Speciality of Srila Prabhupada
108 Milestones in the life of Srila Prabhupada
- By appearing in Purī and permeating spiritual knowledge throughout the world, he fulfilled the śāstrīya prediction “Hyutkale puruṣottamāt”.
- By receiving the special garland of Lord Jagannath when His cart halted at the door of his father’s house, and by grasping the Srimad Bhagavatam when given items to select to indicate his future inclination, he demonstrated the symptoms of an eternally perfect associate of the Supreme Lord.
- His natural preference for spiritual literature, and his founding of the Chirakumara Sabha during the period of his studies, demonstrated him as the manifest ideal of the Bhagavatam injunction “kaumāra ācaret prājño dharmān bhāgavatāniha”: “An intelligent person should practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness from childhood.” (SB 7.6.1)
- Both as a lifelong brahmachari and also as a Tridandi Sanyasi, by spreading the message of Sri Chaitanya he was the genuine friend to all living entities.
- He personally preached Hari- Kirtan going door to door and also sent devotees, with his mercy, to miscellaneous places for propagating Chaitanya Vani. Through Sankirtana, lectures, and diorama presentations, by opening Pradarsanis in various regions and thereby arranging festivals and establishing maṭhas, by recovering and restoring numerous forgotten holy sites, by revealing service to the deities of “Sri Sri Guru Gauranga & Gandharvika Giridhari jiu”. Publishing in different languages many types of books on Suddha Bhakti and also daily, weekly, fortnightly, and monthly periodicals, he multi-facetedly demonstrated in both practice & precept the unprecedented ever-new pastimes of a Preacher Acharya.
- He is an Acharya nondifferent from Srila Rupa Goswami, who was the best of those fulfilling Sri Chaitanya’s mano-bhista. Additionally, he is the manifest form of those Vedas that describe Vrajendra-Nandana, the Supreme Lord situated in His Samvit-Shakti(potency of knowledge) and is advaya gyana.
- He laid the foundation for fulfilling Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s prediction “Prithivite Ache Yata Nagaradi Grama Sarvatra Prachara Haibe Mora Nama”— that His name would be preached in towns and villages all over the world.
- He is nondifferent from the Nayanamani of Sri Radhika, who is Krishnamayi (full of, transfused by, and nondifferent from Krishna), kṛṣṇa-pūjā-krīḍāravasatinagarī (the abode of the worship and love-sports of Krishna), Sarva-kāntiḥ (who fulfills all of Krishna’s desires), sarvalakṣmī-mayī (the abode of all goddesses of fortune), and Madana-Mohana-Mohinī
(the enchanter of Cupid).
- He is that Jagad-Guru who bestows the genuine gem of Siddhantas concerning – Sambhanda, Abhidheya, & Prayojana.
- Without considering caste, creed, or race, he distributes throughout the universe the Bhagavat Dharma of non-envious (nirmatsara) and non-duplicitous (akaitava)
Paramhamsa sadhus. - By censuring the false renunciation of objects related to Kṛṣṇa due to adjudging the material, he is the expert example of adopting yukta-vairāgya by always engaging those objects in activities for the satisfaction of Hari.
- Being the Prakasha-Vigraha (manifested form) of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he is the savior of the masses overpowered by the spell of diverse opinions.
- He is the mallet for smashing the illusion of mundane emotionalism, of false līlā-smaraṇa, and of deceptively exhibiting supposed ecstatic symptoms.
- He is the examiner of bhāvāṅkura(the sprouting of devotional emotions) according to the touchstone verse beginning kṣāntiravyartha-kālatvam.
- He is the illuminator of the difference between kāma, born of a desire for selfish happiness, and Prema, based on a desire for Kṛṣṇa’s happiness.
- Transforming the concept of desiring to see Bhagavān for personal pleasure, by disclosing the service-oriented path of regarding Bhagavān as the seer. He is the instructor in the system of giving pleasure to Krishna.
- He is the distributor of the unsullied light of the pure Gaudiya Sun, which dispels the clouds of bad opinions of the thirteen types of so-called Gauḍīyas (the APA-sampradāyas).
- Being nondifferent from Lord Nityānanda, by accepting the entire responsibility for those in his shelter even up to arranging for their food, lodging, & so on. He is the unprecedented bestower of facilities for bhajan, and rather than punishing anyone’s offense, he most expertly devises appropriate means to correct him.
- He is the perpetual opponent of any kind of compact with Asat-Siddhānta (false philosophical conclusions).
- He is the fearless-minded proclaimer of the truth that, while various results are obtainable from different creeds, the only path for entering the advaya-jñāna realm of transcendental pastimes is absolute devotion.
- He is the contributor of unprecedented linguistic specialties to the necklace of Siddhanta within Gauḍīya literature.
- He is the illuminator of the unique opulence of Gaudiya Philosophy.
- By his personal behavior, he is the best preacher of the maxim sarvasvaṁ-gurave-dadāt: “One should give everything, including one’s very self, to one’s Guru.”
- Like the Sudarsana weapon, he destroys the ill-motivated and futile attempt to worship Govinda in one’s own way based on the misunderstanding of the ascending method (personal intellectual effort without subservience to a genuine guru), which follows from adopting Sukracharya’s policy rather than Bali Maharaja’s ideal of entirely offering everything to the lotus feet of a genuine guru, or from accepting the direction of a putative guru like Sukracharya and thus transgressing the order of and rejecting subservience to a genuine guru.
- He instructs to renounce both Bhoga-Tyāga(the syndrome of alternating indulgence in and renunciation of sense objects) and tyāga-tyāga(renunciation of renunciation).
- He is the paramount propagator of the ultimate truth about Sri Hari (or according to some, Sri Krishna)being the advaya-jñāna presiding deity of sambandha, ŚrīMadana-Mohana; of ŚrīRāma being the advaya-jñāna presiding deity of abhidheya, ŚrīGovinda; and of ŚrīKṛṣṇa (or according to some, ŚrīHari) being the advaya-jñāna presiding deity of prayojana, ŚrīGopīnātha.
- He is the paramount introducer and propagator throughout the entire universe of the grandeur of the doctrine of the Sātvata Sampradāya.
- He is the announcer of the superiority of Vishnu- Bhakti of the sātvata-pañcarātra.
- He is the destroyer of apotheosis, anthropomorphism, and other such wrong theories.
- Giving the alternative to fake līlā-smaraṇa, which is based on deceit, he teaches how to render service with devotion to Gopīvallabha, the transcendental Cupid, ŚrīKṛṣṇacandra, in the association of many devotees of the same aspiration.
- As a great follower of Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, he revealed that Mathurā, embellished by the mysterious birth of the unborn, is spiritually superior to Vaikuṇṭha, the unborn Lord’s own abode; further superior is Vṛndāvana, the site of the rāsa-līlā of He who is advaya-jñāna; more superior is Govardhana, where the divine-handed Lord tastes bliss in spiritual exchanges; and topmost is ŚrīRādhā-kuṇḍa, being overflooded with the ambrosial nectarean Prema for the Lord of Gokula, ŚrīKṛṣṇa.
- He has revealed the progressive excellence of the karmī, the jñānī, the devotee liberated by knowledge of the Lord’s opulence, the devotee fixed in Prema, the gopīs, and Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī. As an ācārya of transcendental science, he propagates the truth that the highest liberated souls, rendering unalloyed bhakti with pure hearts, consider as external: following varṇāśrama-dharma, offering the results of one’s work, working without attachment, and bhakti mixed with non-Vedic speculative knowledge.
- He is the ācārya who, although encouraging everyone to serve in the rasa that he is attached to, elucidates the progressive superiority and sweetness of the mellows of śānta, dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya, and mādhurya raasas.
- He is a great teacher of the vast ocean of ever-new wonder found in the eight divisions of Śrī Rādhā-Govinda’s daily pastimes, particularly of the esoteric doctrine that Their midday pastimes are superlatively wondrous, surpassing even those of the night.
- As a follower of Śrī Gaurāṅga, he is the revealer of Kurukṣetra, Puruṣottama, and Ālālanātha as places of pastimes comprised of searching for Kṛṣṇa.
- He is the great revealer of the mystery that within Kṣetra-maṇḍala(the greater Purī area), Nīlācala is Kurukṣetra, the sea is the Yamunā or Rādhā-kuṇḍa, Ālālanātha is Paiṭha, and Koṇārka, the place of Sūrya-pūjā, is the Rādhā-kuṇḍa of the midday pastimes.
- By installing the footprints of Śrī Caitanya at Mandar, Kānāi Nāṭaśālā, Jajpur, Kūrmakṣetra, Siṁhācalam, Kovvur, Maṅgalagiri, Chatrabhog, and many other places, he wakens within the heart of all jīvas an attachment to seeking Kṛṣṇa through śrī-nāma-saṅkīrtana-yajña.
- He has illustrated that the comparative deliberation of Śrī Gaurasundara, the establisher of the superlative unequaled acintya-bhedābheda-siddhānta, consummates the incomplete deliberations known as śuddha-dvaita-vāda, śuddhādvaita-vāda, viśiṣṭādvaita-vāda, and dvaitādvaita-vāda. He is the pioneer publisher of books in Bengali by or about the four Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas, which have much enhanced the opulence of the storehouse of Gauḍīya literature. He reveals that despite some differences between their philosophies, the four bonafide Vaiṣṇava sampradāyas are congeneric.
- He showed the variety intrinsic to the spiritual pastimes of the sunlikeadvaya-jñānaSupreme Lord, which dispel the darkness of Māyāvāda in all its manifestations—such as Buddhism, Jainism, and the covered Buddhism of Śaṅkara—and of all mundane and atheistic ideologies, such as those of the Śaivas, śāktas, skeptics, and of their branches and subbranches.
- He shows how in the period after Mahāprabhu the tradition of Vallabhācārya, and in modern times the Nimbārka sampradāya, arose and prospered by imitating Him.
- He is the preacher of the distinction between bhāgavata-paramparā and pāñcarātrika guru-paramparā, and the revealer of the harmony between the bhāgavata path of bhajan and the pāñcarātrika path of arcana.
- He is the sunlikeācāryawho incessantly and in all respects cultivates satisfaction of the transcendental senses of ŚrīKṛṣṇa, the transcendental Cupid.
- As the leading Gauḍīyaācāryaand preacher of irreproachable Kṛṣṇa-Prema, he remains always far distanced from any subjects or undertakings antithetical to Kṛṣṇa’s service and is perpetually opposed to giving any degree of encouragement to the cultivation of deceitful or fraudulent bhakti contrary to śuddha-bhakti.
- He is the founder of the pilgrimage place of highest knowledge—the Parā-vidyā-pīṭha, or school of bhāgavataphilosophy—and teaches the topmost knowledge: that in the spiritual realm those Upaniṣadsconcentrating on jñāna, vairāgya, and mokṣaare suitable reading for juveniles, above which one should progressively peruse Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā, ŚrīCaitanyabhāgavata, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and that the most important object of study is the paramount, unrivaled brilliant commentary on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, namely ŚrīCaitanyacaritāmṛta, to be read constantly by the best of liberated souls, and that it is the only exposition of advaya-jñāna-tattvathat is constituted of elevated Prema.
- He has revealed the secrets of and distinction between pūjāand bhajan, explaining that the word pūjāis to be used for deity worship, and the word bhajans for nāma-kīrtana.
- He teaches the instruction of Śrī Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhuthat the devotional practice of one at the stage of having anarthas progresses from śraddhāto sādhu-saṅgato bhajan-kriyātoanartha-nivṛtti, whereas that of one at the stage free from anarthasis from niṣṭhāto rucitoāsaktiup to the awaking of bhāva.
- Those who consider in terms of doubt and atheism, or that the Supreme is saguṇa(possessing attributes) or nirguṇa(not possessing attributes)— doctrines inimical to bhakti—propagate theories born of pratyakṣa, parokṣa, and aparokṣa. Far above all these aredeliberations on adhokṣaja-tattva and aprākṛta-tattva, the ultimate conclusion. He is the great illustrator of these comparative analyses.
- He reveals the distinctions between worshiping lone Vāsudeva, Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa, Sītā-Rāma, Dvārakeśa, Mathureśa, and Gopījanavallabha.
- He is the great preacher of the linguistic distinction between the words prākṛtaandaprākṛta.
- He contributed the explanation that the Brahma-sūtraaphorism anāvṛtti-śabdātconstitutesśrī-nāma.
- He bears the light of the siddhāntathat establishes how the impersonal concept ofBhagavān is surpassed by His fatherhood, more so by His being master and controller, beyond that by reverent sonhood or friendship with Him, and above all, by the dearness of being His lover.
- Expelling the materialistic outlook (born of a desire for sensual enjoyment) that Purāṇicdescriptions concerning Kṛṣṇa and His associates are merely stories, historical narrations, parables, myths, idolatry, or the like, he is the great illuminator of the variety of eternal spiritual pastimes that are adhokṣajaand aprākṛta.
- He is the distinguished preacher of vidvad-rūḍhiin a world flooded by avidvad-rūḍhi.
- He is the instructor of the tṛṇādapisunīcenaverse and is the manifest form of LordCaitanya’s message kīrtanīyaḥsadāhariḥ.
- He is the composer of many books in Bengali, English, Sanskrit, and other languages.
- He is the distinguished publisher of a range of rare books of predecessor ācāryas, together with anvaya, translation, previous commentaries, and his own further elucidations.
- He is the first producer of Vaiṣṇava-mañjuṣā-samāhṛti.
- He established the unprecedented “column of fame” of various indexes of verses, words, and so on, that describe places, times, and persons mentioned therein.
- He is the inaugurator of daily, weekly, fortnightly, and monthly publications in Bengali, English, Sanskrit, Hindi, Oriya, Assamese, and other languages.
- Through readings, explanations, lectures, discussions, exhibitions, and more, he has established bhakti-sadācāra(appropriate behavior within devotional service).
- He restored numerous lost holy places, such as Modadrumadvīpa, Ḥtudvīpa, and Śukatala.
- He inaugurated sixty-four maṭhasor also preaching centers, in various places within India and beyond, and is distinguished for having revealed service to deities.
- He established unprecedented pradarśanīsin many places, including Kurukṣetra, ŚrīdhāmaMāyāpur, Calcutta, Dacca, Patna, Kāśī, Prayāga, and others.
- He is the prominent instructor in forswearing the evil desire to be “Big I,” which is actuallyservitude to “Māyārāṇī” impelled by egoism, to instead become “Good I” in service toRādhārāṇī, following Mahāprabhu’s principle of tṛṇādapisunīcena.
- He is the repeated instructor in transforming the search for others’ faults into seeking one’sown and rectifying them.
- He is the sunlikeācāryawho insists that his disciples must daily chant at least one lakh ofharināma.
- For all persons at all times and in all situations, he is the best of all ācāryasof bhāgavatadharma.
- He is the distinguished preacher of śrutekṣita-śuddha-bhaktisiddhānta-kīrtana.
- He is the distinguished establisher of the mano-‘bhīṣṭaof ŚrīBhaktivinodaṬhākura and ŚrīGauraKiśoradāsaBābājī.
- He is the distinguished preacher and best of all servitors of Gaura-nāma, Gaura-dhāma, and Gaura-kāma.
- He is the distinguished founder of the Daiva-varṇāśramaSaṅgha, meant to establish thepropriety customs of daiva-varṇāśrama-dharma, which is approved by paramahaṁsas.
- He is the distinguished founder of the Anukūla-Kṛṣṇānuśīlanāgāra, meant for propagating the necessity for devotees of Kṛṣṇa to worship Him in the mood of separation.
- He is the founder of the Thakur Bhakti Vinod Institute, meant for sowing the seed of nonenviousbhāgavata-dharma in the hearts of children inclined to worldly education.
- He is the foremost general of ŚrīSvarūpa-Rūpa’s empire of siddhānta.
- His divine form is composed of mādhurya, audārya(magnanimity), and Prema.
- He is a distinguished teacher who respects the path of vidhiand follows the path of rāga.
- He preaches about the insignificance of the opponents of service to ŚrīRādhā-Govindaenacted on the raga mārga.
- He preaches about the narrow-mindedness of not accepting gradations within service to ŚrīRādhā-Kṛṣṇa.
- He eminently preaches that the highest need of all jīvasis to follow the ideal of service given by ŚrīlaJīvaGosvāmī.
- He is the practitioner of service to ŚrīlaRaghunāthadāsaGosvāmī with high respect.
- He is the Sudarśana weapon that decapitates the heresy of considering the Viṣṇu deity to be merely stone, the guru to be an ordinary human being, a Vaiṣṇava to be a member of a particular caste or race, the water sanctified by washing the feet of Viṣṇu or a Vaiṣṇava to be ordinary water, the name or mantra of Viṣṇu to be ordinary sound, or anything other thanViṣṇu, the controller of all that exists, to be equal to Him.
- He eminently revealed that pure Vaiṣṇavas are faultless and the best of all people, and is the flaming bolt that rebuts any kind of cavil or attack directed at Vaiṣṇavas or Vaiṣṇava dharma.
- He is the jagad-guru replete with knowledge of the science of Kṛṣṇa, and whose only weapon is kīrtana.
- He notably propagates the esoteric understanding that a disciple’s duty is to act most carefully according to the guru’s indications, knowing him to be exceedingly dear to Mukundaand nondifferent from Rādhā.
- He is the celebrated and unparalleled preacher of the Veda-vāṇī, nānyaḥpanthāvidyate’yanāya (There is no way for liberation other than this knowledge) in relation to service to the guru’s lotus feet.
- He preponderantly illuminates the even greater beauty of serving the āśraya-vigrahaoverthe viṣaya-vigraha.
- He is the ideal and best teacher of the siddhāntathat it is auspicious for a jīvato consider himself different from Bhagavān, who is the shelter of all, and sheer atheism to identify himself as nondifferent from Him.
- By his unmatched devotional practice he brilliantly illuminates the principle of perceivingKṛṣṇa’s mercy in wealth, danger, and indeed all circumstances and therefore restraining the senses and engaging them solely for His satisfaction.
- He is the illustrious ācāryaof the siddhāntathat, whether regarded as a means or the end, the holy name is the only shelter, and that simultaneous to the purification of consciousness throughnāma-bhajan, the Lord’s form, qualities, and pastimes appear in the Vṛndāvana of the heart as the full manifestation and very being of Him who is named.
- He is the king of doctors—the giver of the genuine understanding that health of the body and mind is achieved through the health of the soul.
- He gave practical shape to the dictum kṛṣṇārtheakhila-ceṣṭā(Everything should be done for Kṛṣṇa) being applied as one’s sole activity.
- By his explanation of the anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyamverse, he revealed the secret of the pastime of cleaning the Guṇḍicā temple.
- By practice and precept, in innumerable ways he is the instructor of the verses bhaktimukha-nirīkṣaka karma-yoga-jñānaand bhaktis tvayisthiratarā.
- He is the sunlikeācāryawho shed philosophical light on daśamūla(which is described in the āmnāyaḥprāhaverse), the essence of Veda, Vedānta, and all written scriptures.†
- He is the great preacher of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatamand the writings of ŚrīlaBhaktivinodaṬhākura, literature of the spiritual world.
- He is the superhuman economist who employs and applies every time, place, and person in service to Kṛṣṇa and His devotees.
- He is the sincere sympathizer toward and bestower of non-malefic mercy upon persons inimical to Kṛṣṇa and undesirous of serving Him.
- He has expanded people’s faith in mahā-prasāda, Guru-Gaurāṅga, Govinda, the holy name, and the lotus feet of Vaiṣṇavas.
- He is the inaugurator of ŚrīNavadvīpa-pañjikā and the propagator of observing remembrance festivals of Hari-guru-Vaiṣṇavas by the method of pure saṅkīrtana.
- Delineating the difference between nāma, nāmābhāsa, and nāmāparādha, he is the instructor in śuddha-nāma-kīrtana.
- Casting out the rituals of the smārtasof little understanding, he shows the light of and abundantly preaches the value of procedures given in Vaiṣṇava literature.
- He is celebrated for reestablishing and conducting with saṅkīrtanagroupsparikramāsofthe nine islands of ŚrīNavadvīpa-dhāma, and also of Gauḍa-maṇḍala, Kṣetra-maṇḍala, andVraja-maṇḍala.
- He analyzes the nature of nāmāparādha, dhāmāparādha, sevāparādha, gurvaparādha, and vaiṣṇavāparādhaand shows how to wholly forswear them.
- He instructs all to constantly serve Kṛṣṇa without dwelling on the past or caring for the future.
- He is the unique instructor in forswearing or avoiding any information, endeavor, companionship, honor, or philosophical conclusion, or acceptance of disciples or connection with persons, that is contaminated, impure, or unfavorable for the development of bhakti; and moreover, to relinquish deceit, hypocrisy, and desire for material enjoyment or liberation from material existence.
106. He restored the lost glory of SuvarṇaVihāra.
107. He reestablished the ŚrīViśva-Vaiṣṇava-rājaSabhā, made the ŚrīNavadvīpadhāmapracāriṇīSabhā glow brightly, and is the esteemed inaugurator of the ŚrīVraja-dhāma-pracāriṇīSabhā.
108. In a superlative manner, he nourishes the vipralambha of ŚrīGaurasundara, the very form of vipralambha, personally practices and is the best preacher of ŚrīRūpa-Raghunātha’sinstructions, satisfies better than all others ŚrīKṛṣṇa, who is tightly embraced by the āśrayavigrahaŚrīRādhā, and is the best preacher of the superexcellence of ŚrīRādhā-Kṛṣṇa.