Topic: Sadhana-tattva

This song was composed by Guru Maharaja himself when we moved from the hired house in Calcutta (Bhaktivinoda Asana). The Deities were moved to a constructed matha (Bagh Bazaar Gaudiya Matha). The Deities were carried on a chariot and we were dancing and singing just in front of Them. At that time he composed some six lines perhaps.

Without the shelter of Sri Gurudeva, the so-called practice of Krsna consciousness is a mental concoction or simply mundane. Actual Krsna consciousness is situated in the supramental, supramundane plane and cannot be attained simply through our mental speculations. One becomes Krsna conscious via Krsna's grace received through the descending process-guru to disciple.

The imitator is like a woman who enters the maternity ward and simply by producing the sounds of labor thinks that she can produce a child. Many things are required before that.

‘Svaniyama Dvadasakam,’ composed in 1907, is the last work written by Bkaktivinoda Thakura before he took babaji-vesa and engaged in nirjana-bhajana. This composition is based upon the ten prayers of Srila Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami entitled ‘Svaniyama Dasakam.’ The work of Bhaktivinoda Thakura is a daily meditation upon the things that are favourable and unfavourable for vraja-bhajana. The final verse gives the faithful reader the blessing of attaining Radha-Krsna in Vraja.

Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains in his Sri Chaitanya-Siksamrta that vidhi, regulation that forms the basis of vaidhi-bhakti, is not contrary to raga (spontaneity). Pure vidhi is helpful to raga, and pure raga is a result of vidhi that is in harmony with the will of God. Vidhi helps us cure diseased raga, and when raga is healthy, vidhi retreats.

"So also, to be engaged in (preaching) answering the questions of the environment automatically demands concentration, which is very rare in this age. When one is doing kirtan, he automatically cannot but give all concentration and attention. He cannot speak independently; intuitively, he must be all-attentive. "

A Vaishnava is fearless in all circumstances because he knows that Krishna will always protect him. Yet, if we examine the mood of the great souls, the sadhus and the acharyas, we can detect that a Vaishnava is fearful of only one thing ­­ vaishnava-aparadha, not for Himself but for the benefit of His devotees, and He therefore cautions His devotees accordingly.