Creed

Creed

The Sanskrit word dharma holds a certain fascination in the West; it rhymes with karma. Dharma and karma are related. Simply put, karma is “what you do,” where dharma “what you are,” that is, “what defines you.” Karma is most often thought of as the law of action and reaction. Karma is derived from the Sanskrit krit which becomes the word “create” in English. Karma is not only reaction from work, but also action itself, creative energy. So “what you do,” is a good way to think of karma.

Dharma is different. It has to do with what sustains a thing, dhrit. It means “essence, internal nature or characteristic, organic core, inborn traits. It may mean “who you are” in a general sense: your birth, your nationality, and your religion. Insofar as destiny or karma determines one’s existential state or dharma, the two are related. But in a higher sense, one’s innate being is spiritual. Since karma always involves action and reaction within the material world it is always a material consideration. Since our innate spiritual character is bound up with our actions and reactions in the material world, karma influences dharma.

In common usage the word dharma really refers to religion, especially that collection of actions and duties that are conducive to a higher existential state. According to one’s “religious” conception, the higher state may be heaven or a higher state of consciousness, or dissolution into undifferentiated monism. So different religious practices incorporate both dharma and karma as ways of progressing along the path.

According to the Vaishnava school from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to Bhaktivinoda Thakura and his followers, true dharma goes beyond mere mundane religion. While different spiritual outcomes may result from different practices as a question of developing levels of consciousness, true dharma must take into consideration the innate and eternal condition of the soul.

This then may be said to be the “creed” of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas. I have adapted this summary from the teachings of Bhaktivinoda as found in his Krishna Samhita as well as from the ancient source of Brahma-Samhita.

Our realization of the Godhead is personal. Ordinary materialists are unable to fathom the Personality of Godhead, who is transcendental to material forms, but who is the personification absolute beauty in divinity. The name of God associated with reality the beautiful is Krishna. As the embodiment of sweet absolute, Krishna invites the fallen conditioned souls who are trapped in the vicious cycle of karma join him in the divine dance through surrender and dedication.

Unfortunately fallen conditioned souls (jivas) hypnotized by the mirage of phenomenal attractions have become addicted to sensual enjoyment in the world of karma, and so suffer repeated birth and death. Even great philosophers are held in thrall, speculating on the nature of the phenomenal world, unable to see beyond the transitory jurisdiction of empiric knowledge. Even esoteric mysticism fails to reach to the highest levels of consciousness known as sat-chit and ananda. When meditation leads them to contemplate the eternal, they often identify the immortal soul with God and fall under the sway of monism. Under the influence of this notion, they assign divinity to nondifferentiated impersonal Monism. And thus they consider that the ultimate divinity is formless, eternal, immortal, and incapable of being known through sense perception.

We hold that the Supreme Absolute is Reality the Beautiful, Kṛṣṇa. As the sublime Govinda, He is the Supreme Godhead. His form is transcendental, blissful, and eternal (Sat-Cit-Ananda). He is the origin of all reality, spiritual and material. He has no other origin. He is the prime cause of all causes. Kṛṣṇa is the exalted Supreme entity having His eternal name, eternal form, eternal attribution and eternal pastimes. The very name “Kṛṣṇa” implies the love-attracting nature of the sweet Absolute.

The human form of life should be employed to rediscover one’s consitutional position in relation to the Absolute Truth. The true or complete dharma of the human soul is to re-encounter one’s relationship with divinity, reality the beautiful, the sweet absolute, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Real dharma means to engage in the search for Śrī Kṛṣṇa through surrender and dedication. This is the purport of true self-knowledge.

Atma-jñāna or self-knowledge finds its denouement in knowledge of the Paramātma. Real knowledge of the self reaches its fulfillment in the realization of the Supreme Self. We are not “One with God.” We share some of the characteristics of divinity, just as a ray of sunshine shares some of the characteristics of the sun itself, but is different. There is a distinction between the energetic sun and the sun’s energy in the form of rays. In the same light, the Paramātmā or superconscious Super-subject is distinct from and superior to the individual jivātma souls. They may be considered as the prakriti energy, or “objects” of the Supreme Subject. When the individual souls, trapped in the hypnotic illusion of maya, believe themselves to be the center of the universe, they act as “subjects.” Apparently we are all subjects and the world is an “objective” reality. But in truth, we are the objects or prakriti-energy of the Super Subject. When the living entities conceive themselves as subjects the material world conjured by the external energy of the Supersubject omes into play as “objective reality.” But the entire cosmos exists as a form of quantum hologram brought into existence through hypnosis of the living entities. This hypnosis is created through the agency of the Supersubject whose creation of the material universe takes place in a kind of mystic dream or trance through the subjective evolution of consciousness. Thus the myriad forms and species come into existence.

This entire material cosmos is a holographic projection, a mirror image of spiritual reality where the living entities, or the object-energy (prakriti) of the Supersubject, conceive of themselves as “subject” taking the unconscious world as “objective reality.” This world cannot exist without consciousness and depends on it as a computing machine depends on its software. Matter does not create consciousness. What we call “matter” is a byproduct of the subjective evolution of consciousness which begins with the Supersubject. When the conditioned souls pervert the subject-object relationship and try to experience reality as subjects, they experience the ananda or ecstacy principle through the prism of false ego as material happiness and distress in the temporal world of birth and death. Obsessed with the idea of enjoying the illusion in the plane of exploitation, the living beings ride the wheel of repeated birth and death called samsara, trapped in the endless cycle of mortality.

The living entities or jivātma being pure spiritual onsciousness, (chit) in their organic position as energy of the Super-subject have nothing to do with the so-called “objective world” or quantum holographic projection. Enchanted by this illusion, maya, atma- consciousness aided by Paramātma enforces the reality of the “object-world” which exists as a fun tion of the evolution of consciousness. The material world however, exists only on the temporal plane; it is manifest and withdrawn over a period of billions of billions of years and then manifest and withdrawn again, whereas consciousness is eternal. What is temporal has no absolute existence. Eternal consciousness is not the product of this temporal illusory world.

The material world is a temproary residence for the conscious living entities engrossed in playing the role of Subject. Absorption in the material plane is caused by ego. Re-integration into true spiritual consciousness involves recognition of the Supersubjective plane and submission and surrender to God (Krishna) through his agent and representative, the guru.

Real dharma or religion is found through surrender, śaraṇāgati. Surrender is the true path to spiritual enlightenment and ananda, bliss. This path will take one beyond the planes of ordinary enlightenment and knowledge to the highest plane of ecstasy.

True liberation is attainment of one’s innate spiritual reality through giving up false ego and realizing the 6-fold path of dedication. This means doing everything favorable for divine love while avoiding what is unfavorable; depending on God’s will and risking oneself while expecting his protection, complete self-abnegation and total humility. Liberation is true spiritual freedom as expressed through serving God in surrender and discovering one’s innate serving position on the the devotional path.

One’s service will ultimately be revealed through the help and divine intervention of guru who gives both holy name and divine mantra.

According to one’s qualifications and one’s inner need, one’s serving position in the world of Krishna will be revealed. This is elaborated on in Rupa Goswami’s Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu as well as in his Upadeshamrita.

The cultivation of the above-mentioned system of Divine Love is realized through the practice of sādhana. This involves the vibration of the holy name, the divine mantra and the various 64 devotional practices mentioned by Rupa Goswami.

These include hearing, chanting, and remembering Krishna, especially through the mantra:

Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare

Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare

Other processes of devotion include well as dedication to his holy feet, worship, prayer, personal service, friendship and complete surrender. When perfectly practiced, regulative devotion may become spontaneous only when mercy is bestowed by the higher plane. And so devotion may develop according to the different humors as for example, neutrality, service, friendship, parental, and even conjugal divine love.

Through the practice of devotion one eventual begins to cultivate intuitive and spontaneous attraction and devotion which may be in turn culminate in prem or divine love.

When one is fully absorbed in divine love he may be said to have attained “Krishna consciousness,” which is the highest form of samādhi or divine enlightenment. This is highly confidential and not easily attainable.

It is the perfection of dharma, the living entity’s perfection, to achieve this perfect samadhi in Krishna consciousness, following the mood of the residents of Vrindaban by practicing the kirtan inspired by Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, the golden avatar of Krishna, by Nityānanda Prabhu and the residents of Nabadwip-dham.

By understanding the above principles, by realizing the nature of one’s relationship with God, Krishna, and the ontology of divine love, one may begin to perfect the practice of Sharanagati, surrender which will lead one to the ultimate goal--divine love of Rādha and Krishna by following the practice given by gurudeva who is an authorized representative of Shri Chaitanya, whose teachings were recorded by Kaviraja Goswami and disseminated through Bhaktivinod Thakura, Saraswati Thakura, Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhar dev Goswāmi, Bhakti Sundar Govinda Mahārāja and their followers.