The divine calculation (part 4)

All glories to Śrī Śrī Guru and Gaurāṅga

The divine calculation (part 4)

(Date –31.12.2025)

By Sampradāya-saṁrakṣaka Śrī Śyām Dās Baba Mahārāj

From Śrīmad Bhāgavatam we know the following śloka—

na te viduḥ svārtha-gatiṁ hi viṣṇuṁ

durāśayā ye bahir-artha-māninaḥ

andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānās

te ’pīśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ

(ŚB 7.5.31)

"Those persons who are always busy with their own self-interest – I mean sense gratification, they cannot realize that our absolute interest is to attain the Lotus feet of Śrī Viṣṇu, just like a blind man cannot be guided by another blind man, similarly those material man guided by material gurus surely can meet with failure in their life, just like a bull having tide bondage bound to obey the master unwillingly."

Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda Paramahaṁsa Jagad Guru said that —

“On the background platform of our previous saṁskāra we develop different different kind of respective conception regarding our self-interest. Some become busy collecting matters relating to self-gratification. Some become busy protecting ethical character and moralism. Yet so many of them become busy following all the apparently useful instructions of Veda to be identified (to get a stamp) as a Vedic follower. Again, some of them like to confine their duty up to the overall interest of their respective country, I mean, his motherland, even they can get ready to sacrifice their life for the motherland etc. Yet, some of them always ready to get their name registered with any suitable charitable institution to give their life for social service. Again, some of them can arrange their identification as a great sādhu etc. But more or less or directly and indirectly the main target of their respective life is to arrange sva-pratiṣṭhā (personal pratiṣṭhā). The absolute calculation of our life can become completely wrong because of any basic mistake done in the beginning of life. What is that mistake?”

Further The Prabhupāda used to say that— “Because of the most basic mistake done in the very beginning about the topic— ‘Who am I?’—then all other things related to my self-identification can become completely wrong.” That is why in Vedānta-sūtra the most basic point regarding the absolute solution of human life is prescribed as ‘athāto-brahma-jijñāsā’. In Śrīmad Bhāgavatam also the same prescription given as ‘athāto-ātma-jijñāsā’ or ‘athāto-tattva-jijñāsā’. In Veda Brahma-kāṇḍa the same prescription given as ‘athāto-śabda-jijñāsā’. Again, in Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta the same prescription given to us in the following way—

‘ke āmi’, ‘kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya’

ihā nāhi jāni — ‘kemane hita haya’

(Cc Madhya 20.102)

“Who am I? Why do the threefold miseries always give me trouble? If I do not know this, how can I get absolute benefit?”

The topmost Paramahaṁsa Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī Jī Mahārāja himself highly appreciated his disciple Śrīla Parīkṣit Mahārāja for this kind of absolute ātma-jijñāsā like the śloka:

ataḥ pṛcchāmi saṁsiddhiṁ

yogināṁ paramaṁ gurum

puruṣasyeha yat kāryaṁ

mriyamāṇasya sarvathā

(ŚB 1.19.37)

"You are the absolute guru among of all those yogīs (even among those bhakti-yogīs), so I would like to inquire from you about the absolute procedure of bhajana to attain the absolute maṅgala out of all different lucrative offers offered in different śāstras for those mortal beings."

The answer to the question given by Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī was like—

etan nirvidyamānānām

icchatām akuto-bhayam

yogināṁ nṛpa nirṇītaṁ

harer nāmānukīrtanam

(ŚB 2.1.11)

"Oh King! Those who are really interested to become completely fearless for them it is already prescribed by those exalted yogīs (bhakti-yogīs) that the constant Harināma Saṅkīrtana under the absolute guidance of Sat-guru is the most effective medicine."

Śrīla Śukadeva Gosvāmī appreciated his disciple Śrīla Parīkṣit Mahārāja by saying that—

varīyān eṣa te praśnaḥ

kṛto loka-hitaṁ nṛpa

ātmavit-sammataḥ puṁsāṁ

śrotavyādiṣu yaḥ paraḥ

(ŚB 2.1.1)

Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī saying that –“Oh My dear King, your question is glorious, excellent and unique or absolute because it can give absolute benefit to all human beings and already approved by all those ātmavit Mahāpuruṣas, also it is the topmost absolute question out of countless questions we can expect from the whole human society.”

This is only because of Māyā (illusion). Śrīla Prabhupāda used to say that— “There is a gulf difference between this material world and that transcendental world.” What do you mean by gulf difference? Actually, there is a gulf difference which is all red in colour—I mean the conception of blood and flesh.

Endless Māyā making the gulf difference between me and the Supreme Lord and that is the only reason for why I am separated from the Supreme Lord for anādi-kāla (infinite period).

From Śrīmad Bhāgavatam we can see the following prayer by those śruti-smṛti in personified form in the following way—

jaya jaya jahy ajām ajita doṣa-gṛbhīta-guṇāṁ

tvam asi yad ātmanā samavaruddha-samasta-bhagaḥ

aga-jagad-okasām akhila-śakty-avabodhaka te

kvacid ajayātmanā ca carato ’nucaren nigamaḥ

(ŚB 10.87.14)

The śrutis saying that—

“All glories to you (Jaya Jaya), O unconquerable one! By Your very nature You can reserve all the opulence’s inside You therefore please defeat the eternal power of illusion which is indirectly coming from You—who is having control over the modes of nature to create difficulties for conditioned souls to tide over the problem to reach You. Oh! You—who is the ultimate controller of all the opulence’s directly or indirectly of all those moving and non-moving embodied beings, sometimes the Vedas can recognize You as You are having the sporting mood to play with all of Your material and spiritual potencies.”

The Prabhupāda said that—“Rāvaṇa was not less intelligent (I mean he had huge intellect), once he was successful to engage Indra-Candra-Varuṇa-Pavandeva etc., all of them into his personal sevā, but his materialism went on increasing at an alarming rate—so ultimately when he developed the dirty intellect (audacity) to abduct Bhagavat-śakti Sītā-devī (Lakṣmī-devī) from Śrī Rāmacandra the Supreme Lord, then finally he met with the ultimatum of self-destruction.”

The whole material creation should be treated like a dream, otherwise due to increasing attachment someday I can discover myself in the trap of Māyā.

Śrīman Mahāprabhu said that—“This material world is very very unstable.” Though not false like a dream, but still like a dream, because when I can wake up then the dream surely can get dissolved. Similarly, when I accept all those material events very seriously and think that they are more practical than hari-bhajana, then I can get lost in this material ocean. The only solution is to accept sad-guru anugatya to avoid Māyā, to develop strong hari-bhajana to get entry inside Goloka Dhāma forever to serve the Supreme Lord—no other way open before us at all.

The following example can help us in a big way to realize the most sensitive issue of absolute hari-bhajana—

Suppose one lotus flower is floating in any water lake. The lake water surely is a support for the lotus flower. The sunlight can help the lotus flower to express the extreme beauty hidden inside the lotus flower. Now we can compare the lotus flower as the disciple who is staying under the shelter of the affection of kṛpā of sad-gurudeva.

Also, we can think of the sun-god as the cit-sūrya—Śrī Kṛṣṇa, because without sunlight the flower cannot express its extreme beauty in full blooming condition.

Also, it is true that—without the support of the lake water, the lotus flower cannot live at all. But by chance suppose the lotus flower—I mean the jīva (disciple)—leaves or avoids the shelter of sad-guru which is compared with the water of the lake—then the sun god (or sunlight) cannot help the lotus flower (the disciple) anymore; rather the scorching sunlight can burn up the lotus flower (the disciple) forever.

Many flowers can be found on a flower tree, but very few of them get the scope to ride on the lotus-like caraṇa-kamala of the Supreme Lord being offered by one sādhu at the time of his worship. All the other flowers get lost unnecessarily. Oh God! What is the utility of those flowers! Countless jīvātmās are rotating in cyclic order for infinite period in this brahmāṇḍa, up and down—no solution at all.

Because we know the following śloka from Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta—

brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva

guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja

(Madhya 19.151)

“In course of travelling through the fourteen worlds (brahmāṇḍa), some rare (most fortunate) jīva, by chance, can get the opportunity to receive bhakti-latā-bīja (slight trace of sevā-anubhūti by watching Guru-Vaiṣṇava) by the causeless mercy of Śrī Guru-Kṛṣṇa.”

The Prabhupāda said that—“Honey is there inside a flower; those honeybees can help collect that honey. No one else can do this honey-collection sevā from a flower. Similarly, those pure sadhu Guru-Vaiṣṇavas alone can collect the essence of śāstra, not everybody.”

From Ṣaḍ-gosvāmy-aṣṭakam we know the following śloka—

nānā-śāstra-vicāraṇaika-nipuṇau sad-dharma-saṁsthāpakau

lokānāṁ hita-kāriṇau tri-bhuvane mānyau śaraṇyākarau

rādhā-kṛṣṇa-padāravinda-bhajanānandena mattālikau

vande rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau śrī-jīva-gopālakau

"They are uniquely expert in churning the ocean of all śāstras to give us the essence of all revealed scriptures, and they establish the Absolute dharma for all jīvas. They are the true benefactors of the people, worshipable in all three worlds, affectionate to those who have taken shelter of them. Due to the bliss of bhajana of the lotus feet of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, they have become like intoxicated honeybees. I worship Śrī Rūpa, Sanātana, Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa, Raghunātha dāsa, Jīva, and Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmīs."

We know it for sure that quality and quantity cannot persist together. To get quality surely you cannot compromise with quantity, and if you want quantity then you cannot expect quality. At present people are less interested in quality; they always run for quantity—this is a blunder mistake for human beings and also for so-called devotees.

Majority vote or seniority priority—these are the cheapest formulas in this material world, but completely invalid in aprākṛta-jagat. Almost everybody likes to subscribe to naked dance because of dirty saṁskāra, but that does not give it any importance. Absolute truth can never become popular—this does not make it useless.

In this blind society, democracy means everyone enjoys equal voting power. But if a great Mahābhāgavata Bhagavat-pārṣada like Śrīla Saccidānanda Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, a supramundane personality with profound pāṇḍitya, receives the same valuation as a low-caste sweeper, then how can levels of consciousness ever be recognized?

If the whole cosmic creation ultimately submerges into a single point (not even a dust particle) to enter Mahāviṣṇu after total destruction, what is the utility of my false ego? That is why Śrīman Mahāprabhu taught the third śloka of Śikṣāṣṭakam—to develop tolerance like a tree and humility lower than grass.

tṛṇād api sunīcena

taror api sahiṣṇunā

amāninā mānadena

kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ

(Śikṣāṣṭakam verse 3)

Only one who feels lower than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree, who expects no honour but gives respect to all, is qualified to chant the holy name of Śrī Hari constantly.

Remember that the whole creation can go towards zero volume level – if the average density can run towards infinity, because volume and density these two factors are in proportionate to each other just opposite way to each other. I mean—

V VS 1/D. If V = Volume & D = density – then if V → tends to 0 then surely D → tends to infinity.

Or if D → tends to 0 then surely V → tends to infinity. This is the natural phenomena available in this material world. If your society going to expand materially then only money and opulence’s can be the net outcome, and nothing else. But devotional power or treasure can never be measured by the material scale you are using always to measure material things.

From Śrīmad Bhāgavatam we know the following slokas –

harir hi nirguṇaḥ sākṣāt

puruṣaḥ prakṛteḥ paraḥ

sa sarva-dṛg upadraṣṭā

taṁ bhajan nirguṇo bhavet

(ŚB 10.88.5)

"Lord Hari, however, has no connection with the material modes. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the all-seeing eternal witness, who is transcendental to material nature. One who worships Him becomes similarly free from the material modes."

yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi

hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ

tato ’dhanaṁ tyajanty asya

svajanā duḥkha-duḥkhitam

(ŚB 10.88.8)

"The Personality of Godhead said: If I especially favour someone, I gradually deprive him of his wealth. Then the relatives and friends of such a poverty-stricken man abandon him. In this way he suffers one distress after another."

sa yadā vitathodyogo

nirviṇṇaḥ syād dhanehayā

mat-paraiḥ kṛta-maitrasya

kariṣye mad-anugraham

(ŚB 10.88.9)

"When he becomes frustrated in his attempts to make money and instead befriends My devotees, I bestow My special mercy upon him."

Gaura Hari Haribol