Sharanagati

Collected words from talks of Swami Tirtha




Although “Bhagavad-gita” is a very sacred and very high literature, still in the hierarchy of the Vedic literature, this contains the elementary, the basic information that we should understand in order to go further in our studies. Practically “Bhagavad-gita” describes that there is a God. That is very important knowledge, science. Because in Kali-yuga everything tells you that your god – if there is at all god – this is yourself or maybe the dollars; your spiritual master is television, listen to the lecture every evening for hours, etc. etc. So we should firmly establish: there is God! That we should understand from the “Bhagavad-gita”: there is God, there is the soul, there is a connection.

But how is God, who He is really? That we should understand from the “Shrimad-bhagavatam”. And still this is not the end of the hierarchy of the revealed scriptures. What is the next phase? Yes, this is the “Chaitanya-charitamrita”, which will describe to us how to be good bhaktas. Is this the end? Probably not, because there is the “Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu”, which is the science of divine feelings. And many devotees think: “This is the top!” But actually Shrila Rupa Goswami has written many books. The title of “Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu” says “The ocean of feelings of divine love” – ocean, feelings towards God are just like an ocean! But this great ocean is not the end of the revealed scriptures, because “Ujvala-nilamani” comes after the “Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu”. And then you can think that “Ujvala-nilamani” is the end of the story.

Rupa Goswami is the shastra-guru of the sampradaya and we can say that “Ujvala-nilamani” is one of his topmost works. Yet there are some other masters among the goswamis. There is Raghunath das Goswami, for example. He was, so to say, the rasa-guru from among the goswamis. One of his books is entitled “The bouquet of lamentation”. “Vilapa-kusumanjali” – this is the title in Sanskrit. Show me another religion where there is a holy book called “Vilapa-kusumanjali”!

And then you might think that this is the end, this is the top. But actually if you visit the samadhi of Sanatana Goswami in Vrindavana, there you will find a little piece of stone, like this,– this is samadhi for the shastras. Samadhi is the chapel they build over the remnants of the dead body. The goswamis have written some books which are so high that they buried them. It is not for the public.

So where is the end of our scriptures? Full surrender – because if you go to a chapel, to the place of a departed person, what do you do? Only you offer your respects. In this samadhi some of the books of the goswamis are hidden. From this we can understand that the whole process of bhakti – from the very first step to end is to offer your respects.



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