The Acharya's unequalled and unsurpassed greatness

A translation of “Ācāryera Asamordhva Mahattva” (Gauḍīya 6.28–33)

(By Srila Bhakti Siddhanata Sarasvati Gosvami Thakur Prabhupada)

Many people think that the path of bhakti is covered with a soft bed of flowers. Blind faith, indiscipline, whimsical behavior, indiscrimination, sentimentalism, and emotional outbursts are all counted by them as being means of performing bhakti. But from śāstra and from the words of the ācāryas it is understood that, although the authorized path of bhakti is the only means of attaining the ultimate goal of life, it is full of thorns. Especially in this Age of Kali, the age of argumentation and quarrel, it is covered with millions of thorns.

The God-sent ācāryas, who are oceans of causeless mercy, at the very outset warn those who are desirous of entering the path of bhakti about the millions of obstacles they will surely encounter, so that these travelers on the path of bhakti can safely and without hindrance reach the desire tree of Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet and relish the fruit of prema. Such easily obtainable benevolence of the ācāryas is testimony to their liberal bestowal of non-malefic mercy upon the jīvas.

Despite knowing that one’s hands may get injured while uprooting thorny bushes, and that envious creatures like snakes residing in the bushes might bite, one engaged in such work does not lose enthusiasm for performing his duty; rather, so that travelers will not be harmed or inconvenienced by thorns and envious creatures, his endeavor and enthusiasm for removing all the thorns will progressively increase. Similarly, increasing enthusiasm for removing millions of thorns on the path of bhakti is always seen in the character of an ācārya.

Those who are selfish, desirous of their own happiness, overcome by sloth, or afraid of adhārmika people, withdraw due to the shouting of nondevotees. Or they think, “When I require my own self-interest, prestige, or personal happiness, why should I have to endure various conflicts by acting for others’ benefit? What is the necessity of hearing the abuse of nondevotees?” Another class of persons think that by becoming nirjana-bhajanānandīs they will suffer none of this trouble and will not have to hear the reproaches of others. But a paraduḥkha-duḥkhī ācārya is not selfish, idle, or simply desirous of his personal happiness. He is not afraid of others. He says:

Even if hundreds and hundreds of people—or even if all the godless people of the innumerable universes assemble and in one voice shout at me, I will accept it and loudly declare the actual truth. If the topics of reality enter the ears of even a single person among millions of people from millions of universes who are completely averse to Kṛṣṇa, and thus remove the contamination of the cheating propensity from his heart, then I will understand that I have been able to serve Mahāprabhu’s mano-‘bhīṣṭa—because I know that all the jīvas within the innumerable universes are coming and going because of their aversion to Kṛṣṇa. Therefore all jīvas within the universe, beginning from Brahmā, are averse to the Supreme Absolute Truth. Hence not everyone will listen to the discussion about the truth. It is sufficient if even among a crore of jīvas we can find one who is interested in hearing the truth. That jīva can then become situated in the truth and preach the truth to others. Probably this is why Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda said, “A preacher effects more benefit for the world than all those who become indifferent to preaching work because of their preferring to remain absorbed in the bliss of their own bhajana.”

All within the universe who have preached the truth have had to endure the campaign against the truth within a society predominated by people who are averse to Kṛṣṇa, are blinded by their own immoral selfishness, or are simply envious. Those who are fond of idleness and endeavor only for their own happiness, having accepted gaḍḍālikā-pravāha-nyāya (the maxim of following like sheep), embrace the dharma of traveling up and down within the universe, considering that to be thornless. Observing that everyone in the universe, from Brahmā down to a clump of grass, is wholly averse to Kṛṣṇa, some become disheartened at the prospect of such averse peoples’ welfare and thus adopt an attitude of nonchalance toward them and remain absorbed in the bliss of their own bhajana. There is another class—that of extremely inactive people, the sampradāya of bluffers who cheat themselves and others for the sake of honor and easy living, who imitate genuine bhajanānandīs. Among these three categories, the first and third are completely duplicitous, desirous of their own happiness, and afraid of adhārmika people. In other words, they pose as spiritualists while remaining within the society of persons averse to Kṛṣṇa and consider the favor of such persons their ultimate need and success. Such persons who aspire to be liked by ordinary people never have to tolerate any kind of backlash from them. Subscribing to antaḥ śākto bahiḥ śaivaḥ sabhāyāṁ vaiṣṇavo mataḥ—internally adhering to śākta philosophy, externally to Śaiva doctrine, and to the Vaiṣṇava view when in an assembly—they are dependent on public favor and remain busy in procuring women and money.

Therefore, just as smoking might be praised in the society of drunkards, so in a godless society or in the newspaper columns presented by godless people, glorification is heard of these two types—namely, those who desire personal happiness, who accept the dharma of coming and going [birth and death], and who make a business of the holy name, mantras, and recitation of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and others like them; and the so-called niṣkiñcana devotees who imitate paramahaṁsa Vaiṣṇavas. In the second above-mentioned category, there are one or two real niṣkiñcana paramahaṁsa Vaiṣṇavas (such as Śrīla Vaṁśīdāsa Bābājī Mahārāja of Kuliyā), who, having bade farewell to all material affairs, are not reckoned by envious persons to be partakers of their paraphernalia for self-enjoyment; moreover, being aloof from society, they are considered incapable of cunningness by such envious persons, who thus (as if out of kindness) do not criticize them.

But unlike those of the first two categories, an ācārya does not expect favor from godless people, and unlike the last-mentioned category of bhajanānandī Vaiṣṇava, he does not remain simply absorbed in sva-bhajana (his own bhajana). Rather, following svabhajana-vibhajanaprayojanāvatārī (the origin of all avatars, who showed the highest goal to be bhajana in separation) Śrī Gaurasundara, he lives and acts within the world for the benefit of the world, and thus to the naturally envious vision of godless persons he appears fallen.

Hence all preachers of the truth are either seen or heard of by ordinary people as examples of being tortured by the society of people opposed to Viṣṇu. But factually, Viṣṇu and the Vaiṣṇavas are situated beyond material nature and thus cannot be touched by the enviousness of people within the material nature, just as Rāvaṇa could abduct only an illusory form of Sītā.

Although Prahlāda was a nitya-siddha devotee of Lord Viṣṇu, as long as he did not take the position of a preacher he was the cynosure of the eyes of the king of the demons (Hiraṇyakaśipu) and of the whole society of demons, like a garland on their neck or the treasure of their heart, and was the object of their regard, care, affection, parental inclination, and glorification. But from the very day he began to boldly preach the truth to the king of the demons—namely, one-pointed Viṣṇu-bhakti, the forgoing of family-based dharma to accept the necessity of Hari-bhajana, the uselessness of materialistic family gurus, and service to paramahaṁsas—and began to preach to his classmates the need to renounce the association of family-based demons and to accept Hari-bhajana, from that day forth the number of his enemies steadily increased.

The mundane relationship between a father and son is so strong that, out of illusion, a father sees a black-complexioned son to be as bright as molten gold, a one-eyed son to be lotus-eyed, or a disgraced son, even if he has hundreds of faults, to be the ornament of his dynasty—to the father’s illusioned vision each appears to possess good qualities. In the same way, Prahlāda’s preaching of the truth became counted as a great fault by his bewildered father, who then proceeded to obstruct in hundreds of ways the same son who was dearer to him than his life.

Has anyone ever heard of an instance wherein for his own self-interest a father cast his beautiful five-year-old son—who is dearer to him than his own life, who has not married and then disregarded him due to the influence of a wife, or who has not, like Emperor Aurangzeb, become his father’s enemy due to greed for his kingdom—under the feet of an intoxicated elephant, threw him from a hilltop, placed him in a blazing fire, and administered poison to him? Prahlāda’s fault was that he preached the truth. So what is the surprise if selfish people become enemies of preachers of the truth? For, even in Satya-yuga, when dharma stood on four legs, a father did not hesitate to act as an enemy toward his son who was a preacher of the truth. Even the naturally affectionate heart of a father became filled with malice for his truthpreaching son. How glorious is Lord Viṣṇu’s illusory energy, which makes the impossible possible! The jīvas are so totally averse to Viṣṇu, as if having taken a vow to remain averse to Him, that they will not hear discussion of the truth or of the essential characteristics of Kṛṣṇa, nor of an assertment of their own perverted nature. When examples of disregard for the truth and of malice toward preachers of the truth were seen even in Satya-yuga, then in this Age of Kali (the age of argumentation and quarrel) is it astonishing to see both a prevailing indifference to the truth and a combined effort to thwart the ācāryas engaged in spreading truth?

During the youthhood of Śrīmad Rāmānuja, who was one of the four ācāryas who preached Sātvata dharma, when he refuted his guru Yādava-prakāśa’s explanation of the śruti statement kapyāsaṁ-puṇḍarīkākṣam and preached the truth without accepting subordination to such a false, putative guru inimical to Viṣṇu, from that time onward his harassment began. And not only harassment, for Yādava-prakāśa, who considered himself a guru, organized a great conspiracy to kill Śrī Rāmānuja—who, as a preacher of Śrī Viṣṇu’s mano-‘bhīṣṭa, therefore enacted a līlā whereby the ordinary people considered that he fled for his life.

Worshipers of Śrī Raṅganātha at Śrīraṅgam used to steal the ingredients meant for Viṣṇu’s service; instead of using Viṣṇu’s wealth in His service, they would engage it in service to their wives and sons and deceitfully tell ordinary people that such usage was for Viṣṇu. Śrī Rāmānujācārya protested that theft by, and the lust for material enjoyment of, the attendants of the deity. Wherever the truth is preached, it is inevitable that blindly selfish persons who are opposed to the truth will become inimical; hence, to kill Rāmānujācārya, the pūjārīs at Śrīraṅgam first gave him rice mixed with poison. But after the simple-hearted wife of one of those pūjārīs by hint informed Ācārya Rāmānuja of their evil intent, he gave the rice to a dog, who ate it and immediately died. And on yet another occasion, the same pūjārīs gave Śrī Rāmānuja poison mixed with the caraṇāmṛta of Śrī Raṅganātha.

This illusory world is always ruled by those who are envious of Viṣṇu, for they are the majority. Indeed it is so arranged by the will of Viṣṇu, the bewilderer of the demons, just to protect the rarely attained and most confidential treasure of bhakti.

When Śrī Rāmānujācārya commenced his preaching mission within the Cola province— propagating worship of Viṣṇu and discussion of the truth— the ruler thereof, who was a smārta inimical to Viṣṇu, began to burn fiercely in the fire of envy. He sent agents to try to forcibly convert Rāmānuja into a smārta Śaiva. But an attached, mundane, fruitive smārta cannot touch even a single hair of a transcendental Vaiṣṇava ācārya. Let the attached smārtas be leaders of society—moreover, let them be rulers of kingdoms, let them have the power to punish and kill —but a Vaiṣṇava, and especially an ācārya, is never their subject or under their control. The so-called Vaiṣṇavas who lick the feet of smārtas attached to fruitive activities may be afraid of their angry red eyes, but a real Vaiṣṇava does not care for them. The Vaiṣṇava ācārya, who drives out all the contamination of Kali, declares that he will silence the smārtas’ shouting and scolding, and is never afraid. For this reason Ācārya Śrī Rāmānuja, when brought in the presence of the angry reddened eyes of the smārta king of Chola, did not stop forcefully and loudly speaking the truth.

Because of the Chola king Kṛmikaṇṭha, the eyes of Kūreśa, Śrī Rāmānuja’s ideal disciple, became gouged out rather than he accept the smārta doctrine. Thus it is seen that whenever the truth was preached in the world, godless persons averse to Viṣṇu were ready to obstruct in various ways the godly preachers of the truth. This is one of the prime and clear symptoms to be accepted in understanding the non-duplicitous truth. Just as all the theories and siddhāntas supported by all the godless people of the universe must certainly be godless, whatever preaching of siddhānta they jointly attempt to oppose must indeed be the highest truth.

Now one ācārya has been discussed. What kind of opposition the ācāryas Śrī Viṣṇusvāmī, Śrīman Madhva, and Śrī Nimbāditya faced when they preached the truth can be understood by studying their lives—on one hand, their anger at those who were envious of the devotees, and on the other, their ideal of selflessly acting for others’ benefit. By appreciating these qualities of the above-mentioned ācāryas, one’s heart becomes overflooded with bhakti-bhāva for Viṣṇu, the maintainer of the universe. Glorious is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Viṣṇu, the protector of sanātana-dharma and the ocean of truth! And unlimitedly more glorious are the Sātvata ācāryas sent by Him, who are oceans of causeless mercy and who create auspiciousness for the world!

Now I will say a few words about Śrī Gaurasundara—the avatar and crest jewel of all the ācāryas—as well the ācāryas among his servants, and thus end this essay. An example of how distasteful one becomes in the eyes of others when he begins to preach the truth is also seen in Śrī Gaurasundara, the crest jewel among all ācāryas. As long as Śrī Gaurasundara acted as an avid follower of moralistic religion while a gṛhastha, playing as an ordinary brāhmaṇa paṇḍita in a society averse to Viṣṇu and enacting pastimes of studying, teaching, serving His widowed mother who was afflicted by separation from her departed husband, displaying affection for His birthplace, performing rituals for His father’s future life (ceremonies such as śrāddha at Gayā), and exhibiting devotional respect for demigods and brāhmaṇas by drinking the water after washing the feet of a brāhmaṇa—correspondingly, the attached fruitive workers, thinking Him to be special soul but basically one of them, went on praising Him, not understanding the purpose of Viṣṇu’s activities, which bewilder the godless.

But this glorification did not last long. After He returned from Gayā and revealed His true identity, fulfilling the desires of pure devotees like Śrī Advaita and Śrīvāsa, and began preaching the truth, the same smārta Hindus, who had previously praised Nimāi with a hundred mouths, began to yell at Him from all directions. At this time the blasphemy of Nimāi began: “Nimāi is no longer good. He is about to break Hindu dharma by glorifying bhagavatkīrtana and propagating that pūjās for goddesses Maṅgalacaṇḍī and Viṣahari, and the singing, dancing, and music that take place on those occasions, are meaningless. He is propagating that Vaiṣṇava darśana and taking shelter of the lotus feet of a guru are unlimitedly better than performing śrāddha at Gayā, that a nondevotee brāhmaṇa, like a dogeater, should not even be seen or spoken to, and that a devotee born in a family of dogeaters is supremely worshipable and purifying.”

Nimāi preached these truths, and when the pañcopāsaka-brāhmaṇa students obstructed that preaching, He chased them with a stick in hand to beat them:

pūrve bhāla chila ei nimāi paṇḍita gayā haite āsiyā cālāya viparīta

“This Nimāi Paṇḍita was previously good, but since He has returned from Gayā He conducts Himself oppositely.” (Cc 1.17.206)

śuni’ krodha kaila saba paḍuyāra gaṇa sabe meli’ kare tabe prabhura nindana

"Hearing of the incident, all the students became angry and joined together in criticizing the Lord."

saba deśa bhraṣṭa kaila ekalā nimāñi brāhmaṇa mārite cāhe, dharma-bhaya nāi

“Nimāi alone has spoiled the entire country,” they accused. “He wants to strike a brāhmaṇa. He has no fear of religious principles."

punaḥ yadi aiche kare māriba tāhare kon vā mānuṣa haya, ki karite pāre

“If He again performs such an atrocious act, certainly we shall beat Him. What kind of person is He that He can check us?” (Cc 1.17.254–56)

Witnessing the wicked mentality of the mundane fruitive smārtas, and desiring to benefit them, and distinguish Himself from them, Nimāi decided to accept sannyāsa and thus renounce their bad association. By His personal example, the Lord showed that a Vaiṣṇava is never under the control of ordinary smārta society. The smārtas’ understanding of Vaiṣṇavas as being but one class within their society only shows how deceived and unfortunate they are.

O smārta, attached to ritualistic activities! In your sense-gratifying nature, born of bones and marrow, you were all deceived, considering Viṣṇu and the Vaiṣṇavas to belong merely to a particular caste, and thus at one time considered Śrī Gaurasundara an attached householder like yourself. But today, out of tremendous non-deceptive mercy upon you, Gaurasundara, by renouncing duties like maintaining a wife, has shown the ideal of crossing beyond worldly morality. Instead of consoling his widowed mother, He doubled the blazing of the unextinguished fire of her lamentation for her husband. He renounced affection for His birthplace and relatives, and preached the futility of performing śrāddha at Gayā and traveling to holy places of pilgrimage, as compared to rendering Kṛṣṇa-sevā under the shelter of the lotus feet of a guru. He demonstrated that drinking the water that has washed the feet of a brāhmaṇa is not an act meant for fruitive workers but a show of affection by the Lord for His servant, and proof of the topmost position of the Vaiṣṇavas. Transgressing the śāstrīya injunction forbidding sannyāsa in Kalī-yuga, a rule applicable to smārtas, and to instruct people in general, He accepted the kind of sannyāsa that entails renouncing the bad association of mundane fruitive smārtas and others. After accepting sannyāsa, by His own behavior and also adroitly through the two jagad-guru ācāryas Nityānanda and Advaita, He showed the meaninglessness of the contaminated smārta-dharma, which adjudges Kṛṣṇa-prasāda to be contaminated leftovers (Cc 2.3.99) and Vaiṣṇavas to be members of a particular caste (Cc 2.3.97). To alter the fruitive smārta way of thinking, He had Śrī Advaita Ācārya declare, sannyāsī nāśila mora saba smṛtidharma: “A sannyasi has spoiled all My brahminical smṛti regulations” (Cc 2.3.101); and by this utterance He also revealed that the purport of His own sannyāsa-līlā was to extinguish the last flame of the fire of smārta-dharma. By ordering Advaitācārya to happily honor His remnants with Haridāsa and Mukunda at Śāntipura (Cc 2.3.106), He propagated the meaninglessness of the offensive smārta conception that mahā-prasāda and Vaiṣṇavas are subject to caste considerations. At that time the intimate friends of the fruitive smārtas (like Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya), who themselves were actually smārtas but posed as nirviśeṣavādīs, and Māyāvādī sannyasis like Prakāśānanda Sarasvatī, began to obstruct in various ways Mahāprabhu’s preaching of truth and to blaspheme Him. Moreover, Rāmacandra Purī, who made a show of being a disciple of Śrī Mādhavendra Purī, did not hesitate to criticize Mahāprabhu’s eating and other habits. In this way, an ācārya who preaches the truth must accept with a bowed head many kinds of criticism from all kinds of inimical persons and go on preaching the truth for the benefit of the inimical society. Thus it is not possible to describe how great the heart of an ācārya is, and how much compassion he feels for the suffering of the jīvas.

Those who have read Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā, chapter nine, surely know how the Buddhists attempted to dishonor Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu when He began preaching against their theories. Whenever Vaiṣṇava ācāryas vow to preach the truth, the godless people who fill up the world and are committed to their own inauspiciousness make a concerted effort against the truth. Had Ṭhākura Haridāsa or Śrī Nityānanda not loudly preached Hari-kathā and harināma but instead exhibited nirjana-bhajana-līlā, then the one would not apparently have been beaten in twenty-two bazars and the other would not apparently have suffered being wounded above the eye by a pot. Because Ṭhākura Haridāsa preached the truth, even today the fruitive smārtas refer to him as, for instance, a yavana who disrespected varṇāśrama principles by eating from the śrāddha plate meant for brāhmaṇas; thus the fruitive smārtas continue to commit terrible offenses at his lotus feet. Even today, they continue to blaspheme Nityānanda by calling Him misbehaved, a transgressor of the smārta’s varṇāśrama-dharma, an eater of food cooked by a low-caste person, and so on. Just to save all these fruitive workers from blaspheming Viṣṇu, the most merciful Vaiṣṇava Ṭhākura Śrīla Vṛndāvana said tabe lāthi māroṅ tā’ra śirera upare: “I will kick on his head” (Cb 1.9.225). But because he used that expression, some smārtas cite it and blame Vṛndāvana dāsa Ṭhākura for their defamation.

Over a long period of time, wicked persons may become elevated. But jagad-guru GauraNityānanda, Ṭhākura Haridāsa, Ṭhākura Vṛndāvana, and other ācaryas, all of whom rose like the sun almost five hundred years ago, are even now regularly blasphemed in various ways by many persons—most doing so internally, although a few openly. Thus it can be understood how much this world is averse to Hari, and how greatly munificent, elevated personalities are these ācaryas who are para-duḥkha-duḥkhī and the distributors of non-malefic mercy.