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Embracing our
vows ...
From Endless Love - Collected Essays 1978-1983 - By
Ravindra Svarupa Dasa
Submitted by
Manoj
I wrote the Hare Krishna mantra on the blackboard
and then explained to the class that it was simultaneously a prayer and
the prayer's fulfillment. As a prayer, it begs the divine energy that
unites us to God to join us with Him through service, and at the same time
it is that union, for by chanting we directly associate with God in the
form of His divine names (Krishna the person and "Krishna" the sound are
nondifferent). Then I taught the seminarians how to pronounce the words of
the mantra and asked them to chant it with me in call-and-response
fashion. And then, to my immense delight, we had a wonderful kirtana, as
fifty strong voices clearly and vigorously chanted the Hare Krishna mantra
with me After years of lecturing, I could get just about any audience to
chant, but this chanting was exceptional; this chanting was robust,
spirited, with none of the sectarian reluctance I had feared. It was
alive. These were clearly not ordinary men.
After the kirtana, I
began to explain how chanting was related to the subject of revelation.
Revelation is two-sided: there is the giver and the receiver, and then the
receiver becomes the giver to another receiver, in turn. In Sanskrit this
process is called parampara, or disciplic succession. Since the
All-Perfect reveals Himself perfectly, His revelation must be passed down
without any change or alteration. For God's revelation to be potent, it
must be preserved intact, in all its original integrity.
How is
this possible? The original giver, God, may be infallible, but the
receiver is all too fallible. And yet, as I explained, we must understand
that the divine revelation is not merely a collection of sentences, not
just propositional truth. Memorization and rote transmission are
machinelike functions that do not in themselves suffice for transmitting
the revelation. God's revelation-His word-like His names in the mantra, is
absolute, and therefore God Himself is given in His word, in His own
revelation. For this reason, the word of God possesses a concrete power.
Just as a potent antibiotic injected into the bloodstream destroys the
agents of infection, so the word of God, injected into the ears of a fully
submissive receiver, destroys all his material contaminations, and he
becomes transformed into a fitting receptacle, into a unsullied
transparent medium. Such a person not only speaks the word of God; he
lives it, and living it, becomes the word personified.
Thus the
potency of God's revelation is exhibited through the devotees, who are
living exemplars of the purifying power of God. The word that is in
relation to God can be received as it is only from those persons who are
in relation to God. They are the life in which the letter lives. The
revelation of God becomes a dead letter, like a law without government,
when there are no pure devotees living the life of the letter.
So
far, I had their full attention. Now I began to explain the four
regulative principles, which are absolutely necessary for a person to
observe if he wants to transmit the revelation of God intact. I
enumerated: no eating of animal flesh, no indulgence in illicit sex, no
taking of intoxicants, and no gambling-and I saw that I was losing my
audience Feet shuffled, eyes wandered ... and then the monsignor, their
instructor, announced that it was time for a short break.
He and I
sat down together. I wanted to talk with him about meat eating, but before
I could begin to offer reasons why a Christian ought to refrain from
animal slaughter, he began to offer reasons why a Christian could indulge
in alcohol. This was not an auspicious sign, to say the least, and as I
began the second part of my lecture, I was somewhat less sanguine about
the spiritual chances of these wonderful chanters. The monsignor, after
all, was their teacher.
I spent the second part of the lecture
explaining the spiritual principle that it is possible to give up material
activities of the senses not by rigid nullifications or barren
abnegations, but only by giving the senses superior engagements in divine
service. It is first of all necessary to control the tongue, I explained;
only then can the other senses (including the genitals) be controlled. In
the Krishna consciousness movement, I told them, we control the tongue by
chanting the Hare Krishna mantra and by talking about the transcendental
activities of the Lord and His devotees, and we eat only the sacred food
called prasada (or God's mercy), which is sanctified by having first been
offered to the Lord. Similarly, the eyes, ears, nose, hands, and legs are
all controlled by spiritual engagements in divine service. Our senses are
not repressed by such engagements; rather, they become purified by being
kept in contact with the divine through active service. And thus our mind,
the hub of the senses, becomes fixed in constant remembrance of the Lord,
and such recollection gradually reawakens our dormant love for God. When
this original love is misdirected, it assumes the guise of material
desire, of lust. This is why, when spiritual purity is restored, material
desire is not present even in a repressed state, where it can break out at
any time; rather, it has been wholly transmuted back into its original and
natural form, pure love of God.
I answered a number of questions,
mostly concerning the particular practices of Krishna devotees, while they
passed around the large bowl of sweetballs (prasada) I had brought for
them.
After the class was dismissed, about a dozen seminarians
lingered behind, all very friendly and inquisitive, and began to question
me, mostly about the four regulative principles.
….
It was
frustrating for me. I had told them what to do - but could they do it in
the context of the Church? To chant God's names and dance with His
devotees, to eat sumptuous feasts of His mercy, to hear and read the
always-fresh stories of His activities, and pastimes, which fill volume
after volume, to let their eyes feast on the gorgeous form of the Lord in
the temple … could they do things like these? I had an overwhelming urge
to take these men, right now, out onto the streets to chant. Then, I knew,
they would be all right, they would be saved. They wanted a pure life (a
rare thing), they wanted to surrender fully to God, they wanted to
overcome the powerful "law of the flesh" - and I knew how they could do
it.
….
Before I left I told them that I had not come to criticize
their religion. But as I looked at their faces, still clearly marked by
the purity of their calling, I could only think that they were being
horribly betrayed. I do not want to criticize their religion now, either,
but I can only honestly report that I did not see there the spiritual
energy that the word of God bears when lived by His pure
devotees.
With John Paul II there has come hope. HE is young,
energetic, and is said to have charisma. But the sign of real renewal will
not be the protestation of affection, the big turnouts, the cheers, and
the applause. It will be when those seminarians embrace their vows not
with bitterness and resentment but with joy, enthusiasm, and
confidence.
You may no believe such a thing possible, but I have
seen it. I have been blessed to meet a pure devotee of God. Some of us
have not been betrayed.
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