By Kesava Krsna Dasa
It can sometimes be tough being an intellectual in Iskcon. The tendency to keep one foot in the empirical camp and the other in the devotional arena can cause incompatibilities of faith, especially when continuing to grapple with “oddities” like elephant sized mangoes, airborne mountains, talking hyenas and bodily exuded cosmic bubbles.
Almost everything is interesting for an intellectual. How things work, or don’t. Statistics and comparisons, complex and more complicated, beyond comprehension and ridiculously out of bounds, all can pose challenges when faced with the “simplicity” of Krishna consciousness. And more so when fantastic and marvellous Vedic accounts remains fabulously beyond belief.
Does “simple living” dull down our inquiring spirit to the point of unquestioning obedient acceptance of everything taught to us? Will “high thinking” allow us free reign to explore that which confounds the greatest material thinkers?
“Prove that God exists,” Srila Prabhupada would say. This seems the most certain way of engaging a lively intellect. How many sprightly and bouncy intellectual devotees are convinced of this, especially when having to explain in terms of elephants and swans that do inter-planetary travel, and other faith shaking concepts?
The problem is, that one’s intellect can get bogged down worrying about the veracity of such Vedic descriptions so as to cripple the preaching tendency. One’s foot remains cemented in the empirical lure of ignorant wonderment. Faith appears to be an ever more precious commodity. Then one ends up intellectualising and justifying one’s doubts to cover for the lack of Krishna conscious resolve.
One can also speak and write in an intellectual way simply for the sake of being intelligent. This motive is better suited for preaching to scholarly people. If one is systematically teaching academic subjects within our devotee colleges, which should be an intellectual exercise, there is little or no real intellectual development if one parrots everything. If all our students earn their sastric degrees and think alike, then that is a misuse of “high thinking” potential.
Thinking oneself as a learned intellectual and acting improperly with the use of intelligence specifies bodily attachment. Conversely, some of us earn some sastric recognition, and then fail to use it for preaching purposes, or for furthering our mission spread.
Devotees often do not know how to properly engage in Krishna katha, because if we all more or less think alike there is little scope for analysing subjects differently from various angles of vision. This requires authentic and original “high thinking” use of the intellect. Then Krishna katha becomes a joyful devotional experience.
Mature devotees prefer and often express themselves in simple ways. They are not overly impressed by intellectualisation, but are willing to simplify intellectual matters. This behavioural pattern may seem simplistic to some. We have naturally simple devotees and intellectually simple devotees. There is a convenience and beauty in being genuinely simple, without losing one’s intellectual edge.
For instance, Srila Prabhupada often cited the example of the Gopis of Vrndavana as being, “simple village girls.” But he meant it in the sense of using that simplicity for Krishna’s pleasure. Otherwise each and every one of those beautiful Gopis and Manjaris has the intellectual and spiritual capacity to infuse a sincere devotee with the highest possible knowledge and grace attainable.
Were intellectual giants like Srila Jiva Goswami, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta and others, not Manjaris themselves? The very simple verse and prose of Srila Narottama Dasa Thakur are renowned not just for their simplicity, but the profundity of siddhantic awareness. Real simplicity then is a natural way of expressing oneself in simple terms, but with profound wisdom behind it. In this way, the “simple living” ethic becomes a very profound concept.
Even Srila Sanatana Goswami’s initial enquiry to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu of, “Why am I suffering, and who am I?” is a rarely profound question, for how many people in this world ask the same thing with sincerity?
For our intellectuals who baulk at the simplicity of living and faith, and suspect our range of “high thinking,” it is worthwhile remembering how the simple act of daily chanting Hare Krishna correctly, and purely, is itself an intellectual challenge.
While we are chanting, all that we have been taught, all philosophical concepts, all allowances and prohibitions, all that is required to focus upon the source of our own eternal relationship with Krishna, have to be honed in harmony. This can be a mean intellectual task. But Krishna’s Bhagavad-Gita request for us to surrender our all, including our intellect, will hopefully earn us ease of passage into the “simple living, high thinking” ocean of Bhakti. Of course, mercy is the key.
A wavering intellectual might think, “If you believe that Lord Brahma has four heads, and was born asexually from a lotus flower… then good luck to you.” Being obsessed with the thought that such convictions are forms of naive blind faith, this is itself a display of little trust in the process set by our intellectually simple acaryas.
It requires a leap of faith and trust to acknowledge that the vaisnava quality of simplicity is one that surpasses all bodily intellectual concerns. Such simplicity has the power to penetrate an impure heart and transform one into a lover of God. This fruitful effect is far more relishable than hovering about on the mental platform with a leg stuck in limited empiricism and wild conjecture.
“Please be reasonable,” one may protest. If reason is called for then it is the height of reason to associate with faithful devotees. By mixing with and utilising one’s intellect to properly discuss topics relating to our real devotional welfare, a taste can develop. By doing this one does not compromise intellectual integrity, but rather purifies it in Krishna’s service. This is sublime simplicity.
Ys, Kesava Krsna Dasa – GRS
CROOKEDNESS AND SIMPLICITY by SRILA GOUR GOVINDA MAHARAJA
Chanakya Pandit has said, “As a snake is very crooked and envious, so is a person like a demon. One can bring a snake under control with mantras, herbs and drugs, but an envious and crooked person cannot be brought under control by any means.” In his purport to Bhāg. 8.9.19, Srila Prabhupada has written, “Such a crooked person is more dangerous, more envious and cruel than a snake. So this crookedness, kāpaṭya, is a great hindrance on the path of devotional service. All the ācāryas, śāstras and mahājanas have said, saralatā ei vaiṣṇavata, “Simplicity is Vaishnavism.” One who is a real vaiṣṇava is as simple as a child.
Suppose many people have sat down in rows to accept food. You have also sat down there and others are serving. You want more food because you are a greedy fellow and you have a big belly. You cannot be satisfied with a little food. You are thinking, “Oh, if I take so much food in the presence of other people, what will they think of me? They will think I am a greedy glutton.” So the food is served once, but when it comes around a second time, “No, no, no. I don’t want it. I am satisfied.” That is crookedness. If you say so, you will remain hungry. Why will you not say, “I need more. Please give me more.” One who is very simple says, “Yes, I am in need, I am hungry. Please give me more.” But you say, “No, no. I don’t want more. This is enough for me. I’m satisfied.” This is kāpaṭya, crookedness. You are not a simple-hearted person. You have no simplicity at all.
Suppose a teacher is teaching mathematics to the students. Many students are there in the class and they are not all of the same calibre. Some are well developed, whereas others are more dull-headed. There are different varieties of students. After explaining a topic, the teacher asks, “Have all of you understood? Have you? Have you?” “Oh yes.” But the dull-headed student has not understood it. Still, he will never say, “I do not understand.” Rather, he thinks, “If I say I have not understood, what will the others think of me?” He is such a dull-headed fellow that he cannot understand even when the teacher explains things nicely. So, out of shyness or whatever it may be, he says, “Yes, yes. I understand.” Then what will happen? He cannot make advancement and he cannot get promotion to the higher mathematics class. He will fail the examination. So where is the perfection? That is kāpaṭya, crookedness, and it is a great stumbling block on the path of perfection.
There is a saying in Bengali, nācte base ghomṭā tāṇile habenā. Generally girls or women come to the stage to perform a dance, such as Odissi dance or Manipuri dance. So you have come to the stage and there are many onlookers in the audience waiting to see you how nicely you can dance. You have to show different postures and mudras. But, having come to the stage, if you put a veil over your head, how will it be? You cannot dance properly. You cannot please the audience and achieve success in your dancing performance. You have come to dance, so take off the veil and dance freely! Then you can achieve perfection in your dance performance. Why are you feeling shy and putting a veil on your head? That is another type of crookedness.
Guru and Gauranga never teach this crookedness. Saralatā ei vaiṣṇavata, Simplicity is Vaishnavism. Develop simplicity in your heart, and with this mood you will be able to serve guru and Gauranga. If you have developed some crookedness, if kāpaṭya is there in the heart, then you cannot serve guru and Gauranga. Gauranga Mahaprabhu has ordered, yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa — “To whomever you meet, tell them what Krishna has said.” Do not manufacture or concoct anything. Simply say, `Krishna has said this….´ Just repeat it as it is. āmāra ājñāya guru hañā tāra’ ei deśa — “So I order you to become guru and deliver the whole world.” Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur has said, “This order has come to my gurupada, and my guru delivers the same order to me. Therefore I am doing the work of guru.” We should not cultivate any duplicity in this regard. We should follow this order with much simplicity. Day and night, twenty-four hours, we should be engaged in the loving service of guru and Gauranga without duplicity. If a crooked person pretends that he is the number one servant of guru and Gauranga, though he is pretending in that way, guru and Gauranga know his heart. He is the number one crooked person. One who is sleeping can be awakened very easily by sound vibration. But one who is pretending that he is sleeping will never wake up. You cannot wake him because he is a crooked pretender.
To execute the order of guru and Gauranga as it is, we can kick out anything. If it is required to go to hell, we are prepared to go there. We are prepared to go to hell, but we will not practice any sort of duplicity. “Oh! Why should I go to hell? I will accept some duplicity instead. I will manipulate something to overcome this danger here and that hurdle there. In this way, I will go up.” This is duplicity. Even if such a person goes all the way up to Brahmaloka, the planet where lord Brahma stays, still he cannot be delivered. He will fall down from that position very soon. But, cultivating simplicity, if by chance someone goes to hell, then guru and Gauranga will go to hell to deliver him. Therefore it is said that guru and Gauranga, sādhu-guru and mahājanas, they are patita-pāvana, not kāpaṭa-pāvana. They are the deliverers of the most degraded, but they are not deliverers of the crooked persons. By manipulation, one who develops duplicity in his heart may go up to Brahmaloka, but he cannot be delivered.
Those who have a crooked nature are speculators. They never follow an instruction as it is. They add their own deliberation to it and twist it. They never accept the essence, they are not sāragrahis. Rather, like an ass, they simply carry heavy burdens, bhāravāhī, by accepting the unwanted things. They are bhāravāhī, not sāragrahi. They accept asat as sat and sat as asat, unreal as real and real as unreal. Such duplicitous persons cannot understand what is good and what is bad. Because they are speculators, they never follow the instruction of sādhu-guru or mahājana in a simple way. That which is very simple, they make it crooked. They adopt a zig-zag way and avoid the simple way. This is a great stumbling block on the path of perfection.
Dear Keshvana Krishna Prabhu,
When a devotee associates considerably with the world of material sound he is subjected to bombardment of news coming from the mundane world. It would be a weakness of his intelligence to accept for pure coin all heard around. Why wouldn’t he doubt those news and facts but prefers to doubt scripture? Apparently, he needs to spend more time with scripture and in the association of devotees. The mundane world also offers many hard to prove statements.
Abhaya Mudra Dasi
Scriptures are full of details that may not be necessary for the pure execution of Krishna consciousness. The intention of the shastras is to arose faith in the humanity about the greatness and nature of the Supreme Being, so that a person can eventually serve the Supreme Lord as his rightful duty. As we delve more deeply into the scriptures, there has to be a point when certain areas of shastric descriptions may be fit to be cast aside. Mind-boggling descriptions such as King Ugrasena having four billion bodyguards may not worth repetiting by a deep thinker. My point is Vedic scriptures provided us with lots of details, but the same time, our acaryas have impressed upon us to be thoughtful. What is really matter for the devotee is the essential principle of Krishna consciousness, which is to develop love of Krishna. Intellectual acumen is not required on this point. As they said, ‘simplicity is Vaisnavism’, so a devotee casts aside all speculations regarding the rationalization behind all shastric descriptions and simply focus on developing his love of Krishna following the footsteps of the Vrajabasis.
Uddhava was a great pandit, being the disciple of Brhaspati. But when he went to Vrindavan to try to convince the Vrajabasis to stop feeling separations from Krishna, he found himself defeated, and thus prayed to be born as a grass in Vraja so the Vrajabasis could step upon him as they walk.
Abhaya Mudra Mataji,
You mentioned, “…weakness of his intelligence…” As we know, in the BG 6th chapter, that someone who has reached a level of samadhi, has “…intelligence sustained by full conviction.”
And what is that full conviction? It is full faith, or matured faith.
So what you are describing really is a weakness of faith. And weakness of faith means to have weak intelligence, which causes material intelligent devotees to falter on the spiritual plane.
Yet this faith in the words of the spiritual master and sastra is a delicate issue for many intellectually inclined devotees. Thay may appear to prosper in presenting lofty papers about different aspects of Krishna consciousness, and feel comfortable doing so, but whenever their faith gets tested by challenges to hidden and retained donbts, then misery results. That is why the path of jnana-misra-bhakti is not truly blissful. It is only partially satisfying on an impure intellectual level.
As for the submissions by Puskarksa Prabhu from Srila Gaura Govinda Maharaja, these are very helpful practical lessons in simplicity. It would be interesting to compile a long list of different types of crooked behaviour that would raise many eyebrows. We may not realise that many decisions we make, either in management, or in dealing with other devotees and so on, could be determined or motivated by factors that are innocently crooked, or self serving. A detailed account covering many areas of devotional life could even be posed as a question form to see how guilty we are.
Ys, Kesava Krsna Dasa.
Hare Krishna Prabhus
I wanted to share a perspective on doubt in Krishna Consciousness. Over the last 8 years I have made a concerted effort to deeply concentrate on and improve my japa; two parts of this effort has been rising at 3 am everyday and chanting all my rounds at one go, and praying for the mercy to be able to unconditionally ( and irrevocably ) accept the generic knowledge that Krishna gives about the ontological nature of our being ( that we are eternal spirit souls , perpetual loving servants of Krishna and His associates). By the Lord’s mercy as our faith grows in this deep acceptance of our real/core nature we acquire many deep experiences in time spending with Sri Nama. Like senses is the place of residence of lust , doubt hides out in our actions; all our actions create an experience and that experience by default is accompanied by a belief. The more non Krishna Conscious actions we perform the more we acquire a faith diametrically opposed to Krishna Consciousness, which is manifest in the awareness as doubt. On the other hand the more we factually surrender to the idea that we are really Krishna servant ( not anyone’s mother, father, son, daughter, etc…..these other jivas have been existing eternally) and act on the terms of that surrender the easier it is to persevere in performing the activities of a devotee( simply because our sense of self is beginning to orient towards what we are.) Then gradually doubt would start to appear as a nuisance produced by lengthy residence of the awareness on the mental platform, rather that the insurmountable status we ascribe to it. It is my opinion that I would not have acquired this understanding without the mercy of the Holy Name.
Our Vaisnava siddhanta preaches that in the final stages of our devotional endeavour Krishna goes beyond the generic ontological knowledge ( what we are)provided in Bhagavad Gita , and actually reveals the specifics of who we really are.
Mithuna Das ( New York)
I would like to clear up a misconception here. It appears that several readers are of the assumption that this article is about myself, as possibly a self-appointed intellectual. I was genuinely surprised by this.
The real purpose of this article was to respond to a number of previous postings on Dandavats related to cosmology, and other arcane, “intellectual” subject matters. Besides, I have known many, we could call, “nerdy” types of devotees who sometimes grapple with synchronising conventional theories and Vedic paradigms. It is sometimes tough for them.
I wrote in this vein. Otherwise, I do not consider myself an intellectual in the classical sense. I am not a scientist, theologian or any self-proclaimed heady cerebellum’iac. My Gosh! This is so pompous.
Such pomposity is not deserving of the mercy of insight granted by Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga, which comes through our merciful parampara. I simply yearn to be blessed by all vaisnavas and to be addicted to chanting Hare Krishna.
So I apologise if this has led you to believe otherwise. Hare Krishna!
Ys Kesava Krsna Dasa.