After offering obeisances to the disciplic succession, the author pays obeisances to all other devotees, to the Lord Himself, to His incarnations, to the expansions of Godhead and to the manifestation of Kṛṣṇa's internal energy. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu (sometimes called Kṛṣṇa Caitanya) is the embodiment of all of these: He is God, guru, devotee, incarnation, internal energy and expansion of God. As His associate Nityānanda, He is the first expansion of God; as Advaita, He is an incarnation; as Gadādhara, He is the internal potency; and as Śrīvāsa, He is the marginal living entity in the role of a devotee. Thus Kṛṣṇa should not be thought of as being alone but should be considered as eternally existing with all His manifestations, as described by Rāmānujācārya. In the Viśiṣṭādvaita philosophy, God's energies, expansions and incarnations are considered to be oneness in diversity.
Manifestation (Other Books)
Expressions researched:
"manifesta"
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Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Teachings of Lord Caitanya
"Those who are knowers of the Absolute Truth describe the Absolute Truth in three features: the impersonal Brahman, the localized, all-pervading Supersoul, and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa." In other words, Brahman, the impersonal manifestation, Paramātmā, the localized manifestation, and Bhagavān, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are one and the same. But according to the process adopted, He is realized as Brahman, Paramātmāor Bhagavān.
By realizing the impersonal Brahman, one simply realizes the effulgence emanating from the transcendental body of Kṛṣṇa. This effulgence is compared to the sunshine. There is the sun-god, the sun itself, and the sunshine, which is the effulgence of that original sun-god. Similarly, the spiritual effulgence (brahmajyoti), the impersonal Brahman, is nothing but the personal effulgence of Kṛṣṇa.
Caitanya Mahāprabhu further explained that the Paramātmā, the all-pervading feature situated in everyone's body, is but a partial manifestation or expansion of Kṛṣṇa. It is for this reason that Kṛṣṇa is sometimes called Paramātmā, the Supreme Self, the soul of all souls.. In this regard Lord Caitanya quoted another verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.14.55), concerning the talks between Mahārāja Parīkṣit and Śukadeva Gosvāmī. While hearing the transcendental pastimes of Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana, Mahārāja Parīkṣit inquired from his spiritual master, Śukadeva Gosvāmī, as to why the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana were so much attached to Kṛṣṇa.
In other words, the form by which Kṛṣṇa is directly understood is called svayaṁ-rūpa, or His personal form. The tad-ekātma-rūpa is that form which most resembles the svayaṁ-rūpa, but there are some differences in the bodily features. The tad-ekātma-rūpa is divided into two manifestations: the personal expansion (svāṁśa) and the pastime expansion (vilāsa). As far as the āveśa-rūpa is concerned, when Kṛṣṇa empowers some suitable living entity to represent Him, that living entity is called āveśa-rūpa or śaktyāveśa-avatāra.
The personal form of Kṛṣṇa can be divided into two: svayaṁ-rūpa and svayaṁ-prakāśa. As far as His svayaṁ-rūpa (or pastime form) is concerned, it is in that form that He remains always in Vṛndāvana with the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana. This personal form (svayaṁ-rūpa) can be further divided into the prābhava and vaibhava forms.
Sometimes the Lord thinks of Himself as a cowherd boy, and sometimes He thinks of Himself as Vasudeva's son, a kṣatriya prince, and this "thinking" of Kṛṣṇa is called His "pastimes." Actually, He is in the same form in His vaibhava-prakāśa and prābhava-vilāsa, but He appears differently as Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. His expansions as Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna and Aniruddha are the original catur-vyūha, or four-armed forms.
There are innumerable four-armed manifestations in different planets and different places. For instance, They are manifested in Dvārakā and Mathurā eternally. From the four original four-handed forms are manifested the twenty-four principal four-armed forms, which are called vaibhava-vilāsa. They are named differently according to the placement of the conch, club, lotus and disc in Their hands. The same four principal manifestations of Kṛṣṇa are found on each planet in the spiritual sky, known as Nārāyaṇaloka or Vaikuṇṭhaloka.
According to the Vaiṣṇava almanac, the twelve months of the year are named according to the twelve Vaikuṇṭha forms of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and these forms are known as the predominating Deities for the twelve months. This calendar begins with the month of Mārgaśīrṣa, which is equivalent to late November and early December. The Vaiṣṇavas call this month Keśava. December–January is called Nārāyaṇa, January–February Mādhava, February–March Govinda, March–April Viṣṇu, April–May Śrī Madhusūdana, and May–June Trivikrama. June–July is called Vāmana, July–August Śrīdhara, August–September Hṛṣīkeśa, September–October Padmanābha, and October–November Dāmodara. This Dāmodara is different from the Dāmodara in Vraja. The name Dāmodara was given to Kṛṣṇa when He was bound with ropes by His mother, but the Dāmodara form who is the predominating Deity of the month of October–November is a different manifestation.
It is also learned from the Hayaśīrṣa-pañcarātra that there are nine forms protecting the two Purīs known as Mathurā Purī and Dvārakā Purī. These nine forms are Vāsudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, Nārāyaṇa, Nṛsiṁha, Hayagrīva, Varāha and Brahmā. These are different manifestations of the prakāśa and vilāsa forms of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Lord Caitanya next informed Sanātana Gosvāmī that there are different forms of svāṁśa as well, and these are divided into the Saṅkarṣaṇa division and the incarnation division. The Saṅkarṣaṇa division includes the three puruṣa-avatāras—Kāraṇodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu and Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu—and the other division comprises the līlā-avatāras, such as the Lord's incarnations as a fish and a tortoise.
There are six kinds of incarnations: (1) the puruṣa-avatāras, (2) the līlā-avatāras, (3) the guṇa-avatāras, (4) the manvantara-avatāras, (5) the yuga-avatāras and (6) the śaktyāveśa-avatāras. Out of the six vilāsa manifestations of Kṛṣṇa, there are two divisions based on His age, and these are called bālya and paugaṇḍa. As the son of Nanda Mahārāja, Kṛṣṇa in His original form enjoys both of these childhood aspects—namely bālya and paugaṇḍa.
We can conclude that there is no end to the expansions and incarnations of Kṛṣṇa. Lord Caitanya described some of them to Sanātana just to give him an idea of how the Lord expands and how He enjoys. These conclusions are confirmed in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.3.26). There it is said that there is no limit to the incarnations of the Supreme Lord, just as there is no limit to the waves of the ocean.
All His activities—beginning with the killing of the Pūtanā demon—are displayed in innumerable universes, and there is no limit to them. Indeed, at every moment, at every second, His manifestations and various pastimes are seen in different universes (brahmāṇḍas). Thus His activities are just like the waves of the Ganges River. Just as there is no limit to the flowing of the waves of the Ganges, there is no cessation of various features of Lord Kṛṣṇa's pastimes in different universes. From childhood He displays many pastimes, and ultimately He exhibits the rāsa dance.
It is said that all the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa are eternal, and this is confirmed in every scripture. Generally people cannot understand how Kṛṣṇa performs His pastimes, but Lord Caitanya clarified this by comparing the performance of His pastimes to the orbit of the sun.
And His most important pastimes in the human form are those in which He appears as a cowherd boy, a newly grown youth who plays a flute. Just a partial manifestation of His pastimes in Goloka—in Gokula, Mathurā and Dvārāvatī, or Dvārakā—can overflood the whole universe with love of Godhead. Everyone can be attracted by the beautiful qualities of Kṛṣṇa.
The manifestation of Kṛṣṇa's internal potency (yogamāyā) is not exhibited in the part of the kingdom of God comprising the Vaikuṇṭha planets, but Kṛṣṇa does exhibit that internal potency within the universe when He descends from His personal abode out of His inconceivable mercy. Kṛṣṇa is so wonderful and attractive that He Himself becomes attracted by His own beauty, and this is proof that He is full of all inconceivable potencies. As far as the ornaments decorating Kṛṣṇa's body are concerned, it appears that they do not beautify Him but that they themselves become beautiful simply by being on His body.
After hearing the different explanations of the ātmārāma verse, Sanātana Gosvāmī was struck with wonder, and he fell down in devotion at the feet of Lord Caitanya. "I understand that You are personally the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa," Sanātana said, "and by Your breathing have come many manifestations of Vedic literature. You are the teacher of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and You best know the meanings of the verses of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. It is not possible for others to understand the confidential meanings of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam without Your mercy."
"Do not try to eulogize Me in that way," the Lord told Sanātana. “Just try to understand the real nature of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the sound representation of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa; therefore Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is not different from Kṛṣṇa.
There is no difference between the energy and the energetic in regard to the Lord's appearance as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His four associates Nityānanda Prabhu, Advaita Prabhu, Gadādhara Paṇḍita and Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura. Among these five diverse manifestations of the Supreme Lord (as the Lord Himself and His expansion, incarnation, devotional energy and devotee) there is no spiritual difference. They are five in one Absolute Truth. For the sake of relishing transcendental flavors in the Absolute Truth, there are five diverse manifestations. These are called the form of a devotee, the identity of a devotee, the incarnation of a devotee, the devotional energy and the pure devotee.
Out of the five diversities in the Absolute Truth, the form of Lord Caitanya is that of the original Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa. Lord Nityānanda is the manifestation of the first expansion of the Supreme Lord. Similarly, Advaita Prabhu is an incarnation of the Supreme Lord.
We make a great mistake if we think Lord Caitanya is a conditioned soul. He is to be understood as the Supreme Absolute Truth, the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Himself. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is therefore said of Lord Caitanya: "Kṛṣṇa is now present in His five diverse manifestations." Unless one is situated in uncontaminated goodness, it is very difficult to understand Lord Caitanya as the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Thus in order to understand Lord Caitanya, one has to follow the direct disciples of Lord Caitanya—the Six Gosvāmīs—and especially the path chalked out by Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī.
The most astonishing fact is that Lord Caitanya, although the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, never displayed Himself as Kṛṣṇa. Rather, whenever intelligent devotees detected that He was Lord Kṛṣṇa and addressed Him as Lord Kṛṣṇa, He denied it. Indeed, He sometimes placed His hands over His ears, protesting that a human being should not be addressed as the Supreme Lord. Indirectly, He was teaching the Māyāvādī philosophers that one should never falsely pose himself as the Supreme Lord and thereby misguide his followers.
Nor should the followers be foolish enough to accept anyone and everyone as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One should test by consulting scriptures and by seeing the activities of the person in question. One should not, however, mistake Lord Caitanya and His five diverse manifestations for ordinary human beings. Lord Caitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa Himself. The beauty of Lord Caitanya is that although He is the Supreme Lord, He came as a great devotee to teach all conditioned souls how devotional service should be rendered. Conditioned souls who are interested in devotional service should follow in the exemplary footsteps of Lord Caitanya to learn how Kṛṣṇa can be attained by devotional service. Thus the Supreme Lord Himself teaches the conditioned soul how He should be approached by devotional service.
By analytically studying the five diverse manifestations of the Supreme Lord, we can come to know that Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the Supreme Absolute Truth and that Lord Nityānanda is His immediate expansion. We can also come to understand that Advaita Prabhu is also in the category of the Supreme Personality of Godhead but is subordinate to Lord Caitanya and Nityānanda Prabhu. The Supreme Personality of Godhead and His immediate and subordinate expansion are worshipable by the other two—namely the representation of the internal potency and the representation of the marginal potency. The representation of the internal potency, Gadādhara, represents the confidential devotee, and the representation of the marginal potency, Śrīvāsa, represents the pure devotee. Both of these are worshipers of the other three. But all four of the Lord's expansions—whether in the worshipable category (Nityānanda and Advaita) or the worshiper category (Gadādhara and Śrīvāsa)—are engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
The Bhaṭṭācārya then began to explain the ātmārāma śloka, using his methods of logic and grammar. Thus he explained the ātmārāma śloka in nine different ways. The Lord appreciated his erudite scholarship in explaining the verse and said, "My dear Bhaṭṭācārya, I know that you are a personal manifestation of the learned scholar Bṛhaspati and can explain any portion of the śāstras nicely. Yet your explanation is more or less based on academic education only. But there is another explanation beside the academic, scholarly one."
Nectar of Devotion
Sage Prabuddha continued to speak to the King as follows: "My dear King, a disciple has to accept the spiritual master not only as spiritual master, but also as the representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and the Supersoul. In other words, the disciple should accept the spiritual master as God, because he is the external manifestation of Kṛṣṇa. This is confirmed in every scripture, and a disciple should accept the spiritual master as such. One should learn Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam seriously and with all respect and veneration for the spiritual master. Hearing and speaking Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the religious process which elevates one to the platform of serving and loving the Supreme Personality of Godhead."
The attitude of the disciple should be to satisfy the bona fide spiritual master. Then it will be very easy for him to understand spiritual knowledge.
In the Dvārakā-māhātmya the importance of dancing before the Deity is stated by Lord Kṛṣṇa as follows: "A person who is in a jubilant spirit, who feels profound devotional ecstasy while dancing before Me, and who manifests different features of bodily expression can burn away all the accumulated sinful reactions he has stocked up for many, many thousands of years." In the same book there is a statement by Nārada wherein he asserts, "From the body of any person who claps and dances before the Deity, showing manifestations of ecstasy, all the birds of sinful activities fly away upward." Just as by clapping the hands one can cause many birds to fly away, similarly the birds of all sinful activities which are sitting on the body can be made to fly away simply by dancing and clapping before the Deity of Kṛṣṇa.
The acceptance and rejection of things should always be in pursuance of the devotional principles; not that one can independently manufacture some idea of what should be accepted or rejected. The spiritual master as the visible manifestation of Kṛṣṇa is necessary, therefore, to direct the devotee on behalf of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
The spiritual master must never be carried away by an accumulation of wealth or a large number of followers. A bona fide spiritual master will never become like that. But sometimes, if a spiritual master is not properly authorized and only on his own initiative becomes a spiritual master, he may be carried away by an accumulation of wealth and large numbers of disciples. His is not a very high grade of devotional service. If a person is carried away by such achievements, then his devotional service becomes slackened. One should therefore strictly adhere to the principles of disciplic succession.
The affection and the dealings of love that are different branches of the original tree of love precede many varieties of affectionate manifestations that will not be discussed here. These different manifestations have been described by Sanātana Gosvāmī in his Bhāgavatāmṛta. Although the subject of such affections and dealings of love is very confidential, Sanātana Gosvāmī has described them very explicitly.
Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī thus concludes the first division of the Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, offering up his treatise for the transcendental pleasure of Sanātana Gosvāmī, who has established the transcendental beauty, and of Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, Śrī Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī and Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī. It appears from this statement that the great Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī was not yet active when Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu was written.
Burnt existential ecstatic love is divided into three, and one example is as follows: One day, mother Yaśodā was dreaming that the gigantic demon Pūtanā was lying on the courtyard of her house, and she immediately became anxious to seek out Kṛṣṇa.
When there are manifestations of ecstatic symptoms in the body of a nondevotee, these are called dried-up symptoms of ecstatic love. The nondevotees are actually materialistic, but in contact with some pure devotee, they sometimes may manifest some symptoms of ecstasy. Devotional scholars call these dried-up symptoms.
There are eight symptoms of existential ecstatic love: becoming stunned, perspiring, standing of the hairs on the body, faltering of the voice, trembling of the body, changing of bodily colors, shedding of tears and devastation.
The shedding of tears, however, sometimes makes the eyes become swollen and whitish, and sometimes the lenses of the eyes become differently focused. Faltering of the voice may sometimes cause choking in the throat and extreme anxiety. As the different symptoms of these ecstatic manifestations are localized, they are accompanied by different local reactions; e.g., when the throat is choked up because of a faltering voice, there may be a sound like "ghura." Such sounds choke the voice, and with extreme mental anxiety they may be manifest in different ways. All these symptoms are listed under the dried-up existential condition known as smoky, and they are exhibited in different ways.
Sometimes, while participating in ceremonies celebrating Kṛṣṇa's pastimes, or in the society of devotees, there is dancing ecstasy. Such sentiments are called blazing.
The continuous ecstasy of love can remain like a powerful king, subduing all temporary manifestations of love as well as any opposing elements of anger. It can be exhibited directly or indirectly, and thus ecstatic love can be described as direct or indirect. These symptoms of ecstatic love are possible only when one is fully situated in a transcendental position. Direct ecstatic love can be divided into two groups—namely, selfish and selfless.
When noncontradictory symptoms of ecstatic love are distinctly manifest, any contradictory symptoms create a sense of abomination. Contradictory ecstatic love is called selfish. That ecstatic love which can adjust all contradictory or noncontradictory symptoms is called direct selfless love. These selfless symptoms can again be divided into five groups: neutrality, servitude, fraternity, parenthood and conjugal love.
The particular type of ecstatic loving sentiment that develops within the heart of a particular devotee is considered to be vibhāva. And the resultant manifestations such as moving of the eyebrows, fear, astonishment and smiling, which have been explained hereinbefore, are called anubhāva. The different causes for developing anubhāva and vibhāva are called steady ecstasy, or sañcāri-bhāva.
Whenever there is a recitation of poetry or a dramatic play on the different pastimes of Kṛṣṇa, the audience develops different kinds of transcendental loving service for the Lord. They enjoy different types of vibhāva, anubhāva and sañcāri-bhāva.
No one, while remaining on the material platform, should discuss these different descriptions of bhāva and anubhāva by quoting different statements of transcendental literatures. Such manifestations are displays of the transcendental pleasure potency of the Lord.
The twelve different kinds of transcendental humors are controlled by different incarnations of God, such as Kapila, Mādhava, Upendra, Nṛsiṁha, Nanda-nandana, Balarāma, Kūrma, Kalki, Rāghava, Bhārgava, Varāha and Matsya.
Sustenance, manifestation, expansion, reflection and lamentation are the five visible symptoms in exchanges of ecstatic love. The test of devotional service can therefore be made in terms of these five symptoms. In the devotional service of neutrality there is sustenance, in chivalrous devotional service there is expansion, in compassionate devotional service there is reflection, in angry devotional service there is lamentation, and so on.
An apparently pitiable condition in devotional service may appear distressing to the inexperienced student, but the feelings of the devotee in this pitiable condition are considered to be ecstatic by expert devotees. For example, the subject matter of the Rāmāyaṇa is sometimes considered pitiable and distressing to the heart, but actually that is not the fact.
When he was engaged in such service, he was filled with ecstatic love, and the symptoms of ecstatic love became manifest in his body. But Dāruka was so serious about his service that he checked all of these manifestations of ecstatic love and considered them hindrances to his engagement. He did not care very much for these manifestations, although they automatically developed.
In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto, Eighty-sixth Chapter, verse 38, there is a statement of how Śrutadeva, a brāhmaṇa from the country called Mithilā in northern India, became so overpowered with joy as soon as he saw Kṛṣṇa that immediately after bowing to the Lord's lotus feet he stood up and began to dance, raising his two arms above his head.
The general activities of all the mothers of the cowherd boys were to kiss them, to embrace them, to call them by their names and sometimes to chastise them mildly for their stealing habits. These manifestations of parental love are called sāttvika ecstasy, wherein manifestations of eight kinds of ecstatic symptoms are visible in full. In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto, Thirteenth Chapter, verse 22, Śukadeva Gosvāmī tells King Parīkṣit, "All the mothers of the cowherd boys were illusioned by the covering influence of the yogamāyā potency of the Personality of Godhead, and as soon as they heard the flute playing of their boys, they immediately stood up and mentally embraced their sons, who had been created by the direct internal potency of Kṛṣṇa. Accepting them as their born sons, they lifted them into their arms and began to embrace them, resting the children's bodies upon their own.
When in the rasa of neutral love (śānta-rasa) there are found traces of ghastliness or astonishment, the result is compatible. When with this neutral love there are manifestations of conjugal love, chivalry, anger or dread, the result is incompatible.
When in the ecstasy of a serving humor there are manifestations of dread, neutral love or chivalry (such as dharma-vīra and dāna-vīra), the result is compatible. The ecstasy of devotional service in chivalry (yuddha-vīra) and anger are directly produced by Kṛṣṇa Himself.
With the ecstasy of fraternal love a mixture of conjugal love, laughter or chivalry is highly compatible. With the same fraternal love, a mixture of dread or parental love is most incompatible.
According to certain expert opinions, in the ecstasy of conjugal love the feelings of chivalry known as yuddha-vīra and dharma-vīra are the only compatible additions. According to this view, except for these two humors, all other manifestations are taken as incompatible with conjugal love.
With the ecstasy of devotional laughter a mixture of dread, conjugal love or parental love is compatible, whereas a mixture of compassion or ghastliness is incompatible.
With the ecstasy of devotion in astonishment a mixture of chivalry or neutral love is compatible, whereas a mixture of anger or dread is always incompatible.
Easy Journey to Other Planets
This is not a fabrication—it is all factual. Although to a layman this appears to be a fabrication, Kṛṣṇa reveals Himself from within to one who is serious about God realization. Both Kṛṣṇa and the spiritual master help the sincere soul. The spiritual master is the external manifestation of God, who is situated in everyone's heart as Supersoul. For one who is very serious about understanding the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Supersoul immediately renders assistance by directing him to a bona fide spiritual master. In this way the spiritual candidate is helped from within and without.
According to the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the Supreme Truth is realized in three stages. First there is impersonal Brahman, or the impersonal Absolute; then the Paramātmā, or localized aspect of Brahman.
Krsna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead
And the spiritual master is the representative of Balarāma, the form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead who supplies spiritual strength. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta it is confirmed that the spiritual master is the manifestation of the mercy of Kṛṣṇa.
Thus ordered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Yogamāyā circumambulated the Lord and then appeared within this material world according to His order. When Yogamāyā, the supreme power of the supremely powerful Personality of Godhead, transferred Lord Śeṣa from the womb of Devakī to the womb of Rohiṇī, both Devakī and Rohiṇī were under Yogamāyā’s spell, which is called yoga-nidrā. When this was done, people thought that Devakī’s seventh pregnancy had been a miscarriage. Thus although Balarāma appeared as the son of Devakī, He was transferred to the womb of Rohiṇī to appear as her son.
Lord Brahmā reconfirmed his statement establishing Kṛṣṇa as the original Nārāyaṇa. He said that the Lord's gigantic universal form is resting on the water known as Garbhodaka. He spoke as follows: “This gigantic universal form is another manifestation of Your energy. On account of His resting on the water, this universal form is also Nārāyaṇa, and we are all within the womb of this Nārāyaṇa form. I see Your different Nārāyaṇa forms everywhere. I can see You on the water, I can feel You within my heart, and I can also see You before me now. You are the original Nārāyaṇa.
“My dear Lord, in this incarnation You have proved that You are the supreme controller of māyā. You remain within the cosmic manifestation, and yet the whole creation is within You.
This is strictly prohibited for brahmacārīs, and what to speak of a brahmacārī like Śukadeva Gosvāmī. But because the circumstances of the rāsa dance were very suspect, Mahārāja Parīkṣit inquired for clarification from Śukadeva Gosvāmī. Śukadeva Gosvāmī immediately replied that transgressions of religious principles by the supreme controller testify to His great power. For example, fire can consume any abominable thing; that is the manifestation of the supremacy of fire. Similarly, the sun can absorb water from a urinal or from stool, and the sun is not polluted; rather, due to the influence of the sunshine, the polluted, contaminated place becomes disinfected and sterilized.
One gopī said, "My dear friends, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma are nicely dressed with earrings and pearl necklaces. They enjoy Themselves on the top of Govardhana Hill, and everything becomes absorbed in transcendental pleasure when Kṛṣṇa plays on His flute, charming the whole created manifestation. When He plays, the clouds stop their loud thundering out of fear of Him. Rather than disturb the vibration of His flute, they respond with mild thunder and so congratulate Kṛṣṇa, their friend."
Kṛṣṇa is accepted as the friend of the cloud because both the cloud and Kṛṣṇa satisfy the people when they are disturbed. When the people are burning due to excessive heat, the cloud satisfies them with rain. Similarly, when people in materialistic life become disturbed by the blazing fire of material pangs, Kṛṣṇa consciousness gives them relief like a cloud. The cloud and Kṛṣṇa, having the same bodily color also, are considered to be friends.
Expert devotees, however, have decided that Kṛṣṇa was neither a cheater nor a breaker of promises. Kṛṣṇa, in His original identity, returned with Nanda Mahārāja and stayed with the gopīs and Mother Yaśodā in His bhāva expansion. Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma remained in Mathurā not in Their original forms but in Their expansions as Vasudeva and Saṅkarṣaṇa. The real Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were in Vṛndāvana in Their bhāva manifestation, whereas in Mathurā They appeared in the prabhava and vaibhava expansions. This is the expert opinion of advanced devotees of Kṛṣṇa. Externally, however, They were absent from Vṛndāvana. Therefore, when Nanda Mahārāja was preparing to return to Vṛndāvana, there was some discussion between him and the boys concerning how they could live in separation. The conclusion to separate was reached by mutual agreement.
These talks of Rādhārāṇī with the bumblebee messenger, including Her accusing Kṛṣṇa in so many ways and at the same time expressing Her inability to give up talking about Him, are signs of the topmost transcendental ecstasy, called mahā-bhāva. The ecstatic mahā-bhāva manifestation is possible only in the persons of Rādhārāṇī and Her associates. Great ācāryas like Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī and Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura have analyzed these mahā-bhāva speeches of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī and described their different varieties, such as udghūrṇā, or bewilderment, and jalpa-pratijalpa, or talking in different ways. These are the signs of ujjvala-rasa, or the brightest jewel of love of God.
It is recommended in authoritative scriptures that the spiritual master be worshiped on the level of the Supreme Personality of Godhead because of being His very confidential servitor, and it is accepted by great authorities that the spiritual master is the external manifestation of Kṛṣṇa. The gopīs were relieved from their transcendental burning condition by realizing that Kṛṣṇa was with them. Internally, they remembered His association within their hearts, and externally Uddhava helped them associate with Kṛṣṇa by his conclusive instructions.
The Supreme Personality of Godhead is described in the scriptures as adhokṣaja, which indicates that He is beyond the perception of all material senses. Although beyond the material senses, He is present in everyone's heart. At the same time, He is present everywhere by His all-pervasive feature of Brahman.
"My dear sir, you are the son of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Before you were ten days old, you were stolen by the Śambara demon and later thrown into the water and swallowed by a fish. In this way you have come under my care, but actually, in your former life as Cupid, I was your wife; therefore, my manifestation of conjugal symptoms is not at all incompatible. Śambara wanted to kill you, and he is endowed with various mystic powers. Therefore, before he again attempts to kill you, please kill him as soon as possible with your divine power. Since you were stolen by Śambara, your mother, Rukmiṇī-devī, has been in a very grievous condition, like a kurarī bird who has lost her babies. She is very affectionate toward you, and since you have been taken away from her, she has been living like a cow aggrieved over the loss of its calf."
The pastimes of Kṛṣṇa and Rukmiṇī in Dvārakā are accepted by great authorities as manifestations of those of Nārāyaṇa and Lakṣmī, which are of an exalted opulence. The pastimes of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana are simple and rural, distinguished from the polished urban characteristics of those of Dvārakā. The characteristics of Rukmiṇī were unusually bright, and Kṛṣṇa was very much satisfied with her behavior.
Kṛṣṇa had experienced that when Rukmiṇī was offered a pārijāta flower by Nārada Muni, Satyabhāmā had become envious of her co-wife and had immediately demanded a similar flower from Kṛṣṇa. In fact, she could not be pacified until she was promised the whole tree. And Kṛṣṇa actually fulfilled His promise: He brought the tree down to the earth planet from the heavenly kingdom. After this episode, Kṛṣṇa expected that because Satyabhāmā had been rewarded with a full tree of pārijāta, Rukmiṇī would also demand something. Rukmiṇī did not mention anything of the incident, however, for she was grave and simply satisfied in her service.
The relationship between Rukmiṇī and Kṛṣṇa was like that between Lakṣmī and Nārāyaṇa; therefore, Kṛṣṇa appeared before Rukmiṇī in His four-handed manifestation of Nārāyaṇa. He got down from the bedstead, lifted her up by her hands and, placing His cooling hands on her face, smoothed the scattered hair on her head. Lord Kṛṣṇa dried the wet breasts of Rukmiṇījī with His hand. Understanding the seriousness of Rukmiṇī’s love for Him, He embraced her to His chest.
The Supreme Personality is expert in putting a thing reasonably for one's understanding, and thus He tried to retract all that He had said before. He is the only resort for all devotees, and so He knows very well how to satisfy His pure devotees. Kṛṣṇa understood that Rukmiṇī could not follow the statements He had made in a joking way. To counteract her confusion, He spoke as follows.
The second-class devotee can consider the Vaiṣṇavas, or the devotees of the Lord, to be representatives of Kṛṣṇa, and the devotee who is just beginning, the neophyte or third-class devotee, can bow his head before the Deity in the temple and before the spiritual master, who is the direct manifestation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, in the neophyte stage, in the intermediate stage or in the fully advanced, perfected stage, one can make the function of the head perfect by bowing down before the Lord or His representative. Similarly, one can perfect the function of the eyes by seeing the Lord and His representative. In this way, everyone can elevate the functions of the different parts of his body to the highest perfectional stage simply by engaging them in the service of the Lord or His representative. If one is able to do nothing more, he can simply bow down before the Lord and His representative and drink the caraṇāmṛta, the water which has washed the lotus feet of the Lord or His devotee.
He causes the intermingling of different persons, and again disperses them as He desires. Sometimes we see that a strong wind will mingle together clouds, atomic particles of dust or broken pieces of cotton, and after the strong wind subsides, all the clouds, particles of dust and pieces of cotton are again separated, scattered in different places. Similarly, the Supreme Lord is the creator of everything. The objects we see are different manifestations of His energy. By His supreme will we are sometimes united and sometimes separated. We can therefore conclude that ultimately we are absolutely dependent on His will.
“Fortunately, you have developed loving affection for Me, which is the only way to achieve the transcendental position of association with Me. Any living entity who develops such unalloyed devotional affection for Me certainly at the end goes back home, back to Godhead. In other words, unalloyed devotional service and affection for Me are the cause of supreme liberation.
“Dear Lord, the Vedic knowledge is the representation of Your pure heart. Austerities, study of the Vedas, and meditative trances lead to different realizations of Your Self in Your manifested and nonmanifested aspects. The entire phenomenal world is a manifestation of Your impersonal energy, but You Yourself, as the original Personality of Godhead, are not manifested there. You are the Supreme Soul, the Supreme Brahman. Persons who are situated in brahminical culture, therefore, can understand the truth about Your transcendental form. Thus You always hold the brāhmaṇas in respect, and You are considered to be the topmost of all followers of brahminical culture. You are therefore known as brahmaṇya-deva. Our dear Lord, You are the last word in good fortune and the last resort of all saintly persons; therefore we all consider that we have achieved the perfection of our life, education, austerity and acquisition of transcendental knowledge by meeting You. Factually, You are the ultimate goal of all transcendental achievements.
“The original energy is only an emanation from You. My dear Lord, the shining of the moon, the heat of fire, the rays of the sun, the glittering of the stars, and the electric lightning, which are all manifested as very powerful, as well as the gravity of the mountains and the energy and fragrance of the earth—all are different manifestations of You. The pure taste of water, the water itself and the vital force which maintains all life are also features of Your Lordship.
“My dear Lord, although the forces of the senses, the mental power of thinking, willing and feeling, and the strength, movement and growth of the body appear to be performed by different movements of the airs within the body, they are all ultimately manifestations of Your energy. The vast expanse of outer space rests in You. The vibration of the sky (its thunder), the supreme sound (oṁkāra) and the arrangement of different words to distinguish one thing from another are all symbolic representations of You. The senses, the controllers of the senses (the demigods) and the acquisition of knowledge, which is the purpose of the senses, as well as the subject matter of knowledge—all are You.
The artist's work is clearly exhibited in a painting of different blooming flowers. But the gross materialist, without seeing the hand of God in such artistic manifestations as the actual flowers blooming in nature, concludes that the Absolute Truth is impersonal. Actually, the Absolute is personal, but He is independent. He does not require to personally take a brush and colors to paint the flowers, for His potencies act so wonderfully that it appears as if flowers have come into being without the aid of an artist. The impersonal view of the Absolute Truth is accepted by less intelligent men, because unless one is engaged in the service of the Lord one cannot understand how the Supreme is acting—one cannot even know the Lord's name. Everything about the Lord's activities and personal features is revealed to the devotee only through his loving service attitude.
Renunciation Through Wisdom
However much these blind people may pretend to guide and benefit other blind people, factually they are fully controlled by the will of providence. We should make the effort to understand that the cause and source of everything is Lord Viṣṇu, the Absolute Truth, and that the fullest manifestation of this Absolute Truth is Lord Kṛṣṇa, the source of even Lord Viṣṇu. As Lord Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā (7.7), "O conqueror of wealth, (Arjuna), there is no truth superior to Me."
Thus the ultimate source of everything is indeed Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself, the all-attractive Supreme Personality of Godhead. After considerable deliberation, the sages in the past concluded that Lord Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Being, the origin of all expansions and manifestations of the Supreme Absolute Truth. As the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (1.3.28) declares, "All of the abovementioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead..."
A sacrifice is properly performed only when all the sacrificial ingredients—the offerings, the fire, the ghee, and so on—become spiritualized, or reach the stage of Brahman, by their contact with Lord Kṛṣṇa. And since the performance of sacrifice culminates in the manifestation of real love for Lord Viṣṇu, loving devotional service to Lord Viṣṇu is the very best form of sacrifice. Such a stage can be also described as total absorption in Brahman.
Persons who act in this way become progressively detached from matter and attached to Lord Kṛṣṇa's devotional service. Thus they are able to purify the mirror of their hearts, extinguish the forest fire of material existence, and become situated in their original, spiritual position.
The Lord has shown them boundless mercy by widely teaching the science of devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, which is rarely attained even by Lord Brahmā. Yet because it has been so easy for them to come by this precious and rare commodity, they have abused the mercy shown them. This is another manifestation of their misfortune. By teaching them the science of self-realization, Lord Kṛṣṇa has twice personally tried to save the people of this age from groveling in carnal pleasures, and both times they have converted those divine instructions into a means and an excuse for pursuing sense gratification.
When presented with a colorful glass doll and a diamond, a child will naturally be attracted to the doll and not the priceless jewel. Similarly, the people of Kali-yuga, endowed as they are with limited intelligence, have rejected the priceless diamond of devotional service to Kṛṣṇa and instead chosen the cheap doll of fruitive activity and dry speculation.
The Lord is the Supreme Absolute Principle, unequalled and unsurpassed. Thus the Vedas say He is "one without a second." The Lord's energies are manifested in various forms, and those who become bewildered by these variegated manifestations end up becoming polytheists. It should be clear to all that whatever variegatedness we see in the universe is but a transformation of the Supreme Lord's diverse energies.
The Māyāvādīs reject the theory of transformation of energy and subscribe to the theory of the transformation of Brahman itself. Thus they become fixed in their belief that Brahman is impersonal. The Supreme Lord has described the specific situations in which He manifests Himself in His impersonal form. There are many quotes from the scriptures substantiating this point.
Demigod-worshippers often try to rationalize their worship of the demigods by thinking, "I am a devotee of this demigod, so he will certainly shower his grace upon me and fulfill all my heart's desires. Hence he is indeed the Supreme Lord." But the authorized scriptures condemn such demigod-worshippers and their worship as unethical and philosophically wrong. Such worshippers cannot understand that Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord, the ultimate source of all energies. The demigods are in fact manifestations of the Lord's energies, though to the illusioned demigod worshippers they appear to be the ultimate object of their worship and devotion. Those who persist in this misunderstanding will never attain the Absolute Truth. On the other hand, those who worship the demigods strictly according to scriptural injunctions quickly realize that their object of worship is subordinate to the Supreme Lord, Kṛṣṇa.
It is the living entity's constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa because he is the marginal energy of Kṛṣṇa and a manifestation simultaneously one with and different from the Lord, like a molecular particle of sunshine or fire.
Lord Kṛṣṇa naturally has three energetic transformations, and these are known as the spiritual potency, the living entity potency, and the illusory potency... Forgetting Kṛṣṇa, the living entity has been attracted by the external feature from time immemorial. Therefore the illusory energy (māyā) gives him all kinds of misery in his material existence. In the material condition, the living entity is sometimes raised to higher planetary systems and material prosperity and sometimes drowned in a hellish situation.
As Kṛṣṇa Himself states in the Bhagavad-gītā, bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ: (BG 18.55) "One can understand Me as I am, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, only by devotional service."
Scholars like Dr. Radhakrishnan should understand that within Lord Kṛṣṇa there is only Lord Kṛṣṇa and nothing else. Lord Kṛṣṇa's body and soul are the same. The Gītā's conclusion is that the nondual truth is Kṛṣṇa, the absolute Supreme Being. But Dr. Radhakrishnan has somehow discovered another, second being within Kṛṣṇa. This discovery then converts Dr. Radhakrishnan into a believer in dualism! The manifestation of the Absolute Truth who resiedes in every jīva's heart is ludicly described by Lord Kṛṣṇa in Bhagavad-gītā.
The gigantic universal form that Lord Kṛṣṇa exhibited to Arjuna is certainly not the quintessence of the Lord's divine mood. In fact, the two-handed human form of Kṛṣṇa playing the flute is the superexcellent manifestation of the Lord. But one must not make the mistake of thinking that because Lord Kṛṣṇa appears as a human, He is human. His form is eternal and full of knowledge and bliss, unlike an ordinary mortal's. He is not even an extraordinary human being. The human form may be a facsimile of the Supreme Lord's transcendental form, but that does not make God a man, or vice versa. The Bible and other scriptures state that man was made according to the form of God, but that does not imply that God is a man.
All the Viṣṇu expansions are in the category of the Supreme Lord, but the jīvas are not: they are the Lord's marginal potency. This marginal potency, comprising the eternal jīvas, is a manifestation of the Lord's superior, spiritual energy, or parā-śakti. The conclusion of the Bhagavad-gītā is that the jīva is, was, and always will be eternally a manifestation of the Lord's spiritual energy; he will never enter the category of the Supreme Lord or the Viṣṇu forms. This separated energy of Kṛṣṇa's, known as vibhinnāṁśa or jīva, is an infinitesimal part of the Supreme Lord, much like the minute sparks of a large conflagration.
The fraction can never become the whole or equal to the whole. Thus the Māyāvādīs' claim that the fraction can become the whole is mischievous, even nefarious. This is the Vedic verdict.
Message of Godhead
The Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, has therefore said in the Bhagavad-gītā that after many births, learned sages eventually surrender unto Him, and that such a mahātmā who is able to connect everything that be to Vāsudeva (the plenary manifestation of Viṣṇu) is rarely to be seen. The purport is that mahātmās are everywhere, but the mahātmā who knows the real relationship between Godhead and the manifested world is very rare.
Such a mahātmā never tries to approach Godhead by any invented method, any inductive, ascending process. Rather, he accepts the standard, deductive, descending process—that is, the method that comes down directly from the Supreme Lord or through His bona fide representatives. By the ascending process, no one can reach the Lord, even by a long-term endeavor of many, many years.
Light of the Bhagavata
Human beings have two kinds of temperament. Some are introspective, and the others are extravagant. Those who are extravagant are enamored of the external features of phenomenal beauty and have no insight into the whole manifestation. They are practically asleep to introspection, and thus they are unable to derive any permanent value from the assets of the human form of body. But one who has developed introspection is as grave as the sea. While those who are extravagant are calm and quiet in sleep, such grave persons use the full advantage of the human form of life.
Although the animal propensities of the body should be minimized, those who are extravagant temporarily overflow in material enjoyment. Nonetheless, as soon as the rainy season of life is over, they become as dry as dry river beds. Life is meant for the right cause, or sat—that which exists for all time.
Such unalloyed devotional service in favor of the Supreme Lord was displayed at Vṛndāvana when the Lord descended there, and thus the yoga exhibited by the gopīs of Vṛndāvana is the highest unalloyed love of Godhead, the perfection of bhakti-yoga. To rise to the stage of love shown by the gopīs is very difficult, but this stage is attainable for serious conditioned souls.
Unfortunately, cheap neophytes make a show of the transcendental ecstasies of the gopīs, bringing them onto the mundane plane for perverted manifestations and thus clearing the way to hell by such unwanted caricatures. Serious students of yoga, however, practice it seriously, and thus they attain the highest perfection in bhakti-yoga, as stated in Bhagavad-gītā (6.47):
Sri Isopanisad
We ourselves may forget what we have done in previous lives, but because the Lord witnesses our actions, the results of our actions are always there, and we have to undergo the reactions nonetheless.
The fact is that there is nothing but God within and without. Everything is a manifestation of His different energies, like the heat and light emanating from a fire, and in this way there is a oneness among His diverse energies. Although there is oneness, however, the Lord in His personal form still enjoys unlimitedly all the pleasures enjoyed minutely by the tiny part-and-parcel living entities.
| Page Title: | Manifestation (Other Books) |
| Compiler: | Marc, RupaManjari, Mayapur |
| Created: | 16 of Sep, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=58, Lec=0, Con=0, Let=0 |
| No. of Quotes: | 58 |