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Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was born in Navadwipa in 1486 as the son of Jagannatha Misra and mother Saci, while Srila Nityananda Prabhu was born in Ekachakra in 1474, as the son of Hadai Pandita, and Padmavati. They grew up separately and met only much later, already in adult life. However, Lord Nityananda and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu are considered brothers, how is it so?

From the books of Srila Prabhupada, we hear that the Vedas are the source of all knowledge. Thus it is not a surprise that many of us will have a desire to study different books from the Vedas in search of knowledge, including the different puranas, Upanishads and so on. We get then in contact with the many translations of such works done by different scholars, both from India and the west. Some of these publications even contain commentaries of our Vaishnava Acaryas, such as Madva and Ramanuja, which reassures us.

There is however a catch.

Sanskrit verses, especially verses from the Puranas and Upanisads are highly metaphorical and difficult to translate. Unless one understands the meaning and conclusion of the text, just being a Sanskrit scholar is not sufficient to provide a bonafine translation.

Madvacarya emphasizes this point in his commentary on the Mundaka Upanisad, explaining the difference between aparā-vidya and parā-vidya.

The word aparā literally means “lower” or “inferior”. In his commentary, Srila Madvacarya explains that passages in the Vedas are considered inferior, or aparā when they do not designate Viṣṇu but are employed in a ritualistic sense. However, they become parā-vidyā, when they directly express Lord Viṣṇu and service to Him.

One world event that has been bringing me a lot of sadness is the war between Russia and Ukraine. I know many don’t want to hear about it, but this is just something that is stuck in my throat.

Of course, we understand that wars are a feature of the age we live, in and are to a certain extent inevitable, as long as most people don’t become devotees, but this particular war is different from others in the sense of that it has been affecting large groups of devotees.

The war brought a great shock to thousands of Ukrainian devotees who had to abandon their homes on very short notice and go on dangerous journeys through occupied territories in the Kherson region, Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk, and so on, sometimes under fire, to eventually reach neutral countries like Georgia or Armenia through Russian territory, from where they could eventually go to countries in Europe. These were quite long and difficult journeys, but they were in a sense the lucky ones because they could at least travel with their families. Ukraine decreed martial law right at the start of the war and prevented all able-bodied men from leaving the country. This led many families to have to separate, with the women and children going to Europe to escape the war, and the men staying in Ukraine to face an uncertain future. This affected, literally, thousands of families of devotees, and many of these families are still separated. Apart from that, many devotees were conscripted into the army, and many of them already died. Months ago a partial list was published with 19 names, and unfortunately, this list is already outdated.

To understand the chronology of the Srimad Bhagavatam, it’s important to understand how time is described in the Vedas since the whole history of the Srimad Bhagavatam fits inside this chronology. The modern understanding of time is substantially different from the Vedas, and it’s practically impossible to understand the events described in the Srimad Bhagavatam and other Puranas as long as we are under these concepts.

The modern conception of history is that humanity is evolving, coming from the caveman to the industrial revolution. However, our understanding of the past is limited. The oldest artifacts that can be accepted as recorded history date from about 5000 years ago. Most of the theories about what happened before are based on indirect evidence, like fossils and artifacts. Paleontologists use whatever they find to try to create a coherent view of the human past, but it’s very difficult to find the truth without direct information from people who lived there.

Srila Prabhupada makes it clear that instead of asking about how did we fall into this material world, we should ask how to get out of here. He equates this attitude to someone drowning in the ocean who starts asking how he fell into the sea when offered help instead of first getting out of the water and asking questions later.

It makes perfect sense when we think about it logically, but there is also an emotional factor that makes us often take the wrong turn: the fear that the person who is supposed to save us is the same one who put us here. The ultimate conspiracy theory.

The sastras, as well as our previous acaryas, explain that we are eternal servants of Krsna. This makes perfectly clear what our original position is. However, at the same time, it is made clear that no one falls from the spiritual world. How can we come from the spiritual energy if no one falls from the spiritual world?

Not everyone comes to Mayapur or Vrindavana to practice spiritual life. Many come after money or other material things. One may become shocked or sad to see materialists pursuing their activities in the holy dhama, but the fact is that such materialists are also engaged in Krsna’s service, although indirectly. Actually, it’s like that all over the creation. How does it work?

The point is that such materialistic people in the course of their material activities produce things that are useful for Vaishnavas, and in this way, they accumulate ajnata sukriti. One may plant flowers and make garlands for money, but if devotees buy these garlands and offer them to Krsna, he benefits. Similarly, a materialistic person can come to Mayapur and Vrindavana to build apartments and perform a good volume of dishonest activities in the process, but if later the apartments are used by devotees engaged in service, still they benefit from it.

Sometimes even devotees who are recognized for their service to the mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu do things that are sinful or even immoral. In one sense it is not a sin to call a spade a spade and tell others about the facts that happened, but there are a few points that should make us a little careful when condemning such devotees.

Here is a paragraph from a purport from Srila Prabhupada that really took my attention today:

“Lord Kṛṣṇa’s gentle behavior before His so-called superiors such as His father, grandfather and elder brother, His amiable behavior with His so-called wives, friends and contemporaries, His behavior as a child before His mother Yaśodā, and His naughty dealings with His young girlfriends cannot bewilder a pure devotee like Uddhava”

The part that struck me is how Krsna deals nicely with his superiors, as well as his friends. He is a little naughty with mother Yashoda, of course, but this is just part of the Lila. In all other pastimes, as when he deals with the Pandavas, with the senior Yadhus with his Vasudeva and Nanda Maharaja, his wives in Dwaraka, and even His servants, Krsna always shows the highest degree of politeness.

Many devotees have the dream of coming to live in Mayapur. That’s the place where Lord Caitanya inaugurated his sankirtan movement, and also the biggest Vaishnava community in the world. It is the spiritual capital of the world, so to say. Mayapur is described as being no different from Vrindavana, and in fact, all the holy places are present here. There are expansions of Kurukshetra, Naimisharanya, and even Jagannatha Puri, everything within walking distance.

The problem in coming to live in Mayapur is how to maintain oneself here. If one is prepared to live a renounced life, is always possible to find a hole in the wall somewhere and live by distributing books to the pilgrims or doing some menial service, but for the ones who have families or are not yet prepared for a life of renunciation things are of course more complicated.

Some believe that certain parts of Srila Prabhupada’s teachings were just “preaching strategies”, or deliberate lies told with the goal of making his preaching sweeter to certain audiences. The list includes points such as Prabhupada’s insistence that the soul has an eternal relationship with Krsna and such a relationship is simply forgotten when the jiva falls into the material world, giving brahmana initiation to ladies or saying that they could eventually also accept disciples and so on. The list is constantly growing.

This attitude of interpreting instructions from Srila Prabhupada and raising doubts about the honesty of the founder-Acarya sound to me dangerously close to the offense of interpreting and minimizing the glories of the holy names (arthavāda).