Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya told us that we should first acquire self-determination, without which we will mistake the mind for the soul. Mind is quite different from soul. The mind conducts all the activities of the physical plane. It receives impressions from Nature through the medium of the senses and through the functions of our body, that is, through the mind’s interfacing with external objects, which are made of matter.
The unfortunate Mayavadi, being deprived of the association of devotees, fails to understand the words spoken by the devotees and considers the devotee to be a babbler like himself. But who is ultimately cheated by this? The devotee, by rejecting the bad association of the Mayavadi and by dint of serving Hari, has reached the highest position. The Mayavadi, along with a few more backwards materialists, thinks that he has preached gaura-bhakti (albeit mixed with Mayavada). In reality, it is like stealing iron from a blacksmith and they are simply creating an unsubstantial, materialistic, greedy sampradaya. Comparatively, if one follows the path shown by the Rupanugas and mentally leaves the association of uselessly argumentative, atheistic Mayavadis, then hari-bhajana becomes easy.
The living entities who are averse to the service of the Lord try to become the objects of service in this material world and so they become entangled in the wheel of fruitive activities. Such activities are most insignificant. When we try to become the enjoyer and engage our senses in seeking limited pleasure, we become contaminated and thus invite our own ruination. We have no alternative than to take shelter of those whose grace can certainly award us all auspiciousness.
In His instructions to Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī (sanātana-śikṣā), Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu has said, “The Veda discusses sambandha (the relationship between the living entity and the Supreme Entity), abhidheya (the means for attaining the object of pursuit) and prayojana (the very object of pursuit). Śrī Kṛṣṇa, whose service is to be attained, is the person with whom we are to have sambandha.
What are the Scriptures? They are nothing but the record by the pure devotees of the Divine Message appearing on the lips of the pure devotees. The Message conveyed by the devotees is the same in all ages. The words of the devotees are ever identical with the Scriptures. Any meaning of the Scriptures that belittles the function of the devotee who is the original communicant of the Divine Message contradicts its own claim to be heard. Those who think that the Sanskrit language in its lexicographical sense is the language of the Divinity are as deluded as those who hold that the Divine Message is communicable through any other spoken dialects.
All those līlā-vilas topics of Śrī Kṛṣṇa should not be discussed here and there, very careful about this-very careful. A disciple of Śrīmad Bhaktivinod Ṭhākura can never go to attend hari-katha from those sahajiyās.
This life is short in comparison with the eternal life. We should pay more attention to preparation for that life. We may attend to some of our primary necessaries of this life and need not be deprived. But this need not lead us to forget that this is not the summum bonum and to consider that we should have purely mundane interest and should have no interest in the eternal Transcendental.
On one Ekadasi most devotees remained at the Matha to observe fasting, but Sripada Asrama Maharaja took anukalpa-prasada and went out to preach. Srila Sarasvati Thakura commented, “He has understood the principle of the Gaudiya Matha.
The method of submissive listening to the tidings of the spiritual world, which transcends without ignoring this phenomenal universe, from the lips of emancipated souls who serve eternally and exclusively the real Truth, is only way of obtaining the grace of Divine enlightenment. The Harmonist stands for this principle by theory and practice. She is by principle and practice the eternal and exclusive servant of the servants of the Lord and her sole duty is to try to please only them, and thereby continue the method and purpose of Thakur Bhaktivinode, embodied in the Sajjanatoshani, the humble maid-in-waiting on the servants of the Lord.
The questions that are frequently asked are as these:—‘Why should it be at all necessary to submit to any particular person or to subscribe to any particular ceremony for the purpose of realising the Absolute Who by His Nature is unconditioned? Why should Krishna require our formal declaration of submission to Himself? Would it not be more generous and logical to permit us to live a life of freedom in accordance with the principles of our perverted nature which is also His creation? Admitting that it is our duty to serve Krishna, why should we have to be introduced to Him by a third party? Why is it impossible for one to serve Sri Krishna directly?
The good preceptor although he appears to belong to this world is not really of this world. No one who belongs to this world can deliver us from worldliness. The good preceptor is a denizen of the spiritual world who has been enabled by the will of God to appear in this world in order to enable us to realise the spiritual existence.
In Bengal, everyone from the Gaudiya sampradaya who is serving Sriman Mahaprabhu is a follower of that senior Vaisnavacarya. His other name is Sri Madhvamuni. This matha has been named after him. Sri Krishna Caitanyadeva is the eighteenth descendant from Sripada Ananda Tirtha, or Purna Prajna. The seventeenth descendants are Sri Advaita Prabhu and Sri Nityananda Prabhu. These three prabhus accepted Sri Madhvamuni into their disciplic succession.
“Why should that Supreme Soul, the principal Transcendental Object, not imbibe the all-encompassing conception? That is to say, why should He not include both non-matter and matter, both the part and the whole, and why should He not incorporate both ends of the continuum of variegated realities?”
Bhakti Siddhanta Vani –short texts