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His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Goswāmī Mahārāja

81.11.06.B

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ... they’re trying in that line to improve their lot, approaching towards
that.

bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ

kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi, mayi dṛṣṭe 'khilātmani

[“The knot in the heart is pierced, all misgivings are cut to pieces and the chain of fruitive
actions is terminated when I am seen as the Supreme Personality of Godhead.”]
[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.20.30]

There is such a thing if we can come in connection with Him, then bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś,
so many ties within us, karmana-vasana, ‘I want this, I want that’ and I tie myself with a
particular desire. Then all the ties are all untied, released. ‘I do not want anything.’ All the ties, so
many ties with so many things all cleared. Bhidyate hṛdaya-granthiś, thousands, lākhs of granthiś
there in the heart all untied. ‘I don’t want anything.’ Then, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ, suspicions,
doubts, are innumerable, all cleared. All the doubts cleared, it is impossible almost, but it is true,
doubts cleared, chidyante sarva-saṁśayāḥ. Kṣīyante cāsya karmāṇi, and the sufferings, good or
bad in this world which was in store for me, I must have to undergo, that also finished. Mayi
dṛṣṭe 'khilātmani, when that truthful aspect of the thing we come in connection with.
Just as dara, we see, I take, there is a tree, I may take it as a ghost, and so many plans,
purposes, how to get relief of that and these things, how to get. But when that is found, ‘No,
that is a tree, that is my father standing there,’ the whole thing vanishes, plan, purpose, design,
activity spirit, gone. So the whole necessity, engagement, calculation, vanishes, when we can see
that the environment I’m not to fight for but I’m to embrace as my friend. It is not my foe, it is
my friend. The whole management: that is my friend, friendly management, and only my
apprehension from the friend as foe. And that clears everything vanishes. So, ādau śraddhā
tataḥ sādhu-saṅga:

[ādau śraddhā tataḥ sādhu-saṅgo’ tha bhajana-kriyā

tato’ nartha-nivṛttiḥ syāt tato niṣṭhā rucis tataḥ
athāsaktis tato bhāvas tataḥ premābhyudañcati
sādhakānām ayaṁ premṇaḥ prādurbhāve bhavet kramaḥ]

[“In the beginning there must be faith. Then one becomes interested in associating with
pure devotees. Thereafter one is initiated by the spiritual master and executes the regulative
principles under his orders. Thus one is freed from all unwanted habits and becomes firmly fixed
in devotional service. Thereafter, one develops taste and then attachment. This is the way of
sādhana-bhakti, the execution of devotional service according to the regulative principles.
Gradually spiritual emotions manifest and intensify, then finally there is an awakening of divine
love. This is the gradual development of love of Godhead for the devotee interested in Kṛṣṇa
consciousness.”] [Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindu, 1.4.15-16]

When that śraddhā, there is a, one if they can connect with Him, nothing will be necessary
any more, it will be of utmost satisfaction. Then I go to the sādhu who are after such searching,
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and with their influence I begin my life of searching, kṛṣṇānusandhāna, athāto brahma-jijñāsā. In
Jaimini, dharma-jijñāsā, what is our real duty. And Vedānta, brahma-jijñāsā, who is the most
accommodating thing, my biggest thing? Who? Why? What is the characteristic of the all
accommodating thing, this brahma-jijñāsā, bṛhata?

Devotee: ___________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Bṛhata, who can accommodate everything in it, that is Brahman. And
Paramātmā Who is present everywhere, aṇor aṇīyān, minutest of the minute, Paramātmā within,
searching within Antaryāmī, the subtle most existence within, within atom, within electron, and
most accommodating Brahman. From where I came to here: Brahman? Yasmin vijnante sarvam
idam.

Devotee: ___________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Ah! Dharma-jijñāsā, duty, what is my duty. Vedavyāsa Vedānta is
brahma-jijñāsā, Who is the all comprehensive entity, brahma-jijñāsā. And Mahāprabhu’s
kṛṣṇānusandhāna: Kaha jal kaha tan____________ [?] Then the searching, Kṛṣṇa means
searching who is the enjoyer, not accommodating element, nor all permeating, nor all
accommodating aspect of the environment. But who is my owner, who is my enjoyer, for whom I
am created, who will fulfil my whole aspiration? For Itself, in the words of Hegel. For whom I am
created, who can fulfil my existence, to search, the development towards that. He’s all in all, not
the all accommodating space, nor the all permeating atom. But my highest need is to fulfil
whose satisfaction I am created. I can get the corresponding satisfaction only in that plane.
Bhokta ami bhoga ama bhokta ke [?] Who is my enjoyer, kṛṣṇānusandhāna, Kṛṣṇa conception of
the ultimate reality is who can enjoy. The rasa, raso vai saḥ, akhila-rasāmṛta-murtiḥ, rasa is in
the enjoyment, not in the enquiry who is the ultimate, vidura kasthaya. Most accommodating or
most subtle permeating, Paramātmā and Brahman, but the transaction in the fulfilment of taking
and giving bhoga, in that we as a sisti karta, generally we go to Nārāyaṇa, and as the enjoyer if
we want for the fulfilment of our everything.

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ, sarva-loka-maheśvaram

suhṛdaṁ sarvva-bhūtānāṁ, jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati

[“I am the enjoyer of the results of sacrifice performed by the fruit-hunter, as well as the
results of austerity performed by the liberation-seeker - I am their only worshippable object; I
am Nārāyaṇa, the indwelling monitor of all planes of life, and the Supreme Worshippable
Personality who awards liberation. And I am the well-wisher of all - I am Kṛṣṇa, the devotee’s
most adorable friend. The soul who thus knows My true identity attains the ecstasy of knowing
his own original divine identity.”] [Bhagavad-gītā, 5.29]

“Everything for Me, you are for Me, you are My own.”

And He’s my friend. To seek for a friend, not for the geographical expression of the
environment, but to find a friend, find a friend of universal interest in this world.

Mahāprabhu taught that. “Search after friend, not for duty, and nor for knowledge, not for
karma, nor for knowledge, but for your friend you search.”
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Bhāgavata teaches us that. Purāṇa generally teaches us that. Search for a real friend. The
search of your heart, not for brain, brain’s satisfaction, nor for the satisfaction of the muscle,
karma, or brain, but heart, the most important. And try to satisfy your heart, search for the heart
for heart. There is heart, noble heart, and try to search for the higher heart to help your tiny
heart. Your inner most necessity is to satisfy your heart, not brain.
So science cannot satisfy you. Without this civilisation, scientific civilisation of grand
characteristic one can find satisfaction in a hut, in plain living fully satisfied. Science means
exploitation of the nature, and to get a loan from the nature, and they will have to clear the debt.
To every action there is equal and opposite reaction. So this civilisation that is incurring loan,
debt, no contribution, all negative contribution: movement in the negative, progress in the
negative side, this civilisation.
So plain living, high thinking, as it was in the yuga of the ṛṣi, in the day of the ṛṣis in India,
plain living. Ṛṣis, they tried to search something grand and beautiful, but beauty was not so
much laid stress on. But when Bhāgavata came by the instruction of Nārada Goswāmī, and from
Bhāgavatam, Mahāprabhu took it to be the highest goal of all animation.

“You don’t know you are searching after love, loving heart. Loving heart can satisfy you:
affection and not knowledge.”

jñāne prayāsam udapāsya namanta eva, jīvanti san-mukharitāṁ bhavadīya-vārtām

[sthāne sthitāḥ śruti-gatāṁ tanu-vāṅ-manobhir, ye prāyaśo 'jita jito 'py asi tais tri-lokyām]

[Lord Brahmā said to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa: “Oh Lord, Oh Unconquerable One, those
devotees who, completely giving up all attempts on the path of jñāna of attaining the
non-differentiated platform known as Brahma by hearing the transcendental narratives of Your
pastimes (kathā), which emanates from the lotus mouths of the mahā-bhāgavat sādhus and
pass their lives by engaging their body, mind and words in pure devotion, easily conquer You
(they easily get Your transcendental association), although You are the most difficult to attain in
the three worlds.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.14.3]

Give up hatefully the quest after knowing things of your environment. But try to fulfil your
thirst, your heart, your hankering for rasa, for ānandam, for beauty, for love, for charm, for
harmony.
Westerners have used the word harmony, some philosophers, in place of beauty and love.
They say harmony is beauty, harmony is love. And discord is the opposite, undesirable. So beauty,
reality the beautiful. Martineau, the European scholar Martineau, who has written the Ethics,
one book Ethics written by Martineau.
The reality the beautiful. Satyam, śivam, sundaram, we want sundaram. Mahāprabhu says
jñāne prayāsam udapāsya, knowledge is not necessary at all for the fulfilment of our life. Only
through śraddhā we can attain everything, our earnest hankering desire for rasa. Rasa is the only
thing for which, knowingly or unknowingly, every one of us are earnestly praying. That is rasa,
not knowledge, not energy. Neither energy nor knowledge, neither power nor knowledge, but
the rasa, satisfaction, ecstasy. That is our...

na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ, [durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ

andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās, te 'pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ]
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[Prahlāda Mahārāja says: “Persons who are strongly entrapped by the consciousness of
enjoying material life, and who have therefore accepted as their leader or Guru a similar blind
man attached to external sense objects, cannot understand that the goal of life is to return home,
back to Godhead, and engage in the service of Lord Viṣṇu. As blind men guided by another blind
man miss the right path and fall into a ditch, materially attached men led by another materially
attached man are bound by the ropes of fruitive labour, which are made of very strong cords,
and they continue again and again in materialistic life, suffering the threefold miseries.”]
[Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 7.5.31]

Prahlāda Mahārāja says, bahir-artha-māninaḥ, we’re making much of the cover, and not
which is within the cover, sas, substance within the cover. We are enchanted by the glamour of
the cover only, of everything, but we must penetrate into the substance which is contained in
the cover. That is Viṣṇu Who is permeating everything. What is His nature? How loving and
affectionate He is for us? His sympathy, His love, His sacrifice, all these things we shall try to
discover, and accordingly to fix our path what way we should select and make progress on.
Hare Kṛṣṇa. Gaura Hari. Gaura Hari. So jñāne prayāsam udapāsya, jñāna-sunya-bhakti, Eho
bahya. When the, independent of knowledge, our devotion which has eliminated any calculation,
only through faith, Mahāprabhu was, “Yes, it is here.” Faith is not frustrated, because the all
consciousness atmosphere is present.

[pārtha naiveha nāmutra, vināśas tasya vidyate]

na hi kalyāṇa-kṛt kaścid, durgatiṁ tāta gacchati

[“O Arjuna, son of Kuntī, the unsuccessful yogī does not suffer ruination either in this life or
the next. He is not deprived of the pleasures of the heavenly planetary systems in this universe,
nor is he denied the chance to personally see the Supersoul in the divine realm. This is so, O dear
one, because a person who performs virtuous actions never becomes ill-fated.”]
[Bhagavad-gītā, 6.40]

If you are sincere the all consciousness is ready to help you. You may not be afraid. So
śraddhā, jñāna-sunya-bhakti, śraddhā, go on with...

Devotee: _______________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Jñāna-sunya-bhakti, jñāne prayāsam udapāsya, when he, that is,
jñāna-sunya-bhakti means he wants to offer himself, not to take the advantage of his knowledge
of the environment, as a subject. Jñāna means he is laying stress on his subjective position, and
bhakti is anti jñāna. Become object, to be a doll in His hand. He will handle you. You try to
become a doll in the hand of the Supreme Power, objective, become passive, no active
attainment, ‘that I shall gather what is really useful to me. I know everything.’ Don’t indulge in
that sort of attitude within you. Surrender to the Absolute Knowledge, Absolute Affection. Then,
you as a subject you cannot come in touch with Him. He’s adhokṣaja, He can come to you but
you cannot go up to Him. You are very gross consciousness, you cannot make the subtle
consciousness as the object of your sense; but finite...
Once in Karachi one Ārya Samāji leader came to me while preaching that side: “If finite can
know Infinite He’s no Infinite.”
I answered, ‘If Infinite cannot make Himself known to finite He’s not Infinite.”
Just opposite, so He can come but I cannot go to Him. This is the fact. I’m of lower stuff. So
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to attract Him towards me, that is surrender, devotion, negative side, to increase the negative
side of our aspect so that the positive feels attraction and comes down to embrace me, to accept
me. That is the path of devotion, to invite Him.
“Come to my lower level. I can’t go to the higher level where You are.” So the search of the
higher for the lower will be of such nature. “I am very low. I hold the lower position. And You are
so high. You can come, You can purify, You can take me, You can utilise me for Your higher
purpose. I am otherwise, I am helpless, neglected. Be pleased.”
That is the path of bhakti and that can help us really to come in connection with the
Superior Existence, and not by knowledge, ‘That I can bring everything within and make prison
within my area of knowledge.’ We can’t make Him prisoner, to keep, to catch, and to keep within
the cage of our knowledge. It is not possible at all. So the path of devotion can only help us. He’s
so high and so infinite in every respect, so great, and we are so small. So the mercy, sympathy,
love, grace, that is the only plane through which we both can come together.
What do you say Akṣayānanda Mahārāja?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes, very nicely put, beautiful.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Mahāprabhu came with such news to us,
so take His Name and think you’re most meanest of the mean. You desire immediate help
otherwise I’m gone. Try, not artificially but sincerely feel your helpless position, and also try to
intimate it to the centre Who is Infinite Love, sympathy. That is the most plain way to attain our
fulfilment, most simple, no artificiality. No science is necessary here. Heart’s earnestness! “Help
me.”

Devotee: Heart’s earnestness! A beautiful concept, heart’s earnestness!

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Earnestness of the heart, automatic, spontaneous, and you will be
taken within His family life.

“No, no, My boy, you are not so low. You are My own. You are My own.”

Hare Kṛṣṇa.

martyo yadā tyakta-samasta-karmā, niveditātmā vicikīrṣito me

tadāmṛtatvaṁ pratipadyamāno, mayātma-bhūyāya ca kalpate vai

[“One who is subjected to birth and death attains immortality when he gives up all material
activities, dedicates his life to the execution of My order, and acts according to My directions. In
this way, he becomes fit to enjoy the spiritual bliss derived from exchanging loving mellows with
Me.”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 11.29.34]

dīkṣā-kāle bhakta kare ātma-samarpaṇa, sei kāle kṛṣṇa tāre kare ātma-sama
sei deha kare tāra cid-ānanda-maya, aprākṛta-dehe tāṅra caraṇa bhajaya

[“At the time of initiation, when a devotee fully surrenders unto the service of the Lord,
Kṛṣṇa accepts him to be as good as Himself.”] – [“When the devotee’s body is thus transformed
into spiritual existence, the devotee, in that transcendental body, renders service to the lotus
feet of the Lord.”] [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Antya-līlā, 4.192-3]
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Brahma bhūyāya kalpate, ātmā bhūyāya kalpate, “I accept him as My family member.”

The gopīs also in Kurukṣetra: “We are not jñānīs, we are not yogīs, we are not karmī, that
You give consolation that we may take that path and pass our time, kill our time. We are not to
be dismissed by that sort of cunning attempt of You. We have already lived a life as Your family
member, and nothing less than that can satisfy us. You remain sure we can’t be deceived by any
other offer, however dazzling and charming You may send to us.”

Gehaṁ juṣām api manasy udiyāt.

[āhuś ca te nalina-nābha padāravindaṁ, yogeśvarair hṛdi vicintyam agādha-bodhaiḥ

saṁsāra-kūpa-patitottaraṇāvalambaṁ, gehaṁ juṣām api manasy udiyāt sadā naḥ]

[“The gopīs spoke thus: ‘Dear Lord, whose navel is just like a lotus flower, Your lotus feet are
the only shelter for those who have fallen into the deep well of material existence. Your feet are
worshipped and meditated upon by great mystic yogīs and highly learned philosophers. We wish
that these lotus feet may also be awakened within our hearts, although we are only ordinary
persons engaged in household affairs.’”] [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, 10.82.48]
& [Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, 13.136]

“Our demand is fixed, and we want You as a family member in Vṛndāvana. Nothing less can
satisfy us, we are such and such. We are in Vṛndāvana. We are plain thinking persons, half savage,
but we understand this as the highest point of our interest, to have You amongst us as a family
member. And neither an abstract meditation and nor the temporary relief worker in the
mundane activity of self elevation; neither karmī nor jñānī. We have got the taste of getting You
within our family life. We can’t forget that any time.”

And Kṛṣṇa says: “That rest assured I am yours, because the whole world of different
sections, saints, they think that they’re fortunate if they can come in My connection. Everyone
thinks that he’s fortunate if anyhow he may come in connection with My affection. And that man,
or that person, or that entity I am, I think it My fortune that I came in your connection. I consider
Myself to be fortunate because I came in connection with you, so simple, so surrendering, so
loving, so self forgetful, you are. I can’t forget you. I thought that I’m really fortunate that I came
in your connection. The world thinks if they come in My connection they’re fortunate, and such
am I that I think that I’m fortunate that I got your connection. So I’m always yours. My
appreciation for you is to such intensity, so rest assured. Only to minimise or remove some
trouble in the earthly affairs I am waiting here. I am always with you.”

That was His secret advice or response to the gopīs. And they came back:

Se śloka suni radha kandila sakha baddha krsne prapte priti te haila [?]

Rādhārāṇī could understand this purpose of the saying of Kṛṣṇa and She thought that,
“Kṛṣṇa is fully Mine. He’s within My affectionate zone. I need not bother Myself for any
imaginary despair or disappointment. He’s Mine, wherever He is He’s Mine.”

With this faith, Rādhārāṇī came back from Kurukṣetra to Vṛndāvana.

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And Mahāprabhu in Jagannātha taking from Kurukṣetra to Nava-Vṛndāvana, to Guṇḍicā

Mandeer with that spirit, taking Kṛṣṇa from Dvārakā, “Dvārakā Kṛṣṇa we take Him to Vṛndāvana.”

Devotee: ___________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: __________________________ [?]

Devotee: ___________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _____________________________________________ [?]

In Dvārakā Kṛṣṇa constructed, just as Swāmī Mahārāja, ‘New Vṛndāvana,’ so Kṛṣṇa
constructed a ‘New Vṛndāvana’ in Dvārakā, within the area of Dvārakā, in the pattern of
Vṛndāvana. And sometimes to, for His internal peace He used to walk in that garden that was
built in the model of Vṛndāvana. To find His internal peace He used to walk in that Vṛndāvana.
And so perhaps Dvārakā is mentioned there. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Gaura
Haribol. Gaura Haribol. Nitāi Gaura Haribol.
__________________________________________________________________ [?]

Devotees: _______________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: __________________________________________ [?]

Devotee: Lord Caitanya told Vāsudeva Datta, “That simply by your desire any living entity can be
given love of God, or liberation.” Can we also develop the same potency as Vāsudeva Datta?

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: What is his...

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Caitanya Mahāprabhu told Vāsudeva Datta, “That by your desire
anyone can get Kṛṣṇa prema.” So can we also become as powerful as Vāsudeva Datta? Is it
possible for us to become as powerful as...

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: Powerful?

Akṣayānanda Mahārāja: Yes. Śakti shali, as Vāsudeva Datta, that by our desire others will also
get Kṛṣṇa prema, is it possible? He’s enquiring.

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: It depends on the intensity of devotion of a devotee.

Mahāprabhu told, “You can sell Me anywhere if you like. You have tied Me with your door
of affection so much that like ordinary property of sale you can sell Me here and there. I’m so
much indebted to you through your serving attitude. I’m your own. Whatever you like you may
do with Me.”

That type of devotion was found in Vāsudeva Datta. And that is also, there are also superior
type of devotion we can understand of Caitanyadeva. But that was a peculiar type of devotion in
Vāsudeva. We can trace his special desire, sympathy, for so many suffering souls at large.
And Haridāsa Ṭhākura also came to help Him.
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Mahāprabhu told that, “Vāsudeva, if the whole world is released, then do you mean that
the world will be non existent forever?”

Then, it was told that previously Rāmacandra also took the whole of Ayodhyā with Him, but
again Ayodhyā was filled up by the supply from the Causal Play.

So Haridāsa Ṭhākura says, “When You have chanted Kṛṣṇa Nāma,” Haridāsa Ṭhākura says to
Mahāprabhu, “You Yourself are chanting the Name of Kṛṣṇa and whoever is fortunate to hear
that, that sound enters in the ear of whatever the man be, however sinful, and he may be
conscious or unconscious, stone, trees, and so many, everyone will be released. And then again
the supply will come from the sukṣma, this Brahmaloka, the taṭasthā plane, it will come to take
place, to fill up the vacuum.”

Mahāprabhu told then, “Kṛṣṇa is not bankrupt. When a devotee of your type has sincerely
filed a petition to Kṛṣṇa to release all the existing souls, they must have to be released. He fulfils
the desire of His devotee. It is His nature. And you offer that you’ll have to go to eternal hell for
their relief, but He’s not so bankrupt that for this little grace He will have to show He will take
help from you as reaction by sending you to hell He will have to release all these souls. It is not
such. A finite within infinite, what is its position? Nothing! A drop in the ocean – one drop taken
up, we can’t understand from where it is again filled up. So the Infinite will is such. When you
want it, they’ve already been released. But still, the surrounding has again filling it up
instantaneously. Instantaneously the vacuum is filled up. It is the manner of the Infinite. So what
we finite will go to calculate by applying our logic or mathematics? Hare Kṛṣṇa.
______________________ [?]

Devotee: ________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: _____ paripraśna – enquiry is always allowed. Enquire! Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Devotee: __________________________________________________________________ [?]

Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja: ____________________________________________________ [?]

........