Those material languages cannot help us to reach Vaikuntha-jagad, but when svarup shakti of Bhagavan can enter into someone then any language can work like magic, or even without any language – Part 1

All glories to Śrī Śrī Guru-Gauranga

Those material languages cannot help us to reach Vaikuṇṭha-jagad, but when svarūpa śakti of Bhagavān can enter into someone then any language can work like magic, or even without any language – Part 1

Date: 19.05.2025

Gauḍīya Goṣṭhī Pati Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda said that— “Logical interpretation cannot stand in the way of the Absolute Truth.”

According to the absolute desire of the Supreme Lord we have the scope to reach His Lotus feet by getting the help of divine association of sādhu-guru-Vaiṣṇavas-śāstras-Bhagavad dhāma, Bhagavad- nāma, Bhagavad-līlā etc. Actually, He Himself is manifesting in different forms to help us reach His Lotus feet. Creation-Maintenance-Destruction always going on since time immemorial. But anyway, all those authentic śāstras like Veda, Vedanta, Upaniṣad, Purāṇas. all are eternally present in the eternal world, only time to time manifesting or disappearing. Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa is speaking to Uddhava—

kālena naṣṭā pralaye

vāṇīyaṁ veda-saṁjñitā

mayādau brahmaṇe proktā

dharmo yasyāṁ mad-ātmakaḥ                                        (ŚB 11.14.3)

The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: By the influence of time, the transcendental sound of Vedic knowledge was lost at the time of annihilation. Therefore, when the subsequent creation took place, I spoke the Vedic knowledge to Brahmā because I Myself am the religious principles enunciated in the Vedas.

Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa speaking to Uddhava that— "at the time of pralaya (destruction) those divine vāṇīs in the form of Veda were lost in course of time. In that Veda all the advices about attma dharma where spoken. In the beginning of Kalpa, I again spoke this knowledge to Brahmā.”

So, in this way śāstra jñāna again started propagating. From Skanda Purāṇa we know that by the curse of Gautama Muni all śāstra jñāna were lost at Dvāpara-yuga, then by the craving request of demigods and Ṛṣi-Munis headed by Brahmā and Śaṅkara approached the Supreme Lord to find some solution of this great problem, then the Supreme Lord took birth as Mahā-muni Vedavyāsa to bring back all those lost śāstra jñāna in our focus.

So, what Śrīla Prabhupāda said is very clear from the following statement by him— “When the oldest expressions are lost, then the Purāṇas are compiled in modem language, making them suitable for the present age. Language is just a dress; the purport or intention of the text is the body. Even when the language was updated, the body was not changed. If someone describes the Supreme Lord by wearing the language-dress of twentieth century civilization, or if Vedic mantras are written with the paper, pen, and ink of the twentieth century, would we say that they cannot be called Vedic mantras? This type of orthodoxy is born of extremely abominable ignorance. One cannot ascertain whether the body is modem or ancient by looking at the age of the dress. The original story of the Rg mantra tredha nidadhe padam [“I placed three steps”] is present in the oldest recorded Purāṇas of the Eocene [prehistoric] epoch. But when previous texts become archaic and gradually lost, they were written in a modem comprehensible language. To think that the sun we see this morning is not the same sun my grandfather saw but is a fresh new sun that has only taken birth today is simply childish.

Svāmī Sadānanda Dāsa said that­— “We don’t do anyone a favor by trying to facilitate “the transition” for him—there is no transition. It doesn’t matter if people ridicule you, deride your book, and consider you and me mad. If only one single person gets a powerful shock—like I got—then all the efforts and strain of your work have reached Kṛṣṇa. You must write for God, not for people.”

When by the desire of the Supreme Lord all those eternally present śāstra jñāna reappear by the help of some śaktyāveśa or by He Himself, then surely according to the then time demand (suitable) of the age (or situation), the Supreme Lord can arrange everything appropriately. It is true that we have no entry into aprākṛta jagad with the help of our material brain, mind and sense organs, so guru-Vaiṣṇava-Bhagavān they are always ready to extend their helpful hand to deliver us from the trap of Māyā. Anything related to aprākṛta jagad can never be exposed or represented exactly about what the object is in reality, but we can try our best to give example for that object near approximation for easy understanding — which is called kaimutik nyaya. From Upaniṣad we know the following vichar — ‘yato vāco nivartante | aprāpya manasā saha’ (By our personal effort we can never realize that brahma vastu, rather mind and speech can come back without attaining success). In fact, in this infinite Universes there is no such language which is just sufficient to represent the Absolute Truth exactly, because this material jagad is the perverted reflection of that aprākṛta jagad, so naturally any amount of material effort can never come out successful in the way of that Absolute Truth.

From Brahma-saṁhitā we know the following śloka—

sṛṣṭi-sthiti-pralaya-sādhana-śaktir ekā

chāyeva yasya bhuvanāni bibharti durgā

icchānurūpam api yasya ca ceṣṭate sā

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

The external potency of Bhagavat māyā who is of the nature of the shadow of the cit-potency, is worshiped by all material people as Durgā, who is the creating, preserving and destroying agency of this mundane world. I adore the primeval Lord Govinda in accordance with whose will Durgā conducts herself.

Aprākṛta śabda-brahma and prākṛta śabda both are just opposite to each other. Aprākṛta śabda-brahma and the object referred by that śabda-brahma both are non-different from each other. But prākṛta śabda (material sound) and what it means not the same. As for example if you shout – ‘water’ ‘water’ still you cannot expect water in our hand automatically, because ‘water’– this word and water the object both are completely different from each other. We in this material world using some different terminology by the help of different different material languages according to our facility to indicate this object ‘water’, like ‘water’ in English language, ‘vada’ in Russian language, ‘pani’ in Hindi or Urdu language, ‘Jal’ in Bengali language etc. etc. But in aprākṛta jagad no such language or word can get entry at all. When Śrīla Madhavendra Puripad crying and shouting due to tremendous painful feeling of separation – “Ha Śrī Kṛṣṇa! Ha Śrī Vṛndāvana!” then in true sense he can surely meet with Śrī Kṛṣṇa together with Śrī Vṛndāvana then and there, because he is aprākṛta sādhu, the word spoken by him is aprākṛta, and the object he wanted to mean by his speech is also aprākṛta.  

Attmavastu can only understand the code language of attma. So we cannot touch or change any aprākṛta śabda-brahma, because we have no right to do this. So to prove the inefficiency of those material scholars and to break their false ego, Śrīla Prabhupāda was bound to say to them in the following way that— “Instead of the speaker (aprākṛta speaker) coming down to your level, it would be better if the speaker can help you to come up to his level (aprākṛta level). Isn’t it, which is more practical?” Or in south India Kabu when Śrīla Prabhupāda went on speaking hari-kathā in Bengali language in front of some South Indian peoples, then some brahmacari informed him with great surprise that— “Śrīla Prabhupāda! If you never mind Bengali language is beyond their understanding.” Then Śrīla Prabhupāda with harsh voice said that— “Neither I spoke Bengali, nor Hindi or English, I only spoke hari-kathā and nothing else.” Śrīla Narattoma Ṭhākura Mahāśaya went to extreme eastern direction or Bharat Varsha like Manipura, then he started doing heart touching kīrtana in Bengali language, but still without understanding the language all the people around him started crying. Why? Because that was attma śabda (aprākṛta śabda-brahma). When Śrīla Bhakti Daitya Madhava Gosvāmī Mahārāj started singing in Bengali language the following kīrtana, during Brajamandal parikramā together with his elder God brother Śrīla Bhakti Pramod Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāj — “vrajavasi bol re …….” then all those Hindi speaking people started crying without understanding the language, because that was aprākṛta śabda-brahma.

In this way many times Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted to make us understand the most basic conception regarding drisha-drastha-darshan or vacya-vacyak-vachan etc., but still he himself went on writing or speaking in different languages out of his causeless mercy for the absolute benefit of all people of different different languages.

As we already discussed before in this writing about how those śāstra jñāna time to time disappears, so to bring back all those śāstra jñāna in front of us by the help of some authorized representatives (like śaktyāveśa-avatāra or any deputed personal associate of the Supreme Lord), Bhagavān always trying His best to help us realize the Absolute Truth by the dressing of any language suitable for us. There is no other way open before us except taking the help of some language as a medium to convey our bhava to others, though we know any language cannot get any entry into the aprākṛta jagad, but still, it is our futile effort to approach that way. There is some material limit beyond which the material word cannot approach anymore to convey the bhava relating to aprākṛta jagad. Then to help us realize something related to that aprākṛta jagad guru-Vaiṣṇava-Bhagavān, out of causeless mercy can help us convey our bhava to others by the help of bhava only, because language can come to the stagnant condition after some limit.

Those authorized personalities by the power of the Supreme Lord can try their best to represent those aprākṛta vaikuṇṭha-tattva by the help of any suitable language (like Śrīla Ramanuja Acharya preached in Tamil or Malyalam language etc.) by the help of any suitable language as per demand.  But surely anybody or everybody cannot do this seva (or they are not allowed at all to do this seva) for which Śrīla Prabhupāda said that language is a dress, because absolute representation of the absolute theme of śāstra by any absolute personality who is already standing on absolute platform can be possible. Here language can vary, but the purport or intention or the theme of śāstra vichar, I mean the divine fine body of śāstra cannot at all get disturbed — here in this case. As per example we know that the absolute Bhagavat assembly took place three times at three different places, like the first one was held at Suktal-kṣetra  at the bank of Ganga near Haridwar—under the divine guidance of paramahaṁsa varya Śrīla Sukadeva Gosvāmīpad, the second assembly of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam took place at Naimiskṣetra (Naimisaranya) under the divine guidance of Śrīla Suta Deva Gosvāmī and the third assembly of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam took place at Kerala at the bank of Tunga Bhadra river under the divine guidance of Śrī Go Karnaji Mahārāj.  Well! Now our question is that – whether all those three divine speakers used the same language in toto as was originally represented by Śrīla Vyasadeva or not, or each one of those three speakers where successful to protect the divine theme or body of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam intact way, though their respective representation had some specialty from each other, still they were successful to protect the divine body or theme of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam intact way.

We have no right to touch or change any divine writings of any mahājana, but any divine personality can give a sweet touch in the writing of any mahājana by the power of svarūpa śakti given to that divine personality. Below given some example for your easy understanding--  

…….to be continued