Zitat von Vedanta am 23. Januar 2018, 23:27 Uhr

Shri Advaita Acharya Appearance Day

Shri Babaji Maharaja once explained that when Bhagavan Shri Krishna appears in the material world to perform His Lilas or plays, He brings all His actors in the guise of His eternal companions from the spiritual world. Similarly, a travelling actor's troupe or a travelling circus group always only brings its own people for the performance and does not recruit actors and artists locally.

Now, Shri Advaita Acharya is a very special companion of Shri Bhagavan. He is described as a combined incarnation of both Maha-Vishnu (the origin of the universes) and Sada-Shiva (the eternal Shiva). Actually, Shri Advaita Acharya is the direct reason for Shri Krishna's appearance as Shri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. For Advaita Acharya, who has already appeared on earth in Bengal beforehand, had compassion for the then already quite degenerated and confused state of human society, without any hope of attaining the never-ending happiness of Bhakti. So Advaita Acharya worshipped daily with fervent devotion His Shalagram-shila with Ganga water and Tulasi leaves and begged Shri Krishna to appear personally to teach people bhakti's blissful way, because no one but Him could do this. Shri Krishna listened to these prayers and a short time later, also in Bengal, appeared as Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, whose birthday we celebrate this year on 1 March.

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On a personal note, here is an insider's tip, if you travel to Vrindavan: There is a direct descendant of Shri Advaita Acharya in the 14^th generation named Sanjay Gosvami, a very kind and cordial vaishnava (Gosvami is his surname and not indicating a life of a monk, rather he is married and has a little daughter). My wife Gopi and I met him “accidentally” around the year 2002 in his inconspicuous Ayurveda-Shop at the Loi-Bazaar,”Ayurvedyalaya”. Hidden behind the shop is a very beautiful and spacious, probably centuries old temple with extremely beautiful Archa-vigrahas Shri Radha Madan Gopal ji Who had once been worshipped (at that time in Bengal) by Shri Advaita Acharya Himself!

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Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was always extremely respectful in his personal dealings with Shri Advaita Acharya, which in turn made him a little sad, because he ultimately knew about Mahaprabhu's true identity as Shri Krishna "in disguise" of a Krishna devotee. Shri Chaitanya was the highest goal of his worship, and therefore he did not want to be worshipped by Him, that just did not feel right. So he devised a plan to enrage Shri Chaitanya so that he would punish him. He chose a philosophical ruse. Being well-versed in the Vedas like hardly anyone else, he worked out a line of argumentation which should prove that not bhakti is the highest goal of life - as Mahaprabhu taught it - but rather the realization of absolute non-duality, impersonal jnana (as his name „Advaita“, i. e.“Nondual“ might even be hinting at first glance). His chain of evidence, which he then enthusiastically presented to Shri Haridas Thakur, was as follows:

„What strength has devotional service to Vishnu without jnana? It is jnana, therefore, which has all power and which is the life of all.“

„Without understanding jnana one is like a person who leaves his wealth at home and instead searches for it in the forest.“

„Devotion to Vishnu is like a mirror, while jnana is like the eyes. What is the benefit of a mirror if one has no eyes?“

„After having studied all scriptures from beginning to end I have come to the conclusion that the very essence of everything is jnana.“

- Shri Chaitanya Bhagavata, Madhya Kanda, Part 3, Chapter 19, Verses 21-24

Listening to this, Shri Haridas Thakur, who of course knew the mind of Shri Advaita Acharya, laughed out loudly (Verse 25).

Shortly afterwards, Shri Chaitanya arrived at the home of Advaita Acharya together with Shri Nityananda Prabhu. Both were enraged as Advaita unashamedly praised the glories of jnana as he swayed blissfully back and forth. To make sure that He had heard correctly, Shri Chaitanya angrily confronted Him:

krodha-mukhe bale prabhu - „āre āre nāḍā
bala dekhi jñāna-bhakti duite ke bāḍā?“

Angrily, Mahāprabhu said, „O Nāḍā, tell me which is superior, jñāna or bhakti?“

advaita balaye, - „sarva-kāla bāḍā ‘jñāna‘
yāra nāhi jñāna, tā‘ra bhaktite ki kāma?“

Advaita Acharya replied, „Jñāna is always superior! What is the use of devotion if one does not have jñāna?“

- Shri Chaitanya Bhagavata, Madhya Kanda, Part 3, Chapter 19, Verses 131-132

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who deeply inside of course very much relished this divine play, became externally so angry that he almost fell unconscious. Entirely in rage, he grabbed Advaita Acharya and dragged him down from his chair into the yard, where he hit him with both hands and roared at him like a lion. The faithful vedic wife of Advaita tried to appease Mahaprabhu, which caused Nityananda to smile favourably. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, however, did not let himself be softened by this but continued steadfastly with his spiritual chastisement. Advaita Acharya, on the other hand, was overjoyed that Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had fulfilled his heart's desire, danced in ecstasy in the yard and clapped his hands.

Jai Shri Advaita Acharya!