Artificial and Genuine Svarūpa Siddhi

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Śrī Śrī Guru Gaurāṅgau Jayataḥ

Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭha, Kolkata
17 November 1930

Best of virtuous women,

I became aware of the news through your letter dated the 28th that you went to Vṛndāvana and, from the Vaiṣṇavas there, heard about meditating upon the aṣṭakalīya-līlā (divine eightfold daily pastimes) of Their Lordships Śrī Śrī Rādhā Kṛṣṇa. While there can be no doubt about the fact that this topic is highly venerated, those who conceive of this subject matter while their consciousness is riddled with anarthas do not conceive what it truly is.

All those esoteric truths that are revealed solely through one’s advancing practice of chanting the holy names are to be considered the introduction to one’s svarūpa, one’s true spiritual identity. When one becomes free from anarthas, or the unwanted desires of the heart, one’s svarūpa manifests. When one’s svarūpa awakens, one’s perception is automatically admitted into eternal subject matters.

This is not something that can be deceitfully taught to or determined for someone else. In contrast, the revelations one has while submerged in chanting the holy names with a sincere heart should be humbly presented to sādhu and guru (the saintly persons and the spiritual master) so that one’s conception may be refined and approved. This is the genuine process for receiving the eleven aspects of one’s eternal spiritual identity, or svarūpa.

In many places, undiscriminating gurus artificially impose these “revelations” on unqualified sādhakas (practicing devotees). This process cannot be considered a true depiction of svarūpa-siddhi. Those who attain svarūpa-siddhi, or realization of their eternal spiritual form and identity, come to realize their eternal identity of their own accord (svataḥ-siddha); śrī gurudeva merely assists them in making progress in realizing these topics on the path of bhajana (direct, loving devotional-service). I have nothing more to say on this subject. While the sādhaka progresses on the path of perfection, his heart becomes disposed toward service and free from duplicity. All these subjects naturally manifest in such a heart.

With eternal blessings,
Śrī Siddhānta Sarasvatī

Follow The Supreme, Not the Material Senses

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda


We would be known to have advanced well in our theistic aspirations for that fullest form, if only the awful and majestic attributes other than all-blissful or all-ecstatic beauty were taken out from that One Integer. So when we approach Śrī Kṛṣṇa we find that all sorts of aspects are fully in Him and we can offer all sorts of confidential service to Him with our transcendental and eternal body. We can offer ourselves with all the closest intimacy to Him in all ways.

We must not think that restricting ourselves in a particular aspect only would entail a quarrel with someone else dealing with some other school of thought or philosophy or some other religious controversies; there can be little scope for that since our whole-time attention, one hundred percent, should be devoted to Him and His Counter-Whole. This is the general outline of the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya’s teachings.

Lord Kṛṣṇa Caitanya is the combined personality of the predominating and predominated moieties of the Absolute. We individual souls are endowed with a mixed aptitude. Our consciousness possesses a twofold potentiality. It is cognizant of the material categories and it is open to the influence of the spiritual as distinguished from the mundane.

Lord Caitanya is our only support and the source of our animation. He is the only object of our worship. As a matter of fact, every activity of ours owes its possibility and existence to His initiative and works as a corollary of His activities. Lord Caitanya displays the pastime of seeking Himself. All through His manifestation He is found most anxiously devoted to the exclusive quest of the Absolute Godhead, His predominating moiety – namely Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

We, His eternal protégés, are conditioned to follow His lead in this matter. If we do so, we shall be doing the right thing and will obtain knowledge of the realm of the Absolute. We shall no longer have to remain penned within the narrow material scope of three dimensions. But we are hampered by our mixed aptitude. We have the option of meddling with the material as well as the spiritual.

As soon as we indulge this mixed aptitude by mistaking it to be our real function, we are obstructed by the process. We find ourselves forthwith subjected more or less to the handicaps of insurmountable disqualifications. These disqualifications have been analyzed and classified into four groups. They are the liabilities of (1) blunder, (2) inadvertence, (3) deception and (4) grossness of the senses. These are very serious defects. They make it impossible for us to obtain even a glimpse of the transcendental. Hence there arises the imperative necessity of seeking the help of those who are free from those defects.

Our present sense-function does not give us any knowledge of the whole Truth. On the contrary it always keeps us away from the Full, the Eternal, the Blissful. We are prevented from all access to uninterrupted existence, uninterrupted knowledge and uninterrupted bliss. These constitute the reality to be gained by the exercise of our present facilities. We obtain instead the so-called knowledge of the things of this world. We perceive only matter. We can imagine the condition of material negation, but neither of these is the reality proper.

We cannot avoid the consideration of distinctions. But it is not possible to entertain any proposition regarding distinctive entities except under the operation of the fourfold defects mentioned above. It is, however, incumbent on us to try to be perfectly free from those defects. The method based on sense-experience is useless for this end. It can never free us from those defects.

Those who live on the resources of the mind express themselves in language. The vocabulary used by them is more or less defective and mutually conflicting. The experience of the moment is different from true experience. We try to gain admission in the realm of true experience. We desire to make progress in such experience. It is our purpose thereby to gain the love of the Real Entity. This is the supreme goal.