Para Vidya Vinodanam I

Para Vidya Vinodanam I  - A sincere spiritual seeker often encounters two dangers on his journey. The first is the fanaticism of people who strictly follow certain rules without knowing their real purpose and meaning. In their eager­ness, they fall into the intoxicating feeling of superiority that will become the main engine of their efforts, regardless of the fact that each rule has its own deeper meaning and is only a tool and not a goal. If one allows oneself to be drawn into the whirlpool of fanaticism, after a some time there usually comes a stage of disillusion or even disgust, and a person can then easily slip into skepticism or directly into resistan­ce to spiritual life or anything close to it. The second dead end is the cheap approach of people who try to convince us that the path of spiritual practice is actually easy and effortless. One begins to think that an occasional visit to a self-realisation seminar, a few minutes of meditation, reading a book or singing several mantras is enough to achieve self-realisation. This opinion has recently become very popular not only in the West but also in India, and instant spirituality is available to everyone at every corner. However, true spiritual realisation is not cheap; a gradual and long path usually leads to it.

The approach with which Bhakti Nandan Svāmī Mahārāja presents spiritual teachings is nowadays rare to find. He approaches every interested person with kindness, fully respects the aspirant’s current position, does not try to establish his superiority over him in any way, and, at the same time, shows him the way he should go on so that at every step of his spiritual life he would be able to feel the corres­ponding realisation and finally achieve self-realisation. In no way does he diminish the importance of any rules, sādhana (spiritual practice) and self-effort while simultaneously using them in a sensitive manner. The authentic approach of Bhakti Nandan Svāmī Mahārāja has already changed the spiritual lives of many people, regardless of whether they were at the beginning of their journey or if they had been treading on the path for several decades, or even if they felt that their spiritual development had somehow halted and they had gotten stuck. His harmonious approach, deep learning and spiritual practice – which he has been engaged in since childhood when he was brought up by his spiritual master Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Gosvāmī Mahārāja – are reflected in these debates and lectures, which we hope will appeal to other readers as well as they have inspired us.