The Manifestation of Mercy 

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada
          

If we are convinced of the necessity of consulting a real sadhu, we should be able to find him and he will explain to us the mode of life recommended in the sastras, which we should lead in this world for the benefit of our souls. The sadhu is a transcendental person whose life is wholly regulated by the scriptures. The Absolute Truth is never partial or less than complete. The awakened soul of the sadhu is necessarily and completely free from all touch of untruth or half-truth. The life recommended by the scriptures is the life that is led by the sadhu. It is not possible for worldly persons to understand, unassisted, the nature of spiritual living; because it is categorically different from the life currently led by them. This difference between the two is not confined to this or that isolated aspect. It is to be found in every single detail of conduct. The change from worldly to spiritual life is not of the nature of reform, but is truly a complete revolution.The Lord is Pleased to Accept The person who is liberated from the bondage of the world continues to perform the ordinary natural functions of the body and mind, apparently in the same way as one who is in the bound state. He also appears to eat and drink, sleep and die like ordinary worldly people. The process of eating of such a person is thus described in the sastras: A person whose body and mind have been accepted by the Lord is privileged to approach the Lord and offer Him food and drink. The Lord is pleased to accept the food offered by such a person. By the Lord’s acceptance the food is spiritualized in the same way as the body and mind are spiritualized by their dedication to the Lord. This dedication of all food to the Lord is, in the case of such a person, truly an act of renunciation of all material food. The food that is accepted by the Lord is spiritualized and is changed into mahaprasada or “the great blessing.” The sadhu accepts the mahaprasada not for the purpose of appeasing hunger or from the acquisition of bodily or mental health and strength, or for any other worldly purpose; but with the object of being enabled thereby to avoid the traps laid for him during his sojourn into this world by sensuous temptations of all kinds, including that of eating, and obtains by thus honoring the mahaprasada the inclination for the spiritual service of the Lord. Honoring the maha-prasada is thus different from eating, although to the uninitiated both may seem to be identical. The external form appears to remain the same although the real nature of activity is radically changed. The result is that whereas by mere eating the sensuous inclination is strengthened, by honoring the mahaprasada, gluttony and its attendant vices are radically cured.Mahaprasada literally means “the great favor.” The benefit to the soul that results by honoring the mahaprasada is also open to the bound jiva, but if the bound jiva honors mahaprasada his soul is benefited. The food that has been offered by the sadhus to the Lord is categorically different from ordinary food. To take ordinary food is harmful for the soul. By honoring mahaprasada, not only is the soul saved from the bad effect of eating, but is positively benefited by obtaining the inclination for spiritual service. The sastras, therefore, tell us to give up eating and honor the mahaprasada.” If the palate is conquered every other sense is conquered.” We can never be freed from the attraction of sensuous temptations until we give up eating altogether and learn to honor the mahaprasada. By honoring the mahaprasada our sensuousness is diminished and ultimately disappears altogether. And it is only then that we are enabled to understand the real meaning of the sastras. Not For Enjoyment  The sadhu helps the fallen jiva to regain his natural state of freedom from sin, by the constant service of bringing about the descent of transcendental sound in the form of words uttered by his lips and the mahaprasada in the shape of food that is offered by him to the Lord. The sound uttered by the sadhu and the mahaprasada are not things of this world. They are not identical with ordinary sound or ordinary food which are only means for the gratification of our sensuous appetites. The word of God and mahaprasada cannot be enjoyed, or in other words cannot be used for the gratification of the senses, because they are spiritual. Those who enjoy the kirtana, or any spiritual discourse, or eat the mahaprasada for appeasing hunger or for gratification of the palate are guilty of sacrilegious acts which serve only to prolong the state of sin and ignorance. The greatest possible calamity that can befall the human soul.The kirtan of Hari is the constant and natural function of all the faculties of the jiva soul in the state of its freedom from all affinities with this changeable world. Because the Absolute Truth is identical with Hari, Hari has to be served exclusively, constantly, and by all the faculties of the soul. The only function of the voice is to chant the kirtana of Hari, which is identical with and inseparable from the simultaneous service of Hari by all the other senses. One who does not employ his voice constantly and exclusively in chanting the kirtana of Hari has no access to the service of Hari by any other faculty. Qualification to Chant The kirtana of Hari has therefore to be chanted by being humbler than a blade of grass. There can be no trace of worldly vanity. There can be no seeking after any worldly advantage. The only object should be to please Lord Hari.Absolute Truth is a living person and not an abstract principle. He has the power of communicating His commands to us and expressing His approval and disapproval of our activities. No one can understand His command who does not fully submit to Him.The Absolute Truth is not anything limited or partial; neither can it be divided. It is not dependent on any condition except Itself. It is always one and the same. Listening to or chanting of it is always and necessarily beneficial—­being the natural function of the soul. Any other view of its nature will stand in the way of that perfect humility, the outcome of absolute submission which is the indispensable condition of its realization. Enemy of Hypocrisy A chanter of the kirtana of Hari is necessarily the un-compromising enemy of worldliness and hypocrisy. As a chanter of the kirtana of Hari, it is his constant function to dispel all misconceptions by the preaching of the truth in a most unambiguous form without any influence of person, place or time. That form has to be adopted which is least likely to be misunderstood. It is his bounden duty to oppose any person who tries to deceive and harm himself or other people by misrepresenting the Truth either due to malice or genuine misunderstanding. This will be possible if the chanter of kirtana is always prepared to submit to be trodden on by thoughtless people if any discomfort to himself will enable him to do good to his persecutors by chanting the truth in the most unambiguous manner. If he is unwilling to chant the kirtana under all circumstances due to consideration of self-respect or personal discomfort then he is unfit to be a preacher of the Absolute Truth. Humility implies perfect submission to the Truth and no sympathy for untruth. A person who entertains any partiality for untruth is unfit to chant the kirtana of Hari. Any clinging to untruth is opposed to the principle of humility born of absolute submission to the Truth.Those who serve the truth at all time, by means of all their faculties, and have no hankering for the trivialities of this world, are always necessarily free from malice born of competing worldliness; and are, therefore, fit to admonish those who are actively engaged in harming themselves and others by the method of opposing or misrepresenting the truth in order to attain the rewards of such a policy in the shape of a perpetuation of the state of misery and ignorance. The method which is employed by the servant of the good preceptor for preventing such misrepresentation of the truth is a part and parcel of the truth itself. It may not always be pleasing to the diseased susceptibilities of deluded minds, and may even be denounced by them as a malicious act with which they are only too familiar, but the words of truth from the lips of a loyal and humble servant of Hari possess such beneficent power that all effort to suppress or obstruct them only serves to vindicate to impartial minds the necessity of complete submission to the Absolute Truth as the only cure of the disease of worldliness. Humility that is employed in the unambiguous service of the Truth is necessarily and qualitatively different from its perverted prototype, which is practiced by the cunning people of this world for gaining their worldly ends. The professors of pseudo-humility have reason to be afraid of the preachings of the servants of Hari, (one whose duty it is to expose the enormous possibility of mischief possessed by the many forms of so-called spirituality) when they are taken to task for serving the untruth.