His Divine Grace
BHAKTISIDDHANTA SARASVATI THAKURA PRABHUPADA

Place: The Pusti Marga Vaisnava assembly on Clive Street, Calcutta, at the palace of the late Rajababu Damodara Dasa Verman during the an­nual meeting of the Pusti Margiya Vaisnava Sangha.
Time: Saturday, 28th February, 1925

The meeting of Sriman Mahaprabhu and Sri Isvara Puripada at Gaya, and the purpose of Mahaprabhu's visit to Gaya:

Today we have come to take darsana of Sripada Isvara Puri's place. Sripada Isvara Puri is not the giver of pancaratrika diksa to Sri Gaurasundara. In discussing Sri Gaurasundara's householder pastime we can see that Sri Gaurasundara pointed out a fault in Sripada Isvara Puri's learning. Before He returned from Gaya, Sri Gaurasundara did not brilliantly enact the pastimes of preaching pure devotional service to us. Gayasura was, in some opinions, the personification of godless fruitive activities, and in other opinions the main preacher of Vedic fruitive activities.

THE Exhibitor's address in Bengali, which was delivered at the opening of the Theistic Exhibition at Dacca on January 6, is available to the public in the form of a nicely printed pamphlet. The address, of which the English version appears as a separate article, deals with several important aspects of this particular mode of service and t is well worth the while of all persons irrespective of caste, creed or color to ponder over the nature of the congregational worship Divinely ordained for the Present Age.

SREE Krishna is Godhead Himself. His Appearance, in the enlightened cognition of the Jiva soul, is preceded by that of the plenary cognitive essence himself. The plenary, cognitive potency that is the support of all secondary cognitions, belongs to Sree Krishna. As a matter of fact the jiva souls emanate from the marginal portion of this plenary potency. All manifestation of cognitive existences as distinctive entities that serve Sree Krishna in all diverse offices, has got as its source the substantive aspect of the plenary cognition. Sree Baladeva is that Face of the Divinity Whose Will is obeyed by the aspect of the plenary cognition which brings about the manifestation of the substantive existence of all spiritual entities...

Knowledge about anything cannot establish a sound footing in any man unless and until it is confirmed by a comparative study and reasoning of the knowledge of contradictory things. So it will not be out of place here to draw the line of demarcation between transcendence and immanence and mundane relativity. Empiricism ceases where spiritualism begins. Spiritualism intended is quite distinct from the poor idea maintained by the clairvoyants who are held in high esteem by the intellectualists. Transcendence without transgressing against Immanence is free from all mundane relativities.

There is a tank in Conjeevarum, which bears the name of the tank of God (Deva-Sarovara). In the centre of this tank there is a temple enshrining the image of Kasharamuni, Saroyogi or Paigai Alvar. Kasharamuni appeared from a golden lotus in Deva-Sarovara in Kanchipuram in the Nakshatra of Sravana during the month of Kartika, in the Dwapara Yuga. A Portion of the Divine Conch of Sree Vishnu which bears the name of Panchajanya came down to this world in the form of this great saint. When Sree Krishna blew His Conch Panchajanya in the battle of Kurukshetra the sound struck the terror of assured destruction into the hearts of the armies of the Kauravas. The words of Paigai Alvar had a similar effect on the hearts of all pashandas (heretics) and atheists. An old tradition accordingly tells us that he became famous as the Avatara of Panchajanya for his fearless preaching of the Truth. He is to this day constantly engaged in the service of Vishnu in his exclusive state in the tank of Deva-Sarovara, and is hence called Saroyogi. The great is worshipped by the following words of submission, "I take my refuge in Saroyogi, the portion of Panchajanya, who appeared from the golden lotus at Kanchi in Dwapara when the Sravana was in the mansion of Tula".

Two sorts of temperaments lead the activities of animated beings. One thought advocates the stupefaction of the animation; whereas the other is fond of maintaining the progressive manifestation. When the tracing work of the Fountainhead is at issue, the latter is found to retain the manifestive Energy of the Fountainhead, and the former goes on targeting the origin in non-manifested agent. The two different predilections work side by side combating each other’s flow. But this does not affect at all the Absolute position of the Fountainhead. Those impersonalists who are busy with stopping the intellectual motion in the final stage, differ from the view of another section of the group, who maintain that the Fountainhead should be fully intellectual and that there should not be any chamber of reciprocal situation among the sentients...

The question has been asked why it is necessary to have a shrine made of brick and mortar for the worship of God. The shrine has been supposed to be at best only a kind of temporary aid for a primitive form of worship to a person of undeveloped mentality. As such a person is supposed to understand nothing as true but gross matter he is considered to be naturally inclined to the worship of enshrined idols. To most people with ‘ordinary’ culture such ‘foreign’ help has often seemed to be not only not necessary but positively and rightly repugnant. The formal entry into a shrine containing the holy Forms of the Divine Pair would appear to such thinkers to be an unjustifiable concession to people with a particularly dense judgement who should be an extinct race in the quondam Metropolis of British India in this twentieth century after Christ. The function may thus be opined to be lacking even in the excuse of being a foolish, unavoidable surrender to the thoughtless demos.

ON the south bank of the sacred river Kaveri is situated Nichulapuri (modern Uraiyur). In the days of yore it was a very prosperous city. It was ramparted on all sides and was filled with palace-like houses.

St. Tiruppani Alvar was born in this city in 100 B.C. in the month of Kartic with Rohini asterism. He was an incarnation of Srivatsa mark on the breast of Sri Vishnu but appeared in the society of pariahs or chandals. In respect to the saints, divine wisdom and spiritual illumination are taken cognisance in place of social status.

The transcendental nature of Thakur Bhaktivinode as realized by suddha bhaktas finds expression in the following sloka which is repeated by all his followers in making their daily obeisance to him:-

“Obeisance to Thee, Bhaktivinode, by name Sachchidananda,
“The embodiment of Gaur’s Love, the great follower of Rupa.”