Topic: Siddhanta

I stand before you as a teller. I am going to tell you now a few words more on the Vedanta and especially its ontological aspect, morphology being a former changeable part of the same. My telling craves a reciprocity of your listening to my sound through your aural reception. Sound is the main substratum of the Vedanta which deals with a subject unapproachable by our present crippled imperfect senses.

The letter 'A' denotes Balaram , the son of Rohini, who is the substratum of the entire universe, who is the supersoul of the universe. The letter 'M' denotes Anirudha, who is the supersoul of each individual being in the universe. And the 'dot' above the 'M' denotes Sri Krishna, the fountain head of all Vishnu incarnations.

Why does our consciousness come down to this plane? Why doesn't it have a higher conception of higher spiritual existence. Instead our attention is drawn to some material thing on the mundane plane. We think that some medicine, or some intoxication can help us.

The name must be of finite characteristic that can take away all that is undesirable in us. The name must have a spiritual conception not mere physical imitation, that can be produced only by the help of the lip and tongue. Krsna-nama, Hari-nama, Visnu, Narayana, all these are Vaikuntha-nama, it is necessary that They have spiritual existence, that is all in all. They must have spiritual depth, not imitation. Physical imitation is not the name proper.

In the Gaudiya Vaisnava sampradaya, the gayatri which the guru (bona fide spiritual master) gives to the sadhaka (devotee) at the time of diksa (initiation) is that of the Vedic diksa (upanayana) and also that of the Vaisnava pancaratrika-diksa.

Verses 8 - 11 are the four principal verses of the Srimad Bhagavad-gita. The ontological substance of the book is contained within these four essential verses, beginning aham sarvasya prabhavo - "Everything emanates from Me."

The transcendental wisdom of the ten maxim is being enumerated in ten verses - svatah siddho vedah haridayita-vedyhah prabhrtitah (the Vedic scriptures are the only source of all authoritative wisdom according to words mentioned therein, viz., 'asya maha to bhutasya nisvasitametat'[Rk Veda] etc.

The Fountainhead of all eternal and temporal manifestations is confined in Sri Krsna alone. The non-absolute phases are emanations from a particular potency whose analytical distributions are known as gunas or qualities. In the factor of time, they are branched as past, present and future and their material representations have three characteristics viz. evolution, sustenance and dissolution.

This is a reproduction of a conversation with Major Rana N. J. Bahadur at Armadale, Darjeeling on June 14th, 1935. It was originally published in The Harmonist (Vol. XXXI, No.21) on the 27th of June, 1935.