Back to Godhead Magazine   »1944-1960«

Volume 01, Number 08, 1952

BTG Vol 01, No 08 - 1952
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Solution of Present Crisisses By Bhagwat Geeta
A Spiritual Study of Greed
Theosophy Concluded

BTG - 1944 to 1960 - The Pioneer Years

VOLUME I PART VIII

Solution of Present Crisisses By Bhagwat Geeta

The pernicious tendency of modern civilization has risingly produced a population of the demoniac principles technically known in the Bhagwat Geeta as the Ashuras. There are two classes of people all over the world namely the Suras and the Ashuras. The good, intelligent and the faithful men are the Suras and Ashuras are just the opposite. They are proud, puffed up with vanity of so-called education and wealth, egocentric, foolishly active and void of knowledge to discriminate between good and bad. They do not believe in the existence of a Supreme Authority over the creation of the universe and on the basis of such poor fund of knowledge, such Ashuras engaged themselves in violent activities for the destruction of the world.

The crissises that we are now confronted with, are all man made creations. It is mistake to adduce the responsibility of such undesired crissises to Almighty God. He does not create any one's action good or bad nor does He induce any such entity to enjoy the results of such actions.

The material Nature works under His direction and She (the material Nature) is always very very unkind to the class of people who are Ashuras. Some of the modern politician's accusation, of Nature being unkind, is groundless; because She (Nature) always acts like the police for punishment of the Ashuras (Bhagwat Geeta Chap. 7-14 (Sloka) [Bg. 7.14]. That is the symbolic representation by the fighting mood of Mohisasura with Bhagwati Durga. She shall always mercilessly chastise the Ashuras with Her trident to inflict on him three-fold material miseries pertaining the body and mind (Adhyatmik), in relation with other living being (Adhiboutik) and in relation with the dominating influences of Gods (Adhidaibik). The Ashuras cannot avoid such all round attack by Nature because She is as powerful as the Almighty God. She has, however, nothing to interfere with the activities of the Suras who are surrendered souls to cooperate with the plan of God.

The plan of God is laid down by God Himself in the teachings of Bhagwat Geeta. The primary principles of such plan is to distinguish first between spirit and matter. We have heard so many times, the Pacifists speaking of spiritualism as the basis of world peace and we think it is our duty to say something of spiritualism as we find it in the Bhagwat Geeta.

Shree Krishna the Author of the great Indian philosophy Bhagwat Geeta, has elaborately discussed materialism vis-a-vis spiritualism. From Him we can learn that material Nature of which we are now apparently made of, is different from the spiritual Nature of which we are actually the parts and parcels. He has stressed most vehemently in the beginning of the Bhagwat Geeta that the living entity is eternal and does not annihilate on the annihilation of the outward covering of gross body and subtle mind.

To understand this we must know it well that the material Nature is conducted under three modes vis-a vis. material goodness, material passion, and material ignorance. Matter being completely different from Spirit, it will be a mistake on our part to accept material goodness as a substitute for spiritualism. The three modes of material Nature as mentioned above work sometime jointly and sometimes separately.

Prevalence of material goodness is congenial to temporary peaceful atmosphere but we must know it for certain that this sort of material goodness is sure to be disturbed by the other two baser modes. The example of the playing children may be given here. The children while playing together sometimes quarrel with one another and fight. But after fighting for some time when they become tired of such fighting mood, they declare some sort of peace with one another and promise emphatically that thence forward they shall play with peace and amity and shall cease to hurt another.

We may tell the pacifists of the world that the peaceful atmosphere for which they are now so much anxious, cannot be achieved by the dual process of fighting and peace making attempt of the children.

Even the goodness of a saintly charactered man should not be misunderstood as spiritualism.......To be continued.



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A Spiritual Study of Greed

The Black-marketeers who have been recently raided in large scale by the police in Bihar, are almost in all cases rich merchants, millionaires, landlords etc. It would not have been possible for them to hoard such huge quantity of clothes and foodgrains if they would not have possessed extra wealth to do the mischief. These people were not needy men but they amassed money and hoarded commodities out of a passion for accumulating wealth not only for their personal enjoyment but also for their enjoyment of their future generation. Such diseased persons who do not know the highest value of human life, but simply go on amassing money unnecessarily and immorally for the simple reason of sense gratification are described in the Bhagwat Geeta (Bg. 16.6-20) as Ashuras or the demons or the opposite numbers of the Gods. The Ashura is generally faithless and unbeliever in the existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He is led to think like that, otherwise he could not act so irresponsibly. His main principle of life is to satisfy the material senses coupled with undue pride and vanity of possessing more. It is unknown to him that his mind is the controlling agent of his material senses. Above his mind there is intelligence and above his intelligence there is his living spirit known as the soul. He amasses money for enjoying it in the estimation of sense gratification but not for the benefit of the soul. He does this business till the end of creation and makes arrangement by legalised documents how his future generations who may come to his home to enjoy the amassed wealth. His only business is to see how much bank balance he possessed yesterday and how it has increased today. He thinks of annihilating one enemy today and others tomorrow and tries to pose himself as one of the dominating Gods as if he has had attained to all perfection of life through the medium of money. But such Ashura is always bound up by the laws of Nature which he does not know. Simply for the sake of sense enjoyment which is permanently transient and bereaving, he amasses money by all sorts of means influenced by a disposition of passion anger and lust. It is stated in the Bhagwat Geeta that such class of Ashuras who are the lowest of the human being because they are not only mean but also envious to other fellow beings, are forced to take their birth in the lower grades of life after life still they are completely forgetful of the very existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This forgetfulness of the relation with Godhead is the standard life of the animals and that is the highest punishment that can be inflicted by Nature on a living being.

So the Ashura, although apparently he seems to be fortunate enough by possession of much material wealth, is actually most unfortunate creature. Wealth is considered to be Laxhmi the Mother of opulence or the Internal Energy of Godhead. As such Mother Laxhmi is Eternal Consort of Narayana (Father of all Naras or the 'living entity') the Personality of Godhead. Therefore wherever there is Narayana surely there is His Eternal Consort Laxhmi. But where there is no realization of Narayana, the apparent existence of Laxhmi is the false representation of Her existence-just like Sita (Who is Laxhmi Herself) was falsely in the possession of Ravana. Ravana who is an ideal Ashura wanted to possess Sita by cheating Sri Rama. The result was that Ravana was vanquished with all his paraphernalia. It should be noted therefore that the ultimate destiny of the Ashura is just like that of Ravana.

The descendants of Ravana in the present age may take lessons from the fate of their celebrated forefather that they must not try to possess wealth or captivate Laxhmi simply by cheating Her Lord the Narayana or the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If they want to have money from Laxhmi and bestowed with Her favour, they must keep in contact with Narayana the LORD of Universe. We shall discuss in a separate article how such contact with Narayana can be made possible.

Laxhmi the Eternal Consort of Narayana is always engaged in the service of Her Lord. She can not be detached from such eternal service and if the Ashura like his forefather Ravana try to snatch Laxhmi from the service of Narayana surely the Ashura shall meet with the same fate as Ravana met with.

Forgetfulness of Narayana the Godhead and possession of wealth of Laxhmi goes ill together. The Ashura however imagines that Laxhmi having been in his possession the Lord of Laxhmi, Narayana has become poverty stricken! He does not know that neither Laxhmi can be dispossessed of Narayana nor the Latter can be made poverty stricken. The Ashura therefore in the course of his sense gratifying process exhibits a disposition of kindness by distributing a fraction of his ill-gotten wealth for the benefit of the so-called poverty-stricken Narayana (Daridra-Narayana)! Such conceptions are manufactured in the rabid brain of the Ashura.

Narayana is the singular Origin of all naras. Nara means living entity and 'Ayana' means the 'repose'. In the Bhagwat Geeta we can get the information that all living entities irrespective of their source of birth or species, are all born of the Almighty Father Sree Krishna who is nondifferent from Narayana. He is the begetting Father and the material Nature is the material source of their birth. The Supreme Godhead being the Father of all living being, every one has got birth right share in the property of Godhead according to His plan. Such plan is not direct design of the Almighty Father but it is influenced by the living entities according to their mode of nature which they confront in the relative world. The Ashuras do not know this plan of God nor do they believe in it.

The Godhead as Father of all living entities, is equal to everyone. He does not design anyone's activity subjectively or objectively neither does He create anyone's factual results. The actions and their results are all outcome of the mode of Nature of a particular living entity, as it has imbibed by its association with different modes of nature. That is the instruction we get from Bhagwat Geeta.

The black-marketeers are, therefore, not influenced by any design of Godhead but they have become so by dint of their association with the modes of passion and ignorance. Unrestricted hankering after wealth is the result of the mode of passion for unsatiated enjoyment and madness after this sort of business, is the result of the mode of ignorance. They are due to lack of cultivating the mode of goodness which alone can endow them with a sense of proper vision and knowledge of life.

State can not check or banish out the black marketing process simply by police action, personal appeal or by legislative conventions. The mode of ignorance and passion have pervaded the whole atmosphere. The mode of goodness has altogether been banished from the religio-social life of the present generation. Attempt was made by leaders of men to revive the mode of goodness of the general populace but for want of proper handling the desired result was not obtained. It is not necessary or expected that everyone of the members of the general public will be able to develop this mode of goodness. But if there were only fifty heads all over the world who might have imbibed and practised in the mode of goodness the whole atmosphere of the world would have changed at once. One moon is sufficient to illuminate the whole firmament but millions of stars cannot even remove the darkness of night.

In order to save the world from a greater catastrophe which seems to be impending, some of the big heads of every state of the world must now combine to implement in their characters the mode of goodness. When they are so, general public will try to follow their footprints even if the members of public themselves cannot imbibe such nature.

It is necessary, therefore, that an association of really sincere gentlemen who may be turned to be devotees or so, should now be formed with a view to end the animal type of civilization. The civilization which has no other end in view than to solve the necessities of the body and mind only, is surely doomed to meet such calamities as are daily happening in the present age. The ignorant population whose basic principle of life is animality only cannot but eat one another's flesh by such novel method as black-marketing or similar such sinister habits.

There is clear cut ways and means, as to how one can achieve, the quality of goodness, stated in the Bhagwat Geeta. One has to imbibe the characteristic goodness of habits in respect of bodily and mental activities, controlling the movements of speech, mind , belly, generating organ, anger and tongue. For any sincere gentleman, the whole course of achieving success in the above mentioned endeavours does not take a period more than a year only. Above all, controlling the habits of the tongue is the most important item. And who has control over the tongue is systematically able to control over all others senses. The socio-political leaders must be those who have passed the above course of controlling system. Sometimes leaders of superior capacity exhibit such controlling system without any systematic training. For want of systematic training one has to take about thirty to forty years to become a regular controller of the senses. One should therefore take up the standard process of attaining such success prescribed by the authority. According to the Bhagwat Geeta the 'Mahatmas' are all imbibed with all godly qualities and as such the Mahatmas are invariably devotees of the personality of Godhead. Such Mahatmas undoubtedly know it perfectly well that the Personality of Godhead Shree Krishna is the Primal Cause of everything. So to become a Mahatma is to learn the art of understanding the personality of Godhead. To be continued.



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Theosophy Concluded

[This article also appeared as the first part of the article "Theosophy ends in Vaishnavism" published in Back to Godhead Parts I-IV in 1944]

The summary of a lecture delivered at the opening session of the Fifty-Sixth Annual convention of the Theosophical Society in America, held on July 25th, 1943 was handed over to me by a well wisher friend in a pamphlet under the heading of "The Theosophist as the Ideal Citizen in War and in Peace." By perusal of the pamphlet we could gather the following points which lead to the ideals and philosophy of the Vaishnavas.

The Theosophist believes in a Personalised Consciousness or a Directing Will behind the operation of the universal activity. This conclusion is quite logical as we can see in every field of our activities. We can observe that nothing in the world is possible to perform without a directing Will. Matter has no power to move without a touch of Free directing will and as such it is quite natural to think that the whole material nature, however big and consummative, is directed from behind, by a great Will which is termed differently by different speculationists.

But the Vaisnavas or the devotees of the Absolute Personality of Godhead, not only believe in a Personalised Consciousness in the process of the direction of the universal activities but also they actually accept Sree Krishna as the Absolute Person who is the root of all causes and all effects.

In this connection if we refer to such authentic literatures as Bhagwat Geeta, Brahmasamheeta etc., they may help us in approaching nearer to the Personalised Consciousness of the Absolute Personality of Godhead. The first stanza of the Fifth Chapter in Brahmasamheeta, affirms very emphatically that Lord Sree Krishna Who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the Origin of all and He has no other origin as He is the Prime cause of all causes.

His Divine Grace Sri Srimad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada explains this stanza as follows:—

"Krishna is the exalted Supreme entity having His eternal name, eternal form, eternal attribution and eternal pastimes. The very name Krishna implies His love-attracting designation, expressing by His eternal nomenclature the Acme of entity. His eternal beautiful heavenly blue-tinged body glowing with intensity of ever existing Knowledge has a flute in both hands. As His inconceivable spiritual energy is all extending, still He maintains His all charming medium size by His qualifying spiritual instrumentals. His all accommodating supreme subjectivity is nicely manifested in His eternal Form. The concentrated all-time presence, uncovered knowledge and inebriating felicity have their beauty in Him. The mundane manifestive Portion of His Own Self is known as all-pervading Paramatma, Iswara (Superior Lord) or Vishnu (All-fostering). Hence it is evident that Krishna is Sole Supreme Godhead. His unrivalled or unique spiritual body of super-excellent charm is eternally unveiled with innumerable spiritual instrumentals (senses) and unreckonable attributes keeping their signifying location properly, adjusting at the same time by His inconceivable conciliative powers. This beautiful spiritual Figure is identical with Krishna and the Spiritual Entity of Krishna is identical with His own Figure."

"The very intensity blended entity of eternal presence of felicitous cognition is the charming targeted holding or transcendental Icon. It follows that the conception of the indistinguishable formless magnitude (Brahman) which is an indolent, lax, presentment of cognitive bliss, is merely a penumbra of intensity blended glow of the three concomitants viz., the blissful, the substantive and the cognitive. This transcendental manifestive Icon of Krishna in His original face is primordial background of magnitudinal infinite Brahman and of the all pervasive Over-soul Krishna as truly visioned in His variegated pastimes, such as Owner of transcendental cows, Chief of cowherds, consort of milk maids, Ruler of the terrestrial Abode Goloka and Object of worship by transcendental residents of Goloka beauties, is Govinda. He is the root cause of all causes who are the predominating and predominated agents of the Universe. The glance of His projected fractional portion in the Sacred Originating water viz., the Personal Over-soul or Paramatma, gives rise to a secondary potency—nature who creates the mundane universe. This Over-soul's intermediate energy brings forth the individual souls analogously to the emanated rays of the sun."

The glance of His projected fractional portion as referred to above is confirmed in the 10th sloka of the ninth chapter of Bhagwat Geeta. The Personality of Godhead says, "Material Nature (Prakriti) under My surveillance, gives birth to everything moving or fixed (animate or inanimate) and by this process, O son of Kunti: the universe evolves."

This glance, superintendence or surveillance, as we may prefer to call it by the Supreme Personality of Godhead is just like the superintendency of an executive head of a government who does everything as directing will but still one does not see him in every sphere of the governmental activities. Without him nothing can be done but on the face of the activity he seems to be absent as the performance is completed by another agent. Such is the relation of the Material Nature with the Absolute Personality of Godhead.

The Material Nature is called the 'Mother Brahman' i.e., She is impregnated with the seeds of creation by the Absolute Personality of Godhead as confirmed in the Bhagwat Geeta in the 14th chapter.

Sree Krishna says there "That the Material Nature which is called also 'Mahat Brahma' is my womb; therein I place the seeds or germs of creation from which comes the birth of all entities, O the son of Bharata."

Under such Personalised Consciousness as the Theosophist believes in, it is natural to conclude that there is a great plan for the created universe.

The Vaisnavas accept this plan in a very simple way. The Supreme Personality of Godhead being the Absolute Enjoyer and Creator of everything that be, the plan is so made that everything in the creation is meant for the sense gratification of the Supreme Being. Any one that creates disturbance in this great Plan of the Supreme Being is considered by the Vaisnava as Aparadhi or Offender and there he concludes quite naturally that when an entity or Jiva soul forgets his ownself as the eternal servitor of the Supreme Being for adjustment of the Great Plan and considers himself as an enjoyer, he is at once caught hold of by the external potency of the Supreme Being which is termed as Maya, and begins his existence in the material Nature forgetting his real nature of Spirit. He drags on a conditional life under the modes of Nature, thereafter.

This Great Plan is explained in the Bhagwat Geeta [Bg. 18.65-66] in two ultimate slokas i.e., the 65th and the 66th slokas of the 18th Chapter which conclude the teachings of Bhagwat Geeta. The Personality of Godhead Sree Krishna says there that everyone should offer himself as the eternal transcendental servitor or devotee of Sree Krishna with heart and soul. He should not be like the "Karmayogi," "Jnanyogi" or "Dhyanyogi" but should be "Bhaktayogi" pure and simple and in every sphere of his activity, he should only serve the purpose of the Supreme Personality of Godhead according to His Great Plan under the guidance of Him or His bonafide representative. This will gradually lead one to the position of eternal servitude of the Eternal Person and this advice was imparted to Sree Arjuna because he was Sree Krishna's most bosom and dear friend.

Within this plan of action Arjuna was also advised to give up all other engagements and simply to follow the Personality of Godhead. In the beginning of the lessons of Geeta the Personality of Godhead explained to Arjuna as many different engagements as the duties of a renouncer, of a Sanyasin, of a Yogi, or a Jnanee, of a Karmee etc., and now he orders straightly to give all these engagements up and directly follow the wishes of the Personality of Godhead. In that way He assured Arjuna to protect him from all vices that may accrue for not having attempted to do all other duties and for that reason he has had to lament for nothing. By the performances of transcendental loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, the pure spiritual nature of every one and all becomes manifest. The performances of all so-called duties in this mundane world such as performances of religious duties, worldly duties, purificatory duties for higher state of life, acquisition of knowledge, meditation for controlling the senses and the mind, etc., are performed in order to rise from the conditional life of bodily and mental existence and in order to attain to the spiritual existence plain and simple; but when one transcends all such conditional state of life and rises high by the spiritual attraction of the All-blissful, Eternal Form of Sree Krishna, he has nothing to do and nothing to perform.

All activities of the material existence are targeted to some sort of ideal or plan. "The universe is never at any moment the result of a mere 'fortuitous concourse of atoms,' but on the other hand the result of the operations of Directing Will." From this follows the logical conclusion that the Will operates according to a plan: In brief, a believer in Theosophy accepts as a fact that, "in and through all things, a Directing Will is at work, with a plan of Action from moment to moment towards a predominated end." That is the version of the Theosophist in a different way as the Vaisnavite works. The predominated end is to serve the purpose of the Predominator Absolute.

In other words all our activities are targeted either to the end of some bodily purpose, or some mental purpose or some spiritual purpose. Activities to the end of some bodily and mental purposes have practically no permanent value having regard to the very end being transient and temporary and are therefore classified under two heads namely good or bad. But the activities towards spiritual end is called transcendental to all good and all bad purposes and as such activities may be divided into three departments for permanent and eternal existence. These three departments may be termed as attachment towards impersonal spiritual existence as opposed to variegated material existence, attachment to the All-pervasive Godhead or localised aspect of Paramatma the Super-soul or attachment to the Predominator Personality of Godhead in His All-blissful, Eternal and All-attractive Form. If we analyse all our activities in this world they can be grouped together under either of the above different headings, namely mundane or transcendental, temporary or permanent and all such activities attain some sort of atmosphere according to the plan or ideal of the performer. They are differently named under different headings and different plan but such activities as are targeted towards the transcendental sense gratification of the Predominator, Personality of Godhead Sree Krishna, are termed as unalloyed devotion. Such activities are devotional activities and they should never be misconceived as ordinary activities under the headings of bodily or mental plan of actions. These activities or the devotional activities are real activities towards the end of the Great Plan and they never disturb the adjustment of the Great Plan whereas all other activities may it be good or bad, are simply disturbing to the Great Plan of the Predominator and they should therefore be given up by one who desires to work according to the Plan.

In the ninth chapter (24th Sloka) the Personality of Godhead declares most emphatically that "I am the Enjoyer and Lord also of all sacrifices, but men do not know Me in truth and therefore they suffer."

Whenever any activity is performed which does not satisfy the transcendental senses of the Personality of Godhead or does not adjust the Great Plan of action is called a sin. When Sree Krishna wanted Moharaj Judhisthir to tell a straight lie to Dronacharya, Moharaj Judhisthir first declined to tell such a lie and then he told the truth in a round about way which apparently seemed to the ordinary men to be untruth in a round about way. But Moharaj Judhisthir himself told the truth as far as practicable. But the after result was that Judhisthir had to visit hell for the reason that he declined to tell a lie according to the Plan of Sree Krishna. Ordinary men understood that Judhisthir was compelled to visit hell because he told lie in a roundabout way, but savants could understand that he had to visit hell for the reason that he did decline to tell lie according to the order of Sree Krishna. The import of the story is that telling lie or telling truth does not matter if it can reconcile with the Predominated End. In ordinary life also we can judge a means by the result of its end. End justifies the means. If the end is to satisfy the Great Plan of the Predominator Absolute Personality of Godhead, it does not matter whether the means are right or wrong according to the poor judgment of imperfect judges. The Absolute Personality of Godhead being the Supreme Enjoyer He must be satisfied by all means that is the Great Plan according to the philosophy of the Vaisnavites.

Empiric Theosophist gives this Great Plan of the Absolute Person different names such as "the Plan of God, which is Evolution" the "Archetypal World" a "Power, not ourselves," which makes for righteousness" and the Theosophist will argue "that in and through all things, from an electron to a star, from an amoeba to an angel, there is a pattern" and one who has discovered this pattern is called a Theosophist.

The Vaisnavite believes in the "Plan of God, which is Evolution" but not in the way as the Theosophist accepts. The Theosophist believes that "all things are moving to an ordered end, just as a lotus root buried in mud, will in the process of its ordered growth, inevitably produce the beautiful flower." But the Vaisnavite will apply more reason to it than any other philosopher, and he will say that the process of ordered growth is also conditional. The seed or root of a lotus may be buried in mud but still the growth will be checked if proper help is not available from Nature or Prakriti. The condition is offered by the nature that makes the flower to grow or die in the bud. The Evolution is not steady from one stage to another but the same is also depended on the modes of the Material Nature and according to one's modes of work. It should not be therefore concluded that once a Jiva-soul or spirit is embodied in a human form, he is no more changed to a tiger or an angel but according to the Vaisnavites the Evolution is so flexible that an Angel can become a tiger or a tiger can become an Angel at any moment according to the works of free will helped by the modes of Nature.

Every individual soul being part and parcel of the Super-soul has independence subordinate to the Absolute independence of the Predominator and this independence is never hampered by the Predominating independence of the Absolute Person. He is full in Himself and His independence is never conditional to the independence of the Jiva soul. According to Archetypal Plan the Vaisnavite believes that Man is made according to the Model of God Himself and therefore man is considered the highest being in the process of Evolution and he is actually so, as we can judge by the favourable circumstances.

A man's height, his beauty in respect of colour and form, his intelligence and strength, his power of endurance and above all his psychic development clearly indicate that he is highest of all created beings. And for this the Vaisnavite affirms that embodiment of a Jiva soul as human being as the most coveted, rare form of life which is helpful for the spiritual salvation of the embodied and therefore the Vaisnavite concludes that this human form of life is much more important than the life of an angel and what to speak of other in lower animals.

But unfortunately very few men realise this importance of human life and most of them prefer to enjoy life to their best capacity under conditions offered by the Material nature. When a man realises that his human form of life has been awarded to him after crores and crores of births and deaths through many many species of embodiment by the process of Evolution and recognises "a Power, not ourselves, which makes for righteousness" and as such distinguishes the same with another power which makes for righteousness indirectly, then he tries to rise up to the unconditional complete free life and activity in the kingdom of Godhead and for this purpose he engages his life, money, intelligence and words for attainment of the highest form of spiritual existence.

In the above process of Self-realisation the Vaisnavite like the Theosophist not only realises that he is also in some measure the Good, the True and the Beautiful but also he constantly remembers that quantitatively his goodness, truthfulness and beauty are never comparable with those of the Predominator. As the Egyptian philosophers put it, "The Principle which gives life dwells in us, and without us, is undying and eternally beneficient, is not heard or seen, or smelt, but is perceived by the man who desires perception"; so the Vaisnavite also realises the same Principle both qualitatively and quantitatively. Qualitatively he makes no difference with the great Predominator but quantitatively he always maintains a difference between the Predominator and the Predominated.

Thus the Vaisnavite not only recognises "a Power not ourselves, which makes for righteousness" but also recognises the same in an indirect way and gives these different names such as Jogamaya and Mohamaya and the Jiva-souls who are under the control of either of the above Power or Energies, are called the Marginal Power. And above all these three Powers, puts the Powerful or the Predominator as the Absolute Personality of Godhead. The Philosophy of Kshetra and Kshetrajna as discussed in the Bhagwat Geeta is based on these three powers and above them the All-powerful Personality of Godhead Sree Krishna. Our essay on Godhead and His potentialities published in this leaflet tries to explain this subject more elaborately. The conclusion may be drawn like this that Godhead is the Whole thing and All-Powerful and the Powers may be grossly divided into three headings which are as above. The Vaisnavite like the Theosophist, believes himself as an unit in the same Whole under the subheading Marginal-Power.

The Theosophist's delight in the feeling of a brotherhood of all living entities is the Vaisnavite's highest plane of Vaisnavism called the stage of Mohabhagabat; but the process of realising that highest form of universal Brotherhood by the Vaisnavite is different from that of the Theosophist.

The Theosophist's ideal of universal brotherhood is without a Central relationship whereas the Vaisnavite's universal brotherhood is based on with a Central relation. The Theosophist puts his ideal of universal brotherhood as follows:—

"But to be brother to all that lives means to the Theosophist a responsibility to all that lives. Since the Theosophist is a human being his responsibility is towards all other beings like himself. The concept of a Universal Brotherhood of all Mankind passes from being a mere intellectual ideal into ever present, ever driving Reality.

To be continued in next issue.



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