Activities by Srila Prabhupad
1. Sarasvati Thakur as the Pioneer of The Universal Church:
Another notable feature is that the teachings of Srila Sarasvati Thakur impressed and attracted all classes of people including the nobility, the commoners and the masses. And his movement was helped and patronized by all classes of Government Officials including the Provincial Governors of all the Provinces and the Viceroys. Following the desire of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu for preaching His Holy Name all over the world, Srila Sarasvati Thakur sent out in 1933 an able band of preachers to England where they were very attentively listened to. The preachers fully impressed the people of that land including the nobility whose practical sympathy they received manywise. This shows that the proposal for establishing a World-Church of unalloyed devotion to the Absolute Person Sri Krishna under the lead of an illustrious leader like Srila Sarasvati Thakur is no dream, but has proved itself to be only effective solvent of all worldwide ills by which human society has so long been hopelessly afflicted. It is this ideal of Srila Sarasvati Thakur that is being preached from the pulpit of the Gaudiya Math. It is indeed a matter of pride for the city of Madras to have within its precincts the Gaudiya Math with the Sri Krishna Kirtana Hall of which Srila Sarasvati Thakur was the founder.
2. Sarasvati Thakur a True Martyr:
Most precisely speaking, Srila Sarasvati Thakur was truly the martyr for the Absolute Person in preaching Whose Nature, Form, Activities and Glory, he worked till the last moment of his appearance before us, without any reservation of any physical pleasure, comfort or relief to himself.
3. A Forceful Preacher:
From the year 1898 he used to accompany Thakur Bhaktivinoda in his pilgrimage to all the principal shrines of India. During this time he contemplated compiling a religious encyclopedia named ‘Vaishnava Manjusha’ which he commenced in 1900 but left unfinished to be completed by his worthy disciples. In that year he again took up his pilgrimage tour and stayed for some time at Puri where he began to preach publicly the true tenets of the Vaishnava Faith as envisaging sound philosophy and perfect morality. All the intelligentsia of the town were greatly impressed by his vast erudition, exemplary life and infallible arguments. In 1904 he travelled through East Bengal including Sitakunda and Chandranath. In 1905 he went to the far South and visited Simhachalam, Rajahmundry, Madras, Tirupati, Conjeevaram, Kumbakonam, Srirangam, Madura and many other shrines. He was so highly gifted in powers of debate that he could immediately vanquish the greatest pedants and religious leaders of different cults whom he came across. His versatile genius, vast learning and synthetic knowledge of the different schools of philosophy and theology coupled with the pure life of devotion, actual realization of the underlying esoteric principles of the Scriptures and fearless exposition of unalloyed truth won for him such a fame that his very name began to strike terror into the hearts of his most formidable adversaries. Specially the different perverted and immoral sects which had been so long passing off as religious people among the Vaishnava Sampradaya were panicstricken and began to apprehend that they were doomed forever in the presence of the august personality of Srila Sarasvati Thakur.
4. Sarasvati Thakur, the other-self of Sri Sukadeva Gosvami:
In the year 1911, an All –India Conference of Pandits was held at Balighai (Midnapore) presided over by Pandit Vishwambhara Nandadeva Gosvami of Gopiballabhpur. The lecture of His Divine Grace Srila Sarasvati Thakur in the meeting on the subject of the comparative position of Brahmana and Vaishnava decided conclusively the point at issue and it was subsequently published in the form of a book. The President of the meeting called Srila Sarasvati Thakur the Other-Self of Sri Sukadeva Gosvami. In 1912 he toured over the different parts of Gauda Mandal (Bengal). In 1913 he established a printing press in South Calcutta (Shanagar) and subsequently removed it to Sree Mayapur and from there to Krishnanagar in Nadia wherefrom he began to publish his many carefully edited books. In 1914, on the disappearance of Thakur Bhaktivinoda, His Divine Grace Srila Saravati Thakur became the President of the Vishva Vaishnava Raj Sabha (All-world Association of pure Vaishnavas) and accepted the editorship of ‘Sajjanatoshani,’ a theological Bengali monthly magazine, which was afterwards converted into the English fortnightly named ‘The Harmonist’ in 1927. Thakur Bhaktivinode was undoubtedly the great pioneer of the new religious movement and after his disappearance the mantle fell on His Divine Grace Srila Sarasvati Thakur who preached and promulgated it more extensively all over the country.
5. The Founder of Sri Chaitanya Math & Sri Gaudiya Math:
On the day of renouncing the world he established Sri Chaitanya Math in 1918 in Sridham Mayapur (Old Nadia), the sacred Birth-place of Mahaprabhu Sri Krishna Chaitanya. Towards the latter part of that year he established in Calcutta ‘Bhaktivinoda Asana’ in a small rented house which became later known as ‘Sri Gaudiya Math’. The preaching propaganda through these centres was soon carried throughout the length and breadth of the country and it attracted thousands of disciples. The growing propaganda found a home in the splendid marble-temple of the Gaudiya Math in Bagbazar (North Calcutta) which was built in 1930 at a cost of several lakhs.
6. Establishment of Preaching Centres throughout India & Abroad:
In quick succession, centres for the training of life and for propaganda of Vaishnava Religion began to spring up all over the country under the illustrious lead of Srila Sarasvati Thakur who was being accepted by the people as the accredited leader and savior of Religion in India. He was able to open up at the time of his passing away as many as 64 Maths in almost all the principal places of this country including Allahabad, Benaras, Bhubaneswar, Bombay, Chittagong, Cuttack, Dacca, Darjeeling, Gaya, Hardwar, Kovur, Kurukshetra, Lucknow, Madras, Muttra, Mymensingh, New Delhi, Nimsar, Patna, Puri, Rangoon, Sorbhog and one in London. In each centre, these Vaishnava Maths are the places of attraction and religious education for the public who are greatly benefited by them. At each place, a large number of disciples and members gathered around the banner of Srila Sarasvati Thakur.
7. Harmonizer of Pancharatra And Bhagavata:
His Divine Grace has blended the systems of Pancharatra and the Bhāgavatam into one homogeneous whole. In almost all the sixty-four preaching centres established in different parts of the country of which Sri Chaitanya Math stands in the forefront and is the Parent Math. His Divine Grace has introduced the worship of the Holy Vigraha (Sri Murti) for the safety of his neophyte disciples, lest they should turn themselves into Gnostics or philanthropists.
8. Sarasvati Thakur as the Expounder of the true principles about Sri Vigraha-Worship:
It is impossible for a man to perform any physical or mental activity without the help of concrete objects or mental images. The objection to Image-worship is ultimately an objection to all physical or mental activity for the purpose of worship. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu rejects idolatry but considers Sri Murti (Vigraha) worship as one of the essential means of spiritual enlightenment. It has been pointed out that the Supreme Lord is Personal, All-Beautiful and All-Love. Sages like Veda-Vyasa and other Acharyas have seen that All-Beautiful Shyamasundar Form in their souls’ eyes and have left for us descriptions of that Beautiful Form. Of course those descriptions regarding the All-Beautiful Form of the Lord are Transcendental. Hence truth is perceivable in those descriptions. According to those descriptions one delineates or worships Sri Murti and views the Blissful Lord of his heart with intense delight. Is that wrong or sinful? Those who say that God has no Transcendental Form and yet imagine a false form for worship, either material or mental, are certainly idolatrous. But those who behold the Transcendental Form of the Supreme Lord in their souls’ eyes, cary that impression as far as possible to the mind and then give out an emblem for the development of the devotional aptitude of the spiritual neophyte, are by no means idolatrous. While visualizing a Sri Murti, one should not see the gross or subtle form of the Vigraha but the Spiritual Absolute Person with his or her spiritual eyes opened by his or her Gurudeva with the spike of Transcendental Knowledge. So idolatry and Sri Murti-worship are two different things. The worship or Sri Murti is different from that of any mundane object, gross or subtle. Just as the Holy Name of the Supreme Lord descends to the plane of our aural reception without being transformed into a mundane word or sound, so the Holy Form of the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna manifests His Descent in the Forms of Sri Murti through eight different media, vix., stone, wood, iron, paint, script, clay, mind and precious gem (Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, Skandha XI, Ch. 27. 12).
No one is eligible for the worship of the Holy Image (Sri Vigraha) until one has been initiated by the Sat-Guru into the Transcendental Knowledge of the identity of the Holy Image with the Absolute Person Who descends or manifests His Eternal Beautiful Form in the successive grades of Para (the Supreme Reality), Vyuha (His Transcendental Extension), Vaibhava (His Form of Spiritual Might), Paramatma or Antaryami (His Pervading and Permeating Transcendental Form) and Archa (His Holy Image). One is relieved of the two fold commonest delusive errors, viz., (s) error of idolatry, and (b) error of Impersonalism, by the worship of the Holy Image and by the chanting of the Holy Name of the Supreme Lord in the manner enjoined by the Scriptures.
The iconoclast is as much an idolater as the maker of idols, Nay, he is a worse idolater as he believes God to be a formless void or empty space. This is the miserable plight of an intellectualist or a gnostic. His Divine Grace Srila Sarasvati Thakur, therefore, introduced the worship of Sri Murti in every spiritual centre to prevent a beginner in spiritual practices from turning into an idolater, gnostic or an atheist.
9. Sarasvati Thakur as the Leader of Practical Religious Life:
In all these centres for preaching activities, practical lives of thorough-going spiritual service dedicated fully to the one Absolute Person are led by the inmates under the guidance of bona fide devotees thereby setting living examples for practical preaching and forming the nucleus for wider dissemination of the new Renaissance of Religion and Culture brought about by Srila Sarasvati Thakur. There is not only an arrangement for systematic education for the inmates alone but regular classes are also held, morning and evening, for training the public in matters of pure Religion. Some of the centres have Tols and Chatuspathis for teaching Sanskrit free of cost and some have primary and secondary schools attached to them of which the residential school named Thakur Bhaktivinoda Institute established by His Divine Grace Srila Sarasvati Thakur at Sree Mayapur in 1931 and affiliated up to the Matriculation standard of the Calcutta University deserves special mention in as much as the moral and spiritual grounding given to the young learners in these educational institutions will no doubt go a great way in reviving the pristine glory of ancient Indian Spiritual Culture. Nama-Sankirtana and regular worship of the Absolute Person, intended for the education of the public, systematic lectures and expositions of the true Shastric tenets by religious experts, form a part of the regular routine of all these centres. On suitable occasions, special meetings are held in which spiritual pabulum both in the shape of Maha Prasadam and religious discourses is freely distributed to the afflicted and the needy. With a view to encouraging the esoteric study in Religion by sincere and submissive devotees, a Research Institute named after Thakur Bhaktivinode was established by His Divine Grace Srila Sarasvati Thakur at Sree Mayapur in 1936.
10.His all India Preaching Tour:
His Divine Grace Srila Saraswati Thakur repeated his preaching tours all over the country several times after 1905 when he first visited all the prominent places in Southern India. In 1919 he finished his preaching tour all over North and East Bengal and in 1920 travelled to further interior places in Eastern Bengal including Dacca. In 1921 he extended his preaching tour all over the provinces of Bihar, Orissa and the Santhal Parganas and established preaching centres in the prominent places of these provinces. In 1922 he visited all places of pilgrimage sacred to Sri Krishna in the districts of Muttra, Bharatpur and other neighbouring places known as Braja Mandal with the object of reviving the true service of the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna as propounded by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. In the year 1925 he took with him a retinue of large number of his disciples and religious preachers on an extensive tour all over Bengal known as Gauda Mandal Parikrama and visited places sacred to the memory of various saints that have flourished in Bengal, for discovering and explaining to his followers the history and the true teachings of those saints. After that he went to some places in Assam including Shillong in the early part of 1926. For the next two years, his religious propaganda tour on a vast scale throughout the whole of India was a landmark in the history of the Gaudiya Movement as well as of India, because he not only attempted to bring about substantial improvement in various ways in all sacred places but also brought about a new thought in the religious lives of the followers of various sects and enlisted a large number of converts into Bhakti Cult, throughout India. In all places during his propaganda tour, His Divine Grace Srila Sarasvati Thakur was received and accepted as their savior, reviver and prophet in the domain of Revealed Religion.
11. Sarasvati Thakur’s genius and early activities:
He made ample private studies while at College in Higher Mathematics, International History and Philosophy and Indian Astronomy. He was such a versatile genius that he read through almost all the books he could get in the library of the College and from outside. At that time he started a cultural association named ‘August Assembly’ in Beadon Square, Calcutta, for discussing philosophical and theological subjects. He was such a forceful debator that none of his contemporaries could stand before his penetrating arguments.
In 1897 he opened a ‘Tol’ named ‘Sarasvata Chatuspathi’ in Maniktala Street for teaching Hindu Astronomy nicely calculated independently of Greek and other European astronomical findings and calculations.
During this time he used to edit two monthly magazines named ‘Jyotirvid’ and ‘Brihaspati’ (1896) and he published several authoritative treatises on Hindu Astronomy. Prominent men like Lala Haragauri Sankar, Dr. Ekendranath Ghose, D.Sc M.D. Pandit Satcouri Chatterjee, Siddhant Bhushan, and Pandit Shyamalal Gosvami were among his pupils. He was offered a chair in the Calcutta University by Sir Asutosh Mukherjee which he refused as he felt an imperative urge for the life of unalloyed devotion. He was a life-long celibate, and later in 1918 became a Tridandi Sanyasi under the name of Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati.
12. Sarasvati Thakur was honoured wherever He went:
In most of the Native States, he was received as State-Guest and Their Highnesses the Maharajas of Mysore, Travancore, Jaipur, Kashmir, Benares (now Varanasi), Tippera (now Tripura), Mayurbhanja, Jeypore, and Maharani of Cooch-Behar and many other ruling princes and chiefs were highly impressed with the ideal life and teachings of His Divine Grace. Again in 1928-29 Srila Sarasvati Thakur repeated his tour to many places from Assam to the Punjab including Bihar and United Provinces. He collected from these tours a very large number of unpublished manuscripts of authentic origin which he commenced publishing but has left unfinished to be taken up by his worthy successors.
Srila Sarasvati Thakur was welcomed with public addresses of reception in many places in India including Cuttack, Kovur, Ellore (now Eluru), Madras, Udupi, Travancore, Mysore, Bombay (now Mumbai), Dacca (now Dhaka), Mymensingh, Guwahati (now Gauhati), New Delhi, Kurukshetra, Kashmir, Jammu, Jaipur, Nathdwara, Benares, Allahabad. Bijnor and so on. While he went to Madras to lay the foundation-stone of the Gaudiya Math Temple in 1932, he was given a civic address by the Madras Corporation.
13. Sarasvati Thakur as the Reviver of the sacred places connected with Mahaprabhu:
Besides his attempts to preserve and improve the ancient shrines all over India, Srila Sarasvati Thakur began to establish the Holy Footprints of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in 108 prominent places in India, recording the time and place of visit by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the course of his preaching the all-embracing Culture and Religion of unalloyed devotion.
14. Sarasvati Thakur as the Reviver of Vedic Literature:
The vast number of literary works of religion published from different printing presses under the editorship of His Divine Grace and several acknowledged periodicals in different dialects of India standing to his credit and possessed by the Gaudiya Mission, have established his tenets on a sure unassailable basis of the esoteric values of all theologies and thus it transcends the limits of race, colour and nationality in the common service of the Absolute Person.
15. Sarasvati Thakur as the Expounder of Religious Truths:
The public utterances of His Divine Grace Srila Sarasvati Thakur created a new record in our religious lores. Although his language was singularly scholastic, he made very accurate revelations of the deep significance of the various ancient texts and also showed the real and eternal standard of perfect synthesis in a truly wide form of the seemingly divergent views of the different theistic schools of philosophy and theology. For the first time he also showed the real solution and true esoteric value of different rituals saving them from being mechanized and made lifeless or static. A powerful debater as he was, he could crush the most formidable opponents but his magnetic personality highly surcharged with the spirit of pure devotion won the hearts of all persons coming in his presence, and the true insight of a plane of actual realization that he revealed in his utterances carried direct and true perspective of the religious world where he always remained dynamic. Some of the glorious speeches on philosophical and theological subjects delivered by Srila Sarasvati Thakur in public meetings have been published but many of them are yet to be published for the elevation of religious thoughts of the coming generations. Many articles taken from the cue of his speeches, began to be published in 1921 in the Bengali weekly ‘The Gaudiya’ which has a new form of language and a wealth of spiritual researches and investigations unprecedented in Bengali literature and modern theology. His Divine Grace was so gladly willing to reveal his own region of Transcendence that whenever he found any earnest listener, he went on speaking not knowing the bounds of time and space, Disregarding the requests of his medical advisers even to the last moment, he continued to deliver the Divine Message of the Supreme Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, to the people, which was the only purpose of his appearance in this world.
In many places he made speeches in big conferences of Pandits and religious leaders of different schools, invited and solved their doubts and queries in the most catholic spirit. In all such conferences he could well explain and vindicate his position of unique leadership in Revealed Religion and thus he was accepted all over India not only as the illustrious leader of the Gaudiya Movement but also as the only accredited leader in the domain of Revealed Religion.
16. Sarasvati Thakur & Theistic Exhibitions:
A novel form of education was planned and demonstrated by Srila Sarasvati Thakur in the form of theistic exhibitions held in different parts of India including Kurukshetra, Sree Mayapur, Calcutta, Dacca, Patna, Benares, Allahabad, etc. In these he made successful use of pictorial representation by means of dolls and tableaux exhibited with devices in life-like manner demonstrating the true and practical import and teachings of the ancient Scriptures for a full and thorough education of the public particularly of the illiterate masses. These exhibitions attracted millions who were amply benefited, The two successive exhibitions held in 1930 within the Calcutta Gaudiya Math-precincts and in 1931 in the Calcutta Corporation ground (Baghbazar metal depot) witnessed record crowds drawing daily not less than one lakh of visitors throughout the duration of a month in each case.
17. His Devotional Life:
He carried on his comparative studies on philosophy and theology with Thakur Bhaktivinoda, the greatest Vaishnave saint of the last century, Since 1895 Srila Sarasvati Thakur had been attending the Vishva Vaishnava Raj Sabha than situated in Krishna Sinha Lane (now Beadon Row). In 1901 he took initiation into the greatest Mantras of Gaudiya Vaishnavas from Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj, the well-known saint of Nabadwip. Some time before this in 1899 he had been writing thoughtful original articles on comparative religion in the cultural weekly magazine ‘Nivedana’. In 1900 he published a book on Bengal society named ‘Bange Samajikata’.
18. Sarasvati Thakur as the uncompromising exponent of Unalloyed Truths:
For the first time in religious history His Divine Grace Srila Sarasvati Thakur dealt fully and purely with the Absolute Person making no compromise with different mental concoctions ef various sects and this he did in a plain and easy manner without the least tinge of mysticism which shrouds most of the prevalent religions. At the same time he did not claim to impart anything of his own but transmitted only the unalloyed Truths as originally revealed in the Scriptures. His Absolute Transcendence far surpasses the partial and crippled idea of Transcendence dealt by the western philosophers who failed to go beyond the empiric circle of mental subconsciousness far below the Region of the Absolute Person.
It is for the first time that His Divine Grace clearly defined the form, nature and aspects of true self, clearly distinguishing the same from the confusing aspects of the physical and the mental planes.
19. Sarasvati Thakur & Daiva Varnasharama-Dharma:
He brought the exquisite form of Daiva Varnashrama Dharma prevalent in ancient India on a true scientific and theistic basis separating truth from the various misconceptions and malpractices hitherto adopted.
20. Sarasvati Thakur & Application Of Human Talents & Products of Science To The Service of The Lord:
As he himself found unalloyed service of the Absolute Person not only the Ultimate but also the only Goal and the Highest Realization of life, he tried to engage all people living under the sun without any barrier of caste, colour, creed or community in the said service of the Absolute Person by means of all up-to-date products of human civilization in which alone these could have their highest and best use. Srila Sarasvati Thakur made elaborate arrangements for the easy and perfect realization of the Highest Truth or Revealed Religion by the world and also to make the same fully available to all in whatever position of life they might have been destined to be. His epistles to his disciples published in three parts are each a vade mecum containing a variety of inner truths in the eternal loving service of the Lord at once soul-animating and highly instructive.
21.Sarasvati Thakur as A Messenger of Divine Love:
His whole life was saturated with the spirit of true Religion and was fully devoted to the propagation of the Message of Divine Love as propounded by Mahaprabhu Sri Krishna Chaitanya. This was amply evidenced by the noble example of his life and conduct, by his significant utterances and by the numerous publications of religious literature including six Journals in different provincial dialects. He carried the banner of Gaudiya Religion and Culture beyond the seas and created great impression in the cultural centres of Great Britain ad the Continent resulting in the establishment of Sri Vasudeva Gaudiya Math in London, What is of the greatest value is that he brought together and inspired a brilliant band of followers able to continue his sacred mission of directing the activities of the world to the loving service of the Supreme Lord.
22. Sarasvati Thakur as The Manifestation of Sri Chaitanya Vani:
His Divine Grace was the living Manifestation of Sri Chaitanya Vani, the Gospel of Absolute Truth, That, when He begins to enter into our listening ears, dispels the gloom of age-long Avidya (nescience) from our mind and makes it the Eternal Bower of the Juvenile Pastimes of the Spiritual Despot of Brindaban, Every Logos emanating from His Divine Lips is a source of perennial enthusiasm and represents a spiritual Kaleidoscope which, when seen through our unconditioned souls’ eye, produces, at every turn, a panorama of endless variety of beautiful Holy Maids harmoniously dancing in beautiful circles round the Central Figure of All-Love, Beauty and Truth. His Transcendental Discourses drop manna and serve as a panacea for all world-diseases in the form of the threefold miseries with which the wise-acres of the world are specially afflicted. We have been terribly suffering from the ulcerous diseases of elevationism and Salvationism, the septic co-effects of our empiric knowledge. But his sharp double-edged lancet of Shastric reasonings, like successful surgical operation, while cutting to the quick, is bitter and painful at the outset, but wholesome, soothing and blissful in the long run.
It has already been said that His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupad is the same as the Power of Sri Chaitanya Vani identified with the Absolute Person as the Divine Logos. This is the clue to the distinctive Personality of Srila Prabhupad, The Power of the Divine Logos is the only Medium for the fullest manifestation of the significance of Divine Logos and we find this function underlying all the utterances and writings and activities of Srila Prabhupad. The Divine Logos has the coordinate eternal Forms of ‘Vachya’ and ‘Vachaka.’ As ‘Vachya’ He is Sri Krishna. As ‘Vachaka’ He is Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Srila Prabhupad displays the activity of the Power of the Divine Logos as ‘Vachaka,’ i.e., as the Exposition of Himself.
Srila Prabhupad teaches the following principles in regard to the Nature of the Divine Logos as Vachaka. Divine Logos is the Divine Transcendental Word manifesting Himself in the Form of His Own Exposition through the medium of the Divine Spiritual Preceptor. The Logos as Vachaka entering the submissive listening ear of the soul of the disciple teaches him that He is identical with the Logos as the Vachya. The Subject of Teaching is identical with the Teaching and the Teacher. In other words, Sri Krishna Chaitanya is the Same as Sri Krishna.
The Medium through Whom the Divine Logos as Vachaka makes His Appearance in this world is the Power of Sri Krishna Chaitanya and the servitors elected for this purpose by the Power of the Divine Logos as Vachaka. There can be no other medium. Srila Prabhupad is the distinctive Potency of Self-exposition of the Divine Power, or in this sense, the Other-Self of the Divine Power, because the Divine Power is Herself One.
The revelations take place originally through the medium of the Divine Teachers of the world in the Form of the Logos as Vachaka manifesting Himself on the lips of those Teachers by His Own Power of explaining and teaching Himself. The Preceptors are merely the Mediums of the Divine Logos served by His Own Power. The Divine Logos never appears dissociated from His Power of Self-exposition. Srila Prabhupad is the Associated Counter-whole Aspect of the Power of Self-exposition of the Divine Logos. The Appearance or Sri Krishna Chaitanya in this world can alone dispel all doubts regarding the Method and Purpose of the Quest of the Absolute from all minds of this ultra-rationalistic age. The process by which such doubts are solved is by the method of acceptance of the transcendental epistemology involving the unconditional recognition of the Power of Self-exposition of the Divine Logos as the Vachaka.
23. Sarasvati Thakur as The True Exponent of Transcendental Sound:
Externally the Appearance of the Divine Logos as Vachaka has complete similarity with the method of argumentative discourses regarding the Absolute that are indulged in by the average rationalist thinkers and philosophers. But, as a matter of fact, the two are categorically distinct and opposed. Rationalistic discourses regarding the Absolute are bound to prove inconclusive and productive of discordant views and opinions. Such discourses are also bound to be barren by reason of their seeking to be consciously independent of the Sole Dominating Initiative of the Absolute Who alone can acquaint us with His Own True Nature. Therefore, there is nothing surprising about the opposite result to enlightenment that is produced by the wrangling of the rationalist philosophers. The method enunciated by Srila Prabhupad does not shut out the process of argumentative discourse but insists on validating the process by seeking the necessary subordinate connection with the Absolute as Teacher. The Absolute Sound or Discourses from the lips of the Divine Teacher does not hamper our individual initiative in the matter of argumentative discourse. On the contrary, by the adoption of the method of listening submissively to the discourses from the lips of the Divine Teachers our own argumentative initiative is enabled to get a real footing in the plane of the Abiding Truth and to function in a constructive and positive manner. By seeking inspiration from the data of sense-experience supplied by the Deluding Aspect of the Power of the Logos, we are condemned to a performance for the multiplication of errors and absurdities. The initiative of the Absolute Logos is always there. It is only when our own argumentative nature seeks to be enlightened by such initiative that we are enabled to know and discourse about the Truth. This is in conformity with the requirements of the theistic position.
Srila Prabhupad emphasized the needlessness of worldly qualifications for the due reception of the Transcendental Sound. All persons irrespective of worldly merits, age, sex or race, are eligible to receive the Transcendental Sound in the Form of the Divine Discourses from the lips of the bonafide Spiritual Preceptors provided they are willing to listen with a submissive heart for receiving real enlightenment from the Only Source of all enlightenment, through the proper medium.
24. Sarasvati Thakur as The Real Guide of the seekers of Truth:
The pseudo-preceptors are those who are out of touch with the Source of real enlightenment. But they do not know that they are unfit to be bearers of enlightenment to the people of this world. They have a knack of indulging in inconclusive discourses for its own sake. Such performances have been the cause of the religious discords and animosities of this world. Srila Prabhupad has pointed out this root-cause of the spiritual difficulties of the world by his exhaustive Expositions of the Nature and Operations of the Enlightening Power of the Divine Logos. This Truth constitutes the basic principle of the Shastric or Shrauta method. It is the Vedic method or the method of being endowed with True Knowledge. All else is false knowledge which is more dangerous than downright ignorance. And it is for this reason that a very great responsibility rests upon all persons who profess to seek for true spiritual enlightenment but are unprepared to admit their greater responsibility of seeking the causeless Mercy of the Divine Preceptor in the shape of making the acquaintance of bona fide Spiritual Preceptor as He really is. Srila Prabhupad cannot be known as he is by the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya identical with the Divine Logos as Vachaka. Therefore, it is befitting for all to seek for real spiritual enlightenment, whether such persons belong to Asia, Africa, Europe or America, and to consider the imperative necessity of admitting the Initiative of the Absolute to make Himself known through the Medium of the Power of Exposition of Himself in His Form of the Divine Logos as Vachaka.
