Excerpt from: Back to Godhead by Srila Prabhupada, 1944
We are sorry to learn that Gandhi Jinnah Talks about unity of the Indian people have failed for the present. We are not very much optimistic in the result of such occasional talks between several heads of community and are of opinion that if any solution is arrived at as a token unity for the time being, it is again to break up, to meet another shape of problem which may not be on the ground of religiosity. In Europe the fighting parties are almost all Christians and in Asia the major parties, we mean China and Japan are almost all Buddhists but still they are fighting. So fighting will go on between Hindu and Mohomedan, between Hindus and Hindus or between Mohomedan and Mohomedan, between Christians and Christians and between Buddhist and Buddhist till the day of annihilation. So long there will be a pinch of a desire for sense gratification, surely there will be fight between brother and brother, father and son, nation and nation and so on. The process of unity does not stand on the plane of enjoyment or renunciation, the real unity stands on the plane of service which is transcendental to all mundane enjoyments or renunciation. That is the plane of spirit.
Mahatma Gandhi is far above ordinary human being and we have all respects for him. He should now give up his activities on the plane of sense-gratification of enjoyment and renunciation and must rise up to the transcendental plane of 'Atma' or spirit for a greater unity talks of all human races. We should like to quote a stanza from Bhagawat Geeta as a matter of reference to the Mahatma. We mean to refer to the 13th sloka of the 9th chapter which runs as follows:- in Devnagari
mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha
daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam
'Oh, descendant of Prithu, those who are Mahatmas and have acquired the qualities of the gods, do serve Me (Sree Krishna) without directing the attention to any other thing, knowing well Me the original and eternal source of all things.' [Bg. 9.13]
The duty of a Mahatma: The Mahatma has already acquired the qualities of the gods as specified in the Bhagwat Geeta and the next stage for him is to concentrate his attention in the service of Shree Krishna without any diversion, that is without engaging himself in the business of enjoyment and renunciation based on bodily and mental sense gratification. The specified duties of Mahatma are mentioned in the next sloka which runs as follows in Geeta 9:14
satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ
yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ
namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā
nitya-yuktā upāsate
'Those Mahatmas do render service unto Me (Krishna)by always speaking and glorifying Me with earnest endeavour and with steadfastness in vow of service. Thus constantly engaged in My service they surrender unto Me with transcendental love.'
We would therefore request the Mahatma to take up now the message of Bhagwat Geeta to the world and preach there the message of Sree Krishna and instruct all human being to surrender unto Him, so that all other corollaries such as political, social, communal or religious unity will follow without any waste of time, by the methods of violent or non-violent manufactured in the human brain.
The Mahatma has a definite position in the world who can give relief to the universe, by preaching the message of Bhagawat Geeta and we have always our cooperation with him in that respect.
We are sorry to learn that Gandhi Jinnah Talks about unity of the Indian people have failed for the present. We are not very much optimistic in the result of such occasional talks between several heads of community and are of opinion that if any solution is arrived at as a token unity for the time being, it is again to break up, to meet another shape of problem which may not be on the ground of religiosity. In Europe the fighting parties are almost all Christians and in Asia the major parties, we mean China and Japan are almost all Buddhists but still they are fighting. So fighting will go on between Hindu and Mohomedan, between Hindus and Hindus or between Mohomedan and Mohomedan, between Christians and Christians and between Buddhist and Buddhist till the day of annihilation. So long there will be a pinch of a desire for sense gratification, surely there will be fight between brother and brother, father and son, nation and nation and so on. The process of unity does not stand on the plane of enjoyment or renunciation, the real unity stands on the plane of service which is transcendental to all mundane enjoyments or renunciation. That is the plane of spirit.
Mahatma Gandhi is far above ordinary human being and we have all respects for him. He should now give up his activities on the plane of sense-gratification of enjoyment and renunciation and must rise up to the transcendental plane of 'Atma' or spirit for a greater unity talks of all human races. We should like to quote a stanza from Bhagawat Geeta as a matter of reference to the Mahatma. We mean to refer to the 13th sloka of the 9th chapter which runs as follows:- in Devnagari
mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha
daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ
bhajanty ananya-manaso
jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam
'Oh, descendant of Prithu, those who are Mahatmas and have acquired the qualities of the gods, do serve Me (Sree Krishna) without directing the attention to any other thing, knowing well Me the original and eternal source of all things.' [Bg. 9.13]
The duty of a Mahatma: The Mahatma has already acquired the qualities of the gods as specified in the Bhagwat Geeta and the next stage for him is to concentrate his attention in the service of Shree Krishna without any diversion, that is without engaging himself in the business of enjoyment and renunciation based on bodily and mental sense gratification. The specified duties of Mahatma are mentioned in the next sloka which runs as follows in Geeta 9:14
satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ
yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ
namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā
nitya-yuktā upāsate
'Those Mahatmas do render service unto Me (Krishna)by always speaking and glorifying Me with earnest endeavour and with steadfastness in vow of service. Thus constantly engaged in My service they surrender unto Me with transcendental love.'
We would therefore request the Mahatma to take up now the message of Bhagwat Geeta to the world and preach there the message of Sree Krishna and instruct all human being to surrender unto Him, so that all other corollaries such as political, social, communal or religious unity will follow without any waste of time, by the methods of violent or non-violent manufactured in the human brain.
The Mahatma has a definite position in the world who can give relief to the universe, by preaching the message of Bhagawat Geeta and we have always our cooperation with him in that respect.
Comments
Post a Comment