the material world" while doing such things as driving about in the USA and perhaps watching the latest movie, even if the movie is called "Avatar", which may have inspired one of these Goloka-dreamers with his ideas, then we must question whether this is "complete knowledge of matter and spirit". What to speak of offensively propagating such bizarre ideas in the name of Srila Prabhupada by zealously twisting non-Vedic siddhanta out of selected quotes of Srila Prabhupada.
Attainment and No Fall
Sri Krsna in Bhagavad-gita 4.9 instructs us that we should have complete knowledge of Him in Truth, not mistaken speculation. We have quoted the parts of Srila Prabhupada's purport that are relevant to the Goloka-Envy-Fallvada misconception. And we see that in the verse itself some irrefutable and relevant points: (1) Goloka is a place of "attainment" – not fall; and (2) once one attains Goloka, one never takes birth again. So if we actually have faith in Sri Krsna, how can we believe "we are dreaming on beds in Goloka, partially in Goloka and partially down here."
janma karma ca me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so 'rjuna
"One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna."
Purport Srila Prabhupada
"Such liberation of the living entity from material bondage is not at all easy… …But the devotee, simply by understanding the transcendental nature of the body and activities of the Lord, attains the abode of the Lord after ending this body and does not run the risk of returning to this material world.
Svetasvatara Upanisad 3.8:
tam eva viditvati mrtyum eti
nanyah pantha vidyate 'yanaya
"One can attain the perfect stage of liberation from birth and death simply by knowing the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and there is no other way to achieve this perfection."
"…One should therefore cultivate Krsna consciousness with faith and knowledge, and in this way attain perfection."
Concluding Words
So we must thank Brhatsloka dasa for evoking a most important point: Our real business is to hear, chant, remember and worship Sri Krsna. Yet a most important caveat must be added: We must hear and chant in complete absolute knowledge, not mental speculation. The GEFs are determinedly and offensively spreading gross apasiddhanta in the name of Srila Prabhupada, so they should be exposed and the actual siddhanta placed before the sincere devotees. Sri Goloka Vrndavana is not a place of mundane envy and material falldown with zillions of jivas "dreaming on beds". This is confusing to the neophyte aspirants and a great disservice. In contrast, we are enjoined, as sadhana, to meditate on the perfection of that wondrous abode and blissful Supreme Abode and thus become purified:
"The Rg Veda Samhita, 1.22.20, states:
aum tad visnoh paramam padam
sada paayanti surayah
diviva caksur-atatam
tad vipraso vipanyavo
jagrvam sah samindhate
visnor yat paramam padam
"‘The supreme destination, the spiritual abode of Sri Visnu, is resplendently self-manifest as brightly as the sun. It is seen and worshiped since time immemorial by the devas and Vaisnava saints. Because those highly praiseworthy and spiritually awake brahmanas can see that abode, they can also reveal it to others."
Perfection of Goloka
And Sri Brahmaji in Sri Brahma Samhita, 5.56, has revealed the perfection of Sri Goloka Vrndavana, the faultless Supreme Abode of Sri Krsna:
sriyah kantah kantah parama-purusah kalpa-taravo
druma bhumis cintamani-gana-mayi toyam amrtam
katha ganam natyam gamanam api vamsi priya-sakhi
cid-anandam jyotih param api tad asvadyam api ca
sa yatra ksirabdhih sravati surabhibhyas ca su-mahan
nimesardhakhyo va vrajati na hi yatrapi samayah
bhaje svetadvipam tam aham iha golokam iti yam
vidantas te santah ksiti-virala-carah katipaye
"I worship that transcendental seat, known as Svetadvipa where as loving consorts the Laksmis in their unalloyed spiritual essence practice the amorous service of the Supreme Lord Krsna as their only lover; where every tree is a transcendental purpose tree; where the soil is the purpose gem, all water is nectar, every word is a song, every gait is a dance, the flute is the favorite attendant, effulgence is full of transcendental bliss and the supreme spiritual entities are all enjoyable and tasty, where numberless milk cows always emit transcendental oceans of milk; where there is eternal existence of transcendental time, who is ever present and without past or future and hence is not subject to the quality of passing away even for the space of half a moment. That realm is known as Goloka only to a very few self-realized souls in this world."
Importance of Perfect Absolute Knowledge
So yes, our real work is to meditate upon Sri Krsna and the joyous perfectly harmonious pastimes of Sri Goloka Vrndavana – but let us be sure we have the absolute and perfect conception, not something quite ridiculous with no foundation in logic and common sense, what to speak of the Sri Brahma Samhita, the Srimad Bhagavatam, the Vedas, and the Bhagavad-gita.
Srila Prabhupada Describes Perfection
Most importantly, let us realise that the great and merciful acarya, Srila Prabhupada never contradicts such perfection, but rather expands such wondrous perfection. If we wish to avoid obstacles in the attainment of Sri Krsna and Goloka Vrndavana, we should surrender and not misrepresent Srila Prabhupada:
Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.15.33 Purport:
"In the Vaikuntha world there is no disharmony between the Lord and the residents. Therefore God's creation in the Vaikuntha world is perfect. There is no cause of fear. The entire kingdom of God is such a completely harmonious unit that there is no possibility of enmity. Everything there is absolute. Just as there are many physiological constructions within the body yet they work in one order for the satisfaction of the stomach, and just as in a machine there are hundreds and thousands of parts yet they run in harmony to fulfil the function of the machine, in the Vaikuntha planets the Lord is perfect, and the inhabitants also perfectly engage in the service of the Lord."
So how can a faithful disciple of Srila Prabhupada reject such unequivocal elucidations? So the jiva souls never fall from the Vaikuntha planets, rather the initial fall is from the Causal Ocean. For the convenience of the readers, we give the Sri Brahma Samhita and Upanisads on this point of siddhanta.:
Irrefutable and Unequivocal Evidence of the Initial Fall of Jiva
Sri Brahma Samhita, 5.11:
sahasra-sirsa purusah
sahasraksah sahasra-pat
sahasra-bahur visvatma
sahasramsah sahasra-suh
"The Lord of the mundane world, Maha-Visnu, possesses thousands of thousands of heads, eyes, and hands. He is the source of thousands of thousands of avataras in His thousands of thousands of subjective portions. He is the creator of thousands of thousands of individual souls."
Comment: Sri Maha Visnu, situated within the Causal Ocean is "the creator of thousands of thousands of individual souls." So Sri Maha Visnu creates souls and in the tata or margin between the material and spiritual realms these tatastha-shakti-jivas choose devotion or rebellion in the spiritual and material realms respectively as explained in the following Upanisad:
In the Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad, 4.3.9, we find a description of the jiva situated in the Causal Ocean:
tasya va etasya purunasya dve eva sthane bhavata
idam ca paraloka-sthanam ca sandhyam trtiyam
svapna-sthanam tasmin sandhye sthane tinthan ete
ubhe sthane pasyati idam ca paraloka-sthanam ca
"The jiva has access to two places, both of which he may seek, this material world and the spiritual realm. He is situated in svapna-sthanam, the dream-like third state, on the margin of these two worlds [the Casual Ocean]. From that middle position he is able to see both the material and the spiritual worlds."
The Brhad-aranyaka Upanisad, 4.3.18, further describes the nature of the marginal position of the jiva and the choice with which he is presented initially:
tad yatha maha matsya ubhe kule'
nusancarati purvam ca param caivam
evayam purusa etav ubhav antav
anusancarati svapnantam ca buddhantam ca
"The symptoms of the marginal existence are like those of a huge aquatic who is capable of living on both the eastern and western sides of the river at his own will. Similarly, the jiva soul, situated within the waters of the Causal Ocean, which lies between the material and spiritual worlds, is able to reside in both the dream world of matter and the spiritual world of divine wakefulness."
May All Attain Perfect Complete Absolute Knowledge
Aum Tat Sat
