Letters, Volume-04 Number-08, 2007

DIVING DEEPLY INTO TRUTHS

 

To Satyaraja Dasa: I wish to thank you for yet another masterful article, this one about the "Origins of Disciplic Succession" (BTG June '07). After reading your articulate elaboration on such complex truths, so succinctly presented for common understanding, I could further appreciate your unique style and writing potency. 

 

I specially liked your article's conclusion about not staying merely on the literary or theoretical level, but rather diving deeply within these truths by personal application. This is the real beauty of the Vedic tradition: the empowerment therein offered to experience these truths in one's own self. Please continue to abundantly share your own mining of this treasure trove of perfect God-given knowledge. 

 

(Gokulananda Dasa ,ISKCON Vancouver) 

 

WHY GLORIFY AN INSTRUMENT? 

 

In 'The meaning of perfection' (BTG April '07), it has been said: "Killing is not a very good art. But because by killing, Arjuna satisfied Krsna. Krsna gave him a certificate "Oh, you are my very dear friend." Does Arjuna deserve such certificate in the light of the fact when the Lord had said to Arjuna, "Therefore get up. Prepare to fight and win glory. Conquer your enemies and enjoy a flourishing kingdom. They are already put to death by My arrangement, and you, O Savyasaci, can be but an instrument in the fight." (Bg 11.33)? It was clear then that it was Krsna Himself who had destroyed the Kauravas, and as such why the Pandava was credited to have been the killer? Maybe Arjuna was the greatest archer in Kuruksetra but left to himself, could Arjuna have ever been able to kill the grandsire Bhisma, Dronacarya, and Kama? 

 

(P.K.V. Menon, Mumbai) 

 

Our Reply: In the material world everyone glorifies the doer but no one glorifies the instrument; it is the greatness of the Lord that He glorifies His devotee. Srila Prabhupada writes in Sri Isopanisad, mantra four purport: "Every part and parcel of the Complete Whole is endowed with some particular energy to act according to the Lord's will .. . Sri Isopanisad warns us to be very careful to play the part designated for us by the Lord. This does not mean that the individual soul has no initiative of his own. Because he is part and parcel of the Lord, he must partake of the initiative of the Lord as well." 

 

Whenever the living entity utilizes its minute independence to serve Lord Krsna, he becomes glorious. The Pandavas, in spite of all the hardships, did not give up Krsna and this unflinching faith and loyalty to the Lord makes them great. As for Arjuna's strength, he alone defeated the entire Kaurava army while defending the kingdom of Virataraja. 

 

Duryodhana rejected to be Lord' instrument of peace, but we should aspire to become the instrument of Lord's compassion and serve the conditioned souls of this world. 

 

Reply to the letter was written by Murari Gupta Dasa.