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EDITORIAL  Comment on this story Adwaita Acarya Cannot Give Vraja Bhakti? BY PATITA-PAVAN DAS EDITORIAL, Apr 12 (VNN) — In a recent article of Srila Narayan Maharaj he expressed that Srila Adwaita Acarya cannot give Vraja bhakti, he said: "Who is Maha-Visnu? Sri Advaita Acarya. He is the amsa of the amsa of the amsa of the amsa of the Kala of Krsna Himself. He is a part of the part of the part of the part of Krsna. Being so far away, He can preach with kirtana, but He cannot give Vraja-bhakti. Never. He is not qualified for this. Only Krsna can do this. When He came, therefore, He preached through sankirtana that highest love and affection, as well as the process to achieve it." Actually I am wandering about this afirmation because in Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Srila Krsnadas Kaviraj Goswami dedicates a whole chapter to praise about His glories. For sure we all know this. There Srila Krsnadas state: "Since He has no other occupation than to teach devotional service, His name is Adwaita Acarya. He is the spiritual master of all devotees and is the most revered personality in the world. By a combination of this two names, His name is Adwaita Acarya." (CC. 1.6.29-30) Srila Prabhupad says in his purport to this last sloka: Sri Adwaita Acarya is the prime spiritual master of the vaisnavas, and He is worshipable by all vaisnavas. Devotees and vaisnavas must follow in the footsteps of Adwaita Acarya, for by so doing one can actually engage in the devotional service of the Lord. Caitanya-caritamrta continues saying: Sri Adwaita Acarya is the principal limb of the Supreme Lord. His truths, names, and attributes are all wonderfull. (CC. 1.6.33) It is throuhg Him (Adwaita Acarya) that Lord Caitanya spread the sankirtan movement and through Him He delivered the world. The glory and attributes of Adwaita Acarya are unlimited. How can the insignificant living entities fathom them? Sri Adwaita Acarya is a principal limb of Lord Caitanya. Another limb of the Lord is Nityananda Prabhu. (CC 1.6.35-37) We already know that Mahaprabhu regarded Sri Adwaita Acarya His superior and that He don't tolerated the offense' of His mother to the lotus feet of Sri Adwaita Acarya. Narayan Maharaja says, as I quoted, that only Krsna can give Vraja bhakti, that means that His followers cannot do it? (Because by sure we are more far away from Krsna than Sri Adwaita Acarya). Krsna das Kaviraj says that the name of Adwaita Acarya means that he is Adwaita because He is not different from God and Acarya because He is preaching the devotional cult. He says: "He delivered all living beings by offering the gift of Krsna-bhakti. He explained Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagvatam in the light of devotional service." (CC. 1.6.28) So, Krsna-bhakti is not Vraja-bhakti? When teaching Srimad Bhagvatam He was not giving Vraja-bhakti? Please explain all this things. Srila Narayan Maharaj also says: "Being so far away, He can preach with kirtana, but He cannot give Vraja-bhakti." So, this means that kirtan doesn't give Vraja bhakti? This means that the Nam cannot give the supreme goal? Or this means that it is the kirtan of Srila Adwaita Acarya the one that cannot deliver Vraja bhakti? In the same article Srila Narayan Maharaj, trying to glorify our Srila Prabhupad, says: You should not think that he was only a preacher of harinama. You should not think that he only wrote so many books, and published and distributed them. This is not his glory. What is his glory? He is a Rupanuga Vaisnava-serving Radha-Krsna conjugal in the same way as Rupa Manjari. I don't understand: why he is not only a preacher of Harinama? This is a little thing? If our Prabhupad is an important rupanuga everything that he did is important, very important, and specially for us because he came to save us. Sridhar Maharaj nicely said that those who came to save us, naturally will be loved by us, and that their coming to save us will be our first consideration. How book distribution cannot be an important thing when Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupad put publishing books in the level of raganuga bhakti in the banner of his Gaudiya Math? For me our Srila Prabhupad, while preaching, was serving Radha Krsna conjugal. For me, audharya is superior to madhurya because, as we know, audharya is when madhurya is distributed and this is the real mood of our Acaryas since Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur and Srila Gour Kishore Babaji Maharaj. Mahaprabhu asked in Caitanya-caritamrta: "please, make Me famous as the most munificent person in the world." The whole Caitanya-caritamrta, Caitanya Bhagvat, Caitanya Mangala, etc. chant the glories of preaching. So, why I cannot see the world preaching of my spiritual master as a very important aspect of him, when he did just what our Acaryas were longing for? When he did what Mahaprabhu ordered us to do? And when he made reality Mahaprabhu's most famous prediction? Thanks to this preaching now we are speaking about him and many other devotees are coming to preach. Preaching will save our lifes, these were the words of my spiritual master. I can only see that by not apreciating suficiently the preaching work of my spiritual master, there is no apreciation for the great preaching spirit of our parama guru, and also now I can understand why our Srila Prabhupad many times complained because many devotees in India were not preaching as their principal task. Narayan Maharaj also says that Srila Prabhupad saw that here the field was barren, full of weeds and thorns, so he was not able to preach in a deeper way. Well, many times I have been in India and I can say that there is no difference with the West. There the field is as barren as here. Actually maya in India is still worse, more subtle. And because they have more knowledge, aparadhas are more prominent. So, I can see very clearly that our Srila Prabhupad preached in the same level as the preachers in Bharat do. Prabhupad teached raganuga bhakti from the beggining because he was a raganuga bhakta, everything that was coming out from his lotus mouth was the most pure and high bhakti from the very beggining, and his disciples were engaged in service in that mood, preaching strongly, worshiping deities, everything in a very nice way. The falldown of many devotees was because of offenses between devotees, not because our Prabhupad didn't teach suficiently. He taught everything and he engaged us in the best way. He made us work hard for Krsna, serve hard Krsna, and this is the most high gopi-bhav. He teached us audharya, Mahaprabhu, the finest concepcion of Radha Krsna conjugal. Sarvabhauma Battacarya said that those who are worshiping Mahaprabhu already served Radha Krsna conjugal for one hundred births. So, this must be understood. And Mahaprabhu means to give, to give Radha Krsna conjugal. Param vijayate Sri Krsna sankirtanam!!! Well, I can say many more things on this subject. Because Narayan Maharaj is telling all this things in an open way I felt compeled to answer in the same way. After reading his words I felt that he was presenting a quite different conception of Sri Adwaita Acarya and that the service of my divine master was not appreciated in the proper way. So I humbly want to know why Srila Adwaita Acarya, who, along with Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu is one of the three predominators or masters of the Pa–ca tattva, (Cc. 1.7.15) cannot give Vraja bhakti. In any way I don't want to offend Srila Narayan Maharaj, but I think it is important for him and his followers to know how a Prabhupad disciple sometimes feels after hearing his words. Actually I wish the best for Srila Narayan Maharaj preaching and I apreciate his preaching efforts and his giving shelter to so many devotees. I offer my respectful salutations unto him. I ask to remain a servant of the Vaisnavas. Dasanudas, Patita-pavan das. Related VNN Stories Comment on this storyContact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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