Burn Your Bridges

We cannot shake it off and have an impartial view of the environment because we are inclined to cheat others (vipralipsa, বিপ্রলিপ্সা) and ourselves (atma-vanchana, আত্মবঞ্চনা). Our acquired tendency, our idea of what is good and our past history stand in our way. We must be open, but this attraction to our past historical events means very much to us. It is very difficult to get out of it. We are proud of our past experience and knowledge, so this is something that is very difficult to disown. We think that if we do it, we will lose our own self.

It is necessary to be open, unprejudiced, impartial. That is the question. This is what surrender is. By the fire of surrender, all difficulties, everything will be burnt into ashes. Our past experiences define our variegated future prospects, and faith and surrender create a great conflagration where all our past, along with all future prospects, will be burnt to ashes. Your past experience, your history, so many things – throw everything into this fire. Be clean. Begin your journey with a clean hand.

যা নিশা সর্ব্বভূতানাং তস্যাং জাগর্ত্তি সংযমী ।
যস্যাং জাগ্রতি ভূতানি সা নিশা পশ্যতো মুনেঃ ॥

ya nisa sarva-bhutanam, tasyam jagarti samyami
yasyam jagrati bhutani, sa nisa pasyato muneh

'That which is day for the self-controlled sage is night for all beings, and that which is day for all beings is night for the sage who sees.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 2.69)

We must leave that which is day to us at present and jump into that which is almost night, then we shall find day. Die to live. Surrender. Apparently, surrender means death, but this death leads to life. Die to live. Surrender. Explore the negative side. Try to give up everything, reach abstention to the extreme. Surrender, become a cypher [zero]! To attain the highest form of a positive life, we should become cyphers.

Surrender, and all defects in your existence will be cleared. Your existence is defective and vulnerable, so there is no confidence in you. If you surrender and embrace faith, you think that it may all be false, but you are already cent-per-cent in falsehood! So, no bad sort of pleading or advocacy will come; do not be afraid that something even worse will come with faith. Anyway, how much can you even cover with your tiny faith? The Infinite is so much bigger, He is infinitely better and greater than that! What is a drop of your faith in an ocean?

Faith can take you nearer to the highest thing. Through faith you can connect yourselves with nothing other than the highest thing. In this world, you can have connection with the farthest planet only with the help of electricity, not by hand, air, some machine or anything else – you can reach the farthest possible quarter only through the electric plane. Similarly, faith is the most extensive plane that we can find near us and through the connection with which we can go far, far away. We can come in connection with our conviction and our conception. Such hope is there. Through faith, we can have an eternal company of the thing of the highest type. Only faith can help us connect with the Infinite. Through faith He can come to us from far away. There is no other property that we have got in our possession that can bring Him near us. 'To bring Him near' means, in other words, for us to come near Him.

We may think about it in another way also. The so-called scientists can use computers and machines to send and receive information from sputniks. An ordinary man will think, 'How can one rely on a machine?' Ordinary people cannot understand electrification and all those scientific movements happening there. They only may know about it by reading what is advertised to them. When a weather forecast is made, ordinary people cannot understand how it can be predicted that the weather will come in this way ('That is unreal! How can a machine say this?'), but the brainy class see that tangible connection. Similarly, the television and radio are beyond the conception or intelligence of ordinary people, too, but those who are involved with the radio, they say, 'Yes, what is happening is true. We are getting a signal.' So, at present faith may seem abstract to us, unbelievers, ordinary people, but for those who are accustomed to living on the plane of faith can see that transaction and it is reality to them.

যা নিশা সর্ব্বভূতানাং তস্যাং জাগর্ত্তি সংযমী ।
যস্যাং জাগ্রতি ভূতানি সা নিশা পশ্যতো মুনেঃ ॥

ya nisa sarva-bhutanam, tasyam jagarti samyami
yasyam jagrati bhutani, sa nisa pasyato muneh

'That which is day for the self-controlled sage is night for all beings, and that which is day for all beings is night for the sage who sees.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 2.69)

Every living entity has got its own plane. What is civilisation to the human being is beyond the jurisdiction of an ordinary worm or insect. So, through faith we can live in such a place, and that is a concerete thing. Though it is not so easily understandable, it is real to those who really interact with it – thet get satisfaction and verification that 'Yes, we are sending the news and something is coming back to us in reply.' So, verification of faith is possible, too, but to a person of that standard; ordinary, ignorant mass may not find any verification of those movements and discovery. It is all about faith (sraddha).

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur says, 'Sakala chhadiya bhai, sraddha-devira guna gai. Brother, leave everything and let us sing about the glories of Sraddha Devi, Goddess of Faith.' 'Give up everything and let us come to praise exclusively the grace of Faith. Only faith can take us to Krishna, nothing else.' That is surrender. Surrender to Him can take us nearer to Him and we can find that He is real and all else is unreal, though it cannot be seen by these eyes or heard by these ears. Sometimes it can be possible, but generally that plane is 'buddhi-grahyam atindriyam' (has nothing to do with material senses but can be realised only through spiritual intelligence; Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 6.21).

এবং বুদ্ধেঃ পরং বুদ্ধা সংস্তভ্যাত্মানমাত্মনা ।
জহি শত্রুং মহাবাহো কামরূপং দুরাসদম্ ॥

evam buddheh param buddhva, samstabhyatmanam atmana
jahi satrum maha-baho, kama-rupam durasadam

'O mighty Arjuna, knowing the soul to be superior to the intelligence, steady the mind with resolute intelligence and destroy the formidable enemy, desire.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 3.43)

This statement is found in Srimad Bhagavad-gita. 'How can I once and for all get out of the attraction, of all these tendencies that are drawing me to this material world? How can I get out of this material charm?' If you can anyhow come in connection with that plane, all these things will seem like trash to you and it will then be very, very easy to get out of all these pains. It means introspection. Try to see your soul with the soul's eye.

The soul is above the reason and intelligence that you generally use in this plane. The soul is there, so try to seek it out with the help of the highest intelligence. Embrace the soul with your ultimate existence, with your very existence. If you can do it even for a split second – if you can take yourself to your own self, withdrawing yourself from the environment; if you can get such a happy slight experience for a split second – then the whole thing here will seem to be like trash. There will be no charm. All charm will vanish, will be uprooted. 'Oh, beyond this apparently charming environment there is such a real thing! It is such a happy plane!' It may be a very small point, but it will be a constituent part of a great happy plane.

ascharyavat pasyati kaschid enam
ascharyavad vadati tathaiva chanyah
ascharyavach chainam anyah srnoti
srutvapy enam veda na chaiva kaschit

'Some see the soul as astonishing, some describe it as astonishing, some hear of it as astonishing, while others, though hearing about it, know nothing of it.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 2.29)

You will be dumbstruck, 'Such a thing exists! And that is myself?! Oh, I have been only chewing grass, or, rather, stones! I have been chewing stones! What am I doing?!' There will come the most confident and final, wholesale retirement from the material charm that we feel with our mundane senses. Then, you will be convinced, 'If I can explore this higher side, I shall be a great gainer. I will be successful in my errand.' It is sure, it is certain! That is a certain plane – it is this world that is uncertain! If only you could have a peep, a touch of your own soul, then you could come in touch with the Supersoul and so many others on the other side. What to speak of them, if only you could just empirically get the taste of your own soul, even for a split second!

ইন্দ্রিয়াণি পরাণ্যাহুরিন্দ্রিয়েভ্যঃ পরং মনঃ ।
মনসস্তু পরা বুদ্ধির্বুদ্ধের্যঃ পরতস্তু সঃ ॥

indriyani parany ahur, indriyebhyah param manah
manasas tu para buddhir, buddher yah paratas tu sah

'It is said by the wise that the senses are superior to matter, the mind is superior to the senses, and the intelligence is superior to the mind; and the soul is superior to even the intelligence.'

(Srimad Bhagavad-gita, 3.42)

In this way, eliminating the charm of this lower existence step by step, go to the intelligence, which is very fine. Then – what is there above intelligence? If you can, for a split second, have a touch of the soul – the light, the spark that makes the intelligence, or reason, work – then a revolutionary change is bound to come in your life. Your whole history in this world will appear to be useless. You will feel, 'I want that world, my soul's world!' Then, you will be taken to the Supersoul (Paramatma), then Vaikuntha, and so on.

প্রায়েণ মুনয়ো রাজন্নিবৃত্তা বিধিসেধতঃ ।
নির্গুণ্যস্থা রমন্তে স্ম গুণানুকথনে হরেঃ ॥

prayena munayo rajan
nivrtta vidhi-sedhatah
nairgunya-stha ramante sma
gunanukathane hareh

'O King, even all the learned souls who are situated beyond rules and regulations and who have attained existence in the nurguna plane (i.e. became liberated) feel great joy in chanting the glories of the Supreme Lord.'

(Srimad Bhagagavatam, 2.1.7)

Then, some practical faith will come. You will realise that God's existence is not a fable or imagination, it is reality, so your progress and enquiry will become more genuine, of pure type, and your march towards that land will become more real and will actually fetch a result. You will grow more and more confident and follow the gradual journey towards Krishna (Krishna conception), as given to us by Srimad Bhagavatam, the last book of Vyasadev, and Mahaprabhu.

Satyam sivam sundaram (সত্যং শিবং সুন্দরম্). Search for Krishna, Reality the Beautiful (sundaram) and your life will be successful.

ন তে বিদুঃ স্বার্থগতিং হি বিষ্ণুং
দুরাশয়া যে বহিরর্থমানিনঃ ।

na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum
durasaya ye bahir artha-maninah

'If one’s heart is polluted with the desire for material enjoyment and earnestly accept lustful people who are attached to the external material world and everything in it, they know nothing about the glory of the Supreme Lord Sri Vishnu, who is the only path and shelter for those who aspire to attain the highest goal of human life.'

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 7.5.31)

Prahlad Maharaj said, 'You are engrossed only with the cover, not the spirit within. This outer aspect is charming, engrossing you, but look deep within to find the internal substance that makes all these things existent (sat), that makes all calculation possible (chit) and that makes one search after the highest prospect of life (anandam).'

Do not ignore it. Search your own self. This is the general standard of enquiry that we have got from Mahaprabhu. Enquire in this line. Your prospect is there. Verify it, be sincere. And beware! You are in the hands of a cheater, so much so that even you want to cheat yourself. Your march forward must be thorough and wide without any gojamil (গোঁজামিল; cooking the books) or blind, credulous faith.

You will understand Mahaprabhu's magnanimity, and then one day we can all sing in chorus with Vasudev Ghosh, 'Yadi gaura na ha'ta, tabe ki haita. Oh! If such Gauranga had not come here, how would I be able to live? If I had no experience of such a stage, of such taste, my life would be worthless! Without this taste that I have got at present, which was given by Sri Gauranga, this life is no life! And kemane dharitam de? How would I be able to sustain my existence without it? It is only because I am fated to this final fortunate attainment that I am dragging on my life. Yes, living has been successful for me because I could come to taste a drop of such nectar. My living has proved successful! But for that, my whole life would be useless. I have lived through so much trouble, and it was all worth it because I have managed to come to such a goal. My present attainment justifies all my past troubled lives in so many different species and all the sorrow of my past lives.'

Question: How can our faith grow more and more?

By utilising a favourable environment. This is where we are to draw our food from. We must live in the area where the food that we want is stored. When one suffers from a disease, the doctors say ultimately, 'Take a change of climate.' So, by going to a particular climate one automatically gets the help from the nature, and the health may improve even without any medicine. In the same way, a particular environment will help us.

সাধু-শাস্ত্র-কৃপায় যদি কৃষ্ণোন্মুখ হয় ।
সেই জীব নিস্তারে, মায়া তাহারে ছাড়য় ॥

sadhu-sastra-krpaya yadi krsnonmukha haya
sei jiva nistare, maya tahare chhadaya

'When, by the mercy of the sadhu and the scriptures, a soul turns back to Lord Krishna, it attains redemption and Maya leaves it alone.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.20.120)

Sadhu-sanga (association of saints) and sastra-sanga (association of scriptures) are similar – one can help us in an active way; and the other one, in a passive way. We must seek that which can give us His connection – that which can connect us with His Name, His pastimes, His beauty, His qualities, everything. This is the way.

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• The All-Auspicious Name of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math

• A Fugitive's Plea

• Service to Gaura-Gadadhar

• Soul's Svakiya and Parakiya

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• Srila Svarup Damodar Goswami: Master Acharya

• Exclusive Conception of Srila Prabhupad's Line

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• Scope of Sacrifice

• Journey from Misguidance to Absolute Guidance

• Renunciation of Renunciation

• Renunciation of Cowards and Misers

• Maya's Test

• 'You Are Mine'

• Be Courageous

• Soul-Deep Cultivation

• Path to Progress

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• Cow Consciousness

• 'You Work, and I Will Enjoy'

• Burn Your Bridges